Advent in Exile - Christmas Longing With IsaiahSample

God’s Help for Israel - Israel’s enemies surround but they are disgraced.

While Israel has been judged by the Babylonians they feel like God has abandoned them!

This idea is not new. They, like us at times, are asking "where is my God during these difficult times"?

Psalms 10:1 says, “Why do you stand far off, O Lord? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?”

Yes, that is the question of the ages! Here in Isaiah 41:1-7 God wants to have a court room kind of sit down with His people to answer these rhetorical questions: “Who…stirred up this king…calling him to God’s service?”

Yes God will deliver His people – shown here in the future from the Persian King Cyrus (Seen in Chapter 45). But also for all mankind, when The Savior appears to deliver His own!

God’s people in Babylon surely felt forsaken, but God says He will raise up a deliverer for them.

God brings us hope too! And we are to see in these prophecies the picture of our perfect deliverer, our Savior Jesus. The King of Kings!

Psalms 10:12 “Arise, O Lord! O God, lift up Your hand! Do not forget the humble”.

"In Light of this Advent Season, what is your heart longing for?"

-Rick Ripley