Advent in Exile - Christmas Longing With IsaiahSample

A season of promise and hope: something we all look for, especially at this time of year! There is added glimmer and sparkle; everything at its shiniest, our expectations bursting, hoping to receive equal or greater fulfillment. Yet, our promise fulfilled is not presented in pageantry and glamor, but as a humble servant.

Isaiah was all too familiar with the grand enchantment of the sinful practices that enticed God’s chosen people. Spending much of his ministry calling for repentance, he knew their desperate need of a Savior. This Savior, God Himself, would be the antithesis of the attraction and expectation that beguiled the people who should have had a deep relationship with God.

While Isaiah shares the character of this humble Servant as God’s promise of a Savior, the message is also clear that He is still the same Almighty God who calls us, not only to righteousness, but to a covenant relationship. The message of promise shows an incomprehensible God who is both a Servant and the Almighty; desiring righteousness, yet ready to deliver all who are in turmoil, sovereign, while ready to “hold you by the hand and watch over you.”

We look for hope because we are in need. God’s promise in Isaiah provides the hope we seek, not in the glitter and charm that might attract us, but in the outstretched hand of a Servant Leader who loves us.

What enticement do we need to give up, in order to receive God’s promise of His Servant?

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

-Gaylyn Mott