Our pastor has been preaching from Isaiah this Advent season and encouraged us to read through the book on our own. So I have been. I must admit, I have been very tempted to change books several mornings. With so many sections in the beginning that are Prophecies Against... towns and nations...how depressing and discouraging. It has filled me with fear for the United States beacuse I see so much reflected in these chapters that we too are guilty of. I've never been so tempted to quit, though, as I was this morning. I read chapter 24 entitled The Lord's Devastation of the Earth. How awful!! This is CHRISTMAS for crying out loud. Christmas is about aniticating new birth, the Savior of the nations, and I'm reading about the devastation of the world?!?! It was all I could do to finish the chapter.
But God knew my heart was in anguish and he gave me the perseverence to push through and the title of the next chapter was Praise to the Lord. What a contrast those two chapters were. Verse 9 really struck me: "Surely this is our God: we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation." I don't know about you, but we have had to do a whole lot of HARD trusting this year and especially these last several months. What joy, what relief, what peace to read that God will reward our trusting with his salvation!
Then a verse from "O Little Town of Bethlehem" ran through my head over and over again.
How silently, how silently,
the wonderous gift is given.
So God imparts to human hearts
the blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming
but in this world of sin
where meek souls will receive him still
the dear Christ enters in.
Now THAT'S the wonder of Christmas!!
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