Wonder - Day 1
Isaiah 7:14
14 All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)
Isaiah 9:2, 6-7
2 The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. 6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David. for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!
When this prophecy was given, Ahaz was king of Israel and they were living in dark times. It’s easy to lose hope when nothing ever seems to go your way, especially when that phenomenon happens year after year after year.
So God makes a promise to the Israelites to give them hope. First, he says He’ll give Israel a sign that what He says will come true. That sign will be a virgin who will give girth to a son. That son will bear the name, Immanuel, which means God with us.
I’m sure that because of their circumstances, which were ultimately self-inflicted, it felt as if God had abandoned them. Gone were the days of old, when the ark of the covenant dwelt in their midst representing the very presence of God. Yet God makes a promise that He hasn’t abandoned them, and a child born of a virgin will be the proof.
Along with this sign comes a dangerous promise to give to a people living in darkness. In Isaiah 9:1, God says, “Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever.” Hope is dangerous because it opens you up for disappointment if the promise isn’t fulfilled. It’s hard to get excited, to wonder at God’s promises, when your present life sucks.
But then we go on to read more about the promise. This child that is coming will be all the things we’ve always needed: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And the yearning in our hearts for justice, for things to be put right, it’s all going to happen. Not only that, this new government, or rule, will never end; it will grow and grow throughout eternity.
Oh, if only the Israelites could believe in the promise, hope in the promise, and experience the wonder of a God who never actually leaves them or abandons them.
Thankfully, we serve a God who fulfills His promises; maybe not as quickly as we want Him to, or even the way we want Him too, but He always fulfills in the way we most need Him too. So for today, I wonder at the promise of a coming king, the promise of a time when the darkness will be removed, the promise of a kingdom coming that will seek to set all things right and will never end. Those are promises I can wonder in.
QUESTIONS
14 All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)
Isaiah 9:2, 6-7
2 The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. 6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David. for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!
When this prophecy was given, Ahaz was king of Israel and they were living in dark times. It’s easy to lose hope when nothing ever seems to go your way, especially when that phenomenon happens year after year after year.
So God makes a promise to the Israelites to give them hope. First, he says He’ll give Israel a sign that what He says will come true. That sign will be a virgin who will give girth to a son. That son will bear the name, Immanuel, which means God with us.
I’m sure that because of their circumstances, which were ultimately self-inflicted, it felt as if God had abandoned them. Gone were the days of old, when the ark of the covenant dwelt in their midst representing the very presence of God. Yet God makes a promise that He hasn’t abandoned them, and a child born of a virgin will be the proof.
Along with this sign comes a dangerous promise to give to a people living in darkness. In Isaiah 9:1, God says, “Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever.” Hope is dangerous because it opens you up for disappointment if the promise isn’t fulfilled. It’s hard to get excited, to wonder at God’s promises, when your present life sucks.
But then we go on to read more about the promise. This child that is coming will be all the things we’ve always needed: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And the yearning in our hearts for justice, for things to be put right, it’s all going to happen. Not only that, this new government, or rule, will never end; it will grow and grow throughout eternity.
Oh, if only the Israelites could believe in the promise, hope in the promise, and experience the wonder of a God who never actually leaves them or abandons them.
Thankfully, we serve a God who fulfills His promises; maybe not as quickly as we want Him to, or even the way we want Him too, but He always fulfills in the way we most need Him too. So for today, I wonder at the promise of a coming king, the promise of a time when the darkness will be removed, the promise of a kingdom coming that will seek to set all things right and will never end. Those are promises I can wonder in.
QUESTIONS
- When you think of the promises given throughout Scripture, what promise of God’s do you most need fulfilled in this season of life?
- For Israel, the darkness included slavery, deportation, attempts to assimilate them to foreign gods and religions, and oppression. What darkness do you see in our world today?
- What is the light that is most needed in those spaces and what are some ways you could be a bearer of that light, of God’s hope?
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