"Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."Isaiah
If we were to reflect on our personal lives here in the Halifax area of Nova Scotia, we can agree that we live in a relatively prosperous community. We are fairly confident that the good things we have experienced in the past will continue in the future. We have the freedoms that we enjoy. We certainly expect that our material security will continue in the future. Most of us are of the view that all this is attributed to our own hard work and the values we live.
Now let's pretend for a moment that our city is invaded by a foreign power that has no concern for our comforts and security or what we believe. They come in, destroy our homes, our businesses, our sources of livelihood, seizing whatever we have of value. Then they gather us up and send us off to an unfamiliar place. They make us work for them in some subservient job. Although they feed us and give us a place to sleep, we no longer have the freedom to move about as we did before. Many of us who are seniors cannot expect that during our remaining years much change will happen, or that there will be a chance of recovering all we have lost. It would be an understatement to say that we would be dazed, discouraged, destitute and lacking hope.
When second Isaiah began to write his beautiful prophetic imagery in his book of the Old Testament, this was the state of the people of Israel. They had been defeated by Babylon, a pagan nation, who destroyed Jerusalem, their homes, their livelihood, and their place of worship. Most of the remaining citizens were then routed to a foreign land. They were a defeated people with not much left to live for.
In being detatched from all the things on which they had previously placed their hope, they heard from Isaiah a new message of hope. "Make His ways straight". They heard that their God, who made the stars in heaven, that created the boundaries of the earth, that gives strength and hope to the destitute, was walking with them.
It's hard for us to seriously hear this message when things are prosperous, when we have all we want, and when things are going our way. It's not that God is absent during good times. It's just that we have become overly satisfied and somewhat distracted by other things. But when these distractions are removed, it is then that we realize that our true identities can only be found in God.
Isaiah was there with his prophetic message to remind the people that all was not lost. Now was the time to discover their true identity. Now was the time to awaken from their state of unconsciousness and to see that the only source of their comfort and security could be found in God, and God was as close as their own hearts.
This is the message and purpose of advent. In all our prosperity, there is a danger of being covered with a shroud of darkness and distraction that prevents us from seeing properly. There is that danger of placing our hope in things that will not last. We must rediscover that through the darkness of this shroud, a light is shining, a light that can lead to our rebirth.
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