SIGNS OF HOPE

                                    

                                                       

                                           "SIGNS OF HOPE"   
                           (Third in an Advent Series:  "Prepare the Way")

Three years ago, this January events occurred that are still impacting our nation,

This coming January 15, 2024, (Iowa Caucuses), our nation, once again starts the whole procedure of electing leaders, including President and Vice-President to lead our nation for the next four years. My purpose is not to raise political issues, but to illustrate that placing hope in anything other than God is False Hope.

Advent is four weeks focused on the Hope of the One who came and promises to come again. We are reminded of the hope of the Prophets. Isaiah 35* (You can read the scripture at the bottom of this blog or in your own Bible) is one such message of hope. It is an oasis between the wasteland of chapters 1-34, with its message of judgment on all nations including Israel and Judah and history of war, sickness and famine.

God Never Allowed His People to Go Without Hope or Comfort. 

The same is true for us.  God Will Never Leave Us Without Hope.

Is. 35: 3-4 When our hands are feeble, and knees give way ...
When hearts are filled with fear ...
God says: Be strong, do not fear,
I will Come ... I AM With You!

1. Historical Event.

As time drew near for the Israelites to return, from captivity to their homeland, it was important remembering the lessons of their ancestors. The coming Exodus would be greater than the first when they were liberated from Egypt. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Isaiah exhausts the picture of a stricken earth, shrouded in smoke from the smoldering ruins, haunted by wild beasts, empty of all human life, the stench of the slain, clinging to the very soil drenched with rotten death. In Contrast ... 

One passes from a sense of despair to hope, thanksgiving, beauty and joy, an "oracle of divine redemption."  The homecoming would be glorious, traveling on the Kings Highway. God’s Coming makes the desert blossom.

2. King’s Highway.

God said: "This is the WAY." (Isaiah 30:21)
The Will of God is that all find The Way...
Jesus said: I AM the Way ...

Luke 1:57-80 Is the story of John, son of Elizabeth and Zachariah -
(Read the passage. ** Also printed at end of this blog.)

Notice the wonder interaction about naming the baby and why Elizabeth said, and Zachariah wrote:  "He is to be called JOHN."   (Luke 1:13-17)

John’s mission was to Prepare the Way for the Messiah.
- he lived a life of strict discipline.
- he rebuked evil wherever he saw it.
- his message was: repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
- he had nothing to lose, especially after baptizing Jesus.
- his career ended in disaster ...
- he fearlessly and defiantly spoken against Herod Antipas of Galilee, who during a trip to Rome had seduced his sister-in-law.  Returning home he dismissed his wife and married his sister-in-law whom he lured away from his brother.
John publicly and sternly rebuked Herod.
 
- Herod took revenge and had John thrown into the dungeon of the fortress Machaerus near the Dead Sea. For anyone that would be a terrible fate, but for John, a child of desert; where all his life he had lived in open space, with wind blowing on his face and the spacious sky for his roof; being confined by four walls in an underground dungeon must have been almost un-bearable.

- John sent his disciples to ask Jesus, Are you the one who was to come, or
                                                   should we expect someone else? (Matthew 11:3)
- Danger of following a dream that is only a dream.
  Gave his life in preparing the Way, had it been in vain?
  Did John expect a military take over! Judgement!

- Jesus answered: Go back and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and good news is preached to the poor.  Notice how this is a fulfilment of Isaiah 35:5.
- "John, you are not following just a dream. You are following me."
   Jesus was the only person who could ever demand without qualification and condition     to be judged not by what he said, but what he did. The same is true today.

- Jesus says: Look at what I can do for you.
                    See what I have done for others.
- What Jesus did in Galilee he still does today.

3. Picture of Final Kingdom.

Isaiah 35 is a beautiful picture of the final kingdom in which God will establish Justice and destroy Evil. This is the world we can anticipate when all creation will rejoice.

Isaiah pictures the days when life will be peaceful, and relationships will be made right. Carmel and Sharon were regions of thick vegetation and fertile soil. They were symbols of productivity and plenty.
Isaiah 35:8-10 "Highway of Holiness" is the way that those in right relationship with God will take from the desert of suffering to Zion (Jerusalem).
It is found only by following God.

As they/we travel God’s Highway, they/we will be protected from the wicked and harmful animals. Jesus said: I will go and prepare a place for you, so that where I AM you may be also. God will be with us. God never stops at simply pointing the way, God is the Way and always beside us.

Jesus said to John and to us: Maybe I don’t do what you expect me to do. But the powers of evil are still being defeated, by unanswerable love. Sometimes Jesus doesn’t meet our expectations or doesn’t act as rapidly as we expect.

We are living in the Age to Come. (Which began with Jesus' resurrection,)
We live in Hope. Not a dream, but reality.
Signs of Hope even in world in turmoil.
Celebrate the Birth of the One who brought hope!

Are you a member of God’s Kingdom?
Are you placing your hope in someone or something other than God?
Are dreams your hope?

If so, all you need do is say:
"Jesus, I can’t do it on my own. Love is nonexistent in my life. Please take over my life and give me hope and peace Give me the assurance and hope of your love that transforms."
Then you will be truly ready when Jesus comes to permanently set up his kingdom.

Following a School Bus, I thought
"Not too much Change since buses were first introduced."
Their purpose is to Transported students to and from school in safely, comfort, joy and hope. Unfortunately, accidents occur, and the purpose may be interrupted.

Advent is a time for remembering and anticipating.
Even though we live in the "Age to Come.," we also still live in the "This Age" where we still are affected by those things that in the "Age to Come" will no longer exist.

We may not know the future. We do know who holds the future.

C.S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Chronicles of Narnia,
writes of an Unlikely hero, Eustace, bumbling Cousin. 
If you know the story, when Eustace falls overboard and is struggling Aslan says:
... I Am With You.
   Fear not! Strengthen weak hands, feeble knees. (Isaiah 35:5)

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*Isaiah 35:1-10
1-2 Wilderness and desert will sing joyously, the badlands will celebrate and flower—
Like the crocus in spring, bursting into blossom,
a symphony of song and color.
Mountain glories of Lebanon—a gift.
Awesome Carmel, stunning Sharon—gifts.
God's resplendent glory, fully on display.
God awesome, God majestic.

3-4Energize the limp hands,
strengthen the rubbery knees.
Tell fearful souls,
"Courage! Take heart!
God is here, right here,
on his way to put things right
And redress all wrongs.
He's on his way! He'll save you!"

5-7Blind eyes will be opened,
deaf ears unstopped,
Lame men and women will leap like deer,
the voiceless break into song.
Springs of water will burst out in the wilderness,
streams flow in the desert.
Hot sands will become a cool oasis,
thirsty ground a splashing fountain.
Even lowly jackals will have water to drink,
and barren grasslands flourish richly.
                                                                         
8-10There will be a highway
called the Way of Holiness, (Kings Highway)
No one rude or rebellious                                          
is permitted on this road.
It's for God's people exclusively—
impossible to get lost on this road.
Not even fools can get lost on it.
No lions on this road,
no dangerous wild animals—
Nothing and no one dangerous or threatening.
Only the redeemed will walk on it.
The people God has ransomed
will come back on this road.
They'll sing as they make their way home to Zion,
unfading halos of joy encircling their heads,
Welcomed home with gifts of joy and gladness
as all sorrows and sighs scurry into the night.
　

**Luke 1:57-80
57-58When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives, seeing that God had overwhelmed her with mercy, celebrated with her.

59-60On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and were calling him Zachariah after his father. But his mother intervened: "No. He is to be called John."

61-62"But," they said, "no one in your family is named that." They used sign language to ask Zachariah what he wanted him named.

63-64Asking for a tablet, Zachariah wrote, "His name is to be John." That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise—Zachariah's mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!

65-66A deep, reverential fear settled over the neighborhood, and in all that Judean hill country people talked about nothing else. Everyone who heard about it took it to heart, wondering, "What will become of this child? Clearly, God has his hand in this."

67-79Then Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied,

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
he came and set his people free.
He set the power of salvation in the center of our lives,
and in the very house of David his servant,
Just as he promised long ago
through the preaching of his holy prophets:
Deliverance from our enemies
and every hateful hand;
Mercy to our fathers,
as he remembers to do what he said he'd do,
What he swore to our father Abraham—
a clean rescue from the enemy camp,
So we can worship him without a care in the world,
made holy before him as long as we live.

And you, my child, "Prophet of the Highest,"
will go ahead of the Master to prepare his ways,
Present the offer of salvation to his people,
the forgiveness of their sins.
Through the heartfelt mercies of our God,
God's Sunrise will break in upon us,
Shining on those in the darkness,
those sitting in the shadow of death, 

Then showing us the way, one foot at a time,
down the path of peace.

80. The child grew up, healthy and spirited. 

He lived out in the desert until the day he made his prophetic debut in Israel.