Advent: Week Two

Actually, I should probably start calling these "Day such-and-such" rather than "Week", because I'll pretty much be doing them every day to get them in before Christmas.  But I'm going to do it, don't you fear!
Now that I'm well and properly graduated, this blog will be getting a lot more attention. Knock on wood.

So, today's reading (or, you know, the reading from 3 weeks ago) in the Advent Study is Isaiah 9:2,6,&7 and Isaiah 11:1-4&6-9.

I sang in our local performance of Handel's Messiah this year, as I have every other year I possibly could since about the time I was 16.  It is a pure pleasure to stand and sing scriptures like Isaiah 9:6&7 and, this year, I especially enjoyed the solo based on Isaiah 9:2.  The Bass who sang it just blew it out of the water and you could actually understand what he was saying (this is sometimes a rarity in operatic performances).  I found myself sitting there on the stage, eyes closed, worshiping while he sang.  It was lovely.

I love how this prophecy is written as if it's already been accomplished - the people have seen a great light; the light has shined.  Christ has come.  He has already been here.

And here's where I might be a little unconventional.  Fast forward to Isaiah 11:1-4.  Yes, He has already been here, but He's also coming again!  And He shall not judge by what His eyes see or decide disputes by what His ears hear. (Thank the Lord for that!)  And He shall judge the poor with righteousness and the meek with equity.

These are things that, not only were yet to come when the prophecy was first spoken, but are still yet to come even today.  He shall return.  Hallelujah!  This was such an encouragement to me this year as I sang the Messiah.  I just kept thinking, these things are going to happen again, any day now.  How magnificent!  If that doesn't deserve a rousing Hallelujah chorus, I don't know what does.

But don't think these things are just memories of the past and a hope for the future.  They're going on right now.  Check out the little phrase in Isaiah 9:7 - "from this time forth and forevermore."

Christ is oh so present tense.

While we're on the subject of the Hallelujah chorus, let's not forget this part:

"The kingdom of this world is become
the kingdom of our LORD and of His Christ."

I sincerely hope that I can make this Christmas a time of praising the Lord for His original advent and His current presence in my life, but most of all, a time of glorying in the fact that He will come and fulfill all these wondrous prophecies all over again.