Tuesday 13 December 2011

Background

The nature of prophesy is about promise and hope rather thanprediction. Into the wilderness of people's experience Isaiahspeaks a promise that evokes hope. The optimist may see the best ina given situation - a half-empty cup seen as half-full. Isaiah isno optimist - he is well aware of the trouble they are in - butspeaks with God's promise and sees not a half-empty cup, or even ahalf-full cup, but a cup "pressed down, shaken together, runningover" (Luke 6:38). This is what hope is. On the surfaceof it this may seem an easy and comforting message, but the veryexuberance of Isaiah's prophesy challenges us. Hope is not an easything to live with; it unsettles us from simply enduring thepresent, living in the humdrum and sometimes difficult world. Wehear a different song, a new drum beat, and we find ourselves outof step with what is, as we heed the sound of the triumphantpromise of what will be. And at the heart of the promise is a"Prince of Peace", a new David who will make demands upon a peoplewho must now live "with justice and with righteousness" (v. 7).These mighty words shook the status quo of a troubled peoplechallenging them to see the 'not yet in the here and now' anddemanding that they 'live as if in the not yet'.

To Ponder

Where do you see darkness and burdens in your ownlife and the life of the world?

What are God's promises to you that challenge youto the difficult task of hope?

A challenge:
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew6:9-10)