Prophets of Advent: Isaiah

On each of the four Sundays in Advent we listen to passages from the prophet Isaiah.  One scholar says this about prophets:  "The prophet is a messenger for God.  The function of a prophet is to convey to people God's desire for them.  This task involves two kinds of persuasion:  criticizing and energizing."  The readings we hear in Isaiah are energizing passages.  They are also imaginative.  Some of the most familiar images of Advent come from Isaiah:  "The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest mountain."  "The people shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks."  The wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the calf and young lion shall browse together."  "The desert and the parched land shall exult." "The virgin shall conceive and bear a son."

These images were picture of the "kingdom of God" as God desired the Jewish people to live, in the 7th century before Christ when Isaiah preached.  But over time, these sayings and many more were saved, and repeated to other generations.  After the death and resurrection of Christ, the early Christians looked back at Isaiah, and other Jewish prophets, and saw in their writings a kind of prediction of the coming of the Messiah.  They saw that it was Jesus of whom Isaiah was speaking when he wrote:  "The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him; a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD."

In Luke's gospel, the adult Jesus comes out of the desert after forth days of prayer, goes to the synagogue in his hometown of Nazareth, and quotes Isaiah:  "The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the LORD."  Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down [the ancient position of a teacher], and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.  He said to them, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."  

What does Isaiah tell us about the season of Advent? In the days before the feast of Christmas we renew our complete trust in God's presence among us.  At the same time, we don't just let God do all the work.  We carry out those activities to make a "peaceable kingdom" possible, by being peacemakers and reconcilers in our families and communities.  We are willing to accept criticism that we may forget the poor.  This may mean we have to change our ways to care for God's least, last and lost.  And we see in Isaiah and all the Old Testament prophets, that the promised Messiah does come.  Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary and son of God, is the fulfillment of God's plan.

In these days before and after Christmas, it is good to open the bible to the book of Isaiah, and read and be energized by some of the most stirring and imaginative passages in the entire biblical tradition.