Highway of Holiness

Advent 1

Isaiah 35

We are in the Season of Advent. It is time of preparation for the coming of our Lord, the King of Kings. In this season, the world, and especially the economical world prepares our minds in a certain direction. It is the season of colors, season of giving, season of joy and gifts, season of food and parties, season of decoration.

But how do we prepare ourselves to receive the coming of our Lord?

Today’s passage was written many years before the birth of Jesus. It was written by the prophet Isaiah. Let the text itself tell us about this coming King.

1-The coming King brings joy:

“Be glad… rejoice…blossom…burst into bloom.” Words of joy and happiness. No wonder many like the Christmas season. I am not sure whether everyone is happy for the birth of a king. However, the coming of our Lord is a joyous reality. It makes the desert, the wilderness, and the dry land GLAD. Anyone who lived in the desert knows how dry, hot and lifeless it is. This King, who can turn the desert to new land, land of joy and blossom, is coming. And the writer likes to bring an example of a beautiful land. He uses the example of the glory of Lebanon, and the majesty of Carmel. “The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.” (v2)

Every time I drove in the mountains of Lebanon, I remembered how the authors of the Bible described the beauty of Lebanon. No wonder people said about Lebanon, the Switzerland of the Middle East. No wonder every summer the Arab tourists from the richest oil countries came to Lebanon. Isaiah who knows these lands says the coming of the King will make even the desert more beautiful than the most beautiful place.

2- The coming King brings healing:

“Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way” (v3). He will strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.

These are promises that Isaiah stresses to his audience. We, who are reading it after thousands of years, are comforted to read about the King, about the Messiah who is coming in to be born in a humble home. He is coming to strengthen us from our “pains”.

I love the words of the song “Give thanks.”

“And now, let the weak say I am strong, let the poor say I am rich.”

This is reality. I have seen how Jesus comes and makes the weak strong, gives hope to the hopeless, transforms lives.

In fact, we see how Jesus lived, and we read about his teachings. He was broken, beaten, crucified so that we will have salvation. Therefore, we should be broken so that we will find strength in him. If we do not understand and experience the beatitudes, we have not experienced Jesus. The poor in spirit, the one who mourns, the one who is hungry and thirsty for righteousness, the meek, the pure in heart, the peace maker and so on, those who are experiencing Jesus in their lives can find real joy and “healing”.

Paul writes, “That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2Cor 12:10)

Strength is not about what you have. It’s about who you have.

Therefore: “Say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, do not fear; your God will come.’”

These are comforting words for us, as we are going through turmoil. Many lost their jobs, some lost their loves ones, some lost their health, some lost their homes…

In this tough world the Messiah is coming. In these tough times we come on our knees as the leper came to the feet of Jesus.

To be continued in English.