Advent 4
Devotional
Water From the Well
Lectionary Devotional For Cycle A
Object:
Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.
-- Isaiah 7:11
Ahaz, king of Judah, and his capitol city of Jerusalem were under siege. The king of Israel in the North and the ruler of Syria had allied together to conquer Jerusalem. Ahaz also was seeking alliance with another nation that would help defend against this threat. Isaiah was urging an alternative action of trusting in God. "Take heed, be quiet, do not fear ..." (Isaiah 7:4). In what would, at first glance, appear to be a very pious act, Ahaz refused to "put the Lord to the test." The prophet then proclaimed, "The Lord himself will give you a sign." The sign that God gave to Ahaz was the very opposite of what one might expect. It was not a voice from the sky or a mountain suddenly moving from one spot to the other. In some ways it was a most ordinary event. It was the promise of the birth of a child. Rather than a display of divine power, God offered a symbol of vulnerability. A child is totally dependent on its mother for the first period of life. Rather than recognizing and seeking to trust his people's dependence on God, Ahaz sought a military alliance. In seeking such an alliance, it still offered the illusion that Ahaz was in control. The sign that God offered reminded Ahaz that someone else was in charge. In the face of the threat of violence, it is natural to use our energy to seek a counter-violence to ward off the threat. We buy a gun, get self-defense training, or hire a bodyguard. It is hard to focus our energies on listening to God in trust. The miracle of God's presence is that it is expressed through events we often see as ordinary but, when we look closer, are evidence of the miracle of life. The miracle of Christmas calls our attention to God's presence in the ordinary.
-- Isaiah 7:11
Ahaz, king of Judah, and his capitol city of Jerusalem were under siege. The king of Israel in the North and the ruler of Syria had allied together to conquer Jerusalem. Ahaz also was seeking alliance with another nation that would help defend against this threat. Isaiah was urging an alternative action of trusting in God. "Take heed, be quiet, do not fear ..." (Isaiah 7:4). In what would, at first glance, appear to be a very pious act, Ahaz refused to "put the Lord to the test." The prophet then proclaimed, "The Lord himself will give you a sign." The sign that God gave to Ahaz was the very opposite of what one might expect. It was not a voice from the sky or a mountain suddenly moving from one spot to the other. In some ways it was a most ordinary event. It was the promise of the birth of a child. Rather than a display of divine power, God offered a symbol of vulnerability. A child is totally dependent on its mother for the first period of life. Rather than recognizing and seeking to trust his people's dependence on God, Ahaz sought a military alliance. In seeking such an alliance, it still offered the illusion that Ahaz was in control. The sign that God offered reminded Ahaz that someone else was in charge. In the face of the threat of violence, it is natural to use our energy to seek a counter-violence to ward off the threat. We buy a gun, get self-defense training, or hire a bodyguard. It is hard to focus our energies on listening to God in trust. The miracle of God's presence is that it is expressed through events we often see as ordinary but, when we look closer, are evidence of the miracle of life. The miracle of Christmas calls our attention to God's presence in the ordinary.
