Reflection Reader, This week's passages focused on prophecies from Isaiah chapters 9 and 11 building up a picture of who Jesus is and how he will reign. Tuesday's passage contrasted the modern idea of peace as a passive absence of conflict with the peace Jesus brings as an active, increasing presence. Where in your life have you experienced Christ's active, increasing peace, and what does it look like to live as if His peace is a tangible presence rather than just the lack of trouble? Isaiah...
3 days ago • 2 min read
Meditation Reader, We've reached the end of the passages drawn from the Old Testament, so today is a rest day before we move into the readings from Luke, Matthew, and John next week. The passages we have copied from Genesis and Isaiah the past two weeks have taken us on a journey of revelation from the desperate fall of man, and God's salvation plan revealed almost instantly, through the confirmation of that promise of redemption to Abraham, to the increasing detail Isaiah's prophesies...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Meditation Reader, The first familiar words in today's passage, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given," finally turn us toward very familiar advent ground. As I noted yesterday, this future event is written in the present tense. God's salvation plan has been ordained and confirmed, and now it is literally being fleshed out in clear, unequivocal terms. He will come in human form as a vulnerable child. We now know His form, and we know his fashion. He will be wise, mighty,...
7 days ago • 2 min read
Meditation Reader, Today's passage, the third in the series of nine, is titled "The prophet foretells the coming of the Saviour," which is drawn from Isaiah chapter 9 and will be very familiar to us as his famous prophecy of the birth of Christ confirmed in Matthew Chapter 4. The authors of the service joined verses 2 to verses 6 and 7, omitting verses 3-5. I have left them in here for context as they speak of His great victory over sin and death. So we see not just who he is but also what he...
8 days ago • 2 min read
Meditation Reader, As we work through each of the passages in this season, we see their purpose is to unfold the story of God's dealings with His people chronologically across time. So, this second passage took me by surprise as I set it up. I've listened to and attended services in the "Nine Lessons" format for decades but never really questioned this passage, which seems out of place. In the order of service, an explanation is provided for each passage. In this case, it reads, "God promises...
11 days ago • 2 min read
Meditation Reader, Only after outlining His plan for salvation does God describe the inevitable punishment Eve, Adam, and their offspring face. Taken together, today's verses describe the post-fall life as one of struggle. Life will go on, but in exchanging truth for a lie, we have exchanged harmony with God, with each other, and with nature, for struggle in every dimension. Women will struggle with childbirth, child rearing, and their relationship with their husbands. Men will struggle with...
12 days ago • 3 min read
Meditation Reader, God's justice is summary. In the immediate aftermath of the fall, He instantly reveals His plan of salvation. Both Adam and Eve will hear their fates shortly. But first, he metes out punishment to the serpent, prophecy to Satan, and a promise for mankind. A promise, the fulfillment of which the Advent season looks forward to. The serpent is Satan's agent and will, from henceforth, know only the defeat and humiliation of groveling in the dust. Satan's ultimate defeat is then...
13 days ago • 3 min read
Meditation Reader, In today's passage, Adam first puts the blame on God and then Eve, who in turn blames the serpent for the fall. An all too familiar miserable spiral from shame to blame with blasphemy, cowardice, and unkindness thrown in for good measure. The old English of the 1611 KJV somehow magnifies the sadness of it. Eve tries to deflect her blame by claiming she was deceived by the serpent. Here, the old English "beguiled" more fully conveys the sense of her becoming lost in the lie....
14 days ago • 2 min read
The Rebuke of Adam and Eve 1626. Domenichino Meditation Reader, The "Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols" upon which I am basing this advent series begins with Genesis 3: 8-15. Rather than joining Mary in the manger or the shepherds on the hills above Bethlehem surrounded by hosts of angels, the story begins at the point of humanity's greatest loss. The fall of humanity through Adam and Eve's disobedience in the Garden of Eden is the ultimate 'reason for the season.' Reminding us of the...
15 days ago • 2 min read