Advent - Week 3, Day 5: Joy In The World!

What2Say2Day? On our 5th day of searching the scriptures for reasons we can feel joy in a tumultuous world we're going to take a look at the second half of the words given to us through the prophet Isaiah. If we look at Isaiah 61: 8-11 we see a promise from God that he will once again make the covenant with the Hebrew people that "Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples". This makes Isaiah rejoice in th knowledge that everything will be as it should, that God will once again provide for them as a people and that God will once again bless them with greatness. Isaiah reminds us that it is God who "has clothed [him] with the garments of salvation" and "has covered [him] with the robe of righteousness". The key words there are salvation and righteousness. Hawaiians would say ola and pono. Ola is a word used for salvation and is also used for life, heal or thrive. The word pono also has several meanings, amongst which are goodness, virtuous, and in perfect order. It should be no surprise that the Hebrew words used in this passage are very similar; yesha meaning deliverance, safety and prosperity and tsedaqah also meaning truthfulness and prosperity. These are the promises God makes to us through Isaiah; that God was with us in better times and is with us now, and through God we will once again live in a time that is filled with truthfulness and prosperity. God's promise to us through Christ is that by putting our trust in God we'll always have the hope that times will once again be filled with peace and joy. Or as Isaiah says it, "as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations" Go into our world, my friends, be the sowers of seeds filled with the promise of joy and nurture your garden so that your flowers grow high and strong.