What Are You Reading? Immanuel

well hi ladies and happy monday morning i hope that you had a wonderful thanksgiving whether you were traveling whether you saw family whether you stayed in town or anything i hope that you just had a wonderful thanksgiving and that you are looking forward as i am to christmas so we're in this season now where we're transitioning from thanksgiving to christmas and we're about to step into the month of December, which seems crazy to me that we're already stepping into December. I don't know about you, but this year has flown by, so completely flown by. But because we're in this moment of kind of transition into Christmas season, I was in the middle of reading in the book of Isaiah, and it got me thinking and got me excited about it. I love whenever God has you reading something, and it applies directly to the season that's about to happen. And so I was actually in Isaiah 9 in the very famous passage Isaiah 9 verses 6 through 7 and it kind of just got me thinking about the Jewish people and how they were awaiting the coming Messiah and for years upon years upon years just waiting and I know I've mentioned her before Christy McLelland I've been doing this study and teaching it all fall two of her studies and in one of them she talked about those she talks a lot about the intertestamental period the between the old and the new testament there's that blank page and she says you know there's a lot that happened on that blank page and um you know we have 400 years of history that happens on that page but she said something interesting and she said that although the voice of god is silent so we don't hear anything we don't have any prophets that's why it can also be called the silent period she said although the voice of God is silent, his hand is present. And I think that's important to remember because we have to remember as people of God that sometimes when it feels silent, when it feels like God's not listening, when it feels like God doesn't see, he doesn't hear, he doesn't know, he does know. He does see and he is listening. He's maybe just silent, but his hand is present. He is often moving and shifting things into place and we are just unaware of it. And so I want us to turn today. So just thinking about, they're all waiting for Messiah to come. The Jewish people are waiting for Messiah to come. And in Isaiah 9, 6 through 7, we have this prophecy put forth of Jesus. And we have the blessing of living on the other side of Jesus' birth and seeing Scripture come into fruition. scripture, the promises of God actually played out for us, laid out for us. And obviously we have the gift of Jesus and the Holy Spirit and his sacrifice on the cross and everything. But I want us to just think about if you're in those days waiting for Messiah to come, and it could even be during the intertestamental period, during the silent period when God is not speaking through prophets, and yet his hand is moving. And it says in Isaiah 6, sorry, Isaiah 9, verse 6 through 7, this is a very famous passage, and it says, For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders, and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness. From that time on and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. And so I know I've continued to mention Christy McLellan. She's just inspired me. And she takes a cultural look and linguistic look at scripture. And I love to learn, and you probably do too if you like Pastor David's teaching you probably love how he'll unpack words for us that we sometimes don't know the meaning of and this word justice justice biblical justice I have learned and I touched on this a few weeks ago is not we tend to think of it as right or wrong we think of it as scales right it's not actually that biblical justice and I touched on this a few weeks ago we have an honor at the top and shame at the bottom they're and honor shame culture. And so justice is actually God reaching down to the shameful and pulling them up to honor. And I just love that. And so when we look at this, it says in verse seven, he will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness. And so he is righteous, but he's also reaching down to those who are shameful and bringing them up to honor, just like he pulled you and he pulled me up from our shame, from our sin and establish us as honorable because we're only honorable and righteous through his sacrifice and so i just absolutely love that and i hope that that inspires you today and i just want you to think about that phrase of you know god may not be speaking you may may feel silent we're not in the intertestamental period where it's actually the silent years but it may feel like god is silent right now but I always believe that God's hand is moving we may not see it his hand the hand of God is present he is moving and shaping and working things that we cannot see or cannot understand and I'm 32 and some of you may laugh when I say this but the older I get the more I see the hand of God moving in my life years prior and how things would not have manifested or would have come to be had God's hand not moved and placed me in certain areas of life or in certain places in life and that just you know he just he moved and I didn't even know what was going on and there's there was a purpose for pain there was a purpose for the seasons I walked through and there was a purpose in all the joy as well and so I want you to focus on that as we're in this in between Thanksgiving and Christmas and about to step into December I want you to just remember that God's hand is present. And even if you look at the world, God's hand is still present. And so we will understand at some point, whether it's here or in eternity, we will understand. But I also want to look at that very last sentence. It says, the zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. The zeal of God, his passion, his fervor will accomplish this. He will accomplish bringing Jesus to his throne. And so we need to remember the power of God. We need to remember that he has zeal. He has passion. He has passion for you. He has passion for me. He has passion for all who call upon his name. And so we need to remember that. So when it does feel silent, remember he has zeal for you. He is a passionate God. He's passionate about you and he's passionate about his business and bringing forth everything that he has promised so i want you to remember that today that even all the way back in isaiah he laid forth this foundation of a child will be born and he should be called wonderful counselor mighty god everlasting father prince of peace all the way back in isaiah and then we have years and years down the road years of silence they have exile all of these things and then jesus bursts on the scene so let that encourage you today and remind you that god's zeal does not fail he is passionate and that just because it seems like he's silent doesn't mean that his hand is not present so look for the hand of god today i hope that encourages you and i hope that you have a wonderful blessed day thanks

Originally published at warren.church.