Series: Christmas week reflection 2015 – Part 3
God’s people live with the end in sight.
The passage today begins with “In that day,” and transfers us to a future reflection. It is a 
song of anticipation. Like a child joyfully waiting for the moment to unwrap a Christmas present, we wait in anticipation of the second coming of Jesus. When that day comes there will be peace in God’ s creation. In part, some of that peace has come in Jesus.
Isaiah chapters 7-12 speak to those who are hanging on to God in the midst of the surrounding storm of sin and international war. He has been challenging King Ahaz to trust in God, but the king has rejected God’s offered signs of his presence with his people. I wonder how often we do that?
Who around you do you need to look to for help or can be reminders of God’s provision?Isaiah speaks out from the storm of a great enemy upon them and shares a light in the form of a descendant of David who would be God with us. Israel lived in the tension of will God provide what they need in this moment or do they put their trust in Assyria? Isaiah, however, was living with the end in sight. Yes, the storm was great around them, but a peace would and was coming.
Followers of Jesus live with the end in sight because it reminds us of who God is.
This song of anticipation reminds us that God is at work. He will provide what you need for the storm and future. Our hope and peace are based upon who God is, not upon how we feel. Likewise, God’s provision is based upon who God is, not how we feel.
We have some of this provision today. God’s anger has been turned away from those who follow Jesus. Advent is the beginning of the story as we look to Easter and the death and resurrection of Jesus. God’s wrath was placed upon Jesus for you. God is our salvation, he equips us for life and brings us out of the darkness and into the light. Will you follow him there?
Will you draw joy from the living water (v.3)?
This song of Isaiah becomes an anticipation of the newness that would follow. It is living with the end in sight because it reminds us that God is at work. In Jesus, God provides what we need for the storm we are in. This is the salvation that Isaiah speaks of.