The Light Has Come: Joy!

3rd Sunday of Advent

I spoke last week of a desert experience—the need to find a quiet place to isolate oneself from exterior voices and then attend to the more difficult task of silencing the interior voices that tend to make our souls dry and barren deserts. What did I leave out?

 Isaiah 35

Commentary

v5-6  Generally theologians see in these verses Jesus’ response to John’s disciples, who asked if Jesus was the one they had been waiting for (Matt. 11:2-6). Jesus’ response in part was that his actions spoke for themselves:

The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. (v5)

However, the end of v6 points back to the Exodus from Egypt as well (Ex. 15:22-25) where Moses brought forth water from a rock. Once one sees these verses as a form of exodus, other analogies present themselves:

v3-4:  The feeble hands, failing knees and fearful hearts are reminiscent of the despairing Israelites who, in the face of trials in the desert and giants in the Promised Land, were ready to return to the potted meats (plus slavery) of Egypt.

v8:  The Way of Holiness is for neither the unclean nor the fools, just as the Exodus from Egypt was for neither the rebels nor the doubters. To be holy is to be in the presence of God, and God—Emmanuel, God with us—is with those who walk in that Way.

In Moses’ final speech to the Israelites, he says that even after the 40-year exodus in the desert, that God still had not given them a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear (Deut. 29:4). To be one ransomed by the Lord is not automatic; 40 years of following God through the desert cannot earn it; seeing the miracles of the Exodus cannot provoke it; duty and even blind faith cannot accomplish it.

The problem of the unclean and the fool is similar—they do not have the proper orientation towards God. We are all unclean and foolish before God; but here the unclean one is ritually unclean, one who has not prepared oneself for coming before God; likewise the fool is a stubborn cuss who persists in folly, all the while claiming he is right. Both the ritually clean person and the abstinent fool have their eyes on themselves instead of on God—they are worried about their rights, their entitlements, their sacrifices, or their troubles.

In contrast, the ransomed of the Lord have their eyes on God first. They are grateful for what the Lord has done for them. Their thankfulness creates a fertile garden from which repentance, faith, love, and joy can grow. They cannot manufacture joy in the midst of the desert experience—God gives us the joy—but they prepare the place for joy to flourish.

Points to Ponder

So where is your joy this season? If it is missing, perhaps you have your mind’s eye focused on the wrong thing. For what are you thankful? Are you thankful even for your trials? If you would have the mind to understand, eyes to see, and ears to hear, begin by thanking God this week during your trials.

Consider it joy when you face trials of many kinds! (James 1:2)