Isaiah 29:4–6 (NIV)
Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghost like from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper. But your many enemies will become like fine dust, the ruthless hordes like blown chaff. Suddenly, in an instant, the Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
Isaiah 29:11–14 (NIV)
For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.” The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Isaiah 29:18-19 (NIV)
In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord; the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
At the heart of the shepherd’s joyful proclamation in Bethlehem is the truth that is found in the dust of Isaiah. Isaiah’s is saying that Israel is outwardly saying and doing things that look good, but they are not honoring God with their passion, life, and intent. He is calling us to look beyond what is easily seen to instead recognize what is true.
This is the heart of hope in the Advent message. Christ didn’t come to make us look alive, but rather to give us life. The promise is not merely in what can be seen, but instead in what is True.
Not just know God, but to experience Him. To look beyond and in awe and wonder at who God is.
The joyful news in Isaiah and the solution to not losing life in living is to remember that who we are and what we see is not enough. This good news is that in Christ, we become a person who is overwhelmed by the dust. There’s nothing we can do about it on our own. We are broken, defeated within because we were once dead inside, no matter how we looked on the outside. Jesus’ coming is what brought us true life within.
Isaiah concludes with the phrase, “the humble will rejoice in the Lord.” (v19). This increased joy is found when our appearances and strivings are stripped away. Isaiah’s Christmas card proclaims great joy in humble brokenness. It is found in acknowledging pain, recognizing our failures, weaknesses, and limits. In this season for me, a cessation of doing brought on by a tree branch, is an invitation to gaze upon who God is and joyfully realize what we are not.
