Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

Isaiah 7:14-15 – Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.  Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.  He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. (NRSV)

Is there a food that represents security or abundance for you?  A food that perhaps you did not get to eat during a hard or lean time in your life, that you indulged in once things got better?  That’s what curds and honey would have been for the people this promise was first made to.  Curds and honey both required a life steady and stable enough to tend the goats and the bees.

As we enter into the season of Advent, when we focus on the story of Jesus’ arrival into our world, the Holy Land of his birth is wracked by violence and destruction.  The bombing of Gaza has destroyed homes, churches, mosques, hospitals – entire communities – to say nothing of stables where goats lived or beehives.  Children are crying into the night with hunger, just for a piece of bread, with no thought for something more luxurious like curds and honey.

When is the time when we know how to refuse the evil and choose the good?  This promise that God is giving King Ahaz through the prophet Isaiah here seems to imply it shouldn’t be too long before we know how to make righteous choices.  And yet, as the violence resumes, we start to wonder if we ever really learn.

As we enter into this season of anticipation, let us open our hearts to welcome Emmanuel, to truly long for God to be With Us.  Let us cry out alongside those whose lives are in the balance, those with nothing to eat, those whose beehives have been destroyed, whose goats are gone.  Let us pray for a renewal of our faith and a restoration of righteousness, that we might not just know how to refuse the evil and choose the good, but follow through and do so.