(December 2011 Voice of Our Savior)
It’s Advent. Seeing the makeshift sidewalk go up on Monday, November 28th, I thought of the beautiful Advent text from Isaiah 40:
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’
The Lord God addresses a heavenly council, “Comfort My people!” Having suffered punishment double of what she deserved, Council members are to tell the exiled Israelites that their “time-out” is over. One of the Council members says, “Build a an expressway (a sidewalk?) from Babylon to Jerusalem so the exiles may return home.
