by Yi Kye Chul
Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
Isaiah 30:18
Isaiah here gives the reasons for the waiting in Gods providence because the Lord will be gracious and compassionate to those who wait for him. Isaiah sees the Lord is a God of justice. Although the Israelites endured even in the face of what looked like certain death. Isaiah promised the deliverance and the result, that is, a revival of trust in God and consequent growth of righteousness and prosperity for the city for a long period, that is, most of the lifetime of those who had seen the siege.
They were chargeable with distrust, and were distressed by strange uneasiness and restlessness of mind; for they were fearfully harassed by their unbelief, so that they could not "wait" for God calmly. To cure this vice, he enjoins them to "wait," that is, to hope. Now, hope is nothing else than steadfastness of faith, that is, when we wait calmly till the Lord fulfills what he has promised. When he says that they who shall patiently "wait" for him will be "blessed," he declares, on the other hand, that they who allow themselves to be hurried away by impatience, and do not repent of their sins and their wickedness, are wretched and miserable, and will at length perish; for without hope in God there can be no salvation or happiness.
Isaiah’s substantial message of waiting to hope for God’s grace and compassion could extend to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in New Testament context, as we live in this unstable today’s culture which is focused on materialism which corrupts the society to sin just like Isaiah had seen in ancient times.
Through all the Advents of our life, we shall wait and look forward with longing for that day of the Lord, when God says, "I am making everything new!" Advent is a time of waiting. Our whole life is a time of waiting; waiting for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth. We should be walking in the way Jesus has taught us, making the Gospel evident - God gave us eternal life through our lives bathed in the Holy Spirit. Isn’t eternity the intrinsic hope of waiting that is revealed on Isaiah’s proclamation of God’s word applied in today’s culture?
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