Advent Day 04: Hope

FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT – WEDNESDAY December 6, 2023

READ Isaiah 11:1–9
Another prediction of the coming Messiah King. Matthew 1:1–17 makes a point of showing us the generational link to the promised Messiah, as prophesied by Isaiah who spoke of Jesus as a “shoot from the stump of Jesse.”

REFLECTION
Have you ever seen what looked like a dead tree stump that had small green shoots growing out of the roots near the bottom? That’s the image Isaiah was using. When everything looked dead, finished, hopeless, that’s when the Messiah came! His second coming will be similar. No, he won’t come as a helpless baby born in a feed trough, but the glorious resurrected King of the Universe. Wait for him. Expect him. Don’t let the darkness fool you. The King is coming.

PRAYER
Pray that God would use you and that you would willingly do all you can to help accomplish his great plan. Pray for help to live justly and generously and to walk humbly with God.