“Come, Lord Jesus” is a fitting prayer at all times of the year, but it’s especially fitting now, as we remember when Jesus did come to this earth. During this time where we remember the first advent (“advent” just means “coming” in Latin), when Jesus came to this earth as a baby, we look ahead and hope for the second advent—when Jesus will come again in power and glory. And it’s good to celebrate both of these advents—to remember the first coming and to look ahead to the second.

Yet sometimes it can be difficult to fill in the meaning for them—that is, it can be hard at times for us to really wrap our heads around what these advents actually mean.

And that’s what the book of Isaiah is great for. This December, all of our Old Testament readings are from the book of Isaiah, and that’s because this book fills in for us the meaning of Christ’s first and second comings—it helps us to understand what it means.

Isaiah’s prophecy—it came to Israel at a dark time in their history. To a people who had been attacked and overtaken by the Babylonians, to a people who had watched as many of them were carried off into exile into foreign lands, far away, to a people who had seen themselves scattered abroad, with no hope of ever returning home, Isaiah writes of the coming of the Christ:

And a highway shall be there,
    and it shall be called the Way of Holiness…
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
    and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads…

And certainly Isaiah saw in this how in Christ a people who had been scattered—not just Israel, but all the nations who had been scattered around the world since the tower of Babel—all these people were starting to be united not in geography but in Christ, through faith in him. All this is a result of the first advent—we look back and rejoice in that.

But even more, we look ahead to the second coming of Christ. Because we are a people who have likewise been attacked, and overtaken; we are a people who have watched too many be carried off into exile not into foreign lands but into the earth, into graves and tombs. We have seen too many be carried off by our enemy—death—with no hope (so the world sees it!) of them ever returning home.

And yet we look ahead to the second coming of Christ when these words of Isaiah will be fulfilled. Because on the day of that second advent, the words Isaiah spoke will be fulfilled of all those who have died in the faith, who have been ransomed by His blood:

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
    and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads…
Come, Lord Jesus!

-Pastor Duncan