Dec 13 2022

The Prophecy: Isaiah 7:10-25

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel

Some awkward reading.

If you are reading the passage with children out of the NIV verse 20 may cause some awkward giggling - "to shave your head and private parts."  If you are reading another version, many commentators say the shaving of the legs or the feet could be a euphemism (a nicer way) to say shaving private parts.   

Here is how you can handle this.  

After a defeat in war, the victor would want to embarrass and humiliate the defeated one.  One way this was done was by parading the losers through the street naked.  In a sense, this shaving shows that the people were at the mercy of the victors.  The defeated nation had NO CONTROL,, not even over their bodies.  

Because of wicked of kings, like Ahaz, the jews were going to be defeated by the Assyrians and they were going to be punished in other ways.  

In the midst of these bad kings and foreign nations, there is a promise of a son, God with us.  

This Advent devotional, https://adventconspiracy.org/devotional9/, shares this reflection point

I would hope in the midst of the chaos of this fractured world you could settle in your heart that Jesus is God’s answer to you and me. Our only response and our ultimate response is to worship the God who is with us. He’s not afraid of our brokenness. We are not so messy that the Master doesn’t want to commune with us. He comes to us as the God who will and can help us get back to right standing.

For info about Advent, check out these links:
What is Advent?
Why Advent?
How and Why are we being intentional about Advent this year?

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