2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 While David has in mind what most people would conceive of in hearing the word “temple,” God appears to be thinking of something altogether different. This is especially clear whenever we read this passage through the lens of the New Testament. David desires to construct a building for the Lord. Yet,…

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 Suppose I were to ask you what it means to be saved. Would you explain salvation as a fixed reality, a progressive ontological shift, or perhaps something more dynamic and fluid? In my younger years, if I had been presented with this question—my answer might have been something like this: “Salvation means…

Isaías 61: 1-4, 8-11 Supongamos que te pregunto qué significa ser salvado ¿Podrías explicar la salvación como una realidad fija, un cambio ontológico progresivo, o quizás como algo más dinámico y fluido? En mi juventud, si me hubieran presentado esta pregunta, mi respuesta podría haber sido algo como esto: “La salvación significa que Dios ha…

Isaiah 40:1-11 Many scholars identify this oracle as the beginning of “Second Isaiah” (Isaiah 40-55), in which a disciple of the earlier prophet Isaiah of Jerusalem takes up some of the themes of the oracles recorded in “First Isaiah” (Isaiah 1-39) and applies them to the later experience of the 6th-century BC exile in Babylon….

Isaiah 64:1-9 On this first day of the liturgical year, we remember who we are as God’s children, in total need of God’s mercy. In Isaiah, this reality points to an underlying theme of Advent: our collective hope that God would address our separation from him, “would tear open the heavens and come down” (v….