Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, let us pray:
Everlasting Father,
All time belongs to you, and all the ages. In signs, in songs, in words of promise, you reassured your chosen ones, “I am with you; fear not.” You taught them through the prophets to trust that your saving deeds were not limited to the past.
When Jesus came, he fulfilled “all that was written in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”
The Church has found him everywhere in these same holy books.
Help me to find Jesus in my reading today, to listen to him, and to follow him with all my heart.
Amen.
Today's chapters are Isaiah 35-37.
There's a shift in our passage today. Chapter 35 is the end of the prophetic series, and it is a lovely, hope-filled vision of the future restoration of Israel. In fact, a major portion of this chapter is read on at Mass on the Third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday). This tells us that Isaiah's prophecy was not just about the end of Judah's troubles: It is a Messianic prophecy, and it is still, in a way, awaiting complete fulfillment for us. We, "the redeemed," all want to travel the "Holy Way...and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy."
Following the prophecy, we return to an historical narrative very similar to what we read in 2 Kings 18, with Sennacherib's envoys ridiculing Hezekiah's trust in the Lord. The scene of the devout but nervous King running to the Temple and holding Sennacherib's taunting message open before God is both moving and exemplary. The unexpected departure of Sennacherib's army from an intact Jerusalem that followed is one of those tantalizing ancient mysteries that continues to provide work to archaeologists and journalists. But then, God is the Lord of history.
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