Daily Lesson for December 13, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 9 verses 2 through 7:

2  The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
3  You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with Joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when
 they divide the spoil.
4  For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
5  For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
6  For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7  Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.

The familiar words of Handel's oratorio "Messiah" echo in our minds as we read this passage: "Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  I can hear the trumpets blast now.

Yet while George Frederic Handel's name is the one rightfully associated with this work of musical genius, what most do not know is that the actual text of the piece was selected from the King James Version Bible and Book of Common Prayer by a much lesser known man named Charles Jennens.

Jennens, a convicted Anglican, selected the words primarily from Isaiah prophecies and the Gospel story to three-part drama of Christ's Virgin Birth, Passion, and Resurrection. Importantly, Jennens was setting out to refute the popular Deist theology of his day, which conceived the world to have been left to its own devices by a distant, "clock-maker" God.  Jennens inspiration and selection was a reaffirmation of incarnation -- of divine appearance in the affairs of the world. It was a theological "Hallelujah" to the Messiah who comes to comfort and to save.

I'm sure we'll be hearing the Hallelujah chorus soon enough this Christmas. When we do, may we be reminded that God has not left us to our own devices. God enters and re-enters history. God has come down to establish justice and righteousness so that the people who walked in darkness may again see light.

"And the government will be upon his shoulders."