The siege is over and we rejoice

Isaiah 62:10-12                

10 Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the people;
build up, build up the highway, clear it of stones,
    lift up an ensign over the peoples.
11 The Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth:
Say to daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your salvation comes;
his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.’
12 They shall be called, ‘The Holy People, The Redeemed of the Lord’;
and you shall be called, ‘Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.’

In a city that is under siege it is dangerous to go out of the city. Outside the city walls there is danger and threat and worse. But here the siege is over, for the one who is bringing salvation has broken the siege, the blockage is gone, the threat is removed. The people are about to burst out through the gates to meet their liberator, their saviour.

Workers are summoned to get the road ready as the people of the city will be bursting through the gates, rushing down the road to meet the One who is bringing salvation. The people lift up a banner in celebration of the One who is coming.

Vs. 12 points to the change that has taken place. The people have been Redeemed – rescued by God. Once they were the overlooked, the oppressed, the ignored – but now they have been sought out by God. God the bringer of good news has come to find them and to tell them that redemption, salvation has come.

In Advent we remember that we who have been overlooked, ignored, forsaken – we have been found. We who thought that we were shut-in, boxed in, even under siege – in Jesus Christ we have been released from the things that hold us trapped. Jesus comes to us and says, “I have come to find you, you are not forsaken.” Advent tells us that the forces that have held us in guilt and shame, in captivity and fear, they have been broken and we are free. Free to be the people God made us to be from before the dawn of time.   

PRAYER:

God our Saviour, you have broken the power of guilt and shame, the chains of captivity and fear, and we rejoice. We have been freed to live as the people you have always called us to be, meant us to be. Thank you for saving us from our captivity to destruction and sin. In the name of Jesus, whose cross saves us, we pray. Amen.