Talk Together
Family conversations with God’s Word.
What is something you had to wait a really long time for? Sometimes we wait for simple things like a snack when we’re really hungry. Sometimes waiting is exciting, like when we wait for Christmas. And sometimes it’s really, really hard, like when we wait for someone we love to come home.
Despite God’s great love for them, the Israelites were living in darkness. They wandered away from God and weren’t following His ways. But even when they were taken from their homes and lived as captives in a faraway land, God reminded them of His special promise: a Light was coming. Let’s read about it in Isaiah chapter 42, verses 5-7.
ESV
Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness, I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”
The Israelites couldn’t get themselves out of their darkness, but God could. He patiently reminded them of His love. He told them when the time was right He would hold them by the hand and guide them out of the darkness. He promised to send a Light so bright It would change the world. People who only saw darkness would see light. People who were captives would be free!
The Israelites waited many hundreds of years for God’s promise to be fulfilled. That is such a long, L-O-N-G time! While the people waited, God used prophets to remind His people a Light was coming to rescue them from their darkness.
People spent their entire lives waiting — and then their kids, and their grandkids, and their great-grandkids and their GREAT-great-grandkids waited for God’s Light to come! They knew the Light was coming, but they didn’t know when.
We must remember no matter who or what we are waiting for, God is always with us and always working in our waiting. The people of Israel had to wait for the light of Jesus. Many waited faithfully for the Light God promised them, even though they never saw Jesus come in their lifetime. Still, they believed God would do exactly what He said. So they watched and waited. The Light of the World was coming.