Monday of the First Week of Advent
Isaiah’s prophecy was that “in days to come, the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established as the highest mountain” (Isaiah 2:2). The Judean mountain range, in places, reaches over 3,300 feet. That makes it a humble mountain range, especially when compared to Mount Hermon, in the north of Israel, which is over 9,000 feet tall, and not even mentioning the Rockies or the Himalayas. Nestled humbly within the humble Judean mountain range, at 2,500 feet sits the city of Jerusalem. For Isaiah’s prophecy to come true literally, that is, for Jerusalem to become taller than Mount Everest, Jerusalem would have to rise to twelve times its current height. Can you imagine that?
Well, it would be easier for you to imagine that than it would be for you to imagine how Isaiah’s prophecy was, in fact, fulfilled. The prophecy was really pointing to the coming of the messianic kingdom, and that kingdom, in fact, did come in the person of Jesus Christ. In the coming of Christ, God became man. There was an incarnation. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The divine became human. The immortal became mortal. No human mind can imagine how that happened, how God crossed the chasm between infinitude and finitude. It would be easier for you to count down, starting at infinity, and counting all the way down to eleven. Your mind would not know where to begin. And yet, the incarnation really did happen, and it was way more impressive than a mountain rising.