Daily Reading
This passage from Isaiah seems a rather odd place to look for Advent devotion. There are no miraculous visitations from angelic host, no exotic gifts of gold or myrrh; there's not even mention of a manger or swaddling clothes, much less that of a baby or a silent night. What we find instead are contradictions, wounds, punishment, suffering, and a whole lot of sorrow.
When the Bible mentions the "arm of the Lord," it's usually a figurative way of talking about the manifestation of God's strength and power. Verse 1 asks: "to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"—perhaps a very Advent-like question. The rest of the passage, however, goes on to describe a "man of sorrows." Is this really Isaiah's idea of the mighty "arm of the Lord"? Is this what's supposed to make us exclaim, "Joy to the world!"?
Advent is a time of anticipation, waiting, watching; Isaiah seems to imply it's easy to look in all the wrong places. But, maybe, this is precisely why we read these verses at Advent: everything about the birth of Jesus happens in the "wrong" places and in all the wrong ways—a lonely and scandalous virgin birth, silence instead of fanfare, shepherds and stables instead of courtiers and palaces, prophecies of sorrow and suffering. God chooses to reveal His strength through these things, and it is here where we find the good news—the "good tidings"—of Christmas: the unlikely exchange of our sorrow for His joy, our weaknesses for His strength, our punishment for His peace. It is by His wounds that we are healed, and this upside-down gift is the reason we can be joyful.