OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS

Many of the Advent themes reappear in the Christmas Eve lessons as present realities rather than as future hopes.  Isaiah 9:2-9 picks up the imagery of the light of Zion that was hoped for in  Isaiah 2:1-5 and turns it into a present time celebration, while Psalm 96 does the same thing with the royal theology of  Isaiah 11:1-10. Taken together our Old Testament lessons describe the new reality that God ushers into our world.

Isaiah 9:2-7 - "Seeing the Light"
Setting.   Isaiah 9:2-7 is a prophetic hymn of thanksgiving. The text celebrates a radical reversal in the fortunes of Israel through the imagery of light and darkness in v. 2. Even though the people once walked in darkness, they are presently experiencing a "great light." Scholars debate the historical circumstan…