Advent Week 2:: Peace Monday

Peace is defined in two points
• A state of mutual harmony between parties, the absence of hostility
• Freedom of the mind from an annoyance, distraction, anxiety, oppressive thoughts or obsession…tranquility; serenity

Read the passage below from Isaiah 8:17-9:17. See the lack of harmony in the verses in chapter 8 followed by the full peace in chapter 9. Think today about the peace that came with Jesus Christ. A peace that brings us full shalom, the full peace of intimacy with the Father.


Isa 8:17 I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.
Isa 8:18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
Isa 8:19 And when they say to you, "Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter," should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?
Isa 8:20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.
Isa 8:21 They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.
Isa 8:22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
Isa 9:1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
Isa 9:2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.
Isa 9:3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
Isa 9:4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
Isa 9:5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
Isa 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isa 9:7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.