Welcome to Advent 2025! Each Sunday, we’ll explore the verses of Mary’s song in Luke 1:46-55 until we reach its crescendo on Christmas Eve. From 11/30 to 12/27, we’ll read biblical passages that prompt Mary’s praise and prepare us to enter the pageant of the birth of our Savior.
Advent Passage: Isaiah 40
Thank you for staying with me through the third week of Advent. I hope you felt encouraged as we considered God’s righteousness and justice. I’m so looking forward to walking alongside you next week as we approach the manger. I think we’re ready!
For this third Saturday of our Advent study, I would like to invite you to read Isaiah 40. This passage speaks boldly of the nature of God and His faithfulness. Within the book of Isaiah, this passage represents a rallying cry for all God’s people, similar to our verse from Mary’s song this week.
You see, while Isaiah 1-39 addressed the current circumstances of the Israelites in the 8th century B.C., beginning with Isaiah 40, the narrative leaps ahead 200 years to the Israelites’ journey into exile under Babylonian rule and return home under Persia. Therefore, Isaiah 40 reads like a treatise before a transition.
As you read, note the phrases that leap out and encourage you. Pay attention to words that challenge you. Invite the Holy Spirit to teach you.
My prayer is that you will be encouraged by Isaiah 40 amid a season of short days and long to-do lists. Rest in the knowledge that God is faithful and loving, He only moves forward in righteousness and justice. We can trust Him when we’re waiting, and when we’re stunned silent by His good works. My friends, “Here is your God!”
© 2025 Lori Myers Berry
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