Adv2A22.    Isaiah 11:1-10.   The Assyrians had conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel.   So ruthless was their conquest that all that was left was a stump and roots of Israel.  However, from it God would raise up the messianic king.  He would be so filled with the power of the Holy Spirit that he would turn the war-torn land into such an earthly paradise that “the Gentiles shall seek it out.”

Matthew 3:1-12.  John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the Lord in his work of making us people of God, rejecting our natural tendency to be people of this world.  John called the religious authorities of his day, the Pharisees and Sadducees, to a profound change in their lives; or else, they would suffer destruction.  John said, “Therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”  Then John said of Jesus, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  Unless we submit to a total change in our lives, destroying what is not of God and embracing what is of God, we will be like chaff that is burnt up “with unquenchable fire.”

Romans 15:4-9.  Paul calls upon us to be a unified people who together “glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Christ calls upon all people to belong to the God who is the God of and for all peoples.

Psalm 72.  “In him shall all tribes of the earth be blessed; all nations shall proclaim his happiness.”