Adv1A19.   Isaiah 2:1-5.   At the beginning of book of Isaiah, Isaiah condemns his people for not having walked in God’s ways. In our passage Isaiah pictures for God’s people, who have wandered astray, the glorious joy it is to truly live obeying God’s will.  It is as if heaven were here on earth, when we walk in the light of God’s path on earth.

Matthew 24:37-44. In the verse before our reading starts (Matthew 24:36), Jesus says: “But of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”  Jesus is speaking out of his humanity and not out of his divinity, since as the Son of God he must know.  The emphasis that Jesus wishes to bring out is that we do not know when Jesus will come to call us out of this world, whether it is his Second Coming at the end of the universe or our own individual death.  Be prepared to be called at any moment and do not be mesmerized by daily routine left unable to see much beyond one’s surrounding everyday world.

Romans 13:11-14.  “Brother and sisters: You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.”  The theme of gospel is repeated.  “Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”  Darkness is to live daily as if there is no other reality other than what see and can put our hands on.  The light is to live in a faith that sees the fullness of the truth that is even more genuine than the one we live in now because it is forever and this earthly one is not.  “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.” Paul makes this overstatement to bring out the necessity to be primarily a spiritual people because that will protect us from hell and enable us to reach heaven.