Hope. The Israelites needed it in Isaiah’s day. In verse one, there is a reference to the humbling of Zebulun and Naphtali. As Gennifer Benjamin Brooks noted in her Working Preacher  commentary one year, these territories “had experienced the devastation of the advancing Assyrian army, the direct result of their decision to trust human allies rather than divine promises.” Their king had worshiped idols, “which put them directly in the path of God’s anger, and divine retributi

I love A Christmas Carol . Ebenezer Scrooge changing because he sees his past, the present, and a potential future with a fresh perspective. Of course, before he can change, we need to see why change is needed. In the beginning of the novella, Ebenezer Scrooge is “living in resentment, fear and the frozen state of watching out only for himself.”  In his book The Redemption of Scrooge , Matt Rawle follows the character development of this curmudgeon who responds to Christmas w