Advent: Looking forward to safety and security

Advent is a time to focus on what is coming. It is easy to focus on problems in the world, or plans of our own. In today's lectionary reading from the prophets, Isaiah describes the days of the Lord by focusing on the ruler who is to come: 

The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

In him, justice spreads over the world. Righteousness will be the undoing of the wicked. The poor and oppressed will receive their relief. 

He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

In that day, the natural order will have a complete safety even for the young: 

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

As much as this prophecy is full of hope, it did not start out with worldly power. Time and again, God starts out gentler than we would expect: 

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

This happens when the ruler comes with the spirit of the Lord. 

May it come speedily in our day!