NOTES for Isa 26:1-6
Advent is a season with a particularly good selection of readings. They are short and extremely concrete. It is a time to return to the way children learn what matters most. Isaiah and Matthew give us two opportunities to understand something that is unpleasant to understand. They explain it in simple words. They explain it as to children, using different arguments and trying to lead us to act reasonably. It is no accident that the Sermon on the Mount, with all the force of its directness, ends with three verses about a house on rock and a house on sand. Like little children, the Lord teaches us His truth, which is that we can do anything—even build a house on sand. A house on sand is a house built upon what is temporary. The rock is what is eternal. In our life, only the Lord is eternal.