On a day when the temperature hit triple digits with three more days to come, Isaiah 55 provides some relief, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven…”  We could use some rain and I suspect wouldn’t mind some snow, anything to cool things down.

Did God catch Isaiah’s attention on a dry and hot day, when He told the prophet that as rain and snow soak the ground so God’s word accomplishes its purpose.  It begins to sink into lives of those upon whom it falls. “It shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

The Word tells of a shoot from the stump of Jesse that will grow. The Spirit will rest upon him.  A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.  His name is Immanuel.  He will swallow up death forever and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces.  Arise, shine for your light has come.

In Sunday’s Gospel lesson from Matthew 13 we find this virgin born son sitting in a boat teaching the great crowds.  Soon enough he will be swallowed up by death himself.  But death could not hold him.  For He is Jesus, God’s Savior, Immanuel, God with us, and his successful escape from the throes of death is also our escape.  For we ourselves are children of God adopted, in Christ to be fellow heirs with Christ.