Hey, everybody. I'm Tim Mackie, and this is my podcast, exploring my strange Bible. I am a card-carrying

Bible history and language nerd who thinks that Jesus of Nazareth is utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you

have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 20 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've

been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission

of Jesus and the journey of faith.

And I hope this can all be helpful for you too.

I also help start this thing called the Bible Project.

We make animated videos and podcasts and classes about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology.

You can find all those resources at Bibleproject.com.

With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week.

All right, well, in this episode, we are going to explore a number of passages from the book of

Isaiah in Old Testament. This was part of an Advent series, but it was kind of a standalone message.

The week before Christmas, kind of the culmination of Advent. And it's a reflection on the meaning of hope in the Old Testament scriptures and the meaning of biblical hope.

And what a profound and important thing. Hope is as a virtue, almost to cultivate.

It's something that God's people have to actively build and cultivate as they go throughout

their lives.

And the hope for the Messiah in the Old Testament was a kind of hope that actually, followers

of Jesus still need to be anticipating, even though that he's come and done the first main stage of his deal, there's still a lot more yet to be fulfilled in the promise of his return. And so that's what we focus on, is how what you hope for shapes what you live for. So there you go. Book of Isaiah, buckle up and let's learn together.

So this is the eggnog that I grew up drinking. I've been grown up here in Portland,

and this is, you know, part of the holiday season.

We're fans of eggnog in the room?

Fans?

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