Week 1 Devotional – Hope: The Prophets’ Candle
Some scholars believe Jesus fulfilled hundreds of Old Testament prophecies. Perhaps the most well-known prophecy is this one, given in Isaiah 7:14:
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and will call Him Immanuel.”
What profound words of hope—words that would encourage God’s people, even in the hardest of times. This prophecy would sit in the hearts of the children of Israel. They would fall into captivity and exile, but still the words of the prophet would ring in their ears, that Immanuel—meaning “God with us”—was promised to come.
Over 2,000 years ago, Isaiah’s words of the coming Christ were hopeful, and those words remain just as hopeful today. And maybe no one knows that better than our friend, Omar.
Omar is a believer living in the Middle East, where he faces grave persecution. Being a fervent Christian and former Muslim comes with daily discrimination and serious threats against his life.
But Omar can’t hide the hope he has in Jesus. He currently ministers to a growing network of 40 underground house churches, smuggling Bibles to new converts so they can be discipled in their newfound Christian faith. He says of his ministry work, “I see people turn from darkness into light. They come from death to life.”
When he’s not busy with ministry, Omar works as a taxi driver to pay his bills. In a courageous move, he plays an audio Bible on his car’s radio—so that all of his Muslim passengers can hear about the hope of Christ prophesied by Isaiah all those years ago.
