ADVENT, December 8 2024
The season is changing, temperatures dropping, the wind carries a chilly bite and the hours of daylight are getting shorter. The trees and bushes give a brilliant display of color as they let their leaves go and the animals stock up and hunker down for the period of cold and darkness. They are waiting.
People begin bundling up, raking leaves, putting warm weather items away and get out the cold weather equipment (snow shovels/blowers, make sure their homes are ready for cold), some people get excited with the coming of winter sports and some are looking forward to a blanket, good book, and a hot drink while the wind blows and the snow falls. We wait. Advent means coming. The season of “already, not yet”.
The Hebrew people have always been in a state of “already not yet”. They already know the One True God but have not yet been able to obey and follow His ways. The reason, I think, that it is so hard is that we are easily distracted by this world and the evil one that tempts us all. Of course, we all know that the Evil One, the tempter roams the earth looking for someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8-10)
As a quick recap of the Old Testament;
The Old Testament in a nutshell.
He spoke; the heavens and earth appeared He spoke; The stars twinkled, the sun rose and set the moon lit up the night. He spoke; plants grew, flowered, and gave fruit He spoke; all manner of creatures appeared on the earth, in the skies, under the earth, and seas filled. Man and woman were created He made them in His image and breathed life into their souls. Desiring fellowship with man and woman He gave them choice. They chose for themselves not to hear and obey Him, and sin/evil entered in. Man and Woman walked through the gate and God was sad but they chose. He watched: Abraham obeyed He watched; Noah built the boat and saved the day. He watched; His people were enslaved He gave; Moses instructions from a burning bush. His people were saved He led; his people through the wilderness, raining mana from the sky and water from rocks He watched; His people fall away, too afraid to believe His power God sent; Joshua, the promised land to claim His people; the Deceiver led astray God sent; Judges to show God’s way His people; Cried out: send a king, so like other nations we’ll be God sadly complied; You need only Me God sends; His prophets, to teach, plead, to expose His plan His people; rejected, refused change, their choice, they can God used; the enemies for exiles or correction, to open the Hebrew’s eyes God changed; the ruler’s heart, Hebrews’ were sent home, their temple rebuilt. God waited; for His people to turn, invite Him in His people; wanted His blessings now, their hearts not right, evil ways and apathy prevailed God tried; one more time, sent Malachi, to open their eyes and spirits to revive God sighed; His people denied change, God went silent and continued His plan.
The relationship between the living Creator and the creation He so dearly loves is found in the Old Testament. In the garden the fruit was eaten through an act of free will and that disobedience introduced evil to the world. God immediately had compassion and covered Man’s/Woman’s sin with the first blood atonement, shown in providing animal skins for covering.
The bridge to commune with the Creator was blocked when Man/Woman were evicted from the garden. Mankind has been waiting since then. But God has a plan. First mention of God’s plan is found in Gen. 3:15. “And I will put enmity between you and the women, and between your seed and her Seed”
This is the first mention of God’s plan for redemption, this first sin, evil now in the world and life made hard with man and woman being evicted from the garden.
Now God began waiting to have His people come back to Him so He could bless them and be their God. For about 2 thousand years God, loved, taught, entered into covenants(promises) saved His people from slavery, bequeathed land, He stayed with His children no matter what the people chose, watching, hoping.
God used all manner of peoples and nations, kings, judges and prophets to point His people to Him. the prophets told the people of the coming(advent) of the Messiah. God revealed details of the coming Messiah. For instance, the place of birth revealed in Micah 5:2, preceded by a messenger, just like a King, in Isaiah 40:3, virgin birth Isaiah 7:14. The Messiah is shown in all of the books in the OT.
The time of the Old Testament was a time of highs and lows, of rebellion and return. Times the people would love and worship, seeking Him, then, they would give over to the evil one and turn away from God. The age of the Old Testament came to an end and God sent silence to the people, He sent no more prophets. He remained patient. He waited. He prepared. Remember God HAS a plan which is a mystery to eyes that are not open and ears that cannot hear. We as limited human beings need to remember what is said in Isaiah 55:9; “For as the heavens are higher than the earth. So are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
The people waited. God watched. The four hundred years between the Old and New Testaments brought more of the same as found in the Old Testament. The people find themselves in a desperate situation. A faithful servant arises to “stand in the gap”. Examples of this in the Old Testament would be Noah and the Ark, Moses and Pharoah, Joseph and the famine, the judges, Ester, Nehemiah. In each of these the efforts of Man had to be frustrated, they had to be unable to solve their problems by themselves before divine intervention happened.
During the 400 years between Testaments the people were oppressed by the Persians, Egyptians, Syrians. No one stood up for God until Matthias started the Maccabean revolt against the Syrians and king Antiochus when he demanded animal sacrifice to heathen gods and defiled the temple. Matthias and his 4 sons were successful in defeating the Syrians and the result was 70 years of peace. This revolt is the birth of the Festival of Hanukkah.
The Hasmonean dynasty came to power and the choice of the High Priest changed from selecting from the Aaronic line to more political of a choice. It had little to do with God and serving Him. The Pharisees (follow the Law to the letter) were opposed to the Hasmoneans who wanted to appoint a king that was not of the line of David. Those who opposed the Pharisees, supporting the Hasmoneans were called Sadducees. The Sadducees were related to the high priest and tended toward more social, political, and earthly aspects of their position. They formed the social aristocracy of the Jewish nation, wanted to maintain separation of church and state and believed holiness had nothing to do with the nation's destiny. The Sadducees looked at the Pharisees as old fashioned, irrelevant and fanatical.
The final oppressors in the four-hundred-year period were the Romans. The people are not able to deal with the shifting tide of political power and religious belief. They were now in a kind of spiritual bondage that was more desperate than their political bondage. The different factions and parties (the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Zealots and the Herodians and the Hasmoneans) were all looking for a solution to their problems all without success. The people waited with no evidence of turning back to their One True God. God has a plan!
Living in these tumultuous days were Zacharias and Elizabeth, a couple that were well advanced in years. Zacharias was a priest in the division of Abijah and he waited to serve, day after day, he was never selected to serve in the temple of the Lord. Never had a chance to serve as he had dreamed of for his entire life. He was well acquainted with waiting. His wife Elizabeth was in the line of the daughters of Aaron, the first high priest, brother of Moses. Elizabeth was well acquainted with waiting also, you see she was unable to give Zacharias an heir. She was barren, childless. Throughout her life she waited, prayed, pleaded to be able to fulfill her purpose as a woman and a wife. In her culture if she was not able to have children, she had no purpose in life. In their culture they would have been scorned, pitied, talked about with sadness because neither of them has been able to perform their duties in this life, all they have been able to do is wait. In spite of a life spent with unfulfilled dreams and expectations Zacharias and Elizabeth “were both righteous before God, walking in ALL the commandments AND ordinances of the Lord. BLAMELESS.” In these days the number of priests that wanted to serve in the temple were extremely numerous. There were so many that not all would be able to serve in the temple, not even once. Zacharias waited and wondered if he would ever have the opportunity to perform the duties that he had been trained for.
Solomon tells us what to do while we wait in Proverbs 3:5-6 “trust in the Lord with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Notice it does not say that waiting/trusting will be easy. Life happens one day at a time. These folks, heirs to Abraham’s promise, devout, loyal and faithful followers of Adoni, WAITED for the advent of their destinies. They didn’t give up and they were BLAMELESS. Zacharias and Elizabeth focused on the Lord.
God saw Zacharias goes to work as usual, gathering with the others to draw lots, as was the custom, to see who would have the honor of serving at the hour of incense in the temple. Zacharias literally won the lottery; his name was chosen to serve in the temple! Unbelievable, he may have thought, God has finally shown favor on His humble servant. He would have been nervous because verse 10 tells us that the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. The pressure would have been immense, it all had to be perfect.
Zacharias went into the temple and standing to the right of the altar of incense was an angel. God breaks His silence. read Luke 1:12-23 Zacharias comes home with news that is quite unbelievable and could not tell Elizabeth what had taken place. He would have told her using Something to write on and it probably would have taken a bit. We can only guess at Elizabeth’s reaction to what she was reading but knowing the truth of it by her husband’s lack of speech. Verse 24 tells us that Elizabeth conceived. She was to have a baby! She says, “Thus the Lord had dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” This tells us that her life had not been easy among her people. Now she and Zacharias waited again, this time for the fulfillment of God’s promise.
Elizabeth and Zacharias were not the only ones waiting. Mary had been visited by Gabriel as well and God chose her to have the Son of God and Gabriel tells her about her cousin being pregnant now 6 months. Mary would have experienced anxiety about being pregnant and not married. In her culture being pregnant out of wedlock could have resulted in her being put to death. She left to go see her cousin in the hill country, while she waited. Mary had no idea what would happen outside of doing God’s will and bearing this child. She knew she could talk to Elizabeth about these miracles they were experiencing. Read Luke 1:40-45 Trust in God and all will be well. God has a plan; He is speaking again and he is using these people who love Him to bring about the miracle of the Messiah. God smiles, we wait.
And now we wait for the only birth that brought true redemption, true salvation, true peace, that of Emmauel, Prince of Peace, God with Us, Jesus’ son of the Living God as foretold throughout the age.