He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth." Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel [and] its Holy One, To the despised One, To the One abhorred by the nation, To the Servant of rulers, "Kings will see and arise, Princes will also bow down, Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You." Isaiah 49:6-7 (NASB) Hymn: "O Bright Creator of the Stars" trans. Rev. Thomas J. Potter Christ came into the world to redeem us from sin and death, and will return to finish making all things new and setting the world right. Consider how glorious God is, that He should even care about saving us, that He should have any desire to connect with us and take on the effort to bring us to Himself! He who was above all things, who had never had need of anything, who sat on the throne of glory, reaches out to the hurt, the despised, the servants and the forgotten and the poor. He who fashioned the world with a word and with a breath gives life to all mankind, humbled Himself to be born among animals and was greeted by shepherds. And why should He do all this? Let us not assume that it is because we are so great and deserving of His attention that even the least of us deserve such effort. This is all for His glory; Christ coming into the world deserves more than a manger in a flyover district of the Roman Empire. It is too small of a thing that He should be the savior of one people only, the Lord of just one nation. Yet we see how His glory is manifested, that it should be by inviting us to taste of it. His glory is not something that is revealed to break us down or shame us, but something revealed to invite us in and help us know His goodness. Let us be in awe this season, not only of His glory that is revealed, but the fact that that glory makes God humble and loving rather than aloof and distant. Praise the LORD! Praise the name of the LORD; Praise [Him,] O servants of the LORD, You who stand in the house of the LORD, In the courts of the house of our God! Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; Sing praises to His name, for it is lovely. For the LORD has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His own possession. Psalm 135:1-4 (NASB)
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Seeing their faith, He said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven you." The scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this [man] who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?" But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts? "Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins have been forgiven you,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? "But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,"--He said to the paralytic--"I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home." Immediately he got up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. They were all struck with astonishment and [began] glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen remarkable things today." Luke 5:20-26 (NASB) Hymn: "Come, Thou Fount" Robert Robinson Those who observe modern Jewish rites are coming to the close of Chanukah today, while Christians are continuing to look ahead to Christmas. This season, where we both celebrate miraculous light coming into the darkness, has at its heart the wondrous works of God. It can be easy around Christmas to focus entirely on the infancy of Christ. Because He was very much a real infant, with all the limitations and needs that fact includes. But what a magnificent work He has done! We have no idea what it takes to boil the whole person of God the Son into a tiny, fragile, helpless human frame. We can't conceive of the scope of the miracle that is the Incarnation. The people who watched Christ perform miracles often glorified God, and rightly so, because the works they saw were so far beyond what they were expecting or could understand. But they rarely saw the greatest miracle of Christ's life, that being the fact that He was there in human flesh at all. Let us, this season, consider the mighty works of God in our lives and in the Incarnation itself, and glorify God accordingly. Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the God of gods, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. To Him who alone does great wonders, For His lovingkindness is everlasting; ... Who remembered us in our low estate, For His lovingkindness is everlasting, And has rescued us from our adversaries, For His lovingkindness is everlasting; Who gives food to all flesh, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the God of heaven, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Psalm 136:1-4, 23-26 (NASB) As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to Him, "Yes, Lord." Then He touched their eyes, saying, "It shall be done to you according to your faith." And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them: "See that no one knows [about this!]" But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout all that land. Matthew 9:27-31 (NASB) Hymn: "Come, Thou Precious Ransom, Come" Johann Gottfried Olearius, trans. August Crull I commented a year or so ago, on a different platform, that I enjoyed the Advent season for a variety of reasons, but one of those was the hymns, and my favorite of those hymns was "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." In that comment, I noted that I felt there was quite a lot of the Christian life that can be summarized simply by singing "rejoice, rejoice!" in a minor key, so often a style choice made to express despair. This has apparently resonated well with at least one friend of mine; I think of it now because she quoted me on it earlier this week on Facebook. One of the most fascinating things that happens in scripture is the commands to rejoice in the Lord. Not that it is odd that we should be expected to worship, but that we would need to be told. Consider these blind men. Now, Jesus had His reasons for telling them not to tell people about their healing at that time, and we don't need to deal with the sequential nature of His plan at this time. But even when Christ Himself told them to keep quiet about the blessing that had come into their lives, they couldn't contain their joy. Can we? What is blindness compared to spiritual death, that we would react more stoically to His work in our lives than they did? But rejoicing does get hard in this long, dark season, when the world seems cold and unforgiving, when the light is so slow to appear and quick to vanish. I understand that Christ was probably not born in December, but it feels hard to consider it a mistake or coincidence that we celebrate the season of Advent in this season, in this age. I have been hanging heavy here on the idea that Advent is important lately, at least partly because of how few churches I've been involved with that honor it. But remember that the point of remembering the waiting, the point of coming to a place of eager anticipation, is to restore a heart of worship in us. After all, consider in the Old Testament, how often the promises that Israel would rejoice appear alongside promises that the nation would wait, in distress or turmoil or anguish, longing for the deliverance of God. And how greatly they would rejoice when it comes! Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this, Send it out to the end of the earth; Say, "The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob." Isaiah 48:20 (NASB) Let is be a people of rejoicing, for the great deliverance that has come! And let us be a people, even if only for a season, who will look forward to the final day of deliverance and find in our waiting an eager joy to last us through the year.
The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, [And] refined, aged wine. And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, Even the veil which is stretched over all nations. He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth; For the LORD has spoken. And it will be said in that day, "Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation." Isaiah 25:6-9 (NASB) Hymn: "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" Charles Wesley, Rowland H. Prichard, Ralph Vaughan Williams Why do we do Advent? To dwell on the waiting of Israel and our waiting for the return of Christ. But why should we dwell on waiting? There is a certain degree to which we cannot spend all our time waiting. If we only look forward, if we only ponder the future, if we only consider what God has yet to do, we will never be able to appreciate what God has already done and the period in which we already live. We have salvation, a sure heritage in Christ, and we should spend time celebrating that and giving glory to God for His mighty works and faithful deliverance. "Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving And pay your vows to the Most High; Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me." Psalm 50:14-15 (NASB) We wait so that we can give praise more earnestly. We appreciate that which is coming more when we experience a period of anticipation. And we are really in that period, because death is still among us, sin is still in our bodies, we still have days of trouble. Advent is a period of honesty about the hope that is yet to come, that allows our worship to be more honest as we see what we have received and the assurance that the long-awaited hope is coming and will come. Do not speed through this season, or ignore it, or treat it lightly. Honestly dwell on the anticipation, let yourself feel the fullness of waiting for our final deliverance, and let that guide your praise in the new year.
"Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert. The beasts of the field will glorify Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I have given waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My chosen people. The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise. Isaiah 43:19-21 (NASB) Hymn: "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" Translated by John M. Neale, Thomas Helmore God promised that He would do a new thing. Elsewhere He describes a new covenant that He would bring to His people, one in which there would be no need for further instruction of the Law because it would be written on the hearts of His people. Here, though, He focuses on the glory of that coming day, when He would do something so new and wonderful that creation itself would benefit, that the beasts would glorify God, and that His people would declare His praise. 'Behold, days are coming,' declares the LORD, 'when I will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. Jeremiah 33:14-15 (NASB) This coming day is promised to be one where justice reigns, where the people of God have their needs met, where righteousness shall be the norm.
When Christ came the first time, He initiated the fulfillment of God's promises, but He isn't done yet. We wait in eager hope for that coming day where there will be no more wickedness, no more strife, no more injustice. As we wait, we must see the work God has done and offer Him the praise He is due. And while we wait, we must look forward in eager anticipation of the final fulfillment of His promises. Advent is a period built into the Christian year that refocuses our attention on the waiting, on the anticipation, on the pending joy that we can feel bubbling up inside us as we look to that ever-closer day. As we inch toward Christmas, let us ask God to teach us to enjoy the waiting and take solace in the promise. |
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation
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