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Advent readings for Dec. 6

• Isaiah 40:1-11

• Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

• 2 Peter 3:8-15a

• Mark 1:1-8

 

“Comfort my people,” says our God. “Comfort them!

Encourage the people of Jerusalem.

Tell them they have suffered long enough

and their sins are now forgiven.

I have punished them in full for all their sins.”

— Isaiah 40:1-2 GNT

 

The news of God’s forgiveness is good news.

To appreciate it full,  we need to recall the back story. Isaiah 1-39 set forth God’s indictment and judgment against his chosen people, Israel, and also the nations surrounding them.

Yet, among the words of judgment, words of hope are interspersed, including prophecies of a son who would arise to bring the blessing of God’s reign of peace, justice and righteousness to Earth.

During the years of Isaiah’s prophetic ministry, Israel had been defeated and carried into exile by the Assyrians. Chapter 39 ends with God’s word about the coming Babylonian invasion of Judah when most of the people would be carried off into exile also.

The descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the people of Israel and Judah, had failed to fulfill the calling God had given to them through Abraham.

God had chosen them to be the people through whom the blessing of knowing God, his law, his purposes and his salvation would be carried to all nations.

But, like Adam the first forefather, Abraham’s descendants had turned from worshiping and obeying God to practice injustice, unrighteousness and idolatry.

But God’s purpose was not thwarted. Even though people are frail as grass and flowers, the word that God has spoken endures and will come to pass (Isaiah 40:6-7).

Isaiah 40 and Psalm 85 contain promises that God’s people longed to see fulfilled over long centuries of captivity and oppression. These promises are the “consolation of Israel,” which Simeon and Anna saw with eyes of faith when Joseph and Mary brought the infant Jesus to the temple after his birth (Luke 2:22-38)

God’s people longed to see his promises fulfilled. They looked and longed for God to come to reign as Shepherd-King, (Is 40:9-11). But God came in a way they did not expect, and Jesus said, “You did not recognize the time when God visited you” (Luke 19:44 CSB).

The announcement of forgiveness in Isaiah 40 is followed immediately by the prophetic introduction of John the Baptist, the man whom God would raise up to be the forerunner for Jesus the Messiah’s earthly ministry — “Prepare in the wilderness a road for the Lord! Clear the way in the desert for our God!” (40:3-5).

Mark’s account of the good news (the gospel) begins with John’s appearance in wilderness with a word of warning: “God is about to show up to set his house in order, so get your lives in order! Confess your sins and turn your lives around before he gets here!”

God did show up, but not the way John expected. God came in the person of Jesus.

John identified Jesus as the expected Messiah, but then John found himself unjustly imprisoned and, to his consternation, Jesus did not seem to be setting things right. In confusion John sent his disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

Jesus did not act with authoritarian, military might like the kings of this world, but rather did acts of mercy — healing the sick and maimed, setting free the spiritually oppressed, feeding hungry crowds and raising dead people.

Then his greatest act of mercy: Jesus offered his own life to take the place of all of us who deserved to die because of our sins.

His self-sacrifice was the most powerful work of all for “he canceled the unfavorable record of our debts with its binding rules and did away with it completely by nailing it to the cross. And on that cross Christ freed himself from the power of the spiritual rulers and authorities; he made a public spectacle of them by leading them as captives in his victory procession.” (Colossians 2:14-15 GNT)

“Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his Son’s blood on the cross and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven. (Colossians 1:20 GNT)

We also wait to see the results of that victory fully worked out when Jesus returns to set up his throne on Earth, for “He must remain in heaven until the time comes for all things to be made new, as God announced through his holy prophets who lived long ago” (3:18-21 GNT).

How will we wait? Wait in patient hope? Or wait complacently, taking for granted God’s mercy and not diligently doing the work Jesus assigned us? Or simply scoff saying every thing continues the same while we go our own way?

Wake up. “The Lord is not slow about His promise … but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. … be diligent to be found spotless and blameless by Him, at peace, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation” (2 Peter 3:9,14-15a NASB).

Steve Humble serves as an elder at Winchester Covenant Church. He can be reached at 771-7138 or by email at steve.g.humble@gmail.com .