And THAT is the town form which comes the GREATEST savior!!
The small.
The unexpected.
The prophet Micah is the same one who calls us again and again to justice and mercy for the oppressed and the underdog...
because God doesn't affirm things like pride. God doesn't care about our power or our popularity or our riches... and those things end up being harmful anyways.
(pay attention to verse 2): How silently, how silently The wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts The blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming, But in this world of sin, Where meek souls will receive him still, The dear Christ enters in.
Habakkuk is my favorite prophet--hands down. He's frustrated with the scene of injustice all around him. He's discouraged and angry... and he's in God's face about it! Talk about honest prayer:
"O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen?
Or cry to you ‘Violence!’
and you will not save?" ~Habakkuk 1:1
In a modern translation, Habakkuk says "Seriously, Lord? What's up with how broken this world is?" Come and fix it! I'm waiting! ...in fact, I'll stand here on this watchtower and WAIT.
We don't need Jesus when everything is fine... but things AREN'T fine. (even when we try to pretend or live in denial/isolated privilege)
The advent question is what are we waiting for? What/who are we specifically praying for Jesus to save?
"Lord, how long must I wait for this..."
Because God hears Habakkuk.
And Habakkuk's cry of frustration becomes a song of praise.
Everything is perfect and fixed, but even in waiting, Habakkuk learns patience.
I think every one of us has had some experience of being in “the belly of the whale”. How dark, lonely and more hopeless could things possibly get? Homelessness, abandonment and alienation from family and a support network, addiction, poverty, betrayals and broken promises, dysfunctional and toxic relationships, devastating illnesses, overwhelming grief -the list of the darkest places in which we have all found ourselves could continue indefinitely.
In our human condition, we cry out to God. Why is this happening to me? What did I ever do to deserve such a harsh fate as this? Is there a lesson for me in this horrible, hopeless mess? May I just tell You, God, I think I got Your message, so could You just make it all stop right now? And by the way, my grandmother was so very mistaken when she said, “God never sends you more than you can handle.”
The challenge to all of us is to have faith and trust in God when there seems to be no light and no pathway out. God understands. God never promised us a smooth, seamless and pain-free life, but He did promise to always be with us, to love us unconditionally and to forgive us completely. That’s the way out of the belly of the whale.
Prayer: All-powerful and unseen God, the coming of your light into our world has brought us peace. Teach us to proclaim the birth of your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Eternal God, Jesus Christ, the coming of light shines in our darkness, giving us joy in our sorrow and comfort in loneliness. Amen.
God had warned Israel that they would face exile if they continued to turn away and now Jerusalem’s time has come. Once in a while, a king, a descendant of David, would turn the people back to God, but the other kings led the people into all kinds of disobedience. The people worshiped other gods, perverted justice in the land, and ignored God’s laws.
Yet even as Jerusalem’s destruction looms, God sends a prophet to warn, challenge, and comfort the people. That prophet is a young man named Jeremiah.
Known as the “weeping prophet,” Jeremiah ministers to the Jews for about 40 years, and his career is a sad one. He's the only prophet of God in the land: everyone else who claims to have a word from the Lord is a fake (and false messages of hope are a lot easier to hear than the truth about consequences).
Read Jeremiah and you’ll learn to anticipate Jeremiah’s advice and the people’s response—and you’ll see just how many chances God gives His people to follow His voice and keep His covenant.
But the covenant is broken.
The people are broken. And people don’t like to hear the truth.
Although Jeremiah’s messages focus on the coming punishment of Judah (the southern split in Israel's civil war), this book is not without hope. Jeremiah promises restoration and return for the Jews. It’s here, in Jeremiah, that we learn about God’s plan to make a new covenant with His people:
“His law will be on their hearts, and they will all know Him. He shall be their God, and they shall be His people. He will forgive their sin and remember it no more .”31:31–34.
Jeremiah also looks forward to a righteous king—”a righteous branch from the line of David”—to arise in the future… A king who is coming to set things right and turn the world to justice...
Pray: Almighty God, we believe in your new covenant—we believe in Jesus—so we often read the prophets at a distance. But the truth is that we are no better than those in Jeremiah’s day. We, too, have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love. We have not loved our neighbors, and have not heard the cry of the needy. May we draw near to you, confessing our faults, confiding in your grace, and finding in you our refuge and strength; through Jesus Christ your Son. Amen.
The scene: King David's years of triumphant rule have long passed. Civil war has slashed the nation of Israel into two: Israel in the North and Judah in the South. In the days of Isaiah, these nations had fought each other and the surrounding country for a few hundred years, but neither kingdom would stand through the storms to come.
The Assyrians were rising in power, and the Babylonians would soon overthrow them. And the people hadn’t remained faithful to God, so their security as a nation would not last. The North would fall soon. The South will fall later. God raises up the prophet Isaiah to tell the people this message.
But by God’s grace, the message doesn’t end there.
Yes, the Assyrians will conquer the North and the South into exile in Babylon, but God will also bring Israel back home. Isaiah promises that--one day--God will also rule Israel as Immanuel: God with us. God will judge Israel’s enemies and bring all the nations to God—back to peace.
That’s Isaiah’s message:
God’s judgment is coming, but so is God’s comfort.
In the midst of war and violence, Isaiah preaches that peace is coming.
No other prophet is referenced in the New Testament as much as Isaiah. Isaiah preaches of the coming King who will rule Israel and the nations in justice and peace (the kind of peace where lions will lie with lambs and all of creation is in harmony). He also looks forward to a special Servant of God: one who will fulfill all Israel’s duties and bear their sins.
Here are just a couple verses from Isaiah that have been re-interpreted through the Gospel of Jesus:
·“Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel” (Is 7:14). (see Mt 1:22–23).
·“For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)
·“All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him” (Is 53:6).
Fifteenth Symbol of the Jesse Tree: Elijah's Raven
(To keep the Israelite kings and people in line with the covenant, God called up prophets to speak truth to the people. Elijah was a healer, a powerful miracle worker who deeply relied on God, and a fiery speaker who fervently called out to God’s people)
In Jesus’ day, people often compared him to Elijah (Matt 16:13-14)—and, indeed, both were filled by the Holy Spirit and did great things. Both were homeless and spent time in the desert, relying fully on God for provision and daily bread (thus the raven with bread).
Both reminded people of God’s presence in the world and taught us to pray for our daily bread, but Jesus was not merely a prophet who talked about God’s presence. Jesus was God…and still is.
So when we pray for Christ to come into our life, it is no small thing. We need the bread of life in order to be spiritually fed. Weneed God (God’s peace, God’s hope, God’s joy…) in order to be made whole and right and holy.
Reflect:
·Elijah was willing to go into the desert with nothing. But, by God's grace and a widow's hospitality, his needs were met. Have you ever confused true needs with personal desires? (in other words, do comforts or personal desires ever get in the way of faithful service to God)?
·The widow had very little food, but she shared what she had—and was blessed. How can you use your resources for the blessing and benefit of others?
·How/when have you experienced ‘raven moments’ (when God provided exactly what you needed)?
·What ‘desert places’ in your life need new life rooted into them now?
Fourteenth Symbol of the Jesse Tree: David's Crown (In the days after the judges, the people cried out for a king, and God anointed David: a shepherd boy who sang psalms on the harp and--for the most part--led the people into faithfulness.)
On one hand, David’s place in Jesus’ family tree sets the example for a good king—one after God’s own heart who will lead the people both in worship and lives of kingdom justice. I’m sure Jesus grew up hearing stories of his great-great-great-great ancestor who was a brave warrior and a shepherd (compare 1Kings 34-34 and John 10:11-15). But David was also human. He sinned. And he repented (see his 51st Psalm).
So through the pain of King David, God paints the picture of what true repentance and forgiveness would look like. David sets the scene for Christ, but also reminds us of why we need Jesus to be our savior.
