A People of Hope
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Hope
Hope
This year as we prepare for the celebration of the arrival of our Lord and Savior we are going to take a different approach than we are used to. This year we are going to walk through the season of advent together with those people who, almost two thousand years ago, were waiting on the arrival of the one who was promised to save them. As they sat in those four hundred years of silence waiting to hear from the Lord there were four emotions they experienced. Sometimes separately and sometimes all at once.
As they were waiting for the Lord they were relying on hope, hope to lift them out of the darkness of their bondage. They desired peace, a greater peace than the nation of Israel had ever known. A peace they had been promised at Mount Sinai, but they had never experienced because of their disobedience. They expected joy. They were not expecting a temporary joy that passes as with the laugh of a child, or the feel of giving a gift to another person, or the joy that experienced when you worship the Lord in festival. But they were expecting a surpassing Joy that would fill their lives. A joy that would never end, and eternal joy. And they were preparing for a heavenly love. Love that is so complete, so radical, so overwhelming that it flows from the instigator, through the recipient, and into the rest of the world. A perfect, agape, love.
This is what the people of Israel were waiting for and expecting as they sat in silence and waited on God. As they spent four hundred years waiting for God.
Today we are walk with the ancient Hebrew people as they relied on their hope.
People of Hope
People of Hope
The sun was low on the horizon as you stepped out of the door in of your four-room house that you shared with your spouse, your four children, your donkey, and a host of other animals. Because in your small village of Bethlehem that was the way families lived. They all lived together, in one room.
It had been a long week, a week of hard labor. You and your family had been planting the field for the landlord. But today is the sabbath. Today is the Lord’s Day so no work will be done.
You untie your donkey from the manger and lead it down to the stream to fetch water. It may be the sabbath, but the animals still need to be fed and watered. As you walk down to the stream you think about the last words that God had spoken to your people through the prophet Malachi almost four hundred years ago Malachi 4
“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. Then you will trample on the wicked; they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty.
“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel.
“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
You wonder if or when God will ever speak to you and your people again? Perhaps it will be in your lifetime, but people have been hoping for that for the last four hundred years. You may not have heard from God, but you still have hope.
The people in first century Israel were a people of hope. They had not heard from God in almost four hundred years. The last words they had heard came from the prophet Malachi. It was a promise that one day God would again send Elijah to turn the hearts of all people. For those people there was nothing but hope.
The people of Israel had never had complete control of the land that God had promised them. They had disobeyed God from the very beginning. Those men that lead them out of Egypt, in fact the entire generation that were rescued from slavery would never live to enter the Promised Land. Because of their disobedience they were left to wander the desert for 40 years.
Once they did enter the Promised Land they were supposed to live in total peace with God as their Lord. But from the time they marched in they had begun to disobey God. They made a treaty with the Gibeonites, who they were supposed to expel from the land. But instead of forcing them out of the land they let the Gibeonites stay and thus were infected by their pagan practices.
God desired to lead the Hebrew people and speak to them through Judges. He was to be their Lord and King, but they could not keep his commandments. They spent generations where they would forget about God, then they would be taken by foreign powers. It was only after they were conquered that they would cry out to God for help. Then He would send a Judge to rescue them from the clutches of the people who oppressed them. This vicious cycle lasted for generation after generation.
Then, after God had expelled the last of the foreign invaders from their land, they looked at all their neighbors and saw that they were ruled by kings. Kings were humans whose job it was to protect the land, to protect the inhabitants, and to protect the religion of the people. The Hebrews had cried out to God to demand a king just like their neighbors had. They wanted someone to protect them, to protect their land, and to guide their religion. The problem was this could only be perfect if God was the one leading them. But God gave into the people and gave them a king. They now had a renewed hope in their kings.
But for the Hebrew people their kings turned out not to be the answer they were looking for. Their first king, Saul, was more concerned with his own power than he was with leading the people to God. Their second king, David, was a man after God’s own heart. Though he made mistakes he always turned back to God. Then there was Solomon. A king who only asked God for one thing, wisdom to lead his people. But wisdom was fleeting, and Solomon allowed his wives to lead him to worship their pagan God’s. His son, Rehoboam, was no better. He intended to lay hard taxes on the people, taxes that were even more severe than his father. Because of this the leader of the army Jeroboam lead a rebellion and split the country in two. From this point on the kings lead the people down a path of rebellion from God, worshiping the gods of their neighbors. They were no longer God’s people; they had lost the blessings of God. But there were a few kings in the south who led the people back to God, Joash, Hezekiah, and Uzziah to name a few. But most of the kings of Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. So, the people could still only be a people of Hope.
Then after years of disobedience the one true God took action. First, he destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel. He sent invading armies to conquer it, to take the people into exile, and it would never exist again. Then God would send the Babylonians to take the people of the southern kingdom of Judah into exile, where they would wait for seventy years. They had nothing but hope.
Finally, after waiting those seventy years the Hebrew people were allowed to return to their homeland. They were allowed to rebuild the city walls and they were allowed to rebuild their temple. Then within sixteen years God fell silent. He no longer spoke to the people, He no longer spoke through prophets, God was completely silent. Then, all the people had was hope. Your ancestors were people of hope.
Hope of the Prophets
Hope of the Prophets
Now as you were returning from watering the donkey, probably your most prized possession, you look up and see your family preparing to head to the synagogue for the Sabbath celebration. You realize the temple is still where you should be worshiping, but you have been there before and know you will be heading there soon for the Passover celebration. Oh, how you loath the temple. The sacrifice you prepare always seems to be wrong. You spend all year raising and caring for a lamb that you are sure in perfect. You feed it the best you can, you keep it out of danger, it becomes very special to you, all for God. But the priests always seem to find something wrong with it, some blemish or imperfection. So instead of offering the sacrifice you bring you know you will have to buy one approved by the priest, instead of the precious lamb you have been raising.
You also never quite know what the exchange rate is going to be at the money changer’s booth. You know you must pay the temple tax with shekels so you would have to exchange your denarii. But it seems like the few denarii you are able to save for the temple tax are never enough. And every year it seems like it cost you more Roman denarii to equal the shekels that you will need. Even though you know you are supposed to make the five-mile pilgrimage to the temple you are not excited.
But today you get to head to the synagogue to worship God. To hear the Rabbi in town read the holy scrolls and teach about God. Perhaps this week a traveling Rabbi will come to the synagogue. It is always a special Sabbath when there is a traveling teacher in the village. And you are thankful for the synagogue so you do not have to travel to the temple every week. You pack up your kids and head out for the synagogue.
As you are walking you have a certain excitement, the excitement that comes from your hope. You wonder what message of hope the teacher will read to the assembly today. Perhaps you will hear a word read from the prophet Isaiah. A message to renew your hope. Perhaps you will hear Isaiah 2:1-5
This is what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:
In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
Many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
Come, descendants of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the Lord.
What an amazing message of hope. The hope of the Lord returning to your midst. The of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob coming to bring you peace, joy, and love. Things you really have not known as a people for hundreds of years now. You love hearing the hope that is offered to you through the prophets. The hope of the coming of the messiah.
The people had known messiahs before. They had heard stories of Moses, the man who saved your people so many generations ago from slavery in Egypt. Not only did Moses save the nation from bondage but he saved them from themselves by offering them the law. The law given by God to the people in the form of ten commandments. They had heard the stories of יהושע (Joshua) who lead the people after Moses’ death. He was the one who orchestrated the conquest of Canaan, God’s Promised Land.
More recently the people had been told stories of the Judas Maccabeus the messiah. He led a revolt against the Seleucid empire, the Greeks who ruled the Promised Land since the invasion of Alexander the Great, expelling them from Juda. This was only about 150 years ago, so it was recent in the history of the Hebrew people. But now they knew he was not God’s final chosen messiah because the dynasty that followed him did not last. They had become a client kingdom to the Roman Empire. So, the people were still waiting in hope for the prophet that God would send them.
They were hoping for a Messiah that God would send them and the prophets gave them a pretty clear picture of who the prophet was supposed to be. In total there are 332 Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament.
These prophecies told of how the Messiah would be born. In Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
The messiah would be born of a woman.
They also told of how the messiah would come from not only Abraham’s line, but from the tribe of Judah Genesis 49.10
The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
And from the house of David 2 Samuel 7:12-13
When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
These prophecies told of how the messiah would be a righteous king Psalm 45:1-7
My heart is stirred by a noble theme
as I recite my verses for the king;
my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.
You are the most excellent of men
and your lips have been anointed with grace,
since God has blessed you forever.
Gird your sword on your side, you mighty one;
clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.
In your majesty ride forth victoriously
in the cause of truth, humility and justice;
let your right hand achieve awesome deeds.
Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s enemies;
let the nations fall beneath your feet.
Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.
And how the messiah would be blessed by all nations Psalm 72.17
May his name endure forever;
may it continue as long as the sun.
Then all nations will be blessed through him,
and they will call him blessed.
The prophecies told of his care for the people and how he would bring peace. Such a great peace that there would be no need for weapons anymore. Isaiah 2:4
He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.
This was the hope of the messiah the people were waiting for.
As a people of hope you knew that God’s true messiah had not come yet. You still lived under the oppression of the Roman governor. As you walk with your family to synagogue you see signs of Roman oppression everywhere. The legionaries loafing around your small village. The empty tax booth that you will soon have to go and pay your taxes to the Romans. You know this is not the world God had intended for you. You know there is more, so you have hope.
As you enter the synagogue you smile, because you know what God will not leave your people to suffer forever. You know that one day God will rescue your people. So, you are a people of hope.
We Are a People of Hope
We Are a People of Hope
Just like our first century Hebrew, we are a people of hope. We live by hope, we strive through our hope, and we thrive because of our hope. A hope in the return of our messiah.
But we are offered one difference. We know the Messiah has come, God in the flesh. He has given us everything the prophets promised and more. Jesus gave us peace, he gave us joy, and he gave us love. But even more than that, Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit. One who would come after him, one who would work in and through us. One who would transform us into the new creation that God had intended us to be.
So, this season remember we are a people of hope. As we prepare to celebrate the birth of our lord and savior, we also spend this time preparing for the hope of the return of our savior. The day when he will come to save the entire world, to throw the enemy into the pit of burning sulfur. A time when every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Therefore, we spend this time in preparation.
We are a people of hope. We have the hope of a past sacrifice that forgives our sins, we have the hope of a present transformation that makes us into new creations, and we have the hope of future reward. The reward of an eternal existence in the presence of our God, the one who created us, sustains us, and saves us. We are a people of hope, and it is by this hope that we thrive. Let us pray.
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