Wait Upon the Lord With Joy
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In our Scripture readings today, we meet two women, Hannah and Elizabeth. In these readings, they are rejoicing, but that was not always so. In fact, if you meet them earlier, you would say they were cursed. They were without children. Perhaps you are wondering to yourselves, what is so bad about that? We have all known women who could not have children and we can empathize with their great sorrow, I doubt any of us who dream of saying they are cursed.
To understand, how great a tragedy being childlessness was in Israel we need to appreciate the high calling Old Covenant Israel had. All of Israel, this include the land, the people and the institutions have been given a typological significance by God.
There I go again, using one of those “big words”. Is it really necessary? Yes, it is very necessary, and thankfully, it is easy to understand. You all understand what a movie preview is. A movie preview is made of cuts from a movie and is designed to “wet the audiences appetites” for the feature film. God called Israel, to “wet the appetite of the world for the coming Messiah and His New Covenant.
One of the previews, Israel gave to the world, was of the New Covenant promise of an eternal inheritance in the Messiah’s eternal Kingdom. Peter writes of the believer’s eternal inheritance, saying:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
Now how does this relate to Hannah and Elizabeth’s sorrow?
The “preview” of this eternal inheritance under the Old Covenant was each “inheritance”. For those of tribe of Levi, such as Elizabeth, it was their priestly ministry. For the other eleven tribes, such as Hannah, it was their allotment of land in the “Holy Land”. Without, children, their families participation in this great redemptive drama would end!
Their sorrow was not just about not having children, but it was also about losing their family’s inheritance, and with this loss of this inheritance, their family’s participation in God’s great redemptive plan!
I have taken the time to explain all of this, because I want you to see how desperate their situation was. They needed things to change. Not a small change, but a 180-degree change!
Have you ever felt like that? Sure, you have. We all have. Some of you feel like that right now. Your life is heading in the wrong direction and your need to make a 180!
If this is the way, you feel I have good news for you. Each of our Scripture readings this morning are examples of what theologians call the “Great Reversal”. What do theologians mean by the “Great Reversal”? They are speaking of the theme found throughout Scripture of God intervening in our lives and turning them around 180-degrees! Perhaps you missed it the first time a read our Scripture lessons. Let me read just a portion of Hannah’s prayer so you will see what I mean:
The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble bind on strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.
The barren has borne seven,
but she who has many children is forlorn.
I am sure you saw it this time—the wicked are riding high are brought low and the suffering righteous are exalted!
Wow! What a great story, but why do we not see real life play out like that? We have all know righteous, godly women who were childless and God did not step into their lives and work a “Great Reversal”. It is things like this that causes many to doubt the Bible.
For those that say such things, I want to say, read the text more closely. The babies these two women held in their arms were but “previews of the feature film”, what gave Hannah and Elizabeth such joy was they saw the “main attraction”, the saw Jesus!
Again, you might have missed this the first time, let me read a portion of each of these texts again:
The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces;
against them he will thunder in heaven.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth;
he will give strength to his king
and exalt the horn of his anointed.”
Remember, this is decades before Israel asked for a “king like the nations have”. The King Hannah is speaking of is the King God promised He would give Israel—the Messiah!
Elizabeth saw this King as well:
And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
The reason these women had such great joy was because they saw Jesus, and if we would but open our eyes, we would too! Just listen to what the author of Hebrews says:
But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Notice in this text there is a “reversal”?
Jesus who was eternally with the Father, is “made lower than the angels”—a “Great Reversal”!
Jesus who “suffered death”, is “crowned with glory and honor”!
You see the “Great Reversal” is not an event, but a person!
Another passage were we see this so clearly is found in 2 Corinthians:
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
What I like about this passage, is that it clearly shows that when a person unites him or herself to Christ in faith, they share in the “Great Reversal”.
Earlier, I said theologians find this theme of the “Great Reversal” from Genesis to Revelation. Many find the book of Revelation had to understand, it really is not, it is all about the “Great Reversal”. In the book of Revelation, we find the forces of evil riding high, persecuting the godly, even killing them, but this is not the way the book ends—there is a “Great Reversal”:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
This is why we can wait upon the Lord with rejoicing.
Right now, our circumstances my look desperate—but we see Jesus.
Our health is failing—but we see Jesus.
We are without children—but we see Jesus.
Our money is running out—but we see Jesus.
We are imprisoned, soon to be executed—but we see Jesus.
In Tolkien's book, The Two Towers, Gandalf tells his friends to look to east on the dawning of the fifth day. His friends find themselves in a desperate siege, their last defenses about to be overrun. Looking to the East at the dawning of the fifth day, they see Gandalf leading a might army of horsemen, charging down the hill to their rescue.
Tolkien was a Christian and he wanted to give his readers a preview of the real story:
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
Brothers and sisters, God has given us a wealth of previews in the pages of Scripture, but we do not need previews any longer, we see Jesus! This is what Advent is all about, by looking back to the First Advent, we see Jesus! Then, when we see Jesus, we can wait in rejoicing for the Second Advent. Victory is assured. The “Great Reversal” has already begun!
That we may see Jesus more clearly, let us pray.