First Sunday of Advent: Hope

Hope.

The Old Testament is filled with stories of hope. If we had to sum up the Old Testament into a brief synopsis, it would go something like this:

1. Israelites are comfortable.
2. Israelites get caught up in some sort of sin, usually involving idol worship.*
3. Israelites get captured by some foreign nation.
4. Israelites repent and cry out to God.
5. God delivers Israelites.
6. Repeat.

It isn't surprising that hope is a common theme running throughout the Old Testament. The passages on hope usually refer to step 4. In fact, while it's easy to read many of the passages that we now know refer to the coming of Christ as speaking to that event, at the time, the Israelites would have focused on delivery from whatever country to which they were currently enslaved.

When Jesus came, most of his contemporaries thought he was there to free the Israelites from Roman rule. In fact, even after he'd died, resurrected, and was about to ascend to heaven, one of the disciples asked "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6)

So many missed the point of Jesus' death, resurrection, and ultimately the reconciliation between God and man. They were caught up in their political views, looking for freedom from the Immediate.

And I wonder... What are we hoping for? Does my hope rest in delivery from my immediate struggles, or do I hope for a deeper relationship with God? Am I getting caught up in the immediacy of my life and my longings, and missing the point... that Jesus came so I could have a living, breathing Relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

At Bible Study Lite on Tuesday, we will end the first semester and kick off the advent season with a passage on hope. I chose this one because it's how Charles Jennens chose to start off Handel's great oratorio on the story of Messiah.

Isaiah 40:1-5

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

A voice of one calling: "In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

1. Isaiah prophesied at a time when the Assyrians, much like Nazi Germany, stood poised to conquer the nation of Israel. How would they have responded to Isaiah's prophesy? What are the Assyrians in our lives?
2. How does the ultimate gift of reconciliation with God compare to the more immediate and tangible things that we wish deliverance from?
3. Living in the New Testament era, we have seen the full plan of redemption. What does it mean to hope now that we have access to God through Christ (basically, our hope has been fulfilled - do we still need to hope)?

*While idol worship in the Old Testament most frequently refers to the worship of some physical representation of false gods, we would be foolish to think this discounts any of our modern idols: anything that comes between us and God.

What is the Goal?

Right now, I should really be doing cases. But after Tim's Bible Study this morning, I want time to process some of the thoughts and takeaways that have been floating around.

For those of you who missed it, we covered Job 19:23-27. The story of Job is about a man who has it all: sons and daughters, livestock, land. Satan comes to God and tells Him that Job only loves God because God has blessed him so much, so God allows Satan to test Job. Satan then kills his sons and daughters, takes away his livestock and even takes away his health. Job is then told by his wife and his friends to just curse God.

But Job doesn't want that. Job GETS it: the blessings in life aren't material. Ultimately our lives are not about trusting that God will give us what we need in a material sense. Ultimately, the blessing in life is a relationship with God, and trusting that God will be victorious and nothing can separate our relationship with Him.

Over the past few weeks, as I've faced uncertainty and disappointment in the job search, I've been challenged with this in my own life. I've clung to promises that God works everything out for God and that He is in control and loves me and wants the best for me. But as I've looked to these passages for inspiration, I've been confronted with a new reality. My life is about a relationship with God and glorifying Him. If I graduated from Darden jobless, with nowhere to live and facing student loan payments, it wouldn't matter because what REALLY matters in life is my relationship with God. If I have God, I have everything.

And I say that, but it hasn't sunk deep in my soul. So my challenge this week is to seek out a relationship with God that trumps everything else. When all this world passes away, when there are no more investment banks or consulting firms, fancy cars, nice apartments, or even marriages, God will be all that's left. Are you living in such a way that the thought of an eternity with God excites you?