Advent 2: (Hope) He Won't Leave Us Alone

What a great song is “O Come O Come Emmanuel”. It so perfectly captures the hope and longing for Jesus to come to us and I particularly love that version because the longing shines through in the traditional music and singing of Israelites. It’s my favorite Christmas song.

If you have your Bibles turn to Malachi chapter 3. In the red KJV bibles it is page 986… and in the blue esv bibles it is page 467...

Last week we began by looking at the end of time and Jesus’ Second Advent and the great hope that we have in that promise, and this week as we have lit the candle of hope, we are now turning to the last pages of the Old Testament, some of the last teachings before we get to turn the page to Matthew and see the great materialization of the hope of Christ.

Hope is one of the great gifts to the Christian. The New City Catechism is a list of questions and responses for training Christians in sound teaching and belief so that they are not led astray. This catechism begins with the question, “What is our only hope in life and in death?”.

How would you answer that question?

What is your only hope in life and in death?

Now sometimes its really easy to answer part of this question.

Maybe you have a hope that keeps you living. For some that could be dreams of wealth or success. For others it could be making a positive impact in the lives of others.

Maybe you have a hope in death. That your good deeds will sway whatever waits for us on the other side of the veil. That God will have pity on you, knowing your sin and rebellion. Or perhaps, you might find hope in the idea that nothing except peace awaits us all upon death.

Most of us have some sort of hope, some of us feel like we have no hope.

But what is your only hope in life and in death?

Malachi, like many of the prophets, gives the answer to this question and offers hope to the people of Israel, but this hope is not coming in the way they expect.

The Book of Malachi is structured around a series of declarations by God to the people of Israel. These declarations are sometimes positive like “I have loved you” (1:2) but most of them are more negative like “You priests who despise my name.” which are met by questions and accusations from the people of Israel toward God.

As these dialogues unfold, Israel’s ongoing sin and rebellion are laid bare, as is the steadfast character of God.

Let’s read Malachi 3:1-4 together

Malachi 3:1–4 (ESV)

1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. 4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

This passage in chapter 3 is introduced by Israel’s pleading for the God of justice to show up (2:17), they see that he is not responding to their offerings and tears and so they accuse Him of not caring about them. And after hearing that we might be tempted to think they have a point. Where are you God? Aren’t they the people of your promise to Abraham?

But if we read all of chapter two we realize they do this all while being unfaithful to God and inviting in a foreign god to their worship!

God says this in the last verse of Malachi 2.

Malachi 2:17 ESV

17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

It sure sounds like a people who don’t really deserve much hope, but then our passage states God’s promise to send a messenger who will prepare the way of the Lord (3:1). After that, God himself will come to the temple!

What a hopeful promise!

The God who has chosen the Israelites as his treasured people will come, demonstrating anew his commitment to his people!

But this hope has a sharp edge. Yes, God is coming, but “who can endure that day? Who can stand before Him when He comes?” God will not be giving the Israelites a “good boy” pat on the head for their half-hearted worship when he returns. He’s not gonna say “I know you ignored most of my commands and chose to follow your own paths instead, and I know that you only were doing the sacrifices because I told you to do so, but that’s not a big deal to me!”

The passage says that the God who is coming is like a refiner’s fire and a launderer’s soap, and He will put the Israelites on trial for their injustices and waywardness.

Now you might be saying in your head, “this doesn’t sound like a great hope!” And you’re right. Those who deserved judgement looked to the Advent of Jesus with fear, not hope.

In the prophets the “Day of the LORD” is often spoken about.

The Day of the LORD is, literally, the day when YHWH comes among His people. And it is something that people cry out for over and over because on the surface it seems like it’s a universally desirable thing! The promise of the Day of YHWH is that He will come and destroy all injustice and make all things right! Sin will be destroyed in the presence of His pure holiness! That sounds great right?!

There’s a warning that always comes with the promise of YHWH’s presence: It will be a great day, yes, but it will also be terrible for those who are not righteous in God’s eyes.

It shouldn’t take much introspection to realize that, by your own merit, you will be included in the sin that is destroyed by the holiness of God. You have not followed God’s commands perfectly. You have not ever loved Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You have invited other gods into your worship. You have put yourself in the place of your Heavenly Father by ignoring His commands and deciding for yourself what is right and wrong.

In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5-7, Jesus makes the requirement clear when he says, “You must be perfect in the same way that your Father in heaven is perfect.” Just a moment will show this to be true: a moment of anger in exhaustion, a moment of weakness in guarding your eyes, a moment of weakness in guarding your heart against self-righteous judgement of others, a moment of weakness in guarding your tongue against gossip and slander. A single moment is all it takes to make you imperfect and I’d be shocked if each of us didn’t have dozens or hundreds many of these moments throughout this past week.

With this in mind, it might be better if YHWH did not come among us, right? It sounds like it would be better if He just left us alone in our sin! That cosmic watchmaker who makes and sets the watch and just steps back to see how it runs sounds pretty good right now! Who could possibly stand tall in His presence?! The only problem with that mindset is that we still have to face the justice of God at our death for our sin! How is this a grand hope?!

Because God didn’t leave us alone and the day of the LORD has promises of great joy.

In Isaiah 7:14 the famous promise is made.

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

And that name is important because it means “God Among Us”. The promises don’t end there

In Isaiah 9:6-7 we are given more titles and promises for the Immanuel child.

Isaiah 9:6–7 ESV

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Wonderful Counselor

Mighty God

Everlasting Father

Prince of Peace

An unending peace will be in his kingdom

Justice and righteousness forever

And the zeal, or passion, of YHWH will make this happen!

What marvelous hopeful promises!

The feeling of the Advent season for those who are Christians is a feeling of deep hope and longing for that king and his kingdom.

The Advent and life of Jesus is the Day of the LORD when YHWH is physically present with His people

As we await the birth of the Messiah and long for God’s coming yet again, the yearning for Emmanuel to come is palpable. Our world is broken, and we need a savior. But, like the Israelites, the savior we await may not be exactly as we expect. He may not pat us on the back either. Rather, our shortcomings will be laid bare, and we too will be called to repent and change our ways.

But this is precisely the point. Our God is not a God who leaves us alone and lets us be just how we are. He is a God who changes us, and this change can only come about through an awakening to the parts of our lives that are in desperate need of reordering. It is this reordering, this opening of ourselves to the refining hand of God, that will indeed draw us nearer to God and closer to the people we were made to be.

This change and reordering doesn’t come through more religious works though. It comes by recognizing that Jesus is who he says he is, the Only Son of God. The King promised in Isaiah 9.

The Wonderful Counselor

The Almighty God

The Everlasting Father

The Prince of Peace

the one who will bring never ending peace, Justice ,and righteousness

The one who will show us the Heart and Desire of YHWH!

By recognizing who Jesus is and lovingly submitting to His good authority as the Lord of all the Heavens and Earth and everything else, we are offered the opportunity to be found in Him.

God loved His creation, God loved us, so much that while we were rebels to Him, He didn’t leave us alone. The Son, the second eternal person of the Trinity, did not consider the worship of all the creatures of Heaven and grandeur of the court of God as something to cling to, but gave it all up to become human, facing unimaginable suffering and temptation, so that he might become a true representative of humanity giving an alternative to living as slaves to sin, a terrible master that promises everything but gives nothing but empty pleasures and brokenness!

Jesus offers us the opportunity to be given his perfection, his righteousness as our own. Jesus offers us healing and peace from the brokenness of sin. But we must believe he is who he says he is and repent of our sin if we want to be made right before our Creator.

Let us be open to God entering into our lives, and let us embrace that God showing up may not look exactly how we may have imagined. We can trust the goodness and gentleness of this great God, the God of faithfulness, the God who will not leave us alone, and we can look to His coming with a great hope.