In the Waiting: Advent/Peace/(D-Day Dec 7)/Christmas Time

In the Waiting: Peace is coming

Illustration: The Jewel Broadcast: Emperor (semi-divine figure) speaks in a broadcast on August 15, 1945 to indicate that the Japanese would surrender. The people had never before heard the voice of their divine figure- only seen his words written, or heard other emissaries proclaiming his will and message.

transition: The New Testament is exactly this phenomena: After the judgement of exile in Babylon, the Jews had returned under Persian rule to the Promised Land where they eventually rebuilt the temple

Intertestemental Period

NT Jewish Setting:

Glory is gone

Ezra 3:10–13 ESV

And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel. And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.

Some were old enough to have seen the glory of God filling the first temple, then to live through its destruction, the people’s exile, and now the return and rebuilding of the city and the house of God. They knew something was different. They did not just want A HOUSE, but that GOD BE IN THAT HOUSE. Something was different in the New Temple. The scrolls were still there, the law was still there, but the presence of God was gone. The 2nd temple jews failed to realize that what made Israel great was not its kings, palaces, laws, sacrifices, temples, holidays, or victories, but they were special because they were the world’s only people who could say “GOD IS WITH US.” Roughly 30 years before Jesus was born, the vassal-king “Herod the Great” was installed by Rome to control Judea and his crowning achievement was to expand the physical temple structure. At the time of Jesus’ birth the temple building was bigger than ever before, even the first temple, but the grand structure was empty where it mattered, because God’s presence was not there. The Jews were better off with a glorified tent in the desert filled with God’s presence, than they were even with an expansive temple without it.

As we open the times of the New Testament the people have been longing for Immanuel, “God with us” like in the times of David when our power was found in God’s presence with us. This is true for Christians today, that they greatness of your life and achievement, success and joy, love and truth, are found in nothing other than God’s presence with you.

The Word is Gone (No prophets)

Silence in the intertestmental period. The Jews are still in it. They do not accept that teachings of Christ or the apostles in the New Testament. They are looking for a peace which has already come, not to a far away place but right before their eyes (

Malachi 4:1, 5 “(1) For behold, the Day is coming… (5)[before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes], I will send you Elijah the prophet. (6) And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers…”

Luke 1:13–17 “But the angel said to [Zechariah], “Do not be afraid… for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John…and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit… And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children… to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.””

Pax Roman (Timing of Jesus’ coming was perfect to enable the spread of the message across the empire because of the Pax Romana, a time of relative peace compared to the wars of previous years.

Spiritual Peace (the peace brought by Christ was not the one expected or hoped for)

A problem for Jews: They thought they were already righteous before God (spiritual peace) because of the law, so Jesus was claiming to meet a need that they did not think they had. Phsyical/national peace was their greatest perceived need and they interpreted the old testament and expected that the Messiah (chosen/annointed one) would come to bring what that apparently couldn’t bring for themselves.

Jesus came to offer peace with God regardless of spiritual circumstances

Everyone who claims Jesus came to speak truth to power, to empower the marginalized, to tear down the power structures, are wrong. Jesus was born into a time of three competing protest/reform movements out of Judaism and he didn’t join any of them.

Phraisees: Against Herodianism

Essenes: Against the Sadducees domination of the Temple worship

Zealots: Against Josephus (Roman allegiance)

Jesus lived in a world of these movements, ministered to their followers, and died for the sins of their adherents, but he never joined any or let them define him. He operated in stark contrast to elements of each of these, because he came to establish a New Kingdom.

Thoughts on Peace

Peace:

NO WAR? We can think that the idea of peace is that there is no war, but that isn’t necessarily true. The Bible is clear that we are constantly surrounded by an unseen war, an invisible war in the spiritual realm. And the enemy must be truly seen as a powerful foe and against human beings he is undefeated, no one has ever successfully resisted all his temptations. The idea of peace with God is that we can have the peace while the war is on going because we know the final outcome. We can have the peace while the battle rages on. How is this possible? Christians set their eyes to heaven, more specifically to the future. How can we have peace in the present though the war rages on? Because We know that the outcome is decided.

In the waiting;

The Jewish people have been the most persecuted group of people in world history as Satan constantly tries to wipe out God’s people. Yet they stick together in hope, bonded by their traditions, customs, and scriptures. Unfortunately however, they remain in the waiting. Our advent is a reflection on the past, but they are still waiting for a savior to come, without recognizing that He is already here. He was among them, but they didn’t see him. He was close to them, among them, came to them first, but they did not receive him.

A prophet without honor

he came to his own but his own did not receive him

Jews had every advantage

You and I can miss the God who is among us, just like the Jews