Advent Series 1: What is Advent?

After Thanksgiving, the church services my family attended became focused on the Advent season, the hangings and banners were changed to reflect the Christmas season, but also reflected the colors blue and purple, which symbolized royalty, penitence, and fasting. Each Sunday, all the kids would form a processional from the back of the church up the center aisle to light the advent candles. One year I even got to light one of the Advent candles as we all proceeded down the center aisle singing:

Light the Advent Candle one,

Now the waiting has begun,

We have started on our way,

Time to think of Christmas day.

Candle, candle burning bright

Shining in the cold winter night

Candle, candle burning bright,

Fill our hearts with Christmas light

Light the Advent Candle two,

Think of humble shepherds who,

Filled with wonder at the sight,

Of the child on Christmas Night.

Light the Advent Candle three,

Think of heavenly harmony

Angels singing “Peace on Earth”

At the Blessed Savior’s birth.

Light the Advent Candle four,

Think of Joy forever more,

Christ child in a stable born

Gift of love that Christmas morn.

Light the Christmas candles now,

Sing of donkey, sheep, and cow,

Birthday candles for the king,

Let the alleluias ring!

Good times. As an adult, I have come to find that advent has a far deeper meaning and focus than Christ’s incarnation. Advent is when we prepare our heart, mind, and soul, for our coming King. Over the next few weeks, I will discuss the Advent candles, their meanings, how the season of Advent relates to Christmas, and how we are to examine our own hearts and minds regarding our expectations for our coming King.

According to the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Advent is, “the season of the ecclesiastical year when the church prepares to celebrate the birth or coming (Greek: adventus) of Jesus Christ (Christmas) and engages in self-examination in expectation of his second coming in glory to judge the living and the dead.”[1] Therefore, as we celebrate the first coming of our Lord and Savior, we also look forward to His second coming in glory.

Advent always begins on the Sunday nearest St. Andrew’s Day (November 30^th), and includes four Sundays. This year it will begin on December 2^nd, and end on December 23. The Christmas season follows Advent and begins on December 24^th and goes until January 5^th (twelve days – hence The Twelve Days of Christmas). Christmas season is then followed by Epiphany, on January 6^th, which extends until Ash Wednesday (February 13, 2013), and the beginning of the Lent season. Therefore the entire Christmas season is comprised of the three sub-seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. And it doesn’t just end on December 26^th, but carries through until February! So, really, we can play Christmas music up until Valentine’s Day!

As we enter into the season of Advent., let us all examine our hearts, rid ourselves of bitterness through forgiveness, and focus on what our earthly Christmas traditions reflect in heaven as we wait for Christmas morning to celebrate the first advent of our king, and look forward to His next coming.

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[1] Peter Toon, “Advent” in The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2^nd ed. Ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2001), 27.

Entering into Thanksgiving

When you think about it, Thanksgiving is the perfect forerunner to Advent and Christmas. Traditionally, in the USA, we celebrate Thanksgiving as a way of remembering the first bountiful harvest at the Plymouth settlement in Massachusetts, and the friendship that existed between these settlers and the Wampanoag Native American Indian tribe who had helped the settlers to survive by providing food and teaching them to cultivate the land and fish. 

The Pilgrims gave thanks for their survival and God’s providence. They knew all too well that their survival through a harsh winter and their ability to plant corn and fish was not due to their own strength, but because God had made a way for them to live and survive in this land.

As we enter into Thanksgiving today, many of us do not have a bountiful harvest to celebrate (unless you are a gardener, like me), and we are not really depending on God for our daily sustenance because even the grocery stores are open on Thursday. But all the same, we need to lift our hands in praise because our God has made a way for us to live and survive in this land. He has provided for our most basic physical needs as a way to provide for our spiritual needs. 

You see, God, our creator, sustainer, and enabler, loved His creation so much that he decided not to write us off as a failed experiment, but to redeem us. So He has made a way for us to live and survive, not so that we can continue to live half hearted spiritual lives, but so that we can have life fully and pour all our effort and strength into loving our Redeemer and Savior and loving each other.

Psalm 8:3-4 says, “When I consider the heaven, the work of your fingers, the moon and the starts, which you have set in place; what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” Of everything that God created; the complexities and mysteries of space, other planets, possibly other life forms, stars, moons, laws of physics, gravity, galaxies, and everything that is so much bigger and more complex than our human frames, God chose to crown us with honor and glory (Psalm 8:5). Rather than banish our little planet to the outreaches of space and let it freeze over and decay, God chose to renew it by sending his Son to earth to free it with His sacrifice. God paid our debt, and we can never repay Him.

So besides, the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, assortment of pies and other delights in which we will partake come Thursday, let us also partake in the knowledge that we are incredibly loved by God, redeemed by Him, and set apart to do His good works in this world. Let us lift our hands in thanks to the one who has chosen to allow us to participate in His creation and His redemption of it. Let us thank God that we can have that second piece of pie, while many of our brothers and sisters in Christ who live throughout the world do without such an extravagance. 

In our thankfulness, let us then turn our hearts towards the Advent season as we begin to await the coming of the Christ child, not just his first coming, but also his second coming in glory and splendor. We are thankful for God’s blessings, and let us seek to show others the same love and blessing which we have already received from the God who became Man and died for us. Amen and Amen.

Job 2:9-11

9. Then his wife said to him, “How long are you keeping hold of your integrity? Curse God and die!” 10. But he said to her, “Your speech is as the foolish women will speak. Moreover, shall we receive the good from God but not receive the bad?” In all this, Job did not sin with his lips.

Biblical Context:

            Satan has made a divine wager with God to test Job’s faith. He believes that if Job is striped of everything – his family, his wealth, and his health – he will turn from God. So God allows Satan to take these things from Job. He sits, now, among the ashes, scraping his sores and boils with potsherd (broken piece of pottery with sharp edges). His wife has had it and has no reason to remain faithful to a God who brings calamity on His faithful and obedient followers. Job remains faithful, but grieves what he has lost. He is convinced that God’s will is bigger than his and that there is a reason for his current calamity. His friends come and try to convince him that he must have done something to incur this sort of grief and loss. Yet, Job remains firm that he did not sin and is still obedient to God.

Life application:

            Somehow we seem to have gotten the idea that as followers of Christ, who read our Bibles, pray regularly and go to church we should not suffer. God only wants the best for us right? Right. Except what is best for us is to be obedient and holy, not happy and comfortable. What is worth more, eternity in heaven? Or eternity in hell? Suffering is a tactic often used by God to test the authenticity of believers and drive them deeper into Christ. God wants us dependent on Him alone, and not money, our house, our car, our jobs, etc. I get the feeling that in God’s eyes, we are often times obstinate and stubborn. Thus, to make us holy and obedient, often times we have to learn the hard way. Job suffers like many of us have not; he lost all of his children in a single day. The death of one child is a tragedy; the death of ten children is enough to undo almost anyone. Job grieves, he curses the day of his birth (ch 3), he mourns his loss, he weeps over the foolishness of his friends, but he remains firm that there must be a reason for his suffering. This behavior should serve as a model for us when we suffer: grieve and mourn, but ultimately look and wait on the Lord. Job’s faith was big enough to encompass a God who blesses but also allows followers to suffer for their holiness. Is ours?

A little on Nehemiah...Part 2

Today’s post will discuss why Nehemiah was perfectly suited for his role as governor in Judah.

The office of Cupbearer to the king, which Nehemiah held, was a high ranking office and a potentially risky one (Nehemiah 1:11). The royal cupbearer was required to pour wine into the royal cup and then taste it to test whether the drink was poisoned.[1] However, the direct access which the cupbearer had to the king made this position very influential. Williamson states that, “[cupbearers] were also expected to be convivial and tactful companions to the king. Being very much in his confidence, they could thus wield considerable influence by way of informal counsel and discussion.”[2] Therefore, Nehemiah was not just a servant to the king, he was a close confidant, and this is recognized by the king’s apparent concern over his downcast expression on his face in 2:2.

As Cupbearer, Nehemiah was able to observe the king and other officials as they conducted business regarding all kinds of matters and with all kinds of people. This experience in and of itself would have given Nehemiah insight into the appropriate way to ask the king for a leave of absence as well has the best time to do so. Ezra 4:21 indicates that it was this same Artaxerxes who issued the command to stop construction in the city of Jerusalem.[3] Nehemiah was, therefore, asking the king to reverse a prior decree. He made his petition in the month of “Nisan” which was the first month of the New Year according to the Persian calendar.[4] In 2:6, it is mentioned that the queen was in attendance with the king. Now, the queen did not regularly attend court with the king so it is very possible that Nehemiah would have approached the king looking downcast at a feast or festival to celebrate the New Year (Nehemiah 2:1-2). Furthermore, there is evidence that at certain feasts and celebrations, the king showed generosity and granted some of the requests of his people or officers.[5] Therefore, Nehemiah was also able to maneuver himself and use the knowledge he had gained at court to gain his request to help his people.

Nehemiah was very aware that he was risking much with his request. In his story he indicated that he was afraid and that he prayed to God before outlining his petition. He communicated clearly the reason he was sad and made his request with great diplomacy to return to “the city in Judah” (Nehemiah 2:2-3). By avoiding the mention of Jerusalem he avoided bringing up Artaxerxes’ previous decree that construction must stop. The request to return to his ethnic home must have come as a surprise to the king, because the text does not give any indication that Nehemiah had previously desired to return to Jerusalem.[6] Indeed, he was an example of the fact that some of the Jews in exile attained high positions politically and economically and as such did not necessarily wish to return to Judah.[7]

Nevertheless, the king accepts Nehemiah’s change of heart towards his homeland, and granted that he might have a leave of absence for a time and gave him all the required documents he would need as well as an escort for safe travel (2:7-8). Nehemiah proclaims in 2:8b that “the hand of my God was upon me.” This phrase is exactly like the one quoted in Ezra several times (7:6, 9, 28, 8:18, 22, 31).[8] It indicates that what seems to be the gracious grant of the king is actually “a channel through which the King of kings reaches his people.”[9] Therefore, Nehemiah, while being a high ranking Persian official, was also an instrument of God that was used to restore His city. Furthermore, Nehemiah’s experience in the Persian court gave him the political know-how to deal with his new position as governor, his enemies in Judea and Samaria, and the traitors within the Jewish community.[10]

God was preparing Nehemiah to restore His city from a very young age. I am sure that the leaders of his day could have seen God’s plan they would have suggested a different career route for Nehemiah that they believed would have made him more influential in Jerusalem. However, God’s plan was perfect. Nehemiah had a close relationship with the King, and was able to get support from him for God’s work. We can’t always tell how certain situations, jobs, or projects are going to help us later in life. This is where we must trust that God is bringing all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). Consider the possibility that right now, you are in training for a particular purpose that God has created you, and only you, for. To ensure we get the full training we will need, we must be obedient and faithful to God, depending on His word and strength to see us through each and every day.

One last word on Nehemiah, in Matthew 10:16, Jesus says, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be shrewd as snakes but innocent as doves.” Nehemiah is a great example of this. He used his knowledge to give himself the best possible chance to succeed in asking the king to return to his homeland and restore the city of Jerusalem, but was innocent of any foul play. God calls us to be smart, clever, and to use what we know and can do to help ourselves and others, but we must also be innocent of any sin. We do not do illegal things or threaten to get the end result, as many others would. This is what makes us different. We are intelligent, clever, and wise, but also gentle, tactful, and innocent.

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[1] Pierre Briant, From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire (Winona Lake, Eisenbrauns, 2002), 264.

[2] H.G.M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah, Word Biblical Commentary, Vol 16 (Waco: Word Books Publishers, 1985), 174.

[3] Mervin Breneman, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, New American Commentary, Vol 10 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1993), 173.

[4] Breneman, 175.

[5] Breneman, 175.

[6] Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah, 175.

[7] Charles F. Fensham, The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, (Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans, 1982),  157.

[8] Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah, 93.

[9] Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah, 93.

[10] Derek Kidner, Ezra & Nehemiah (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1979), 13.