Worth The Wait

To fully understand todays post, you may want to read the following biblical passages...

Isaiah 2:1-5
Matthew 24:36-44


Prepare ye the way of the Lord… We hear these words a lot throughout the period of Advent. Today is the first Sunday in Advent; the Sunday of Expectation and Hope. And once again we hear the scriptures of expectation and hope; “In the days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

Israel has had a difficult history. Wedged between large empires that were fighting for superiority, there were few times in her 700-year history in which Israel did not live under the threat of war. Not much has changed.
In the time of Isaiah, Judah was a state of Assyria. During Isaiah’s life, the Assyrians would sweep in and totally annihilate the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and threaten to do the same to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Judah; was ruled by leaders who saw it more politically expedient to appease the Empire than to be faithful to God. There were, however people like Isaiah who could envision a different circumstance. They hoped for a time when Israel would be faithful to God.

Israel was weary of war and threat, weary of the divisions that had torn her country apart after Solomon, weary of the instability of a world in which power and the oppression that it brings were the controlling factors in the world. Some like Isaiah knew that God’s vision of the world was much different. They knew that the God they served was the same God who had heard the cries of oppressed slaves in Egypt, and entered history to relieve their oppression. And they knew that because God was such a God, he would not tolerate oppression in the world forever. So they hoped. They dreamed. They dreamed of a time when God would enter the world and bring an end to war and suffering. They dreamed of a time when he would establish his reign on earth and restore all creation to what he intended it to be. They dreamed of a time when the division that had torn their people apart and divided them into north and south would be healed. They dreamed of a time when Israel would be a whole people under God. They dreamed of a time when “nation would not lift up sword against nation, and learn war no more.”

And here we are today. Some in our midst lived through WWII, The Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War. We know from our history books about WWI, the War of 1812, The Civil War, the Revolutionary War, the wars between England and Ireland, England and Scotland, and so on, and so on. Today we are all too aware of the war in Iraq, Afghanistan, conflicts in Korea, Somalia, Serbia, etc. We are bombarded by images of car bombings, suicide bombings, etc. We are reminded of man’s inhumanity to man every time we turn on the tv, radio, internet, or pick up a newspaper. And we become desperate like the early Israelites. And we cry to God; ”Come quickly”.

Then along comes Advent…our annual reminder that God answered our calls once with the birth of Jesus. (not an image on a toasted cheese sandwich- see Nov. 19 posting) Our holiday greeting cards are emblazoned with the phrase: “Peace On Earth”. Much like the early Israelites, we dream of a “new Jerusalem”. But like the Israelites we believe that maybe it is a vision for the distant future. Have we worked hard enough to make this vision a reality? Maybe we have depended a little too much on God transforming our swords while we are still swinging them at each other.

Isaiah knew that we would not be able to bring peace. He knew that the world would not yield to our individual efforts. Still he believed that peace would come. He believed in a future that was God’s future, a future in which the world would be restored to God’s intention. And he waited. And likewise,,. We wait.

Peace on Earth came 2000 years ago… It came in the birth of Jesus, and it was worth the wait. It was only a glimpse of what can be however. The fulfillment of the promise has become a new expectation. So today, we dream the same dream of Isaiah, that God will bring wholeness and peace. When? We don’t know. But we hope and wait expectantly. We know that he has come, and we know that he will come again.

When he does, Will we be “eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage”, will we be sleeping like the homeowner unaware that the thief has come in the night? Will we be dropping bombs and wielding swords? Or will we be hammering our swords into plowshares, and waiting expectantly for his arrival?

Whenever he comes, we are promised that it will have been worth the wait. “The Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”

"Behold the day is coming, The Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour… Come Lord Jesus, quickly come.