Advent, A Long Time Coming

In our language, advent means the arrival of a notable person or thing, and in our religion it means the coming or second coming of Christ. For the Jews of the OT anticipating the destruction of Jerusalem and exile to Babylon, their prophets foresaw a time of suffering wrought by an angry God whose covenants they disobeyed openly with abandon. These same prophets also foresaw a time of reconciliation with their God. Isaiah is most often quoted in regard to the coming of Jesus Messiah, but there were many oracles of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others that were written down and preserved in Scripture.

The one I like best comes from Jeremiah. “The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another , or say to each other, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31: 31-34)

This oracle of Jeremiah is the only reference in the OT to a new covenant, though Ezekiel does foresee a new heart and spirt. (Ezek. 11:19-20). But there was considerable inconsistency regarding the manner in which God would once again embrace his people of Judah and Israel. Jeremiah says the Lord promises “a righteous branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” Jer. 33: 15. God would install a new king to overcome the great powers and rule with justice. After all, if God were to once again embrace God’s people, someone would have to emerge to make this happen.

And then there is the matter of time, a dimension that confines and defines us humans, but is of no matter to God. For Jeremiah, the advent was some 600 human years down the line, and after all that, what arrived was God incarnate in an itinerant country preacher.

All right. If you are waiting for the punch line, there isn’t one. I don’t know what all this means for you or us in our time. But I am thinking that for me, it means that instead of waiting for God to arrive; ie., to come to me in some form and at some time I can envision with my severely limited human capability; I should instead set myself about finding God where God is here and now in our world.