Advent – Hope for Restoration

The Old Tes­ta­ment descri­bes the very eventful histo­ry of the peo­p­le of Isra­el. In the pro­cess, howe­ver, hope for res­to­ra­ti­on fli­ckers up again and again. Hope for a time when things will be peaceful, when the­re will be no more rest­ric­tions and no more suf­fe­ring. Such hop­eful texts are often accom­pa­nied by the expec­ta­ti­on that a Mes­siah – an anoin­ted one of God – will appear. A hall­mark of him is such mira­cles. The New Tes­ta­ment evi­dence is clear that Jesus Christ is the pro­mi­sed Mes­siah. Through him, all peo­p­le who fol­low him share in the res­to­ra­ti­on of this world, but far beyond.

Paradise conditions in prospect

«I have a dream» the­se four words are among the most signi­fi­cant words of modern times. Many peo­p­le inte­res­ted in histo­ry know imme­dia­te­ly who and whe­re the­se words were spo­ken. «I have a dream» I have a dream. Dr Mar­tin Luther King for­mu­la­ted this dream in Washing­ton DC in August 1963. He was addres­sing the ills of Ame­ri­can socie­ty. He addres­sed the fact that peo­p­le of Afri­can-Ame­ri­can ori­gin are mas­si­ve­ly dis­cri­mi­na­ted against in the USA. The dream includes the hope that all peo­p­le have equal rights. It is the hope of res­to­ra­ti­on as it was at the begin­ning of crea­ti­on. In dif­fi­cult times, such calls and state­ments give hope. This was also the case in Old Tes­ta­ment times. Isai­ah 35 is just such a chap­ter. In this chap­ter, the hope of res­to­ra­ti­on is awakened.

The peo­p­le of Isaiah’s time were not much dif­fe­rent from tho­se of today. They were peo­p­le who made their lives as com­for­ta­ble as pos­si­ble. It was all about making ever­y­day life more beau­tiful. Alt­hough the peo­p­le lived in Jeru­sa­lem and the­re was a temp­le for the God Yah­weh, it often did not play a big role in their lives. It was not that exci­ting. For if the other peo­p­les had gods that were repre­sen­ted with images and sta­tu­es, one cha­rac­te­ristic of the God of Isra­el was pre­cis­e­ly the lack of images of him. The­r­e­fo­re, the peo­p­le kept tur­ning to other dei­ties, ther­eby incur­ring the resent­ment of their God. This is why the peo­p­le of Isra­el had to deal with dif­fi­cul­ties again and again. During this time, pro­phe­ts kept appearing and try­ing to call the peo­p­le to rep­en­tance. Isai­ah was also one of them. Amidst all the doom and gloom in the book of Isai­ah, the­re is a good news in chap­ter 35, a ray of hope for bet­ter times.

«The desert and the arid land shall rejoice and the step­pe shall be glad and blos­som like a field of cro­cu­ses. Flowers shall grow the­re in abun­dance and she shall sing, rejoice and be glad! It shall beco­me as glo­rious as Leba­non, magni­fi­cent as Car­mel and the plain of Sharon. For they will see the glo­ry of the LORD, the sple­ndour of our God. […] Then the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf will be ope­ned. The lame shall leap like a deer, and the dumb shall rejoice. For springs will spring from the desert, streams will water the step­pe. Mira­ges beco­me real lakes and the thirsty land beco­mes gus­hing springs of water. Grass, rush and reed blos­som whe­re jack­als once dwelt». (Isai­ah 35:1–7 NLB).

The­se ver­ses speak of what it looks like when the king­dom of God is spre­a­ding. The­se words could equal­ly be descri­bed as «I have a dream». If I were to descri­be it sim­ply like that, I would be cal­led a drea­mer. This king­dom is like a dream that is too beau­tiful. It is the dream of incre­asing fer­ti­li­ty of an area whe­re not­hing has grown for a long time. An area that is quite inhos­pi­ta­ble and often hosti­le to life. The new­ly blos­so­med land then prai­ses God. If that is not a dream! Crea­ti­on wor­ships God. So we are back in the midd­le of our annu­al the­me Crea­tio – Hope and Respon­si­bi­li­ty. God’s crea­ti­on, as bad as it is at the moment, will one day be restored.

But not only the desert, the step­pe and the arid land are res­to­red, but also the peo­p­le. Ever­y­thing that pre­vious­ly had a ble­mish and thus could not per­cei­ve God’s crea­ti­on in all its full­ness will be res­to­red. The blind can final­ly per­cei­ve the dif­fe­rent colours, trees, spe­ci­es, clouds and wha­te­ver else the­re is. The deaf hear the sound of crea­ti­on. The rust­ling of the wind in the trees, the chir­ping of the birds and the babb­ling of the brook. The lame can explo­re the world on his own legs and run. The mute can express hims­elf and put his won­der into words.

The evidence speaks for Jesus Christ

Such hop­eful texts under­lie the Mes­siah expec­ta­ti­on of the Jews. It is the expec­ta­ti­on that an anoin­ted one of God will come. This Mes­siah, which means anoin­ted one in Hebrew, will come and usher in pre­cis­e­ly this king­dom. The expec­ta­ti­on is not only rela­ted to eter­ni­ty, but very con­cre­te­ly to the here and now. Two thousand years ago, the Jews were expec­ting a powerful Mes­siah who would free them from the rule of the Romans. This Mes­siah came into the world in Jesus Christ. Thus Christ is also the Lati­ni­sed ver­si­on of the Hebrew term.

But Jesus Christ did not just come into a world that was not expec­ting him. John the Bap­tist appeared imme­dia­te­ly befo­re him. «He will be a man with the spi­rit and power of Eli­jah the pro­phet, who will go befo­re the Lord and prepa­re the peo­p­le for his coming. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their child­ren and move the dis­o­be­dient to open them­sel­ves to divi­ne wis­dom». (Luke 1:17 NLB). Alt­hough the­re is no sepa­ra­te book of the pro­phet Eli­jah with his name in the Old Tes­ta­ment, he is still one of the most signi­fi­cant per­sons. John pre­pared the way for God here on earth. He made ever­y­thing rea­dy for the minis­try of Jesus Christ on this earth. It was John hims­elf who bap­ti­sed Jesus Christ. But John the Bap­tist was not well recei­ved by ever­yo­ne. Why was that? His mes­sa­ge was simp­le, yet direct. «Rep­ent and turn to God, for the king­dom of hea­ven is at hand». (Matthew 3:2 NLB). He urged peo­p­le to turn towards God and thus away from themselves.

He also dared to tell rulers when they did some­thing that was not good. That’s how he ended up in pri­son. The­re he heard about the deeds of Jesus Christ. But he too was not sure whe­ther he was real­ly the pro­mi­sed Mes­siah. The­r­e­fo­re, he sent his fol­lo­wers to Jesus and asked him if he was the Mes­siah. This ques­ti­on alo­ne is asto­nis­hing. The one who is sup­po­sed to point to the Mes­siah does not even know hims­elf who the Mes­siah is? But Jesus» ans­wer is even more asto­nis­hing. «Jesus ans­we­red them: Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard: the blind see, the para­ly­sed walk, the lepers are hea­led, the deaf hear, the dead are rai­sed to life, and the good news is pro­clai­med to the poor.» (Matthew 11:4–5 NLB). Jesus only gives an indi­rect ans­wer. But why? Becau­se pre­cis­e­ly such mira­cles are the pro­of of his Mes­siah­ship. Through the­se mira­cles Jesus also ful­fils part of Isai­ah 35. «Then the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf will be ope­ned. The lame will leap like a deer, and the mute will rejoice […]» (Isai­ah 35:5–6 NLB). The mira­cles are an essen­ti­al neces­si­ty for someone to be con­side­red the Mes­siah. It is also exci­ting that the mira­cles are never doub­ted in the Bible. The power by which they hap­pen­ed is ques­tio­ned, but not their exis­tence. This is clear even to the grea­test cri­tics of Jesus Christ. Mira­cles pene­tra­te the laws of natu­re. Often we have the fee­ling that only we have trou­ble with mira­cles today becau­se we live in an enligh­ten­ed age. But this is not so. Even for peo­p­le in anci­ent times, mira­cles were some­thing extraordinary.

Invitation to participate in the restoration

You may feel that today’s ser­mon so far has litt­le to do with Christ­mas. Up to this point, this may still be true, but through the mira­cles of Jesus Christ, Christ­mas beco­mes more than just a mira­cu­lous sto­ry. For through the mira­cles and the asso­cia­ted cla­im to the mes­sia­ni­ty of Jesus Christ, the ques­ti­on also ari­ses as to how you stand on the who­le mat­ter. Do you belie­ve despi­te all the things you do not under­stand, or do you doubt becau­se of all the things you do not yet understand?

All who belie­ve in Jesus Christ and have recei­ved him into their hearts are invi­ted to par­ti­ci­pa­te in the res­to­ra­ti­on descri­bed in Isai­ah 35. For chap­ter 35 con­sists of more than just seven ver­ses. Three more ver­ses fol­low, which are quite something.

«Through the desert then leads a road that will be cal­led the holy road. No unclean per­son will walk on it, for it is only for his peo­p­le. Whoe­ver walks on that road will not go astray. Even the simp­le-min­ded will not go astray on it. The­re will be no lions the­re. No wild beast of prey will tread that path. Only the rede­e­med will walk on it. Tho­se who have been rede­e­med by the LORD will return and come rejoi­cing to Jeru­sa­lem. Their faces will reflect infi­ni­te joy. Joy and hap­pi­ness will come to them, but sor­row and sig­hing will flee from them». (Isai­ah 35:8–10 NLB). While what has been descri­bed befo­re has been par­ti­al­ly rea­li­sed with Jesus Christ, this takes place in the future. This road is reser­ved for the peo­p­le of God. And the­se are cal­led the rede­e­med. Rede­e­med in this con­text means that the­se peo­p­le have been for­gi­ven of their sins. So, that they have rea­li­sed that God’s king­dom is near and they need to rep­ent. The­r­e­fo­re, they have con­fes­sed their guilt to God, which was that they want to deci­de for them­sel­ves what is good and evil. Through this, a tran­sac­tion has taken place. When a per­son deci­des for God, he exch­an­ges owner­ship. If befo­re he wan­ted to belong only to hims­elf, now he belongs to God. Advent sheds a light on this road. It sheds light on the road that is open to all fol­lo­wers of Jesus Christ.

And here it beco­mes clear once again why this chap­ter 35 has so much in com­mon with our the­me for the year and God’s crea­ti­on at the begin­ning of time. Man will not only be res­to­red phy­si­cal­ly, but he will one day enter into the pre­sence of God again. Thus man will return to God. The Hebrew word «sub» which is writ­ten here means in its basic mea­ning that one goes in the oppo­si­te direc­tion than from whe­re one came and one goes back until the ori­gi­nal place is rea­ched. Man’s coming back is the pre­sence of God in the Gar­den of Eden. So his goal is to return to him.

But Isai­ah does not only have hop­eful words con­cer­ning the future. He also has encou­ra­ging words for the here and now. For this is also the Chris­ti­an faith. It is not just a pro­mi­se for the future, but the­re is always a refe­rence to the here and now. But the com­ple­te ful­film­ent is yet to come. «Streng­then the limp hands and firm the wave­ring kne­es. Speak to tho­se who are deep­ly trou­bled: «Be strong and do not fear. Behold, the ven­ge­an­ce and retri­bu­ti­on of our God is coming. He will come and save you» » (Isai­ah 35:3–4 NLB) And here this mes­sa­ge is deep­ly also a Christ­mas mes­sa­ge. It is a mes­sa­ge of hope that the­se times, fears, uncer­tain­ties, are not ever­y­thing. It is a mes­sa­ge of acti­ve cha­ri­ty, which is more than just well-inten­tio­ned words. It is a mes­sa­ge of encou­ra­ge­ment wit­hout fal­ling into com­mer­cia­li­sa­ti­on. It points to the coming of Jesus Christ. It is a mes­sa­ge that focu­ses on the sal­va­ti­on of peo­p­le. The king­dom of God has alre­a­dy begun on this earth, it can be felt and expe­ri­en­ced here and now, but it is yet to come to its com­ple­ti­on. The pro­mi­se in Isai­ah 35 will be sur­pas­sed once again. «He will wipe away all their tears, and the­re will be no more death and mour­ning and wee­ping and pain. For the first world with all its cala­mi­ty has pas­sed away fore­ver». (Reve­la­ti­on 21:4 NLB).

Possible questions for the small group 

Read Bible text: Isai­ah 35, Matthew 11:2–6

1. How does this future res­to­ra­ti­on from Isai­ah 35 sound to you?
2. What suf­fe­ring and dif­fi­cul­ties from your life would no lon­ger be the­re? What can you alre­a­dy do now so that they don’t take over your ever­y­day life too much?
3. What are your expec­ta­ti­ons for Christmas?
4. Can you belie­ve the mira­cles of Jesus Christ? If you have time -> look for the dif­fe­rent mira­cles in the New Tes­ta­ment. Which ones are new to you? How do they sup­port the cla­im of Jesus Christ as Messiah?
5. Are you one of the rede­e­med? What is the evi­dence of this? What is your certainty?
6. What can you do right now to make the Christ­mas mes­sa­ge resound around you?