As this season of Advent draws to a close and Christmas approaches, I find myself looking back once more to the story of Israel and their hope for the coming Messiah. Many prophecies going all the way back to Genesis 3 spoke about God’s restoration project for the world (and indeed for all of reality), but some of the most famous prophecies of Messiah came from Isaiah, roughly seven centuries before the birth of Christ. Curiously, Isaiah was a prophet to Judah during the “glory days” of the Jewish people’s autonomy and independence. But time passed, of course, and the people were conquered and led into captivity for hundreds and hundreds of years.
No longer were Isaiah’s words just some cute idea about how their “good life” could get even better, but now they took on a different meaning. They became a lifeline of hope that one day, and hopefully one day soon, their Messiah would arrive to restore their fortunes and inheritance.
“The people who walk in darkness will see a great light…” (Is. 9:2)
One of my favorite songs to listen to this time of year is O Holy Night. It’s a beautiful song in many ways, but there’s a line in particular that always stands out: “the thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices…”
Absolutely beautiful.
And yet, when we think of Israel’s history, and the centuries and centuries of waiting to see this hope fulfilled, I’m reminded of Solomon’s words in Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick…”
On a personal level, none of us can really relate to the concept of “centuries and centuries of waiting,” because (drum roll) we don’t live to be centuries and centuries old. And so, through no fault of our own, we find ourselves unable to fully relate to the concept. It’s too abstract for us to fully grasp and conceive (although we certainly can conceptualize the idea academically).
But I don’t think the heart of the idea is un-relatable. Most of us have experienced the thrill of hope at some point in our lives, and most of us have also lived long enough to experience a hope that was deferred, and we know how awful that can feel.
Fortunately, God doesn’t only work on a cosmic and un-relatable level. He also works with us and relates with us on a deeply personal level. Not only that, but He has seen fit to include the life-stories of several significant individuals in the Scriptures, whose lives and experiences can connect with us on a more tangible level. I’ll briefly mentioned two of these individuals here: Joseph and David.
In Genesis 37, we first read about Joseph, the son of Jacob (or Israel, if you prefer), who was given two visions/dreams as a “humble” (aka – probably cocky) 17-year-old. The first vision involved sheaves of wheat, and the second involved stars, but in both visions, the other eleven – representing his own brothers – were bowing down to him.
As the youngest brother, and therefore the one promised to receive the smallest inheritance from his father’s estate one day, the idea of experiencing such a lofty elevation to his status and position undoubtedly filled his heart with a bit of hope.
Well, you know the story. Joseph’s brothers got mad and jealous, and sold him into slavery, where he spent the next 10-11 years as a slave in Potiphar’s house in Egypt. Then he was sent to prison on a false accusation, where he stayed for another 2-3 years. By the time he was brought to Pharaoh to hear and interpret Pharaoh’s troubling dream, Joseph was 30-years-old (Gen. 41:46). We know that Egypt experienced 7 years of abundance before the 7 years of famine set in, which means that Joseph was at least 37 before his brothers arrived and bowed down to him, thus fulfilling his vision as a 17-year-old. This means that realistically, 20-23 years had passed in the in-between.
Hope deferred…
Consider David, who most historians think was between 13 and 16-years-old when Samuel first anointed him as the next king over Israel (1 Sam. 16). Because of politics and various complexities surrounding the whole mess, David was first appointed as King over Judah (2 Sam. 2:4) and then later also appointed as King over the rest of Israel (2 Sam. 5:3-4). He was 30 years old when he finally saw the hope fulfilled from all those years before when he had first been anointed by Samuel. And those 14-17 years, or so, were not easy years.
So what about you? Is there something you’ve been hoping for for a very long time? Has your hope been deferred for so long that your heart has grown sick of waiting?
You’re not alone. You stand in the company of Joseph and David, and many others all throughout history (and even today) who’ve experienced the thrill of hope as it has turned into a hope deferred.
But take heart. In each of these stories we see an example of what it looks like to wait actively, and to wait well.
Joseph worked diligently for Potiphar, then the jailor, then Pharaoh, choosing deliberately to act as a man of integrity, and as an exceptionally hard worker.
David worked diligently for an insane king (Saul) for a great many years, refusing to “accelerate” God’s timing through his own “not-divine” intervention (remember the cave incident?). He was faithful as a shepherd, faithful as a warrior and commander, faithful as a friend to Jonathan, and faithful as a servant to his king until the time arrived for his own coronation.
I wonder how many times each of these men thought back to those early promises, those early hopes, when times were tough and hope seemed like a distant dream. How often to do you do the same thing? How often do I?
But God is faithful, and how great is His faithfulness! It might take 15 or 20 years (or even more), but we really can see God’s faithfulness in action, our hopes realized, His promises fulfilled, Messiah, Immanuel, God with us.
My prayer for each of us this holiday season (and beyond) is that we would be a people who wait well. We don’t grumble and complain and lose hope in the meantime (although we will undoubtedly feel the temptation to do so many times), but rather we remember God’s faithfulness in the past and present, and we continue to trust Him with our future. May we work diligently and faithfully in everything we do and think and say, doing everything as unto the Lord.
It may have taken centuries and millennia for the greatest promise of all time to be fulfilled, but it has been! Messiah has come. Immanuel is here. He is now. He is with you and for you, and will never leave you nor forsake you. He is the great thrill of the greatest hope ever realized, and we can experience the ongoing joy and peace of this thrill each day, today, this day.
Merry Christmas!
Just for a Closer Walk 