Now muster your troops, O daughter[b] of troops;
siege is laid against us;
with a rod they strike the judge of Israel
on the cheek.
2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days.
3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of his brothers shall return
to the people of Israel.
4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
5 And he shall be their peace.
When the Assyrian comes into our land
and treads in our palaces,
then we will raise against him seven shepherds
and eight princes of men;
6 they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
and the land of Nimrod at its entrances;
and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian
when he comes into our land
and treads within our border.
There is an aspect of Biblical prophecy that is illustrated for us in Micah. First, God’s view of time is very different from ours. There will be around 700 years before Micah’s words become a reality. 700 years! That is a long time. But there is very little to suggest in the text that we are speaking of a time that long. We must see time and the passage of time in terms of God’s purpose and perspective, which is different from ours.
Remember Peter’s reminder that a thousand years for us is but a day to God. We think so naturally of everything in terms of the scope of our own lives, and God sees history on a much grander scale and the movement of events in terms of that scale.
This is also true in the great text from Isaiah “a virgin shall conceive”, it will be hundreds of years before that prophecy is realized…but again, nothing in the text suggests that it will be that long.
The Lord does this, first of all so that we would have hope and second, so that we would trust Him…and often our faith, our hope is put to the test through…waiting. Will we persevere? Does our trust in God and His Word bear the weight of time?
As you have heard before, that Christianity in a very distinct and striking way is a “waiting” faith, and Christians are a “waiting” people. Celebrating Advent means learning how to wait. In fact, the true blessedness of Advent is lost on those who cannot wait and the understanding of promise and fulfillment is not understood.
See, if we demand answers now, if we demand to see now, instead of seeking with patient uncertainties until the answers come, you will lose the moment when the answers are revealed in dazzling clarity.(DB)
Indeed, ours is a waiting faith. Things do not come to us from the Lord right away; and if we are being honest we have to admit they may not come for a very long time. Every Christian sooner or later has to come to terms with the fact that the things we long for most, the things we ask God for, the things He promises and that we most want, are often those that we have to wait to receive.
How many of you have felt the anxiety of waiting? For all of us it is this waiting and waiting and waiting in respect to some important, precious matters of our lives: waiting for love, waiting for better health, waiting for a job, waiting for a calling, waiting for our children to embrace the faith for themselves with zeal and abandon, waiting for our husband or for our wife, waiting for unsaved friends or loved ones, waiting, perhaps above all, for victory over those sins that have bedeviled us since we were very young.
That is why Dietrick Bonhoeffer said, “The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come. For these, it is enough to wait in humble fear until the Holy One himself comes down to us, God in the manger. God comes.”
No one should get the idea that Advent waiting is a passive act, for it is not that at all. As one put it: The waiting of the Christian faith is not that of a man reading a newspaper at the bus stop.
It is rather the old image of the father, pacing the floor of the hospital waiting room, continually glancing at the clock and at the double doors through which soon he hopes someone will come to report that his wife has safely delivered their baby.
The promise, the purpose of God animates our waiting…it actually is to make us giddy with excitement…like little children on Xmas eve who can’t sleep, because…well because we know what Love is going to do! We can barely begin to know what Love is going to do…we just know, it is going to be breathtaking and more than we could ever imagine.
The Lord Jesus comes. Christmas comes. Christians rejoice! And now…we wait again…Oh, but do you realize what we are waiting for? Is it not worth the wait? Is it not worth whatever trial or difficulty the Lord decides to visit us with?
Can you not already, when you are still…can you not hear that cry of triumph and in the distance the sound of the angel’s songs praising God declaring the promise come to fulfillment?
But, not so quick…It is still in the distance. It calls us to learn to wait and to wait correctly. When once again Christmas comes and we hear the familiar carols and sing the Christmas hymns, something happens to us, and a special kind of warmth slowly encircles us. The hardest heart is softened.
When the early church spoke about the second coming of the Lord Jesus, they took the whole thing very seriously.
They knew that waiting is also a time to make ready…So many were not ready the first time He came, it is what would cause Jesus to weep over his city, because they did not know the day of their visitation…
…Does Advent…the season of waiting, help you, move upon you, to make ready? Are you making ready to be fit to be His dwelling? Are you living with anticipation of what Christ has promised to do?
Perhaps, Bonhoeffer was correct when he said, “…after all, Advent is a time for self-examination…those early Christians trembled at the thought of God coming, of the day of the Lord, when Jesus, “Judge eternal, throned in splendor,” would shatter the complacency of all the world.”
Prayer: Father, forgive me for I am not good at waiting in faith for Your promises. Forgive me that I so easily forget all that You have done and how grace has come crashing down upon me. You have provided everything I need, even more than I could think or imagine. Help me to walk in the joy of thankfulness as I remember Your mighty acts and saving love, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Hymn: Am I a Soldier of the Cross