Advent Devotional 2024: Dec 14
For us in the United States, there is no barrier between wondering what God is saying, and reaching for a Bible to find out.
I can’t get through Advent without listening to Handel’s Messiah. Last year, my Advent Devotional centered around different selections from Messiah, and today, I want to reprise (pun intended) a post from that series. There is a reading and a YouTube clip below for your listening pleasure. The Pastoral Symphony.
Unrestricted Access to His Word
I don’t know about you, but I often take for granted the revealed word of God. Throughout my life, I've had constant access to the Bible. There's never a moment when I'm more than a bookshelf or a swipe away from hearing God. The Bible represents a conversation that God initiated with us, and it's a privilege of our time to have such unrestricted access to know Him. While I'm aware this isn't the case in every country, and we should indeed pray for those brothers and sisters without access to the gospel, my perspective from the U.S. is one of no barrier between wondering what God is saying and reaching for a Bible to find out.
This ease of access to God’s word has not always been the norm throughout Christian history. Consider the Intertestamental period, a time of profound silence that spanned from the ministry of the prophet Malachi around 400 BC to the emergence of John the Baptist, the voice in the wilderness, around 25 AD. For approximately 400 years, God did not speak through His prophets. There were no new revelations; the people clung only to the hope of the Messiah as they waited.
God with us
There have been moments in my life when I've felt as if God is distant. You may have experienced this as well. It's important to distinguish between the feeling of God's distance and the reality of His presence. Today, with the full revelation of God just a fingertip away and the gift of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon every believer, we will never—praise the Lord—experience the kind of silence that God’s people endured during those 400 years. Do not take for granted what we have in the Bible. Let the Word wash over you every day through hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating. It is the core spiritual discipline for a Christian and a wonderful privilege.
The Pastoral Symphony
In today's exploration of Handel’s "Messiah," we encounter the Pastoral Symphony. It stands as the only other purely instrumental piece in the score besides the Overture. As I've delved into this piece, I've learned it was crafted to set the scene for the shepherds in the fields, the undulating hills they traversed echoed in the music. While that is likely the reason for its inclusion, I can't help but hear in the absence of voices a reflection of the silence between Malachi and John the Baptist.
Praise God that He spoke. Praise God that He came to Earth. Praise Him for His great salvation!
Reading
Hebrews 1
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”?
Or again,
“I will be to him a father,
and he shall be to me a son”?
6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says,
“Let all God's angels worship him.”
7 Of the angels he says,
“He makes his angels winds,
and his ministers a flame of fire.”
8 But of the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
10 And,
“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
12 like a robe you will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will have no end.”
13 And to which of the angels has he ever said,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?
14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
