Psalm 14:7
Each year as Christmas draws near, there are sights that you see that make it obvious what holiday it is that we are about to celebrate. As you drive around town, you see more and more yards decorated with lights and other ornaments. As the 25th gets closer, more and more yards are being decorated. Many have the familiar sights of winter, but others also have manger scenes that tell you what we are celebrating.
Around town you will also notice that the Christmas tree lots are beginning to get picked over. The fresh and full trees are quickly taken, and as the days go by, only the thin and homely trees are left. If you haven’t gotten your tree yet (if you are still using a live tree), you might feel that your time is running out.
There is one other sight that is quite familiar at this time. It is the sight of children sitting near the Christmas tree, shaking their gifts. They try to peek in the wrapping paper and shake the presents to see if they can figure out what is inside. With eager anticipation and great hopes for a good gift, they seem as if they just can’t wait until Christmas.
Tonight we are going to look at some people who were also waiting eagerly for Christmas. We are going to look at the people who lived before the first Christmas, the Old Testament believers. They also waited eagerly, because they knew how important it was for God to fulfill his promise and send their Savior into the world. We’ll try to understand just how they felt as they waited in eager anticipation for the first Advent and Christmas. Let’s consider:
“Advent Awaited”
The Promise Brought Hope
The Hope Brought Joy
For many of us, it is really difficult to truly put ourselves into the place of the Old Testament believers. It is difficult for us to imagine living during the time before the Savior had been born. We really can’t imagine how they must have longed for that promise to be fulfilled as hundreds and even a few thousand years passed by.
Think about it for a minute. Think about the things that you are waiting for in your life. How many of those things can you really not live without? If you have a Christmas list drawn up already, how many of the items on the list would dramatically change you life if you didn’t get them? I don’t imagine that there would be too many things that you absolutely had to have.
The believers of the Old Testament did have something that they just couldn’t live without. Oh, they were living their lives on earth just fine. But they wouldn’t be able to live eternally in heaven if they did not receive the gift that God promised to send them. David expressed their longing for God to fulfill his promise in the first half of our text for tonight. He wrote, “Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!” Unlike you and I, who can do without almost any of the things that we are waiting for, the Old Testament believers could not do without the gift that they were waiting for.
Their desperate desire to receive that gift came form a clear knowledge of their own sinfulness. They knew that they had all fallen short of God’s demands. David wrote in verse three of this Psalm, “All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” They also understood the consequences of their sins. Again David wrote, this time in Psalm 5, “The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors.” (Ps. 5:5,6) Finally, they also saw how it affected them. Again David spoke in Psalm 6, “…my bones are in agony. My soul is in anguish… I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.” (Ps. 6:2,3,6)
Under these circumstances, the Old Testament Christians wrote their “Christmas wish list.” “Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!” Shouldn’t that also be the first thing on our Christmas lists? It isn’t wrong for us to make up our own lists. It is probably pretty helpful for those who want to buy us things. But we need to keep things in the proper perspective. We can live without all of the things on our wish list, unless your in need of a vital organ transplant! But we can’t live without the first gift that God gave, the gift of his Son.
The Old Testament believers might have been getting a little antsy as the years and centuries passed. But they never doubted the promise that was first given to Adam and Eve. They knew that it had come from God, and therefore it was as good as done. Their faith in the promise saved them, but they still waited eagerly wondering if they might be the first to see the Son of God made flesh. They knew that they couldn’t just pretend that they didn’t need a Savior or that they had been good enough in their lives that God would just let them waltz right into heaven. They waited with hearts full of faith for God to send his Son.
The hope that filled their hearts was a sure and certain hope. It was just a matter of time. God would do what he promised, and knowing that, the Old Testament believers were filled with great joy.
II. The Hope Brought Joy
During the days of King David, the Children of Israel had much to be happy about. God had given them the land of Canaan, just as he had promised to Abraham. They lived in a very prosperous time, and their nation was well-known and respected. Times were good, and the people appeared to be quite happy.
But King David knew that there was still a very serious problem. He could see beyond the outward appearance to what was going on in their hearts. He saw the sin that corrupted them and the serious consequences that those sins would bring. He knew how important it was for God to send his Son who would rescue them from that horrible fate. He knew how important the first Christmas would be in bringing true happiness to God’s people.
And King David, as well as the Old Testament believers, knew that God would keep that promise one day. And that certainty brought them great joy. In our text David wrote with great confidence, “When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!” David wrote with such confidence, and that confidence brought great joy to him and to the people. They sang these words as part of their daily worship, using the Psalms as their Old Testament hymnals. They knew that when, not if, but when God fulfilled his promise, he would “restore the fortunes of his people.” And that meant the true fortunes—being heir and co-heir of eternal life.
The Old Testament believers sang with joy to the Lord. Today we join them as we prepare to celebrate the birth of our Savior. We also sing the songs of Christmas that speak of God’s love and his gift. We join with Mary, who when she learned that she would be the mother of Jesus sang, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” (Lk. 1:46) We eco the words of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist who, when he heard Mary’s news sang, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people.” (Lk. 1:67) And we also remember the words of Simeon, who held the 8 day old baby Jesus and sang, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory to your people Israel. (Lk. 2:29-32)
You and I join the songs of these believers, only under quite different circumstances. We have seen the promise fulfilled. We have seen the baby Jesus in the manger. We are not waiting for God to fulfill his promise to send Jesus into the world. But we are waiting for Jesus to come again. As we await the holiday of Christmas this year, our hearts will be filled with anticipation. But it will be more than just wondering what is in the wrapping paper. It will be the true joy of the season, the joy that comes from knowing salvation through Jesus.
The child who sits at the foot of the Christmas tree shaking his gifts might be disappointed by what he finds. He might not get exactly what he wanted, and it just might bring sadness to his holiday. The Old Testament believers were not disappointed, and we are not either. God has sent the perfect gift, his Son. May we worship our God and his Son this Christmas, praising them for the salvation that they have brought to us.
Amen
–Rev Roger Rockhoff