For those unfamiliar with Liturgical seasons like Advent, its most significant impact may be a calendar of study of appropriate scheduled scriptures. During Advent we celebrate the incarnation of Jesus, the Messiah who would have been well familiar with seasons celebrated in scripture and we celebrate the continuity of the Light of Christmas by lighting a new candle of an Advent wreath each week and the new light is added to others lit previously.
If you missed the first two candles of our 2016 Advent season, just follow our scriptural journey through Isaiah and the Gospels by beginning on the links below. Today we add the Prophecy of Daniel to the warnings of John the Baptist.
12 “Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness: 13 I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay; I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory.”
Who will save you? What man can save us?
Is it not the Lord who saves and is is not the Lord whose power reaches out into time and touches the hearts of man?
Only the Lord can overrule the defiant hearts of a people who refuse glory to the King of all creation.
A Voice in the Wilderness Cries Out
John the Baptist’s Warning about the impending judgment
In a first century preaching John, known as the Baptizer, warns a complacent chosen people subjugated under Herod and Rome of the coming of the Lord: the Messiah, Jesus!
Using the voice of the LORD of the 5th century B.C. through the Prophet Daniel, John preaches:
Daniel 4:
13 “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven.14 He proclaimed aloud and said thus:
‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches.15 But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven.
Let his portion be with the beasts in the grass of the earth.16 Let his mind be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s mind be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him. 17 The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.’
Repentance becomes the Advent of Redemption
From Daniel’s interpretation of the symbolic dream of Nebuchadnezzar we learn of the most powerful man on earth coming into a time of humiliation and of an earthly king’s recognition of the Most High. Like many of us, Nebuchadnezzar had times when he demanded the attention of his followers – bow down to the idol of gold – then humble men came before him with exceeding power of an almighty God.
John the Baptist preached of the power of the LORD over the might of leaders of nations – authority above the corrupt and misleading rulers of religion. Repent! Purify your bodies of sin and prepare the way for the Redeemer who will certainly come.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,
“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”
John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Ἰωάννης
John’s name means, “Jehovah is a gracious giver” and John the Baptist was son of Zacharias, a priest of the Temple and born to Elisabeth in their old age. John is the forerunner of Christ and preached the gospel of the coming of the good news of redemption for the souls of men.
Repent! and purify your hearts; prepare for the Lord by changing your ways. Herod Antipas ordered the Temple guard to cast John into prison and afterwards beheaded him.
We prepare the way of the Lord looking upon the innocence of a babe, an innocence maintained through every action and each word from the Messiah Jesus until upon the cross he proclaimed of the work of redemption: “It is finished.”
Although things have been going along well for the past few decades, change is inevitable. As we think back to the differences between past leaders of our nation, we must tremble for the day fast-approaching of a choice between the lesser of two evils.
A nation cannot long endure divided by strife and torn apart by godless men and godless women.
We will reap what we sow, as did Rome… as did the Kingdom of David… and as it is with powerful nation after nation throughout mortal history. For it was King Solomon who said: “Nothing is new under the sun.”
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
The Kingdom of Israel, God’s own nation, fell into division after Solomon’s death circa 920 B.C. A divided kingdom left Jerusalem in Judah to the south. Examination of the years following the initial division of God’s own Nation reveals a predictably repetitive theme not unlike an evaluation of these last days of this post-modern kingdom.
Kings (or Presidents, Premiers, Prime Ministers, Princes, Emperors & other earthly titles)
Josiah, king of Judah (640–609 B.C.), had nearly rebuilt Judah, with Jerusalem as its central place to worship God, into a kingdom of strategic importance to The background of our story begins during times of increased Judean influence within a declining Assyrian Empire. But life turns quickly for a powerful nation.
Judah under King Josiah & Assyria c. 650 BC
The Bible documents the problem of a nation (or king or president, etc.) who does not follow God. This includes the next king, son of Josiah.
And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his fathers had done.
Think how many now would fit this description of godlessness in their leadership style and substance. Nothing is new under the sun and evil in the sight of the LORD is a common theme preceding God’s wrath allowing the fall and defeat of God’s own nation.
{See just a few references of evil leaders in the history behind the link above.}
Therefore I ask US: When did we no longer acknowledge that we are ‘one nation, under God, indivisible?
The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2 to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.
God speaks to His nation, under no one (except evil leaders). God speaks of their evil through the words and actions of the prophet, Jeremiah.
14 Then the Lord said to me, “Out of the north disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. 15 For behold, I am calling all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, declares the Lord, and they shall come, and every one shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, against all its walls all around and against all the cities of Judah.
16 And I will declare my judgments against them, for all their evil in forsaking me.
They have made offerings to other gods and worshiped the works of their own hands. 17 But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you…
11 Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for that which does not profit.
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
… Or what do you gain by going to Assyria
to drink the waters of the Euphrates?
19 Your evil will chastise you,
and your apostasy will reprove you.
Know and see that it is evil and bitter
for you to forsake the Lord your God;
the fear of me is not in you,
declares the Lord God of hosts.
… But in the time of their trouble they say,
‘Arise and save us!’
28 But where are your gods
that you made for yourself?
Let them arise, if they can save you,
in your time of trouble;
for as many as your cities
are your gods, O Judah.
12 They have spoken falsely of the Lord
and have said, ‘He will do nothing;
no disaster will come upon us,
nor shall we see sword or famine.
13 The prophets will become wind;
the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them!’”
…
21 “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
who have eyes, but see not,
who have ears, but hear not.
22 Do you not fear me? declares the Lord.
Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
they have turned aside and gone away.
“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.2 He was in the beginning with God.3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
Genesis 2: 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
9b The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
Genesis 5:5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
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If there is one time in our mind we really would like to question the indisputable inerrancy of the Bible it is probably a quote of the devil’s question in the garden:
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say…?” – Genesis 3:1b
Follow Satan’s deceiving question with whatever evil your mind may conceive, but the premise is false answer of Satan.
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die…
Walk up to Eve or Adam and ask either of them if what Satan has assured them as enticement to sin is true?
Yes, every one of us knows that we will surely die! Therefore, what is our hope? (And I remind us now that the Bible is God’s guaranteed word.)
God IS, the LORD exists before time and measurement of creation; God IS, the LORD remains after the time of creation can no longer be measured. This is unfathomable to our limited created mind (which now has the knowledge of good and evil). This is why we must believe by faith.
Have you ever considered how different our world would be without sin? Have you ever dared to think what it would be like to NEVER die, while living in a Paradise of God’s love?
Consider the resurrection by faith: that the LORD who created all things, the LORD who created each particle of your flesh and bones, your brain and body, your heart and soul; that the LORD who made you can make you eternal!
We can be raised from the dead to a life God intended! Praise our Lord Jesus Christ!
Evidence of Christ’s resurrection is well-documented, yet still not believed by those not saved from death by their own sin and disobedience. They do not want to believe God. By their own will many will not bow down to any, even God the LORD!
Evidence of the resurrection, which some of the Jews did not believe, is presented in scripture even before the Cross of Christ Jesus. Some always refuse to obey God in spite of the evidence of scripture.
Is faith by evidence of scripture so far beyond the evidence seen only by your eyes which can deceive?
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him.
By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ by faith, when you know ‘you will surly die’?
18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!”
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Is that what you think of Easter? Is that what you think of all the hope of the empty tomb of Jesus? Where is your faith?
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20 And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?”
21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.”22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.
23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.”
Indeed, the Son lives! He IS resurrected from the dead.
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry.3 And he said to me,“Son of man, can these bones live?”
What do you think: When you run to the place where the body should be, do you have faith in the resurrection?
5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath [It is the same word as in the beginning, Gen. 1:2] to enter you, and you shall live.
6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.8 And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them.
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Is that what you say of the body that has died?
“There is no breath in them. They are dry bones forever.”
The Prophet Ezekiel is witnessing creation of a man by the Spirit of God! – resurrection from the bones of men who have died!
Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”
10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
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Resurrection at the command of the Living GOD! Men dead, given life from the dust of our bones!
Do you hearken to the upward call of the Voice of the Living One?
Resurrection! Do you believe this?
This is 600 years before Christ Jesus. This is the same time even Jews persecuted their own Prophets. This is the time of Jeremiah who they threw into a pit to die. This is a time when Daniel would interpret handwriting on the walls for Kings who had destroyed Jerusalem in 607 BC; a time when the faithful were led as captives into Babylon, as before Moses had led Israel from the slavery Egypt.
It is the LORD who brings floods on all of the earth. It is the LORD who parts the sea before the Hebrews to pass over. It is the LORD who commands spirit into the lifeless body, which lies in the tomb of hopelessness.
11 Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him.12 As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her.
13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.”14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.”
15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
16 Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and“God has visited his people!”17 And this report about him spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country.
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I have sat through memorials for my mother and for my wife…
They lay in the grave without sinew to embrace me in the flesh; lifeless rest, without spirit to have compassion on me… Is there hope for these?
Yes! I say. In Christ they live. By their faith, their bones will hearken to the upward call of Jesus, when at last He will return once more on the clouds of Heaven… and then the Judgment.
Even with evidence of the Prophets and witness of Jesus, the Son of Man raising a boy from the coffin and giving him back to his mother: many refused to believe. Yet the work of the resurrection is never finished until Jesus says, “It is finished.”
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha… 5 Now Jesus loved [agapaō] Martha and her sister and Lazarus…
8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” …
14 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died,15 and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”16 So Thomas, called the Twin,said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
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Not a lot of faith here from a disciple who knew Jesus raised the boy at Nain from the dead. Fear and doubt: how easily we forget our faith in the Lord when our flesh is at stake. We are just like him though; for we would want to put our hands in the wounds of the nails.
We pray for Jesus to heal the inevitable sickness leading to death of a loved one, when their true sickness is the sin of our souls.
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off,19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother…
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,who is coming into the world.”
… 32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
… 38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”
… “Lazarus, come out.”
44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth.
Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
The Plot to Kill Jesus
45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him,46 but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs.48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
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Jesus Christ is not the only one to ride into Jerusalem in triumph. The Table of Sacrifice for the Temple is prepared. The proof of the resurrection, even in the person of Lazarus, is evidence!
“Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the LORD,” shout some.
Then when it is time for the Sacrifice, many flee. Many betray the Lord to hold onto their comfortable sins. They shout, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him.“
Like a Lamb he is led to the slaughter, scourged for the punishment of our sins, and nailed to a tree with the curse of our unrighteousness.
“Crucify Him! Crucify Him,” we witness by the fruit of our quick run from the Cross after we worship most Sundays. Yet He loves us so much.
For those unfamiliar with Liturgical seasons like Advent, its most significant impact may be a calendar of study of appropriate scheduled scriptures. During Advent we celebrate the incarnation of Jesus, the Messiah who would have been well familiar with seasons celebrated in scripture and we celebrate the continuity of the Light of Christmas by lighting a new candle of an Advent wreath each week and the new light is added to others lit previously.
John’s name means, “Jehovah is a gracious giver” and John the Baptist was son of Zacharias, a priest of the Temple and born to Elisabeth in their old age. John is the forerunner of Christ and preached the gospel of the coming of the good news of redemption for the souls of men.
