Are you waiting for something? It seems that we are always in a season of waiting in some form or another doesn’t it? Yesterday (December 1) was the first day of Advent. The season of Advent is a time of longing and yearning for something (or Someone) who will come to break our bondage. It’s a season of waiting. Christmas is about Jesus entering into our brokenness and weariness bringing us hope.

Yesterday at church, the sermon was from Malachi 4:1-6. As I mediated on this passage, there were two words that leapt off the page at me.

Malachi is the last prophet in the Old Testament to speak God’s message to his people before a period of silence. The next four hundred years would be full of silence and scarcity of God’s Spirit. How dark and utterly depressing that time must have been? No messenger, no word from the Lord, no Spirit-filled prophet, just a darkness that you could hear.

The very last words on the pages of the Old Testament in your Bible end with this:

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” - Malachi 4:5-6

The two words from this passage that just leapt off the page at me were ‘BEFORE’ and ‘LEST’.

Before

This great and awesome day which Malachi speaks of was none other than the day of judgment of God on wayward people. But BEFORE he completely annihilates humanity, BEFORE the book is closed on living forever in this station of sin, God bestows undeserving grace on humankind. BEFORE the curtain draws on Act I, ushering in a four hundred year intermission, he extends a message of hope: He promises to send Elijah the prophet. The spirit of that great prophet will be resurrected resulting in changed hearts. The last word from God we hear is a promise to break the silence with a prophet who will turn the hearts of mankind back to the faith of their fathers, to the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Lest

Then there is the last phrase before all is silent. “Lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” Repentance must happen, LEST, judgment falls with a finality with no promise of escape. The word ‘lest’ can mean ‘otherwise’, or ‘so that’. He extends this hope and promise SO THAT he will not come and strike the land with a curse. Before judgment falls, there is hope of repentance. That hope is what Christmas is all about.

A Bridge

We see this fulfilled as the curtain rises on Act II. Aged parents longing their whole lives for a child, are finally blessed with a baby. This child’s message will break the four hundred years of silence. He preached repentance in preparation for the Light who was to come. A bridge will be built offering reconciliation between fathers and children. That bridge is Christ and the spirit of Elijah comes in the form of Jesus’ forerunner, John the Baptist.

“And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” - Luke 1:17

Malachi gives us a peek at hope. The hope of a new era. The hope of a Messiah ushered in by the spirit and power of Elijah in John the Baptist as he carries the message of repentance. Get ready. He’s coming. It’s the anticipation of Advent as we wait for his second coming while remembering his first coming.

This season is full of waiting. Waiting for a holiday break. Waiting to give that perfect gift to someone we love. Waiting for Christmas morning. Waiting for a new year. If there could be one sentence that might sum up this season, it might be, “Hurry up and wait.” Maybe we need to slow down and savor this season, to make the most of the waiting, to remember.

The beautiful thing about the Advent season is the light breaking into the darkness. Sound breaking into silence. Hearts turning. Spirits reviving. Reconciliation renewing. It’s holding on to the hope Malachi leaves us with as the ink runs out on the last page of the Old Testament: Hope is coming! It has to come. Because if it doesn’t, there is no hope for humanity. A changed heart turns the tide of the tsunami of judgment heading our way. Unless hearts are changed, this is the only option. But thanks be to God, he provided a way. A child. Hope.

Wait for it. It’s coming. Let the Spirit work in your waiting. Seek repentance. Slow down and see Jesus in this season that celebrates light shining in the darkness.

Ways to Slow Down

I love taking advantage of this season and mixing it up a bit. Typically, I will use a devotional specific to Advent. This year I am using Not Overcome by Amy Gannett. Doing this only causes the anticipation to grow in my soul. If you find yourself in a season of longing, here are some resources for your journey. Or if you want something super simple, there are twenty-four chapters in the Gospel of Luke. If you read one chapter a day in Luke, you can be finished by Christmas. Look for that word or words that just jump off the page at you! You can also try some of the resources here.

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