SouldOut

I really can’t add much to this quote from AW Tozer, but I just wanted to post it as a reminder to everyone of how subtle sin can be- especially if we have grown up in a culture that not only accepts but also condones it. In America and I’m sure around the world, our lust for continuous amusement and entertainment needs to be added to Tozer’s list.

A great preacher, now deceased, to whom I used often to listen with profit and delight, would sometimes shout dramatically, “God never classifies sin.”

His words were intended as a protest against a careless attitude toward certain forms of sin, and in their context I agree with them. Nevertheless God does classify sin and so does the law of the land, and so does the conscience of every man.

As various serpents differ from each other in their power to kill, so various sins carry different kinds of venom, all bad, but not all equally bad, their power to injure depending upon the high or low concentration of iniquity they carry in them.

Within the precincts of religion are sometimes found certain sins which I want here to mention. These may be classified under three heads: Sins committed out of weakness, respectable sins more or less allowed by everyone, and sins that have been woven into the religious fabric until they have become a necessary part of it.

No sin is to be excused. Every sin carries its own penalty. But the sin committed on impulse or the sin committed out of weakness over the protests of the heart surely does not carry the same deadly charge as those done with brazen deliberation. From such a sin there is complete deliverance by the power of Christ; and from such there is more likely to be, since it is a grief to those who commit it.

Sins of the second category are those that exist with the sanction of or at least the connivance of the church, such as pride, vanity, self-centeredness, levity, worldliness, gluttony, the telling of “white” lies, borderline dishonesty, lack of compassion for the unfortunate, complacency, absorption in the affairs of this life, love of pleasure, the holding of grudges, stinginess, gossiping and various dirty habits not expressly forbidden by name in the Scriptures.

These sins are so common that they have been accepted as normal by the average church and are either not mentioned at all or referred to in smiling half-humor by the clergy. While not as spectacular as a roaring weekend drunk or as dramatic as a violent explosion of temper, they are in the long run more deadly than either, for they are seldom recognized as sin and are practically never repented of. They remain year after year to grieve the Spirit and sap the life of the church, while everyone continues to speak the words of the true faith and go through the motions of perfunctory godliness, not knowing that there is anything wrong.

We have been fighting problems with the web hosting company’s servers for the past 3 weeks- so sorry for the lateness of the last Advent post… The last time I was able to update was Dec 23rd so I never got the final post for the Advent series up. But here it is, finally. It is still just as true in January as it was in December!

Today, we are looking at the last 2 “O Great” antiphons in our Advent liturgy. So far we have seen Jesus called Wisdom, Adonai, Root of Jesse, Key of David and Dayspring. So here are the last 2 and they are extremely important since they not only describe Jesus in the past tense, but also now and in the future.

O King of nations, the ruler they long for, the cornerstone uniting all people: Come and save us all, whom you formed out of clay.

O Emmanuel, our King and our Lord, the anointed for the nations and their Savior: Come and save us, O Lord our God.

The Old Testament passages where these come from are:
Zechariah 9:9-10 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is 1cjust and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; And the bow of war will be cut off. And He will speak peace to the nations; And His dominion will be from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.
1 Peter 2:4-6 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”
Isaiah 7:14-16 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. “He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good,the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.
Matthew 1:18-23 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME 1IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.”

One of the great themes all through these passages is that Jesus is the King and ruler of the nations. This had great significance in OT times since Israel and Judah were constantly being overrun and conquered by foreign nations. Today, just as in ancient times, people tend to look at circumstances as being beyond or out of the control of God. But as you read through the OT carefully, you will see that nothing happens in the world apart from the will and direction of God. Even when Jesus was born, Herod tried to have Him killed by slaughtering all the baby boys under 2 years old. Yet Joseph was warned and escaped with Mary and Jesus to Egypt. When Jesus was older, the Jewish leaders were constantly trying to kill him but they never could- until the time was right. Jesus Himself declared that He had the right to lay down His life and He also had the right to take it up again. He is the ultimate King of the nations, and nothing happens apart from His will because he is Adonai- Lord.

A second great theme in both of these antiphons is the idea that God is not a distant god playing a cosmic game of chess. He is intimately involved in His creation and His people. He is not just King of the nations; He is Emmanuel- God with us. The King did not come and build a great palace to rule from by proxy like the Roman emperor did. He did not have a standing army that he would send to do His will while He stayed in the palace. He came as a common man to rule by changing our hearts and desires. Ultimately, He came and fought our battle for us and died in our place. The only royal robes he wore were the ones that the soldiers put on Him to mock Him and the only crown He wore was a crown of thorns. To the world, He looked like a pathetic figure. But He was in complete control all the time. When God stepped into His creation, almost no one recognized Him. So it is today. For most people, Christmas is a holiday that celebrates the gifts and prosperity of man and not the unspeakable gift of God.
John 1:14 says: And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

For those who have seen the light, Jesus is the amazing revelation of God. In Him we see the glory of God, the grace of God and the truth of God.
AW Tozer gives us some great perspective in this excerpt from “That Incredible Christian”.
It is a rare mind, I suppose, that is much concerned with the conduct of God in those distant realms that lie beyond human experience. But almost everyone has wondered how God would act if He were in our place. And we may have had moments when we felt that God could not possibly understand how hard it is for us to live right in such an evil world as this. And we may have wondered how He would act and what He would do if He were to live among us for a while. To wonder thus may be natural but it is wholly needless. We know how God would act if He were in our place–He has been in our place. It is the mystery of godliness that God was manifest in human flesh. They called His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. When Jesus walked on earth He was a man acting like God; but equally wonderful is it that He was also God acting like Himself in man and in a man. We know how God acts in heaven because we saw Him act on earth. “He that hath seen me hath seen he Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?” (John 14:9). As glorious as this is, it does not end there. God is still walking in men, and wherever He walks He acts like Himself. This is not poetry but plain, hard fact capable of being tested in the laboratory of life.

The two greatest gifts that we have been given are grace and truth. Without God’s grace, we would all get what we deserve- certain judgment and certain hell. But in Christ Jesus, we are given grace and mercy. To anyone who calls out “Come and save me” there is mercy. We are saved by grace irrespective of who we are or what we have accomplished. He is the King, and compared to Him, we are all nothing.
Not only do we see the perfect picture of grace in Jesus, but we also see Him as final and ultimate truth. To know and see and comprehend truth is an astounding gift. Truth means different things to different people. Some people don’t even believe that there is such a thing as absolute and ultimate truth. But when the Holy Spirit opens your eyes to see Jesus for who He really is, you can comprehend truth in ever increasing depth. His life and His words ring true and you fall on your knees and say with Thomas “My Lord and my God”.

O Dayspring, splendor of light everlasting: Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Today we are looking at the 5^th of 7 Old Testament names for Jesus. So far we have seen Him called O Wisdom, O Adonai, O Root of Jesse, and O Key of David. In today’s antiphon, we will see Him in a way we all recognize- as the Light of the World. The passage below, from Isaiah, is a familiar one that we hear read at Christmas time. The one in Revelation is the ultimate fulfillment of the one in Isaiah. But my favorite passage is in the Gospel of John where Jesus is described as the Light of men.

John 1:1-14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.  The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.   There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him.  He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.  There was he true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.   He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.   He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,  who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.  And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Isaiah 9:1-7 But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.  The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.  You shall multiply the nation, You shall increase their gladness; They will be glad in Your presence As with the gladness of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.   For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.  For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.  For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

Revelation 22:16-17 I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”  The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.

Dayspring is an antiquated word, but it literally means the first light of day or dawn. The picture of Jesus in this title is that of light coming to dissipate the darkness.

And so we see two great metaphors here- light for the works of God and darkness for the works of the devil and man. Because of the sinfulness of man and the devil, the world was plunged into darkness- and through sin, came death. It is interesting that darkness and death are usually associated with each other just as light is associated with life. This is true in the physical world as well as the spiritual context.

Without light, nothing lives or grows. Physically, we are dependent on the sun for life. Spiritually, we see the same idea- we are dependent on the Son- the light of life. But in Jesus, He is not only a spiritual metaphor, He is actually light. When God led the nation of Israel out of Egypt, He appeared to them as a pillar of fire at night. When Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John, they said He became so bright that His face shown like the sun and His clothes became as bright as light.

So in this antiphon, we see Jesus as the essence of light and life, and we also see Him as the supplier and bringer of light. In 2 Corinthians 4:6 the Apostle Paul says “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

That is why the antiphon asks “Come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death”. Without God shining the light of Christ in our hearts, we would all still be sitting in darkness. We can’t shine the light into our own hearts, that is the work of God and it is a mighty work of grace. The fact that anyone ever gets saved is a miracle of eternal and infinite proportions- because given our choice, we would choose darkness where we think we can hide our sin, guilt and shame. But the great truth is that when the light of life has come into our life, our shame and guilt is removed because our sin is forgiven. The light invades the darkness and the darkness is no more.

Take some time to think of when Jesus was your Dayspring- the dawning of light and truth in your life. Praise Him for His grace and that He has shone His light in your heart.

Today we are looking at the 4th Old Testament name and title for Jesus- Key of David.

O Key of David and scepter of the house of Israel, you open and no one can close, you close and no one can open: Come and rescue the prisoners who are in darkness and the shadow of death.

Keys are authority, access and power.  The one who has the keys has can do things that no one else can do. So when Jesus is described as the Key of David, we need to understand the context if we are going to see the meaning of the title.

This name for Jesus is used twice in the Bible. Once in the Old Testament and once in the New. Let’s look at the passage in Revelation where Jesus describes Himself this way, and then we will go back and see where it is prophesied in Isaiah.

Revelation 3:7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this:”

In this verse, Jesus describes Himself as the key of David. But without context, that title is almost meaningless to us. So we go to Isaiah to see the original context and discover the meaning of this-

Shebna was King Hezekiah’s chief-of-staff.  As such, he held the keys to the palace and with those keys, authority and great power.  He misused his authority by having his tomb carved where the kings were buried and to enrich himself at the king’s expense.  Shebna wanted to be king and misused his power for personal gain.  And so he was stripped of his office, and Eliakim was called to replace him.   God used this little bit of palace politics to prophesy something much greater:

Isaiah 22:19-22 “I will depose you from your office, And I will pull you down from your station.   “Then it will come about in that day, That I will summon My servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,  And I will clothe him with your tunic And tie your sash securely about him. I will entrust him with your authority, And he will become a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. “Then I will set the key of the house of David on his shoulder, When he opens no one will shut, When he shuts no one will open.

These very same words refer to Jesus in Revelation. He is the one who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens.

The question that you are probably asking right now is “what is this key?” In one sense, Jesus is the key. But in this passage, I think the key refers to salvation. Since salvation comes through Jesus alone, He holds the key that unlocks the prison door of sin and death. Sin is the prison and it locks us in a cell of shame, anxiety, lust, greed, envy, bitterness and even impatience. The final end of all of these is death.
No matter how much we struggle against the chains and rattle the bars, we cannot break out of the prison by ourself. Only Jesus- the One who opens and no one can shut and shuts and no one can open, can unlock the chains and deliver us from sin and death.
Christ has come and entered the prison. He took on the Law’s death sentence.  He stormed the gates of hell with His death.  He opens our prison cell.  He is the key- the key that sets us free from the Law and breaks the chains of death that bind us in fear. He sets us free to live as adopted sons in His Kingdom instead of prisoners in the dungeon awaiting execution.

Just as Eliakim was given the keys to all the wealth and power of the king in Isaiah 22, Jesus has the keys to all the wealth and power in God’s Kingdom. In Matthew 28:18 Jesus says “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” He has the keys to everything- He is the key.

A quick break today from the Advent Liturgy we have been looking at to think about waiting on God. Actually, the liturgy is all about waiting- waiting for the messiah that was promised in the Old Testament. But,  as I was thinking about the Christmas story in Luke’s gospel, I remembered that just as today, most people were neither expecting Him nor desiring Him. Except a few… maybe only 2, an old man and an old woman. They were waiting.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.  And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word;   for my eyes have seen your salvation  that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” Luke 2:25-32

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin,  and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.  And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. Luke 2:36-38

So as you wait on Christmas day to open presents, let the expectation of a great gift you are hoping for carry you back a couple of thousand years to the time when God surprised everyone. “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”  2 Corinthians 9:15

Today’s Antiphon is another Old Testament name for the Messiah. We’ve looked at Wisdom and Adonai so far, and they are amazing pictures of Jesus Christ- Our Sovereign Lord and the Wisdom of God. This name, “Root of Jesse”, builds on the other 2 and gives us another view of the person and work of Jesus.

O Root of Jesse, standing as an ensign before the peoples, before whom all kings are mute, to whom the nations will do homage; Come quickly to deliver us.

This name comes primarily from 2 passages- one in Isaiah and one in Revelation. But it is important to see that this name and concept is seen throughout the whole Bible, and we will look at some of those verses too.

Isaiah 11:1-10 Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.  ² The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.  ³ And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; ⁴ But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.  ⁵ Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist.  ⁶ And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion ¹and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them.  ⁷ Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox.  ⁸ The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.  ⁹ They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.  ¹⁰ Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious. NASB

Revelation 22:16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” NASB

When we read these passages, it is important to place ourselves in the context. In Isaiah, the people are looking and longing for a Messiah who will restore Israel to its place of prominence and greatness in the world such as when David was King.  But the promises in Is 11 are amazing because they obviously go far beyond anything an earthly king or kingdom could accomplish. When you look at what the Messiah will do, it is evident that He will completely reorder the natural world as well as the spiritual. Jesus does not just work in the unseen “spiritual world”, He works to change and reorder those things in His creation that are disordered by sin. His miracles are pictures and “down payments” of what he will completely do in the end. Someday, everything will be new and in that day, we will see the lion lie down with the lamb. But for now, we need to understand that he is still at work in His world and in His people. It will be an amazing day when all this happens, but in the mean time, something even more amazing is happening. Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

I think we often times forget just how amazing a miracle it really is when someone gets saved. It is as amazing as a lion changed into a grazing animal. In one sense, it is beyond comprehension, but we have all seen it happen. Michael Ramsden, from RZIM tells the story of the man who was on the FBI’s most wanted list because he was head of the KKK and was responsible for assassinations, bombings and just about any crime you could think of. But he got saved in jail, and became a new creation. In fact his life was so completely re-ordered, that the FBI agent who brought him in, recommended that he be released after only a few years. He is now the head of the CS Lewis Institute and preaches to everyone he can. That is the power of being tied into the Root.

So why is this title so important? For one thing, God promised David, Jesse’s son, that his throne would last forever. Forever is a long time. So if God were to make good on His promise, He would need to do something extraordinary- something eternal. That is why Jesus describes Himself in Rev 22:16 as both the root and the descendent of David. As the descendent of David, He fulfills the promise that his throne would last forever. As the Root of David, He is the only one who can claim “foreverness”. He is the eternal One, and He alone can give meaning to the word “forever”.

Finally, we need to look at the word “ensign”. What does it mean to say that Jesus is an ensign (Is 11:10) before the people? An ensign is a banner or signal. Jesus is the banner of everything that God is. But in this case, He is the banner of salvation. He was hung on a cross as a signal and banner of salvation, and anyone who comes in faith to the cross where Jesus was lifted up, will be saved.Isaiah said that the nations will resort to the Root of Jesse. The word “resort” means to seek and trust- it implies a solution. In the end, He is the only one you can resort to.

Sometimes we speak of a “last resort”. It usually means the least most popular option that might work. It doesn’t sound right to speak of Jesus as a “last resort”, but that is what He is. For many people- maybe everyone, when we have tried everything else the world has to offer, Jesus is our last resort and our only resort. He is the root that nourishes the tree and in His own words- without Him, we can do nothing. He is the One who defines “something” or “nothing”.

Romans 15:12-13 “Again Isaiah says, “THERE SHALL COME THE ROOT OF JESSE, AND HE WHO ARISES TO RULE OVER THE GENTILES, IN HIM SHALL THE GENTILES HOPE.”  ¹³ Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

We celebrate Advent- the arrival of the Messiah- because in Him we have hope, joy and peace. Without Him, we have nothing.

Christmas Tree in Snow

Some important insight from AW Tozer…

So completely are we carried away by the excitement of this midwinter festival that we are apt to forget that its romantic appeal is the least significant thing about it.

We must not forget that the Church is the custodian of a truth so grave and urgent that its importance can not be overemphasized, and so vast and incomprehensible that even an apostle did not try to explain it; rather it burst forth from him as an astonished exclamation:

Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory (1 Timothy 3:16).

This is what the Church is trying to say to mankind but her voice these days is thin and weak and scarcely heard amid the commercialized clangor of “Silent Night.”

It does seem strange that so many persons become excited about Christmas and so few stop to inquire into its meaning; but I suppose this odd phenomenon is quite in harmony with our unfortunate human habit of magnifying trivialities and ignoring matters of greatest import. The same man who will check his tires and consult his road map with utmost care before starting on a journey may travel for a lifetime on the way that knows no return and never once pause to ask whether or not he is headed in the right direction.

Today we are looking at the second of the Advent “O Great Antiphons”. Today’s antiphon focuses on the Old Testament messianic name of Jesus that means Lord.

O Adonai and ruler of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and gave him the Law on Sinai:  Come with an outstretched arm and redeem us.

We need to look at the different ways God was addressed in the Bible so we can see why we call Jesus Adonai and understand its meaning.

In the Bible, there are many different names for God, but the ones which concern us today are Yehweh and Adonai. Yehweh is the covenant name for God and it comes from the verb that means “to be”. That is why God told Moses that he was to tell the people that “I AM” had sent him to them. It denotes eternal self-existence and the Jews considered it too holy to even speak or write, so it was abbreviated YHWH. In English translations of the Bible, we spell it LORD- in all capital letters.

Exodus 3:13-14

“Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”  ¹⁴ God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”¹ And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

The other name for God we are looking at is the one in today’s liturgy. Adonai is the plural form of Adon which is used to describe a human lord. The title denotes power and sovereignty and so in the Bible when we see Adonai Yehweh, it is translated “Sovereign LORD”. The Bible has many different names and combinations for God, but this one is excellent because it speaks of His ultimate existence and His ultimate sovereign power. In the Bible, names are very important because they are descriptive of the person and his character. So when we read this, we have great insight into the person of God- He is the all powerful self-existent One. That is why this antiphon says “O Adonai and ruler of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and gave him the Law on Sinai….” It encompasses both the Sovereignty of God and the eternal ultimate existence of God- two things which can’t be separated.

In the New Testament, we see the same names used for Jesus. The Greek word kurios means Lord and is used in different contexts. Jesus is called Lord many times and He also calls Himself “I AM” in John 8:56-58-

“Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”  ⁵⁷ So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”  ⁵⁸ Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.””

With that in mind, we need to look at the last part of this antiphon- Come with an outstretched arm and redeem us.

Redeemer is also one of the names of God and we see it all through the Old Testament. God is Israel’s redeemer. He is called that at least 16 times in Isaiah.

But in this context, we see that Jesus is the ultimate redeemer of the world. In the OT, a redeemer was someone who bought you back from slavery and it was usually a kinsman- someone you were related to. So you can see that the imagery is perfect. The only one who could redeem the whole world from slavery to sin is the sovereign, eternal person of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we think of “Jesus Christ” as a name. But it is really a name and a title. Jesus in Hebrew is Y’shua- meaning “Yehweh is Salvation”. “Christ” is a title and is the Greek word for messiah- The Anointed One. So Jesus is the Anointed one who brings us salvation.

Maybe the best verse in the New Testament which brings all this together at one time is in the little letter to Titus-

Titus 2:11-14

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,  ¹² training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,  ¹³ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,  ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”

There is a lot of theology in these verses, but we see the advent theme clearly- “For the grace of God has appeared”. Because the grace of God has appeared, we have salvation, redemption and possession. Jesus is the Sovereign LORD who redeemed us with outstretched arms.

Yesterday, I introduced the liturgical season of Advent which remembers and celebrates the birth of Jesus- the Messiah and Savior of the world. Advent differs from merely celebrating Christmas because it reminds us that it was not just something that happened on a certain day 2000 years ago, it was planned from the beginning of the world. God knew from the very beginning that He would have to send His Son to save us and all through the Old Testament, the prophets spoke of this. So His arrival should not have been a surprise, but it was. It should have been celebrated by the Jews, but even to this day it is not. As John says in his gospel “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”  (John 1:11)

The first antiphon we are going to look at in this centuries old liturgy says:  O Wisdom, proceeding from the mouth of the Most High, pervading and permeating all creation, mightily ordering all things:  Come and teach us the way of prudence.

Good liturgy always has its roots deep in scripture and we see this today. Wisdom is one of the OT Messianic names for Jesus and the Jews of course knew this. We tend to think of wisdom as a quality, but to the Jews and even the ancient Greeks, Wisdom was spelled with a capital W and had a force and personality behind it. That is why John describes Jesus as the Word in John 1:1-3. 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.

The amazing thing about the way John wrote this passage is that it would be meaningful to both the Jews and the Greeks. The term “word” used here is the common Greek word “logos”. It meant “a message or words” and was common in both the Greek culture and the Jewish culture.

To speak of the logos in relation to creation as John does here in verses 1-3 would make sense to both Greeks and Jews because to the Greeks, the universe was kosmos, (the ordered universe) and behind the kosmos was logos- the wisdom that ordered it. To the Jews, the word logos held a great deal of meaning also because they understood that God created the universe by His word – ex nehilo- literally “out of nothing”. He spoke it into being.

Genesis 1:1-3 says-  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.  ³ And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

The Jews also closely associated logos with wisdom and we see that very clearly in Proverbs 8.

Proverbs 8:1  Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice?

Proverbs 8:22-31 “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.  ²³ Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.  ²⁴ When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.  ²⁵ Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth,  ²⁶ before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world.  ²⁷ When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,  ²⁸ when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,  ²⁹ when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,  ³⁰ then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,  ³¹ rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.

Here we see that wisdom is actually given a personality, and he speaks in the first person and says “When he established the heavens, I was there”. This is why the Jews so closely associated logos and wisdom. Wisdom speaks as the One who was eternally present when God created the universe.

The next part of the antiphon says- “pervading and permeating all creation, mightily ordering all things.”

In Colossians 1:16-20 Paul is speaking of Jesus when he says: For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities- all things were created through him and for him.  ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.  ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,  ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Here we see the concept of the Word and Wisdom stretching beyond just creation and actually ordering and holding together all things. The idea is that Jesus is not just the creator, but the sustainer and the brilliance that holds it all together in a coherent form that brings God glory. Nothing is accidental or haphazard even though it may look that way to us at times.

Finally, we need to look at 1 Corinthians 1:20-24. Here, the Apostle Paul portrays Jesus as the Wisdom of God and contrasts Jesus with the wisdom of man and the world. “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?  ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.  ²² For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,  ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,  ²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God”.

This is why the antiphon ends with a plea- Come and teach us the way of prudence. In this case, the word prudence is being used in a classical and theological sense. It doesn’t just mean to make careful decisions, it carries more weight than that and includes the idea that you cannot even make good decisions unless you grasp the Wisdom of God and His Word because truth is ultimately defined by God. Perhaps we should really say that the Wisdom of God must grasp you, because truth is not something we stumble upon, it is something that is revealed to us. That is why we celebrate Advent- the arrival and revelation of God that could come in no other way.

Spend some time today celebrating the Wisdom of God in your life.