First Monday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
Numbers 17:1-11
17 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and get twelve staffs from them, one from the leader of each of their ancestral tribes. Write the name of each man on his staff. 3 On the staff of Levi write Aaron’s name, for there must be one staff for the head of each ancestral tribe. 4 Place them in the tent of meeting in front of the ark of the covenant law, where I meet with you. 5 The staff belonging to the man I choose will sprout, and I will rid myself of this constant grumbling against you by the Israelites.” 6 So Moses spoke to the Israelites, and their leaders gave him twelve staffs, one for the leader of each of their ancestral tribes, and Aaron’s staff was among them. 7 Moses placed the staffs before the Lord in the tent of the covenant law. 8 The next day Moses entered the tent and saw that Aaron’s staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds. 9 Then Moses brought out all the staffs from the Lord’s presence to all the Israelites. They looked at them, and each of the leaders took his own staff. 10 The Lord said to Moses, “Put back Aaron’s staff in front of the ark of the covenant law, to be kept as a sign to the rebellious. This will put an end to their grumbling against me, so that they will not die.” 11 Moses did just as the Lord commanded him.
Psalm 90
A prayer of Moses the man of God.1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. 2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 3 You turn people back to dust, saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.” 4 A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. 5 Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death— they are like the new grass of the morning: 6 In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered. 7 We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. 8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. 9 All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. 10 Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. 11 If only we knew the power of your anger! Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due. 12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 13 Relent, Lord! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. 14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. 15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. 16 May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. 17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands.
2 Peter 3:1-18
3 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. 3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. 14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
NIV
Back From the Future
Dr. James Tyler Robertson is Assistant Professor of Christian History and Director of Distributed Learning at Tyndale University. He teaches the History of Christianity as well as courses on Canadian Christianity and Evangelicalism. His areas of research are on Church and War, Canadian Religious History, and Historical Theology.
Advent is a season of expectation. We look back to the birth of Jesus and contemplate all that this event means for our lives. However, is it possible to gain a similar perspective from an event that has not yet occurred?
This is what Peter is asking us to do. If you will permit me, let’s take a moment and reflect upon the importance of looking back from the future.
Read the Numbers 17 passage; in it the Jewish people wait in eager expectation for the beginning of their priestly sect. Like most things connected to Yahweh, what the people expected was vastly overshadowed by what God actually did. They looked for a tiny bud, they got an almond-producing plant. They looked for a subtle clue, they received something substantial enough to feed people.
We speak of Jesus as the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. As the Psalmist wrote about God many years before the birth of Jesus: “Before the mountains were born, or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.”
Advent, in some regards, is an Alpha story. This season calls us to look to the birth of Jesus, His public ministry and salvation mission. However, Peter’s letter calls Jesus’ followers to also adopt an Omega perspective.
The Omega perspective calls us to ponder an oft overlooked truth, especially in this season. Advent calls us into a spirit of anticipation for that which has already happened; our New Testament reading calls us into actual anticipation of an event yet to come. For four weeks before Christmas, we celebrate the Advent of the Incarnation; Peter is calling us to live every day of our lives in the Advent of the Eschaton.
When Peter asks his audience the rhetorical question, “what kind of people ought you to be?” he does so from the perspective of finitude. He reminds us all that the world we know is destined to end. He invites us to look back from the end of days and use that vantage point to shape our lives, our actions, our beliefs, and our faith accordingly.
If I can be a touch mercenary at this moment, Peter calls us to invest wisely. He challenges us to become the kind of people who seek after that which is to come with even more fervour than those who seek after that which currently is. He shows us that our material goals are merely the relentless pursuit of, at best, shiny dust. He challenges us to “to live holy and godly lives” so that we can be reshaped into the kind of people who eagerly look forward to “a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.”
Our time is limited — we all know that — but Peter calls us to see such knowledge as a spiritual blessing. He challenges us to examine our choices in light of the coming “day of the Lord” because the salvation story does come to completion.
True, we are over 2000 years removed from the Incarnation’s origins but that doesn’t mean the Author of our salvation has lost the plot. We serve a God to Whom “a thousand years are like a day” and Peter’s letter reminds us that our understanding of time is too limited to be reliable.
His powerful message is that we are impatient because we simply don’t see deep or far enough. He reminds us that the multiple millennia of days between that day and this is not Divine neglect but is actually Divine patience. Each day that passes is not a sign of abandonment, but is rather the ongoing evidence of God’s mercy and desire that all be counted among the saved.
The end of days remains a point of theological uncertainty that can breed anxiety or avoidance. Advent hardly seems like the time to talk about such things. But Peter shows us that is exactly what we should do. We may pay lip service to the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord but remain fearful of what is to come. For those of us who struggle, I remind you of the tale in Numbers.
I sometimes fear asking God for what I truly desire and end up limiting my hopes — and my prayers — to small bud-size requests. I label such attitudes as humility but I don’t think that is what I’m actually doing. Our Holy Bible teaches us time and again that we follow a God who takes our “small bud” expectations and rewards us with an almond reality. Can we not have faith that the end will be even more glorious than the beginning?
We are called to follow the Alpha and the Omega, and as we reflect with joy upon the beginning Incarnation, let us anticipate with even greater joy the coming Eschaton. As Peter effortlessly and simply writes: “dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.”
In this season of looking forward from the past Incarnation, I encourage you to also look backwards from the future Eschaton.
With such fully-orbed perspectives to guide us, we can “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” the Jesus who is both the Author and Finisher of our faith, our Alpha and Omega, our past and future hope, “our dwelling place throughout all generations.”
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