As I was reflecting on the start of Advent and the anticipation of awaiting the coming Messiah it occurred to me that in both Jesus’ first coming and His second God gave the people the what (Messiah is coming) and the where (Bethlehem) but rarely the when.
When the magi spoke with Herod that they were searching for the new born king of the Jews, Herod finally had the “when” and sent his expert scholars in search of the where. They found their answer in Micah 5 – Bethlehem in Judea.
The same is true of Jesus’ second coming. He will come on the clouds. There will be a great trumpet call. The dead will rise, etc…but we just don’t know when.
Why doesn’t God tell us when certain things will happen? Because God knows our nature. He knows we will not get serious until it is time. Faith is strengthened in the waiting. Hope is magnified in the patient person anticipating the certain outcome of God making good on His promises.
God rarely tells us when…and that is for our own good!
How would you live your life if you knew the time when you would die in advance? It is in the anticipation and the waiting that the love and the hope and the faith all grow into maturity.
5 Responses
Beautiful post, Matt! It’s something I’ve often thought about myself. Who would do much to prepare for a death he knew was decades away? Even at 80 years of age, I am planning for at least the next two decades!
Thank you Jerry! You were always fit as a fiddle…better plan for 30 more!
This fiddle isn’t as fit as it used to me. My Dad passed at 96, and he was always a lot stronger than I ever dreamed of – since I was 10 and sent off for Charles Atlas materials and exercises. So if I plan for 2 decades, I can still take 3. We had a lady at the CoC Care Center where I was chaplain who died 2 weeks before her 120th. I have no desire to outlive Moses!
Matt,
Thank you for the post.
After studying Daniel a few years ago, I realized that almost the entire book is a series of timelines, some brief, some very detailed, pointing to the coming of the Age of Messiah and His kingdom. I am told that by the time Christ was born, the rabbis had changed their phrase “the age that is coming” to “the age that is about to come.”
Daniel was greatly revered in the east; is it any wonder that the Magi had studied his works and knew the time was imminent?
Those timelines get real tricky!