Advent: Light Still Shines into Darkness

The people who walk in darkness

     Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
     The light will shine on them. – Isaiah 9:2

This prophetic promise of God that Messiah would be coming as the “light of the world” was revealed through the prophet Isaiah 700 years before the birth of Christ.  Yet God’s promise at the time was only the most recent of many promises of a coming Redeemer dating all the way back to the curse and fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden.  There, God had promised while addressing Satan that the “offspring of the woman” shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel (Genesis 3: 15).  Throughout the generations from Adam to the birth of Jesus Christ, the Jews had lived with a sense of anticipated Advent (“coming” or “arrival”) of Messiah, the promised Deliverer, or Savior.

Today, believers in Messiah proclaim that He has come as our Redeemer.  The incarnation, God the Son, Jesus Christ was born, lived a sinless life, and became the atoning sacrifice for our sins through His death and resurrection.  Ours is but to repent of our sin and receive His Gift of salvation (Romans 10: 9-10). 

Today many Christ-followers observe Advent during the four weeks leading up to Christmas Day, celebrating the birth of Christ as well as the “Joy to the World” He will bring in His anticipated return (John 14: 1-3).  In our home, we now observe the period of Advent by taking time regularly to read Christmas-related Scripture and to prepare our hearts for a spirit of anticipation and reverence toward God who kept His promises and sent His Son to rescue us from darkness.

Our celebration of Advent began about 15 years ago when Craig Miller, our senior pastor at Grace Baptist Church in Cedarville, emphasized the observance of Advent.  Given the impact of Advent in our home since then, it was a special blessing to read the December 16 post by Pastor Craig Miller in his blog, The Village Pastor, entitled “The Word Came…to the Sasak.”  I have included the link to this article here because, in it, Pastor Craig provides a powerful example of how God is still keeping His promise that The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.  In this account, the light of God’s truth was brought through translation of the New Testament into the language of 3.5 million Sasak people who live on the Indonesian island of Lombok where 99.99% are Muslim.  Craig and his wife, Kathy, were privileged to be eyewitnesses of the translation ministry effort through their visits to the island of Lombok from 1990 to 2005.

As you read this short but powerful account of how the light of Truth came into darkness, I hope you will be inspired to praise God for the Advent of Christ who has come to us "full of grace and truth" (John 1: 17).  May God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness (2 Corinthians 4: 6)…stir your heart and mine to speak and live in such a way that we… sanctify Christ as Lord in [our] hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks [us] to give an account for the hope that is in [us], yet with gentleness and reverence…(1 Peter 3: 15).  Let’s be ready, and let’s point others to Him!