God’s promise to Eve that her offspring would crush the head of the serpent gave hope to a fallen world, the hope of reconciliation to God and renewal. Eve expressed hope that Cain would be the one, then Abel, then Seth. Generation after generation came and went with parents hoping that their child would be the One.
As time went on some lost hope for full reconciliation and salvation and rather pled for relief from the stress and strain of daily life in a fallen world. One of the earliest and strongest expressions of this hope for relief comes from Lamech, the father of Noah:
“Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.”
This quote from Genesis 5 gives us the first OT use of the word ‘relief’ or ‘comfort’, namely nachmu, preserved in the Biblical name, Nahum.
The hope that Noah would be the One was dashed years later, but hope in God’s promise remained.
Finally thousands of years later the prophecy was given:
“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her.” (Isaiah 40)
Nachmu, nachmu ammi. Preach comfort, preach relief to God’s people. Speak tenderly, literally ‘speak to their heart’. Call to her. And what is the prophet to tell God’s people? What is the comfort, what is the relief? That her iniquity is pardoned.
“A voice cries:
In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed ,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
And later:
“A voice says, ‘Cry!’
And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the LORD blows on it;
surely the people are grass.The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.”
The word of comfort spoken to the heart of God’s people is that the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and we have hope in this because the word of our God will stand. This promise is certain, the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
We know from our New Testament perspective that this promise was fulfilled in the incarnation of the Son of God. This text is quoted in the NT referring to the voice of John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus, but this also hints to another coming, when all flesh shall see him.
And we must get ready for this coming.
What do you do when someone important comes to visit? You clean up and smooth everything out. When I was in college you always knew when it was time for the school to impress some donors because they would patch up the campus roads. They would fill in all the potholes and re-seed the trampled grass.
Our preparation for the coming of the LORD should as much more dramatic and obvious as is our LORD more important and significant than collegiate donors.
The valleys must be filled in. The mountains should be made low. The rough ground must be smoothed. Why? To make a highway for our great God and Savior Jesus Christ in the wilderness of our fallen world.
We fill in the holes in our holiness and we level our mountainous egos. We cry out in hope for the comfort and relief that will come with the coming of Christ.
This preparation is the work of the great Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God. Called alongside our spirits he regenerates us, convicts us of sin, and empowers us for holiness. He shows us where we need to get to work and provide the God-power to do that work.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 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. (Titus 2:11-14)
This advent season we remember the hope of the Messianic Promise of the OT and look to the second coming of Christ with hope. We rejoice that the comfort and relief of the Holy Spirit has been given, but we look forward with hope of final fulfilled comfort in the arms of Christ.
But for now the work remains.
Tessera Sola 