The Christian season of Advent is one that deliberately builds into calendars, into the rhythm of time, a reminder of our waiting. Just as God’s people waited, generation after generation, for the promised King who would one day come to sit on David’s throne forever and redeem Israel, so we now await his second coming.

The waiting is the hardest part. At least that’s what Tom Petty famously told us. There is a lot of truth in the observation.

We hate waiting. If you want to see a fury with the heat of a thousand suns, just see what happens when a restaurant tells their patrons waiting on a table that it’s going to be another 30 minutes, or a corralled herd of weary travelers at the gate just informed that their flight home for the holidays is going to be delayed until the next morning, or . . . You get the idea.

But in God’s infinite wisdom, he seems to have chosen to make extensive use of waiting in his sovereign purposes. Indeed, the common experience for the people of God in every generation has been characterized by waiting. Indeed, we are reminded of this reality every time we sing some of our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols. For example, consider the opening stanza of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”:

“O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.”

The Christian season of Advent is one that deliberately builds into calendars, into the rhythm of time, a reminder of our waiting. Just as God’s people waited, generation after generation, for the promised King who would one day come to sit on David’s throne forever and redeem Israel, so we now await his second coming.

You can, if you choose, just rush right into Christmas, skipping right through the hectic pace of the holidays and completely miss out on the liturgy of waiting. But doing so comes at a cost.

Waiting on the Lord Is Dependent on the Promises of God

Just start reading in the beginning chapters of your Bible and you’ll quickly be struck by how much waiting there is. Of course, we could go right to that very first promised grace in Genesis 3:16, struck by God’s guarantee that there would come a day when the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. The story of redemption is, in some sense, the story of waiting for the fulfillment of that promise.

Pretty quickly though, we encounter larger-than-life figures who were called to wait on the Lord. Noah was given a command to build an ark and he obeyed in faith, waiting for confirmation that what the Lord had spoken was true. Of course, when those first raindrops began to fall, God confirmed his promise of judgment on the earth, and gracious provision of salvation for Noah’s household and all those creatures aboard the ark. And the waiting did not end there.

Consider Abraham, or when we first meet him, Abram. God establishes a covenant with him, promising to make a great nation of him and to bless all the nations of the earth through him. But those promises did not come to fruition overnight. Instead, Abraham spent years waiting—waiting for the arrival of that promised son by Sarah, waiting for their small little family to expand into a great nation, waiting for rest in their land.

For his part, David knew something of waiting. He’d been anointed to be king by the prophet Samuel while still very young, but it would be a long time until his eventual rise to the throne. Until then, his life was marked by all sorts of ups and downs, including having to run for his life.

Fast forward a bit in the Old Testament and things get rather quiet. Israel’s return from exile is only partial, the glory of the old days seems lost, and God seems to have gone silent. But the underlying question in the period between the Old and New Testaments is not whether God is silent. Far more significantly, the haunting question is, “Has God abandoned his promises?” Is hope for salvation lost? Will the righteous king promised long ago every come to establish his perfect eternal rule? Will sin and death have the final say over the children of men?

And then, an angel appears to Zechariah the Levite in the temple, promising a son to him and his wife that would be dedicated to the Lord. A young woman is visited by an angel, telling her she is most blessed among women because she will bear a son conceived by the Holy Spirit who will save his people from their sins. And then, one night in Bethlehem, that child is born just like millions of babies had been born before. But his birth is heralded and celebrated by a choir of angels on a hillside, announcing the good news to a band of shepherds. God keeps his promises, every one.

This Advent, perhaps you are tempted to doubt the Lord. Perhaps you are weary, worn down by fear, hurt, anxiety, or some combination of them all. It may be that you see very little reason for hope when you look at the world, or even in your own life and family. It may be that leaders you once respected have broken your trust or disappointed you beyond repair.

But Advent calls us to renew our hope and confidence in the promises of God. It is a call to renewed faith in the God who never changes, who pledges himself to his people eternally, and who has publicly demonstrated his covenant faithfulness at Calvary. A bloody cross and an empty tomb cast a long shadow backwards over the pages of the Old Testament, as if to say to us, “Promises kept!”

Read More