ARTICLES

“O LORD, how long shall I cry, and You will not hear? Even cry out to You, “Violence!”

And You will not save?” (Habakkuk 1:2)

There are moments when the world feels unrecognizable. Violence fills the headlines. Injustice seems to prosper. The innocent suffer while the corrupt appear to flourish. In those moments, many people ask a question that echoes through the centuries: If God is powerful and loving, why does He allow this?

We often feel pressure to respond with neat theological answers. We speak of living in a fallen world or of God’s mysterious purposes. While those truths matter, they can sometimes sound distant from the ache people are actually feeling. What we rarely do is admit that we, too, have asked the same question. We hesitate to say aloud, “God, what are You doing?” as if such honesty might reveal weak faith.

Yet the prophets show us another way.

Habakkuk looked at the moral decay of Judah and cried out to God in anguish. He saw injustice, strife, and violence, and he did not soften his words. He brought his confusion directly to the Lord. Even more troubling, when God answered, He revealed that He would use the Babylonians to judge Judah. The Babylonians were ruthless and cruel. How could God use a nation even more wicked to correct His own people?

Habakkuk did not pretend to understand. He did not silence his questions. But neither did he walk away. Instead, he chose to stand and wait. “I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected” (Habakkuk 2:1). That posture reveals the heart of true faith. He wrestled with God, yet he remained before God.

Robust faith is not fragile. It can handle hard questions. It can endure tension between what we believe about God and what we see with our eyes. Faith does not require pretending that evil is less evil or that suffering is less painful. It invites us to bring our confusion into the presence of the One who rules over history.

Habakkuk never received a full explanation of God’s ways. Instead, he received a deeper call to trust. By the end of his prophecy, he declared that even if the fields produced no food and the flocks disappeared, he would still rejoice in the Lord. His circumstances had not changed, but his confidence in God had matured.

We live in a time when it is easy to grow cynical or numb. Yet God welcomes our honest questions. He does not turn away from the one who cries out in confusion. He invites us to stand watch, to wait, and to trust that He is at work even when we cannot trace His hand.

When you find yourself asking, “God, what are You doing?” do not silence the question. Bring it to Him. Stand on the rampart of prayer. Wait for His voice. Faith that wrestles and waits is faith that endures.

PRAYER

Lord, we confess that we do not always understand what You are doing in our world or in our lives. Teach us to bring our questions honestly before You without abandoning our trust. Help us to stand watch, to wait for Your voice, and to rest in the truth that You are sovereign and good. Strengthen our faith to endure even when answers are slow in coming. Amen.

At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!” Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, the baby’s mother, “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul” (Luke 2:25-35 nlt).

The yearning for redemption permeated the hopes of many within the land of Israel in the first century. Simeon and the prophetess Anna (Luke 2:36-38) belonged to those circles that adopted a somber position of mourning over the present situation (see Matthew 5:4; Luke 6:21) and yet looked forward to the redemption of Jerusalem (Luke 2:38).

The Jewish people found themselves occupied by Rome, and many also saw a religious decline, as well; they longed for God to fulfill His promises to His people.

The Gospel stories of the births of John the Baptist and Jesus frame the arrival of these two figures within the Jewish hopes of redemption. The births of God’s Messiah and his forerunner proclaim that God has not abandoned His people. He has answered their cry for deliverance.

The path both figures, John and Jesus, will lay out within their ministries is the call to repentance. In Matthew, we hear John declare, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Matthew 3:2 nlt), and we later find Jesus preaching the exact same message in the very next chapter.

Repentance brings redemption near. In this way, Simeon was correct; Jesus was set for the fall and rise of many in Israel. It was not enough to belong to the chosen people, because one must choose to believe in the One that God sent. Herein lies the path of redemption.

Simeon waited all his life yearning to see God’s redemption. He hoped for it; he prayed for it. He didn’t live to see the consolation of Israel, but he did see the way God would bring it about. He saw the Lord’s anointed—he saw Jesus, the Messiah.

God is faithful to His word. It may seem like He delays, and we wonder if we can trust His promises. But God fulfilled His promise to His people, and He fulfilled His personal promise to Simeon.

Do we have the patience to wait for God to fulfill His word? In our waiting, do we actively pursue our obedience to Him? Simeon longed for God’s redemption of His people. Do we long for the redemption of all people through Jesus?

PRAYER

Father, You are a God who fulfills Your Word. You are faithful. The greatest demonstration of Your faithfulness to this world was sending Your son Jesus. May we pursue lives of obedience that bear the fruit of repentance. Amen.

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:8-14 NKJV)

We frequently sing, “Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o’er the plains” at Christmas. The season would not be complete without “Gloria in excelsis Deo!”—Glory to God in the highest. Yet how often do we reflect upon the meaning of the words the angels declared?

The praise of the angels to the shepherds recorded in Luke’s Gospel underscored the reality of God’s nearness in the birth of Jesus, as well as embodying Jewish redemptive hopes of the first century.

It also gives voice to the hope for redemption shared by Jews and Christians through the centuries. With the advent of Jesus, God draws near to His people—His goodwill is for everyone. His reign dawns through those who obey His will. He demonstrates that He is Immanuel—God with us.

The angels told the shepherds that their message of good news “will be to all people” (Luke 2:10 NKJV). God’s goodwill is not simply for the elect; it extends to everyone, for “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45 NASB).

His merciful will reaches out to all mankind to bring peace, completeness, and wholeness. And, in the birth of Jesus, God has drawn near to demonstrate within the bounds of history what His will is, to give voice and example to His will (see Hebrews 1:1-2).

God’s will is for all humankind. In the birth of Jesus, His glory, peace, and favor have drawn near to everyone. This is the good news the angels proclaimed: God is for us!

The message of the angels was an announcement of God’s nearness. God is for us, and He has drawn near to us. God is a part of human history; therefore, there is hope. God has not turned a blind eye to the suffering of the righteous or a deaf ear to the cry of the afflicted.

His mercy extends to all mankind: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:13-14 NKJV)

PRAYER

Father, in this Advent season, as we reflect on Your nearness and goodwill toward us, may we extend Your mercy and goodwill to everyone around us, even those who are away from you. And, in so doing, may we truly proclaim with the angels: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” Amen.

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her (Luke 1:34-38 ESV).

The people of Israel faced a number of crises in the period between the Old and New Testaments. These events, some of them traumatic, left deep marks upon the social, cultural, and religious landscape of ancient Judaism.

The events of the second century B.C.—with the successful Jewish revolt against the Seleucids, in the festival of Hanukkah (the Feast of Dedication; John 10:22), and the subsequent eighty-year period of autonomous Jewish reign—dynamically shaped Jewish hopes of redemption. These ideas changed with the reality brought about by the intrusion of the Roman Empire in the form of Pompey the Great in 63 B.C.

By the time of the Angel Gabriel’s appearance to Mary, the land of Israel found itself under Roman rule, which at times could be oppressive. The reality posed by Rome challenged the widely held belief among the Jews that our God is the only god, and we are His chosen people. The present reality produced a widespread yearning for God’s redemption, which many thought His Messiah would accomplish.

Gabriel announced a message to Mary that had been anticipated and hoped for by many. So, on the one hand, she was prepared to hear it and receive it. There was only one problem. She was to be the vessel of God’s redemption, giving birth to His Son. And she was a virgin: “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

Gabriel then proceeded to relay how this would be accomplished, concluding with the reminder, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Mary found herself incapable of seeing how she could fulfill what Gabriel told her. Yet, upon hearing what God intended to do, Mary’s response was one of trust and obedience: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

The message of Advent is God entering into human history in a way that He had not done before. At the moment when things looked the bleakest for His people and impossible for Mary, He provided a way. He entered their story.

Throughout the Bible, God showed up to deliver His people. When circumstances seemed the darkest, He sent messages of hope. When things seemed impossible, He sent deliverance. God is for us. The annunciation of the birth of Jesus to Mary proclaims that He is with us.

Will we choose to respond to God, like Mary, with trust and obedience? Even when we don’t understand how He will accomplish His purposes, will we choose to act as His servants? Mary chose to trust what God told her and to submit to His will. Her choice led to the redemption of the world.

This Christmas and Advent season, will we trust God regardless of the appearance of our external circumstances? Will we obediently submit to His will for Him to bring hope and deliverance in our lives?

PRAYER

Father, thank You for sending Your Son into the world. Regardless of how difficult the circumstances appeared, You made a way. May we submit to You as Your servants to bring Your light and hope to those around us. Amen.