Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
A lot is written and said about the waiting and the longing of Advent. And that is what Advent is, the silence, the letting go of control as we wait.
But what are we waiting for? What are we anticipating?
A celebration.
We also see this in the book of Isaiah. The book of Isaiah has so many prophecies about the Messiah and what the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus would mean for us.
Isaiah 25 says: On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine – the best of meats and the finest of wines.
This is not a thrown-together party.
This is well thought out.
Like the preparation many of us go through for Christmas.
I love to smoke meat. I’ll get up early on holidays to get the right flavored wood to go with the meat, the perfect rub, making sure the food is excellent for the people I’m serving.
Why? It brings joy.
The best foods, the finest wines. We are told in Psalm 104 that wine brings joy.
This is a picture of joy.
The best meat is the expensive, dry-aged ribeye steak. The best wine, not the stuff in a box, but the one you go into the wine cellar and pull out, the wine you’ve been saving.
Our best Christmas feast is only a foretaste of what eternity with Jesus will be like.
We don’t think like this.
But we practice for eternity when we sit around a table with friends and family.
Do you see how joy is savoring?
Joy is slowing down.
But this feast isn’t just about what is being served but the purpose of it.
The prophet Isaiah goes on: On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the LORD, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
Have you ever been invited to a party and not been in the mood?
Maybe right now, you look at your life, this past year, and wonder how you can celebrate. How can you meet up with family and friends this week and celebrate?!
The hope of Advent is that Jesus came and that He will come again, and when he does, he will swallow up death forever; he will wipe every tear away from our faces.
He will take away the pain of betrayal, sadness, cancer, the pain of death, and decay.
He will swallow them up. He is showing his power over those things.
Think, the disgraces, the things you wish you could undo, the regrets you wish you hadn’t missed, the things your family reminds you of, the things you think when you look in the mirror, all removed.
We rejoice, and we are glad in his salvation.
In what he has done.
Our salvation was bought 2,000 years ago when Jesus came to earth, died in our place, and rose from the dead.
