The Start of a New Year

I wonder how many people start the New Year with a set of new resolutions? No doubt if we could, it would be lovely to know in advance what the outcome would be of our well-meaning hopes and even maybe dreams. Well of course, we can't, can we? And perhaps it's just as well.

The prophecies made by the prophets we read of in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, very often did not foretell the future. Rather, the prophets often exhorted, and even cajoled, and spoke very pointedly about the present, sometimes declaring to the people their misdemeanours, and warning them of the consequences should they persist in their sins.

At other times, they ministered words of comfort and hope to the people in the midst of the troubles that they had brought upon themselves. And although some might think that those prophecies were for the days of the Old Testament, it should be remembered that man’s history is always being repeated - man’s nature has changed little in the course of time - so that many of those prophecies of comfort or coaxing still have a resonance today.

A prophet is one who ‘speaks for’ God, who is impelled to make God's mind known and to declare His message, whether it is for the time being or for some time to come. This we also find to be the case in the New Testament, and is the reason why, for example, the apostle John was charged to write in Revelation concerning the ‘things that are’ as well as the ‘things that shall be hereafter’.(Rev. 1 v 19).

It is well to remember that the word ‘revelation’ itself here simply means an ‘unfolding’. It is like an old scroll that is being unrolled where only one small part is visible at a time, there being much which is still rolled up, so leaving many of the contents hidden from sight.    

In the visions of the second and third chapters of the Apocalypse, there is unfolded, or opened to sight, what the Lord discerned was the condition of His Church at that time of writing, and described the characteristics found in each of the seven churches in Asia. It is in these chapters that we see how prophecy is used to warn of the consequences of each church's backsliding, as well as providing some comfortable words of strength and encouragement needed at that time for most of them.

But also, these visions foreshadowed things yet to come to pass. They illustrated what the state and characteristics of the Church would be like through seven periods of time, throughout the future, which would amount to hundreds of years from the time John wrote the Apocalypse. Again, how beautiful was the prophecy uttered by the old man Simeon when it was time for the baby Jesus to be presented at the temple in Jerusalem. The passage described in Luke's gospel (Luke 2 vs.25 – 35) relates how the baby Jesus was taken in the old man's arms and Simeon uttered the wonderful words of the prophesy.

It had been revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that before he died he would see the Christ child. So as he held Jesus, he knew whom he was holding and lifted up his voice in praise to God, during which he uttered the wonderful prophesy - 'A light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of Thy people Israel'.

What a dramatic pronouncement at such a time, saying in effect that not only was this the Christ child for whom Israel had been waiting, but also that the Gentiles would be able to share in this glory that was the Messiah.

Peace and Goodwill

In this present age, I wonder how we would react if we were confronted suddenly by an angel announcing to us that our Lord had returned after two thousand years?

            Would we react as the shepherds, as they watched their flocks, had done when an angel appeared to them to announce the birth of the baby Jesus? And then, on top of it all, what would we do if we then saw a great company of angels joining the first angel singing praises to God? No doubt, many would be terrified at such a spectacle,  just as the shepherds were.

But then, while some would be overawed with the wonder of such a sight, perhaps there would be others who would look at the scene in the modern way, which might lead them to suppose that an alien invasion was taking place, or that perhaps someone was messing around with a laser projector making shapes in the sky and that someone else had left their hi-fi on too loud!

            Certainly, the shepherds were wise in the ways of the land and their flocks, and they lived their relatively simple lives in the yearly round of work associated with their flocks. Indeed, the angel and the heavenly host didn't appear to any sophisticated person living in a town or city – they appeared to simple-living folk in the open countryside and who would possibly be more attuned to their message anyhow than the townies of their time!

Anyone who has gone for a walk in the country on a still, frosty, moon-lit winter's night looking down into a valley with the spaced-out lights of farm-houses shining like distant stars in the darkness will understand the feeling of peace that the shepherds would have felt as they sat wrapped against the cold by their watch fires, perhaps chatting or dozing.

            Again, any farmer who has gone to check his stock last thing at night in the shed will have stood listening to his stock pulling at their hay or lying down quietly chewing the cud. In my case, there was always the feeling of peace as my gaze wandered over the animals in the shed. And on a Christmas Eve, this would turn to a feeling of wonder when I thought of the myth, that the animals might have knelt down before the baby Jesus – well one could almost imagine it happening in that peaceful place too.

And that's one of the things I've always loved about Christmas – the message which the angels gave to those simple shepherds two thousand years ago – 'peace on earth' – how wonderful it would be if we received such a message from a heavenly host now - that all was to be at peace, world-wide.

But would we understand and accept that message if it was given to us in this way, I wonder? Would we believe that the pain of destruction and war, of death and violence, of hunger and deprivation, of loneliness and sickness which many now seem to take for granted, which encompasses us from every side, is coming to an end, forever?

Certainly, I would like to think that if we heard the message that the shepherds received, we would be so glad, so relieved that at last, peace is about to come upon us all and that the pain and evil that is covering the earth is to be taken away finally. Well, at least we have been promised that that would happen once Jesus has returned to the earth – no more death, no more wars, no more mourning and no more tears – how wonderful indeed.

And so, as we finally come to the end of the Advent season and prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus, should we not also continually hope and earnestly pray that our Lord will indeed return a second time, this time in great majesty to rule the whole earth, sooner rather than later?

Then we would be able to join in with the angels and the rest of the heavenly host by singing joyfully – 'glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and goodwill to all men'. That, I'm sure you will agree would be the greatest Christmas present of all. Certainly it's on my wish list!