2010 – October 15 – A Four-Hundred-Year Silence

Study from God’s Word… [Readings and study from overviews of The Apocrypha] … Passage for Reflection: 2 Peter 3: 4 … NIV 4They [scoffers who appear in the “last days”] will say, "Where is this 'coming' He promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."

My Journal for Today: Today, my devotional leader/author, F. LaGard Smith, jumps forward, in his devotional, launching into the New Testament in The Daily Bible in Chronological Order by quoting from Peter’s second Epistle, where the Apostle was reminding Christians to be faithful and avoid complacency or waning to worldliness; and, in spite, of the affliction and confusion they were facing under the oppression of the Romans, Peter exhorted believers to be faithful and wait for the second coming of our Messiah, who had shown Himself as God by dying on the cross, being resurrected from the dead, and ascending into Heaven to become our intercessor until He comes again. [see 2nd Peter 3: 1 – 10 - linked here]

But in his readings for this date, Dr. Smith highlights the historical period of the transition between Old and New Testaments, … that period of about 400 years where there was relative silence and waiting for the Jewish Messiah to appear. And reading from other non-conical historical records or delving into the Apocryphal writings, we read that the Jews became very confused and somewhat cynical, very likely asking the question of why to hold faithful to God’s Law and expectation of a Messiah after four centuries of God’s relative silence.

And that type of “WHEN” question certainly could be raised by New Covenant Christians, … could it not? And we have a relative “silence” of two millennia to voice our question. We Christians await the Lord’s second coming; but the more orthodox and faithful Jews are still waiting for His first arrival. Wow! … That certainly does take faith, doesn’t it? But God, in His own timing, apparently desires that His people, the Jews, and we Gentiles grafted into His family, wait for Him patiently and faithfully; because He desires that many more come to Him in faith [see 2nd Peter 3: 9 from linked passage above].

FAITH is the operant concept here. God has always, as evidenced by the Old Testament I’ve been reading and studying this past year, desired for mankind to honor His Covenant with His people. And faith is evidenced by mankind, being ever faithful in waiting on Him to show His love for His children, especially in His coming among us as the Lamb of God. And now that we transition from the Old Covenant to the New, we, who are privy to the unfolding of history (“HIS story”) in the New Testament, are even called to a more patient waiting period than these 400 years where the covenant of Abraham and the prophesies of God’s called prophets were unfolding for God’s people to await the coming of their Messiah.

But now we Christians know – by history and evidence – that the Messiah was God’s Son, Jesus; and our New Testament is the “Gospel” record of His coming, His life, His death on a cross, His resurrection, and His ascension, having chosen Apostles and disciples to carry on His gospel message to the world as well as His charge to go forth in witness to His Name and His gospel truth (see Acts 1: 8 and Matt. 28: 19-20).

So, in the next months, until the end of this year, I will continue to expectantly read His New Covenant and to pray to grow in my faith to be patient and let God’s timing and His will dictate our Lord’s second coming.

When will it occur? >>> I don’t know. Will it occur? … ABSOLUTELY !!!

My Prayer for Today: Lord, please come soon. We need the fulfillment of Your promises. Help me to be faithful as I wait on You. Amen