Missing Peace: I’m in a hurry!

December 12, 2021 

Here is a Christmas cookie joke: why don’t gingerbread men have teeth? Because of ginger-vitis! 

We are in week three of our message series: missing peace. The first week we learned when we have a negative thought to replace it with a promise of peace: I can do all things Christ who gives me strength. Is there anyone who hasn’t started their Christmas shopping? I haven’t! I tell myself, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” I got this! The second week we learned in order to get along better with someone, we can tell a better story about them, that helps us be more forgiving, and appreciate what a wonderful person they are. Today we’re talking about when God makes you wait. The message title is, “I’m in a hurry!” Because we like to get what we want right away! But often we have to wait! Especially lately. If you go to the emergency room, it can take a few days to get admitted and get a real room! Have you made a phone call and you have to wait? You get music, and “please wait! We are experiencing higher than normal call volumes. An associate will be with you shortly.” Or maybe you are waiting for an item to become available for Christmas, and it is looking like it won’t come in time. We’re in a hurry! Why the wait? 

Some of you are waiting on God, you prayed for something and you’re wondering, “God, why is it taking so long? God, have you forgotten me? Do you even care? What is God doing when you’re waiting? We’ll try to answer that very important question and look at a righteous guy connected to the Christmas story who thought God was too late. 

Luke chapter one tells how Zechariah was a priest and he and his wife Elizabeth were people who followed God. They never had children, although they wanted them, and they were old now. Once Zechariah was serving in the temple, all alone, and an angel of the Lord appeared to him. The angel said, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, your prayer has been heard. Your wife will bear a son, and you will name him John.” And Zechariah is thinking, you have this all wrong, angel! I did want kids, 30 or 40 years ago. But we waited and waited, and God didn’t come through. Now it’s too late! 

The angel continues on, Your son will be a joy and a delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit and bring many people back to their God. He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 

To Zechariah, it sounds too good to be true. He asks the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” 

The angel gets a little irritated; he gets snippy. Listen, I am Gabriel! I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to tell you good news. Now you will not be able to speak until this child is born, because you did not believe me. 

Zechariah can’t speak for 9 months. Soon his wife Elizabeth is pregnant! Their son will be John the Baptist. The angel Gabriel goes on to tell Mary that Jesus will be born, and mentions what a miracle it is that Zechariah and Elizabeth are having a child: saying, “for nothing is impossible with God.” 

Zechariah and Elizabeth’s prayer for a child was answered decades later. They thought God wasn’t going to come through. But they learned, Just because God feels silent, doesn’t mean God is absent. God had picked the moment that John the Baptist and then Jesus would be born. It wasn’t according to Elizabeth and Zechariah’s timeline. It was according to God. They didn’t see anything happening for years, but God was with them all along. 

I want to tell you about another time when God seemed silent. It’s a period of history that’s not in the Bible, and that’s the point. It’s called the intertestamental period. This is the 400+ years between the time when the last book of the Old Testament was written: Malachi, and when the first book was written that became part of the New Testament, 1 Thessalonians. 

Think of all the books in the Bible, there are quite a few! But nobody wrote a word for over 400 years! It was like God was silent, God wasn’t inspiring the people to write anything.  

And there was a hope for a Messiah, a chosen one anointed by God, to bring in a new age of peace, and to liberate God’s people. Isaiah 7:14 says, Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the young woman will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel, God with us.  That had been 700 years ago, much longer than Zechariah and Elizabeth waited for their child.  The promise of a Messiah came 700 years before Jesus was born! 

So no book of the Bible was written for over 400 years. The promise of a Messiah was still waiting. But remember, Just because God feels silent, doesn’t mean God is absent. For those 400 years, while the people were waiting, God was working. Here are some things that happened in the meantime. 

First, there was this guy, Alexander the Great. In 12 years he conquered the world. (Not the entire world. But a big chunk of the world.) That mean that an empire brought together many different people. And most people learned some Greek: it became the common language of many people. 

Second, the OT, which had always been in Hebrew, got translated for the first time into Greek in about 280 BC. We call this translation the Septuagint. 

Third, a new way of learning emerged from the philosopher Socrates called the Socratic Method. For the first time people were encouraged to ask questions, think about their beliefs, and have a dialogue with their teacher. 

Fourth, the Roman Republic conquered the Greek world in the first century BC, and there was peace, order and stability. Without wars, trade did well, and the Romans developed roads and highways for travel throughout the empire. 

Fifth, over the years more and more Jews lived in diaspora, which means they didn’t live in Israel. They lived in other parts of the world. 
So where was God over the 400 years when people wondered where God was and what was he doing? He was working in the world. And suddenly, Greek speakers could read the Bible in a language they understood. For the first time they were encouraged to ask questions and think about their beliefs. They could ask questions of God. Now the good news of a Savior could travel through a common language, across roads and highways through a Jewish people who were spread throughout the entire Roman world, and to Gentiles. In other words, while God’s people were waiting, God was working, to ready the world for the arrival of Jesus our Savior. The good news of God’s love could reach the world. 

God’s always working behind the scenes. Maybe you’re waiting, believing, doing everything you know how to do, trusting in a God who says he can, and yet he hasn’t. You might be wondering if God’s mad at you? No that’s not it. While you’re hoping and waiting, God is working. Just because God’s silent, doesn’t mean he’s absent. 

My homework for you this week is to read Isaiah 40:27-31.  It says in part, why is my cause disregarded by God? But then it says, God doesn’t get tired. Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles. Let this verse help you trust and rest in God. 

We’re all in a hurry. We don’t like to wait! Sometimes, God doesn’t work as fast as we’d like. Just because God’s silent, doesn’t mean he’s absent. In the fullness of time, when all was prepared, Jesus came into the world. God waits until the right time. Sometimes the world needs to change. Sometimes we need to grow. But we can be assured that our prayers are heard. God’s timing is perfect, He’s always good. While we’re waiting, our good God is still working. Amen.