Advent Study Guide: Week One
December 1, 2024 Messengers of Help, Comfort and Hope
Scripture: Genesis 16:6b-11, 13 (NIV)
Help for a helpless Egyptian slave
MONDAY 12.2.24 Genesis 16:1-13, Genesis 21:6-20
Introductory Note: “A biblical angel (Heb. mal’āḵ, Gk. angelos) is, by derivation and function, a messenger of God, familiar with him face to face, therefore of an order of being higher than that of man. He is a creature certainly, holy and uncorrupted spirit in original essence, yet endowed with free will, therefore not necessarily impervious to temptation and sin…. Both Testaments use the same word for mortal and for quite mundane messengers.” (R. A. Stewart, article “Angel” in The New Bible Dictionary, Third Edition. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, USA, 1996, p. 36.)
Sarai/Sarah’s culture saw it as okay to have her Egyptian servant bear a child for her. Sadly, it also saw the choices she and Abram made to discard Hagar as okay. Hagar learned that even if Abram and Sarah saw her as disposable chattel, Abram’s God did not. God saw and valued her as a person. The next story said Abraham was upset for his son Ishmael, but there was no mention of concern for Hagar. God’s messenger (or God) did care and showed her a life-sustaining well in the desert.
- We wouldn’t quote 16:9 to a woman fleeing an abusive situation. In that different world, it at least offered Hagar a place where she and her son could survive. It said God cared whether she lived or died and wanted her to press on even in her tough situation. Have you ever felt the urge to “just give up”? How can God’s caring presence (directly, or through a heavenly or human messenger) give you strength, even when things are tough?
- With the water gone, the boy crumpled to the dry desert floor. His mother wept in despair. The situation looked hopeless—but “God’s messenger” was still there. Are you able to trust in God’s presence and care, often through “messengers,” for help when you may feel helpless? Psalm 34:18 said, “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted.” When has a messenger reminded you of God’s healing presence, even been that presence, when you are brokenhearted for any reason?
Prayer: God of Abraham, you cared even when your earthly servants didn’t seem to. Thank you for the ways you send help and hope into my life when I need it most. Amen.
God’s message brought a mission
TUESDAY 12.3.24 Exodus 3:1-10, 13-15
The details of this story are challenging, but its overall meaning was clear and very important. “Like other Old Testament stories, Exodus is ambiguous about the identity of the figure appearing to Moses. It is first called a divine aide [messenger], a heavenly being acting as God’s representative, but then the figure speaks as if it actually is God.” * Whatever the details, God’s purpose was clear: “Bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
- A fundamental belief of our faith is that God’s self-revelation, not our own unaided thinking, is the foundation for what we accept as true. What did Moses learn about God through the experience of the burning bush? In what way(s) did that encounter with God and God’s message set in place the central idea (later repeated by prophets, apostles and Jesus himself) that God is on the side of justice in an often unjust world?
- “God works in the uneventful routines of our lives. For decades Moses took care of his father-in-law’s livestock…. when the challenge came, something had formed in Moses in the long years that enabled him… to stand before Pharaoh’s throne and declare, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Let my people go!’…. the Spirit of God was shaping the soul of Moses long before the burning bush. It is no different for us.” ** How can you remain open to God’s shaping in your life’s uneventful days?
Prayer: Lord of justice and liberation, keep me always alert and attuned to your purposes. Free me from boredom, from the sense that you are too far away to do anything in and through me. Amen.
* John Goldingay, Exodus and Leviticus for Everyone. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p. 17.
** Murray Andrew Pura, study note on Exodus 3:1 in The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible. Harper SanFrancisco, 2005, p. 101.
The Lord’s messenger sustained an exhausted prophet
WEDNESDAY 12.4.24 1 Kings 19:1-16
Often the biggest challenge comes, not in a crisis with adrenalin flowing, but in the letdown. God gave Elijah a great public victory over the Canaanite “god” Baal (cf. 1 Kings 18). But foreign queen Jezebel, angry about Baal’s defeat, used a clearly not heavenly “messenger” to threaten Elijah’s life. Afraid, exhausted and depressed, the bold (but still human) prophet ran. Now the true God of lightning sent a “messenger” (same Hebrew word) with godly caring for Elijah’s physical and mental fatigue.
- Canaanite images always showed Baal, their god of rain, with a lightning bolt in his fist. To support Elijah’s challenge to Baal worship, God sent real lightning on Mt. Carmel. But when the worn-out prophet prayed, “It’s more than enough, LORD! Take my life because I’m no better than my ancestors,” God knew it wasn’t time for lightning. God’s messenger brought food, rest and care. How has God, directly or through people, offered you caring support when you have needed it?
- Scholar John J. Bimson wrote, “The translations ‘a gentle whisper’ and ‘a still small voice’ (RSV) do not do full justice to the enigmatic Hebrew expression, which may be better rendered ‘a brief sound of silence.’ The text…implies that God was at last passing by in the silence which followed the storm…. a vivid demonstration that God is not always at work in ways which are visible and dramatic.” * When have you heard God, not in sound and spectacle, but in silence?
Prayer: LORD, still the chatter and restlessness of my mind and heart. Teach me how to sense you in the quiet moments, as well as the times when you make me want to stand up and cheer. Amen.
* John J. Bimson, comment on 1 Kings 19:1-18 in The New Bible Commentary, fourth edition. Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1994, p. 360.
Heaven’s messenger (or heaven itself?) in the fiery furnace
THURSDAY 12.5.24 Daniel 3:1, 6-20, 24-30
Daniel 3 told of three loyal Hebrews, exiled in Babylon, who refused to obey King Nebuchadnezzar’s command to bow to an image he had made. The text didn’t explain why the king made the golden image. It seems likely that the proud king wanted to refute Daniel’s dream explanation that Babylon’s kingdom would not last forever (cf. Daniel 2:26-39). In the end, it was the Babylonian king who said God sent “his messenger” to protect the Hebrews from the fiery furnace the king’s sentence required.
- As in Exodus 3, Daniel 3 left room for interpretation about what exactly happened in the fiery furnace. Verse 25 said the pagan king saw four figures in the flames, “and the fourth one looks like one of the gods.” Then in verse 28, he said the Hebrews’ God had sent “his messenger” to protect the faithful men. The story’s point was not to sort out heavenly ranks or characters, but to say God stays with those who are faithful. When have you had to depend on God’s presence?
- Look at the three charges against the three Hebrews in verse 12. How were the charges aimed at flattering the king’s ego and triggering his fury at the men who had previously held his confidence? How did the king make his edict a challenge between his power and the God the Hebrews served in verse 15? We know the history: Persia defeated Babylon around the year 530 B.C. Why did the king’s coercive decree in verse 29 not last and make Babylon a God-fearing empire?
Prayer: God, your servants in this story were exiles, far from home and facing an absolute tyrant. Yet they trusted you above the human power that made them prisoners. Grow their faithfulness in me under much easier conditions. Amen.
A messenger who could shut lions’ mouths
FRIDAY 12.6.24 Daniel 6:2-5, 7, 10, 13-16, 19-23, Hebrews 11:32-38
Daniel 6 is similar to Daniel 3, but with Daniel in the lead role. “The practice of praying facing the temple in Jerusalem is mentioned in the Old Testament only in 1 Kings 8:22–54; Psalm 5:7…. Prayer at ‘evening, morning and noon’ is mentioned in Psalm 55:17, but… 1 Chronicles 23:30 refers only to morning and evening prayers in the temple.” * Scholar John Goldingay wrote, “Praying three times a day shows how Daniel is committed beyond anything you could call a legal requirement.” **
- In Daniel 6:5, we learn that the only thing jealous Persian officers could find to use against Daniel had to do with his faithful spiritual practices. He did not use the position of high trust the king had given him as an excuse to “cut corners.” It made sense, then, that he didn’t even use the king’s foolish decree as a reason to cut corners on his practice of prayer. Have you ever wished you could hide your faith? How did you decide if that was a wise or damaging idea? We wish this story (and Daniel 3) showed that God’s messengers will always rescue good people. But Goldingay wrote, “[The story’s] point… isn’t that God always rescues people; it doesn’t make this claim, and we know from experience that it’s not so.” *** In Acts 12:1-17 James died, while an angel saved Peter. Hebrews 11 listed both happy and tragic outcomes for God’s people. Why be faithful if that doesn’t guarantee an angelic rescue (cf. Romans 14:8, Philippians 1:20)?
Prayer: Dear God, I serve you to return the love you have already extended to me, not as an insurance policy. Shape me into a servant who serves from love, not fear of bad consequences. Amen.
* NIV, Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (p. 7475). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
** John Goldingay, Daniel and The Twelve Prophets for Everyone. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016, p. 37.
*** John Goldingay, Daniel and The Twelve Prophets for Everyone. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016, p. 36.