by Pat Russell
As I look back on Advent days I have paired two rather different readings in my time with the Scriptures. One is Jeremiah, the weeping prophet of the Old Testament. The other is Luke, a joyful Gospel writer. Strange combination, but God has been speaking to me of His heart through both of them.
In the book of Jeremiah, the messenger to God’s people is Jeremiah, a human being. In Luke, the messenger to God’s people is Gabriel, an angel. Both speak for the living God. Both speak the heart of God to His people. Jeremiah delivered a message of coming destruction. (That must have been fun.) “Enough is enough (my paraphrase)! You have not changed your corrupted ways,” Jeremiah says with anguish in his voice. “Destruction is coming, but it is not too late. God says, ‘I will not be angry forever, only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the Lord your God. I will not look on you in anger for I am merciful.’” Through Jeremiah, God pleads with his loved people to return to Him. He misses them!
Gabriel, a messenger of another created order, also came to God’s people with a word from the Lord, but this time God spoke of coming hope – reconstruction not destruction! Gabriel spoke of the coming of John, son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, who would prepare the way for Jesus, Son of the Most High God and Mary. John would also be a messenger who spoke of repentance and Jesus would speak of the hope of the reconstructed life through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Both Jeremiah and Gabriel were obedient messengers who shared the heart of God for his people – a heart that beats continually for relationship with them; a heart that never gives up; a heart that is merciful. “Come back, return to me!” and “I am with you. I am sending Someone who will make all things new.”
As we all consider Advent, and our recent celebration of Christ’s birth, may we hear both voices – Jeremiah’s and Gabriel’s so that we might know the heart of God that calls us into His mercy and the hope of the life-changing Presence among us.
