A Thrill of Hope - An Advent Series
- Nov 28, 2023
- 4 min read
The season is here! You know what I’m talking about. Not a change in weather or a date on a calendar, but the season of Christmas.
For many people (including myself), this season brings warmth to our hearts and joy to our souls. It’s a time where everyone seems a little more caring and the lights sparkle a little more. It’s full of delicious food, amazing smells, and beautiful decorations. We take time for family and friends and tend to be more generous than other times in the year.
For some, this season is the opposite. It breeds pain from past memories or broken hearts from feeling neglected. They might be stressed because the bank account is too low and the expectations are too high. They might be struggling with a recent death or loss of a job. It isn’t a season they wish to be a part of.
When we look back on the history of the Bible, the picture before Jesus wasn’t one of joy. God’s people were not thriving. They were not a prosperous or mighty nation. Quite the opposite.
Every year, my family has our own advent tradition. We have a mini tree with a basket of mini ornaments that we open every day and decorate the tree with. Each of these ornaments is hand painted to represent a Bible story that leads up to the birth of Christ. There is a card with a verse pointing us to a story in Israel’s history. This has been one of the best times for myself, learning how the story knits together a clear picture of the purposeful birth of Jesus Christ. By Christmas Day, I am completely reminded how much not only Israel needed a savior, but so do I.
This advent season, we want to bring you back in time to the place and culture that existed when Jesus was born. We want to create a backdrop of anticipation of the need for a newborn king. We hope to portray the depths of depravity amongst the people that breed the need for hope. To understand the thrill, we need to first grasp the hopelessness.
Are you ready?
The History
I want to take us back to biblical history. We will review God’s work on earth through the outline of the Tanak. I was introduced to the Tanak only recently, and it spoke to my inner nerd. I worked in a Christian bookstore in high school and we were required to take a course in the making of Bibles. This taught us where our modern-day Bibles came from as well as how each version was made. From KJV to The Message, I had to know the basics of how each one was written so I could guide our customers to the Bible they were looking for. I say this because our modern Bibles were laid out in a unique way to tell a story leading up to the coming of Christ. But did you know there are other ways the books of the Bible could be ordered? You could read them chronologically (in the order they were written), you could read them the Hebrew way (Tanak) or the English way (your basic Bible layout).
This season, I want us to use the Tanak order of books. While I don’t personally believe any way is better than another, this year my heart is excited to view things from the way the Hebrews originally ordered their “bible”.
Tanak stands for Torah (first 5 books of the Bible), Nevi’im (prophets), and Ketuvim (wisdom). Each section points to each other in a beautifully climactic way to continuously point you back to the need for a savior.
Instead of spending time trying to explain it all to you, I am going to point you to an amazing resource. I could not teach you better than this.
The Bible Project is an organization that creates resources around biblical history. Their website is found here:
They also have an amazing app you can download.
However, let me invite you to watch their summary of the Old Testament from the lens of the Tanak:
As we review the full history of God’s chosen people, I pray we find ourselves woven into the story. Whether you feel like an Abraham or David, following God with your whole heart- yet still making plenty of mistakes, or possibly a wayward king choosing the things of this world instead of the hope that’s in Christ, I know we can all find ourselves in the story of the Israelites.
At the end of the Old Testament, no matter which order you read it in, we will always find ourselves in Malachi.
He was a prophet of God, a messenger from God. As he begins his message from God, God starts with “I love you”. God’s love is powerful enough to break through every pain. It won’t be in the way expected, but it will bring joy. The people didn’t hear from God for another 200 years. Their last message was both one of love and warnings against the corrupt actions of the people of God. Jesus came to break through all corruption, hurt, and sin. He came to bring us back into the light of God through love.
Friends, as we enter into this season let us be reminded of what came before. Let us prepare our hearts for the celebration of the newborn King.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!
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