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GOD WITH US

Devotional

by Zach Kreeger, Young Life

If you’ve ever been around a woman who is 39 weeks pregnant, you know the feeling. That tender, “don’t bump into her or the baby may come shooting out,” feeling. At this point of pregnancy, the melting pot of emotions: Expectation. Hope. Fear. Pain. Uncomfortability. Desire. Anxiety. Exhaustion. Patience. You know that its coming!

What we refer to as the “Intertertestamental Period” (the time between Old and New Testaments - about 400 years) were, in some ways, four centuries of “week 39.” Israel had been told that God was coming for them. That he would come down to rule. That he would fulfill his covenant promise to them. It would happen. When? Any day. And for them, like for us, they were invited not to look at a swelling belly of a loved one, but to hear and trust the words of their prophets. Would it ever happen? Would God ever come to save? Could he be taken at his word? Did they hear him right? And unlike a pregnancy, a few more emotional words enter the scene: Uncertainty. Hopelessness. Cynicism. Anger. Trust. Resentfulness. Doubt. Faith.

How do you wait? Of the two lists above, which words stick out? Do you find yourself waiting more like someone anticipating a baby or more like someone watching the 4th quarter of a Broncos game thinking to themselves, “maybe…but maybe not?”

In Galatians 4:4, Paul makes strong mention of what God was up to during this Intertestamental time. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman…” The greek word for “fullness” here is ‘pleroma.’ It speaks to the completion of a time period… like winter… completing its final day. Like a pregnant woman, there is a time that is ‘right’ for his son to come. God is not erratic, random, or reactive. He is intentional, planned, and purposeful. For him, the waiting time is done with an end in mind. However that end is explicitly hidden from humankind. We have to trust him. So, while it’s easy to see wise men and shepherds in a nativity set seemingly fist pumping over the baby, what can often be unseen is the exhaustion on the face of Mary… and of Israel. The battered faith that is barely surviving to get to the manger scene of anyone who is waiting, like Simeon…and like Israel. The relief that is rooted in prayers made in the wee hours of the morning when sleep seemed fleeting like Anna… and like Israel (see Simeon and Anna in Luke 2:22-40). How we wait is important. We can be active or passive. Hopeful or doubtful. Do we wait expectantly as we would for a baby that we know is to come or with an exhausted “maybe?” What words do you attach to your waiting? How do you