The Messiah’s Silent and Loud Arrivals

By Chaplain (Col) Stephen W. Leonard, USA, Ret.

After millenniums of a myriad of prophesies that Messiah was going to come, all the way from Genesis 3:15 in the primeval Garden of Eden to Malachi 4, the final Chapter of the Old Testament, Jesus silently arrives in little Bethlehem, with only a few shepherds, besides Joseph and Mary, to worship the “only begotten” Son of God.

This first Advent came suddenly after thousands of years of patiently waiting when the living Word appeared in a stable wrapped in the swaddling baby cloths of an infant, lying in a manger no less.

This entrance was not accompanied with loud-sounding trumpets or drum rolls, the presence of royalty or VIPs, but in the silent rhythms of a tiny village, the bleating of a few sheep and the low mooing of some cows.

In the days that followed Messiah’s birth, Joseph and Mary located a small house in which to live, Joseph opened a carpenter shop, and the family of three began a quiet life in Bethlehem, far from their family-community in Nazareth.

For all the prophetic utterances of the past leading up to Jesus’ birth, the Messiah began his earthly life quietly with no fanfare in the least. The angels of heaven may have been rejoicing en masse, but Mary and Joseph without any family or friends as they began life alone with baby Jesus.

No one celebrated his birth other than a few shepherds, the parents, and the visit of some foreign Magi. No one was looking for his birth other than little-known Simeon and Anna in Jerusalem.

This was an Advent that was nothing like the Advent that is yet coming. Then, “every eye will see Him.” The second coming of the King of Kings will be an all-world event, nothing like Jesus’s first Advent. Rather, it will be known by all. No one will be ignorant of the Second Coming.

After tens of thousands of years of prophesying Messiah’s Advent, you would think his first coming would be a big thing in the world. In fact, almost all the world missed it. If it were not for the Magi, who threw King Herod into a tizzy, fearful of a potential competitor for his kingship, there would have been absolutely no one who even acknowledged Jesus’ birth.

But Herod, on the other hand, responded with violent and murderous actions in attempting to kill the unknown Jesus, as the Magi avoided Herod instead of coming back to tell him where he could find find Jesus.

Angels protecting the Son of God warned Joseph in a dream of Herod’s pernicious plans to kill Jesus. So Joseph and Mary spirited him away into Egypt in the dead of night to avoid the soldiers of Herod.

The relative silence of Jesus’ arrival was deafening, considering so many years of foretelling Messiah. Only such as Mary and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna, and the Magi anticipated the actual coming of the Son of God into the world. Though many in Israel waited for a Messiah, they all actually missed it when he came. They really looked for one to eliminate the oppression of Rome.

The preparation for God’s Chosen One required attendance to his Word. Studying this Word carefully, meditating on it, and doing it, is what is required of those who wish to be ready for his coming again, just as the five virgins who had oil in their lamps and hence go out to meet the bridegroom at midnight.

As Matthew 24 and 25 warn, no one knows the time or hour of his coming. So be ready. For those who miss His 2nd coming will wail loudly and mourn (Revelation 1) when He comes.

There will be no excuse for those who are not ready when Jesus returns again. None at all. One will be taken and the other left! Five virgins will go in to be welcomed by the Bridegroom, while five will be shut out by a locked door. The sheep on His right will be received into eternal glory, the goats on His left into eternal punishment. The wailing and mourning of those “goats” will drown out all other sounds. So eagerly be looking for the Second Coming of Christ.

Encouragement