Review article

The Advent Hope in the Old Testament

Niels-Eric Andreasen ; Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, SAD

Abstract

Hope is an integral part of Old Testament faith. To believe in the God of the Old Testament means to hope, hope in Him who comes. To be sure, Israel hoped for many things—land, freedom, rest, peace, et cetera—but these hopes never depended upon that which Israel could accomplish for herself. Rather, their hope depended upon God, specifically that God Himself would come to fulfill His promises to them. Hence, Old Testament hope is ultimately an advent hope.
How will all the promises of God be fulfilled and how will the Old Testament advent hope be honored? The answer to this question has many facets, like a cut jewel. God will send a victor to defeat the enemy; He will send a prophet to teach the people, a priest to mediate and minister, a servant who will lay down His own life for the sake of His people, a royal messiah to rule in righteousness, justice, and peace forever, a Son of man to hold dominion over the whole world at the end of time when the judgment will sit, and God will come to redeem His own. This advent hope persists throughout the pages of the Old Testament. Beginning in Genesis and rising to a crescendo in the Psalms, it shouts from the pages of the prophets and echoes down through coming centuries.
Hundreds of years later Jesus Christ came and assembled in His own unique person the fulfillment of all the facets composing the Old Testament advent hope. He is that victor who defeated the enemy by treading him underfoot. He is the prophet to come, God’s Word to us, He is the faithful high priest who brought His own sacrifice for many. He is the servant who laid down His life for others. He is God’s Messiah, whose kingdom of justice and peace is not of this world. He is the Son of man, our judge, and our redeemer. This Old Testament advent hope was fulfilled in the first advent as reported in the New Testament. However, although Christ fulfilled all these promises, the advent hope itself was not consummated in New Testament times, for Christ was rejected by His own people, crucified, and He died.
Consequently, the New Testament, like the Old Testament, becomes a book of promise and hope. It begins with a promise of one born, to be named Jesus, “ ‘for he will save his people from their sins,’ ” (Matt. 1:21), and of Immanuel, which is “God with us” (Matt. 1:23), and like the Old Testament it too ends with a promise: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20)

Keywords

Advent-Hope; Old-Testament; Messiah; Son-of-Man

Hrčak ID:

99659

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/99659

Publication date:

20.12.1999.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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