Anticipating the Messiah

It’s almost Christmas. The thing about Christmas is, during most of the year it seems forever away. But then it comes. Every year that day finally comes.

Some of our small to tiny nativities, surrounding a favorite
verse of scripture from the Book of Mormon: 2 Nephi 25:26

I’ve been thinking about that anticipation. The Old Testament points us to what to look for at His coming. The sacrifices. The lamb without blemish. So many verses that, when we hear them, we hear the music of Handel’s Messiah using those words as lyrics.

·        Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

·        Job 19:25-26  25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:  26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.

·        Isaiah 7:14 Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

·        Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

·        Isaiah 35:5-6   5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.  6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.

·        Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

·        Isaiah 53:4-5  4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

·        Isaiah 53: 6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Somewhere to the east of Jerusalem were the wise men, educated, possibly royal, who were looking up at the skies to see the star indicating He would be born. They knew it when they saw it, knew its meaning. And they went into action to travel, so that they could witness that they had seen Him, the prophesied Messiah. They must have been watching, maybe much of their lives, recognizing that the time was nigh for the star to appear.

The grandkids (2020) portraying the wise men looking to the follow the star.

In another part of the world, a story we get from the Book of Mormon, we have a prophecy around 5 BC that in five years’ time the Messiah would be born; the sign would be a night of no darkness. The population was a mix of believers and unbelievers. The unbelievers did not believe in religious freedom. What would it have hurt them to have people among them who were believers? Yet, as the five years drew to a close, they started saying the prophecy was proven false. They mocked. And worse, they proclaimed that, on a certain day, if the sign did not come, the believers would be put to death.

Five years could be an exact time frame, a set number of days. Or it could be an approximation—anywhere from within a couple of months before five years up to maybe five and a half years or so. The believers weren’t ready to say, “You’re right; it didn’t happen.” They saw it as still in the range of five years or so. “They did watch steadfastly for that day and that night and that day which should be as one day as if there were no night” (3 Nephi 1:8). They were faithful believers. But they were also fearful that the designated execution day might arrive before the sign was given.

Their prophet, Nephi (one of several prophets by that name whose stories are recounted in the 1,000-year history of the Book of Mormon peoples) went to the Lord. And he was told, “Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world” (3 Nephi 1:13). The prophecy was indeed fulfilled: “At the going down of the sun there was no darkness; and the people began to be astonished because there was no darkness when the night came” (3 Nephi 1:15).

By the way, when the dark of night came the next day, sure enough, “a new star did appear, according to the word” (3 Nephi 1:21).

Some people were convinced of the reality of their Lord and Savior because of the sign given; others were convinced that those prophesies had come true, yet they found ways to convince themselves and others that they could go on living their lives of sin unchanged. That’s a thing about miracles; they increase the faith of the faithful, but they don’t convince those who refuse to be convinced.

If you’ve been watching The Chosen, you’ll see that. Many people want to follow the Savior—because they have seen the miracles and recognized the source. Others try to stop Him, try to stop those who follow Him, try to frame what He does as blasphemy or some other crime, rather than seeing what ought to be clear, right in front of them, because of the scriptures they are familiar with from all their study.

I’d like to go back to that idea of anticipation. We can look at those times, and imagine what it must have felt like to anticipate His first coming. Those people of Nephi, waiting, watching, day after day, knowing the Great Day would come soon. And be fearful that it might not come soon enough. But they would watch faithfully anyway.

What we know, from the testimonies of the New Testament—and the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Christ—is that He did come. Jesus of Nazareth was born, according to prophecy, ministered and taught and established His Church. And he was crucified, as prophesied. And He rose from the dead, a glorified, resurrected being, on the third day, as prophesied.

First page of a quick search for
"in that day" in the Old Testament.

So much of the Old Testament looks toward Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection. But the next most common reference in the Old Testament—and added to in the New Testament—is the day of His Second Coming. “In that day…” the scriptures will say, or possibly “in the last days.” One thing we ought to know from His First Coming is that the prophesies come to pass, every detail. They may not look the way anticipating people imagine—in those times, people expected a military conqueror who would free them from political oppression, yet He told them, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

So some—much—of what we picture for our times we might not recognize, or understand. But the prophesies will be fulfilled. But there are enough things happening that we can see clearly, such as “calling evil good and good evil,” that we ought to be paying attention.

So we’re anticipating, again, these two millennia later, the imminent coming of our Messiah. The annual anticipation of the Christmas celebration of His birth is a metaphor for that waiting that we’re doing. It seems the day will never come. Then it seems imminent, and we scramble to make ready—to get and wrap the presents, prepare the special foods, learn the music, make plans for gathering together; or, in a spiritual sense, to make sure we have oil in our lamps in time for Him to come.

Oil lamp, as in the parable of the ten virgins,
image found here

Then, following the hurry of the imminent arrival, the day comes. For us, annually, it comes. And in a coming day, that Great Day of His Second Coming will come. For now, may our annual Christmas celebration be always a reminder that our anticipation is not in vain. He will come. May that day come quickly.