Expanding our minds in Advent

This reflection is part of the Assembly's 2024 Advent series, 'Expanding Advent'. In the context of the devastating war in Palestine and Israel and the broader Middle East, this series offers a range of resources from diverse voices and locations, to enrich our reflection, worship, singing, and prayer during this season.

written by Dr Rachel Krohn, Lecturer in Old Testament and Hebrew at Trinity College Queensland

On December 1, churches around the world celebrated the hope that the Advent season brings. In the second week, we set our hearts on peace, recognising that current conflicts in the world may make both hope and peace feel scarce.

When Christian people discover I’m a lecturer in Old Testament and biblical languages, two questions tend to arise: Can you check the spelling of this Hebrew tattoo I want to get? and, What do you make of current events in Israel?  Of these two questions, I prefer the former. Spell-checking Hebrew words I can do; explaining contemporary events in the Middle East, not so much. I’m not a political scientist or a historian of the post-World War II political order, so why do I get this question from fellow Christians? I’ll venture a couple of guesses here.

First, many Christians do not recognise a distinction between the Israel they read about in the Bible and the one they read about in the newspaper. There is a tendency to perceive a 1-to-1 relation between the two. Coupled with this is a general sense that modern Israelis and/or adherents to Judaism are (or at least were) “God’s people” because of the covenant God made  with them.[1] Whether Christians understand that covenant to be eternal, superseded by the new Christian covenant, or something else altogether, there is a general sense that God maintains a distinct disposition toward Israel, whether religiously or ethnically construed.[2]

Second, many Christians believe that the physical land of Israel (however its borders are drawn) and the presence of Jewish people in that physical space has something to do with eschatology – the “end times.” For these Christians, conflict in Israel and Palestine has otherworldly implications, and “peace in the Middle East” is not just a lofty goal; it is a matter of eternal importance.

Since October 7, 2023, I have wondered how biblical passages that refer to Israel are heard in our congregations. In a reflection in the first week, Matthew Julius wrote, “The language of Israel and Jerusalem in the Christian tradition are never simply about particular places and people.” The word “simply” is an important qualifier. The church has a long and complex history of interpreting the significance of peoples and places we encounter in the Bible.

Whether one understands the descendants of Abraham and the land promised to them as historically discrete entities whose significance is anchored in the past, or as “types” whose significance are fulfilled and extended into the present (or a combination of these two), for centuries, the belief that God is involved with peoples and places here on earth has been central. To rephrase Matthew’s sentiment, “The language of Israel and Jerusalem in the Christian tradition are never simply about particular places and people” in the past, but historically speaking, the language has also been interpreted as no less than that.

We may accept Matthew’s invitation to expand our language this Advent by using alternative phrases. This is one way to flesh out the significance of the names of people groups and geographical locations without inappropriately importing our contemporary usage of those names and places into biblical texts. This week, I invite us to expand our minds by retaining the words of the scriptures and interpreting them with care.

First, as a matter of clarification, the “Israel” described in the scriptures is not the modern nation state, and the people of Israel described in the Bible was not ethnically exclusive for most of its existence. When God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, “A mixed crowd also went up with them” (Exodus 12.38 NRSVue), and that diverse people group became part of the nation of Israel.

When the Israelites first entered the land of promise, a Canaanite woman named Rahab confessed faith in the Lord, the God of Israel, and became part of the people of promise (Joshua 2). When Joshua asked the mysterious “commander of the army of the Lord” on the outskirts of Jericho whether the commander was for Israel or for its enemies, the commander of the army replied simply “No; But I am commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come!” (Josh 5.13-15). When the Moabite widow Ruth pledged allegiance to her Israelite mother-in-law and the God of Israel, she was not only welcomed into the nation, but became the great-great-grandmother of the famous king David, whose line extends to Jesus of Nazareth (Ruth 4.17-22; Matthew 1.1).

For most of the biblical story, “Israel” was not restricted to the descendants of Abraham.[3] What’s more, the geographical borders of biblical Israel waxed and waned even within the time periods referenced in the Bible. Expanding our minds this Advent may involve embracing careful and critical thinking and setting aside simplistic 1-to-1 comparisons that are not only unhelpful, but also unhistorical.

A second way to expand our minds is to embrace humility. As we think about current events in the troubled lands of our world, we must recognise that our times are in God’s hands (Psalm 31.15), and God alone “knows the hour” and conditions of Christ’s second advent (Matthew 24.36-44). Embracing humility may seem a counterintuitive way to expand our minds, but it is only as we step back from our long-held theological and eschatological beliefs that we can consider them more carefully and recognise that ours may not be the only faithful reading.

When we consider the state of the world and its various conflicts, we can take comfort in the fact that what we think about these conflicts is much less important than how we respond to them. We need not pass judgment on who is oppressor and who is oppressed, what level of force is justified in self defense and what constitutes disproportionate acts of violence, in world events that are much more storied and complex even for experts to understand completely. There is a difference between “taking a stand” on matters over which we have some agency and recognising that our best stand might be fervent prayer and faith-keeping, even if that looks to the world like inaction. Only God has God’s perspective on world events. Taking this truth to heart liberates us from the need to pick a “team” to root for in world events that we not only know little about but can do little in our own power to change.

The recognition of our powerlessness to make the peace for which we long can lead us to prayer, crying out with the psalmists for God to constrain the wicked and uplift the righteous. We do not need to decide which nations or leaders are wicked and which are righteous in order to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, and we do not need to have a sophisticated understanding of world conflicts in order to pray and act for peace.

As we continue observing Advent together, let us commit ourselves to humble and fervent prayer, defiantly choosing hope and praying for peace as a pilgrim people on God’s way.