Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ

by Fleming Rutledge

“Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth” (Isa. 65:17). Before the exile and the destruction of all of Israel’s hopes, there was no need for this kind of promise; the work of God would proceed in the land shown to Moses from afar and given to the descendants of Abraham, with Jerusalem and its temple as the constant sign of God’s presence and favor. When the temple was destroyed and the people carried off to mighty, ultra-pagan Babylon, it seemed to signal the departure of God, the breaking of the promise, and the end of hope. When, therefore, the unknown prophet of the exile began his long prophetic poem with “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,” a new note was sounded and a completely different basis for hope was proclaimed. It was no longer possible to project a future with God out of the experiences of the past. The apocalyptic outlook that arose during the time of the exile was disjunctive in character; it looked, not to Israel’s past glories and expectations, but to a completely new, unexpected, and most of all undeserved movement of God from the future. Thus, a “breakthrough from heaven.”