Hope College Devotions

LORD, you were favorable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you covered all their sin.   Selah

Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
but let them not turn back to folly.
Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.

Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.
Yes, the LORD will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before him
and make his footsteps a way.
Psalm 85:1–2, 8–13

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This psalm begins with a declaration of God’s forgiveness and favor extended to His chosen people after they had experienced, for a time, the consequences of their sin. Furthermore, God brought about restoration of what had been lost when His people turned away from Him. We see this pattern being replayed over and over again as we read the historical accounts recorded in the Bible.

In a few days, we will celebrate the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel — God with us. In Him, steadfast love, faithfulness, righteousness and peace dwell. Like the Israelites of old, even when we “turn back to folly” (v. 8) and do things our own way, we too can experience the forgiveness and restoration the psalmist proclaims when we humble ourselves before God and acknowledge that He knows better than we do.

But more than that, we can enjoy a deeper relationship with God because of the coming of Jesus. He came to reconcile mankind to God at a deeper level. Those who accept the offer of salvation Jesus brings are like the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament of the Bible: vessels in which God dwells through His Holy Spirit! 

May this truth bring us to our knees in wonder and worship.

Prayer:

Almighty God, thank you for your gift of salvation through Jesus! Forgive us for all the times we turn away from you and grieve your heart. Help us to humble ourselves before you and live lives that glorify you. May your peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7) and your joy that is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10) fill our hearts this Christmas season and beyond. May we live from day to day with thankful hearts and look to the future with hope. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Dr. Omofolakunmi Olagbemi is an assistant professor of computer science at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the LORD blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.

Go on up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!”
Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.
Isaiah 40:3–11

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The mortality rate for human beings remains steady at the alarming rate of 100%. “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass” (Isaiah 40:6–7). Our mortal flesh is fragile. It passes away like grass: here for only a brief season before it withers away. While this may seem like a morbid reflection for Advent, this is, in fact, the beginning of Wisdom. “Teach us to number our days,” the Psalmist prays, “that we may gain wisdom of heart” (Psalm 90:12). 

God did not want us to live in the Garden forever as fallen human beings. Mortality is one more of God’s mysterious blessings. The horizon of our life encourages us to take life seriously, to live it with purpose. It gives our actions gravity and meaning. It makes life poignant: my beautiful two-year old daughter, sitting on my lap as I write this, with her golden curls and mischievous smile, will blossom into a lovely young woman but will eventually fade like the rest of us. 

But, withering and fading are not the last word! “Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might,” Isaiah cries, before he changes the imagery. “He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom” (Isaiah 40:10–11). We are fragile flesh destined to pass away, yet we are also sheep whom God will feed, gather, and carry close to his heart. 

How does this make sense!? Only in the mystery of Christmas. Only in Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God become our fragile flesh, who through his human fragility gives us the gift of eternal life. 

Dr. Jared Ortiz is an associate professor of religion at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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“But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake — for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning — lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”
Mark 13:24–37

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Traditionally, Advent draws our attention both to the Second Coming of Christ and to Christmas. The Church has long considered these Christophanies — these revelations of the person of Christ — to be mutually illuminating. Thus, as Mark’s Gospel speaks of the end times it affords us an opportunity to better appreciate the annual festival of Christ’s birth.

The image presented is one of dying light. The sun darkens, the moon wanes, the stars fall from the sky, and the very heavens convulse as if in death throes. But, as the celestial bodies fail, the true Heavenly Body, the God-man, bursts forth in the brilliance of his glory and draws his faithful to himself.

In the context of the liturgical year, the diminishing of sun, moon, and stars corresponds to the shortening of days that begins in midsummer: Christmas (in the northern hemisphere) occurs in the darkest time of the year. But, in the darkness and coldness of winter, the sun is on the move; the sun approaches.

Such is the comfort that Christ offers us. Whatever the dark and chill of our lives, whatever our sins and brokenness, the Son is on the move; the Son approaches. His light cannot be overcome by our darkness; rather, he draws us into true life even as the creaturely consolations we had relied on fail and fade away. No matter how ugly or disfigured our lives become, the living God can transfigure us.

Indeed, Christmas confirms that even when we do not feel it, God’s hidden Providence is ever active. The Nativity is not the Incarnation, but its revelation: for nine months, in the warm darkness of Mary’s womb, God has been knitting together our redemption. Every moment is the hour of the Father’s judgment — and mercy: Jesus awakens us to see God’s closeness.

Dr. Kevin Kambo is an assistant professor of philosophy at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall become straight,
and the rough places shall become level ways,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
Luke 3:1–6

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Like John the Baptist, I, too, spend a lot of time in nature. I feel at peace in the woods or by a body of water. The stresses of the day-to-day seem to dissolve. I hear God speaking through his creation. 

So, how would I respond if God gave me a sudden calling to “Go! Prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight”? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? What if I needed to leave that safe haven at once and bring the Word of God to new places that were very different? Similarly, what if a co-worker asked you to write an Advent devotional for the entire Hope community? And, typically you stick to art and design – not the writing portion. 

If I were to be totally honest with myself (and you), I would most likely deny I heard the call correctly. “That can’t be meant for me to do…”  I would also most likely make up a bunch of excuses of why I’m not equipped. I would think “someone else who has more experience” can do this more effectively than I can. 

Well, I listened to God’s calling this week and stepped out of my comfort zone. I pray that my honest words and response to this passage speak to your hearts like it did to mine. It is easy to stick to our normal surroundings and behaviors. But, God likes to pick unique characters — ones that may be a little more unexpected.

Let us all prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight. Let us share the good news of Christ the Lord with everyone, so that they may repent and receive the forgiveness of sins.

Samantha Bruin is a graphic designer at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
Then we shall not turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call upon your name!

Restore us, O LORD God of hosts!
Let your face shine, that we may be saved!
Psalm 80:17–19

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When I was about 5 years old, in the summer of 1986, I sat with my dad in the living room of our third floor, unairconditioned apartment on Maverick Street in East Boston. He walked over to our record player and thumbed through a collection of albums he had carefully organized on a rack on the living room floor. He played me some of his favorite records, some of which I liked, others of which puzzled me. I especially liked his Springsteen records. I could feel an intensity and earnestness that I would only later understand was driven by his commitment to exploring the tension between communal life and individual freedom.

Technology has pushed us out of communal spaces into ever more private ones. The shared living room stereo system with wall-to-ceiling speakers perfect for full-family enjoyment (or groaning) became the iPhone with a pair of Beats to help teens “keep down that racket.” The movie theater with a whole audience of viewers became the family room television, which has now transformed into Netflix on a tablet with the aforementioned pair of Beats. Four people in the same room now inhabit entirely different worlds. On top of all that, social media curates content for us through complex algorithms that, in the end, do little more than match you and me with companies selling us Metamucil or yoga pants or sandals with surgical precision.

We are now in the midst of, perhaps, a fourth wave of a global trauma. It has affected different people, different cultures, different countries in vastly different ways. In the early stages of the pandemic, we all retreated to those private spaces we’ve been inhabiting more closely. Social distancing. Masking. Our rugged individualism has experienced a communal trauma.

The speakers of Psalm 80 offer a communal lament in an effort to find comfort in a community reckoning with an irretrievable loss. They don’t know what to do or where to turn, when we experience something beyond our control, we turn to the Lord. When God’s hand is on us, we can succeed in what we do. God makes us strong enough to bring our community back to life.

As 2021 hurtles to a close, I find myself praying that we can find some communal life: “Restore us, O Lord God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved!”

Dr. Stephen Maiullo is an associate professor of classics and chair of the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.
You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.

But now, O LORD, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Be not so terribly angry, O LORD,
and remember not iniquity forever.
Behold, please look, we are all your people.
Isaiah 64:1–9

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How often have I cast my gaze too resolutely forward to Christmas during these four weeks of Advent. Too eagerly do I await the Incarnation. Too comfortably do I prepare for the Season of Seasons. 

Decorate the tree. Make sure the lights are properly spaced.

Wrap the gifts. Don’t let the grandchildren see.

Greet the bell-ringer. Smile as a fiver falls into the red kettle. 

Christmas is coming, but Advent is here. Now. The Great Promise-Fulfilled looms. But the Time of Preparation is today. I long for the comfort of the Silent Night of the shepherds tending their flocks and the Announcing Angels and the star guiding Those of Good Will to the crib for some Peace on Earth. 

But before this comes the honest speech that a heart yearning for His forgiveness requires. Comfort has its place, but today’s words from Isaiah are hard-edged: Rend. Fire. Boil. Adversaries. Quake. Angry. Sinned. Unclean. Polluted. Hidden.

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive others. As unworthy as we are, be merciful Oh Source of Mercy. Then shall we come before You, our mouths filled with joyful Hosannas. 

Dr. Richard Ray is a professor of kinesiology and provost emeritus at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
Luke 1:39–45

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Even when God whispers His sacred voice into our spiritual ears, we can often doubt his plans and purposes for us. We often focus on frailties, shortcomings and deeply ingrained insecurities. Perhaps Mary was feeling these things during this time. Doubting the awesome purpose she had been called to fulfill. Not only would she have a divine virgin birth, but that she would birth the eternal Savior of the world.

In those moments of doubt, when we know the Godly plans for us (which often do not align to human and secular expectations and reasonings), God connects us with His people. In today’s passage, Elizabeth speaks a confirming word — Mary, you are blessed; the fruit of your womb is blessed. When these words were spoken, maybe they acted to erase some of the doubt Mary may have been feeling. With these words of divine confirmation, perhaps Mary recognized that God’s plan for her would be enacted via His power in and onto her life.

Let us pray to remind ourselves that God’s plan and purposes for our lives are possible through His power that conquers every frailty and weakness that we humbly submit to Him. Let us give thanks for the “Elizabeths” that speak Godly confirmations to us, helping us realize that God has chosen us for His awesome purpose and plans.

Dr. Gerald Griffin is the interim provost at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:5–10

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In today’s passage, we’re reminded of the New Covenant that came about through Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Christ fulfilled the Old Covenant and its system of priests, burnt offerings and animal sacrifices by atoning for our sins and freeing us to live no longer under the law but under God’s grace. I know I need this reminder often and perhaps especially during this Advent time of waiting. 

At the beginning of our passage, the Hebrews writer references Psalm 40:6–8, but instead of ascribing the words to David, the original psalmist, the Hebrews writer ascribes them to Christ. 

As an English education professor at Hope, I love studying these sorts of rhetorical moves and how they point to the many examples of foreshadowing in the Old Testament. Finding these and other literary devices in Scripture adds to my delight in reading God’s living Word and deepens my understanding of God and His plan for His people. It’s one of the reasons that I think everyone should take literature classes!

David wrote Psalm 40 during a time when God’s people, the Israelites, were called to show faithful obedience within the Old Covenant, a sacrificial system that required external atonement for sins. Even within this system, David reflects that desiring to do God’s will needs to come first.

When we consider these same words as spoken by Christ, the idea of desiring God’s will becomes even richer to us. That Jesus was willing to become the one and only sacrifice was possible only because of the wholehearted obedience that he showed to God’s will throughout the entirety of his life, from his birth to his death on the cross. Because of this obedience, Christ paid for all of our sins and allowed us to be sanctified. Because of this obedience, David’s prayer to God later on in Psalm 40: “Do not withhold your mercy from me Lord, may your love and faithfulness always protect me” (v. 11–12) is no longer a request but a certainty because of our membership in the New Covenant.

During this Advent season, may we find comfort in Christ’s wholehearted obedience to God’s will. May we follow Christ’s example in orienting our own lives to God’s will and live out and into the New Covenant with freedom, grace and joy.

Dr. Deborah Van Duinen is an associate professor of education at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
stir up your might
and come to save us!
Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!
O LORD God of hosts,
how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
You have fed them with the bread of tears
and given them tears to drink in full measure.
You make us an object of contention for our neighbors,
and our enemies laugh among themselves.
Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!
Psalm 80:1–7

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Where is our God of comfort? In whom do we seek repose? In today’s reading, we hear of an angry God, refusing to answer the prayers of the people and causing them to “drink tears by the bowlful.”

Often in life, we feel God is angry with us as tragedy descends. We pray and our prayers are not answered. We try to live a holy life and find one roadblock after another thrown in front of us. And we ask ourselves, where is God now? Why are we suffering? Where is our God of comfort?

We are a people of quick answers, and getting no answer, no matter what the speed, is unthinkable! So when the world does not make sense to us, we want God to provide us with an answer, and preferably sooner rather than later. What is hard is developing the patience to wait for an answer and acknowledging that one may not come or that we may not be able to comprehend the answer we receive. We are humans, we are broken, and we are limited in what we understand. 

The psalmist here is suffering but is not seeking a quick answer. He is simply making a plea to God to “make your face shine upon us.” There are no requests for answers or even questioning why this suffering is happening. He simply acknowledges in the depths of his pain his desire to feel the embrace of God, to bask in God’s light.

As we journey forward in the Advent season, we cannot understand, and do not need to understand, all that happens. Like Mary, traveling while ready to give birth to a child whose presence is beyond her understanding, we can simply seek God’s presence.

Derek Emerson is the director of events, conferences and the Haworth Hotel at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
Luke 1:46–55

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Mary’s words of praise were uttered in the reign of Augustus Caesar (r. 27 BCE–14 CE), when she was pregnant with the Lord Jesus. All around her was evidence of Roman power — the soldiers occupying Palestine, the decree that would send her and Joseph to Bethlehem, the taxes that had to be paid to Rome. 

Virgil (70–19 BCE) had praised Augustus Caesar as “son of a god, who will renew a golden age in Latium” in his great epic, The Aeneid (6.1049–50). Yet Mary carried in her womb another king, who was and is the true Son of God. 

Augustus defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra and ended the Roman civil wars. Mary’s God scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts and brought down the mighty from their thrones. Augustus created the principate, subtly changing the defunct Roman republic into an empire. Mary’s God sent the rich away empty and filled the hungry with good things. 

Mary’s words exuded a confidence and joy that defied the “reality” in which she lived. Is not this a picture of the two-fold reality in which God’s people have lived throughout the ages? Each age has its own Augustus and manifestations of Augustan might, but the eternal God who came to his people in Mary’s womb continues to bring down the mighty from their thrones, to scatter the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, and to fill the hungry with good things. 

Mary’s song of praise offers comfort indeed — but not for the proud and mighty and rich whose king is Augustus, whom (if we are honest) God’s people often envy and emulate consciously or subconsciously. The comfort is for the hungry, who look for a greater kingdom than the Augustan empire.

Dr. Gloria Tseng is an associate professor of history at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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