Read: Micah 5: 2-5a
What does peace look like to you? In a world that is seemingly overrun by unrest, competition, and strife, what does peace look like? As I write this, the picture of peace for me is my cat. In the last few moments, he has gone from chasing a wad of paper around the room to settling in on my lap for nap; he is purring and hasn't a care in the world. There are times when I find myself envious of that cat. Maybe there are times when you find yourself envious of your image of peace--wanting to escape to THAT reality instead of the current reality we find ourselves in.
Micah's prophecy is important in showing Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promise of a Messiah. The most quoted and known part is Micah's foretelling of the Messiah's birth in Bethlehem. It was this prophecy that led to the Magi being sent to Bethlehem to find the One whose star they had seen (Mat. 2: 1-11). However, the prophecy about Bethlehem is not the only important part of this passage. Verse 5 holds an important statement and prophecy concerning Jesus: "he will be their peace". Micah's prophecy is that Jesus will be the peace that Israel, and all the world, craves. This promise is not, though, a peace in the sense of an end to wars and political strife. It is a promise of spiritual peace, a peace with God that is unparalleled on this earth.
Against the backdrop of all that is going on in Israel during the time of Micah and the other prophets--invasion, conquest, captivity, and exile at the hands of neighboring empires--is the reality that Israel's sin had broken the covenant with God and that Israel had turned away from God. All that was going on was a result of Israel's desertion of God; it was God's punishment upon Israel. This kind of relationship pained God, so God had to do something about it. That "something" was the offering of God's Son, Jesus, to be the peace between God and Creation. In Christ, we no longer need to fear to the judgment and wrath of God. In Christ, we need not be torn by internal and external conflict. In Christ, we need not be subject to guilt and shame. Christ indeed is the Prince of Peace. The prophecy of Micah is a reminder that God's desire for us is that overwhelmine peace that allows us to be secure, not matter what is raging all around us. My prayer this Christmas is that we might all experience, either again or for the first time, the peace that God offers to us in Christ Jesus.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
Singing with Angels
Read: Luke 2: 8-20
Of all the things I love about the Christmas season, one my favorites is the music. The music of the season, both secular and sacred, has a way of bringing a smile to my face. In many of the Scripture passages of the Advent and Christmas season, we find our ancestors in faith bursting into song--Mary at Gabriel's announcement of Jesus' conception, Zechariah at the birth of John the Baptist, Simeon at the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, and the angelic chorus that heraled the birth of the Messiah. If we were to read of this accounts, we find these songs share a common trait: they are all sung as praises to God--praises, predominately, for God's faithfulness to individuals and to God's people.
One of the invitations we receive at Christmastime is to join in the choruses of praise to God. Remember, this time of year is all about what God has done trusting in what God will do; it is a time to sing of God's glory and praise. There is something mystical about losing ourself in praise and worship. It is as if nothing else matters or is even going on. These are moments of pure joy and wondrous peace and tranquility, and there is nothing else like it. Sometimes, though, we tend to relegate these moments to worship on Sunday (or whenever you happen to worship), and are afraid to enjoy them throughout the week. One of the great privelages God gives us is to worship whenever and wherever we like. Today, I want to invite you to experiment with the joy of worshipping God. Try this out--try allowing inward praise and singing to permeate your day. At this time of year, maybe a song such as "Angels We Have Heard on High" or "Joy to the World" could lead to those places of worship and praise. Whatever you do, see if you don't meet God in a powerful way!
Of all the things I love about the Christmas season, one my favorites is the music. The music of the season, both secular and sacred, has a way of bringing a smile to my face. In many of the Scripture passages of the Advent and Christmas season, we find our ancestors in faith bursting into song--Mary at Gabriel's announcement of Jesus' conception, Zechariah at the birth of John the Baptist, Simeon at the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, and the angelic chorus that heraled the birth of the Messiah. If we were to read of this accounts, we find these songs share a common trait: they are all sung as praises to God--praises, predominately, for God's faithfulness to individuals and to God's people.
One of the invitations we receive at Christmastime is to join in the choruses of praise to God. Remember, this time of year is all about what God has done trusting in what God will do; it is a time to sing of God's glory and praise. There is something mystical about losing ourself in praise and worship. It is as if nothing else matters or is even going on. These are moments of pure joy and wondrous peace and tranquility, and there is nothing else like it. Sometimes, though, we tend to relegate these moments to worship on Sunday (or whenever you happen to worship), and are afraid to enjoy them throughout the week. One of the great privelages God gives us is to worship whenever and wherever we like. Today, I want to invite you to experiment with the joy of worshipping God. Try this out--try allowing inward praise and singing to permeate your day. At this time of year, maybe a song such as "Angels We Have Heard on High" or "Joy to the World" could lead to those places of worship and praise. Whatever you do, see if you don't meet God in a powerful way!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Overflowing
Read: Isaiah 12: 2-6
Many of our Scripture lessons throughout Advent and Christmas speak of overflowing joy. This joy is both a present and a future state. In the present, the characters of the story rejoice in what God is doing or has done right at that moment. At the same time, these charaters are often looking forward to something of great joy (usually God's final redemption and eternal glory).
Our passage for today is no different. It is a hymn of great praise to God. Read again some of the phrases used by Isaiah, "the LORD is my strength and my song", "give thanks...and call upon his name", "Sing....God has done glorious things", and the list goes on. From the depth of their being, the author is overflowing in praise and gratitude to God. So much so, that it is hard not to get caught up in it as we read it, all these centuries later.
It's easy to praise God, though, when things are going well. When the stresses of life seem manageable, when there is relative peace in our soul, and when we can easily see our overflowing blessings. It is much more difficult to praise when the oppostie is true--the stresses threaten to bury us, peace seems to be nowhere to be found, and it's hard to see even one blessing let alone an abundance. Even in those hard times, we are invited by God to remember who our God is. We are invited to remember that God is our anchor, our strength, and our salvation. It is a reminder that there is nothing in this world that can overpower God, unless we allow it to.
Whether your cup is overflowing with blessings or you find yourself overrun with fear and trouble, I want to invite you to open your heart today to the goodness of God. Take a few moments and either recite or chant the words of Isaiah 12:2-6. Allow the goodness of God to wash over you. It is in moments such as these that we find ourselves near to the heart of God. As we open ourselves to God, God will draw near to us and we will find that peace that all people crave so dearly.
Many of our Scripture lessons throughout Advent and Christmas speak of overflowing joy. This joy is both a present and a future state. In the present, the characters of the story rejoice in what God is doing or has done right at that moment. At the same time, these charaters are often looking forward to something of great joy (usually God's final redemption and eternal glory).
Our passage for today is no different. It is a hymn of great praise to God. Read again some of the phrases used by Isaiah, "the LORD is my strength and my song", "give thanks...and call upon his name", "Sing....God has done glorious things", and the list goes on. From the depth of their being, the author is overflowing in praise and gratitude to God. So much so, that it is hard not to get caught up in it as we read it, all these centuries later.
It's easy to praise God, though, when things are going well. When the stresses of life seem manageable, when there is relative peace in our soul, and when we can easily see our overflowing blessings. It is much more difficult to praise when the oppostie is true--the stresses threaten to bury us, peace seems to be nowhere to be found, and it's hard to see even one blessing let alone an abundance. Even in those hard times, we are invited by God to remember who our God is. We are invited to remember that God is our anchor, our strength, and our salvation. It is a reminder that there is nothing in this world that can overpower God, unless we allow it to.
Whether your cup is overflowing with blessings or you find yourself overrun with fear and trouble, I want to invite you to open your heart today to the goodness of God. Take a few moments and either recite or chant the words of Isaiah 12:2-6. Allow the goodness of God to wash over you. It is in moments such as these that we find ourselves near to the heart of God. As we open ourselves to God, God will draw near to us and we will find that peace that all people crave so dearly.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
From Devastation to Celebration
Read: Zephaniah 3: 14-20
Despair. Overwhelming grief. Confusion. Shock. Fear. These are but a few of the feelings of ancient Israel in this passage from Zephaniah. These feelings are present because the land of Israel has been overrun and Israel lays devestated. There was little to be hopeful for and the overwhelming feeling was that God had abandoned them. Life as they knew it would never be the same and without divine intervention would continue to spiral out of control.
How often does that describe our life? How often do we feel despair or overwhelming grief? I'm guessing many of us have known those emotions. I'm also going to guess that we have had those times when we feel as if God has abandoned us. To say these times are not fun would be an understatement. Indeed, they leave us teetering on the brink of faith and despair.
These times usually give utterance to one of the most yearning questions of faith: why? Why does God allow these things to happen? Why does God allow God's people to feel despair or overwhelming grief or leave them teetering on the brink. In reading the first two chapters of Zephaniah, we find out why God allowed such things to happen to Israel. Israel had, essentially, forsaken God and had fallen away from their special relationship with God. Israel was more concerned with "fitting in" with the neighboring tribes and nations that they forgot all about their covenant with God. As a result, God had to get their attention and direct them back to God. Perhaps that is what God does with us: try to get our attention and direct us back toward God. There is a pithy saying about God not giving us more than we can handle; I'm not a huge fan of this saying because it portrays God as some mean bully. Instead, we can acknowledge the presence of evil in the world and the attempts by the forces of evil to sway us in our faith. In short, there are times when our feelings of despair are the attempts by evil forces to get us to turn away from God.
No matter what the circumstances surrounding the despair and feelings of devastation, God has a word of hope and grace. God declares to Isreal and to us that God will "remove our sorrows", is "mighty to save",and God will "rejoice over us with singing". God's promise is this: God will NEVER leave us abandoned or orphaned and God will continually turn our sorrow into joy and our devastation into celebration. This is the message of Christmas. In Christ, God has restored our joy and transformed our brokenness and heartache into overflowing joy.
As you go about these days, I want to invite you to reflect upon God's promises, remembering that God is faithful to God's promises. I want to invite you to praise God for the promises already fulfilled and ask God for the fulfill those promises you are waiting on to be fulfilled. May God bless you as you wait in remembrance and expecation of the celebration of God's fulfilled promises.
Despair. Overwhelming grief. Confusion. Shock. Fear. These are but a few of the feelings of ancient Israel in this passage from Zephaniah. These feelings are present because the land of Israel has been overrun and Israel lays devestated. There was little to be hopeful for and the overwhelming feeling was that God had abandoned them. Life as they knew it would never be the same and without divine intervention would continue to spiral out of control.
How often does that describe our life? How often do we feel despair or overwhelming grief? I'm guessing many of us have known those emotions. I'm also going to guess that we have had those times when we feel as if God has abandoned us. To say these times are not fun would be an understatement. Indeed, they leave us teetering on the brink of faith and despair.
These times usually give utterance to one of the most yearning questions of faith: why? Why does God allow these things to happen? Why does God allow God's people to feel despair or overwhelming grief or leave them teetering on the brink. In reading the first two chapters of Zephaniah, we find out why God allowed such things to happen to Israel. Israel had, essentially, forsaken God and had fallen away from their special relationship with God. Israel was more concerned with "fitting in" with the neighboring tribes and nations that they forgot all about their covenant with God. As a result, God had to get their attention and direct them back to God. Perhaps that is what God does with us: try to get our attention and direct us back toward God. There is a pithy saying about God not giving us more than we can handle; I'm not a huge fan of this saying because it portrays God as some mean bully. Instead, we can acknowledge the presence of evil in the world and the attempts by the forces of evil to sway us in our faith. In short, there are times when our feelings of despair are the attempts by evil forces to get us to turn away from God.
No matter what the circumstances surrounding the despair and feelings of devastation, God has a word of hope and grace. God declares to Isreal and to us that God will "remove our sorrows", is "mighty to save",and God will "rejoice over us with singing". God's promise is this: God will NEVER leave us abandoned or orphaned and God will continually turn our sorrow into joy and our devastation into celebration. This is the message of Christmas. In Christ, God has restored our joy and transformed our brokenness and heartache into overflowing joy.
As you go about these days, I want to invite you to reflect upon God's promises, remembering that God is faithful to God's promises. I want to invite you to praise God for the promises already fulfilled and ask God for the fulfill those promises you are waiting on to be fulfilled. May God bless you as you wait in remembrance and expecation of the celebration of God's fulfilled promises.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Pondering
Read: Luke 2: 41-52
Over the next week, our devotions are going to be centered around Mary, the mother of Jesus, and embracing and meeting the Messiah through the perspective of his mother. In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic branches of the Christian faith, Mary is given the title theotakos; the English translation for this title is "God-bearer". It gives a beautiful image of Mary, the literal and figurative bearer of Christ to the world. Across the spectrum of the Church, Mary is given varying degrees of reverence--some traditions make her an object of devotion and extreme importance in the life of that particular tradition, other traditions marginalize her as unimportant in the "big picture" of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. I don't intend to engage those differences in this space. Instead, my hope is that we might, in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, engage those things that we can learn from the woman who is the mother of our Lord.
Virtually all the times we encounter Mary in Scripture involve her being enshrouded in crisis. Consider, if you will, these examples: an angel bursts upon the world of an unwed teenager to announce the girl will be pregnant by the Holy Spirit, in the time right after giving birth shepherds appear to worship her child, and having to deal with the ever-increasing independence of a twelve year old. It certainly seems as if Mary's life is steeped in stress and the unexpected. In each instance, though, Mary's response is virtually the same. We are told, especially by Luke, that Mary "ponders" and "treasures" what God says and does. In spite of those stressful circumstances, Mary responds in a contemplative way, seeking to comprehend and be at peace with what God is doing.
I wonder if we could take a lesson from Mary. Each one of us finds our life full of stresses; whether it be the stress of work, of parenthood, or perhaps the stress of making ends meet from day to day. On top of all these other stresses, we find ourselves in the midst of the stresses of the holiday season. How do we handle those stresses of life and the holiday season? What do yo do when it seems like the world is just caving in on you? I cannot begin to imagine some of those stresses that Mary felt. Yet, through all those crisis moments, she stopped to reflect upon what God was doing at that moment.
This holiday season presents us many opportunities to contemplate what God is doing. Those moments might happen during worship on Sunday morning (or whenever you happen to worship), they might occur in your own time of private prayer and Scripture study, or they might come when you just can't take the stress anymore. Whenver those moments come, why not take a moment and ponder and treasure what God is doing? Perhaps God is trying to get your attention somehow, perhaps God is revealing to you all over again the wonder and mystery of the Messiah--God's gift to the world, or perhaps God is simply inviting you to stand back and see what God is going to do next. Whatever God's message to you might be, I pray you might find the time and the space to ponder and treasure the mystery of the Christmas season, and the wonder of God's amazing love.
Over the next week, our devotions are going to be centered around Mary, the mother of Jesus, and embracing and meeting the Messiah through the perspective of his mother. In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic branches of the Christian faith, Mary is given the title theotakos; the English translation for this title is "God-bearer". It gives a beautiful image of Mary, the literal and figurative bearer of Christ to the world. Across the spectrum of the Church, Mary is given varying degrees of reverence--some traditions make her an object of devotion and extreme importance in the life of that particular tradition, other traditions marginalize her as unimportant in the "big picture" of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. I don't intend to engage those differences in this space. Instead, my hope is that we might, in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, engage those things that we can learn from the woman who is the mother of our Lord.
Virtually all the times we encounter Mary in Scripture involve her being enshrouded in crisis. Consider, if you will, these examples: an angel bursts upon the world of an unwed teenager to announce the girl will be pregnant by the Holy Spirit, in the time right after giving birth shepherds appear to worship her child, and having to deal with the ever-increasing independence of a twelve year old. It certainly seems as if Mary's life is steeped in stress and the unexpected. In each instance, though, Mary's response is virtually the same. We are told, especially by Luke, that Mary "ponders" and "treasures" what God says and does. In spite of those stressful circumstances, Mary responds in a contemplative way, seeking to comprehend and be at peace with what God is doing.
I wonder if we could take a lesson from Mary. Each one of us finds our life full of stresses; whether it be the stress of work, of parenthood, or perhaps the stress of making ends meet from day to day. On top of all these other stresses, we find ourselves in the midst of the stresses of the holiday season. How do we handle those stresses of life and the holiday season? What do yo do when it seems like the world is just caving in on you? I cannot begin to imagine some of those stresses that Mary felt. Yet, through all those crisis moments, she stopped to reflect upon what God was doing at that moment.
This holiday season presents us many opportunities to contemplate what God is doing. Those moments might happen during worship on Sunday morning (or whenever you happen to worship), they might occur in your own time of private prayer and Scripture study, or they might come when you just can't take the stress anymore. Whenver those moments come, why not take a moment and ponder and treasure what God is doing? Perhaps God is trying to get your attention somehow, perhaps God is revealing to you all over again the wonder and mystery of the Messiah--God's gift to the world, or perhaps God is simply inviting you to stand back and see what God is going to do next. Whatever God's message to you might be, I pray you might find the time and the space to ponder and treasure the mystery of the Christmas season, and the wonder of God's amazing love.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Good News of Comfort
Read: Isaiah 40: 1-11
We live in a time in history where it is at times difficult to find good news. When I opened my web browser to begin writing this reflection, of the dozen or so news stories on my homepage, eight or nine of them were about something negative--shootings on a college campus, political unrest in different parts of the world, and tragic events from around the world to name a few; the rest of the stories were inconsequential. My point is that we sometimes have to work to find any piece of good news today. Let's not be naive, though, there is much good news; we just don't hear about it much.
For the people of ancient Israel who first heard Isaiah's message, things were bleak. Their nation had been overrun. Many of their people had been killed, and those who weren't killed were carried off into captivity in a foreign land. Yet in the midst of this bleakness, God says to them "Comfort, comfort, my people". Isaiah proclaims that God is about to bring great joy and comfort to Israel; a great joy that will dispel the bleakness and brokenness they feel. What's more...this good news is going to be good news for all time. The word of the Lord, we are told, stand forever. The good news that God proclaims to Israel isn't just for a moment in time--it is for ALL time. The good news that was proclaimed is the Lord's coming to Israel. The Sovereign Lord would come with power and would be the shepherd of Israel and Israel would be restored.
As we read that passage, the news is not just good, but it is glorious. God descending to shepherd God's people and lovingly care for them and comfort them. Even though they had abandoned God previously, God never abandoned them! Dear ones...this is God's glorious news to us today. Even though we might have abandoned God previously, even though there seems to be little good news around us, and even though we might feel as if everything is falling down around us, there is good news. Indeed, there is glorious news. It is the good news of God's coming to us in the form of Jesus Christ. It is the good news of Emmanuel, God with us. This Good News will never fade away, it is God's enduring promise to us all. As we prepare the way of the Lord this Advent season, my our hearts--yours, mine, and the hearts of all the world--take comfort in God's glorious news. Glory to God in the Highest!
We live in a time in history where it is at times difficult to find good news. When I opened my web browser to begin writing this reflection, of the dozen or so news stories on my homepage, eight or nine of them were about something negative--shootings on a college campus, political unrest in different parts of the world, and tragic events from around the world to name a few; the rest of the stories were inconsequential. My point is that we sometimes have to work to find any piece of good news today. Let's not be naive, though, there is much good news; we just don't hear about it much.
For the people of ancient Israel who first heard Isaiah's message, things were bleak. Their nation had been overrun. Many of their people had been killed, and those who weren't killed were carried off into captivity in a foreign land. Yet in the midst of this bleakness, God says to them "Comfort, comfort, my people". Isaiah proclaims that God is about to bring great joy and comfort to Israel; a great joy that will dispel the bleakness and brokenness they feel. What's more...this good news is going to be good news for all time. The word of the Lord, we are told, stand forever. The good news that God proclaims to Israel isn't just for a moment in time--it is for ALL time. The good news that was proclaimed is the Lord's coming to Israel. The Sovereign Lord would come with power and would be the shepherd of Israel and Israel would be restored.
As we read that passage, the news is not just good, but it is glorious. God descending to shepherd God's people and lovingly care for them and comfort them. Even though they had abandoned God previously, God never abandoned them! Dear ones...this is God's glorious news to us today. Even though we might have abandoned God previously, even though there seems to be little good news around us, and even though we might feel as if everything is falling down around us, there is good news. Indeed, there is glorious news. It is the good news of God's coming to us in the form of Jesus Christ. It is the good news of Emmanuel, God with us. This Good News will never fade away, it is God's enduring promise to us all. As we prepare the way of the Lord this Advent season, my our hearts--yours, mine, and the hearts of all the world--take comfort in God's glorious news. Glory to God in the Highest!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Anticipating
Read: 2 Peter 3: 8-15a
Seven weeks. Forty-nine days. That's how long it will be until my wife and I welcome our third child into the world. As you might imagine, we are already spending a good deal of time preparing for our little one's arrival. In the last few weeks we have converted a basement room in a bedroom for our oldest child, we have been showered with gifts by our church family and begun to sort through said gifts, we have made arrangements for me to take a few weeks away from church-work to tend to my family, and we have started making arrangements for people to be with my wife while I have to be away while she is still on maternity leave. Suffice it to say, even with Christmas looming, we are eagerly preparing for the day our child arrives.
Many people do the same thing with Christmas. The retail industry has us anticipating Christmas shortly after Halloween. As we approach the end of November, we start to see all decorations going up. By the time we hit December the Christmas anticipation is in full swing--children finalizing their "list" for Santa Claus, Christmas-themed programs at churches and schools, and other community events. For some, because of their anticipation, Christmas might seen to take forever to arrive, even though a simple glance at a calendar will tell us how much longer there is to wait.
But what about those times when we don't know precisely when something will happen? That's how childbirth usually is--except in the cases of planned Caesarean births. Knowing when something is going to happen allows us to make our plans as we see fit. When we know a date or a time, we have the luxury of a "deadline"; we know all our plans, arrangements, etc. must be made/done by that deadline. When we don't know the date, time, etc., things become more urgent and pressing. When we don't know when something will happen, we tend to reprioritize so that we make sure we are ready, if it might be some time before our particular event is going to occur.
The people of ancient Israel had no idea when the Messiah was going to appear. The messages the of prophets of the Old Testament were attempts to get the people ready to recieve the Messiah when he appeared. A read through the Gospels shows that there were a great many who were not ready when Jesus finally came; perhaps they had come to believe the Messiah wouldn't come at all or perhaps they expected to the Messiah to come much later or be someone different than Jesus...whatever the reason, many in Israel were simply not ready for Jesus to come.
Peter's warning and encouragement in his letter is for the church in anticipation of Jesus' Second Coming. We have already dealt with a couple of passages that engaged this idea. The reality is that we don't know when Jesus is coming back. As a result, Peter says, we ought to be ready at any moment. Jesus might return sometime today, next week, next year, or five hundred years from now. The point is this...we just don't know. Because of that, we must make sure that we are ready now and we keep ourselves ready...just in case. As you ponder that, let me ask you this: What do you need to do in your life to prepare yourself for Jesus to come? If you knew an exact time, how would your priorities and plans be different? Make no mistake, Jesus IS coming. We just don't know when--we must anticipate it.
Seven weeks. Forty-nine days. That's how long it will be until my wife and I welcome our third child into the world. As you might imagine, we are already spending a good deal of time preparing for our little one's arrival. In the last few weeks we have converted a basement room in a bedroom for our oldest child, we have been showered with gifts by our church family and begun to sort through said gifts, we have made arrangements for me to take a few weeks away from church-work to tend to my family, and we have started making arrangements for people to be with my wife while I have to be away while she is still on maternity leave. Suffice it to say, even with Christmas looming, we are eagerly preparing for the day our child arrives.
Many people do the same thing with Christmas. The retail industry has us anticipating Christmas shortly after Halloween. As we approach the end of November, we start to see all decorations going up. By the time we hit December the Christmas anticipation is in full swing--children finalizing their "list" for Santa Claus, Christmas-themed programs at churches and schools, and other community events. For some, because of their anticipation, Christmas might seen to take forever to arrive, even though a simple glance at a calendar will tell us how much longer there is to wait.
But what about those times when we don't know precisely when something will happen? That's how childbirth usually is--except in the cases of planned Caesarean births. Knowing when something is going to happen allows us to make our plans as we see fit. When we know a date or a time, we have the luxury of a "deadline"; we know all our plans, arrangements, etc. must be made/done by that deadline. When we don't know the date, time, etc., things become more urgent and pressing. When we don't know when something will happen, we tend to reprioritize so that we make sure we are ready, if it might be some time before our particular event is going to occur.
The people of ancient Israel had no idea when the Messiah was going to appear. The messages the of prophets of the Old Testament were attempts to get the people ready to recieve the Messiah when he appeared. A read through the Gospels shows that there were a great many who were not ready when Jesus finally came; perhaps they had come to believe the Messiah wouldn't come at all or perhaps they expected to the Messiah to come much later or be someone different than Jesus...whatever the reason, many in Israel were simply not ready for Jesus to come.
Peter's warning and encouragement in his letter is for the church in anticipation of Jesus' Second Coming. We have already dealt with a couple of passages that engaged this idea. The reality is that we don't know when Jesus is coming back. As a result, Peter says, we ought to be ready at any moment. Jesus might return sometime today, next week, next year, or five hundred years from now. The point is this...we just don't know. Because of that, we must make sure that we are ready now and we keep ourselves ready...just in case. As you ponder that, let me ask you this: What do you need to do in your life to prepare yourself for Jesus to come? If you knew an exact time, how would your priorities and plans be different? Make no mistake, Jesus IS coming. We just don't know when--we must anticipate it.
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