This much is clear from the text without doubt. At the same time this may be the toughest part of the text. No wonder Advent preachers start busily looking for the “spiritual” meat in the text, something “deeper,” something more upbuilding! It may be because, as the North African father Tertullian once noticed when commenting on this text: “Repentance [is] more competent to heathens than to Christians.”1 It seems as if this message is not for encouragement or consolation! Or is it? Is it not good