december 23, 2005

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

This Christmas season it’s exciting to realize that the scene of the second coming is just a few miles away from the scene of the first. The Mount of Olives, where Jesus will one day come back to is just down the road from Bethlehem where Luke tells us he was born in a manger. Just a few miles separates two thousand years of history and counting.

This advent season, when I was working on our story on advent, I learned that the early church spend the advent season (the four Sundays before Christmas) focused more on the second coming than the first. I also learned the rich history of one of my favorite Christmas hymns, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” This ninth century song is a rich treasure of prophetic insight in the second coming of Jesus. I found out too the church used “antiphons” - short prayers based on scripture – that were read from the 17th to the 23rd of December. These prayers exude the deep longing of the faithful for the coming of our messiah.

Here are some of the scriptures it’s based on:

. The title comes from Isaiah 7:14: “be¬hold, a vir¬gin shall con¬ceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Im¬man¬u¬el.” Im¬man¬u¬el is He¬brew for “god with us.”

. The “rod of Jesse” refers to Isai¬ah 11:1: “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jes¬se”; Jesse was the fa¬ther of Da¬vid, the se¬cond king of Is¬ra¬el.

. “day-spring” comes from Za¬cha¬ri¬as, fa¬ther of john the Bap¬tist, in Luke 1:78: “the day¬spring from on high has vis¬it¬ed us.”

. “thou key of Da¬vid” is in Isai¬ah 22:22: “the key of the house of Da¬vid will I lay up¬on his shoul¬der,” which in turn re¬fers to Isaiah 9:6 “the gov¬ern¬ment shall be up¬on his shoul¬der.”

Here’s the complete song. I hope you enjoy the rich meaning of this song in a deeper way this Christmas season. God bless and merry Christmas from Jerusalem!

O come, o come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the son of god appear.

Refrain
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, o Israel.
O come, thou wisdom from on high,
who orderest all things mightily;
to us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.

Refrain
O come, thou rod of Jesse, free
thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
from depths of hell thy people save,
and give them victory over the grave.

Refrain
O come, thou day-spring, come and cheer
our spirits by thine advent here;
disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadows put to flight.

Refrain
O come, thou key of David, come,
and open wide our heavenly home;
make safe the way that leads on high,
and close the path to misery.

Refrain
O come, o come, great lord of might,
who to thy tribes on Sinai’s height
in ancient times once gave the law
in cloud and majesty and awe.

Refrain
O come, thou root of Jesse’s tree,
an ensign of thy people be;
before thee rulers silent fall;
all peoples on thy mercy call.

Refrain
O come, desire of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind;
bid thou our sad divisions cease,
and be thyself our king of peace.
"behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14

Come quickly, lord Jesus!

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