O Come, O Come Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free

Thine own from Satan's tyranny

From depths of Hell Thy people save

And give them victory o'er the grave

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

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.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

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.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,

Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,

In ancient times did'st give the Law,

In cloud, and majesty and awe.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

I read these lyrics...and sing this song. And I weep. So often become numb to what we sing. Not just Sunday after Sunday, but Christmas after Christmas. We know these songs by heart, but read these lyrics... They are passionate. Desperate. Full of angst. Full of longing for their Savior. The Israelites faced trial. They saw persecution. They knew desperation. Over and over, they turned their backs to the Lord, and over and over, He called them back. They fled to the Promised Land, only to be led to wonder in the wilderness because of their sin. The "originals" never saw the Promised Land. Moses never saw the Promised Land. There is a silence for 400 years that these people waited for Jesus...O Come, O Come Emmanuel...

That silence was broken by the beautiful and reconciling cry of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in that lowly stable in Bethlehem.

He has come! He was brought us up from the grave...He has taken us from death and guilt and sin and shame. He has come...He humbled Himself and came as a baby. He lived life as a human does so that He would be our sympathetic High Priest. He came and He won. He releases the bonds of death and removes His children from the tyranny of satan. He has come...

I can't help but want to cry all over again "O Come, O Come Emmanuel!" Oh, Jesus come...come back and once for all, defeat death. Oh, Jesus come. Come back and free Your people forgive! Remove death and suffering, sadness and weeping...destroy darkness and once for all, cast satan and evil away forever. Come Jesus! O Come Emmanuel! Come and rescue us, once for all.

I yearn for that day.

As we celebrate Christmas, I pray I pray I pray we don't forget the magnitude of what Jesus did. He rescued the unrescuable. He saved the unsavable. He loves the unlovable. Nothing in us could have ever done this...He had to come because we could NOT enter heaven or stand before the holiness of God without His propiation, His blood...our atonement.

Oh, praise God!

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Merry Christmas.