Advent Devotional - December 1, 2016

“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, O Come, Emmanuel

At the outset of the Biblical story, we see the created order as it should be. God spoke the world into being, and it was very good. On the sixth day God created Adam and Eve, and they were the crown jewel of His creation. But instead of perfectly re ecting the glory of God, humanity was forever marred because Adam and Eve sinned. God would have been just to eternally punish Adam in His sin, but instead, He showed mercy. God promised on that day recorded in Genesis 3 that He would use the o spring of the people who rebelled against Him to crush the head of the tempter, Satan.

The promise of a redeemer brought hope on that dark day, but it would be a hope deferred for thousands of years and countless generations. From Abraham to Isaac to Israel and her o spring, God remembered His promise to show mercy to His people. But ultimately these “died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar” (Hebrews 11:13). Even in the rebellion of Israel and their punishment in exile, God did not forget his promise to send a snake crusher. They knew there was one coming who would “proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (Isaiah 61:1), but how long, O Lord, would they have to wait?

The coming of Jesus Christ is certainly a joyous event, but in our joy on this side of the cross, we should not make light of the desperate longing for hundreds of years from the people of God for Him to intervene. When we hear “O come, o come, Emmanuel,” we should remember the centuries of longing and waiting from God’s people. Knowing that Jesus did come, we can indeed rejoice, knowing that God has ransomed us, His captive people, from our sin. And on this side of the cross as we long for Christ’s second coming, we now join our voices this Advent season with both our spiritual ancestors of old and with the nal prayer of the Bible, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).