LSB 357 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,        Click Here For Music

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!

Public domain

Isaiah 7:10-14

Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 
“Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 
But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” 
And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! 
Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. 
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Matthew 1:21, 23

"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins...

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Isaiah gives comfort to God's people in Jerusalem promising them that God is with them. The Immanuel promise affirms that God will not leave them even while other kings and nations would like to overthrow Judah's armies. The Syrian military threat to Jerusalem was real. If God were to remove His protection, Jerusalem would not be able to stand. King Ahaz was not counting on the LORD's protection; Ahaz was looking for help from Egypt. Ahaz hoped that if Egypt were on his side he would have a better “Master” than with Syria.

Isaiah points Ahaz to the LORD. The LORD is faithful. The LORD will have compassion on His people. The LORD will save them from Syria. Ahaz does not need to be afraid. He does not need to go running to Egypt for help, but to the LORD. 

The Immanuel promise affirms that God remains – always. Enemies will rise up against His servants to knock them down, and drag them off to death and hell if they can. God affirms that He will be with us to save us from our enemy. Ahaz was worried about Syria and his fear paralyzed his faith. Jesus' promise in the face of fear? “Behold, I am with you always. Even to the end of the age.”

LSB 357 Desire of Nations

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

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.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel!

Public domain

Ephesians 1:9-10

making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Peace on Earth and Unity in Christ: A Scandal

Every few months, I drop in on Atheist websites to review the various logical arguments against the existence of God and of the cosmic role of Jesus in the universe. I do this because invariably these same arguments come up in random social situations between 6 and 24 months later. It usually depends on when they are trotted out on the comedy circuit and everyone's favorite Atheist, Bill Maher of HBO.

By reviewing the material on the Atheist website, I figure I am gaining some thinking time so that I am not surprised, a little sleep because I don't have to stay up late to see Bill for myself, and several bucks because I don't have to pay for cable.

God should be more concerned about Evil

While the first round of material claims to show how Theistic arguments are not reasonable, and another batch of material is aimed directly at straw men attacking things that Christians do not actually claim, the majority of Atheism amounts to the “Bruce Almighty” argument. Since God is omnipotent and loving, Evil should not exist.

A God who is all-powerful and all-loving, but still confines Himself to acting in Jesus just doesn't compute. God's methods discount His existence or at least His truthfulness. But then as the Christian message progresses Christians share that God has every intention of doing away with Evil; God intends to send Evil to hell and separate it from His people forever.

OK, then God should be more concerned about other people's Evil

The Atheist argument puts the blame for all Evil at God's doorstep because God didn't prevent it, but when God says He is going to act to wipe out Evil, God is unfair because that includes people and may very well mean me, too. God's definitions of Good and Evil are all messed up. God stops talking ethics. God stops talking morality. We would like them to be our towers of Babel reaching us into heaven to crash God's party. The Father just sits back and says, “So what do you think about My Boy, Jesus.” Now God is not fair, because he is just thinking too small. God counts as Good whatever is united to the resurrected Christ, full stop.

So what's a Good, Loving, Omnipotent God to do with people who want an end to Evil, but who refuse to admit that they are just as much a part of the problem as everyone else?

Let's crucify God all over again

God answers by taking the blame Himself. OK, you want to take all your anger out on me? Go ahead, here I AM: manger, poverty, rejection, trial, cross, death. He puts everyone who wants to stand in their own righteousness to shame, dies to the whole enterprise of tallying up the good and the bad, dumps all the spiritual file cabinets supposedly taking up space behind the pearly gates, and lifts up a cross over the world and calls the world to know, trust, love, and follow Him. God stops trying to convince and just calls, and wouldn't you know it, He gets crucified all over again for that, too.

Peace in Christ

The peace of God that passes all human understanding is located specifically in Christ. But, just so we won't miss it, God wraps the Prince of Peace up in swaddling clothes and puts Him in a manger. That way, we won't confuse Him with all the other noise distracting us from Him.

We are one year farther from Bethlehem and one year closer the New Heavens and the New Earth. We will have all the existentialist and empirical evidence we ever wanted.

Colossians 1:13-17

¹³He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The Preeminence of Christ

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Matthew 1:21, 23

"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel”

(which means, God with us).

351 Creator of the Stars of Night

Creator of the stars of night,
Thy people’s everlasting Light:
O Christ, Redeemer, save us all
And hear Thy servants when they call.

Thou, grieving that the ancient curse
Should doom to death a universe,
Hast found the healing, full of grace,
To cure and save our ruined race.

Thou cam’st the Bridegroom of the bride,
As drew the world to eventide,
The spotless Victim all divine
Proceeding from a virgin shrine.

At whose dread name, majestic now,
All knees must bend, all hearts must bow;
All things celestial Thee shall own,
And things terrestrial, Lord alone.

O Thou, whose coming is with dread
To judge the living and the dead,
Preserve us from the ancient foe
While still we dwell on earth below.

To God the Father and the Son
And Holy Spirit, Three in One,
Praise, honor, might, and glory be
From age to age eternally. Amen.

Public domain

LSB 357 Dayspring from on high

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Click Here for Music

LSB 357 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O come, Thou Dayspring from on high,

And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,

And death's dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel.

Public domain

Light of the World,
Illuminate our Darkness

The Antiphon
O Dayspring, splendor of light everlasting:

Come and enlighten

those who sit in darkness

and in the shadow of death.

Isaiah 9:2-7

The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,

on them has light shined.

You have multiplied the nation;

you have increased its joy;

they rejoice before you

as with joy at the harvest,

as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

For the yoke of his burden,

and the staff for his shoulder,

the rod of his oppressor,

you have broken as on the day of Midian.

For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult

and every garment rolled in blood

will be burned as fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace

there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 60: 1, 2

The Future Glory of Israel

Arise, shine, for your light has come,

and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.

For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,

and thick darkness the peoples;

but the LORD will arise upon you,

and his glory will be seen upon you.

Matthew 1:21, 23

"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel”

(which means, God with us).

Light of the World, Illuminate our Darkness

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Road to Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey

Luke 1:68ff.

The Benedictus – Zechariah prophecies regarding

The lord's work through John and Jesus

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;

He has come to His people and redeemed them.

He has raised up for us a mighty Savior,

born of the house of His servant David.

Through His holy prophets He promised of old

that He would save us from our enemies,

from the hands of all who hate us.

He promised to show mercy to our fathers

and to remember His holy covenant.

This was the oath He swore to our father Abraham:

to set us free from the hands of our enemies,

free to worship Him without fear,

holy and righteous in His sight all the days of our life.

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,

for you will go before the Lord to prepare His way,

to give His people knowledge of their salvation

by the forgiveness of their sin.

In the tender compassion of our God,

the dawn from on high shall break upon us

to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death

and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son

and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning, is now,

and will be forever. Amen.

LSB 357 Key of David

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

LSB 357 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heav’nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel.

Public domain

Key of David--Opening Heaven

The Antiphon
O Key of David and scepter of the house of Israel,
You open and no one can close,
You close and no one can open;
Come and rescue the prisoners who are in darkness and the shadow of death.

Rev 3:7-8, 12-13
"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: 'The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name...
The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"

Matthew 1:21, 23
"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel”
(which means, God with us).


Top Eight Ways the The Lord Jesus, Emmanuel, is “with us.”

The whole human race is truly redeemed and reconciled with God through Christ. By His faultless obedience, suffering, and death Christ merited for us the righteousness that helps us before God and also merits eternal life.

Christ's merit and benefits are presented, offered, and distributed to us through His Word and Sacraments.

By His Holy Spirit, through the Word, when it is preached, heard, and pondered, Christ will be effective and active in us, will convert hearts to true repentance and preserve them in the true faith.

The Spirit will justify all those who in true repentance receive Christ by a true faith. He will receive them into grace, adoption, and the inheritance of eternal life.

He will also sanctify in love those who are justified.

He also will protect them in their great weakness against the devil, the world, and the flesh. He will rule and lead them in His ways, raise them again when they stumble, comfort them under the cross and in temptation, and preserve them for life eternal.

He will also strengthen, increase, and support to the end the good work that He has begun in them, if they cling to God's Word, pray diligently, abide in God's goodness, and faithfully use the gifts they received.

Finally, He will eternally save and glorify in life eternal those whom He has elected, called. and justified.

LSB 357 Branch of Jesse’s tree

Click Here for Music

LSB 357 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O come, Thou Branch of Jesse’s tree,
Free them from Satan’s tyranny
That trust Thy mighty pow’r to save,
And give them vict’ry o’er the grave.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel.

Public domain

Branch of Jesse

Victory over Satan and the Grave

Now-Not Yet

Isaiah 11:1–11

¹There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
²And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
³And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
or decide disputes by what his ears hear,
⁴but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
⁵Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,
and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
⁶The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
⁷The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
⁸The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
⁹They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
¹⁰In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

Matthew 1:21, 23

"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel”

(which means, God with us).

Prophet Isaiah is a cut above the rest. Preaching and Prophesying in Jerusalem, it appears he had some access to the King's Palace at various times during his ministry. He delivers the Word of the Lord directly into the laps of Good Kings and Evil Kings with equal portions of power and poetry. What a guy! Here's a man's man, a prophet's prophet.

Isaiah's depictions of God's plans include a Ruler and a Servant. In the first 12 chapters, Isaiah goes back and forth, almost chapter by chapter, between Israel's rebellious heart and the Ruler/Savior who is coming to set things right again. In his last chapters, 40-66, He works similar messages between Israel and the Suffering Servant.

What fascinates me about Isaiah's prophecies about God's Spirit Filled Righteous King – the one who is going to finally get all this Reign of God stuff right – is that Isaiah is speaking these prophecies in the Palace courts. Here we have God's Truth-Teller comforting the residents of Jerusalem with the message, “Don't worry, God has much bigger plans for us than King Ahaz. Hold on everyone, someday God is going to send us a real King instead of the king we have now.  The Reign of God will come when the descendant of David frees us from Satan's tyranny or slavery of the grave. We won't be worrying about Moabites, Edomites, Ammonites, Midianites, or any other “-ites.” God's Ruler would not rule by the standard of every other earthly ruler. God's Ruler will minister through the Spirit of the Lord taking the upside-down every day world and turning it right side up again."

Jesse's Branch rising out of the stump of David's line fulfills the promise to David of an eternal Kingdom, sure – and to Abraham of being a Blessing to All Nations – But even more so, Reigning over the New Creation that overhauls the Adam and Eve problem of Satan, Sin, and Death. Rejoice, God's Ruler is on the way.

359 Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming

Lo, how a rose e’er blooming
From tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming
As prophets long have sung,
It came, a flow’ret bright,
Amid the cold of winter,
When half-spent was the night.

Isaiah ’twas foretold it,
The rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it,
The virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright,
She bore to us a Savior,
When half-spent was the night

This flow’r, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness ev’rywhere.
True man, yet very God,
From sin and death He saves us
And lightens ev’ry load.

O Savior, child of Mary,
Who felt our human woe;
O Savior, King of glory,
Who dost our weakness know:
Bring us at length we pray
To the bright courts of heaven,
And to the endless day.

Public domain

LSB 357 Lord of Might

O Adonai
Click Here for Music

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,

Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height

In ancient times didst give the Law

In cloud and majesty and awe.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel,

shall come to thee, O Israel!

Public domain

LORD of Might, Holiness before and after

Exodus 19:9-13

And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”

When Moses told the words of the people to the LORD, the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. No hand shall touch him, but he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.’ When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.”

Exodus 20:1-3

And God spoke all these words, saying,

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

“You shall have no other gods before me.”

Matthew 1:21, 23

"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel” (which means, God with us).

Stanza three presents God's Sinai coming as a hint of God's arrival at Bethlehem. On the one hand this works, on the other hand it doesn't. Sinai is, no doubt, an example of God showing up to play a direct role in the Bible's action. To this extent, the parallel between Sinai and Bethlehem runs smoothly. To the extent that God's presence is enough to answer our questions, calm our fears, reassure and encourage us, Sinai and Bethlehem speak the same language.

Beyond God's arrival, not much is the same. Bethlehem replaces the strong arm of the LORD with Jesus born in humility. No one prepares for Bethlehem by cleaning up the house and doing the laundry. Preparation for taking Sinai seriously meant getting cleaned up first – like we think about taking a shower Sunday morning before church and putting on our Sunday suits and dresses. We imagine that if we look and dress the part of holiness we will “be holy” even as the LORD our God is holy.

But mangers cannot qualify as sanitary conditions. Jesus' parents are “living out of their suitcases” for who knows how long before the Baby arrives. The shepherds are the first witnesses on the Nativity Scene. They come with haste straight in from the fields to see if the angels message was true. These guys are not in the running for holiness awards. Still, the Baby doesn't seem to mind at all. To Jesus, everything is as it should be. Bethlehem is where the dirty, grimy, sinful ones come to be cleaned up, to be called holy, to be made holy. 

 Everyone, come as you are; no questions asked. Come with all your baggage and lay your burdens down. Kneeling at Bethlehem's manger, rise and stand, free and holy. Sinai shows that God is holy -- a holiness that demands our awe. Bethlehem shows God scooping up and embracing His grimy people announcing them holy and setting their new course, “Follow Me.”

578 Thy Strong Word – Stanza 3

Thy strong Word bespeaks us righteous;

Bright with Thine own holiness,

Glorious now, we press toward glory,

And our lives our hopes confess.

Alleluia, alleluia!

Praise to Thee who light dost send!

Alleluia, alleluia!

Alleluia without end!

© 1969 Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License .NET, no. 100011178.

LSB 357 Wisdom from on high

Click Here For Music

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who ord’rest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel, shall come to thee, O Israel!

Public domain

Wisdom is the LORD's blueprint for the universe, this is a confession of faith not sight

Proverbs 1:2-7

To know wisdom and instruction,

to understand words of insight,

to receive instruction in wise dealing,

in righteousness, justice, and equity;

to give prudence to the simple,

knowledge and discretion to the youth—

Let the wise hear and increase in learning,

and the one who understands obtain guidance,

to understand a proverb and a saying,

the words of the wise and their riddles.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;

fools despise wisdom and instruction.

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

Christ the Wisdom and Power of God

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Matthew 1:21, 23

"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Wisdom and Love temper Power. In creation God could have done anything. His Wisdom and Love produced a very good, yet vulnerable creation.

Wisdom and Love invite fellowship even while Power could demand obedience. Wisdom and Love invite, “Come and See.”

To His beloved and even those on the fence, God in His wisdom and love works slowly, patiently, disarming every evil, and lifting away every burden.

Wisdom and Love – salvation through the foolishness of the cross – begins with an unwed mother, continues with a birth in a barn, unlikely callings to dock hands, IRS men, and prostitutes, punctuated by parables, miraculous resurrection, and healing for those who love him. But for those subverting Wisdom's call – crushing defeat, exorcism, casting out, condemnation, and darkness.

Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God