Thus, Israel’s historic exile is a microcosm of all of humanity’s forced expulsion from God’s presence. 11:1) and standing as a signal not only to Israel but to all nations to return to the true and living God (Isa. 9:1–3), rising as he does from that stump of a dynasty (Isa. 9:6) who will shine a great light over the gloom of exile (Isa. 10:32–34)? That is the question that causes Isaiah to expand his prophecy from the eighth century to a time beyond Israel’s exile. But what are the people of God to conclude when they are driven into exile and the house of David is beaten down (Isa. It is given so that the people of God would have confidence that indeed “God is with us” (Isa. The promise of the “Emmanuel” son is spoken by Isaiah the prophet in response to threats to David’s house (Isa. A Long Story ShortĪgain, we can ask: How old is the principle? Retreating another sixteen centuries, the need for redemption goes back to the eighth century BC. Put positively, the arrival of the Son of God on history’s stage will mean God is with us (the meaning of “Emmanuel”), and we can therefore return to the joyful experience of his presence. But the principle is even older-that the great crisis that the Son of God must enter into is our condition of exile, expulsion from humanity’s true home, and that he alone can redeem us from such mournful captivity. It dates back as far as the eighth century, chanted antiphonally by monks in a series of liturgies leading up to Christmas. “Come, come Emmanuel! Release the captive Israel! He who mourns in exile, deprived of the Son of God.” From this, of course, we get our wonderful hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”: Even if you don’t know much Latin, you can still likely figure out these poetic lines.
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