Isaiah 7:14
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign; The virgin will conceive, and give birth to a Son,
and will call Him Emmanuel.”
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid all our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
As we come to the conclusion of this first week of Advent, marking the event with the lighting of the HOPE candle, let us once again reflect on the meaning of the word Advent, and on the word, Hope.
Advent means that something is coming, and in this case, Jesus, and we have been encouraged to prepare for His coming this Christmas season. I trust you have been following along this past week as we read about how God prepared the hearts of His people who, through a 400-year silence from God, had allowed a build up in their hearts of unfulfilled hopes and a lot of fears. In our passage today, we read that Isaiah had declared a promise to God’s people that their Messiah was coming and their longing was great.
The angel Gabriel visited with Mary to prepare her heart with the news that the Holy Spirit would come upon her to conceive the Son of God. And we know that the angel also visited with Joseph to prepare his heart with these words: “But an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, ‘because what was conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.’ Matthew affirms the words from Isaiah: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a Son, and they will call Him Emmanuel—which means, ‘God with us.’”
Many received Jesus; many did not. Many knew He was the promised Hope they had prepared for and never gave up in waiting. Dear readers, Jesus came as our promised Hope and is Emmanuel with us! We can place our faith in Him as our living Hope right now, not just as a temporary part of our Christmas celebration that is packed away in a box at the end of the season. He is our Emmanuel, who has come to be with us, today and every day. And another celebration that awaits us is the glorious day when Jesus, our promised Hope, comes to earth again to reign forever. Hold onto Jesus, our Hope of Advent!
Dear Jesus, Lord of Hope, we praise You for coming to be Emmanuel, God with us. We hold onto the promise of hope you promised in Your birth, death, resurrection, and eventual return. May we be a reflection of that hope, especially during this Advent season. We pray in Your name, Emmanuel. Amen.
