Emmanuel Has Come…Yet Many Do Not Know
Over the past few years I have developed a love for the traditional Christmas song, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” We sang it at church last Sunday, as it’s very fitting for the first week of advent.
For 400 hundred years prior to Christ’s birth, God had been silent. The nation of Israel was in exile and they were desperately waiting for the prophecies about their Messiah coming to save them to come to fruition.
The words of this well known song portray a very different spirit than we tend to think about during this merry Christmas season:
“O come, O come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.”
To the Israelites, this is what the time leading up to Christ’s birth was about—waiting for the Messiah to ransom them.
How fitting for us today to think about our lives prior to Christ. Without Him, we too are burdened with sin, captive to this world’s pains, and in need of someone to ransom us. Praise the Lord we have Jesus Christ, who came on Christmas Day—the Son of God, God incarnate. He humbled Himself and became one of us lowly human beings, only to die a horrible form of death with all of our sins upon Him and forsaken by the Father. Yet willingly He did it—for us. Praise God! We can sing this song knowing the end! We have been ransomed!
Yet 2 billion people on the other side of this planet are still waiting for Emmanuel to come. In fact they don’t even know there is an Emmanuel. They have no prophecies to give them hope, for they have yet to hear about their Creator and their Savior.
It is for their fate without Christ that I serve with Gospel for Asia. Many need to hear about Emmanuel—”God with us”—who is Jesus Christ! My heart yearns to let them hear the Christmas story. My heart aches for them to finally be ransomed.
Rejoice with me this Christmas that Emmanuel has come, and that we know Him! Please also pray with me for those who have yet to hear.
“Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to you, O, Israel!”
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