Daily Dose of the Word of God - Isaiah 7: 14

Erin Pacheco, Director of Worship

Transcript

Erin Pacheco  0:07

Welcome to Elmhurst CRC’s Daily Dose of the Word of God. It’s Friday, December 13, and Sunday is coming! I’m Erin Pacheco.   We are in the season of Advent, waiting in anticipation for the coming of Jesus. Our scripture today comes from Isaiah 7:14.

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The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive a child. She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).

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My favorite Advent song is “O Come, O Come Immanuel.” I love the minor key and the haunting melody – this chant that echoes back through centuries of Christians. To me, this song captures well the quintessential longing of Advent. “O come, O come Immanuel and ransom captive Israel That mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. Rejoice, rejoice! Immanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.”  One of my kids was listening to that song this week and commented how the music doesn’t really match the lyrics. After all, the lyrics say “Rejoice!” Why does the song sound so sad?   The word “exile” is key. This is a song sung from the perspective of ancient Israel in exile, forcibly removed from their homes and made captive to serve other nations. It was a consequence of years and years of idolatry, injustice, and disobedience to God. In exile, stripped of their comfort and control, the people repented and remembered the word of God. They remembered their dependence on God and renewed their longing for the promised Messiah to come and make things right.

Erin Pacheco  2:27 

Isaiah says, to a people facing exile, that God will send a sign – a reminder of his presence and his promises. A child, called Immanuel, which means “God is with us.” The gospel of Matthew says the same thing when Jesus is born. His name is called Immanuel, because he is God with us. And Jesus promises, through the Spirit, to be with us, to the end of the age — until the day promised in Revelation 21, when God’s home will be among the people, and he will live with us. We will be his people, and God himself will be with us and be our God, wiping the tears from our eyes and wiping out death and sadness and pain forever. So to a people in exile: Rejoice! For Immanuel, God with us, will come. And every longing of our hearts is found in him.   This Sunday is Lessons & Carols, a service where we get to slow down and listen, through scripture and song, to the longer story of Advent, the longer story of Christmas — the story of a God who longs to be with us in our trouble and to make all things new. 

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Lets Pray. Lord, sometimes our joy is overflowing and sometimes, in the midst of our circumstances, it’s just the tiniest seed of hope. It helps to know that, whatever we are facing, you are with us. Strengthen us as we wait for you to bring us home. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Emmanuel. Amen.