Rejoice! Rejoice!

I have been completely taken with O Come, O Come, Emmanuel this first week of Advent.

Nancy Guthrie has a beautiful book for this season called Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room. In it, she writes about the longing that God's people had for the promised Messiah, and the longing we have for His return,

"Though it was hard for the people in Isaiah's day to imagine or understand how God would actually become a human, they began to long for this Messiah who would be 'God with us'. They looked forward to the day when God would fulfill all his promises by coming to live with them. We identify with them in their longing for God to full his promise to send Jesus when we sing, 'O Come, O Come, Emmanuel'"

I particularly love verses 2 and 4 right now:

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny
From depths of Hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave

[Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel]

O com, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heavenly home
Make safe the way that leads on high
And close the path to misery

In all this longing, this thousands-years longing, the command is the same - Rejoice! Rejoice Because He is coming. And today, we get to rejoice because Christ has come, and will surely come again.

Enjoy this version by Red Mountain Church