Veni, veni Emmanuel!
Captivum solve Israel!
Qui gemit in exsilio,
privatus Dei Filio.
—Anonymous, 8th century O Antiphon
Even if you don’t know much Latin, you can still likely figure out these poetic lines. “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”:
O Come, O come Emanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lowly exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
It dates back as far as the eighth century, chanted antiphonally by monks in a series of liturgies leading up to Christmas. 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. 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.
A Long Story Short
Again, we can ask: How old is the principle? Retreating another sixteen centuries, the need for redemption goes back to the eighth century BC. The promise of the “Emmanuel” son is spoken by Isaiah the prophet in response to threats to David’s house (Isa. 7:13–14). It is given so that the people of God would have confidence that indeed “God is with us” (Isa. 8:8–10). But what are the people of God to conclude when they are driven into exile and the house of David is beaten down (Isa. 8:22), indeed chopped down (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.
Yes, Isaiah foresees another son (Isa. 9:6) who will shine a great light over the gloom of exile (Isa. 9:1–3), rising as he does from that stump of a dynasty (Isa. 11:1) and standing as a signal not only to Israel but to all nations to return to the true and living God (Isa. 11:10–12). Thus, Israel’s historic exile is a microcosm of all of humanity’s forced expulsion from God’s presence. It is the sobering realization that, because of our sin, God is not “with us.” The promise of the coming “Emmanuel” son springs the hope that he will lead us back to our true home in the presence of God.
Micah echoes this same truth. In Micah 5:3 we read that God will “give them up [deliver Israel to exile] until she who is in labor has given birth.” This is a reference to the very preceding verse: from Bethlehem “shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days” (Mic. 5:2). The meaning here is that the exile will last until the great son in the House of David is born in Bethlehem. Then will come deliverance. Then will come the end of exile. Then will come the return of lost humanity to the presence of God.
Hosea as well! He speaks of Israel as God’s “son” (Hos. 11:1). But sadly the Babylonian exile (sixth century BC) is like a reversal of the exodus (Hos. 11:5). The return from exile, therefore, will constitute a new exodus when God’s “son” returns home (Hos. 11:10–12). Again, the coming of the “Son of God” (albeit in a slightly different sense) marks the end of the exile and return to the presence of God.
Finally, Jeremiah has an interesting prophecy too. He speaks metaphorically of Rachel weeping for her children, Israel, when they are carted off to Babylon in exile (Jer. 31:15). Jeremiah doesn’t associate this with the coming of any “son” as in Isaiah, Micah and Hosea, but he does all the same immediately foretell how they will “come back” (Jer. 31:16–17) and their tears will be no more.
The Coming of Emmanuel
Race forward now to the birth of Jesus. These prophecies just mentioned comprise the first four direct quotations of the Old Testament in the New Testament. Matthew 1:23 says Jesus’ birth fulfills Isaiah 7:14, “and they will call his name Emmanuel” which, as noted, means “God with us.” Then Micah 5:2 is fulfilled in Matthew 2:1–6 when several Gentiles(!) arrive in search of “the king of the Jews,” and are told where to find him: “O Bethlehem…from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.” In Matthew 2:15 we see how the nation of Israel had foreshadowed the ultimate “Son of God,” Jesus Christ, as his childhood fulfills Hosea 11:1, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” We see in this how God has sovereignly guided the entire history of Israel as far back as the exodus (further back, actually) to typologically outline the coming of the Messiah! And in Matthew 2:18 the oppression under Herod fulfills Jeremiah 31:15, “Rachel weeping for her children.” But now God will wipe away the tears for good as we read about the “Son of God’s” subsequent teachings, healings, death and resurrection.
Collectively the point is this: for over 600 years(!) Israel waited for deliverance from exile by the coming “Emmanuel” son (Isaiah) who will be born in Bethlehem (Micah) to lead them on a new exodus (Hosea) and end their weeping (Jeremiah). And all of this will transcend the original exodus because the Gentile nations will also be invited to come out of their exile and be reconciled to the only true and living God! With that background Matthew 1–2 profoundly leaps off the page to declare the theological ramifications of Jesus’ birth and early childhood.
In short, Christmas is about returning from exile. It’s about our alienation from God and what he has done to redress that, to bring us back to himself and restore us to our ultimate home in the joyful presence of God.
So rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel has come to thee, O Israel.
