O Come Emmanuel

There is a swath of neglected Scripture that, if it were read, would rebuke and transcend Christmas-—I am speaking of the prophets. Christmas has a tendency to overly focus on Christ’s humiliation and neglect His exaltation. If we want to know what it means to long for the Messiah, if we want to know what the advent of Christ is bringing us, then we must listen to the voices of Isaiah, Joel, Micah and the like.

By putting ourselves in the shoes of our Old Testament fathers, we begin to see that Biblical faith is more than just trusting God to save me. Faith is believing God will do all that He says He’ll do in the world.

A quick study of the prophets’ writings concerning the coming of the Messiah brought out the following themes:

1. Perfect justice will be served, the proud will be humiliated, and all our and His enemies will be utterly defeated

2. The gospel will triumph throughout every nation, tribe, and tongue

3. Christ is bringing shalom, that is, He will make all things as they ought to be!

While we should remember the past event of Christ’s birth, we must not fail to also imitate the prophets by looking forward with expectancy, hope, comfort, and joy to the never-failing growth and certain consummation of His kingdom.