O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Part 1)

 

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is the term for the weeks leading up to Christmas and is traditionally used as a time to think of the lead-up to Christ's birth—to the preparations and foreshadowing that led up to that first Christmas.

In the modern world, this time focuses on preparations for Christmas in a more prosaic sense. These weeks leading up to Christmas (beginning early in November) focus on our own preparations for our own Christmases.

But as the celebration of Christmas becomes a more and more dominant force in the world, there is something we must recognize. Christmas is a special time of the year, but it is also often a strange time of year. There is, throughout the season of Christmas, a certain disconnect that causes some people to be cynical of the whole holiday.

The disconnect is between what we celebrate at Christmas and the state of the world in which we celebrate it. Christmas is a time of gathering, of fellowshipping with friends and family. But many people in the world have no families or friends with which to gather. Christmas is a time of decorations and food, but many people are too poor to afford food or decorations. Christmas is celebrated under the sign of peace, and yet we live in a world rocked by war. Christmas is a time of joy, yet often, the world is filled with misery.

Indeed, there is often a disconnect between what we celebrate at Christmas and the world in which we celebrate it. The same could be said of any holiday, but at Christmas, that sense of incongruity is not alien to the holiday but an essential part of it.

And that is why I want to look at a passage of scripture from Isaiah. My attention was directed to this passage when I saw it listed as a reading for Advent—and yet to read it, there is nothing about this that would immediately suggest the idea of Christmas. Isaiah is well known for his messages of hope, many of which have been immortalized in song. But the prophecy of Isaiah did not begin with hope.

(Isaiah 1:1-4) The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the [donkey] his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 

Here, God, speaking through Isaiah, shows a picture of the state of the kingdom of Judah during the time of Isaiah. At first glance, you might not think this has anything to do with Christmas—or with us. But even though this picture is of a specific time and place, it illustrates to us the whole state of mankind. Taken as a whole, we see a snapshot of the entire world and the entire course of human history. Aside from a few incidental details, this could be just as accurate a picture of today's world as it was of Isaiah's day.

And the main thing we see here is the fact that man has rebelled and turned away from God.

Isaiah's prophecy begins very abruptly, as he calls the heavens and the earth to witness the word which the Lord had to say against His people. The picture here is almost that of a courtroom, with God bringing an accusation against Israel with all of the cosmos as His witnesses.

And the sum total of God's accusation is that Israel--His chosen, covenant people--had rebelled and turned away from Him. In these few short verses, God uses 6 different verbs to describe the actions of his people—they had rebelled, they did not know, they did not consider, they had forsaken, they had provoked, and they had gone away. God had chosen and separated and established and protected the Jews. Yet, by this time, the nation of Judah had given way to wickedness and had completely gone away from God, though there was still a nominal pretense of true religion.

But the relation of God with Israel is an illustration of a more universal truth; this is a picture of the entire history of the human race. The rebellion of Israel was only one example of that rebellion, which has been going on in every human heart since Adam. If we look at the world today, we see darkness, and that darkness is because of sin, because of man's rebellion against God.

We had rebelled against our Creator. I realize this isn't specifically mentioned in the text, but it is a fact that lies at the back of all Biblical doctrine. The foundation of all Scripture is the account of creation in Genesis 1 and 2. The Bible makes it very clear that man did not come about by his own devices, nor did he come about by accident. The very fact that we exist at all is because of God.

This was doubly clear to the people of Israel because their national existence was also due to the special action of God in separating them from the rest of the world and establishing them in Canaan. Psalm 100:3 puts it this way: “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” 

God created the human race and gave us existence. We owe everything to him, and yet, in sin, we reject Him. He gave everything to us, and yet many people give nothing to Him. That is the injustice of sin—turning away from the one who made us. But it isn't just that God brought us into existence.

We had rebelled against our sustainer. This is the main thing that Isaiah mentions here. God speaks of himself as a parent, caring for and raising children. God had cared for Israel and protected it like a father protects and cares for his son. God had given them so much and they refused to acknowledge his gifts.

Oxen and donkeys are not noted as the most intelligent animals in the world, but even they are smart enough to return to where they're fed. And yet God's people had rejected and turned away from His provision.

I think many people have this picture of God as selfish—that He egotistically demands the worship and service of mankind out of some kind of personal need. But the picture of God in the Bible is the exact opposite. In the Bible, we always see God giving. God, who has everything and needs nothing, gives of Himself for the sake of mankind. 

When He created mankind, He placed the first man and woman in a garden with everything they needed. He gave them quite literally a perfect life. Even after the Fall, even after mankind had rejected God's authority, God continued to maintain the world. This world is darkened by the curse, and yet still, on every side, we see God's hand and the continued providence of God.

In one of W. S. Gilbert's plays, a soldier is talking about a fellow-soldier and how he saved his life, and he says these words: “The breath I breathe to him I owe.” For every one of us, that is literally true in respect to God.

But it isn't just physical sustenance. God not only provided for man physically but spiritually. God made mankind with a perfect soul, pure and holy, just like God. And when sin ruined that, God continued to show his grace by protecting the soul of man from the full consequences of sin. God gave us a conscience and a reason and a longing for Him. Then God gave His word through the prophets to show the truth and draw man back to the right way.

God is a giving God. So far from needing anything from man, everything mankind has or ever will have is a free gift from God. And yet for all that, mankind forsook God and his provision.

And to add insult to injury, after turning away from God, after deserting him provisions, people then turn on God and complain. God offered everything to humanity; humanity rejected his provisions and then proceeded to accuse God of being stingy. It is like someone closing their eyes and then complaining about it being dark. It would be like a city building dams across its rivers and then lamenting the fact that there is no water.

That was the position that sin had brought mankind too. But it went farther than this. We had rebelled against our Lord.

Many people today think it unreasonable for God to demand our complete obedience; some deny that rebellion against God is so grave a matter. And they would argue from the analogy God uses here, the analogy of a parent and a child. A child has a duty to respect and obey his parents, but we all realize there does come a time when the child has to make his own choices and not depend on his parents for everything. That is what it means to grow up. There comes a time when a man must leave his father and his mother and cleave to a new life. For a child to remain permanently in that state of childhood is not healthy, and it is not right for the parent to expect it of him. And even if a parent is a good parent and with wisdom directs their child in a good direction, the child may rebel and take some other path, and it may work out all right for them. 

But God is more than simply our parent, more than just one with wisdom to direct us. He is the Lord, the source and originator of all things, the ground of all existence, the definer of all values. If we rebel against God, we are cutting ourselves off from the very fountainhead of all goodness. Notice the description of Israel in verse 4; these people had forsaken the Lord, and this is what they had become: a “sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters.”

This was not a coincidental fact; the Israelites did not end up like that by accident. This is what happens when you turn away from God. If you turn your back on the north, you will naturally be headed south. If you face away from the sun, then your face will be in shadow. And if you desert God, then you are heading for moral bankruptcy and ruin by a certain and inevitable rule.

The people of Israel—and really all people—had rejected God, and in so doing, had cut themselves loose from all mooring; had rejected the very moral fabric of the universe. Obviously, not all societies and not every individual in every society goes as far as Isaiah's description here. Many sinners still exercise mercy and justice. But sin, by its very nature, is a denial of God's authority and is a rejection of the absolute rule of life.

There was one safe harbor for mankind and, of necessity, only one. In God, man had everything he needed to be good and happy. But in rebellion, man left that harbor. Sin divided man from God. God had given everything to mankind and mankind rejected it. Different theologians have attempted to give one word or idea that sums up sin—some have called it “pride”; some “selfishness.” There is something to be said for these, but looking at this passage, I think the one word that really seems to describe it is: “ingratitude.” Mankind had turned against his Creator, rebelled against his Provider, and revolted against his Lord. That was the position that humanity was in in Isaiah's day. And that is still the condition of man today. Thousands of years have passed; there have been countless innovations in culture and technology. In many ways, the world is a better place than when the prophet wrote. And yet, sin is still as pressing a reality as it was then.