C
Charlie_Zeaiter
Guest
Below is one of my favourite biblical stories. It renews my faith everytime I read it and, if you won’t mind, I’d like to share it with you…
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
Have you ever wondered what “ransom captive Israel” means?
This Christmas Carol, which has seven stanzas, was originally written in the ninth century in Latin. Although we don’t know who wrote it, but they obviously knew the scriptures well; both Old and New Testaments. The picture painted by this first stanza (above) is powerful; a picture of the Children of Israel in captivity in Egypt. They were in mourning, in exile, lonely, and away from their homeland. They were living somewhere they didn’t really belong, in a culture that was foreign to their faith in God.
The words of this stanza express the longing of the Jewish people to be delivered. “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom us [obtain the release of by paying a certain price]” - deliver, save us out of this captivity.
The people of Israel were living in Egypt. They had actually migrated to Egypt as guests of the Pharaoh, and they were treated very kindly there, because of the great feats that their kinsmen, Joseph (who had the famous technicolour dreamcoat), had done in saving the Egyptian nation from starvation; Joseph had warned them about a pending famine with insight given to him by God (Gen 41:29-36). In gratitude, they welcomed Joseph’s 12 brothers and their families to their land (Gen 47:1-6).
Over the years the population of these families steadily grew (Ex 1:7), but life would take a terrible twist for them.
The Pharaoh died… and the new Pharaoh didn’t know about Joseph. He was intimidated by the growing numbers of the community of Israel. So he decided to deal harshly by enslaving them, and he even started the murder of all Jewish baby boys (Ex 1:8-22).
Thousands of baby boys were mercilessly slaughtered. But one slipped through the cracks. His name was Moses; his mother hid him in a basket and sent him down a stream where he was ironically found by one of the Pharaoh’s daughters and was raised as a Princess’ son (Ex 2:1-10). But the life of a Prince was not the plan that God had for Moses. Through a series of events (including a murder), Moses fled Egypt and settled down as a shepherd in the wilderness (Ex 2:14-16).
God spoke to Moses (via the famous burning bush), and He told Moses that the time had come for His people to be freed from their bondage, and Moses was going to be the one to lead the charge (Ex 3:2-3,10). Moses returned to Egypt and demanded of the Pharaoh, “let God’s people go” (Ex 5:1).
The Pharaoh refused. To prove that Moses was indeed speaking for Him, God sent 9 miraculous plagues upon Egypt… blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locust, darkness. In the face of all of these obvious signs of God’s power and will, the Pharaoh’s heart remained as hard as a rock (Ex 7-10).
God patience finally ran out. In a stunning display of His wrath God sent a 10th and final plague on Egypt. He warned Moses that he was going to take the life of all the firstborn in Egypt (Ex 11:1-7).
The community of Israel would be spared from this horror. He told Moses that to avoid having their sons die in the night, they were to take a young lamb and kill it, paint its blood on the doorposts of their homes and lintels and God would pass over the homes when He saw the blood. This would be become part of what is now known as the Passover Festival (Ex 12:1-12).
That one horrible night God showed up in Egypt in all his wrath and the first born of everything, people, animals, was killed. The Pharaoh woke up the next day to a dead son and wailing and screaming throughout his empire at the loss of life, and finally, he broke. “Go,” he told the Hebrews, “go and never come back” (Ex 12:29-32).
Continued…
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
Have you ever wondered what “ransom captive Israel” means?
This Christmas Carol, which has seven stanzas, was originally written in the ninth century in Latin. Although we don’t know who wrote it, but they obviously knew the scriptures well; both Old and New Testaments. The picture painted by this first stanza (above) is powerful; a picture of the Children of Israel in captivity in Egypt. They were in mourning, in exile, lonely, and away from their homeland. They were living somewhere they didn’t really belong, in a culture that was foreign to their faith in God.
The words of this stanza express the longing of the Jewish people to be delivered. “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom us [obtain the release of by paying a certain price]” - deliver, save us out of this captivity.
The people of Israel were living in Egypt. They had actually migrated to Egypt as guests of the Pharaoh, and they were treated very kindly there, because of the great feats that their kinsmen, Joseph (who had the famous technicolour dreamcoat), had done in saving the Egyptian nation from starvation; Joseph had warned them about a pending famine with insight given to him by God (Gen 41:29-36). In gratitude, they welcomed Joseph’s 12 brothers and their families to their land (Gen 47:1-6).
Over the years the population of these families steadily grew (Ex 1:7), but life would take a terrible twist for them.
The Pharaoh died… and the new Pharaoh didn’t know about Joseph. He was intimidated by the growing numbers of the community of Israel. So he decided to deal harshly by enslaving them, and he even started the murder of all Jewish baby boys (Ex 1:8-22).
Thousands of baby boys were mercilessly slaughtered. But one slipped through the cracks. His name was Moses; his mother hid him in a basket and sent him down a stream where he was ironically found by one of the Pharaoh’s daughters and was raised as a Princess’ son (Ex 2:1-10). But the life of a Prince was not the plan that God had for Moses. Through a series of events (including a murder), Moses fled Egypt and settled down as a shepherd in the wilderness (Ex 2:14-16).
God spoke to Moses (via the famous burning bush), and He told Moses that the time had come for His people to be freed from their bondage, and Moses was going to be the one to lead the charge (Ex 3:2-3,10). Moses returned to Egypt and demanded of the Pharaoh, “let God’s people go” (Ex 5:1).
The Pharaoh refused. To prove that Moses was indeed speaking for Him, God sent 9 miraculous plagues upon Egypt… blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock, boils, hail, locust, darkness. In the face of all of these obvious signs of God’s power and will, the Pharaoh’s heart remained as hard as a rock (Ex 7-10).
God patience finally ran out. In a stunning display of His wrath God sent a 10th and final plague on Egypt. He warned Moses that he was going to take the life of all the firstborn in Egypt (Ex 11:1-7).
The community of Israel would be spared from this horror. He told Moses that to avoid having their sons die in the night, they were to take a young lamb and kill it, paint its blood on the doorposts of their homes and lintels and God would pass over the homes when He saw the blood. This would be become part of what is now known as the Passover Festival (Ex 12:1-12).
That one horrible night God showed up in Egypt in all his wrath and the first born of everything, people, animals, was killed. The Pharaoh woke up the next day to a dead son and wailing and screaming throughout his empire at the loss of life, and finally, he broke. “Go,” he told the Hebrews, “go and never come back” (Ex 12:29-32).
Continued…