Road Trippin With Rachael

Now that we are officially in the Christmas season, I wanted to take some time to diviate from my normal Bible Studies and focus on something that is more related to the season. As I was trying to figure out back in the summer what would be my theme for the season, I realized that I wanted to look at Christmas Carols.

I LOVE Christmas music! To me it is some of the most uplifting and serves as a reminder of what Christ came to earth to do. Although, we only tend to have Christmas Carols during the season of Christmas, as you will see as we go through this sudy of the carols, you will see that they are actually telling a story of who Christ is, what he came to do, how God keeps his promises, and why we are able to celebrate.

I enjoyed all the build up to this study and I hope that you are also able to enjoy it as well.

And if you didn’t know, I also have a YouTube Channel where I post every week. During the year, I will post Bible Studies on the first and thrid Wednesdays of the month, and then take you on my road trips and this great big road trip that we call life. You can find me at Road Trippin with Rachael.

But let’s get started on our study.

For this first carol, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, we are going to be looking primarily at two passages of Scripture: Matthew 1:1-17 and Genesis 3.

 

What Does Emmanuel Mean?

As with anything, it is best to understand what we are dealing with from the beginning.  Before we can move too far with Genesis 3, we need to undersatnd what is implied with the carol.

Emmanuel – this is a Hebrew word that means “God with us.” As a name is is meant to be a blessing of what is happening. For example, during a time of celebration, a family may name a child Emmanuel to serve as a reminder that God is with them. We see something similar happening in the book of Hosea. Hoesa iis commanded to name his children some….interesting names, which were meanst to indicaate where the people of Israel were with God relationally.  Theologically speaking, Emmanuel is meant to refer to either Christ directly, or any appearance of God (known as a theophany).

When we see the beginning of the title “O Come, O Come” this is meant to communicate a deep summoning or prayer of the people. Consider the first lineo f the carol – “O Come, O Come Emmanuel. And randsome captive Israel. Who lies in lowly exile here, until the son of God appears.” Not only what this carol meant to communicate a deep longing for  be rescue from their current circumstances, but there is amuch deepeer meaning. They wish to be rescued from their sins.

From Abraham to Jesus – why genealogy matters

For us to continue to understand the carol, let’s take a look at another point, specifically out of Matthew. The Gospel of Matthew opens with a geneology. Understandably, most people skip over this part, because we can’t pronouce all the names anyway, and western society is individualistic, so we don’t always see the importance of understanding where we came from and how we got to where we are at.  However, Matthew is written to particular people at a particular time in history, thought that is not to say that we do not gain anything from it. The original audience was most likely Jewish Christians.

Why would this be important, you may ask? It is because being able to prove your Jewishness was of the utmost importance to the Hebraic people. Being able to prove your lineage was what would allow you to enter the temple, determine where your ancestral lands were (this was why Joseph had to take a pregnant Mary to Bethlehem), and it also served to show if you were eligible to be a priest or the High Priest. By giving the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Matthew is establishing that Jesus was a Jew, that he was of the line of David, and therefore of  of the line of Judah, descended from Abraham. Matthew pays specific attention to the time period when they people were in Babylon because that was when many records were damaged and the people were removed from their lands. Those who showed talent or were a part of the royal family were sent to live in the Babylonian palace, be educated, and serve the king there. The Old Testament books of II Chronicles and  Daniel give more information about that time and what happened.

This was also important because when the people were able to return to Israel under King Cyrus of the Medo-Persian Empire, with in 3 generations of being back in the land there were many intermarriages amongst the Canaanite peoples that had remained in the land – this was something that they were expressly forbidden not to do. Ezra 9-10 deals with how the people went about correcting this particular issue, and making sure that they know who is a part of what line so that they new who was a part of the priesthood and where they were supposed to be living within the land of Israel.

Please hear this important caveat: this untangling of families was not because of God didn’t like the Canaanites or because by virtue of being not a Hebrew they are therefore bad people. God didn’t want the Hebrew people to intermarry because the Canaanites practiced paganism, and the idea what to keep the people from being influenced by that religious lifestyle. If you read through scripture, anytime there is a major downward faith spiral in Israel, it was cause within 1-2 generations of openly intermarrying. This was NOT a racial issue; it was a religious issue.

Matthew, therefore, in focusing on the genealogy is to prove that Jesus is thoroughly Jewish man. He is a part of the lineage of David. He is descended from Abraham, and he would have been within his right to refer to himself as the King of the Jews.

The Call for Emmanuel – Looking at Genesis 3

Now that we have established who Jesus is based on his family and why proving this was important to Matthew, we now need to look at when they began to pray for and call out for Emmanuel.

Genesis 3 is where scripture records the fall of man. It is also where humankind is given a promise that there is going to one day be redemption from the sin that was committed, but with that redemption there is going to be consequences for sin. There are three major long lasting consequences that I want to look at.

• There will be enmity between Eve’s Offspring and the serpent’s offspring. Here Offspring would be referring to Jesus, and the serpent is Satan. There is going to be, and there still is, a continuous battle between the devil and the Son. We continuously see the Jewish people being pulled away from God’s laws, and the attempts to wipe out the line that Jesus will come from. But there is also good news, because the serpent is only ever going to be able to strike the heel of Jesus, but Jesus is going to deliver a killing blow to the serpents head.
• Salvation is not going to come without pain. For Eve who was hearing this, it meant that it was going to be painful to have the family that the Savior was going to come through. I’ve never had children – but I hear that it is painful. In the same way, Jesus would eventually go to the cross, which would be a horrific experience that was meant to break the person crucified physically, mentally, and emotionally, and not only that up also to serve as a deterrent to others
• Man is going to have to fight to survive. I’m using survival to refer to all aspects of survival. They were going to have to till the land now, and they were going to have to put in effort to make it day in and day out. That isn’t all, they would also have to do this spiritually. They are now separated from God, and they are going to have to be actively involved in developing that relationship, and this would lead to the sacrificial system that is based around works; and they would have to wait and work until God gives them the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

Sin created consequences that the people from time immemorial have had to live with. We are still living with the consequences of that sin, but Eve and Adam had hope. They knew that God was going to send Emmanuel to correct their mistakes, and deliver them from sin.

What does this mean at Christmas?

It’s Christmas time, so what does all this mean for us at Christmas? There are several things that it means. One thing it means is that Jesus is who he says that he is. He is the Messiah who came to take away the sins of the world. He is a descendant of Abraham by whom the world is blessed (Genesis 22:18), and he is the son of David who s on the throne (II Samuel 7:16). This promise that was made in Genesis 3, that Eve would have a son that would come to reconcile them to God is now in Matthew being shown that he has in fact come. . Although it was long in coming, it was precisely when God planned for Jesus to appear in the world, and the world that was uniquely prepared to be able to share the good news with the roads, commerce, and ease of travel that had come with the Roman Empire. But what else does this mean? It means that God keeps his promises. Despite the long passing of time between Adam and Eve to Abraham, then from Abraham to David, and then from David to Jesus – God still kept his promise. Christmas is the time that we remember that God keeps his promises. His promise was kept in the form of a little baby being born in a manager to Mary and Joseph.

People begged and pleased for God to come, and He did . There isn’t a question that God had answered the prayer of the people, and he dwelt among them. This was a promise that was anticipated by humankind since the beginning, and also one that was anticipated by Satan.