O come, O King of countries, bind
In a single the hearts of all mankind.
Bid all our unhappy divisions stop
And be your self our King of Peace.Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
Holidays have their methods of pouring salt into the injuries of damaged relationships. The daddy who’s absent. The sister who reduce off contact. The wedding that led to divorce.
We collect with family members, but the one not there haunts us. Relational breaches solid their lengthy, unforgettable shadows with specific ache on feast days when others make merry.
Usually, even amongst these current, not all is properly. The air in the lounge feels colder than the December outdoors. There may be ice on the dinner desk. Petty quarrels, silly rifts, unhappy divisions shade Christmas. We give holly-jolly a attempt, however inside we ache, disenchanted and unstable.
All Our Unhappy Divisions
For some, latest years have introduced extra pressure — much more unhappy divisions than we keep in mind in our lifetimes. Clearly, these rings of energy in our pockets haven’t helped, however they aren’t the deepest trigger. The seeds of such strife had been sown in “the hearts of all mankind” lengthy earlier than smartphones and social media.
Our satisfaction and idolatry have led to “enmity, strife, jealousy, matches of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions” (Galatians 5:20). Our breach with the God of heaven — our sin — has produced numerous cracks with our fellow people on earth. And sometimes, essentially the most painful are with household and pricey mates. These are the folks we’re most definitely to see, or miss, at Christmas. Those that know us finest usually grieve us most.
As a lot as we really feel the stings and discomfort of recent divisions, we’re not the primary to expertise the agonies of disunity.
Need of Nations
We’d not have a greater Introduction hymn than “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” It so ably captures the angst of ready for Messiah with its minor chords and pre-Christian longings. But it additionally anticipates Jesus’s second coming. And particularly so in its seventh and closing stanza, the place we personal the angst of “our unhappy divisions” as we wait.
The hymn would have us first look up from the divisions we discover surrounding us: “O come, O King of countries.” Our sin towards God was and is the primary and deepest breach. And the decisive therapeutic of our horizontal separations will come first by way of vertical grace. Little doubt, noble-sounding people are ever at work for world peace. Their initiatives could produce some temporal, worthwhile good. However none of them, even the very best, have lasted.
“The decisive therapeutic of our horizontal separations will come first by way of vertical grace.”
So, first, we glance up — to the one Jeremiah known as “King of the Nations” (Jeremiah 10:6), the one who guidelines over all those that seem to rule over their respective nations. We glance to the one who made all and is sovereign over all. To the one who is aware of all hearts and searches them and truly can change the interior individual. We glance to the one who does that, not simply in captive Israel, however amongst each nation. Lengthy did Israel look forward to this King of Nations, however now their tune is ours. Seven angels in Revelation 15 sing not solely the tune of Moses but in addition the tune of the Lamb:
Nice and wonderful are your deeds,
O Lord God the Almighty!
Simply and true are your methods,
O King of the nations!
Who is not going to concern, O Lord,
and glorify your title?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship you,
in your righteous acts have been revealed. (verses 3–4)
As Israel waited for the Messiah’s first introduction, the nation anticipated God reigning over all by way of a coming anointed inheritor of David. And nonetheless right now, we wait. Now, Christ has come and conquered our sin. He’s risen and reigning at his Father’s proper hand — and he’ll come once more to rule absolutely and eventually as King of the nations.
King of Peace
Strikingly, the prophets not solely regarded for a coming “King of Nations” but in addition a “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6):
He shall decide between the nations,
and shall determine disputes for a lot of peoples;
and so they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not raise up sword in opposition to nation,
neither shall they study warfare anymore. (Isaiah 2:4)
It’s exceptional what number of instances the New Testomony calls the Father “the God of peace” (Romans 15:33) and Jesus our “Lord of peace” (2 Thessalonians 3:16).
For now, some real and unhappy divisions do stop in Christ. He turns into the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. In him, we get outdoors our curved-in selves, we launch our grasp on getting ours (together with revenge), and Jesus actually does heal some divisions. Others stay. For now. However the day is coming.
Within the meantime, if doable, so far as it relies on us, we search to dwell in peace with all (Romans 12:18). To these within the church, Paul writes, “Intention for restoration, consolation each other, agree with each other, dwell in peace; and the God of affection and peace shall be with you” (2 Corinthians 13:11). In Christ, we make what peace we will for now. And we wait.
Bind in One the Hearts
As Isaiah foresaw, a day attracts close to, Jesus’s second coming, when
You shall exit in pleasure
and be led forth in peace . . .
and it shall make a reputation for the Lord,
an eternal signal that shall not be reduce off. (Isaiah 55:12–13)
This Introduction, nonetheless we wait — however we wait with hope. Jesus has healed and does heal relational wounds on this life. Some fathers come again. Some prodigals journey residence. Some marriages are restored. Some mates confess their folly and apologize. Others sadly endure of their estrangement.
However these in Christ look forward to a second Introduction. Then we’ll exit in pleasure from our mourning in lowly exile right here. And Christ himself, amongst us as Immanuel, will lead his folks forth in peace.
