Written by Kathy Noel, Director of Child Discipleship

Isaiah 9:6, Zephaniah 3:14-17, Zechariah 9:9

Christmas is such a time of waiting, isn’t it? Especially for kids! There is so much anticipation and hope leading up to Christmas morning. I remember well my boys’ excitement when they finally got to see the gifts under the tree and their sheer joy upon opening the very gift they had hoped for!

All throughout December, my boys lived in that hope of what was to come. There was great joy in the anticipation, but that joy was not expressed in its fullness until the longed-for gift was in hand.

Rejoicing in the waiting: that was certainly a theme in the writings of the Old Testament prophets. And the waiting was for something far greater than a wrapped gift under a Christmas tree!

Before their exile to Babylon, the nation of Judah was living in distress, feeling powerless and afraid. Through the prophet Isaiah, God gave them a reason to rejoice: “The light is coming!” “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Had He come yet? No! But was He coming? Yes! That certainty was cause for rejoicing!

In Zephaniah 3:14-17, the prophet tells the people of Judah, who had lived through years of exile, to sing aloud, shout, rejoice, and exult…not because their time of blessing and restoration had come, but because it was sure to come! 

Later, the prophet, Zechariah, also tells them to rejoice and to shout aloud, not because their rescuing king had already come, but because He was sure to come! “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9).

As the prophets called God’s people to rejoice, they were calling them to believe in God’s faithfulness and the future fulfillment of His promises. In the waiting, they could rejoice because the future was sure!

While I love so many of the upbeat Christmas songs and carols, one of my favorites is still, “O come, O come, Emmanuel.” The melody is almost haunting, as it is written in a minor key. As we sing the words of the first verse, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear,” we feel the sadness, the longing, the waiting. But then, in the chorus, that first “Rejoice!” appears! And it’s a joy-filled major chord! Their longing and waiting have been answered! But, oh so quickly, the next “Rejoice!” is right back to a minor chord, reminding us that God’s people rejoiced in the sure promise of a Savior, but also in the waiting and the longing.

Today, we rejoice because Jesus has come! Salvation is here! Oh, how the prophets and God’s people of old longed to see what we see! But, along with them, we still sing, “O come, o Come, Emmanuel.” We, too, wait and long for our good King to come again, to “disperse the gloomy clouds of night; and death’s dark shadows put to flight; to free His own from Satan’s tyranny; and give them victory o’er the grave.” 

So, this Christmas, let’s sing, shout, be glad, and rejoice because Jesus has come, and because we can anticipate with great hope that He is coming again! On that day, all our longing and waiting will be over, and we will rejoice in Him forever!

Listen to O Come, O Come Emmanuel by Selah