It struck me that it might be thought somewhat odd to begin a bible section of the blog with reflections on a hymn, even one with such a majestic tradition as O come O come. More regularly the idea here will be to put a weekly post focusing on a particular text of Scripture, hopefully for your refreshment and refocusing.
However, we were keen to get this blog up and running and a good seasonal way into the Bible section seemed to be reflections on this hymn. It is utterly saturated with the biblical text, and with the connections within the biblical text. It is my conviction that it is utterly vital in today’s world, and especially in our modern Christian cultures to go learn from ancient texts like this hymn to recapature a vision for reading Scripture.
This vision means that we should not simply aim to master exegesis of one particular text on its own terms, but should seek to place it not only in its context within its book, but then to place it in the wider context of Scripture, and see how it relates to everything else that God says.
The hymn O come O come brings together a vast array of scriptural allusions within one poem that so often we barely hear about at Christmas time, and includes them all in one prayer for Jesus to come to us. We need to use this hymn as a way to drive us to reflect on all of Scripture – to see the connections, and how those connections illuminate and deeper our understanding.
And so we come to the verse which, at least in my head, can sometimes feel most jarring to our ears in the midst of Christmas preparations:
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to your tribes on Sinai’s height
in ancient times did give the law
in cloud and majesty and awe.
This verse is striking in the context of a hymn addressed to Jesus. In an Advent hymn it seems almost jarring to be referring to the coming of Yahweh to his people at Mount Sinai. The events it refers to are described in the book of Exodus 19-20, which describe Israel’s arrival at Sinai and the way in which Yahweh meets with us there:
16 On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. 19 As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.
20 The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up 21 and the Lord said to him, “Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish. 22 Even the priests, who approach the Lord, must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.”
Exodus 19:16-22
18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”
20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”
21 The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.
Exodus 20:18-21
There are those in the Christian church today who would tell us that we need to leave behind this thunder and lightning, this darkness and smoke, when we come to Jesus. This fierce OT deity needs to be left behind, and the OT unhitched and left behind somewhere safely out of sight.
Needless to say the writer of O come O come Emmanuel would not have agreed, and more importantly the writers of the NT do not agree. We turn the pages of the OT to the NT and are immediately confronted by a list of OT names and Jesus birth is explained by references to OT events and prophets.
Skip forward from Matthew to Mark and John the Baptist is understood as the voice of Isaiah 40 crying in the wilderness, announcing the end of exile. Jesus is presented as Yahweh himself, healing the sick, casting out demons, controlling the seas, drowning demonic opposition and raising the dead.
In Luke the attentive reader should be struck the way in which the birth announcement of the angel to Zechariah and Mary remind us of the birth announcements of saviours and prophets in the OT.
And in John we are taken back to the beginning of creation, and then reminded of the Exodus events as John reminds us that Jesus is God ‘tabernaclling’ among us, showing us grace and truth – two key words in God’s self revelation to Moses in Exodus 34. We cannot read the NT without understanding the OT, and seeing that we see the same God.
Neither does Jesus seem to lessen the demands of this God on us. Read Exodus 20, and then read the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus doesn’t remove a single command – but he does intensify their demands. It is not enough to avoid murder, we must avoid anger. It is not enough to avoid adultery, every lustful thought must be shunned.
In his commentary on Exodus biblical theologian and scholar Brevard Childs wrote insightfully:
“The new covenant is not a substitution of a friendly God for the terror of Sinai, but rather a gracious message of an open access to the same God whose presence still calls forth awe and reverence”
Brevard Childs (Exodus commentary)
It is this awe and reverence that this verse of O come O come Emmanuel reminds us of the need for. I am reading the Chronicles of Narnia once more to our children this year and, as the children in the stories are constantly reminded, Aslan is not a tame lion. Our God is not a tame God.
Take time this Advent to pause in the stillness and consider the God who comes to us in the manger.
Take some time to read passages like Exodus 19 and Isaiah 40 that will refresh your pespective on our God.
Remember the wonder that the God who shook the mountain is the God who comes as a baby.
Then remember the wonder that the God who came as a baby will come and shake the earth.
And so we make those words our prayer:
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to your tribes on Sinai’s height
in ancient times did give the law
in cloud and majesty and awe.
Joshua's Tree Rooted 