I have a gift for you today. I have designated a book for every household in the church. After the service, feel free to come up and find your copy. They will be set out here on the stage when I finish preaching. (I didn't want to give them to you now, lest you be reading my book and not listening to my sermon). If you are visiting the church this morning, feel free to take one for your household. It's my gift to you.

My book is entitled, "My Bible Summaries." The premise of my book comes from 2 Timothy 3:16, which says,

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

The promise of the Scripture is that each and every verse of Scripture is a divine instrument whereby he will teach us, reprove us, correct us and train us in righteousness. God can use single verses of Scripture to transform us and change us. But he can also use the entirety of the Scriptures to train us in righteousness.

Martin Luther put it well. He said, "I study my Bible as I gather apples. First, I shake the whole tree that the ripest might fall. Then I shake each limb, and when I have shaken each limb, I shake each branch and every twig. Then I look under every leaf. I search the Bible as a whole like shaking the whole tree. Then I shake every limb—study book after book. Then I shake every branch, giving attention to the chapters when they do not break the sense. Then I shake every twig, or a careful study of the paragraphs and sentences and words and their meanings." My book is a call to shake the entire tree of the Scripture.

There is a way that reading through the entire Scripture puts us under all the Scripture, and allows God to teach us and train us in a unique way. As we grasp the big picture of the story of the Bible, seeing the themes and the patterns of God and how he deals with us, we are equipped for righteousness in a way that focusing on a single passage of Scripture doesn't. One of the grand themes that you see in reading through the entire Bible is how dependent we are upon the Lord, and how the longing of every believer is that God would come to our aid and help us.

In that vein, I have been preaching a sermon series this Christmas season entitled, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." This is our cry at Christmas time. This was the cry of those in the first century, before Jesus came. They were longing that God would come and rescue them. As the first stanza of our hymn reads, "O come, O come, Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear." The Christmas hymn expresses the longing of the Jews in the days before the birth of Jesus. They were in bondage. They were in captivity. They were mourning, and longing that the Messiah would come to them! But as you read through the entire Bible, you see that this has been the cry throughout Biblical history. There has always been the sense that the world is broken, and we need God to come and help us.

This has been my burden during these sermons this Christmas season, to show you from all of Scripture that this has always been the cry of God's people: "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!" It's not just the cry of Christmas. And it ought to be your cry: "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!"

Two weeks ago, we looked at the writings of Moses. We saw, right after the sin of Adam and Eve, that God promised one who would come and destroy the serpent.

Genesis 3:15
"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."

This is the promise that overshadows all of the Scripture, the promise of ultimate victory over Satan and his schemes. As the opening chapters of Genesis explain, such a one to rise up was needed, because the world plunged itself into wickedness. But the world was looking for the one who would rise up and crush the serpent's head. In fact, there was a man named Lamech, who had a son named Noah. Lamech said of his son, "Out of the ground that the LORD has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands" (Genesis 5:29). This is an obvious allusion to the promise of God, that one would arise and defeat Satan and overturn the curse. Essentially, Lamech was crying out, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!" Of course, this isn't what Noah did. Rather, he built an ark. He and his family escaped the destruction of the world. Yet, the promise of God still stood. He wasn't going to leave the world in sin. He would come and crush the serpent's head.

He would do this through a nation, beginning with Abraham. God's promise comes in Genesis 12:1-3.

Genesis 12:1-3
The LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

God promised that the Messiah would come from the line of Abraham! It is from his seed that "all the families of the earth shall be blessed." But Abraham wasn't the one who was to come, nor his son, Isaac, nor his grandson, Jacob. The closest that we get is Moses, the one who redeemed the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt. If you remember, the Jews were in distress! Exodus 2:23-25 describe the scene,

Exodus 2:23-25
During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.

Essentially, they were crying out, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!" God raised up Moses to redeem them from slavery, but Moses wasn't the promised one. Sure, he was a redeemer, but he was only a shadow of the true redeemer who would come. Moses gave the law, which set a vision for the perfect law-keeper to come. And Moses called himself a prophet, which was only a shadow of the ultimate prophet to come. "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him" (Deuteronomy 18:18). Moses leaves us longing for another one to come.

Last week, we saw that the one after Moses was Joshua. He was a conqueror, whom God raised up to lead the people of Israel into the land that God had promised to Abraham. But he was not the promised one. Then came the time of the judges. They were the ones whom God raised up to rescue the people of Israel when they cried to the LORD for help. When they cried out, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," these "judges" "saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge" (Judges 2:18). But when the judge died, Israel was worse than before. These judges were essentially little "saviors" who came to save Israel for a season. They were simply shadows of the ultimate savior who would come.

Finally, last week, we looked at the history of Israel after the judges. This was the time of the kings. But of the 40 (or so) kings that ruled in Israel and Judah, none rose up to crush the head of the serpent. David was the closest of the kings. He was a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). But he sinned greatly. And he wasn't the one. God said that he wasn't the one. But God promised that from his line, he would raise up the true king, who would sit on David's throne forever.

2 Samuel 7:12-13
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

This was the longing of the Jews during the days of Jesus. They were longing for a king to come, in the line of David!

Which brings us to this week. Two weeks ago, we looked at Moses. Last week, we turned to the history of Israel. This week, I want to look at the message of the Prophets, because the Prophets also create in us a longing for God to come and rescue us. Now, the prophets come in all shapes and sizes. (Not the actual people, but their messages). Isaiah is a prophet, and his message spans 66 chapters! Obadiah is a prophet, and his message is but one chapter! Some of the prophets wrote to the northern kingdom of Israel (Amos and Hosea). Many of the prophets wrote to the southern kingdom of Judah. Some of them even wrote their messages to foreign nations (Nahum and Obadiah). Two of the prophets wrote during the days of the exile in Babylon (Ezekiel and Daniel). Some of the prophets wrote after Judah came back into the land (Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi). (If you want to know where a particular prophet fits into the history of the Bible, I have a chart in the back of my book. I have found it helpful in reading the Bible for myself).

But, as varied as the messages are, there are some common themes in all of the prophets. There are many who live in rebellion against the LORD. They need to repent, turning and trusting in the LORD. God will come in judgment against those who refuse to repent. You might summarize their message with the simple phrase: "Repent and find forgiveness or be judged for your rebellion." That sums up the message of the prophets. Yet, there is also another theme. God will make it all right someday. He will come and restore the people of God.

See, God made a promise to crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). And God made a promise to do so through Abraham's seed (Genesis 12). And God made a promise to do so through the house of David (2 Samuel 7). God keeps his promises. In fact, this is a good way to see the entirety of the Bible: "Promises Made and Promises Kept." The Old Testament contains the promises that God makes. The New Testament contains the record of how God kept those promises. It all hinges on Christmas, the budding of God keeping his promises by sending his Son into the world. But before Jesus came, the people were longing for his redemption, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." And the prophets tell of his coming.

This morning, I want for us to consider some of the prophets. Let's start small, and then go big. Let's consider the book of Joel. It's three chapters. Again my book is entitled, "My Bible Summaries." My book is really a workbook, whereby I'm encouraging you to write out chapter summaries of every chapter of the Bible. It may be a year-long project. It may take two or three or four years. But the practice of reading through the Scriptures, and interacting with them on a chapter by chapter basis, will help you grasp the meaning of the whole. So, I want to share with you my chapter titles of the book of Joel. They aren't particularly great. But they are my shot at summarizing the book using the terminology of Joel to do so.

Joel 1: Locusts (4) and a nation (6) have laid waste my land (7). Lament (8), cry out to the LORD (14).

Certainly, I have missed some details in this chapter, but such is the nature of summarizing anything. To summarize is to omit details. But my hope is that you can capture the gist of each chapter as you work your way through the Bible. That you can grasp the big picture and see the great themes of the Bible. That you are trained in righteousness in a unique way. That has certainly been my experience, and the experience of all who have worked through this book in recent years. You can see that the first chapter of Joel is describing the desolation upon the land because of the judgment of God. What was the call of Joel? His call was to "cry out to the LORD" (Joel 1:14). That is, they were crying out, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!"

Joel 2: Return to the LORD (12-13). I will restore (25), pour out my Spirit (28), and judge nations (32).

You can feel in chapter 2 the repentance, and the promised restoration.

Joel 3: Multitudes in the valley of decision (14). Egypt and Edom will be desolate, but Judah shall be inhabited forever (20).

This is the message of the prophets. God's people had forsaken the LORD. They are called to repent and return. Or, they will face his judgment. But if they do return, God will restore them.

Let's look at another one. Micah. It's a bit longer. It's 7 chapters.

Micah 1: Samaria and Jerusalem will be destroyed.
Micah 2: Woe to the wicked. Restoration will come (12).
Micah 3: Hear! Rulers hate good and love evil. No answer from the LORD.
Micah 4: Restoration to Zion. War & peace.
Micah 5: Bethlehem's ruler has an eternal origin.
Micah 6: Hear! What does the LORD require?
Micah 7: As for me, I will look to the LORD (7).

You can feel it, right? Destruction is coming. Woe is coming. There is a call to return to the LORD. But interspersed are promises of restoration. You see it clearly in Micah 4:6-7, where God says, "In that day, declares the LORD, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted; and the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation; and the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore."

We can hear Israel crying out, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!" And we heard about the hope of Bethlehem in chapter 5:2, "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days." That's the promise that God would bring a ruler, who has eternal origins (from everlasting)!

And what is the closing of the book? A call to repentance, a call to cry out to the LORD. "As for me, I will look to the LORD" (Micah 7:7). This is our great application this Christmas season: "Look to the LORD!" If there is anything that I want for you to come away with from these overview sermons of the Bible, it is a longing in your heart for the LORD.

Let's take on a big one. Isaiah! Now, there is no way that we are even going to begin to conquer Isaiah! It's 66 chapters long! It would take me a few minutes to simply read through all of my chapter summaries. It includes all of the same elements that Joel and Micah (and the rest of the prophets) include. Judah was rebelling against the LORD. Isaiah was calling them to repentance. Or, there would be judgment upon them for their rebellion. You see this all in chapter 1.

Isaiah 1:2-4
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: "Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand." Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.

The call to repentance comes in verse 16,

Isaiah 1:16-20
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

This is the message of most of the prophets. You are a sinful nation (1:4). So repent (1:16). And God will forgive (1:18). But if you refuse, you shall be eaten by the sword (1:20). But interspersed throughout Isaiah, and the other prophets, is the promise that God would come and restore the hearts of his people.

So, let's try a few summaries. Here's my summary for chapter 7:

Isaiah 7: King Ahaz fears the attacks of Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Israel. God gives sign of a virgin birth.

Here it is! The sign of the virgin birth. It's couched in the context of God giving proof to Ahaz, that he is able to deliver him from the attacks of foreign armies. "Therefore the LORD himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14). "Immanuel" means, "God with us." The promise that God would be with Ahaz was enough for him. This promise of "God with us" was taken up by the Jews, who longed for him to come! "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel."

A few chapters later, God gives further revelation into what sort of child this might be. Here's my summary:

Isaiah 9: In Galilee, they will see a great light (2). "To us a child is born" (6). Israel will be devoured.

Jesus came and ministered in Galilee, just as Isaiah foretold. "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone" (Isaiah 9:2). This light would come, as given by the LORD.

Isaiah 9:6-7
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. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

There is certainly an allusion here that this child is more than a man. He is the Mighty God! That is, Emmanuel, God with us! He is the "Everlasting Father!" An allusion to the Trinity! This son who is given is no other than God, the Father. He is the "Prince of Peace." Israel had tried for centuries to have peace. It could only be given through the Messiah that is given. This one was the fulfillment of the David promise (given in 2 Samuel 7). The next verse points this out. Here in Isaiah, we see the prophesies all crashing in together. The promise of the seed arising to give everlasting peace, and overcome the chaos of the dominion of Satan. The promise of the child of Abraham who would bring great blessing upon the earth. The promise that this child would come from the line of David! It's all because God will come and be among us! "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!"

Further prophesies are given in chapter 11:

Isaiah 11: A shoot from the stump of Jesse. The wolf and the lamb. God will recover the remnant.

Again, we see the re-affirmation of the Davidic promise, in the one who will come. Jesse is David's father.

Isaiah 11:2-5
And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

This is "Emmanuel!" God with us! As Israel heard these things, certainly, it caused their hearts to long for the Messiah to come, especially as things in their world continued to decay. Do you long for this? Is this your heart? Are you singing this Christmas season, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel?" It has been the cry of the entire Old Testament, from Moses to the history of Israel to the prophets. It should be our cry. To the extent that we see the brokenness of ourselves and of our world, we will echo the same cry.

Do you see the brokenness of the world? The war in Ukraine has been devastating for many. There are social problems that we just can't solve: homelessness, poverty, child abuse. Our country is filled with fraud and conflict and immorality. The only way out is for the LORD to come. May we cry out, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!"

Now, I would be remiss with you all this morning if I didn't share with you one last Scripture verse. I have shared with you the big signpost verses of the Bible. Genesis 3:15, the promise of the defeat of Satan. Genesis 12, the promise to Abraham that through him all the families of the earth would be blessed. 2 Samuel 7, the promise to David that a king would sit on his throne forever. These are the great covenants in the Bible: the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic Covenant. They form the backbone of the Old Testament. But there is a covenant that is better than these. It's called the New Covenant. It appears in Jeremiah 31:31-34.

Jeremiah 31:31-34
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

Though these words were written to the house of Israel and Judah, this promise is extended to all who believe in Christ. By faith we become children of Abraham (Galatians 3:7). God puts his law in our hearts and gives us a desire to walk in his ways and serve him. This is what the Lord does to everyone who believe in Jesus. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17). This speaks of the inner transformation that God promised in Jeremiah 31.

If you are lacking this inner transformation, or are pursuing things that are sinful, that you know isn't right, then cry out, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." Pray for the Lord to change your heart from within. Pray for the Lord's forgiveness.

I love the interpretation that the writer to the Hebrews gives of this last verse I read in Jeremiah in Hebrews 10. This chapter is an exposition of the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus. The chapter begins by saying that the Old Covenant sacrifices of bulls and goats could never take away sins, otherwise, they would have ceased to be offered, because the worshiper's conscience would have been cleansed. Rather, the sacrifices continue, because they could never deal with our sin with finality. "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Hebrews 10:10).

The writer to the Hebrews continues to talk about the role of the priests, who are ever-standing and ever-working. On the contrary, Jesus has sat down because his work is complete. "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14).

After quoting Jeremiah 31:34, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more," the writer to the Hebrews concludes, "Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin" (Hebrews 10:18). The New Covenant anticipates the once-for-all sacrifice that Jesus accomplished completely and for all time!

So remember, as you think of the broad stroke of the Old Testament, it all screams of how God will come and be the fulfillment of all of his promises. He will provide a Messiah from the seed of Abraham, who will crush the serpent and be the ruling and reigning king forever. This one also will come and give us new hearts and cleanse us from all of our sins.

"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel."

This sermon was delivered to Rock Valley Bible Church on December 18, 2022 by Steve Brandon.
For more information see www.rockvalleybiblechurch.org.