“O Come, Adonai” Isaiah 33.22 Advent Midweek 2 Dec. ‘15

1.  Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “You always lose something in the translation.” That’s what people say.  Once at a Lutheran Church in Texas a native Spanish speaker once gave a long prayer at a special dinner held by the congregation. Then the prayer was translated into English. Somehow, the English translation wasn’t as long as the Spanish original. Why?  The translator explained that he couldn’t remember everything that had been said in Spanish, so he gave the Reader’s Digest version in English. The Reader’s Digest version is what we have in the English translation of stanza 3 of the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”
2. In the Middle Ages, stanza 3 was sung in Latin at Vespers in the monasteries on Dec 18, six days before Christmas Eve. Each day of the week before Christmas, one stanza of the hymn would be sung, ending on Christmas Eve with what today is stanza 1.  But the translation has been changed. Rev. John Mason Neale, who translated the Latin into the modern version, was working with four line stanzas, so he couldn’t fit everything in. Our version today says:  “O Come, O come, Thou Lord of might, Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height In ancient times didst give the Law In cloud and majesty and awe. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel  Shall come to thee, O Israel!” (LSB 357:3)  Rev. Neale’s version is fine. But, the original Latin version, based on Is 33:22, literally goes on to say, “Come with an outstretched arm to redeem us.” I’d say that’s a big omission, especially from a Lutheran point of view. Isn’t that how we want Jesus to come?  Come, Lord, with an Outstretched Arm to Redeem Us.
3. Rev. Neale left that part out, but we won’t.  “Come with an outstretched arm to redeem us.”  Our text, Is 33:22: “For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver; the Lord is our king; he will save us.” Even the name of the one who comes is significant. The Lord, the Lord, the Lord. In English, we sing, “O come, O come, Thou Lord of Might.” “Lord of might” is an English translation of the Hebrew, Adonai. Adonai is the name for God used here and in the Latin version of our hymn. It’s the third most common name of God in the Old Testament.  Interestingly, like another name for God, Elohim, Adonai is plural. So we could sing, “O come, Thou Lords of Might.” But we don’t, and why not?
4. If anything is clear in the Bible, it’s that there’s one God, not many. “You shall have no other gods before me,” Yahweh thunders from Mount Sinai in the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:3). In Deut 6:4 we’re taught, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Then in Is 43:11, God speaks, saying, “I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.”  The Bible wants us to know there’s only one God. So what do we do with names of God that are plural like Elohim and Adonai in stanza 3 of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”?
5. Maybe you’ve heard Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain say something like, “We have decided” to do this or that. Everyone knows there’s only one queen, but when she speaks she refers to herself as “we.” Elohim and Adonai are plural because they reflect the revelation of God as the Holy Trinity, one God who always exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So when we sing, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” for Adonai to come with an outstretched arm to deliver us, we pray that the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—would come to save us. And he does! In the person of Jesus, Adonai comes in all the ways we pray for him to come in stanza 3.
6. “The Lord is our king,” Isaiah says. “O come, Thou Lord of might,” we sing.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, the same God who revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush joins himself to a human body in the womb of the Virgin Mary and is born in Bethlehem as King of Israel and heir to the throne of David. And since the true Israel includes all the redeemed who make up the Church, Jew and Gentile alike, this prayer is already answered. The King born to Mary rules at this moment through his Word and Sacraments in the hearts of all who welcome him by faith.
7. Adonai, the Lord, comes also as Lawgiver: “On Sinai’s height, In ancient times didst give the Law, In cloud and majesty and awe.” When he appears to Moses on Mount Sinai, Adonai reveals his Law. He carves it on stone and hands them to Moses, who brings them down the mountain for Israel to learn and obey.  But, when Moses comes back, Israel is already ignoring the Lord, so Moses smashes the tablets.  If I were Moses, I think I’d have thought twice about that. After smashing the Ten Commandments, which God had engraved with his own finger, Moses doesn’t have them anymore. He climbs all the way back up the mountain to get another set. The Law of God on tablets of stone doesn’t seem to have much effect on God’s people. They pretty much ignore it and go their own way. What’s needed isn’t the Law of God written externally on stone, but the Law written on human hearts.
8. And that’s what Adonai does when he comes to each of us personally. When you and I are baptized into Jesus, we’re filled with the Holy Spirit. Alive to God through the Means of Grace—Word and Sacraments—the Holy Spirit begins writing the Law of God on our hearts. So then it’s no longer just commands engraved on stone tablets, but it’s the new delight embedded in the flesh of our own renewed hearts.  Things are different, now that Adonai has come and we’ve been baptized into him. Now God’s Law is written on our conscience. Now Adonai rules from within us. So, a prophecy of Isaiah is partially fulfilled: “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord” (Is 11:9). I say partially, because complete fulfillment awaits the return of Christ on the Last Day.
9. But, we also pray that Adonai will come with “outstretched arm and redeem us.” That’s the part that Rev. Mason’s translation leaves out. The Lord of Might terrified Moses in the burning bush and terrified the children of Israel with threats, lightning, thunder, and smoke on Mt Sinai. But, this Lord is also the God who redeems his people.  Can you think of some examples of the outstretched arm redeeming God’s people? In Exodus, God’s people are saved when they are caught between the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army. The people cry out to God, and the Lord tells Moses, “Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.” Moses stretches out his hand over the sea, “and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind . . . and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground” (Ex 14:15–16, 21–22). That’s the strong outstretched arm of the Lord redeeming his people.  Later, the Israelites are attacked by Amalek in Exodus 17. Joshua and the army go out to fight, and when Moses raises his arm, the army of Israel prevails. That’s the strong outstretched arm of the Lord redeeming his people.
10. But, that was all in the Old Testament. Where do we find the outstretched arm of the Lord coming to redeem his people in the Gospels? It’s two outstretched arms, beaten and bruised arms, bloody and dirty arms, arms nailed to the cross. It’s the arms of Jesus, Adonai, who has come to redeem us through the shedding of his own blood on the cross. Humiliated as a common criminal, our Lord Jesus allows himself to be crucified, that you and I are delivered from the slavery of sin. That’s the strong outstretched arm of the Lord redeeming his people.
11. A sainted Lutheran professor at one of our church body’s seminaries, Dr. Robert Preus, once told his class about an encounter he had with a person who described himself as “born again”—someone who thinks that unless you remember the day you invited Jesus into your heart, you aren’t really a Christian. This person asked Dr. Preus, “When were you saved?” Dr. Preus thought for a moment and said, “I was saved when in eternity past God elected me in Christ. I was saved when Jesus died for my sins on the cross. I was saved when as a baby I was baptized into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. I was saved each time I heard this again and believed. I was saved when I received the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of my sins. I will be saved when I am with Christ in heaven. And I will be saved when Jesus comes in power and glory at the end of the age to raise me and all the dead.”  I hope the person who asked Dr. Preus got the point. Being saved doesn’t depend on the moment you ask Jesus into your heart. Being saved is everything God has done for you in Jesus from his electing love in eternity past to when Jesus comes in power and glory at the Last Day to raise the dead and restore his creation. 
12. This last part of Adonai’s outstretched redeeming arm we also look forward to as we sing stanza 3 of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” You and I aren’t in heaven yet, though we can taste it in Holy Communion when we partake of the Paschal Feast surrounded by saints and angels in heaven. And we have not yet seen Jesus come visibly in glory, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God, to redeem us from this fallen world and take us into the perfect world that awaits us. 
13. But that day will come, because it’s God’s plan and because he answers all prayers that are asked in accordance with his will (1 Jn 5:14). Confident this is God’s will because he tells us in his written Word, we pray boldly these words from a more literal translation of the Latin O Antiphon for today:  “O Adonai and ruler of the house of Israel, Who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, And gave him the Law on Sinai: Come with an outstretched arm and redeem us.”  Prayer:  O Adonai, mighty Lord and Ruler of the Church, come as you have promised with outstretched arm. By the cross of Jesus and his resurrection, redeem us from all the sin, death, and darkness of this world, that we might enter the holiness, life, and light of your kingdom. In his name we pray. Amen.