O Come Immanuel Research Paper

O Come, O Come Immanuel “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel” These words float through the speakers of the radio, church and department store this Advent season. They speak to the desire in the hearts of Christians who wait for Jesus to come again. However, these words hold deeper meaning than the birth and second coming of Christ. The prophesy of the Immanuel figure was first fulfilled by the Old Testament King Hezekiah for the people of Israel and later brought to fuller fulfillment for all people through Jesus Christ. Modern readers of the Bible believe that Christ is the Immanuel prophesied by Isaiah. This is indeed true. However, Christ was not the only one to fulfill the figure of Immanuel. To understand the prophesy of Isaiah, one must take into account the natures of the biblical testaments. First, one needs to attend to the interpretation “the foreignness and the particularity of the word of the Old and …show more content…
Israel was a specific people and had a unique relationship with God that he did not bestow to any other nation. The New Testament God is revealed through Jesus who “reveals, opens up, unlocks, displays publicly, that specific shape [of God] to those outside the commonwealth of Israel, to the church” (Seitz, 214). Some of what is revealed in the Old Testament foreshadows what was to come in the New Testament. This is true of the figure of Immanuel in the Book of Isaiah. Many Christians know of Isaiah’s prophesy of “the young women is with child and about to give birth to a son. Let her name him Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14) and “For a child has been born to us” (Isa. 9:5). However, few are aware that King Hezekiah was the prototype of the Immanuel serving as a human role model for all kings to serve and honor