O Come, O Come Emmanuel (stanzas 5-8)

O Come, O Come Emmanuel is a carol that refers to different names for Jesus Christ.

The fifth stanza refers to Jesus as the "Key of David." The Bible says that Jesus holds the key of David, and because of that, "What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open." (Revelation 3:7, New International Version, 1984) The verse is referring to the eternal temple of God, to heaven itself. (See verse 12, compared to the synagogue of Satan, v. 9)

5 O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.


The sixth stanza says,
6 O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.


Sinai is where Moses received the Ten Commandments--God's standard of perfection. None of us can reach that standard, but Jesus fulfilled it for us (Matthew 5:17)

The seventh stanza refers again to Isaiah 11:1, "Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit." (New American Standard Bible)

Jesse was the father of King David. In His human ancestry, Jesus was a shoot that came from the tree of Jesse and David. But as the Eternal Creator, Jesus was also the root of all family trees. Kings of the earth cannot muster enough wealth, power or goodness to achieve the standard of God's law, so they are dependent on mercy from the King who descended from David.

7 O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.


One prophecy described Jesus, "the desire of nations," as entering into the temple of God. Haggai 2:7 (King James Version). More recent translations describe the wealth of nations being brought into the temple of God.

But there is no temple in heaven; "for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." (Rev. 21:22, NASB) What treasures can the nations possibly add to the glory of such a temple, anyway?

In heaven, there will be no fighting or factions because there will be only one King over all other kings (Revelation 19:16) There will be no contender for the throne. That's why Jesus is also called the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) That's what--that's Who--we still desire for Christmas, 2021.

8 O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

   

 
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Note on "Desire of nations"
2:7a. ...The writer to the Hebrews quoted Haggai 2:6 in Hebrews 12:26 and then added that the kingdom of God, which “cannot be shaken” (Heb. 12:28), will survive all divine judgments. This divine judgment was impending in Haggai’s day since the Old Testament prophets did not see the valley of time lying between the First and Second Advents of Jesus Christ (cf. Isa. 61:1–2; Luke 4:18–21).
2:7b. The adornment of the future temple will be provided by the nations’ wealth. The desired of all nations should probably be understood as a collective noun (“desirable things,” i.e., treasures) to correspond with its plural verb (in the Heb.) will come, suggesting that surrounding nations will gladly give up their treasures to adorn the temple in Jerusalem (cf. Isa. 60:5; Zech. 14:14). The rendering, “the desire of all nations” (kjv), has been usually understood as a messianic prophecy referring to the coming of the One desired by all nations. The trend of recent translations and commentators has been away from this personal reference to the impersonal “desired things.” However, the evidence is not all one-sided, and a case can be made for retaining a personal messianic reference. Perhaps Haggai deliberately selected a term that had exactly the ambiguity he wanted in order to include both an impersonal and personal reference (see Herbert Wolf, Haggai and Malachi, pp. 34–7).
 Lindsey, F. D. (1985). Haggai. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, pp. 1541–1542). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.


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