God With Us: Deliver Us

Welcome, friend! I’m so glad you’re joining me in the midst of this busy season. Each day this week, I’ll share a devotion to help you slow down and experience the story in a new way. I’ve included Scripture readings and songs to enrich the experience. These words are inspired partly by Andrew Peterson’s gorgeous album, Behold the Lamb of God: The True Tall Tale of the Coming of Christ.

If you have time, I suggest reading the passage, then listening to the song(s), before reading the devotion. May these simple words make the story of God With Us come to life this year.

Deliver Us

Reading: Isaiah 9:1-7

Songs: Deliver Us by Andrew Peterson; O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

O come, o come, Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the son of God appear

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Tonight I sit with the sound of a weary world, and I hear our voices in the chorus.

We know the story and how it ends. We know the prophecies and fulfillment, the radiance announcing the birth in little Bethlehem. It’s so easy to forget that, just over two thousand years ago, they didn’t know how it would all pan out.

But tonight, let’s slow ourselves to sit with the ache of longing for a deliverer.

Advent is about waiting, hoping, making room. So, like Israel, we watch for the arrival of a deliverer.

Though our hearts find our home in Him, we remember His people scattered to the four winds. Without the benefit of hindsight, they toiled under generations of burden. They heard the promises but still waited.

You who walk in darkness will see a great light. To you, in this land of deepest night, dawn has come.

But our weary world is dark and cold, and we feel the yearning cry.

Feel the weight of waiting.

Feel the ache of four centuries of silence.

We know this now, in part. When days seem dark and heavy, like nothing would ever change. When time passes silent, as though heaven has forgotten how to speak.

Burdens bear down and we buckle beneath the load. When we lament the brokenness of our world showcased on the nightly news, we feel it.

Where are You? You promised a son called Immanuel. You promised You’d be with us.

We join the song of generations, calling, “Break Your silence! Deliver us!”

But we are not those without hope. Though the cold chills and our hearts lament, we know the light will return. In this deep dark, as nights grow long and cold, we cling to the promise of a deliverer coming. We remind our hearts in the weight of waiting:

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, o Israel.

As Alexander Shaia says of the long and weary night, “The deepest dark is not the place where grace goes to die. The deepest dark is where grace goes to be reborn.”

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