O Come, Emmanuel 2: Mourning & Exile

My second Christmastide reflection on that beautiful carol, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, focusses upon its third and fourth lines:

That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.

Exile may refer to the period of time the Israelites spent in exile in Assyria and Babylonia, several centuries before the Lord Jesus’ coming, which is so poignantly described in Psalm 137. Yet they were generally released and returned home long before the Messiah was born. The exile surely refers to the removal from God’s presence; the spring of prophetic words had dried up, and the national leadership was compromised and worldly. The sense of mourning for better times was only reinforced by the reign of King Herod, who combined David’s and Solomon’s worst characteristics (violence and sexual infidelity respectively) while lacking their chief virtues (godliness and wisdom). Truly, being a Jew under Herod was a mournful time; though many were in the ancestral land, it must have still felt like an exile with him in charge.

Then the Son of God appeared, towards then end of that vicious reign. Herod tried to destroy Him, but failed. Curiously, his last earthly act was to order the death of his son, Antipater, by strangulation, for allegedly plotting against him. A dreadful irony, this; that he who should seek to kill God’s Son should end up killing his own. The Son of God appeared, and remained; while Herod died and his line died out before the New Testament was completed.

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.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o'er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer,
Our Spirits by Thine Advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

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.

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.

From the text of the 1851 translation by John Mason Neale of the twelfth-century hymn Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, published in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861)