Embraced by Love: Prophecies and Preparations

My house is fully decorated and Christmas music hums throughout – let the Advent season commence! 

In all seriousness, there’s something comforting and hopeful about entering into rhythms of this season, rhythms that give me life, like adorning my home with the greens and reds, the sparkly and sentimental. I hold dear the songs of the season – like the Bing Crosby crooning of my childhood or the Amy Grant tunes of my teens, like the soundtrack of The Nutcracker or the oratorio of Messiah. Sights and songs ground me during a season that can, otherwise, smother the joy right out of me; they prepare my heart and spirit for the day of celebrating Christ’s breaking into the world. 

I’m also a word-girl who loves learning, especially about Scripture and our Christian history. So, when Jen Wilkin popped a bit of word-nerd trivia into her Revelation study about the lyrics of Messiah, my ears perked up. Specifically, she shared how the lyrics were intentionally written to build out a timeline using the old testament prophecies, from the first advent to the second, in order to show that “the kingdoms of the earth have become the kingdom of our Lord!”¹ I made myself a note to look into this. And here we are!

Advent. With Handel’s Messiah.

It’s a bit of a learning curve to dive into the world of orchestral movements and oratorio librettos (the lyrics), but over the last couple of months, I’ve had a lot of fun digging a little. My first moment of awe was to discover that every single lyric in Messiah is Scripture. There’s not a word sung in the entire oratorio that isn’t found in the King James Bible. 

And then discovering the heartfelt intentions of Charles Jennens, the libretto compiler, and George Frideric Handel, the oratorio composer, inspired me to keep pushing myself out of my comfort zone.* These two men didn’t seek to merely entertain; they wanted to teach their audiences about Jesus!² By presenting the entire Christian message of salvation – from birth to death to resurrection – these two ‘propagators of the gospel’ sought to persuade an entire generation back to their faith in Christ. 

None of this did I know as my high school choir belted out the “Hallelujah Chorus” in the 80s. But as I’m full of this knowledge now, I believe we can bring back the heart behind its original creation and presentation. I believe we can take hold of what Jennens and Handel set out to accomplish – and allow their words and music to do a work in us. Because here is a truth we need: God loves us. Behind every word and note of Messiah is the story of the God who loves us. So it is my hope that as we make our way through parts of this oratorio during the weeks of Advent, we will rediscover – or, perhaps discover for the first time – that we are truly embraced by love.

Movement One: Overture**

Every oratorio opens with a wordless Overture. For some composers, the Overture is merely an instrumental means of gathering the audience and settling them in. But Handel adopted the French purpose, that of setting the stage for the king’s entrance – as if his entry were part of the performance. Although Handel’s oratorio was not written for a king’s court, but a public performance, he quite intentionally chose to employ this type of Overture because he wanted it to be “the symbolic entrance of the King of Kings.”³

Let that sink in.

A silent part of the Overture is the ‘epigraph’, a written piece often found in the program intended to prepare listeners for all that is to follow, such as themes or context. Jennens chose 1 Timothy 3:16 as Messiah’s epigraph, a poem-like synopsis of Jesus’ life, as a way to set the tone for what’s to come. It’s believed these lines flowed from a hymn or a creed of the early church:

Beyond question, great is the mystery of godliness:
He who was revealed in the flesh,
Was vindicated in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Proclaimed among the nations,
Believed on in the world,
Taken up in glory.

1 Timothy 3:16 NASB

“The mystery” of Jesus is not spooky or cryptic, rather it is a truth once hidden that has now been revealed!⁴ And the word translated ‘godliness’ here is often written as ‘holiness’, both of which capture the essence of the original Greek as “someone’s inner response to the things of God which shows itself in godly piety (reverence).”⁵ So, as we ready ourselves for all that is to come, let us understand that our inner response to the things of God is meant to find its source in the love of God.*** 

Movement Two: Comfort Ye My People

The specific context prophets like Isaiah wrote into was the exile of God’s people hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth. For centuries, God spoke through his prophets words of warning to His people – keep the covenant by following Him and His ways or pay the price. Exile. 

Isaiah wrote the words of the next movement, “Comfort Ye My People,” for the southern tribes of Israel when they’d been conquered by Babylon and removed from their land. The light-less world of God’s people consumed them. Loss of land caused great grief, the deepest heartache of which was being taken from God’s presence in the Temple. 

But separation didn’t equal abandonment. God never left His people. He never gave up on them even when they had turned their backs on Him (Isaiah 41:10). In His loving kindness, God sent words of grace to His people by way of prophets like Isaiah – all is not lost. God will make a way. God will bring light into darkness. 

God calls Isaiah to comfort His people with hope:

Comfort, comfort my people,
    says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
    that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins.
A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
    the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
    a highway for our God.”

Isaiah 40:1-3 NIV

To a people who despaired of ever returning to their God and land, God speaks of debts being paid, of punishments completed. He prophetically speaks of a voice calling out to the people of God, trapped in the wilderness of their own making. A voice that beckons preparation.

This theme of preparation will rise up a few times in Handel’s Messiah because of the deft way Jennens selected biblical passages that capture the call to get ready for the coming of the Messiah. In each Gospel, John the Baptist is identified as the one “who was spoken of through Isaiah;” his is the voice calling to people to “prepare the way for the Lord” (Matthew 3:3 NIV; also see Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4, and John 1:23).

Such a reference to prophecy serves as evidence of Jesus as the Christ! God provided the prophet to prepare a way for Messiah’s arrival. 

These words also become the means of eliciting a response – prepare. To the exiles of Isaiah’s day, this was as much physical as it was spiritual. Pack up and pray. Ready your families and ‘read’ Scripture. 

Centuries later, to the oppressed Jews of Herod’s day, ‘preparation’ wove through their lives as a constant spiritual stance of active waiting. For us today, “preparing the way” is a call to ready our hearts and bodies, spirits and minds continuously for His presence – because such preparations can easily get lost in the normalcy of daily living and the noise of secular culture. Something the people of Handel’s day struggled with, as well. 

Movement Four: And the Glory of the Lord

Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter forty continues with a most beautiful promise, “And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together” (v.5). And for such good news, Handel wrote a glorious anthem of a song! As you listen to it, recognize the lyrics and marvel how a nearly three-minute song can carry those few words with such power!

Luke, in his Gospel, actually quotes the entirety of Isaiah 40:1-5 as evidence that the word of God came to John the Baptist in the wilderness (Luke 3:2), as proof that God’s original promises of a Savior will soon be fulfilled: “All people will see God’s salvation” (v.6). And Handel’s music makes this moment memorable.

Luke also weaves this reference to God’s salvation coming to the world into Simeon’s prayer, “For my eyes have seen your salvation” (2:30). As a man of faith, filled with the Spirit, Simeon had been told that he would not know death before seeing the Messiah (vv.25-26). So when he looks upon eight-day-old Jesus, he knows the One he holds. And he praises God (v.28)! 

For all who wonder about God and His heart for humanity, Scripture paints Him as one who is faithful – as one who keeps His word! As one who is compassionate, patient, and full of love for His people, for all of creation. Glory to God!

Our Response

Even though we stand at the inception of this monumental oratorio, we can already feel God’s love oozing from heaven. We can see that despite generations of Israelites turning their backs on God, refusing to uphold the first two commands to worship God only (Exodus 3-6), God remained faithful. He stayed constant in His nature, never changing. Forever and always LOVE (1 John 4:8). 

And, my friends, that is the point. Jennens and Handel longed for people to hear about God for who He actually is. He is not distant and aloof. He is not lacking in compassion for humanity. Rather He continually draws near. He consistently communicates to His people, going so far as to send words of hope and love through men, like Isaiah.

So, why then, do we so often doubt God’s love?

It’s important for us to identify what might keep us from receiving God’s love for ourselves. Is it a false understanding of who God is? Is it a feeling of unworthiness? Is it a disbelief that love could be unconditional? Whatever limits our ability to believe that we are embraced by God’s perfect, holy love needs to be brought out of the darkness and into the light.

We lay down any thoughts of exception – as if God might love everyone but ‘me’. We surrender any belief that there are conditions to God’s love – as if we must first be good, pure, and lovable.⁷ Then we claim this love! We allow God’s perfect love to comfort us! To save and sanctify us! To guide and grow us!

And we do this by continually preparing our hearts for God – namely by reading God’s Word. As Jennens and Handel have so beautifully begun demonstrating for us, God’s Word works together as one divine, redemptive plan sourced by love. The Word shows us who God is; the more we know God, the more we realize just how much He loves us – and, the more we love Him.⁸  

Let’s not just blindly glance at the holiday trimmings and blandly hear the Christmas tunes this year. Instead, let’s engage with our whole hearts this pursuit of God and His love, allowing ourselves to respond inwardly with reverence. Let’s lean into the faithfulness of our Father in heaven, believing that He always keeps His word, embracing the fact that He desires to lavish upon us a love like no other.

Father God, we marvel at your majesty, at the beauty of your creativity! Thank You for your Word and your faithfulness. Thank You for inspiring people like Jennens and Handel to move in this world with a longing to demonstrate to others just how much You love us! Lord Jesus, we recognize that too often we doubt our Father’s love. So we look to You, the One foretold. The One anticipated. The One who broke into this world because of love and with love. And we ask that You would help us tear down any barriers to receiving God’s love fully. Holy Spirit, we know that with You speaking for the Father to our hearts, we can identify any false beliefs we have about God, His love, or our worthiness. Pour into us God’s truth. And help us to believe with all faith that we are embraced by God’s love. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
(inspired by Deuteronomy 7:9; Hebrews 10:23; Exodus 31:1-5; John 1:45; Luke 2:29-32; John 3:16; 1 John 3:16; John 16:13-15)

*I’ve written a little about the man who put this ‘libretto’, the lyrics, together – and why – in my Introduction post.

Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.

• 1 – Jen Wilkin’s Week Eight teaching video in her Revelation^ study
• 2 – As found in this article from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
• 3 – As noted in this “Signifying Sound and Fury” article
• 4 – CS Lewis Institute has an online, digital Advent calendar based on Handel’s Messiah!
• 5 – As quoted from Strong’s Concordance, as found on Biblehub.com 
• 6 – This podcast series on Messiah from the perspective of professional musicians was (mostly) very interesting! LOL
• 7 – Paraphrased from Marjorie Thompson’s book Soul Feast^, p.96.
• 8 – Tara Leigh Cobble of The Bible Recap is known for saying we can’t love what we don’t know. So we read the Bible to get to know God – and to love God!
• **I did not include Handel’s “Overture” on our Embraced by Love playlist for many reasons. Of course it’s beautiful and moving, but since we are not in the context ourselves (at a live performance, for instance), I chose a moody prelude of “A Bleak Midwinter’s Night” by For King and Country to serve as our Overture. Its tone and lyrics hit on similar themes. (Forgive me, Handel!) And, as a reminder, I am only picking up a handful of the fifty-three movements from this oratorio for our series – one to four a week. So, I am aware that I skipped “Movement Three.” 😉 😉
  
  As you listen to our Advent playlist, you’ll notice it is a mixture of songs from Messiah, traditional Christmas tunes, and some lesser known songs, some of which are not Christmassy at all but carry the themes beautifully. I worked to curate this playlist more intentionally than most so that the songs flow thematically within Messiah’s structure. I pray the music blesses you as part of your Advent preparations.
• ***Handel’s symbolic way of presenting Christ in every mode possible throughout this masterpiece goes so far as to include the key structure of the Overture, E minor, which is one sharp – and it happens to look like the cross, thus conveying a message before the music ever begins.⁶ And the somber sound of E minor sets the stage for Christ’s first coming – the world laying in darkness, lost and waiting for its Savior (Isaiah 9:2). See picture below to visualize E minor — the sharp-sign-like-cross.
• Each Wednesday I upload a “Teacup” teaching video that carries on the topic here. You can find all the videos on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram, and YouTube.
• Many of you have found me on Substack. Thank you so much! And, if you’d like to listen to (rather than read) these weekly posts, you can do so on Substack, as well. It’s easy to see and use the audio bar across the top of each post. While you’re on Substack, check out the ministry I’m blessed to be part of, the Devoted Collective.
• My monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life, goes to email inboxes the first week of each month to those who have subscribed on my website. I also post them on Substack. My most recent edition can be found there, and you can subscribe for future newsletters on Substack, here.

Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike. We’ll follow Charles Jennens’ lead and take hold of a biblical passage that points us to Christ as Messiah each week as part of our Advent preparations.

• This week our passage is Luke 2:29-32. I love Simeon’s prayer over baby Jesus. It contains words of waiting for God’s salvation, as well as, themes preparation, and prophecy fulfilled:
  
  “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace,
      as you have promised.
  I have seen your salvation,
      which you have prepared for all people.
  He is a light to reveal God to the nations,
      and he is the glory of your people Israel!” –Luke 2:29-32 NLT
• We’re all called to share the truths about the work of Jesus. One way you can do that is by sharing this site and telling others your own stories of faith experiences. Believe it or not, we worship God each time we share our stories of faith! We use our whole selves to tell about our holy God!!

Featured Photo by Ira Ostafiichuk on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” Photo by Matthias Cooper on Unsplash.
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