Come, O Adonai!
For Meditation (Corey Widmer)
This week we come to the second ancient Antiphon, transposed into verse 2 of the hymn O Come O Come Emmanuel as follows:
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to your tribes on Sinai's height
in ancient times did give the Law
in cloud and majesty and awe.
The first Antiphon began at creation, and the second one now moves to the next great chapter in biblical history, the choosing of God's people Israel and the giving of the Law. This verse gets at two vital things about God: first, his power and glory ("cloud and majesty and awe."). It reminds us that God is beyond us, completely "other" from us, and inaccessible to our finite existence. On the other hand, this verse also reminds us that this same God has entered into human history to make himself known. He introduced himself to a particular people, calling himself "Yahweh" (translated Adonai), and intimately involving himself in the life of a single group of people and ordering their life through the Law. This tells us that God is both transcendent (beyond us) and immanent (close to us).
This paradox of God is miraculously fulfilled in the incarnation. God becomes a tiny baby to a particular woman in the middle East, being born in a single community in a specific time and place. In doing so, the God of the universe demonstrates that he is a God that can be known intimately, and that he is willing to draw near and even make himself vulnerable for us. Indeed, Jesus is Adonai, the Lord that the Old Testament speaks of - the one who makes the inaccessible God accessible, who brings God near.
As you prepare for worship this week, consider the following:
What is a way that you have experienced God's holiness and transcendence? Do you relate at all when the hymn says God is surrounded in "Cloud and majesty and awe."?
How does God revealing himself to Moses in the burning bush and giving the Law on the mountain show God's willingness to be accessible and close to humans?
What are ways you think Jesus fulfills these Exodus stories?
Pray that God will help us more deeply experience his transcendence and immanence this Advent.
Exodus 3:13–15, 24:12–18
13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation.
12 The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone with the law and commandments I have written for their instruction.”
13 Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. 14 He said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them.”
15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16 and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. 17 To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. 18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.