Locations
Dean Fulks
Christmas reveals the blessing of Christ in the past, present, and future.
Christmas reveals the song of your heart
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel and ransom captive IsraelThat mourns in lonely Exile here until the Son of God appear
A physical exile means you are cut off from your physical home
Isa. 27:8
Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them; he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind.
Jer. 52:27-30
And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So, Judah was taken into exile out of its land. This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans; in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem 832 persons; in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Judeans 745 persons; all the persons were 4,600.
Isa. 14:9-11
Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations. All of them will answer and say to you: ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers.
Isa. 51:14
He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking.
Hag. 1:7
Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways!
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel…that mourns in lonely Exile here until the Son of God appear
The spiritual exile actually begins in Eden
The exile doesn’t end until Heaven
Jer. 29:4-7
“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
The incarnation is your invitation to a different way of life
Isa. 53:8
By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
