The King Immanuel

One of the names that we use for Christ, Immanuel (also spelled Emmanuel), comes from a well-known prophecy of Isaiah. It was originally given to King Ahaz who refused to accept a sign from the Lord. Isaiah told him, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Though this seems to have had immediate application in the days of Isaiah, Matthew applied it to the coming of the Savior: “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matt. 1:22-23). Here he both applied the prophecy to the Savior and gave us the translation of the word to mean “God with us.” President Holland commented on the verse from Isaiah in these words: "The most immediate meaning was probably focused on Isaiah’s wife, a pure and good woman who brought forth a son about this time, the child becoming a type and shadow of the greater, later fulfillment of the prophecy that would be realized in the birth of Jesus Christ. The symbolism in the dual prophecy acquires additional importance when we realize that Isaiah’s wife may have been of royal blood, and therefore her son would have been royalty of the line of David. Here again is a type, a prefiguration of the greater Immanuel, Jesus Christ, the ultimate son of David, the royal King who would be born of a literal virgin. Indeed, his title Immanuel would be carried forward to the latter days, being applied to the Savior in section 128 verse 22 of the Doctrine and Covenants” (Christ and the New Covenant, 1997, 79). That verse in modern revelation reads this way: “Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:22). Using the name for Christ that means “God with us” is fitting to describe how He would help free those in bondage in the world of the spirits since He literally went among them (as described in Doctrine and Covenants 138) to prepare the way for them to go free.

I thought of this name for the Savior today as I read The Living Christ which declares, “We bear testimony, as His duly ordained Apostles—that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God. He is the great King Immanuel, who stands today on the right hand of His Father.” The apostles used the title like Joseph Smith did in Doctrine and Covenants 128:22 and it suggests not only that Christ came to be “with us” but that He will come again to dwell on earth. The title Immanuel is perhaps most well-known because of the Christmas song O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. This apparently has its “origins in monastic life in the 8th or 9th century. Seven days before Christmas Eve monasteries would sing the ‘O antiphons’ in anticipation of Christmas Eve.” So, this plea for Emmanuel to come has been around for a very long time. It was translated first into English in 1851 and paired with the tune Veni Emmanuel at that time. The version I’m most familiar with has these lyrics for the first verse: 

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. 

 As we sing these words we can think of both the original coming of the Savior to Bethlehem and the Second Coming in some future day. He certainly came to ransom captive Israel originally through His atonement and resurrection, and we yearn for the day when the Son of God will again appear to save His people from the wickedness of the world in the last days. He came to Israel and He will come again, and these words remind me of the declaration of Mormon: “And ye may know that the words of the Lord, which have been spoken by the holy prophets, shall all be fulfilled; and ye need not say that the Lord delays his coming unto the children of Israel” (3 Nephi 29:2). He will not delay His coming to the children of Israel in the last days, and as we look forward to the day when God will be with us again we sing, “O come, o come, Emmanuel.”