Advent: Gabriel’s Message Does Away

Because Christmas is coming, I’ve decided to take a break from my daily review of modern worship songs and focus on Christmas hymns for a month. I’ve started with Advent.

Advent hymns emphasize waiting, longing, and preparation, while Christmas hymns celebrate fulfilment, joy, and Christ’s birth.

Today’s hymn is Gabriel’s Message Does Away:

1 Gabriel's message does away
Satan's curse and Satan's sway,
Out of darkness brings our Day:

Refrain:
So, behold, all the gates of heaven unfold.

2 He that comes despised shall reign;
He that cannot die, be slain;
Death by death its death shall gain: [Refrain]

3 Weakness shall the strong confound;
By the hands, in grave clothes wound,
Adam's chains shall be unbound. [Refrain]

I like it musically, but it’s not often sung in evangelical churches. It’s an old Latin hymn translated into English by John Mason Neale (1818–1866). It’s not written in simple English. Even the title is a little confusing 😀.

It basically proclaims that the angel Gabriel’s message to Mary, the announcement of the Saviour, “does away Satan’s curse and Satan’s sway”, highlighting Christ’s coming as the triumph over sin and death.

• Darkness gives way to light (“out of darkness brings our Day”).
• Christ’s death conquers death itself (“death by death its death shall gain”).
• Adam’s chains are broken, symbolizing humanity’s liberation from sin

The line “death by death its death shall gain” is particularly puzzling. It means that because of Christ’s death, death itself will face death. Those who believe will live and reign with Christ forever and won’t need to face death again. Death shall be no more.

Another intriguing line is “he that cannot die, be slain;” Christ is both God and Man. As God, he cannot die. But he did choose to die as man to save us. So, He is God and He did die. The hymn touches on very deep truths, but it doesn’t really make them very clear. It’s a little puzzling, but even as humans, when we die, our body dies, but we immediately enter the afterlife. Jesus could say to the dying thief “today you will be with me in paradise”.

There’s another Christmas song similar to it. Here are a couple of versions, one by Sting 😀. Perhaps not everyone is aware that he was a lead singer with The Police, a new wave group back in the late 1970s and 1980s. I saw him in concert when I was 18. Funny seeing him singing hymns nowadays (See his Durham Cathedral Concert).

Angels are often depicted with wings in art, but angels are simple messengers from God who appear in human form. You do get some parts of scripture that are full of symbolism where both angels and humans appear in strange forms, but these are just symbols. Only two angels in the Bible are named; Gabriel and Michael.

• Angels – Robbie Williams (1997)
• Angel of Harlem – U2 (1988)
• Angel – Simply Red (1996)
• Angel Eyes – Abba (1979)
• There Must Be an Angel – Eurythmics (1979)
• Angel – Madonna (1984)
• Angel Of Mine – Eternal (1997)
• Angel Fingers – Wizard (1973)
• Angel Eyes – Wet Wet Wet (1987)
• Angel – The Corrs (2004)

But we need to separate the Bible teaching from all the mythological depictions. Here are some simple facts about angels in the Bible:

• They do not have physical bodies like humans, but can appear in visible form.
• The word “angel” comes from the Greek angelos, meaning “messenger”.
• Angels serve God but do not share His divine attributes.
• Scripture describes different types such as cherubim, seraphim, and archangels.
• Seraphim are described in Isaiah 6 as crying “Holy, holy, holy” before God’s throne
• Luke 15:10 says angels rejoice when someone turns back to God.
• Hebrews 13:2 notes that some have “entertained angels unawares”.
• Revelation 22:8–9 shows angels refusing worship, directing it to God alone.
• Angels battle against demonic (bad angel) forces, as seen in Daniel 10 and Revelation 1.
• Psalm 91:11 says God commands His angels to guard His people.

Just like miracles, angels are quite rare in the Bible, but they do feature in the life of Jesus and in the very early church. And they are frequently mentioned in Christmas hymns. We really know little about them. It seems that they are part of creation, but were created in a different realm. And some rebelled, lead by Satan. Those that rebelled are often referred to as demons. Humans also rebelled but for us, there’s a way back to God.

Wayne Grudem has a few talks on angels and demons in his series of Systematic Theology talks. What I like about him is that he doesn’t engage in silly speculation. He sticks closely to the Scriptural content.