Customer Reviews

Behold the Lamb of God

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My wife and I went into the local music shop looking for Christmas presents a couple of months ago. We listened to some random albums, found a bargain Phil Keaggy CD (bonus!)... then I saw this disc (which I had been looking for) nestled in the shop's Christmas music display. We both grabbed a copy and went to the shop's preview stations.

What we heard was nothing short of remarkable. Before the first track was halfway over, the question in my mind had changed from, "Should we buy this album?" to, "How many copies are we going to get?"

The other reviewers here have written that this is not a traditional Christmas album, and they're absolutely right. This is an album about how God saw the brokenness of humanity and then resolved to heal us. It's an album about the Incarnation -- God's undiluted presence in the man Jesus. Yes, Christmas is when that man was born (or at least when we celebrate his birth), but the story is bigger than Christmas, as this album shows.

The first track is maybe the most Christmas-y one on the album, urging us to remember the birth of Jesus. But where most Christmas albums stop , this one is just beginning. The next several tracks explore the history of why Jesus had to be born in the first place -- the anguish of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament times, their failure to find wholeness even when they ruled their own land, their search for a king who would rule justly over them, and (above all) their rock-solid certainty that one day someone would come and set everything straight.

With that backdrop of longing still redolent in the back of the listener's mind, the last two tracks proclaim the best news of all time -- He has come! The one that prophets and priests yearned to see has finally arrived. I don't know how many times I listened to this album before I stopped bursting into tears at the title track.

Here's an analogy for any Tolkien-heads out there. Normal Christmas albums are like 'The Lord of the Rings' -- fantastic, moving, but ultimately only a tiny, tiny portion of the story. Andrew Peterson has crafted the 'Silmarillion' of Christmas albums, the one that tells you why 'The Lord of the Rings' is important in the first place.

I don't know how to recommend this album highly enough.

Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God: the true tall tale of the coming of Christ" is one of the best "Christmas" albums I have ever heard; frankly, it deserves to be heard all year long.

The album contains two instrumentals, ten songs, and two bonuses. The instrumentals are quite good. The songs survey the entire Bible and its relevance to the Christmas story. The bonuses show how this old "true tall tale" continues to have real impact on people NOW.

The Songs: The album opens with an invitation to hear the wonderful story of Christ's birth. Knowing that the entire Bible, in one way or other, points to Jesus as Savior, Peterson then proceeds to recount some of the Messianic prophecies and symbolisms of the Old Testament in "Passover Us" and "So Long, Moses". "So Long, Moses" is particularly telling in its contrast of earthly kings and the King of kings--"Prophet, tell us will there be another king like this?"; the use of mixed meters in this song is quite effective. Leaving behind slavery under Pharaoh and moving on to slavery to sin, Peterson offers "Deliver Us," which is sung by Derek Webb, formerly of Caedmon's Call. "Matthew's Begats" does a marvelous job of making a geneology relevant and--is it possible?--not boring but fun. "It Came to Pass" and "Labor of Love" depict Joseph and Mary as very human participants in this story. The subsequent songs take us from the announcement to shepherds to Jesus' role as Savior. What hit me hardest on this album was "The Theme of My Song/Reprise," which employs motifs from previous songs to bring us to the present and real need for Jesus NOW. By album's end, I was in tears. Amazing stuff.

I highly recommend this album. From gorgeous artwork to heartful performances from Peterson and his plethora of guest musicians (Ron Block, Derek Webb, Jill Phillips, Garrett Buell, Sandra McCracken, Eric Peters, to name but a small few), this album shines. Do you miss the true meaning of Christmas? Rediscover it here.

I'm sure that this Christmas album was missed at the time of its release by many listeners who were probably buying other Christmas titles by their favorite artists. No problem, its great to have your favorites. However, this is easily one of the most beautiful and thoughtful Christmas albums to reach my ears. It is the telling of that incredible story of the Lamb of God coming to earth. Andrew Peterson and crew will take you on a musical journey that will leave you in awe. Honestly, I have not heard a Christmas album that quite matches the care and quality of this piece of work. It brings our focus back to the Christ child. And it is so beautifully told.

My sister sent my wife and me this album as part of a Christmas present. What a pleasant surprise it turned out to be. After listening to it once, we enjoyed it so much that we immediately began listening to it again, trying to learn all of the words. Within a week of opening it, we have already listened to it several times over. The mixture of instrumentation was well done, and the sound mix given to accentuate the words in the vocals made it even more pleasant. Over all, this was an exceptional use of scripture put to music. It is a Christmas album that will be a enjoyable listening experience all the year through. The song, "Labor of Love," brought tears to my eyes. Thanks to Andrew Peterson for telling the story of the Incarnation of the Logos and of His mother so movingly.

This is a great album. This is not your traditional Christmas album. It goes through Scripture and leads us right to Jesus Christ. Matthew's Begats is cheeky, but also profound when you think of all the people God placed in this world (some good and some not so good) to lead us to the birth of Jesus. The music is strong, and the lyrics are poetic and match the mood of each piece. Everything is woven together in the final piece. It puts the right focus on Christmas and eloquently points out that all history leads to Christ's coming and all history leads away from Christ's birth.

Andrew Peterson has done it again. He has not had a bad album. Get this one and listen to it all the time.

This cd is absolutely wonderful. I love all of Andrew's cds, but this is THE BEST. Although it is classified as a Christmas cd, it will be listened to by my family all year long. There are no typical Christmas songs on it. The music is original, inspirational, and tells a beautiful story. I highly recommend it.

Do NOT download this mp3 album. There is something wrong with the digital copy on the Amazon site. The sound quality is really bad, and not representative of the actual album. Also, track 8 for "Labor of Love" is not the right song.

I really appreciate Peterson's "Behold the Lamb" album. But this is not the place to get it.

after seeing Andrew Peterson live with this concert, we had to buy the CD. Amazing music, telling the most beautiful story ever - this is a new Christmas classic.

Even after I make myself quit listening to this "Christmas" CD in January, the songs stay in my head all year long. The lyrics are meaningful; the music is so beautiful.

I'm 65! and I love this album! "Behold the Lamb of God" is worth the price of the entire album, but do yourself a favor and listen to it start to finish. The music tells the story of God's plan of redemption in Jesus, the Lamb of God! I am keeping it on my Kindle, my iPhone year around!!