Behold the Lamb of God

Andrew Peterson (Artist)

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Number of Discs: 1
• ASIN: B0006NNQBQ
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #90,507 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

1. Gather 'Round, Ye Children 2. Come 3. Passover Us 4. So Long, Moses 5. Deliver Us 6. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel 7. Matthew's Begats 8. It Came To Pass 9. Labor Of Love 10. The Holly And The Ivy 11. While Shepherds Watched 12. Behold, The Lamb Of God 13. Reprise ========= This Christmas will be the fifth consecutive year that Ive performed what I hesitantly call a musical about the birth of Christ. The reason musical doesnt really work is that when we think of a musical we usually think of people dressed like donkeys and evenings full of badly delivered speaking parts. What I wrote is a concert that tells a story. Theres no speaking--only songs, some of which are intimate, some epic, some humorous, all with a purpose, which is to convey the true tall tale of the coming of God into the world. What makes this bunch of songs unique is that I wanted to remind (or teach) the audience that the story of Christmas doesnt begin with the birth of Jesus. Many people tend to forget or have never even learned that the entire Bible is about Jesus, not just the New Testament. So the musical begins with Moses and the symbolic story of the Passover (Passover Us) and works its way through the kings and the prophets with their many prophecies about the coming Messiah (So Long, Moses) to the awful four hundred years of silence before God told Mary shed be having a baby (Deliver Us). After the song called Matthews Begats, which lists the genealogy of Jesus, the story picks up in more familiar territory with Mary and Joseph and the actual birth (It Came To Pass, Labor of Love). The final song is called Behold, the Lamb of God, which ties together the Passover and the beauty and scope of the story.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Silmarillion of Christmas albums, January 28, 2005

By	Joshua Ham (Somewhere in the US or Africa, depending on the season) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and epic, the true meaning of Christmas, November 25, 2004

By	Thomas H. Ayers (Bowie, MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most beautiful albums to reach these ears., March 17, 2005

By	Tim H (Canada) - See all my reviews

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.