ODJ: Immanuel
December 3, 2009
The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a Son and will call Him Immanuel (which means “God is with us”) (v.14).
READ: Isaiah 7:10-14
I was talking with a friend who can’t wait to be a parent. Fresh from his honeymoon, he and his wife are planning and praying for a baby. And they already have names picked out, one for a boy and one for a girl. Whoa! My friend’s wife isn’t even pregnant.
In 735 BC, the prophet Isaiah prophesied to the spiritually struggling nation of Judah: “The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call Him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’)” (v.14). Jesus was named some 730 years before He was born!
I once heard a Bible teacher say that all the truths of Christmas can be stated in just three words: “God with us.” We tend to focus our attention at Christmastime on the human birth of Christ. But the greater focus should be on His deity—who He really is—“God with us.”
Immanuel means that we’re not isolated from a God who sits on some distant throne. Bette Midler’s popular 1990 song “From a Distance,” was off the mark in its refrain: God is not watching us “from a distance.” God is with us. Immanuel means that God lived among us. He had human skin and wore human clothes.
When Joseph and Mary called their son by name, they must have been awestruck. Every time His parents said “Immanuel,” it was a reminder that God was in the house—literally living under the same roof.
Are you alone? Feeling afraid? Have you felt that God is far off, somberly watching you from a distance?
If so, recognize that the message of Christmas is that you don’t need to be alone anymore. For Jesus has come. Immanuel. God is with you. —K.T. Sim
Think about the reality that God is with us. Does that scare you or comfort you? Why?
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