Immanuel

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. – Isaiah 7v14

I would not be, by any means, a great theologian. I know most of the facts. I know enough to pretty much defend my faith. I hope I know enough to be a useful teacher of God’s word. I would not consider myself a Bible dummy, but I don’t understand a lot of the fine points of theology.

I don’t understand all of the ramifications of the virgin birth. I do know that the virgin birth is vital because it allows Jesus to be both God and man at the same time. I do believe that without the virgin birth Jesus would have been just another man. I have my own views on the rest of the importance, but those things are all that I really ‘get.’ The nice thing is that I don’t have to ‘get it’ now. One day it will all be clear.

But I do I have a limited, human understanding of ‘Immanuel.’ Although we can never ‘get’ any spiritual truth completely I do understand the importance of the words ‘God with us.’ It is spelled out in Isaiah 57 when God is the ‘High and lofty One who lives in eternity’ and whose name is Holy. In that same chapter we also read that God also lives with those who are of a humble and contrite spirit.

I don’t understand though why He would do it. Why would the God who is holy and who is high and lifted up dwell with man? Why would Jesus, our ‘God with us’ leave heaven to live amongst us?

There is only one answer. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…’

Praise God for ‘God with us!’