God with us

Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Immanuel, God with us. Charles Spurgeon in his sermon said, “Oh! may God teach you the meaning of that name Immanuel, “God with us”! Immanuel. It is wisdom’s mystery, “God with us.” Sages look at it, and wonder; angels desire to see it; the plumb-line of reason cannot reach half-way into its depths; the eagle-wing of science cannot fly so high, and the piercing eye of... research cannot see it. “God with us.” It is hell’s terror. Satan trembles at the sound of it; his legions fly apace, the black-winged dragon of the pit [trembles] before it… Satan trembles when he hears that name, “God with us.” It is the labourer’s strength; how could he preach the gospel, how could he bend his knees in prayer, how could the missionary go into foreign lands, how could the martyr stand at the stake... how could men labour if that one word were taken away? [Immanuel] It is the sufferer’s comfort, it is the balm of his woe, it is the alleviation of his misery, it is the [rest] which God gives to his beloved, it is their rest after exertion and toil. “God with us,”— it is eternity’s sonnet, it is heaven’s hallelujah, it is the shout of the glorified, it is the song of the redeemed, it is the chorus of angels, it is the everlasting oratorio of the great orchestra of the sky. “God with us.”

As we lead up to Christmas I want us to truly invest the time into, as Spurgeon said, reaching half-way to its depths. We will be building to the birth of Christ but for now I want us to meditate on this very special name of God, Immanuel. As a young Christian I thought that Joseph and Mary messed up. They were supposed to name Jesus Immanuel! Of course, along with any of the names of God it is meant to describe Him, His Character, His Nature.

Looking back to before Isaiah, we go to the Garden of Eden. We see this only once but it is clear that what we are about to read was a consistent occurrence. Genesis 3:8, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” The text communicates to us that they did not hear a sound and think it was God. They heard the sound of the LORD walking. They knew his foot steps. They knew the pace which he walked. Looking back to Genesis we see God’s creation, for a moment in time the way it should be. We see Immanuel in Genesis 3. But we also see, the sin which separated us form Him. From that day froward, it was no longer, Immanuel, God with us, rather, from that day forward it was God’s assurance, “I am with you.” This manifested in many ways: God assured Israel of his presence when they confronted battle (Dt 20; 31; Joshua 1) and promised to be with them when they were fearful and weak (Is 41:10) and when they were facing great trial (Is 43:2). God’s presence was manifested by the pillar of cloud and of fire (Ex 13, 22),by the tabernacle and the temple, especially the Holy of Holies and the ark of the covenant.

I want to emphasize this point for a moment. God was with his people: Pillar of fire, pillar of smoke. the Holy of Holies, the Ark of the Covenant. He was with them, but we could not approach Him. IN the Garden Adam and Eve were face to face with God. He was walking in the Garden right alongside them. What changed? Our sin has changed His being with us. Now, though we saw Him as a pillar of fire and smoke we would not dare approach Him. Though His presence was upon the Ark of the Covenant we would dare not touch. One man did, to keep the Ark from falling and he was struck dead. God was in the Holy of Holies but we would dare not enter. Sinful man cannot approach, cannot touch, cannot enter in the presence of The Holy God.

In the Garden, Immanuel, God with us. Sin ended that. It is no longer God with us, but now God says, “I am with you.” It is God who assures. But it is not Immanuel, God with us. Not how it was. Not how God wants to be with us. But in Isaiah 7:14 the emphasis changes from “I am with you” to “He is with us.” One of the texts we will see come up again and again is Ezekiel 36:26-27