By Matt Pope serving in Santiago, Chile
‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.’ Isaiah 7:14
‘All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.”’ Matthew 1:22-23
Maybe you know that ‘Immanuel’ means ‘God with us.’ Maybe, like me, you get ‘O Come, O Come Immanuel’ stuck in your head each Christmas. It’s a familiarly Christmassy word – and yet we often miss the richness of its significance.
In Isaiah’s day, the ‘Immanuel’ was a sign given to Ahaz, King of Judah, of a woman conceiving a son and naming him ‘Immanuel’ (Isaiah 7:14). The baby was a sign to King Ahaz that God was with him and his people, and that he would stick by them even when it looked like the opposite – they just needed to trust him.
Once we know a bit of the background of ‘Immanuel’, Matthew 1:23 gets even more exciting! Matthew is deliberately taking a huge promise from Jewish history and saying of Jesus, ‘this is him! Immanuel is finally here!’.
Matthew is speaking of the amazing truth that the invisible God became man and dwelt among us. But he didn’t just come so we could know him better, wonderful as that is. The awesome Son of God was born as a human to die and to rise, to make us right, so we could be in God’s presence, in God’s family, with God.
But what about now? Is ‘God with us’ something we must wait till the new creation to fully experience? No!
Many Christians know theoretically that God is with them, but don’t know it experientially, practically, in the grit of daily life. They don’t enjoy the peace, joy and security that flows from the knowledge that God is with us as believers to pray to, to trust in, to rejoice in.
Why do so many lack this? There are many reasons, but the top two are two opposites: laziness and being too busy. I want to focus on the former.
Friends, all good, deep, meaningful relationships need time. So here is my Christmas challenge to you: be selfish with your time with God.
Put down your phone and block out time every day to actively be with God– to spend time in his word and to speak to him about your struggles, your joys, your sin and your suffering. I have witnessed in my own life and in the lives of those I walk alongside, that over time (lots of time!) the promises of the Bible for believers this side of heaven – peace, joy, contentment in and despite the mess of normal life – will be your experience. And that will be because you not only know in your mind that God is with us, but you actually know that God is with you.