Immanuel revisited

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 7:14 ESV)

God tells King Ahaz that He will send him a sign. A virgin would find herself pregnant. This is such a surprising picture that scholars over the ages have tried to argue that the word simply means “young woman”, not “virgin”. However, careful analysis suggests that this word was perhaps the handiest one that our author could have found to describe such a person. Astoundingly, she will go on to bear a son while still a virgin and will have a ready-made name for Him,

“Immanuel ... God with us”.

“God with us” – or, perhaps, “May God be with us”. A cry of despair, perhaps, of a young woman who found herself pregnant and felt that she was about to be publicly shamed? But a cry of alarm would hardly fit the description of someone in receipt of a sign from God, a special, startling message that would make a king sit up and take notice. No, here is somebody who, quite outside the usual order of nature, is pregnant by God’s plan and design without having known a man. What is she going to call this portentous child? This is nothing other than a work of God. This is “God with us”.

Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus (1:18-25) tells us that God dwelling with His people is at the heart of Christmas. Quoting Isaiah 7:14, Matthew points us to Jesus as fulfilling it. This is the One about whom an angel spoke to Mary’s husband-to-be Joseph when he told him that the child would be born by the power of the Holy Spirit for the purpose of being our Saviour. So important is this truth to Matthew that he echoes the Isaiah verse again, right at the end of the gospel, when he quotes the risen Jesus’s words to His disciples:

“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).

I, Jesus, am “God with you” – this time by my Holy Spirit.

A Scottish preacher once used these words in a prayer:

“He came a long road tae find us, and a sore travail He had afore He set us free.”

Has the truth of the huge distance in time and space which God covered to find you and transform you really dawned on you yet?

May you have a truly blessed and meaningful Christmas and much to celebrate in this coming year of grace 2018.