Advent Words Day 25 ~ Immanuel

 

Day 25: Immanuel

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” Isaiah 7:14

 

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”- which means “God with us”.” Matthew 1:22-23

 

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” “  Revelation 21:3

 

Through deeper Bible study I have come to enjoy grammar. Yes, you read that right, I enjoy grammar! Let me tell you that this was not true for most of my life. I will not claim to have grasped a full in-depth knowledge of it, but if we are to truly understand the meaning of Scripture we need to connect with the significance of the grammar used.

Take note of a simple preposition used in each of today’s verses: With.  Advent is a season that reminds us that what we really long for down deep is God’s presence with us. We wait and we long and we look for it. 

 

Prepositions are all about the relationship between two words in a sentence. The same is true of the Bible. Author Jan Loyd, “With-ness of Our God”, says, “God uses many prepositions to reveal different dimensions (aspects) of our relationship with Him and the benefits of that relationship.”

So note this preposition ‘with’ in the verses above:

The Virgin will be with child and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

And they will call him Immanuel – which means God with us. (Matthew 1:23)

Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. (Revelation 21:3)

Just as there is an intimate relationship between a mother and the child in her womb, God provides the way for us to have an intimate relationship with Him. Through Immanuel – Jesus, the Christ – God’s presence abides in His people, and He is with us. 

The NIV Study Bible notes that the “with, with, with” combination used in Revelation 21:3 is the “most eloquent culmination of the Immanuel theme”.  God’s covenant relationship – I will be their God and they will be my people – is a thread of promise through the whole Bible, which culminates in the first and second coming of Jesus – Immanuel.

Let me leave you with a few verses that describe our covenant relationship with Immanuel:

Through faith in Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made for us on the cross, we have the promise of God's presence with us forever.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ...In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:13, 21-22

 

Through Jesus Christ God not only dwells with us, but He dwells in us through His Spirit.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.  John 14:16-17

 

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. John 14:20

 

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Romans 8:9-11

 

God's people, collectively as the church and individually, are now the dwelling place of God, His tabernacle!

Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 1 Corinthians 3:16

 

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? 1 Corinthians 6:19

 

We are yet promised an even greater presence with God in the New Jerusalem. John paints a picture of that heavenly dwelling with God.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” “ Revelation 21:3

 

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. Revelation 21:22-23

 

Glory to God in the highest ~ Immanuel has come! God is with us!

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