“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!
Wow, Mary! What a truly magnificent devotional! They have each one been wonderful and inspirational this Advent season...but this one ...this one brought Him ever so intimately to my spirit and heart. Thank you for all of these. I also read today's which was do good and look forward to hearing your upcoming plans. I got behind these few days here w Christmas tomorrow but will finish up before end of year.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you and your loved ones and thank you for being such a blessing and encouragement through out the year!