God with Us • Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25
By Paula Smith
Is it time?
Are we there yet?
I can’t wait!!!
Only 20 more days till Christmas —
Oh! The WAITING….
Many have waited two long years through the pandemic to get to celebrate Christmas family time together! Did it seem like it would never come again?
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Listen carefully, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will call his name Immanuel (God with us). Isaiah 7:14 (Amplified).
What a promise and prophecy the Lord gave to the people through Isaiah! Immanuel — a God who is WITH us! He will come to us as a human, as a helpless baby, born of a virgin, and He will never leave us nor forsake us! He is with us!
What excitement the people must have felt. They waited with anticipation. Then time began to pass: one year… two years…. They waited through the time of returning to Jerusalem from the exile in Babylon.
They waited through severe warnings from other prophets. They waited through power changes and political turnovers and hardships. They continued to observe their feast days. They celebrated the Passover with the empty chair for Elijah, but did their belief begin to wane a bit that Elijah would really come? They waited and then, SILENCE. 400 years of silence! Did Isaiah get it right? Would this God, who would be with us, ever come?
Then 700 years later at the appointed time, the wait was over! The Gospel writers confirm it. Matthew 1:18 tells, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” (ESV).
Joseph must have gone through a million emotions when he got the news about Mary. How he loved her. He did not want to bring her public shame. He came up with a plan. He would send her away and quietly divorce her. Then he had a visit, a spoken telegram of sorts, a personal message concerning of all things Isaiah’s prophecy that was given 700 years in the past.
How Joseph’s faith must have swelled as he got the message from the angels that Mary was with divine child. His faith swelled knowing his Mary had not been unfaithful. Joseph began to see Isaiah’s words and the angels’ words were the same.
Joseph had to trust the Lord’s plan. He was assured that he should not be afraid. He was assured that he should take Mary as his wife. He was also told what to name this child, this one conceived by the Holy Spirit, this Immanuel, this God with us. He was to call him “Jesus,” meaning, “The Lord is salvation for He will save His people from their sins.”
Joseph believed God’s plan. How do we know that? The Scripture tells us, “Then Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him.” His faith became action because, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:17 NIV).
The noise of the world then and the noise of the world now attempt to explain God and how we can reach God. Of course, it all falls short because we (humanity) fall short. We cannot reach God on our own, but Jesus reveals a different approach: God reaching out to us through Jesus.
Jesus is the only way back to our Creator God and Father. Jesus Himself explained that He was “the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him” (John 14:6 NIV).
Jesus, Immanuel, this God that is with us, is waiting also. He’s waiting for His people to recognize that He IS the God with us. Bill and Gloria Gaither’s song, His Love Reaching, expresses that so well:
And so, this great Creator who’d been reaching all along
This God who formed the world with His own hands
Made love become a baby, one of our very own
And spoke His word so we could understand.
His love went on longing
And His love went on reaching;
Right past the shackles of my mind.
And the Word of the Father
Became Mary’s little Son;
And His love reached all the way to where I was.
He’s still longing, reaching, and waiting for you. Immanuel, God with us! Go to Him. His love reaches all the way to where you are.
Smith is a member of Ridgecrest Church, Madison. She may be contacted at pgrace56@hotmail.com.
