Chapter One
Immanuel
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
Immanu-el, Emmanouel
The Name
The name "Immanuel" appears twice in the Hebrew Scriptures and
once in the New Testament. One of the most comforting of all the
names and titles of Jesus, it is literally translated "with us is God" or, as
Matthew's Gospel puts it, "God with us." When our sins made it impossible
for us to come to him, God took the outrageous step of coming to
us, of making himself susceptible to sorrow, familiar with temptation,
and vulnerable to sin's disruptive power, in order to cancel its claim. In
Jesus we see how extreme God's love is. Remember this the next time
you feel discouraged, abandoned, or too timid to undertake some new
endeavor. For Jesus is still Immanuel - he is still "God with us."
Key Scripture
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call
him Immanuel" - which means, "God with us."
Matthew 1:22-23
Monday
HIS NAME REVEALED
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was
pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was
found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her
husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public
disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to
him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take
Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the
Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the
name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the
prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and
they will call him Immanuel" - which means, "God with us."
Matthew 1:18-23
Immanuel, I praise you for your faithful love - drawing near when I was
far from you. Instead of casting me away from your presence, you came
to call me home. Instead of punishing me for my sins, you came to free me
from them. Immanuel, my God, you are here with me today. Live in me
and glorify your name, I pray.
Understanding the Name
The name "Immanuel" (im-ma-nu-AIL) first appears in Isaiah 7:14 as
part of a prophetic word that Isaiah spoke to King Ahaz of Judah (the
southern kingdom) at a time when Syria and Israel (the northern kingdom)
had formed a coalition against Assyria. The prophet Isaiah counseled
Ahaz not to join in their uprising against Assyria, the region's
greatest power, assuring him it would not succeed. He urged Ahaz to
trust in the Lord rather than to appeal to Assyria for help against Syria
and Israel, who were threatening to invade Judah for not joining their
uprising. Then he invited Ahaz to ask the Lord for a sign to confirm
the prophetic word, but the unfaithful king refused, having already
decided to place his trust not in the Lord but in Assyria.
In response to Ahaz's refusal to trust God, Isaiah proclaimed: "Hear
now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of human
beings? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord
himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and give
birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."
Shortly after that Syria and Israel were soundly defeated, exactly as
Isaiah had prophesied. Many years later the southern kingdom of Judah
was destroyed by Babylon, its people taken captive.
Matthew's Gospel recalls Isaiah's prophecy, applying it to the child
who would be born of Mary, the virgin betrothed to Joseph. The sign
given hundreds of years earlier to an apostate king was meant for all
God's people. In fact the Bible is nothing if not the story of God's persistent
desire to dwell with his people. In Jesus, God would succeed in
a unique way, becoming a man in order to save the world not from the
outside, but from the inside. Immanuel, God with us, to rescue, redeem,
and restore our relationship with him.
Studying the Name
1. How have you experienced "Immanuel" - God being with you, in
your life thus far?
2. Matthew begins and ends his Gospel (see Matthew 28:20) with
the promises that God is with us. How would your life be different
if you began and ended each day with the firm belief that God is
with you?
3. What does this title of Jesus reveal about his nature?
Tuesday
PRAYING THE NAME
"Go away, Lord; I am a sinful man!"
Luke 5:8
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
Psalm 139:7 - 10
Reflect On: Psalm 139:7 - 10.Praise God: For his promise to be with you.Offer Thanks: For God's persistence in pursuing you.Confess: Any pattern of sin in your life.Ask God: To increase your confidence in his desire to be with
you.
* * *
One of the greatest of all the promises in the Bible is this: I am with
you. Jesus said it to his disciples (and to us) at the end of Matthew's
Gospel: "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." If
the Lord is with us, what do we have to fear? What do we lack? How
can we lose? The same Lord who walked on water, healed the sick, and
rose from the dead is saving us, watching over us, guiding our steps.
Knowing this, why don't we dance in the streets and throw more parties?
Why do we sometimes act as though God is not only not with us
but that he is nowhere in the vicinity?
There may be many reasons why we feel God's absence in our lives.
One of these is surely that our "spiritual sensors" often don't work very
well. We are like malfunctioning radar that can't spot a supersonic jet
flying straight overhead. But another common reason is that we are
the ones who go AWOL, not God.
Consider Peter. One day Jesus climbed into Peter's boat, telling him
to row out into the lake and cast his nets out despite the fact that Peter
had been up all night fishing with nothing to show for it. But this
time when Peter threw out the nets, he caught so many fish that his
boat began to sink. Instead of jumping with joy, Peter fell down and
implored Jesus to leave him, saying, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a
sinful man!"
There's something right about Peter's response. Jesus is holy and
sin is his implacable enemy. Still the Lord didn't leave Peter. Instead
he stayed and transformed his life. And that's what Jesus wants to do
with our lives. We make a mistake when we let our sin drag us down
and away from the One who has promised to be with us. Instead of
running to him, we let a cloud settle over us. Finding it hard to pray,
we move farther away. In a thousand different ways, we say, "Depart
from me, O Lord!"
At times like this we need to recall the words of Psalm 139:11 - 12:
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
If you are troubled by some persistent failing, by some entrenched
sin, don't run away from Jesus. Instead express your sorrow and ask
for his forgiveness - and then receive it. After that try praying this
famous fourth-century prayer known as St. Patrick's Breastplate:
Christ be beside me, Christ be before me,
Christ be behind me, King of my heart;
Christ be within me, Christ be below me,
Christ be above me, never to part.
Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand,
Christ all around me, shield in the strife;
Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting,
Christ in my rising, light of my life.
Christ be beside me, Christ be before me,
Christ be behind me, King of my heart;
Christ be within me, Christ be below me,
Christ be above me, never to part.
Wednesday
PRAYING THE NAME
"I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring
you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have
promised you."
Genesis 28:15
You have been a refuge for the poor,
a refuge for the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm
and a shade from the heat.
Isaiah 25:4
Reflect On: Genesis 28:15 and Isaiah 25:4.Praise God: Because he is present, even in the midst of great
suffering.Offer Thanks: For all the ways the Lord has watched over you.Confess: Your inability to reflect Christ's presence without his
grace.Ask God: To open your eyes to the ways he is at work in the
world and in your own life.
* * *
What if God had jurisdiction only in your city, county, or state? Leaving
the area would mean leaving behind his protection and care, putting
yourself outside the circle of his influence. At such times you
wouldn't even bother praying to him because he could neither hear nor
help you. Odd as it sounds, that's precisely how many ancient people
thought about their gods. They believed in gods whose power was limited
to a particular region or locality.
But listen to what God said to Jacob when he was on the run from
Esau, the brother whose birthright he had stolen: "I will watch over you
wherever you go." Clearly, this God was not confined to a particular
territory or region. His protection and power were available wherever
his people went. Indeed, as they were to discover, his power extended
over the whole earth.
Many of us are taught this truth as little children, barely able to
mouth the bulky words - God is omnipresent and omnipotent, everywhere
and all-powerful. Yet as we grow older, some of us find ourselves
restricting him, shrinking him down, setting boundaries around his
ability and his love. I caught myself doing this as I listened to media
reports of a tropical storm that slammed into Haiti a few days ago.
More than 1,500 people drowned, and another 1,300 were missing,
many of them swept out to sea or buried beneath debris. Of those who
survived, many of the 300,000 homeless were perching on rooftops or
living on debris-strewn sidewalks where the water had subsided.
But it got worse. Unburied bodies, raw sewage, and animal carcasses
were everywhere, and there was not enough food to feed the
living. Without adequate roads and supplies, relief efforts seemed like
Band-Aids pasted over gaping wounds. How could anyone, I wondered,
solve Haiti's intractable problems? It seemed like such a God-forsaken
place.
As I prayed, I began to realize that God isn't the one who is absent
in Haiti or in any other part of the world. It may only seem that way
because so many of us are absent, withholding our prayers because of
our little faith, withholding our gifts because of our little love. True,
we can't do everything, but we can do something. We can tackle the
problem that is in front of us, helping to bring God's presence to those
who suffer.
If we want to experience Immanuel, "God with us," we need to be
where he is, to do what his love compels, to reflect his image to the rest
of the world. Today, I pray that Christ will pierce my heart with the
things that pierce his. I ask for the grace to look for him in the midst
of the world's suffering, whether close to home or far away. I pray that
he will give you and me the faith to join him there, transforming our
prayers, our time, our talents, and our financial resources into evidence
of his presence in the world - Immanuel, a God who is truly with us.
Thursday
PRAYING THE NAME
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If
you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed
my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that
my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is
this: Love each other as I have loved you.
John 15:9-12
Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit
lives in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16
Reflect On: John 15:9 - 12 and 1 Corinthians 3:16.Praise God: For calling you to be his image bearer.Offer Thanks: That God lives in you.Confess: Any failures that mar the image of God in you.Ask God: To show you how to bear his image, to magnify him by
expressing his love to others.
* * *
Randy Frame was part of a team of journalists and business leaders
invited to Haiti in the mid-1990s to view its problems close up. Trained
as a reporter to maintain his distance, Randy wasn't prepared for what
happened on the last day of his trip.
That day the group visited La Cay Espwa, the "House of Hope," a
refuge for starving children cared for by a small group of nuns. As soon
as Randy entered the two-room structure, a nun by the name of Sister
Conchita approached, offering him the child she cradled in her arms.
Reluctant at first to take the child lest he violate his role as an objective
observer, he finally gave in, deciding it would be rude to refuse.
"Her name Maria," the Sister said with broken English and a quiet
smile.
Frame writes:
I took Maria into my arms, gingerly at first. She seemed so
fragile: I could practically see the skeleton beneath her skin. Only
her eyes seemed to have escaped the circumstances of her young
life. Her eyes were deep brown and as shiny as any healthy child's
ought to be. She focused them not on me, but on Sister Conchita.
It was clear I was "second string." Perhaps my arms were not as
soft or comfortable. Yet she didn't cry. Maybe she was too weak to
protest being held by a stranger. Or perhaps she was glad to be in
anyone's arms. How could I tell?
After they left, Randy's tour guide explained that on average one
in four of the children in the House of Hope die because their internal
organs are too damaged by the time they arrive. You can spot the ones
who won't make it. Lethargic, with pale, rigid skin, their hair has a
reddish hue. She could have been describing Maria.
Despite being warned about the danger of venturing out alone in
Port-au-Prince, Randy left the security of his hotel that night to make
the two-mile trek back to the House of Hope. When he found Sister
Conchita, she was still sitting on her rocker with Maria in her arms.
As I approach Sister Conchita, she stands, sensing exactly why
I have returned. She says nothing, but offers me the child. And
also her chair I have arrived at the place where I want to be.
And as I live out what I'd earlier in the day envisioned, I am suddenly
and fully aware of my weaknesses, my limitations. And aware
also of the limitations and shortcomings of humanity, which has
somehow failed this child and many others like her
I am utterly powerless to determine whether this child, who
bears the image of God, will live or die this night. But I do have
power - complete power - to make certain that if and when her
frail body finally yields, she has felt the security, the comfort, of
someone's loving arms. Tonight they are my arms. It's the least
I can do for her, and also, perhaps, the most. Her weak but gracious
eyes look up to mine. And hold their gaze. And in the sacred
silence of this moment, there is no other power I crave, no other
purpose I desire.
Randy's story made me sad - and happy. God's love is so evident.
It is "God with us," "God with Randy," "God with Maria" - the Lord
expressing himself to and through human beings. Like Randy, we are
called to be Christ-bearers, to reflect God to others. Today let us ask
for the grace to make Immanuel known, to allow his light and his life
to shine through us.
(Continues.)
