Isaiah: Immanuel

Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign:  Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.   Isaiah 7:14

Within the Jewish community, every family waited and watched for the Deliverer.  Every young girl knew that she might possibly be the mother of this promised One.  Apparently, however, they were not intimately acquainted with this prophecy, for when Gabriel came with his life-changing announcement, Mary did not immediately recognize herself as its fulfillment.

This verse spells out an amazing promise: the mother of Jesus would be a virgin, she would bear a son, and the child would be called Immanuel.  If we turn to the parallel fulfillment text in Matthew 1:20-23, we find the author commenting that Gabriel’s announcement to Joseph of the events surrounding the impending birth were a fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. The name is a combination of two Hebrew words:  El [God] and Immānū [with us]. God with us. Isaiah uses the Hebrew form Immanuel; Matthew gives the Greek spelling Emmanuel.

From the time of Creation, God has desired to “dwell with us.”  Genesis 3 seems to indicate that God came down to walk with his children in the Garden of Eden in the “cool of the evening.”  After the children of Israel fled from Egypt and began their journey to the promised land, God spoke to Moses and said, “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, so that I can live among them.” [Exodus 25:8 Message]   When God’s continuous messages of love and forgiveness through human messengers struggled to stem the rising tide of darkness, God sent Himself in the form of a helpless baby  - to be born, to live, and to die among us and for us.

Emmanuel, Emmanuel, His name is called Emmanuel.

God with us, revealed in us;  His name is called Emmanuel.