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

While an earthly king trusted power politics instead of the power of God; making alliances with enemy leaders while relying on human capacities to keep peace, God gives Isaiah a message of Hope for God’s people.  God will come and dwell among us.

The ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy is in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is “God with us” (see Matt. 1:18–25; Luke 1:31–35). The virgin birth of Christ is a key doctrine; for if Jesus Christ is not God come in sinless human flesh, then we have no Savior.

Jesus had to be born of a virgin, apart from human generation, because He existed before His mother. He was not just born in this world; He came down from heaven into the world (John 3:13; 6:33). Jesus was sent by the Father and therefore came into the world having a human mother but not a human father (John 4:34; 5:23).

“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.”  John 1:14, MSG

This is how God with us works—

Luke 7, The Message

A Place of Holy Mystery

7 ^1-5 When he finished speaking to the people, he entered Capernaum. A Roman captain there had a servant who was on his deathbed. He prized him highly and didn’t want to lose him. When he heard Jesus was back, he sent leaders from the Jewish community asking him to come and heal his servant. They came to Jesus and urged him to do it, saying, “He deserves this. He loves our people. He even built our meeting place.”

^6-8 Jesus went with them. When he was still quite far from the house, the captain sent friends to tell him, “Master, you don’t have to go to all this trouble. I’m not that good a person, you know. I’d be embarrassed for you to come to my house, even embarrassed to come to you in person. Just give the order and my servant will get well. I’m a man under orders; I also give orders. I tell one soldier, ‘Go,’ and he goes; another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; my slave, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

^9-10 Taken aback, Jesus addressed the accompanying crowd: “I’ve yet to come across this kind of simple trust anywhere in Israel, the very people who are supposed to know about God and how he works.” When the messengers got back home, they found the servant up and well.

^11-15 Not long after that, Jesus went to the village Nain. His disciples were with him, along with quite a large crowd. As they approached the village gate, they met a funeral procession—a woman’s only son was being carried out for burial. And the mother was a widow. When Jesus saw her, his heart broke. He said to her, “Don’t cry.” Then he went over and touched the coffin. The pallbearers stopped. He said, “Young man, I tell you: Get up.” The dead son sat up and began talking. Jesus presented him to his mother.

^16-17 They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful—and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, “God is back, looking to the needs of his people!” The news of Jesus spread all through the country.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jesus is God with us and is fulfilling all that the prophets said and wrote about Him centuries before his coming to earth.  Jesus has indeed moved into the neighborhood of humanity to be “God at work among them.”  Jesus is the Way to God.  Jesus is Truth about God.  Jesus leads all who believe to eternal Life that has no boundaries of time and space.  These stories of healing that we may have heard in Sunday School or in sermons all our lives go much deeper than the healing but in the glory of God at work!

 Yes, Jesus is the Promise of Isaiah.  Jesus is Messiah, the One who came to save us.  Jesus is Immanuel— “God with us.”  Jesus is with us still.  “And I am with you always…”—Jesus

Don’t you love the response of the people who saw Jesus for who He really was—God with us?  “They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery, that God was at work among them. They were quietly worshipful—and then noisily grateful, calling out among themselves, “God is back, looking to the needs of his people!”

God with us at work among us still!  And when God’s glory is seen and heard, we cannot help but worship Him because we were created to worship God and God alone.

Believe and be saved.  Trust and obey.  Worship God alone with grateful hearts!  This is our response to the One who loves us so much He sent His Son to save us.  ALL of us!

Yes, “God with us” is with us still!  Praise God!

Lord,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for turning our attention back to You.  You are Hope when we think all is hopeless.  You are Savior of what we cannot do for ourselves—rid us of the sins that entangle us, block our view of Your glory, and hinder our growing relationship with You. You are Love that is not like human conditional love but relentless and unchanging.  You are Peace—not like the world gives but real peace that settles our souls in the middle of overwhelming circumstances.  You are Joy unspeakable because we can’t explain it—it is eternal, embedded into our being.  You are “God with us” with a Promise to always be with us.  You are Lord of my life because there is no one else like You.  I love you with all that is in me.  I worship you alone. 

In Jesus Name, Amen