What does it mean that God is with us?

Some have seen a difficulty that the child was to be named Emmanuel, and instead of this name, He is named Jesus. The Jew often comes with this question. We point out to him that this apparent contradiction is really a proof of the inspiration. How easy it would have been for Matthew to have all fit in so that every word would be in harmony with the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit guided his hand in writing. The prophecy in the Old Testament says, "And call His name Immanuel." Here it says, "They shall call his name." In the first chapter of Matthew we read that Joseph called the child's name Jesus, but in Luke we read that Mary calls His name Jesus. The name Emmanuel, God with us, is only given in Matthew. He is Emmanuel, and as such Jehovah the Saviour, so that in reality both names have the same meaning. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated His glory, a glory as of an only begotten with his Father) full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). He is the exalted One over all.

We open the New Testament, and all is changed, for we are immediately introduced to JESUS, who is EMMANUEL, which being interpreted is, "God with us." Here we have something entirely new. He who once dwelt in the devouring fire on Sinai was now amongst men in perfect manhood and in lowly grace. The One who is light and who dwells in light unapproachable, had now appeared in such fashion as to soften down the piercing rays of His glory so that human eyes might take them in. Those who were His disciples in the days of His flesh could say, "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." God was with them indeed, and they were not afraid. We have not His personal presence today, but we have the inspired record of His presence, and we have what the disciples who followed Him on earth did not have — the presence and indwelling of the Spirit of God — and therefore, "God with us," may be a reality to us today.

Here, too, alone in any of the Gospels, it is that we hear of Jesus as "Emmanuel." This is equally instructive and beautiful, because the Jew was apt to forget it. Did he look for a divine Messiah — for one who was God as well as man? Very far from it. Comparatively few of the Jews expected anything so astonishing as this. They craved and looked for a mighty king and conqueror, yet still a mere man. But here we find that the Holy Spirit, by their own prophet Isaiah, besides speaking of Him as man, takes care to show that He was much more than man, that He was God (vers. 22, 23). Matthew alone brings out this clear testimony of the great evangelical prophet — "God with us." So perfectly did God provide for these poor Jews, and develop the neglected seeds of their prophecies, and reflect light on the obscure parts of their law; so that if a Jew rejected the Messiah, he did it to his own eternal ruin. Besides being the son of David and Abraham, then, He was God with us. Such was the true Messiah, and such the witness produced to Israel. Could they reject Matthew's history, if they received Isaiah's prophecy? In vain they worshipped God, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

This verse, with the exception of the interpretation given at the end, is a quotation from Isaiah 7:14. Turning to that chapter we find that Rezin, King of Syria and Pekah, King of Israel (Ephraim), had formed a confederacy against Judah and Jerusalem. Their intention was to set aside the royal line of David, (and hence Messiah) and to place the son of Tabeal on the throne (v. 6). Nevertheless "Thus saith the Lord God, it shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass" (v. 7). Ephraim was to be broken "that it be not a people" (v. 8). Ahaz was invited by Jehovah to ask for a sign as verification of His word but in

false piety he refused to ask (v. 11/12). "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel." The royal line of David's house was to continue till Messiah came, but how much further the sign goes! Not only would He be the virgin's son, the woman's seed of Genesis 3:15, but "Immanuel." As He comes into view in Matthew's gospel and we see Him to be the son of David (v. 1) this first of quotations from the old testament shows Him to be not man only, and miraculously such, but God Himself come down in grace. Might we overlook the meaning of this Name in our hurry to read on? Might we pass His glory by? That we might not do so the Holy Spirit Himself has given us its interpretation

Ahaz did not like God to draw too near. God answered it by Immanuel - God with us. "And he said, Hear then, house of David. [Is it] a small matter for you to weary men, that ye weary also my God? Therefore will Jehovah Himself give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. Curds and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and to choose the good" (vv. 13-15) Was it not the most marvellous grace so to promise to such a man? Yet in truth grace condemns unbelief and all other sin as the law never did or could. Had Ahaz asked any sign within his range of earth and heaven, how immeasurably short of God's! If man refuses to ask through unbelief, God fails not to give a sign for His own glory: the virgin's Son, the woman's Seed, Immanuel! What thoughts, feelings, and facts cluster here together! What grace and truth, God and man united in one person! The security of David's royal line and rights, how much more than the predicted ruin of plotting Ephraim, in the presence of the sign, the truth of truths - God with us! Yet was it the assurance, if its grandeur betokened other and higher glories, that no conspiracy could prosper which struck at the Root and Offspring of David.

It is well known that the Jews have made desperate efforts to evade this luminous testimony to the Incarnation in their own prophet. First they exaggerate the difference between "almah" and "bethulah". Confessedly the latter is the more common word for virgin, for the former occurs in not more than six passages beside the one before us. But it is certain that in Joel 1:8 "b'thulah" is employed for a young married woman, which is never the case with "almah"; see also Deut. 22:19. For the argument on Prov. 30:19-20 is quite invalid to prove it synonymous with an adulterous woman. In the present instance the context requires the sense of virgin with the utmost precision; for in a young married woman's bearing a son there is no sign or wonder. It was from the first known that the Deliverer of man from the serpent-enemy of the race must be born of woman in some distinctive way; it was known that He must be also son of Abraham, in the line of Isaac and Jacob, of Judah and David. It is now narrowed to a virgin therefore, by necessary implication, of that royal house. The virgin should be pregnant and bear Him; a sign indeed! in one sense explained, in another enhanced, by the capital truth that He should be God - of divine nature as truly as the woman's Seed. The virgin's Son is Immanuel, the Lord Jehovah, Whose glory the prophet had seen in connection with the preservation of a holy seed, spite of their repeated desolations. Thus the person of the Messiah, and specifically the solution of the enigma of His divine being, yet in association with the family of David, is fully cleared up.

In Matt. 1:23 we have Isa. 7:14 cited, and applied to the birth of the Messiah. The facts stated prove its literal fulfilment. Now there are symbols and figures, as well as simple language, in Isa. 7 — Isa. 9:7; but this does not hinder the Holy Spirit stamping the prophecy of the Incarnation, not as an "idea" or general principle, but as an objective fact. There were other children for signs and for wonders in Israel — Shear-jashub already born, and Maher-shalal-hash-baz about to be, sons of the prophet; but they are as distinct from the virgin's Son Immanuel, as Hezekiah, already a dozen years old at least and born before Ahaz came to the throne. Neither he, nor Isaiah's children, were born of the virgin; nor could even Hezekiah, still less a future unknown son of Ahaz, call it his land, as Immanuel can, Whose name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, the Destroyer of the last Assyrian, and the Deliverer and King on David's throne for ever. Alas! there is the secret root of unbelief. He is the Great Unknown, not the writer of Isa. 40 — 66, though Isaiah's was indeed the pen that indited them, but Isaiah's theme, the virgin's Son, in the striking parenthesis of his introductory chapters. Had men but seen as God reveals Him at the beginning, they had not doubted the voice of God through Isaiah at the end.

The actual presence of the Lord in the midst of two or three, is not a mere promise, but is stated as a divine fact, depending upon what He is in incarnation, Emmanuel, "God with us." Such is His divinely-given name (Matt. 1:23). His closing word is, "I am with you" (Matt. 28:20). Two of the gospels were written to unfold this blessed truth: Mark, referring more especially to His ways; John, to the mystery of His Person; Matthew establishes the fact. Both chapter 18:20, and 28:20, are in the present tense. The former states it in connection with the constitution of the Church, and chapter 28 adds the assurance that it is during the whole of the present "age."

In the person of Jesus, God was with us, and is with us still, for we Christians have the closing words of this Gospel of Matthew for our constant comfort, the last words of our Lord Jesus Christ in it, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end." Hence we can with confidence follow the lowly, rejected Nazarene; and carry out His word, for He will be to the end what He was at the beginning, "God with us."

All power is His; all power in heaven and on earth. Soon the day will come when indeed He will have all things put under His feet. And the last word, "And behold, I am with you all the days until the completion of the age." Precious promise to faith! He will never leave nor forsake, and He who is with us is the "I am," the mighty Jehovah, the Immanuel, having all power in heaven and on earth.

The closing word is, "I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age," so that in this closing word we have "all" no less than four times. Our exalted Lord wields all power in both spheres, so that nothing is beyond His reach. If anything adverse happens to His servants it must be by His permission. All nations are to be the scope of their service, and not in the midst of Israel only as heretofore. Those baptized from the nations are to be taught to observe all the Lord's commands and instructions, for the servants are to be marked by obedience, and to bring those that they reach into obedience also. Then all the days to the finish they can count on the support and spiritual presence of their Master.