Our God Is With Us

Our God Is With Us.  A name is more than a name when it becomes a title and an anthem of trust. Before the angel reassured Joseph that the miracle baby conceived in Mary’s womb would be known by the title, “Immanuel, which means God with us” (Matt. 1:23), Immanuel was a baby’s name given by God as a sign to King Ahaz, 700 years before Jesus.

Ahaz was riddled with disbelief, perhaps because his kingdom was constantly at war on several fronts. God promised Ahaz, “Before the boy [Immanuel] knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted” (Isa. 7:16).  But Ahaz, a chronic sceptic, trusted no one. Therefore, to sure up Ahaz’s faith, God offered Ahaz a rare opportunity—the very thing that Jesus would later rebuke the Pharisees about in the New Testament—“Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven (Isa. 7:11). But Ahaz did not want to be sure by faith, he wanted to be safe by politics. So, God himself gave a sign, which overshot Ahaz. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14).

By advancing the narrative of Ahaz one short chapter in Isaiah, the reader can see the Bible’s only other two appearances of Immanuel. “Behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel" (Isa. 8:7-8). Immanuel here is more than a boy’s name directly mentioned in the previous chapter (Isa. 7:14), but the royal ruler over the combined nations of Israel and Judah. We know this ruler’s common name as Jesus, one of his titles is Immanuel.

Finally, the arc of Immanuel completes in verses 9 and 10. The Assyrian invasion will happen, but the greater battle is faith in God’s eternal promises. “Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered; give ear, all you far countries; strap on your armor and be shattered; strap on your armor and be shattered. Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us” (Isa. 8:9-10). Assyria’s worst “will not stand” because “God is with us,” which is immanuel in Hebrew. Immanuel is our anthem of trust in the face of evil.