Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
HE SHALL BE CALLED: IMMANUEL
When we think of Jesus during the season of Christmas we think of that tiny little baby lying in a manger. But there was so much more to Jesus than just His human nature.
Long before His birth at Bethlehem, Isaiah proclaimed more about this virgin's son saying, "and [she] shall call His name Immanuel." Immanuel, Matthew tells us, translates as: "God with us" (Mt 1:23).
Through the prophet Isaiah the LORD was not referring to the actual name of the Child who was to be born, but was referring to what He would be. He would be true God.
In the person of Jesus, God and man were brought together in one person. God Himself would become human through this miracle.
There are very few people that would say that Jesus never existed as a human being. Most would say that Jesus was a real person who truly lived here on the earth, but there are many who continue to deny that this man, Jesus, was also true God. They reject what Scripture says about Jesus as God. The name Immanuel refers to what this Child would be, namely, God with us!
If He had not been Immanuel, God with us, He could not have been Jesus the Savior.
Oh, come, Oh, come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 62:1)
