“Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.”
–Isaiah 7:14
We know looking back that Isaiah 7:14, although it clearly had application in Isaiah’s day, also had application far beyond Isaiah’s day. For centuries after Isaiah said those words, Jesus was born, from a virgin, conceived, gave birth to a son and his name called Emmanuel, which means God with us.
God has miraculously come to His people in the person of His Son
through a young virgin.
One of the most startling truths of the Bible, that God, the creator of the world, the owner of the universe, the one who has all power and all authority, is not distant from us. This God has come to us, in Jesus, that Jesus is God in the flesh, God in the flesh with us, his presence with us.
Which is astounding when you think about it, that we sinful people, in a world marked by sin, that God in His grace would condescend, would stoop to come to us in the person of Jesus, to live among us and then as if that was not enough, to die for us. To take the payment of sin upon himself, in our place.
This Verse Reminds Us That God Will Be With Us Forever
Oh, we deserve to be cast away from the presence of God. To not be close to God ever. For all of eternity, to be separated from him. Yet God has come to us and made a way for us to be with Him, Him to be with us, forever, and ever and ever. That’s the whole picture we see in the end of the Bible, with heaven. What makes heaven heaven is that we will be with God. He will be with us forever and ever and ever. And all of that is possible because of the virgin who gave birth to a son who’s name is called Emmanuel. So we pray.
Isaiah 7:14 Praises God For Coming To Us
Jesus, we praise you. We praise you. You are God with us. We praise you for coming to us, we praise you for living among us, Lord Jesus. We praise you for dying on the cross for our sins. For rising from the dead in victory over sin and making it possible for us to live with God forever. Oh, Jesus thank you for making it possible for us to live with God forever, and to know the presence of God now, to be doing this right now, to be praying before God, to know you, to walk with you, to worship you, to experience your grace and your goodness on a moment by moment basis in our life. Oh, Jesus, we praise you. God with us. We praise you, Emmanuel. Thank you for making this reality of being with God possible in our lives.
All glory be to your name. It’s in your name that we pray these things. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
