Immanuel. I read recently again the story of Christ’s birth in the Gospel of Matthew. In this account, Matthew quotes the Old Testament prophet Isaiah in saying that the Messiah would be born of a virgin and would be called Immanuel. Matthew interprets that word and tells us that it means “God with us”. What an amazing concept—Jesus is God with us!

The presence of God is a crucial idea in the Bible. We see it in the Garden of Eden. Before the first sin, Adam and Even walked in the Garden with God. He was with them. He walked with them and talked with them. They were together. They enjoyed fellowship together, as companions. Then they sinned. They disobeyed God. God gave them a simple command, and they thought their way was better than his, and so they ate the fruit that God said was forbidden. When they did, the Bible says that they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God. Before that sin, God’s presence brought confidence and affirmation; now his presence brought fear and judgment.

Sometime later in the Biblical story, the people of Israel are travelling through the wilderness to the Promised Land. But they lost sight of God and instead made an idol to worship, a calf made of gold. And God told the people that they could go on to the Promised Land, but he would not go with them. They had rejected him. They were too sinful. But Moses, as the spokesman for the people, said that they would not go without him. Moses argued with God, telling him that the only thing that distinguished them from every other nation on earth was that God was with them.

We see the presence of God in the tabernacle, the Israelite’s mobile church. God would descend on the tabernacle in a cloud, and the people would stop their travelling. When the cloud, symbolizing the presence of the Lord, lifted, they would travel to their next destination. We see the presence of the Lord in the temple, the great place of worship that Solomon built in Jerusalem. God was present in the people of Israel, he was present in the land of Israel, and he was present in the city of Jerusalem.

Then comes Jesus. The Apostle John tells us in his gospel that Jesus was the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. When he says that Jesus dwelt among us, the literal translation of that phrase is that Jesus pitched his tent among us, just like what happened when the Israelites pitched the tent of the tabernacle. Jesus was God among the people; he was a tabernacle. And then when Jesus ascended back into heaven, after his death and resurrection, he sent the Holy Spirit to be his very presence in them. Immanuel means that Jesus is not just God with us; he is God in us.

Then the Bible concludes with the book of Revelation, with a new heaven and a new earth. John tells us that the new Jerusalem came down from heaven and a voice called out and said that the dwelling place of God is with man. “He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them” (Rev. 21:3).

The good news of Christmas is that God has not ceased to be with us as his people. He came as a baby in a manger to confirm his ever-presence with us. The Bible says that he will never leave us nor forsake us. Jesus’ last words to his disciples were that he would always be with them, to the end of the age. Christmas means that we are never alone. In every situation, in every hardship, in every difficult decision, in every instance of suffering, in every failure, Jesus is with us. And he is with us in all of who he is. He is with us with all of his strength and all of his wisdom and all of his love. If you are a child of God, then Christmas means that in every circumstance of life, you have all of God at your disposal. The coming of Jesus means that God is with us. Immanuel.