Immanuel Comes, For God Is Always With Us

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman′u-el. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted. The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that E′phraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.

Isaiah 7:14-17

One does not need deep religious faith to apprehend that the reality of mankind is that we are fallen, sinful, and in desperate need of salvation. To understand that one need only watch the evening news.

One does not need a profound spiritual awakening to grasp that the reality of the world is that it is a darkened and corrupted place, full of wickedness and corroded by evil. To grasp that one need only look around at how so many people are living their lives.

Mankind is not doing at all well.

Mankind has never done well—at least, not on our own. Left to our own devices we are like the people of Israel during the Exodus, a “stiff-necked people”, full of our own pride and driven by our own ego. Left to our own devices we wander off the good path and get lost in the wilderness of our own sins, our own mistakes, our own wickedness.

We are selfish. We are greedy. We obsess over wealth and riches while ignoring love and compassion.

We are self-indulgent. We are gluttonous. We give in to every momentary impulse and carnal desire, while ignoring the damage we do to ourselves through such wanton indiscipline.

We are angry. We are violent. We wage foolish and destructive wars, and celebrate the grievous harm done to those we recklessly count as enemies.

Mankind is not merely struggling in a darkened and corrupted world. In too many ways mankind is the darkness and the corruption within the world.

This is our reality. This is the present state of our humanity.

Yet this is not our future. This has never been our future. God has never decreed that this should be our future.

Our future is not merely in God’s hands—which of course it is. Our future is with God.

For all the darkness mankind has inflicted upon the world, God has not abandoned us. Even when the people of Israel had forgotten themselves and turned away from their destiny, God did not forsake His people. Long before the Son of Man came down into the world, God summoned prophets to carry His message to the people.

He told Isaiah of signs by which the people could take hope in God’s presence. He told Isaiah of signs by which the people could see their future would always be with God.

The future God has ordained for us is a good future. The future God has ordained for mankind is one of prosperity and plenty, where people can dine well on “curds and honey”, foods which only come when the land offers up its abundance.

The future God has ordained for us is one where hope takes the place of despair, where joy dispels sorrow.

The future God has ordained for us is a future of light, and not of darkness.

When Isaiah gave to Ahaz the prophecy we now take as foretelling the coming of the Messiah, he did not merely speak of a child born of a virgin, a child born free from sin and corruption. When Isaiah gave to Ahaz the prophecy of the coming Messiah, he gave that Messiah the name “Immanuel”—Hebrew for “God is with us.”

Isaiah was telling Ahaz—and is telling us even today—that God is always with us. Isaiah was reminding the people of Israel that God has not abandoned them despite their wickedness.

God has not abandoned mankind despite all our evil ways.

Jesus came down to Earth not on a whim, but because mankind needs a Messiah to save us from ourselves. Mankind needs a light to shine into the darkness. Mankind needs a way back to the good path, the righteous path that leads us back to God.

Jesus came down to Earth because He, the eternal Good Shepherd, came to find and return the lost sheep to God’s pasture.

Jesus came down to Earth because God has not turned His back on mankind. God will not turn His back on mankind. That is not what God does.

Mankind has wandered off the good path into a wilderness of sin and wickedness, but even as we wander lost we remain the blessed children of God. Even as we have stained ourselves with sin and corruption, we remain wonderfully cast in God’s own divine image. Even as we live wicked and sinful lives, we remain, just as the Psalm says, “His people, and the sheep of His pasture.”

Just as the Psalm says, it is He who created us, and not we ourselves. God created us, so God is with us, and God will remain with us.

As we begin this season of Advent, we do well to reflect upon Isaiah’s prophecy. We do well to ponder not just what was foretold but what it says about us.

The child foretold by Isaiah is named Immanuel because that child is a living sign that, even now, God is with us. Even now, when mankind is arguably at our most wicked, our most depraved, our most evil, God is still with us.

God is with us today. God is with us this day, and in all our days.

God has always been with us, and God will always be with us.

Mankind has wandered off the good path, yet God is still with us. God has not abandoned us. God will not abandon us.

Jesus, the child Immanuel foretold by Isaiah, came into the world to find the lost sheep and lead us back to the green pasture. That is what the good shepherd does. That is what God does.

My prayer as we start this season of Advent is that we may remember that God is with us because God has never left us. My prayer as we start this season of Advent is that we may open ourselves to the hope expressed by Isaiah’s prophecy. My prayer as we start this season of Advent is that we may realize that, no matter how dark and wicked our present state is, our future is a joyous future with God, not away from God.

As we start this season of Advent, this is my prayer for myself. This is my prayer for you. This is my prayer for us all.

Mankind has wandered off the good path into a wilderness of sin and wickedness, but even as we wander lost we remain the blessed children of God. Even as we have stained ourselves with sin and corruption, we remain wonderfully cast in God’s own divine image.

Even as we live wicked and sinful lives, God is still with us, and God will remain with us.

Jesus, the child Immanuel foretold by Isaiah, came into the world to find the lost sheep and lead us back to the green pasture. That is what the good shepherd does. That is what God does—for God is always with us.