Category: Advent 2019 – Immanuel

Welcome to the fourth devotional in this Advent series on “God With Us.” We’ve seen how God always intended to live in close proximity with His people, and that, even when they walked away from God, the Lord has never abandoned His people.

Have you ever struggled with a disobedient child and experienced the child pushing you away? Did that child reject your best efforts and prefer to stomp off to the isolation of his or her room? Too often, that child was me. Growing up in our home, I managed to spoil most every family photo with a pout. I preferred to sulk and refused to cooperate, but my parents never threw up their hands nor abandoned me.

Imagine how the Lord felt after rescuing His people from Egypt. He performed multiple miracles like plagues of lice, dust and gnats, He parted the Red Sea, and He provided His children with water and food in a wilderness – only to see His people rebel against Him. Yet, even then He did not withdraw His presence. In Exodus 13:21, we see Him continuing to accompany them in the desert, guiding them during the day with a pillar of cloud and providing light at night with a pillar of fire. He remained “with them” there for forty years.

Read Psalm 139:7-10 aloud and offer thanks to the Lord Immanuel who remains at our side no matter what lengths we go to in order to avoid Him.

Thanks for coming back! Glad you can join us for the next of these 24 Advent devotionals on the theme “God with us.”

Yesterday we saw how from the very beginning, God wished to dwell near His people. Today we discover that His desire has never changed, even though Adam and Eve rebelled against Him and now lived in exile outside His garden. In Genesis 12, God made a promise to Abraham to go with him into a new land. After Abraham died, God made a similar promise to Abraham’s son, Isaac: “Do not be afraid, for I am with you…I will do this because of my promise to Abraham.” (26:24) And later to Isaac’s son, Jacob: “I am the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac…I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go.” (28:13,15)

When God makes a promise, He does not change His mind. And today, thousands of years later, His desire is still to enjoy the companionship of His children and their children. Looking back, I see how the Lord walked with both my grandfathers. He guided my father through a World War. And now He walks by my side.

Dig out a photo of your grandparents. Ask yourself how God has led your family over the past century, even when some of those family members were unaware of His presence. What legacy of faith will you leave for those who follow you? Will you teach them about the God who is with us?

Welcome back to the second in this Advent series on Immanuel, “God with us.” We begin by going back to the very Beginning, to the Garden of Eden. In the first two chapters of the Bible, God created an amazing garden for Adam and Eve. It was a delightful place, a good place to walk with a friend. And in Gen. 3:8, we find that God was strolling in the garden, looking for His friends.

Thus, the first thing we learn about “God with us” is that from the very start, God’s intention has always been to be with us. He created a perfect environment where God and man could be together forever. Adam was welcome to eat from the Tree of Eternal Life, but told not to sample fruit from the Tree that offered the knowledge of good and evil. However, Adam and Eve plucked fruit from the forbidden tree even before they tried the fruit of the first tree. And as a result of their disobedience, God cast them out of the Garden. Suddenly Adam and Eve knew the desolation of what it meant to live apart from God, to live “not” with Him.

Today, many people still live outside the Garden. They don’t know that, in Christ, they can have eternal life and experience anew that wonderful companionship of “God with us.” It is as if these people are walking through a farmers’ market and smelling the fresh apples and ripe pears but never tasting the sweet flesh of those fruits.

As we part today, consider going to your refrigerator and picking out a fresh crisp apple. Slice it, taste it, savor the sweetness and crispness. And think about our God’s original desire: to be with us.

Every year for over thirty years, our family has celebrated Advent with a series of 24 devotionals on a particular theme. Each year a new theme is chosen and this year is no different. So, without further adieu, the theme for 2019 is [drum roll, please] “Immanuel.”

Almost a thousand years before the birth of Christ, God promised Isaiah that a virgin would conceive a child and that child’s name would be “Immanuel.” (Is. 7:14). And when Mary gave birth to Jesus, the gospel of Matthew (1:23) pointed back to that prophecy and declared it fulfilled at last. “O come, O come, Immanuel, and ransom captive Israel” is one of the oldest Christmas carols, though in truth it is an Advent carol. God’s people looked forward to the coming of Immanuel, the time when “God would dwell with us.”

What does it mean for God to be with us? Come back tomorrow and each of the next 23 days and see what we learn about God’s amazing desire to be near His people. In the meantime, why not dig out a hymnal or Google the carol mentioned above and review the words? If you play an instrument, listen to this haunting chant that monks first sang in Latin during the 9th century. Contrast the mournful tune of the verses with the chorus, “Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel shall come!”