Jesus Our Immanuel

On day one, we talked about how Jesus is called Teacher. We can find that name for Him dozens of times in the New Testament. On the other hand, the word “Immanuel” (or “Emmanuel”) is used in just four places in the Bible—three times in the Old Testament and once in the New Testament. 

That doesn’t make this name of Jesus any less important! On the contrary, this name is doubly important, as it signifies two aspects of Jesus’s nature. 

In the Old Testament, God reassures His people that He is with them and will someday send a Savior by saying, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son and will call Him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). 

Later, when the story of Jesus’s birth is told in the book of Matthew, the Bible says, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call Him Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us’).” 

So, Immanuel means that God is with us (that’s how the original Hebrew is translated), and it also means Jesus fulfilled the promise God made hundreds of years earlier. 

God keeps His promises! And He is always with us. Always. 

Even when we are lonely, when we feel like nobody understands, when it seems like we are the only ones facing a problem or going through a situation, God is with us. Jesus is our Immanuel. 

Today as we turn our hearts toward the ways Jesus is with us, we pray you feel His presence and know you are never alone. 

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