This morning in my devotion time I read about Immanuel, the With us God, from Mary Kassian's workbook Knowing God. (I know, everytime you get on here I'm reading something different. We won't talk about the number of books I'm studying at the same time. Let me just make a disclaimer that I don't read them all everyday, and they seem to go magically together. I'm following along with different reading groups, so I may read up to three of them in a day, plus my Chronological Bible. But I digress...) Anyway, as I was reading that lesson, I really thought of how much I need this. Oh, I need God in all of the facets of His name, but what I need on a day to day basis is this "With us God".
As I reading my Chronological Bible before jumping into Knowing God, my entry for the day was from Isaiah 7-10. In Chapters 7 and 8 (and please read my disclaimer here that I am no biblical scholar, and when I read this Chronological Bible it is just me reading through. I don't delve deep into the content... this year. Grin) from what I gather, Israel has been divided into two kingdoms for a while and have yet again not been following God the way they are supposed to. Enter Isaiah, the prophet of the Lord, who enters and tells them of their impending destruction. As he talks about them straying from the Lord and how they will be overtaken, he makes the statement, "Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you[c] a sign: The virgin[d] will conceive and give birth to a son, and[e] will call him Immanuel.Isaiah 7:13-14. He then goes onto to speak of how Assyria will essentially take them captive.
Later on, in chapter 9, he again mentions this "With Us God". In the midst of turmoil, He is a promise. "The government shall be upon His shoulders, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." (And let me just say as I type those words I'm singing them in my head. And His name shall be Call-ed Wonderful!... Counselor!... as Handel's Messiah)
He WILL be the Prince of Peace. He WILL set up a kingdom. He IS the Mighty God. He IS everlasting. So even if you are facing troubles today, take heart. We've been promised this With us God. Today, in the middle of your troubles... and someday a returning King, who will take us to live with Him in glory. Immanuel... God With Us.
I love this! I ended up writing about it some this week, too, because it's one of God's most precious and meaningful names to me. I've been listening to Christmas music this past week because I'm in charge of picking the Christmas cantata. That never gets old---Behold, unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. I'm so thankful He so graciously chose to be with us.
ReplyDeleteMe, too =)
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