IMMANUEL: a God who is with people

This morning I was taking care of my baby girl while her mother was washing some dishes. She played with her stuff animal doggy for a few minutes, but she quickly gravitated over to where I was sitting in a chair reading. For the next 15 minutes she was content doing nothing but being near to me. That’s so childlike. As children we love to be near our parents. There is safety, comfort and love in the presence of your maker.

So it is with God. We long to be near to God. We crave his affection and presence. There is a desire innate within all people to want to be with God and for God to be with them. Such a promise like this from God is meant to stir within all a sense of security, comfort and love from God above. Throughout Scripture the theme of God’s presence with His people is a thread that weaves through the pages of Scripture:

God is with you

• Immanuel, God with us (Isa. 7:14; 8:10; Matt. 1:23)
• Its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel (Isa. 8:8)
• God is with us (2 Chr. 13:12)
• The Lord is with us (Num. 14:9; 2 Chr. 32:8; Ps. 46:7, 11)
• God is with you (Gen. 21:22; Isa. 45:14)
• The Lord is with you (2 Chr. 20:17)
• The Lord is with you when you are with him (2 Chr. 15:2)
• The Lord is with Israel (Num. 23:21; Deut. 20:1, 4)
• I am with you (Gen. 26:24; Hag. 1:13; 2:4)
• Do not be afraid, for I am with you (Isa. 41:10; Isa. 43:5; Jer. 42:11; 46:28)
• Those with us are more than those with them (2 Kgs. 6:16)
• He is at my right hand (Ps. 16:8)
• He who is with us is greater than the one with him (2 Chr. 32:7)
• Men will hear that God is with a Jew (Zech. 8:23)
• The Lord is with them (Zech. 10:5)
• They will know that I am with them (Ezek. 34:30)
• Is the Lord in our midst or not? (Exod. 17:7)
• Is not the Lord with you? (1 Chr. 22:18)
• You are with me (Ps. 23:4)
• You know the Spirit, for he dwells with you and will be in you (John 14:17).

God always with you

• You set me in your presence forever (Ps. 41:12)
• I set the Lord continually before me (Ps. 16:8)
• When I awake I am still with you (Ps. 139:18)
• I am always with God (Ps. 73:23).

God with you to help

• God stands at the right hand of the needy (Ps. 109:31)
• With us is the Lord to help us (2 Chr. 32:8)
• I am with you to deliver you (Jer. 1:8, 19)
• When we pass through the waters he will be with us (Isa. 43:2).

God has been with you

• God who has been with me wherever I have gone (Gen. 35:3)
• I have been with you wherever you have gone (1 Chr. 17:8)
• These 40 years the Lord has been with you (Deut. 2:7)
• The Lord was with Judah (Judg. 1:19)
• The Lord stood with me (2 Tim. 4:17)
• I [Wisdom] was beside him (Prov. 8:30).

God be with you

• May the Lord be with you (Ruth 2:4; 1 Sam. 17:37; 2 Sam. 14:17; 1 Chr. 22:11, 16; Amos 5:14)
• The Lord be with you all (2 Thess. 3:16)
• May the Lord be with you as he was with Moses (Josh. 1:17)
• May the Lord be with you as he was with my father (1 Sam. 20:13)
• May his God be with him (2 Chr. 36:23; Ezra 1:3)
• The Lord be with your spirit (2 Tim. 4:22)
• May the Lord be with us (1 Kgs. 8:57)
• So may the Lord be with you if I allow this! (Exod. 10:10).

God will be with you

• If God will be with me (Gen. 28:20)
• Perhaps the Lord will be with me (Josh. 14:12)
• I will go down with you to Egypt (Gen. 46:4)
• I will be with you (Gen. 26:3; 31:3)
• if you obey, I will be with you (1 Kgs. 11:38)
• God will be with you (Gen. 48:21)
• I will be with you (Exod. 3:12)
• The God of love and peace will be with you (2 Cor. 13:11)
• I will be with him in trouble (Ps. 91:15)
• I will be with your mouth (Exod. 4:12)
• I will be with your mouth and with his mouth (Exod. 4:15)
• God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep (1 Thess. 4:14)
• The God of peace will be with you (Phil. 4:9).

God with specific people

• Abraham (Gen. 21:22)
• Asa (2 Chr. 15:9)
• David (1 Sam. 16:18; 18:12, 14, 28; 20:13; 2 Sam. 5:10; 7:3; 9; 1 Chr. 11:9, 17:2)
• Gideon (Judg. 6:12–13, 16)
• Hezekiah (2 Kgs. 18:7)
• Isaac (Gen. 26:28)
• Ishmael (Gen. 21:20)
• Israel (Jer. 30:11)
• Jacob (Gen. 28:15, 20; 31:5; 35:3)
• Jehoshaphat (2 Chr. 17:3)
• Jeremiah (Jer. 1:8, 19; 15:20; 20:11)
• Job (Job 29:5)
• Joseph (Gen. 39:2, 3, 21, 23; Acts 7:9)
• The house of Joseph (Judg. 1:22)
• Joshua (Deut. 31:23; Josh. 1:9; 6:27)
• Joshua as with Moses (Josh. 1:5; 3:7)
• Each judge (Judg. 2:18; 2 Chr. 19:6)
• Mary (Luke 1:28)
• Paul (Acts 18:10)
• Samuel (1 Sam. 3:19)
• Saul (1 Sam. 10:7; 20:13)
• Solomon (1 Chr. 28:20; 2 Chr. 1:1, as with David 1 Kgs. 1:37).

God is among you

• God in the midst of his people (Num. 14:14; 16:3; 35:34; Deut. 7:21; 23:14; Josh. 3:10; 22:31)
• God is in the midst of her (Ps. 46:5)
• The Lord your God in the midst of you (Deut. 6:15; Zeph. 3:15, 17)
• I am in the midst of Israel (Joel 2:27)
• Is not the Lord in our midst? (Mic. 3:11)
• The kingdom of God is in your midst (Luke 17:21)
• The Lord who is among you (Num. 11:20)
• God is with the generation of the righteous (Ps. 14:5)
• My Spirit is among you (Hag. 2:5)
• God will dwell among them (Rev. 21:3)
• He will declare that God is among you (1 Cor. 14:25).

God goes with you

• My presence will go with you (Exod. 33:14)
• The Lord goes with you (Deut. 31:6, 8 )
• If your presence does not go with us, do not take us up hence (Exod. 33:15)
• How can we know we please you if you do not go with us? (Exod. 33:16)
• Go in our midst (Exod. 34:9).

Jesus is Immanuel, God with us

The greatest expression of God being with us is when He came in the skin of mankind through the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus is called Immanuel, which means God with us. He was with us for only 33-years. But those 3-decades of life impacted the world and the people of the world forever.

Indeed, the title Immanuel is appropriate for Jesus—He is “God with us.” Immanuel appears twice in the Old Testament (Isa. 7:14, 8:8) and once in the New Testament (Matt. 1:23). In the Old Testament, the name is given to a child born in the time of Ahaz as a sign to the king that Judah would receive relief from Syrian attacks. The name symbolized the fact that God would demonstrate His presence with His people by delivering them. But, this prophecy also foretold the birth of the incarnate God, Jesus the Messiah, as illustrated in the Gospel of Matthew (1:23).

More than seven hundred years passed after Isaiah’s prophecy until Jesus was born. Matthew cites Isaiah 7:14 as being fulfilled in the birth of Jesus (Matt. 1:23). Later in Matthew, Jesus told His disciples that where two or three gathered in His name He would be present with them (Matt. 18:20). At the very end of the Gospel, just before His ascension, Jesus assured them that He would be with them until the end of the age (Matt. 28:20).

Also after His death and resurrection Jesus did not leave us alone. He promised to send the Helper—the Holy Spirit—to indwell His children. Forever His Spirit with us always. The book of Revelation concludes with an affirmation that the One called “God with us” will be with us forever: “The tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them” (Rev. 21:3). What an amazing promise of security, comfort and love. God is with you! Let’s be like little children clinging to His cloak, waiting for His words, and resting in His presence.