Jesus is sometimes referred to as Immanuel. This is a direct fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, “Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel” (Is. 7:14). This is the prophecy quoted in Matthew 1:23 after Joseph has been told in a dream that Mary has conceived a child by the Holy Spirit and that this child will “save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). The Hebrew meaning of Immanuel is “God with us,” an appropriate title for this incarnation of God himself. Under the old covenant, God tabernacled with his people so that his glory was always in sight of Israel (Exod. 40:34–38). Now he has come in human flesh. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
This theme of God being with his people is present throughout Matthew’s Gospel and is a central part of his depiction of the Christ. From calling Jesus Immanuel in Matthew’s first chapter to Christ’s declaration to be with us “always, to the end of the age” in the last, God’s nearness is evident. He is not a God who is far off (Jer. 23:23). We can’t escape his presence (Ps. 139:7–10). And because of this, we can live with boldness, confident that God keeps us—he is with us wherever we go (Josh. 1:9).
Although Immanuel refers specifically to Christ, it reveals a truth about all three Persons of the Trinity. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwell with the saints:
- God’s presence with Israel is seen both by his physical tabernacling among them and with the reminder—so often repeated through Scripture—that he is near (Deut. 31:8; Is. 41:10, 43:2; Ps. 23:4, 139:7). He does not abandon his people.
- In the incarnation, God the Son takes on flesh and dwells among humans as a human—in every way like us but without sin. He can sympathize with our weaknesses, our suffering, our lives, and even our death. Because Jesus lived among us in perfect obedience and died our death for us, we can “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need” (Heb. 7:16).
- The Holy Spirit dwells not only among us but in us (1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Tim. 1:14; Ezek. 36:27). It is by the Spirit that we are able to live uprightly, obediently, and in a manner pleasing to God (Gal. 5:22).
That God is a God with us means we can trust in his care for us. It means we have a God who understands us deeply, to whom we can bring our sorrows, our joys, our petitions, and requests. And it means we can become new people—people marked by the fruit of the Spirit.
Footnotes
Kupp, David D. Matthew’s Emmanuel: Divine Presence and God’s People in the First Gospel. Monograph Series / Society for New Testament Studies, 90. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
