“God with Us”
Matthew 1:18-25
12/23/07
In the O.T. lesson for today we learn about a sign
which God gave to Ahaz, king of Judah, to show that God was going to
save His people. Ahaz was king of Judah when Israel and Judah
were two separate kingdoms, Israel being the northern kingdom and Judah
being the southern kingdom. But King Ahaz was a wicked
king. He was so wicked that he sacrificed his sons in fire as he
worshipped the gods of the other nations. And the people of Judah
weren't any better. For this they deserved God’s judgment,
and so God sent the king of Israel and the king of Aram (a kingdom just
north of Israel) to attack the kingdom of Judah for their rebellion and
idolatry. Then Ahaz and the people of Judah were afraid.
Their security was gone, and they looked for help.
Isaiah was prophesying at the time, and God through
Isaiah graciously promised Judah deliverance from the hands of the
kings of Israel and Aram. In addition to promising him
deliverance, God told King Ahaz to ask for a sign, so that Ahaz might
believe God's Word more firmly. But Ahaz responded by saying,
“I won't put God to the test.” Now, as pious as that
sounds, since God offered to grant him a sign, it wouldn’t have
been putting God to the test to ask for what He promised. As it
was, Ahaz was putting God to the test by not asking for a sign.
But God gave him one anyway. He said, "The virgin will be with
child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."
The significance of this sign would be that before this child was old
enough to reject the wrong and choose the right (which in the Jewish
community was considered to be the age of 12), the land of the two
kings attacking Judah would be laid waste.
Well, Israel and Aram attacked and killed many in
Judah and carried many more away as prisoners. Israel took many
captive to use them as slaves. But because of a warning by one of
the prophets, they returned the people back to the land of Judah.
And God kept His promise to deliver Judah by using the kingdom of
Assyria to destroy the kingdoms of Israel and Aram. In 722 B.C.
the northern kingdom of Israel was taken into exile about 12 years
after the sign of the child was given to King Ahaz.
But who was this child who was to be called
Immanuel? By the time this child was 12 years old, the promise of
the Lord’s deliverance of Judah had already come true. The
two kingdoms of Israel and Aram were destroyed. So the child had
to be a contemporary of King Ahaz and the prophet Isaiah, some 700
years before Christ. The child could have been a son born to the
prophet Isaiah, who named him Immanuel. He would not have been
born of a virgin, however, but of a young woman, probably
Isaiah’s wife. The birth of this son in Ahaz's day would
have been God’s sign that He was going to save His people from
the kings of Israel and Aram just as He had promised.
But as we turn to the Gospel reading in Matthew for
today, we see that at the birth of Jesus, this prophecy about a child
is mentioned again. And here Jesus is born of a virgin, and He is
called Immanuel. From this we notice that the child born at the
time of King Ahaz was a preview of a much greater child and a much
greater salvation to come. While the birth of a son to Isaiah
meant that God would save His people from the earthly enemies who were
attacking them at that time, the birth of the Child born to the virgin
Mary, Jesus, meant that God would save His people from much greater
enemies than a couple of earthly kingdoms. They are the enemies
of sin, death, and the devil. With the birth of the son in
Ahaz’s day, God wanted to show with the name
“Immanuel” that He was with His people to save them from
the kings of Israel and Aram. The promised child was the sign
that God was with them to save them. And just as God kept His
promise to give this child, so He kept His promise to deliver
Judah. Now, with the birth of the Son of Mary, God gives us a
much greater sign that He is with us to save us from our sins, death,
and the devil. This child is God Himself with us in the flesh to
save us.
Never before in the history of the world, not even
during the reign of King Ahaz, had God ever become flesh. Jesus,
conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, is true God
in the flesh, Immanuel, God with us. Many today would argue
against that. They would say Jesus was just a man - a good man,
an extraordinary man, but not God. They might say He's a god, but
not the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not the One through whom and
for whom all things exist. The Apostle Paul, however, writes that
Jesus was declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection
from the dead. Those who saw the miracles that Jesus did, heard
His words, witnessed His death, and saw Him alive again after He was
raised from the dead recognized that this Man, this child who had been
born of the Virgin Mary, was the Son of God, God in the flesh,
Immanuel, God with us.
Why is it important for us to confess that Jesus is
God with us? Why do we confess that Jesus was begotten of the
Father before all worlds, that He is God of God, Light of Light, very
God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the
Father? We confess these things about Jesus because we are given
to confess them by God's Word. As we read along in the Gospel
according to Matthew, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes more and more to
who this Jesus is. His words, His forgiveness, His miracles, His
death, and His resurrection all show that He is God in the flesh,
Immanuel, God with us, to save us. If He were just a man and not
God, He would be a sinner just like we are and would be unable to save
Himself, let alone us. Jesus is God with us.
And Matthew shows us that this Jesus is God with us
in the flesh. Not only is He true God, but He is also true
Man. Jesus is given two names at the beginning of the book of
Matthew: Son of David and Son of Abraham. Both names show
that Jesus was a physical descendent of King David and of
Abraham. What do these names mean? First, it means that
Jesus was a Jew. He was born to Jews. Jesus was a human
being. He ate, He drank, He slept, He suffered, He died.
You could see Him, touch Him, and hear Him. He had flesh and
bones just like you and I do. But the name Son of David means
that Jesus was of the kingly line. If Judah had still been a
kingdom ruled by the sons of David, Jesus could have sat on the
throne. But the name Son of David had taken on a much greater
meaning than simply that Jesus could have been an earthly king.
It was also used as a title for the Messiah. There could be many
sons of David, but the Son of David was the Christ.
Now all this might suggest to us that Jesus came
only for the Jews. In the Gospel reading for today we see that
Joseph was to call Him Jesus, because He would save His people from
their sins. Who were the people of God at that time? They
were the Jews. If you were reading chapter one of the book of
Matthew for the first time, you might think that Jesus didn't come to
save you, a Gentile; He only came to save the Jews. But then we
look at the name Son of Abraham. Abraham was, of course, the
father of the Jews. The Jews and even the Arabs today are all
physical descendents of Abraham. But God made a promise to
Abraham that has great significance for us Gentiles, too. The
promise that He made is this. He said, "I will make you into a
great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you
will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever
curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed
through you." Jesus, as the Son of Abraham, brings this blessing
to us Gentiles, too. Jesus came to save us who were once not
God's people from our sins, death, and the devil, too. He is
Immanuel, God with us Gentiles as well.
So Jesus is both the Son of God and the Son of
Man. He is God with us in the flesh. But 'God with us'
(Immanuel) means that God is not just present with us, but that He is
here to save us. God has always been with His people to save
them. He was with His O.T. people to save them through the waters
of the Red Sea. God was with His people Israel to save them from
their slavery in Egypt by using Moses as His instrument. He is
with us His N.T. people to save us through the waters of Baptism, as He
is with little Carlos today, having saved him through the waters of
Baptism. He was with His O.T. people to save them by giving them
water to drink from the rock and bread to eat from heaven. He is
with us to save us by feeding us on the body and blood of the true
Bread which has come down from heaven, His Son Jesus Christ, the One
who gave His flesh for the life of the world. He was with His
O.T. people to save them by giving them His Word as they were gathered
at Mt. Sinai. He is with us to save us by giving us His Word here
in this place where we are gathered in His Name, hearing our sins
forgiven. Jesus Christ, the God-Man, Immanuel, God is with us to
save us.
So, as we end the season of Advent and enter into
the Christmas season, we are reminded of why God gave His Son - to save
us. Let us remember that He has saved us from our sins, from
eternal death and punishment, and from the power of the devil.
Let us remember that “God with us” has saved us by dying on
the cross for us, taking our guilt upon Himself. And let us
remember that because He also rose again from the dead, that nothing
can separate us from God any longer, not even death. Jesus Christ
will always be God with us to deliver the salvation He won for us on
the cross, and He will come for us on the Last Day, that where He is in
His heavenly kingdom, there we may be also. Amen.