How well do we know that prophetic word in Isaiah 7:14 that came true with the birth of Jesus!
“In any case, the Lord himself will give you a sign: A young woman will conceive and bear a son, and she will call him Immanuel.”
When God the Son, in Jesus, became an ordinary man, it was “Immanuel”, God who came to live with and among us here on earth.
“Immanu” in Hebrew can be translated as “with us”. The “el” at the end of the word can be translated as “God”.
For about 33 years, here on earth, in Jesus of Nazareth, we experienced the incomprehensible miracle of God himself, as God the Son, who became an ordinary man and was here among us and with us!
This is the heart of the Good News, the Gospel, about Jesus Christ!
Then we hear how this Jesus, for example in John 14 and 16, tells His followers about the day when He will no longer be among them and with them as a man.
Hear how He tells this:
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” (John 14:12-14)
Then He explains how this will happen. (I quote from the NIV translation)
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
Jesus explained that when God the Spirit comes to live in us, He, as God the Son, in and through the Spirit, will come to live in God’s people.
In the following verses He explains what He means. Namely that He will now be in and with them as God's new, born-again people in a spiritual sense through the indwelling of God the Spirit.
Each of us as God's believing children, who believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord, will be able to experience this intimate presence and love of God Himself through the indwelling of God the Spirit in us.
The Spirit in us will guide us, teach us, strengthen us, comfort us, constantly remind us that the Most High, Almighty Creator God, is now our "Abba", "Father", and is busy in and with us in the detail of everything happening in our lives.
I don't know about you, but in these promises I hear that name again, Immanuel, God Himself, in and with us!