Sweet Sisters:
I love singing Christmas carols that focus on Jesus. One of my favorites is “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” It was written by Charles Wesley in 1739. I especially like the second verse where he talks about “Jesus, our Immanuel”.
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled.”
Joyful, all ye nations rise,
Join the triumph of the skies,
With th’angelic host proclaim:
“Christ is born in Bethlehem.”
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”
Christ by highest heav’n adored,
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come,
Offspring of a Virgin’s womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus, our Immanuel.
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”
Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Ris’n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Hark! The herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”
Emmanuel means “God is with us”. We see this word in Isaiah 7:14:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
And Matthew 1:22-23:
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
In Matthew 1:21, the angel tells Joseph that Mary is going to have a baby and he is to name him Jesus.
“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
I found this confusing at first. I think what is happening here is that God is telling Joseph that the name that his son would go by on earth was Jesus (He will save us from our sins), but that his son would also be known as Immanuel (God is with us).
What a concept!! God, Himself was coming. He was going to dwell among His people and He was going to save them from their sins.
The apostle John tells us the same thing in a different way in the first chapter of John 1:1-3 John describes the “word”:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
Continuing on to verse 14 of chapter one, John tells us “the Word” is now dwelling among us:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
God loved us so much that He came to live (dwell) among us.
In Ezekiel 37:26-27, God tells Ezekiel that He is going to make an everlasting covenant with His people and that He is going to dwell among them:
I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and increase their numbers, and I will put my sanctuary among them forever. 27 My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.
I learned something really interesting while studying for this lesson. The Greek word “skenoo” means:
- To fix one’s tabernacle, have one’s tabernacle, abide (or live) in a tabernacle (tent), tabernacle.
- To dwell.
(NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon)
One of the places it is used is in Revelation 21:3 (NASV):
And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them
Your version may read, “God’s dwelling place” instead of “tabernacle”.
I want to try and show you why this is so important. In the Old Testament, God dwells in a physical tabernacle. Exodus 25 – 31 describes how the tabernacle (tent) was to be made. This is where God would dwell when among His people. When Jesus came, He actually lived (dwelt) among us. He became like us. He experienced life as we do.
After living among us and His death, burial and resurrection, Jesus made another transition in where He chose to dwell. Jesus tells His disciples in John 14: 23, that if anyone loves Him and obeys Him that He and His Father will make their home (dwell) with them:
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
John tells us in I John 4: 13 – 16, that if we acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God that God will live in us.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:17 that Jesus dwells in our heart through faith:
… so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
And in II Corinthians 6:16, Paul refers back to Ezekiel 37:27 and says that now we are the temple of God:
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
“I will live with them
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be my people.”
Sweet Sisters, this time of year we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We celebrate that the God of the universe chose to enter the womb of Mary and begin life as one of us. Immanuel – God is with us. But we celebrate every day that the God of the universe who chose to live among us now has chosen to live in those who are willing to love and obey him.
Debbie