Immanuel

In the second chapter of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. He is so troubled by this dream that he is unable to sleep. He calls all of the magicians and sorcerers of his court to come before him and explain this dream to him.

Only it would seem the King had reason to believe that his “wise men” were full of baloney. He tells them that not only must they explain the meaning of his dream, but they must also tell him what happened in the dream. And if they can’t deliver, then they are all going to be cut to pieces and their houses will be turned into heaps of ash. Sounds like a nice boss, huh?

You can imagine that the sorcerers and magicians were pretty upset by the request, because they certainly had no ability to tell him the contents of his dream. And so they responded to him in part by saying, “It is a difficult thing that the king requests, and there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.” (Daniel 2:11, italics mine)

Those sorcerers were dead wrong.

God does indeed dwell with us, and at a specific point in history, He even came to earth and dwelt with us in the flesh. Check out these two verses:

Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

Mat 1:23 "BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which is translated, "God with us."

Don’t miss the last few words in the verse from Matthew. Immanuel is literally translated, “God with us.”

This is probably one of those ideas that you have heard so many times it has become sort of rote. You say it or express it or read it, perhaps without thinking through what it actually means. God is with us. God is with me, as in right now while I am typing this post. And He will be with me all night long while I sleep in my bed. Tomorrow as well, as I, hopefully, play tennis and get some cleaning and laundry done. Even in those mundane moments, God is WITH me.

And there is more. On the day I almost bled to death, God was with me. On the day I had a hissy fit and kicked my kitchen cabinets, God was with me. As a child, when I flew away from a country and a life that I loved, never expecting to return to either one again, God was right there with me. Even as I was being knit together in the womb of my mother; God was there alongside my unformed frame. In all of the years that followed, even in the years that I didn’t want much to do with God, He was with me. What a thought.

There was a time when all of this “withness” would make me uncomfortable to think about. Because if God has been with me through it all; He has also seen it all. And some of it wasn’t very pretty. OK, most of it wasn’t pretty. Fine! All of it!

But I don’t even worry about that anymore. Honestly, I have made peace with the past. I know that my sins are forgiven. Not just kind of forgiven, but removed from me as far as the east is from the west. That’s a long way. And I have let the concept of grace sink deep down into my bones. But, I digress.

As I go about my day tomorrow, I am going to make a concerted effort to focus on the fact that God is with me every moment. I’m not expecting tomorrow to be any kind of extraordinary day, but you never know. As long as God is with me, I suppose anything could happen.

Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

Matthew 28:20 “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

(emphasis mine)