"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel" (which means, God with us). (Matt 1:23)Straight out of Isaiah 7. Clear enough. And wonderful. "For He will save his people from their sins." (Matt 1:20).
But ... just what does that mean? I mean, look, we all know that God is Omnipresent. So of course God is with us. How did Jesus represent a change in that fact? Well, He didn't. Theologians talk of Transcendence and Immanence, where the former refers to His "over all" nature and the latter to His "right here with us" nature. Get one or the other of these out of balance and you're guaranteed to go astray. But we can be like Jacob. Remember the story of him sleeping and that ladder from heaven came down and he woke up and realized he had been in the presence of God? "Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.'" (Gen 28:16). See how that works? The Lord didn't come to this place. He is in this place. The problem? "I did not know it."
So Emmanuel means something else, something different, something more. It means something like the reverse of what Jesus warns in Matthew 7. There He speaks of the false prophets who come to Him and say, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name?" Jesus says, "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you.'" (Matt 7:22-23). Now, just how does that work? I mean, He knows everyone. He is, after all, Omniscient. So how could He claim, "I never knew you"? Well, He's speaking there in the relational sense. It isn't head knowledge--"I never knew you existed." It isn't data--"I never knew anything about you." It is personal. "I was never intimately involved with you." I know my son's wife, for instance, but I don't know her like I know my wife. Oh, no. Not at all. Because I know my wife intimately. And that is the sense of "Emmanuel."
There is also, in that term, a kinship connection. In Leviticus 25 we read of the ability of a kinsman to pay the debt--to ransom a kinsman in trouble. The term is a "kinsman redeemer". The two necessary parts for a kinsman redeemer to be able to ransom a person were 1) that he has the ability to pay and 2) that he is the "nearest kinsman" (Lev 25:25). Enter Emmanuel--God with us. Not merely "in the vicinity". Not "close at hand". Actually "with". This is the nearest kinsman and He alone has the ability to pay the ransom owed.
There is one more facet to this gem that stands out from merely Omnipresent. In Paul's letter to the saints who are in Colossae, he speaks of a ministry God assigned to him. This included the revealing of "the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages." (Col 1:26). What is that mystery? That mystery is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col 1:27). Now, me, personally, I don't have the words to describe that. It is beyond me. We who have fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23) now have Christ in us as the only hope of restoring that glory. And you can surely see that "Christ in you" is something beyond Omnipresence.
Emmanuel--God with us. It refers to His ever-presence. It refers to an intimacy with His own. It refers to His kinship connection, His family tie. More importantly, it refers to that unique condition of Christ in you. You know what? Maybe we need to go back and celebrate that birthday again. And maybe often.
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