The Third Day of Advent

The Third Day of Advent

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Therefore, the LORD 

will give you a sign.

The virgin will be with child

and will give birth to a son,

and will call him Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

We are such careless people! We promise to do something, and then we forget! We just have too many things on our minds, and we let the matters of life interfere with our promises to friends. We sometimes even give a sign and say, “I give you my word! I won’t forget!” It’s not that we didn’t mean the promise. We just forget.

Not so with God! He gives a promise and never forgets! Not only does he “give his word,” which because he is without flaw he must keep, but he gives indicators that we can recognize when he fulfills what he promised! The scripture above is a great example.

God is going to do something wonderful, and he gives two signs – absolutely incredible signs. It would take a long, long time – several hundred years – but when it occurred, the Jews remembered what God had promised years before. A virgin would carry and give birth to a child! A virgin! Isn’t that impossible? Virgins do not conceive babies, and virgins do not have babies. Right? Absolutely right, unless it is God making the promise. He said a woman, pure and chaste would conceive a child by miraculous means, carry him in her womb, and bring forth for the whole world a tiny infant male child! That’s quite a sign. That is not the norm, but God was going to do a new kind of creation, something very different. It would happen. He promised!

And then he compounded the sign by saying that the baby’s name would be Immanuel. Not James, or Matthew, or Levi – good Jewish names – but Immanuel. We read that almost without thinking, but the Jews didn’t chose names for their children as casually as we do. Their names had meaning, often very explicit meanings. They knew the meaning of this name! Immanuel, God with us! He would be born in an unusual manner, and by his very name all would know that he was no usual baby. He would be born flesh but he would be God!

Awesome, wonderful first Christmas. God with us – always with us.

Father, God with us now in your Holy Spirit, thank you for leaving the wonders of your heavenly home and coming to us in a baby – a flesh and blood baby just like we once were. Keep us ever mindful that the baby Jesus grew to be a man who also made promises. He promised to send the Holy Spirit, and we thank you, Holy Spirit, that you are still here – still Immanuel! Amen.

The Light of the World
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, 2008,
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator.