Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. (Isa. 7:14 ESV)

Matthew, in his Gospel, tells us the Hebrew name Immanuel (or Emmanuel) means God with us. There is perhaps no greater promise in Scripture than that. God told Jacob, “Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you….” God made the same promise to Jacob’s offspring by the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. Jesus told his disciples that “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” But the climax of this promise in the history of God’s people was the giving of His Son as a child from the womb of Mary. There is no more intimate connection between man and God than that. In the deepest sense of the prophet’s words, Jesus was the promise of God incarnate, God with us.

Rejoice!

O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Savior:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.