Peace
Read Isaiah 7:14.
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.[a]
Mary waited, like any expectant mother, for her baby to be born. Perhaps those weeks and months dragged on, or maybe they flew by—we can’t know. But we do know that though Mary’s waiting may have, at times, felt long, it was nothing compared to how long her people, the Israelites, had been waiting for this moment.
Remember what we read about last week in Genesis? God promised a Savior from the earliest days. The Israelites had waited thousands of years, and finally, without most of them even knowing it had happened, God fulfilled His promise. Jesus had arrived. God had given His people hints about their coming King—He would come from Bethlehem and be a ruler who brought great peace. Naturally, many expected a soldier. Others, a politician. But no one expected this—a baby, born in a stable. Jesus, the King of heaven, left His perfect home in heaven to be born as a baby.
But everything happened exactly as God planned and promised. We’ve already seen prophecies throughout the Old Testament of the promised Savior, but the one we read today in Isaiah 7 says, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Immanuel simply means this: “God with us.” We see this idea—God with us—throughout the Bible. God was with Adam and Eve in the garden. He was with His people as they wandered through the desert, in Egypt, and in exile. But now Immanuel takes a whole new form—Jesus became God with us. Fully God and fully man, He came to dwell with His people on the earth. And though now He is not physically here, He is with us still today as we wait for His return. After His life, death, and resurrection, He sent us the Holy Spirit. For believers in Christ, the Holy Spirit is God with us, each and every day. As we continue this Advent season, let that bring unfathomable peace. God is with us, even now.
[Matt Chandler (2021). (p. 29). Family Advent Devotional - Bible Study eBook. Lifeway Press. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]