Things I have learned & loved...#1...

Random things that you probably already knew, but that I learned & loved about God's Word TODAY:

In Matthew 1:23 it says, "...'and they will call Him Immanuel' - which means, 'God with us'." I have always loved that verse because I truly feel that He is with me and because it brings me comfort. So today as I was reading along in the same chapter I came across Matthew 1:21 where it says, "...and you are to give him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins," and although I had read that verse many times before, this time it gave me true reason to pause.

Now, I always knew that Joseph had been instructed to name Jesus, Jesus, but I never really knew why or the symbolism of the name, and it was actually a little confusing to me because of the fact that, as I mentioned above, 2 verses later it mentions a prophesy that says "and they will call Him Immanuel." But you know, I try very hard to always just take His Word for what it is and trust that He will reveal to me that which He feels I need to know, when I am ready, so I always had just kept on truckin' through it in the past, and that's just what I was doing today when I saw it...this tiny little footnote in my Bible that read, "Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, which means the Lord saves."



Whoa! I had read that exact verse numerous times before and had never seen that tiny little footnote. The significance of the fact that Jesus was living in a Greek culture and the fact that His name was actually Greek and that it would have a Hebrew name synonymous to it had never even occurred to me before. What an awesome thing to know! And then I went back and read Matthew 1:23 again, but this time with new (or renewed) eyes, and it actually made it even more significant and comforting to me. I realized that it doesn't say that His name would be Immanuel, but that He would be called Immanuel ~ not as a name but as a call to worship and praise for who He is and what He does. Wow!

So then I also read Romans 1:8, "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you,..." and again - KAPOW! I had read this verse numerous times before and I know and realize that our entire access to God's throne is through Christ, but the way Paul states the fact that He thanks God through Christ, it just totally hit me so much more deeply this time. The point that Christ is the one and only mediator between God and humans is so simple, and yet we often let the simplicity of the cross get lost.

So let me see if I have this right...God was and is literally "with us", through His Son, named Jesus, who is our Lord and (Savior) who saved us, His people, from their sin and therefore He is to be called (worshiped & praised) Immanuel. When I think about that, it's just too marvelous for words...so simply perfect.