As the Christmas season approaches, I find myself wanting to hear one of my favorite carols: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. It has always stirred something deep inside me. Perhaps it’s the minor keys that draw my heart and mind both to Israel and to my childhood in Spain. Maybe it’s the ancient words, with their echoes of generations in desperate circumstances crying out to God for help. There is something about the common thread of words woven through a thousand years…
Those things certainly play a part in my love for this song, but I suspect it’s more than that. I think what calls to me the most is this particular name of God, Emmanuel.
Throughout the Bible, God uses countless names to describe Himself. They are facets of his being, attempts to help us wrap our human minds around the infinite wonder of who He is. He is Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, El Olam, El Shaddai, Emmanuel. He is all of those things and more, and each name reveals just a little more of the God behind everything that we know.
I have loved His different names in each season of my life. When I have faced times of scarcity and uncertainty about how we would afford the next meal, He has been Jehovah Jireh, my provider. In times of illness that defied medical understanding He has been my Jehovah Rapha, God my healer. When I have worried about the future, he has been El Olam, the everlasting God. He has been my El Shaddai, Almighty God who fights for me.
All of these things have drawn me closer to Him. They have deepened my understanding of who God is and increased my awe of Him. But in some ways, each of these represent God from afar; mighty on His throne, but removed from the toil and grime of my daily life.
Yet, He is not simply God from afar, as Jeremiah 23 tells us. Rather, unlike the gods of the nations around Israel, He is also a God “near at hand.” In other words, in all of these places, He is also Emmanuel–God with us.
God with us. In our midst. Among us. Can you imagine it? This God, who spoke creation into being? Who rules over thunderstorms and tidal waves and earthquakes? Who fashioned the mighty whale and the smallest ant? This God, who is Jehovah Jireh, El Olam, El Shaddai… among us?
God, in the very midst of our heartache. Our messy marriage. Our uncontrolled temper. God in our workplace, our home, our school. God in the hospital room, by the grave side, in the dark of night as we lie awake feeling lost and alone.
God with us.
What does it mean?
Sometimes we mistake the purpose of Emmanuel. He is here to walk with us, yes. To ransom Israel–though not, perhaps, as we expect. He did not immediately pluck Israel from their captivity to the Babylonians. But a ransom does not always mean release. It means something more.
The evil is nullified. The victory is won. Good comes from bad, and light bursts forth in dark places. There is hope in hopeless situations, and peace in turmoil. Not because we are removed from those places, but because God Himself steps into them.
This is Emmanuel. The full measure of God, the full power of His many attributes, standing by our side. Sitting with us in our pain. Filling the empty places that we thought no one could touch. God with us. For us. In the very midst of all that we endure. Redeeming it and ransoming us from our captivity. From all the places where we have been bound to the darkness. God stepping into the fiery furnace with us. Emmanuel.
As we enter the Christmas season and step into a new year, we may continue in our own valley of the shadow of death. The pain and brokenness of our situation may go on. All may not be right with our world. But we have the promise of Emmanuel, of God with us. God who ransoms us from the darkness and walks with us, victorious, through the very valley in which we find ourselves. God, in all His fullness, who steps into the darkness with us. We are not alone.
O come, our Emmanuel, and ransom your captive people.
Our God is with us.
