I will be with you. What a delightful promise! Two Scriptures immediately came to mind. In the Old Testament, God’s promise to Israel in Isaiah 43:1-2: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.” [NIV]
In the New Testament it is the promise in Hebrews 13:5: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” [NIV]
I will be with you. God has promised to be with us, to never leave or forsake us. That is a promise that I cling to often. Yet … there is so much more. God with us. Matthew 1:23: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”-which means, “God with us.” [NIV]
The God who is with us is the God who walked in our sandals through this dusty earth. He is the God who left glory and all the prerogatives of being God and came as a baby to abide with us. He understands our humanness because He was cloaked in it. He was tempted as we are (but without sin). He knows what it means to be rejected, misunderstood, persecuted, hungry, exhausted, forsaken. This God who promises I will be with you, who knows what it is like to BE us, laid down His life FOR us.
So, when God says, I will be with you … He was, He is, and He always will be Immanuel.
