Thoughts on Today's Verse...
God had repeatedly promised his people his presence. During the Wilderness wanderings, he was with them with the cloud during the day, the pillar of fire at night, and in the Holy of Holies above the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle. Men, women, and angels (1 Peter 1:10-12) had long anticipated our receiving God's presence close to us. Then, with Jesus' incarnation, his coming in human flesh, it happened. God came to us in his Son. Jesus is Immanuel — Immanu-El, God with us! We live on the visited planet, touched by the very presence of God the Creator among us, as one of us, who lived, died, and was raised from the dead for us (See John 1:1-18; Hebrews 1:1-3; and Colossians 1:15-23 for the declaration of these truths). And it was just as the prophets of old had said.