Immanuel

https://odb.org/MY/2021/12/07/the-perfect-name-2

Even as I sit at the beach this morning waiting for the sunrise – I have been away these past few days on holiday in a beautiful resort in Tanjung Jara, I read this morning’s ODB and pondered upon the first coming of Christ, foretold by Isaiah many years prior during the reign of King Ahaz in the Southern Kingdom of Judah slotted in between the prophesy of God bringing in the Assyrians to take the children of Israel into captivity. Christ came to bring hope to Israel in the spiritual sense although they expected it in the natural to overcome the hardship under the Romans. Christ came as God in flesh, the Immanuel, as John put it. How apt since Christmas is here in just 18 days. What a year it has been! More is to come with the new variant and possibly other new variants! Chaos and depression may reign again as much as the world is on the road to recovery in the new normal amidst rising prices and dwindling household incomes.

There is a sense that as Covid brought drastic changes to the way we live, we will never be the same again. There is a sense that the situation will get worse in time to come and our longing for the bustle of life pre 2000 may never materialise. Those days of chasing after the next growth number is probably gone. They may never come back. These days it’s a question of preserving our current numbers that we don’t fall into red.

Preachers have preached – the signs of times are for all to see. Never before anything like this has happened in the history of man at a global scale. Christ is coming again and it is in our generation. It will be Immanuel again but this time He will come as King in both the spiritual and natural sense. The time will come when all will be judged although some will be saved by the blood of the Lamb shed at His first coming. There will the great tribulation.

This Christmas let’s ponder on the hope that was but also that is to come. Put our hope and trust in Jesus, our Lord and our King. Strengthen our faith in Him. As He comes as King, let’s make sure we are part of His Kingdom and that we will live with God as He dwells among His people in the new Jerusalem, the new heaven and new earth, where there will be tears no more.