306. God With Us, His People
Ezekiel 34:30 Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God.
God promises to be with us. Matthew opens his Gospel with “Immanuel, God with us,” the fulfillment of God’s promise in the birth of Jesus. And he ends his Gospel with the promise: “Lo, I am with you always, unto the end of the age.” When the Son of God, the Word of God, very God of very God, was born as a human being, Jesus of Nazareth, God came to be with us, Immanuel. Jesus was with us on earth, in our history, for 33 years, and then died, rose again from the dead, and was taken away into the heavenly, spiritual realm (which is right next to the earthly, physical realm).
But then, just before He was physically removed from our sight, Jesus makes the promise, “I will be with you always.” How can this be? How can He be with us after being removed from our physical presence? The answer is He is with us in the spiritual world; He is with us in the spirit within our bodies. He could not be any closer to being “with us” than if he were only physically present. He fulfills the promise of the Lord our God.
Jesus is with us always, wherever we are, whenever we go, whatever we do, and He will never leave us. We may not sense His presence, feel God, or be aware that He is with us most of the time, but that does not make the promise untrue. Whether we know it or not, Jesus is always there, here, with us, in us. He is here with us as a companion, a friend, a guide, a lover, a brother, a husband, as a man and, yes, as God. There are times when this promise is most comforting to remember.
God is with us as His people, the Church (the house of Israel). We, all believers in Christ, are His people; I am one of His people. That makes Jesus responsible for us. Just like humans become responsible for anything they make or buy (like spouse, children, house, car, gadgets, tools, toys, etc.), and they obligate themselves to maintain, clean and take care of it. Jesus created and then bought us, and now He is responsible for us. He is obligated to maintain us and take care of us. That’s what it means when God says, “they are MY people.” His people are in good hands.