Advent Day 24: Matthew 1:18-25

Read & Journal

Read Matthew 1:18-25. Use any or all of these questions to meditate on what you’ve read.

• Think about Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth that you read yesterday. How is Matthew’s account similar? Different?

• What does this passage teach you about God and His character? About Jesus?

• Spend some time thinking about the reality of who Jesus is, the Son of God. Now consider the humility He displayed to put on flesh and become like us in order to save us. Worship Jesus for what He has done.

Ponder

Names are important. Whether it’s your first name or your last name, what you are called likely matters to you and may even pay homage to your heritage, your family or your character. From your reading of Scripture so far, you’ve likely noticed the importance of naming a child. Both Jesus and John the Baptist were given names an angel had supplied their parents, and these names weren’t chosen randomly. They meant something.

Take a minute and jot down the names for Jesus you see in today’s passage: Jesus and Immanuel. Jesus (or Yeshua in Hebrew) means “Yahweh is salvation” or “the Lord saves.” The meaning for Immanuel culminates the angel’s announcement to Joseph in verse 23: “They will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”

Stop for a moment and ponder this pronouncement. What the prophets had declared would happen had come to pass. The redemption thread God had been weaving through His Scripture and His promises to His people from the very beginning was now visible. The Messiah was born. The Word had become flesh and made His home among us (John 1:14), an unfaithful, sinful people who then and now often don’t realize how much we need a Savior. The God who had chosen a people for Himself was now living among them, in the flesh. The God who had called them into relationship with Him was now making a way for all people—every tribe, tongue and nation—to know Him personally. He was near, immanent in theological terms.

What Jesus invites us into is intimacy—to be fully seen and fully known. It is only through Jesus and His sacrifice that we can be saved and stand boldly before the throne of God (Heb. 4:15), covered in the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). God had come near, and, through Jesus, we can know Him.

The good news of the season, the news that brings us hope and peace, is that we are not alone. Christ has come.