When “God With Us” Isn’t Comfortable

Isaiah’s prophecy reveals that Immanuel can be sanctuary—or stumbling.

Most of us hear “God is with us” and think comfort, warmth, and Advent hope.

But what if “God with us” isn’t always comforting news?

What if sometimes, it sounds like a warning?

Because in Isaiah 8, the name Immanuel—God with us—isn’t a cozy Christmas slogan.

It’s a confrontation.

The Strange Prophecy Behind Christmas

Matthew tells us that Jesus’ birth “fulfills” the sign of Immanuel.

But before we can understand what that means, we have to start where Matthew starts:

with one of the most unsettling prophecies in Isaiah.

This background shapes the meaning of Advent.

It reminds us that “God with us” is bigger than sentiment or seasonal nostalgia—

it is a truth that changes everything.

A King, a Crisis, and a Choice

Isaiah speaks into a moment filled with fear, political pressure,

and the looming threat of invasion.

King He-Has-Grasped [Ahaz] is standing at a crossroads.

He has two options:

1. Trust God’s quiet help

Isaiah describes it as the “gentle stream of Shiloah”—Sent-Water—a small, steady, faithful flow.

2. Or trust empire, violence, and political strategy

The power-imagery of the ancient world.

Ahaz chooses Empire.

So Isaiah responds with a stark message:

“Because you trusted Empire, Empire will now flood you.”

The very power Ahaz relied upon would become the disaster he could not stop.

The consequences of misplaced trust were already in motion.

Yet Even Here—God Is With Us

And yet, here is the astonishing tension at the heart of Isaiah:

Despite the king’s rebellion,

despite the nation’s fear,

despite the coming devastation—

God does not abandon His people.

Isaiah says God’s presence will still come.

But it will be experienced in two very different ways:

A sanctuary for those who trust

A steadying presence.

A place of belonging, hope, and protection.

A stumbling stone for those who resist

The same Presence becomes the rock we trip over when we cling to the power of Empire.

In Isaiah, Immanuel means:

• We cannot escape the consequences of misplaced trust

and

• We cannot outrun God’s mercy, pursuit, or promised future.

This is not sentimental comfort.

This is the fierce, faithful presence of a God who refuses to leave.

How Matthew Uses This Pattern

So when Matthew writes that Jesus fulfills the Immanuel promise,

he’s not checking a prediction off a list.

He’s showing us the pattern of how God works:

• God shows up in our fear.

• God enters the world right where things are breaking.

• God meets us in failure, chaos, and the desperate places where we’ve run out of options.

• God-with-us is both mercy and truth—sanctuary and challenge—love that refuses to leave us as we are.

This is the heart of Advent.

Not escape.

Not denial.

Not forced cheer.

But a God who enters the ruins with us,

rebuilds with us,

and stays with us through every darkness.

God With Us. Still.

Immanuel is not just a word we sing at Christmas.

It is the pattern of God’s presence:

from Isaiah’s trembling Jerusalem

to Matthew’s fragile Bethlehem

to our own uncertain world.

God is with us. Still. Always.

Peace and grace,

John

a scripture rendering from SAMC:

MATTHEW 1: 20-23

As he was considering these things, 

look—a messenger of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying:

“He-Adds [Joseph], son of Beloved [David], 

do not fear to take Their-Rebellion [Mary] as your wife, 

for what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Breath.

She will bear a son,  

and you will call his name YHWH-Rescues [Jesus],  

for he himself will rescue his people from their sins.”

All this took place  

so that what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled:

“Look! The virgin will hold a child in the womb

  and will bear a son,

  and they will call his name With-Us-God [Emmanuel],”

  which means, “God with us.”

ISAIAH 8:5–15

And YHWH continued to speak to me again, saying:

“Because this people has rejected the waters of Shiloah

that flow gently,

and they rejoice in Popular-Man [Rezin]

and the son of Adorned-One [Remaliah]—

[this is an insult title of Pekah, who assassinated his way to the throne of the Northern Kingdom]

therefore, look:

the Lord [Adonai] is bringing against them

the mighty and massive waters of the river—

the king of Assyria and all his Glory,

and it will rise over all its channels

and flow across all its banks.

It will sweep into Praise [Judah],

overflowing as it passes through;

it will reach up to the neck.

[indeed, Jerusalem barely survived the sieging forces of Assyria]

And the outstretched wings of the flood

will fill the breadth of your land!

With-Us-God [Immanuel]!

Band together, O peoples—and be shattered.

Listen, all you distant lands.

Get Ready!—and be shattered.

Get Ready!—and be shattered.

Devise counsel!—and it will be frustrated.

Speak your word!—and it will not stand,

With-Us-God [Immanuel]!

For YHWH spoke to me

with a strong hand upon me,

and warned me

not to walk in the way of this people, saying:

“You shall not call ‘conspiracy’

everything that this people calls ‘conspiracy’;

you shall not fear what they fear,

nor treat it as awesome.

YHWH of the Multitudes—

God you shall treat as holy!

God is your fear!

God is your awe!

And God will be a sanctuary,

yet also a stone of stumbling

and a rock that makes one fall

for the two Houses of Wrestles-With-God [Israel]—

a snare and a trap

for the inhabitants of City-of-Peace [Jerusalem].

And many will stumble on it;

they will fall and be broken,

they will be ensnared

and they will be captured.”