God With Us – SWO26 Pre-Summer Bible Study
God With Us
SWO26 Pre-Summer Bible Study
The phrase, “God with us,” is only used a few times in the Bible. So, why do we make such a big deal about it? Even though these words in this order only show up a handful of times, God with us is the theme of the whole Bible.
In the beginning God made us to be with him. We broke his law and disobeyed him. We would now have to live under a curse, but God promised us it wouldn’t always be so. One day he would send someone, the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15), and that person would make it so that we could dwell with God again.
Throughout the Old Testament God was merciful in allowing his chosen people, Israel, to live in his midst. However, it was never permanent. Ever since the Fall we have been trying to get back into right relationship with God. The problem is—we can’t. We could never do enough, obey enough, be righteous enough to get to God.
This is the beauty of God with us! We could never be exalted enough to dwell with God; God would have to humble himself to dwell with us.
The only time in the New Testament, “God with us,” is used is in Matthew 1:23. Matthew quoted Isaiah 7:14 saying, “‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).” Jesus came, born of a virgin, to be God with us since we would never be able to be with God on our own. Not only did he come and live as God with us for thirty-three years, but he made a way through his perfect sacrifice, so we could live with God for all eternity.
The phrase God with us is a glorious proclamation that Jesus humbled himself and dwelled with us so that we could be exalted and dwell with God. This phrase announces the undoing of the curse; it confesses the goodness of God and the poverty of man; it declares that God has made himself known to us, so we might know him; ultimately, God with us should be a reminder of that Christ is the only way that men can be saved.
In this short study we are going to look through the Scriptures and see how God has always longed for us to dwell with him. We are going to see good, bad, ugly, and lots of things in between, but through everything it will be obvious that God has been working to redeem us because we have always been in desperate need of redemption.
For those of you who are reading this before attending SWO26… First of all, we are excited and thankful that you are joining us this summer. We are excited about this study and what it has to teach us. There are two parts to this study. The first part (the part you are reading now) is meant to be completed before you attend SWO26. It will prepare you and enrich your experience this summer if you can finish this study before arriving.
The second part (you will get this after attending SWO26) is like an off ramp from summer camp. We believe the Lord will do awesome things in your life at SWO26 and part two of this study will be an awesome way to keep learning and growing in the word.
For those of you who aren’t coming to SWO26… Sorry you aren’t coming; we will try not to have too much fun without you. But the good news is this study just walks through the Bible, so even if you won’t hear the sessions this summer, the Word of God will still affect your life.
Thanks for checking out this study, and we pray that you are encouraged through it.