God could have fixed things from the outside.
Instead He comes in as one of us and lets the cost land on Himself.
That feels consistent with how He’s always been.
When He brought the Israelites out of Egypt, He didn’t just get them out and leave. He was with them every day, providing them with what they needed and guiding them.
John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
That says a lot about His character. He’s not distant. He steps in and stays with us. “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20). It’s the same thing He tells Joshua in the old testament: “The LORD your God will be with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).
You see it again when Philip asks to see the Father. Jesus says, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” (John 14:9).
Exodus 13:21
“By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light.”
He gets them out of Egypt and stays with them the whole way.
But Jesus doesn’t leave it there. “It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you” (John 16:7).
The Spirit comes and stays, “with you forever” (John 14:16). The presence that walked beside the disciples now lives inside them.
So the promise holds all the way through. Cloud and fire outside. The Word walking beside. The Spirit on the inside. Father, Son, and Spirit (one God), still with us.
-Armin