FRIDAY 18th
Isaiah 7:14 – ‘Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.’
The book of Isaiah is a prophetic book in that Isaiah is called to be God’s person to speak to the nation of Israel, he is a prophet.
He brings God’s word to the people of that period, but at the same time brings God’s word that speaks of things that will yet happen at some time in the future. In some of his prophetic words there are verses which have what we will call a double prophetic meaning, that is there was to be a fulfilment of that word in Isaiah’s day, and yet it would also point to another event in the future. The verse before us today is one of those prophetic words.
Its original intention was to be a sign to Ahaz to strengthen his faith in God, to enable him to trust that God would protect both him and Judah from a plot against them planned by the sons of Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah. It is a prophecy that a child would be born, he would be called Immanuel and before the child was of a certain age the plot would fail. We see it fulfilled in Isaiah 8 where Isaiah himself has a son (although God told Isaiah to name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, his birth was a sign that Immanuel was with them) and later in the chapter we read ‘Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.’ (v18) ‘The LORD . . . who dwell on Mount Zion’ equals ‘Immanuel’ the Lord is with us. (See also 8:8)
But more importantly for us is what was to be the future fulfilment of that word to Ahaz, and more widely to Judah and speaks to the world, that of the coming one, the Christ Child. ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.’ In the OT understanding of the word, ‘virgin’ (Hebrew ‘alma’) means a young woman of marriageable age, thus the mother that gave birth to the child in the original fulfilment was not a ‘virgin’ in the sense as to which we use it for Mary in the New Testament, in other words the birth of Isaiah’s son was not a miraculous virgin birth, it was simply a birth that was to be a sign to Ahaz. When it comes to the prophetic concerning the birth of the Lord Jesus, the term ‘virgin’ means a woman who had never known a man sexually. In other words, the sign would be that of a miraculous birth, one in which a man was not involved, and we know from Matthew that it came about because of the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:20-23 ‘. . . But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).’ Thus, showing the birth of Jesus was the fulfilment of the prophecy in Isaiah.
The doctrine of the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is an important doctrine, for the virgin birth was necessary for the child to be born without sin, if the seed of a man (in this case Joseph) had been involved, then the child would have been born in exactly the same way as every other child that has ever been born and would have suffered with the same consequences which is that of ‘Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me,’ (Psalm 51:5)
and as such this child could never have gone on to live a sinless life and be offered on the Cross as the sacrifice, or as our substitute, for it required a sacrifice that was without sin, without spot or blemish. The virgin birth made all this possible. (2 Corinthians 5:21 ‘For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’)
Remember the declaration that Pilate made ‘I find no fault in him’, the only sin he ever knew was your sin and my sin as it was placed upon him, as he took our place at Calvary. This is what the first advent was all about, the one promised back in Genesis 3:15 coming into this world by being born of a virgin, to destroy the power of sin, the sting of death and Satan himself, so that we who believe may have eternal life. 1 Corinthian 15:55-57 ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’
His virgin birth was essential for it enables us to know new birth!
What hope we hold this starlit night
A King is born in Bethlehem
Our journey long, we seek the light
That leads to the hallowed manger ground
What fear we felt in the silent age
Four-hundred years can He be found
But broken by a baby’s cry
Rejoice in the hallowed manger ground
Emmanuel, Emmanuel
God incarnate, here to dwell
Emmanuel, Emmanuel
Praise His name Emmanuel
The son of God, here born to bleed
A crown of thorns would pierce His brow
And we beheld this offering
Exalted now the King of kings
Praise God for the hallowed manger ground
Emmanuel, Emmanuel
God incarnate, here to dwell
Emmanuel, Emmanuel
Praise His name Emmanuel
Oh, praise His name Emmanuel
Oh, praise His name Emmanuel