To the Jew First | 35
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ISAIAH 7:14
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will
be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”
In Isaiah’s day, two enemies were conspiring against Judah:
Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Israel (the northern kingdom).
Isaiah comforted the terrified people of Judah by going to
the king with his aptly named son, Shear-jashub (“a remnant
shall return”). God will bring a remnant back to the Land. The
terrorists of that day, who were mere men, would be shattered.
Ahaz was challenged to believe this prophecy. In fact, he was to
ask God for a confirming sign, something really spectacular—as
“...deep as Sheol or high as heaven” (Isaiah 7:11). When he refused,
God gave him a sign, even though he had exasperated the Lord.
What is that sign? It is a son named Immanuel, which means “God
with us.” God’s people needed His very presence when surrounded
by the enemy. It was true in Isaiah’s time, and it is true today.
The son will be born to a “virgin” says the prophet. Regardless
of how one interprets the Hebrew word almâh, there would be
nothing spectacular about her if she were impregnated normally.
Something supernatural attended this birth.
What child in Isaiah’s day “fulfills” this prophecy? We do not
know. Some say the “young maiden” was Isaiah’s wife, but she
already had a child, Shear-jashub, and her second child was not
named Immanuel but Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Isaiah 8:3). Others
say she was a virgin when the prophecy was given, but she then
married and had a child whose early life is described by Isaiah to
show that the Syria-Israel confederacy would be defeated very
soon. Neither view is too remarkable, deep, or high.
It is clear that the supernatural, spectacular component of this
birth finds its fulfillment in the Person of the Messiah, born
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