The coming of the Son of God in human flesh is the best news that helpless and doomed humanity has ever heard. In the fullness of time – at the appropriate and eternally deter­mined moment – the virgin conceived and bore a Son. And what a Son He was: Son of God and Son of Man! The Seed of the woman through the seed of Abraham and then of David would be the source of blessing for the whole world.

Christ’s birth started something; it inaugurated a new day. The Incarnation made the difference between light and darkness, between life and death. The message of Christ, particularly the Old Testament revelation of the Messianic hope, is so often set in contexts of darkness, gloom, and despair. Christ is always God’s answer to man’s problem. Prophesying about Christ as God’s answer to man’s need was part of the genius of Isaiah as a preacher of the gospel. Isaiah 7-12 is the Book of Immanuel and contains three great “Christmas texts” that declare the gospel – the good news that shines the light of hope into a world that without that light would remain in total darkness.

The trilogy is set in the context of Assyrian domina­tion. Assyria was a ruthless and pagan power that threat­ened the existence of the covenant nation and consequently seemed to jeopardize the progression of God’s redemptive purpose. Assyria was a key contributor to that ongoing hos­tility between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent that was all part of God’s redemptive plan (Gen. 3:15). Although the days were dark, Isaiah’s prophecy of the certain coming Christ was God’s “not-to-worry” message to His anxious people that everything was on track to the full­ness of time. Isaiah sees the darkness dispelled by the dawn of the Messianic day of salvation. Isaiah’s Immanuel trilogy declares truths about both the Person and work of the Mes­siah that so wonderfully declares the gospel. The first in the series declares the birth of Christ and thus introduces the great mystery: God was manifest in the flesh.

Matthew 1:23 removes any doubt that Isaiah’s prophecy of the virgin birth refers directly and uniquely to Jesus, the son of the virgin Mary. To Isaiah’s generation the virgin birth was to be confirmation of divine deliverance from the hostile forces (Assyria and Syria) that threatened national freedom. To every generation, the virgin-born Immanuel is confirmation of God’s gracious purpose of deliverance from hostile powers far greater than any national enemy, indeed deliverance from the enemies of the soul. The prophecy highlights two important truths about the incarnation of the Son of God.

The Supernatural Birth⤒🔗

Isaiah 7 begins with Isaiah’s admonition to Ahaz to trust the Lord for deliverance from the impending threat of an Israeli-Syrian coalition. If he would only believe, he would be established (7:9). Isaiah offered him any extraordinary sign of his own choosing to confirm the certainty of God’s Word. In his unbelief, Ahaz rejected the offer (7:11-12), but God gave a sign anyway – just not to him. His rejec­tion of the personal sign (note the singular “thee” of 7:11) led to God’s giving to the nation (note the plural “you” in 7:14) what would be the most extraordinary confirmation in the history of the world that the Israeli-Syrian threat would come to nothing. Indeed, when the sign occurred, both kings would be long forsaken (7:16). The stupendous sign given to Judah marked the fullness of time and changed everything for everybody.

The sign was to be an extraordinary birth of an extraor­dinary Son. Isaiah announces the incomprehensible birth with the interjection, “Behold.” This is like putting an exclamation point at the beginning of a sentence to call special attention to something remarkable. What he was about to say defiled human experience and understanding: a virgin was about to conceive and bear a son. A supernatural birth was going to happen.

Although some interpret the word “virgin” to refer merely to a young woman of marriageable age, the word that Isaiah uses is the only word in the Old Testament that designates a virgin in the strictest sense of the term without any additional qualification. That she was also young and marriageable may be true enough, but that is not the issue. Certainly, her giving birth would not be contrary to the norm if age were the only thing designated. Wherever this word occurs in the Old Testament the purity of the young lady is assumed. There is another word translated as “virgin” in the AV, but it can refer to a widow (Joel 1:8), someone who had been married. When it does refer to a sexually pure virgin, it requires the further restriction that no man knew her (e.g., Gen. 24:16). If Isaiah had used that word without further qualification, the nature of this announced birth could be open to interpretation. Instead, guided by the Holy Spirit, he uses a word that clearly refers to a young woman who is a virgin. This restricted understanding of the word is reflected both in the Septuagint and in Matthew’s quotation. The meaning of the Greek word is undisputed in its reference to a virgin in the narrowest sense and thus silences any contrary interpretation. This portion of the Old Testament would have been translated at least a hundred and fifty years before Jesus of Nazareth, so it cannot be charged with choosing a word because of a Jesus bias. They used the Greek word for virgin simply because they were translat­ing the Hebrew word for virgin. That the divinely inspired Matthew uses the same word settles the question about the nature of this sign-birth.

How a virgin could conceive and bear a son is beyond human explanation. The virgin birth of Christ, a cardinal truth of Christianity, is a mystery and the most stupendous miracle of all of God’s supernatural acts. To explain it is beyond human ability; to deny it is outside the bounds of orthodoxy. The fact of it is gospel.

The Extraordinary Person←⤒🔗

A virgin birth alone would be wondrous, but the Son born of the virgin magnifies the wonder beyond wonder. The miraculously born Son is Immanuel, “with us is God.”

God’s presence with His people is a theme that runs throughout the Scripture, and in one manifestation or another was the experience of His people in the old dispen­sation. In times of crisis, God often assured His people that He would be with them. God was with the patriarchs when they were threatened in their travels (Gen. 26:3, Abraham; Gen. 28:15, Jacob; Gen. 39:2, Joseph). He promised to be with Joshua just as He had been with Moses (Josh. 1:5) as he prepared for the conflicts in Canaan. God’s being with David in his walk through the valley of death produced fearlessness and comfort (Ps. 23:4). It was Solomon’s prayer that God would continue to be with his generation as He had been in earlier times – indeed, that He would never leave nor forsake them (1 Kings 8:57). With wide-sweeping application, the Lord promised that He would be with all who would call on Him in times of trouble (Ps. 91:15). God’s presence was not just for protection or comfort but for fellowship as well. The Tabernacle and then the Tem­ple, particularly with the Ark of the Covenant, manifested Immanuel theology, God’s being with His people.

The presence that was known only by faith and via sym­bol was visibly realized with the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The virgin brought forth the most extraor­dinary Person: the Son of God became the Son of Man. The invisible God became visible in the Person of Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer of God’s elect, the only Mediator between God and men. The coming of Immanuel into the world in human flesh is the climax of redemptive history. From the first promise of the Curse-Reverser coming into humanity as the Seed of the woman to the promised Seed of Abraham and then to the Seed of David, all of time was moving steadily, unfailingly, and sometimes mysteriously to this fullness of time when God sent forth His Son made of a woman (Gal. 4:4). Immanuel, the Incarnate God, came to redeem His people by destroying the great enemy, the devil (Gen. 3:15; Heb. 2:14), to deliver them from the bondage of death (Heb. 2:15, 16), and to make reconciliation for them (Heb. 2:17). That God was with us visibly in Jesus Christ was and remains the only hope for the world.

Although Immanuel physically is no longer in our pres­ence, the truth of His name remains, for Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). He is in us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27) and our prospect is that we will always be with Him (1 Thess. 4:17). He continues with His church, and His desire is that He will be with us forever (John 17:24). O come, O come, Immanuel.