Isaiah-7:1-9:7

Immanuel — God with us!

Phil

— 4 min read
Green rectangle with bright red cross-shaped ribbon. On the left is a gold star shape and a black heart shape. On the right is a white heart shape and gold star shape
The greatest gift! Can you spot the cross?
Later, the Lord sent this message to King Ahaz: “Ask the Lord your God for a sign of confirmation, Ahaz. Make it as difficult as you want—as high as heaven or as deep as the place of the dead.”

But the king refused. “No,” he said, “I will not test the Lord like that.”

Then Isaiah said, “Listen well, you royal family of David! Isn’t it enough to exhaust human patience? Must you exhaust the patience of my God as well? All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). By the time this child is old enough to choose what is right and reject what is wrong, he will be eating yogurt and honey. For before the child is that old, the lands of the two kings you fear so much will both be deserted.

“Then the Lord will bring things on you, your nation, and your family unlike anything since Israel broke away from Judah. He will bring the king of Assyria upon you!” Isaiah 7:10-17 NLT
“…And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

All of this occurred to fulfil the Lord’s message through his prophet:

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
    She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
    which means ‘God is with us.’”
Matthew 1:21-23 NLT

One prophecy, two babies! One obscure, the other well-known. One immediate and fleeting, the other later and eternal. I must confess, this has not been an easy passage to digest — apparently even the renowned Charles Haddon Spurgeon was confused by reading the commentators!

It’s fair to say it needs a proper understanding of the context to make sense. Ahaz was one of the last kings of Judah (cf. 2 Kings 16) and one of the most wicked. He sacrificed his son into the fire to Molech, and formed an alliance with the king of Assyria which negatively influenced his worship!

Yet the ever gracious Lord God was working out his purposes. In a live action prophecy Isaiah and his son, Shear-jashub met with King Ahaz to tell him to stop worrying. The two local kings of Israel and Syria would not prevail against Jerusalem. Not because Assyria came to help (cf. 2 Kings 16) but because he had purposed it to be so!

This whole virgin (or just ‘young woman’) bearing a son business comes up as a sign to Ahaz that these two kings would be erased. A mother in the royal house would give birth, and before that child can eat solid food, and make their own choices, those kingdoms would be deserted.

Well, hallelujah you might think! Not so quick, Ahaz might be dead and buried, but eventually the Assyrians will come and prevail against Jerusalem too (cf. 2 Kings 17) — all in the purposes of God. And throughout it all he would not fail to maintain a small group he will rescue — just as the name of Isaiah’s son, Shear-Jashub, reminds us.

Phew. But what has all this to do with Jesus? How does this obscure child relate to Jesus? Fortunately we don’t need to know all the detail because the Holy Spirit takes the pen of Matthew and makes it clear in his writing of the Christmas story. Jesus would be born to Mary to fulfil these words of Isaiah (Matthew 1:22-23).

And he is the better and most worthy fulfilment! He is God with Us in reality. Actual God actually here, with us!

But, hey, you say, didn’t he go back to heaven after his death and resurrection? Yes he did! But what did he say? 

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20 (emphasis mine)

Jesus is that promised Rescuer Messiah who will save that remnant. He is the promised Serpent Crusher of Genesis 3 who will defeat the serpent and the power of sin. He is the promised Seed of Abraham who despite being old would have innumerable descendants who will bless the earth.

Jesus is the promised gift of God given because he loved the world so much. That whosoever believes in him will never die, but have eternal life (John 3:16)

Are you believing in him today? Or do you have your own Assyria? 

Pictured is a Christmas present version of Spurgeon’s ‘word-less book’. In our context of the Bible’s Big Story: the green is the goodness of this world created by God; the lefthand gold star is the glorious presence of God with Adam and Eve in Eden; the black heart is the heart of man weakened by sin without the life of God inside it; the big red ribbon is actually the cross reminding us of Christ’s death and resurrection; the white heart is our heart when renewed and resurrected in Christ; the righthand gold star is glorious presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit with those believe forever and ever.

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