Prophets Foreshadow Messiah

14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

17 The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.

32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

Golden Text: The Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive,and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.—Isaiah 7:14.

How to Say It

Ahaz. Ay-haz.

Assyria. Uh-sear-ee-uh.

Damascus. Duh-mass-kus.

Ephraim. Ee-fray-im.

Hezekiah. Hez-ih-kye-uh.

Hoshea. Ho-shay-uh.

Immanuel. Ih-man-you-el.

Louis-Sébastien Mercier.Lew-ee-Say-bass-tyun Mer-see-yeh.

Pekah. Peek-uh.

Rezin. Ree-zin.

Sennacherib. Sen-nack-er-ib.

Syria. Sear-ee-uh.

Yahweh(Hebrew). Yah-weh.

Home Daily Bible Readings

Monday, Dec. 7—A Ruler from Bethlehem (Micah 5:1–5a)

Tuesday, Dec. 8—I Sent You Prophets (Matthew 23:29–39)

Wednesday, Dec. 9—Preparing the Way (Mark 1:1–8)

Thursday, Dec. 10—The Lord Is with You (Luke 1:26–29)

Friday, Dec. 11—What Prophets Desired to See (Luke 10:21–24)

Saturday, Dec. 12—Prophets from of Old (Luke 1:68–75)

Sunday, Dec. 13—The Promise Fulfilled (Isaiah 7:13–17; Luke 1:30–38)

In 1771, the French author Louis-Sébastien Mercier published his utopian novel L’An 2440 (translation: The Year 2440). Many previous authors had written about imaginary utopian societies, even the ancient Greeks. What made Mercier’s work different was his projection of this one into the future. Earlier authors had placed their utopias in the forgotten past or in remote, undiscovered corners of the world.

Mercier wrote as the dynamics that led to the French Revolution were gaining steam, finally to explode in 1789. He told of a philosopher who fell asleep and awoke to Paris of nearly 700 years in Mercier’s future. In so doing, Mercier used his observations of trends in society to create a vision of the future. This technique has been widely applied by other futurists, such as Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and George Orwell.

It is amazing to see how often such authors give accurate predictions of the future. For example, the 24/7 surveillance society of Orwell’s 1984 seems to be more of a reality every day! Yet when we read these works many years after their original publication, it is also startling how much they got wrong.

If we think about it, though, such errors should not surprise us. Human projections about the future are no more than guesswork. Some may be highly informed and skillful, but it is still guessing. Consider that weather predictions of even a few days in the future are often wrong despite sophisticated technology and computer models.

The authors of the Bible make predictions of the future too. But these authors are not like modern-day futurists. The Bible authors have been given insights by the one who knows and controls the future: God. Such predictions are prophetic and can be understood only as something supernatural and miraculous. The prophets of the Bible were not merely good guessers; they were God’s instruments to proclaim His plans.

Many prophecies in the Old Testament were fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus, God’s prophesied Messiah. Isaiah, the greatest of the prophets, made beautiful predictions about Jesus over 700 years before His birth. This week’s lesson will examine some of these prophecies and their fulfillment.

The seventh chapter of Isaiah is set in the reign of King Ahaz of Judah, the father of King Hezekiah. Ahaz came to power around 740 bc. His reign was overshadowed by the growing threat of invasion by the mighty Assyrian empire to the north. The Assyrian armies eventually conquered the northern kingdom of Israel (also called Ephraim; see Isaiah 7:8, 9, 17) in 722 bc. The threat to the southern kingdom of Judah must have been terrifying.

Before this move by the Assyrians, the kings of Ephraim and Syria (also called Aram) formed an alliance to protect themselves. They brought military pressure on Ahaz to join them (2 Kings 16:5; Isaiah 7:1). To relieve the pressure, Ahaz pledged himself to Assyria and appeased the Assyrian king with gold looted from the temple (2 Kings 16:7–9).

This high-stakes political intrigue meant that Judah had aligned herself with the Assyrians against Israel/Ephraim and Syria/Aram. This is the backdrop for Isaiah 7–12. This section of Isaiah sometimes is called the Book of Immanuel. In this section, Isaiah confronted faithless King Ahaz because he trusted in an alliance with the Assyrians rather than trusting in God.

The term Immanuel (or Emmanuel) occurs four times in the Bible. It is a straightforward combination of words that mean “with us [is] God.” The only place it occurs in the New Testament is Matthew 1:23, where the author quotes Isaiah to show how the birth of Jesus fulfilled prophecy. The other three places are all in Isaiah. One of these (Isaiah 7:14) is in today’s lesson text and will be discussed below. The two other occurrences are in Isaiah 8, in obvious close proximity to 7:14.

In Isaiah 8, the prophet depicts the coming invasion of the Assyrians in terms of a catastrophic flood. The waters of this flood were to reach up to the neck of Judah (Isaiah 8:8), meaning they would be highly damaging but not fatal. In the midst of this horror, Judah would still be able to cry, “O Immanuel” (again, 8:8), in this case a plea of “May God be with us!”

Isaiah goes on to say that the plans of nations are tiny and futile against the ultimate plan of God, for truly “God is with us” (= “Immanuel,” 8:10). Isaiah’s point is that the people should not fear the Assyrians. They should fear the Lord and only Him (8:13). At the same time, they should not trust the Assyrians (as Ahaz did), for only the Lord could provide them with safety (8:14).

House of David is a way of referring to the king, namely Ahaz (Isaiah 7:10, 12). Isaiah has just challenged the king to ask for a sign from the Lord. Ahaz’s refusal of the request is what draws Isaiah’s ire in this verse.

Isaiah’s response uncovers the illogic and duplicity behind Ahaz’s actions. The king’s secret alliance with the Assyrians has been a perversion of truth to his nation (to weary men). Does he think he can lie to God also (weary my God)? To ask the question is to provide the answer. There is no such thing as duplicity with God, for we cannot deceive Him. To attempt to hide the truth from God is delusional thinking.

14. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Although King Ahaz has refused to ask for a sign, Isaiah announces that a sign will be provided anyway. The king’s stubbornness does not thwart God’s plan.

The sign to come has three parts, and each is significant. The first one is the most astounding: the pregnancy of a virgin. There has been discussion as to whether or not the translation of this term should be softened to “young woman” or “unmarried woman.” To do so may be technically possible from the standpoint of the original Hebrew. But the Greek translation made more than two centuries before Christ uses the distinct word for virgin. [See question #1, page 136.]

Also, to use “young woman” would distort the clear intention of the text. This sign from the Lord will not be an ordinary event, but something extraordinary, miraculous. Young women become pregnant all the time, sometimes when they are unmarried. Furthermore, there is no possibility in understanding this as anything less than virgin when we read Matthew’s quotation (Matthew 1:23). The Greek word used by Matthew always means “virgin.”

The two other signs are easier to understand. The child will be male, a son. The child will be called Immanuel. This does not mean that just any baby boy named Immanuel is a fulfillment of this sign. In this case the giving of a certain name is less important than what the name means. Immanuel means “God is with us” (see the Lesson Background). The marvelous birth of a child with no natural father can be interpreted only as a sign of the presence of God.

This leads to two very important questions we should ask. First, why a virgin birth? Isaiah does not really explain it, but Matthew, writing over 700 years later, does. The Messiah is born of a virgin so that prophecy might be fulfilled. It is a striking way of confirming the activity and presence of God in a historical event. It is worth noting that neither Matthew nor Isaiah gives any hint that a virgin birth is necessary to escape the curse of original sin, as is often proposed. It is a sign, a prophecy fulfilled.

The second question is more difficult: What does this sign mean to King Ahaz? Should he expect some young woman in Jerusalem to announce that she has become miraculously pregnant? Does it point to the birth of one of Ahaz’s sons or even to the birth of Isaiah’s son (Isaiah 8:3), as some have suggested? These ideas don’t work, because none of those conceptions was virginal. Ultimately, we must understand this as God’s way of reminding Ahaz to trust in Him, for God is with His people and has not abandoned them. [See question #2, page 136.]

“You know something is wrong when you enter a room and no one says ‘Hello,’ but when you leave, everyone says ‘Good-bye’!” This joking remark is intended to be teasingly humorous, but it could be unbearably hurtful if it actually happened to someone.

Of course, this comment is taking the term good-bye in the way we commonly use it: as a simple way to say, “Oh, I see that you are leaving.” Yet many of us know that the term good-bye is a contracted form of the old wish, “God be with you.” Were we to use it in that way, good-bye would be a blessing on someone we care about, since the term then would be a request or desire for God’s presence to be with that person until we see him or her again.

As a result of Judah’s sin, God eventually sent that nation into exile. This dismissal was a good-bye in that God promised to be with the exiles during this time of punishment (Jeremiah 30:11; 46:27, 28). But that good-bye is not the subject of today’s study. Instead, Isaiah foretold a hello—the most marvelous hello in history! He spoke of the time when God himself would say “hello” to the human race in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. In that event God became “with us” (Immanuel) in a way He never had been before. May that fact of history inspire us to anticipate Jesus’ second coming, when He will be with us in a marvelously permanent way. —C. R. B.

15, 16. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

Butter has the sense here of a general dairy product and could be translated “cheese curd.” Curds sweetened with honey is baby food in a wealthy household. This is a message directly aimed at King Ahaz. In the time it takes a baby to be able to eat semisolid food and learn to behave, disaster will have fallen on the two kings to the north. Parents know that this sort of development varies from child to child. But by the second birthday a child normally will be weaned and begin to respond to a parent’s teaching of the basics of what is wrong and what is right (evil and good).

King Pekah of Israel/Ephraim reigns for 20 years (2 Kings 15:27). King Ahaz begins to reign in Judah in Pekah’s seventeenth year (2 Kings 16:1). If the prophecy of Isaiah came to Ahaz in the second or third year of his reign, we can see how the prophecy of Pekah’s demise is fulfilled quickly. Pekah is killed by a usurper, namely Hoshea (2 Kings 15:30). Although exact information about the king of Syria/Aram is harder to put together, we know that King Rezin of Damascus (the capital of Syria) is killed by the Assyrians at about this time (see 2 Kings 16:9).

17. The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.

The complete fulfillment of this part of the prophecy is a few years off, to occur in 722 bc. In that year, the ruthless armies of the Assyrians destroy the northern kingdom of Israel/Ephraim (see 2 Kings 17:5, 6). The day that Ephraim departed from Judah, which happened back in about 930 bc, is Isaiah’s reminder to Ahaz of the devastating division of the kingdom of Solomon. What is coming will be much worse.

For all practical purposes, the northern kingdom ceases to exist in 722 bc. Ahaz dies at about age 36, in about 728 bc (2 Kings 16:2). It falls to his son, the godly Hezekiah, to live through the terror of another Assyrian invasion in 701 bc. This time, however, God delivers Judah by killing 185,000 men in the army of the Assyrian king, Sennacherib (see 2 Kings 19:35, 36; Isaiah 37:36, 37). The saving intervention offered to Ahaz is realized in the reign of Hezekiah.

The appearance of an angel would be an awe-inspiring event for anyone. Although details of the angel’s appearance are not given, Mary is not left to wonder, “Is this really an angel?” In Luke, God’s angels begin their visits by telling the people involved to Fear not (compare Luke 1:13; 2:10). They have nothing to fear from this powerful, supernatural being, for they have been chosen to receive a message from God.

The idea of Mary being chosen is expressed as favor with God. The word translated favor is often translated as grace elsewhere in the Bible (example: Acts 14:3). To find grace with God in this sense means that God has determined to use a person in a dynamic way. The angel’s expression echoes what was said about the one whom God chose to preserve the human race from a cataclysmic flood: “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8).

The news for Mary must be truly shocking. She, a young unmarried girl still living in her father’s house, is to be pregnant and give birth to a son. This is disturbing, for it has the potential of ruining her marriage prospects and any chance for a normal life in that culture.

The name for the boy helps to explain this, however. His name will be Jesus, the New Testament version of the famous Israelite name Joshua. Joshua means “Yahweh is salvation” or “Yahweh will save.”

32, 33. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

The significance of the boy’s name is explained by the angel. He is to be a new king in the line of David, the fulfillment of the promise to David of an eternal kingdom (see 2 Samuel 7:16; compare Isaiah 9:7; Daniel 7:14; Micah 4:7). He is to be God’s instrument of salvation as promised to the people of Israel. What is misunderstood by Israel is that the kingdom of this Jesus/Joshua is to be a spiritual kingdom and that His salvation is to be from sin, not from the Romans (see Matthew 1:21). [See question #3, page 136.]

Mary is very young, perhaps only 15 or 16. Yet she understands the facts of life. Pregnancy is not self-induced. She can say without pretense that there has been no sexual contact in her life. We should not understand this to be a lack of faith on Mary’s part (as if she were saying “No way!”), but a desire to understand better (“How?”). [See question #4, page 136.]

35. And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

It is also plain that there is to be no physical contact between God and Mary. God is not assuming a human guise in order to impregnate Mary, such as the fictional Greek gods might have been expected to do. Mythology abounds with such stories, which amount to little more than the rape of human women by gods in human bodies. Mary’s pregnancy is to be through the Holy Ghost. As such, it will be a miraculous event, unexplainable by the normal laws of nature.

36. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.

Mary’s surprises are not over. The angel reveals that her elderly relative Elisabeth has also been blessed with a miraculous (although in a different way) pregnancy. Despite her age and history of barrenness, Elisabeth is now two-thirds through her term, a son growing in her womb (Luke 1:24). This serves to confirm to Mary even more strongly that God is moving in a powerful and providential way, and that she is a key player in His plan. [See question #5, page 136.]

This is a core statement of faith, yet one that we often neglect. If there are things that are impossible for God, then is He really God?

This issue comes up later in Luke concerning salvation, for Jesus teaches that salvation is not the result of human effort. Salvation is possible for the God for whom nothing is impossible (see Luke 18:25–27; compare Genesis 18:14).

At this point, we cannot help but marvel at the faith of Mary, a mere teenager. Without a doubt, she does not understand all that is happening to her. Yet she freely submits to the will of God. She makes no demand for some kind of equal partnership with God, but offers herself as His handmaid, meaning His “servant” or “slave.” Her acceptance is a sign of great faith.

Juno was one of the most highly acclaimed movies of 2007. It was the story of fictional Juno MacGuff, an unmarried 16-year-old girl who had become pregnant. Critics who were proud of their own sophistication gave the movie high praise for not being a “hand-wringing, moralizing melodrama,” as one reviewer put it.

The film does deserve praise for not promoting abortion as the solution to an uncomfortable dilemma that too many young women find themselves in these days. Spurning the advice of her parents and friends, Juno decides not to have an abortion. Rather, she seeks out a married couple to adopt her child and provide the kind of home she cannot provide. The film is presented as a comedy, perhaps an acknowledgment of our culture’s inability to recognize the tragedy of sin and its consequences.

Mary was different from Juno. She seriously accepted her role in God’s plan rather than seeing it as an opportunity for joking. But then again, her culture was not as indifferent about such things as ours is. Mary would grow up quickly and rear her son as the Son of God, with all the gravity that that responsibility entailed. —C. R. B.

One of the ongoing promises of the Old Testament is found when God proclaims, “I will be with thee.” God gave this promise to Jacob as he returned to his homeland (Genesis 31:3). A similar promise was given to Moses when he was called to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt (Exodus 3:12). Joshua and the people received the assurance as they entered the promised land (Joshua 1:5). Today this promise is reflected in one of the traditional blessings of the church: “The Lord be with you.” A great part of the coming of God’s Messiah was the prophecy of Isaiah that the promised one would be Immanuel. God is with us and will be with us eternally.

When we combine the prophecy of Isaiah with the story of Mary, we should realize that God is always “with” His people. This “with-ness” is more than an aspect of God’s ever-presence, however. It means that God is behind His people, working with them and using them to accomplish His plans and fulfill His will. Ahaz, a king of Israel, did not understand this. Mary, a teenage peasant girl, did.

The church today, as God’s people, retains this promise. God is with us. He will never abandon us. He will use us if we have the heart of submission to His will that we see in Mary. We may not be visited by angels, but we too need not be afraid. God is with us.

Holy God, as You chose and used Mary, may You choose and use us according to Your will. Make us sensitive to Your leading so that our response will not be that of King Ahaz, but will be that of humble Mary. We pray this in the name of Jesus the Christ. Amen.