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TEXT: Isaiah 7:14

SUBJECT: Christ in the Old Testament #23: Immanuel

Today, with God’s blessing, we’ll continue our study of Christ in the Old Testament.

The structure of today’s sermon is different than what I’ve used before. I hope I won’t have to use it again. But here, I think it’s called for. The first part is somewhat technical and controversial; the second part—I hope—is more encouraging.

V.14 is one of the Bible’s most loved prophecies. We love it because it predicts the Virgin Birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that means the son of Mary is also the Son of God. All Christians believe this; for 2,000 years the Church has confessed

The prophecy, though, is not only loved. It’s also hotly disputed. Many scholars say it has nothing to do with Christ. In their opinion, Matthew took the verse out of context and made it to mean what it obviously does not mean.

Are they right? No, they’re not. But it’s easier to deny their arguments than to answer them. I’ll try to explain the story to you and show how it’s fulfilled in Christ without doing violence to its immediate setting.

The story takes place around 740 B.C. Ahaz is the king of Judah; his people are threatened by the Syrians and Israelites who are in league against Judah.

Isaiah comes to him with good news: Judah is safe; the invading armies will be turned back; before long both kingdoms will be destroyed.

The news is hard to believe, so God offers the king a sign. If he asks for the Great Sea to part, it will; if he wants to sun to go backwards in the sky, God will oblige him. All the king has to do is name it and claim it.

But the king won’t do it; he won’t tempt the Lord by asking for a sign. This sounds pious, but it isn’t—the king is a hypocrite.

God knows that, of course, and takes the option away from Ahaz. The Lord will choose His own sign. It will prove that Syria and Israel are no threat to Judah.

Here it is:

Many scholars say this cannot possibly be applied to Christ for at least three reasons:

1. If Ahaz and Judah are to recognize the sign God would give them, the virgin (or, young woman) must be known to them. But, of course, they couldn’t know Mary, the Lord’s mother.
2. If the prophecy would bring them any comfort, it would have to be fulfilled pretty soon. After all, saying your enemies will be destroyed in the next 800 years is not real encouraging!
3. Mary’s firstborn son was named, Jesus, not Immanuel.

Some arguments against the Bible are just stupid and trifling. A man once sent me a long list of "contradictions" in the Bible. I could square 90% of them in two minutes. The man was looking for contradictions to justify his own unbelief.

But these arguments are not so easy to answer. Honestly, if you believed in Christ but had never read the New Testament, would you use Isaiah 7:14 to prove His Divinity?

What do we say to these things?

1. Some Christians have accepted them. They believe in the Virgin Birth, but don’t think these verses prove it. That’s an easy way out, but then how do you explain Matthew saying otherwise?
3. Others simply ignore the context. Isaiah 7:14 predicts the Virgin Birth and we don’t have to explain how it fits into the whole story of Judah, Israel, and Syria. There is some truth in this, but it creates more problems than it solves. For, if this verse can be taken out of context, so can every other verse. Once we do that, we make the Bible teach whatever we want it to! It’s been said

1. Other Christians see a Double Fulfillment. The prophet—they say—meant one thing, but God meant that and Something Else too. The prophets understood what they wrote, but not fully. God put more into the prophecies of Isaiah than Isaiah knew. I Peter 1:10-12 supports the view.
2. As far as it goes, I agree with this view. But I think it can go a lot farther. Matthew 11:13, Luke 24:27, and John 5:39, for example, indicate that the Entire Old Testament Scriptures speak of Christ. But obviously, the Ten Commandments don’t prophesy of Him in the same way that Psalm 16 and Isaiah 53 do. Some Scriptures predict the work of Christ; others merely point to it. They’re equally true and Christ-centered. But they serve different purposes.

That explains how the words of God could mean one thing to Isaiah and another to Matthew. And both be right!

Isaiah promises that God is going to save His people from their enemies. The work will begin with a Surprising Birth. What makes a birth surprising? The age of the mother, for one thing. Sarah has her baby at 90! Or the age of the father—Abraham is 100! Or many years of infertility; how long were Zacharias and Elisabeth married before their son arrived?

All very surprising births! Had they occurred in our day, they would have all made the front page of The National Enquirer!

But if you think these births were unexpected, you ain’t heard nothing yet!

There was a girl in Nazareth named Mary. She was engaged to a man named Joseph, but they had not been together. One day, a Visitor dropped in on Mary and told her that she would soon have a baby.

The girl knew the facts of life and wondered how this could be, since she had never been with a man. The Visitor told her,

The Visitor was Gabriel, Archangel and Messenger of the LORD. He told the peasant girl that the Father of her Son wouldn’t be Joseph or any other man. It would be God Himself!

Later, Gabriel dropped in on Joseph and explained how his girl had become pregnant.

Just to be sure we didn’t miss the point, Matthew adds,

The Lord Jesus was born of a Virgin. The significance of that has nothing to do with virginity being better than marriage. No, it’s in the Bible and in the Creeds in order to let us know that Jesus Christ is more than a Great Teacher, Example, or Martyr.

The Miraculous Son would be called many things. Jesus (meaning Savior); Christ (or, the Anointed); Lord (which in His case means king); Rabbi (or Teacher) and other things too.

But Isaiah skips over all these for the moment and calls Him

Immanuel.

That’s a Hebrew word which Ahaz and everyone else that day understood. But Matthew realizes that not everyone’s Hebrew is up to speed. He quotes the verse and explains it to the benighted Gentiles,

What does this mean—God with us? The doctrine is nothing short of staggering! It means God has joined the human race. He didn’t just drop in on us in human form, but He became a man, a man every bit as human as you and I.

It seems hard for us to believe that God once soiled His diaper. Or that he got tired. Or that He needed friends. Or that He cried His eyes out. Yet He did all of the above. And everything else humans do, but sin.

In becoming a man, our Lord did not quit being God. Yet He wasn’t half-God and half-man, but

The formal term for that is The Hypostatic Union. Jesus Christ is both God and Man in One Unique Person.

Knowing that one doctrine rebuts most heresies in the history of the Church. Including all the major cults of today.

That’s the doctrine which Immanuel teaches. But it "God with us" means much more than that, something that will help you in your daily life.

God sympathizes with you.

When people are hurting, we try to help them. But sometimes we can’t, because we haven’t been in their shoes. We haven’t lost a friend; we haven’t wondered where the next meal is coming from; we don’t know what it’s like to die!

But God does. Not from reading books about human pain, but from Personal experience! God knows what it’s like to be poor or despised or excluded; to lose friends and family; to be hurt and betrayed; to toss and turn all night; to have His prayers unanswered. God knows what it is to die!

In Jesus Christ, God joined the human race and experienced all our fears, pains, disappointments, losses…and death.

Because Jesus Christ is Immanuel—God with us, it means you can pray to Him, cry to Him, scream to Him, and mumble to Him. He knows what it means to be human.

When I lost my mother three years ago, one thing comforted me more than everything else besides. It wasn’t that she had lived a full life or was now in heaven or that my dad was still with me or that people loved me or were praying for me. Not even Romans 8:28 was all that helpful to me.

The one thing that supported me then—and will support you too—is the tears our Lord shed at the Tomb of His friend! I knew God understood; I could turn to Him and say, "You know what it is to lose someone you love more than life itself!"

That’s the meaning of Immanuel. God is with us. He

You have a Sympathetic Savior. Turn to Him in times of sorrow, confusion, and pain. You won’t regret it.

God bless you. Everyone. For Christ’s sake. Amen.