Isaiah 7:13-25 | Matthew 1:22-23
Reading through Isaiah during Advent: None today. Go worship with the Church.
Isaiah 7:14 is a well-known, heavily-leaned upon verse. It’s packed with theology. It’s a foundational basis for a significant part of the creeds - Jesus’ virgin birth (his mother, Mary, being the virgin).1
The verse is well-known as one of the messianic passages in Isaiah that Jesus fulfills, particularly because Matthew says so in his gospel. Even so, there are many aspects of this passage that don’t seem to resonate in Jesus’ life. Using the gospels as predictive proof-texting is a difficult task. Ultimately, it’s not really the nature of the biblical prophet. A prophet is a truth-teller above and beyond a fortune-teller. When the truth-telling becomes a warning concerning the future, many have taken it to be code for some kind of magical prediction, proving God’s worthiness when it can be demonstrated to be true.
But God needs no such proving.
God’s justice is that which is of ultimate value in the prophets. That is, God isn’t nearly as much worried about predicting certain elements centuries before they happen. Why would God need to do that?
Rather, God’s great concern in the prophets (and the whole of the Bible for that matter) is the coming to fruition of his justice, his way, his purpose. It would follow that sometimes, perhaps even often, what is happening now might resonate with what has happened before. Jesus fulfills the notion of Immanuel in Isaiah 7:14.
That is the absolute best thing in the verse: God’s promise of his presence among us. The name Immanuel means “God is with us.” What a beautiful thing.
Isaiah 7:13-25
Then Isaiah said, “Listen, house of David! Isn’t it enough for you to be tiresome for people that you are also tiresome before my God? Therefore, the Lord will give you a sign. The young woman is pregnant and is about to give birth to a son, and she will name him Immanuel. He will eat butter and honey, and learn to reject evil and choose good. Before the boy learns to reject evil and choose good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned. The Lord will bring upon you, upon your people, and upon your families days unlike any that have come since the day Ephraim broke away from Judah—the king of Assyria.”
On that day, the Lord will whistle for the flies from the remotest streams of Egypt and for the bees that are in the land of Assyria. They will come and settle in the steep ravines, in the cracks of the cliffs, in all the thornbushes, and in all the watering holes.
On that day, the Lord will shave with a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates—with the king of Assyria—the head and the pubic hair, and will cut off the beard as well.
On that day, one will raise a young cow and two sheep and will eat butter because of the abundance of milk, for all who remain in the land will eat butter and honey.
On that day, there will be thorns and thistles in every place where a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels once grew. Only those with bows and arrows will go there, because the entire land will become thorns and thistles. As for the hills that were once farmed with hoes, you won’t go there for fear of the thorns and thistles. They will become places where cattle are turned loose and sheep wander.
Matthew 1:21-23
She will give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Now all of this took place so that what the Lord had spoken through the prophet would be fulfilled:
Look! A virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son,
And they will call him, Emmanuel.
(Emmanuel means “God with us.”)
Prayer
God,
Your presence might be your greatest gift. I know we don’t often express this. At least, I don’t. The cross is critical. The empty tomb is remarkable. But your presence…your solidarity with us - this is it. Whether expressed in the incarnation of Jesus - his identification with us in the very human body - or the giving of your spirit, the notion that you abide with us is everything.
So thank you for your presence with us.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
Most biblical scholars conclude that “virgin” is the wrong translation in this well-known verse, “young woman” being the correct translation. If you’d like to read the nitty gritty on it, check it out. Regardless, this is not a challenge to the virgin birth because in Luke, Mary herself notes that she had not been with a man. But the Church needs to be careful about how it handles virginity. The Bible does not call for anyone to be a virgin and does not elevate such a status to be higher than any other. In fact, God’s first commandment to humanity in scripture is to do something that would render virginity moot (Genesis 1:28). The Bible certainly does call for chastity in particular situations (outside of wedlock, etc.). But virginity is a state of being not called for in scripture, while chastity is a practice that is. This distinction is important to note, particularly in not setting up young Christians for shame and disappointment at having “lost” something God never intended for people to retain. All sin is forgivable. But a state of being that cannot be re-acquired (virginity) is a difficult thing, indeed.