The Birth of Christ 1:18-25
“All of this took place to fulfill what the Lord has said through the prophet: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel—which means God with us.” There is very interesting background surrounding this prophecy…
We need to go back to the Old Testament during the period of the kings of Israel and Judah. A crisis arises during the reign of Ahaz in Judah. Assyria is re-asserting her power and threatening the nations of Aram and Israel (Is. 7:1-2). The only way to defend themselves is by banding together with each other, Judah, and their other neighbors to combat the Assyrian foe. Judah refuses to cooperate and so Aram and Israel join together to force Ahaz’ overthrow and put their own man on the throne (2 Chron. 28:5-8). Rezin of Aram and Pekah of Israel march against Jerusalem. As a result, Ahaz and his people are shaking with fear.
Yahweh, through Isaiah, sends word to Ahaz to fear not, that He will protect him from Israel and Aram—that their power will be snuffed out. To have faith…to trust in Yahweh. He offers to give him whatever sign he wishes. “whether in the deepest depths or in the highest places.” (Is. 7:10).
Ahaz replies, “I will not put the Lord to the test”. It sounds pious, but Ahaz is really being cowardly. If the sign is given, he will need to fight and possibly die in the process. Ahaz’ refusal puts Yahweh to the test, “Will you try the patience of my God also?” Ahaz tries Yahweh’s patience by rejecting his word. In response to the threat the king appeals instead to the Assyrian king (2 Kings 16:7-18). How many times do we turn to human wisdom rather than the word of God? How many times to we trust in the kings of this earth rather than in God? Isaiah says that the kings of this earth are like “grasshoppers”. What a description. Grasshoppers. Back to our story…
Refusing to do the will of God—even when it is clear what you must do—out of fear, out of comfort, out of selfishness, out of faithlessness, out of a desire to want things to be perfect and man-centered. Many times we are unsettled because we are outside God’s will. The very thing we crave—comfort and happiness, is the very thing that eludes us because we are outside God’s will. This does not mean that our lives will be easy when we follow God’s will—but we will be content and joyful in the Lord. Most of us are very close to where God wants us to be…we just need to take those last few faithful steps.
Ahaz refuses the sign, but a sign will still be given. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.”
The birth of the child will signal that “God is with us”---the main point Isaiah was trying to make to Ahaz. Precisely because Ahaz has rejected the offer of a sign and shown his lack of trust in Yahweh, the sign of verse 14 will be given. Verse 14: The Lord himself will give you (plural) a sign. “You” being not just Ahaz but the nation He represents. The instrument of Yahweh’s judgment will be the invading Assyrians. The very one that Ahaz trusted (the Assyrians)—will be the instrument of Yahweh’s judgment against Judah. How many times does the very thing that we place trust in, over God’s word, become our undoing? Thankfully, the birth of the child will also signal Yahweh’s grace. In the face of catastrophe, Yahweh promises his presence. God is with us—here even especially in disaster. His judgment drives us to His grace.
Once the sign is interpreted as both judgment and grace, then clearly there has to be at least a fulfillment in the near future. For Assyria did actually invade Judah and devastate her territory (Is. 36-37). Who then is the child? The birth of Isaiah’s own son is a fulfillment of the prophecy—but Isaiah 8:8; 9:1-7 point to the fuller meaning. Applied to this stage of fulfillment, the name Immanuel expresses faith in God’s presence but does not identify the being of the child.
Matthew is stating that Jesus’ birth is the ultimate fulfillment. Wow. The use of the word “fulfill” in 1:22 is partial—we are to imagine a cup partially filled with water, and now filled to overflowing. That which was at most partially realized in Isaiah’s day, has now been fully realized in the birth of Jesus. Jesus was the final fulfillment of this prophecy as he was God with us in the fullest sense. For Matthew to declare that Christ was the final fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah would have been earth-shaking for a first century Jew. It was bold.
This passage also alludes to a literary “inclusio” (meaning a bookend approach—similar themes at the beginning and the end of a particular book) between this passage—his name is Immanuel, God WITH US and the Great Commission in chapter 28, “Surely I am WITH YOU always.” He promises to be with us as we take the message out. We don’t need to ask God to be “with us” when we pray. God is always with us, will never leave us, nor forsake us.
Memory Verse for Matthew 1:
Matt. 1: 22-23
"All of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will be with Child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means, “God with us.”
No comments:
Post a Comment