God With Us

Thursday, April 3

Series: Changes

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

Luke 2:30-33 and 34-35 ESV

It’s often easy to take verses from scripture for granted. Each word and phrase should be studied closely to get the fullness of the meaning. When we slow down and look at each word we can learn a lot that we’ve missed.

One of the things I learned is Seminary was to read slowly and consider each verse.

In Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

This particular verse is often read at Christmas and is notable even to children who go to church. The wording often dictates what to study.

The first word in Isaiah 7:14, therefore ‘begs’ the question, what came before? We learn prior to this verse Isaiah was sent by God to speak with Ahaz, King of Judah. The Lord told King Ahaz to seek a sign but Ahaz refused to listen to the Lord.

God’s answer to that is found in Isaiah 7:14. “Therefore” you will be given a sign. Now Isaiah prophesied around 740 to 680 B.C.E. long before the sign of Immanuel (Adonai) came (700 years). The sign God was to give was that a virgin would bear a son and his name would be called  Immanuel which means God with us.

Israel waited 700 years.

However we must remember even though they were given clues they did not know when or how.

Finally the time came, but it had been a very long time in coming.

Then one day the Angel Gabriel appeared to a young Hebrew virgin girl and we are told in Luke 2:30-33,

“the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

That’s a lot for a young girl to take in! Some scholars believe Mary was a young teenage girl.

Then in Luke 1:34-35 we are told, “And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born[e] will be called holy—the Son of God.”

What was foretold around 700 B.C.E. Had now come to pass, but what happened did not look anything like what Israel expected. The Holy child was not born to a king. The child was born in Bethlehem in a lowly stable. His mother was young and his father was a carpenter from Nazareth. Nazareth was not a famous place. It was a lowly town in Judah. In today’s world we might say, “well…he’s from Nazareth so that says it all!”

Yet, isn’t it just like God to do the unexpected and unexplained? After all…God IS God and God can do anything.

In Jesus

Deborah

acrazyjourney.com