The Sign of Immanuel

Isaiah 7:10-16  •  Matthew 1:18-25

It is one of the most well-known of all the OT prophecies concerning the birth of Jesus. “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” It is the basis of the Christian doctrine of the Virgin Birth. It is sung in hymns like “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” which we sang on the first Sunday of Advent, and the short chorus “Emmanuel” which we have been singing every Sunday in December as an Introit. It is a wonderful prophecy, and I want us to explore it this morning.

I. First let us look at what it originally meant when it was spoken by the prophet Isaiah more than seven centuries before Jesus was born. Most Christians recognize the famous words of the prophecy but few know the context in which it was originally spoken and what it meant at that time. The year was 734 BC. It was a time of trouble in Jerusalem. The land of Israel was divided into two kingdoms at this time which were warring with each other. It was kind of like our country in the mid- nineteenth century. America had a civil war back in the 1860s and our country was broken into the north and south, the Union and the Confederacy. The same things happened in the Holy Land, although in their case the land was permanently divided into north and south. There were two kingdoms. The north was called Israel with its capital in Samaria, and the south was called Judah, which had its capital in Jerusalem.

At the time when this Immanuel prophecy was spoken the two parts of the Holy Land were at war. The northern Kingdom of Israel had allied itself with the country of Syria. Syria and Israel were plotting together to attack and conquer Judah. The king of Judah was named Ahaz. He was afraid. So the prophet Isaiah came to him. This story is in in the first nine verses of Isaiah chapter 7 before our reading for today. God told Isaiah to meet King Ahaz by the aqueduct and to take his son with him. So Isaiah did so. Isaiah told the king not to be afraid of these two nations who were gathering against him. He says in 7:4 “Take heed and be quiet and do not be afraid of these stubs of smoking firebrands.” He is saying that they are not a great fire that is going to consume Judah; he likens them to two smoldering pieces of firewood about to go out.

He goes on to prophesy that the northern Kingdom is going to be destroyed, therefore King Ahaz should not worry about it. That is where our scripture for today comes in. Isaiah told King Ahaz to ask for a sign from God to confirm this. Ahaz said he did not need a sign from God. But God wanted to give him a sign anyway. So he said, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”  That is the part we all know, and the part that is quoted by Matthew in the gospel story about the birth of Jesus. But the Immanuel prophesy continues. Isaiah said, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Curds and honey He shall 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 you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.” (7:14-16)

Isaiah is saying that a young woman shall have a son and he shall be literally named Immanuel.  By the time this child comes to the age when he can discern good from evil, which was considered to be the age of twelve in Hebrew culture, when a Jewish boy went through his bar Mitzvah and officially became a man – by the time this boy named Immanuel was twelve years old, the two kings and nations of Syria and Israel that were coming against Ahaz would both be destroyed by the nation of Assyria. That is what the Immanuel prophecy originally meant.

It is not important that we get all the historical references straight. What matters is that this Immanuel prophecy meant something different when it was first given in the eighth century BC. It was spoken into a specific historical setting and was meaningful for the people of that day. The name Immanuel means God With Us. The original message of the Immanuel prophecy was that God is with us in the hard times. That was true in the days of the prophet Isaiah, and it is true today.

It means that during those times when our world feels like it is falling apart, God is with us. When we feel threatened by circumstances beyond our control, God is with us. When we feel surrounded by enemies, God is with us. When we are weighed down by grief, God is with us. When tragedy strikes, God is with us. God is with us at all times, even and especially in the worst of times. That is the original meaning of the Old Testament prophecy concerning Emmanuel.

II. Now let’s look at what it meant in the New Testament. Our gospel lesson talks about a stressful situation that was happening in the lives of Mary and Joseph in the first century. They were engaged to be married. But before they came together it as found that Mary was pregnant. Pregnancy outside of marriage would be no big deal these days, but back then it was a very big deal. Furthermore Joseph knows he is not the father of the child, so that adds a whole other dimension to the dilemma. If something like this happened today the couple would both appear on the Jerry Springer show, or maybe they would appear on Dr. Phil to work out their issues, but not back then. It says that Joseph was a nice guy and he did not want to cause problems for Mary, so he was going to quietly end their engagement.

But the night before he was going to announce the cancelation of their wedding, Joseph had a dream. The passage says, “behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Then the gospel writer Matthew comments on this saying, “So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

Matthew applies the Immanuel prophecy of Isaiah to this situation. But Immanuel is more than just God with Joseph and Mary during a difficult time in their personal lives. The prophecy is fulfilled in their lives in a special way. It happens in the form of the Virgin Birth. In the OT prophecy, the Hebrew word used by Isaiah can simply mean young woman, and not necessarily virgin. But the Greek word used in the NT clearly means virgin. So this adds a new dimension to this prophecy. This is where Christianity gets the doctrine of the Virgin Birth, that Jesus was conceived supernatural manner.

This doctrine is controversial for some people. Some people get all bent out of shape when you start talking about things that appear scientifically impossible. Virgin births seem to fit into that impossible category. Although they really aren’t impossible when you study the subject. Virgin births – the scientific name is parthenogenesis – are known in the animal world. Parthenogenesis occurs naturally in some invertebrate animal species and some vertebrates (e.g. some reptiles, fish, and even birds and sharks.) This phenomenon was popularized by the movie Jurassic Park, when the all-female population of dinosaurs suddenly began reproducing without any males around. But this is not science fiction; it is science.  Parthenogenesis has been induced artificially in fish and amphibians. This type of asexual reproduction has even been induced in mammals – in mice and rabbits.

So if scientists can prompt virgin births in animals in the laboratory, why is it so unbelievable that God could have done it in Mary’s womb? Can’t God do at least as much as scientists? Humans share most of the DNA of these other mammals. It is just a matter of switching on the right gene that we already have in our body. If God wanted to make a point that this little baby was unique, what better way to do it than a virgin birth? God is not breaking the laws of nature in the Virgin Birth, but using the laws of nature. So I don’t have a problem with the Virgin birth. I figure that nothing is impossible for God. Certainly not something like this. That is what the angel Gabriel told Mary when he told her about the Virgin birth. 

But the more important point being made by this doctrine is not biology but theology. Matthew is saying that something unique in the history of the world was happening in the birth of Jesus Christ. This is what the Virgin Birth points to. If we get hung up on the idea of the Virgin birth we will never see what it is pointing to. The prophecy of Isaiah says it is a sign. A sign points to something beyond itself. The Virgin birth points to something much more important than a biological phenomenon. It is about a theological phenomenon. It points to the much more important doctrine of the Incarnation. God became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.

This is the really controversial statement. People will make grand general statements like “We are all children of God.” “We are all sons and daughters of God.” In a certain manner of speaking this is true. The Bible speaks in such terms about us. But it singles out Jesus saying he is the “only begotten Son of God.” Something more was happening in the birth of Jesus. To explain what it means to call Jesus “only begotten Son of God” would take more than a single sermon. But for now I want to say that it means that God was with us in a unique way in Jesus Christ. That is what we celebrate at Christmas. We are saying that this birth that we celebrate on December 25 was unlike any other birth before or since. God came to dwell with us 2000 years ago in Jesus Christ.

III. My third point is what this Immanuel prophecy means for us for us in practice today. It is one thing to debate whether the Virgin birth could have really happened biologically. It is another to talk about what it means theologically. But in this third point I want to address what it means practically. I believe that all doctrine is practical. Theology is at the root spirituality. It has to do with our personal spiritual experience of God.

The Immanuel prophecy is about us experiencing God with us. That is what the name Immanuel literally means, and that is what it points to in our lives.  Christianity is not about holding all the correct doctrines or beliefs. It is about experiencing God. The prophecy of Immanuel is about experiencing God present with us. Specifically it is about experiencing God with us in Jesus Christ. After his resurrection Jesus said, “I will be with you always, even unto the end of the age.” Christmas is about God being present with us in the physical person of Jesus of Nazareth. But Jesus is no longer physically present. But Christ is still spiritually present. The gospel says that Christ is present with us in a couple of different ways.

He is present with us as the Spirit indwelling us. Christianity says that God’s Spirit indwells us. If we want to experience God, we need to go no further than our own hearts. The spiritual journey is an inner journey. I have been on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I have visited the holy sites connected with the life of Jesus. I have visited several times the site of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. In fact I am more familiar with that place than any other place in the Holy Land because we lived just outside of Bethlehem for three months. It is a spiritual experience to kneel at the spot where Jesus was born. But Jesus is not there in Bethlehem any more than he is in any other place. Jesus is experienced as Spirit within those who love Him. The only pilgrimage we have to make is the inner pilgrimage into our heart of hearts. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. And the Spirit indwells us. And we can know Christ directly by going within through prayer and contemplation.

There is another way that we can experience Jesus as God with us. That is in community. Jesus also said, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst." That does not mean he is not with the individual when he/she is alone. It means that Christ is experienced in a different way when the followers of Jesus gather together in his name. In other words we experience Christ not only by ourselves within ourselves but also in others. Something spiritual happens when we gather together for worship, when we gather for prayer, or when we gather to talk about Christ in the study of Scripture. Christ is experienced in community.

Experience of the presence of Christ makes Christmas real. I know Christmas is also about family and friends and music and giving all those wonderful things. But it is primarily about Christ – not Christ in theory, but Christ in our experience. We know God with us in Jesus Christ. That is the meaning of the prophecy of Immanuel. That is what the sign of Immanuel points to.