God has already decreed that their attack would not succeed. As it happened, Ahaz did not believe. He did not put his trust in the LORD. He put his trust in carnal methods and the king of Assyria. Jerusalem was spared, and Ahaz no doubt believed he was successful, and his plan had worked. Isaiah brought his son Shear-Jashub Isaiah because his name meant A Remnant Shall Return , and God wanted Ahaz to know that because of the kind of ungodly trust he put in the king of Assyria, Judah would eventually be taken into captivity, and only a remnant would return.
Ask a sign for yourself : Through the prophet Isaiah, God invites Ahaz to ask for a sign. God has just challenged Ahaz to believe and be blessed, and now God offers to give Ahaz a basis for belief — a sign for yourself.
This was not tempting or testing God in a wrong way. Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? 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. If many of us expressed the same distrust we have towards the LORD towards other people, we might get a punch in the nose. We should be so too.
They make the case still worse. Imagine that after I had made a statement, a man should declare that he did not believe me, in fact, he could not believe me though he would like to do so.
What can he mean but that I am so incorrigibly false, and such a confirmed liar, that though he would like to give me some credit, he really cannot do it? With all the effort he can make in my favour, he finds it quite beyond his power to believe me? This is one of the most famous prophecies regarding the birth of Jesus the Messiah in the Bible. It also illustrates a principle of prophecy, that prophecy may have both a near fulfillment and a far fulfillment.
It may be so; I certainly did not think it was until I saw what the commentators had to say about it, and I rose up from reading them perfectly confused. 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 : The near fulfillment of this prophecy centered around Ahaz, Jerusalem, and the attack from Israel and Syria. For Ahaz, the sign centered on this time span. Simply put, God would give Ahaz a sign that within a few years, both Israel and Syria would be crushed.
This was a sign of deliverance to Ahaz. It is also possible that God is just referring in a figurative way to a year or two period of time. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son : The far or ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy goes far beyond Ahaz, to announce the miraculous virgin birth of Jesus Christ. While the near fulfillment may have reference to a young woman giving birth, the far or ultimate fulfillment clearly points to a woman miraculously conceiving and giving birth.
This is especially clear because the Old Testament never uses the word in a context other than virgin and because the Septuagint translates it categorically virgin parthenos. Immanuel speaks both of the deity of Jesus God with us and His identification and nearness to man God with us. Jesus is called Immanuel, or God with us , in his incarnation ; God with us , by the influences of his Holy Spirit , in the holy sacrament , in the preaching of his word , in private prayer.
Assyria and later Babylon would remove David's sons from the throne, but they would not be able to thwart the royal promises made to David: the promised Redeemer from the house of David would still somehow come! To the faithful in those days who saw the overthrow of the throne of David, this must have been hard to believe. How could this destroyed house of David produce the great king? Yet, the faithful remnant could behold the sign of Immanuel in the days of Isaiah — "God with us" — even in spite of the rebellion and destruction of the house of David.
Today we know, and may even celebrate how God fulfilled this promise to His faithful remnant. Matthew in a few words records the birth of Jesus Christ from the virgin Mary through the Holy Spirit, and then adds,. All this took place to fulfill what the LORD had spoken by the prophet: Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel which means, God with us. At Christmas we may rejoice in the fulfillment of the Immanuel sign. God preserved His faithful remnant and brought the redeemer in a most miraculous way.
The virgin Mary conceived and bore a son. No man was involved, not even the house of David. God produced the great king who would deliver His people from the greatest enemy of all, the devil, — and David could only adopt Him as His Son via the humble Joseph who himself was not a king.
This king is "Immanuel" — God with us in the full sense of the Word. He is the "Amen" of all the promises of God to His people 2 Corinthians Ahaz refused to ask for a sign, but God provided a sign anyway — a sign that is deeper than Sheol and higher than the highest heaven — the sign of Emmanuel — the sign of the virgin birth.
We usually associate the "Immanuel sign" with the joy of Christmas, but to the house of David hardened in rebellion, the Immanuel sign was a sign of devastation. Such is also the case for the sign of Immanuel today — the sign fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
The true joy of the Immanuel sign, the true joy of Christmas is not a general thing. Many today celebrate Christmas, but not the birth of the Christ of Scripture. Rather, they mock at the sign of Immanuel, at the virgin birth: they simply regard it as a nice fairy tale — and refuse to see the truth of it in spite of the clear Word of God. Neither do they rely on that Word of God for their joy and strength, but seek their joy and future elsewhere — just as king Ahaz did.
To such who harden in unbelief, Immanuel and the virgin birth and indeed Christmas is only a sure sign of devastation and destruction. Just as surely as Christmas came, so surely they will be destroyed. Yet, we may indeed associate the Immanuel sign with the true joy of Christmas when we accept this sign in faith — when we see it as a sign "as deep as Sheol or high as heaven.
God will accomplish His promises to His faithful people. To us the future of God's kingdom and our share in it may often seem so hopeless, but let us behold the virgin birth! Humanly speaking there was no way for the Saviour to come. David's kingship had been overthrown. Aside from that, how could corrupt men ever produce a perfect mediator? God's ways, however, are higher than our ways — He sent His own Son by means of the virgin Mary! Who else would have thought or accomplished something like that?
The true Christmas spirit is a spirit that beholds the sign of Immanuel, and then puts complete trust in the mighty ways of the LORD. That's the Christmas spirit — the spirit that humbly views the sign of Immanuel with adoration — the spirit of calm and firm confidence in our mighty covenant God. That's the spirit that will lead to deep and profound joy — joy in knowing that God will preserve His faithful remnant — a joy that will not disappear when the Christmas season is over — a joy that will not disappear even in the midst of sorrow and pain and disappointment — a joy that is steadfast and sure because it comes from God alone.
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Learn how your comment data is processed. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address:. Sign me up! Claude Mariottini — Professor of Old Testament. Skip to content. I hope you enjoy reading these studies on the Sign of Immanuel.
Studies on Isaiah and the Sign of Immanuel 1. The Virgin Birth — And More 2. The Sign of Immanuel Isaiah — Part 1 3.
Back to our passage from Isaiah. Because despite all, God wants to rescue them and knows what the future holds both in this alliance with T-P, and in the future destruction of the Kingdom of Israel. He wants Ahaz and Judah to turn to him for help, not to T-P. But for this to happen they needed to stand firm in faith, or they would not stand at all.
This sounds very pious, especially as we can all remember Jesus using the same quote, when he was tempted in the wilderness, Matt. However, Jesus was quoting from Deut. He knows that Ahaz has asked for help from a corrupt source and the consequences will play out to a bitter end.
Before the child is fully weaned and knows right from wrong, ie. This prophecy is about timing and about consequences , not about biology!
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