Christ in Isaiah – Isaiah 7:14

Life and Ministry of the Christ in Isaiah – Isaiah 7:14

Today we come to one of the best known prophecies in Isaiah: 7:14, Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel.*

Amen! Christ is to be born of a virgin and called Emmanuel. In fact, chapters 7 and 8 mention Emmanuel two more times. It is these further references that help us understand what Emmanuel means.

8:8 and he shall take away from Juda every man who shall be able to lift up his head, and every one able to accomplish anything; and his camp shall fill the breadth of thy land, God with us.

8:10 And whatsoever counsel ye shall take, the Lord shall bring it to nought; and whatsoever word ye shall speak, it shall not stand among you: for God is with us.

Emmanuel means God with us. This virgin born son is God with us. Amen!

(I offer an overview of these two chapters at the end of this post.)

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel.

Matthew 1:18-23
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.
20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,  
23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Here is the direct statement that Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus. We also read this in Luke 1:26-35,

26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.  
28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?  
35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

This is foundational to the gospel: Isaiah said a virgin would bear a son - Mary is that virgin, Jesus is that son. Being born of Mary means he is the promised son of David, and thus Messiah; Mary being a virgin means he is the Son of the Highest, the Son of God, and thus Emmanuel. This is why the virgin birth is attacked and denied, because if Jesus was not born of the Virgin Mary he cannot be the Christ, he cannot be Emmanuel. Thus the virgin birth is one of the two pillars the Gospel rests upon (the other being the resurrection from the dead).

Irenaeus § offered some great insights on this prophecy:

“For the one and the same Spirit of God, who proclaimed by the prophets what and of what sort the advent of the Lord should be, did by these elders [the Jews who translated the Old Testament from Hebrew to Greek] give a just interpretation of what had been truly prophesied; and He did Himself, by the apostles, announce that the fullness of the times of the adoption had arrived, that the kingdom of heaven had drawn near, and that He was dwelling within those that believe in Him who was born Emmanuel of the Virgin . . . Carefully, then, has the Holy Ghost pointed out, by what has been said, His birth from a virgin, and His essence, that He is God (for the name Emmanuel indicates this). And He shows that He is a man, when He says, “Butter and honey shall He eat;” and in that He terms Him a child also, in saying, “before He knows good and evil;” for these are all the tokens of a human infant. But that “He will not consent to evil, that He may choose that which is good,”— this is proper to God; that by the fact, that He shall eat butter and honey, we should not understand that He is a mere man only, nor, on the other hand, from the name Emmanuel, should suspect Him to be God without flesh.” †

And again,

“For I have shown from the Scriptures, that no one of the sons of Adam is as to everything, and absolutely, called God, or named Lord. But that He is Himself in His own right, beyond all men who ever lived, God, and Lord, and King Eternal, and the Incarnate Word, proclaimed by all the prophets, the apostles, and by the Spirit Himself, may be seen by all who have attained to even a small portion of the truth. Now, the Scriptures would not have testified these things of Him, if, like others, He had been a mere man. But that He had, beyond all others, in Himself that pre-eminent birth which is from the Most High Father, and also experienced that pre-eminent generation which is from the Virgin, the divine Scriptures do in both respects testify of Him...

He therefore, the Son of God, our Lord, being the Word of the Father, and the Son of man, since He had a generation as to His human nature from Mary — who was descended from mankind, and who was herself a human being — was made the Son of man. Wherefore also the Lord Himself gave us a sign, in the depth below, and in the height above, which man did not ask for, because he never expected that a virgin could conceive, or that it was possible that one remaining a virgin could bring forth a son, and that what was thus born should be God with us, and descend to those things which are of the earth beneath, seeking the sheep which had perished, which was indeed His own peculiar handiwork, and ascend to the height above, offering and commending to His Father that human nature which had been found, making in His own person the first-fruits of the resurrection of man.” ‡

And one more word, Tertullian• wrote:

“The utterance is Hebrew, Emmanuel, of the prophet’s own nation; but the meaning of the word, God with us, is by the interpretation made common property. Now since Emmanuel is God-with-us, and God-with-us is Christ, who is in us (for “as many of you as are baptized into Christ, have put on Christ”), Christ is as properly implied in the meaning of the name, which is God-with-us, as He is in the pronunciation of the name, which is Emmanuel. And thus it is evident that He is now come who was foretold as Emmanuel, because what Emmanuel signifies is come, that is to say, God-with-us.”


-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
*All Old Testament Scripture quotations are from the LXX

§ Irenaeus – AD 115-202; Bishop of Lyon; noted for his role in guiding and expanding Christian communities in what is now the south of France and for combating heresy and defending orthodoxy. It is certain that, while still very young, Irenaeus had seen and heard Polycarp, who was a disciple of the Apostle John (who also ordained him Bishop of Smyrna).

†Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter 21) you can read it here

‡ Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter 19) you can read it here

• Tertullian – AD 155–240; full name Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, prolific early Christian author; has been called "the father of Latin Christianity"
Against Marcion (Book III, Chapter 12) you can read it here


Overview of Isaiah 7 & 8
7:1-2 Jerusalem is being besieged by the kings of Aram and Israel
7:3-9 Isaiah is sent to Achaz with assurances of victory
7:10-16 The sign – a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son; Messiah
7:16-25 The Lord returns to their present conflict and promises victory
8:1-4 Isaiah has a son whom he names Mahershalalhashbaz, which means “Spoil quickly, plunder speedily”
Could this son be the fulfillment of 7:14? No, there we read a “virgin shall conceive” and in 8:3 we read, “I went in to the prophetess; and she conceived, and bore a son.”

8:5-10 Conflict with Assyria; Jerusalem to overcome through Emmanuel (God with us)
8:11-17 The Lord is a sanctuary for those who trust in him
8:18-22 Isaiah and his children shall be for signs