“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel,” Isaiah 7:14.
About 750 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah spoke and wrote of the virgin birth of Jesus. This is one of the teachings of the Christian Church which is doubted, denied, and declared to be impossible according to the laws of nature. Of course, people who worship a “small god” of their own making cannot speak any differently.
We worship the God who spoke to Abraham when he had questions about Sarah conceiving and bearing a son in her old age. When Sarah was 89 years old and Abraham was 99 years old, God said to Abraham, “I am the almighty God; walk before me and be blameless,” Genesis 17:1. Politely, God said to him, “I can do what people think is impossible! Trust Me! My promise will be fulfilled; you will have many descendants and one of them is going to be the promised Messiah and the Savior of the world!”
The virgin birth of Jesus is indeed a miracle. It is important for us to take note of the words that appear at the beginning of the verse quoted by Isaiah: “The Lord Himself will give you a sign!” Take away the virgin birth of Jesus and the sign is gone. There are those who deny the virgin birth, and who translate the Hebrew word for “virgin” as “a young woman” who shall conceive and bear a son. Young women become pregnant every day, both in and out of wedlock, and it is no miracle. However, when a virgin – one who has never had sexual relations with a man – becomes pregnant, that is indeed a sign for everyone to sit up and take note! That the Hebrew word should be translated “virgin” is supported by the evangelist Matthew, who wrote in Greek, “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 1:22-23.
When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, he said, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus . . . Then Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’ And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God,” Luke 1:31, 34-35. Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus would be called ‘Immanuel,’ which, as Matthew wrote, means, ‘God with us!’ Yes, Jesus is the Son of God, true God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and He became one of us – that is, He became a true man, only He was without sin. In order to teach the divinity and the humanity of Jesus, you really need only one word: Immanuel, God with us! Jesus, our Savior, is God and Man in one Person. He had to be both God and Man to save us. He had to be a true man to keep the Commandments in our place. However, He also had to be true God to keep the Commandments perfectly. He had to be a true man in order to suffer and die in our place, and He had to be true God to conquer sin, death, and the devil for us.
Yes, thank God for planning our salvation with all its miracles! Our faith and our trust is in Immanuel!
“Oh, come, Oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel,
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
Oh, come, Thou Dayspring from on high,
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel,
Shall come to thee, O Israel.” Amen.