Born of a Virgin – A Messianic Prophecy

“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.

The bedrock of our Christian faith lies in the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Conceived of the Holy Spirit, Mary bore Jesus.  In recounting the holy birth, Matthew recorded the birth thus:

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.  When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.  And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.  But as he considered these things , behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for He shall save his people from their sins.’  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel’ (which means ‘God with us).  When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him:  he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son.  And he called His name Jesus.” – Matthew 1:18-24 (ESV).

We firmly believe in the miracle of the virgin birth.  The account of God’s work in the redemption of mankind through His Son, born of a virgin, though miraculous, is clear to us who know that God provided in His plan of salvation this marvelous means of making our relationship right with Almighty God.  In the fullness of time, Jesus was born of a virgin—Immanuel, God with us, Jesus.  But looking into the context of Isaiah’s giving the prophecy concerning the coming of Immanuel, a problem exists.  Many scholars have pondered over the time in which the prophecy was given, when King Ahaz ruled the Northern Kingdom and prior to the Assyrian invasion.  According to Isaiah’s record, God urged Ahaz to ask a sign from the Lord, and he refused to do so.  And amidst Ahaz’s refusal to seek the Lord’s direction, Isaiah states the prophecy which would have fulfillment some 700 years later when Jesus was born to the virgin Mary.  Many scholars have sought to find immediate fulfillment in the days of Ahaz, and argue that the prophecy has a double meaning, one for Isaiah and Ahaz’s day, and one for the Christian era.  They even argue that the prophecy was fulfilled then by the birth of one named Maher-shalal-has-baz (Isaiah 8:1-3).  The name of the child means “quick to plunder, quick to the spoil.”  The interpretation of this immediate fulfillment is that Isaiah married a virgin (the prophetess) and she conceived and bore a son, and before he came to the age of accountability (or the usual Bar-Mitzvah age of twelve for Jewish boys) the judgment of Assyrian conquest was upon the nation.  The immediate fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy was to show that the rulers of Judah were making a terrible mistake to seek to make alliances with Assyria instead of trusting the Lord and His plan for the nation. If Ahaz had relied on God, he would have called his nation to repentance and praise.  Instead, he sought an unholy alliance with Assyria.  And in that context of international affairs about 722 B. C., the prophecy of Immanuel came.  Isaiah addressed the “whole house of David,”  continuing the promise through the generations, and that promise was for “Immanuel, God with us.”  Dr. Warren Wiersbe notes of the virgin birth:  “The virgin birth of Christ is a key doctrine; for if Jesus Christ is not God come in sinless human flesh, then we have no Savior.” (see John 3:13; 4:34; 5:23-24. Wiersbe Bible Commentary. O.T. , p.1161).

Prayer.  In God’s timing, Immanuel, “God with us,” came.  And we know him as “the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth!”  Praise be to God!