I was supposed to be writing about this a couple of hours earlier, but, well, the plane of Shandalar needed my attention. Needless to say, I have another DOS game in my belt of games I’m proud to have finished, up there with Dune 2, Warcraft 1, Warcraft 2, and so on and so forth.
I’m satisfied, because this is one less ‘thing’ in my head that’s sabotaging me, along with the propensity to binge on YouTube in seemingly ‘idle’ moments, and, well, porn. Yeah. That’s still a thing. However, it’s not as if I’m not resisting all of that garbage: For, indeed, every time we spend in the Word is not only a waste of time, but the best usage of our time.
This coming Sunday – well, technically, that’s today – we’re going to be talking about the birth of Jesus Christ – the first of four critical instances of what we’re calling His finished work.
It’s been pointed out that the birth of Christ was something that we’ve been hearing about even in the Old Testament.
We read the following in Isaiah 7:7-17:
The Sign of Immanuel
10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” 13 And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. 17 The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!”
A little bit of context here, as I understood it. King Ahaz was a descendant of King David – yes, the same David whom the Lord promised would have offspring on the throne for all time. However, his account in 2 Kings 16 indicate that he did not do ‘what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God’; in fact, one could say that he was outright disrespectful. He made it clear that he passionately worshipped other gods, going as far as burning his son as an offering to them.
In the same chapter, we also read of we read of how Ahaz had his troubles with immediate threats to his own kingdom; these threats being the Pekah, son of Remaliah, King of Ephraim (or, the kingdom of Israel as opposed to the kingdom of Judah), and Rezin, of Damascus, of Syria. Ahaz’ course of action in response to these enemies was not to trust God, but to throw himself into the arms of the King of Assyria for help.
We read in the earlier verses of Isaiah 7, of how the prophet told king Ahaz of the downfall of these men and their kingdoms. We read in the verses mentioned above that God offered as sign, and the king refused, reasoning that he refused to put ‘the LORD to the test‘.
To this, the Lord responds, and mentions that he will still give a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Here’s the problem though. We all know that this event was the birth of Jesus Christ… so many generations after the leaders of Ephraim and Syria were utterly destroyed, and Ahaz breathed his last breath far before this time! What good was a sign if the one it was given to wasn’t alive to see it?
Zechariah’s Prophecy
67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
Luke 1:66-75
I propose, dear friends, for our consideration – the sign was not for the king, but for his people. For Ahaz refused to trust God… but here, so many years later, Zechariah saw His faithfulness.
We read here that the birth of Jesus Christ was not merely a sign to a king confirming prophecy, but the fulfillment of God’s deeper promises to a nation – and, to the world.
He did not come to merely confirm Ahaz’ deliverance from immediate threats; He came to save all of us, to deliver all of us from our enemies, and to show all of us His mercy.
He did not come merely as a sign of Ahaz’ being rescued one time – He came as Salvation to all, for all time.
Long ago a prophet proclaimed,The virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel; Here a priest breaks his silence, and says “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people’.
And here’s something we learn from the birth of Jesus Christ – We are saved because He is with us.
If I have time I will go through another point:
The Birth of Jesus Christ
18 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. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 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. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Matthew 1:18-25
The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and told him (1) first off, to comfort him, because ‘that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit‘, but, more importantly, (2) that he ‘shall call His name Jesus‘… immediately before indicating that His birth was the fulfillment of the same prophecy of Isaiah, who said ‘they shall call His name Immanuel‘. What gives?
Our good friends who developed eSword help us out here. The root words for the Aramaic for ‘Jesus’ in Matthew 1:21 are: יְהֹוָה / yehôvâh / yeh-ho-vaw’ / The self Existent or eternal Lord, and יָשַׁע / yâsha‛ / yaw-shah’ / A primitive root; properly to be open, wide or free, that is, (by implication) to be safe; causatively to free or succor: – X at all, avenging, defend, deliver (-er), help, preserve, rescue, be safe, bring (having) salvation, save (-iour), get victory.
With this in mind, we realize that the angel of the Lord was actually translating the name and giving context to Joseph: You shall call Him Yeshua, for the Eternal Lord shall free, deliver, preserve, rescue, and bring salvation to His people… not from just any threat, but from the threat of all threats – He will save them from their sins.
Finally, take note: HE called His name Jesus, but Isaiah said, THEY shall call His name Immanuel. They’ll know His name is ‘God saves’, but they will call Him ‘God is with us’.
God saves, because God is with us.
23 This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
Psalms 118:23
I hope I made some sense here. I pray I make sense later.
Merry Christmas to all!
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