which was spoken by 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, NKJV
All this was done.
A virgin Jewess conceived a child by the power of the Holy Spirit. Her righteous husband took her to his home, thus preserving both mother and child.
And this was done that a single verse of Scripture, one sentence spoken by Isaiah in 7:14 of his book, would be fulfilled. Isaiah was talking to King Ahaz about the destruction of his enemies, and he said to Ahaz: "Choose a sign for yourself. Ask God to do anything to prove that He's telling you the truth." But Ahaz refused. "I'm not gonna put God to the test." And Isaiah, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, said, "Fine, then I'll name the sign. The virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son who will be called, Immanuel, for God is with us."
Isaiah may have been speaking about Ahaz's wife conceiving prince Hezekiah. Or he may have been speaking about his own wife--using virgin to signify the young woman. For the prophesied defeat of Ahaz's enemies would happen before the child was old enough to know right from wrong. And yet his prophecy had far more application than that, far reaching application!
God was about to put an end to all of HIS enemies through the birth of the virgin-born Immanuel. God was about to show up in person, in the flesh, and in that flesh defeat sin, sickness, satan, and selfish humanity for all eternity. He was about to become, quite literally, God with us. And what a sign it would be to that generation! Jesus was going to be like no other man ever born or made, the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, and of the oldest Messianic prophecy in history, a promise made to the first mother of us all: "Your seed shall crush the serpent's head."
The seed of the woman, the virgin's son, this would be God with us.
Remember, God always knows what He's saying, and He always knows what He's doing.
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