Isaiah 7:14;  Matthew 1:18-25

I am very excited to share this written preview of our Sunday School Bible Study with our church family each week beginning with the first Sunday of the new quarter, December 5, 2021.  We will post these writings on our church website as a resource for our teachers as well as any of our members who desire to grow deeper in their relationship with the Lord through Bible study.  Let’s Grow, Y’all!  

This unit containing six weeks of lessons will explore biblical prophesies (NOT predictions…there is a BIG difference!) about the coming of the Messiah.  The Old Testament prepared the world for His coming and the New Testament received Him in perfect fulfillment of those prophecies.  

Our immutable (eternally UN-changeable) God, by and through His infallible (absolutely trustworthy) Word, accomplishes the seemingly impossible.  When God declares it—it is done, whatever “it” is!  His prophetic word is “irrefutable” which means it is impossible to be denied, challenged, altered or unfulfilled.  God’s spoken word is God’s completely accomplished word. Let there be light and there was light.  Spoken? Done! Any Questions?

Read the first 14 verses of Isaiah chapter seven.  Nearly 800 years before Jesus was born, God sent a prophetic word through His chosen prophet named Isaiah to be delivered directly to King Ahaz of Judah.  The holy city of Jerusalem was about to be attacked by the king of Syria in full alliance with the king of Israel.  Ahaz was in a jam, politically and militarily.  Isaiah told Ahaz that God promises Jerusalem will be protected and that his kingly, but human, concern was unnecessary.  All Ahaz had to do was ask for a “sign” from God.  Ahaz refused, disguising his own disobedience with false humility.  

Because of God’s amazing love (and eternal plan) for His people, He gave Ahaz the promised sign anyway! It was a present sign of promised deliverance from his current crisis.  God was giving HIMSELF to Ahaz as his protection from the onslaught of his current enemies in the eighth century BC.  

Meanwhile, this same sign would also span approximately 800 years and be fulfilled in a manger in Bethlehem. In Isaiah 7:14, God was declaring that Jesus, the Son of God, would be the perfect deliverance for all people for all time.  True deliverance comes from the name given to the “son who would be born to a virgin.” She will call His name “Immanuel.” 

When you say the Hebrew word “Immanuel” in English you are saying, “With us…God.”  In the language of Krio spoken in the country of Sierra Leone West Africa, “Immanuel” is translated, “God De Wit We.”  Their word “de” is a promise signifying that God personally dwells, lives, abide, stays, exists with us.  He is never not with us. We are never not with Him.  “Immanuel” in any language is a present in the present.  

No, the name “Jesus” is not mentioned in Isaiah 7:14.  No, the oh, little town of Bethlehem is not mentioned either.  (God used Micah to name the town.)  Isaiah lived BEFORE Calvary.  The manger, the cross and the empty tomb were coming!  Matthew, the former tax collector, disciple of Jesus and gospel writer lived just before, fully during and for a few years after Calvary.  Matthew’s often-stated writing purpose was to look backward at the Old Testament and connect the prophetic dots to the Messiah.  

Read Matthew 1:18-25.  The same Holy Spirit that spoke to Isaiah and told him what to say to King Ahaz was the One Who also inspired Matthew and told him what to write down for us in scripture.  God was with Isaiah.  God was with Mary.  God was with Joseph. God delivered deliverance.  You and I live 2021 or so years later than Jesus and this message is as fresh as it was then:

God was with Isaiah as he dealt with King Ahaz and their seemingly insurmountable enemies.  God was with Mary as the angel Gabriel made a seemingly inconceivable birth announcement.  God was with Joseph as he dreamed the seemingly impossible dream.  We are never alone…with us…God!