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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The
virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:14
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
NOTE: Today, I begin a series of holiday devotions as we
build toward Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem.
On more than one occasion in ministry, I have heard
someone say something like this:
“I am waiting for God to show me a sign as to what I
should do” or “I wish God would show me a sign to show me He is at work in my
circumstances” or even a plea in prayer for God to “show me a sign”.
Note that in all three of these examples and others like
them, a person is the one asking for the sign to be revealed by God, all punctuated
by a hope that He is active and alive in the midst of whatever that person is
going through. You see, believers have a natural inclination to place hope in
God and His ability to do all things as He promised, particularly in times of
challenge or difficulty.
But as we look at today’s single verse from the Book of
Isaiah, we find the Lord speaking and doing the talking about a sign He was
going to give, a prediction about a holy and divine event that was yet to come.
Look again at His words here:
Therefore the Lord
himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son,
and will call him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14
Think about these words as if you were the listener. The
northern kingdom of Israel and southern kingdom of Judah were warring with one
another and as if it weren’t bad enough, judgment was coming from God on both
kingdoms by way of the Assyrians and Babylonians. When the onslaught was
finished, Canaan, the beautiful land God gave to His people would be devastated
and left in ruins with the Israelite inhabitants either killed in the fighting
or taken away from their homeland into seventy years of captivity and exile.
The people were going to be in need of words from hope
and God knew it so He uttered words that would come to life some seven hundred
years later when a virgin would conceive and give birth to a son and that son
would be named Immanuel which simply meant God with us. In other words, a
people who would go into years of separation from God were given the assurance
that a time was ahead when God Himself would reunite with them, not just in
Spirit but in the flesh.
Now keep in mind that the people of God in Isaiah’s time
did not know what we know today. In fact, those Israelites would not even
survive to see the words of God come to fruition. Generations would come and go
but the word of God and the future assurance it contained would endure and
finally be fulfilled.
For a virgin named Mary would be visited by an angel sent
by God named Gabriel and that angel would tell Mary about God’s amazing plan
for her, a plan that was predicted long before she was even born. She would be
a key player in the sign God was sending for His people as she was overshadowed
by the Holy Spirit who initiated a divine conception. The result would be a Son
born unto God’s people as promised, and not just any son, but a Son who would
be just as much God as He was man. Thus, the boy named Jesus would also be
known as Immanuel for He would represent the truth that God had come to earth
to physically dwell among His people.
In Jesus, God’s predicted sign had come to life, not just
to fulfill prophecy, but to be the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the
world once and for all, bring salvation to whoever would believe in Him as
Savior.
As we continue to reflect and prepare ourselves for the
coming of Jesus during this Advent season, let us remember that all the events
that led to the birth of our Savior were perfectly predicted and then
orchestrated by the God who so loved the world that He sent His Son to be born,
to live, and then to die for the sake of His people who He longed to share life
with forever.
Tomorrow, we’ll look at a second sacred prediction from
the Old Testament.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with
anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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