Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends, this is day two of our journey to Christmas 2021.
Have you noticed the more responsibility and authority a person has the greater their need for wise counsel from others? This is especially true in government.
For the Hebrew nation, Israel, some of those advisors were called ‘prophets’ since they sought their wise counsel from God. They had direct access to the king and were expected to bring God’s advice to any situation the nation faced, as soon as they had received inspiration from God. They were among a very few people who had direct access to the king’s throne room at any time. Advice from God was regarded to be of the highest value, at least by wise kings.
Our Bible has the writings of several of these prophets. Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel are among the most prominent, but even those with very short messages like Jonah, Micah, Haggai, Malachi had very important messages at strategic historical moments. Isaiah is the prophet who first and most often spoke of a future world leader who would be Jewish and based in Israel, but would have global impact. As prophecies about this leader grew, so too did the expectations of all that he would accomplish. It became clear God’s anointing would be on this man and the title “Messiah” was soon attributed to him, setting him apart from all other leaders through all time. Do you recognize the title “Messiah” as being part of the Christmas story?
The prophet Isaiah lived in Jerusalem more than 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Isaiah had an encounter with God very similar to Moses. This encounter changed Isaiah’s life purpose and his relationship with God. He gives us a glimpse of his experience in Isaiah 6: “In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the LORD seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the Temple. Above Him were seraphs, [angels] each with six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD Almighty, the whole earth is filled with His glory.’ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.” (Is. 6:1-4)
Do you see why I compare Isaiah’s experience with Moses, who 8 times hiked up mount Sinai to meet with God in all His majesty? King Uzziah died in 740bc and in this life changing encounter God Isaiah was commissioned to be God’s spokesman to the Kings and God’s people in Jerusalem for the rest of his life. In that capacity, Isaiah was prophet advisor to Kings Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah and Manasseh. That’s almost 70 years of strategic King advising! I tell you all this my friends, because it was the prophet Isaiah through whom God first began pointing toward what we celebrate as Christmas! Today and tomorrow we’ll look at what Isaiah wrote, 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
Just like with Moses, it was shortly after Isaiah’s life changing encounter with God that Isaiah was first sent into action, confronting King Ahaz, who was not a God honoring king and was leading God’s people down a dangerous path. God wanted Ahaz to know that despite the saber rattling going on in the nations around Jerusalem, God would protect His people IF, if I say, the leadership would trust God and lead the people to worship and follow God. Does that sound familiar my friends? Sounds just like the Covenant messages Moses was bringing to the Hebrew slaves at Mount Sinai, doesn’t it? That’s because it’s a fundamental, foundational principle for all God’s people anywhere in the world in all generations. When God’s people follow God’s guidance and protect their hearts from being drawn away to worship other gods, then God will guide them, protect them, provide for them, and bless them. But… the opposite is also true!
Isaiah records his discussions with King Ahaz in Isaiah 7. This one statement sums it all up: “If you do not stand firm in your faith, [in God] you will not stand at all.” (Is. 7:9) Wow, that’s so very relevant for us today isn’t it? Then Isaiah gave the King a prophetic word from God which both provided specific guidance for the situation in which the nation found itself then, but was also a FIRST sign pointing forward to what we know as Christmas. Isaiah wrote: “The LORD Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.” (Is. 7:9)
Did you know that one of Jesus’ disciples named Matthew, was a tax collector by trade? Did you know this statement by Isaiah, became very significant to Matthew? When Matthew wrote his account of the life of Jesus, which is included in our Bible as the first book of the New Testament, those tax record keeping skills Matthew had were important. Matthew was also a Jewish man who had studied the Hebrew Scriptures, especially Isaiah the prophet. When Matthew wrote about Jesus he quoted Isaiah more than any of the others who wrote Jesus’ story. Matthew’s purpose was to convince his fellow Jews, both then and ever since then, that this Jesus, with whom he spent three years, was without doubt, their long awaited Messiah. So when telling the story of Jesus’ birth, Matthew explained Jesus’ lineage and also pointed back to this first statement from Isaiah. Matthew records that an angel appeared to Joseph, who was engaged to be married to Mary, and explained to Joseph the practical reality of the miracle Isaiah had predicted 700 years before!
“An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to give Him the name Jesus because He will save His people from their sins.’ (Matt. 1:20,21) Then Matthew continued, and led by the Holy Spirit, Matthew gives his readers, then and now, the explanation of HOW this angelic visitation links with Isaiah’s message 700 years before! “All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’, – which means ‘God with us.’ (Matt. 1:22)
Now let’s sit back for a moment and ponder this. For Isaiah, King Ahaz and the people of Jerusalem in 700bc, they couldn’t possibly imagine a virgin becoming pregnant, without any relationship with a man, and then giving birth to a boy and calling that boy “God with us, Immanuel”! And when Mary found herself pregnant, even though both she and Joseph knew they had been pure… neither of them could understand the biology of what was happening. But when Matthew wrote his account of Jesus and added the explanation that Mary’s experience was the miraculous fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy, then everyone was faced with a major decision. Could it be true? Could this baby be who Isaiah was predicting 700 years before? But how? How could a virgin pregnancy happen?
And then Dr. Luke, the Greek Physician, who learned of Jesus through the Apostle Paul, gave us his God inspired explanation of this miraculous pregnancy, for Mary also had an angelic visitation: “How will this be?’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’ The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit of God will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called ‘the Son of God.’ (Luke 1:34,35) I find it so interesting that God in His Sovereignty, brings a well educated, Gentile Physician to be the author of the fourth Gospel in our Bible, and from the very first chapter, Dr Luke is faced with explaining biological reproductive impossibilities… Zechariah & Elizabeth and their son John; Mary and her son Jesus!
So what do you think my friends? Even though Isaiah could not possibly have understood the long term implications of the message from God which he gave to King Ahaz in 700bc, do we see how both Matthew and Dr. Luke, as led by the Holy Spirit through their professional training, give to us, in December 2021, the explanation of this virgin pregnancy? How does that help us understand and celebrate the miracle of the God accomplished conception of a virgin, so young Mary and infant Jesus would become the fulfilment of Isaiah’s promise from God?
This virgin pregnancy miracle is such a great place to start our amazing journey this year toward Christmas 2021, do you agree? The Baby changed everything in history… has that Baby, Jesus, changed everything in your life? Now this song, my friends, powerfully combines the truthful miracle of Isaiah’s 2700 year old prophecy with the visuals of “The Nativity Story” film produced only a few years ago. I have found it to be a very impactful song and I hope you do too…
Today’s Scripture is Isaiah 7:14 and Matthew 1:21.
Choose below to read or listen.
Isaiah 7:14
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Matthew 1:21
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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