For Unto Us- Birth of Jesus Foretold 700 Years Before

Isaiah was a prophet who lived over 700 years before Jesus was born. His book in the bible foretold many aspects about Jesus. In this brief series, my focus will be on his prophecy about Jesus being born.

In Isaiah 7:14 he wrote:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel

Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus through the miracle working of the Holy Spirit. In churches we hear the story so often that we can overlook the wonder of this. A teenage girl was chosen by God to give birth to the Savior of the world. Imagine being her greeted by the Angel Gabriel with this news. She was frightened by his greeting but said yes to God. Such faith to trust God. I will explore that in a future post.

The title Immanuel is the first use of this term in the bible. It appears three times in the bible twice in Isaiah and once in Matthew. El was the common name for God in that time. With this word construct using Immanu meaning with us, the promise is that the child, the son, born of the virgin would be God with us.

Jesus is God with us. He is our constant companion. He will never leave us. He said so in Matthew 28:20

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age

In John 14:18 Jesus said

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you

I have been in orphanages in poor countries and have seen the hopeless look on the faces of the children. I have also been in Christian group homes for orphans and have seen how the children are raised in love. Orphans cannot care for themselves. They are vulnerable and easily taken advantage of because they cannot defend themselves. Jesus’s promise is that he will not leave us vulnerable, alone, defenseless against Satan. He will come to us.

Whatever situation we are in, Jesus is with us. There is always hope because Jesus is with us. That is especially comforting in these times we live in at present with all the concerns we have.

This Christmas season with all of the negative news swirling around us, let’s keep focus on the true miracle of the first Christmas- a baby born of a virgin to be God with us.

Thank you for reading. God Bless.