Immanuel — The God Who Draws Near to His People

Matthew 1:23 LEB

“Behold, the virgin will become pregnant and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

Context:

Joseph is engaged to Mary and before they are married he discovers that she is pregnant. In an effort to minimize her shame, he plans a quiet divorce. An angel appears to him in a dream explaining that the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit and tells him to continue in his plans for marriage.

He is commanded to name the child “Jesus” (“The Lord Saves”) explaining that he will be the savior of God’s people. Matthew sees the fulfillment of the virgin birth in Isaiah 7:14

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look! the virgin is with child and she is about to give birth to a son, and she shall call his name ‘God with us.’”

Isaiah 8:8 “And he will sweep into Judah; he will overflow and he will flood up to the neck. He will reach, and he will spread his wings out over your entire land, God with us.”

Isaiah 8:10 “Make a plan, but it will be frustrated! Speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us!”

Some conservative scholars see solely a messianic prophecy here in Isaiah that is fulfilled in Matthew. But most scholars recognize that there is at least provisional fulfillment in Isaiah’s time with the most probable fulfillment being Isaiah's own son.

Isaiah 8:3 “And I approached the prophetess, and she conceived, and she gave birth to a son. And Yahweh said to me, “Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.”