Behold, the Pregnant Virgin

Israel and Syria want Judah (the Southern Kingdom), with its capital Jerusalem, to join their alliance against the Assyrian Empire. So far, Ahaz, the king of Judah, has refused.

But the pressure is building.

In response to Judah’s refusal to join the alliance, Israel has decided — unbelievably — to ally with Syria to make preparations for a military campaign against Judah, with the goal being to attack Jerusalem and depose King Ahaz and install a new king, a puppet king, who will go along with Israel and Syria’s alliance.

Illustration - This is remarkably similar to Russia’s initial goal in February 2022, when it invaded Ukraine and thought the war would just last 3 or 4 days until they deposed the current Ukrainian president and cabinet.

So, here at the beginning of Isaiah 7, its a similar situation to the months leading up to the invasion of Ukraine, with Russia’s military amassing tanks and troops along the Ukrainian border.

King Ahaz of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem have received word of a military buildup, and they are anticipating conflict brewing.

That gives us some of the background we need to understand the Threat.

Isaiah 7:1–6 (ESV)

1 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it.

2 When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

3 And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field.

4 And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.

5 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying,

6 “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,”

Ahaz and the people are terrified. They’re afraid. And from a purely human point of view, they have good reason to be afraid!

But amazingly, God doesn’t leave Ahaz and the people of Judah on their own. He sends the prophet Isaiah to deliver a message.

And that brings us 2. The Invitation

2. The Invitation (7:3-4, 7-9)

God tells Isaiah the prophet to take his son Shear-jashub and for the two of them to go meet with King Ahaz while he’s inspecting the water supply before a potential siege, so God can deliver a message.

Let’s read.

Isaiah 7:3–4 (ESV)

3 And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field.

And then down in verses 7-9:

Isaiah 7:7–9 (ESV)

7 thus says the Lord God: “ ‘It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.

8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.

9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’ ”

God sends Isaiah and his son to tell the King and all who are standing by 3 things:

(1) Don’t be afraid (v.4)

(2) Their plan won’t succeed (v.7)

(3) You need to stand in faith (v.9)

These 3 statements combine because at this moment, King Ahaz of Judah is tempted to make a geo-political move that would be disastrous for the people of God

Facing the threat of Israel and Syria, Ahaz is tempted to reach out to Assyria and ask for military help to fight against Israel and Syria.

God sends Isaiah the prophet, with his son, to give Ahaz and the people this message: Don’t reach out to Assyria for protection. Don’t be afraid. The plans of Israel and Syria will not be successful. Don’t rely on your geo-political alliances or your military might, rely on the Lord.

In light of God’s promise, don’t be afraid! Stand firm in faith.

Don’t ally with Syria and Israel for protection; trust me!]

And at the crux of this message is that phrase in verse 9:

Isaiah 7:9 (ESV)

If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’ ”

When faced with a very real threat, God offers Ahaz and the people of Judah a wonderful invitation: Don’t be afraid; just trust me.

Application

This applies to us too.

When we face fear, we have a choice. Will we trust our fear, or will we trust our God?

And that leads us to 3. The Sign.

3. The Sign (7:10-15)

Isaiah 7:10–11 (ESV)

10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz:

11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”

There’s no reason to think the scene shifts; this is still God speaking to Ahaz and the people through Isaiah and his son.

And God does something unexpected. Like He does with Hezekiah later in Isaiah 38, he invites Ahaz to ask for a sign.

He says, “Ask a sign, as deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” Whatever you want. Take your pick. I’m ready to show off. I’m ready to be extravagant to prove just how committed I am to my promise. I promise you, Israel and Syria will not succeed. And I’m even willing to go to great lengths to prove it.

We should ask, Why on earth would God be so willing to go out of his way to be extravagant in giving a sign to prove just how committed He is to not let Israel and Syria succeed in defeating Ahaz?

After all, if you do a little bit of a character study on King Ahaz, he’s actually a very wicked king.

2 Chronicles 28:3 says King Ahaz sacrificed his sons — sons, plural — by burning them alive as an offering to a false god.

So, why is God offering to give him a sign?

King Ahaz and the People of Judah aren’t thinking about the big picture — they’re just thinking like you and me would, fearing for our livelihood and our lives.

But God sees something bigger.

You see, King Ahaz is of the line of Judah. He is a descendant of King David. And as such, he is the heir of a very specific promise that God had made to David in 2 Samuel 7.

2 Samuel 7:16 (ESV)

16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

It would be through David’s family line that a King of Judah would be born who would usher in all of God’s promises to Israel and to the whole world.

It would be through this Davidic descendant who would be the promised Seed of the Woman to crush the serpent’s head.

But now, because of Israel’s wicked alliance with Syria, and their plot to overthrow the King of Judah and install a puppet King, all of God’s promises of the redemption of the world are being threatened.

In this moment, if Israel and Syria succeed, the Messianic line would be quenched.

The stakes are immeasurably high, for if the promised line is destroyed, so is God’s integrity.

And so, because of God’s love for His supreme glory in the salvation of sinners and because of God’s integrity to His Word, He invites King Ahaz — a wicked, evil king that He will judge — he invites him to ask a sign so God can be glorified in showing off just how much He intends to keep His word.

But Ahaz isn’t interested in trusting God. He’s already made up his mind to appeal to the Assyrians, as other passages show us he does.

So he refuses God’s offer.

Isaiah 7:12 (ESV)

12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.”

There is a kind of putting God to the test that is sinful because it reveals a lack of faith in God.

But when God tells you to ask for a sign because He wants to prove and validate His Word to your soul, to be full of faith is to obey God.

Here, Ahaz appeals to a biblical principle out of context as a religious cover for his blatant fear and unbelief.

And God has a response.

But here in verses 13-15, God’s message through Isaiah the prophet isn’t directed to King Ahaz. In these 3 verses, all of the pronouns switch from singular to plural; it’ll switch back to Ahaz in Verse 16. But from verse 13-15, God switches from talking directly to Ahaz to the whole House of David.

And here, in this moment, God—through Isaiah—has something to say.

Isaiah 7:13–15 (ESV)

13 And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?

14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

Here in these words, God is addressing the House of David — the Davidic Dynasty, and he says, He’s tired of his people wearying Him with their unbelief.

So, since they won’t believe Him enough to ask for a spectacular sign, God will provide a sign Himself. A sign that will prove once and for all that God is unswervingly committed to keeping His promise. A promise so spectacular that no one would ever be able to grasp its full meaning apart from the incredible power of the Almighty God. A sign that would prove, once and for all, that God was by His own Promise inextricably bound with the wellbeing of His, so much so that people would see this spectacular sign and say, “God is truly with us.”

What was the sign?

Isaiah 7:14 (ESV)

14 Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Literally, you could translate this, “Behold, the Pregnant Virgin.”

This phrase has perplexed interpreters and theologians and rabbis for centuries.

An early Greek translation before the first century AD had such a hard time with the Hebrew text here that the translators changed the Adjective into a Verb form to try to understand what the words could mean.

The word for virgin gets its meaning both from the lexical value and from the context. So, there are a few occasions when the word for virgin can be emphasizing the age of the young woman more so than that she is virgin.

So, its used of a newly married wife on one occasion.

Still, there’s very good evidence that the intended meaning, here is exactly what our English translation says.

It’s as paradoxical as it sounds: A pregnant young virgin.

There’s quite a lot of discussion about this prophecy. There are different understandings of how this prophecy relates to the immediate context of King Ahaz and the alliance of Israel and Syria.

But however the specifics of the whole unit work out, there is something very, very clear from this passage: God is giving a spectacular sign to demonstrate once and for all just how committed He is to him promise and His people.

And its very clear that the kind of specific parameters of the prophecy can’t possibly be fulfilled by any mere human being.

The rest of this unit of Isaiah proves that much.

Isaiah 8:8 (ESV)

8 and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”

Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

How can a child be born to us who is going to be called Mighty God?

One Jewish commentator has said this is most challenging of these expressions, because it obviously can’t mean what it clearly says, because a human being can’t be God. So he changes the order of the words and suggests it means Divine Warrior.

Isaiah 11:1–2 (ESV)

1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

And finally, Is 12:2, at the end of this section of the Book called the Book of Immanuel, Is 12:2

Isaiah 12:2 (ESV)

2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”

In Isaiah 7-12, there are two stories in parallel. One story is a short-term story about how Israel and Syria are going to be destroyed by Assyria and then God will turn around and judge Assyria.

But then, right alongside that, there’s this strange storyline intermixed, that in the midst of all this destruction and all this oppression there will one day be a pregnant virgin who will give birth to a human son, who will be by his nature “God with us,” Immanuel, who will rule over God’s world, so that it’ll be His Land by right, and who will be called “Mighty God” and who will fulfill all of God’s promises. And as a result of this Human and Divine Son, all of God’s people will rise up in worship and praise Yahweh for his work of salvation, saving God’s people from their oppression and their exile by overcoming their sin and unbelief.

That brings us to 4. The Fulfillment.

4. The Fulfillment

Matthew 1:18–25 (ESV)

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife,

25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

What do you when you’re afraid?

What did King Ahaz do? When God extended his invitation for Ahaz to trust Him, Ahaz refused.

But how does Joseph respond?

He finds out his fiance is pregnant. Talk about a shock. The text says he doesn’t want to unnecessarily add any more shame to Mary, but is thinking about divorcing her quietly.

Matthew 1:20 (ESV)

Joseph gets that same invitation God gave so many years before: Don’t be afraid; just trust me.

Matthew 1:21 ESV

21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Wonder of wonders, this baby is the embodiment of God’s salvation.

This baby — the son of the Virgin — is the sign, the spectacular and definitive and decisive proof of God’s unswerving commitment to the glory of His name and the eternal joy of His people.

Sure enough, God has kept His promise.

Big Idea: Faith in the face of fear is possible because in Jesus, God is with us.

Conclusion

[Insert conclusion here]

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