Page 19 - BV20

The Virgin Birth and the Messiah 19

7 Now there fore, be hold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the wa ters of the river, strong and
many, even the king of As syria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his chan nels,
and go over all his banks:

8 And he shall pass through Ju dah; he shall over flow and go over, he shall reach even to the
neck; and the stretch ing out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Im man uel. (Isa -
iah 7:1-8:8 (KJV))

(The use of this term (Im man uel) in 7:14 was part of the sign which was "God with us"
dur ing the time to soon come when Ju dah feels threat ened from As syria. Here the name is ap -
plied to Ju dah to in sure that di vine pro tec tion will be ex tended to it, which of course, it was at
that time.)

There are several unambiguous facts seen in the context of these verses:

1. First, Isa iah is talk ing to King Ahaz of Ju dah and tells HIM (Ahaz) that the sign of a birth will be
for HIM. This fact alone makes ap pli ca tion of Isa iah 7:14 to the birth of Yeshua im pos si ble, since
Ahaz was long dead by the time Yeshua was born; thus prov ing it is not a Mes si anic proph esy.

2. The ENTIRE con text of these verses re fer to the spe cific is sue of the proph ecy re gard ing what
will hap pen to those that were plot ting to de stroy Ju dah, of which Ahaz was King. Even the term
Im man uel, "god with us", was to as sure Ju dah, as shown in 8:8, that YEHOVAH God would be
"with them" dur ing the time of trial that was to come when Syria and Is rael strove against Ju dah and
As syria in vaded.

3. Only a few verses af ter Isa iah 7:14, in verse 8:3, we prob a bly see the birth he was speak ing of in
Is. 7:14. It was a birth of a son to Isa iah and his young wife. Fur ther more, even the term "vir gin"
would ap ply to the proph et ess if the in for ma tion shown ear lier re gard ing the use of al mah to mean
"a young woman" (i.e., "sex u ally ma ture fe male of mar riage able age, which may or may not be sex -
u ally ac tive") is con sid ered. We will com ment more on this a lit tle later.

4. Thus, the con text is clear that the "vir gin" (young woman) was prob a bly Isa iah's wife, the
"proph et ess", men tioned in Is. 8:3. This is crys tal clear when bias is re moved and the Scrip ture is
ac tu ally al lowed to speak for it self. Some Ju daic com men ta tors be lieve it ap plies to He ze kiah, the
son of Ahaz, who proved to be one of Ju dah's great est Kings; how ever, we feel the con text more
cor rectly points to Isa iah's son as the ful fill ment. Ei ther way, the new born child be ing proph e sied
was for THAT PARTICULAR TIME-FRAME as a sign to Ahaz. The proph ecy was NOT for a
time-frame 700 years af ter Ahaz was dead (Yeshua was born about 700 years af ter this proph ecy)!

5. Ad di tionally, Isa iah 7:16 and 8:4 are al most iden ti cal, prov ing them to ref er ence the same event,
which was that while the new born son of Isa iah was yet young, the proph ecy would be ac com -
plished, which was that YEHOVAH God would elim i nate the threat posed to Ahaz by the com -
bined ef forts of Ephraim and Da mas cus. This pro vides fur ther ev i dence that the birth fore told as a
sign TO AHAZ was ful filled by the birth of Isa iah's new born son with the proph et ess (Isa iah's wife)
as the mother.

The Berean Voice