Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “Therefore, 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.” (Isaiah 7:14). Contained in this passage of scripture, God’s redemptive plan for mankind is revealed to those with eyes to see and ears to hear.
Because of humanity’s inability to get its own house in order, God took it upon Himself to set straight the pathway for rescuing mankind. Not only is this a profound announcement that conveys a paradoxical pregnancy, it illustrates the concept that the Lord will take matters into His own hands and incarnate as a human in order to accomplish what escapes man. And He will be called Immanuel, which means “God with us.”
Isaiah elaborates further in Isaiah 9:6-7, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”
The prophet Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah’s gave further revelation regarding the birthplace of the coming Messiah and His divinity, with the scripture recorded in Micah 5:2. “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.”
God Became Human
These verses depict the Almighty Creator of the universe, taking the humble nature of the lowest of men, entering His very own creation and showing all of mankind the true meaning of righteousness. Seven hundred years later, an angel appeared to a young lady named Mary, who was betrothed to marry an honorable man named Joseph (Matthew 1:18). She was informed that she would become pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit, despite being a virgin.
Luke 1:26-38 records the exchange: “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; His kingdom will never end.’
‘How can this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’
The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit 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. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.’
“I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May it be to me as you have said.’ Then the angel left her.”
Problematic Pregnancy
Contemplate the situation for moment. Under first century Jewish law, a betrothed bride was considered married and required a divorce to break the engagement. A marriage contract had been signed and the couple remained under their parents’ households until the bridegroom completed building a new dwelling where the pair would consummate the marriage and the wedding feast would soon follow.
By becoming pregnant, Mary would have been assumed to be guilty of adultery since Joseph was not the father of the child and the punishment for an adulteress was death by stoning (Deuteronomy 22:23). Very serious stuff. However, Joseph was a righteous man and had compassion upon Mary, therefore he did not want to expose her to public disgrace. He planned to divorce her quietly (Matthew 1:19).
“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him 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.’
All this took place to fulfill 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.’
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.” (Matthew 1:20-25).
Spiritual Battles
Why would God go to such extremes to manifest Himself as a human being under such humiliating circumstances? The answer lies in the forces of evil arrayed against Him in the spiritual realms that wanted nothing more than to destroy His plans for the redemption of the human race. Forces that already had a neurotic governor named Herod contemplating killing anyone he deemed a threat to his throne.
If God had caused Jesus to be born in a palace to wealthy parents, the news of the birth of the king of the Jews would have spread quickly to every adversary of righteousness and alerted them to assemble and snuff out the hope for humanity. God was many steps ahead of His enemies which is illustrated through sending an angel to warn the Magi not to return to Herod with the exact location of Jesus as the governor requested (Matthew 2:12).
Even then, Herod set out to find the child and kill him but before he could bring harm to Jesus an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and instructed him to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus in order to protect them (Matthew 2:13).
Throughout the life of Jesus Christ, He often resorted to being elusive and convoluted about His true identity so that the spiritual principalities and powers were kept in the dark to prevent them from disrupting His divine mission. It was necessary for Jesus to outwit the agents of Satan otherwise they never would have went along with His crucifixion (please refer to Presuppositional Spirituality, Nov. 12/22 on this website).
Conversely, it was crucial for God to foretell the coming of Christ in order to illustrate the fulfillment of prophecy, plus provide the signs that would identify the Messiah, but at the same time, He needed to be guarded in how much information was made known in order to protect Jesus from His enemies. It was a delicate balancing act that God orchestrated perfectly, right down to the most minute detail.
Prophetic Fulfillment
There are 356 prophecies that foretell the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the odds of any one man fulfilling even some of them due to chance alone are beyond astronomical (please refer to the article entitled The Historicity of Jesus, Nov. 24/20). Yet Jesus fulfilled every one. For those who struggle with the notion that Jesus is God, it isn’t nearly as difficult to comprehend when you approach it from the perspective that God (who is limitless) is Jesus. He is fully capable of being everything Jesus was and is.
Our skeptical society has downplayed the significance of the Christmas story, has tried replacing Jesus with Santa and even endeavors to change the name of the festival altogether these days in an effort to diminish the meaning of Christmas. Much is made of the fact that December 25th is not the correct date for the birth of Christ and Christianity is under spiritual attack for clinging to its beliefs. This topic will be elaborated upon in next week’s column.
In reality, the battle has already been won. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus and there is no name greater in all of creation. From His humble birth in a manger, in a stable, born to a virgin and her righteous husband, Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Two thousand years ago God Himself bridged the gap that separated mankind from Him and walked in Judea with His people. He dwelt among men and facilitated the greatest redemption story of all time. All this took place so that what the Lord declared through His prophets would be fulfilled and all of mankind would have the opportunity to be called children of God. Amen!!!
