Advent is coming. As we await Christ’s birth, many of us will read the Christmas narratives, such as the famous passage in Matthew which quotes Isaiah 7:14: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.’”
Isaiah has long been a common place to look for Christ in the Old Testament. In fact, during the fourth century, St. Augustine wrote in his Confessions, “the Gospel and the calling of the gentiles are more clearly foretold in that book [Isaiah] than in any other.” (IX 5) But how are they foretold? The sign of Immanuel does not seem obviously related to Christ. It almost looks as if Matthew disregards what Isaiah actually means.
Ahaz, the king of Judah, is facing a political crisis. Syria and Israel have made an alliance to attack Jerusalem. God sends Isaiah to Ahaz to tell him, “It shall not come to pass,” and to warn him, “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” God then commands Ahaz to demonstrate his trust by asking for a sign. Ahaz refuses.
God responds: “Therefore, the LORD himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin (or “young woman” – the Hebrew can mean either) shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since Ephraim departed from Judah – the king of Assyria!” (7:14-17)
Ahaz need not worry about the Syria-Israel alliance; Assyria will demolish them. But because of Ahaz’s faithlessness, Assyria will demolish Judah, too. In fact, Assyria will ravage agriculture so completely that Judah will rely on subsistence herding (hence the curds and honey). (7:15, 7:21-25)
The name Immanuel, “God is with us,” signifies two things. The word is used two other times in the passage; the first announcing that God is with his people to judge them (8:8), the second announcing the eventual downfall of Assyria and all foreign invaders, because God is with his people to deliver them (8:10). God promises that he will eventually vanquish Assyria, regather his people, and establish peace for them forever because, “to us a son [who may or may not be the same child as Immanuel] is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.” (Isaiah 9).
Assyria threatens because a Judaic king failed to trust God; the passage implies that this peace will come about because of a Judaic king’s trust in God.
But wait! Isaiah 9 goes onto to say that this son “shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Doesn’t this state that the child will be God himself?
Not necessarily. Names symbolizing what God is doing are common in the Old Testament. For instance, Isaiah’s son is called Maher-shalal-hash-baz, which means “The spoil speeds, the prey hastens,” because Assyria will conquer and deport both Syria and Israel. This name does not say that Isaiah’s son will take plunder or be taken captive; Isaiah’s son did neither. Similarly, “Wonderful Counselor” could mean “God is counseling a wonder.” The text allows this son to be either God or a human king.
The book of Isaiah purposely makes its readers expect fulfillment of the promises in Isaiah 7, 8, and 9 during the reign of King Hezekiah, son of Ahaz (Isaiah 36-39). Hezekiah is facing the same choice as Ahaz. The Assyrian invasion foretold to Ahaz has come to pass. Assyria has vanquished Israel and Syria and is besieging Jerusalem. An Assyrian representative meets Hezekiah’s messengers “by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s field,” the exact same place that Isaiah met Ahaz and taunts the LORD. Will Hezekiah trust God to deliver Judah? Unlike Ahaz, Hezekiah chooses to trust God. In response God rescues Jerusalem. God has vanquished Assyria as he promised earlier.
At this point, it looks as if God is about to establish everlasting peace for his people. But then, Babylonian envoys come to Judah, and because of Hezekiah’s faithlessness, God announces the Babylonian Captivity. Hezekiah will not establish everlasting peace. The sign of Immanuel remains unfulfilled.
The Babylonian Captivity is part of a larger pattern. In Deuteronomy, God told his people that if they forsook him, he would send foreign invaders. Therefore, if God’s promises of everlasting peace are to be fulfilled, God’s people and their leaders must no longer be rebellious. Yet judge after judge, prophet after prophet, and king after king, including Hezekiah, have all failed. And so, at the end of the book of Isaiah, we still await the faithful leader of a faithful people.
Matthew is not disregarding the point of the passage at all, rather, he is saying that such a leader is here.
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