The first prophecy that God would send a Messiah is recorded in Isaiah 7: 14. His daily devotional looks at how the prophesy was fulfilled.
Nuggets
- Prophecy is a sign.
- Isaiah was adding to our collective knowledge about God’s announcement of how the separation brought on by sin was going to be addressed.
- When we look at the message, we see that Gabriel paid homage to Mary but was not elevating her to a higher position than she possessed.
- The reason Gabriel came to visit Mary that day was to announce the birth of the Christ Child.
- The message was that it was possible because of God’s power.
Devotions in the Prophecies of the Christ Child series
God is omniscient. He is everywhere, so He knows all things.
Occasionally, God chooses to share with us what is going to happen. We call this prophecy.
God shared about the birth of Jesus. It was important that He told us for Whom we were looking.
Oh, yeah. The Israelites didn’t really understand what God was telling them. However, as Pastor John said, they “… misunderstood what deliverance meant but understood would be a Deliverer.”
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Our Christmas series this year is going to be looking at some of the prophesies that were given to Old Testament writers. Let’s start off looking at the Virgin birth.
Let's Put It into Context
The Holman Bible Dictionary defines prophecy as “reception and declaration of a word from the Lord through a direct prompting of the Holy Spirit and the human instrument thereof.”
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Prophecy is a divine revelation to mankind through the Holy Spirit of a future event. This was God telling us that we would be delivered.
We talked in Isaiah’s Message to Ahaz and Isaiah’s Message about the Baby that Isaiah was prophesying about what would happen in his day and at a future time.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
Well. Isaiah couldn’t just be talking about the future. “Hey. Here is what is going to happen. Y’all will be dead, but this Baby is going to save you.”
We do know that Isaiah was describing the Christ Child. Let’s dig in.
The Virgin Will Conceive
“Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel” (Isa. 7: 14 CSB)
Prophecy is a sign. If God tells us something is going to happen long before it is going to happen — and it happens exactly the way God said it would — it shows that God is omniscient. Omniscience means God is all-knowing.
Really, God tells us what is going to happen because of His mercy. God’s mercy is the unexpected way God responds in love to our needs.
Donne cautioned that the mercy does mix with a component of God’s anger. Why was God giving the sign to Ahaz? God was angry.
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Why is God telling us that a virgin was going to give birth to a baby whose name means God is with us? He was angry with us.
God was angry that Adam and Eve bit when Satan talked them into disobeying. As part of Satan’s punishment, God said that “… He [her offspring] will strike your head, and you will strike his heel (Gen. 3: 15 CSB).
Isaiah was adding to our collective knowledge about what that meant. God was telling us how the separation brought on by sin was going to be addressed.
Ainger had a really interesting sermon. He wrote about the Pharisees biting on Jesus for claiming to be the Son of God.
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Jesus’ comeback, of course, was Scripture. “Jesus replied, “It is written in your own Scriptures that God said to certain leaders of the people, ‘I say, you are gods!’ (Jn. 10: 34 NLT).
This was a quote from Psalms 86: 2. “I say, ‘You are gods; you are all children of the Most High” (Ps. 86: 2 NLT).
The certain leaders in the verse from John sounds like it was the early judges. They were God’s representatives.
Well, isn’t that what Jesus was? He came to earth to show us Who God is. “… Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! …” (Jn, 14: 9 NLT).
That was why Jesus got the name Immanuel. Immanuel means God with us.
Jesus was God. “I [Jesus] and the Father are one” (Jn. 10: 30 ESV). Not only was Jesus showing us God, but God was also living among us in the form of Jesus.
Ainger put it this way. He wrote, “This means omnipotence with us, omniscience with us, perfection with us, and the love that never fails.”
Let’s hook this on to that. Lewis wrote, “Nature shows us God as above us; law shows us God as against us, because we have made ourselves His enemies; but the Gospel shows us God with us to defend us from the. power of sin and to deliver us from the penalty of sin.”
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Wow. Just wow.
How Was the Prophesy of a Virgin Birth Fulfilled?
“In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you.’ But she was deeply troubled by this statement, wondering what kind of greeting this could be” (Lk. 1: 26-38 CSB)
After Mary got over the shock of seeing an angel, she was able to focus on the fact that an angel really was giving her a message. Burkitt pointed out that it was important that the message was brought by an angel. He wrote, “An evil angel was the first author of our ruin; a good angel could not be the author of our restoration, but is the joyful reporter of it.”
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When we look at the message, we see that Gabriel paid homage to Mary. He said she deserves this special honor because the Lord is with her.
But we have to realize Gabriel was not elevating her to a higher position than she possessed. He was greeting her as a saint. Saint means holy one who has been set apart.
Gabriel was not worshiping Mary. He was not telling her she had been elevated to be a god.
Nothing we do is going to elevate us to be equals with God. That doesn’t mean God isn’t pleased with us and doesn’t favor us. It means He will always be our Sovereign Lord.
The Point of the Message
“Then the angel told her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end” (Lk. 1: 30-33 CSB)
The reason Gabriel came to visit Mary that day was to announce the birth of the Christ Child. That message had a couple of mind boggling elements.
- Mary was going to have a baby.
- The baby’s name was to be Jesus.
- He will be God’s Son, making Him great.
- He would be a ruler forever.
Oh, yeah. The laws of nature were going to be suspended. Well, God made nature, so He could override them.
Parker took that a step further. He wrote, “In the birth of Christ law was not only suspended, but treated as if it had never had any existence, showing how easy it would have been for the Almighty to have founded society upon a totally new basis.”
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But wasn’t that the message? God was going to use His power to fix what was destroyed by the original sin.
Glossary
We can’t understand that. We can’t understand the how, and even the why is mind boggling.
We just have to have faith that God can — will — and did.
Pastor John pointed out that Jesus didn’t have a name — didn’t need a name — until He came to earth. Merchant wrote before that some of the names He was called were “The Word of God,” “The Son of God,” and “The Wisdom of the Father.”
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God gave Jesus a good one. Jesus means Savior. That was is the message in one word — actually one Word.
We were separated from God as a consequence of the original sin. God didn’t want that that to be the way things were for eternity. He wanted restoration.
The other identifier Gabriel gave Mary was that Jesus was going to be the Son of God. That segued into the message of how.
Geikie pointed out how that statement alone would have flabbergasted the Jews. They believed — and rightly so — that God is so much above man. Why would He be uniting with man?
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That just underscores the point of the message. God didn’t have to set out to restore mankind after our disobedience. It was His choice and His plan.
Goodwin pointed out that we probably will look at the word great from a worldview perspective rather than a Godview perspective. Several men have been called Great.
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They don’t hold a candle to Jesus’ greatness as Man and as God. He is great not only because of what He has accomplished in completing the Plan of Salvation, but He is also great because of His nature.
And just think. His greatness now dims in comparison to what His greatness will be when eternity starts.
Once eternity starts, Jesus’ reign will never end. That is the message Gabriel gave to Mary.
Explaining the Message
“Mary asked the angel, ‘How can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?’ The angel replied to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. And consider your relative Elizabeth — even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless. For nothing will be impossible with God” (Lk. 1: 30-33 CSB)
We don’t have to understand and can even be disconcerted with the situation. We can question because we generally start out with doubts.
We can ask God to explain — as long as we are just trying to process. If we are asking to discredit what is being told to us, we are going to be treated like Zechariah.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
The key is our commitment to God. Our doubts have to give way to belief and obedience to God’s Will. Mary was committed, so Gabriel included in the message how it was going to go down.
The message was that it was possible because of God’s power. Through the Holy Spirit, she was going to become with Child.
God allows us to ask our questions when we keep this as our mantra: God can do the impossible.
Making the Connections
Of course, other things popped into my head besides what the message was.
Ministry doesn’t have to be our day job. We don’t have to be well seasoned in life.
We can be a simple young maiden. We can be ourselves — ourselves who are truly committed to God.
We should take comfort here from the fact that God will reward obedient behavior. He will bless those that submit to Him.
Isn’t it great that we all don’t have to be a dynamo like Paul? We can be quiet and contemplative like Mary. God can and will still use us to expand His kingdom.
We should take comfort here from the fact that God will reward obedient behavior. He will bless those that submit to Him.
How Do We Apply This?
We need to respond to God as Mary did. We need to remember everything is possible with Him and accept.
Even if it is something way out there.
Even if it is going to create a hardship for us.
What would have happened if Mary said no way when she got the message? Yeah, I bet the Plan of Salvation would have still been accomplished.
Just not with Mary as mother of the Christ Child.
Our mantra should be God can do all things. That should lead us to switch from doubts to belief fairly quickly.
Father. We put our faith and trust in You. You told us the Christ Child would be born to a virgin — and You commanded that to happen. We will believe Your Word. Amen.
What do you think?
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