The Virgin Birth: Considering Matthew's Use of Isaiah 7

Christians need to stop listening to the world and start listening to God, so that thinking Christian becomes as natural as breathing. Welcome to the Thinking Christian podcast. This is Dr. James Spencer. Through calm, thoughtful theological conversations, Thinking Christian offers a mix of interviews and discussions that highlight the ways God is working in the lives of his people and question the underlying social, cultural, and political assumptions that keep the church from conforming more closely to the image of Christ. Now, on to today's episode of Thinking Christian. Hey everyone, welcome to this episode of Thinking Christian. I'm Dr. James Spencer, and it's Christmas time. So I thought it would be a really great time to take a look at the Gospel of Matthew, and in particular, the Gospel of Matthew's use of Isaiah 7.14 as a prophecy of Jesus's birth, specifically the virgin birth. And this passage is somewhat controversial in a number of different ways. It's drawn a lot of individual attention. And that's because it's a little confusing as to how Isaiah 7.14 serves as a clear sign of a near-term sign for Ahaz, as well as projecting forward and encompassing now the virgin birth of Jesus. And so there's a lot of different issues to consider here, but I think it's best to start by understanding the actual context of Isaiah 7 and what's going on in that moment. So Ahaz is king of Judah, and the Assyrians are sort of the empire on the rise. They're coming through, and they're sort of the freight train that nobody else can stop. But there's a small coalition of nations that begin to form this opposition to the Assyrian threat. And so what we have is we have these two nations, Aram, or Syria, and Israel, Ephraim. At this point, the Israelite kingdom is divided into a northern and southern kingdom. And so Syria and Israel, the northern kingdom, have joined forces. And they come to Ahaz and they say, Ahaz, why don't you join our alliance and help us out against the Assyrians? Ahaz has already refused that offer to join the alliance. And so Aram and Ephraim, or Israel, decide that they need to turn on Judah. And what they're going to try to do is they're going to try to replace Ahaz on the throne. They're not necessarily going to take over Judah in the traditional sense, right, where they're going to defeat Judah and then they're going to sort of encompass Judah within their borders. What they really want to do is they just want to put kind of a puppet king on the throne to replace Ahaz so that Ahaz is no longer, they can sort of muster all the forces of Judah and get Judah on their side against the Assyrians. Now, Ahaz has already been told that Syria and Israel are coming against Judah. He knows this is going to happen. This is not going to be a big surprise to him. And so in Isaiah 7, we're really seeing a message where Ahaz is trying to figure out what to do in light of the Assyrian threat, which is also a very real threat, and the alliance between Syria and Israel that are going to come against Judah. And so you have this sort of complex situation in which a king is trying to make some military and political decisions to try to save his small nation from destruction or from really being taken over. And it's into this moment that Isaiah 7, or the prophet Isaiah, comes and gives Ahaz an offer of a sign. And Isaiah's message is intended to encourage Ahaz, and it's intended to encourage him not to fear this Syria and Israel alliance that's going to come against Judah because it's really not going to do anything. And so Isaiah actually calls them the smoldering coals. They just really aren't strong. They're not going to come against Judah in any significant way. And so Aram and Israel are not the real problems that Ahaz needs to be focused on for the moment. They are, in essence, what Isaiah is really trying to get Ahaz to do is look beyond these two people and to remember that God is in control of this. And so he gives Ahaz this assurance that the alliance between Syria and Israel is not going to bother Judah. They may have a little kerfuffle, but there's not going to be a major upheaval. Their plans are not going to prevail. And then Isaiah gives Ahaz the opportunity to ask for a sign. And he says you can ask for a sign as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven. Now, as deep as Sheol and as high as heaven, Sheol, if you're unfamiliar with the term, was sort of the underworld of the ancient Near East. And so when we think about what's usually referred to as ancient Near Eastern cosmology or the way that the ancient Near Eastern people understood the cosmos, what you would have is you would have the heavens as sort of the highest point and you'd have Sheol as the lowest point. And heavens is sort of where God would reside. And Sheol, there really doesn't seem to have been a conception that there was, you know, some sort of like our understanding of hell, where it's this place of torment. And, you know, the devil is there and he's tormenting people or what have you. That doesn't seem to be quite the conception that you see in the Old Testament. However, Sheol was still not a place you really wanted to be. Sheol is sort of a place of lethargy is almost the way I would describe it. You know, you've been up for, you know, 15 hours or 30 hours or 40 hours and you just decide to lay down on the couch and you really can't do anything. And that is sort of perpetually what Sheol is. It is often portrayed as this place where God's presence is not available to those in Sheol. And God's presence was a really big deal. We see that with the temple. We see that with the tabernacle. You know, being in God's presence is kind of crucial for the Israelite worldview. And so the point here is that these are, it's almost like saying, you know, we're going to go from LA to New York and it encompasses everything in between. And so what Isaiah is really trying to say here when he offers Ahaz the ability to ask for a sign, the potential to ask for a sign that is as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven. Ahaz can ask for literally anything, anything he wants, right? And so in the context of war, in the context of this, this battle that's coming, one might think, for instance, that Ahaz could ask the Lord to say, if what you're saying is true, Lord, divert the Assyrians. If what you're saying is true, Lord, you know, stop the military from moving against us. You know, open the wells of Jerusalem to protect us and give us water during the siege. Like he could have asked for any of those type things and really been in the position to be given and blessed by the Lord in order to care for the people that he has charge over. And so Ahaz has all of this within the range, right? It's not one of these moments where God is telling Ahaz not to put him to the test. Ahaz is being given carte blanche to ask for any kind of sign that he wants. And he decides that he's not going to. He says instead in verse 712, I will not ask and I will not put the Lord to the test. Now this is a major problem. It does not seem that Ahaz is trying to be pious, although I think he's trying to project piety. You know, he's sort of alluding to Deuteronomy 6.16, which ultimately warns of putting God to the test. But I think that ultimately Ahaz decides not to request a sign because he already has it in his mind what he's going to do. In other words, by not asking for a sign, it's an implicit rejection of God. Ahaz is going to lean back on his own political and governmental sort of savvy in order to solve this problem. And I think it's important to understand all that because as we dig into what's going to happen next, this sort of idea that Ahaz could have asked for anything. He could have asked for a sign that would have ended the Assyrian military. He could have asked for a sign that would have, you know, diverted Syria and Israel. He could have asked for any of those things, but instead God's going to give him a different sort of sign. And so I'm going to take a short break here and then when we come back, we'll talk about the sign that God ultimately gives to Ahaz. Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility.

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It could have been anything like major military victory, you know, big sort of moment where he could ask God to do these great and powerful things. And when he refuses, this is the sign that God gives him. A young woman will be with child who will be called Emmanuel. And so instead of some sort of a military victory, what Ahaz is getting as a sign is something, is someone who cannot really stem the tide of war at the moment that they're born. This is just a young woman who's going to have a baby. That's the sign. And so I think that, you know, as we consider the force of this sign, as we think about what Ahaz is being given as a sign that God will be with his people, it's more of a judgment sign than a salvation sign, or at least it's a judgment sign at the beginning that will ultimately grow into a salvation type sign. But this moment where he's given a baby in the context of massive military upheaval, right, he's given a sign with no military application. And so while it's easy for us to jump to, you know, a discussion of Emmanuel's identity in the near context and who is this baby and how does it relate to Jesus, all those are really important questions. Right. But the reality is that Ahaz now is going to see a child. That's the sign that God is giving Ahaz. And that child won't deliver his people from Assyria, but will suffer with them. So the language of eating curds and honey. This is sort of this image of, no, the child is going to go through a very difficult period with his people. This child is going to know the suffering of his people. And so what God is really telling Ahaz is by not requesting a sign. Here's what's going to happen. You're going to see this child born and this child is going to suffer along with you. So I think that what this does is it's not, you know, the child is not intended to deliver the people from Assyria. He's going to suffer with them, but then he's also going to point toward the enduring presence of God and hold out this hope that the Lord will in time redeem Israel. He's going to fulfill his covenant promises. We know that about God. And so the fact that the child will suffer with the rest of Judah, you know, we mentioned the food. And he's also going to be able to learn to choose right and wrong after the kingdoms of Rezin and Pekah have been destroyed, which gives us a little bit of a timestamp. Right. What we what we see here is that the child is going to grow. And as the child grows, that's how long Rezin and Pekah are actually going to be around, which is not long. So this sign in the near context is a condemnation of Ahaz's unwillingness really to ask for a sign in the first place. So what we what we find here is that the little child is sort of an ironic sign from God in many ways. And while it points toward God's ongoing presence with Israel, it doesn't steal that hope away. It is almost certainly a critique of Ahaz's unwillingness to actually ask for a sign. And so if the sign of the child gives hope that Jerusalem will not fall to their enemies, but will survive the siege, then we need to sort of underscore what's going on in 7, 15 and 16, which is that the boy will grow up, will grow to the point of discernment and that Judah has been delivered from Syria and Ephraim. But God's presence amongst his people is not without any difficulty. Ahaz's lack of faith is not going to be rewarded with a pure victory. Judah is ultimately going to fall to Assyria. Ahaz won't be able to claim a political victory or that his, you know, his smart and his leadership have really drawn Judah out of this because Assyria is going to take Judah captive. And rather than trusting God by asking for a sign, Ahaz decides to depend on himself. And so what's going to be demonstrated is the fallacy or the unfortunate decision of Ahaz depending on himself. And so at times these prophecies, they would point, I think, beyond the near-term situation to something more distant. I don't know that that happens all the time, but I do like to think of prophecy in terms of patterns. So if we think about them like ripples from a stone thrown into water and they're going to kind of reverberate across time. And so we catch these different glimpses of these moments, right? When a prophecy given in the near term to Ahaz now has some sort of interesting application beyond itself. And so when I look at the use of Isaiah 7,14 in the Gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew, one of the things that I would say is that, you know, we've, we talk a lot about messianic expectation. What were the Jews expecting when, you know, they, they were hoping for a Messiah? And we see it in, in the gospels, right? That the Jews were really expecting a military savior. They wanted someone who was going to pull the kingdom of the Jews, kingdom of Israel back out of the Roman empire, give it autonomy and develop Israel into a prosperous nation that was, you know, autonomous from any others. They wanted to be able to worship back at the temple. They wanted to be, you know, be able to practice the clean and unclean legislation and they wanted to make sure that they were distinctively Jewish. That's what they're expecting. They're expecting their Messiah to reconstitute the kingdom of God as a nation state that stands apart from and potentially over other nations. And so when we think about this, though, and we understand in the near context of Ahaz, that this child has sort of this ironic kind of sign to Ahaz. It makes more sense why Matthew uses this prophecy in addition to just pointing to the virgin birth, right? But it also makes sense in the context because if that's what they're expecting, if they're expecting sort of this military coup, who's going to draw up and free Israel, kind of like what happened in the Exodus where they're now separated from these other nations and they have an established kingdom. Well, the sign of the child points to something quite different. It points to something where this child is going to bring deliverance, but in a fairly unexpected way. And in some sense, in a delayed manner that the child represents hope. The child represents a hope for deliverance. The child represents a, you know, God's continued action in the world and God's presence with his people. But it doesn't necessarily mean that that presence and that action and that hope is going to be fulfilled in the same way that everybody thinks it will. And so as the, you know, the Israelites are looking for this sort of strong. Let me ask you a serious question. 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On conquering hero to come in and take care of things, what does God give them? He gives them a baby. And I think that, you know, as we compare the context of Isaiah 7 and in Matthew, we start to see some really interesting connections there. So that's sort of a broad scope of this prophecy in Matthew.

And now I want to transition to the actual language used. So when we think about the virgin birth in Matthew, one of the challenges that's often put forward is that the Hebrew language, the Hebrew term used in Isaiah 7 14, doesn't necessarily mean virgin, and that when Matthew quotes Isaiah 7 14 from the Greek translation of the Old Testament or the septuagint, that word is specifically for a virgin, but may not necessarily represent the Hebrew well. And so here's sort of my take on this. Translating young woman in Isaiah 14 in its original context, I do think makes sense. That may seem odd given the New Testament rendering and the doctrine of the virgin birth. However, the Hebrew word, which is Alma, translated as young woman, does not necessarily denote virginity. What I will say is that in most contexts, it does suggest that the woman would be a virgin. In other words, there's a difference between, and we have this in sort of our language as well. If I were just, if I wanted to denote someone's sexual experience, I would say virgin, right? That's a focus on whether or not that individual has or has not had sexual relations with another person. But if I wanted to gesture toward it without actually saying it, and I wanted to maybe emphasize this, you know, a person's, let's say, their youth or their, you know, their position or status in life, maybe we use something like maiden, right? A young maiden. And in English, what that would denote generally is a young woman who is generally single and likely has some connotations toward like chastity. This person isn't someone who's had a lot of sexual experiences, doesn't necessarily have a lot of, you know, hasn't really had a lot of boyfriends or whatever. And so it infers virginity, but it doesn't focus on virginity. And that's sort of how Alma works. Alma is focused on the youth of the woman in question. She's focused on, the term is focused on the age, the demeanor, the position in life, but not necessarily the sexual experience. But in most contexts where you see Alma used, I think the sexual experience can be inferred and actually inferred quite well. And so, you know, there is another Hebrew term that can more specifically relate to virginity. But I think that sometimes we get a little too caught up on the finer points here. The reality is that Alma does tend to refer to age rather than one's sexual status. So we can look at this in Genesis 24, 43, right, where there is an Alma referred to, but it's very clear that the Alma is also a virgin. And so what we, what we see here is, you know, this is where Isaac is going out to meet Rebecca and he says, see, I am standing beside this spring. If a young woman comes out to draw water and I say to her, please let me drink a little bit of water from your jar. And then he's trying to really find his wife there. Well, the connotation of that passage is very much that the young woman coming out is going to be a virgin. Whereas something like Alma in Isaiah 54, 5 refers to a barren woman. Now there's only a couple of ways that you could figure out whether a woman is barren in ancient Near Eastern times. And it likely refers to a young woman who had been unable to bear children despite having had sex. And so Alma doesn't necessarily suggest virgin, but it is very context dependent as to what this looks like. So I do think it's best to translate Alma in Isaiah 7, 14 in that original Hebrew Old Testament context as young woman. However, the septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament does translate Alma with a word that is parthenos. And that parthenos tends to emphasize one's status as a virgin primarily and one's age secondarily. And so it sort of switches the emphasis from the Hebrew. But I will say, I think the translation of Alma is related to a second interpretive matter. And that is, you know, whether or not this young woman in the prophecy originally was already pregnant or would soon become pregnant. And commentators are sort of split on that one. So overall, here's what I would say. I think that what Matthew is doing with Isaiah 7, 14, he is taking this prophecy, recognizing the broad pattern of what it is doing. It's the prophecy, the sign of a child born of a young woman, probably a virgin, was given to Ahaz in order to underscore the humble ways in which God works and the fallacy of trusting in political strength in order to make things happen. And I think that when Matthew pulls this over into the gospels, he's doing something very similar. We know that Mary is a virgin just from the different stories in the gospels. We see it. We understand that she has not had sexual relationships with Joseph. Luke makes this perfectly clear. And so as Matthew pulls this over, I think he's adapting and adopting the language of the Greek Septuagint and saying, look, here's the prophecy fulfilled. That this is a child now who is going to usher in the kingdom of God through non-military means. He is coming in an unexpected manner that we could never figure out. That's kind of where I see Matthew pulling this across. And so some of the language really important. Other aspects, you know, we can tend to overread them a bit and overcomplicate this. And I think it's just important for us to recognize that Matthew is looking at the pattern of Isaiah 7, 14 to pull it across into his gospel. I'm going to take one more break. And then when we come back, just look one more time at Isaiah 7, 14 in Matthew 1, 23. Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, Sanctuary Metals makes it easy to get started. Text guide to 94878 to receive your free retirement defense guide or call 888-958-6579 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text guide to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. Hey everybody, welcome back. You know, certain aspects of the analysis of Isaiah 7, 14 may seem to preclude Matthew's application of Isaiah 7, 14. You know, there's this desire to make the Old Testament and the New Testament match so perfectly that there is no further, you know, tension between them. But I think it's important to remember the Old Testament prophecies are not only intended to point to Christ, though they also do that. It's a very important aspect of what they do. But they don't only do that. You can imagine how unintelligible it might have been to Ahaz to say the sign that you're giving me in this very moment is that Jesus will be born like 2,000 years later. That doesn't really work for Ahaz. And so you have this sort of near-term and further-term fulfillment. So I would say that the Old Testament prophecies often refer to a near-term consequences arising from the behavior of the nation of Israel or its leaders. But as we look at Matthew 1.23, we need to recognize the context in which Isaiah 7.14 occurs in the Old Testament has a clear historical setting. And Isaiah gestures beyond that historical setting. In other words, I don't think Isaiah is wanting to limit this prophecy necessarily to that specific historical setting. It's a moment in which God is going to act, but because God acts so consistently across time, there's obviously going to be application and patterning beyond this clear historical setting into other areas. So as we, you know, Matthew's citation of Isaiah 7.14, I think it needs to be understood in that broader context of Isaiah and that particularly Isaiah 7 through 9. Matthew's gospel is going to make clear that, and Luke's gospel reinforces Mary's virgin status. And so...

God acts through Mary to bring his son into the world. Matthew rightly recognizes that Jesus fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah. There's going to be a child who's born, who will be a ruler and usher in God's deliverance and judgment. And as we consider Jesus's birth in Matthew, we should view it as the fulfillment of the hopes of Israel contained in the Old Testament. Jesus is not simply born of a virgin. That aspect of Isaiah's prophecy is just the tip of the iceberg. And so the virgin birth demonstrates that Jesus is the child who was to come. He has become human and dwells among us to fulfill God's promises and to bring the salvation that was to come through the nation of Israel. So here's what I think this all means. Matthew is obviously not ripping Isaiah 7, 14 out of its context or applying a foreign meaning. But he is trying to understand Jesus in light of this overall prophecy. And so Matthew recognizes Jesus in the prophecy about the young woman who will conceive and bear a child. Jesus is that child. And even though there was a previous child born as a sign to Ahaz, Isaiah's prophecy looked beyond that time. And he looks toward a day when others would not accept the sign from the Lord and they would not accept Christ. They're going to see this sign, the sign of a child, as probably as ironically as Ahaz did. And so this humble beginning of our Lord and Savior, I think is completely in line with the pattern established in that Old Testament prophecy and passage. And so what we're finding here is that these prophetic patterns reverberate across time and that particularly Matthew, but I would also say, you know, the rest of the Gospels but they're going to identify these patterns in the life of Jesus. And so even if you're, you know, you're interested in reading the Gospels further, you know, obviously we're starting the Useful to God podcast and it's going to have daily readings of the Gospels for the first 30 days of 2024. So I'd encourage you to take a look at that. You can also go to usefultogod.com and find out a little bit more about it and just sign up for our mailing list to get additional, you know, additional information about what's going on there. But I think the other thing is just as you're reading through the Gospels on your own, you know, keep in mind that Isaiah is really central to what the Gospel message is, the Gospels are conveying. And they are seeing in Jesus this new patterning, this re-patterning of Isaiah, of Moses, of, you know, many of these Old Testament themes are coming to fruition and being demonstrated in the life of Christ. And so, you know, from an Old Testament guy, my background is in Old Testament theology. What I suppose I'm encouraging is get to know your Old Testament as well as possible if you want to understand the Gospel as well. But also just as we move into Christmas, understanding how the virgin birth prophecy works, recognizing the bigger message that Isaiah is trying to convey to Ahaz and that God is trying to convey to Ahaz to give him this message that the humble child is the sign of God's coming presence among his people. That presence will involve deliverance and judgment and that had Ahaz been on the side of the sign, he would have been delivered. And so for us, as we look at the virgin birth, Jesus comes to bring judgment and deliverance. And thankfully, we have come to know him through saving faith and we are on the deliverance side of what God is doing. Merry Christmas, everybody. Thanks for your time. And I'm looking forward to the next episode of Thinking Christian. Through calm, thoughtful theological conversations, Thinking Christian offers a mix of interviews and discussions that highlight the ways God is working in the lives of his people and question the underlying social, cultural, and political assumptions that keep the church from conforming more closely to the image of Christ. I want to take just a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the Thinking Christian podcast. Hi, I'm Rachel Adams, host of the Love Offering podcast, where we explore how to live out the greatest commandment to love God, love others, and even love ourselves. Each week, my guests and I share stories of how God's love transforms us and overflows into the lives of those around us. Whether through small acts of kindness or powerful moments of faith, we're learning how to make love our greatest offering. Tune in to The Love Offering podcast available on lifeaudio.com and all podcast platforms.