Isaiah 7:14

14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

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We can be stubborn people. In chapter 7 of the book of Isaiah, King Ahaz did not want to accept the word from the Lord. He needed to trust God, but he just didn’t want to hear what God had to say. The Lord challenged Ahaz to ask for a sign; however, the king replied that he would not test the Lord.

In spite of his unwillingness to cooperate, Ahaz was addressed by Isaiah the prophet. His message was clear. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”

No timeline is given for the fulfillment of the prophecy. The message is simply that a young woman, a virgin, would have a son. She would name him Immanuel, meaning “God with us.” Thousands of years later we know there was so much more to this word from the Lord.

In the book of Matthew we read, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 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.’”

It is quite possible that Ahaz never fully understood the power of this prophecy. We, however, know the “rest of the story.” It is now our responsibility to share the significance of this sign to the rest of the world.

– Mrs. Janice Byrd