“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
As we approach Christmas, I thought it would be fun and interesting for us to study Old Testament prophecies of the coming of Christ. We start with this verse from Isaiah where Isaiah makes it clear the Messiah would be born of a virgin. First, keep in mind that Isaiah’s prophecy was made 700 years before the birth of Christ!
Why was the virgin birth significant? Again, I’m not a theologian, and believe me, there are volumes upon volumes written on this subject. But let me give you this to consider:
- Jesus is the Son of God. Luke 1:35 -“The Holy Spirit will come on 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.”
- Born with the Spirit of God. Adam and Eve were created by God to be immortal. But when they sinned, their human spirit died and they would perish. God told Adam, “You were made out of the ground. You will return to it when you die.” (Genesis 3:19). Jesus could not be born with the Original Sin lineage of death from Adam. Romans 5:12 – “Sin entered the world because one man sinned. And death came because of sin. Everyone sinned, so death came to all people.” Note that sin entered the world because of one man. It was Adam who passed sin to mankind, not Eve.
- The unblemished lamb. Jesus came to fulfill the law. The instructions given in Exodus 12:5 for proper sacrifices to God (aka the Law) states, “The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats.” The sacrificial lamb must be unblemished. 1 Peter 1:18-19 says, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”
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