Listen to this sermon HERE
PROPHETS AND HOPE
Isaiah 7:10-17
Luke 1:26-38
November 29, 2009
I think languages are fascinating. These days there is almost no such thing as a pure language – every language shows the influences of other languages. We speak contemporary English, which bears the unmistakable influences of Latin, Greek, German, Welsh, and more recently Spanish. Languages are never static, they continually morph and evolve. If history is any indication, English will not be a permanent language; eventually it will fade from use, replaced by something else. Someday we will need interpreters and translators to read twenty first century English and tell us what it said.
One of the biggest difficulties these translators will have is with words that have multiple meanings. For example the word cool; it can mean something at a lower temperature than its surroundings. Or, it can mean something stylish, in vogue, and admirable. The ice cream needs to be kept cool; Pastor Evan is a pretty cool guy. These days hot also has two very different meanings. Don’t touch the stove, it is hot. I think your girlfriend is hot.
Here’s the problem. Without proper training and context it can be difficult to tell which meaning is implied. Someday, ten thousand years from now, an archaeologist will come across a copy of “People” magazine and read, “Brad Pitt is super cool and Angelina Jolie is smokin’ hot.” And because he’s been spending most of his time translating appliance manuals he will determine that in the twenty first century people were thermally challenged. And, we had to pair up those who were opposites so the one didn’t freeze up, and the other didn’t burst into flames. It won’t be the archaeologist’s fault; without adequate examples and context it is really difficult to interpret ancient languages.
Did you know that for the last one hundred and fifty years the single largest debate among experts in ancient Hebrew is over what Isaiah said in chapter seven, verse fourteen? Did he really mean to say the ‘Virgin’ would have a baby or not? There is a very large group in the academic community that insists the word should be ‘young woman’, not virgin. And, they are adamant that Isaiah was never talking about Jesus. He was either talking about Hezekiah, who would be born to King Ahaz, or a son that would be born to Isaiah. For that reason, they believe it is a complete lie to try and tie the prophecy to the ‘supposed’ virgin birth of Jesus. They say Jesus absolutely was not born from a virgin. I believe the word virgin is correct, and I’m going to tell you why.
Let’s start by looking at the historical setting. The Assyrians were the biggest, meanest, badest bullies on the block. They had begun marching westward with an eye towards conquering the entire known world. Ahaz is the king of Judah, where the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple are. Just north of Judah are the countries of Ephraim (another name for old Israel), and Aram. Ephraim and Aram have forged an alliance to hold off the Assyrians. But, they are afraid that they still are not quite strong enough. They try to talk Ahaz into joining the alliance, but he won’t join the team. So, they make plans to attack Judah, kill Ahaz, and put their own man on the throne (Isaiah 7:1-2, 2 Chronicles 28:1-6). Then, they will be able to add Judah’s army to theirs; and they think that might just do the trick.
In those days when you attacked a heavily fortified city like Jerusalem you laid siege to it. You kept food and water from coming into the city, and you waited for the people inside to starve. King Ahaz is inspecting his water supply, making sure they can survive the siege, when we find him in Isaiah chapter seven. Isaiah is a pretty interesting guy; he started out as an official historian of the kingdom (2 Chronicles 26:22, 32:32). This gave him access to all of the highest government officials. He didn’t have any interest in being a prophet until God grabbed him, showed him a vision of heaven, and challenged him, “Who will save my people?” (Isaiah 6:1-8).
So, Ahaz is getting ready for war, when Isaiah approaches him with a word of comfort from God – don’t worry everything is going to work out just fine. God will take care of you. Ahaz is not a religious man, and he pooh pooh’s Isaiah’s message. So, God tries another method. He tells Ahaz to pick any kind of a miracle that he wants to see. And, if the miracle comes true, then obviously God will take care of Judah. Here’s the problem. Ahaz has already gotten in touch with the Assyrians – the really bad guys who are marching west – and he’s sent them a bribe to help him out (2 Kings 16:7). He doesn’t want or need God’s help.
So, he sidesteps Isaiah. He tries to use the Bible to justify not asking for a miracle. He references Deuteronomy 6:16 and says, “I will not put God to the test.” On the surface it sounds like he’s trying to be righteous, but in fact it is a huge insult to God. It is not intuitive from the text, but Isaiah leaves Ahaz then and there, and two weeks later he appears before Ahaz and the entire royal council. Now, God is angry, and Isaiah is his messenger. The language switches from ask ‘your’ god for a sign, to here is the sign from ‘my’ God.
Isaiah speaks about the miracle which will be a sign and he says, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Very strictly speaking the Hebrew word he uses there is Almah, and an Almah is a young woman. Let me tell you why the Almah also has to be mean virgin.
First of all, the word Almah shows up nine times in the Old Testament, and it is never, ever a married woman. We serve a God of holiness and purity, who expects young men and women to remain pure until they are legally married. That is not an unreasonable expectation, and so virginity is not an unreasonable assumption. The word is used once with Isaac’s fiancé Rebekah; where she is called a young woman, and then we are specifically told she has never been with a man (Genesis 24:16,43; Exodus 2:8). It is used once with baby Moses’ sister Miriam; who is only three or four years old at the time. Can’t we all agree that she must be a virgin? It is used once in the Psalms when it describes the young women leading a parade of worshipers, the processional up to God’s Holy Temple (Psalm 68:25-26). These young women are either pure, or immoral. There is no example of Israelite religious processionals being led by immoral women, they are always pure virgins.
Almah shows up twice in Song of Songs, when it talks about the young women in the King’s harem that he will soon lie with (1:3, 6:8). The book of Esther tells us that the King’s maidens were intensely inspected and protected to make sure they were virgins until their night with the King (Esther 2:1-3). The word shows up twice where it tells musicians how a song should be sung (Psalm 46, 1 Chronicles 15:20). The idea is that the song should be sung in a very high soprano with a ‘pure’ voice – like an Almah. The concept was that only a virgin could sing that high, and at the same time that pure. This is all good evidence that the word Almah should be interpreted as ‘virgin’, but in a court of law it would all be circumstantial. We need something that is a more direct proof.
OK, how about this? In 586 BC the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians. Many of the inhabitants fled to Egypt for safety. Most of these refugees never came back home when Jerusalem was rebuilt. Two hundred years later we find a huge community of Jews, living in Egypt, who can’t speak Hebrew anymore. They had forgotten their native language. How are they supposed to read the Bible and worship God if they don’t know Hebrew? The answer was to import seventy Rabbis’ from Israel who were fluent in both Hebrew and Greek – the international language of the day. Each of these Rabbis independently translated the Bible from Hebrew into Greek. In every case, the Greek word they chose for Almah in Isaiah 7:14, was parthenos – which undeniably and unequivocally means ‘virgin’. Three hundred years before Jesus, the educated Jews believed that Isaiah said virgin.
Is it really a big deal what he said? Yes, yes it is, and I’ll tell you why. If we don’t know what the prophet said, then we don’t know what the prophecy means. We have a prophecy that may, or may not, have been fulfilled. We really can’t tell. Which brings me to my last reason why I’m sure the word is virgin. Every time God promises a miracle, he comes through. God never backs down on a promise. John Calvin says it like this, if we don’t know that the promise has been fulfilled then what is the point of making the promise in the first place?
Look at it like this. If Almah only means young woman, and not virgin, then Isaiah’s prophecy says here is how you will know that I am God; sometime, somewhere, some young girl is going to have a baby. That happens every day. There’s no way to tell which one is the right one; no way to tell that God has kept his promise. But, if Almah means virgin then Isaiah has said that a young girl of high purity, well known in her community, will become pregnant in what can only be a miracle of God – and she will name her baby boy God is with us. It is so unimaginable that it will require multiple visits by angels to prove that she isn’t lying. How many times a day does that happen? No, if the word is virgin then we can very precisely pinpoint exactly when God performed a miracle and kept his promise.
The implications go even deeper. Isaiah says the child will know how to refuse the evil and choose the good. He doesn’t just say the child will know the difference between right and wrong, he says he’ll be able to live according to good and refuse evil. It means the child is the Messiah. This is the same as last week when God promised David that one day his heir would sit on the throne and rule with the complete knowledge of God. Jesus is the only one who has ever been able to live a perfect life, to choose the good and refuse the evil. Jesus absolutely must be the one Isaiah was prophesying.
Maybe you’re sitting there thinking, “Rocky, I’m glad you’re all worked into a tizzy over this – but it just isn’t that important to me. I don’t care whether the word was virgin or not!” That’s not true. You care. In fact, you wouldn’t have it any other way. Here’s why. Let’s say that Mary wasn’t a virgin; she was just a young girl who got pregnant in the regular way by a regular guy, and had a regular baby. Do you know what that means? It means that Jesus was just a man, nothing more. He was an incredible man; in fact he was the only man so good that he earned his way into heaven. Which means we all have to earn our way into heaven. It means Jesus can’t save us, we have to save ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I’ve made so many mistakes that just isn’t an option any more. If Jesus can’t save me I’m sunk, I have no hope at all. I desperately need Jesus to be more than just a man. If Mary wasn’t a virgin Jesus can’t do me any good; and I’ve made a terrible mistake pursuing righteousness when I should have been trying to make as much money as possible.
Language is a fascinating thing. Isaiah spoke the word of God 740 years before Jesus was born. They had to wait seven centuries before they knew that God had kept his promise. Fortunately, when Jesus came there was no doubt. His birth was foretold and verified by signs and miracles. Isaiah spoke the word, and my salvation hangs on that one word. Praise be to God!
John H. Walton, “Isaiah 7:14: What’s in a Name?” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 30:3 (September 1987), 289-306.
Richard Niessen “The Virginity of the ‘almah in Isaiah 7:14” Bibliotheca Sacra 137:546 (April – June 1980), 133-150.
See both – Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, Book XII, Chapter III, paragraphs 11-15; and Philo, On the Life of Moses part II, paragraphs 31-40.
John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (2 volumes), translated by William Pringle (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1850), 1:247.