“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

Do your fears shake your faith in Christ? One of the more well-known prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah was given to relieve fear. King Ahaz was troubled by the threats made against Judah by Samaria and Syria who tried to force him to ally with them against Assyria. He refused, preferring to ally with Assyria, yet he then became afraid. The Lord sent Isaiah to him to allay his fears, but Ahaz rejected his message and the accompanying sign. For this reason he could not understand the sign of Immanuel, which, as we know from Matthew 1 is the Messiah, Jesus, “God with us”. The immediate reference is possibly to an actual birth to a young woman in the court of Ahaz. The point is that by the time the child is weaned, in 2 or 3 years, Assyria will have overrun Syria and Samaria and will threaten Judah.

Ahaz rejected the Lord and His protection so he found no hope in the sign. The faithful remnant of the Jews did understand and had hope. Though they would be oppressed by the ungodly, in time, a young woman would spring forth from the remnant who would give birth to a new King, Immanuel who will be God with us. The young woman is a virgin for in Hebrew understanding an unmarried woman of childbearing age was a virgin. The virgin birth as Matthew tells us is the sign to us of the hope of all mankind who came to redeem us all, Jesus, both God and man. Yet many, like Ahaz, reject this sign as illogical and unscientific, and so reject God’s offer of eternal salvation in Jesus. They are left with their fear instead of God’s comfort.