December 3. GOD IS REAL
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14
God Himself gave a sign. I am sure for Mary, this didn’t seem as simple as a sign. For the shepherds on the hillside, their engagement with thousands upon thousands of angels seemed more than a sign. Even Joseph’s vision that called forth faith unlike any man could imagine, seemed more than simply a sign. So, why did the prophet, some 7 centuries before the first Christmas, announce the details of Christ’s birth as a sign?
The sign was the physical reality that God would initiate His divine plan in the most perfect way possible. The sign was a physical demonstration of an eternal plan for the salvation of man. The sign demonstrated that God Himself had all things completely in hand (even in the midst of significant military and political unrest that faced Judah during the time of this prophecy). God reached in. He did not spare His only Son. The sign is the tangible. The sign is unmistakable. The sign is the undeniable. This is God becoming man. Although the sign may have seemed to point toward something more immediate in history, Matthew 1:23 (a direct quote of this verse) proves that this prophecy pointed exclusively to Jesus Christ.
Now that we understand that the sign marked God’s very real interposition with man, can we not understand how real and personal God proved Himself to be through the sign of the virgin birth? “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel (God with us).” Mary became pregnant by the Holy Spirit; this was a divine and sacred pregnancy that had never happened before and would never happen again. This is God coming to man in the form of man by way of humanity’s delivery method. Why? There was no other way for God to step into our lives so perfectly, personally, and precisely. He came to us. The greatest giver and the greatest lover came to us in the greatest form of love ever witnessed. God came to us. He is real; His presence is real. He can be trusted. Take hope. He is here for you.
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