He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right … - Isaiah 7:15

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 25, 2016): Isaiah 7

Merry Christmas! Immanuel (God with us) has come. And today we celebrate his coming. Today we tell the old story of a young man and woman who ride into Bethlehem only to find no room at the inn. Instead, according to tradition, they are given space in a cave where the animals were kept. And there Jesus made his entrance into this world.  

But one of the most recognized prophecies of the coming Messiah was not necessarily initially considered to be Messianic. Isaiah 7:14 (Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel) probably should have been translated this way - Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The young woman will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. There is nothing shocking about young women getting pregnant. In the ancient world, that was the expected outcome of every marriage. The second part was a little more Messianic, but it was only after the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus did we began to realize the Messianic importance of Isaiah 7.

Initially, this prophecy was given to King Ahaz. And the purpose of the young woman getting pregnant was a “sand through the hourglass” for the king. By the time a young woman bears a child and gives birth, and that child grows to the age of accountability, in Jewish thought somewhere around the age of three, God will have already moved against the kings that were presently keeping Ahaz up at night. This was the sign – within four years those kings will be dead. Of course, the other shoe was about to drop. In four years there would be a bigger and badder king to keep Ahaz up at night – the King of Assyria. 

But verse 15 didn’t seem to fit that pattern. In the ancient world, the importance of curds and honey is that they were the doctor’s prescription for which foods should be fed first to an infant. So this baby, born of a young woman, would know right and wrong before he reached the age of accountability. More than just a way of measuring time, there would be something special about this child.

It wasn’t until after that first Christmas that we began to put the pieces together and see Jesus reflected in these verses. He would be the one who would be born of a virgin, would know right and wrong before he reached the age of accountability, and would be God with us. And that is a reason to celebrate. God is with you – today and every day.

Merry Christmas!

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Micah 1