THE INITIAL VIRGIN BIRTH
Most are familiar with the prophecy in Isaiah 7:14: “…Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel”. This prophecy has always been believed to be in reference to Christ’s birth, but there also seems to be another and earlier fulfillment of its meaning.
There is a definite context in which this prophecy was delivered. Isaiah spoke during the reign of King Ahaz (2 Kings chapter 16; Isaiah chapter 7), who ruled as king of Judah, and who was not a good king. He disobeyed God by “…not do[ing] what was right in the sight of the Lord his God…” (2 Kings 16:2) For example by worshipping false idols and even sacrificing his own sons in fire to the god Molech.
As a result of this disobedience, God took His protection away from Judah. Now at that time, Judah and Ahaz were threatened by a number of neighbouring kingdoms and had been weakened by these conflicts to the point that, when the kings of Syria and Israel threatened again, Ahaz realized that he had no means to defeat these two adversaries.
So “the Lord said to Isaiah, ‘Go out now to meet Ahaz’”(Isaiah 7:3) “…and say to him ‘Take heed and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted””(Isaiah 7:4)
The Lord also spoke to Ahaz and said “‘Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God’…” (Isaiah 7:11) but Ahaz replied saying “…‘I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord’.”(Isaiah 7:12)
But Isaiah replied “…will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.” (Isaiah 7:13-16)
Isaiah goes on to say in 8:3-4: “Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me ‘Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Bas for before the child shall have knowledge to cry ‘My father’ and ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be taken away before the king of Assyria.”
It was just a few years later that the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III and then Shalmaneser V, his successor, defeated the kingdoms of Syria and Israel as Isaiah had predicted. So the predictions in Isaiah of the virgin birth and the triumph of the Assyrians
had a near fulfillment. This can be seen in the sign to Ahaz of a child to be named Immanuel, indicating that God was still with the people of Judah. Also, there was a distant fulfillment in a Child named Jesus indicating that He would be the Saviour of all people.
And so there must have been both an early and a second virgin birth to fulfill both the near and distant aspects of the total prophecy in Isaiah.
And that should give us all something to think about.
Scriptures from the NKJV of the BIble.
Information also from The Last Hour (pages 46-49) by Amir Tsarfati.
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