A heartfelt message about finding hope in uncertain times, drawing parallels between the ancient story of King Ahaz in Isaiah 7 and our modern struggles. We'll explores how God's faithfulness throughout history - particularly in the Christmas story - provides comfort and hope when we feel overwhelmed. Learn how the prophecy of Immanuel ("God with us") speaks to both ancient Jerusalem's fears and our contemporary anxieties, reminding us that we're not the first to navigate life's challenges with faith.
BBCC Bible Study Notes
PROMISES KEPT INSPIRE HOPE. - Isaiah 7/Matthew 1
December 1st, 2024
Introduction: God's promises come to desperate people, not merely curious ones.
"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." - Isaiah 7:14
III. GOD'S THREE-PART RESPONSE
"Be careful, keep calm and don't be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah." - Isaiah 7:4
"Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says: 'It will not take place, it will not happen.'" - Isaiah 7:7
"The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste." - Isaiah 7:14-16
"This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit." - Matthew 1:18
"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel' (which means 'God with us')." - Matthew 1:22-23
"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" - Jeremiah 29:11
Practical Steps While Waiting:
1. Keep calm and don't be afraid (Isaiah 7:4)
2. Trust God's promises even when circumstances seem impossible
3. Remember Immanuel - God is with us
BBCC Verse of the Week: Isaiah 7:4b (NIV) … Keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart…
Isaiah 7 - Study/Discussion Guide
Jesus didn’t show up on earth unannounced. A whole company of prophets spoke a myriad of prophecies that not only pointed to the surety of his coming, but also made specific promises about what his coming would produce. Micah prophesied that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days” (Mic. 5:2). Isaiah prophesied something that was both very specific and unthinkable, that Jesus would be born of a virgin. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). Genesis 22:18 tells us that Jesus would be born as a descendant of Abraham and as such would be the ultimate fulfillment of God’s covenant promises: “And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (see Num. 24:17). The Old Testament also foretells that Jesus would be called out of Egypt: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hos. 11:1; see Matt. 2:13). Jeremiah tells us that Jesus would be born in the middle of the worst kind of human suffering: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more” (Jer. 31:15; see Matt. 2:16–18). These prophecies remind us that the coming of Jesus is the result of the unstoppable zeal of a God of glorious redeeming grace. God wouldn’t leave his world in its evil-scarred condition of brokenness. He was unwilling to leave us lost in our sin and in hopeless bondage to the rebellion of our own evil hearts. He wouldn’t let his story end with dark moral failure and the requisite divine judgment. These, and many other prophecies, remind us that the great author of history’s plot determined that the overarching theme of his story would not be judgment, but grace. And he knew that if the story were to be a grace story, the central character would have to be none other than his Son. Only the divine Son of God would be up to the task of living a perfectly righteous life in the middle of sin and suffering, dying an acceptable death that would satisfy his Father’s holy requirements, and rising out of the tomb of his death as the author of eternal life for all who place their trust in him. – Paul Tripp
Matthew 1:23 quotes from Isaiah 7:14, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel,” which means “God with us.” For centuries Jewish religious leaders and scholars had known that prophecy, but they had not thought it should be taken literally. They believed it was predicting the coming of some great leader through whose work, figuratively speaking, God would be present with his people. But Matthew is saying this promise is greater than anyone imagined. It came true not figuratively but literally. Jesus Christ is “God with us” because the human life growing in the womb of Mary was a miracle performed by God himself. This child is literally God. Matthew was a Jew and would have been deeply conversant with the Hebrew Scriptures. That makes this statement even more startling. The Jews’ distinctive view of God made them the people on earth least open to the idea that a human being could be God. Eastern religions believed God was an impersonal force permeating all things, so it wasn’t incongruous for them to say that some human beings are particularly great manifestations of the divine. Western religion at the time believed in multiple nonomnipotent personal deities. And sometimes they would disguise themselves as human beings for their own purposes. So to Greeks and Romans there was no reason that a given personage could not be Hermes or Zeus, come to us incognito. Jews, however, believed in a God who was both personal and infinite, who was not a being within the universe but was instead the ground of its existence and infinitely transcendent above it. Everything in the Hebrew worldview militated against the idea that a human being could be God. Jews would not even pronounce the name “Yahweh” nor spell it. And yet Jesus Christ—by his life, by his claims, and by his resurrection—convinced his closest Jewish followers that he was not just a prophet telling them how to find God, but God himself come to find us. – Timothy Keller
Matthew declares that the events surrounding the conception of Jesus fulfills directly the prophet Isaiah’s sublime prophecy made during the dark days of national threat under the reign of Ahaz, king of Judah. In 734 B.C. Ahaz feared his reign would soon end because of the threat of attack from the north. Pekah king of Israel and Rezin king of Aram (Syria) had formed an unholy alliance and were threatening to invade Judah and replace Ahaz with a puppet king, the son of Tabeel (Isa. 7:6). The prophet Isaiah declared that God would not allow this to happen, reassuring Ahaz that God would maintain the promise that a descendent of David would sit on his throne forever (2 Sam. 7:11–17). In order to confirm that these two kings would not conquer Judah, Isaiah prophesied that the Lord would give to Ahaz a sign: A virgin would give birth. There are two primary words for “virgin” in Hebrew. The term <almah, which occurs in the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, means “maiden” or “young girl,” and many scholars contend that it almost always refers to an unmarried, virgin woman (e.g., Gen. 24:43; Ex. 2:8; Ps. 68:25).23 The other primary term is betulah, which can indicate a “virgin” (Gen. 24:16; Lev. 21:3) but also an “old widow” (Joel 1:8). The Greek translators of Isaiah 7:14 rendered the Hebrew term <almah with the Greek word parthenos, which almost without exception specifies a sexually mature, unmarried woman who is a virgin. - Michael J. Wilkins
