“A
Virgin Shall Conceive, and Bear a Son”
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The earliest,
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The Nazarene Acts
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To
Choose or Not to Choose
In his vast mercy, Yahweh gives Ahaz another
chance, and speaks directly to him: “Ask me for a sign in heaven or
earth!” Then Ahaz makes a decision that
will ultimately bring ruin to Judah and Israel for the next twenty-six hundred
years. He tells the Almighty Yahweh, “I
will not ask for a sign from you!” So Ahaz defies Yahweh and causes a change in
plan, for Yahweh had two outcomes in mind for this dangerous situation. Had Ahaz repented, accepted Yahweh’s
advances, turned back, and called for a sign, the following good tidings were
promised:
Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel {El-With-Us}. On
curds and honey will he feed until he knows how to refuse the bad and choose
the good. Before that, the lands whose
kings are frightening you will be deserted. Yahweh will bring good times for
you such as have not been seen since Ephraim broke away from Judah.
(Isaiah 7:14-17 KJV / NJB)
Had Ahaz made a choice for Yahweh, Yahweh
might’ve then said, “O house of David, you might’ve had perfect peace. You might’ve had reunification, prosperity
and freedom from the threat of any enemies. You might’ve had a paradise here on earth,
and a worthy King like your ancestor David – a man after my own heart. But instead, you’ve chosen to ignore me, defy
me and dishonor me. So this favorable
outcome I’ll save for a future generation and people who will be in
expectation of my word and heedful of my voice. No, this isn’t for you. Instead, this is what you’ve chosen”:
I Yahweh will whistle
up mosquitoes from Egypt and bees Assyria, and they will settle on your
streams, on your rocks, on your rose bushes and water-wells. With the king of Assyria’s razor I’ll shave
your head and legs, and take off your beard, too. For your country will be nothing but brambles
and thorns and stubble. (Isaiah 7:18-24 excerpts).
Of course, this latter
prophecy did come to pass, for when Ahaz refused the help of Yahweh and
turned to the Assyrians in the east, they did eventually send envoys to shave
the legs and beards of all Israel, leaving nothing of Davidic rule or
Judean lands but brambles and stubble and Bedouin trash, just as Yahweh
predicted. However, Ahaz himself was
preserved, for through him the rejected prophecy was to be fulfilled
some seven hundred years later, in a time when there were no kings of the house
of David, but kings and queens in the spirit of Yahweh who sought the predicted
child born of a virgin.
Three
Wise Kings
Now in regard to these spiritual kings an
queens, give heed: A new envoy travels
westward out of Assyria, taking the arduous journey through Aram and it’s
capital Damascus and on to the highest city on earth – Jerusalem – once,
generations before, David’s Royal City.
Leading the caravan are magi – prophets – whom later tradition would
affirm to be three wise kings – with their precious cargo of gold, frankincense
and myrrh. For Yahweh had spoken the
word to these descendants of David in the east, whose ancestors had been
disbursed there as slaves 586 years before, when the Assyrian (Babylonian) armies shaved the beards of
Israel. Their race held precious all
the unfulfilled prophecies of Yahweh; they had hopefully waited and watched all
this time, generation after generation.
And now the promise was being fulfilled – the unmistakable sign of
Balaam shone overhead: “A star! A star!
Dancing in the night with a tail as big as a kite’s!”
“Where is he who is born King of
Judah? For we have seen his star in the
east, and are come to worship him,” they inquire (Matthew
2:2). The bloody King Herod, so-called King of the Jews,
pretender, also knows these prophecies, that
there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise
out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the
children of Sheth.
(Numbers 24:17)
and King
Herod fears, because the people consider him to be that Moabite who is to be
smitten and destroyed. Herod took great
enough stock in these Assyrian magi of the house of David, and in the ancient
prophecy given Ahaz, to hatch a plan of murder for all children born for
the last two years in hopes of getting the one born of a virgin.
Hail Mary!
Indeed, there is a child in the making, and
a fulfillment of the prophecy spoken of at the very beginning of this talk,
when Gabriel, the messenger of Yahweh, appears to a righteous virgin of
the tribe of Levi, living in Nazareth of Galilee, announcing:
Hail Mary, full of grace!
Blessed art thou among women.
Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and
shalt call his name Yahshua (which is, in translation, “Jesus”). He shall be
great, and shall be called the Son of El Elyon: and Yahweh shall give unto him
the throne of his ancestor David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob
forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of G-d. (Luke 1:30-35
excerpts)
The girl
isn’t afraid. She has seen and heard
this messenger before. And now she
confirms the Scripture by asking the angel a piercing question: “How shall this
be, seeing I know not a man?”
Hail
Joseph!
In the meantime, Yahweh speaks to an
ancestor of King David of the tribe of Judah, who also lives in the town of
Nazareth – a righteous old man – in a dream, saying,
Hail Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary
thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. (Matthew 1:20).
Fear
Not, Zecharias!
Seventy miles to the south, in a secret room
in the Jerusalem Temple called “The Holy Place,” Yahweh’s messenger Gabriel
tells a righteous priest of the tribe of Levi,
Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife
Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. He shall turn many of the children of Israel
back to Yahweh their god. (Luke 1:13-16 excerpts)
This is a
rather unlikely prophecy, since Zecharias’ wife Elisabeth is almost beyond the
years of childbearing. However, when the
virgin Mary travels from Nazareth to Jerusalem to care for Elisabeth her
kinswoman, Mary greets Elisabeth with the words, “Hail most blessed mother
Elisabeth,” and the elder woman proclaims,
Yea, blessed art thou
among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation
sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she who believed there would
be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by Yahweh. (Luke 1:42-44)
Fear Not, Bedouins!
In
the fall of the year, a few miles south of Jerusalem in the countryside around
Bethlehem, a poor and wretched clan of Bedouin trash is camped for the
night. Though they were of the royal
tribe of Judah, they were still outcasts among their own people. It was most unlikely that a throng of angels
would appear in this rustic campground.
But first, the angel of Yahweh materializes and prophesies to these
pariahs:
Fear not: for, behold,
I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of
David a Savior, which is Yahweh’s Anointed.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. (Luke 2:10-12)
And this was the sign that King Ahaz
refused so many centuries before, casting his people into slavery and
oppression they endured until this very century. So, suddenly then, a multitude of the
heavenly host materializes right there in that crude camp, and shepherds and
angels cry in unison, “Glory to El Elyon, and on earth peace, good will toward
men.”
Anna’s Changed Her Entreaty
In
the Court of the Women at the Jerusalem Temple, there’s a familiar old woman
who’s been seen there every day for as long as anyone’s been alive in the
entire province. Everyone knows Anna, a
prophetess of the tribe of Asher, because she publicly fasts and prays, and
recites to everyone she meets a passage of Scripture that she says will soon
come to pass. ¿The Scripture she
proclaims? “Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel:
Elohim-with-us.” But now, after all
these years, she’d changed her entreaty, attracting attention and
telling everyone that this prophecy is no longer to be, but has now
come to pass.
Simeon, Departing in Peace
A suckling
child is brought into Jerusalem with much fanfare – only eight days old – a
first-born – to be consecrated to Yahweh through the rite of circumcision. A certain young man came to dwell in the
temple courts because Yahweh told him to stay there and watch, for the prophecy
of the virgin bearing the “Immanuel Child” would come to pass in his lifetime,
and that he would see the salvation of Israel.
Now Simeon, of the tribe of Simeon, is a very old man that
everyone knows. He’d spent his entire
life – watching children being carried across his pathway for consecration;
watching for the child.
And when he spies Mary and Joseph bringing this child forth, his
old knees hoisted him up, and he steels the child from the arms of his mother,
hastily lifting the infant to the sky, and crying out,
O Yahweh, now lettest
thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have
seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a
light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. Amen and amen. (Luke 2:29-32)
A Prophecy For Today
Today – this same virgin has conceived in our lives, and this holy child
has been born in our hearts, and this light has dawned in our souls, and this
prophecy has been fulfilled again just as it has been year after year,
heart after heart. We know this child
not only as the righteous teacher, the Savior of the world, but as the
sacrificial lamb that made a way for us, strangers, pagans, heathens, sinners
and trash, to enter in upon the highway of his holiness toward the bosom of
Yahweh that illuminates the Eternal City of Love and Light. And his light and life are not just matters
of faith to us, but as the prophets foretold, he has shown us how to choose the
good from the evil, he has given us a share in his household, he has
strengthened us to tear down walls and build bridges, he has blessed the fruit
of our wombs. In his presence, our
spirits leap for joy, for we can see him in each other and rejoice in our
salvation with the host of heaven. And
when it’s time to go, we go in peace, to the eternal kingdom prepared
before the face of all people.
A Prophecy For the Future
As
for the future, Yahweh has left us his promise: “I will come again, and receive
you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Like King Ahaz, we have a destiny-changing
choice to make, a selection that may affect our families for the next seven
hundred years. It’s a choice for freedom
– or for bondage; for heaven or for hell; for Millennium or for judgment. Yahweh says, “If you will not take your stand
on me – you will not stand.” We must be
wiser and more humble than King Ahaz in our choice. Beloved, if you haven’t taken your stand on
him, if you’ve refused him or turned your back on him, if you’ve only given him
second place or some small compartment in your heart, now is your time to
say yea or nay to the sign of his coming – that a virgin shall conceive,
and bear a son, the sign that is now imploring you to come and
worship. Come and worship. Come.
Amen.