Immanuel

Kids say the craziest things. If you follow my wife’s blog, she routinely shares the gems that come out of the mouths of our boys. Whether it’s the cute way they phrase their sentences or how they mispronounce words, it’s fun to listen to them. Sometimes a quick conversation with a toddler is all it takes to change a crummy day into a joyful day.

As they grow up, their pronunciation tends to get better, but then we begin with the questions. Curious minds want to know things. A while back I was talking with my oldest son. He asked me, “How do the weather people know the weather?”

I tried to explain to him how they study the wind and the air pressure. They have tools they can use to help predict what the weather will be like. In the middle of my explanation he interrupts me and declares, “Oh. Maybe they just watch the news.”

As we get older, our curiosity and desire to know things continues to grow, but it becomes an irregular occurrence to come to such… interesting conclusions. Instead, the answers to our questions require effort and research. YouTube has helped with this, but there are still times when we must scour our sources in search of a reasonable answer to our questions.

This week, in preparation for my sermon, my studies brought me back to a question that I’d posed to one of my professors in college. We were looking at the gospel of Matthew and came across Matthew 1:23 which states, “and they will call him Immanuel.” I questioned my professor and asked him, “If this prophecy hadn’t been made, would we still call him Immanuel?” I still think it’s a valid question today. Do we call him Immanuel because a prophecy said we would? What about all the other people that have been named Immanuel? Would they be fulfilments of this prophecy?

To understand all of this, we must go back to the original prophecy and read it within its appropriate context. The specific prophecy referenced by Matthew can be found in Isaiah 7. In this passage Ahaz, King of Judah, is faced with a problem. Numerous enemies had already attacked Jerusalem unsuccessfully. He now received news that another enemy had joined with them in order to overthrow his kingdom.

In Isaiah 7:3, God then calls on Isaiah to take his son and go to meet King Ahaz. In Isaiah 7:4-9, God reassures King Ahaz by telling him that within sixty-five years these enemies will be gone. Sixty-five years is a long time, but at least he has the reassurance from God that everything will be okay. However, God concludes by saying, “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.” But that was not the end of the conversation.

God continues by telling King Ahaz to ask for a sign, anything from the heights of heaven to the deepest depths. It was a common understanding in that time that the rulers of Israel and Judah didn’t often take the word of the prophet without some miraculous sign. As we discussed before, miracles were God’s stamp of approval. Anybody could claim to have a word from God, but only God’s true prophets would accompany their message with a sign.

This is much like God had done with Moses at the burning bush. God didn’t wait for Moses to ask for a sign. Instead, he gave him one so that he might prove to the people that he came from God. King Ahaz, however, refused God’s sign saying, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.”

It may sound like a noble thing, but here’s one thing we should all understand. When God tells you to do something, it’s always in your best interest to do it, even if you don’t want to. There is no taking the high ground when dealing with God. If he tells you to ask for a sign, you are doing a disservice and insulting him to refuse. Hence God’s response in Isaiah 7:13-17.

Notice that while the New Testament authors clearly understood this prophecy to be speaking of the virgin birth of the Messiah, the context in which the prophecy was given seems to be drastically different. Many scholars have poured over this text in hopes to fully understand what was being said. Some have even come to the conclusion that the New Testament writers got it wrong.

As I studied this passage this week, I came across a blog post titled, Why I Deny the Virgin Birth of Jesus. For the record, I do not agree with this author’s conclusions, but in order to better understand what we do believe, we must solidify our footing by tackling the question of the skeptics. Most of this author’s arguments against the virgin birth stems from the Hebrew word almah. This word has been the topic of much debate regarding this passage.

As anyone that speaks a foreign language will attest, much is lost in the translation between languages. Words with a deep, rich meaning in one language will often have no equal in the translated language. You can see the many different translations of almah throughout the different translations of the Bible. While the NIV and the ESV translate the word as “virgin,” translations like the NRSV translate it as “young woman.” This difference doesn’t seem like too big of a deal until you get to the implications of the virgin birth of Jesus.

The argument of many scholars is that this “mistranslation” as virgin instead of young woman has led to a false theology that is believed by all of Christendom today. However, was it really a mistranslation? Clearly in the Greek New Testament the writers used the Greek word for virgin rather than the Greek word for young woman. They say that is was because, being simple, uneducated men, the writers didn’t understand the nuances of the word. However, what these skeptics fail to realize is that these men were not the first to interpret this as a prophecy of virgin birth.

When translating older documents, not only do we have the challenge of translating from one language to another, but we also have the challenge of translating across time. Even in our own language, words and their meanings change. To understand how the original readers understood this word almah, we must go back to their time.

Fortunately for us, there were other writers during that time that have written about this same prophecy. You may have heard of a book called the Septuagint. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It was written about 132 B.C. and was the Jewish scriptures that are often referred to in the Bible. When we look at this passage in the Septuagint it is translated exactly the same as is done by the New Testament writers, as “virgin.”

Skeptics will then say that the writers that translated the Septuagint must have also mistranslated the word almah. However, there is a much stronger case that the ancient scholars that devoted their lives to the scriptures understood the nuances and context of their own language far better than we do. This is not the only place that the word almah appears in the Old Testament. It is used seven times in total. Even in the Septuagint, there are only two times in which it is translated as virgin, as it is here. The other five times it is translated as young woman. That means that the seventy Jewish scholars that translated the Septuagint understood the context well enough to differentiate between the times when almah should be translated as virgin and when it should be translated as young woman.

There are many other arguments that skeptics try to put forward, but most of them can be easily refuted by a brief study and proper understanding of the scriptures. Isaiah’s prophecy to King Ahaz is two prophecies in one. He first tells of the to come who will be born of a virgin. He then goes on to tell of the trials and difficulties that the people of Israel will have to face before these leaders and their armies will be brought to ruin. Despite the arguments made by skeptics, the prophecy of the virgin birth of the one to come, Immanuel, is exactly that.

The necessity of Christ to be born of a virgin is prophesied long before Isaiah the prophet is even born. Back in Genesis 3:15 God prophesied of the woman’s offspring that would crush the deceiver. Notice that all other references of lineage come through the father, but God specifically points to the messiah as being the offspring of the woman. This is because he would have no earthly father. Through a virgin birth, the lineage of the messiah can only be traced through the mother. Thus Isaiah’s prophecy clarifies that which God had already stated. The one to be born, the Son of God, would truly be Immanuel, God with us.

Jesus Christ came, born of a virgin, to be “God with us.” While many people have been given that name over the years, He is the only one that personifies that name. We don’t simply call him Immanuel because a prophecy told us to. We call him Immanuel because that is who he is. He is God with us.

That is why we make such a big deal about Christmas. This wasn’t the birth of a great teacher or a great leader. The story of Christmas is the story of when God set aside his heavenly splendor to take on earthly flesh and be born of a virgin. The story of Christmas is the story of Immanuel, God with us.

Bethlehem

I’ve been a nerd for most of my life. As such, I’ve grown accustomed to the blank stares I receive as I talk about computers, video games, superheroes, etc. When I get into one of my nerdy rants, it’s not uncommon for my wife to tell me, “You know I have no idea what you’re talking about, right?”

When I followed God’s call to become a pastor, I hoped that it would curb some of my nerdiness. Certainly, pastors don’t get the same blank stares reserved for computer nerds, right? However, to my dismay, I found that nerdiness is just something in my DNA. Regardless of the topic, my passion for knowledge and understanding will always set me apart. As such, in addition to the title of computer nerd, I have happily accepted my newly earned title of “theology nerd.”

Being a pastor, however, does come with its perks. As a computer nerd people are free to tune me out and ignore everything I have to say. However, as a pastor and theology nerd, I have a captive audience each week, and in my experience, only about half of them will fall asleep. Out of those remaining, half will ignore me by checking their cell phones during the message. That means I have about 25% of the people each week that will at least hear what I have to say. That’s a way bigger audience than most computer nerds will ever get.

With Christmas around the corner, my theological guilty pleasure has been the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. We see many of them referenced within the nativity stories and throughout the gospels, but since I’m a stickler for context, I wanted to go back to the Old Testament prophecy in order to see what exactly was said. How were these statements that are seen as messianic prophecies by the early church understood by the ancient Jews looking forward to their messiah?

Recently I’ve been asking these questions about one passage in particular. The prophecy, written by one of the minor prophets, can be found in a book that you’ve likely never intentionally turned to. Found in Micah 5:1-5, this prophecy tells of more than just the messiah.         

Micah was a prophet in southern Judah roughly around 735 and 700 B.C. Throughout his writings we see him alternating between oracles of doom and oracles of hope, and this passage is no different. He first tells of a time in which Israel, or more likely Judah, will be overcome by their enemy. Unfortunately for Israel, this was not an uncommon occurrence. Throughout its history, Israel and Judah were conquered on multiple occasions. However, this one is particularly bad.

Notice in the prophecy that it is said, “They will strike Israel’s ruler on the cheek with a rod.” While this could be taken literally, it has a deeper meaning as well. I’m sure you’re familiar with the old adage “a slap in the face.” When someone uses this phrase they’re referring to a humiliating event or action. If your parents fly across the country to see you and you blow them off and ignore them, they’d say it was a slap in the face. You didn’t literally slap them but the insult is equal to a slap in the face.

Likewise, a ruler is to either die in their bed surrounded by their family or die gloriously in battle with their army. For a ruler to be slapped in the face with a rod means that enemy has completely overpowered them, and to add insult to injury, doesn’t outright kill the them but instead publicly humiliates them.

Scholars debate what event he’s alluding to in these verses, but it’s most likely referring to King Nebuchadnezzar’s capture of Jerusalem during the reign of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, around 586 B.C. His story comes to an end in 2 Kings 25. It tells of his rebellion against King Nebuchadnezzar and his ultimate capture. He was taken back to capture where he faced the greatest humiliation a king could endure. Each of his sons were murdered before his eyes right before his own eyes were gouged out. He then spent the rest of his life in a Babylonian prison.

However, much like the rest of his prophecies, Micah swings from the doom and gloom to an oracle of hope. Amidst the darkness a ruler would be born that would unite the people once again. “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

Bethlehem is often referred to as the City of David. We see in 1 Samuel 16:1 that Samuel is told to go to Jesse of Bethlehem, David’s father. Here in this prophecy it is distinguished even further by indicating Bethlehem Ephrathah. Ephrathah is likely the district in which Bethlehem is located. 1 Samuel 17:12 tells us, “Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem.” It’d be like saying, “Derrick, son of Alvin, an Iowan from Montpelier.” It’s also referred to in many instances as Bethlehem Judah because, much like Ephrathah, it is located within the territory of Judah.

The one that would come out of Bethlehem would be “one who will be ruler of Israel.” During this time the nation of Israel was split in two, Israel and Judah. Yet this prophecy speaks of one that will rule over a united kingdom. All of Israel will be abandoned (Micah 5:3), but in their time of need a great ruler will rise up to unite the people.

The ruler that would come from Bethlehem is said to be “whose origins are from old, from ancient times.” In our Christian worldview, the first name to come to mind when we think of someone “whose origins are from old, from ancient times” is Jesus. One may think that we’re trying to impart our modern worldview onto an ancient text in an attempt to understand it in a way that was never intended. However, this is exactly how the ancient Israelites understood this text as well. They knew full well that the words of the prophet Micah told of a coming messiah that would unite Israel in its time of need.

In Matthew 2:3-6, when the chief priests were asked of King Herod where the messiah was to be born, they quote this passage from Micah. They understood that this ruler to come, the one whose origins are from old, the one that would stand and shepherd his flock, whose greatness will reach the ends of the earth, and who will bring peace, was first to be born in the small town of Bethlehem.

As the old Christmas song says, Bethlehem was “little.” Even in the prophecy it’s described as small. This likely indicates not only its physical size and population but also its significance. Yet, in spite of its obscurity, Bethlehem was the birthplace of the great King David and was to be the birthplace of his heir, the messiah.

With two great rulers coming from this place, you’d think that it’d be a huge tourist attraction. You’d think the people of Bethlehem would be capitalizing on this. They could convert David’s childhood home into a historic landmark. They could sell t-shirts that say, “I walked where King David slept,” or “Bethlehem, I was there before the messiah.” If nothing else, you’d expect the people of Bethlehem to take great pride in their heritage and their future. Everyone would have a bumper sticker on the back of their mule that says, “The Best Kings Come From Bethlehem.”

Yet, despite its history and its future, Bethlehem remained a small, insignificant town. Jerusalem, however, knew grandeur. Captured by King David around 1010 B.C., it was also known as the City of David. The place of the palace and the temple, Jerusalem was a big deal in Israel. Why couldn’t the messiah be born there?

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth telling them, “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1 Corinthians 1:27). Bethlehem, despite being the birthplace of Israel’s greatest king and the future birthplace of the messiah, remained just a little town while Jerusalem, David’s conquest for the Lord, was a city of great standing.

But it was the small, insignificant town that God chose to use. Jesus Christ, the Lord of all creation, deserved to be born in the most glorious accommodations this world had to offer. He deserved to be born in Jerusalem, the City of David. Yet God chose to be born in the most humble of conditions. Just like David before him, God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose Bethlehem, small, insignificant Bethlehem, to be the birthplace of not one, but two great kings.

God chooses the foolish to shame the wise and the weak to shame the strong. That’s the way it was back then, and it’s the way he still works today. You may see wealthy celebrities, businessmen, or politicians giving thousands of dollars to help this charity or that, but the truth is that the majority of the good done in this world comes from people just like you and me. We don’t need to be wise, rich, or strong for God to use us. We need only be willing.

Within the Church of the Nazarene, December is designated as Compassion Month. It is a month when we remember our call to love and serve other as Christ. For more information on how you can become involved, please visit http://www.ncm.org/compassion.

For All The People

Sixth grade was the year of nicknames for me. I explained before that I had received the nickname Rico Suave that year. However, that wasn’t the only nickname I’d received. It was my first year at a new school, so everybody in my class was just getting to know me. It was during a game of kickball that I received my second nickname that year, “PK.” It wasn’t short for “pastor’s kid,” (my dad most certainly was not a pastor). Instead it stood for “power kicker” (kids are very original).

I soon became the favorite when picking teams for kickball. However, that fame didn’t last too long, because the kids in the outfield quickly learned to back up when I was up to kick. Regardless, I experienced my fifteen minutes of junior high fame. For that brief moment, I was somebody special.

Each one of us wants to be special. As we grow up, we try to find the one thing that we’re good at so that we can get the praise and adoration that we desire. It’s an important part of our development. When we’re little it can be something as simple as identifying with your family or identifying by gender.

I remember the excitement of my boys when I would take them to Men’s Breakfast (FYI, Men’s Breakfast will be this Saturday at 8:00 AM). Their faces would grow in excitement as they realized that they were able to go to this event because they were boys. Mom didn’t get to go, but they did because they were boys.

Each of us wants that one thing that will set us apart. For some it may be school. For others it may be sports or other extra-curricular activities. However, for some, be it right or wrong, it is the group they’re associated with, be it some secret society or their religious group. This was the case with the Israelites in the Bible. They prided themselves as being God’s chosen people, and they weren’t unjustified in thinking this way. God specifically told them, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.” (Lev. 26:12).

That kind of praise can easily go to your head. God repeatedly tells them that they are special, even going as far as to say, “The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.” (Deuteronomy 7:6). It’s understandable that the Israelites began to see themselves as special. If someone began referring to me as their prized possession, I think it’d go to my head a little bit too.

The Israelites had been hearing this same message for generations. Throughout the course if Israel’s history, God repeatedly tells them of his great love for them and how he has set them apart from all other people. It started when He came to their forefather Abraham and set he and his descendants apart as his chosen people. He came personally to Abraham and made a covenant with him. Over the years, God promised him many great things going all the way back to Genesis 12:1-3.

God told Abraham, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you.” He ultimately told Abraham that the blessings and curses upon other people would be dependent upon how they treated him. We see this throughout the history of the Israelites. Abraham goes to Egypt and has his wife taken by Pharaoh. Even though he didn’t know he was doing anything wrong, Pharaoh is afflicted with diseases until he returns Sarah to Abraham. The same thing happened with King Abimelech with both Abraham and Isaac.

Throughout the history of Israel we see these blessings and curses falling upon the people they meet. The Pharaoh in Egypt experienced the ten plagues. City after city fell to Joshua’s army under the Lord’s guidance. Nations that rose up against Israel were destroyed by the power of God.

However, not everything was peachy for the Israelites. Their own lack of obedience led to many hardships, but even during their hardships, God still kept His promises. When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they fell victim to plagues and curses until it was ultimately returned to Israel along with a guilt offering.

Israel was clearly God’s chosen people. He had set them apart to be a nation of priests, but what was it that made them so special? Scripture tells us that “Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6). That helps to explain why God chose Abraham above all the other people of the world, but the question still remains, why did God need to choose a special people?

God owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10), and he created all mankind. God’s love for all mankind is shown through his interactions. He took care of the widow at Zarephath. Jonah was sent to Nineveh that they might repent and keep from ruin. On the day God created mankind he called his creation “very good.” All people inherently belong to God. Why then did he need to select a special people from among all his creation?

For the answer to this, we begin by looking under the Christmas tree. We love to give good gifts, the kind that take someone’s breath away. It won’t be long before we start seeing the commercials that a mom opening a small box containing a beautiful necklace, or they might show a snow-covered lawn and in the driveway sits a brand new car with a bow on the top of it. Those are the kinds of gifts each of us wish we could give to our spouse or our children.

It’s been a few years ago, but when Dylan was just a baby, Renee and I received a special gift from her mother. Due to Dylan’s prolonged stay in the hospital, we were in a tight spot. One day when she came to visit, she gave us a small, wrapped box. When we unwrapped the box we found a set of keys. It wasn’t a brand new car by any means, but those keys were special to us. We knew what they meant. That car, as beat up as it was, was our ticket to freedom.

I don’t know if you’ve ever received a gift like that. Maybe it was a birthday present on your 16th birthday, or maybe it was a graduation present. When I was eighteen, I opened a present from my family to discover a simple piece of paper. I had a few months left in paying off my first car, and my family banded together to give me the car title early.

When you open a box like that and find a set of keys or a piece of paper you immediately know what that means. Your heart fills with excitement, not because of the piece of paper or the key, but because of what that item leads to. The piece of paper isn’t what’s special about the gift. The keys aren’t what’s special about the gift. While the keys as a present is special, the real gift is the car that awaits. Can you imagine the gift if it were merely a set of keys or a piece of paper with no car waiting outside? While they are special, they are only because of the true gift that lies behind them.

Likewise, God set aside Israel as his chosen people, as his prized possession. This wasn’t because they were inherently better than any other nation. At many times they were just as corrupt as the rest of the world. However, the reason they were special is because of what lies behind them. God’s explanation of this comes at the end of his promises to Abraham. He tells Abraham that he will make him into a great nation. He tells him that he will bless him and curse those that curse him. However, he concludes those promises by saying, “and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Much like the set of keys or the piece of paper, Israel was not inherently special. What made them special was the gift which would come through them, the messiah that would save the world. Paul points this out in his letter to the Galatians, “The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’” (Gal. 3:8).

We’re all familiar with the nativity story. I’ve said before, my favorite gospel is the gospel of Luke, mostly because of the historical research that Luke put into it. However, the gospel of Luke is also the gospel to the Gentiles. Luke, being a gentile himself, understood the importance of Jesus unlike the Jews ever could. This is why he includes in his story the angels appearing to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-11).

Just like God before him, the angel did not limit the blessing to just the people of Israel. “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Not some of the people, but all of the people. Regardless of nationality, age, wealth, fame, social position, education, etc. It doesn’t matter if you’re Democrat or Republican, blue-collar or white-collar. You don’t even have to be an American. You can be Jamaican, Russian, or Syrian.

This good news of great joy is for all the people, whether they believe it or not. God didn’t say that this good news is only for those that will ultimately believe in him. Of course, you have to believe in him in order to experience the great joy that is offered, but the good news is for everybody. This is why Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).  

This Christmas season, as we prepare our hearts for the coming of our savior, let us remember God’s love and his promise to Abraham. As children of the living God, let us be a blessing to all God’s people, no matter their background, no matter their beliefs. God’s love for you and God’s love for mankind was so great that even back when he was selecting a group of people as his own, he did so that all might be saved. When God chose a people to be his very own, when he chose them to be the recipients of his blessing, he did so in order that the whole world might be blessed. Likewise, may we love demonstrate God’s love.

This is the love that we celebrate during this Christmas season, that God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son. As we prepare ourselves for the coming of our savior, we look forward with anticipation and hope. He is our source of hope. It is good that we remind ourselves of this often, that He is the reason we have hope. God is eternal love, and he wants to show that love to us.

I heard a story this week that came from the book The Broken Way by Ann Voskamp. In it, she told a tale from her pastor during his trip to Jerusalem. He sat in an Orthodox Jewish classroom as the Rabbi began to teach them about the marriage customs of first-century Jews. The Rabbi explained that when a man wished to marry a young maiden, his father would pour a cup of wine and pass it down to his son. With the cup in hand, the young man would turn to the woman he loved and, with all the solemnity of an oath before the Almighty God, would hold out the cup of wine to the woman and ask for her hand in marriage. He would ask with these words: “This cup is a new covenant in my blood, which I offer to you.”

Isn’t it amazing that those are the same words spoken by Christ when he shared Communion with his followers. Not only were they sharing a meal together, Christ was demonstrating his love for us, just as a groom for his bride. This is the love that desires to shower upon us and all mankind.