"God with Us" May 6 Readings: Isaiah 5-8
Reading the Bible Chronologically in 2024
This year, instead of reading from Genesis to Revelation, we will read the Bible as the story flows, as it happened and was written. There are several plans out there and I have worked to combine them into a plan that lets the Bible tell its own story "as it happened." Remember, the Bible is inspired, but not in the order the books appear in our Bibles. The Old Testament is approximately 3/4 of the Bible, but we will give more emphasis to the New Testament, spending half the year in the Old Testament and half in the New.
Bible Readings: Isaiah 5-8
Background:
Isaiah has some of the most powerful prophecies of the coming of Christ, beginning with Isaiah 7:14, the "Immanuel" prophecy.
Daily Devotional: God with Us
The prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 is one of the best known of the Christmas story. A virgin will conceive and bear a son and that son will be "Immanuel" - which means "God with us." We are most familiar with this passage from its New Testament setting when it is clearly applied to Christ, the virgin-born Son of God. Bot when we look at it in context here, it becomes a little confusing.
Like many prophecies, it has a dual fulfillment. The first was the OT fulfillment, the specific focus of Isaiah's prophecy. Then, during the time of Jesus, the prophecy was applied in a more powerful way to Christ. In Isaiah's day, Pekah and Remaliah were threatening Judah and King Ahaz was scared. God gave him a sign. He would marry a young woman, a virgin maiden, and she would conceive and bear a son who would represent the fact that God was with him, with Israel, and would not abandon them to the wicked kings Pekah and Remaliah. This prophecy came true.
But this rescue of Israel from two evil kings bent on its destruction foreshadowed the greatest act of rescue God would undertake. A virgin would conceive again, but this time it would not be because she married a prophet but because of the miraculous power of God. This baby boy would be a deliverer, God incarnate, the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world.
The first baby, in Isaiah's day, was a symbol of the fact that God was with Israel. The baby that would be born in the second fulfillment, the greater fulfillment, was no symbol. He was literal! God with us. God in a human body. The Creator becomes part of his creation. God did not send us a set of principles to live by, a list of rules to follow, or a series of rituals to perform. He did not even give us an example to follow. He gave us himself. He came to us. He became one of us.
And because God came to us we can go to him! We have access to God through Jesus Christ. God became a man so that we could become the children of God. He left heaven so that we could go to heaven. He took on our nature so that we could share in his.
Like many prophecies, it has a dual fulfillment. The first was the OT fulfillment, the specific focus of Isaiah's prophecy. Then, during the time of Jesus, the prophecy was applied in a more powerful way to Christ. In Isaiah's day, Pekah and Remaliah were threatening Judah and King Ahaz was scared. God gave him a sign. He would marry a young woman, a virgin maiden, and she would conceive and bear a son who would represent the fact that God was with him, with Israel, and would not abandon them to the wicked kings Pekah and Remaliah. This prophecy came true.
But this rescue of Israel from two evil kings bent on its destruction foreshadowed the greatest act of rescue God would undertake. A virgin would conceive again, but this time it would not be because she married a prophet but because of the miraculous power of God. This baby boy would be a deliverer, God incarnate, the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world.
The first baby, in Isaiah's day, was a symbol of the fact that God was with Israel. The baby that would be born in the second fulfillment, the greater fulfillment, was no symbol. He was literal! God with us. God in a human body. The Creator becomes part of his creation. God did not send us a set of principles to live by, a list of rules to follow, or a series of rituals to perform. He did not even give us an example to follow. He gave us himself. He came to us. He became one of us.
And because God came to us we can go to him! We have access to God through Jesus Christ. God became a man so that we could become the children of God. He left heaven so that we could go to heaven. He took on our nature so that we could share in his.
Thank you, Father, for sending your Son - not just rules, or religion, but Jesus himself. Thank you for Immanuel.
Consider God's Word:
Reflect on the fact that God gave himself to us - the greatest act of love. It isn't Christmas, but we can still rejoice in God's great gift of love.
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