"Isaiah's Immanuel Prophecy" (Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Advent, on Isaiah 7:10-17)

Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

There’s that word “Emmanuel.” And we sing that hymn every Advent. But what’s it mean? Who is this “Emmanuel”? Why are we praying to Emmanuel to “come and ransom captive Israel”? And this “mourning in lonely exile” business--what’s that all about? Today we’ll find out, and we’ll find out how it applies to us, as we listen to “Isaiah’s Immanuel Prophecy.”

The year is 735 B.C. The nation of Israel has been split into a divided kingdom, north and south, for almost 200 years now. The northern kingdom is called Israel, the southern kingdom is called Judah. Should be one kingdom, one nation, but it wasn’t so. The king of the southern kingdom, Judah, is a man named Ahaz. Ahaz is a descendant of the house of David, from whom came the line of the kings of Judah.

So here’s the deal. The southern kingdom, Judah, is being pressured--indeed, threatened--by the northern kingdom, Israel, to join with them in an alliance with Syria to withstand the nation of Assyria, which is seeking to expand its empire, as empires are wont to do. You got all that? Israel and Syria are wanting Judah to join with them in opposing Assyria. But if Judah doesn’t, then Israel and Syria could attack Judah, which they are on the verge of doing. “If you don’t join with us, we’ll take you over.”

Naturally, this has the king of Judah, King Ahaz, worried. “The heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind,” it says in the verses just before our text. What should Ahaz do? Rely on a political alliance to hold off Assyria? But if he doesn’t, what will Israel and Syria do to him and his people? Ahaz seems caught between a rock and a hard place. That’s the situation.

In steps the prophet Isaiah. He’s got a word from the Lord for King Ahaz. It’s a word of assurance, but also a word of rebuke and a word of warning. Isaiah first tells Ahaz, “Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint.” Those nations that are pressuring you, Israel and Syria, they will not succeed in their threat against you. “It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.” Listen, Ahaz, “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.”

Then the Lord has more to say to Ahaz, and that’s where our text picks it up: “Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz: ‘Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.’ But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.’” At first it sounds like Ahaz is being pious by not asking for a sign. But he’s just trying to avoid having his lack of faith being exposed. And the Lord himself is telling Ahaz to go ahead and ask for a sign.

So Isaiah continues to tell Ahaz what the Lord is saying: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that 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.” Ahaz has not believed the word of the Lord, so the Lord will give Ahaz a sign to confirm what he’s been saying.

The Lord has been saying that the threat of Israel and Syria will not stand, and this sign will confirm it. A young woman will become pregnant and have a son, and his name will be called Immanuel. Now that in itself is not so remarkable. Women get pregnant and have sons all the time. Even the name, Immanuel, is not so strange. In Hebrew, it means “God with us,” and there are lots of names like that in the Old Testament, names with “God” or “the Lord” built into the name. So not much of a definitive sign so far.

But Isaiah continues. He tells Ahaz that before the child has reached a certain age, a young age, the threat now facing Judah, the threat that looks so serious at the moment--that threat will be gone. “The land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.” And so Jerusalem will not be taken. Judah will be spared. That will be the sign confirming what Isaiah is saying now, when you see this come to pass within the next few years.

And indeed, that is what happened. Israel and Syria did not succeed in their plan against Judah. Both Israel and Syria were defeated by the Assyrians, the northern kingdom falling to Assyria in 722 B.C.

But then, look out, Ahaz! Assyria is not going to stop with knocking off Israel and Syria! Next they’re going to be coming after Judah! Like a mighty river overflowing its banks, Assyria is going to proceed farther south and reach the walls of Jerusalem. Isaiah puts it like this: “The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah--the king of Assyria!”

And again, that is what came to pass. Assyria threated Jerusalem in 701 B.C. And at that time Isaiah had to counsel the next king of Judah, Hezekiah, to trust in the Lord and not in political or military alliances. Hezekiah did heed the word of Isaiah, and that threat again was lifted.

A hundred years later, though, another threat came along, and that was the Babylonians. They did take the people captive, took them as exiles to Babylon, and that’s what the hymn is alluding to when it says, “And ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here.” Transfer that to the church, to us, as we sit in this vale of tears and wait for the Lord to come and set us free, and that’s the connection.

What’s the point in all of this? To trust in the Lord, and not in any human measures of strength. To trust in the Lord, and not in man, not in armies, not in self, to be your deliverance. “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God.”

“Immanuel,” “God with us.” God being with you is all you need. “Immanuel.” That is the word Ahaz should have heard and heeded back in 735 B.C. Now fast-forward to, well, like 1 B.C., in other words, to just months before the birth of Christ. There is a man named Joseph, and he seems stuck between a rock and a hard place. The woman he’s planning to marry, Mary--she has turned up pregnant. And Joseph knows he’s not the daddy. So what can he do? He decides to break it off. Obviously, to him, she’s been fooling around with somebody else.

But such is not the case. The Lord comes with a word for Joseph. It’s a word of assurance. Mary has not been fooling around. She is still a virgin. She is pregnant in a unique, one-of-a-kind way, by the Holy Spirit. Mary is part of the fulfillment of a prophecy, Isaiah’s Immanuel prophecy: “‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).”

This son that Mary will bear, he will be the ultimate “God with us,” the ultimate “Immanuel.” His name will be “Jesus,” meaning “Savior,” “for he will save his people from their sins.” “Their sins.” That is the big threat facing people. Not Syria or Assyria or Babylon or an unfaithful fiancée. But sins. Our sins. Still to this day. That hasn’t changed. We still need saving, we still need deliverance, because of our sins. That’s what separates us from God. That’s what leads to death, the Big Death of eternal damnation. Where are we going to look for help with that?

Don’t pull an Ahaz. Don’t look for sources of help that cannot save or deliver. Only one can. It is the Lord himself, in the person of this “Immanuel,” this “God with us” one. That’s Jesus, the son of Mary. He is God in the flesh, come to save us. Come to be with us, God with us, in our midst to save us.

Jesus, Immanuel, saves us from our sins. He does this by offering himself up as the sacrifice for our sins. This is why the Son of God had to be born in the flesh, to live as our brother and to fulfill all righteousness and to suffer and die in our stead, in the place of sinners like us. Jesus has done this, for you, in order to save you! He is Immanuel, God with us, now risen from the dead and living and reigning to all eternity. And he is coming back to rescue you from all evil and to raise you from the dead. You have his word on it. You have his name on it, his name placed upon you in Holy Baptism. You are secure in him.

Dear friend, do you ever find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place? Beloved, no threat can overpower you. No threat can shake you like trees in the wind. Trust in Jesus, Immanuel, God with us.

Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel!

Isaiah 7:10-17 (ESV)

Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that 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. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah--the king of Assyria!”

“Dear friend, do you ever find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place? Beloved, no threat can overpower you. No threat can shake you like trees in the wind. Trust in Jesus, Immanuel, God with us.”

You look into my dark heart and say just what needs to be said when I need to hear it! I don’t know HOW you do this, but you always do.

Thank You! You. Rock. :)

The name Emanuel is a contraction of the Hebrew ‘emunah’, which means faith, and ‘El’ (the name of G-d in Hebrew). Another translation has been God’s Faith. King Jame’s translators thought God with us. Either translation works.

“Im” means “with,” “manu” is the suffix that means “us,” and “el” means “God.” “God with us.” And Matthew 1:23 confirms that this is exactly what it means.

From the Hebrew, not greek...Look up Emunah - it is eye-opening to understand the concept. As I stated, I did not have an issue with the Greek or Hebrew origin (or Aramaic), as I believe that they mean exactly the same. As I stated, this was not my theory, but I like to see how the original was translated, and why. Thanks for your Greek interpretation.

No, this is not a “Greek interpretation.” This is basic Hebrew. “Im” is a Hebrew preposition meaning “with,” and “-manu” is a 1st-person plural suffix. The Hebrew word you’re referencing is an entirely different word. I ought to know this, since I have advanced degrees in both Hebrew and Greek and have taught both languages.

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