Among the many promises God gave through His Old Testament prophets, one stands out in particular regarding His self-revelation and this year’s theme “Meeting God in Scripture.” That promise is the great Immanuel prophecy of Isaiah: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (7:14).

Immanuel means, of course, “God with us,” and Isaiah’s promise is one of the ultimate meetings of God and humanity. But Christians and non-Christians have argued throughout history as to the meaning of this verse: first, whether the Hebrew word betulah, translated “virgin” in most English Bibles, should actually be translated as “young woman” and second, whether the promised son was for Isaiah’s time or later. Even some Christian scholars opt for “young woman.” They feel that the promised “son” was Isaiah’s own son, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, whose birth was predicted by God (8:1-4), or possibly Ahaz’s son, Hezekiah.

We need to look at Isaiah 7:14 closely if we are to gain a firm understanding of what it
really tells us.

Looking at a sign

First, we should notice the context of this verse. Isaiah’s Immanuel promise was spoken as a result of King Ahaz of Judah not choosing a sign (when he was offered one) that God would overthrow two enemy kings who threatened Judah at that time (7:10-12). When Ahaz declined to see a sign, Isaiah then said:

“Hear now, you house of David! . . . the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. . . . 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” (vv. 13, 14, 16).

Note also what Isaiah wrote just a few verses later:

Then I made love to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. For before the boy knows how to say ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria” (8:3, 4).

If Isaiah’s son was indeed the promised son of Isaiah 7:14, the fact that his literal name was not Immanuel is irrelevant. It is no different than saying the promised Messiah would be a Branch (11:1), when His literal name is Jesus.

Others have argued that the king promised by Isaiah was Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, under whose rule Isaiah also prophesied. But the Scriptures show that Hezekiah was born nine years before Ahaz ascended the throne. So Hezekiah was born years before the Immanuel prophecy was given.

Nevertheless, chapters 7-8 of Isaiah do appear to show that the sign God gave would be fulfilled at that time. The most likely candidate for the promised son was Isaiah’s own son (8:8).

Near and future son

But a fulfillment of the Immanuel promise as a person in Isaiah’s time need not be its only fulfillment. It may be regarded as simply a “type,” or foreshadowing, of a greater future individual — just as the Old Testament speaks of numerous other individuals who were also types of Christ (Matthew 12:40; Romans 5:14, etc.). This is particularly likely when we consider Isaiah’s further prophecy of a promised child, recorded in Isaiah 9.

Both the title “God with us” in Isaiah 7:14 and the related titles regarding the promised child/king in Isaiah 9 (see sidebar, page 10) could not apply to Isaiah’s son or to Hezekiah. They lived and died at a time of impending national downfall (39:5-7), rather than at the time of unprecedented greatness foretold by Isaiah (9:7).

In the same way, there is ample biblical evidence to show that the translation “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14 can be a correct one. The word can indeed mean both “young woman” and “virgin.” So although the prophecy may have had a prior fulfillment in an individual of Isaiah’s time who was born of a young woman, it also had a later realization in a much greater individual born of a virgin.

In other words, Isaiah prophesied of near-future and far-future events, collapsed into a single vision. Thus, the arrival of his son, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, was only a prior, limited fulfillment of a final and ultimate reality fulfilled through the virgin birth of Jesus, who also perfectly fulfilled the reality of the name Immanuel.

Unique duality

When we read Isaiah’s prophecy of the Immanuel to come, we tend to focus on the meaning of the name. But that is only half of the significance of this amazing verse.

If we think about it, the incredible promise of “God with us” is coupled with the equally astounding prediction of Immanuel’s humanity. The words “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son” show the humanity of Immanuel as much as His name shows His divinity. This duality is stated again a few chapters later when Isaiah takes up the theme of the promised child again:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (9:6).

The promised One’s humanity is seen in the words “For to us a child is born,” with the emphasis on His human birth, contrasted with “to us a son is given,” signifying a non-human origin that is made clear in the titles that follow. And the four titles themselves are equally indicative of a human and divine duality, with Wonderful Counselor and Prince of Peace being essentially human titles and Mighty God and Everlasting Father being titles that could only apply to God (see sidebar).

So beyond its potential prediction of the Virgin Birth, the Immanuel promise of Isaiah stresses both the humanity and divinity of the One who was to come. It is a fact emphasized equally in the New Testament, as in the opening verses of John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (1:1, 14).

The statements that “the Word was God” and “the Word became flesh” are equally important in showing that the Immanuel promise was fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Luke’s Gospel confirms the duality in the same way:

“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end” (1:32, 33).

The words “Son of the Most High” and “his father David” once again proclaim the unique and unmistakable roles of Immanuel. We rejoice that He is the promised One who would be born divine and human, equally God and man, and who would bring the two together as the ultimate revelation of God and His salvation for us.