These beautiful words of prophecy from Isaiah chapter nine are redolent of Christmas. Indeed, for some of us when reading these words, we can’t help but hear the chorus from Handel’s Messiah. But these words of prophecy capture the very essence of the incarnation: that the eternal Son of God took on flesh and was born as a baby in Bethlehem.
‘For unto us a child is born’
This prophesies the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, in all His perfect humanity. It was absolutely necessary that the Lord Jesus Christ should take on full humanity to complete the word of salvation: ‘Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil’ (Hebrews 2:14).
But the humanity of the Lord Jesus was different from ours – He was completely incapable of sinning: ‘For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15); ‘Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth’ (1 Peter 2:22); ‘And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin’ (1 John 3:5).
‘Unto us a son is given’
This refers to the essential deity of the Son of God. The Son of God is given, not born, indicating His eternal pre-existence. John is careful to note ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son’. Through all eternity, He ever was, ever is and ever will be the ‘only begotten’ Son of God.Unlike Latin poetry which heavily relies on rhythm or meter, of classic English
poetry that relies on rhyme, Hebrew poetry is marked by the bringing together of pairs of lines of thought. Here, with complementary phrases, the Hebrew poetry captures the remarkable nature of the incarnation – that the child born in Bethlehem was the eternal Son of God.
Isaiah further prophecies that the Son who is God would come into the world:(Isaiah 7:14)
‘Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel’, meaning God with us. At the beginning of his gospel, John captures the very essence of the incarnation: (John 1:1, 14) ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.’
The angel states how this will come to be: (Luke 1:35) ‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.’ And the apostle Paul succinctly states, (1 Timothy 3:16) ‘God was manifest in the flesh’. We were recently reminded that we need to defend the truths of the incarnation, but this is also something to meditate upon and enjoy: ‘For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given!
Richard Pilgrim