God had promised Ahaz that the sign of a virgin birth (or young woman – the Hebrew word there can mean either young woman or virgin. Isaiah says that the Lord himself will give you a sign: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
The sign of Immanuel is a sign for Ahaz. Because indeed, only a couple years later Damascus and Samaria were overthrown by Assyria. But then Isaiah continues and says that those days will be days of judgment, not blessing.
The sign of Immanuel – God with us – is a sign to the house of David that God will come in judgment. The only way that you can turn the prophecy of Immanuel into a nice happy promise is if you only read the one verse and totally ignore the rest of the chapter!
You might think that Matthew does this too. All he says is that "all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us)."
Matthew doesn't quote the rest of Isaiah 7!
But as you read the rest of Matthew's gospel, you very quickly start to realize that Jesus is the one who came in judgment to the house of Israel. W God comes to dwell in our midst, then truly judgment comes to the household of God.
The Virgin Birth is a sign of judgment, for in this birth – in the coming of Immanuel – God has come in the flesh.
As Paul says in Romans 8:3, "By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."
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