And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for *he* shall save his people from their sins.
An angel tells Joseph what to name the child, and the name comes with a reason attached. So the name raises two questions: who is this child, and who are "his people"?
The name has a Hebrew original, and that original spells out its meaning.
Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, or Jehoshua. It means "Jehovah is salvation," or "whose salvation is Jehovah." So there is good reason for the common observation that the name Jesus means Jehovah the Saviour. If that is so, what a subject this sets before our souls to think about and to adore! A child born into the world, of lowly parentage in man's esteem — God Himself declares this child to be Jehovah the Saviour!
The name itself was common. Its meaning is not.
The meaning of the name "Jesus" is deep — "Jehovah a Saviour" — and faith takes hold of those glories as being His: JEHOVAH in person, the SAVIOUR in action. Yet the name was not uncommon among the people of Israel. It was rather one of their national names — "Joshua."
This is the name He bore through a lowly life and a public execution — and it is the same name that announces who He is.
This name is precious beyond measure to us because it is His personal, human name. It tells us of His grace and tenderness, His lowly life, His sorrow, and His death. But this name also carries divine glory with it, for it means JEHOVAH THE SAVIOUR. Yes, the very name of His humiliation, the name written in mockery on His cross, declares to us the greatness of His person and the love of His heart.
The people of that day expected a Messiah who would deal with their enemies. The angel names a deeper enemy, and a greater title for the child.
But He had a title greater than any Joseph could pass on, even from David or Abraham. His own name would show it — His lowly name of Jesus, Jehovah the Saviour. Jehovah's people were His people. He would save them, not merely from their enemies, but from their sins. What a testimony to Him and for them! It is a blessing for any sinful soul to hear. And how they needed it — a people then puffed up with boundless hopes of greatness on earth in the Messiah they expected!
The angel speaks of a people God already owns.
He did not say that He would save sinners, Jew and Gentile. That is wonderfully true, and it comes fully to light as the truth unfolds. But — in perfect keeping with this first Gospel — He said He would "save His PEOPLE." The people of Israel were in view in the angel's announcement… They were Jehovah's people, chosen by God as His own possession, even though they had wandered far from Him. Their sins had separated them from Him, but He would not, He could not, abandon His rights in them. He would undertake their salvation.
The name was given along with the work it describes, and that work has one foundation.
This makes it plain that the death of Christ — His finished work, which He accomplished in and through His death — is the only foundation on which He will save His people from their sins… It was written about sins in the old order, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." It is just as true now that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, alone cleanses from all sin.
The word "save" is broad, but it never loses one particular thought.
The word is broad, but it always carries the thought of rescue from danger. Sin lies at the root of every danger that threatens us. So the New Testament fittingly opens with salvation from sins. This salvation is not only from the penalty of sins, but from the power of sins, and even from the love of them. The gospel does not offer release from sin's penalty while leaving us free to continue under sin's power, or to enjoy sin's temporary pleasures. If it did, it would be no true salvation. It would only encourage us to continue in sin.
- Name. Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua and means "Jehovah is salvation" — the name announces both who He is and what He came to do.
- Person. The name of His lowliness, mocked on His cross, is the same name that declares Him Jehovah in person, the Saviour in action.
- Work. He saves not merely from enemies but from sins — and His death is the one foundation on which that saving rests.
- People. "His people" here are Israel, Jehovah's own, whom He would not abandon — salvation for Jew and Gentile alike comes fully to light later.
- Reach. Salvation from sins covers penalty, power, and even the love of sin — anything less would not be salvation at all.
Now all this came to pass that that might be fulfilled which was spoken by [the] Lord, through the prophet, saying,
Matthew stops the story of Joseph and Mary to tell us why it happened this way. The birth was no accident of history. It kept a word God had already spoken. So who spoke that word first, what did it promise, and was it meant literally?
The phrase is not a one-off. It belongs to the way this Gospel writer keeps introducing Jesus.
This brings us to notice a marked characteristic of Matthew. He presents our Lord so often as the Fulfiller of the words of the prophet. So we find a typical expression, as we will see later: "to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet."
Matthew does not say only that Isaiah's words came true. He names the speaker behind the words, and that changes what the verse proves.
Notice, it is not merely that the prophet's saying was "fulfilled," showing how true it was as God's own word. It was "spoken by the Lord." Can anything show more clearly that the prophet Isaiah spoke it by inspiration? In the next chapter we find the same expression (verse 15): "to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet" — the prophet Hosea.
The words fulfilled here first came to a frightened king. Ahaz feared his enemies would wipe out the royal line of David.
The Lord spoke the promise at a time when the house of David was discouraged and downcast. King Ahaz, instead of trusting the Lord, continued in unbelief. The prophet asks him to demand a sign from the Lord. He refuses, with the excuse that he will not put God to the test. Then the prophet said that the Lord Himself will give you a sign. The prophecy spoken then is the sign for the discouraged king and the house of David. In other words, Messiah is to be born, He is to come from Judah, and from the house of David. How could the king fear destruction and extermination?
Isaiah's own children stood as signs to Israel, and Hezekiah was a royal child of that time. Commentators say none of them matches the child this prophecy promised.
The facts stated prove its literal fulfilment. Isaiah 7 — 9:7 does contain symbols and figures as well as plain language. But that does not stop the Holy Spirit stamping the prophecy of the Incarnation, not as an "idea" or general principle, but as a real event. There were other children in Israel given for signs and wonders. Shear-jashub was already born, and Maher-shalal-hash-baz was about to be; both were sons of the prophet. But they are as different from the virgin's Son Immanuel as Hezekiah is. Hezekiah was already at least a dozen years old, and he was born before Ahaz came to the throne. Neither he, nor Isaiah's children, were born of the virgin.
The word God spoke announced a name: Emmanuel, also spelled Immanuel, meaning "God with us." Set beside the name Jesus in the verse before, it shows two gifts arriving together.
His prophetic name, Emmanuel, showed that He would be God manifested in the flesh. He would be God among us in a far more wonderful way than He was ever shown among Israel in the days of Moses. It was far more wonderful too than the way He was with Adam in the days before sin entered the world. The two names are closely connected. To have God with us, without our being saved from our sins, would be impossible. His presence would only overwhelm us in judgment. To be saved from our sins without God being brought to us might have been possible. But then the story of grace would have lost its chief glory. In the coming of Jesus we have both.
The child was promised the name Emmanuel, yet He was called Jesus. If Matthew had shaped the record himself, he could easily have made the names match.
Some have seen a difficulty in that the child was to be named Emmanuel, and instead of this name He is named Jesus... We point out that this apparent contradiction is really a proof of the inspiration. How easy it would have been for Matthew to make everything fit so that every word would be in harmony with the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit guided his hand in writing... The name Emmanuel, God with us, is given only in Matthew. He is Emmanuel, and as such Jehovah the Saviour, so that in reality both names have the same meaning.
- Spoken. The prophecy did not begin with Isaiah; the verse names the Lord as its speaker and the prophet as the one who carried it.
- Kept. The words came true exactly in the birth of Jesus, and Matthew keeps using this line to present Him.
- Literal. The promise was an actual event, not a general principle. No other child of Isaiah's day fits the virgin's Son.
- Comfort. The sign first came to a royal house afraid of being wiped out. It promised that the Messiah would still come from David's line.
- Both gifts. The promise keeps both names together. Emmanuel brings God to us; Jesus saves us from our sins. Either gift alone would have left us short.
Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, 'God with us.'
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.