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.