 One of the things that we see with Messianic prophecy cited by Christian missionaries is that the vast majority of them are quite boring. To say that Messiah is born in Bethlehem, which is not true, but that's the claim that's made, well the truth is many people have been born in Bethlehem. To say Messiah is going to ride on a donkey, many people have ridden on donkeys. So the vast majority of the prophecies that are cited for Jesus really are not exclusive to Jesus. They can be done by many people. And that's one of the problems with Christian Messianic prophecy. You can always ask how do you know it's referring to Jesus and not someone else. So one of the most dramatic prophecies that is cited by Christian missionaries, they feel this is unusual and would only be relevant to Jesus. They claim that Jesus was born to a virgin. And here's how their argument works. The Christian argument is that the prophet Isaiah, in the seventh chapter of his book, they claim that the prophet Isaiah predicted. He prophesied that the Messiah would be born to a virgin. They then go on to say, this is like a mathematical algorithm, they then go on to say Jesus was born to a virgin. Therefore Jesus must have been the Messiah. That's how their argument works. Now there are numerous problems with this calculus. Number one, the seventh chapter of Isaiah is not a chapter that is speaking about the coming of the Messiah. One of the great problems with Christian readings of the Bible is they tend to parachute down into the middle of a chapter, land on a verse without any consideration for the context of what's taking place and then impose their own context upon it. They're saying that a text without a context is pretext. And so in the same way that in real estate, we're constantly told location, location, location. When we're reading the Bible, it's context, context, context. So what takes place in the seventh chapter of Isaiah is that there is a political crisis facing the kingdom of Judah. We have to be aware of the fact that at this point in Jewish history, this was after the major split among the 12 tribes, where after the death of King Solomon, the kingdom split into two and it became a northern kingdom of the 10 tribes basically. You all know them because they're called after a while the 10 lost tribes of Israel. They went into exile and apparently got lost. But that kingdom, the 10 tribes were the northern part of Israel. They were also referred to as the kingdom of Ephraim. So they had two names. They might be called the kingdom of Israel or the kingdom of Ephraim. And then there were the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Now the truth is it's a bit of an oversimplification because there were Levites all over the place and there were people from the 10 tribes. There was a sprinkling of them down in the south. Anyway, they might have been down in the south for business reasons or for marriage purposes. But basically we have the two southern tribes which is called the kingdom of Judah or Yehuda. And they were at war. They were at war. It's not a pretty part of our history with the 10 northern tribes called the kingdom of Israel. Now the seventh chapter of Isaiah tells us that things got very hot for the southern kingdom of Judah because the northern kingdom of Israel entered into a alliance, a military alliance with the kingdom of Syria. Just like we have Syria today. There was Syria back then. And so the king of Israel, the northern 10 tribes entered into a military alliance with the kingdom with the nation of Syria and their plan was to attack and destroy the southern kingdom of Judah. So now you can imagine if you were down south in the kingdom of Judah you would be frightened because normally you're outnumbered by the 10 tribes up north. That's a big enough problem as it is. But now they've aligned themselves with Syria which is a superpower. And now they're both coming at you. So that's what takes place in the seventh chapter of Isaiah. The king and the people in Judah are nervous. And so basically God sends the prophet Isaiah, God sends Isaiah to go to reassure Ahaz who is the king of Judah and his people that you shouldn't worry everything is going to be okay. That's basically the context of the seventh chapter of Isaiah. And within this chapter it comes to a head with the following. God tells Isaiah to let the king know. Just don't take my word for it that everything's going to be okay. Ask for a sign. King Ahaz, ask for a sign that everything is going to be okay. And the king says I don't need to ask for a sign. It's okay. So God says we're going to give you a sign anyway. We're going to give you a sign anyway. And in verse 14 of this chapter it says therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. You don't want to ask for a sign? God's going to give you a sign. What is the sign going to be? Behold an Alma, an Alma, a young girl, young woman is pregnant. There's a young woman who's pregnant and she shall bear a son and she will call his name Emmanuel, which means God is with us. You probably think that you're being overrun by these enemies and maybe God isn't with you. And that's why you're afraid. So the name of this child itself is meant to reassure the southern kingdom. God is with you. God is with you. But then the prophecy goes on. Butter and honey shall he eat so he may know to refuse evil and choose good. But before the child will know to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be abandoned. So here's the good news. You're being attacked by these two huge kingdoms. Isaiah is telling the king, look, there's a woman who you know. In the Hebrew it's Ha Alma, the young woman. Not just any woman who might be living in France or in Japan. It's a woman you know who she is. It's the Hei Hadidiyah, the Hei that points out we know, the identifying Hei. We know who this woman is. And the king is told there's a woman you know that's pregnant now. You're going to have a child. And you're going to name this child Emmanuel, which is symbolic of the fact that God is with you. Don't worry. And then the big news is, you know what, before this little kid learns to distinguish between good and bad, how long does that take? So at least five years old, six years old. When that happens, before that happens, these two kingdoms that are attacking you will be destroyed. You won't have to worry about them anymore. That is chapter seven of Isaiah. Not speaking about when the Messiah is going to come. As a matter of fact, the Christian reading would destroy this. Jesus is born 700 years later. So could you imagine that in this chapter, Isaiah is saying to the king, look, don't worry. There's a child who's going to be born 700 years later. And you have nothing to worry about. That's not going to help King Achaz and the people in Judah. They're worried about an imminent attack by Syria and the 10 northern tribes. Obviously, this has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus 700 years later. That's the first problem with this passage. And by the way, numerous Christian commentaries to the Bible admit they agree. This chapter is not about the Messiah. This chapter's context is simply a political crisis facing the kingdom of Judah about the year 700 BCE. Number two, the passage speaks nothing about a virgin. It doesn't use the Hebrew word for virgin, which is betulah. It uses the Hebrew word for a young woman, which is Alma. And again, many, many Christian commentaries and translations agree to this. They admit as much. Most modern Christian translations of Isaiah translated as a young woman and not as a virgin. So that's a second major problem with this passage. But let's think for a minute. Let's think. Would it be impossible for Isaiah to have said, behold, a virgin is going to become pregnant and have a child, and you'll name the child Immanuel. Is that so unusual? The truth is that hundreds of millions of children are born after a woman who's a virgin gets pregnant and has a child. That's normal. That's not so unusual. If this was speaking about a virgin who would conceive and have a child. What's the big deal? It's every, as we say in Yiddish, Mandik and Dunnestik, it happens every day. There's nothing in the passage here in Isaiah which says that this virgin will somehow remain a virgin after she gets pregnant and has a child. Nothing saying that. The truth is, if you think about it, a virgin birth would not be a sign. Achaz is being told, I'm going to give you a sign. How would a virgin birth be a sign? We know that a sign has to be something that you can see. If you cannot see it, it's not a sign. No one can look at a woman and know by looking at her whether she's a virgin or not. So in the time of Jesus, his mother Mary, it would not have been a sign to anyone that her birth was unusual. No one living in the land of Israel 2,000 years ago would be able to tell whether or not Mary was a virgin. It's not something that's visible. Now Christians say, wait a minute, if we're saying that this is a normal birth that's not supernatural, how is that a sign? Their problem is that Isaiah is being told to give the king a sign. So the Christians say to us, how would a normal natural birth that's not unusual be a sign? So the answer is that in the Bible, signs do not have to be supernatural. As a matter of fact, if you go through every time the word sign out appears in the Hebrew Bible, it is never supernatural except for the signs that took place in the land of Egypt during the 10 Plagues. So the exception, those miraculous events are called signs and they were supernatural. But every other time in the Bible where a sign takes place, it's not supernatural, but it's visible. You can see it. And so how is the birth of Emmanuel a sign? So we mentioned two. Number one, the birth of this child is a sign because his name is symbolic of the fact that God is with you and will not abandon you and he will save you from these enemies. And number two, the sign is that the birth of this child is giving you a time indicator. You're wondering when you're going to be redeemed. You're wondering when the danger is going to pass. Isaiah says before this baby is able to distinguish between good and evil, these two powers that are attacking you will be wiped away. That's the sign. The birth of this child is an indicator as to when you can start to breathe and be relieved.