“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son.”
Isaiah 7:14a
British Baptist minister Charles Spurgeon, 1834-1892:
“Just as the woman … stepped first into transgression—lest she should be despised and trampled on, God in His wisdom devised that the woman … should be the author of the body of the God-Man who would redeem mankind.
“Though she herself first tasted the accursed fruit and tempted her husband, … lest she should be degraded, … God has ordained that … His Son should be sent forth ‘born of a woman,’ and the first promise was that the Seed of the woman, not the seed of the man, would bruise the serpent’s head…. He was not born of man; but the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary, and Christ stands as the one man … who could ever say, ‘I am pure.’…
“Oh, marvelous sight!… There is the finite and the infinite, … the vast unbounded One, whom earth could not hold and the heavens cannot contain, lying in His mother’s arms, He who fastened the pillars of the universe … depending on a creature for nourishment. Oh, marvelous birth! Oh, miraculous conception! We stand and gaze and admire.”
“Just as the woman … stepped first into transgression—lest she should be despised and trampled on, God in His wisdom devised that the woman … should be the author of the body of the God-Man who would redeem mankind.
“Though she herself first tasted the accursed fruit and tempted her husband, … lest she should be degraded, … God has ordained that … His Son should be sent forth ‘born of a woman,’ and the first promise was that the Seed of the woman, not the seed of the man, would bruise the serpent’s head…. He was not born of man; but the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary, and Christ stands as the one man … who could ever say, ‘I am pure.’…
“Oh, marvelous sight!… There is the finite and the infinite, … the vast unbounded One, whom earth could not hold and the heavens cannot contain, lying in His mother’s arms, He who fastened the pillars of the universe … depending on a creature for nourishment. Oh, marvelous birth! Oh, miraculous conception! We stand and gaze and admire.”
Scripture Focus
Isaiah 7:3-14
Insight
“Raise, raise the song on high,/ the virgin sings her lullaby;/ joy, joy for Christ is born,/ the Babe, the Son of Mary.” (English carol, c. 16th century)
Bible In A Year
- Daniel 3-4
- Proverbs 6
- Hebrews 7-8