Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you[c] a sign: The virgin[d] will conceive and give birth to a son, and[e] will call him Immanuel.
Do you read footnotes? Like most people, for years I paid no attention to them. In this verse there are three (that is unusual). The first is after “you” and indicates that it is plural. English use the word “you” for one person or many, but many languages have two separate words. So the sign will be for all the people and not just Ahaz, the king. The next is after virgin” and indicates that the word could be translated as simply “young woman.” The last indicates that some texts that scholars have found and studied vary to say “son, and he or son, and they.” Matthew makes this famous by attributing it to Jesus in his gospel. But with all this attention to other words we can miss the point that whether it was in 700 BC with Isaiah or most especially in the first century with Jesus, that God is with us. Us! You and me and the guy down the street and the woman across the ocean. And so he is! Merry Christmas!
Logan Memorial Presbyterian Church 