Flashback Episode — The Messiah’s Fire: Luke 3:1-18


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As we continue moving through Luke’s gospel, we discover that after Luke describes Jesus’ childhood, Luke then transitions back to talking about Jesus’ forerunner in ministry, John the Baptist. However, to set the stage for the rest of his gospel, Luke gives us a historical overview of the state of the empire and the state of Judea by letting us know exactly when the events in the rest of his gospel occurred.

Let’s read this passage, and discover how Luke sets the stage for Jesus beginning His ministry. Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 3, and we will read from the New Living Translation. Starting in verse 1, Luke tells us that:

It was now the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, the Roman emperor. Pontius Pilate was governor over Judea; Herod Antipas was ruler over Galilee; his brother Philip was ruler over Iturea and Traconitis; Lysanias was ruler over Abilene. Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests. At this time a message from God came to John son of Zechariah, who was living in the wilderness. Then John went from place to place on both sides of the Jordan River, preaching that people should be baptized to show that they had repented of their sins and turned to God to be forgiven. Isaiah had spoken of John when he said,

“He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
    Clear the road for him!
The valleys will be filled,
    and the mountains and hills made level.
The curves will be straightened,
    and the rough places made smooth.
And then all people will see
    the salvation sent from God.’”

When the crowds came to John for baptism, he said, “You brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee the coming wrath? Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones. Even now the ax of God’s judgment is poised, ready to sever the roots of the trees. Yes, every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.”

10 The crowds asked, “What should we do?”

11 John replied, “If you have two shirts, give one to the poor. If you have food, share it with those who are hungry.”

12 Even corrupt tax collectors came to be baptized and asked, “Teacher, what should we do?”

13 He replied, “Collect no more taxes than the government requires.”

14 “What should we do?” asked some soldiers.

John replied, “Don’t extort money or make false accusations. And be content with your pay.”

15 Everyone was expecting the Messiah to come soon, and they were eager to know whether John might be the Messiah. 16 John answered their questions by saying, “I baptize you with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 17 He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.” 18 John used many such warnings as he announced the Good News to the people.

In this passage, we discover that John was not a pushover preacher, but he also was not a judgmental preacher either. John’s preaching cut straight to the heart of God’s message and intent for His people.

While reading Luke’s description of John’s message to the people, three verses stood out in my mind and these three verses together paint a powerful picture of what God’s ideal is for those who want to turn away from sin and return to Him.

A surface reading of John’s preaching might make John sound like the first angry street preacher. However, John’s message is different. John subtly assumed something about those who came to listen to him that might be easy to miss if we aren’t paying attention. In verse 7, when the crowds of people came to John to be baptized, John challenges them by calling them snakes before saying, “Who warned you to flee the coming wrath?John assumed that those coming to listen to him and those who wanted to be baptized were coming because God was drawing them to him. I doubt John responded well to passive listeners to his preaching.

At the heart of John’s message was a message of returning to God before it was too late. While John might sound extreme in what he challenges the people by saying, nothing John tells the people is impossible or outside of God’s will. John’s message is summarized with two phrases found in verses 8 and 9, “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God…Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.

When asked by specific people what God would want them to do, John has a clear, practical response. In John’s response to those present, we discover that God desires to see compassion for others above saving for the future, about working honestly and uprightly even if we are in a work environment that is full of corruption, and to be content with what God has blessed us with.

This summary is found in John’s response to the crowds, the tax collectors, and to the soldiers who asked what God wanted from them. If we choose to live lives that are defined by showing compassion for others above saving for our own future and lives that are lived honestly while also being content, then we will be living lives in alignment with John’s message to the people. Living like John describes proves to the world that we are living for God and not for ourselves and that we have repented.

The last phrase I want to focus briefly on in John’s message is found in verse 17. After describing that the Messiah God is sending will baptize the people with fire while he only baptizes with water, John brings a visual illustration into this warning, saying the coming Messiah “is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire.

While some people understand the fire in this verse to literally never end, as this translation frames this idea, a better way to describe it would probably be an unstoppable fire. This fire is reserved for the chaff which was separated from the wheat. While some might consider this illustration describing different groups of people, with one group representing the wheat and another group representing the chaff, there is a different way we can understand this illustration.

On a stalk of wheat, there is grain and there is chaff. The grain is useful while the chaff is not. In our own lives, there are things that are valuable and things that are valueless. When we return to God, I believe He wants to separate the valuable parts of our lives from the valueless parts of our lives. God wants to redeem the parts of our lives that are significant, important, and special, while He wants to completely remove and eliminate the parts of our lives that are worthless.

The challenge for us then is to align ourselves with God and let Him work in our lives discarding the things that He knows are worthless. If we want to hold on to something that God is planning on throwing into the unstoppable fire, we run the risk of choosing to be consumed by the fire with something that is worthless. While God won’t stop us from making this choice, God is much more interested in helping us give up the things in our lives that are worthless from eternity’s perspective.

John the Baptist warned the crowds about the coming judgment, but far from being judgmental, John challenged people to return to God before it was too late! While we don’t have to be as forward or direct as John was, let’s live our lives in a way that proves we have returned to God and in a way that doesn’t let any worthless things in life steal our focus away from that which is priceless. The most valuable thing God has blessed us with is our hearts, and while our hearts are stained with sin, God wants to clean, fix, and recreate new hearts within us that reflect His heart for us!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and purposefully give your heart to Him. Let God clean your life and discard what He knows is worthless while letting Him redeem the things in your life He knows are valuable. God knows your life better than you do, and God has a plan for your life that is bigger than you could ever imagine! Discover what God has in mind for you by letting Him lead and direct your life moving forward into the future.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow and discover what God wants to teach you. Through the pages of the Bible, discover how we can open our hearts to God and invite Him into our lives!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or walk away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Flashback Episode: Year in Luke – Episode 6: Discover some amazing things we can learn from how Luke describes John the Baptist’s message to the crowds before Jesus steps into the public eye.

Immanuel, God with Us: Isaiah 7:10-16


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In our last episode, we focused on the first of two prophecies found within one verse in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Let’s pick back up where we left off and look at the other amazing prophecy found within this verse.

However, to give us a little more context for this prophecy, let’s read some surrounding verses in our time together. Our passage and prophecy is found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 7, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible. Starting in verse 10:

10 Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!” 13 Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well? 14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. 15 He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. 16 For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

In our last episode, we focused in on the virgin becoming pregnant with a son, and in this episode, let’s focus our attention onto the last portion of this prophecy, specifically that the name this virgin would give her son would be the name Immanuel.

This prophecy is fascinating in my mind, because throughout the entire Bible, the only time I can see Jesus being called Immanuel is prior to His birth, specifically within a quotation of Isaiah’s prophecy that we find in Matthew’s gospel. In Matthew’s gospel, as Matthew transitions away from Jesus’ genealogy, he shifts to describing Joseph’s perspective after learning that his fiancée was pregnant, and not by him.

In Matthew, chapter 1, starting in verse 18, Matthew writes:

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

In a strange twist, the angel Gabriel tells Joseph and Mary to name their baby Jesus, but this doesn’t seem to be aligned with Isaiah’s prophecy about the name of the Messiah being Immanuel.

I wonder whether this was one such prophecy the religious leaders used to discredit Jesus in their minds. With a clear name given in the writings of Isaiah, we don’t see a straight-line fulfillment in the naming of Jesus. Throughout the gospels, Jesus is often called Jesus Christ, or Jesus Messiah, but I don’t believe Jesus is ever called Jesus Immanuel.

While this distinction might be a reason for a skeptic to discredit Jesus, this discrepancy is only visible on a shallow reading of the text.

To dig a little deeper, let’s look back at how Matthew interprets the name Immanuel to get an idea of how best to understand this prophecy. In Matthew, chapter 1, verse 23, Matthew tells us the name Immanuel means “God with us.

While we don’t see Jesus being directly called, God with us, or Immanuel, we do see an amazing fulfillment of this concept within Jesus’ ministry. Throughout Jesus’ ministry, we discover what God is like through how Jesus lived and interacted with people.

In one event that is found in Luke’s gospel, Jesus, His disciples, and a crowd approach the town of Nain, and they meet a funeral processional leaving the town. Against all socially accepted norms, Jesus stops the funeral processional, touches the coffin, and resurrects the child.

Luke’s gospel describes the crowd’s reaction in chapter 7, verse 16 by saying: The people were all filled with wonder and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.”

While we might not have a clear, direct, or repeated use of the name Immanuel within the gospels to describe Jesus, every time He healed, helped, or moved God’s kingdom forward, He fulfills this prophecy being God’s representative to humanity.

In a similar but less profound way, when we step into the life and plan God has placed before us, we can fulfill a tiny portion of God being with us. When we help other people and show God’s love in the world, we are God’s representatives and we are able to lead people in exclaiming that God is willing to be with and help His people!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open these challenges by saying, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose today to live your life in a way that brings God glory, and in a way that show’s God’s love in the world around you. The closer you draw to God and lean on Him for help living in the world today, the better you will be able to show others His love for you and His love for them.

To do this, continue to regularly pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn what God is like, and to realign your life with Jesus’ life. When we open our lives and hearts to Jesus in prayer and Bible study, we allow God to send His Holy Spirit into our hearts and transform us from the inside. When we let God work through us, and when we let Him use us to draw people to Jesus, don’t be surprised when the Holy Spirit shows up in your life in amazing ways.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Year of Prophecy – Episode 6: Through the prophet Isaiah, God points forward to the Messiah being called Immanuel, a name which means God with us. However, since Jesus was named Jesus, how can we reconcile these two seemingly in conflict ideas? While this prophecy may have stumped the religious leaders, it’s possible we can reconcile this in our time together.

Join the discussion. Share your thoughts on this passage.

Flashback Episode — In God’s House: Luke 2:39-52


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As Luke’s gospel transitions out of sharing about Jesus’ birth and childhood, Luke shares one last event that took place while Jesus was young. This event, while being very scary on one hand, is also especially funny to me on another hand. This event also contains a powerful overall theme, while also containing some amazing insights within the details.

Let’s read about what Luke describes happened during Jesus’ childhood. Our passage for this episode is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 2, and we will read from the Contemporary English Version. Starting in verse 39, Luke tells us that:

39 After Joseph and Mary had done everything that the Law of the Lord commands, they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee. 40 The child Jesus grew. He became strong and wise, and God blessed him.

41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for Passover. 42 And when Jesus was twelve years old, they all went there as usual for the celebration. 43 After Passover his parents left, but they did not know that Jesus had stayed on in the city. 44 They thought he was traveling with some other people, and they went a whole day before they started looking for him. 45 When they could not find him with their relatives and friends, they went back to Jerusalem and started looking for him there.

46 Three days later they found Jesus sitting in the temple, listening to the teachers and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was surprised at how much he knew and at the answers he gave.

48 When his parents found him, they were amazed. His mother said, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been very worried, and we have been searching for you!”

49 Jesus answered, “Why did you have to look for me? Didn’t you know that I would be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he meant.

51 Jesus went back to Nazareth with his parents and obeyed them. His mother kept on thinking about all that had happened.

52 Jesus became wise, and he grew strong. God was pleased with him and so were the people.

In this event, as we read it just now, I noticed an interesting set of ideas contained in verses 48 and 49. These verses contain Mary’s scolding Jesus for staying in the city, and Jesus’ response to Mary.

First, I think it is interesting and significant that Mary does the talking. While I’m certain she spoke accurately for Joseph, what she says and how Jesus replies would not have the same significance if Joseph had said it rather than Mary. In verse 48, on finding Jesus in the temple, Mary scolds Jesus by saying, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been very worried, and we have been searching for you!

While Mary is clearly referencing Joseph as Jesus’ father, Jesus has a different perspective. In Jesus’ response, He tells Mary, “Why did you have to look for me? Didn’t you know that I would be in my Father’s house?

While Mary references Joseph as Jesus’ father, which was accurate from one perspective, Jesus shifts perspective and references God the Father as His father. The temple Jesus was standing in was known as being God’s house on earth, and in a subtle way, Jesus reminds Mary and Joseph that He has a much bigger mission because He is God’s Son while also being her Son.

In a similar way, when we accept Jesus into our lives and hearts, we are adopted into God’s family and we too can call God our Father!

However, while that theme is powerful, another theme in this passage is even more significant in my mind. This other theme stresses the importance of staying connected and close to Jesus. While Mary and Joseph only travel one day apart from Jesus, it takes them three days to find Jesus.

For a while, I had thought that the three days of searching included the travel time back to Jerusalem. While the day’s trip away likely was covered in less time going back, the way Luke frames this search is that the three days begins when Mary and Joseph arrive back in the city.

Since time is counted inclusively in first century culture, the first day of searching is day one, and the third day of searching, when they ultimately found Jesus, is day three. After two nights of being without Jesus, I would imagine Mary and Joseph would be very worried. This leads us to discovering a powerful theme that: It is easier to lose Jesus than it is to find Him! One day without Jesus may ultimately result in three days of searching and worry to find Him again!

However, I also wonder if the three days is significant. Looking at the big picture of Jesus’ life, is there another block of three days that stand out?

In my own mind, I can think of no more significant of an event as crucifixion weekend. While Jonah’s time in the belly of a fish is used to foreshadow Jesus’ time in the grave, I wonder if the three days Jesus’ spent apart from His parents also subtly foreshadowed the time Jesus would spend away from His family while in the grave. Luke clearly wrote this event from Mary’s perspective, and I don’t believe this was accidental at all. I wonder if Luke had interviewed Mary when he was gathering material about Jesus’ life.

But the biggest theme I see in this passage is found in Jesus’ reply to Mary: “Didn’t you know that I would be in my Father’s house?

While it is easy to lose Jesus, and finding Him after we have lost Him can take more time than we might expect, this is only because we don’t understand what Jesus is doing. Perhaps Mary and Joseph’s emotions got in the way of thinking logically, or perhaps they simply didn’t think Jesus would be interested in returning to the temple, but regardless of the reason, it took Mary and Joseph longer to find Jesus because they didn’t go to the place where God had led Jesus.

There are many possible reasons for Jesus spending these three or four days in the temple. However, while we don’t have time left in this episode to discuss these, I find it amazing that even though the Jewish traditions had corrupted the religion God had set up through Moses, God had not left His people or His temple. This tells me that when we are ready to find Jesus, He is ready to be found among people who are seeking after Him, even if they don’t have all the details right!

In our own lives, it is more important that we seek Jesus first and let Him teach us than it is for us to try to get our lives straight and accurate before coming to Jesus. Coming to Jesus first leads us to life, trying to get our lives ready first will always keep us away. Jesus is the only way we can be transformed into people who are savable in God’s eyes!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus. If you find yourself missing Jesus, go to where you see God moving in the world today, go to where people who are seeking God are meeting, and/or go to where there are those God wants to help. In all these places, don’t be surprised to find Jesus show up. The worst thing you can do when having lost Jesus, is give up searching. Those who give up searching will likely never find Jesus again.

Also, continue praying and studying the Bible for yourself to grow closer to Jesus each and every day. While pastors, authors, speakers, and even podcasters can give you ideas to think about, choose to filter and test everything you learn to see if it matches the truth found in the Bible. Any “truth” that contradicts the Bible will not last beyond our sinful world and because of this, it isn’t worth paying significant amounts of attention to.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Flashback Episode: Year in Luke – Episode 5: While Luke transitions out of Jesus’ childhood, he includes one last event that has some powerful themes we discover about finding and staying with Jesus when Mary and Joseph lose Him in Jerusalem.

A Maiden or a Virgin: Isaiah 7:14


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As we move forward looking at prophecies in the Old Testament that point towards Jesus, we come to another prophecy that deals with Jesus’ birth, and this one is interesting because of some controversy about it. However, the part of this controversy that I find interesting is how half of the details included are simply ignored. In other words, for this controversy to exist, half of the details of this event must be pushed aside.

To draw attention onto this prophecy and the controversy that surrounds it, let’s read the prophecy as it is found in the book of Isaiah, chapter 7. Reading from the New American Standard Bible, in verse 14, Isaiah writes the message God gives Him saying:

14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin [or maiden] will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

While reading this verse just now, I realized there are actually two prophecies included in it. The first one, which has the controversy surrounding it, is the part about a virgin or maiden becoming pregnant with a son.

The second prophecy is that this virgin will name her son Immanuel.

For this episode, let’s spend more time unpacking the first prophecy in this verse, and then take our next episode unpacking the second prophecy.

In the first prophecy, the controversy present is that the Hebrew word for virgin might not mean the same thing that it means for us today. Instead of meaning someone who has never had sex, the argument or controversy centers around this term also being used to simply refer to a young girl, or specifically a maiden.

Ignoring that one definition of maiden is a literal virgin in my dictionary, the argument suggests that Isaiah’s words in this prophecy are not speaking of a virgin miraculously becoming pregnant, but that the Messiah would be born to a young unmarried woman who became pregnant outside of marriage.

However, while some people hold strongly to this idea, they must ignore several key pieces of Biblical evidence for this idea to carry weight.

The strongest argument against this redefinition is by not actually redefining the word virgin or maiden. Instead, we can look up all the other places in the Old Testament where this word is used and look at the context. Looking at the seven times this word appears in the Old Testament, while this word is always used to refer to young females, there is no instance in the Old Testament where it can be proved that this word does not also mean virgin, and several examples where virginity is strongly suggested. The clearest example is when a virgin or maiden is being sought out to be a wife for Isaac in Genesis 24:43.

In the Old Testament, a maiden is also a virgin when we let the Bible define our terms for us.

However, moving to the New Testament, to a passage we have read a couple times already, we see the virgin idea presented even more clearly. While those who persist in this controversy want to draw doubts on Isaiah’s words, they also must push Luke’s gospel and Matthew’s gospel aside, because these two gospels are extra specific about Mary being not just a maiden, but also a virgin.

In Luke, chapter 1, starting in verse 26, Luke writes:

26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. 30 The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. 36 And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

In this passage, Mary was engaged to Joseph, but they had not gotten married yet. While dating and engagement in today’s culture often doesn’t include waiting before sex, that culture was different. At the very least, Mary and Joseph were different, because Mary, questioning Gabriel, asks him how this would happen. Mary knows that the first step of getting pregnant is having sex. She refers to herself as a virgin, or literally as a woman who has not known a man, similar to how Genesis describes Adam “knowing” Eve and that knowing resulting in the birth of children.

In this passage, everything in Mary’s conversation with Gabriel points to Mary being a literal virgin, while also being a maiden. Regardless of what virgin means in Isaiah, we can understand that Mary saw herself as a literal virgin in this conversation with Gabriel.

Also adding weight to this argument is Matthew’s gospel, which describes Joseph’s attitude after finding out that his fiancée is pregnant. In Matthew chapter 1, starting in verse 20, Matthew writes:

20 But when he [Joseph] had considered this [specifically to divorce Mary quietly], behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

In this passage, Joseph was ready and willing to call off his marriage with Mary because he didn’t believe her story that the pregnancy was extraordinary. However, after the dream, Joseph changes his plans and specifically marries Mary but keeps her a virgin until she had given birth to Jesus. There is only one way I can understand this statement, and this understanding weighs heavily on one side of the controversy surrounding the meaning of Isaiah’s prophecy.

Regardless of how we understand Isaiah’s prophecy, everything surrounding Jesus’ birth suggests that Mary was a virgin, and that her pregnancy was a direct fulfillment of God’s promise through the prophet Isaiah.

It is also amazing that Jesus’ entrance into the world marks the arrival of the Messiah God promised to send when Adam and Eve had failed God and eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

In Genesis, chapter 3, starting in verse 14, we read that while God was pronouncing judgment on those who had disobeyed Him:

14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
Cursed are you more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you will go,
And dust you will eat
All the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

In this judgment of the serpent in the garden, God speaks prophetically about one of Eve’s descendants being the one to bring judgment on the serpent. Through Mary, Jesus came into the world as this descendant, and He triumphed over sin and death on behalf of you and me.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always open by challenging you, intentionally seek God first in your life. When life gets challenging, lean into your faith in God because with whatever happens in this life, when we have aligned our lives with God, we will outlive the challenges of this life even if it appears as though these challenges take us out. With Jesus, we will live beyond the end of sin, pain, and death.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow closer to Jesus. Focus on growing your personal relationship with Jesus because Jesus loves you personally. Jesus isn’t interested in having a relationship with you that is mediated by someone else.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Year of Prophecy – Episode 5: When God speaks through the prophet Isaiah about a virgin conceiving the Messiah, discover the best way to understand this verse in light of the controversy surrounding this impossible sounding nature of this event.

Join the discussion. Share your thoughts on this passage.