Reflective Bible Study

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!

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!