When we think of the Christmas story, don’t we tend to flip pages over to the New Testament? There’s the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, followed by the shocking story of how Joseph heard that his fiancé was pregnant. There’s a recap of Mary’s surreal conversation with the angel Gabriel and the heart-warming family reunion between Mary and Elizabeth in Luke 1, not to mention John the Baptist’s leap for joy – in utero. There’s also the disciple John’s poetic reminder in chapter 1 of his book about Jesus’ stature as the Word of God. The New Testament is chockfull of wondrous stories about Jesus.

The story of Jesus’ birth began much earlier, however. Back in the 730s BC, the prophet Isaiah had a conversation with King Ahaz of Judah. (This is the same Ahaz listed in the lineage of Jesus in Matthew 1.) Ahaz was shaking in his boots because the kings of Aram and Israel were plotting against him. The Lord spoke through Isaiah and offered Ahaz a miraculous sign, which he declined. (I don’t know about you, but I think I would have said, “Yes, please!”)

Isaiah lost patience with Ahaz and told him that God already had a miraculous sign in mind that he would show, anyway. Then, right before he delved into a lengthy explanation of the wars and sieges that were about to plague Judah for the peoples’ disobedience, Isaiah prophesized about the birth of Christ: “The Lord himself will give you a miraculous sign. The virgin is going to have a baby. She will give birth to a son. And he will be called Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14, NIV). We often see the verse isolated by itself, but it’s actually tucked into a much longer conversation between God (through Isaiah) and Ahaz.

I’m not a theologian, but this fascinates me. How cool is it that God chose a time of war to have his prophet foretell the coming of Christ? This Jesus, who rescued us from the darkness of sin and from the wars that wage battle within our own hearts, is Immanuel – “God with us” – who was and is and is to come!