The angelic visitation that assured Joseph that he could take Mary as his wife brought the fulfillment of a remarkable prophecy from Isaiah 7:14 some seven hundred years earlier. The original setting speaks of a miraculous sign that God gave to King Ahaz and the people of Judah, promising to rescue them from attack by King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of Israel.

The sign was that a young almah (Hebrew) would bear a son and name him Immanuel, meaning, “God with us.” Before that boy knew the difference between good and evil, the two kings would be destroyed, sparing Judah from attack and demonstrating that God was indeed with them. The son was born, and the original meaning of the prophecy was fulfilled.

But Jewish scholars later recognized a deeper meaning in the passage. They saw Immanuel, “God with us,” as a possible reference to the future dawning of the Messianic age, when God would rescue His people—a second fulfillment of the prophecy.

When Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek in the middle of the third century BC, they translated the Hebrew word for virgin in Isaiah 7:14, almah, which normally meant virgin (but in a few cases could mean young woman), with the Greek word parthenos, which virtually always meant virgin. Matthew quotes this Greek translation in describing the birth of Immanuel, thereby pointing to His divine nature and fulfilling Isaiah 7:14 in a rescue of God’s people from their sin.

So we see that Jesus (God saves) was born of a virgin and is also Immanuel (God with us). And we see that the salvation Jesus offers is salvation from sin—forgiveness and liberation from all that separates us from God. How are we living in response to His costly sacrifice?