From the beginning

Foretold

Jesus said Moses wrote about Him. It is not a secret code. It is a lot of page: a line, the numbers He counted, the signs He named, and the days He appointed.

Walk it the way the text walks. The Hebrew is still on the page. When a preacher stretched a name, or forced a number, we say so.

The line

It runs from a garden to a town, in the order the text already walks.

01Seed02Names03Nations04Priest05Ram06Joseph07Scepter08I AM09Lamb10Bread11Rock12Curtain13Goat14Serpent15Prophet16Redeemer17House18Pierced19Stone20Immanuel21Branch22Egypt23Bethlehem24Donkey25Silver26Covenant

The numbers

It counts a week, a wait, and a people, then fourteen generations, ten words, a third day, seventy, and a tally.

SevenFortyTwelveFourteenThird dayTen wordsSeventy447

The signs

He named them Himself: a fish, a star, a prophet, a rest, and a bow.

JonahStarElijahSabbathBow

The days

These are appointed times: first fruit, fifty days, booths, and a year of release.

01First fruit02Weeks03Booths04Jubilee

The line · 20 of 26 · Isaiah 7 · 9

God with us

The name you can hold is God with us. It is not a mood. It is a child.

The text
Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

The word

עִמָּנוּ אֵל

God with us, with us is God (immanu el)

Walk this word

What happens

  1. 01A terrified king

    Isaiah 7:2

    Aram and Ephraim have allied. Ahaz’s heart shakes like trees in the wind. God offers him a sign. He will not ask. Isaiah gives one anyway.

  2. 02The name is the sign

    Isaiah 7:14

    A young woman will bear a child. Call him God-with-us. Before the boy knows right from wrong, the two kings Ahaz fears will be gone.

  3. 03A son is given

    Isaiah 9:6

    His names are Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. The government rests on His shoulders. This is not a local ceasefire.

  4. 04On David’s throne

    Isaiah 9:7

    Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end. He sits on the throne of David, and it lasts forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do this.

  5. 05They shall call His name Immanuel

    Matthew 1:23

    Joseph dreams. The boy is named Jesus — the Lord saves. Matthew still hears Isaiah under it: God with us. Both names are true at once.

Read it this way

King Ahaz is terrified. Two armies are coming. Isaiah gives him a sign: a young woman will bear a son, and you will call Him Immanuel — God with us. Almah (עַלְמָה) is a young woman of marriageable age. The Greek of Isaiah already said parthenos — virgin. Matthew uses that. We do not pretend the Hebrew word is a medical term. The name is the point: God with us. Before that child knows right from wrong, the threat will be gone.

Two chapters later Isaiah is still not talking about a mayor: unto us a child is born. He is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace, and He sits on the throne of David forever. Matthew does not erase the near sign. He says the name lands again, fully, on Jesus — God on our side of the wall, in a real body. A child you can hold.

Then it is named

The other room. Same line. A Person with a name.

Matthew 1:23

Some sayIsaiah’s child was only for King Ahaz. Matthew hijacked a local sign.

The name was never a warm feeling. It is God crossing the gap. Matthew is not stealing Isaiah. He is finishing the name.

Open Isaiah 7Isaiah 9:6

The copies sometimes differ — that is Witness. Words you already say out loud sit in Words with weight. Foretold is what the page already says. It is not a decoder ring.