And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins”.

Gospel of Matthew 1: 21 King James Version Easy Read

Please see also the context in Matthew 1: 18-25.

“18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as His mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.   20. But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, you son of David, fear not to take to you Mary your wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.  21. And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins. 22.

Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 23.  Behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. 24. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took to him his wife:25. And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn Son: and He called His name JESUS”.  The Gospel of Matthew chapter 1, verses 18-25.

Not all Christians are agreed that we should use Christmas to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and the incarnation of the Son of God into this world to become man.  Some point out its heathen origins and that there is no Biblical warrant to celebrate yearly, or in winter, the birth of the Son of God.  However, long-standing tradition supports this opportunity to proclaim the birth of the Son of God and – as the secularists are so eager to restrict it, along with the anti-Christians – maybe we should, at least occasionally, use this opportunity to publish His birth, His becoming man.

Note, first of all, that the coming of the Son of God to be born of a pure virgin was foretold many centuries before in the Hebrew Bible. The prophet Isaiah said, “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7: 14) meaning “God with us”.  The apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 4:4 that “...when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, made under the law.”  He was the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, before He was sent forth.  He was then born of a woman and born under the law, having become man!  This is the miracle of the incarnation of the Son of God: One who was the eternally begotten Son of God becoming man; and it is also the miracle of the virgin birth: Him being born or a pure virgin who had never yet known a man.  Isaiah tells us specifically that a virgin shall conceive.

The word in the Hebrew text is “almah” meaning a young woman of wed-able age, which, in Hebrew culture means a maiden of good and chaste morals.  Thus when the Jews translated that word into a Gentile tongue, Greek, they chose the nearest equivalent, “parthenos”, which means quite literally, rather than implicitly, a virgin.  There is no real difference except that the Hebrew is more specific: a young woman, a virgin, of marriageable age. Hence the virgin birth is there foretold in the Old Testament and so Matthew, under the guidance of the Spirit, rightly emphasises that, for it is that which is the sign; and he uses the story of Joseph and Mary to point to its fulfilment, for fulfilment it was.

Secondly, let us note the extreme and exacting difficulty this posed for Joseph, the espoused husband of Mary his betrothed wife. When God works in history, and through our lives and circumstances, it is not always easy for us to appreciate, or understand, His higher purposes and ulterior intent in the events we go through.  We can only see the immediate – in Joseph’s case his own betrothed unaccountably, inexplicably, with child.  We cannot see the remote past which foretold it or fore-planned it, or the true significance and pattern of present events which fulfil, progress and accomplish God’s purposes in the world and for our lives. The story of Mary being overshadowed by the Holy Ghost and becoming pregnant, or with child, but not by man, was just too much for the godly Joseph.  It seemed to go against all that he had imbibed and taken-in concerning the Torah, the Law of God, which separated both him and his people from the Gentile and un-covenanted nations round about.  How often we feel that we just cannot explain our circumstances in terms of God’s love or the fulfilment of His purposes and promises of good towards us.  Despite all the scriptures which Joseph had, and knew of, he just could not accept this “impossible” situation as being of the Lord, or being from God, and as a blessing and as a privilege to his and his betrothed; as well as to all mankind and to his own people, Israel. God had to speak personally to Joseph; and He did it - but through a dream.

Note, thirdly, how God spoke to Joseph: by a direct personal revelation to him in a dream.  He did not speak to Joseph by a prophet or by a pastor or by the scriptures, or torah themselves read every Sabbath day in the synagogue; He could have chosen that way to do it and often does.  When we are in trials and temptations, and doubt, how often God speaks to us in a passage of scripture direct to our circumstances, or through the word of wisdom or knowledge of a Christian friend, or through a chance or providential meeting or set of circumstances.  When these things happen no one says to us, when we relate them that we are undermining the sole sufficiency of scripture as the litmus test of all our experiences and as the sum paradigm, and pattern, of all that we must believe and do.  We all accept that the God of the Book is not confined in a book but is known and loved in our experiences according to that book.  Why should we balk at the fact that God can still speak to us, occasionally, by means of dreams and visions?

But note, fourthly, how God spoke to Joseph in a dream.  He spoke according to the revealed will of God in holy Scripture: an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream to tell him not to fear to take to him his wife for that which is conceived in her is, indeed, the Son of God, the Holy One of Israel, great David’s greater son; according to the prophecy of old about a virgin being with child and that child being God with us, Immanuel, the Son of the living God. The arrogant Muslims can complain all they like about this but Jesus, their so-called mere prophet, as they falsely claim him, said that salvation is not of them but of the Jews (John 4: 22)!  Let them take note of that.  But as for God’s servants there are some things that God has to speak to us personally and directly or we will not receive them.  As the need for these things has not wholly ended in the days of the fullness of the canon of scripture, neither have these remedies wholly ceased either.  The God of the book is known and loved in our experience but also where He is also tried by that book.  We must always try the spirits to see whether they are of God: every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God but is of the spirit of anti-Christ (1 John 4: 1-3).  The angel spoke to Joseph in fulfilment of the book, in reference to it, and in accordance with it.  But He spoke to Joseph directly and personally nonetheless.  He, at times, does the same with us today.

Fifthly, we see that instructions are given to Joseph as to what the child is to be called, why He is to be called this name, and to what intention it is aimed at.

Now Joseph had had no hand in this matter – God had had to speak to him about it.  The son to be born was not his! And yet he is to name it.  Naming something is a sign of authority.  As Adam gave names to all the animals that God brought from over the whole earth, before him, as a sign of Adam’s dominion over the whole Earth, so Joseph is to name the Christ-child as a sign of his headship over his whole house, wife and child, and further children.   God’s order in the wedded family is upheld by God’s angel.  Joseph is to be the adopted father of a son he is now to adopt as his own, even though, naturally, he has had no hand or thought in the matter at all. And so the adopted son is, by Joseph, his adopted earthly father, to succeed to Joseph’s title, as a son or descendent of Israel’s great king: King David.  That is bound to upset the Muslims as well: David was a Jewish king, meaning that, so is the Messianic title!  The title ‘Son of David’ is a sign of great Messianic significance, for the great coming One, the anointed of God, the Messiah, is to be the Son and heir of the great Jewish king David.  Even the stones will cry out at that if the people hold their voice.

But Joseph, who is to name the adoptee, is to have no choice in the name to be given!  He, by the angel, is instructed to call the boy, Jesus, and by the angel, he is told why the baby boy is to be so called.  When God gives us instructions we are to believe these instructions and, believing them, and their authority, we are to follow them.  We are not to lean on our own understanding but we are, in all our ways, to acknowledge Him and He (not someone else or something else) shall direct our paths (Proverbs 3: 5, 6).  Christian discipleship, as all true pastors of the flock will know, is – within the confines of the Word – a deeply personal thing.  The people of God can only confirm what He has first spoken to us if we have truly heard the Lord, and they have heard Him too.  The question is: are we all listening?  If we are we should get the same answer.  Joseph’s instructions were what to call the boy, “Jesus”, and he was told why: He shall save His people from their sins.  However, in the prophecy of Isaiah, the prophet tells us that His Name shall be called Immanuel, meaning, “God with us”.

We must recall that different parts of scripture summarise different aspects of the whole truth but the whole is always connected to each of its parts as well as being, something more than the sum of its parts.  The Son of God is able to save His people from their sins because He is Immanuel, God with us.

When Jesus became a fully grown man His opponents understood that any claim, as the foretold Messiah, would involve the vital connection that such a son of God must be God Himself with us.  We see that especially in such verses as John 10: 33, 36: “v. 33: The Jews answered Him, saying, ‘For a good work we stone You not but for blasphemy and because that You being a man, make Yourself God’...” and  ...v. 36: “ ‘ Say you of Him whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into the world You blaspheme; because I said I am the Son of God’ ”.   Do you see how making Himself out to be God and saying that He is the Son of God are one and the same around the office of the Son of David, the Messiah, which was what was at issue.

He shall save His people from their enemies, no; from the Romans, no; from their sins, yes: why, because He is God with us.  We have the two combined here Matthew 1: 21, “He shall save His people from their sins and in Matthew 1: 23, he is “Immanuel”, “God with us”.

What is it about this book which so neatly, enthrallingly, competently, amazingly and thrillingly ties these things and weaves them so well together.  Beside the cross the centurion could not contain himself and cried out, “Truly, this man was the Son of God” (Matthew 27: 54).  When we read the scriptures we see likewise that truly they are the Word of God!  May God help us to see them for what they are; and, through them, to see Jesus for what He is: not some mere prophet or teacher only, but much more than a prophet, God with us.

He is God with us to save us from our sins.  And may the message of the incarnation of the Son of God have that impact upon us all this night and this day.

© The Revd RMB West, Dip Th.