Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:14
We sometimes forget that Isaiah penned these words in the eighth century B.C., and chances were most people in Judea at the time of Jesus’ birth were not even looking for this “sign.” Sure we know about Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:22-38), but how many others were actually looking for the Messiah?
The Book of Isaiah has literally stood the test of time. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1946, the “Great Isaiah Scroll” was one of the first, and it was a complete copy, beginning to end, minus a couple of damaged spots. Analysis has also shown that it is virtually identical to the Hebrew translations we use today. This means that in the first century, they had the same words as us that point to the “sign.”
Here we sit in the twenty-first century, and we too have the book that points to the “sign.” And the book says that the Lord himself gives this “sign” to us. Are we looking? Are we waiting faithfully and patiently like Simeon and Anna?
Advent is a season that points back to the coming of the “sign.” But it also points us forward to the return of the “sign.” And that “SIGN” is the One called Immanuel… which means “God with us!”
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