Daily Reading: Chapter 7 of Isaiah

[tritcher1988]

I would like to start a discussion about this chapter in order to better understand the names and ideas that are going on here and how they relate to the Messiah. What is significant about these verses?

 

[jcrichton]

I would like to start a discussion about this chapter in order to better understand the names and ideas that are going on here and how they relate to the Messiah. What is significant about these verses?

I personally stick to verse 14:

14 The Lord will give you a sign in any case: It is this: the young woman is with child and will give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel.

…again, being quite pedestrian, I do not see much controversy with this passage: as with most prophecies there is a superficial revelation that takes place within very expedient time after the prophecy is revealed; while, simultaneously, there’s a deeper level where the fullness of the prophecy will be revealed–this depth is both in time and substance…

St. Matthew takes this particular verse and applies it very authoritatively to Mary; he opts for the meaning of the Hebrew word that comes closer to the definition of “virgin” since both the angel’s revelation of Jesus’ conception and the use of the imagery demands that the young woman, the Mother of the Immanuel, be a virgin–if not born of a virgin, what kind of sign would it be for the Immanuel to be born of a young woman, lest Mary be Israel’s only surviving child-bearing young woman? …the fact that this young woman is a virgin excedingly demonstrates God’s selective process which began with Abram–it is Divine intervention that, as on mount Sinai, separates a vessel for God’s dwelling amongst His people.

Maran atha!

Angel