“Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.” — Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 7:14 was first spoken into a moment of fear. Jerusalem was trembling. Two enemy kings—Aram and Israel—marched toward Judah, threatening to wipe out the Davidic line. King Ahaz, faithless and politically desperate, was ready to make an alliance with Assyria rather than trust the God of Israel.

Into this crisis, God sent Isaiah with a word of reassurance: The dynasty of David will not fall. As proof, the Lord promised a miraculous sign—a young woman, a virgin, would conceive and bear a son named Immanuel, “God with us.” In Ahaz’s day, the birth of that child was God’s guarantee that He would preserve the Davidic line and remain faithful to His covenant promises.

But like so many prophecies, Isaiah’s words carried a deeper horizon. The immediate child in Isaiah’s time served as the initial fulfillment, but the language and scope of the promise stretched far beyond the crisis of the 8th century BC. Jewish interpreters throughout the centuries recognized something more—something messianic—embedded in Isaiah’s words.

And then, centuries later, Matthew declared with clarity what the sign had always pointed toward: a greater Son, born not as a symbolic reassurance but as the literal fulfillment—conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary.

In Jesus, “God with us” became more than a name. It became a person. The sign given to a trembling king became the salvation given to a trembling world.

This Advent, Isaiah 7:14 invites us to trust the God who keeps every promise. The God who was faithful to David, faithful to Israel, faithful to Mary—
and faithful to us.

He is still Immanuel.
He is still with us.