ALL TRUTH HAS PREDICTIVE POWER

Fourth week of Advent (Sunday)

Matthew 1:18-25 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" which means, "God with us."

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

As Matthew sets out his account of the story of Jesus he is particularly concerned with the fulfilment of prophecy. Twelve times (1:22; 2:5; 2:15; 2:17; 3:3; 4:14; 8:17; 12:17; 12:39; 13:35; 21:4, 27:9) he indicates that an action or event took place in fulfilment of a specific prophetic teaching. It is often assumed, therefore, that he is trying to “prove” what he is claiming about Jesus by showing that the events of his life had been “predicted” hundreds of years before. I believe this is a naive assumption, and that the passage before us is an excellent illustration of what Matthew is really trying to do.

1. Matthew does not see prophecy as prediction of future events, nor the fulfilment of prophecy as precise correspondence between what was said by a prophet and what has taken place. If he had he would surely not have pointed out that Joseph gave the child the name Jesus, while the prophecy states, “...they will call him Immanuel". These two names are as different as David and John. Clearly Matthew is not focused on the details of a prediction.

2. We can be confident that Matthew, who clearly knows his scriptures, is well aware that the prophecy he is referring to (Isaiah 7:14) was a sign given to Ahaz, a King of Israel, hundreds of years before Jesus was born, and that the sign, if it truly was a sign to Ahaz, must have been fulfilled in Ahaz’s day. Isaiah was not talking about a virgin birth – Matthew is not claiming that Jesus is Virgin Birth #2 – but about a virgin who will become pregnant in the usual way, give birth to a son, and name her child Immanuel (God with us). Isaiah’s point is that this child’s name is a reproach to the king. While the King is abandoning his faith in God, in favour of a precarious alliance with other kings, this young girl in his kingdom is so filled with faith that she will actually name her child “God with us”.

3. Though Matthew clearly believes in the literal virgin birth of Jesus, he is not so naive as to imagine he can “prove” the virgin birth. Mary is the only one who can know such a thing, so, apart from her, there are no human witnesses to her virginity. And it is interesting that the birth narratives of Jesus, found in Matthew and Luke, tell of only one person, other than Mary, who believed in the virgin birth. Joseph believed, but not because of a prophecy, or even because he took Mary’s word for it. He believed because he was told by an angel.

Matthew and the New Testament writers were not naive about these things. They all knew that no one can believe in the virgin birth unless they already believe that Jesus is who they claim he is, literally “God with us”. And that that belief is founded on the resurrection, which is supported by the witness of many who experienced Jesus alive after his death.

So, what is Matthew doing in this passage?

Matthew is dealing with an obvious objection. If God had actually entered the world in human form, he’d have come, not to a family of nobodies in the little town of Bethlehem, but in a mind-numbing display of glory, to a royalty family in Rome, or least in Jerusalem.

Matthew is pointing out that God’s coming in Jesus, though unique, is consistent with the way he has always come to his people. He came to an obscure, nomadic tribal chieftain (Abraham); an unknown, inarticulate shepherd (Moses); another unimpressive little shepherd (David); and, specifically, to a humble child in Ahaz’s kingdom who, because God was with her, had more faith than even the king.

True prophecy has predictive power, not because it is prophecy, but because it is true, and all truth has predictive power. Advent, like prophecy, is about looking at what God is doing, and what God has done, as the best indicator of what he will do. In the mundane, simple lives of his humble people God has been faithful, is faithful, will be faithful. This is the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of Advent.

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

How has God met you in the past? How is he meeting you today? What does this suggest about your future?

(See you Wednesday.)