Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - A Birth Based on Details
There is an old saying the 'the devil is in the details' which means that if you aren't paying attention to and managing the details things will go wrong. Well, the devil may try to mess with the details, but today we see how God was and is in absolute control of all the details! And this is awesome news for us. The birth of Christ was based on details foretold and confirmed.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament Framework. Today, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas. Here's a hint of what's to come.
Speaker 2:If they're really gods, give them this test Tell us what's going to come after. Tell us what's going to happen. Then we will know, because the presupposition is that the only one who can tell us the future, that one is the true God.
Speaker 1:Engineers, accountants, mathematicians, physicists they all love details, minuscule facts that fit together.
Speaker 1:But most of us, we know the details are important, but we don't really have a passion for the small details of life.
Speaker 1:And yet we should, because our Creator, god, who sits on the throne of heaven, loves the details. He is intimately concerned with making sure all the details are correct, and we know this from the story of the virgin birth of his son, jesus Christ. Every single small detail was immaculately placed and tied together to produce one outcome, the only one possible outcome, the only one possible outcome that his son would be both the king of Israel, with throne rights to rule, and a man free from the curse. It is in the virgin birth to the mother Mary, through the father Joseph, who was his adopted father, not his biological father, that we get all these details working together. Today we transition from Old Testament into New Testament, having reviewed what we needed to know the background for the setup of this most amazing story, a story that hinges upon the smallest, most minute of details, and those details lead to tremendous glory of the king, then the life itself, his death, and then the resurrection of the king.
Speaker 2:So, obviously, we're going to start with the virgin birth, the birth of the king, which is a unique birth, and from there then we'll deal with the life, death and resurrection. As we go through these, I'm going to do things a little bit differently than we did in the Old Testament, because of something the Lord Jesus Christ says in Matthew 16. And the way we're going to do it, then, is basically to say there's three aspects to each of these events. The three aspects that we'll deal with is, first of all, the event itself. What is the historical event? What transpired? By the way, there's not four Gospels, just to be clear. The earliest church held to one Gospel, just like I do and just like you do, and so they were not originally called the four Gospels, they were called the fourfold Gospel singular, because there really is not four different gospels, there's only one gospel, right? So that's just an interesting tidbit from history. But as we go to the fourfold gospel Matthew, mark, luke and John what we find is portrayals of the event itself. In this case, the event we are looking at is the virgin birth. We also will then look at the response to the event. In other words, how did humans respond to the event? And there's actually a response to the virgin birth. And these responses are very interesting Initial excitement as people flock, shepherds flock right to see this lamb of God who's been born, but then that quickly dissipates the interest as he grows and ages. It's almost like they totally forgot about this right. It just shows you how people can have a great event happen in their life and then just forget about it and not really care anymore. So he doesn't really gain prominence after his birth until you see him at his baptism by John and then moves into his ministry. But for over 30 years people basically didn't respond too well to the birth of the Messiah, did they?
Speaker 2:The last part or aspect we'll look at in each event is we're going to look at what would have been the proper response to the event according to the New Testament fourfold gospel. How should people have responded? So this approach to the life of the king is based on what Jesus said in Matthew 16, when he said to his disciples who do the people say that I am? Remember that question? And they said well, some say you're John. You know John the Baptist, others say you're Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And then Jesus said to them okay, but who do you say that I am? In other words, what he was looking for was a response who do people say that I am? And that's the response or question that we want to ask ourselves who do we say that he is? Every human being in the world needs to be challenged with this question who is Jesus? Who do you think he is? There is who he is and there is who you think he is, and these are not always the same right. So here, when we have the outreach event, for example, in a few months, that's kind of my focus is like who do you say that he is? Who is he? Why did he come? What is this whole thing about Jesus? Who is the Messiah? What is this all about? So people need to make a response to that. And Christ was the Messiah himself was interested in how people were responding to him, so he asked the question who do you say that I am? And so we will look at that as we go to each of these four events in his life. Now, the Old Testament has prepared us for this. So, by saying this, what I'm saying is that the New Testament presupposes the Old Testament.
Speaker 2:The way that I read the Bible is from the beginning to the end.
Speaker 2:I don't know which way you read it.
Speaker 2:I also read novels this way. I think I read most books this way. Although my students' papers. I read the last paragraph first and then I go to the beginning and I see if they prove their point, but that's for seminary papers. But the way that you normally read a book is from the cover on the left side in English to the cover on the right side. But modern theologians will tell us no, you read from the right cover back to the left cover, and they want us to read then the New Testament back into the Old Testament.
Speaker 2:And this is not. First of all, this is not the normal way of reading. But they say that the Old Testament cannot be understood on its own, that we have to have the New Testament to explain it to us, which means that the Old Testament. Nobody knew anything about what was going on. It couldn't be understood, which means that God doesn't speak clearly. That's where you have to end up is that the Old Testament is not clear. We can't know what's going on until we have the New, and the New tells us how to interpret the old. That's not the case.
Speaker 2:It's true that in the Old Testament they didn't understand everything any more than you and I understand. Everything that's going to transpire in the future, let's say tribulation, even though we have the books of Daniel, we have Revelation, we have a lot of Revelation about that future time period. We still maybe have not connected all the dots perfectly right. Even theologians who are honest and I was talking with somebody before about this today admit that when the first coming of Christ happened, you have a lot of prophecies that pointed to his first coming and they weren't all entirely understood in all their details, but when it happened it was like, oh, okay, yeah, and it became super clear. So the same thing is true for future prophecy. We may not know all the details, but we have what I would say is a pretty good general sketch and then when these things transpire, then it'll all kind of fall in place and become very clear. So when we study the Messiah and his birth, life, death, resurrection, there's a lot about that in the Old Testament and that is presupposed by the New Testament author. That's why the New Testament authors keep saying as Moses said, as Isaiah said, and quoting the Old Testament over and over, so that if you don't know Isaiah and you don't know what Moses said, how are you going to understand the New Testament? So it teaches us how they read the Old Testament and therefore, of course, how we're supposed to read the New Testament. So when you get to Messiah, a lot of what the New Testament is doing.
Speaker 2:Point two here is just bringing the Old Testament truths together. So there's not much new in the New Testament. I know it's called the New Testament. It's called that because the New Covenant in contrast to the Old Mosaic Covenant. That's why people have given it these titles New and Old Testament, or New and Old Covenant.
Speaker 2:But there's really not much new in the New Testament. There are some new truths, but the new truths are called mysteries and we'll get into the mysteries when we get into the church. We'll talk about the origin of the church, all that growth of the church. We'll talk about those as events in the New Testament. But all those truths about the church are mysteries. And so today, a mystery is a novel that you read, a mystery novel, like whodunit, try to figure things out, agatha Christie, sherlock Holmes, whatever, but that's not the New Testament meaning of the word mystery or mysterion. This word means something that was kept secret or hidden in God and is now being revealed. So there are new truths in the New Testament that are called mysteries, meaning that they were hidden in God. So truths about the church have been hidden in God since the foundation of the world, and now they're being revealed for the first time.
Speaker 2:So what that means, then, is that you can't go to the Old Testament and find the church. That's the simplest way to say this. There's no prophecies about the church that there's going to be this thing called a church. Israel didn't know anything about a church, and Israel certainly wasn't the church. The church is called a mystery, okay, so it's just something completely hidden.
Speaker 2:That's why, if you look at history from the Old Testament point of view and you're just reading the Bible, you'll see you know creation fall the flood, you'll see the Tower of Babel right, and then you'll see Israel, israel, israel, israel, and you'll see all these prophecies about Israel and their kingdom being restored. And then, when the Messiah comes, he says John says, repent for what is at hand the kingdom. And that's exactly what they expected is the kingdom to come right. And yet the kingdom doesn't come because the nation rejects him, right? And so, from a human point of view, the kingdom is put on hold, so to speak, as far as its arrival in history. And then you have this new thing begin, and that's the mystery doctrines. They all relate to the church, because from the Old Testament point of view, that's not there, it doesn't exist. And yet most theologians today will tell you, yes, that either Israel is the church or the church is a continuation of Israel. And they will all tell you, if they don't hold to our vantage point, that the church is either in the Old Testament and not recognized, or in the Old Testament but just not realized.
Speaker 2:And these are word games. I wrote an article on this years ago, published in Theological Journal, about the meaning of the word mysterion. And it doesn't mean not realize. And it doesn't mean not recognize, it means not reveal. It's not there. But these theologians are trying to get the church and Israel together. They don't like this church thing being separate from Israel. But that's the meaning of the term mystery. It's something that was totally secret. You could not access it because it was hidden inside God. It's not hidden inside the Old Testament Bible. It's hidden inside God and he revealed it when he wanted to. So, as we get started understand that there's not a lot new in the New Testament, but there will be new truths, and these are called mystery truths.
Speaker 2:Okay, there are three reasons for the virgin birth. Now, why do we have to go into this? Well, because with the rise of German rationalism in the 1700s, theologians like Schleiermacher and others somehow these are the first people that ever had a brain and figured out that Jesus was not born of a virgin so they began to promote this and this became liberal theology, people who did not hold to the conservative traditional doctrines. Things like the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, the resurrection, the bodily resurrection of the dead these were all just spiritualized or peripheralized, just put on the periphery and not considered to be important. In fact they're considered things to be kind of mocked and maybe even apologized for. So we have to address these because many, many scholars going back the last over 200 years now and denominations today reject the virgin birth. Every denomination that exists today has liberal branches, and they're not all. Some are also conservative, but they all have liberal branches today.
Speaker 2:So, if you ask me, well, what do the Presbyterians believe? Or what do the Episcopals believe? I'm going to say I don't know, it just depends on which one you go into, but a lot of them are definitely liberal. I don't know, it just depends on which one you go into, but a lot of them are definitely liberal. So we have to back up and ask ourselves okay, are there any biblical reasons for the virgin birth? So I'm going to be in the next few weeks talking about the three lines of evidence or reasoning for the virgin birth, the first of which is prophetic, the second of which is legal. There are legal issues with the righteousness of God and there are spiritual issues. So today, the prophetic necessity of the virgin birth.
Speaker 2:Let's turn to Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41. Here's the thing about prophecy and God. Prophecy is just for sake of a better definition, lack of a better, just history in advance. Right, it's history being told to you in advance of it actually happening. The presupposition is that if there's some prophecy, if somebody can tell you history in advance, the only one who could tell you that is God. So the Old Testament puts this challenge to the false gods In Isaiah 41, we'll look in verse 22.
Speaker 2:The Lord says Let them. Bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place. As for the former events, declare what they were. In other words, give the true interpretation that we may consider them and know their outcome, or announce to us what is coming. Declare the things that are going to come afterward that we may know that you are what God. Declare the things that are going to come afterward that we may know that you are what Gods.
Speaker 2:If you're really a god, if these pagan gods are really gods say Milcom or Asherah, whoever, baal, whatever if they're really gods, give them this test. Tell us what's going to come after. Tell us what's going to happen. Then we will know, because the presupposition is that the only one who can tell us the future, that one is the true god. And so god says give them this test. Can they tell the future? And of course they can't.
Speaker 2:Okay, verse 24 behold, you're of no account. Your work, work amounts to nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination. You know, you who worship idols, you know you're worshiping a false God, someone you just created. So there's a principle here, and that principle in Isaiah 41, 22 to 24, is that only the true God can predict what is coming in the future, and that's I mean, that's why we worship the triune God of the Bible, right? One of the reasons? It's because he knows the future and what he has declared has come to pass. So we can expect that other things that he's declared that are still future will also come to pass. So that's the principle that underlies the prophetic necessity of the virgin birth.
Speaker 2:So let's look at some of the predictions that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, first of all by turning to Genesis 3.15. Now this is known as the Proto-Evangelium. Proto means first evangelism for gospel. So the first gospel, or the first good news, it's after the fall of man. So God at that point brings in some good news. This is the first time the good news is proclaimed and it's in the context of the curses upon the woman and the man and the serpent and all that. And so notice it's snuggled into the curses. But that's good news, right? That's what we need to know. In spite of the curse, there's still good news.
Speaker 2:So in verse 15, the Lord says and I will put enmity between you, he's speaking to the serpent. Verse 14, speaking to the serpent, so between you, the serpent and the woman. So this is a conflict between Satan and the woman, eve, and between your seed, that's the serpent's seed, and her seed seed, that's the serpent's seed and her seed. And then it says he, he shall bruise you on the head, meaning her seed right, her seed is the he and it's a singular, it's masculine. He shall bruise you on the head and you, the serpent, shall bruise him on the heel. So this verse gets a lot of attention, of course, among scholars, as to the meanings of all these things the serpent, you know the seed, you know the bruising on the head, the bruising on the heel, what all this signifies. But basically, what's interesting is that there's this conflict between the serpent seed and her seed, and the question, question is well, who's the seed?
Speaker 2:I mean in a general sense, by the way, this word seed is zera in the Hebrew. It's a collective noun, and a collective noun can refer to one or it can refer to many. It's, as I've used the word before, deer. Deer is a collective noun because you don't say deers If you're talking about more than one deer. You still say deer. So you have to have some context to know if you're talking about just one or a whole field of deer, it's a collective noun, this usage here in general, of course, the offspring of the woman Eve.
Speaker 2:It's said in a few verses that she's the mother of all living. It says that in verse 20. So in a general sense, all believers are her seed. Sense, all believers are her seed, just as the seed of the serpent, that's all unbelievers and probably also inclusive of demons and things like that His offspring, so to speak. But that's general, because if you look at the immediate context of verse 15, right after he says between your seed and her seed, it says he, is he more than one or is it just one? It's just one.
Speaker 2:So the specific meaning of seed here ultimately really is the Messiah, right, it's the one that will come forth from the woman who will defeat the serpent. The serpent, of course, can bruise the heel or batter the heel. The Hebrew means like a battering of the heel. It could render you where you couldn't walk. It's not something to be taken lightly. But the position of the heel of a human over a serpent, we're in the superior position, right, we can crush the head of the serpent and defeat it totally. So there's a lot of imagery here being used, with the natural imagery of just a human and a serpent and it's looking forward, ultimately, to the Messiah right who will defeat Satan, but in the process Satan will injure, so to speak, the Messiah.
Speaker 2:So some have looked at this and said, and I agree, that this actually does hint at the virgin birth, and the reason is because they say that the woman has a seed and that throughout the rest of the Old Testament for example, I think it's Genesis 36 or 38, where Onan spills his seed, seed is usually ascribed to a male, like it's a term for sperm, and they say well, you know, a woman doesn't have sperm, and we all know that. I'm just using modern terminology to convey this concept. But somehow a woman is going to have a sperm and the point is to hint at or foreshadow or look forward to the idea of a virgin birth, even here in the first giving of the good news, the proto-evangelium. But it's really only a hint. It's really only a hint. Okay, it's not super clear. So I make the point, but I make it with some reservations. Okay, now let's go to the second major passage on the virgin birth, and this is isaiah, chapter 7. By the time we get done with this, this is a a I hope you'll see, every time I go through this I actually see it better. So I realize there's there's over years of going through these passages, there's so much more to gain from this than what you might see at first. Isaiah seven. Isaiah 700 plus years before the Messiah was born, and this is a very difficult passage. The Messiah was born, and this is a very difficult passage, but I'm going to try to make it as simple as I can.
Speaker 2:There's a situation happening between the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Israel, known as Judah. We notice in verse 1, it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah that Rezan, the king of Judah, whose name is Ahaz in verse 1, has two kings who are allying against him. These two kings are Rezan, who is the king of Aram, and Pekah, who is the king of Israel. They allied against the king of Judah and, of course, you read of this in the end of verse 1. It says that they went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not conquer it.
Speaker 2:Now, when it was reported to the house of David Now that's an interesting phrase, right, house of David We've studied in the Old Testament Davidic covenant. Right, god made a covenant with the house of David, so remember that because that's going to come back several verses later. House of David this isn't just about Ahaz, that king of Judah. He's part of the house of David, he's in David's line, but he's part of the house of David. He's in David's line, but he's not the whole house of David, he's just the representative at that time. So when it was reported to the house of David saying the Arameans have camped in Ephraim, which is northern Israel, his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind. So was he scared? Yeah, he was shaking in his boots. Ahaz is worried that this alliance between Pecah and the northern king of Israel I'm sorry Rezan and the northern king of Israel, pecah, that well, they're going to get slaughtered. So yeah, he's shaking in his boots.
Speaker 2:And then, verse 3, the Lord said to Isaiah go out now to meet Ahaz, the king of Judah, you and your son Shear-Jashub. Now, that's very interesting to take your son along. Don't forget that son, because God tells him to take the son. There must be something important about this son. He says take him, go out and at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fullersfield, and say to him, say to King Ahaz, take care, be calm, have no fear, do not be faint-hearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands. Who are the two stubs? Well, it's these two kings right that have allied against him Rezan, the king of Aram, up Rezin, the king of Aram, and the son of Ramaliah that would be Pekah. Don't be afraid of these two kings, nothing's going to happen.
Speaker 2:Verse 5, because Aram with Ephraim, which is Israel, the son of Ramaliah, has planned evil against you, saying let's go against Judah, let's terrorize it, let's make for ourselves a breach in its walls, let's set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it. So these two kings who've allied want to knock off Ahaz, right, and they want to set in his place another king named Tabeel. This isn't that difficult to understand. This is politics. We want to put a guy in office who will do what we want. Ahaz won't do it. Let's put Tabeel in. Tabeel will do whatever we want. That's basically what we have in presidential elections. That's really all it is Other people wanting to get their will done through a certain individual, so they get these guys to be presidents, whatever. Okay, nothing new under this. This has been going on for centuries and centuries and millennias, and millennias. It's about holding power and putting people in places of power that are really just mostly pawns, frankly, but they make everybody think this guy's really important. I would downplay its importance in the real world. So let's go against Judah and terrorize it and make for ourselves a breach in his walls. We'll set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it. Thus says the Lord God, you don't have to fear. This is what they want to do.
Speaker 2:Verse 7, the end of it says it shall not stand, nor shall it come to pass. Does King Ahaz of the house of David have anything to worry about? No, now the interesting thing is the reason. It's not just because God said so. It's because God made a covenant with the house of David verse 2. And God's not going to allow his covenant to be broken because it's his word. So this isn't going to happen. He's going to protect the house of David. He's going to protect King Ahaz.
Speaker 2:Verse 8, for the head is an explanation, for the head of Aram is Damascus, that's the capital city of Aramea and the head of Damascus is Rezan. That's the king. And now, within another 65 years, ephraim, that's Israel, will be shattered. That means Ephraim, which is northern Israel, will go into exile to the Assyrians. So there's no longer a people. They're a scattered people, not a separate nation. In verse 9, and the head of Ephraim is Samaria. That was the capital of Israel, and the head of Samaria is the son of Ramaliah, who was Pekah. That was their king.
Speaker 2:He says if you will not believe, king a has, if you will not believe my word, you surely shall not last. In other words, your kingdom, the southern kingdom, will also go into exile, just like the northern kingdom is going to do in 65 years. Right, if you will not, what believe? And look, I always tell people what does god want? One thing hebrews 11 says without faith, it's impossible to please god. What does god want from you? He wants you to respond to him with faith. That's it. Believe the gospel, believe his promises. That's what he wants, that's what he's looking for. Trust him. So if you don't trust him, he says, you surely shall not last, your kingdom will go into exile too.
Speaker 2:Then the lord spoke again to ahaz, that's the king of Judah, and he said something very interesting. Think if God said this to you Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord, your God. Make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven. Just ask whatever you want. Make the earth go out and go around Pluto and come back. And go around Pluto and come back. Ask whatever you want. Anything, bring me to the third heaven, ask it. It's an open-ended offer. Anything in the world that he can ever dream of, the Lord says ask for it as a sign, as a sign of what? That the Lord's word is true. It should be believed. Right, but notice verse 12.
Speaker 2:But Ahaz said I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord. I'm not going to test the Lord. I'm pious. We're not supposed to test him. He's trying to come off as spiritual. He's not spiritual at all.
Speaker 2:What did the Lord say at the beginning of verse 11? Ask A sign, ask. What does verse 12 say? Ahaz says I will not ask. That's called what Disobedience? It's called disobedience. The guy's not spiritual at all. The guy's just disobedient to the Lord. So I'm not going to ask the Lord. Disobedience, verse 13. Then he said this is the Lord.
Speaker 2:Listen now, o house of David. So who's he addressing? Is he addressing the king or is he addressing the whole house of David, whole house of david? So who's he addressing? Is he addressing the king or is he addressing the whole house of david? Whole house of david? He's not just addressing ahaz anymore. Listen, oh, house of david. By the way, whenever you have that listen it's behold. And with a participle down, a little later in the verse, it's talking about something future is going to be coming. Okay, listen now, oh, o, house of David. Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men that you will now try the patience of my God as well? So Ahaz is testing God's patience, right, being disobedient.
Speaker 2:Therefore, verse 14, and this is the famous verse, right, this is what we all know virgin birth. Everybody knows this verse. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. You know you won't ask for one, so here I'm going to give you one. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Emmanuel. He will eat curds and honey at the time. He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good For before the boy, will know enough to refuse evil and choose good For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good. The land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken. Hmm, this is where it gets just totally confusing. Now wait a minute. I mean, all of us say, well, the virgin birth. This verse 14 is talking about a virgin birth. It's a sign, right, but we know Isaiah was over 700 years before the virgin birth.
Speaker 2:How could this be assigned to ahaz? It didn't happen in his lifetime, did it? So the big struggle here is to understand how there is a sign for ahaz here. The first thing to notice in verse 14 is who is the sign for? Well, it's actually in verse. Is who is the sign for? Well, it's actually in verse 13. Who is the sign for? House of David? This sign that he's about to tell us in verse 14 is not for Ahaz, it's for the whole house of David, and that's why, when it says in verse 14, therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign that that word you, I know you may not know Hebrew, but do you think it's a singular or do you think it's a plural? It is. It is a Hebrew plural. It is plural because it's for the whole house of David, it's not for the single person, ahaz. So in the midst of this, god decided to give a sign to the whole house of David, and that sign is behold, and there's our word that looks forward.
Speaker 2:A virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Emmanuel, which means what?
Speaker 2:God with us. We learned that from earlier in Isaiah, right, isaiah 9. Emmanuel, god with us. This is not his name. Okay, this is a title. Just like in Isaiah 9, a child will be born, a son will be given. He will be called Wonderful Counselor, mighty God. Again, those are not names, those are titles. The Messiah holds many titles and these titles declare his character or characteristics. So here's one Emmanuel. It's a title and it means God with us. So who is the child who is born? Well, he's God, but he's also man and he will be dwelling with man. So, god with us. Emmanuel, now, that's a sign for the whole house of David.
Speaker 2:House of David, now, verse 15,.
Speaker 2:He will eat curds and honey at the time. He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. For before, the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good. The land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken. The timing is given of this prophecy by the end of verse 16. By the time the boy knows how to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken. Who's the boy? What boy is he talking about? Whoever this boy is, he can't be jesus, because jesus is over 700 years later. And this is a sign to King Ahaz here, because it shifts to verse 16, to you in the singular you. The land whose two kings you singular, you, ahaz dread, will be forsaken. That one's singular, well, the only other boy in the story happens to be this boy back in verse 3. Do you remember that kid? I said don't forget this boy. The Lord said, isaiah, I want you to go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear Jasher. Apparently he was a little bitty boy. I was two or three years old. He couldn't choose right from wrong yet. But before that boy would be able to choose right from wrong, by that time the land of those two kings would be forsaken. So they didn't have to worry. So here's what's going on. Two prophecies, okay, and they're butted up against one another. The one in verse 14 is a prophecy of the virgin birth of the Messiah, what we call a far prophecy, because the word behold looks to the future with a participle looks to the future. We call that a far prophecy. But then the one in verse 15 and 16 is a near prophecy to Ahaz. So you got a prophecy to the house of David, you plural, verse 14. Then you got a prophecy for Ahaz, verse 15 and 16, singular, near prophecy. This is a common feature of Old Testament prophecy you will have two prophecies and if you're just reading the Old Testament they sound like in the same time frame because they're butted up against one another. But as time unfolds, as history progresses, you find out that one was a near prophecy and the other was a far prophecy. The grammar just helps and reinforces this the plural, the singular that show that there's two separate signs. So Shear Jashub is the son in verses 15 and 16, who's assigned to Ahaz, but the virgin with child that is assigned to the whole house of David, of one who will be born, and the sign there is a virgin. Now this is picked up by Matthew right In the Gospel of Matthew and he uses it to interpret Isaiah and say Jesus is born of a virgin. The Christians in the early church and down through the Middle Ages used this against Jews throughout Europe. They would say Jesus has to be the Messiah because Jesus is born of a virgin. Isaiah 7 says he would be born of a virgin. Isaiah 7 says you would be born of a virgin. And by the time you get to the Middle Ages, there is a theologian among the, a rabbi among the Jews named Rashi. You may have heard of him and he didn't like this argument because it's a powerful argument. Basically, the argument kind of went like this If you look at the Hebrew text, you've got this word here virgin, it's Alma. Okay, alma, I've got it here in the paragraph. It can mean young woman. But here's what's interesting Before Christ, 250 years before Christ, the Jews translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek because many of them didn't speak Hebrew, so they wanted a translation. The Jews translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek because many of them didn't speak Hebrew, so they wanted a translation. All the Jews could read, so they translated the Bible into Greek. When they got to the Hebrew word Alma in Isaiah 714, they translated with the Greek word Parthenos. The Greek word Parthenos always means virgin. That means that Jews 250 years before Christ believed that what Isaiah 7, 14 was predicting was that the Messiah would be born of a virgin right. And that's why, when you get to Matthew, chapter 1, matthew quotes Isaiah 7, 14 and says, hey, this is all solved by the virgin birth. And he uses Parthenos, just like the Septuagint did. By the time you get to Rashi, a thousand years after Christ, the Jews are tired of dealing with this argument from the Christian. So what Rashi says is no, no, no, no, no. It means a young woman. It's not a virgin means a young woman. It's not a virgin. Now Rashi also admitted that many Jewish scholars of his day made the usage of Alma in Song of Solomon 1, 3, and 6, 8, and Isaiah 7, 14 refer to a virgin. So even in his interpretation that this is just a young woman was novel and all he was interested in was fighting against the Christians and disproving their arguments from Isaiah 7.14. So this is pretty well established that the prediction is actually of a virgin birth. Now that's very interesting, but it's not interesting enough. Go to Jeremiah 22. The problem is, gentiles aren't interested in the complexities of the Bible, they just want simple stuff. But Jews are very interested in these types of things. Everything has to work out. If you think physics is complicated. You haven't even gotten into anything yet. The Bible is very, very complicated. The reason is because God is complicated, much more complicated than any physicist. So, jeremiah 22, verse 28, and I discussed this a couple weeks ago, let's discuss it again. You've got the line of David. Right Down through this line. You've got a covenant, and God is going to make sure that one from the line of David rules and sits on the throne of David and prospers and rules over the whole world. Right, if we don't have that, what do we have? So, verse 28, here's one of the guys that was in the line of David, king Keniah, also known as Jeconiah, and the guy was not so good. So is this man, keniah, a despised, shattered jar, or is he an undesirable vessel? Why have he and his descendants been hurled out? They'd been kicked out of the land. They're now in exile to Babylon. Why have they been cast into a land they had not known? Oh, land, land, land. Now, he's not talking to the land, he's talking to the people who are supposed to be in the land right, the southern kingdom of Judah. He says hear the word of the Lord. This is always the message, guys. This is always a message hear the word of the lord. And what's the proper response? Live by faith, and that's it. If you get that, if you don't get anything else in the christian life, and you just follow that, hear the word of the lord, and you do that every day and you live by faith. Guess what? I promise you're going to be okay. So this is what they needed to do listen to the word of the lord. Verse 30 thus says the lord so listen, write this. Write this man, coniah, down, childless, a man who will not prosper in his days, for no man of his descendants will prosper sitting on the throne of David or ruling again in Judah. That sounds really bad, because God made a covenant with the house of David through the line of Solomon and that line came down to this guy, coniah. And God has now just cursed Coniah and he said if you have any descendants who come from you, they will never, ever, ever sit on the throne of David and prosper and rule again in Judah ever. It sounds like God just X'd out his Davidic covenant. That's what it sounds like and that is what you're supposed to be thinking. The question at this point becomes how in the world is God ever going to resolve this? He made these covenant promises. Now he's just X'd out the line for these throne rights so that anybody who comes through this line cannot sit on the throne of David. So which is it? How does history get resolved? Turn to Matthew, chapter 1. One of my favorite verses is the very first verse in the New Testament and the first chapter, because what's about to happen here is very, very, very interesting. We notice in verse 1 that this is a genealogy right, no complications, the record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah. Notice, the first person mentioned after the Messiah. Who is it? David, most mentioned guy in the chapter. I think he's mentioned six times or so in this chapter, so he's obviously a very important person in this chapter. Who's the second person mentioned after David, the son of Abraham? So we've got the Davidic covenant right and we've got the Abrahamic covenant and these are all definitely connected to the Messiah, verse 1. Then he starts to give this genealogy. Okay, and it's in three groups of 14 people, each David's name in Hebrew, no vowels. So DVD. Everybody says I know what that is. You stick it in the machine and you watch the movie. But no DVD and each letter has a numerical equivalent D is four, v is six, the last D is four. Four plus six is how much? Ten plus four more Fourteen, we got three groups of fourteen. Who is the key? David DVD. He's the key to this whole genealogy. But that line was cursed, right? That line was cursed through Coniah, right? So you know that from the Old Testament. Because you're a Jew, now you know the Old Testament as well as a Jew, right? Well, maybe not, but you're getting there. Okay, we're getting there. So let's start at verse two. Abraham was the father of Isaac. Watch this. It's gonna say father over and over. The word that's used over and over is father, father, father, abraham, father of Isaac, isaac, father of Jacob, jacob, father of Judah and his brothers. Judah, the father of Perez and Zerubbabel Tamar. She wasn't a very good character, but look, she's thrown in the line of Christ. She deceived her father so you can have a child through her. Not exactly your model lady, okay, but there she is, right in the line of Christ. Perez, the father of Hezron. Hezron the father of Ram, ram, father of Abinadab, abinadab, father of Nashon. Okay, it goes on and on. Father, father, father. Now you got Boaz by Rahab. Oh, rahab, she got in the line of Christ. How'd that happen? How'd a harlot get in there? Well, you know, because God's saying something right. Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, there's a Moabite and Obed the father of Jesse. And then it says Jesse the father of who? David? And look what it calls him the king. That must be really important, because it didn't say that about anybody else and it's about him. It's really about David. It's about David, the Davidic covenant, it's about David and his throne rights. That's what this is all about throne rights. So David is the father of Solomon. Now, that's very important. You would underline Solomon here, because when God made the covenant with David, he made sure that the next person who sat on the throne was Solomon. Right, david had a lot of different sons, but the covenant was going to be to David through Solomon's line, not through any of David's other lines, just through Solomon's line. And then it says Solomon by Bathsheba and everybody goes. Are you kidding me? You know her. She's not exactly the model of modesty, right? I think people go. I I think, I think this is some of the reason why these are in there people like rahab or bashivis, people, people go. Well, in the old testament they go well, I'm not. I'm not a harlot or immodest, and and I think what god is saying is like get over yourself. I use these people because these are the people who had qualities I wanted to bring into the line of my Messiah. And it's reminding us that you know we're all sinners. You know you're not better than someone else. I don't care what they did. You know you did your stuff, they did their stuff. Okay, you're all sinners. God can use this to bring about something tremendous. So these people get into the line of Messiah, so David, through Solomon, and it keeps going So-and-so's the father of so-and-so, so-and-so's the father of so-and-so. We come all the way down to verse 12. And we just read about this in Jeremiah 22. After the deportation to Babylon, who's the guy mentioned? Jeconiah? If you knowation to Babylon, who's the guy mentioned Jeconiah? If you know your Old Testament, you read this. All you can think about is Jeremiah 22, 30. All you can think about is that this guy's line is cursed and nobody from this line can possibly ever sit on the throne of David and rule and prosper. Right, do you agree with me? Do you agree with God, that if somebody is listed at the end of this line or after this guy, jeconiah, they have no right to ever sit on the throne and rule Good. Because you agree with God, that's exactly right. So let's see what happens. So-and-so's father, you know, he's the father of she ltl. She ltl. The father of the rubble. It goes on and on and on. You get down to verse 16 and here's what it says jacob was the father of joseph, the husband of mary, by whom jesus was born, who is called messiah. Notice how it does not say Jacob was the father of Joseph, who was the father of Jesus. It doesn't say that, does it? It says that Joseph was the husband of Mary and that Jesus was born by her. Okay, if Jesus was born of Joseph, if Joseph is the father, then Jesus is under the Coniah curse, right, and he can't rule and reign then. But this verse indicates that he's not. Then the question becomes why in the world did you put this long genealogy here, just so I could find out that he's not? Then the question becomes why in the world did you put this long genealogy here, just so I could find out that he's not in that line? He's about to answer the question. He has done all this as a setup. He said look, this is a cursed line. This is a cursed line. Joseph is the line you know. But could he exercise throne rights? No, because he's a natural descendant of jeconiah, he couldn't rule. So we come to the answer and the solution in verses 18 through 23. Now, the birth of jesus christ was his fault, because everybody's saying well, okay, well, who was his father? If joseph's not the father, mar, well, who was his father? If Joseph's not the father, mary's the mother, who's the father? That's what we all want to know. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows when his mother, mary, had been betrothed to Joseph. So they're basically engaged, but it was legal, betrothal or legal engagement. They were considered married, they were considered husband and wife, but before they came together, so no formal wedding yet and they had not consummated. Right, it says she was found to be with child by the holy spirit. So now we know how the child got in her. Okay, it wasn't by joseph, it was by the holy spirit. Right, and joseph, her husband, because it was a legal betrothal, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, he planned to send her away secretly. He says well, I mean, it's obvious that she's cheated on me, she's pregnant, I mean. But I'm a righteous man, I don't want to make this public. I love her, so I'm going to put her away secretly. He was a great guy, but when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying Joseph, son of David. Notice, it says who Son of who. David, make sure we know. Oh, don't forget David. Okay, this is the Davidic covenant, this is the Davidic line. Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Now, why is the angel so insistent that he marry her? That's another question. Like who cares? I mean, she's got the baby in her. If she has the baby, it's going to be the Messiah, right? That's what everybody says. And it'll sit on the throne of David and rule. No, no, he will not just sit on the throne and rule just because he's born of a virgin. That is not true, that's a lie. It cannot possibly be. This guy has got to marry her. That's why the angel's intervening here. Why does he have to marry her? Because he has throne rights, because he's from the house of David and he can give them to his adopted son legally under the Mosaic law, but at the same time not be the father and get him under the curse. But he has to give him the throne rights and he has to do it through adoption and there is no other possible way that I know of as a human. I'm sure god knows all things and could do it other ways possibly. But he has to marry this girl, okay, because that's where he's going to get his throne rights from. That's why this is so interesting. I mean, verse 20 is one of the most interesting verses in the Bible. Okay, joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. And then he explains why Because the child who's been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She didn't cheat on you, okay, so this is a sound situation. Verse 21, she will bear a son. You shall. You, as the father, joseph shall call his name Jesus. Why? Because that name means he will save his people from their sins. Right, he will save. Now, all this took place. To there we go. All this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. And then he quotes where Isaiah 7.14. You've got the Jeremiah 22 passage here in Coniah, in verse 12. You've got Isaiah 7.14 in this passage, in verse 23. Matthew's bringing all this together, like I've tried to bring together, for you to see that, first of all, if Jesus is born in this line, in this genealogy, he's cursed Okay, but how did God solve it? This thing called the virgin birth. And the liberals say, the liberal churchmen, the liberal theologians, the liberal denominations say, ah, it doesn't matter, virgin birth doesn't matter. Well, if that's the case, and it doesn't really matter, throw this away, throw the God of the Bible out, because all this complexity and things that he did in history don't matter. Why even go to church if you're going to go to a church that believes that kind of trash? That is nonsense and there's no hope and there's no certainty of God's promises or God's covenants ever coming to pass. If the liberal church is right, it's just a waste of time. Go do something else Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. But this book is so technical and so true and so right that he worked it out around the kunai curse to get joseph to be able to give his throne rights to jesus by way of adoption. And the story is still not even over, okay. So behold verse 23 the virgin shall be with child, shall bear a son, and they shall call his name emmanuel. So isaiah 7, 14 the far prophecy is fulfilled through mary. She was a virgin. The Holy Spirit placed the child within her. Joseph named the son and by doing so formally adopts him and thereby transfers throne rights to Jesus. But Jesus is not natural descendant of him, so he can rule and reign on the throne of David. Thank the Lord. Okay, he just saved history in this moment. I mean this, totally saved history. The virgin birth is a critical point. If this hadn't happened, it's over. Satan already won. It's over. All this has to work, just right. So Joseph awoke, okay, kept her a virgin until he gave birth to a son called his name Jesus. Great Luke 3, last one, we won't stop here, luke 3. This one is another genealogy, but I argue that this is Mary's genealogy. So in Matthew I say is Joseph and this one is Mary. Now look at verse 23, 3.23, the first verse in the genealogy here. When he began his ministry, it says Jesus himself was about 30 years of age. It says being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph. Right, being as was supposed or thought. You know, people thought, well, that's Joseph's son. But it's kind of stated enigmatically right, like well, was he? No, he wasn't. But people kind of supposed that he was, maybe, but it wasn't clear. And then it starts giving a list of people, but you'll notice it never says so-and-so was the father of somebody. It just says son of. Remember the one in matthew's all about so-and-so's, the father of so-and-so, so-and-so's, the father of so-and-so, so-and-so's the father of so-and-so? And you move from abraham all the way to christ. This one starts and goes the opposite direction and that's why it says son. No fathers here, just always son. And it starts with Joseph and it goes all the way back in history until you get to verse 38, to Adam, to Adam. So the Matthew one is marching forward in history. Let's say the Luke one is marching backward in history. So that's why Matthew says fathers and Luke says sons. So Joseph, son of Eli, son of Mephi, son of Levi, son of Mekhi, son of Jani, son of Joseph, son of Mattathias, and so forth. Now come all the way to verse. Is it 30? Yeah, 30. The son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, the son of Malaiah, the son of Mena, the son of Mattathiah, the son of Nathan. Underline that guy, nathan. The son of who? David? Here's David again, when we're in Matthew. I said Matthew says David was the father of Solomon. And I said, underline Solomon. And I said this is the important guy, solomon. God made the covenant with David, but it was going to go through Solomon, not through any of David's other sons. Who's Nathan? One of David's other sons is the covenant made with Nathan, no Other sons Is the covenant made with Nathan? No, this line that we're reading here cannot be the line that conveys any throne rights. Okay, so Jesus can't get throne rights through this genealogy Because it's not Solomon's, it's David's. But it's not Solomon's, it's David's but it's not Solomon's, it's David's through Nathan. And it traces it all the way now down to Adam. Now that all said, I argue that this is Mary's genealogy, and yet if you read the whole thing, you'll never find Mary mentioned. So you would say well, why do you think this is Maryary's? In fact, in verse 23 it says it's joseph. You know jesus, himself about 30 years of age, being supposedly the son of joseph. So isn't this also joseph's genealogy? The one in matthew is joseph's. Yeah, but no, it can't be, because the matthew one is through solomon, this one's through n, so they're two different lines. But why is it not Joseph's? And why is Joseph listed if it's not him, if it's not his genealogy? Well, here's the thing. This is Jewish literature. In Jewish genealogies you could not list the mother. So if you wanted to list, it was the mother's genealogy. How would you do it? That is the question. In Jewish thought, how would you write a woman's genealogy, a mother's genealogy? You would do it through her husband's name. Okay, but how would we know that you're giving us the mother's genealogy and not the husband's? Then? One simple way you would not put a definite article before his name. Now, I know you can't see that there's not a definite article. Maybe I can bring it up here. I could show you Where's Logos In all these names it'll say son of Joseph, son of Eli, son of Methot, son of Levi, son of Joseph, son of Eli, son of Methot, son of Levi. Every time it has a name like Eli, methot, levi, it always uses the definite article to We'd say T-O-U, which is the word the. Okay, let's go to Luke. What is it? Luke 3.23. Okay, hurry, hurry, hurry, there we go. Chai autoushein haussane. Hi, jesus, jose aton, okay, you come on. Um, do you see the two? It looks like a t-o-u. Looks like that. Do you see those all over the screen? Okay, joseph's name is in the almost the top left corner. It's the third line down, yosef. See it, yosef. And then it says to Hali, which is Eli, to Matathot, to Liu, to Melchi, to Yonai, to Yosef, to Matathau, to Amos. Okay, it's going through the names, but if you'll notice Yosef, the word before his name is in the top right corner Quios. It's not two, is it? It's not two. Every other name in that list has a two before it, which is a definite article. The only one that doesn't is Joseph. That is how you would identify that. It's not his genealogy, but him standing in for Mary. His wife, honor Fructimum, cites this as the way they did it in Jewish genealogy. So what is this showing, then? It's showing that he's a true human, born of a woman named Mary, and that, yes, house of David, but couldn't get throne rights here. That had to come in Matthew 1. And God worked. All these things and the liberal church just spits on them. And I'm sure there are more Christians, probably, in liberal churches today than in conservative churches, probably. Why? Social issues? You know, friends, whatever, it doesn't matter. Theology, bible, truth, reality, salvation, who cares about all that stuff? Let's just save society, let's just do good. Now we're supposed to do good. Galatians 6, 9 and 10, we know, do good to all men, we know that. But if you don't do the best thing for them and tell them who Jesus Christ is and how he came into this world and how he avoided the sin penalty that we're all under and what he did for us to save the world from sin, then you haven't done the best good you can do for him, have you, no? So this is the prophetic necessity, the prophetic necessity of the virgin birth. Going back to the principle, if there is a true God, that true God must be able to tell the future. If he can't, he's not a God and we shouldn't worship him. But what I took you through is to show you from Genesis 3.15, seed of the woman. Hence it's a virgin birth. Isaiah 7.14, a sign for the whole house of David a virgin will be with child, she will bear a son. You shall call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. But the line Coni was cursed. So how can God do it? How can God do it? He can do it by making sure that he sends the angel. Gabriel tells Joseph now you marry her, it's good to go, and you will convey throne rights to your son, whom you adopt legally. He is the heir of the world.
Speaker 2:And when you believe in him, paul says in Romans 4, you become heir of the world. In all things, the world that comes belongs to us because of the virgin birth. If you don't have it, there is no heir of the world. That's why this is so important. Don't give up on it. It's not a side issue, it's a crucial issue.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app, and until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.