Day 17: Born of a virgin

Read Isaiah 7:14


Isaiah 7:14 - Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Why was it important that the Messiah, Jesus, was to be born of a virgin? We must understand two very important things.

First, the Messiah, being God, must become human. This was for two important reasons: God as an eternal Spirit could not die. So for Him to be able to die for us He must become human. Also, God as Spirit could not be seen or heard or touched by humans; He needed to become like us so we could understand Him. Therefore, being born of a human woman was the way for Him to become a human being who could be touched and heard and seen, and could die.

Second, it was important He be born of a virgin because of God’s condemnation of sin for Adam and Eve. He had told them sin would result in death. Even though they did not immediately die physically when they sinned, they died spiritually. This spiritual death was passed on to every child through the seed of the man, and without a man’s seed no woman could bear a child. That is, no woman could bear a child without God’s direct miracle. His prophecy, as we saw in our first lesson, was that the Messiah would be born of the woman, a virgin.

*What does Jesus’ virgin birth tell you about God?