Post by Admin on Mar 5, 2020 7:14:53 GMT
The next session of our look at the text of Handel's Messiah focuses on Christ's birth.
Isaiah 7:1-16 (NIV)
1 When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.
2 Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
3 Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. 4 Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, 6 “Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.” 7 Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “‘It will not take place, it will not happen,
8 for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’”
10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.”
13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.
Matthew 1:18-25
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 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. 21 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.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Some helpful background on the politics described in Isaiah 7:
Isaiah 7 records events that took place in about 735 BC. Years earlier, King Menahem of Israel had paid tribute to Assyria to preserve himself and his country as the Assyrian Empire battled for control of strategic lands such as Palestine. In 735 BC, a new king of Israel—Pekah—decided the northern kingdom had been a client state of Assyria long enough and stopped sending tribute, probably because he thought Assyria was too occupied in other lands to pay Israel much notice. Pekah was wrong, and when Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria moved to teach Israel a lesson, Pekah allied himself with King Rezin of Syria and set his face against Jerusalem. Their intent was to force King Ahaz of Judah into an alliance with Syria and Israel against Assyria or, should Ahaz refuse, to put a new king in Jerusalem who would support their efforts.
A frightened Ahaz had two options. He could trust God to protect him from Pekah and Rezin, or he could appeal to Assyria for help. Isaiah called Ahaz to trust the Lord, telling him to ask God for a sign that would assure him of divine protection. Ahaz refused because he had already decided to trust Assyria, not because he truly believed it a sin to test God. The Lord gave Ahaz a sign anyway: a virgin would bear a son called “Immanuel”—God with us. He would be a sign that God was with His people, for Israel and Syria would threaten Judah no more before the child reached the age of moral decision-making. The defeat of Pekah and Rezin while the child was very young would confirm the truth of Isaiah’s prophecy and the Lord’s presence. But the Lord’s presence to save Judah from Israel and Syria would be a mixed blessing. He would also curse faithless Judah by sending Assyria against Jerusalem.
And a few comments on the "virgin:"
Although the virgin birth of Christ has always been a defining belief of the Christian faith, this doctrine has been under concentrated attack since the nineteenth century. The antisupernaturalism of the Enlightenment is the chief reason for this. Many in the church bought into the idea that in an era of scientific discovery, people could no longer rationally believe in miracles. Thus, they rejected the virgin birth as an essential teaching of Christianity.
This dispute reached its zenith in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy of the early twentieth century. In that debate, J. Gresham Machen stood as one committed to the supernatural faith of the Bible and a defender of the necessity of affirming the doctrine of the virgin birth when so many others were capitulating to theological liberalism. Machen staunchly argued for what should be clear to any honest reader of the New Testament, namely, that Jesus was conceived by the Spirit, not by ordinary human generation. The Greek word used to describe Mary is parthenos, the chief meaning of which is “virgin.” Clearly, this is how the New Testament uses the term, for the angel makes it plain to Joseph that the child in Mary’s womb was not the product of infidelity. Mary’s unexpected pregnancy was not due to her being with another man; rather, it was the work of God Himself. Denying the virgin birth of Jesus, therefore, means denying an essential truth about His person. Christian truth is a unified whole. We cannot deny one aspect of it and affirm another.
- Both commentaries are from Ligonier Ministries.
Isaiah 7:1-16 (NIV)
1 When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.
2 Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
3 Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. 4 Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, 6 “Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.” 7 Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “‘It will not take place, it will not happen,
8 for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’”
10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.”
13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.
Matthew 1:18-25
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 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. 21 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.”
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
Some helpful background on the politics described in Isaiah 7:
Isaiah 7 records events that took place in about 735 BC. Years earlier, King Menahem of Israel had paid tribute to Assyria to preserve himself and his country as the Assyrian Empire battled for control of strategic lands such as Palestine. In 735 BC, a new king of Israel—Pekah—decided the northern kingdom had been a client state of Assyria long enough and stopped sending tribute, probably because he thought Assyria was too occupied in other lands to pay Israel much notice. Pekah was wrong, and when Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria moved to teach Israel a lesson, Pekah allied himself with King Rezin of Syria and set his face against Jerusalem. Their intent was to force King Ahaz of Judah into an alliance with Syria and Israel against Assyria or, should Ahaz refuse, to put a new king in Jerusalem who would support their efforts.
A frightened Ahaz had two options. He could trust God to protect him from Pekah and Rezin, or he could appeal to Assyria for help. Isaiah called Ahaz to trust the Lord, telling him to ask God for a sign that would assure him of divine protection. Ahaz refused because he had already decided to trust Assyria, not because he truly believed it a sin to test God. The Lord gave Ahaz a sign anyway: a virgin would bear a son called “Immanuel”—God with us. He would be a sign that God was with His people, for Israel and Syria would threaten Judah no more before the child reached the age of moral decision-making. The defeat of Pekah and Rezin while the child was very young would confirm the truth of Isaiah’s prophecy and the Lord’s presence. But the Lord’s presence to save Judah from Israel and Syria would be a mixed blessing. He would also curse faithless Judah by sending Assyria against Jerusalem.
And a few comments on the "virgin:"
Although the virgin birth of Christ has always been a defining belief of the Christian faith, this doctrine has been under concentrated attack since the nineteenth century. The antisupernaturalism of the Enlightenment is the chief reason for this. Many in the church bought into the idea that in an era of scientific discovery, people could no longer rationally believe in miracles. Thus, they rejected the virgin birth as an essential teaching of Christianity.
This dispute reached its zenith in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy of the early twentieth century. In that debate, J. Gresham Machen stood as one committed to the supernatural faith of the Bible and a defender of the necessity of affirming the doctrine of the virgin birth when so many others were capitulating to theological liberalism. Machen staunchly argued for what should be clear to any honest reader of the New Testament, namely, that Jesus was conceived by the Spirit, not by ordinary human generation. The Greek word used to describe Mary is parthenos, the chief meaning of which is “virgin.” Clearly, this is how the New Testament uses the term, for the angel makes it plain to Joseph that the child in Mary’s womb was not the product of infidelity. Mary’s unexpected pregnancy was not due to her being with another man; rather, it was the work of God Himself. Denying the virgin birth of Jesus, therefore, means denying an essential truth about His person. Christian truth is a unified whole. We cannot deny one aspect of it and affirm another.
- Both commentaries are from Ligonier Ministries.