Advent 2/25

 DAY TWO (week one; prophecies)

   Today’s prophecy gives more details as to who the Messiah will be. On the first of December, we read that “her seed” would bruise the Devil's head. In Isaiah 7:14 we find out something special about Him;

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and she will name Him Immanuel.” (NASB)

   This prophecy states that the seed of the woman (descendant of Eve) will be born from a virgin– today we know that is referring to Mary, yet how incredible and unbelievable do you think that sounded to those who first read this? A child would come from God, through a virgin? What an incredible miracle!
   We can see the prophecy being fulfilled in Luke 1, which I will cover sometime later in this advent. To summarize, Mary was betrothed to Joseph when an angel came to her to tell her that she would conceive a child who would become a king. She was surprised, saying that she was a virgin, but the angel said that the Holy Spirit would ‘cover’ her.
   This prophecy also says that the ‘sign’ (Messiah) will be named Immanuel- this means “God with us”, and is a title pointing to the deity of Jesus.
   Why do you think it was important that Jesus was born of a virgin? 

   We can trust Him because He has proved His power over and over again by fulfilling His prophecies- God is omniscient, meaning He understands/knows everything, past, present, and future! He has delivered our Lord through a virgin just as He said he would. Today, I encourage you to pray with me for a sure faith in God because of His steadfastness and reliability.