(link to audio podcast on Spotify: FAB’s Podcast)
“She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—‘God saves’—because he will save his people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term:
Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son;
They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”). (Matthew 1:23-25)
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A sermon had been preached by Isaiah the prophet. It was a sermon without an altar call, or one that his listeners could directly apply to their lives at that time. Even though it wasn’t preached and recorded for a radio broadcast, podcast, or TV broadcast, or preserved digitally, it was recorded in writing, and not hidden away. And the preacher’s point was: Pay attention—a virgin will give birth to an amazing baby.
It was a sermon with a seed, a seed of a message that looked forward, though no one at that time knew how long the looking-ahead would be. I love Peterson’s use here of the term ‘embryonic sermon.’ It was a sermon with a message that had been set in motion, and was waiting for fulfillment. It was like a baby in the womb. Fully alive, starting small and gradually developing, preparing to come out of momma at just the right time. It was a message that was waiting to go full term.
Waiting for a baby to go full term is an exhilarating, up and down ride. Physical and emotional challenges abound for the mother. Anxious check-ups with the medical staff, just to see how things are going in there. Those are markers along the road to eventual delivery. (And ‘deliver’ is probably a good verb in English to describe what happens; watching my wife give birth to three, it’s probably closer to the noun ‘deliverance.’ Free at last, free at last…Finally!)
The father tries to support the best he can. But speaking for the fathers of the world, all of us who have been privileged to be one of those, we share this feature in common with all other fathers: the first time we experience this, we’ve never been through the birth of a child that we helped to make. We don’t know what to anticipate, or what’s involved. We see the mother struggling, laboring towards the end (there’s another strong verb for a major part of the process, ‘labor’), not just touching, but holding her belly, finding it hard to walk, hard to get a deep breath. Finding it hard to lay down and get comfortable. Hungry, but don’t know what they want. Or, if they do know, it’s not on the usual house menu (like requesting Chinese food at midnight. I speak from experience.)
This ‘coming to full term’ business is arduous. Uncertain. Unfamiliar. And it is the normal conclusion, now replicated billions of times in world history. That baby doesn’t stay in the womb forever. It will come out and we will see him or her and welcome them to the human race. Sometimes the baby comes early, and sometimes what we call ‘late.’ We get these terms from the expected boundaries or time frame of human gestation. But whenever the day of deliverance is, the baby comes.
The word ‘embryonic’ points towards a public revealing that is coming in the life of the child. The revealing is coming, and it will be life-changing. (I can remember a conversation with a young mother once who recounted her tears, knowing that after all that time of pregnancy, the time for delivery was imminent. The baby would be revealed and plop into their world. Was she ready for this?! The baby is coming! I wonder: is it actually possible to be ready in every way?)
How long had it been since this sermon seed was planted? Isaiah preached this in the 8th century B.C. Eight centuries it took to come to full term! Obviously, no one who had heard the original sermon was alive when it came full term. But by God’s providence and grace, the sermon was recorded in writing. Full term would be experienced by a much-later generation.
But that time lag did not invalidate it. God wasn’t late in bringing the sermon to fulfillment. It does make me wonder, though: the Jewish ancestors had this in writing. The extraordinary length of time till full term was taxing. Had they given up hope? To the casual observer, it seems they had waited forever. How many who came across Isaiah’s sermon in writing wondered if this was one of those promises that was actually something other than a promise. It hasn’t happened yet, so maybe the words mean something else? We took it as a promise, but maybe it’s a proverb, or some other kind of speech, and we need the experts to help us figure it out?
No, it was definitely a promise. And God was fulfilling it. He had planted the seed for the baby to grow. God planted the seed of the prophetic message in the heart of Isaiah.
When God does the planting, growth will come. We don’t always know the timing, but we know the result. God will accomplish his purposes, and fulfill His Word.
Matthew recounted that the time had indeed come. Isaiah’s embryonic sermon was about the world-changing baby, to be born to a young virgin (wait?! Did you say, ‘virgin’?! Now, this is one sermon I’m listening to…) That virgin’s baby would save God’s people from their sins. That baby would also be welcomed with the descriptive name of Immanuel, meaning God is with us. And, in His presence with His people, God is enabling salvation.
What a sermon! More than that, what a baby!
Prepare, Israel! He is coming. His advent is at hand. The waiting is over.
“Father, thank you for this sermon you gave to Isaiah, looking ahead for centuries to its fulfillment. The birth of our Savior was not an accident, or a coincidence, or just a random birth in history. It was planned by you, expected, and waited for. We rejoice today, knowing that your intention was fulfilled. And in His birth, you had us in mind! We know that, because you said he would save us from our sins. Thank you.”
Freddy Boswell 