We’re all familiar with the Christmas story – Bethlehem, the virgin birth, God in human flesh laying in a manger, a Savior for mankind. Those of us who are believers have studied and meditated upon and revered the accounts in the New Testament books of Matthew and Luke, while untold millions of others have at a minimum read the stories or heard the carols based upon those accounts.
Yet what most people, even a great many Christians, don’t realize is that the Christmas story was first proclaimed to the world not by the Gospel writers of the New Testament but by the prophets of the Old Testament. Hundreds of years before Christ’s incarnation, these prophets of God foretold specific details about the life of the promised future Messiah. A number of those details surrounded His birth, including:
A birth in Bethlehem. The prophet Micah recorded this Messianic prophecy some 700 years before Christ’s incarnation: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).
The fact that this One is “from everlasting” tells us He is the ever-existing One who was with God from the beginning, which is exactly what the New Testament confirms of Christ (John 1:1). As He was preparing for the sacrifice of the cross, Jesus offered a prayer that no mere mortal could ever utter when He looked heavenward and prayed: “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (John 17:5).
In Hebrew, Bethlehem means “House of Bread,” and Jesus is the One who declared of Himself: “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). As He explained, the true bread from heaven was not the manna that God used to feed the Israelites in the wilderness (like so much of Old Testament imagery, a prophetic symbol pointing to the promised Messiah) but it is “He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world” (verse 33).
A virgin birth. God revealed through the prophet Isaiah, hundreds of years before it took place, that the Messiah’s birth would be a supernatural one: “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
Some critics will point out that the word for “virgin” in the original Hebrew is almah, which can also mean “young girl,” and they argue that this is how the verse should be properly interpreted (as opposed to a virgin birth). The problem with that is it makes absolutely no sense in the context of the pronouncement itself. God promised that He Himself would give a sign to the world, which means that this sign would have to be so supernaturally powerful that the world would know it could only be of God.
What kind of a sign from God would it be for a young girl to give birth? That happens all over the world every day. No, this was a virgin birth that was prophesied – so in the New Testament, the Greek word that is used in transcribing this verse from Isaiah is parthenos, which can only mean a virgin (Matthew 1:23).
A divine birth. In declaring that the One to come would be called Immanuel, which is literally translated “God with us,” Isaiah was also foretelling that this Child would be God in human flesh. Isaiah went on to reveal that He would also be called “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
Isaiah prophesied of Him in that same verse: “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given.” The Child was born, but the Son was given by heaven’s grace. He was the very Son of God (Proverbs 30:4, Psalm 2:12), yet equal to and one with God (thus, the titles Mighty God and Everlasting Father are rightfully His).
Some critics will argue that Jesus never claimed to be the Son of God or to be equal with God, but such arguments are completely bogus. When Jesus was placed on trial and interrogated, the high priest asked Him: “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus responded, “I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:61-62).
This was not unusual. He often identified Himself as the great I AM, the One who always has existed and always will (“I AM the resurrection and the life …,” “I AM the way, the truth and the life …,” “I AM the door of the sheep …,” etc.). Indeed, when He was questioned about Abraham, who lived some 2,000 years earlier, Jesus replied: “Before Abraham was, I AM” (John 8:58). When He said that, the religious leaders in the crowd immediately began picking up rocks to stone Him to death for blasphemy, proving they knew exactly what He was saying. He was claiming to be God.
Men have throughout history denied the divinity of Christ, yet Scripture records God the Father saying to Him: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Hebrews 1:8). So, obviously, the Father has no such misgivings about the place that His Son holds within the Godhead.
A Savior is born. The New Testament is very clear about the purpose of the incarnation, from the time the angel appeared to Joseph and told him of the Child in Mary’s womb: “… you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” This, too, was foretold by the prophets. Isaiah was given a vision of the cross hundreds of years in advance and recorded all he saw in Isaiah 53, writing: “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord [God the Father] has laid on Him [God the Son] the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6).
That is the great and glorious message of Christmas, the same one that was heralded by the angel who announced to the shepherds that first Christmas night: “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).
It all happened about 2,000 years ago, precisely as God had been revealing it would for centuries before that.
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Tom Flannery writes a weekly political column called “The Good Fight” and a continuing religious column called “Why Believe the Bible?” for a hometown newspaper in Pennsylvania. His opinion pieces have appeared in publications such as Newsday, the Los Angeles Times, and Christian Networks Journal. He is a past recipient of the Eric Breindel Award for Outstanding Opinion Journalism from News Corp/The New York Post, in addition to winning six Amy Awards from the Amy Foundation.
