My wife Karilee and I have two children and six grandchildren. They are the delight of our lives, and I can remember the day when each of them was born. The birth of a child – what a special event!
Isaiah told Israel that the answer to all of their problems would come in the birth of a child. In Isaiah 9:6 he said, “For a child will be born to us…and His name will be called…Mighty God…”
The word for “child” here is the Hebrew word yeled, referring to a male child; and the words “will be born” is the verb form of this word—(yalad), meaning “to give birth to a male child.” Now the form of this verb is particularly interesting. It is the perfect form of the verb, indicating “action already completed,” and it is the “pual” stem of the verb, which has an intensive, passive idea.
In other words, this simply means that Isaiah saw the birth of this child as an intense event that was so sure, it was as though it had already happened! You see, the hope of the world is in the incredible birth of a unique child who is actually Mighty God.
So this Christmas as you look once again at the “little child in the Bethlehem manger,” remember Isaiah’s prophecy. This is no ordinary birth. It is a unique birth – an intense event in the history of the world! “For a child will be born to us.”
Say, do you realize that Almighty God humbled Himself to be born as a child? That’s AMAZING!