{"id":940636,"date":"2025-11-13T13:52:52","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T18:52:52","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-06-23T13:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T17:13:07","slug":"bible-study-advent-4-a-december-21-2025","status":"publish","type":"bible_study","link":"https:\/\/staging.episcopalchurch.org\/es\/bible_study\/bible-study-advent-4-a-december-21-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Bible Study: Advent 4 (A) \u2013 December 21, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RCL: <\/strong>Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Opening Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Context<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isaiah 7:10-16 is situated during a time of profound turmoil and uncertainty in Ancient Judah. Israel and Judah, once a united kingdom, have long been divided and are now engaged in military conflict. Israel, the northern kingdom, allies with the King of Syria to plan an attack on Judah, the southern kingdom, to remove its king and install a puppet ruler aligned with their coalition against the encroaching and expanding Assyrian Kingdom. (See Kings 16; Isaiah 7:5-7) Ahaz, King of Judah, receives military intelligence confirming the alliance and the impending military incursion. Ahaz and all of Judah are deathly afraid, shaking \u201cas trees of the forest shake before the wind\u201d (Isaiah 7:2). Into this terror and uncertainty comes the prophecy of Isaiah, with a word promising divine protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the threat of the northern kingdom alliance looms, the Book of Isaiah also makes clear that Judah itself is in a spiritual and social crisis. The Ancient Jewish people had long ago received from Moses the commandments and customs that ordered their lives around temple worship to the God they called Yahweh. Yet Isaiah , chapters 1-6, names Judah\u2019s spiritual and social turmoil, as well as its hypocrisy: the people continue to bring burnt offerings to the temple while the poor, orphaned, and widowed are oppressed, and the worship practices that prevail in Judah are not offered to Yahweh (Isaiah 1:10-17; 2:2-8). Isaiah employs graphic imagery and bombastic language to detail the extent of Judah\u2019s depravity. He tells how Jerusalem, located in Judah, was once a \u201cfaithful city,\u201d \u201cfull of justice and righteousness,\u201d but now \u201chas become a whore,\u201d lodged with \u201cmurderers,\u201d and marred by a corrupt economy (Isaiah 1:21-23). Adding to this ongoing, widespread spiritual and social crisis, Ahaz, the King of Judah, has a track record of immoral and idolatrous leadership. Ahaz\u2019s leadership would have disastrous consequences for Judah, leading it to become a client state of the Assyrian Empire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theological Reflection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week marks the fourth and final week of Advent. Christians around the world eagerly wait for the Christmas celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Matthew\u2019s Gospel for today proclaims that the birth of Jesus through the Virgin Mary fulfills the centuries-old prophecy of Isaiah, which Matthew quotes directly: \u201c\u2018Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,\u2019 which means, \u2018God is with us\u2019\u201d (Matthew 1:23). These are the very same words we hear in Isaiah: \u201cLook, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel\u201d (7:14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the crisis in ancient Judah, we come now to another kind of crisis, in the family of Jesus\u2019 birth. The birth of Jesus was marked by crisis. Joseph planned to end his engagement to Mary when he learned that Mary was pregnant, and not by him. And when King Herod learned from the wise men that the King of the Jews had been born, Herod enacted a policy of infanticide in and around Bethlehem. And yet in these crises, God intervened: revealing to Joseph the divine nature of Jesus\u2019 birth and providing a plan of escape for the Holy Family to Egypt. The promise of the name \u201cEmmanuel,\u201d \u201cGod with us,\u201d plays out in the temporal realm of Mary, Jospeh, and Herod, as well as in the eternal one, in the incarnation of Jesus. \u201cIncarnation\u201d is a theological term derived from the Latin verb incarnare<\/em>, meaning to make flesh. In the Incarnation, God takes on flesh to be \u201cwith us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a moment to consider that God\u2014the invisible, all-powerful creator of heaven and earth\u2014takes on human flesh and experiences the fullness of humanity. Mary joins God in this divine mystery. She is the bearer of the incarnate God forming in her womb. Mary and Joseph wait with anticipation for their divine son to be born, a son who \u201cwould save his people from their sins\u201d (Matthew 1:17). In Advent, we, too, wait with Mary and Joseph for the incarnate God to be born as Jesus, the Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s tempting to circumscribe Isaiah\u2019s prophecy as a proof text authenticating the birth of Jesus. Isaiah\u2019s prophecy bears distinctive meaning in the context of the Old Testament, which also figures into Jesus\u2019 birth narrative in the New Testament. We\u2019ve seen how Isaiah describes the Kingdom of Judah in profound turmoil: internal and external threats abound, threatening its political and religious stability. Word of an imminent northern invasion spreads across Judah. King Ahaz and the people are deathly afraid\u2014paralyzed, like \u201ctrees of the forest [shaking] before the wind.\u201d They are unable to save themselves. Yet just when hope seemed lost, God spoke to the Prophet Isaiah a clear word of salvation, exhorting Ahaz through him: \u201cDo not fear\u2026it shall not come to pass.\u201d As a sign of God\u2019s promise, Ahaz would witness \u201ca young woman\u2026with child, a son [who] shall be named Immanuel\u201d (Isaiah 7:14). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biblical prophetic literature lives in the tension between the present and the future. It speaks to the immediate moment and to an opaque, distant future. We read these prophecies in the aftermath of transcriptions and transmission across centuries; diverse religious communities long after the initial prophecy\u2019s audience are entrusted with interpreting the prophecy in their own moment, with their own lens. So interpretations of this passage from Isaiah have varied. For medieval Jewish rabbis and scholars, the identity of the young woman and her child remained speculative; some speculated that she may be the wife of Isaiah or the wife of Ahaz, or even his daughter. One medieval Jewish commentator noted that the sign given to Ahaz was \u201ca symbolic sign to ensure the prophecy is not forgotten\u201d (Abarbanel on Isaiah 7:14, Sefaria, n.d.). However the prophecy was later interpreted, this is known: at a critical moment of uncertainty and turmoil for Ahaz and the people of Judah, the prophecy reminded them that God would bring salvation in the present and in the future. God was faithful to bring salvation to the ancient Jewish people: delivering them from bondage in Egypt, guiding them through the desert to the promised land, and giving instructions through the commandments and laws of how best to order their lives together. When internal and external turmoil threatened any stability, God remained faithful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taken together, today\u2019s Old Testament and New Testament lectionary texts reveal an enduring truth about the nature of God across time and space: God has been, is, and will be with us. God, from the beginning of creation to now has been revealing\u2014in signs and wonders\u2014God\u2019s faithfulness to all of creation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can see God with us in the prophecy to Ahaz. We can see God with us in the story of Joseph and Mary, waiting for the birth of their baby boy. We can see God with us, too, in the present uncertainties of our world. The incarnate God is with us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just look closely, and you will see the small and big signs of divine nearness: in our churches, our schools, our workplaces, our parks and forests; in the highways and byways, the familiar and the unfamiliar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you see the signs of Immanuel, God with us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflection Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n