In the Christmas story recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, the Apostle does a very odd thing. He connects the virgin birth of Jesus with a prophecy given by Isaiah to Ahaz, the king of Judah, 700 years earlier: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23 NASV based on Isaiah 7:14) For many it has been a controversial connection. But it makes sense when we understand what was happening when Isaiah gave this prophecy with what Matthew emphasized in his account of the birth of Christ. In Isaiah 7, the prophet was dealing with a situation that was taking place in Judah. By this time, Israel and Judah had been ripped apart. Israel had fallen into abject idolatry, and Judah was the last remnant of God’s kingdom. In the first two verses, we read that back-slidden Israel and Syria had joined to rage war against Judah intending to remove Ahaz and set up a new …