What Is the Real Meaning of Immanuel? (Immanuel 1)

We must always remember that God teaches his people using the principle, “first the natural, then the spiritual.” For example, Matthew 1:22-23 tells us that the birth of Jesus fulfilled the following Scripture,

10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your[f] God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 And he[g] said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.[h] 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. 17 The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.” (Isaiah 7:10-17 ESV)

but Jesus’ birth was only the natural fulfillment of it, not the spiritual. To begin to understand this consider that Isaiah’s prophecy said that the virgin would call her son’s name “Immanuel,” yet the angel who revealed her pregnancy to the virgin Mary told her, “You shall call his name Jesus.” (Luke 1:31) Jesus is the English translation of the Hebrew name Joshua, or Yeshua or yeh-ho-shoo’-ah, and means “Jehovah saved” according to Strong’s Concordance. The angel did not tell Mary to name Jesus “Immanuel” which means “God with us.” Instead he told her to name him “God saved,” or “God saves.” This is because the birth of Jesus did not finally fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Immanuel. His birth only began it. His birth, life, and ministry only began to fulfill the prophecy in the sense that God came to earth as a man in order to save men for himself. The spiritual fulfillment of the prophecy of Immanuel concerns God’s full salvation of men, the fulfillment of making (creating) them into his image.

Second, in the first, natural fulfillment of this prophecy, we see a literal physical virgin, Mary, bear a literal physical son, Jesus. This will not be the case when God fulfills this prophecy spiritually. At that time the virgin will be the spiritual “virgin daughter of Zion.” Remember that in the prophetic Scriptures Zion and Jerusalem represent New Jerusalem which God fully reveals in Revelation 21 and 22. New Jerusalem itself is comprised of living stones, God’s overcomers. God’s overcomers manifest in at least two stages. First will be a firstfruits company and then those who are alive and left at Christ’s second coming. Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Immanuel concerns the firstfruits company of overcomers in the second fulfillment, the spiritual fulfillment of the prophecy. These firstfruits manifest as the “son” prophesied in Revelation 12.

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 5 She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. (Revelation 12:1-6)

The woman in view here in Revelation 12:4 is the virgin daughter of Zion. She represents all of God’s faithful children, including those who are not quite ready to receive the anointing of sonship when God’s Day of Wrath begins. But God protects those who are not yet ready by preparing a place in the wilderness where she will be nourished of 1260 days. The firstfruits have already been prepared and provided for in a wilderness which God chose for them at the time of this manifestation. In fact it will be these firstfruits who provide the nourishment to the virgin daughter of Zion during their wilderness exile. These firstfruits will appear as natural human beings to “the woman,” but they will actually be supernatural (spiritual) sons of God who manifest in the flesh. They are the spiritual fulfillment of Isaiah 7. They are spiritual Immanuel.

… to be continued.

 

This entry was posted in 144000, a perfect stone, Day of the Lord, Day of Wrath, Elohim, Firstfruits, image of God, Isaiah, New Jerusalem, Overcomers, Prophecy, Revelation, Second Coming of Christ, Sons of God and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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