God’s Playing the Long Game

20 December 2025  Isaiah 7:10-14

The Third Saturday in Advent

“Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel...” Isaiah 7:14

Christians have understood Isaiah’s prophecy in a way Isaiah probably never did, and the Jews never have. The Jews have never anticipated that the Messiah will come as a result of a virgin birth, which, in all likelihood, means that Isaiah wasn’t looking at it that way either.

Torah scholars have always pointed out that the Hebrew word almah means simply “young woman,” and implies nothing about whether or not she is a virgin.

Maybe Isaiah didn’t see the Virgin Birth coming because it takes some time to get your head around a game that long and a story that deep. You can’t take it all in on Tik-Tok.

Hebrew has another word for “virgin,” bethulah, which is much more specific. And even if almah did imply virginity, it could reasonably be interpreted to mean that a woman who is now a virgin will conceive in the old fashioned way. Torah scholars, applying Occam’s Razor, believe that this much simpler interpretation is much more reasonable and preferable to the Christian one, which even Christians admit is far wilder.

Sure, but so what?

The Jews didn’t see the Exodus coming either, all the smart money was betting against David in his fight with Goliath, and no one believed that God would allow Jerusalem to be destroyed – which it was, twice.

Isaiah wasn’t the first prophet who didn’t see the full implications of his prophecy, and he wouldn’t be the last. Even John the Baptist, who had proclaimed loud and clear, “Prepare the way of the Lord!” had to ask, “Are you the One who is to come, or should we seek another?” (Matthew 11:3). None of the disciples saw Easter coming, and didn’t understand most of Jesus’ teaching until after Pentecost.

God is playing a very long game, and anyone who wants to understand what God is up to has to enter a story which has been going on for over 3000 years, and isn’t over yet. God has already provided signs of such immense power that they have created and sustained an entire culture dating back at least to Abraham, and is still going on. We have already been sent from “country, and kindred, and your father’s house to the land which I will show you” (Genesis 12:1), to the Burning Bush and through the walls of water at the Red Sea, witnessing the fall of Pharaoh and all his host (Exodus 14:1-4). We have wept by the waters of Babylon when we remembered Zion (Psalm 137), and listened to Ezra reading the Book of the Law (Nehemiah 8). We have been to the banks of the Jordan (Luke 3:1-6), the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), and the Damascus Road (Acts 9:1-19), and nobody saw any of those signs coming. Yet they have been the foundation of a culture that has given us over time universities and hospitals, modern science and medicine, an end to slavery and the acknowledgement of human rights. And the end of the story is the Kingdom of God.

Maybe Isaiah didn’t see the Virgin Birth coming because it takes some time to get your head around a game that long and a story that deep. You can’t take it all in on Tik-Tok.

King Ahaz wouldn’t ask for a sign. He said it was because he didn’t want to put God to the test, but we know better. If he asked for a sign, he could have had one – hundreds of them – and then he would have had to follow, which is what he didn’t want to do. There are signs available – hundreds of them – because God has been playing a very long game for a very long time. They are available still to anyone who is ready to follow.