Prophecy is much easier understood driving away from it’s having been fulfilled rather than driving towards it, still unfulfilled. God’s Word is often understood best in the rear-view mirror…like having already ran the stop sign, realizing it, and then looking in the rear-view mirror to confirm your error. Old Testament, Biblical prophecy is laced with signs; signs that either promote belief in an immediate situation or signs that follow a series of events confirming them as acts of God. Biblical prophecy concerning the birth of the Christ-child is filled with both types of signs.
More than six centuries prior to the miraculous arrival of a baby boy born in Bethlehem to a virgin mother, the prophet Isaiah spoke to the king of Judah, Ahaz, and announced, “The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel”(Is. 7:14). And again in 9:6, Isaiah declared, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given”. These signs were signs of the second type. And in their fulfillment, howbeit, more than 6 centuries later, the perception looking backwards, is that the series of events preceding the fulfillment of these prophecies were acts of God. Hundreds of years later when angels appeared to Jewish shepherds in the field declaring, “Born unto you this day in the City is David, a Savior; he is Christ the Lord” (Lk. 2:11), they were given a sign of the first type. The sign was that they would find the child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. After pursuing the child, they found him just as the angels had declared, promoting their belief in the immediate situation, that Messiah had come.
But, what about this “born Child”, this “given Son”? Was He simply the fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecy, yesterday’s Messiah, the Kingdom which has come? Yes and No. He is prophecy fulfilled… He was Messiah… and the Kingdom of God has come. But, He is also a sign of prophecy yet unfulfilled… of a Messiah who “is” and is coming… of a Kingdom which “has come” but is coming in fullness. Though we can look in the rearview mirror and understand (to some extent) prophecy fulfilled, we are still driving towards prophecy unfufilled, and the signs are numerous if we aren’t too distracted to recognize and read them. But, we can only speculate about prophecy unfulfilled…prophecy which we’re driving towards. And, we should not waste too much of our energy and efforts speculating. However, we can understand, rejoice, and glory in prophecy fulfilled, and this is where we should focus our lives…on what we can understand and what has been revealed. Signs of the past remind us that God is faithful to fulfill His word even if centuries stand between His Word spoken and His Word fulfilled. Looking in the rear-view mirror at what God has done gives us hope in what God is going to do.
“To us” a child was born…”To us” as Son was given. May He be born in us and received by us, again, today.
