Spoken By The Lord—Mt. 1.22

Citing Isaiah 7.14, which details the virgin birth and deity of Christ, Matthew insists that this prophecy was “spoken by the Lord through the prophet” (Mt. 1.22; cf. 2.15).

This statement is significant, for it affirms:

(1) that God himself is the author of the text, not man;

(2) that Isaiah and his writing utensil were merely the means by which the Lord spoke (through the prophet); and

(3) that a seven-hundred year old prediction has, with precision, finally come to pass, thereby proving the divine authorship of the passage.

Yet, many assume the reverse — that Isaiah spoke through the Lord — that the Bible claims human authorship, with God (or the idea of God) serving merely as a generic influence. This is erroneous.

The Bible frequently insists that God is the author of all its content (cf. 2 Tim. 3.16; “inspiration,” here, literally denotes, “God-breathed” or “God spoken”). The expression, “thus says the Lord,” is employed more than 400 times in scripture (cf. Isa. 44.6; Zech. 1.3-4; etc.)—“God said,” some 50 times (cf. 2 Cor. 6.16)—“God spoke,” more than 10 times (cf. Mt. 22.31; Mk. 12.26)—plus scores of variations involving divine announcements (cf. 2 Sam. 23.2; 1 Kngs. 22.24; Acts 1.16; 3.18; 4.24-25; etc.). Jesus himself referred to the scriptures as “the word of God” (Mt. 15.6; Mk. 7.13; Jn. 10.35).

Thus, we must either accept the divine authorship of the Bible in totality, or reject it all as a fraud of the most infamous kind (condemning Jesus and the prophets as liars or fools). There can be no part-human, part-divine formula assigned to the origin of the Bible. A definite choice, one way or the other, must be made (cf. 1 Thess. 2.13-14; 2 Cor. 5.20; 2 Pt. 1.19-21).