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Day 195, or July 14. A virgin shall conceive. Our thoughts today come from Isaiah 7 verse

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14. Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and give

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birth to a son, and will call him Emmanuel. First the big picture surrounding this verse.

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There are two Hebrew words used in the Old Testament which may be translated virgin or

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unmarried female. However, in the New Testament there is only one Greek word which means virgin,

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and that is the one used when this passage from Isaiah is quoted in the gospels of Matthew

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and Luke. Very early in his prophecy, after his commissioning by God, Isaiah tells King

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Ahaz of Judah, who was far from being a godly king, that God will give him a sign. A virgin

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will conceive and give birth to a son who will be called Emmanuel. Isn't it just like

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God to be gracious even to those who don't obey Him? All of this good news came amidst

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the groaning of doom-laden prophecies to many godless nations around Judah. It also coincided

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with the scattering of the northern tribes by the invading Assyrians.

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And now our action step for today. I'm sure you have heard about the story that was initially

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circulated in German technical universities in the 1930s. Supposedly during dinner a biologist

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asked an aerodynamics expert about insect flight. The aerodynamicist did a few calculations

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and found that, according to the accepted theory of the day, bumblebees didn't generate

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enough lift to fly. These findings have been quoted ad nauseam ever since. In a similar

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way today many people reject the virgin birth because it just can't happen according to

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the laws of biology. What we forget is that the laws of science are simply mankind's

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way of explaining what is around us and are regularly updated in the light of new discoveries.

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The temptation of denying anything that cannot be scientifically proven is a dangerous path

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to tread. There are times when trusting by faith is the best option, especially when

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you're trusting in God.