And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
Ver. 21. And she shall bring forth a Son] Shiloh, the son of her secundines: that Son, that Eve made account she had gotten when she had gotten Cain: for said she, "I have gotten a man from the Lord;" or, as others read it (and the original rather favours it), "I have gotten the man, the Lord." But how far she was deceived, the issue proved. Fallitur augurio spes bona saepe suo. Hope comes halting home many times.
And then shalt call his name Jesus] Not of ιαομαι, to heal, as some Hellenists would have it; although it be true that he is Exo 15:26 the Lord the Physician, "by whose stripes we are healed," Isaiah 53:5; but of Jashang, whence Jehoshuah, Jesus. Two in the Old Testament had this name. The first when he was sent as a spy into Canaan, Numbers 13:16, had his name changed from Oshea, "Let God save," to Jehoshuah; "God shall save." Under the Law (which brings us, as it were, into the wilderness of Sin) we may wish there were a Saviour, but under the Gospel we are sure of salvation, since our Jehoshuah hath bound himself to fulfil all righteousness, and had therefore this name imposed upon him at his circumcision. For he assumed it not to himself (though, knowing the end of his coming and the fulness of his sufficiency, he might have done it), nor received it from men, but from God, and that with great solemnity, by the ministry of an angel, who talked with a woman about our salvation as Satan sometime had done about our destruction.
For he shall save his people from their sins] This is the notation and etymon, or reason for his name, Jesus, -a name above all names, Philippians 2:9. Σωτηρ, saith the heathen orator, a is a word so emphatic, that other tongues can hardly find a word fit to express it. Salvation properly notes the negative part of a Christian's happiness, viz preservation from evil, chiefly from the evil of sin (which is the mother of all our misery); from the damning and domineering power thereof, by his merit and Spirit, by his value and virtue. Jesus therefore is a short Gospel, and should work in us strongest affections and egressions of soul after him who hath saved us from the wrath to come, 1 Thessalonians 1:10. The Grecians, being set free but from bodily servitude, called their deliverer a saviour to them; and rang it out, Saviour, Saviour, b so that the fowls in the air fell down dead with the cry. Yea, they so pressed to come near him and touch his hand, that if he had not timely withdrawn himself, he might have beseemed to have lost his life. c The Egyptians preserved by Joseph, called him Abrech, or tender father. The daughters of Jerusalem met David returning from the slaughter of the Philistines with singing and dancing. When the Lord turned again the captivity of his people, they were like those who dream, Psalms 126:1. And Peter enlarged, could scarcely believe his own eyes, with such an ecstasy of admiration was he rapt upon that deliverance. Oh, then, how should our hearts rejoice and our tongues be glad, Acts 2:26; and how should we be vexed at the vile dulness and deadness of our naughty natures, that can be no more affected with these indelible ravishments! Jacob wept for joy at the good news that Joseph was yet alive. Joannes Mollius, whensoever he spake of the name of Jesus, his eyes dropped. And another reverend divine among us, being in a deep muse, after some discourse that passed of Jesus, and tears trickling abundantly from his eyes before he was aware, being urged for the cause thereof, confessed ingenuously, it was because he could not draw his dull heart to prize Christ aright. Mr. Fox never denied beggar that asked in that name; and good Bucer never disregarded any (though different in opinion from him) in whom he could discern aliquid Christi. "None but Christ," said that blessed martyr at the stake. And another in the flames, when judged already dead, suddenly, as waked out of sleep, moved his tongue and jaws, and was heard to pronounce this word, Jesus. (John Lambert, Julius Palmer. Acts and Mon.)
Here also we have an excellent argument of our Saviour's Divinity and omnipotence; forasmuch as the angel ascribeth unto him that which the Psalmist affirmeth of Jehovah, that he shall "redeem Israel from all his iniquities," Psalms 130:8; cf. Hosea 13:4. λυτρωσεται. Christus autem, non Pater, factus est απολυτρωσις .
a Cicer. in Verrem.
b σωτηρ, σωτηρ. Plut. in Vita Flamin.
c Tyndale in his Annotat.