Isaiah 7:1-17 Fourth Sunday in Advent December 22, 2013 THE SCRIPTURE TEXT: 1 When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it. 2 Now the house of David was told, "Aram has allied itself with Ephraim"; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. 3 Then the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman's Field. 4 Say to him, 'Be careful, keep calm and don't be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood--because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah's son have plotted your ruin, saying, 6 "Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it." 7 Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says: " 'It will not take place, it will not happen, 8 for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people. 9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah's son. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.' " 10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 "Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights." 12 But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test." 13 Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore 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. 15 He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. 16 But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. 17 The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah--he will bring the king of Assyria." (NIV1984) THE SERMON: 1 P a g e
Signs. Signs tell us things. This past Wednesday evening there was a big orange cone out of in the middle of the intersection of County Roads A & C, out here in front of Church. People were asking me why there was a big orange cone out in the middle of the road. I don t know. I m not sure. I can t really say what that sign was trying to tell us. Some of you will be traveling to visit family and friends to celebrate Christmas and you ll be watching the signs to see how close or far away you are from arrival. I remember being kind of confused by the signs along the Interstate Highway as we were traveling up to the Twin Cities to join family for Thanksgiving. There is a stretch past Eau Claire where they have those big green signs that list the mileage to the Twin Cities. Now I can never quite keep it straight in my mind where Minneapolis and St. Paul are in relation to each other, so it bothered me when I had gone down the road a ways and had seen a sign a little ways back that said it was 56 miles to St. Paul, and now the sign says nothing about St. Paul, but it says that Minneapolis is 56 miles away. Hey, what s going on here! How can it still be 56 miles away when the sign back there said? So, it seems like it would make more sense to either list both Minneapolis and St. Paul on the sign with each of their distances, or just stay consistent and use the same place on both signs, but no. Today the book of Isaiah shows us the signs of the time, both in Isaiah s day, and for our day. And what s interesting is that all of the signs have something to do with children. First of all we can read a sign of the times by looking at King Ahaz s children, or even at King Ahaz himself. As some of you know, sometimes, as the saying goes, the apple falls far from the tree. Sometimes, no matter how faithful a parent is, no matter the Christian education given to a child, no matter how much of an example a parent s life of faith is, sometimes the child rebels and rejects having God in his or her life. King Ahaz s father, Jotham, was a good and powerful King in Judah. 2 Chronicles 27:6 tells us that he grew powerful because he walked steadfastly before the Lord his God. But Jotham s son, Ahaz, was not like his father or his grandfather. This king set a very bad example. He worshipped the false gods, known as the Baals. He gave them the glory and praise that belongs to the Triune God alone. Wherever trees grew in the land of Israel, he went and offered the smoke of incense under those trees as his form of worship to those false gods of nature. In addition, he saw an altar to a false god in another land that he decided to build in the Temple of the Lord. And then later on he just closed the doors to the temple entirely, barring people from the worship of the true God. Instead he set up 2 P a g e
altars to the false gods on every street corner in Jerusalem. (Maybe that s what the orange cone was for.) Now, I mentioned that we would see the signs of the times in children. And sadly, if you didn t think Ahaz was all that bad before, you might think differently when you hear about the sign of the times found in Ahaz s children. What a sad thing to find out that Ahaz actually sacrificed some of his children, killed them, because he thought that would please the false god s that he worshipped. But we must also wonder about this great country we live in that allows for the slaughter of so many unborn children on the altar of choice, on the altar of promiscuity, on the altar of greed and selfishness. What does this sign say about our times and our country, about the hearts of so many darkened in sin and unbelief? But God will not remain silent, then or now. The Lord sent the prophet Isaiah to Ahaz during a time when Ahaz was feeling the consequences of his actions. Ahaz was afraid because he didn t have the Lord in his life. He was afraid because it seemed like things in his life, and things for his people, were stacking up against him. Although things had gone well for his father, because his father had walked steadfastly before the Lord God, now the Kings of the peoples around Judah were joining forces to fight against Ahaz and Jerusalem. In fact, these two neighboring kings, Rezin and Pekah, had already dealt some crushing losses against King Ahaz and Judah. 120,000 soldiers of Judah were killed in one day, and 200,000 captives were carried off as plunder (again a sign of the times, those carried off as captives were women and children). Up to this point, those opposing kings, Rezin and Pekah had been unable to defeat Jerusalem, but King Ahaz was scared. Again the Scriptures make it clear that this was happening because Judah [King Ahaz] had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers (2 Chronicles 28:6). The hearts of Judah at this time, facing this threat, are described as being shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. But instead of turning back to the Lord, King Ahaz sought human solutions to his problems. He stole from the Lord, taking the treasures of the Temple of the Lord, in order to send those treasures as payment to Assyria to come and help him fight against Rezin and Pekah. You can see where King Ahaz put his trust. But still, the Lord would not remain silent. He would appeal to King Ahaz through the mouth of his prophet Isaiah. Our text says, 3 Then the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of 3 P a g e
the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman's Field. 4 Say to him, 'Be careful, keep calm and don't be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah's son have plotted your ruin, saying, 6 "Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it." 7 Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says: " 'It will not take place, it will not happen. Again, we see a sign in a child. It s interesting to see the message the Lord was sending to King Ahaz. You see, as important as the words are, God was also sending a very important visual message to King Ahaz. Standing next to the prophet, Isaiah, is his son, Shear-Jashub. No, this isn t just take your son to work day. The name of Isaiah s son is important. The Lord had instructed Isaiah to name his son, Shear Jashub which means, a remnant will return. In other words, this boy, whose name is a remnant will return, is a sign of the future. God has said that the kings that King Ahaz were afraid of were going to be defeated. Those kings were just a bunch of smoke, like smoldering stubs of firewood about to go out. The future was standing right there in front of King Ahaz in the form of a child. The Lord decreed it. The prophet spoke it. The child s presence underscored these truths. The Lord said to King Ahaz, 'Be careful, keep calm and don't be afraid. Do not lose heart It will not take place, it will not happen. Within 65 years the enemies of Judah would be shattered. They would no longer be a threat. Believe it. Isaiah tells King Ahaz in verse 9, If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all. Ahaz didn t believe the Lord. He didn t take comfort as he heard the promises of God. Yet, God is so compassionate and gracious, that he continues to try and win the heart of Ahaz, though he didn t deserve it. 10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 "Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights." The Israelite judge Gideon had asked for God to make a piece of fleece wet with dew, while everything else around it was bone dry. Then he had God reverse the sign and make everything wet with dew, except the fleece, and God did that too (Judges 6). And God gave King Ahaz s successor, King Hezekiah, a sign in the highest heights, when he made the sun move backwards in time (2 Kings 20). But, King Ahaz, is the worst. He is one of those people who thinks he is religious, but only does what he wants to do and thinks that s what God wants him to do. So, even though the Lord had told Ahaz to ask for a sign, here s 4 P a g e
what he thinks he will do, 12 But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test." But that s exactly what he was doing by not listening to the Lord. 13 Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Again, the Lord reminds King Ahaz of the promises that he had made to the house of David. God had promised to establish David s house through one of his descendants. The Lord had said to David, 11 When your days are over and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever (1 Chronicles 17:11,12). Yet, though God was faithful to his promises, the house of David at this time had no interest in these promises and no faith in them. And even though King Ahaz didn t ask for a sign, the Lord would give him a sign. The Lord, through the prophet Isaiah, said, Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore 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. 15 He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. 16 But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. 17 The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah--he will bring the king of Assyria." The Lord would deliver the remnant of Judah from the threat of those northern kings, Rezin and Pekah. But the Lord would not do it because of King Ahaz. In fact, because of King Ahaz, and others like him, the line of David fell on hard times. In fact, in the message of the sign that Isaiah speaks, he talks about this child eating the food of poverty. This child would be born in lowly circumstances, not like a king. All the wealth with which God had blessed the kings of Judah, the line of David, with would be paid to the Assyrians, the human solution where King Ahaz had sadly put his trust. Yet, God in his grace would raise up a King unlike any before or since. This child would once again raise up a kingdom and rule upon the throne of his father David. But this king, this kingdom, this victory, this child, would come in a most unusual, a most impossible way. Here s the miraculous sign that King Ahaz would not ask for, but God would give to save his people. A virgin would give birth. Now there s something that doesn t happen everyday or ever. 5 P a g e
God s point to King Ahaz, and to us, is that God does the impossible, and we need to trust him to do exactly that. When the signs of the times seem to be forecasting doom and gloom, it s tempting to just give in and join forces with those around us. When the signs of the times seem to be forecasting doom and gloom, it s tempting to try to do it ourselves, to abandon the Lord, to close the doors on being in the house of God, and at best worship in our own way, on our own street corner, all the while telling the Lord what kind of service we will be offering him, instead of the other way around asking him what he has to say, seeking his word, and believing what he has to say. For when God tells us, 'Be careful, keep calm and don't be afraid. Do not lose heart, all we have to do is look at the sign that God gave. The virgin gave birth to a son, just like Isaiah told us she would, 700 years before it happened. God with Us Immanuel, came down to this earth to defeat our enemies: sin, death and the devil. 'Be careful, keep calm and don't be afraid. Do not lose heart. For God comes to us in his Word. He comes to us as he continues to seek us and speak to us by his prophets. And, the biggest reason of all, that we don t need to be afraid or lose heart, is that when God saw our need, he didn t just leave us on our own to fix the problem because we couldn t, but the Lord God sent a child his Son, to come and fix the problem, to defeat our overwhelming enemies. And the same Savior who became one of us to save us, promises to continue to be with us, and protect us, and keep us safe. Jesus promises, And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20). God s spokesman, Isaiah stands before us today, pointing to the children, showing us the signs of the Lord s promise for the future. And Isaiah says, If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all. In a sense, that too, is about children, is about having a child-like faith that trusts what our Father in heaven tells us. Believe the Lord s promises. Believe the signs sent from God. Believe in your promised Savior, the child born of a miracle, born of a virgin, God with us Immanuel. We have A Sign for the Future to Trust in God with us, our Savior Jesus. Amen. 6 P a g e