The Sign No One Asked For: Isaiah 7
We all hope for a sign to help us know what we’re supposed to do, whether that’s taking a chance on eating sushi in South Dakota, embarking on a road trip in severe weather, or switching jobs when an offer comes our way. Wouldn’t it be nice if God just told us what to do with some kind of sign? Our text for the fourth week of Advent, Isaiah 7:10-16, includes a sign from God to an unlikely recipient.
King Ahaz of Judah was in a tough political situation. Judah’s immediate neighbors to the north partnered with a large neighboring empire that was ready to wage war against a rival empire to Judah’s south. That left Judah, a tiny nation with an even tinier army, in the crosshairs of two global superpowers.
God spoke to Ahaz through the prophet Isaiah and assured Ahaz that God will spare Judah from all harm. The threat to the north will pass. God says to Ahaz, but “if you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all” (Isa 7:9).
Ahaz was not big on faith, so God graciously gave Ahaz a sign that would assure him that God will do what he promised to do.
But Ahaz refused even a sign. He said he wouldn’t presume putting God to the test, which sounds polite. But who is really in charge here: God or Ahaz? When God insists on giving you something, take it.
God gives Ahaz the sign anyway, which brings us to the most familiar part of our passage: “The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel, which means God with us” (Isa 7:14).
What kind of a sign is this? What would a baby have to do with averting bloody war between two empires? God must be joking.
The rest of the passage in Isaiah 7 explains the sign. God says that before the sign baby is old enough to know good from evil, the empires Ahaz feared today would both be laid to waste.
Centuries later the Evangelist Matthew writes that God fulfilled Isaiah’s sign when the young virgin Mary gave birth to a son. Her son is not named Immanuel, but he is Immanuel. Jesus Christ is God with us.
The theme of the fourth week of Advent is love, and there is no more fitting text than the sign God gave to his people to stand firm in their faith amid troubled times. We too can stand firm in our faith because God is with us.
God didn’t just say he’d be with us. He became one of us. Talk is cheap, but God has demonstrated his love for us, as Paul says, because Jesus Christ died for us. Jesus tasted death for every person, as the author of Hebrews writes. God is that kind of God.
Christmas is often a time of charity, which is good. But, as Arthur McGill notes, charity is not love. Charity is a giving of our excess: putting pocket change in a red kettle, donating excess blood, or spending an hour of our free time volunteering somewhere. Love is giving of ourselves to the point where we are needy once again, following God’s pattern of giving us himself and turning us back to receive from God again and again.
Ahaz, even in his distress, was too proud to receive from God, but God still gave him a sign.
God has given us an even better sign. He’s given himself. He’s with us. He’s for us. He’s one of us. And, when we trust in Christ, he’s in us.
God doesn’t stop there. When we rise above mere charity and obey Jesus’ commands to love God and love our neighbors as he has loved us, then God will also be through us.
Don’t settle for mere charity this season, love somebody.
Whom will you love? How will you love them? Stop waiting for some sign before you act. The sign has already come in Immanuel, God with us.
King Ahaz of Judah was in a tough political situation. Judah’s immediate neighbors to the north partnered with a large neighboring empire that was ready to wage war against a rival empire to Judah’s south. That left Judah, a tiny nation with an even tinier army, in the crosshairs of two global superpowers.
God spoke to Ahaz through the prophet Isaiah and assured Ahaz that God will spare Judah from all harm. The threat to the north will pass. God says to Ahaz, but “if you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all” (Isa 7:9).
Ahaz was not big on faith, so God graciously gave Ahaz a sign that would assure him that God will do what he promised to do.
But Ahaz refused even a sign. He said he wouldn’t presume putting God to the test, which sounds polite. But who is really in charge here: God or Ahaz? When God insists on giving you something, take it.
God gives Ahaz the sign anyway, which brings us to the most familiar part of our passage: “The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin shall conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel, which means God with us” (Isa 7:14).
What kind of a sign is this? What would a baby have to do with averting bloody war between two empires? God must be joking.
The rest of the passage in Isaiah 7 explains the sign. God says that before the sign baby is old enough to know good from evil, the empires Ahaz feared today would both be laid to waste.
Centuries later the Evangelist Matthew writes that God fulfilled Isaiah’s sign when the young virgin Mary gave birth to a son. Her son is not named Immanuel, but he is Immanuel. Jesus Christ is God with us.
The theme of the fourth week of Advent is love, and there is no more fitting text than the sign God gave to his people to stand firm in their faith amid troubled times. We too can stand firm in our faith because God is with us.
God didn’t just say he’d be with us. He became one of us. Talk is cheap, but God has demonstrated his love for us, as Paul says, because Jesus Christ died for us. Jesus tasted death for every person, as the author of Hebrews writes. God is that kind of God.
Christmas is often a time of charity, which is good. But, as Arthur McGill notes, charity is not love. Charity is a giving of our excess: putting pocket change in a red kettle, donating excess blood, or spending an hour of our free time volunteering somewhere. Love is giving of ourselves to the point where we are needy once again, following God’s pattern of giving us himself and turning us back to receive from God again and again.
Ahaz, even in his distress, was too proud to receive from God, but God still gave him a sign.
God has given us an even better sign. He’s given himself. He’s with us. He’s for us. He’s one of us. And, when we trust in Christ, he’s in us.
God doesn’t stop there. When we rise above mere charity and obey Jesus’ commands to love God and love our neighbors as he has loved us, then God will also be through us.
Don’t settle for mere charity this season, love somebody.
Whom will you love? How will you love them? Stop waiting for some sign before you act. The sign has already come in Immanuel, God with us.
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