Christmas Prophecies

The Lord Himself Will Give You a Sign

Isaiah 7:1-16

This morning we will start a three-part series called Christmas Prophecies focusing on chapters seven through nine of Isaiah, taking one chapter each week. Most of us know chapter seven as the prophecy of the virgin birth of Immanuel. “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.” In his gospel, Matthew is quite clear that the virgin conception and birth of Jesus was a direct fulfillment of this prophecy from Isaiah. So when we hear this passage from Isaiah read aloud, our minds are drawn to pastoral scenes of the birth of the Messiah. We imagine the Christ child lying in a manger wrapped in swaddling clothes. We remember the visit the shepherds received from the angels announcing the miraculous birth. Our meditations create scenes like these, people who worship the infant because they know he is the long awaited Messiah. When I read v. 14, “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,” are these not the kind of scenes you imagine? Would you believe me if I told you that you’ve got the whole thing all wrong?

This is not at all what the seventh chapter of Isaiah is all about. It is not about worshipping the Christ child, it is about armed warfare. It is not about an angelic visit but rather a bloodthirsty army headed by many generals. This chapter is not about a manger scene with quiet meditations from man and beast. This chapter is about the beastly nature of conquest and the annihilation of one’s enemies. Not sure if you believe me? We need only to read this chapter to see the truth of what I am saying.

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.

Verse one is a summary of the whole chapter. Two armies forged an alliance in order to destroy Judah. If you recall, Judah was the southern kingdom and Israel was the northern kingdom. Ever since the nation of Israel was divided after the death of Solomon, these two divisions had been at war with one another. This time, however, Israel joined forces with Aram. So picture Judah in the south with Jerusalem as its capital, fighting against their neighbor to the north Israel, and the country of Aram, which is essentially modern-day Lebanon. Verse one tells us that the attack on Jerusalem was not successful, and now starting with verse two, we get a description of how the whole thing played out.

^2 Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with^a Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.

Ahaz, the king of southern Judah, was told about this military alliance between Aram and Ephraim—‘Ephraim’ being just another name for Israel. Ahaz and all his people were trembling with fear at the thought of warring against these two nations. But since we know from verse one  that the attack on Jerusalem would not be successful, why was Ahaz and company so terrified? Ahaz was shaking like trees in a windstorm because this was not the first time he had fought these two nations. Listen to what we learn from 2 Chronicles. The Arameans defeated him and took many of his people as prisoners and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hands of the king of Israel, who inflicted heavy casualties on him. In one day Pekah son of Remaliah killed a hundred and twenty thousand soldiers in Judah. Ahaz had just finished separately fighting both Aram and Israel before they joined forces. By itself Aram defeated Judah and by itself Israel massacred Judah, killing 120,000 soldiers. Ahaz was not strong enough to fight against either of these two countries, but when he was told that they had allied against him, he knew the destruction of Jerusalem was imminent. He had good reason to tremble with fear.

How are you doing so far? Is this putting you in the Christmas spirit? Please hang with me because this is important information necessary to understand these three prophetic chapters in Isaiah.

In verse three Isaiah finally enters the scene. ^3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub,^b to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field. You have to appreciate these Old Testament names. Isaiah’s son was named Shear-Jashub, which means, “a remnant will return.” Can’t you just see him sitting in class while his teacher takes roll call? “Johnny Roberts?” “Here!” “Suzie Sanders?” “Here!” “A-remnant-will-return Smith?” “Here!” You can hear his mother calling him, “A-remnant-will-return, will you please take out the garbage?” There’s a little bit of humor here, but there is a lot more meaning. Isaiah predicted the fall and capture of Israel, but even before this happened, his own son looked forward to the return of Israel—a remnant will return. No matter how bad it would get, God would always preserve a remnant of his people.

God gave Isaiah specific words to tell to Ahaz. ^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.’”

Isaiah assured Ahaz by saying, “Be careful, be calm, do not be afraid.” These are the same words of comfort that were spoken by the angel Gabriel to a young maiden named Mary. “Do not be afraid Mary, you have found favor with God.” Do not be afraid. These are the same words of comfort that were spoken by the angel to the shepherds. “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Whenever God promises victory he reassures his people by saying, “Do not be afraid.” When God wants us to know that he is sovereign over the darkness in our lives, he whispers, “Do not be afraid.” But why did God want to speak words of comfort to the rebellious and idolatrous King Ahaz? It doesn’t make any sense, because Ahaz was a wicked man. This is how he is described in 2 Chronicles. Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and also made cast idols for worshiping the Baals. He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his sons in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. There were no traces of Yahweh worship left in this man. He was 100% pagan, going so far as to sacrifice his sons in the fire—sons, plural—he did this to more than one son! Ahaz was truly a wicked man. So why did God bless him with words of comfort? Why did God promise to deliver him from the hands of his enemy?

This is one of those eternal questions: why do the wicked prosper? It’s the opposite of the question we ask about suffering, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” This time we are asking, “Why do good things happen to bad people?” Why do the warlords in Africa sit on billions of dollars while millions are homeless and dying? Why is Fidel Castro permitted to live a long life of luxury and die of old age instead of execution by a firing squad? Even closer to home some of us might ask, “Why does my neighbor, who never even goes to church, seem to have it all? He is not a Christian. He is not even religious, but his life seems so easy while my life is so hard!” The reason we ask these questions is because to some degree we believe in prosperity theology. A survey from Christianity Today reports that in Nigeria, 96% of Pentecostal Christians agree with this statement: “God will grant material prosperity, good health and relief from sickness to all believers who have enough faith.” Ninety-six percent of them believe this! I would guess not that many here would ascribe to this statement, but to some degree we all believe in prosperity theology. I don’t mean that we demand that God give us unlimited health and wealth, but in our secret thoughts we wonder why we don’t have just a little more health or a little more wealth. Why must life be so hard? Why do wicked men like Ahaz prosper? God did not guarantee deliverance for Jerusalem because Ahaz was a righteous man—he was not righteous!  He guaranteed their deliverance because it was his holy city, it was the city of David, it is the spiritual throne for Immanuel. Ahaz was spared because God wanted Jerusalem to be spared. In this sense, Ahaz was a recipient of God’s common grace. The overflow of God’s grace spilled over into the life of Ahaz, even though he did not deserve it. This is another reason why the wicked prosper, because God’s grace is so abundant it spills over into the lives of the righteous and the wicked alike.

Furthermore, the wicked prosper because God is merciful to sinners and wants them to come to repentance. This fact is seen most remarkably by what Isaiah said next to Ahaz.^11 “Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”

I want to make sure we understand what happened here. God decided to defeat the enemies of Ahaz and spare an attack on Jerusalem. God had already given his guarantee that this would indeed happen. But even more than that, the Lord allowed Ahaz to choose any sign from the Lord that he desired. Gideon humbly asked God for a sign that he would be victorious in battle and twice God agreed, but as far as I know, God never gave this choice to another person in all of history. God granted deliverance and then he waited to grant Ahaz a sign of his deliverance. Ahaz was free to choose any sign at all as proof of the coming deliverance. This was an absolutely incredible gift from the Lord! God said, “I guarantee that I will save you from your enemies and as a downpayment of this guarantee, I will grant you any sign you ask. Anything at all. Just ask me I will do it.” This was not just a once in a lifetime offer—this was a once in all of history offer. Who could refuse such an offer?

^12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.”

Do not think for a moment that this was an act of humble piety from Ahaz. This was false piety and gross hypocrisy. Ahaz did not ask God for a sign because he had his own plan to save Jerusalem. Ahaz was a pagan worshipper, so why would he want help from the Lord? But he knew he needed help, so he sought help from the most powerful pagan worshipper in the land—the king of Assyria.

At this time, Assyria was the world superpower and Ahaz knew they could easily swoop down from the north and wipe out the armies of Israel and Aram. A little while later Ahaz sent a message to their king saying, “I am your servant…come up and save me.” When Ahaz rejected the Lord’s request for a sign, Isaiah responded, “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.

Like many of the O.T. prophecies, the “sign” of Immanuel had a double fulfillment. Isaiah said that a child named Immanuel would still be very young by the time the two nations of Aram and Israel were defeated. This means that shortly after Isaiah delivered this prophecy, a virgin woman was married, conceived and gave birth to a child which she named Immanuel. This child was literally born about 733 BC and he served as the sign to King Ahaz that God would fulfill his promise to rescue Jerusalem. This first child was not born of a virgin birth like Christ. His mother was a virgin at the time of the prophecy, but he was not conceived of the Holy Spirit as was Jesus. But the second and more important fulfillment of this prophecy was the virgin birth of Christ.

But before we move on to Christ, let me draw one more lesson from King Ahaz. I believe the Lord’s dealing with Ahaz, through the prophet Isaiah, shows the abundant mercy of God toward all sinners. Here was this pagan king who was not only given the gift of a military victory, but he was given the greater gift of choosing the very sign of the Lord’s victory. The Lord was holding out infinite mercy to this hard-hearted king. He was being patient with him, just as Peter wrote that God “is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The Lord wanted Ahaz to repent. The Lord knew that Ahaz would reject the choice of a sign, but still he offered it to him in mercy. I am not sure if you could find a better example in all of Scripture where repentance is offered so freely and so mercifully. If that weren’t enough, the sign that God gave him was a child named Immanuel. God was saying to the king, “Ahaz, I will be with you. I will be your God if you choose to let me. Immanuel, Ahaz. I will be with you. I will abide with you and you will be a king in Judah after the heart of King David.”

Do you see that God is merciful to all sinners? God offers his gift of salvation even though he knows it will be rejected. And how much more is this true than with the second and greater fulfillment of this prophecy—the true king, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin mother. He is Immanuel in the most perfect sense. The Immanuel in Isaiah’s day was a promise to deliver the city of Jerusalem, but the Immanuel that is Jesus Christ is the promise to deliver all of mankind. God with us. God had to become a man in order to redeem sinful man. But Immanuel was not just the birth of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem. Immanuel is not only a historical fact but it is also a present reality. What we most need is Immanuel every day!

This past week I spent many hours on the phone listening to hurts of fellow believers. I would be lying if I said that it is not tiring at times, but it is also a great privilege. What do you say to a Christian who is hurting? The only thing you can give them is Immanuel. I can’t change the fact that the wicked will prosper in this life, but the solution is Immanuel—God with us. Despite what 96% of Pentecostal Nigerians believe, God did not promise us unlimited health and wealth, but he did promise us Immanuel. He did promise us that he would never leave us or never forsake us. I can’t change that fact that the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, but the solution is Immanuel.

Just a few days ago, one woman from another town told me the story of her prodigal son. He has “gone off the deep end” and is engaging in all kinds of immorality. He is rejecting his faith and may even be struggling with thoughts of suicide. In the depth of her pain, this woman said this to me, “God will be with me even if I have stand before a casket.” Do you see? She preached a Christmas message to herself. Her solution to her pain and sorrow is Immanuel. God with us and God is with us. Not just at Christmas, but every moment—if we let him.

Rich Maurer

December 10, 2006