The Sign
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Much of what I have to say this morning I must give credit to David Strain, pastor of First Presbyterian in Jackson, Mississippi. His thinking has heavily influenced my preparation in working through today’s passage.
Here in Isaiah 7, we see that the people of God are in big trouble. The future looks bleak indeed and into the midst of their fear-filled season of life God gave them a great sign of hope, real-world hope. He gives them the basis of real hope and the source of solid joy. This is something they needed, a cure for scared, hurting people, both in Isaiah’s day and in ours.
I. The Setting, 1-9
I. The Setting, 1-9
Verses 1 and 2 set the scene.
We have four major players (actually, five, but we’ll get to that in a little bit).
1 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it.
It’s the year 734 BC. God’s people in the Land of Promise have divided into two kingdoms. The southern kingdom of Judah has Ahaz, Uzziah’s son, the descendant of King David, ruling over it.
Ahaz (Judah)
Pekah (Israel)
Rezin (Syria)
Tiglath-Pileser III (Assyria)
God (Heaven and Earth!)
And to the north, Pekah the son of Remaliah, rules the kingdom called Israel.
Just to the east and north of Israel, we have another player, Rezin, King of Syria.
And at this point in history, the whole region is under the threat of military conquest from the the King of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser III. Assyria was the super-power of the day.
As you can imagine, it is a time of international intrigue and escalating, regional tensions, as it is all about power, prestige, and protection.
Pekah King of Israel, doesn’t want to pay tribute to Tiglath-Pileser to buy him off, but he doesn’t want to be crushed under his boots either. Pekah decides to pair up with Rezin, king of Syria, to form a defensive alliance.
Down south, Ahaz, King of Judah, is left vulnerable not only to the ravenous appetite of Tiglath-Pileser and the Assyrian Empire but also faces the threat of the northern alliance with which he refuses to join.
And so, verse 2, we discover that Rezin and Pekah have decided to come and teach Ahaz and the people of Judah a lesson. (Strain)
2 When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
And so verse 2, “When the house of David (the king of Judah) was told, ‘Syria is in league with Ephraim,’” (Ephraim is another way to refer to the northern kingdom by their largest tribe), “the heart of Ahaz and his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.”
Judah is in turmoil; the people are in full freak-out mode. Everyone is on edge, full of fear. Their future looks bleak, with the expectation of an attack from the northern alliance at any moment.
Ahaz is preoccupied in preparations for a siege that he expects to come at any minute. He is out inspecting the water supplies for Jerusalem.
And here is where the fifth player enters the story: the God of this universe.
3 And the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field.
Notice God’s word for Ahaz:
4 And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.
What is the Lord’s word to him: “You are facing threats from every side. If you’re not firm in faith you will not be firm at all.”
What God is telling him is that if your faith in Me isn’t the stable foundation for your life, Ahaz, when all other ground is sinking sand, then you will certainly fall in the end. I’m the only stable foundation. Stand firm in faith. Stand firm in Me.”
And it’s a message we need to be reminded of as well. Don’t we live in difficult, challenging times, too? The plotting and the political intrigue that surrounded Ahaz in our chapter this morning reads like a news report from the front lines of the Middle East even today.
Know this: whether our fears are generated by political uncertainty or by personal insecurity, many of us find today that we must fight fear and fight for faith these days.
This passage has a couple of things to say to help strengthen us in the fight for faith:
A faithful remnant will be preserved
A faithful remnant will be preserved
The first of them you can see if you look back at verse 3. Notice Isaiah is told to take his son along with him for the confrontation with Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool. Now in this part of the book of Isaiah, it’s important to notice that his sons are named and their names have symbolic significance.
His firstborn is here in chapter 7; another son is mentioned in chapter 8. His firstborn here is called Shear-jashub. Shear-jashub means “a remnant shall return.”
And if you look back at the end of chapter 6, you’ll see that God was pronouncing coming judgment on Judah, on His people. The people, He said, will be like a stump. And yet the stump that is left, He calls “a holy seed.” A faithful remnant will be preserved.
Taking Shear-jashub along with him was maybe too subtle for Ahaz to get, but a way to remind him of that promise: A remnant shall return. It may or may not have triggered a remembrance in Ahaz, but it should for us as we read and hear Isaiah.
Judgment is coming. These are difficult days. but in and through it all, we must remember that God loves His people. He is committed to His people, committed to His Church.
Then a second encouragement for faith in difficult days is there in verses 4 to 9.
The Kingdoms of Men Will Be Obliterated
The Kingdoms of Men Will Be Obliterated
5 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying,
6 “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,”
There are threats, yes. But....
God commands Ahaz not to be afraid. He has called Rezin and Pekah “two smoldering stumps of firebrands.”
The Lord spells things out for Ahaz.
Look at Verses 7-9, Is. 7:7-9
7 thus says the Lord God: “ ‘It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’ ”
Ahaz, those plots against Judah, against God’s people? It’s not happening. They’re but men. I am God. They will pass from the scene,and their kingdoms will be just pages in the history books.
When the fear of men steals our hearts and we worry about what others will say or do – whether they are lawmakers and leaders or employers or family members or friends, it helps to remember they’re only human beings, and our confidence does not rest in them.
Our value and worth does not derive from them; what their opinion and actions toward us really, in the long run, don’t matter. Our hope is not the product of their good favor.
You see, Ahaz was giving far, far too much credit to the power of men and not nearly enough to the sovereign Lord who rules over all.
Isaiah himself has had to learn that very lesson in the chapter prior to this one that Clint preached from lst week. If you were with us, you remember what happened. In the year that Ahaz’s father, King Uzziah died, that was the year when things really began to look grim for the future of God’s people.
The king is dead, the enemies are coming, but the Lord is still on the throne. Nations rise and fall, earthly kings come and go, prime ministers and presidents and premiers and politicians, pundits and polls, pop culture, personal convictions – they ebb and flow.
But while earthly leaders inevitably fail, God has taught Isaiah to say, and He’s trying to teach Ahaz here to say, and He wants you and me to say, “On Christ the solid Rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.” Christ is a solid Rock. Standing there we are secure when all other ground is sinking sand.
And yet the Lord, in His kindness, is still not done with fear-filled Ahaz. He’s given him these two reminders of His faithfulness. There’s a third, a third encouragement to believe in these difficult days.
II. Ask a Sign of the Lord Your God? 10-14
II. Ask a Sign of the Lord Your God? 10-14
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz:
11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”
Ahaz is then invited to ask for any sign that will bolster his faith, that would confirm to him that God would, in fact, protect His people. It’s an extraordinary offer on God’s part.
“Ask a sign of the Lord your God. Let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” God is writing Ahaz a blank check! He can fill in any amount! The only limit is his imagination. What an offer!
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.”
But look at Ahaz’s response. Stunning. Verse 12, “I will not ask and I will not put the Lord to the test.” Now Ahaz sounds marvelously pious there, doesn’t he? After all wasn’t it precisely in these words that another Son of David, the Lord Jesus Himself, responded when the devil tempted Him in the wilderness. You remember? Like Ahaz here, He quotes the words of Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 16, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”
16 “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.
When the devil tempted Jesus, Jesus’ refusal to put the Lord to the test was an act of faith and submission to God alone. He would not take Satan’s shortcuts but would obey the Lord alone.
But what is going on here is that Ahaz was invited by God Himself to ask for a sign that would encourage him and strengthen his faith.
Ahaz uses the language of Scripture, he does it only to hide his fundamental unbelief.
Ahaz’s Lack of Faith
Ahaz’s Lack of Faith
The situation is not that Ahaz doesn’t need a sign to confirm and strengthen his faith in God’s promises because his faith is already so strong and sure. No, on the contrary, it is rather that Ahaz has no faith at all. He doesn’t believe a word that Isaiah has been saying to him and so he rejects God’s offer to confirm and prove that his promises are reliable after all.
Unbelief can cloak itself in the language of Scripture when it wants to. Unbelief can sound pious and holy when the situation demands it. We can learn to use the Bible the way Ahaz uses it – not to guide our faith and our obedience before God, but to keep God at arm’s length. To get those who press us to look to the Lord to back off; to avoid accountability altogether.
Do you do that? Do you use the Bible the way Ahaz does? Throw out Bible jargon as a smokescreen to cover the fact that you haven’t prayed, not really prayed, in years. Sure, you can turn it on when you need to; come over all “holy sounding” with the flick of a switch. You know the words. But it’s just a cover for your cold, dead heart that has been captive to fear and unbelief for far too long.
That was precisely the situation in which Isaiah finds Ahaz. His heart is captive to fear and unbelief, perhaps just like some of ours. And so he refuses God’s offer to strengthen his faith because he has no faith. And yet, his unbelief notwithstanding – here’s an evidence of God’s extraordinary mercy and kindness towards sinners, perhaps even toward you as you recognize that you do not yet know the Lord.
Here we see
God’s Extraordinary Mercy and Kindness Towards Sinners
God’s Extraordinary Mercy and Kindness Towards Sinners
The Lord, despite Ahaz’s unbelief, stoops down to give him a sign anyway. It wasn’t the sign Ahaz himself might have chosen, but it was a sign that would speak a word of hope much brighter than any word Ahaz himself might have invented.
13 And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?
“Hear then, O house of David, is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also?” But then comes God’s marvelous promise.
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Matthew ties this promise to the birth of Jesus Christ to the virgin Mary.
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Jesus is Immanuel, “God with us.”
This Son to come will be the Saviour of His people.
“Unto us,” Isaiah will say in chapter 11, which we hope to hear on Christmas Day, “a child is born and a son is given.” He’s not an ordinary child at all. “The government shall be upon his shoulders and his name shall be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.”
And so the question remains. How does this promise of something away off in the future serve to strengthen faith for Ahaz in this moment of real difficulty?
Nothing bolsters faith than the promise of a coming Savior.
Nothing better comforts fearful hearts.
Nothing better silences our dread.
Nothing stills the turbulent waves of unbelief than the Word of God directing and riveting our eyes upon the Christ of God.
And that is precisely what God is doing with Ahaz in our passage. He is directing his attention to one who is to come, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Judgment is coming.
15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.
16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.
The Lord says to Ahaz that it will take about as long as it takes this child to develop clear abilities to refuse evil and choose good; In other words, in just a few years.
And judgment indeed will fall. As we look back along the time line, we see Syria, two years later in 732 BC and then Israel in 722 BC, fall to Tiglath-Pileser. And then eventually Judah itself will fall, this time at the hands of Assyria’s successors, the Babylonian Empire.
“Hard days are ahead,” God is saying, “but in My sovereignty, even those dark days will work together for the good of those who love Me and are called according to My purpose. From among My remnant people, which I will preserve through it all, one little family will eventually emerge from the house of David.”
We will see them one day make their way on from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be enrolled by decree of the Roman Senate and there the virgin shall bring forth a son and He will be called the Son of the Most High, the Word made flesh, dwelling among us, Immanuel, God Himself in the midst of His people.
He will save His people! He will save His people not with temporary rescue from earthly trials – that’s what Ahaz is hoping for; he’s looking for a political “get out of jail free” card. God is going to provide something far more wonderful.
God is saying, look, Ahaz, you’re worried about Tiglath-Pileser and Rezin and Pekah, earthly kings and their empire building. There’s a deeper deliverance that you need, and that can be found only in the child who is to come in the fullness of time, born of a woman, Immanuel, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s a lesson we today need to learn or re-learn again when we remember this prophecy, now fulfilled in Christ. The message that we are celebrating this time of year is not that God is going to rescue us from all trouble now in this life. If that had been what Isaiah was telling Ahaz, then Ahaz would have been quite right to doubt it. Never trust someone who tells you that God is in the business of making you happy and healthy and prosperous now.
God’s promise is not that everything will be good for those who love Him. God’s promise, rather, is that everything including bad, hard, incredibly grievous things, will work together for good to those who love Him.
God doesn’t promise deliverance from difficulty; God promises something much better. He will sustain us through difficulty and He will deliver us from sin and death and hell and He will deliver us to fellowship with Himself and joy and peace in believing and sustenance in every trial till He brings us home to glory at last. And He promises it all only as we put our confidence and trust in Jesus Christ.
“If you’re not firm in faith,” God told Ahaz, “you will not be firm at all.” And in the teaching of our passage is that faith finds its only secure anchor in the child of the virgin. Faith can only be firm when it is founded on Immanuel.
You want to be able to face dark days, dark days that are coming? You want to be able fight a fearful tomorrow? Sink your foundations down deep into the immovable Rock that is Jesus Christ and say, “On Christ the solid Rock I stand when all other ground is sinking sand. I’m secure there.”
Is your confidence in Jesus Christ? Are your feet firmly planted on the only solid Rock? That’s how you face difficult days with joy and peace. Firm in faith and therefore firm through it all.
May the Lord help us to fix our eyes on Immanuel, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God with us, that in Him we might find hope to the praise and glory of His great name.
Works Cited or Consulted
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016.
Barry, John D., Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, Michael S. Heiser, Miles Custis, Elliot Ritzema, Matthew M. Whitehead, Michael R. Grigoni, and David Bomar. Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016.
Brannan, Rick, and Israel Loken. The Lexham Textual Notes on the Bible. Lexham Bible Reference Series. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014.
Calvin, John, and William Pringle. Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Vol. 1. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010.
Duncan, J. Ligon. Getting a Handel on Christmas (2)-A Virgin with Child. https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/getting-a-handel-on-christmas-2-a-virgin-with-child. Accessed 4 Dec 2019.
Duncan, J. Ligon. The Virgin. https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/an-ancient-christmas-the-coming-of-jesus-in-the-old-testament-the-virgin. Accessed 4 Dec 2019.
Heiser, Michael S. “The Virgin Shall Conceive: The Vocabulary of Virginity.” In Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016.
Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994.
Jamieson, Robert, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown. Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible. Vol. 1. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997.
Rayburn, Robert S. The Incarnation: The Virgin Birth Matthew 1:18-25. http://www.faithtacoma.org/incarn/2010-12-12-am. Accessed 4 Dec 2019.
Rayburn, Robert S. The Virgin Birth. http://www.faithtacoma.org/luke/2011-09-25-am. Accessed 4 Dec 2019.
Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition). Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015.
Strain, David. Immanuel. https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/immanuel. Accessed 4 Dec 2019.
Warren P. (Pagán), Jonathan. “Jesus’ Virgin Birth.” In Lexham Survey of Theology, edited by Mark Ward, Jessica Parks, Brannon Ellis, and Todd Hains. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018.