Bible Talks - Sunday Night Church
Series: On Eagles Wings - Isaiah 1-39 · Talk No. 4
What’s in a name?
Sunday, 25 July 2004
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1. Living in an out of control world?
Does our world look like it's out of control?
Many people seem to think so. It’s said that the incidence of stress and anxiety related conditions in the western world has risen dramatically since the World Trade Centre attack in 2001. There is a sense, we’re told, that people feel that their world is out of control – perhaps understandably.
Back in the 8th century BC, it could certainly appear that for the inhabitants of Judah, their world was falling apart.
Their nation had turned its back on the one, true God, and was under threat of destruction by Assyria. Yet God used prophets like Isaiah and Micah, to point his people in the right direction: declaring His judgement on them, but also pointing forward to when the Messiah, his special chosen one would be born, and would grow up to be God’s ultimate solution for the worlds biggest problem.
This morning I want to focus on the verse that we often think of and read around Christmas time: v14 "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." But I want us to see it how it was originally used, and so first I need to say a few things about the context to help us understand where it fits into things. We need to understand the "there and then" meaning before we can hope to grasp the "here and now" meaning of the passage.
2. A quick historical recap:
The situation with Israel and Judah was this. After the time of the great king David, and his son Solomon, the kingdom of Israel split in two, after a rebellion by Jeroboam.
He took with him the territory of the ten northern tribes, leaving only Judah and Benjamin in the south for the house of David. From then on, there were two kingdoms. The southern one was usually called Judah. The northern kingdom was called by various names - either Israel, or Samaria (which was its capital city), or Ephraim, as it is called in Isaiah 7.
Although it was the smaller of the two, it was Judah, not Israel, that was the true kingdom of God. The northern kings were not descended from God's anointed king, David. And these pseudo-kings set up for themselves a false priesthood, and false places of worship to rival the Temple at Jerusalem, which was in Judah.
This situation had been going on for a couple of centuries in Isaiah's time.
Now for most of this time, Israel and Judah existed in a sort of state of uneasy truce - a bit like the relationship between Israel and Egypt today, or between China and Taiwan, or North and South Korea. But at the time of Isaiah's prophecy here, Israel, the northern tribes were fighting against their southern cousins, and they even allied themselves with pagan nations against Judah.
But God declared that enough was enough. He had given them time to repent, and now he was about to finish off the northern kingdom of Israel. In 721BC this happened when Assyria invaded and deported the population to Assyria.
The action in this passage, however, takes place some years before that, at a time that was very scary for the people of Judah. It was a bit like the Battle of Britain and the Blitz in WWII. Looking back now with hindsight, we know that Britain survived all that the Luftwaffe threw at them. But at the time, Britons lived in an awful insecurity, not knowing whether England would fall and be occupied like France.
Judah, and Judah's king, Ahaz, felt the same way when confronted with the news that Israel had made an alliance with Aram.
Aram, which is also called Syria, is just to the north of Israel, and its capital from ancient times to today is called Damascus. It was not a major power like Egypt or Assyria or Babylon, but it was nevertheless a considerable threat, especially when it had Israel as an ally. In v2 we read:
“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.”
Now God speaks to Ahaz through Isaiah telling him not to worry, but Isaiah's comforting words are not taken to heart by Ahaz - he doesn't really believe, but he disguises this unbelief with pious language about not wanting to put the Lord to the test. It all sounds very spiritual doesn't it? Well not if you know the story of Ahaz as recorded in the books of Kings and Chronicles. In 2 Kings 26 you can read what he was really like!
So it's no wonder Ahaz didn't want to trust God or ask him for a sign of his goodwill towards Judah. Because Ahaz and God were not on speaking terms.
And so Isaiah says, hey sorry pal, you've missed the boat. The Lord will give you descendants of David a sign, but it will come far too late for you and your generation, Ahaz.
What is this sign that will come? v14:
” 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.”
3. Isaiah 7:14 in the N.T.
And so, leaping ahead 700 years for a moment, we see from the Gospels how the first Christians believed this sign from Isaiah 7 to have taken place in their time.
Luke records that Mary the mother of Jesus was a virgin. And Matthew also, in chapter one of his gospel records how "an angel of the Lord appeared to [Joseph] in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” And then Matthew adds this comment: “22All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel" - which means, "God with us.”
That's how the New Testament sees it, but just for a moment let's go back to Ahaz and Isaiah seven centuries earlier.
Going back a few years to when RTB first came in there was a very popular drink called Claytons that was supposed to be a non-alcoholic mixer. It was billed as the "drink you have when you're not having a drink." Well for King Ahaz the sign of the virgin with child was the sign you have when you're not having a sign!
God was offering him the sign of Immanuel, which means "God with us" - that's what he was saying to Ahaz and Judah through the mouth of Isaiah – He was saying: don't be afraid I am with you. Look at what Ahaz is commanded to do in v4: Be careful. Keep calm. Don't be afraid. Do not lose heart.
Why was Judah to do that? Because God was with them! Immanuel! God had promised just that when he made the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, with Moses and King David. God is with his chosen people. And so Isaiah tells Ahaz to ask the Lord for a sign, any sign.
But Ahaz refuses, because he does not really believe that the Lord is with him. Because he knows in his own heart that he and Judah have been unfaithful to the Lord, and he is more afraid of God than he is of the other nations.
Do you see what God says to him - he says, do not be afraid. He says, don't fear these nations, they only have ordinary human beings as their heads. Ahaz is afraid of invasion, but v7 says:
”'It will not take place, it will not happen, for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only [King] Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people. 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.'”
God’s saying, first things first. If you do not stand firm spiritually, you will not stand militarily.
That is a warning not just to Ahaz but every believer, including us...
If you do not take a stand on trusting in God, then any other stand you take in life will fail, and in the end your life will amount to nothing. Jesus put it this way - seek first the kingdom of God, and all these other things will be yours as well. Trust in God's promises must be the number one priority in your life. It must be what guides your decision making process.
Ahaz let his fallen human nature guide him, and it led him into idol worship and worse.
And so God's salvation by-passed him and the ‘Immanuel sign’ became a sign not for, but against him and his generation.
This is what happened to Ahaz: We read in 2 Chronicles 28 how he relied on the king of Assyria who helped him defeat Pekah and Rezin. And that chapter ends with the statement that Ahaz died and was succeeded by his son Hezekiah. Hezekiah was one of the greatest, and probably the most godly, of all the kings of Judah. And at one level, he was the ‘Immanuel’ promised, because God was with him and with Judah under him.
But let's go back to the New Testament and see again the real fulfilment in Jesus. As well as Matthew and Luke, John also understood what the Immanuel prophecy meant and how it had been fulfilled in their sight. But John goes further than Matthew and Luke - they concentrate more on the fact that Jesus was born of a virgin. But John focuses on the reason that the child would be called Immanuel - God with us.
It wasn't just because God would be with that child, as he was with Hezekiah. More than that, God was that child.
John chapter 1 says this. “In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” And then in John 1:14. The Word became flesh. And made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
And verse 18. "No one has ever seen God, but God the one and only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known."
He's talking about Jesus. And he's making some huge claims. He's saying that the Jesus he knew, the Jesus he walked and talked with, the Jesus that was born at Bethlehem to Mary - that Jesus was there in the beginning. That he was with God. That he was God. And that somehow, we need to understand him as God's expression of himself - the Word of God.
Which makes sense doesn’t it? Without words, we can't know. Without words we can't be known. Without words we're strangers to one another. And it's even more so with the invisible God who is so far above and beyond our comprehension... Unless he expresses himself, and shows us what he's like.
You know, in lots of ways we’re a lot like Ahaz in that we all have the tendency to create our own personal religion. Ahaz took bits of Israelite religion and mixed it up with the spirituality of the Canaanites and of Aram. Our society does the same. We make up our own ideas of what God, Truth and the Meaning of Life really is. In fact, it is increasingly popular in our society to say that everyone's ideas about God are equally valid.
But does God himself care about what we think of him?
John 1:18 highlights the problem. And it tells us God's solution. "No one has ever seen God…" God is spirit. God's unseeable. That's the problem. If you have to guess what he's like, it's almost impossible; but here's the solution. "No one has ever seen God, but God the one and only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known."
See what he's saying? He's saying the reason Jesus came, the reason the word became flesh, the reason that he left his Father's side and lived among us was so we could get to know God - Immanuel - God dwelling with us.
That's what John means when he calls Jesus ‘God's word’. Jesus is God's way of showing himself. God's way of making himself known to us. When Jesus speaks, God speaks. When Jesus acts, God acts. The incredible claim John's making is that the deeds and words of Jesus are the deeds and words of God, and that comes out time and again through John's Gospel.
4. Who are you trusting in?
What does it mean to us at Christmas time that the baby born in the stable at Bethlehem was the Word of God made flesh?
To answer that, I need to ask another question:
Are you willing to ask God for the sign of Immanuel? That is, to see in Jesus the answer to knowing God?
To trust Immanuel for your salvation?
Or are you like Ahaz? - Afraid of the true God because you know that your sins have separated you from his goodness, and unwilling to trust the sign he offers? Afraid to come to him so Jesus can deal with your sin and cleanse you and forgive you?
God's promises are sure. Faith and trust involves waiting, because we don't yet see what we hope for. But it's not a passive waiting, it's not the inaction of Ahaz, who was not willing to take God at His word.
Action on our part is necessary to enter into a trust relationship - it's not just waiting to see what might happen, and hedging your bets until God shows his hand.
On the Day of Judgement, it will be too late then to say, "oh, now I believe it!" No, we must work out where we stand before that then, and act on that belief.
‘Be careful. Keep calm. Don't be afraid. Do not lose heart.’ That was what God's prophet Isaiah said. And it’s what God says to us, for the same reason - that He is with His people. Question is, are you one of His people? Are you acting on what you believe in your head?
Jesus said to his true followers: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, trust also in Me." (John 14:1) And he says through Paul, "Have no anxiety in anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil 4:6ff)
Even when the world seems to be out of control - Be careful. Keep calm. Don't be afraid. Do not lose heart.
All of this equals keeping the right perspective. The eternal perspective of Immanuel, God with us.
