Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. And let us pray.
O Lord send forth your word into our ears that it may bear fruit in our lives in Jesus’ name. Amen. So we heard last week how the prophecies of Isaiah were given to different people in different times, different situations.
Today’s reading, one of those oracles spoken to King Ahaz. So let me set the scene for you. The southern kingdom of Judah, under the reign of Ahaz, lived in fear of invasion.
It was only a matter of time. Like storm clouds gathering on the horizon, the kingdom of Assyria continued conquering every other king in the region. And then, to make matters worse, two of Judah’s rivals, including the northern kingdom of Israel, well, they were threatening to invade Jerusalem before the Assyrians ever even got there.
These rival kings wanted to force Judah to fight with them against the Assyrians, but King Ahaz would not ally with his rivals. So the situation escalated to the point that these kingdoms had already once invaded Judah, captured Ahaz briefly before being forced to let him go, but now Ahaz was facing the threat of his rivals, combined with the much larger threat of the Assyrian empire. King Ahaz of Judah was faced with a choice.
Will he trust the Lord to protect and deliver the people of Judah, even though they had already been defeated by their rivals once, or will he try to work out a political bargain for himself? Would he try to protect himself and his kingdom, and most importantly to him, his reputation as a ruler? So while Ahaz was mulling over his options, the Lord sent the prophet Isaiah to him. Ahaz was a bad king. He had already made several decisions during his reign that demonstrated a lack of trust in God, a lack of trust in the Lord’s guidance, his protection, and yet despite the king’s repeated failings, God remains faithful to his people.
And so he sent the prophet Isaiah to tell Ahaz, be calm, live at peace, the threat of your rivals will be reduced to nothing. And that’s where today’s reading picks up. Isaiah was told to offer Ahaz a sign, any sign, anything as high as the highest heaven, as low as the depths of the dead, anything the king wanted to give the king confidence that the Lord would protect his people, that he would deliver his people in Jerusalem and Judah.
What does Ahaz do? He refuses. He offered a pious sounding excuse about not putting God to the test, but the simple fact is God is the one who offered the sign, and Ahaz simply didn’t want to trust in the Lord to deliver him, so he refused a sign from God. And that’s when Isaiah responds, hear then, O house of David, why do you waste God’s time? Behold, since you will not ask for a sign for yourself, you get the sign that God chooses, and this is it.
The virgin will conceive and bear a son, and you will call his name Emmanuel. And within a few short years from today, in roughly the time it takes a normal baby to learn how to walk and to talk, your rivals to the north will be conquered by the ruthless king of Assyria, and he will turn his sights to you. You will be in his crosshairs.
Those words, the virgin will conceive, they’re familiar words. We hear them a lot this time of year, but maybe we missed that the prophecy Matthew connects to the virgin birth was first spoken as part of a warning to a wicked king. Yes, it’s a promise of the Messiah, but to Ahaz, it was the promise first that his faithless actions would pave the way for the king of Assyria to reduce Jerusalem to rubble.
And the name of that child is Emmanuel, which means God with us. That seems to be the last thing that Ahaz wanted. He didn’t want God.
He preferred to rely on his own strength, his own wisdom, his own political savvy, and that proved to be his undoing. As I was talking through this text with one of our shut-in members this week, she made the comment, she said, Pastor, isn’t that just how people tend to think about God today? I think she’s right. How often when we hear of our Lord’s coming, do we wish he would just go somewhere else? How often do we push our Lord aside and tell him we’ve got this thing or that thing covered by ourselves? Or worse, how often do we nod our heads in agreement when the world tells us that God just steals all the fun out of life? We’d be better off without him.
How often does our sinful flesh look at our Lord as if he’s a cruel taskmaster who simply wants to do things for us instead of letting us choose and decide for ourselves? How often is our primary mental image of the God of the Bible an image of judgment and destruction? And how often do we, for whatever reason, by our words, by our actions, by our attitudes, how often do we act like Ahaz and tell our Lord to go away? Ever since our first parents hid when they heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, we humans seem to have an instinct to go the other direction when we hear our God approaching. But our Lord wasn’t coming to Adam in even judgment. And actually, he wasn’t really even coming to Ahaz in judgment.
The prophecy of the one who will be called Emmanuel is a layered prophecy. It might be a bit too nuanced to go dig deep right now, but basically the promise that judgment would arrive before the child was old enough to ride a tricycle, that was only part of the prophecy. The one who would be called Emmanuel shows up in other places in Isaiah, and the way he’s described in those places shows us that God is up to something bigger than just bringing judgment to King Ahaz.
Throughout the rest of the book of Isaiah, the one called Emmanuel always brings restoration. He brings renewal. To put it another way, Emmanuel is a gospel word, not a threat.
So even here in Isaiah’s prophecy to Ahaz, the first thing the Lord mentions through his prophet is Emmanuel. He speaks words of hope before mentioning the judgment or the destruction of Jerusalem. The faithless Ahaz would not put God to the test.
He wanted nothing to do with Yahweh. He wanted to handle his problems on his own, but Yahweh refuses to turn his back on his people. He may have given Ahaz over to his own delusions, but the wickedness of one king would not and cannot undo the promise of God.
What God is ultimately going to accomplish is to bring about the restoration of Israel. That’s why when the one who will be called Emmanuel is finally born, he’s given the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. That name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua.
Like Mateo and Matthew, Pedro and Peter, Jesus and Joshua are the same name, just in different languages. And the name Joshua literally means Yahweh saves. And so Matthew begins his gospel by revealing to us that the one who is called Emmanuel is also called Yahweh saves.
So God is coming to be with his people, but he’s coming to save them. He is Emmanuel and he is Yeshua. The one born of the virgin will take up the role of the first Joshua and he will fulfill its true purpose.
He will lead his people through the water into the promised land, into their promised home. The first Joshua led the people across the River Jordan. The new Joshua will lead his people through the water of baptism.
The first Joshua led his people into the land of Canaan. The new Joshua will lead his people into their home. First the church, the foretaste of the feast to come, and then finally into the marriage feast of the lamb and his kingdom, which has no end.
The first Joshua drove out the enemies of the Lord’s people in that land. The new Joshua will defeat the enemies that try to attack and harm the people of God today. Because what was true for the people of God in the days of the first Joshua remains true for us who live under the care of the new Joshua.
The Lord fights for you. So put to death not only the old Adam in you, but put to death also the old Ahaz. Do not rely on your own strength in your battles against whatever Assyrians are gathering their forces on the borders of your life.
Don’t try to negotiate your way out of conflict with the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh. It’s a fool’s errand. Repent of such thinking and rejoice that the virgin has conceived and bore the son for you.
He is your God who comes to set you free. He comes to you today to restore your life, to bring you renewal. He is Emmanuel and his name is Jesus.
Enthrone him in your hearts and let him subdue all that is not holy and all that is not true. Let his will enfold you in its light and power. Join your voice to the prayer of God’s faithful people.
Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set your people free from our sins, from our fears. Release us. Let us find our rest in thee.
Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a king, born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring. And by thine own eternal spirit, rule in all our hearts alone. By thine all-sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne.
May God grant it to us for Jesus’ sake. Amen.