The Sign Of Peace
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Fourth Sunday In Advent
Fourth Sunday In Advent
Good morning everyone, it is my humbled joy to be able to bring God’s word to you again to day. For those who are visiting or viewing this online, I am Pastor Ben and we are glad to have you join us today. As we come to our message for today let us have our minds and hearts brought to attention by looking to our focus verse.
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.
Join with me as we ask God’s blessing on this message.
Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have allowed us to gather together this day.
We ask that your Spirit who is amongst us open our hearts and minds to receive your word this day.
Help us to come to understand more of the height, depth, and width that your love extends for us.
Father we praise your name this day as we come together. We ask your blessings upon this message that you have for us. Draw us in nearer to you, oh Lord, that we may come to rest in who you are. Amen.
Fourth Sunday In Advent
Fourth Sunday In Advent
Today we are celebrating the fourth Sunday in advent in which we remember the angels and the message of peace that they proclaimed to the shepherds. I have to tell you that I find how God operates to be truly amazing. As we have been working through Gospel Treason in our small groups, God is again showing me the idol that I have set up in my own heart, which is an unrighteous desire for peace. And while I knew this God in his grace is showing how this desire has shown both in an external and internal fashion. And what this is causing me to do is contemplate what peace really is.
When we consider the term peace many of us probably run to the idea of quiet. This would align with how Merriam Webster defines peace for us.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) (Peace)
1: a state of tranquillity or quiet:
2: freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions
3: harmony in personal relations
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) (Peace)
Tranquility, quiet, freedom from oppression, harmony. These are the things we think of and long for when we consider the term peace. In other words a stillness. When we consider this word stillness often our minds run towards,
10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
Yet this is not the type of stillness that we are looking at today. This stillness is a stopping or abandoning an action or direction you are taking. In our passage today the word we are looking at gets translated as quiet and a couple other passages that can help us understand the meaning of this word is.
23 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war.
and
18 A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.
With this in mind let us now turn to our passage for today. The title of our message is The Sign of Peace and we will be looking to chapter 7 of Isaiah. We will start right in verse one. If you have brought your own Bible and would like to follow along please turn there now. If you are using the blue pew Bible you can find it on page 636 or you can follow along on the screen.
Let us hear the word of the Lord.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,”
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.’ ”
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.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.”
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?
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.
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.
17 The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!”
May the Lord bless the reading of his word.
Now I had mentioned that for the advent season we were going to be following the liturgical calendar. For today’s passage the verses are suppose to be verses 10-16. Yet to understand better the context verses 1-9 and 17 needed to be added in as well. As we walk through this passage today there are four biblical truths regarding peace that we will see.
Peace Amidst Fear
Peace Amidst Fear
Peace amidst fear comes through faith. As we begin this section we are given a little historical background. We find that the kingdoms of Syria and the kingdoms of Israel have come up against the kingdom of Judah and are waging war against it. The reason for this is that Judah is refusing to join arms with the other two in defense against Assyria. So Syria and Ephraim devise a plan to dethrone Ahaz and to place their own king on Judah’s throne. But what we find here in Isaiah is that Judah is holding their attackers at Jerusalem. Yet, look what verse 2 tells us about the situation.
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.
Now what we need to understand is that when we say Syria we are not talking about Assyria. Syria is another name for Aram of Damascus or the Arameans. And Ephraim is another name for Israel. We need to understand that this is not just one nation against another, this is civil war. Let’s look at a map of the united kingdom. At is furthest reach under King Solomon this first map shows us all that was the kingdom of Israel, from Saul, through David, and out to its furthest points during Solomon’s reign.
But remember the kingdom became divided after Solomon because Solomon did not continue to follow God as did his father David. Now let’s look at a map of the divided kingdom. Syria extends off of this map and then joined together with Israel or Ephraim, they dwarf the kingdom of Judah. As king Ahaz looked at this he and his people were so filled with fear that they shook like trees in the wind.
In light of this, God sends Isaiah and his son whose name means “a remnant shall return” and he has Isaiah tell 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.
and then continues,
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.’ ”
Isaiah is sent to Ahaz to tell him not to fear, but instead find peace, find rest. Yes the opposing force may look large. Yes their numbers are grander then yours, yet you do not need to fear them. You do not need to be anxious and worrisome. For while they may look fierce they are noting.
This is Isaiah’s message to Ahaz. A message to find hope in what might be a dark hour. You know there is an interesting aspect of hope that I believe does not get talk about enough. Hope is a perspective. We see hope, we feel hope, because our perspective on things tells us we can. Ahaz did not sense hope. Ahaz was scared, he was faint of heart. He and as a result his entire kingdom, shook as trees in the wind. And why? Because he had the wrong perspective.
What he saw as this large intimidating army, God saw as nothing more than smoking stubs of logs. I want you to think about that for a minute. Picture a fire that is nearly burned out. You have a couple remnants of logs left puttering out some smoke but that is all. If the smoke gets in your eyes it is annoying but the real danger of a roaring fire is gone. These logs are well past being spent that some water on them would finishes them out. That was God’s perspective. Ahaz sees a roaring wild fire, while God is looking at some burnt out logs. Ahaz was sensing no hope because he had the wrong perspective.
How often is it that when we are facing a situation that has us worried, or anxious, those uneasy feelings are actually birthed from our lack of perspective. Or rather the shortsightedness that we have. Remember, the Israelites had become known as a people who were blind and deaf. They had become this way because they had turned from the one true God to idols that they had set up in their hearts that made them blind and deaf. They were shortsighted because they had turned from God rather than turned towards him. When those moments hit us when we are feeling distress. When we are wrestling with anxiousness and worry. If we feel ourselves slipping into despair, or what was that key word form our small group study? That’s right devastated. If we believe we are sensing any of these feelings, we need to stop and ask ourselves what do I currently want and what is my hope in? Where is my perspective?
Adrian Rodgers says,
Sorrow looks back,
Worry looks around,
But Faith looks up.
And that is the message Isaiah brings to Ahaz. He comes and questions him, where is your faith? Look at verse 9.
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.’ ”
If you are not firm in your faith, you will not be firm at all. In times of trouble what perspective do you have? Where is your faith? Where is your faith?
And this brings me to our second truth.
Peace Flees
Peace Flees
Peace flees when unbelief is present. If we looked at what takes place in verses 7-9 what we see if the Lord convey to Ahaz, “look these nations you see raging against you, they are nothing. The heads of theses nations are mere men. Where is your faith?” Leupold in pondering this section indicates that Isaiah is intending an inference here to Ahaz. That inference is that while these nations have mere men as their heads, men who are no different than Ahaz, the head of Jerusalem is Yahweh.
Ahaz, why do you shake? Why are you anxious? Take heart because you have what they do not. The creator of all things on your side. And if we continue into the section we see God willing to prove himself to Ahaz.
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.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.”
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?
We recently finished a study on the character of God. Through the book Gentle and Lowly we got a look at how God himself through his word describes what his character is like towards his people. For those who went through that study I want to ask you does verse 11 seem unlike God?
11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”
No, our God is so giving, so merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Him coming before Ahaz and saying take heart I am with you and I will prove myself ask of me anything! And look at Ahaz’s response in the next verse. “Nah, I’ll pass.” And look to Isaiah’s response. I think the NLT captures it well.
13 Then Isaiah said, “Listen well, you royal family of David! Isn’t it enough to exhaust human patience? Must you exhaust the patience of my God as well?
But I thought we weren’t suppose to test God? Are we not sinning if we test God. Touching on this Alec Motyer states,
Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary i. The Moment of Decision (7:1–17)
The sin of putting the LORD to the test is refusing to trust him and his past faithfulnesses unless he prove himself trustworthy all over again. The situation is transformed when the Lord proffers a sign. On his side nothing is more important than that his promises are met by trust. Therefore he is ready to go to deepest depths … highest heights to help, even to make Ahaz take up a position of faith as the solution to the crisis. Pious though his words sound, Ahaz is doing the devil’s work of quoting Scripture for his own purposes and thereby displaying himself as the dogmatic unbeliever. This was his moment of decision, his point of no return.
His point of no return, what could Motyer mean by that? I want you to look at an interesting shift that takes place in these verses.
11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.”
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?
God speaks to Ahaz and says ask the Lord your God. The Hebrew for the Lord your God is Yahweh Eloheka. By this term it uses both God’s actual name that he stated that he was to be known by, Yahweh. And adds the classifier of Eloheka to it indicating that Yahweh is the God of Ahaz. In Ahaz’s response he uses the name Yahweh but does not used the term Elohi to indicate that Yahweh is in fact his God. In Isaiah’s response in verse 13 the he uses the term et-elohi meaning this is my God. There is no longer the indication that Yahweh is Ahaz’s or the offspring of David’s God. Motyer explains.
Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary i. The Moment of Decision (7:1–17)
From the start David’s house has not fulfilled its divine remit, producing neither the perfect king nor the golden age. It has failed both men and God, but now this whole history of inadequacy has come to a head. The royal refusal of trust is the end of the line. For this reason the prophet can speak of my God but he cannot repeat the your God of verse 10.
The very thing that Ahaz need for peace to come he did not have, faith. And in his unbelief peace fled from him. What is the root of our unbelief? Is it because we are a skeptic of everything? Is it because we have trust issues? Is it because our faith has never been tried? Maybe it is because you only have fair-weather faith. What is the root of your unbelief?
David’s line had shown that they too had become blind. They could name this God by name, but they took no claim to him being their God and this was shown by their lack of faith in him. But God’s character would not allow for this to be the end. And this brings us to our third biblical truth.
God-Made Peace
God-Made Peace
God-made peace is everlasting. Ahaz is not the one. He is the the promised seed of David that will usher in the kingdom of God. Mere mortal men have proven that they are incapable of truly giving their heart to God and in loving obedience follow his ways. Yet, God is faithful to his covenants. And so therefore he will operate on his own to bring to fruition and fulfillment the covenantal promises.
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.
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.
Ahaz you could have asked for any sign for reassurance and God would have given it to you. But your faith was lacking. Your unbelief would usher in that which you feared most. But the Lord will give you his own sign. A virgin will bear a son and his name is to be Immanuel, with us is God, or God is with us. That is the sign a virgin will give birth to a son and he will God among men. He will not be like a God, or just a good and holy man. He will be God who dwells with man. This is the sign they are to watch for. Yet, God gives them indicators to look for.
A diet of curds and honey was a diet that primarily the poor ate. This was to indicate that this child would grow up in poverty. He was not going to come as a mighty king but rather one of the common people. While he is the rightful king and heir to all of Israel, his kingdom will become desolated and unrecognizable from its once held glory. In other words he will inherit a kingdom that is in tatters. These are the signs to be looking for.
And if we understand that this passage is one unit through chapter 9 verse 7, we can understand that this child, this Immanuel is described in further length in
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
See the peace that Ahaz was looking for, that stillness, that quiet, that rest, it only comes from and through one person. The prince of peace, or the sar shalom. But the peace he offers does not simply give us quiet, or stillness, or rest. No it gives us wholeness or completeness. And it is by this wholeness or completeness that we can fell still, or at rest. And there is no end to this peace. God’s peace that comes through his son Jesus is an everlasting completeness. And the key to experiencing that completeness now is by having our perspective changed from looking behind, or looking around, to looking up.
What situation in your life right now is bringing you stress. What thoughts are your mind drifting towards when it is not preoccupied? Which relationships do you have right now that are causing you to look back and around more than up? What is going on inside your heart that is causing your perspective to be off? Your God has done a mighty work on your behalf? Your greatest issue has been dealt with if you have claimed Jesus as your Savior. If you have not claimed Jesus as your savior then it is understandable why life might seem stressful and chaotic.
If Jesus is your Savior take a minute and re calibrate your thinking. I want you to think about that situation that is causing you so much grief right now. I want you to imagine it in its worst possible scenario. Now I want you to frame that inside of what God has done for you.
10 But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
God was pleased to crush his son for you. But not only was God the father pleased to do it.
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
God the son found joy in it despite the shame because it won you back to him. If you belong to Jesus the pains of this life will be noting more than faint memories in the life to come. Your pain will be gone, there will be no more suffering, God himself will wipe the tears from your eyes. The things that we experience in this life are avenues that our good and gracious father has given us to be able to relate to others so to point them to the same hope we have. A hope that is anchored in the returning King who will usher in his kingdom of peace that brings wholeness and completeness that is everlasting.
But far to often we grow tired of waiting on our Lord and that day. We grow impatient in our trials, and seek ways to find relief on our own. This brings me to my final point for today.
Man-Made Peace
Man-Made Peace
Man-made peace is always an illusion. A.W. Tozer once said,
“It is time that we Christians awake to the fact that the world cannot help us in anything that matters. Not the educators, nor the legislators, nor the scientists can bring us tranquility of heart, and without tranquility whatever else they give us is useless at last.”
Man-made peace is an illusion. It will not and cannot last. It will leave you with only wanting more of something you cannot obtain. It is a lie. In our small group study pastor Bigney explains that when you take something like peace and make it an idol of your heart, like I had, that idol tells you have to have this or you won’t be happy. This idol will take something like
4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?
and tell you that that is the standard above all others that you need to strive for. And if you do not achieve that then you have failed. The thing is when you worship at the idol of peace God will not give you the grace to work towards achieving something like this. So you don’t and when you don’t your idol curses you leaving you in a state of unrest. And it becomes an endless cycle until your eyes are open to the fact that you are looking at it from the wrong perspective.
Man-made peace is always an illusion and that is what Isaiah closes this passage out telling Ahaz.
17 The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!”
See what Ahaz had done was reached out to the king of Assyria to try and form an alliance.
7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.”
8 Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s house and sent a present to the king of Assyria.
But peace by means of the Assyrian king never manifested.
20 So Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him.
It was an illusion. Ahaz’s plan for peace failed him because his faith was in the wrong spot. Motyer states,
Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary i. The Moment of Decision (7:1–17)
The coming of the king of Assyria would take even this from David: the semblance of monarchy would survive for another century but the reality would never be restored. This was indeed the case: from the time when Ahaz disbelieved, he and David’s descendants reigned as puppet kings, by courtesy first of Assyria and then of Babylon, until the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC extinguished kingdom and monarchy altogether so that (with Christian hindsight), when Immanuel was born, the heir to David’s throne was an unknown carpenter in Nazareth (Matt. 1:16)! Thus Isaiah concertinas the centuries, for when Immanuel was born he inherited only the memory of a kingdom and a non-existent crown—and it was Ahaz’ fault.
Closing
Closing
As we close this message out for today we need to reflect on these things. The advent season tends to be one that is generally uplifting. One that excites us for the coming child of promise. And for that we can rejoice for through that child peace does come. He truly is God with us. But what is your faith in? Are you sensing peace through the course of your days? Or are you steadily in a condition of stress and struggle? What is your heart set on? God’s peace truly is everlasting. But far too often we put our hope and faith in an illusion that will leave us wanting.
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.
Amen and Amen.