Isaiah 7:10–16: Emmanuel—God With us

A while back I saw a videok of a crime being committed. There were some folks who were up to no good and they were putting civilians at risk with their behavior. Eventually, the video shows that a team of police cars swarmed the scene. And those blue flashing lights were a sign that meant two different things to the different people who were there. To the guilty, the lights were a sign of terror. Judgment has come—it’s time to run. To the innocent civilians it was a sign of safety, of hope, of security. Rather than running away from the lights, they ran towards them. One sign, yet two completely different responses based on their condition.

Context

Today we come to one of the most memorable prophecies told in the Old Testament. The promise of a child to be born to a virgin. When Christ the messiah was born, the New Testament writers looked backwards to this prophecy and, inspired by the Holy Spirit, realized that Jesus fulfilled it when he had been born of the virgin Mary. The prophet Isaiah had about a 60 year ministry that spanned the reign of many different kings. Some of them wonderfully faithful men that led during times of great trust and faith in God. Others were wicked rulers that forsaked God and led the nation into deep depravity. Today’s message was given by Isaiah to the King Ahaz, who was a particularly wicked King. What kind of sign will Emmanuel be for you today?

Part 1: The Immediate Context of Ahaz

Isaiah 7:10-14 “Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

The Very Words of God

Our text today begins with the Lord speaking to Ahaz. This is remarkable language, because in fact the person speaking to Ahaz was the prophet Isaiah. This whole section began back at the beginning of Chapter 7, where God told Isaiah to take his son with him, and to deliver a message. So Isaiah is speaking, but the Bible says, “The Lord said...” When a prophet of God speaks, he speaks the very words of God Himself. That is the level of authority of the words of the prophets.

Israel Big Picture - Two Kingdoms

In order for us to truly understand this passage, and to apply it rightly into our own hearts and minds, we’ll need to understand the context. Who was King Ahaz, and what was the situation that God would send the prophet Isaiah to deliver a message to him? And so, a bit of Biblical history to get us situated correctly. If you recall, the nation Israel was set apart by God to be a shining city on a hill. God chose that nation to be the place where His glory would dwell among men, particularly in the temple in Jerusalem. But the entire nation was to be a people governed by God, submitted to God. Well after the great King David, the Kingdom of Israel was divided, 10 tribes to the north became Israel, and they were polluted with tremendous idolatry. Two tribes in the South, who’s capitol was Jerusalem, were a bit more faithful, and they had Jerusalem as their Capitol. Ahaz was a King of Judah, the Southern Kingdom.

Ahaz’s Internal Wickedness

Ahaz was not just a wicked King of Judah, he was perhaps the single most wicked King of Judah’s history. You could say that Ahaz’s reign was marked by wickedness internally and political turmoil externally. Internally, Ahaz was a man whose every action revealed that he did not worship the God of the Bible. Ahaz set up idols all across the land, to false Gods. His wickedness was so atrocious that we are told:

2 Kings 16:3 “… He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.”

In the Bible, the sacrifice of living children is always the mark of a nation that has plunged into utter despair. Internally, this nation was being led astray by wicked leadership. Internally, the heart of Ahaz was wicked.

External Pressure

Externally, Israel was in a rought political situation. The two Kingdom, Israel to the North and Judah to the South were on the verge of Civil War. In fact the Northern Kingdom Israel had just hired the Syrians, another nation, as allies to go to war against Ahaz. On top of that, the Assyrian Empire was growing and expanding westward towards Judah and they posed an ever-present and concerning threat. Historically, the superpower of Egypt was a deterrent from empires like Assyria who wanted to expand westward, but Egypt was weak during this time period.

The First Battle

This is what happens when God’s people have wicked rulers. Eventually Civil War did break out. It was terrible, we read about it in 2 Chronicles 28 where we are told that 120,000 of Ahaz’s men were killed in the battle and 200,000 women and children were on the verge of being taken captive. Things were a mess. You can imagine the stress and the fear and the leadership challenges that a man like Ahaz would have been facing.

What Do We Do When Things Are a Mess?

What do God’s people do when things are a mess? Well—God’s people trust in God. And so our response is always God-centered, God dependent. Three responses would have been proper.

Praise: First in praise. We acknowledge even in times when it looks so bad that we cannot possibly understand what God is up to, we say, “Yes—You are good and you are God, and I trust you always!”

Confession: Next in confession. We hold our lives with open hands before a holy God and ask, “God search me and know me. What sins have I committed.” Because sometimes the hardship and the devastation and the knots in our life are consequences for disobedience to God. Ahaz needed to repent of killing his child. He needed to repent of permitting idolatry to be in the land.

Prayer for Help: Finally he needed to go to God, his deliverer and seek His help. God has ways of delivering and ways of providing that are far beyond our own.

Ahaz did none of this. Rather, he did what most men do in these situations. He took matters into his own hands.

Ahaz Takes Matters Into His Own Hands

Ahaz tries to partner with the Assyrians, that great empire to the East in order to beat his brothers up north. Well, as to be expected the Assyrians betrayed him and overwhelmed Ahaz. Ahaz becomes so desparate that rages against God. He shuts the doors to the temple. He strips it of its treasures. He cuts the golden objects into pieces. And then we read:

2 Chronicles 28:23 “23 For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus that had defeated him and said, “Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.” But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.”

It seems to be working for them. Why don’t I try it and see if it works for me.

Part 2: The Text

Into that context,God sends his prophet Isaiah to confront Ahaz.

Isaiah 7:10-12 “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.””

This response from Ahaz might sound godly at first. After all Jesus responded similarly to the Devil when he was tempted in the wilderness. Isaiah says, “Ask for a sign.” And Ahaz wanting nothing to do with this troublesome prophets tries to use Scripture out of context to defend his godlessness. He quotes Deuteronomy 6:16, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” What Ahaz is doing here, I see take place every day in our world. People who don’t really want to worship the God of the Bible on His terms. Don’t really want to make Him Lord of their life, cherry pick and twist and contort the Scriptures, taking a verse here and a verse there out of context in order to justify their own life. It might fool some people, but it doesn’t fool God, and it doesn’t fool Isaiah.

The Sign is Promised

Then Isaiah responds:

Isaiah 7:13-14 “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.”

Offering a sign is one primary ways prophets communicated. Signs were visual representations of deep spiritual truths. Often the signs the prophets gave had immediate meanings (something to be fulfilled in the short term), and ultimate meanings (something to be fulfilled in a far greater way by God much later). And often when you read prophetic literature what makes it difficult is that they don’t seem to pause neatly between the immediate and the ultimate.

The Immediate Meaning

Let me briefly cover the Immediate Meaning. After verse 14, I think the prophet Isaiah pulls away from incredible claim of verse 14, and he points to his own child who is standing there with him. And he says, ‘When this boy reaches the age of accountability’ which was only a few years away, ‘judgment will come on Israel.’ The rest of this passage is a judgment passage. Judgment on Ahaz for godlessness and his godless leadership.

The Ultimate Meaning: Judgment & Salvation

But that is not the ultimate meaning of this passage. Verse 14 is one of those precious verses of Scripture. One of those verses that is so loaded up with significance, that I don’t think we’ll ever quite plumb the depths of it all.

Isaiah 7:14 “14 … Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

First, in what way is this a sign? Consider Ahaz’s sin. He is a man who has forsaken God. A man who had a responsibility to lead God’s poeple towards godliness, but he abandoned God. He burned his child alive. He worshiped the gods of the surrounding nations to try to get out of a bind. For that man, the most horrifying thing that could possibly happen, would be for God himself to confront him. For God himself to enter into the story in truth and righteousness. All of Ahaz’s sins were against God alone, and so for the great judge himself, God, to step into our story and confront Ahaz right in His sin, that’s a sign of judgment. It’s judgment for those who rebel against God. But its a sign of salvation for those who trust in Him. What better news could there be for those who have longed for God, who have hungered for God, that God Himself is coming for his own.

The New Testament Fulfilment

We read in Matthew 1:18-23:

Matthew 1:18-23 “18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 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).”

Examining the Trinity (Unity & Diversity)

At Christmas we celebrate the birth of the child who has the title Emmanuel, God With Us. Theologically, we know from the Scriptures a bit of the nature of God. God is not simply unity. But he is unity and diversity. God is three in one. From all eternity past, and for all eternity future, God is three persons in one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Holy Spirit. Yet all three of them are one. This is a divine mystery.

“Nothing in this trinity is before or after, nothing is greater or smaller; in their entirety the three person are coeternal and coequal with each other.” — Athanasian Creed

On the one hand I am so grateful that the real God, the God of Scriptures is mysterious. The exact details of how one God can be three persons is not humanly fathomable. He is transcendent and infinite. And yet he has given us His Word, that speaks about reality with human words in order for us to worship Him properly.

The Incaration—2nd Person of the Trinity

In the incarnation, the 2nd person of the Trinity, the Word, took on flesh. He incarnated himself into the human experience. He was sent by the Father as we read in 1 john 4:14:

1 John 4:14 “14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.”

In Christ, you see an exact imprint of the Father. To look at Christ is to see the Father.

Colossians 1:15 “15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”

There is no deviation even in the slightest of God, in Christ. If you want to know God, you look at Christ and you see the Father’s imprint. To know Christ is to know the Father. In fact, Jesus said as much in a conversation he had with the disciples as they were trying to figure this out. Jesus said:

John 14:6-9 “6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father...

This is the miracle of the incarnation, the hope of Christmas. Emmanuel—God with us.

Part 4: The Meaning (Exegesis of the Heart)

Now let us return to Ahaz and ask some questions of our own hearts and lives. Ahaz had established his life in a posture against God. He had broken God’s laws at nearly every turn. When hardship came his way, He did not turn to God in any real sense. He did not seek God’s will or desire. He in fact did the opposite. He destroyed God’s temple. He made alliances with ungodly people. And when finally confronted by God’s Word, he put on a veneer as if he could fool God. He hijacked Scripture and twisted and abused it to serve and justify his own ends. He didn’t want to cite Scripture to honor God, he wanted to cite Scripture to just try to fool godly people into thinking he was one of them. All the while, no repentance, no concern.

Lukewarm Ahaz

This sign, of Emmanuel, this incarnate God can be a sign of great hope, or it can be sign of tremendous fear. And that all depends on what you do with him. What I would like to do is allow Ahaz to serve as a sort of mirror for us to examine our own lives. While none of us, as far as I know, will be Kings, we all live lives and make decisions that reveal the condition of our heart, the condition of our soul. There are only two options. We are either in league with Ahaz, at war with God, or we are under the banner of the King of Kings. There is no inbetween.

Revelation 3:16 “16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

And so it behooves us this Christmas, to ask ourselves ‘are we lukewarm?’ When the verdict comes in, and the judgment is given, how will our life be weighed?

1 Ahaz Broke God’s Law

Ahaz broke God’ s law. He did this in a number of ways, but most noticeably he sacrificed a living child on an altar to a pagan God. This was a direct breaking of God’s 6th Commandment, that we are not to kill. To follow God, is to love God’s laws, and to hate breaking or seeing others break God’s commands. This does not mean that we become perfect and never sin or make any mistakes. But it does mean that there is a genuine grieving of heart, a sighing of the soul, when we discover any speck of sin within us. If there is no true godly remorse over sin in your life? If you see the sins of others and the sins of society, and there is no grief, there is no desire for God’s laws to be cherished and lived out. Well, then I fear this sign of Emmanuel will function as a sign of your coming judgment as it did for Ahaz.

2 When Hardship Came He Did Not Turn to God

Second, when hardship came Ahaz did not turn to God. He sought out pagan solutions to his problems. In fact, he even was recorded saying, “Well it works for them, why don’t I give it a shot.” How do you respond when hardship comes your way? How do you respond when it feels like enemies are crowded around you and the pressure is on? How do you respond when you have been harmed or hurt, or let down. Or when there is a genuine trial you are going through? Is your life marked by the prayer, confession, and petition with God? Not in a way that just gives lip service to prayer. Do you seek the Lord and the Lord’s discernment over the circumstances of your life? Or, when the pressure is on, do you simply take matters into your own hands like Ahaz. Well, then I fear this sign of Emmanuel will function as a sign of your coming judgment as it did for Ahaz.

3 Ahaz Destroyed God’s Temple

Three, Ahaz destroyed God’s temple. In the midst of his frustration and trying to get his problems solved, he tore it down. Under the New Covenant in Christ, God is not worshiped in a building, but rather the people of God are the new temple. If you are a born again Christian, you constitute the new temple, the place where the glory of God dwells. Do you love God’s Church for what it is, the new temple? Do you yearn for Sunday mornings to gather with the saints and proclaim His goodness, proclaim His mercy? Do you long for life with other Christians, to chase after God together, to hold each other accountable to godliness? Do you long to see others come to know the love of Jesus as he dwells in the midst of His people. If there is no love of God’s Church. No hunger for the temple of God, that’s the people—Christians, to be honored. Well, then I fear this sign of Emmanuel will function as a sign of your coming judgment as it did for Ahaz.

4 Ahaz Faked Real Faith

Lastly, Ahaz faked real faith. When Ahaz was finally confronted by the Word of God, he used a Bible verse to try to come off as godly. But God saw right through it. There is a way to go through life and make the same mistake as Ahaz. Oh—and I fear that so many who call themselves Christians today make this very mistake. They know just enough about the Bible to quote it from to time. But they have not been conquered by the Word of God. The Word of God is helpful, but not needed. They have never truly submitted themselves to the Word of God and allowed God’s Word to see through them, to shape them, to shape their desires, to shape their hearts, their minds, their thoughts. Well, then I fear this sign of Emmanuel will function as a sign of your coming judgment as it did for Ahaz.

Christ Died for Ahaz’s Like Us

The sign of Emmanuel will either a sign that strikes fear in the hearts of its viewers because they know deep down inside that they are not submitted to the King. Or, it will be unto you a sign of great hope. That is the choice before you today. What will this sign be to you? This child, Emmanuel, was the Christ, God with Us. Jesus’ entrance into the story through the incarnation is among the greatest wonders of history, but it is not the greatest. The mystery of the incarnation is only fully realized by reflecting on the mysteries of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. When that same child hung on a cross. This child was born to fulfill a mission, sent by the Father to gather for himself a people. On the cross, Jesus died for Ahaz’s like you and me. Every one of us is more like Ahaz than we care to admit. The first mistake most people make is they don’t think they’re as bad as Ahaz, but we’ve all sinned, we’ve all broken God’s law. The question is not whether we are due judgment by a holy God. That case has been closed. The question is whether we will receive the free gift of forgiveness offered to us by Jesus as he hung on the cross in our place. His death in place of yours. And if we will repent, and turn from our sin, and if we will receive this free gift by placing our faith in Jesus and determining in our hearts to follow Him, the Word of God says you will be saved. And this sign of Emmanuel, will be a sign of great hope. For in it, you see your salvation made perfect.

Closing

This morning, perhaps God is stirring in you right now, revealing that you have been called and invited to more with God. Perhaps there has been lukewarmness. Or perhaps you have never realized the severity of this sign, Emmanuel. May this morning be a morning of salvation for you. May the sign of Emmanuel be a sign of great hope for every person in this room. For God is with us, and if you have authentically placed your faith in following Jesus, he is to you a sign of your eternal security, a sign that every wrongdoing of the heart has been forgiven, and a sign of great hope, comfort, and joy.

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