The Light of Christmas # 1: Immanuel- God With Us; Isaiah 7:14

Introduction: I love a lot of things about Christmas, but one of my favorite things is Christmas lights. One of my favorite traditions was riding around with my parents and my granny to look at Christmas lights. That was something Becky & I have done with our kids, & something I still enjoy today. I love seeing Christmas lights! I don’t need them to be on my house, but I sure love seeing them on your house!

For the next two weeks, we’re going to look at the light of Christmas.Our theme verse is Matthew 4:16, The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned. If you are having a particularly gloomy Christmas season, Jesus is the light that has dawned, the light that shines in the darkness, the light of the world. I thank God for Christmas lights because they point us to the light of Christmas, Jesus Christ.

What I want to do is set Matthew 4:16 in its biblical, historical, and prophetic context, & teach that passage next week. To do that, we have to go back to another passage and tell its story, one verse I think you will know quite well- Isaiah 7:14, Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. I want to share the story surrounding Immanuel, connect that story to Jesus, & then connect it to us this Christmas.

Isaiah 7:1-14, Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it. 2 And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind. 3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, 4 and say to him: ‘Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying,

6 “Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel”—7 thus says the Lord God: “It shall not stand, Nor shall it come to pass. 8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, And the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, So that it will not be a people. 9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria, And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, Surely you shall not be established.” ’ ”

10Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”

13 Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will 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. Immanuel is a Sign of 3 things:

1. Immanuel is a Sign of FAITH.

Background: it’s the time of the divided kingdom of Israel- David & Solomon reigned during the golden years of Israel’s history, but Solomon was unfaithful to God. So, during his son’s reign, Rehoboam, God ripped 10 of the tribes away & they became their own kingdom of Israel, while 2 tribes became their own kingdom of Judah.

(vss. 1-2) At this time, Ahaz was the king of Judah (of the house of David but nothing like David); Pekah was the king of Israel, Rezin was the king of Syria. Syria & Israel made an alliance to move against Judah. Ahaz & the people were terrified, Isaiah 7:2 their hearts were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind, i.e., shaking like leaves.

(vss. 3-9), God sent Isaiah to Ahaz to tell him that everything was going to be OK. Even though Rezin & Pekah have plotted an attack & planned to put their own king on the throne, God said- “It shall not stand, not shall it come to pass” (vs. 7). God said that within 65 years both of them will be gone. Vs. 9 is important- “If you will not believe, you shall not be established;” i.e., if you will not stand in faith, you won’t stand at all.

(vss. 10-14) When God tells Ahaz to ask for a sign, whatever it is- in depth below or heaven above; God gives Ahaz a free pass to ask for a sign because He wanted Ahaz to believe. Ahaz refuses to test the Lord. When God tells you to do something, it’s not about testing Him, it’s about trusting Him. Because Ahaz would not ask for a sign, Isaiah 7:14, Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”

Isaiah 7:15–17. The sign for Ahaz is meant to convey that the threat from Rezin & Pekah will be short-lived. By the time the boy has been born, but before he knows right from wrong, Syria & Israel will both be wiped out. God was sending Assyria to take them both out (vss. 18-25).

The Son named Immanuel was a sign that Ahaz could trust God, should trust God, and a sign that we should too. He is a sign of faith.

2. Immanuel is a Sign of God’s FAITHFULNESS.

Fast forward to Isaiah 8:1-4, Moreover the Lord said to me, “Take a large scroll, and write on it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. 2 And I will take for Myself faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest and Zechariah…” 3 Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz; 4 for before the child shall have knowledge to cry ‘My father’ and ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be taken away before the king of Assyria.

These verses are an example of a prophetic sign-act. God often instructed His prophets to carry out certain actions so that when the thing they prophesied came to pass, it would show that God was the one orchestrating the fulfillment of it.

God told Isaiah to write a name, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, this would be the name of the son that would be the fulfillment of the sign to Ahaz. To prove that God was telling the truth, He recruited two witnesses - Uriah & Zechariah. Isaiah went to the prophetess, his wife, and she bore him a son. God told him to name their son Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz: quick to the plunder, SWIFT to the spoil. His name symbolized that what God was going to do by defeating Israel & Syria, would happen very soon. Before the boy could talk, what God had promised would happen.

When God makes a promise, He keeps it. The near fulfillment of God’s promise was an actual son born to Isaiah & his wife. The far fulfillment was a child born for us; His name is Jesus. We’ll come back to Him.

What’s really troubling is that even though God kept His promise, the people just wouldn’t believe. In the next few verses God says that because the people have rejected Him, He will send the king of Assyria like a flood. Isaiah 8:8–10, He will pass through Judah, He will overflow and pass over, He will reach up to the neck; And the stretching out of his wings Will fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel… 10Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; Speak the word, but it will not stand, For God is with us (the name in vs. 8, the meaning in vs. 10).

The re-use of the name “God with us”links the judgment back to the sign of Isa 7:14 and points ahead to the future victory of Immanuel.

Immanuel is a sign of faith, that we should believe & trust in God. Immanuel is a sign of God’s faithfulness- He keeps His promises. But the people didn’t believe God, & Immanuel became a sign of their failure.

3. Immanuel is a Sign of People’s FAILURE.

In the last half of Isaiah 8 God instructs Isaiah to not fall into the same pattern of unbelief as the people but to wait on the Lord & put His hope in Him. Isaiah 8:18, Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel From the Lord of hosts, Who dwells in Mount Zion. Isaiah and his children were signs to believe in God because He is faithful, but the people failed to believe.

In the last few verses of chapter 8, God indicts the people for their failure to believe in Him by turning to other things. Isaiah 8:19–22, And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? 20To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no LIGHT in them. 21 They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. 22 Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness. We’re going to revisit this text next week, but for today, let’s just wrap it up with this reminder: Immanuel was a real child of God’s promise & of Isaiah the prophet, to be a sign of faith in God, a sign of God’s faithfulness to Israel, & a sign of Israel’s failure. Fast forward through the Bible’s timeline about 700 years, there is another Son being born, & this is what it says about Him:

Matthew 1:18–23, Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s pretty spectacular who God is & what He does. How can you read Immanuel’s story & not believe? How can you see what God has done & not know that He keeps His promises? How can you hear about it & not know that He is near to you?

The problem with ancient Israel is the same problem we have & the very reason that Immanuel has come. We are sinners- we don’t believe, we don’t obey, & we buy into all sorts of other things that we think are the answer. The very name of Jesus tells us why He came- to SAVE people from their sins.

If you are having a rough Christmas season: If what you see is trouble and darkness, if what you feel is gloom and anguish, if you have been driven into darkness, then Jesus came to bring you light and salvation.

Jesus is the light that has dawned, the light that shines in the darkness, the light of the world. Jesus is the Light of Christmas.

Why don’t you come on out of the darkness & into the Light?