Hope

Our Shared History

If we are to understand the miracle of Christmas, we must understand how our place in the Gospel story rests on this hopeless situation of the Jewish people.

· Chapter 7 is a climax to the long history of mankind’s choosing the world over God.

o Garden of Eden – Chose sin and broke the relationship

o Mankind proved utterly evil – then came the flood – but God saved some

o God brought out a chosen people – but they continually chose the world

§ Kept idols

§ Eventually asked for their own king (instead of God)

§ Kingdom would eventually split

§ (Chapter 7) Chosen people at war with each other.

· Verse 9 we see Isaiah’s plea:

Isaiah 7:9 ESV

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.’ ”

This is not a threat it’s a warning that true strength is only found in God.

o To Ahaz, “We have a history of relying on the world and look where it has brought us. Our only hope is in God!!!”

Rejection of God

· Faced with destruction or exile. God makes a final offer to Ahaz.

Isaiah 7:11 ESV

“Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”

Israel’s history is our history.

o Salvation comes from the Jews (John 4:22)

o God relationship to the world is through the Jewish people and they are about to be completely destroyed.

Isaiah 7:12 ESV

But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.”

Ahaz used fake humility to mask his rejection of God.

o Ahaz ultimately chose to have Assyria save him.

o He found that life only got worse.

§ Enslaved to Assyria

§ Dismantled the temple to please his new master.

Isaiah recognizes his fake response.

Isaiah 7:13 ESV

And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?

· Ahaz chose to reject God, our only hope to overcome a fallen world, and took us with him.

Our Only Hope Literally Rested in a Promise

In spite of Ahaz’s rejection, God responds with a promise.

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

· “Therefore” – Man is completely unwilling to choose salvation over destruction, so I take the initiative.

· “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son…” We will know this answer comes from God because it will come in a miraculous birth.

· “… and they shall call His name Immanuel.” Since mankind will never go to God, God came to us.

What if God didn’t keep his promise?

What if after 400 years of silence there was just more silence.

· If you want to truly feel the miracle of Christmas, then you need to stand there with the rest of the world and understand how much our hope was riding on that promise.

· Around 700 years later…

· There is a carpenter named Joseph who is engaged to a woman named Mary who has turned out to be pregnant with a child that isn’t his. He has decided to divorce her privately, but he get a visit from an angel in a dream.

Matthew 1:21–23 ESV

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

The birth of Jesus is about a promise that was kept to a world that had absolutely NO HOPE in finding God in their own.