Homily-Fourth Sunday of Advent Year A
Unlike Ahaz, we are called to ask God for what we need
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, a virgin * shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanu-el.
neither … tempt—hypocritical pretext of keeping the law (De 6:16); “tempt,” that is, put God to the proof, as in Mt 4:7, by seeking His miraculous interposition without warrant. But here there was the warrant of the prophet of God; to have asked a sign, when thus offered, would not have been a tempting of God. Ahaz’s true reason for declining was his resolve not to do God’s will, but to negotiate with Assyria, and persevere in his idolatry (2 Ki 16:7, 8, 3, 4, 10). Men often excuse their distrust in God, and trust in their own devices, by professed reverence for God. Ahaz may have fancied that though Jehovah was the God of Judea and could work a sign there, that was no proof that the local god of Syria might not be more powerful. Such was the common heathen notion (Is 10:10, 11; 36:18–20).
t 10. ‘again’: ‘further’. No second meeting of Achaz and Isaias is implied. A prophetic sign is a supernatural manifestation—either a miracle or a revelation or both—by which a prophecy is confirmed. The sign is manifested usually before, sometimes after, the prediction is fulfilled. In the latter case, exemplified in Ex 3:12, its value for the recipient depends on his faith. God knew that Achaz would refuse to choose a sign and gave his own Messianic sign to the House of David indicated by the plural pronoun
Isaiah 7:14
הָעַלְמָ֗ה
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look! the virgin is with child and she is about to give birth to a son, and she shall call his name ‘God with us.’
The Hebrew has a general term meaning “young woman” rather than the more specific “virgin.”
Isaiah’s meeting with Ahaz should have encouraged his faith in Yahweh to deliver Judah from its present predicament. Instead, Ahaz discounts the reassurance Yahweh offers, and compounds his sin by refusing a divine sign. The sign of Immanuel has implications for the immediate future: Within a year or two—the time it would take for a woman to conceive, give birth, and rear a young boy—the threat from the Syro-Ephraimite alliance will have passed. The ultimate fulfillment of the sign points to the future restoration of God’s relationship with His people through the miraculous birth of God in human form (Matt 1:23).
I will not put Yahweh to the test Ahaz’s refusal to ask for a sign is rebellious, not pious.
Lord. He was afraid of being forced to relinquish his evil ways. S. Jer.—Though an idolater, he knew he ought not to tempt God.