The Sign of Immanuel
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Introduction
Introduction
As we’ve been making our way through the birth narrative in Matthew, we saw how God revealed to Joseph the true nature of Mary’s pregnancy: namely that it was concieved by the Holy Spirit. Mary had not committed adultery and so there is no moral reason to get a divorce. Joseph accepting the child as officially his will make Jesus legally a descendant of the Davidic throne. But the angel told him specifically what to call him because this child is God’s son and, rather than following his earthly father’s way of life, he will follow his heavenly father to save his people from their sins.
But then Matthew quotes a prophecy that we will be diving into today to explore and understand.
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us).
Immanuel and Ahaz’s lack of faith (7:1-8:10)
Immanuel and Ahaz’s lack of faith (7:1-8:10)
The circumstance that this Davidic king finds himself in.
A victim of a Syrian/Israelite coalition that is focused on bringing down the Davidic Kingship.
Considering allying with Assyria.
On the aquaduct preparing for seige .
The message of Isaiah.
Isaiah’s son both a promise and a judgement.
The command: “Be careful to do nothing! Be careful to not be controlled by fear.” This is an important moment, will the king trust God? “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.”
The second meeting: God commands Ahaz to ask a sign. Ahaz needs to openly display faith.
Ahaz’s false piety.
The sign of Immanuel.
“Virgin” young marriable woman. This woman cannot have a child.
God with us. The birth will signify God’s presence with the remnant of Judah. However, it becomes clear that this will only be a remnant.
“curds and honey” see verses 22-23
and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey.
In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns.
curds and honey represent the food eaten by those who are left. The vineyards and fields have been abandoned with no one to work them, and yet a remnant remains that survives on the cows and goats that graze there and the wild honey.
This is both a judgement and a hope for Ahaz. The hope is that those whom Ahaz fears will be long gone. The judgement is, because of his unbelief and the unbelief which characterizes the kings of Israel and Judah, another threat will come. This threat will be none other than Assyria, whom Ahaz apparently wanted to ally himself.
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!”
Judah will not fall by what they fear, they will fall by something else. Nevertheless, the virginborn will come in the midst of the wilderness that God’s people and the promised land has become.
John the baptist’s diet will represent the wilderness that Judah had become spiritually.
The birth of Mahar-Shalal-Hash-baz (speedy gain, quick loot) will partialy fulfill this prophecy, there are details that don’t fit.
The “prophetess” who prophecies through the children she bears is not a young unmarried woman and certainly not a virgin. She is Isaiah’s wife and already a mother to Shear-jashub.
Judah will not be taken by Assyria, although Hezekiah’s day she will be plundered.
We are left to conclude that the prophecy ultimately speaks of another child, one that Isaiah is about to describe even more.
Assyria and Egypt will not physically occupy Israel, but gentiles will have political control and the people of God will remain in a spiritual wilderness.
Don’t Fear, a Child is Born (8:11-10:19)
Don’t Fear, a Child is Born (8:11-10:19)
The next section of this part of Isaiah focuses on the fear that drives Ahaz to act in unbelief.
“Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”
Those who fear man have much to fear, but those who fear God need only wait for his salvation.
Those who consult the dead and other spiritual forces rather than their God don’t speak according to God’s word because they have no dawn 8:19-20 (ie no hope). Thier distressing cry looks like this,
They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
But then attention turns to those waiting in faith in the midst of this distress,
But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
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.
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.
Again, the prideful attitude of the coalition between Syria and Israel is talked about for the rest of chapter 9. It is too late for them, and it is clear that their downfall is due to their own pride. This pride remains even after their ruin and they fantisize about building themselves back up. They walk in the way of Cain, spurning the Lord and building their own cities in their own power instead of trusting God. They have so many plans to sustain themselves and no real trust in thier God.
False religion always replaces trust in God for trust in our own works, plans, or power, and obedience to God for obedience to own own desires and passions. One always follows the other eventually. So it is, Israel’s false worship had made them self-centred gluttons who rely on themselves to sustain their own lusts (9:20-21).
At the beginning of chapter 10 the focus shifts to the tryrannical rule of unrighteous kings. God zooms in on how the things they trust in to protect themselves will do nothing to save them from the coming Assyrians.
But judgement is already pronounced on Assyria. Why? Not because of her violence against Israel, which is sanctioned by God, but because Assyria has the same arrogance that Israel has.
Isaiah 10:12 (ESV)
When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.
God’s charge against Assyria is arrogance and a blindness to God’s hand in their victory.
Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it,
or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it?
As if a rod should wield him who lifts it,
or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!
But the judgement of Assyria goes far beyond their political downfall.
The light of Israel will become a fire,
and his Holy One a flame,
and it will burn and devour
his thorns and briers in one day.
This Holy One, the child, Immanuel, God himself will glorify himself over nations like Assyria. This is similar to the dream Nubuchadnezzar has in Daniel 2 where the boulder, representing the Kingdom of God, breaks the statue representing the kingdoms of the world.
The Remnant and the Branch
The Remnant and the Branch
The idea of a remnant returns, those who are in the land that has become a wilderness swarmed by the flies of Egypt and bees of Assyria. They will be an oppressed people living off wilderness food, curds and wild honey. It is into this wilderness that God’s promises are once more realized,
English Standard Version Chapter 10
24 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: “O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. 25 For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.
This victory of the remnant will be realized in this way,
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
This stump represents how the royal line had fallen. There would be no Davidic king on the throne, yet the stump that was his dynasty is not dead and a new shoot will sprout from it, one that is so new that it comes from David’s father, not from David. In other words, it is as if a new kingly dynasty is being forged, not a continuation of a failed and faithless dynasty.
The end of this new sprout from Jesse’s family is worldwide dominion of the name of YHWH
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
This one, who rises from the remnant of Judah, the child who eats curds and honey with the others in the wilderness, will restore the fullness of God’s people.
He will raise a signal for the nations
and will assemble the banished of Israel,
and gather the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.
Conclusion: Worship the End of God’s Salvation (12)
Conclusion: Worship the End of God’s Salvation (12)
Read Isaiah 12
You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me.
“Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.”
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the Lord,
call upon his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that his name is exalted.
“Sing praises to the Lord, for he has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
No one is boasting in themselves, no one is trusting human power, no one is looking for salvation from carnel sources, no one is leading themselves away from God. The end is praise and worship and thanksgiving before God.
So finally, what does this all mean for our reading of the birth of Christ?
It is a time to join the remnant in faithful waiting.
It is a time to turn away from sin and trust God to be faithful, not human power.
It is a time to wait.
It is a time for a new exodus through the wilderness into the true promised land, looking to Christ who walks beside us as well as in front of us, who partakes of wilderness food and gives us victory over the forces of evil in this world.
It is a time to live lives marked by prayer, and prayer that is marked by praise, adoration, heartfelt worship, practical self-denial, and thanksgiving. God has come to be our Moses, our David, our Aaron, our prophet, our brother, our Saviour.