The Hope of Christmas - Part 2 (Isaiah 7:10-25)

Announcements

Bible Study & Prayer this Wednesday starting at 7pm. We’re currently working through the psalms, one psalm at a time, it’s truly been a blessing to study through the passage. We’d love to have you join us. Please know that at 6pm on Wednesdays, we also offer a meal for anyone who’d like to join us—we’ve been doing those meals out here in the auditorium, but starting this week, we’re going to hold the meal portion in the Activity Room, but still have the service in the Auditorium. The meal this week is homemade lasagna with garlic bread.

I do want to point out that we’ve made a change to our church’s website as well as the emails that our church utilizes for communication. We did this for simplicity, but I do want you to be aware so that there isn’t any confusion:

When we started the church’s website, we utilized the domain graceandpeacepa.com, which has served us well, but because of its length, it’s sometimes difficult to use especially when trying to give someone the church’s email address. We still own the rights to that domain name and we’ll continue to for quite some time.

However, to make it a little bit easier, we’ve moved the website to www.gapb.church. Thus, the church’s new email is [e-mail] and you can contact me at [e-mail] and Natalie at [e-mail].

That information has been updated in the worship guides, on business cards, and online. You’ll notice the graceandpeacepa.com domain utilized primarily in two places, the signs that we have by the offering box and by the front door. And that’s fine, because the domain now just redirects anyone who types it in to gapb.church

On occasion, I like to remind everyone of our current focus on outreach. Church plans grow primarily through outreach and without intentional outreach, we simply won’t grow. We evangelize in a number of different ways as a church including flyer distribution, door-to-door evangelism, and through community events. However, statistically, it’s been reported through numerous organizations that the most effective way to bring people to know Jesus Christ is through one-on-one evangelism in which the two people already know each other. In other words, evangelism works best if you already know the person. So, let me encourage you to have conversations with your friends, your family, and your co-workers about Jesus Christ; and then invite them to visit our church. We have several hundred flyers made up for this very purpose. Each flyer has contact information as well as where they can go online to find more information about the church at. Feel free to take as many as you’d like. I was hoping to have some made for the start of this Christmas series, but because of my own mistake, we won’t get them until tomorrow. However, when they do come in, they do provide all the details of special services over the next few weeks, please use them to invite your friends and family to Carols and Lessons and our New Years Eve Celebration.

Speaking of special events coming up:

Please make note that there will be no Wednesday evening Bible Study & Prayer times on December 22nd and 29th.

Instead, please join us for the following events:

On Christmas Eve, we’ll have Carols & Lessons at 7pm in the Auditorium. It’ll be a great time of worship in a way that might be a little different—I’m not going to preach a full message that night. I plan to give a short devotional instead, and the rest of the service will be filled with Scripture readings and carol singing as we trace the redemptive storyline through Scripture. I’m excited for it and I think you’ll enjoy the evening. Following Carols & Lessons, we’ll have a dessert social in the Activity Room. This is the perfect opportunity for you to bake your favorite dessert, bring it, and enjoy fellowship with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

On New Years Eve, we’ll have have our celebration starting at 7pm-midnight. Of course, this isn’t a service and quite frankly, if you don’t want to stay the whole night, you don’t have to. Come and enjoy some food, we’ll have all your traditional New Years foods, we’ll have the ball drop on the screens in the Auditorium, and we’ll have board games and card games in the Activity Room.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the LORD through your giving. To help you give, we have three ways for you to do so: (1) in-person giving can be done at the offering box. If you write a check, please write it to Grace & Peace and if you want a receipt for your cash gift please slip it into an envelope with your name on it. If you’d prefer to give via debit, credit, or ACH transfers, you can do so either (2) by texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at gapb.church and selecting giving in the menubar. Everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Psalm 37:1-11)

Our Call to Worship is from Psalm 37. Psalm 37 is a psalm written by David and it is a lengthier psalm, so we’re splitting it in three parts to work through over the next three weeks. In Psalm 37, David writes specifically to man in what is sometimes referred to as a wisdom psalm. It is an acrostic poem, which simply means that David originally utilized letters from the Hebrew alphabet to separate themes in the text, but in our English translations, we don’t see the Hebrew letters, however, the ESV does an excellent job at dividing the psalm up by theme. You’ll notice in most ESV’s every couple of verses are separated, that’s the delineate the different sections. This morning, we’re going to responsively read Vs. 1-11, which focuses our attention on quieting our souls and trusting in the LORD. Please stand and read Psalm 37:1-11 with me responsively—I’ll read the odd-numbered verses, please join me in reading the even-numbered verses:

Psalm 37:title–11 ESV

Of David. 1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! 2 For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. 3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. 4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. 6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. 7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! 8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. 9 For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land. 10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. 11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

Congregational Singing

O Come, All Ye Faithful

Joy to the World

Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne

Scripture Reading (Luke 1:26-56)

I’ve asked Stacey to read our Scripture Reading this morning from Luke 1:26-56, which is a little bit lengthy of a passage, so let me give a brief few words about it while Stacey comes up. As you know, our theme for Christmas this year is hope, so the sermons as well as the Scripture readings are focused on hope, particularly during Christmas. So, all our Scripture Readings during this series are focused on aspects of the account of Christmas that concerns hope, particularly in pointing towards Jesus as the Messiah.

This morning’s passage tells us of the angel Gabriel foretelling Jesus’ birth, it tells us of John the Baptist who was still in Elizabeth’s womb leaping for joy because of Jesus who was still in the womb of Mary, and it ends with a beautiful song of praise by Mary that we sometime refer to as her magnificat. If you have your Bibles this morning, please follow along in Luke 1:26-56 as Stacey reads:

Luke 1:26–56 ESV

26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. 39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” 46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” 56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

Sermon (Isaiah 7:10-25)

Introduction

This morning’s sermon is a continuation of our Christmas series on hope. And just to get everyone caught up to where we are, we started this series last week by sort of dipping our toes into the ideas of hope and the celebration of Christmas. Last week’s message was meant to get your appetites whet as we started digging into hope with Christmas in our view. We did that in two ways, we took a systematic look at the tabernacle and the temple along with an expositional study of Ephesians 2:11-22 and we came to the realization that one of the key themes throughout the Old and New Testaments is simply that God wants to dwell with his people, but man cannot dwell with him apart from repentance and belief. Ultimately what our study last week showed us was that the only reason we can have hope is because God wants to dwell with his people.

Thus, the celebration of Jesus’ birth during Christmas exists because Jesus’ birth is the first step of his perfect, sinless life as the substitutionary atonement for our sins. We celebrate Christmas because it is the first step in God reconciling us through Jesus and us as the universal church being his dwelling place. We only have hope because God wants to be with his people.

This morning’s text is Isaiah 7:10-25 and it’s a little bit deeper of a dive into why we can have hope in that it orients us toward the coming Messiah. Or in other words, we’re looking at a key prophetic work that prophesied the coming Messiah. And what we see in this prophetic record is a prophet speaking to a king of Judah and in the midst of this prophecy, Isaiah tells of a virgin who will conceive and bear a son named Immanuel.

But before I get too far ahead of myself, let’s read the text and I’ll explain how we’ll break it down.

Isaiah 7:10–25 ESV

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.” 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. 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. 17 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!” 18 In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures. 20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also. 21 In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, 22 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. 23 In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns. 24 With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns. 25 And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

As we study this passage, we’re going to start with some historical context, because we’re sort of parachuting into the middle of a specific event and to understand it properly we need to understand the context. After we talk about the historical context we’ll then break the text into two parts: (1) Vs. 10-16 is The Sign of Immanuel—this records the prophecy of the coming Messiah. We’re going to see King Ahaz reject the first sign and then God through Isaiah telling him of a coming son who will be called Immanuel. Intermixed with this prophecy is a second prophecy concerning King Ahaz himself, which we see in Vs. 16 as well as into the second section (2) Vs. 17-25, the Judgment of the LORD. It might seem odd for us to talk about this passage when we focus on hope, but please understand that in the Old Testament, many prophecies were two-fold. There was a typical shorter-term prophecy that proved that the longer-term prophecy would actually occur. The shorter-term prophecy is the Judgment of the LORD and because the judgment truly came to pass, they knew that the Messiah would truly come. Likewise, our message of hope this morning is predicated on a similar concept—we know that Jesus will return because he kept his word about coming the first time. Thus, we can have hope.

Prayer for Illumination

The Historical Context of Isaiah 7

Isaiah 7 starts by giving us a significant amount of detail concerning what all is happening in Israel and its significant because it paints a picture of great strife and discord amongst the people and the nations.

At this time in Israel’s history, they were not one united kingdom, they were divided into two—You had the Kingdom of Israel in the north, which was sometimes called Ephraim and the Kingdom of Judah in the south.

This split followed the death of King Solomon, when his son Rehoboam was set to become the next king and Jereboam (one of his other sons) confronted Rehoboam to demand a lighter tax burden. When Rehoboam refused, Jereboam and the ten northern tribes separated from the united Kingdom and formed the Northern kingdom while Rehoboam and the two remaining tribes formed Judah.

Rehoboam initially made plans to take back the ten rebelling tribes by force, but the LORD prevented him from doing so in 1 Kings 12:21-24, which might be because God had already decided to allow the kingdom to split as punishment for the people forsaking him in 1 Kings 11:26-40.

Jeroboam and the northern tribes almost immediately went into idolatry by worshiping a golden calf to prevent the people from going to the southern kingdom to worship Yahweh in the temple.

This went on for a few hundred years. And it’s notable that the northern kingdom of Israel, had mostly evil kings who rejected the LORD, whereas the southern kingdom of Judah had a mix of good and bad kings.

It is also of note, that the king in question in Isaiah 7, is one of Judah’s evil kings. King Ahaz according to Isaiah 7:1 was the present king of Judah, with King Pekah as the King of Israel.

And Isaiah 7 starts off by explaining that King Pekah had formed an alliance with Syria to wage war against Jerusalem—Jerusalem was in the southern kingdom (the kingdom of Judah).

This caused King Ahaz along with the people of Judah to fear what is to come, so God sends Isaiah to go and speak to Ahaz. He tells Ahaz not to be afraid, “do not let your heart be faint” because the LORD God said that this attack isn’t going to work—in fact, within 65 years, the northern kingdom would be destroyed.

And just before our text for this morning, God says this to Ahaz, “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.”

What this all tells us is that the kingdoms of Israel have been separated for a significant amount of time, several hundred years, and God allowed them to be separated due to their rejection of him.

And yet, God is still working amongst his people. In the midst of trial and tribulation, in the midst of what is actually punishment from the LORD, God is still seeking to work and dwell among his people.

Which is why God sends Isaiah to Ahaz to tell him not to fear this plot against him, but to have faith.

But remember what we just learned about the kings of Judah and Israel—the northern kingdom of Israel had a long history of mostly evil kings, the southern kingdom of Judah had some good and some bad kings

And Ahaz was one of the evil kings. We know this from 2 Kings 16, “In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God. . . but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the [pagans] whom the LORD drove out.”

And yet, God tells him not to fear the plans on his enemies, which is a statement based not on who Ahaz is, because its clear that Ahaz is evil. It’s a statement based on God’s desire to protect those that are his that happen to be under Ahaz’s reign. It’s a statement based on God’s character to protect Israel as a whole. This is what Isaiah teaches us just as we head into our text for this morning.

The Sign of Immanuel (10-16)

Isaiah 7:10 is a continuation of this conversation that God is having with Ahaz. He tells Ahaz to not fear and then he speaks to Ahaz a second time, “Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz: ‘Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”

God is essentially trying to offer reassurance to Ahaz. There’s a promise of victory over Ahaz’s enemies in Vs. 9 and in this promise of victory there’s a challenge for genuine belief.

And in Vss. 10-11, God continues in that line of thinking by presenting Ahaz the option of a sign. “Ask a sign of the LORD.” Now, some people, when they read that they automatically run to miraculous events, but let me remind you that a sign is simply a symbolic representation of something else and it doesn’t necessarily need to be miraculous.

Circumcision in Genesis 17 is called a memorial sign of the covenant.

Occasionally, stones were utilized as memorials signs to remind future generations of God’s goodness.

It could be something just as simple as that, but it’s clear in Vs. 11 that in this instance, God is willing to do something miraculous to validate his message as he tells Ahaz to “let [this sign] be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”

But Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign. Vs 12, “But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.’

Which actually sounds like a pious thing to say, it seems as if he’s being spiritual by not asking the LORD to provide a sign for him to believe, but again, remember Ahaz is evil. He sacrificed his own son as an offering to Molech.

He’s not saying this because he doesn’t need a miraculous sign, he’s saying this because he doesn’t believe and he doesn’t care about the message Isaiah claims is from the LORD.

Ahaz’s false piety would be convincing if the LORD himself didn’t offer the sign. The prohibition of not putting the LORD to the test would have stood if Isaiah was trying to get Ahaz to ask for a sign, but Isaiah isn’t prompting Ahaz to ask for a sign, he’s stating that God wants to give him a sign as assurance, he simply has to ask.

But Ahaz responds with “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” And the reasoning for this response is quite simple, Ahaz doesn’t believe, so he isn’t saying this in a sense of faith. We learn from elsewhere in Scripture that he had already settled on a plan that involved asking Assyria to help deliver him from Syria and the northern kingdom.

Which prompts Isaiah to respond with, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?”

John Martin, “Ahaz, by rejecting the offer of a sign from God’s messenger, was in effect rejecting the One who sent the prophet . . . Ahaz’s answer was impious. He said he did not want to test the Lord, but by refusing to follow God’s directive to ask for a confirming miracle, he was testing the Lord’s patience (as well as man’s patience).”

Vs. 14-16 tells us that regardless of Ahaz’s response, God is going to give a sign. And it’s maybe not a sign that you would typically think of as one concerning victory, but it ends up being a sign of much more than just victory. Vs. 14-16 says, “therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.”

Despite Ahaz’s response, God is still going to give a sign. And this sign has certain characteristics that will make it apparent that it is the same sign that Isaiah prophesies:

The sign will be born of a virgin and his name will be Immanuel, which I think we’re all familiar enough with the birth of Jesus to recognize that this is a Messianic prophecy. This is about Jesus who is truly God with us, as the name Immanuel suggests. The miraculous birth of Jesus is prophesied in Isaiah 7 and this is confirmed in Matthew 1:21-23, “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.”

The boy will eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good—the idea of the boy eating curds and honey is that the boy would live in relative poverty. Curds and honey, as it is seen in Vs. 22 is the diet of those left in a land that has been destroyed.

And this event will occur after the land of the two kings that Ahaz dreads is deserted—this sign of a virgin conceiving and birthing a child will occur after the removal of the two kings that Ahaz fear—you hav.e to look back at Vs. 1 to figure that out. King Rezin of Syria and King Pekah of the northern kingdom of Israel

Notice again, that this boy will grow up in relative poverty eating curds and honey because that idea introduces the reason for this relative poverty. And that idea is the impending judgment of the LORD

Let me remind you as we move towards this next section that many prophecies in the Old Testament has two parts to them.

There was a shorter prophecy that would occur relatively soon and there was a longer prophecy that would occur further down the line.

The reason for this is that the shorter prophecy acts as validation that the longer prophecy would actually occur.

In Isaiah 7, the longer prophecy is that there will be a virgin that conceives and give birth to a child and this child would be God with us. The shorter prophecy is what we see in Vs. 17-25. Let’s re-read those verses as we prepare to dig into them:

The Judgment of the LORD (17-25)

Isaiah 7:17–25 ESV

17 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!” 18 In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures. 20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also. 21 In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, 22 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. 23 In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns. 24 With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns. 25 And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

The second portion of the prophecy, which is again, the shorter prophecy is drastic and devastating. “The Lord will bring up on you . . . such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim [or the northern kingdom] departed from Judah.”

And the bringer of these days is the king of Assyria. Don’t get him confused with the king of Syria that God just told Ahaz not to be worried about. Assyria is a different kingdom.

Vs. 18-25 then spends the remaining portion of the chapter describing the destruction that the king of Assyria would bring to Judah.

And I don’t want us to spend a significant amount of time ironing out the details, but I do want us to see the amount of devastation that is coming to Judah:

Let me help you make sense of what these verses say:

Vs. 17 makes it clear that the king of Assyria is the one in charge of the impending judgment in an earthly sense, but it tells us that ultimately its the LORD who will bring upon them this judgment.

Vs. 18, tells us that the king of Assyria isn’t just doing it by himself, but that Egypt has a hand in the impending judgment of Judah as well with Vs. 19 telling us that the attacks will come from all sides of Judah.

Vs. 20 shows us that Judah would experience deprivation and humiliation. The idea of Assyria shaving the hair of Judah away is a symbol of humiliation.

22-23 all tell of the level of destruction. That rather than having riches, each person will have a cow and two sheep and will be forced to eat only curds and honey. The eating of only curds and honey tells us two things: (1) there is a lack of suitable farming land and (2) there aren’t enough young animals to nurse, thus there’s an abundance of milk to make curds out of. They would eat honey because honey would be abundant due to the desolate fields in which wild flowers could grow more freely.

We read that in places where vineyards grew that were previously worth great amounts, there will just be briers and thorns.

And because of the briers and thorns vs. 24-25 tells us that the land will be completely unsuitable for farming and really, only animal husbandry could be expected.

In our modern-day world, it’s hard for us to comprehend how devastated everything is in this prophecy, because when we think of devastation, we think of it in different ways. To us devastation is what occurs when we get into a car accident and our vehicle is totaled or our home burns down, our maybe if our identities are stolen and we’re left with nothing financially; we consider all these situations as devastating.

But to the Jewish people in Judah, they measured devastation in terms of whether or not they could grow food in the fields and how many cows and sheep they had—remember with me that when Abraham and Lot decided to separate, they separated from each other because their flocks had gotten too large and couldn’t reside in the same fields. When we read about Job and the Bible describes the amount of wealth that he had, a lot of it is in terms of how many animals he owned. When Satan started hurting Job in various ways, the animals were some of the first to go.

Matthew Henry, “Let those who will not believe the promises of God, expect to hear the alarms of his threatenings; for who can resist or escape his judgments? The Lord shall sweep all away; and whomsoever he employs in any service for him, he will pay. All speaks a sad change of the face of that pleasant land. But what melancholy change is there, which sin will not make with a people? Agriculture would cease. Sorrows of every kind will come upon all who neglect the great salvation. If we remain unfruitful under the means of grace, the Lord will say, Let no fruit grown on thee henceforth for ever.”

Now, like I said, we didn’t spend a lot of time working through those verses and the reason for that is two-fold: (1) in a similar manner to poetry, Isaiah is utilizing a lot of imagery to drive home one point and (2) the imagery itself isn’t the most important part; the point is the most important part:

So, while we could spend significant more time ironing out the details and determining exactly what Isaiah meant, I believe to do so, would be to miss the point of the passage. So, what is the actually point that Isaiah is driving at?

In Vs. 17-25, the point is simple—here is the second part of the prophecy and the second part of the prophecy is that both Assyria and Egypt will attack Judah.

This attack from Assyria and Egypt will be absolutely terrible and it will devastate the people in such a way that the land would lose its value, the people would lose their abundant livestock, and people will be left with nothing.

But remember, this is a two-part prophecy. This part of the prophecy is that Judah is going to experience devastation at the hands of Assyria and Egypt and that this devastation is a punishment from the LORD.

And again, let me remind you, that many prophecies in the Old Testament were two-part intentionally because one part of the prophecy was meant to occur soon to prove that the second part of the prophecy was actually going to occur.

So, what are the two parts of this prophecy?

First, that a child would be born of a virgin and his name will be called Immanuel—this is called a Messianic prophecy because it involves the coming Messiah. We know this to be Jesus, but remember in the time of Isaiah, they didn’t know that this was going to be Jesus.

At this time in Isaiah, they have no preconceived notion of the Messiah whatsoever. The Old Testament up to this point, gave some hints at a Messiah, but there was no real development of how the Messiah would come to be.

So, the idea of a Messiah, the boy called Immanuel would be something that the Jewish people would be vitally interested in and considering that they now live in a divided kingdom and they’re facing attacks, the fact that a coming Messiah exists would bring hope to the people.

The second part of the prophecy is the utter destruction of Judah by Assyria and Egypt as agents of God’s judgment against them.

I’d imagine that this two-part prophecy would’ve brought forth feelings of confusion and mixed emotions.

Because the first aspect of this prophecy would illicit hope and great anticipation, but the second aspect of this prophecy would invoke fear and desperation.

Now, I’ve made it abundantly clear that this is a two-part prophecy with one part occuring sooner than the other part, which means that in the instance of this prophecy in which the long-term prophecy has already been fulfilled, you might ask yourself, when was Judah destroyed by Assyria and Egypt?

As you continue to read through Isaiah, you continue to see prophecies concerning the judgment of the LORD, with little parts that intersperse the text in which Isaiah tells of a coming Messiah.

But what you see, even in the very next chapter is an impending invasion by Assyria.

It’s in 2 Kings 17 and 18, that we read about Sargon II of Assyria besieging Israel and carrying away all of Israel into Assyria. It’s in 2 Kings that we see the fulfillment of the second part of this prophecy.

And the Israelites who would’ve heard this prophecy given by Isaiah, would have remembered the first part of the prophecy, that there is coming a Messiah—that one is coming called Immanuel which would’ve given them great hope even as their homes were destroyed, they were uprooted from their lives, and in many cases enslaved.

From their perspective, the reminder of a coming Messiah would have them looking towards the future in a way that they would praise God for what is to come despite their present situation.

Now, as we start moving into application, you might be listening to all that I’ve said and you might be wondering where does Christmas fit in in all this and how does this provide us hope today? And that’s what I want our application to really focus on. Unlike our usual pattern for application in which we take each section of the passage and apply it in that way, this morning, we’re going to look at the passage in one unit to provide our application:

Application

We see in Isaiah 7:10-25 the prophet Isaiah speaking to King Ahaz. Isaiah tells Ahaz that God had assured safety and protection during that current military issue to the extent that God tells Ahaz to ask for a sign to validate the message of God, but Ahaz in unbelief refuses to ask for a sign.

Nevertheless, God still gives a sign, but its not one that we would quite anticipate. Isaiah prophesies a coming child born of a virgin named Immanuel, but Isaiah doesn’t really say much more about Immanuel. Instead, he gives a second portion to this prophecy and that second portion speaks of the eventual destruction of Judah, not from the kings that Ahaz was worried about, but from another king, who would cause complete devastation in Judah and Israel.

I explained that the way prophecy worked in the Old Testament was that there were often two prophecies tied into one—there was often a short-term prophecy tied to a long-term prophecy. When the short-term prophecy was fulfilled the people would know that the long-term prophecy was surely going to happen.

The prophecy concerning a child born of a virgin called Immanuel in Isaiah 7 is the long-term prophecy. The short-term prophecy was the utter destruction of Judah by Egypt and Assyria.

Ahaz was safe from the northern kingdom of Israel and he was safe from the Syrian empire, but Isaiah prophesies the coming destruction of Judah by Egypt and Assyria, which does actually happen. We spoke about its fulfillment in 2 Kings.

And again, you might be listening to this message wondering what does this have to do with hope and what does this have to do with Christmas?

Consider the first part of the prophecy from 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.”

When Isaiah originally spoke and then recorded these words, it was sometime between the years 740-700 BC, which means the prophecy concerning Jesus’ first advent on earth was written between 700-740 years prior to his actual birth.

And yet, his birth actually happens. Matthew 1:18-25 records his birth with a quotation of Isaiah with the words “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.”

We celebrate the birth of Jesus with hindsight today, but for a Jewish person between 700 BC until the birth of Jesus, they had been waiting with ever-building anticipation for the virgin to conceive and give birth to a child named Immanuel. And each time they would remember Isaiah’s prophecy they would have hope because they realized that the same God who fulfilled the previous short-term prophecy would eventually fulfill the long-term prophecy,

Which brings us to our present situation. We live in what theologians call the already-but-not-yet; and that might be unfamiliar to you, so let me explain what I mean.

According to Scripture, those who truly believe in Jesus are:

already adopted in Christ (Romans 8:15), but not yet adopted (Romans 8:23);

already redeemed in Christ (Ephesians 1:7), but not yet redeemed (Ephesians 4:30);

already sanctified in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:2), but not yet sanctified (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24);

already saved in Christ (Ephesians 2:8), but not yet saved (Romans 5:9);

already raised with Christ (Ephesians 2:6), but not yet raised (1 Corinthians 15:52)

The Bible regularly speaks of different parts of the Christian life being completed for us and not yet completed for us.

And while that might sound confusing or maybe a little bit unnerving, it really isn’t. Because remember, Paul continuously speaks in terms of us being saved now, but being sanctified through our earthly lives, and eventually made complete or glorified when we do see Jesus.

It might help to remember that throughout Scripture there is a common theme concerning what it calls the Kingdom of God—this Kingdom is not an earthly one, Jesus says that this is a completely different kingdom.

And the ideology concerning the kingdom actually started in Genesis.

Ephesians tells us that we’re now part of this kingdom, but its clear that since this isn’t a normal kingdom, we don’t physically see it now, but we will eventually see it.

The Kingdom of God is made of all who believe—past, present, and future and Jesus inaugurated the kingdom by his life of obedience, atoning death, resurrection, and ascension; but the full realization of the consummation of the kingdom isn’t until his eventual return and establishment of that kingdom permanently, which by the way was always his plan.

Living in this all-ready, but not yet tension can be a bit wearisome and confusing. This tension is why we struggle the same way that Paul struggled concerning sins

That he knew what was right, but every time he tried to do right, his flesh was weak and he would succumb to sin.

This already, but not yet tension is why we still live in a world in which there can be extreme sufferings and hardship despite knowing that God is always, only good.

And this tension is why we constantly wrestle with obeying God despite the fact that we know obedience to God isn’t only expected, but required.

And yet, what Isaiah 7 shows us is that God keeps his word and what he says will come to fruition even if it takes several hundred years for it to occur.

Which means that in our already, but not yet situation today, when we know that Jesus has repeatedly promised to come back, but he hasn’t yet, we can have hope, because Jesus keeps his word.

And because Jesus keeps his word, even though its been 2,000 years since his first advent, we know that he will come back, whether that’s tomorrow or another 100 years or even another 1,000 years.

How do we know this? Because in Isaiah 7, God utilized the impending invasion of Assyria and Egypt to show that his word would come true concerning the Messiah. Just like he utilized Assyria and Egypt to show the validity of his word, God uses the coming of the Messiah to show the validity of his word. The fact that Jesus came the first time is evidence that he will return again.

Jesus gives us hope because Jesus keeps his Word—so when Jesus says he will be back, he will truly return.

So, in light of last week’s application and this week’s application, what we’ve learned thus far is this: that the hope of Christmas lies in the fact that God wants to dwell with his people; and the fact that Jesus was born of a virgin 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem is proof that he will return to take up his people:

So, regardless what life is like for you today—whether you’re like the Israelites in Isaiah who just received word of impending judgment or if you’re in a situation of life in which you’ve experienced great blessing and happiness; the truth is that there is hope for the believer.

And that hope should well up within you great joy, and that both that hope and joy should compel you to worship and honor the LORD.

Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus because it is the first step for God’s plan of redemption to bring you to reconciliation with him, so that you can dwell with him and it is proof that he will return to be with his people physically again.

Put simply, what we gain from Isaiah 7:10-25, is that God is a God who keeps his Word and because God keeps his Word we can have hope. And that hope ought to cause us to have joy, to worship Jesus, and the praise him for all that he has done and what he will do and what he will continue to do as we come closer to his eventual return to earth.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

Joy has Dawned