28. Immanuel (1)

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Hymns: RHC 165 Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne 151 O Come, O Come, Immanuel  152 Joy to the World

Isaiah 7:10-17

10 Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying,11 Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD. 13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. 17 The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. (Isa. 7:17 KJV)

Immanuel (1)

OUTLINE

(1) Not Mine (v10-13)

(2) It Is God Who Gives (v14-16)

(3) Rejection and Calamity (v17)

INTRODUCTION

The story of redemption in human history finds its culmination in the coming of the Messiah, Christ, the Son of God through the virgin birth. And it was during the reign of King Ahaz that the prophet Isaiah by the divine Spirit gave the prophecy of Christ’s first coming. Israel’s history, the focal picture of God’s lens of salvation finds its culmination in the birth of her foremost Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus. Today, we look back in history to identify Christ, the sinless Son of God, by the testimony of the virgin birth. His sinless life and atoning death on the cross for our redemption. 

The result of man’s fall is that physical death and eternal death have come upon mankind. Eternal death is the eternal separation from God.

But God would not that we should perish. He remains longsuffering awaiting our repentance.

All who look to Christ, the Christ of Israel, find salvation through Him. He is the fulfilment of an earlier prophecy at the inception of human civilization in the Garden of Eden, prophesied as the “seed of the woman” (Gen. 3:15).

And the focal point is that God Himself must come personally to save sinners. And so, for the first time in human history, the incarnation and His legacy were announced through the prophet Isaiah, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.”

We shall take time to understand our Christ, by the revelation of God through Isaiah, what joy and gladness that is ours, to have “God with us”, that is the meaning of the word “Immanuel”.

And the context was during the reign of King Ahaz, the king of Judah, in a time of spiritual declension, where faith was wont in Israel, the LORD did not leave His people without hope, but prophesied the coming Christ, where all who look to Him find salvation, including Ahaz and his generation.

Although Ahaz has turned aside from God and refused the sign, God, nonetheless, did not refuse nor reject His people, He lay before them the lifeline that in their spiritual awakening they may take hold for their eternal good and comfort.

Ahaz was stubborn, defiant and rebellious, his refusal indicates as EJ Young insightfully observed, “His refusal indicates a complete lack of trust in the power of God and in the faithfulness of God in His prophet. Faith shows itself in obedience; unbelief in disobedience. Here is the “practical” man to who the worship of the LORD has little meaning. In a time of crisis, he is too busy for the LORD, he would rather follow the dictates of his own “practical” reason than to walk in dependence upon his God.”

This is very much a good summary of Christianity today. I worship God on my terms, and while it suits me, I follow, where it doesn’t go with it. I have my life to lead. Do not disturb. I thought I did pay my tithe. Let me lead my life, I am busy enough, without being reminded that I have strayed from the LORD.”   

(1) Not Mine (v10-13)

10 Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying,11 Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD. 13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? 

Obedience to God’s commands is dismissed by the hypocritical king as a tempting of God. But Ahaz had no serious concern over whether or not he was tempting God. [EJ Young]

We observe God’s gracious dealing with man – Luke 20:13 (KJV) Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him.

Prophet after prophet was sent to warn Israel of the danger; message after the message was repeatedly sent, notwithstanding, insults and injuries heaped on the messengers.

But God is merciful is the shining light in the midst of gross darkness even in the church.

Mercies before conversion, mercies after conversion, and mercies at every step of their journey on earth, will be revealed to the minds of saved saints, and make them ashamed of their own thanklessness. Sparing mercies, providential mercies, mercies in the way of warnings, mercies in the way of sudden visitations, will all be set forth in order before the minds of lost sinners, and confound them by the exhibition of their own hardness and unbelief. We shall all find that God was often speaking to us when we did not hear, and sending us messages which we did not regard. [JC Ryle]

Recall what we said on the Lord’s Day 16 April 2023, “The stubbornness of God’s people is described as stiffnecked – Exodus 32:9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Exodus 33:3 Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way. Exodus 33:5 For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. Exodus 34:9 And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance. Deuteronomy 9:6 Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people. Deuteronomy 9:13 Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. 2 Chronicles 30:8 Now be ye not stiffnecked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you. Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

The spirituality of the Israelites was at its low. They were unable to pick themselves up from their spiritual weakness and lethargy. Moses interceded for them that God will pardon them and make a way for them out of all their weakness. How can stubborn people be helped? Vital spiritual life can only be imparted by God. Moses pleaded on behalf of the Israelites for God to transform their hearts, to take away their stubbornness.”

This was so where Israel wondered for 40 years in the wilderness, this is so too, in the reign of King Ahaz. 

3 Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field; 4 And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, 6 Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal: 7 Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. 8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. 9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. (Isa. 7:3-9 KJV)

The enemy will not succeed in ending the reign of the Davidic kings that God promised will continue. God Himself will see to it – 7 Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. No attempt to dislodge the Davidic kingship will be successful. 

Isaiah 4:5 (KJV) And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.

Smoking fire brands; are not whole firebrands burning in the fire, but small pieces or ends of them, taken out of the fire, in which there is more smoke than fire, and the fire will be speedily extinguished. They have more of show and terror than of strength. [Poole]

As Israel discovered the wilderness indeed was a place of trial but God was there to call for them all the day – Deuteronomy 8:2-6 (KJV) And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years. Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

Matthew Henry commented well, “God, by the prophet, makes a gracious offer to Ahaz, to confirm the foregoing predictions, and his faith in them, by such sign or miracle as he should choose (v10-11): Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; See here the divine faithfulness and veracity. God tells us nothing but what he is able and ready to prove. See his wonderful condescension to the children of men, in that he is so willing to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel (Hebrews 6:7). 

Hebrews 6:17 (KJV) Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:

He considers our frame, and that, living in a world of sense, we are apt to require sensible proofs, which therefore He has favoured us with in sacramental signs and seals. Ahaz was a bad man, yet God is called the Lord his God, because he was a child of Abraham and David, and of the covenants made with them. See how gracious God is even to the evil and unthankful; Ahaz is bidden to choose his sign, as Gideon about the fleece (Judges 6:37); let him ask for a sign in the air, or earth, or water, for God’s power is the same in all.

Judges 6:37 (KJV) Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.

Ahaz rudely refuses this gracious offer, and (which is not mannerly towards any superior) kicks at the courtesy, and puts a slight upon it (v12): I will not ask. The true reason why he would not ask for a sign was that, having a dependence upon the Assyrians, their forces, and their gods, for help, he would not thus far be beholden to the God of Israel, or lay under obligations to him. 

He would not ask a sign for the confirmation of his faith because he resolved to persist in his unbelief, and would indulge his doubts and distrusts; yet he pretends a pious reason: I will not tempt the Lord; as if it would be a tempting of God to do that which God himself invited and directed him to do. 

A secret disaffection to God is often disguised with the specious colours of respect for Him, and those who are resolved that they will not trust God yet pretend that they will not tempt him.

The prophet reproves him and his court, him and the house of David, the whole royal family, for their contempt of prophecy, and the little value they had for divine revelation (v13) “Is it a small thing for you to weary men by your oppression and tyranny, with which you make yourselves burdensome and odious to all mankind? 

But will you weary my God also with the affronts you put upon him?” As the unjust judge that neither feared God nor regarded man (Luke 18:2).

Luke 18:2 (KJV) Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:

You have wearied the Lord with your words (Malachi 2:17).

Malachi 2:17 (KJV) Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?

Nothing is more grievous to the God of heaven than to be distrusted. “Will you weary my God? Will you suppose Him to be tired and unable to help you, or to be weary of doing you good? 

Our God will certainly be weary in answering our prayers and caring for us. It is His covenant with His people that He will be faithful. Alas, are we faithful?

The psalmist extols God’s faithfulness for our learning. 

Psalm 121:1-8 (KJV) A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Whereas the youths may faint and be weary, you may have tired all your friends, the Creator of the ends of the earth faints not, neither is weary.” (Isaiah 40:28-31).

Isaiah 40:28-31 (KJV) Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.  

Or this: “In affronting the prophets, you think you put a slight only upon men like yourselves, and consider not that you affront God himself, whose messengers they are, and put a slight upon him, who will resent it accordingly.” The prophet here calls God his God with a great deal of pleasure: Ahaz would not say, He is my God, though the prophet had invited him to say so (v11): The Lord thy God; but Isaiah will say, “He is mine.” Whatever others do, we must avouch the Lord for ours and abide by him.”

To be continued…