Today in God's Word—September 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
September 14, Isaiah 7
"If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all." - Isaiah 7:9
Two boys are named in this chapter. Both names are brimful of prophetic significance. One of them was present in person. The other was named hundreds of years before he was born. His name was rich in prophecy and promise.
Assyria was the bully of the world in Isaiah's time. King Rezin of Assyria was building a great empire, gobbling up lands all around him. He killed many of the lands' inhabitants and made slaves of the others who survived his conquests. Syria and Israel (the northern kingdom) had formed an alliance in their efforts to resist Assyrian aggression. They in turn became aggressors in arms and made a plan to attack and destroy Judah, and take away the throne from the house of David.
Ahaz was king of Judah at the time. King Ahaz was not a godly man. He had already lost battles against Israel and Syria, and he feared their alliance. God sent Isaiah to assure Chaz that their plan against Judah would not succeed. But Ahaz did not believe God's promise or follow God's instruction.
Not all the news from God was good. God told Isaiah to take his son Shear-Jashub when he went to see King Ahaz. His name meant “a remnant shall return." When Isaiah took his boy with the strange name to meet the king, it was not to get the king's autograph. No, in a day and age when names had great significance, this boy's strange name implied that although Ahaz would avoid captivity this time, a time of captivity was surely coming for Judah.
In that conversation, the LORD also told Ahaz to ask for a sign. The sign God offered could be great, as high as heaven or as deep as the realm of the dead. Ahaz made a pretense of respect for God, saying that he would not ask for a sign because he didn't want to be guilty of putting God to the test. In reality, he did not trust
God, and any sign would be meaningless to him. But God used that occasion to give Ahaz and the whole house of David and the nation of Judah an amazing sign, promising faithless people that nothing was too hard for him. He said a virgin would conceive and bear a child and call his name Immanuel (God with us). No one in the history of the world fits that promise and prophecy but Jesus. Matthew quoted this verse from Isaiah 7 to explain the birth of Jesus. The old promises to Abraham and David would still come to pass. Israel would be destroyed and go into captivity. Babylon would overtake Judah and take them into captivity. But a faithful remnant would continue and return to their home in Palestine.
The long-awaited Messiah would come. God was faithful to keep his promises. Those who trusted in him would stand firm. But those who were not firm in faith would not be firm at all.
Our text verse for this chapter was a message to an unbelieving king that trusting God was his only hope against powerful enemies. That message is a good reminder to you and me as well. We cannot live for God and be faithful to him without facing resistance and opposition from an evil world. Those enemies are powerful and can be frightening. But when our trust is firmly fixed in God and not ourselves, we can stay faithful. When you and I devote ourselves to be firm in faith, we can be steadfast to follow God and rely on God, confident that we are sustained by God.
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Comments