Word Live: Misplaced Fear
What is your favourite miracle story in the Bible? Our God is the God of the unexpected, the God of the impossible. We can trust him completely because he has power and authority over everything.
Bible passage
Isaiah 7:1–17
The sign of Immanuel
7 When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.
2 Now the house of David was told, ‘Aram has allied itself with Ephraim’; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, ‘Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. 4 Say to him, “Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smouldering stubs of firewood – because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, 6 ‘Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.’ 7 Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
‘“It will not take place,
it will not happen,
8 for the head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is only Rezin.
Within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son.
If you do not stand firm in your faith,
you will not stand at all.”’
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.’
12 But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.’
13 Then Isaiah said, ‘Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. 17 The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah – he will bring the king of Assyria.’
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
There is good news and bad news for King Ahaz in this passage. The good news was that the two nations he feared so much would not overthrow Judah. The bad news was that Assyria, with whom he had made an alliance (2 Kings 16:7, 8), would do much worse.
Ahaz was making the mistake of looking at things from a human perspective. The thing he feared was no threat at all, but the thing he was putting his trust in would destroy him (v 17). The Lord offered to give him a sign to help bolster his faith (vs 10,11) – does Ahaz’s rejection of the offer suggest that he had already resolved to rely on human power and not God’s strength?
The sign was given anyway. The impossible would happen – a virgin would conceive, and God would come to live among us (v 14). God asks us to believe – to place our trust in – him and his promises, not in human strategies and strength. Human solutions will always let us down. Faith in God is the only way to stand firm.
Author
Jennie Pollock
Respond
What are you currently fearful or anxious about? The same God who told Ahaz to stand firm in his faith says the same to you. Do you trust him to empower you to have victory over those fears and challenges?
Deeper Bible study
‘He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful’.1
I saw an advert on UK television recently in which a young man, when encouraged to save for the future, says in effect ‘Why should I? That person (ie my future self) has done nothing to earn this money. I have and I’m going to spend it myself’! Isaiah constantly jumps in that way between the current (usually difficult) situation and the future (or possible futures) – and it can get a bit confusing for his readers. I’m sure that you, like me, sometimes find it hard to get the balance right between on the one hand concentrating on the future (either hope or worries), neglecting current responsibilities or blessings and, on the other hand, focusing on the present blessings or worries and failing to look forward to the hope or the dangers that lie before us. Isaiah is a prime example of Walter Brueggemann’s assertion that ‘the prophetic tasks of the church are to tell the truth in a society that lives in illusion, grieve in a society that practises denial, and express hope in a society that lives in despair’.2
It seems likely that in this instance Isaiah meant his sign in verse 14 to refer to the immediate future for King Ahaz, but the angel who spoke to Joseph in a dream clearly presents it as also referring to the conception of Jesus!3 Maybe our task as we approach Christmas is to try again to bridge the gap, to be honest about the corruption in our own society and to grieve about that and the sin in our own lives, before we jump to the fact that Jesus came into a corrupt world to bring great hope to those who turn to him! Do, then, make that jump!
Lord, as we approach Christmas and rejoice that Jesus came as Redeemer, help us to set that in the context of the reasons why he had to come.
1Luke 1:53,54 2 Walter Brueggemann, Reality, Grief, Hope: Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks, Eerdmans, 2014 3Matt 1:22,23
Author
Mary Evans
