God With Us: The Promises Beyond The Prophecy

The LORD always comes through even when it seems that we have run to the end of the road and see no way out of the predicament in which we find ourselves, both as individuals and as a nation. He has let us go our merry way throughout the course of history, with the consequences to follow. Our sins, foolishness, rebellion, pride, and reprobate behaviors have brought us down to levels lower than dirt, yet when we repent and turn our lives over to Him, He is always there to restore us, to reprimand us, and to pick us up off of the ground if we will but swallow our egos and realize that His ways are always the best. When we read the Scriptures, it always seems that His chosen people Israel go through cycles of devotion to deviancy, and yet one would think that with all the troubles they had as a consequence of chasing after foreign gods and putting up with less than noble kings, they would have learned their lessons long ago (Leviticus 26) and decided to do that which He commanded of them, and that was to be a witness to the rest of the world that God and God alone was the One who controlled all events in both material and spiritual matters, and that He was the Author of their salvation, and none else. Unfortunately, no. We are no better either, and don't fool yourself otherwise (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11).

The scene in which Isaiah proclaims his prophetic word is when he is in the royal court of the king of Judah, a piece of work named Ahaz (2 Kings 15:38; 16:2, 8, 20:11; Isaiah 1:1; 7:12; 38:8) who has acted wickedly against God and has made alliances with other nations who are steeped in idolatry and are as weak as Ahaz in terms of moral character and leadership. Ahaz has gone so far as to sacrifice his own son to the detestable demonic figure Moloch, whose worship was noted for child sacrifice of the cruelest and vilest sort. Children would be thrown into a fire screaming while the "priests' banged drums and sang loudly so as to muffle the cries of pain coming from the little one's final breaths. This is a pitiful and horrendous testimony on a nation founded by the greatest king of Israel, David in 1010 B.C., the man "after God's own heart" (1, 2 Samuel). His descendants had gone from glorifying God in the Temple such as Solomon (1 Kings 8) to where their hearts had turned away from God as time progressed. The books of 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles are a no-hold-barred account of the sordid and sacred times of both Israel and Judah, and by reading them, you get an idea of how bad things had gotten. If history does repeat itself, it shows that bad government and wicked rulers are nothing new and are a plague here in the USA even now (Psalm 11:3; Proverbs 14:34; 16:12).

Isaiah had been told by the LORD to go to Ahaz and tell him that the war he was fighting against the kings of Israel and Syria were essentially nothing with which to concern himself. God proclaimed that they were nothing but "stubs of smoking firebrands" (Isaiah 7:3-9), and Isaiah was to show the inept monarch that God would help him overcome these weak enemies. He was ready to show him a sign of victory. All he had to do was ask (7:10-11). Ahaz's reply was pathetic and showed a lack of faith and the knowledge that if God did give him a sign, he would have to abandon his paganism and submit to God's direction, and he was not ready nor willing to do so. Sometimes when reading passages like this, I want to shout "What are you thinking?" Here is the Sovereign GOD of all creation, the God of Israel who brought them into existence, had given them a homeland, protected them in times of plenty and want, parted the Red Sea for them and drowned their enemies, and had told men like Moses and David that He was going to use them as the chosen vessel in bringing salvation to the nations, and Ahaz turned this down? This is idiocy on steroids.

I realize I made mention of this earlier, but it bears repeating. We choose to turn down the riches and blessings of God every day in our rebellious state. We turn from His free offer of salvation and mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ, thinking that we have everything under control (Luke 12:13-21; Hebrews 9:27) and either we drop dead or choose to be satisfied with our corrupt mortal lives and meals of dung and mud with eternal hell as our destination (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:11-15). God, Who is love personified (1 John 4:8) is always ready to comfort the troubled soul, repair the wounded heart, being peace to our lives, and bestow upon us the title of His children and His beloved ones, and is willing that none of us should perish, but all should come to Him (Ezekiel 18:23; Matthew 11:28-30; John 10:28-30; John 3:16; 2 Peter 3:9). Yet, we have the unmitigated gall to turn Him down simply because we do not want to let go of our temporal, finite junk that we cannot take with us when we die (Matthew 16:26; 1 Timothy 6:7). We cling to the rust of the earth instead of opening our arms, hearts, and lives to the King of Kings who has riches untold and treasure that no one can steal nor can it decay (Matthew 6:18-21; Mark 10:17-22).