At the elementary school where Becky Barnes teaches in Arizona, they had a problem with students throwing rocks. The principal made an announcement over the intercom warning students that anyone caught throwing rocks would be taken home by him personally. Later that day, during afternoon recess, a teacher admonished a kindergartner for throwing a rock.
“Didn't you hear what the principal said this morning?!” the teacher said in disbelief.
“Yeah,” replied the lad, grinning from ear to ear. “I get to go home in the principal's car!” (Becky S. Barnes, Arizona, “Small Talk,” Today's Christian Woman; www.PreachingToday. com)
That little boy was in trouble, but he still found something to be excited about. He found hope, and that’s what Christmas and the coming of Christ is all about. It’s about finding hope in the midst of your troubles.For Jesus, our hope, came to this earth in the midst of troubling times just as it was predicted by the Old Testament prophets.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Isaiah 7, Isaiah 7, where God through the prophet speaks to a group of people in desperate need of hope.
Isaiah 7:1-2 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David was told, “Syria is in league with Ephraim,” the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind (ESV).
Two nations have come from the north to conquer Jerusalem, and they have surrounded the city. 2 Chronicles 28 describes the horrors of that siege: 120,000 men of Judah were slain in one day, including King Ahaz’ own son and other important leaders. 200,000 men, women and children were taken away captive, and the land was stripped of its wealth. The people of Judah were terrorized 700 years before Christ when Israel and Syria formed an alliance and attacked them.
And that’s the state of many people today in the early part of the 21st Century. Vladimir Putin seeks to expand his empire. Iran and North Korea are flexing their muscles again. And China is an ever-growing threat. Add to that the concern many people have about their own finances, their own health, and their own families in such a world, and no wonder people feel uneasy today.
Charlie Brown expressed it well when he said, “I have a new philosophy. I’m only going to dread one day at a time” (James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, p.107). I don’t know about you, but I’m tempted to feel like that at times.
So what do you do about it? How do you overcome the fear and terror you may feel these days? Just listen to what God has to say.
Isaiah 7:3-4 And the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. And say to him, ‘Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah (ESV).
God says don’t be afraid of your enemies, because they are but “smoldering stumps of firebrands.” In other words, they are like a couple of short sticks left over after a campfire. Oh, there might be a little smoke yet, but the fire is gone and soon they’ll be forgotten. The fact is, the two men leading the attack against Jerusalem died just a couple of years after this.
So what does God say to those feeling terrorized today? He says, “Don’t be afraid of your enemies, because they’re nothing. They’re here today and gone tomorrow.” Do you remember when the whole world was terrorized by the Krushchev, Brezhnev, and the Old Soviet Union? Do you remember when the whole world was terrorized by Saddam Hussein? Do you remember when the whole world was terrorized by Osama Ben Laden? What happened to all these men? They’re dead and gone! So don’t be afraid of your enemies, because they’re nothing; and their plans are nothing.
Isaiah 7:5-7 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, “Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,” thus says the Lord GOD: “ ‘It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass (ESV).
God will thwart their plans.
Isaiah 7:8-9a For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin [a mere man]. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah [a mere man] (ESV).
God looks at the powerful tyrants of this world, and they are nothing to him; they are mere men who cannot stand before the God of the Universe. So don’t be afraid of any man. Instead, put your faith in God.
TRUST IN THE LORD.
Depend on YHWH God Himself, who is bigger than any man and any problem you may encounter.
Look at the second part of verse 9. There, God says, “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” In other words, if you are weak in faith, you will be weak in life; but if you are strong in your faith, you will be stand strong against any enemy. You will not let anyone intimidate you when you depend on the Lord.
On March 5, 1994, Deputy Sheriff Lloyd Prescott was teaching a class for police officers in the Salt Lake City Library. As he stepped into the hallway, he noticed a gunman herding 18 hostages into the next room. With a flash of insight, Prescott (dressed in street clothes) joined the group as the nineteenth hostage, followed them into the room, and shut the door. But when the gunman announced the order in which hostages would be executed, Prescott identified himself as a cop.
In the scuffle that followed, Prescott, in self-defense, fatally shot the armed man. The hostages were released unharmed (Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 3; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s what God has done for you and me! He dressed himself in street clothes and entered our world to deliver us from an enemy far greater than any gunman. He came to deliver us from sin and Satan, so take courage. Your powerful God is with you!
Chuck Swindoll put it this way: “He who resided in Heaven, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit, willingly descended into our world. He breathed our air, felt our pain, knew our sorrows, and died for our sins. He didn't come to frighten us, but to show us the way to warmth and safety (Charles Swindoll, “The Finishing Touch,” Christianity Today, Vol. 40, no. 14; www.PreachingToday.com).
So trust Him with your life and don’t let anyone intimidate you. Then…
HOPE IN HIS PROMISE.
In a time when everybody else is afraid, find assurance in God’s promise of a virgin-born Son; discover your confidence in the Messiah, our Deliverer. That’s what God wants King Ahaz to do.
Isaiah 7:10-11 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven” (ESV).
In other words, ask for any sign that you want. Ask that the graves be opened. Ask that the constellations be changed. Ask for anything you need to prove to you that God will keep His Word.
Isaiah 7:12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test” (ESV).
Ahaz will not ask for a sign even though God tells him to. This is deliberate defiance, a slap in the face to a Gracious God who wants to reassure this wicked king.
You see, most people do not believe, not because they CAN not believe. They do not believe, because they WILL not believe. I think of the 18th Century French Atheist, Voltaire, who said, “If a miracle occurred in the marketplace of Paris and in the presence of 2,000 men, I would rather disbelieve my own eyes and the 2,000.” Even if he had clear evidence for faith in God, he would still refuse to believe. And that’s the way it is for many, who in the face of clear evidence, still choose not to believe in God.
There is the unmistakable evidence of the irreducibly complex design in the universe, from the microscopic to the telescopic level. There is the unmistakable evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, from the empty tomb, stipulated even by Jesus’ enemies, to the testimonies, sealed in death, of the eyewitnesses to His resurrection. And there is the unmistakable evidence of the thoroughly transformed lives among those who trust Christ as their Savior. There are plenty of signs to confirm a strong faith in God. We don’t trust Him blindly. It’s just that many refuse to trust Him at all. Like Ahaz, they WILL NOT believe.
Isaiah 7:13-14 And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! [King Ahaz was a descendant of King David.] Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. [Despite your obstinacy, despite your refusal to believe, God is going to show you anyway.] Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel [which means, “God with us”] (ESV).
God’s sign to King Ahaz and to anyone, whether they choose to believe it or not, is the virgin birth of Messiah. Messiah would be born to a virgin! A woman who never had sex with a man will get pregnant and give birth to the coming King and Deliverer of the world. Wow! What a sign!
First of all, it’s a sign which condemns those who refuse to believe. It condemned King Ahaz. A couple a hundred years before this, God promised Ahaz’ predecessor, King David, that he would have a descendant on the throne who would reign forever! It was the promise of the Messiah, Israel’s deliverer. Here, that promise is repeated with one important exception: Ahaz would be excluded from the promise. It will not be Ahaz’ descendant who reigns. It will be the son of a virgin.
According to Matthew 1, Joseph is a descendant of Ahaz; but it was Mary, a virgin, who gave birth to Messiah without any of Joseph’s seed. Ahaz has no part in the promise. He is condemned, because he chooses not to believe.
And that’s the state of those who refuse to believe today. John 3:18 says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” It’s not that you WILL be condemned someday. It’s that you are ALREADY condemned if you refuse to trust Christ as your Savior. The sentence of death has already been pronounced. All appeals have already been exhausted, and you are now on death row, awaiting execution of your sentence.
Some time ago, CarMD sponsored a Harris Interactive survey, which found that 10 percent of the 2,041 U.S. adults polled were driving a car whose “Check Engine” light was on. An alarming 50 percent of those whose cars were showing signs of an impending breakdown indicated the light had been on for over 3 months. Another 10 percent said the light had been on between 1–2 months.
Kristin Brocoff, marketing manager for CarMD.com, says it's a particularly sobering statistic, because "the U.S. government put the on-board diagnostic system in place to… alert drivers when their vehicle was emitting too many emissions or had a problem. This light can signify something potentially costly and possibly dangerous to the passengers or others on the road. It's important that drivers treat it seriously.”
The survey found drivers had a whole litany of excuses for ignoring the light. Some ignored it, because the car seemed to be “running fine.” Others pointed to a lack of sufficient funds. Still others said they just didn't have time to worry about getting their car fixed (“Snapshots: How long the light's been on,” USA Today, 6-22-08; www.PreachingToday.com).
My dear friends, if you haven’t yet put your trust in Christ as your Savior, the “check engine” light of your life is on right now! Don’t ignore it any longer. Quit refusing to believe like King Ahaz did, because it can only lead to trouble. The virgin birth is a sign which condemns those who refuse to believe.
On the other hand, it is a sign which confirms those who choose to believe. The virgin birth of Messiah is a sign of deliverance for all who trust Him. In Ahaz’ day, it was a sign of deliverance from the menacing armies that had surrounded Jerusalem.
Isaiah 7:15-16 He [i.e., the virgin-born Son, Immanuel] 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 (ESV).
In other words, suppose a virgin were to conceive that day and give birth to a son. If that should happen, then before the boy is old enough to know the difference between right and wrong, Judah’s enemies will be laid waste. That is, within about 3-5 years, both the land of Syria and the land of Israel will be deserted.
That’s the prediction, and that’s exactly what happened. Within three years, God raised up Tiglath-Pileser III, king of Assyria, who destroyed both Syria and Israel in 732 B.C. The two nations that had threatened Judah and Jerusalem were gone, and God’s people were saved.
Now, there was no virgin-birth in Ahaz’ day. So this prophecy awaited a much greater fulfillment, which didn’t come until over 700 years later, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
At that time, when Joseph found that his fiancé was pregnant and wanted to call off the engagement, an angel said to him, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit (not another man). She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21). Then the Gospel writer comments, “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’ (which means God with us)” (Matthew 1:22-23).
Matthew, the Gospel writer, makes it very clear. The virgin birth of Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy right here in Isaiah 7:14. Jesus, the virgin-born son of Mary, is God with us, who came to save us from our sins!
You see, we face an even bigger threat than Judah did in Isaiah’s day. We face an even bigger threat than China itself today. In fact, we face an even bigger threat than any political enemy in any day. The threat we face is sin. All China can do is overpower our Navy. Sin will condemn us to hell for eternity.
So more than anything else, we need a Savior from sin, and that’s why Jesus came. That’s why God put on human flesh and dwelt among us. He did it so He could pay the price for our sins on the cross and rise again. And now, he offers the assurance of His presence and eternal life to anyone who will put their trust in Him.
Robert Pattinson has experienced a great deal of success in the film industry. High profile roles like Edward in the Twilight series, Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter series, and most recently Batman have advanced his career. However, he has played roles in other films that didn’t do so well. He has had good years and bad years.
Pattinson knows that fame is fickle. He knows that an actor is only as respected as his last role, which makes his next role the most important.
Earlier this year (March 2022), Pattinson opened up about his career choices: “I don’t want to make a mistake on what to do next ... You just have to kind of think: Well, my plan is maybe a miracle will happen and everything will be fine. Which is what I think everyone has been thinking for two years.” He then concludes in an uncertain voice, “Just … Uhh, I guess the plan is to just hope?” (Daniel Riley, “Metamorphosis,” GQ, 3-1-22; www.PreachingToday.com).
Yes! The plan is to just hope, but not like that! We who know Jesus have a sure and certain hope, because He died and rose again! So trust in the Lord and hope in His promise.
In his book Leadership Jazz, Max DePree writes about his granddaughter named Zoe, the Greek word for life. She was born prematurely and weighed one pound, seven ounces, so small that his wedding ring could slide up her arm to her shoulder. The neonatologist who first examined her told the family that she had a 5 to 10 percent chance of living three days. When Max and his wife Esther scrubbed up for their first visit and saw Zoe in her isolette in the neonatal intensive care unit, she had two IVs in her navel, one in her foot, a monitor on each side of her chest, and a respirator tube and a feeding tube in her mouth.
To complicate matters, Zoe's biological father had jumped ship the month before Zoe was born. Realizing this, a wise and caring nurse named Ruth gave Max his instructions.
"For the next several months, at least, you're the surrogate father. I want you to come to the hospital every day to visit Zoe, and when you come, I want you to rub her body and her legs and arms with the tip of your finger. While you're caressing her, you should tell her over and over how much you love her, because she has to be able to connect your voice to your touch.”
Max DePree says, “God knew that we also needed both his voice and his touch. So he gave us not only the Word but also his Son… God's voice and touch say, ‘I love you’” (Max DePree, Leadership Jazz, prologue; www.PreachingToday.com).
Please, accept God’s love for you today. Stop resisting like Ahaz did and start relying on the Lord today. Just trust in the Lord during these troubling times and dare to hope in His promise.
