THE VIRGIN.....WILL GIVE BIRTH TO A SON
Isaiah 7:10-14 - December 21, 2003
ISAIAH 7:10-14
10Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11"Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights."
12But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test."
13Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
From time to time in our lifetime we have probably seen and realized that the Lord does many things, which are impossible. We limit ourselves to those things which we know that we can do, those things which seem humanly possible. But the Lord says He can do even the impossible. Today, our text tells us: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. That is impossible, but the Lord says He can do it and He will. We realize as we celebrate the birth of Christ who was born of a virgin, the Lord does the impossible. So God’s will is always done even though sometimes we might not agree with it or we might not consider it to be what we want done. How thankful we can be that it is God’s will that is done. Solomon wrote in Proverbs: "Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise. Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails"(PROVERBS 19:20,21). That is what we hear this morning from the Prophet Isaiah. It is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. He says:
The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. This reminds us:
I. Man cannot change
II. What God wants done
I. Man cannot change
We have heard these words before--this prophecy. This morning we are going to look at the deep meaning that it had at the time Isaiah spoke these words. We are going to look a little bit at the history of the children of Israel. We may remember for ourselves that God had delivered the children of Israel into the Promised Land, the land that was flowing with milk and honey. As they settled that land, God gave them one thing to do. That one thing was to drive out the inhabitants that were already living there. Now, over the years they drove out most of them but not all of them. Because of that, the Israelites began to pick up all the bad habits from the unbelieving inhabitants who lived first in the Promised Land. They were bad habits of not following God, the bad habits of following false gods, the bad habits of looking for different leaders. So it was the children of Israel changed their whole government, their whole system of thinking. Before the time of kings God had led and directed his people both in their spiritual lives and in their daily living. The people came to the Lord and said, "We want something else. We want different leaders." The Lord provided them with kings. In today’s text we have King Ahaz. Of course, you already know that if they are going to have kings, men leading them instead of God, they are not always going to have the best leadership. The fact is that the Israelites discovered very quickly that they had more bad kings than good kings. Ahaz was one of the worst.
We are told in our text: 10Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11"Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights." The Lord came to Ahaz and was giving him a second chance. What had happened is that Ahaz looked around him and realized the enemies of Judah were great. So Ahaz thought, "I better take care of this and defeat these enemies of God. He went out of his way to do what he wanted to do. He hired foreign armies to defeat his enemies, but he never once asked God. He never once considered what God wanted done. Ahaz never once thought God could help him, and God comes to Ahaz and gives him a last chance. In other words the Lord says, "Ahaz, ask me anything. Ask for a sign. I will give you a sign. Ask Me what I want done, and I will tell you." What is Ahaz’s response? 12But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test." This reply almost sounds reasonable. Ahaz says he doesn’t want to test the Lord. But there is a deeper meaner as Ahaz says, "I am not going to ask what the Lord wants. I am going to do what I want." Ahaz was very rebellious and stubborn. Ahaz really already knew what God’s answer might be. Because God’s answer would not be what Ahaz wanted to hear he was not too willing to do what God wanted done. Ahaz trusted in himself and not God.
Probably from time to time, we have a little bit Ahaz in each one of us, don’t we? We go on our merry way and plan all kinds of things and think we have our future laid out for us. We like to feel that our plans are exactly the way everything will work out. Sometimes it does, but sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes we forget to ask God what He wants--to seek what He wants and not our will, not according to our flesh and desires. We see it really in the world around us today, don’t we? Many today celebrate Christmas, because it is another day off. It’s time for a Christmas bonus. It’s a time to go out and be all caught up in getting gifts, giving gifts and that list goes on. Like Ahaz, they and we can easily forget to turn to the Lord. Jeremiah, who is another prophet of God, said: "This is what the LORD says: ’Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD’"(JEREMIAH 17:5). We know that we have our sinful nature with us. At times we are going to go down that path which turns away from what God wants us to do. What God wants for us is the very best, isn’t it? Because when we look at ourselves and honestly see our flesh that we trust in, we realize it is not very dependable. We are born into this world with a sinful flesh with desires that are contrary to God, not trying to do what God wants, but trying to do what God doesn’t want. In the end of what are we reminded? Peter tells us: "For, ’All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever’"(1 PETER 2:24,25). We probably have seen that in our lives time and time again. If things don’t go our way, we realize that was probably not the best decision. But we can always turn back to the word of the Lord, and it stands forever. It never fails us. God’s word flourishes always. God’s word is unlike the frailty of our human sinful nature.
Today, as always, the Lord wants us to look at the manger, to look at Jesus and see there the impossible becoming possible. The virgin gives birth to a child. Even though man might say it is impossible and even though he might try to change that plan, he cannot. It is done. Then our Lord wants us as lights in this world. We are to be lights just as we see all the lights and decorations that are on houses and trees and even in our church, to shine just like that. When those lights are put away after the Christmas season, God wants us to still be shining because what the Lord has done in us is the impossible. The Lord God has called us to eternal life. Therefore Paul encourages us in Ephesians: ""Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is"(EPHESIANS 5:15-17). Paul wants us to look at what does the Lord want, rather than what does the world want or what does our sinful nature want, or what does Satan want. Look at what the Lord wants.
The Lord wants as He says in our text is that the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. Man cannot change what God wants done.
II. What God wants done
We go back to Ahaz and we see this wicked king. What else is interesting in the history of the children of Israel is that they had grown so much into the ways of the world that they were not even united as one tribe anymore. In the Promised Land there was Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and there was Judah, the Southern Kingdom. Ahaz is king of Judah, the southern Kingdom. Sometimes these two kingdoms that were to believe in the same God stood opposed to each other. It depended on the king who was ruling in each kingdom. At different times one kingdom was closer to God as the other kingdom was farther away. Here these two kingdoms begin to get farther away from each other.
The Lord says, "The day has come. I will give you a sign." Isaiah has the account: 13Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! He reminded Ahaz and he reminded the children of Judah that they were descendants of David. From David’s line the Savior would be born. Isaiah says: "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? You can well imagine for yourselves that as Ahaz was king and was leading the people astray, there were many in Judah who thought that Ahaz is not doing the right thing. Ahaz isn’t worshiping the true God. Yet, because he was their leader, they followed him. They had asked God to give them leaders and God provided, and they had promised to listen. Sadly, their allegiance to their leader tried their patience. Where do they stand? Should they worship God? Should they follow Ahaz?
And then it gets worse. Isaiah says, is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? You will notice here a switch that Isaiah says, Now you are trying the patience of my God. Isaiah realized that as he spoke to Ahaz and as he spoke to the people of Judah, they no longer followed the same God. They are off on their own way doing what their own flesh wanted to do. He said, "You are trying my God’s patience." But God was not going to leave them off the hook, and He was not going to leave them to go on their own way without consequences. 14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Ahaz didn’t want a sign. Some of the people didn’t want a sign.
Still, Isaiah says, "Here is the sign: "’The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel--God with us. For Ahaz and the people of Judah it was a sign of judgment, because they knew as Isaiah spoke these words, they were not following the Lord. They were not following Immanuel anymore. They were following Ahaz and his wicked ways. For the rest of the believers in the world of course, it was a promise, a sign, a blessing, and salvation that God is with us. God was going to do what He wanted done.
In essence that is what we celebrate at Christmas. God does what He wants done concerning our salvation. God does what He wants done even though it seems impossible. We heard it in our lesson today (LUKE 1:39-55). Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, and Elizabeth says, "How can this thing be?" She says, "You are blessed, because you believe." Mary sings that song of joy, a song that is found in our hymnal. What happens? The angel comes to Joseph and says, ’The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’--which means, ’God with us’"(MATTHEW 1:23). Even though we might turn astray just like Ahaz and even we might go off on our own way, God is still with us. Even though we might sometimes forget that, God is with us. God does what He wants done in our hearts and in our lives.
God does what He wants done in His good time. That is another thing that we might struggle with from time to time. Our society goes quite fast nowadays, and at times we want to see things done right now. But when we look at the promises of God and when we look at His fulfillment, we see He is a very patient God, a very long-suffering God. Adam and Eve sinned. God promised a Savior. It took 3,000 years approximately before that Savior was born. He was patient. Jesus was born, died and rose again and ascended into heaven. Jesus would return soon. That was about 2,000 years ago. So we have another divine promise. He is very patient. God does what He wants done according to His time. We are told in Galatians: "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons"(GALATIANS 4:4,5) So from about 3,000 years when He told Adam and Eve He was going to crush the serpent’s head, He waited until that fullness of time was just right. Then God did what He wanted done.
God does what He wants done concerning our salvation, and we can rejoice and be thankful. Everything works out according to God’s plan. If we were left on our own, we would be lost forever. If we tried to save ourselves or think of a plan of salvation, we could not think of anything as precious as what God has done for us. When Adam and Eve destroyed that perfect world, God could have easily said that that is all there is. Instead, He promised to send His only Son for their sins, for our sins, for the sins of the world out of His love and grace. 2 Timothy says: "God has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time"(2 TIMOTHY 1:9). Before the beginning of our time, the Lord had promised a Savior. He provides us with His gift of grace.
The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel--God is with us. We are probably very familiar with these words, and yet, that statement is always under attack. In this verse from Isaiah enemies of God’s word say that virgin means maiden. The arguments thus go on and on between the theologians. Some have given up that truth of the virgin birth, because they simply do not want to consider the fact that God does the impossible.
Man cannot change what God wants done. We see it time and again in the Old Testament. We think of Jacob and Esau and remember how one stole the other’s birthright. So it came about that the older was to receive the inheritance and did not receive it. Instead the younger that was not to get much, got everything because his father had blessed him instead of the older son. That is what God wanted. God wanted the older to serve the younger. Paul writes that in Romans. He talks about Old Testament account here in chapter 9; and if you read the verses before that, he explains how that came about. Paul reminds us why God does things that He wants to do: "For he says to Moses, ’I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy"(ROMANS 9:15,16).
It does not therefore depend on man’s desire or effort, but God’s mercy. Isaiah says: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and he will be called Immanuel, because it depends on God’s mercy. We cannot change what God wants done. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
