Immanuel, the miraculous sign
All right then, the Lord Himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a Child! She will give birth to a Son and will call Him Immanuel (which means 'God is with us'). (Isaiah 7:14 NLT)
When the ground around us is shaking and threatening, it is time to hold fast on the Almighty God; it is time to affirm our faith and cast away any doubts. What has shaken you this year? For some it is the loss of a loved one; for others is could have been serious challenges in business or career or family. Some people get shaken to the level of turning elsewhere for help as they see Jehovah seemingly unmoved and not showing up to help them! Yet others have remained firm in faith, as I could hear in many despairing voices the words of Fernando Ortega’s song – which we ought to sing often:
When the morning falls on the farthest hill
I will sing His Name, I will praise Him still
When the dark trials come and my heart is filled
With the weight of doubt, I will praise Him still
For the Lord our God, He is strong to save
From the arms of death, from the deepest grave
And He gave us life in His perfect will
And by His good grace, I will praise Him still.
There is encouraging assurance of God’s salvation in the story in Isaiah 7:10-16, where we find three important characters: Isaiah the prophet is with his son Shear-jashub, and is talking with King Ahaz of Judah. Ahaz is so frightened and shaken by two allied enemy armies that he has already sought help from neighbouring nations (instead of seeking and trusting God to help him). His enemies are Israel under the leadership of King Pekah, and Syria under the leadership of King Rezin. Isaiah’s mission is to rebuke King Ahaz against seeking foreign help without seeking God, and Isaiah follows this with an assurance that God will himself deal with those enemies. Ahaz can’t believe it! Yes, those times come when God’s assurance sounds like a joke before a problem that looks like a steep mountain.
Then God gave a double sign: the first was for all of us – the promise of Immanuel the Saviour, not from just the two enemies but from sin and death; this Immanuel could only be understood later, and now we can celebrate Him as our Saviour Jesus Christ who came to us. The second sign hidden in verse 16 was Shear-jashub – before he is old enough, God will have dealt with the two enemies; indeed it happened in about three years both Pekah and Resin had been slain without assaulting Judah. This physical fulfillment gives credence to the first sign – the sign of Immanuel. What has shaken you this year? As we embrace the Jesus Christ our Saviour, remember the Lord our God is strong to save; praise Him still and trust Him for the future.
God bless you all. Merry Christmas!