Immanuel: God With Us
Download MP3We are continuing our study in Isaiah. And so if you will turn to Isaiah chapter seven, and this morning we're going to have Christmas. It's gonna be Christmas in May. We're going to look at that famous passage, probably the most famous passage in all of Isaiah that's read every Advent season about how the virgin shall be with child. This child's name will be called Emmanuel which means god with us.
Joel Brooks:So, merry Christmas everyone. As we look through these words though, we'll find that Isaiah did not pin those words in the quietness of a study or you know, in between singing away in a manger or silent night. These were words that were given to a king in crisis who was having to make a decision that would either save or doom his entire nation. Hundreds of thousands of lives were at stake when those words were uttered. So, let's read the first sixteen verses of Isaiah seven.
Joel Brooks:In the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, a resin the king of Syria, and Pekka, the son of Ramalia, 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. And the Lord said to Isaiah, go out to meet Ahaz. You and Shere Jeshub, your son, at the end of the conduit at of the upper pool on the highway to the washer's field. And say to him, be careful.
Joel Brooks: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 resin in Syria and the son of Ramalia because Syria with Ephraim and the son of Ramalia 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 Tobiel as king in the midst of it. Thus, says the lord god.
Joel Brooks:It shall not stand and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus and head of Damascus is Resin. And within sixty five years, Ephraim will be shattered from being a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria and head of Samaria is the son of Ramalia. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.
Joel Brooks:Again, the lord spoke to Ahaz. Ask a sign of the lord your god. Let it be as deep as shield or high as heaven. But Aaaz said, I will not ask and I will not put the lord to the test. And he said, hear then, oh house of David.
Joel Brooks:Is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my god also? Therefore, the lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. He 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.
Joel Brooks:This is the word of the lord. You would pray with me. Father God, I pray that, in this moment through your spirit, you would cause your word to come alive. You would write it on our hearts. Lord, that you would deepen our faith in your son, Jesus.
Joel Brooks:Pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. Lord, your words would remain and they would change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Once for an exam in seminary, I had to memorize all 40 of the kings in Israel and in Judah's history.
Joel Brooks:That was hard enough, but to make matters worse, have you actually read their names before? They're not the easiest to pronounce. I mean, you know, sure you've got your King Sauls, your King Davids, those are fine but but then you get to your King Jehoahazes and your and and then your guest becomes as good as mine. Plus you remember Hebrew, it reads from right to left, there are no vowels. I'm dyslexic.
Joel Brooks:You put all of those things together and and it was a disaster. But I worked hard. I filed all of those names away in my short term memory. Took the test, did well. Now, those names have left.
Joel Brooks:If I if I had to name those names that to save my life, I couldn't do it. And and I tell you all of this because I want you to know that when it comes to your knowledge of ancient Israel, if it's a little fuzzy, that's okay. Israel has got a very complicated history. Lots of kings, lots of things happening. But in order for us to actually understand what's happening in this story, we do have to know a little bit of the story of Israel.
Joel Brooks:So what I wanna do is I'm gonna actually, first I'm gonna zoom out and I want to give you just just a big picture. Painting broad strokes, the history of Israel and then we're going to zoom in and we're going to look at the particulars of the story but first, I want us to zoom out and I thought we would start with King Saul. We could've started with Abraham but that that would take just a really long time. So, we're going to start with Israel's First King. Before Saul, Israel was just pretty much a loose confederation of 12 tribes But then under King Saul, these tribes were united.
Joel Brooks:And he reigned just before a thousand BC. After King Saul, you had King David and then you had King Solomon. King Solomon reigned during what we would call the golden years of Israel. It was the time where they enjoyed peace and lots of prosperity. In other words, they peaked really early.
Joel Brooks:I was one of those I was one of one of one of those boys growing up that I peaked really early. In seventh grade, I was the exact same height as I am now. The basketball coaches were drooling. They actually brought me in to start practicing already with the high school team. Thought they had a future seven footer on their hand and I quickly moved from center to power forward to shooting guard to point guard to do you should he really be on the team?
Joel Brooks:And and so I I I peaked really early. Israel peaked really early. They actually only were united as a kingdom for those three kings. King Saul, David, Solomon. But the moment Solomon died, there was a civil war that split the the kingdom in two.
Joel Brooks:And it didn't split them evenly in half. You had 10 tribes up in the North. They united together. They called themselves Ephraim or sometimes Israel. Their capital was Samaria.
Joel Brooks:And then you have the two tribes in the South, Benjamin and Judah, they united together. They went by the name Judah. So often in the Bible, if you read Israel or Ephraim is talking about the North, if you read Judah, it's talking about the South. Judah is where Jerusalem is. Judah is where you have the dynasty of David.
Joel Brooks:Now, most of the kings who ruled over both of these kingdoms were pretty evil. They they were just terrible. There were very few godly kings. Quite a number of these kings actually became kings by assassinating their dads. So, there's a lot of internal fighting within these kingdoms but then, there was also a lot of fighting between the North and the South.
Joel Brooks:I like to think of, Israel and Judah as brothers. Although they came from the same womb, there's still the sibling rivalry, they still fight together a whole lot. Occasionally, they'll unite together to fight a common enemy, but mostly, they're just at each other's throats. Yeah and so, that's the big picture of Israel's history. Now, let's zoom in.
Joel Brooks:Zoom in to see where Isaiah comes into this picture because the lord tells Isaiah to speak into one of these sibling rivalries that's happening between between Israel, Ephraim, and Judah. Let's look at verses one and two again. In the days of Ahaz, sorry, the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Resin the king of Syria, and Pekka, the son of Ramalia, the king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it but they cannot yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David, that's Judah, 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. Feels like Christmas, doesn't it?
Joel Brooks:Don't worry, reindeer on their way, just just not yet. Last week, we met King Uzziah. Now, his grandson, Ahaz, is on the throne. And he is in way over his head. He is just a 20 year old kid and as soon as that crown was put upon his head, he had to deal with a crisis that could literally destroy his entire nation.
Joel Brooks:The Northern Kingdom Of Ephraim, they they had united forces with Syria and now they were marching towards Judah and they have been devouring up town after town after town and now they were getting close to the capital city itself. They're at full strength, ready to take on Jerusalem. We read that Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees shake before the wind. I bet they did. Ahaz is scared out of his freaking mind.
Joel Brooks:I mean, he's a junior in college. Picture that. Probably majored in the arts. Maybe you're like Hebrew lit or something. But but He's not prepared for this.
Joel Brooks:There's no syllabus that teaches one how to handle a crisis like this. I mean, what would you do if you were a 20 year old in his situation? What would you do if you were a 20 year old and the creditors were knocking on your door? Or a 20 year old who you happen to be in charge of a company that was going under. And it's at a time like this that the lord sends Isaiah to go talk to Ahaz.
Joel Brooks:We read that Isaiah actually goes with his son to meet Ahaz and that will be important later. Goes with his son to meet Ahaz at Jerusalem's main water conduit. Ahaz is likely making sure that Jerusalem's water supply is ready for the upcoming siege. I Isaiah tells him in this moment of him making his war preparations, says, be careful. Be quiet.
Joel Brooks:Do not fear and do not let your heart be faint. You ever have anyone tell you in the midst of a crisis, Hey, it's really not a big deal. It's all going to work out. It is so annoying, isn't it? I mean, really?
Joel Brooks:Yeah, it's all going to be fine. It's like, it's because it's not your crisis. But but when you're the one dealing with it, it don't don't tell me, yeah, it's just all going to work out. Somebody's going to have to actually make it work out. I don't know how you would have received those words but I would have probably said something like, hey, thanks for the pep talk, buddy.
Joel Brooks:But if you haven't looked out your window yet, you you probably should and you'll see an entire army. Actually, armies out there ready to kill us. So, if you please excuse me, I've got real work to do. You could go back to doing whatever it is you do, whatever like prayer, singing, whatever it is, you go back to that and let me take care of the real work. But Isaiah doesn't leave.
Joel Brooks:He refuses and he just keeps talking to him. He he tells him that yeah, the the plans that those enemies have, they're not going to prevail. In verse seven, he says, it shall not stand. It shall not come to pass. And then he goes on to explain the situation that Ahaz kind of like a parent would explain things to a child.
Joel Brooks:He he reduces things to his most simplest terms. He says, hey, listen. I know you look out your window and you think you have no chance because there's two massive armies out there but but let me simplify your problem. Your problem with Syria? Well, really it just boils down to one person, king Resin.
Joel Brooks:And your problem with Ephraim? Well, really just boils down to one person, king Ramalia. So forget about all the armies out there. Your problem is just two people. And you know what?
Joel Brooks:The lord will take care of them for you. Then in verse nine, Isaiah tells Ahaz what he needs to do. Should probably underline that verse in your Bible. It's the focus of the entire section here. Isaiah says, if you're not firm in your faith, you will not be firm at all.
Joel Brooks:Now, that's a really good translation but it doesn't quite do justice to the Baptist preacher that's trying to come outside of, you know, in Isaiah because Isaiah rhymes it. He rhymes us saying, he says, So if if you wanted to stay true to that rhyming, Isaiah said something like this, keep in mind, this is Isaiah's cheese, not mine but he would said, trust or bust. Trust or bust, Ahaz. Hey, it's cheesy but it's stuck in your head, isn't it? And it's better than let go or let god.
Joel Brooks:Or or god is my copilot or whatever bumper sticker you have. Isaiah obviously wanted Ahaz to remember this statement. That's why he put it this way. You gotta remember this. Trust or bust Ahaz.
Joel Brooks:If you're not firm in your faith, you will not be firm at all. So, what does Isaiah mean by this? Well, what you might not be aware of is at this time, Ahaz is about to send a letter to Assyria and ask them for help. Syria was the growing power of the day. They were an evil, violent nation, just swallowing up nation after nation.
Joel Brooks:And Isaiah is saying, don't do it. Don't do it. Don't ask them for help. But as an act of just total desperation, Ahaz is about to empty the entire treasury and pay off the Assyrians to come and to fight for them. This is like a mouse asking a cat for help.
Joel Brooks:Hey, could you come and help me? I've got two rats over here that are giving me some problems and asking the cat to come and take care of the rats. The cat's going to say, sure. I'd love to do that and the cat will take care of the rats but then you have a cat and a mouse. That's exactly what's going to happen to Judah.
Joel Brooks:But what choice does Ahaz have in this moment? And he he's a 20 year old kid. He he's at the end of his rope. This is the best of his bad decisions. It's the only decision.
Joel Brooks:It's like, he's gotta he's gotta do something. He can't defeat the armies outside of his window and although Jerusalem is well fortified, it's got a good water supply. They cannot survive a really long siege. So, he's out of all options and he says, of the remaining bad options on the table, this is the best of the bad options. You ever been in a moment like that?
Joel Brooks:There are no good options. So, you just sort through what's the best of my bad ideas I have left. I'm sure in this moment, Ahaz is likely thinking about Isaiah. Appreciate your help But Isaiah, this is the real world. I don't know what world do you live in but this is real world.
Joel Brooks:A faith doesn't matter in the real world. Swords, spears, chariots, they matter. Making alliances matters. Being able to pay people off matters. Political astuteness matters.
Joel Brooks:Let me get this right. Are you actually telling me in this moment to just maybe sit on my hands, do nothing, and just hope that this god I have never seen comes through and protects me against this very real threat outside my window and Isaiah says, yes. Exactly. Don't ask the Assyrians for help. Ask the lord for help.
Joel Brooks:Amen. The lord will save you. Remember at the start of this book, we talked about how Isaiah was giving us a vision A a vision is just a new way of seeing a problem, a new way of seeing reality that actually takes god into account. So, you're seeing things but you're seeing it in light of there's actually a powerful god at work in your life. So, he's asking Ahaz, hey, do you have vision?
Joel Brooks:Now, this real horrible situation that Ahaz is facing, it's really just a larger scale picture of something I I think every person faces. Everyone of us has to face. Faith isn't just something that we're supposed to have when we walk into these doors. Not something we're we only have as we hear scripture read or we're singing songs. God wants us to trust him in real life situations where there are actual things at stake.
Joel Brooks:Where if he doesn't come through, there will be real consequences. Are we going to trust him in those moments to provide for us and give us what we need? That's what he's asking for. Do you have a faith that only exists in this room? Or does it exist out?
Joel Brooks:Do you lack vision? The vision to actually take god's power into account as you go about making decisions. What Isaiah is telling Ahaz to do here is saying, hey, don't give in to fear. Have faith. I think it's interesting here that the lord asked Isaiah to bring his son with him As far as I know, the lord doesn't ever do that with any other prophet.
Joel Brooks:You know, it's it's never like bring your kid to work day. You you don't find it but here and and Isaiah's never told to do that again. Just bring your son this time as you have this very important conversation with Ahaz. I'm not entirely sure why. I do think part of it is because of the Isaiah's kid's son's name which basically means remnant.
Joel Brooks:I think when you look at that child as as god's promising a remnant will survive. But even more than that, I I think the lord has Isaiah bring his son with him to Ahaz because he wants Ahaz to know, Isaiah's got real skin in the game here. He's thinking about future generations. Isaiah's looking at Ahaz and he's saying, see my boy? I want him to live You say faith doesn't matter.
Joel Brooks:Faith is his only chance Like, I mean, he sees the road that's there that Ahaz is trying to wrestle with this and like, I know the decision's hard but if you trust in your own strength, my son dies. Trust in the lord. I I think that's one of the things he's putting out there before him. This is the real world. This is real faith is necessary in the real world.
Joel Brooks:So, Isaiah knows the best chance that his son has is for Ahaz to trust in the lord's strength and not in his own. Now, because Ahaz is so young and he did not have the same faith that his father or his his grandfather Uzziah had. You actually see it kind of each generation the the faith would get less and less and now Ahaz maybe there's the tiniest little slim faith for him. The lord seeing that says, okay, ask me for a sign and I'll give you anything you want. Doesn't matter how big.
Joel Brooks:I'll do it for you. I just want you to know you could trust me. That is extraordinary. The lord never offers that. Actually, to ask god for a sign is is sin.
Joel Brooks:But here, he's bending over backwards and he says, do, I want you to ask of me a sign. Look, he's basically saying here, I'm going to write you a check sign my name, you just fill it out for whatever you want, and you could cash it. I mean, it's it's extraordinary but Ahaz says no. He says, no. Ahaz has already made up his mind.
Joel Brooks:So then god says, oh my gosh, you weary me out. I'm going to give you a sign anyway. And now we come to the most famous Christmas verse in the Bible. Therefore, the lord himself will give you a sign Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, shall call his name Emmanuel, which means god with us. Do not miss this church that the lord gives his sign of Emmanuel to a desperate man with no faith in the darkest of situations who is refusing to trust in God.
Joel Brooks:The sign of of Emmanuel is for sinners living in the dark and desperate need of light and salvation. Now, before we jump straight into Jesus, how this is all about Jesus. We we need to actually first see what the lord says about this child because immediately after he says, the the virgin shall conceive and bear a son shall call his name Emmanuel. Immediately after that, we're told about the son. So, in verse 15, we read about him.
Joel Brooks:It says, and he 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. Does it sound very Christmassy, does it? Because it isn't. Yet.
Joel Brooks:The lord says that before this child, this promised child here knows knows the difference between what's right and what's wrong which is around the age of two or three. He said, those two kings are dreading, they're going to be gone. Well, that's obviously not talking about Jesus because Jesus doesn't come until seven fifty years later. So, god actually he fulfills this prophecy in the very next chapter in Isaiah eight. In the very next chapter, we read that Isaiah has a son.
Joel Brooks:Has he has a son with a prophetess. This son's name is Maher Shalal Hashbaz, longest name in the Bible. It it's it's a great name. It actually means swift as the booty, speedy as the prey. The child's destined for greatness.
Joel Brooks:I think it's probably one of the reasons the lord did not give me any boys because I would have been tempted. Maher Shaloh Hashbahs. It's fascinating but you know before that child was the age of three, those two kings, the Ahaz were was dreading, they went away. They had a crisis back in their homelands and they had to return to take care of that and so here we see an immediate fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy right there in chapter eight but it's not the ultimate fulfillment. It's the immediate but it's not the ultimate.
Joel Brooks:In chapter nine, which is a continuation of this chapter, chapter in seven, seven through nine is all one unit. You can think of it all as one sermon if you will that Isaiah puts before us. Isaiah is going to expound more about this child. Here we get these words. For to us a child is born.
Joel Brooks:To us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty god, everlasting father, prince of peace, of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness. From this time forth and forevermore. Now, this obviously is not Isaiah's son. I know that every parent thinks their child is special.
Joel Brooks:I mean, I've I've never met a parent who looks at their baby and thinks their baby is not more advanced than every other baby. I mean, just look at the way he's holding that giraffe. Look at the focus. I mean, it's just every I I I get it. You should.
Joel Brooks:As a parent, you should believe that your child is going to change the world. But no one calls their son mighty god or everlasting father or prince of peace Here Isaiah says, this child's going be called that. Mighty god. He he's prophesying that sometime in the future, another child is going to be born. A child's going be born of a virgin and will not just represent god's presence with us but will actually be god's presence with us.
Joel Brooks:That he will come. Mighty god will come in the flesh and be with us. And he will not just deliver us from two kings. He's gonna come and deliver us from two greater threats. Sin and death itself.
Joel Brooks:You know, when you're reading through the Old Testament prophecies and we might have time to work through this a little bit more as we keep going on in the prophets but don't just just take a a prophetic word that, you know, the a prophet says and and immediately jump to Jesus. Think of it as a prophecy as like a cup that gets filled until it's fulfilled. Okay? So, there there there's a cup and the virgin shall be with child. So, there's going be a woman who's going to have a child.
Joel Brooks:So, it's it's poured in and it's it's because that child before the child's age of two or three, those two kings you dread are going to be gone but that child's not mighty god And so we have to get to Jesus before that prophecy is fulfilled. And and so we're gonna see this happening throughout the prophets. So what happened to Ahaz? What would you have done? What what do you think he decided to do?
Joel Brooks:Well, unfortunately, he abandoned the little faith that he had and he not only made an alliance with Assyria, he decided if he can't beat Assyria, you might as well join them and he adopted the religion of the Assyrians. One of the things he actually did is he removed the altar from the temple and he brought in an Assyrian altar and he put it in its place. And and then when things were not particularly going well, he decided, well, I need to make a sacrifice to the Assyrian gods and so he sacrificed his own son. I mean, second Kings 16, we read that he actually burned his own son as an offering. Picture the contrast once again between Isaiah and Ahaz in this moment.
Joel Brooks:Isaiah's got his son. He says, trust in the lord. It's the only hope for the next generation. It's the only hope for my son. Ahaz refuses to trust in the lord.
Joel Brooks:He trusts in his own strength and it costs him the life of his son. Ahaz would go on to become the most evil king in all of Israel's history. The conversation that Isaiah had with Ahaz in this moment, I don't know if Ahaz was aware of this. He probably wasn't but it would be the turning point in his entire life. And yet, and this was happening at 20.
Joel Brooks:But it was the turning point in his entire life. All of us have to face a time like that. A time when we are either gonna trust God in the real world, trust Him to actually save us, or we're going to rely on our own strength and try to save ourselves. Hear me. One of those roads leads to death, the other road leads to life.
Joel Brooks:Choose life. If you're struggling with a crisis or with sin or just struggling to have faith in the real world, I hope you've seen this that the sign of Emmanuel is actually for you. God wants you to know that he is with you. God really came to this world. Actually came.
Joel Brooks:Mighty god in the person of Jesus. He really is the wonderful counselor, mighty god, prince of peace, and he stands ready to also be your savior. He's calling you to trust him, not just trust him here at church, not just to trust him to forgive you of your sins, but to trust him with your whole life. Trust him with your relationships. Trust him with your finances.
Joel Brooks:Trust him with your career. Trust him with your desires. Trust him with absolutely everything you have. Hear Isaiah's words. Stand firm in your faith.
Joel Brooks:Or you will find that you can't stand at all. Pray with me. Jesus, you are the rock on which we stand. Rock that cannot be shaken. A rock that it can endure everything the world has to throw at us.
Joel Brooks:So in this moment, spirit would come and make our faith real. Thank you, Jesus, for coming to this world to save us. Thank you that the sign of Emmanuel is for sinners like me. And we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
