Isaiah 7:10–17

I s. 7:10–17

¹⁰Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, ¹¹"Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven." ¹²But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test." ¹³And he said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? ¹⁴Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. ¹⁵He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. ¹⁶For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. ¹⁷The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah— the king of Assyria."

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Emmanuel, God with us. Some of the most beautiful words ever to grace the human tongue. A sign, given to the petulant King Ahaz, but hardly noticed for seven centuries until God spoke it again to Joseph, not a prophecy, but as fulfillment. What a blessed sign. A child shall be born and his name shall be called Emmanuel. God with us. Entering into our world of confusion and chaos. In our overworked and tired lives. Into our world of sickness and pains. God with us: A prayer, a blessing, a benediction.

But, wait! That's a frightening word! An awesome and terrible thing. God with us! Whether we want it or not. "Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?" declares the Lord. Can you hide yourselves in your secret thoughts, or take refuge in your inner most desires which no man can see? God sees! God knows! "I the Lord search the heart and test the mind." Yes, Emmanuel, God with us, would be the most terrible word if it means the Almighty, in all his terror, is here with us now as judge to keep account of our lives, our deeds, our secret thoughts and desires. It's a word that means judgment and death. It means judgment, condemnation, and complete destruction. For like Ahaz, people today do not heed the Word of God. "I will not ask for a sign." I don't want a word from God; I don't need a word from God." Like Ahaz, we put our own reason above God's word. We do what we think best in his own eyes and for our own personal interests. We don't want God to tell us differently. We will do what we want regardless of what God tells us.

Ahaz was terrified. Two kings to the north were plotting against him. They were united against Judah and Jerusalem. So Ahaz sought help and protection by making an alliance with the king of Assyria. He was afraid, but he was too proud to listen to the Lord. "I will not put the Lord to the test." He even clothed his rebellion and disobedience in a cloak of religiosity, by quoting a verse from Deuteronomy to support himself.

Are we not very much like Ahaz today? We have our minds made up what we want to do. We already know what kind of life style we want to live. We have already determined a path of sin that we will walk, and we will not listen to what God has to say. Oh yes, we will even pick and choose verses from the Bible and misquote them in order to justify what we do. God is love, he wouldn't judge us. There will be no judgment. No calling us into account for our deeds and actions. Don't even tell us we are living in sin, for that is being judgmental and unloving. Who are you to tell us what is right or wrong?

So we become all too comfortable in our lives of sin and disobedience. "Did God really say?" Wasn't God really just talking to people back then? Wasn't this really just a voice from the culture of people way back then? Surely he didn't mean it for us today. Today God is a loving God, a post-modern God. He does not want to burden us with rules and regulations. He doesn't chain us down to right and wrong. He is a tolerant God, a God of love, he will not hold us accountable for what we do. He wants us to be happy and get along with each other.

So we become all too comfortable in our sins. "They won't make any difference after all," we tell ourselves. Today we don't even believe in sin anymore. Even less do we think there will be a judgment day. At least not for me. That's a quaint, old superstition. And, after all, I'm off the hook, I have the Jesus card.

But God didn't leave Ahaz alone just because he wasn't listening. He was still Lord, even over his child Ahaz, son of King David, who rejected his word and disobeyed him. He gave Ahaz a sign anyway. A virgin would bear a son and he would be called Emmanuel. That was meant to be a comfort to Ahaz, to calm his fears, to give him hope. But for those who are too proud and self-righteous to listen to God, no word is a comfort. To those who resist the Holy Spirit by closing their ears to the Word, their faith cannot be strengthened. They cannot be comforted by the promise of the Gospel.

So for Ahaz, the promise turned into a curse. God promised to destroy his enemies by the hand of the king of Syria. But then, that supposed ally of Ahaz would just keep coming on southward right up to the walls of Jerusalem. He would plunder and burn the fields, and besiege Jerusalem. By that time Ahaz himself would die and for all his evil deeds he would not even get to be buried in the tomb of the kings, the royal cemetery. For king Ahaz, and for most people in the world today, this promise of God with us is not a comfort, but a terrifying and horrific message of doom and distress. For those who reject the Word of the Lord, God with us is a message of judgment, condemnation, and eternal fire. Yes, God is coming. Yes, God will be with us. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ is God with us, and on that day that he will be our judge, and for all those who do not listen to his word, all those who are too proud and comfortable in their own sinful ways, who do not heed the alarm and who are not ready for the thief who comes in the night, it will be a day of terror and shame.

But Jesus did not come to the proud and righteous, he came to the humble, the broken sinner, the man crushed by the weight of God's law, smashed by the hammer of God, slain by the knowledge of his sins. To this man, God with us is the sweetest good news. To that man Emmanuel is a word of hope, mercy, and grace. To him who knows his sin and the coming destruction, God with us is deliverance and salvation. For God with us means that God has come to take our sin and evil and injustice and greed and pride into his own flesh and pour out his blood on the cross and to atone for them. God with us means that God has come to stand in our place in the torments and punishments which are ours by right. For the one who knows he is unacceptable to God, who is crushed by the law, who feels the terrors of God's wrath, God with us is freedom, it is like being raised from the dead.

So then run to him. Cling to him hanging there on the cross. Grab him tightly and do not let go of him. For the God with us is here. He is here in your baptism. In that water the you that was you when you were born, was drowned and put to death. You are now a new you, raised in holiness to walk in the paths of the Lord. You are a redeemed you, a recreated you, a you who was born of God and is his child, that you might walk in holiness and righteousness before the Lord without spot of stain.

Run to the God with us in the word of gospel, the absolution of sins, and the fear and terror of God's punishment are taken away just he has taken away the sins of the world. They are cast into the depths of the sea and separated as far as east is from west. There God forgets your sin and remembers them no more because they have been paid for on the cross.

Run to the God with us in the Sacrament of the Altar. Drink that precious blood which he has poured out on you as atonement for your sin. God with us in the Sacrament means he is in control. There he keeps you and holds you through all the twists and turns of your path through life. In all the uncertainties, the failures, the disappointments and sorrows of life, and all the fiery darts of temptation aimed to make you leave Christ and turn from his word. It means he has a plan and a purpose for you to bring you back to him. There in the sacrament he transforms you and gives you love for your neighbor and renews his right spirit within you. So run to the God with us in the Sacrament, cling to him and do not let him go until, like Jacob of old, you receive the blessing on the last day.

As you approach this Christmas, it may be that not everything is as you would want it. Relationships might be strained, separations from family and loved ones we have lost are especially difficult at this time of the year. Uncertainties and anxieties spoil the season of peace on earth. Health, work, children, parents, even faulty cars and leading roofs can make the brightness of the holiday a little dimmer and the way that John came to prepare not so straight. But we have one thing that is for sure. One hope, one joy that the world cannot take away: God with us. And that God will take us the way we are, in our sorrow, our sins, our dashed hopes, he is there and he gives us the right to become children of God, born, not of blood nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Emmanuel: God is with us.

Amen.