Isaiah: Security in the Savior

Merry Christmas (Eve)!

​Key Verse
4 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 
 
Meditation
True statement- I slept with a security blanket until I was nine years old, third grade. To relieve my anxieties so I could rest, I found security in what I could touch and experience.  
 
In today’s reading, Isaiah speaks a word of promise to wicked Ahaz, a king who did what was right in his own eyes (2 Kings 16:1-4). In 734 BC, king Ahaz and the southern Kingdom of Judah were threatened by the advancing Assyrian Empire. Ahaz’s eyes saw two options for security: Ally with Syria and Israel in a coalition against Assyria (v. 2) or submit to evil empire.  Isaiah provided a radical third option for true security- Trust wholly in the Lord and His promise.
 
God commands Ahaz to “be quiet, not fear, and to not let (his) heart be faint” (v. 4). God offers to confirm His promise of security but Ahaz stubbornly rejects the offer (vv. 10-13). In God’s long-suffering love, He offers a sign of His faithfulness anyway… true security for impossible situations- a virgin will give birth and God will be with you.
 
Ahaz rejected the Lord’s promised security because his eyes saw the enemy and his heart trusted in political power(s). Assyria would eventually fall but God would show His faithfulness through the impossible, virgin Mary giving birth to Immanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:18–25). In Christ alone we find the security we long for, quietness and peace from all our anxieties so we can rest. God’s long-suffering love displayed in His covenant faithfulness through the true King, Jesus Christ, is our only true security blanket.
 
Today’s Reading
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. 2 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.

3 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. 4 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. 5 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying, 6 “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,” 7 thus says the Lord God:

“‘It shall not stand,
    and it shall not come to pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus,
    and the head of Damascus is Rezin.
And within sixty-five years
    Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
    and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you are not firm in faith,
    you will not be firm at all.’”

The Sign of Immanuel
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11 “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.”13 And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. 17 The 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!”

18 In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.

20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.

21 In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, 22 and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey.

23 In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns. 24 With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns. 25 And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.
 
 Richly Dwelling
-God is gracious to offer security to evil King Ahaz! Do you find security in the unmerited love God offers to you or do you, like Ahaz, look for security in political or economic (or other) worldly powers?
 
-The sign of reliability of God’s covenant love is God providing through the impossible, a virgin giving birth to a son, God with us! How do you feel when you see the length the Lord goes to reinforce His unmerited love for His people?
 
Key Verse
4 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.