This Friday evening’s 101 Bible Study in Astoria focuses on Isaiah 7. Call 971/238-6101 for details on time and location.
King Ahaz faces a political/military threat. He is convinced that the Word of God through the prophet Isaiah cannot fix it.
“Ahaz’ wickedness is seen in the fact that by his stubbornness he was in fact rejecting the very foundation of the covenant. God had promised to be a God and a Deliverer to His people. Syria and Israel, therefore, will not overthrow the Davidic dynasty, for if they could succeed in so doing, the promises of God would be rendered void and salvation would not ultimately be accomplished through the Messiah. . . . A son of David is willing to reject the covenant. God, therefore, must take over, and and give a sign of the greater deliverance, as well of the proximate deliverance from Syria and Israel.” (Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, Vol. 1, pp. 283–284).
“. . . in the dealings of God with His covenant people will be found a profound and and supernatural promise of greater things to come. So, in our passage, the prophet, when he placed before the rebellious Ahaz that strange picture of the mother and child, was not merely promising deliverance to Judah in the period before a child then born should know how to refuse the evil and choose the good, but also, moved by the Spirit of God, was looking forward, as in a dim and mysterious vision, to the day when the true Immanuel, the mighty God and Prince of Peace, should lie as a little babe in a virgin’s arms.” (J. Gresham Machen, The Virgin Birth of Christ, p. 293).
Does God fix things? He doesn’t necessarily fix them according our diagnosis of the problem, but he is not distant from you. In taking upon himself our human nature, he became Immanuel. That is the ultimate ground for your hope.
