# 00 2024 Dev. Isa.7:13. Rumors of War! Read all of chapter seven first. We invite you into God’s space, to read His Word, to think on and interact with. This is God’s Story. Do you believe that this may also be part of our story, in our time? All passages are taken from the NIV.
Isaiah 7:13 “Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also?”
Isa.7 After the commissioning of Isaiah in chapter 6, sixteen years later, after the righteous King Jotham, Uzziah’s son dies and his son Ahaz is on the throne, Jerusalem was unsuccessfully attacked. Ahaz was not a righteous king. But God wanted to extend His grace to the house of David. A larger army was rumored to be on the way and “Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.” God sent Isaiah and his son to meet Ahaz and tell him that this larger army would not prevail and he is told to ask God for a sign. “But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.”’ Verse 13 tells us what Isaiah thought of that answer.
Vs.1-13 All of Jerusalem is disturbed, fearful, and had lost all hope. God sends Isaiah to meet with the king Ahaz. God tells Isaiah to take along his son, Shear-Jashub, his name meaning: “a remnant will return”. God is sending Ahaz and his people a message; there is grace and salvation but there also are consequences. Isaiah, speaking for God says, this attack “will not take place. It will not happen… Within sixty-five years”, within God’s timing , the people opposing you will no longer be a people to oppose you. “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”
Standing firm is a strong message for today, for us, for you! Faith is believing what you cannot see. Faith is a sure knowledge of God’s presence with us and the assurance of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. Ahaz is told to act on faith; “Ask the Lord your God for a sign”, any sign. Ahaz refuses, the spirit he has does not allow him to ask, “I will not put the Lord to the test.” He is afraid to practice faith. How about us, how about you?
Vs.14-17 Ahaz lacked faith. Often we lack faith as well, but that does not stop God’s will in our lives, in our families or in our country. God Himself gives Ahaz a sign; like Isaiah son’s name, it contains a message to Ahaz and to us today. “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.” The message is that God will be with us and that he is with us now, Immanuel, God with us. We celebrated that 2 days ago. Ahaz and his people will be saved, saved from war. We are being saved, from sins, our short comings, and God, who is always in the eternal present, is with us now and always will be with us by faith. And in Ahaz’s case, still with him in his lack of faith. Faith is gift of the Holy Spirit.
Vs.18-25 “Assyria, the Lord’s Instrument.” God will save Jerusalem and Judea by sending the Assyrians to conquer Aram, Samaria and much of Judea, but not Jerusalem. At that time Hezekiah, a righteous man, was the King in Jerusalem. The rest of the chapter describes the devastation caused by the Assyrian invasion, allowed by God, to punish unrighteous governments and people. This is a warning to us as well, God has blessed our land and I believe He will continue to bless but only because we are on the cusp of a religious revival. Pray for that to accelerate in our lives, in our town and cities, in our country and in the world as well. We praise God!
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