Part 4, King Ahaz, Isaiah 7 (Part 3, January 20)
Imagine God making it known to us that because we’re frightened by people out to mess our lives up, we can ask him for any sign we like to convince us we’ll be OK in his hands – and he doesn’t mind how spectacular the sign we ask for is, either (verse 11).
But Ahaz in his arrogance, stupidity and pious self image not only made it known to God he wasn’t going to ask him for a sign, he’d also come up with a much better plan of his own. He’d strip God’s temple and the palace treasury of all their gold and silver and send it to Tiglath-Pileser, king of the mighty empire of Assyria to seek an alliance with him, and that’s how he’d stop these two kings out to get him.
Not surprisingly, Isaiah lets loose on Ahaz for refusing the sign – and he includes the whole “house of David” in his tirade in verses 13-14 – when he yells, “You people are enough to tire anyone out, but must that include tiring God out too? Well, God’s going to give you a sign anyway, and here it is: a young woman will become pregnant and she will give birth to a baby boy and call him Immanuel.”
So this is the second little boy Ahaz is faced with, and like the first boy back in verse 3, there’s a message from God in the boy’s name. And again it’s highly reassuring, despite Ahaz’s defiance, because the child’s name meant God with us. And the sign that would prove to Ahaz that God was with him is in verse 16, that “before the boy Immanuel knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.” Before the boy is two years old, in other words, God will have solved the problem of the two kings out to ruin Ahaz (verse 1), and Ahaz won’t have to lift a finger.
Is there anything in this story so far, then, for our governments and leaders today? Well the situation isn’t much different to what Ahaz faced. Powerful people had ganged up to ruin him, take over his country, and put their own leader in charge instead. It was a blatant hit against the Jewish nation’s freedom, much like unelected globalists today, who make no secret of wanting to destroy the free world by demanding compliance with their agendas, and setting up their own leaders instead too.
If that is indeed what’s happening, then the leaders of the free world are going to need all the help they can get, because the arrogance and lunacy of these globalists knows no bounds. But God makes us a promise too, that when we “pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men….the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one,” 2 Thessalonians 3:2-3. Just like he did Ahaz.
Buck To Basics 