Pastor Tim Patoka
Stories of the Promise #4 December 22, 2019 The Story of Isaiah: Prepare! Isaiah 7:1-17 1) God will Fulfill his Promises 2) Stand Firm in God’s Promises
People often make promises about what they are going to do. Confirmands make promises to remain in the Christian faith when they get confirmed. Bride and groom make promises to have and to hold each other in sickness and in health. People also make short-term promises to family members and loved ones on a regular basis. Yet we don’t keep every promise that we make. Even children understand this, which is why we have the pinky promise. It’s not enough to promise something. To convince someone you will follow through, you have to use a pinky promise. While we may struggle to do what we promised or have to resort to a pinky promise, it’s the opposite for our God. He will keep each and every promise he has said no matter how impossible or improbable it is. As we read in our verses for this morning from Isaiah chapter seven, God makes a number of impossible and improbable promises. Yet God doesn’t need to resort to a pinky promise to assure us he’s going to do what he says. He will do it as evidenced by his perfect track record. In these days before Christmas, we ought to listen to Isaiah and prepare for God’s promises. For he will fulfill his promises and, as such, we can stand firm in God’s promises. 1) God will Fulfill his Promises Today’s verses remind me when I would go to a historic battlefield. You enter the visitor center and watch the video or read the diorama that explains who the key players are, what the military tactics used, and how this battle affected the war in general. We’re around the year 730 B.C., 200 years after a civil war has split Israel into the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom, called Ephraim in these verses, has allied itself with Aram to wipe out the southern kingdom of Judah and its capital city of Jerusalem. King Ahaz and the house of David are scared and their hearts tremble like a forest in the wind. They expect to be defeated and done away with. It’s at this moment that God, through the prophet Isaiah, promises to deliver his people from danger. As Isaiah told King Ahaz, “Get control of yourself, and remain calm. Do not be afraid. Do not lose your courage because of these two 1
Pastor Tim Patoka
Stories of the Promise #4 December 22, 2019 stubs of smoldering torches. Do not be afraid…even though…[they] have plotted evil against you” (Isaiah 7:4-5). As improbable as it was, God was going to deliver the house of David from the smoldering torches that Ephraim and Aram were and completely destroy them within sixty-five years. Yet how does King Ahaz respond to this wonderful promise? With silence that likely came from sinful disbelief. King Ahaz was unprepared for God’s promise. God takes another step to prepare King Ahaz for this promise by telling him to ask for a sign to ensure it was going to happen. King Ahaz turns God down by saying, “I will not ask. I will not test the Lord” (Isaiah 7:12). While it sounds pious, it is anything but that. When we take into consideration how ungodly King Ahaz was and that he was already begging for help from the king of Assyria, it becomes clear that not only was King Ahaz disobeying God’s command to ask for a sign but also hiding it with a hypocritical excuse. God then loses his patience and gives two more promises – one for condemnation, and one for salvation. God promises to bring the King of Assyria not only to destroy Ephraim and Aram, but also to bring untold hardship on Judah. In the midst of this promise of condemnation is a very familiar promise of salvation – “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and name him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). God has promised to do the impossible by having a virgin give birth and by having this Son be Immanuel himself. King Ahaz and the house of David were not prepared to trust in God’s promises. For one, they were looking in the wrong places for assurance. Read the Bible’s account of Ahaz’s reign from 2 Kings chapter 16 and see just how wicked he and the country was. When it came to this current threat from Ephraim and Aram, Ahaz would rather trust in foreign powers than in his God. Second, they were in disbelief if what God said could actually be true. The hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled like a forest in the wind because they knew that militarily they stood no chance. But perhaps worst of all was their hypocritical hearts. Rather than own up to their disbelief, they tried to hide it with pious-sounding excuses. Might not we too find ourselves unprepared for God’s promises for these same reasons, specifically about God’s impossible promise of a virgin giving birth to Immanuel at Christmas? Perhaps we find ourselves unprepared because we’re looking in the wrong places for Christmas’ celebrations. It’s the presents, the food, the vacation, the company of friends and family that give us joy rather than the manger where the virgin mother laid Immanuel to rest. Perhaps we’re unprepared because we wonder if all this is actually true. A virgin becoming pregnant and 2
Pastor Tim Patoka
Stories of the Promise #4 December 22, 2019 giving birth is literally impossible. Not only that, but that God would make his dwelling among us as Immanuel is a concept that none of the ancient religions even entertained. Or perhaps we’re unprepared because we too have hypocritical hearts that hide themselves with pious-sounding excuses. No matter how unprepared we humans may be, that doesn’t change the fact that God will always fulfill his promises. And he certainly did that with the promises he gave to King Ahaz. Ephraim and Aram waged war against Judah but came up empty. Assyria came and forever snuffed out the smoldering torches that Ephraim and Aram were. They also brought untold hardship against the house of David so that eventually Judah was little more than a backwater province in the vast Roman Empire. But when it had seemed that God had all but forsaken his people, he stepped back in and fulfilled the promise of the virgin birth as attested from our Gospel reading of Matthew chapter 1. God has fulfilled these and every other promise he has given no matter how impossible or improbable they may be. That’s the case for us as we prepare for Christmas in a matter of days. Christmas is more than a time when God broke the rules of science with a virgin birth. It is also a cause for continued rejoicing because of what Matthew chapter 1 says, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save the people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). God made his dwelling among us in the son Jesus so as to save us from our sins. And he would do that by fulfilling yet another promise about dying on the cross. Without going into too much detail, time and time again God fulfills his impossible and improbably promises. And our result for those promises is that we go from spiritual death to spiritual life, from being enemies of God to his beloved children. 2) Stand Firm in God’s Promises Whether we are prepared for it or not, God will fulfill all his promises. Rather than be unprepared, instead let us stand firm God’s promises and be sure that he will do as he says. This is essentially what God told King Ahaz to do when he gave him the first promise about deliverance from Ephraim and Aram. He said, “If you do not stand firm in faith, you will not stand at all” (Isaiah 7:9). We see how true this is from countless biblical and real-life examples. If we stand apart from God and his promises, it’s only a matter of time until we fall down. The only way to remain standing tall and into the future is if we stand firm in God’s certain promises.
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Pastor Tim Patoka
Stories of the Promise #4 December 22, 2019 And we can do just that as we prepare for Christmas in just a few days by learning from the mistakes of King Ahaz and the house of David. We look in the right places to find our joy. While it is enjoyable to have presents, food, vacation, and the company of friends and family with us at this time of year, there’s a greater joy still. And that’s the manger where we find the virgin-born Immanuel. Rather than remain silent, let us sing out and say our praises to God for us sending us his Son to be our Savior. Let us not have a hypocritical heart that hides itself with pious-sounding excuses or says one thing and does another. Instead, let our actions follow along so that we enjoy all that is set before us these coming days. Let us prepare ourselves for Christmas by standing firm in God’s promises. Because if we do, we will remain standing long afterwards. Christmas is more than a seasonal celebration. It is proof that we have joy at every time of year. We have a God who did the impossible so as to give us a Savior. Jesus fulfilled countless other promises to live up to his names sake by saving us from our sins. And after we put away our Christmas decorations, these truths will still be ours so that we can remain standing long afterwards. God doesn’t have to resort to pinky promises to assure us that he will do what he says. His track record speaks for himself. Whether it be little-known promises like Judah’s deliverance from Ephraim and Aram, or famously impossible ones like a virgin giving birth to Immanuel, God will fulfill his promises. As such, we would be wise to prepare accordingly by standing firm in these promises. Because when we stand firm in those things which God has said will happen, we will certainly remaining standing long afterwards as well. Amen.
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