2 Kings 15:8-16:9; Isaiah 7:1-10:4; Isaiah 17:1-14

It seems so startling that the 10 tribes of the kingdom of Israel would ally with Syria and attack their brethren in the two tribes of the kingdom of Judah. Yet, that is precisely what is happening when Isaiah comes to King Ahaz. Led by their unfaithful kings and counterfeit priests they had turned on their kinsmen as well as turning away from the God who saved them out of Egypt. In response, the word of the LORD was that the kingdom of Israel (“Ephraim”) would fall at the hands of the Assyrian Empire.

In a rare occurrence, God asks King Ahaz to ask for a sign. Thinking he might bother God, Ahaz declined. Trusting in Yahweh is the essence of being His people. For Israel, they trusted foreign armies to save them, false gods to prosper them and listened to false prophets to guide them. All they needed was to trust God and he would have supplied protection, deliverance, harvest and wisdom. They declined. For Judah, there was still hope. In this instance, Yahweh was looking to reassure Ahaz of victory, but Ahaz did not even trust Him enough to ask for the sign that God said He would provide.

The prophecy that followed was and is amazing. In a real sense, Yahweh Elohim is saying you did not ask for a sign of My divine deliverance from Syria and Israel, so I will give you a REAL sign. Here is the sign for My deliverance from sin and death.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

Yahweh said, in effect, “I will be the sign”. The deliverance of mankind will not be at the hands of a man, for no man shall have a role in the birth of the Savior. I will be born of woman, but the savior will be God in the flesh. God with us. It sends chills up my spine.

Writing to the Hebrew descendants of Ahaz and his kinsmen, Matthew revealed the fulfillment of the sign promised generations earlier, saying

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Matthew 1:18-23

It makes it so much easier when the Bible interprets itself. Here, as in other places, God is saying, “This is what I meant what I said that…” A thing is sin because God says it is sin. Period. Sin separates us from God because God is holy and He says sin separates us from Him. No unholy thing can come into the presence of God unless God accounts it as holy. For us, this requires the forgiveness of sin. Yahweh, in His grace and compassionate wisdom became the solution to the sin problem.

Trusting Yahweh is the essence of being His people. The name “Jesus” means “Yahweh saves” or “Yahweh is salvation”. Offering a glimpse of His salvation, he offered a sign. What a sign it was. In order for people to be with Me, He said, I must go to them. Trusting faith accepts that God did just that. Notice is does not say “God will be with us” or “God was with us”. Embedded in the name “Yahweh” (the “I am”, “the self-existent God”) is His nature as deity who is always present.

Here’s your sign … Jesus is. Jesus is Yahweh. Jesus is with us.

Consider His nature.  Consider His ways.  Strive to love Him more!