Richard Davenport
December 21, 2025 – Advent 4
Isaiah 7:10-17
King Ahaz is in a pretty tough spot. He sees writing on the wall, in a manner of speaking. He’s the king of Judah, the southern kingdom, ruling in Jerusalem. Judah isn’t a big place, but it is a kingdom and does have at least a certain amount of military might. Ahaz is also a descendent of David. God promised to establish the house of David forever, which should be pretty reassuring.
Despite all of the reasons he should feel secure in his position, King Ahaz is afraid. Judah is a kingdom, but it isn’t a very big kingdom. Judah has a couple of neighbors that are much bigger and they’re sizing it up as a possible addition to their own nations. The northern kingdom, Israel, as well as the kingdom of Syria have teamed up and are thinking Judah would be a great addition to their holdings.
Ahaz knows he can’t stand up to both of them all by himself, not with the military he has. So he’s looking for options. Maybe he can buy them off. Maybe he can forge some kind of alliance with someone stronger. Maybe he can make his kingdom look like it’s more trouble than it’s worth. He knows what the outcome will be if he does nothing at all. So he plans for the only way out that he can see.
Assyrian Empire is out there on the sidelines. They’re growing steadily. They’re strong and unafraid. They aren’t really his friends either, but they’re too far away right now. They aren’t immediately looking to scoop him up. Maybe at some point in the future they might starting thinking that way, but that’s a problem for another time. For now, at least, King Ahaz is thinking of reaching out to the Assyrians to make a pact with them. He wants protection against Syria and Israel.
The Lord God, who established the house of David in Jerusalem, would rather Ahaz look to him for help. After all, that was one of the promises he made to the Israelites. He would defend them against their enemies for as long as they continued to worship him alone. God doesn’t need other kingdoms to come in to protect his people. He doesn’t need them to make their own alliances to safeguard their borders. He doesn’t need them to do anything. He simply wants them to trust him.
God sends Isaiah to Ahaz to dissuade him from placing his trust in the Assyrian king. Isaiah tells Ahaz that this invasion that so worries him will not come to pass. It may look bad, but there’s nothing for Ahaz, or anyone else in Judah, to worry about. God is firmly in control of both Syria and Israel and has other plans for them.
The Assyrian empire will deal with both of them shortly, there is nothing to fear. Assyrian won’t be coming to Judah’s aid because of an alliance or any other goodwill that Ahaz might try to foster. The Assyrians will be rolling through because of God’s direction and for no other reason. And certainly no need to become a vassal of the Assyrians or pursue anything more permanent with them. They weren’t there for Judah to begin with and God has no desire for Judah to become dependent on them for safety and security.
God will defend his people if they put their trust in him. He has said and done as much in the past. But Ahaz already knows what the outcome will be, at least in his own mind. God sends Isaiah to him to ask for a sign. It isn’t sinful to ask for a sign of God’s power or fidelity when God himself tells you to pick one. It is sinful when God has already given you a sign and you refuse to believe. That was the problem of the Pharisees in Jesus’ day.
Here Ahaz puts on his own veneer of righteousness by coming up with an excuse and refusing to ask for one. For him, the answer doesn’t really matter anyway. Why bother putting God to the test when you already know how things will turn out? This nonsense about a virgin giving birth are quickly forgotten and probably wouldn’t have changed his mind if he saw it happen with his own eyes.
Ahaz already knows what his course of action must be. However detestable it might be, the servitude to the Assyrians is better than outright conquest. Even God can’t change the course of events that are so clearly laid out, assuming God even wanted to to begin with.
It might feel pretty easy to get on Ahaz’s case, knowing what we know. The Bible gives us the whole story, beginning, middle, and end. We are able to see things after the fact. Ahaz wasn’t a believer in God, so it’s not surprising he didn’t listen to a prophet sent by God. Still though, he should have remembered all of things God had done for his people in the past. He should have remembered the Exodus, where God had saved his people even in the face of impossible odds. He should have remember that in the Exodus and every event since then, God saved his people without requiring them to do much of anything to defend themselves.
Yet his memory is short, just like the Israelites before him. The Israelites have a pretty poor track record when it comes to remembering what God has done for them. They were barely across the Red Sea before they were complaining about how God had led them out into the wilderness to die. By this time, faith in God is almost completely gone amongst the Israelites. People follow their own gods and trust their own abilities to make their way in the world.
Ahaz trusts in what he knows, trusts that this is the right decision for him and his kingdom. He isn’t interested in this pie in the sky message of God protecting his people. Ahaz has already got it all figured out. So Ahaz moves forward with his plan, and it works, sort of. The Assyrians do attack the northern kingdom, their influence spreads far and wide. The Assyrians never get around to attacking the southern kingdom, they never get the chance. The Babylonian empire picks up steam and invades the Assyrians, eventually taking over the whole empire.
But, where Ahaz sees a measure of peace in the work of the Babylonians, he should have seen the foreshadowing of things to come for his own people. It wouldn’t be the Assyrians who destroy Judah, but Judah would be destroyed all the same. The Babylonians are not content to leave Judah in peace. God has spurred them onwards as the executors of his judgment against Judah. Nothing will dissuade them, except, perhaps, if the people repented and turned back to God. But they don’t. Babylon destroys Judah and carts most of the people off into exile, just as God said would happen. Ahaz thought he had it all figured out, but in the end his people were still condemned to exile.
We get down on Ahaz for his lack of trust, but we are often not so different. We do have faith in God, we know he is there watching over us. But when it comes to every day affairs, God takes a back seat. We tell God, “I know you have our eternal salvation well in hand God, but you can’t do anything about this mess I’m in right now. I already know how things are going to turn out, God. I have to go deal with it. It may not be the best option and it probably isn’t something you approve of, but it’s the only answer I’ve got.”
It’s true that God probably isn’t going to send you a messenger from on high to tell you how to deal with a particular crisis you are facing. And it’s true that God does have your eternal salvation well in hand. But the death and resurrection of Christ that saves you from your sins and grants you new life is about more than just eternity.
Christ has a lot to say about the problems you are facing in your life even in the present. Whenever we face a major crisis in life, our trust in God is still there, but usually in the background. Rarely is God at the forefront of our thoughts as we struggle with the difficulties of life. Instead, we form a plan of action. We figure out how we’re going to deal with the problems that face us. We make difficult choices, sometimes even choices we know we should not be making.
Yet, still God does not enter into our thoughts. Whether it’s because we don’t want to bother God with our problems or whether we think we have everything well in hand, or perhaps because we think it isn’t something he’d deal with. It’s when we’ve hit the end of our rope, when we’ve exhausted all options, that’s when God comes to mind. Only when we’ve made our lives a bigger mess than they were, that’s when we call on God for help.
But God does not come to help only at the end, after everything else has fallen apart. God is right beside us the whole time and has set his own plan in motion before we ever call on him, before we even realize we need him. God knows our needs whether we do or not, whether we acknowledge them or not. God had a plan for our salvation and was sending Christ into the world, whether the world was looking for him or not.
Should we make God a constant part of our lives? Yes. Should we come to him first in prayer and thanksgiving whenever we have a problem? Yes. Whether we come to God first or only after we’ve made a mess of things, he is always there, always inviting us to come to him.
God speaks through Isaiah to say that he is in control, not just of the fate of Judah, but of all things. Even more, salvation would be coming soon and has now come through Jesus. That salvation is always there for you because God is always with you. Just as God’s forgiveness and mercy aren’t just reserved for those times when everything has fallen apart. They are there for us always, every hour of every day.
God does not always promise to deal with our problems the way we want. He may not always keep us out of disaster or protect us from every evil that comes our way. But he does promise that, because of Christ, there will be a day when all evil and all disasters cease forever. By remembering that Christ, our Immanuel, our God, is with us, we can know with confidence that God has both our presents and our futures well in hand.