Speaker: Greg Sanders

Passage: Isaiah 7:1-14

TRUST ISN’T OPTIONAL

If you have your Bibles, I want to take us into a pretty familiar passage for the holidays in Isaiah chapter 7. So, I’ll give you time to get there. We take the month of December, we always try to set our focus towards the Advent and towards this time of the year. 

And how many are like me, it just feels like you woke up and went, Whoa, Christmas is already almost here? Like this year just seems like it’s cranking by. But I want to take a look at this passage in Isaiah from a different lens. 

And here’s what I want to do: oftentimes, we’ll grab onto these portions of Scripture that are super familiar, connected to Christmas, or connected to the Easter season, or you connect them to whatever, and we so fixate on that verse, or that idea that we forget that in that passage, there’s an entire narrative happening that didn’t necessarily connect to Christmas the first time. 

What verse are we talking about? Isaiah 7:14. Here’s the verse that we’re familiar with because if you’ve ever watched the Peanuts Christmas movie, you’ve heard it. Says, “All right then, the Lord himself will choose the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel– ‘God is with us.’” 

This is the verse we first find this idea of Immanuel, and we almost instantly connect it to the holidays. But you see, what’s going on in this narrative is much bigger than that. There’s an actual story behind the narrative that I think is significantly important for each of us. 

I think God, in His infinite wisdom, knew that this thing was going to happen. We would fixate, and this would be connected to the holidays, but He also knew that those of us who were just curious about the Scriptures could dig in and find a bigger and, I think, even more important message. 

ISAIAH 7:1-14

So, to do that, we’re going to pick up in verse 1, and we’re going to read through this passage, and then we’re going to take a look at this. “During the reign of Ahaz son of Jotham and the grandson of Uzziah, Jerusalem was attacked by King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of Israel, the son of Remaliah. The city withstood the attack, however, and was not taken. The news had come to the royal court: ‘Aram is allied with Israel against us!’ So the hearts of the king and his people trembled with fear, just as trees shake in a storm. 

“Then the Lord said to Isaiah, ‘Go out to meet King Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub.’” Can you imagine your name being Shear-jashub? So, really quick sidebar, Isaiah, as a prophet in Israel, had a unique journey with the Lord. 

The Lord would give him a name of something he wanted to do for His people. And then He would say, Go home, be with your wife, and she would get pregnant, and the Lord would say, Name your kid what I just told you, and his children were markers of the things the Lord was going to do for Israel. The promise, this particular name, means there will be a remnant. So, how many are grateful your name is not Shear-jashub?

“You will find the king at the end of the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is bleached. Tell him to stop worrying. Tell him he doesn’t need to fear the fierce anger of those two burned-out embers, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah. 

“Yes, the kings of Aram and Israel are going against you. They are saying, ‘We will invade Judah and throw its people into panic. Then we will fight our way into Jerusalem and install the son of Tabeel as Judah’s king.

“‘But this is what the Sovereign Lord says: This invasion will never happen, because Aram is no stronger than its capital, Damascus. And Damascus is no stronger than its king, Rezin. As for Israel, within sixty-five years it will be crushed and completely destroyed. Israel is no stronger than its capital, Samaria. And Samaria is no stronger than its king, Pekah son of Remaliah. You do not believe me? If you want me to protect you, learn to believe what I say.’” Let that one sink for a second. 

“Not long after this, the Lord sent this message to King Ahaz: ‘Ask me for a sign, Ahaz, to prove that I will crush your enemies as I have promised. Ask for anything you like, make it as difficult as you want.’ 

“But the king refused. ‘No,’ he said. “I wouldn’t test the Lord like that.’ Then Isaiah said, ‘Listen well you royal family of David! You aren’t satisfied to exhaust my patience. You exhaust the patience of God as well! All right then, the Lord himself will choose the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel– “God is with us.” By the time this child is old enough to eat curds and honey, he will know how to choose what is right and reject what is wrong. But before he knows right from wrong, the two kings you fear so much– the kings of Israel and Aram– will both be dead.’” 

All right, let’s pray. Holy Spirit, as we take a look at a familiar passage, maybe with a new lens, we ask that You’d open the eyes of our hearts to see what You want us to see. Lord, we do believe from the outset that all Scripture is capable of growing us and coaching us, reproving us. So, we ask for You to come speak what You want to speak in this time. Jesus’ name, amen. 

THE VIRGIN WILL CONCIEVE

Okay, so how many after reading that go, Whoa, there’s a whole different story going on here than just something about Christmas? The Lord Himself will choose a sign. What does that mean? What is that about? The Lord is actually giving a sign to Ahaz for one purpose: He’s doing it to prove His ability to provide and come through for Ahaz. 

The virgin will conceive. I want to talk about this for a second because I think when we start to look at this from an Old Testament lens, and we take it away from just the Christmas lens, it’s important that we understand what’s going on here. 

I think it’s curious, like of all the signs the Lord could have chosen, why this one? He’s choosing anything He wants. He could have said the sun won’t rise tomorrow, or rocks are going to fall in your house, whatever. But He chooses this: the virgin will conceive. 

I think it’s really interesting because I think God, in His unique infinite wisdom, understood I’m going to choose something that will mean one thing in this time period, but two thousand years from now, or one thousand years from now, or however many years now, it’s going to overlay into the life of Christ. It’ll mean something different there. 

This is a prophetic interpretive thing called The Law of Two Mountains, which, all the way through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, there will be things that the Lord speaks that means something specific in that moment, and they mean something different long term. 

And if we’re going to learn the principles of the Scripture, we’ve got to figure out what they meant in the moment. So, the word virgin here in the Hebrew– the word alma. Now, in the Greek, we’re used to the word parthenos. Parthenos means a virgin, one who has not had sexual relations. 

Alma here doesn’t mean that. Alma is a word that’s used to speak of a woman who’s a virgin at marriage, of marryable age, or a young wife. I know in our day and age, it doesn’t get talked about as much as it did when I was growing up. My mom, when we would go to a wedding, there would be this, like, weird conversation in the car, like, We think she was a virgin? And I was seven or eight, I was like, I don’t know what this is about. 

So strange because it was a big deal. It’s a Scriptural idea to save yourself for marriage. Should be a virgin, you get married, and it’s God’s plan, and it’s wonderful. This is that kind of term that they were using. It just meant someone who did it right. 

Why does that matter? Well, there’s a lot of people who will debunk the virgin birth of Christ by saying, Oh, so there had to be two virgin births. Is it possible that what He says was speaking specifically to a virgin in the Old Testament? It is highly unlikely. 

Instead, what I want us to see is that Ahaz was being spoken to by God, and given a sign, and he’s just told a young woman in your city of marryable age, probably married, more than likely, she’s going to give birth to a son, and she’ll call his name Immanuel– God with us. 

Now, I don’t know if Immanuel was a common name or if Immanuel was a really unusual name. We don’t know that. What we do know is that this statement here is a promise to Ahaz. He’s being told by Yahweh that there’s going to be a child born to this young woman, this virgin. 

His name will be Immanuel, and before he’s two or three years of age, which is what it means when he talks about curds and honey before he’s two to three years of age, these kings that you’re so afraid of will be vanquished. 

Here’s one of the things I want to push pause, and say, this guy is facing a very real fear, and God has a very real answer. I would love to offer to you in this room that every fear you face, there is a word from the Lord for it. 

You can actually go get a word from the Lord in the situation you’re in. It doesn’t matter if it’s about work, doesn’t matter if it’s in your marriage,  it just doesn’t matter. You have the ability to get a word from the Lord. But the moment you get the word from the Lord, there’s a requirement on that word. 

This word was a time-marker for Ahaz, was supposed to be something he could go, Okay, I don’t necessarily know how it’s going to happen, but I know that He’s told me, in a short amount of time, this is going to be taken care of. What was God after? Trust. He was looking for Ahaz to trust Him. 

Okay, so in this same narrative, let’s superimpose it on our lives. When we face situations that are beyond our control, situations where fear is there, situations where we just feel panicked– anybody ever been in those? Yes, we should be able to go get a word from the Lord and have it causing us the ability to rest. 

Wait, you’re telling me that I can face something that is imminent, and know that I don’t have to worry about it because God said so? That’s what the Scriptures are telling us. Well, that’s craziness. 

Really? How many of you have done the math on what we actually are doing here? We’re either right, or we’re crazy. There is no middle ground. Because we have all decided to live our lives based on a set of beliefs with an invisible God that we very, very much sense and feel and know is real, but we’ve decided that His way and His code is how we’re going to live. 

So, Paul makes a statement that I love: if we’re not actually right, we’re cursed above all men. You got to settle that in your heart. I’m either nuts or God is real, and there is no middle ground. So, to live halfway in between, going, I don’t know if I can really live the God-is-real side because it might be nuts. You either are, or you’re not. You’re in, or you’re out. Neutrality is an illusion. 

And if you’re going to follow Him, follow Him. Dig in, get a word from the Lord for every day of your life, live the Scriptures, and decide I’m one hundred percent His no matter what. I can promise you, the way to fail at this life is to not live it fully. I can promise you that you have an enemy that loves it when you don’t live it fully, he’s not afraid of people who don’t live it fully. 

So we’re clear, eventually, this same prophetic sign in Isaiah 7 would become the marker of the Messiah, and that’s because of God’s unique ability to speak to one thing and have it also speak to another thing. 

We see the confirmation of this prophetic word, the way it’s changed, parthenos, in the Greek, means a virgin. And we know Mary’s a virgin because Mary honestly says, How is this possible? I haven’t been with a man. 

If you’re like, I never understood that question. Has it ever bothered anybody that Zechariah says, How can this happen? And Mary says, How can this happen? And one gets struck mute and dealt with, and one gets honored? 

Well, here’s why: Zechariah is an old man. For those of you that are older or advanced in years, there is an expectation that your history has already proven His faithfulness. You have a much smaller window to doubt God. 

You better hear that there is a much smaller window for those of us that have been in the Kingdom for a long time to be willing to doubt God, because He has already proven Himself over and over and over in our lives. He is gracious to younger people because they haven’t had history yet, and that’s the kindness of God. 

A second problem with that question: Zechariah says, I don’t believe God can do it. Mary asks a biological question: How is this possible? I haven’t had sex. Hers is a real question. She wasn’t saying, I don’t think God can do it. She’s like, Well, how am I going to be the conduit of that when I haven’t had that? 

I think she was actually trying to figure out, am I supposed to, like, break that vow? She was working through all the questions. How do you know that? Because of the way the narrative handles them. But, so we’re clear theologically, Jesus was born of a virgin. So we’re clear in Isaiah, that wasn’t what this word was speaking to. This word was speaking to a very real person in a very real time that was going to be assigned to Ahaz.

IMMANUEL– GOD WITH US

So, he picks the name Immanuel– God is with us. So, now that we have fresh eyes on this narrative, we just take Immanuel at the holiday season, be like, Oh, it’s just beautiful. It’s one of my favorite words. It’s one of my favorite promises. God is with us is what the word, what the name means. 

But why this name? Why did He choose this name? Why not Jacob? Why not Israel? Why not all the different names that He could? Why not Shear-jashub? The other ones they could have chosen? Why this name? 

One reason, He was making a statement to Ahaz: I want you to understand I am with you, and if I’m with you, you shouldn’t actually be afraid of anything. In fact, you should be able to stare down fear, finance, relational difficulty, whatever it is, you should be able to stare it down and go, It doesn’t matter because He’s with me. What I have to have right now is a word from Him. I don’t actually have to have a response to my circumstance. That’s why He gives the name Immanuel. It was just promise and comfort. 

But I want to zero in on what I think is the most important phrase in this passage: “You don’t believe me? If you want me to protect you, learn to believe what I say.” How many for you, when we read that, it kind of jumped out? You’re like, Whoa, I didn’t even know that was in there. That’s crazy. 

Yahweh is speaking to Ahaz, and it’s very clear in the narrative that He’s frustrated with him. We know He’s frustrated with him because Isaiah will say it later. This statement simply means to Ahaz, If you don’t trust me, I can’t move on your behalf. 

Can I ask you just to sit there for a second and look at your own life and realize that if you don’t trust Him, He can’t move on your behalf? If you don’t trust him, He can’t move. He says that to Ahaz: If you don’t trust me, I can’t move on your behalf. It’s not that He says, If you don’t trust me, I’m going to be mad and I won’t. All of a sudden, we start to realize, Huh, my trust in Him matters. 

That word trust, confusing a bit. So, I decided to see what I could compile from our English language. Here’s what I could compile: trust would be best understood this way: the firm belief in the reliability, the honesty, and the ability of someone or something. It involves confidence and a willingness to be vulnerable, which form the foundation for relationships and cooperation by expecting others to act dependably in one’s best interest. 

So, God’s motivated on our behalf by our trust in His character and in what He says. I want you to consider Ahaz, his response when He comes to him and says, I want you to pick a sign, make it as difficult as you want, which is crazy. 

Why would God say that? Put it in layman’s terms for us, just common sense terms, what He says is, I want you to pick whatever it is you think will cause you to believe Me. Tell Me what it is, and I’m going to do it. 

Why would He say that? Because He knew Ahaz didn’t trust Him. Have you ever said to someone, What do I have to do to make you trust me? What do I have to do to make you believe me? Well, why do we say that? Because they don’t. 

So, Ahaz says this: “No, I will not test the Lord like that.” Wait, time out. Let me get this straight. You will test the Lord by doubting Him, but you won’t test the Lord by asking for something? What does that reveal? That at the root of Ahaz’s perspective was an actual distrust in the character of God and a deep fear of his own situation. 

I would offer this: there are times when we have to arrest our fear of what we face in order to trust God, because sometimes that fear is so big that if we don’t manage it, it manages us. That I have to make a decision in the face of fear, whether I’m going to trust God or I’m going to trust my fear. 

Well, you don’t know what I’m facing. I doubt it was this, I doubt there’s people lined up outside of your home trying to break down the walls to kill you. That’s what he was facing. They had a very clear agenda. They wanted to break into the city and take him out. 

When it says, “Replace him with the son of Tabeel,” what that means is they were going to kill him and put their own king in. So, what he was facing was very real, and yet, Yahweh has the willingness to say to him, If you don’t trust Me, trust what? Hey, I just told you, I’ll take care of you. It’s going to be fine. 

You see, to trust God meant Ahaz would need to stand in the face of those invading kings with confident assurance. What does that mean? He’s supposed to stand on the wall and whistle? That might be dumb. You might get shot. But he was just supposed to realize, the Lord gave me a promise, and I can rest on that. 

And what Isaiah reveals in this moment is that the lack of trusting God’s voice– hear this please– is exhausting to God. Church, if you’re willing to go to the Lord to get a word, you better be willing to follow that word because it’s exhausting to the Lord when we don’t. Why? Because He knows where it’s rooted. 

I have a prayer that I pray a lot, the Lord will say something to me, and I have lots of doubts, and I always tell Him the same thing. Hey, this is one hundred percent not about You. This is about me. I have trouble trusting because I’m afraid of what I see. You’re entirely faithful. You’ve been entirely faithful. I’m really sorry for my lack of trust. 

THE CHARACTER OF GOD

Why is this idea of trust so important to Yahweh? I want you to hear these two things because I think they are really, really important: distrust in His character is rooted in Hell. How do you know that? If we go back to the Garden of Eden, Lucifer comes to engage Eve. What he chooses to say to Eve is, Did God really say?

What was he trying to do with that? His goal was to put a seed into Eve’s mind that God might be veiled or duplicitous, that He might not be vulnerably trustworthy, He might not be honest, He might not be integrable, He might have had an agenda. 

Did anyone ever grow up around a parent or a leader that if you did something wrong, they would say something stupid like this: You know, if you’d done this, I was going to do this for you? And you’re like, I don’t care. Why don’t you just tell me up front what the consequences were? 

So, we get this juxtaposition where the enemy loves to teach us that that’s who God is. It’s not according to the Scriptures. He’s faithful and true. True means you get what you get. There is nothing different. There are depths of Him you can discover, but He hides nothing. There’s no shadow of turning in Him. He’s not veiled. He’s not double-minded. And what the enemy was trying to do with Eve was to bring her to a place where she would doubt who God was. 

The first reason why trust is a big deal to Him is because He understands that distrust in His character is rooted in Hell. Second reason that He takes trust so personal is because His character is flawless. Great character is something we trust because of consistency through history, right? Okay, so here’s my question: has He not been faithful? Which one of us in this room could say I have a moment where God was not faithful? We can’t. There’s not a person. 

In fact, we had a moment where I was pastoring at a church in Loveland, and I felt like the Lord said, It’s time for you to step away. I was the only earner in the family at that time. Belinda was raising kids at home, and we had done the math. We’re like, putting them in child care is not going to net us any money. It’s going to cost us money. 

It was a great relationship. We loved it. It worked out fine. But also, the Lord calls me to walk away from my job. Now, I’m one of those guys that you don’t walk away from your job until you have another job, and you don’t walk away from your job until you have another job and a backup job for that other job. Always been a planner.

So, this was a long journey with me and the Lord of trying to get to where I would take it. I finally just acquiesced, and go, Okay, Lord, I can’t not do this. You know that pressure where you’re like, I know what I’m supposed to do? It’s like, you wake up every day, and you’re like, I know I’m not obedient. 

I obey. We’re sitting down with our kids at the dinner table, and I’m explaining to them that I was leaving my job. One of them says, Does that mean we’re going to be homeless? I’m like, Well, we’re living in a home. The other one’s like, How are we going to eat? 

And so, I make this statement of both of them, and it just comes out of my mouth, not because I was awesome, it was definitely the Holy Spirit, not me. I said, Guys, here’s my promise to you: if He fails us, we’ll be the first family in the history of the world He’s ever failed because He’s entirely faithful. 

When it came out of my mouth, I got those bumps. I was like, Whoa, that was preachable. I also got scared because I’m like, I don’t even know if I believe that. And I will tell you my journey is the faithfulness of God from that moment forward is ten, fifteen, twenty times what I ever thought it would have been. My sons grew up and watched the Lord be faithful when they knew what it was to doubt the Lord. It’s wild. 

Trust matters to Him. He’s entirely faithful. And I want you to hear this: to doubt Him is to call Him a liar and to say His character is false. That’s the story behind this verse. God is actively, aggressively looking for His people to trust Him, that they understand who He is, and He wants us to understand who He is, because He understands if we understand who He is, we will live different. We will live as a people informed in the secret place. 

LIVING IN TRUST

You’re like, Well, how do I live in this trust? Three simple things: build your life on the promises and principles of Scripture instead of how you feel. Build your life on the promises and principles of Scripture instead of how you feel. 

Because when fear comes, you have an option: you can go to the Word of the Lord and live from there. That’s what He says to Ahaz: You don’t have to let your fear drive you. You can let my word drive you. 

I push all the time for people to hear God’s voice, to build an encounter in the secret place. It’s one of my deep passions. I will tell you this: if you just want to go hear God say something without studying the Scriptures, you’re going to get strange. 

We have to be a people that are rooted in the Scriptures, and we allow the word of the Lord that we hear to be filtered through the Scriptures, and we allow the accountability we’re in when we say, Hey, this is what I heard God say, I’m not sure. Can you help me with it? That we’ve submitted ourselves to a community so we don’t get strange. But when we know we’ve heard God, and it’s been confirmed by other people, we live from it instead of our fear. 

Secondly, is take the risk to trust His voice, even when it’s terrifying. It is okay to be afraid. It is not okay to not trust. I love the statement made to Joshua: be strong and courageous. Why was that made? Because he was afraid. He was terrified. He felt weak. Did hearing the word “Be strong and courageous” cause him to instantly feel like Superman? No. It’s okay to feel those things. It’s not okay to live from those places. 

Thirdly, I think this is probably the most important one: keep His historical faithfulness in view. Let the past victories, the past triumphs where you’ve seen Him be faithful, let those be the things that remind you that you can trust Him again. In that way, we’re letting every journey, every victory, build our faith. 

And some of you are here, you’re like, Well, I’ve had so many places He’s been faithful, I have no excuse to doubt. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I think we’re without excuse to doubt His faithfulness. I think every single one of us have experienced firsthand the faithfulness of God at a level that it’s ridiculous for us to doubt Him.

Could I offer that we try to be a people that don’t exhaust His patience? Instead, we just be a people that say this: I trust You. You’re entirely faithful. You can say what You want, and I’ll do it. 

Sidebar, when you face stuff, go to the Lord instead of trying to figure it out, just go to the Lord and get a word. He’s got an answer for everything. I don’t care if it’s business, I don’t care if it’s your children, I don’t care if it’s your marriage. It doesn’t matter. 

He has a willingness and a desire to speak into all those places because He wants to lead us through them. Why? Because at the other side of that, He gets a lot of glory when we stand up and go, Look what the Lord just did. You know, He told me that was going to happen, and it did. 

Stand with me, please. My hope is that now, when you watch the Peanuts Christmas, or you see it on a greeting card, all of a sudden you’re reminded, Oh, that’s a word that’s to challenge me to trust God.

I want to invite the prayer teams forward. If you’re here and you’ve been in a situation, you’re like, You know what? I’m facing something, I have not been trusting the Lord. I’ve been freaking out. We’re human. It’s okay to freak out. It’s not okay to stay there. 

Corinthians says, “Confess your faults to one another and be healed.” That the prayers of the saints are sweet-smelling incense, that there’s something supernatural that happens when we just kind of get it out. You go, Hey, I’ve been really wrestling with trusting God. 

Will you pray with me as our teams are up here? Please take advantage of that as you go through this season. Please, every time you face fear, take a deep breath, and ask the Lord What’s Your response? Hear His response and live from it. 

Let’s pray. Jesus, we love You, we honor You. Lord, I love the Scriptures because the more we look at them, the more we see things we haven’t seen before. Lord, I don’t want us to be a people like Ahaz who exhausts You. We don’t want to be a people that the legacy of our life is that we never learn to trust You and we always lean against the wrong things. 

We want to be a people that can come to rest and not have heart issues and stress issues because we’ve learned how to just rest before You and be able to say back to You, You know what? You’re faithful, You’ve got this, tell us what to do. 

Would You lead us and guide us this week? Deal with our hearts in these areas. I know there’s going to be places where we probably have an automatic response of fear that we don’t even notice at times. 

Would You begin to point those out? Would You whisper into those things and remind us to trust You? We will say as one voice, You are faithful, You are entirely trustworthy, and we offer back to You the honor that’s due You. You’re a faithful God, may Your face shine upon us this week. In Jesus’ name, amen.