Isaiah 7:10-16 says...

Today's verses are Isaiah 7:10-16 which read,

10 - Then the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying,  
11 - "Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven."
12 - But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!" 
13 - Then he said, "Listen now, O house of David!  Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well? 
14 - Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign:  Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. 
15 - He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. 
16 - For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

Let's keep going deeper in the message of Christmas.  This is the prophecy so many times quoted at this time of the year but it is usually just verse 14.  The context tells us that God was asking King Ahaz through the prophet to ask for a sign from God that could be from heaven to hell.  "Ask of Me of anything" God is saying through the prophet to King Ahaz and the king says "no." 
   
"Why not?" has got to be the question here.  Why not ask God when He is asking you to ask Him?  Maybe it is because it would be asking something of us.  If I ask of God, am I willing to be asked of Him?  Maybe it is just a direct disobedience of what God says it right and wrong.  I think there are probably many times today that God is asking us to ask Him but we don't.

What does God do in that situation?  He sends a sign in the midst of that disbelief or disobedience to wake us up to the reality of Him.  Then it was that a virgin (someone who had never been with a man) would be with child and that child would be a son (without the help of an ultrasound to know) and His name will be Immanuel (God with us).  He will live long enough to eat curds and honey and the age to know right from wrong but before He is old enough to know right from wrong, God will have taken care of the present situation against Israel.

Jesus was to be born to point us back to obedience to God and the reality of God working in our lives.  So if I am living in disobedience of God, should I expect a sign from Him?  If He asks me to ask of Him, am I willing to submit and confess and bow to Him to see His hand work in my life?  Or do I refuse and continue to figure it out my way?


God's love is so great that even in our disobedience He will give us signs that point us to Him.  Out of his great love and grace He will put people and songs and conversations and sermons and situations that make us think deeper about what just happened.  He is calling out to people today to ask of Him something that only He can give.  A Savior who can save them from hell and give them heaven.

Pray that people will open their eyes to God's signs of His love and grace.

Pastor Adam

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