The Sign!

The Sign!

Isaiah 7:14 AMPC

[14] Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel [God with us].

As we have always pointed out, God's ways are mysterious, and beyond searching out. If He chooses to reveal something to you, it is His perogative what He reveals, as well as how and when He chooses to reveal it. He is the Creator of the entire universe, and it is to Him that all of the universe answers to. He is the Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent God, who knows all, is everywhere, and can do all things, no matter the level of difficulty that the world has assigned to that thing. His will and purpose also play fundamental roles in what happens around me. As there can be no accidents where God is concerned, whatever comes my way as His child aligns with His will for me. Yes, storms will come; the wind will blow, and the rain will best down, but the Word of God becomes the shield and the anchor, protecting and strengthening my faith as I hold on. 

Ahaz, king of Judah, was not a nice man by God's standards. God's account of him was that he did not do right in His sight. He made his son pass through the fire, and offered him as a sacrifice, in accord with the abominable and idolatrous practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites. Here were a people called by God to be His own people, but here they were, led by a king who was leading them into idolatry. You would think that God had done enough, and would have a good reason not to get involved with their battles, but there were other important considerations at stake. The mercy of God does not always make human sense, but it must also be taken for granted. Ahaz did evil, yet he was one of the few kings who received the sign of the coming Messiah. As it was in Ahaz's days, so is it today. No matter how much evil exists today, the sign given in the days of Ahaz is still in effect. 

The enemy was planning to come against Judah, and the enemy was stronger in number too, but there is a God who reigns over the affairs and plans of man. Even though there was immediate trouble, God was already looking forward to both physical and spiritual deliverance from the power and effect of sin. He had seen His people really struggling and helpless, and He was preferring a permanent solution to the problem of sin. The woman who not yet known a man would conceive and bear a son, whose name would reflect the eternal nature of God. That which had never happened before and would never happen on this side of eternity is now the proof of God's grace and intervention in human affairs. By the virgin birth, God has put in place a permanent solution to the eternal consequences of sin. God now lives in man, because God the Son came down in our likeness, so He could walk in our shoes. He has done His own part; how would you respond? God's time of favour is here.