Third Sunday of Advent (Lessons & Carols) 2024

It's not a very common thing at Christmas time to talk about ancient geopolitical battles.

It's not exactly a festive thing, is it?

And yet, Isaiah chapter 7, which will be our text that we're looking in, is precisely that.

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

It is with this backdrop that we will see the promise of the son being born of the virgin.

His name will be Emmanuel. This is the context that this will be declared.

So before we continue any farther, let us take a moment and ask the Lord's blessing at this time.

Lord, thank you for the sweet, wonderful, beautiful, and sure promises that you have made to us through your prophets in your word.

We pray that this morning, even though that they are written not just centuries, but millennia in the past,

that they will be so fresh to us this morning and minister to us by your Holy Spirit.

And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

What happens to you when panic sets in?

When plans don't go right?

When situations turn south, and you know that real repercussions set in.

What do you do?

Who do you turn to?

What is your thought process?

Do you have a thought process?

Or maybe the animal instinct kicks in,

and you try to figure out what to do,

and you end up doing things you never thought you'd do,

going to people you never thought you'd go to,

calling on the name of different saviors that you'd never call on in your life.

The past three weeks, the past two weeks and this week,

this Advent season, we've been reading through the book of Isaiah

and looking at some of the prophecies that Isaiah made,

that the Lord made through Isaiah,

centuries and centuries and centuries before Jesus came on the earth,

but concerning him, the Messiah.

And these prophecies were written in a very tumultuous time,

not exactly a warm, festive holiday season,

but a season in the life of Israel that was rife with problems,

that saw strife and warfare and bloodshed be the constant in Israel's history.

Israel's history was a giant mess.

So over 700 years before the Christmas story,

a calamity falls to the Middle East.

It's a bit of a pattern, it would seem.

The Assyrian Empire, it was the superpower of the day,

whose kingdom spanned from modern-day Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Kuwait.

It was a huge empire, just preceding the Babylonians,

if that helps kind of situate it in your historical chronology.

They threatened any small country or kingdom that faced them.

The Assyrians weren't just an empire with global aspirations.

They were also incredibly cruel.

History tells us that the Assyrian Empire would have made Hamas and the Taliban blush.

They were horrendous, horrendously cruel people.

Their brutality was known across the land.

And it's not as though they showed up while Israel was a strong, united force.

It's not like Israel was at the high point of their history.

When Assyria comes, Israel, this land that God and these people that God declared his own,

had been divided.

The northern kingdom, the ten tribes of the north, divided from the two kingdoms in the south, the kingdom of Judah.

Once again, this season in Israel's history was one giant mess.

So to secure their survival, the kingdom of the north, of Israel,

they had since left the true worship of the one true God,

and they sought to align themselves with another regional power to take over Judah,

install a puppet king, so that they could have a fighting chance against this Assyrian army,

this Assyrian empire.

This is a bit of a background to our chapter of Isaiah 7,

because it is with this background that we hear about this king named Ahaz.

Ahaz the king.

Ahaz was the king of Judah, but unlike other kings of Judah,

he was more like a king of Israel,

which was to say that he was just as horrendous,

but in a different way as the Assyrians.

He chose not to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,

but rather to do whatever was expedient for him to maintain power and to survive.

Morals and true worship be damned.

He would do whatever it would take,

and that's exactly what he would do.

So history tells us about Ahaz, 2 Kings chapter 16,

2 Kings 16 · chapter mention

that he sacrificed even his own son to foreign gods.

This man was unhinged, and he was supposed to be the leader of Israel,

but he was leading them not to God, but away from God.

So what will he do?

Assyria, this superpower, is on his doorstep.

The northern kingdom with a regional power located in Damascus

has teamed up to try to overthrow him.

Would he turn to the Lord?

Would he trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?

Or would he continue on with his pattern of finding whatever worked

to deal with the problem at hand in the most expedient way?

Ahaz is going to ask some questions

that I think we are going to ask as well,

if we are honest as we dive into Scripture

and take an honest, hard look at our own lives.

What do we do when panic sets in?

When our prospects have dwindled,

when our situations look bleak,

what will we do?

Will we trust in God?

Will he do anything?

More than that, is the God of the Bible,

I mean, we pay lip service to him on Sunday,

but does he actually exist?

I mean, this is a decent community,

so maybe we're here for the community

and not so much the God that the community is formed around.

Does he exist?

And if he exists, does he care?

These are questions Ahaz is asking.

And I think we ought to ask as well.

So as we get to Isaiah chapter 7,

Isaiah 7 · chapter mention

with those questions as are in the backdrop,

I think Isaiah 7 will answer a giant and emphatic yes

to those questions,

that God, he truly does exist and he truly does care,

and all we need to do is call upon him.

He is not far, but he is close.

So we'll pick up the story, Isaiah chapter 7, verse 3,

Isaiah 7:3

where we find Ahaz inspecting the water supply,

and it's presumed that he's doing so in preparation to an impending siege.

Jerusalem's a bit of a weird city in the ancient world

because it doesn't have a natural water source.

So here Ahaz is making sure that they have enough water

to withstand a possible siege on their city.

And then Isaiah comes to him,

and this is what we read, chapter 7, verse 3.

And the Lord said to Isaiah,

Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Sherrod Jashub, your son,

at the end of the conduit of the upper pool

on the highway to the washer's field,

and say to him,

Be careful, be quiet, do not fear,

and do not let your heart be faint

because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands.

He's talking specifically about the two kings,

the king of Israel in the north,

and then this regional king in Damascus.

Be careful, be quiet, do not fear,

and do not let your heart be faint

because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands.

But the fierce anger of Rezin in Syria

and the son of Ramalia,

because Syria with Ephraim,

Ephraim is like another name for Israel,

and the son of Ramalia as devised evil against you,

saying, Let's go up against Judah and terrify it

and let us conquer it for ourselves

and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it.

Verse 7.

Thus says the Lord God,

It shall not stand,

and it shall not come to pass,

for the head of Syria is Damascus,

and the head of Damascus is Rezin,

and within 65 years,

Ephraim will be shattered from being a people,

and the head of Ephraim is Samaria,

and the head of Samaria is the son of Ramalia.

If you are not firm in faith,

you will not be firm at all.

What's happening here?

The prophet encourages the king

not to judge the situation that he sees at hand

with his own eyes and with his own reason,

but looking at the situation through the eyes of God.

And what is God saying the situation is?

These two threats, they're nothing.

They're a smoldering stump.

There's no power in them.

I'm the Lord your God,

and in fact,

Damascus will be destroyed,

Ephraim in the northern kingdom,

they will cease to be a god.

Don't trust in whatever fortifications you can make

or alliances you can create.

Trust in me.

Now, if I'm Ahaz,

I would say that I'm not sure I can trust in the Lord

when two armies are descending upon me.

Nevertheless, the call of the prophet,

which is the call of the Lord,

is an invitation for Ahaz to trust in him,

into a life of faith.

To not live a life based on mere circumstances.

To not live on a,

to live a life based on social media trends,

on foreign elections,

on foreign wars,

on Bank of Canada press conferences,

on inflation,

on social fears,

on whatever it may be that seems like a real serious threat to your life.

I think the call to Ahaz here is the call to us.

And the Lord is saying,

listen,

trust in me.

See life,

see situations,

see the calamities through my eyes.

Not the news,

not social media,

not the chatter at work,

but through my eyes.

Trust in me.

And it's an interesting bit about faith here.

Because we see it's not necessarily a call to ignore the situations that will affect us,

but rather to trust in the one who transcends,

and therefore is greater than the problems at hand,

no matter how big they may be.

Life is difficult,

and the life of faith isn't a life that is free from difficulty,

but it is a life of trust in the one true God who is truly bigger than whatever faces us.

And we also see here that it's also this call to trust in the Lord in this life of faith

is a call to repentance from faithlessness.

Scripture calls faithlessness sin,

which is quite the statement,

because I do a lot of things personally without faith.

A lot of my thinking,

a lot of my planning,

surprisingly as a minister,

does not include inviting the Lord into every decision and aspect.

Nevertheless,

what the Lord is doing here is calling us,

Ahaz and us,

into a life of repentance,

of our faithlessness.

So, it's important that we understand this,

because Ahaz isn't just,

like I mentioned before,

a run-of-the-mill king of Judah.

He is,

like,

the worst king of Judah

that has ever existed.

He is supposed to be a descendant of King David,

and if you know anything about the biblical story,

King David is the king after God's own heart.

In fact,

the Messiah himself will come from King David's line.

King David was the one

who would lead the people into worship,

proper worship.

However,

this descendant of the Davidic line,

Ahaz,

like I mentioned before,

he is sacrificing his own son

to foreign gods.

Ahaz,

and yet,

and yet,

the Lord,

knowing full well

who he is conversing with,

invites him to trust in him.

If this is not a beautiful example

of God extending mercy and grace

to those that do not deserve it,

there is,

there is,

then an example does not exist.

And not just once

does he extend this invitation to Ahaz,

but a second time.

So if verse 3 to 9

is the first invitation to trust in him,

verses 10 and 11 is the second.

And let's read this,

verses 10 and 11.

Again,

again,

the Lord spoke to Ahaz,

ask a sign of the Lord your God,

let it be deep as Sheol

or high as heaven.

We'll pause there.

You catch that?

The Lord is ready to stop at nothing,

to excite

and to foster faith

in this wayward man.

The Lord knows

the brokenness in him

and his propensity to sin

and his history of sinning.

And yet he says to him,

listen,

ask a sign.

Let me,

let me prove myself to you

and it can be anything.

From the depths of hell

to the heights of heaven,

there is nothing that I won't do

to prove myself to you.

This is a God

who meets somebody

in their feebleness.

Does not say,

get your act together

and then come to see me.

I will meet you where you are at.

In your sin,

in your faithlessness,

in your brokenness.

The God of Scripture

is not a far off God.

He is a God that is close.

But Ahaz,

he has this track record

of making these pragmatic decisions,

of jettisoning morality

and loyalty

for personal gain

and political survival.

So what will he do

with this offer?

So much depends on his decision.

Remember,

this isn't just a personal decision

that Ahaz is making.

That just affects him.

The entire kingdom

is,

I mean,

he is responsible

for the entire kingdom.

What will Ahaz say?

What will he do?

Look with me in verse 12.

But Ahaz said,

I will not ask

and I will not put

the Lord to the test.

It's an incredible response

because,

you know what,

it's actually a very biblical response.

Throughout the Scriptures,

God continually says,

don't put me to the test.

Who are you

to put me to the test?

We have this idea

that if only God will do X,

then I will believe in him.

Or because he hasn't done Y,

I'm not going to believe in him.

As if God is a pony

or a dog

that we can train

to do a trick

if we only give him a treat.

Or a genie

where we rub him a certain way,

he grants us our wish,

and then we forget about him.

That's our propensity.

And it would seem

that Ahaz here

is saying a very godly thing.

Verse 12 again,

I will not ask

and I will not put

the Lord to the test.

Remember when Jesus

is tempted in the wilderness

by Satan,

what does he say?

You shall not put

the Lord God to the test.

And yet,

this is the Lord's response.

Verse 13,

and he said,

oh, sorry,

verse,

yeah,

verse 13.

And he said,

Hear then,

O house of David,

is it too little

for you to weary men

that you weary my God also?

You see,

what's happening here

is Ahaz is a faithless man

and he is shrouding

his faithlessness

in piety.

He is putting on a show.

He is acting in a way

so that he will appear

well-formed and godly,

but his heart

is turned away from God.

God is,

he's inviting him

into a life of faith

and he's saying,

actually,

I'm okay.

I've got this.

I don't need

the Lord's help,

but you can't say that.

So what does he say?

I'm not going to put

the Lord to the test.

I'm not going to take

the Lord's offer.

I'm going to continue on

in my sin.

I'll say this,

excuses abound

when fear or pride

grip our hearts.

It's easy to follow

the Lord

when things seem

like they are going

really well,

but when difficulty comes,

when pressure arises

and we feel pinched,

fear or pride kick in

and it's very hard

to trust in the Lord.

But the call here

is to turn our face

towards him.

It's to not tell the Lord

what we need,

but to cry out to the Lord

for the help

that we need

from him

and trust that he will

give us what we need

in our time of need.

The problem with unbelief

isn't just that

it disrespects the Lord.

It is the one thing

that prevents,

in a sense,

prevents

the Lord

from doing

the very thing

that he desires to do,

extending forgiveness,

mercy, and grace.

We need to receive

the Lord's forgiveness.

We need to receive

his mercy.

We need to receive

his grace.

And the hard heart

that is not affected

by the work

of God himself

cannot receive

because it is cold

and it is hard

and it is broken.

More than that,

the Lord sees

the facade of Ahaz

because only God

has a window

into the soul

of all people.

One of the things

we pray

at the beginning

of every service,

what we pray today,

is the collect

or communal prayer

for purity.

And one of the things,

and I mentioned this

this morning,

it helps us to have

the right posture

before Almighty God,

but it also reminds us

that God knows

our hearts

more than even

we know our hearts.

What does it say?

Almighty God

unto whom

all hearts be open,

all desires known,

and from whom

no secrets are hid.

How on earth

can you hide

from this God?

How can you put

on a show

to this God?

How can you

put up a facade

and think that

it will fool him?

You cannot.

This is Ahaz's

big problem here.

He thinks he can

fool the Lord,

but he cannot

at all.

Besides,

this is already

indicative

of Ahaz

making up his mind.

He has already

turned his face

away from the Lord.

And here's the

interesting thing,

not in our portion

of scripture,

but if we go back

to 2 Kings chapter 16,

2 Kings 16 · chapter mention

we'll see that Ahaz,

he will eventually

side with the Assyrians,

this brutal regime,

and he will travel

to pay them tribute

of silver and gold.

Where does he get

the silver and gold?

From the very temple

of the Lord.

He robs God

to pay tribute

to a false savior.

It is a scandalous thing.

The Assyrians

will go

and absolutely

crush Damascus,

crush them.

Problem solved.

Ahaz is justified

in his decision,

but what ends up

happening is now

he is not free

from Damascus

and from Samaria,

from the Syrian,

not Assyria,

but the Syrian

regional power

and the kingdom

of Israel.

He's not just

free from them,

now he's under

the thumb

of the Assyrians

and it is way worse.

False saviors

will always promise

salvation,

but you will find

that the peace

will not fully last

and it will be

not as far reaching

as you would hope for

and you are more

in bondage

after the fact

than you were before.

This is the nature

of false salvation,

of false saviors

and it's an interesting

bit here because

Ahaz

will not

kind of come

to his senses,

but what he will do

is that he'll continue

to persist

in this

idolatry.

He'll go back

to Jerusalem

and he will

rearrange the temple

so that it looks

like an Assyrian temple

because he's

concurring favor

with the Assyrian king

and now he is

a subject

of the Assyrian god.

Wild,

a wild story.

This is the king of Judah

to lead the Lord's people

to the Lord

and what is happening?

He's turning them

into Assyrians.

Here's an interesting thing.

We talked a bit

about faithlessness.

Ahaz

is not a faithless man

because he puts

his faith

not in the Lord

of Israel

but in the might

and power

of Assyria.

He is deceived

into thinking

that he has

bet on the right horse

and this is another

interesting insight

for us.

We cannot not

be people of faith.

Faithlessness

is an interesting

concept in the Bible

because it refers

specifically to the

lack of faith

we have to the one

true God

but it doesn't mean

that we are people

without faith.

We have to have faith.

We have to put our trust

into things

into people.

It's just who

are we going to

put our faith in?

What are we going

to put our faith in?

God has made us

so that we would

have a relationship

with him

and we can't turn

that off

if we

look the other way.

We still have

that

impulse

that God-given

impulse

in our hearts.

So here's a question.

What is our faith in?

What is my faith in?

Is it like Ahaz

where we have a faith

but it is in

pragmatism?

Things that will

ease our anxiety

but only for a moment?

Things that

take the pressure off

but never deal

with the source

of the pressure?

Does momentary peace

now cost us

true joy

later?

Such decisions

will result

not in a life

of flourishing

but a life

of constraint?

a life

of

slavery

to the things

that we thought

would give us freedom.

True peace

will ultimately

be fleeting.

It's the case

with Ahaz

and it will be

the case with us.

So this should be it,

right?

Ahaz was given

two chances.

Presumably he was

given more

but in our section

just two chances.

Should be the end

of the story.

God,

he extended

mercy.

Ahaz said no.

Okay,

too bad,

so sad for Judah.

Too bad,

so sad for Ahaz.

It should be the end

of the story

except that it's not

because the Lord,

he says,

listen,

Ahaz,

name the sign

and I will give it.

Ahaz says no

and then the Lord

says this in verse 14.

Verse 14,

therefore the Lord

himself will give you

a sign.

Behold,

the virgin

shall conceive

and bear a son

and shall call

his name Emmanuel.

Israel

completely

turning its back

from the Lord.

Judah

completely turning

its back

from the Lord.

The entire world

turning its back

to the Lord.

And how does

the Lord respond?

The Lord responds

by saying,

I will give you hope

not just for the

here and now

but forever

and hope

that will not

deal with the

Assyrian enemy

at hand

but your

enemies

for all time.

I will deal

not with this

regional power

that will just

be replaced

by the Babylonians,

that will just

be replaced

by the Persians

and replaced

by the Greeks

and so on

and so on

and so on

but I will deal

with the root cause

of your pain

and your enemies

and your sin.

I will deal

with death itself

and any demon

or devil

I will kill.

The first reading

we did is from

Genesis 3

and it's this

beautiful picture

of in the middle

of this horrendous

thing that Adam

and Eve do,

this curse

in the garden

that causes them

to leave Eden.

In the midst

of that,

God says,

I will send

a child

that will crush

the head

of the serpent.

It's this wonderful

promise and this

is what we're seeing

in verse 14.

If Ahaz

will not trust

in the Lord

on behalf

of his people

then the Lord

will intervene

himself

and he will

provide a sign.

God,

like I said

a couple weeks ago,

God is mercy

in the same way

that he is love,

in the same way

that he is grace,

in the same way

that he extends

forgiveness

because it is

who he is

and he can't

deny himself

and if there's

faithlessness

in the people

of Israel,

he will extend

mercy

and grace

all the same.

The Lord

in his steadfast

love promises

that new life

will come

through the

pangs of suffering

so that

the insurmountable

enemy

will be conquered

and the result

will not be

a momentary peace

but it will be

forever.

It will be a peace

that can only be

brought about

by the one true

God

where he heals

the sickness

of our souls

by dealing

with the sickness

of our sin.

It will be

a peace

from all things

for he will

give himself

to us.

An interesting

bit here,

he says that

verse 14,

the sign

will be

that the virgin

shall conceive

and bear a son

and shall call

his name

Emmanuel

which is

God with us.

Matthew will

pick this up

in his narrative

but it is also

appropriate to say

that God

come to us,

God save us.

It is a declaration

that God

is willing

and able

and joyous

to do

what only

he can do.

friends,

the announcement

700 years

before Jesus

comes on the scene

that the virgin

shall,

she shall be

with child,

she shall

give birth

to this

wonderful,

miraculous

son,

it is a promise

to us

and to all

who would call

upon him

that God

will not deal

with us

as we ought

to be dealt

with.

So as we

close,

let us

not be like

Ahaz.

Let us not

be somebody

who when

the difficult

times come

we look to

functional saviors

and not the one

true God

to be our

savior.

Here's a

wonderful irony

in all of this.

Ahaz thought

that by

rebuffing

God's invitation

that he would

be a more

free person

but now

we find

in the text

that he

is a slave

and yet

the call

for us

is to become

slaves of

Christ

so that

we become

truly free.

Friends,

this is

the invitation

we have

today.

This is

the Christmas

message.

Let us

have ears

to hear.

Let us

have minds

to understand

and hearts

to receive

this wonderful

gift,

Emmanuel.

Let us

pray.

Father in

heaven,

we thank

you for

the gift

of Emmanuel.

We thank

you that

you didn't

see fit

to leave

us in

our unbelief

and really

our false

belief.

Lord,

that you

saw fit

to not

treat us

as we

ought to

have been

treated,

but rather

you extend

mercy and

grace to

us because

you cannot

deny who

you are

and you

are love

incarnate.

So,

Lord,

help us

to rightly

receive

your son,

to repent

of the

ways that

we have

sought

salvation

apart from

you and

come to

you afresh.

Lord,

you have

gone to

great distances

to come

to us.

Lord,

let us

turn to

you.

We pray

this in

Jesus'

mighty name,

our Emmanuel,

God with

us.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.