If You Quote Isaiah 7:14 This Christmas, Read This
Isaiah 7:14 Beyond the Memes
We love memes in America. Whether political or humor or Bible verses, it infuses us with all kinds of emotions to see a handful of words on a background that draws the eye and makes the point we want to make quite simply.
And too often simplistically.
With most serious topics, we need a much deeper understanding than a meme can typically communicate. This is absolutely true with the Bible.
Now, no doubt, you can honor God and love people by posting just a verse to Instagram or Facebook. Yet when our understanding of such verses is without any or all of its contexts (immediate passage context, entire Bible context, historical or cultural context), we truly err by remaining ignorant of the Bible the way God gave it to us. Especially in a country and language where we have seemingly infinite resources at our disposal to help us understand.
At Christmastime, I am thinking especially of verses like Isaiah 7:14 and 9:6. We simply cannot just rip those verses from their contexts over and over and never get around to understanding things like who King Ahaz was, what Isaiah 8:20-22 says, and everything else we read in Isaiah 7-9 outside of those two verses. Or the whole of Isaiah for that matter.
I did Isaiah 9:6 last year. Today I aim to explain Isaiah 7:14 in its original context. And to me, when we do this, the meaning of Christmas is far richer, poignant, and impactful than just telling the world that Mary conceived a baby to be called Immanuel. Even as powerful and crucial to Christianity as that one verse is.
To begin with, we really should know what Isaiah 7:1-13 says. And even what 2 Kings 16 says, since that helps provide more background and detail to King Ahaz and what he was facing in Isaiah 7, and how he responded.
What we know from these two chapters is that Syria and Israel were intent on invading Judah, where Ahaz was king. Isaiah 7 says up front they were not successful with this attack but as the story unfolds it becomes surprising as to why. Because it wasn’t because Ahaz was righteous or trusted God. The opposite even. Using 2 Kings 16 we can see clearly that Ahaz was intent on paying off Assyria, another mighty war bully, to defend them. Even using the gold from God’s Temple, which is something kings had lamentably done before in 1 Kings.
Ahaz had no concern for the things of God. And no fear of God. He feared men and only cared about trusting his resources to protect himself and his kingdom. And we know from 2 Kings 16 that he also sacrificed his own son at one point. So this man was clearly the epitome of faithless evil, the essence of what separates us from God (Hebrews 3:12).
Yet, God speaks to him and saves him anyway. That is really the point of the sign of Isaiah 7:14 about the virgin conceiving a son and naming him Emmanuel. It’s not a verse written to a picture-perfect church on a snow day watching a children’s Christmas play. It’s a verse that is given in anger by Isaiah when looking at verse 13 before it: “Then Isaiah said, “Listen well, you royal family of David! Isn’t it enough to exhaust human patience? Must you exhaust the patience of my God as well?” (NLT)
Ahaz had no faith. So God straightened him out. Proving that he would do something only He could do and promising he would be with him. The phrase you read in the King James Bible “Lord of Host” could be translated as something like “God of Heaven’s Armies”. This is the God who proved time and time again in the Bible that he is undefeated against military bullies. He took 300 men with Gideon to wipe out 100,000 Midianites. He used the choir, singing without drawing weapons, in 2 Chronicles 20 to lead Jehoshaphat to victory. He wiped out 185,000 Assyrians while Judah slept, also during the days of Isaiah.
God is invincible and all-powerful. He wants us to know that and believe that. Jesus being born in an impossible way just proves that as much as anything.
Why did God do this to Ahaz, though? Shouldn’t he have judged him for lack of faith as he did Zechariah in Luke 1 (which, coincidentally is a lack of faith in God to do the impossible in pregnancy)? Why save Ahaz, just as he stunningly did with an even more wicked king in Ahab in 1 Kings 20?
God has his reasons but I can’t help but think that whatever they are, this story should turn the message of Christmas on its head for us. It’s not just a nativity scene for good, upstanding church folk. It’s for the wicked in power. It’s for those who sacrifice their children. And It’s ultimately a message of God being able to do the impossible and our trust in that, instead of trusting in our resources. A message, as we read over and over in the Christmas passages, to not fear.
I mean look even to Joseph in Matthew 1, the very man who received Isaiah 7:14 directly. If anyone was scared and confused about the Christmas message, it was him.
What does that look like in 2024? Well if we truly believed God enabled a virgin to have a baby that would die in our place and be with us always (Matthew 28:19-20), I venture to say we’d spend a lot of time praying, fasting, and witnessing.
Prayer and fasting are means to trust God to do what we cannot, among other things. And they should compel us to care about things like injustice (Isaiah 58). Witnessing is our means of showing that we believe this message is the most important one ever, and this is for everyone no matter how abominable their sin is. Fear of men should not cripple us into silence. After all, God is with us!!
Yet if data proves anything, it’s that Christians do infrequently, it’s things like pray, fast, and witness. It’s not uncommon for even good churches to struggle to get half their members involved in prayer and fasting movements and even just a handful of people at prayer hours outside of normal church services. Only a tiny percentage of Christians regularly share Jesus with lost people.
it’s because we are so distracted by our own little worlds, where our relationships and resources provide us with everything we need. If you have a full refrigerator, how appealing does fasting sound? If all of your family members are safe and in church, why should we care about strangers who may end up in Hell?
We want Christmas to be peaceful and serene. And I do not doubt for many, that may be needed this time of year. But I implore us at some point to truly dig deeply into the mess of the Christmas passages in the Bible, and let that lead us to trust God enough to get involved in the messiness of interacting with real people in the real world. Of dealing with real doubt and real sin.
And not settling to communicate Christ with memes on Instagram.
- If You Quote Isaiah 7:14 This Christmas, Read This - December 3, 2024
- If You Love Andrew Peterson’s “The Sower’s Song,” Read This - November 8, 2024
- The Chosen and Being Helpless In Grief - September 10, 2024
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This is very good, and and an extremely relevant reminder. Knowing the Old Testament background make the Christmas message so much more compelling. Thanks, Gowdy.