Church Sermon - December 19, 2004

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Epistle Lesson; Romans 1:1-7
Gospel Lesson; Matthew 1:18-25
Sermon Text; Isaiah 7:10-14

Ahaz had a real problem on his hands, a huge dilemma. Ahaz was the King of Judah. Judah was, by this time, a country that didn’t have very much military power. There was a rising superpower, to the northeast of Judah, called Assyria. There was great fear that there would not be many more years before the Assyrians would become so powerful that they would sweep into this region of the world, capture the people of Judah, enslave them, and cause all kinds of trouble and grief in their lives. And, Ahaz, the King of Judah, was greatly concerned about what was going to happen, when Assyria finally became the superpower that it appeared it was going to become.

To make matters worse, Israel, (the Kingdom of Israel, now known as the Northern Kingdom, which had broken away from Judah), and also a fading superpower called Aram, or Syria, recognized that the Assyrians were becoming a superpower. They also were concerned about the Assyrians. And so, Aram and Israel formed a treaty with one another. They decided that they were going to consolidate their power so that they would be able to fend off the Assyrians.

One of the things that Aram and Israel decided to do was to attack Judah, so that they could take Judah underneath their umbrella and have a bigger, power base when the Assyrians came.

That was Ahaz’s dilemma. Ahaz knew that Aram and Israel were on the doorstep, were about to attack, and they were much more powerful than Judah. And, he knew that they would be overcome. He also knew that the Assyrians would be coming and takeover.

What was Ahaz to do? Now, Ahaz should have known that God promises to deliver His faithful people, and that this really wasn’t a dilemma at all. God could certainly deliver them. However, Ahaz, (as we often do), rather than trust in God to solve the dilemma, Ahaz determined he had to take this problem into his own hands, and solve the dilemma himself. So, he did two things. These two things were bad solutions to a dilemma.

The first thing that he did was this. He realized that he was about to be attacked by Aram and Israel. He knew that Aram was very powerful, a very powerful nation. Ahaz wished that he had that kind of military power and so he began to ask himself the question, "How did Aram get so powerful?"

And, you know what answer he came up with? He thought, "Well, it must be their god. Our God sure does not seem to have much power. He doesn’t seem to be helping us. We are a pretty weak nation. But they are strong. They are powerful. It must be their god. If I could have Aram’s god on my side, then maybe I would have a powerful military."

Now, the Aramians worshipped a number of different gods, including Baal, (who Ahaz started to worship). And, they also worshipped a brutal, a very brutal god called Molech or Chemosh. Molech was considered a very brutal, fierce, angry god, who was believed to be the god of war. It was believed that if you had him on your side, he would use his fierce, angry brutality to destroy your enemies. And, if he was not on your side, look out!

And so, Ahaz wanted to get Molech-Chemosh on his side. Well, there was only one way that they thought you could get this brutal, angry god to be on your side. It was by doing something so brutal, in his honor, that he would look at you and say, "Wow! I am on your side. I am going to fight for you." You know what that brutal thing was? Ahaz actually did this. Ahaz took his own living son, (more than one of them, as a matter of fact), lit him on fire, burned him up, (while they were still alive), and sacrificed him to Molech, with the idea that with that brutal act would turn Molech to his favor. That was the first mistake that Ahaz made in trying to solve his dilemma.

The second mistake that he made was this. Ahaz trusted in the might of men. He knew that Aram and Israel were coming and that they were on the doorstep. And, he knew that Assyria was a rising superpower and that they were going to be coming. He should have known God has promised He will defend us, if we are faithful to Him, (and it doesn’t matter how big our army is or how small our army is).

Ahaz should have known if God is on our side, it doesn’t matter how big those armies were. But, instead, Ahaz trusted in the might of men. He took silver and gold from the temple in Jerusalem, and sent lots of silver up to the King of Assyria, hoping that he would win his favor and fight against Israel and Aram.

Huge dilemma. Huge dilemma. And Ahaz tried to solve it in the best way he thought he knew how.

We try to do that sometimes, too, don’t we? We run into huge dilemmas in our life. Rather than seeking the God-pleasing solution, because we wonder whether God can really help, whether God really has the power, we seek a man-made solution; a solution that goes against the Will of God and in the end only brings more trouble to our lives.

Maybe a husband and a wife aren’t getting along very well with each other. (Not because one of them has committed adultery, but they are just not getting along very well.) It is a dilemma. "How are we going to solve these marital problems?" And so, rather than trusting in God, who promises through Christ, to reconcile us, how many times do we try to come up with a human solution, and maybe just dissolve the marriage to try to get rid of that dilemma? That only brings more problems and more troubles.

Or, has it happened that a young boy or girl has been caught by mom or dad with something in their room, which they should not have? Rather than trusting God is going to use this, somehow. "He is going to take care of me, if I do the right thing and tell the truth." However, rather than tell the truth, we tell a lie. That lie keeps us, maybe, from getting the kind of help we need. And, instead of being a God-pleasing solution, it only brings more troubles to us.

Or, maybe we are in financial need. Instead of trusting God’s promises to take care of the need of His people, we try to come up with our own solution. Maybe we lie on our tax returns so that we will have a little more money for ourselves. That is not a God-pleasing solution to that dilemma.

Maybe a young woman gets pregnant out of wedlock. She has a huge dilemma on her hands. Instead of trusting that God is, somehow, in His mighty power and love, going to work this out for her good, she sees the shame that people are going to look at her with. She is worried about what her parents and her boyfriend will think. She is worried what it will do to her career. The only option she sees is to terminate the pregnancy. That is not a God-pleasing solution to the dilemma.

How many times in our lives, have we been in a dilemma, and like Ahaz, rather than trust God to deliver us, we have come up with our own solutions that are not God pleasing. It is in that context that takes us to our scripture reading for today. The Bible tells us about Ahaz and the people of Jerusalem, when it says, "Their hearts were shaking like leaves, when the wind blows through the trees." They were scared to death of what was going to happen. The LORD sent Isaiah to Ahaz. Isaiah went to Ahaz and told him, "Ahaz, don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. God is with you. God can defeat the King of Israel. He can defeat the King of Aram. He can defeat the King of Assyria. Just trust God."

And God said through Isaiah, "Ask the LORD your God for any sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights." God, there, was offering Ahaz, "If you need proof that I will solve this dilemma for you, I’ll give you any sign that you want. If you want me to send fire down from Heaven, I will send that to show you a sign that I am here to help."

Well, what did Ahaz say? In our scripture reading today, it says, "Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz. ‘Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or the highest heights.’"

"But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.’"

Ahaz really didn’t think that God could help him, and he didn’t even want a sign from God. So then, listen to what happens next.

"Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself, (the Lord himself), will give you a sign."

Ahaz didn’t want a sign. So, God said, "Ahaz, then I will send you my own sign, my own sign to prove to you that you don’t have to be afraid. You don’t have to worry. You can trust me."

What was the sign?

"The virgin will be with child, and

will give birth to a Son and

will call him Immanuel."

I want you to think of the implications of this sign God said He promised He would send. You know, Ahaz was in trouble. He was in huge trouble. If you are in trouble, and you wanted some sign from God, you might think, "Oh, if I could just have a sign, to know that God would help me". Maybe we would want a sign that would display God’s power. "Boy! Is He ever powerful! He is able to help me!"

God promised to send a sign that would show He is not only all-powerful, absolutely powerful, but a sign that also proves God is absolutely loving. So, I know that this all-powerful God is not only all-powerful, but He loves me! This sign is so great that there is no question God loves me so deeply and will help me in my troubles. And, what was the sign? It was a simple little sign. "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a Son, and will call Him Immanuel."

Think about that. Is there any sign that could better combine the absolute power of God with the absolute love of God? There is not a sign more powerful than that! That sign shows such power from God. We human beings have a lot power, don’t we? We can destroy all kinds of things. But, God can destroy more than we could ever destroy.

And, there is one thing that we can’t do, as much as we try. You and I cannot create human life, (or any kind of life) in a supernatural way. Only God has the mighty power to do that. Here God says, "I will show you my power. You want to see power? A virgin will be with child." That’s power! That is absolute power from God - a virgin, in a supernatural way, would be with child.

And, that child would not be any ordinary child. She would call Him, Immanuel, which means God with us. That’s power! God, Himself, came down from Heaven, took on human flesh in the womb of a virgin, (took on human fingers, human arms, human eyes, human ears, a human body - human flesh). That is absolute power, from God. God says that is the sign.

It is also absolute love from God, because not only is God all-powerful and can help you in any trouble, but also, God, Himself, is going to step out of Heaven! He is going to come to this earth. He is going to take on human flesh. He is going to become one of us. He is going to walk in this world. He is going to bear up, on His shoulders, all of our problems, all of our sins, all of our troubles!

It is pretty horrible to know that Ahaz thought, "I have to sacrifice my son in the fire, to a god to win that god’s favor."

God was saying to Ahaz, "That is not how to win MY favor. Ahaz, I am going to do that for you. I love you so dearly, that I will put my Son, my dear Son in the fire for you. My Son will go to the cross for you. My Son will go to the fires of Hell, for you, to satisfy my anger against all of your sin. He will pay for your sin."

That is the sign of absolute power and love from God. God was saying to Ahaz, "If I do that, if I have my Son, conceived of a virgin, born into this world, and become Man, to be your Savior, oh Ahaz, you can trust me. I will take care of your problems. I will take care of your troubles."

And, He says the same to you and to me - the same! Do you want to know if God is trustworthy? Do you want to know, when you are in some huge dilemma, if God is going to help you? "Is God going to take care of this? If I do the God pleasing thing, will this all work out for my good?"

God has given you a sign. Do you want a sign? He has given you a sign. He has given you a sign and there can be no greater sign. God, in His almighty power has taken on flesh for you, in the manger.

And, God in His almighty love has done that to take care of your greatest need – your greatest need and my greatest need – the payment for our sin. There is no greater sign that God will absolutely help us in every trouble.

And so, when we are in a dilemma, let’s go into that dilemma, with Jesus. Let’s go into it, with Jesus. We don’t need to come up with human solutions that are not God pleasing solutions. They will not, in the end, help us.

Let’s go in, with Jesus.

Trust yourself to Jesus. Do things in a God pleasing way and trust that Jesus will take care of you.

It is also very interesting to know this. Did you know that Ahaz is a relative of Jesus? If you add twenty-two greats to the word grandpa, great, great, great...(twenty two times) grandpa, you would get to Joseph. Joseph is a direct descendent of Ahaz. Joseph is Jesus’ stepfather. In the book of Matthew, as they trace the genealogy of Jesus back through Joseph, His legal heir, you come to Ahaz. And so, Ahaz was the step twenty-second great grandfather of Jesus. Now, Jesus, knowing what kind of man Ahaz was could have certainly turned up His nose at him, because Jesus is holy and perfect. But, Jesus did not do that. Jesus wants the whole world to know. He put it down in writing, in the Bible, and shouts it from the mountain tops, "Ahaz is one of my relatives. I am not ashamed. I am not ashamed to be related to a sinner like Ahaz. That is who I came for."

That should be comforting to you and me. If Jesus is not ashamed of Ahaz, He is not ashamed to be your brother. He is not ashamed of you. In fact, He came for you! He came to deliver you from all of your sin.

And so, we have a mighty Savior. We can trust all of our dilemmas into His hands, stand with Him, do things His way, and we know, we know that He will deliver us, because God has given His sign.

Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you, and be with you always!

Amen.

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