The Old Testament is mainly about the history, the journey of a nation, the Israelites, the people whom God chose to reveal himself to the world. God wanted his people to always lean on him, to look to him for their needs and guidance, for them to love him and listen and learn from him. But as we read the scriptures we find they were constantly falling away from their relationship with God.
Isaiah the son of Amos was a prophet to the Kings of Judah. In 750BC Rezin the King of Syria and Pekah the King of Israel came near to Jerusalem to make war against King Ahaz of Judah. God had given Isaiah a word of prophecy for King Ahaz. Isaiah took his son, Shearjashub with him, when he met with Ahaz. Isaiah told him that he must not be afraid of these two Kings; they would not come against Jerusalem and its King. Isaiah 7: 10-16
Isaiah encouraged King Ahaz to ask God for a sign, but Ahaz said that he would not put the Lord to the test. May be he was afraid to ask because of Gideon who many years before had found himself in a similar situation under threat of attack from the Midianites and the Amalekites in the Valley of Jezreel.
Gideon asked God for a sign.
Gideon asked God if he would deliver Israel and sought a visible sign from him, ”Behold I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on the ground then I will know that you will deliver Israel by my hand, as you have said.” Next morning the fleece was ringing wet and the ground was dry. He asked God again but this time that the fleece might be dry and the ground wet. The following day he found the fleece dry and the ground was wet.
After the signs were given the Lord had not finished with Gideon, he was told by God to send home the men of Judah who were fearful of battle. Twenty two thousand went home. Then he was again told by God to send the men down to the water to drink, those who knelt down to drink were sent home the three hundred men who drank using their hands, he would use them to defeat the armies of the Midianites and the Amalekites. Judges 6: 36-40
King Ahaz had not the faith of Gideon we read that he had little faith. King Ahaz had said that he would not put the Lord to the test. I don’t think that he wanted to hear from God, scriptures records that he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, he worshipped other gods. 2 Kings 16:1,2
Ahaz asked the Assyrian King for his help rather than heed to Isaiah’s prophecy and sign.
(The Assyrian Empire was situated north east of Judea, the river Tigris running through it.)
Under law in some circumstances it was wrong to test God and ask for a sign. Deuteronomy 6:16
Jews were sent to Jesus to test him, they asked him should they pay taxes to Cesar or not? Their question arose out of malice, and they were challenging God, there motivation was not from seeking the will of God or his help. In this situation Jesus said that it was wrong to test God.
Jesus would not perform a sign on request to prove that he was the Messiah.
Today should we ask for a sign?
I’ve been taught to look for confirmation before stepping out in faith. Confirmation that comes through someone else or through a word of scripture. This is not the same as challenging the Lord, giving him an ultimatum on what he is asking me to do, as to whether he will support it?
To seek a sign to confirm a word from the Lord out of obedience, rather than being motivated by seeking self assurance.
Isaiah’s two sons
When the people looked at Isaiah’s sons who had been named in association with prophesies, their names reminded the people as a sign that God was with them. Isaiah 8: 18
Isaiah's eldest son
Isaiah's eldest son was named Shearjashub meaning ‘a remnant shall be saved.’ Isaiah had prophesied that after the tree, (Judah) is cut down a stump would remain, from it a new nation would arise. Isaiah 6: 13
And in Isaiah 10: 20, 21 he spoke of Judah no longer being reliant on a king, but on the Lord.
“In that day a remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean upon him that smote them, but will lean upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.”
Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in the near future when the people returned from exile in Babylon to re-build the temple and in more recent times after their suffering in the second world war the state of Israel came into being and Jewish people returned to their Biblical home land.
Isaiah’s youngest son
Isaiah gave King Ahaz a sign from God, “A young woman would conceive and bear a son, and he shall be called Emmanuel. . . . Before the child knows the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, the two Kings who he was in fear of the King of Syria and the King of Israel, their land would be deserted, having been conquered by the King of Assyria.”
This prophecy had double fulfilment Isaiah’s wife conceived and bore a son they named him according to the Lord’s word Maher shala hash baz
‘Before he can say my father and my mother the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the King of Assyria.” Damascus and Israel and later Judah would be taken over by the King of Assyria. Isaiah 8: 1-8
The name meaning - quick to plunder, swift to the spoil.'
Immanuel a sign not a child’s name
Emmanuel meaning – God with us’ it was the sign that God was with them in the fulfilling of the prophecy in the child’s name.
Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled when Mahershalahashbaz was three years old. In 732BC the Assyrian army swiftly conquered Damascus and within ten years Israel was defeated and its people were exiled, and the land was deserted. The Assyrians brought people from other lands to occupy their newly conquered territory. King Ahaz compromised his nation’s religion when he brought back from Damascus the plan of the pagan altar. In his weakness of faith he discredited and dishonoured God.
Isaiah’s sons had no power to perform miracles. Their testimony was in their names, a sign that God was with them.
In the New Testament Isaiah's prophecy of Messiah's birth
The Virgin Birth.
To have faith in the Virgin Birth is to believe that all things are possible with God. When a person receives healing through prayer, God heals within the body, without touching the flesh.
In 1978 Louise Joy Brown was born, she was the first test tube baby. It seemed incredible at the time. Drs Steptoe and Edwards made medical history when they developed the means were they were able to plant Leslie Brown’s fertilised egg into her womb. We take these breakthroughs in medical science for granted now, but I remember a comment at the time, ‘scientists were playing at being God.’
God fertilised the egg in Mary’s womb, without her flesh being touched. Mary gave Jesus his humanity; God the Father of Jesus gave him his Divinity.
Mary had a visit from the angel Gabriel he told her that she had been chosen to bear the Son of God; she was to name him Jesus. He would be the heir to the throne of King David and reign over Israel for ever. Mary’s response, “I have no husband, I’m not married and I’m a virgin.” angel Gabriel continued to reveal to her that, “The Most High would over shadow her.” The baby would be the Son of God. Luke 1: 26-35
Mary conceived either just after the angel spoke to her or when she arrived at Zechariah and Elizabeth’s home.
Straight away after the angel had spoken to Mary she left her home to visit Elizabeth who was six months pregnant. It would have taken her two/three days to go from Nazareth to the hill country of Judea, approx 80 miles via the Roman roads.
When Mary arrived at their home and greeted Elizabeth. On hearing this greeting Elizabeth’s unborn baby leapt in her womb. A baby first moves at 3 1/2 to 4 months, I remember experiencing myself this movement, it’s a slight fluttering. The baby at 6 months tends to stretch and kick, but to leap must have been very noticeable. As this took place Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit spoke out loudly this greeting, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child in your womb,” and then she referred to Mary being the mother of her Lord. These words confirmed that she had conceived without her flesh being touched by any man. Her song of joy overflowed as she magnified the Lord.
Advent 2009 lead by Martin our Vicar we studied the 17 attributes of God in Mary’s song.
Mary remained with Elizabeth supporting her through the following three months and then left to return to Nazareth. I wondered why Mary did not stay for the birth of John. Luke wrote that she returned to her home and in the next verse wrote “Now the time came for Elizabeth to be delivered, and she gave birth to a son. Luke 1: 39-56, 57.
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"Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly." Matthew 1: 18, 19.
Joseph was betrothed(engaged)in marriage to Mary.
After 3 months Mary returned to Nazareth she would know that she was having a baby by one of the symptoms that of morning sickness and maybe Elizabeth was able to comfort her having gone through the same experience. Would Mary have kept it from Joseph? I feel sure that she would have told Joseph that she was pregnant of the Holy Spirit. Joseph wrestled with the situation that he found himself in. He decided maybe to divorce her. Under Jewish law the father of the groom arranged the marriage and a bride-price was paid as part of the betrothal it was the first part of a marriage contract. The actual marriage could take place years later.
(In Matthew's gospel, he uses the technical term husband and wife under the betrothal context. Luke 2: 5 Luke informs us that they are betrothed when they make the journey to Bethlehem, the marriage service between them has not yet taken place.)
We are betrothed to Jesus Christ.
Father God arranged for the price for our salvation to be paid on the cross, this is seen as the bride-price and betrothal to Jesus Christ. The marriage between Jesus and his bride the church followed by the marriage supper has yet to take place. Revelations 19: 7, 9.
Joseph’s dream
The dream convinced Joseph that Mary was with child of the Holy Spirit.
Joseph was told by the angel in his dream to name the unborn child Jesus meaning saviour; he would save the people from their sins. Also he was to be the sign Immanuel meaning ‘God with us’.
When Matthew wrote this prophecy (after the evening of the Day of the Resurrection)he realised that it was one of Isaiah's prophesies that confirmed that Jesus was the Messiah.Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled in Mary, “A virgin would conceive and bear a son, and he shall be called Emmanuel.”
When the people looked at Isaiah’s sons who had been named in association with prophesies, their names reminded the people as a sign, 'Emmanuel' that God was with them, along side of them.
Jesus he was the Christ child.
Jesus was God made visible in the flesh, Jesus meaning Saviour. The prophecy in Jesus' name was fulfilled in himself. Jesus saving us from the result of sin eternal death and darkness, it is through having faith in him, recognising our sin against the holiness of God, we say sorry to the Lord our God and by the Lord's love for us we are redeemed by Jesus' blood and receive the forgiveness of our sin against God our Father.
The sign 'Emmanuel' Jesus the living God was with them in the flesh.
Jesus gave signs to show that God was in their midst:
• he gave sight to the blind
• healed of kinds of sicknesses.
• raised the dead
• at the wedding in Cana he changed the water into wine.
• walked on water
• he stilled the storm
Joseph accepted the dream as a word from God to him. Joseph would receive the baby Jesus as his own child.
Joseph was prepared to stand and be stigmatised for Mary being with child before the marriage had taken place.
Adopted into the family of God.
Just as Joseph accepted Jesus and made him his own, so we have been adopted into the Lord’s family through faith in Jesus.
“Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world”
Before Jesus we had no covenants with the God of Israel. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection the Gentiles have been brought into the new covenant.
“And might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross.” Ephesians 2: 12, 16.
All who accept him, who believe in his name, have been adopted into the family of God’s people. Jesus has made us his own.
“So that we might receive adoption as sons . . . God has set the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So through God you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an heir.” Galatians 4: 5-7
The disciples lean on Jesus
The disciples had been leaning on Jesus right up to the time of his arrest, but they did not understand the cross. God had hidden Jesus’ death from their understanding. (The Messiah’s Secret)
“For Jesus was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise.’ But they did not understand the saying and they were afraid to ask him.” Mark 9: 31, 32
The disciples were devastated by Jesus’ suffering and death. It wasn’t until the evening of the Day of the Resurrection that their minds were opened as Jesus breathed on them the Holy Spirit to understand about his death and resurrection in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. Now the Holy Spirit strengthened their faith in Jesus they could lean on him again.
Jesus had taught them that he would send the comforter, the Holy Spirit to be within them and he would lead them into all truth. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit came in power and filled them and thousands of people in Jerusalem also received him. This fulfilled Joel’s prophecy, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in the last days.
So for us too the Lord wants us to lean on him when we are tired and weary, when the road is stony and hard to follow. Doubts and fears can come upon us when we are least expecting it. Our faith can seem shallow and weak, so the cross becomes a place of suffering with Jesus for the world. we lean on the knowledge that Jesus has died for those things: injustice, cruelty so that we don’t have to carry them on our shoulders, we place then on the cross. Hence the leaning on the cross, we can rest in what he has done for us.
My sister learnt to lean on the Lord
When she came to know the Lord in a personal way when her children were Christened (Baptised into the Christian faith) at her local Anglican Church.
My sister’s marriage was on the rocks, she was struggling with a violent husband. After she accepted Jesus her life style changed, instead of going along with her husband’s way of living she found she had the strength to stand against his tyranny.
“I have been crucified in Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2: 20. John 3: 16.
Sadly a few years later her marriage failed completely and her husband left her, she was faced with bring up seven children on her own; the youngest was less than a year old. The church family helped out, some of her closest friends even had a Godly envy as she was totally dependant on the Lord who upheld her over many years.
A Christian grows in faith out of suffering because it causes us to lean on the Lord and not on our own understanding.
Scripture verses that give us the assurance that Jesus is always there for us to lean on:
“When they deliver you up, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” Matthew 10: 19, 20.
“I am with you always, to the close of the age”. Matthew 28: 20
“I will never fail you nor forsake you”. Hebrews 13:5
“I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you will be also.” John 14: 3
Joseph and Mary
Joseph was prepared to give his love to Mary’s son in giving him a home. The shepherds came and witnessed what they had heard from the angels and later the wise men brought their gifts to Jesus.
A sign that Jesus lives in our heart, is when in our love for the Lord is revealed through our actions.
My sister as part of her income delivered the Free Newspaper in her locality; her younger children accompanied her before the other children came home from school.
The wages she received she gave as her offering to church. She told me that she wanted to give something back to the Lord, a love gift, for what he had done for her.
