God with us – part I (Isa 7:1-16; Matt 1:22-23)

As Christmas approaches, we often find ourselves torn between wanting to prepare for the season spiritually but also anxious about the jobs we need to do: baking, cooking, finding presents, hosting people. At times like these, worry might take over: the financial burdens that will accompany Christmas, the family tensions that simmer just below the surface, the stress of running out of time with so much to do. For others, the season brings pain: loneliness and being without family for one reason or another, the emptiness after a loved one is no longer with us, ongoing illness that never lets up even in the festive season.

Into these situations comes the message of the well-known prophecy about Immanuel, God with us. I will explore the NT fulfilment in my next post, but for today, let’s look at the OT context. Israel as a kingdom was torn into two after Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 11:9–12:20): Judah in the south and Israel in the north. King Ahaz in Judah in our passage is facing a military threat from Israel and her ally, Aram (Syria), and is so afraid that his heart shakes like a tree in the wind (Isa 7:2). God sends Isaiah to reassure him offering a sign but Ahaz refuses, possibly because he has already decided to trust instead in Assyria (2 Kings 16:7): a rising empire that is further north of Syria (roughly in the territory of modern-day Iraq). God nevertheless provides a sign about a young woman giving birth to a son whose name will be Immanuel, a reminder that ‘God (is) with us’. God promises that by the time the child reaches the age of moral responsibility (to refuse evil and choose good—vv.15­–16), probably about age 13,[1] the two kingdoms that Ahaz fears will be gone. The conflict between Judah and Israel-Aram occurred in 734/33 BC. Aram was later overrun, and Israel taken into captivity by Assyria in 722/21 BC, a period of about 13 years.

King Ahaz is facing the most fundamental question of a relationship with God. Will he trust the Lord when in difficulty or will he rely on human strength? God reassures him, but to Ahaz, God’s help seems insufficient. Isn’t this familiar? From a human perspective, God’s help often looks like it won’t be quite enough. Seeking human support itself isn’t always wrong, but in the ancient world alliances involved the gods who were seen to give a kingdom power. A powerful ally would have a powerful god and it was tempting for God’s people to join the worship of a foreign god to receive the same power. King Ahaz fell into this trap (2 Kings 16:10-13). Ultimately, not trusting God will always lead to idolatry: putting our trust into people or things that we think will make our lives happier, safer and more fulfilled. In this season of Advent what situations do we face where we need to trust the Lord?

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[1] We don’t know what this age was in ancient Israel, but, by way of comparison, in modern Judaism it is age 13 (this is when boys undergo a bar mitzvah ceremony).