Ask For A Sign (Isaiah 7:11)

 


Monday, December 9, 2024


Psalms 70; 75

Isaiah 7:1-17

Mark 6:30-56


Ask For A Sign (Isaiah 7:11)


Welcome to our second week through Advent as we search the prophet Isaiah for kingly virtues. We start the week off well, with a prophecy about nothing less than Christmas Day!


The enemy army is encamped around the city of Jerusalem, and the king, Ahaz, is shaking in his boots. Isaiah, along with his sons, is trying to get through to the king that if he would just ask God for help then he would get it. This introduces to us an important virtue that our King asks of us: bravery.


Bravery is a difficult thing to have. It is difficult to get, and it is difficult to hang onto. So often in life we face wave after wave of adversity, and it is not easy to exercise patience and humility. What is easy is to give into the urge to just give up, to believe that God has abandoned us, and we are like the disciples in today’s gospel reading, buffeted on the waves of a storm – and the ship will surely sink.


Yet Isaiah extends the offer of God’s grace to Ahaz; an offer of a sign from God, to strengthen his courage, to get some bravery. Ask for a sign, anything you like, whether up in the heavens or down in the place of the dead, and God will show you a very good reason to stand firm and brave.


For whatever reason, Ahaz doesn’t. Perhaps he didn’t want to be brave; perhaps he was quite happy being miserable, thank you very much. In response, God is even more gracious – and gives Isaiah a prophetic word about the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus.


How often do we give into the temptation to just give up, to say it is all too much, that God truly has abandoned us? Do we find our trust in the Lord failing? Are we brave enough to approach our Father through the Lord Jesus and boldly ask for a sign that God is, indeed, just as close as he always is? And if we aren’t bold enough, does God tell us anyway?


Lord Jesus, your birth at Christmas proves how much you love us. Keep us brave in this life with the assurance of your continual presence, even when we aren’t bold enough to ask you.

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