“All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign.
Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will
call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).”
Isaiah 7:14 New Living Translation
At
this time in Biblical history, Israel was split into a Northern & Southern
kingdom; Israel to the North, Judah to the South. Judah’s king was Ahaz. Pekah
was the king of Israel. Pekah aligned with Syria to invade & destroy Judah.
When Ahaz heard this he was terrified. The prophet Isaiah brought the word of
the Lord to Ahaz and in spite of God’s promise to thwart Pekah’s intentions,
Ahaz sought to protect himself by buying Assyria’s allegiance. God’s said
something very telling to Ahaz thru Isaiah: “Unless
your faith is firm, I cannot make you stand.”
The prophecy in today’s verse had a two-fold fulfillment. 1) An
unwed woman in the house of Ahaz would marry & bear a child. Once the child
was 2 years old both Ahaz & King Rezin of Syria would be no more. 2) It
also points to the birth of the Christ child who would offer redemption to all
who would believe.
All
men place their faith in something or someone. Those who would be Christians
place their faith in a holy & righteous God. Those who shun what they
consider ‘religion’, place their faith in a variety of other things. To the
believer and the spiritual fence sitter, God is saying, “Unless your faith is firm, I cannot help you”. To the
non-believer, he is saying, “Unless your
faith is placed in me & me alone, I cannot save you.” Christ came to
set men free from a lifetime of sinning, but if they refuse to listen & act
on this call their is no hope for them. And a life without hope is no life at
all. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing!
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