Words of Wisdom #274: Be Careful What You Ask For
Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz: “Ask for a sign from the Lord your God—from the depths of Sheol to the heights of heaven.” But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask. I will not test the Lord.” Isaiah said, “Listen, house of David! Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men? Will you also try the patience of my God? Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel. By the time he learns to reject what is bad and choose what is good, he will be eating butter and honey. For before the boy knows to reject what is bad and choose what is good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned. The Lord will bring on you, your people, and the house of your father, such a time as has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah—the king of Assyria [is coming].
On that day the Lord will whistle to the fly that is at the farthest streams of the Nile and to the bee that is in the land of Assyria. All of them will come and settle in the steep ravines, in the clefts of the rocks, in all the thornbushes, and in all the water holes.
On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—to shave the head, the hair on the legs, and to remove the beard as well.
On that day a man will raise a young cow and two sheep, and from the abundant milk they give he will eat butter, for every survivor in the land will eat butter and honey.
And on that day every place where there were 1,000 vines, worth 1,000 pieces of silver, will become thorns and briers. A man will go there with bow and arrows because the whole land will be thorns and briers. You will not go to all the hills that were once tilled with a hoe, for fear of the thorns and briers. [Those hills] will be places for oxen to graze and for sheep to trample. Isaiah 7:10-25 (HCSB)
In the midst of this passage is the very often referenced verse that the Apostle Matthew used to point to Jesus as the Messiah that was promised from the days before the exile of the Jews after the destruction of Jerusalem itself. Immanuel, means literally – God with us. Or, from the messianic perspective the, the presence of God’s anointed. Likewise, the term translated as virgin, actually means “young maiden” – so that here a child would be born through the womb of a young virgin girl as a sign to the king of Judah, Ahaz and his people. Within 12 years (the age of accountability in the Jewish mind) the enemies of Northern Israel and their ally, Syria (Aram) would be destroyed and people put into exile. This answered their prayer against these long time enemies, yet God was not done with Judah. The people of Judah had become arrogant and lost their first love for God, and they boasted in their invincibility. So God said He would bring His wrath upon them onto their land as well, and only the faithful remnant would be well cared for, but the land would be changed forever. The pride of the men would be shaved away by the image of having all their masculine hair from their head to their toes shaved. For the men of Judah their beards were their mark of manhood and virility.
God wanted Isaiah to be the messenger of this warning: Be careful what you ask for, and do not believe that I did it because of what you did or what you deserve, because you do not deserve anything better. Later in history in Bethlehem, a child would be born who become like Immanuel, and his name was Jesus. The Jews of the first century Jerusalem had rebuilt their temple and were under the rule of the Romans, and they felt they deserved to be freed from the yoke of the Romans. They wanted a mighty king to give them what they deserved, however when Jesus was not what they envisioned, a great earthly king to orchestrate political change, and he was orchestrating a spiritual change that rivaled the religious leaders, they moved to destroy their rival for the hearts and minds of the people.
For us, we need to be careful when we are jealous or afraid of conditions in our life and we seek God’s vengeance. What is our motive? If we are asking for the wrong reasons, we stand the risk of God making major changes in our own lives to catch our attention. We should always be careful what we ask God to do for us, and allow God to reveal what is the motive in our heart before we ask God to turn His wrath on others rivaling our lives. We may find ourselves under God’s judgment, and subject to the same response as what we asked our enemies.
Coach
www.coachbrown.org
“Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. For with the judgment you use, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a log in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them with their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces.” Matt 7:1-6 (HCSB)