The Sign of the Virgin Born Immanuel

Sermon transcript

Friends, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We continue our study of the book of the prophet Isaiah and we find ourselves once again in Isaiah chapter 7. We’ll focus on verses 10 through 17. We began investigating and studying this passage on the last Lord’s Day and mostly focused on verses 10 through 14. Today we especially consider verses 14 through 17, but I’m going to read verses 10 through 25 of Isaiah chapter 7. You’ll find that on page 679 in your pew Bible. Dear friends, this is the Word of God. Let us hear it with reverence and awe. Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz. Ask a sign of the Lord your God. Let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask and I will not put the Lord to the test.

And he said, Hear then, O house of David, is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, the king of Assyria. In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the clefts of the rocks and on all the thorn bushes and on all the pastures. In that day the Lord will shave with the razor that is hired beyond the river with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also. In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep and because of the abundance of milk that they give he will eat curds for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey. In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver will become briars and thorns. With bow and arrows a man will come there for all the land will be briars and thorns and as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe you will not come there for fear of briars and thorns but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

Dear friends the grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the proclamation of his word. Oh Lord and Father in heaven you are the true and living God and you are a God who has revealed yourself to us. We thank you and praise you Lord that not only have you revealed yourself in your mighty works of creation and providence but that you have revealed yourself in a special and saving way through the mighty works of redemption that you have accomplished and as those works of redemption are recorded for us in your holy word the Bible. We pray that by your spirit as we consider this portion of your word this morning that we would hear the word with reverence and awe that indeed may our listening to the preaching of your word be an act of worship and we pray that by your spirit you would feed our souls through the word today and edify us and build us up in our most holy faith that we might go from this place refreshed and strengthened and equipped to serve you in our daily callings and vocations.

We pray these things Heavenly Father in Jesus name and all of God’s people said Amen. Your congregation you may be seated. Well the title of my sermon this morning is the sign of the Virgin born in Emmanuel and if you’re following along in your sermon outline I’d encourage the children to listen for these five words the words Messiah, King, Birth, Emmanuel, and Faith. Well dear ones I want to talk for a few moments in introducing this sermon about theological liberalism. Theological liberalism is one of the greatest theological and spiritual cancers that has afflicted the church in the last century century and a half or so. Friends the basic stance of so-called theological liberalism also known as modernism or sometimes known as progressive Christianity the basic stance of that position can be summed up by the statement Christianity is a life not a doctrine.

A more updated way of expressing this perspective is the saying deeds not creeds. Now friends it is true that biblical Christianity is indeed a way of life. Biblical Christianity is not merely going to church on Sunday it’s not merely believing certain propositions as important as those acts. Our true biblical Christianity results in a life of discipleship a life of following Jesus as Lord and Savior but it is not a way of life that is somehow opposed to or divorced from biblical doctrines and Bible based creeds. No my friends true biblical historic Christianity is a way of life that is based upon and rooted in the divinely revealed doctrines and truths that are contained in the Word of God the Holy Scriptures the Bible. As followers of Jesus Christ we confess a creed a creed that is based upon God’s Word and by the grace of God we seek however imperfectly we seek to live out the implications of that creed in our day-to-day lives by living lives of faithful discipleship to the lordship of Jesus Christ our Savior.

In other words friends true historic Christianity is not merely a system of morality and ethics cloaked in a veneer of religious ceremonialism and pious talk which is what it would be if theological liberalism were true. No dear ones genuine Christianity as revealed in the Word of God is a redemptive supernatural religion a religion that is founded upon the saving work of the supernatural divine Son of God our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is a life that is grounded upon the doctrines revealed in the Word of God and rooted in our spiritual and saving union with the resurrected and reigning Lord Jesus Christ. My dear listeners this is why consistent theological liberalism is simply not the same thing as Christianity though liberalism disingenuously and falsely claims the name of Christian for itself. As the late Dr.

J. Gressom Machin pointed out in his timely book Christianity and Liberalism and I quote from Dr. Machin he writes Christians stand in a religious relation to Jesus liberals do not stand in a religious relation to Jesus again he’s talking about theological liberals here modernists as we would call them and in talking about the difference between Christianity and liberalism Dr. Machin asks what difference could be more profound than that and he goes on to explain he says the modern liberal preacher reverences Jesus he has the name of Jesus forever on his lips he speaks of Jesus as the supreme revelation of God he enters or tries to enter into the religious life of Jesus but he does not stand in a religious relation to Jesus Jesus for him is an example for faith not the object of faith did you catch that again for the theological liberal Jesus for him is an example for faith not the object of faith the modern liberal tries to have faith in God like the faith which he supposes Jesus had in God but he does not have faith in Jesus my friends one of the ways that the liberal approach to Jesus manifests itself is in the liberal rejection of the supernatural the liberal rejection of the miraculous as it is revealed in the Bible and that leads liberalism and liberals in general to reject fundamental gospel doctrines doctrines such as the deity of Christ our Lord’s miracles and especially his literal bodily resurrection from the dead for the liberal theologian Jesus may be viewed as having a supreme God consciousness some liberals would say that Jesus was the most God intoxicated man or the most God indwelt man but the liberal does not view Jesus as the God man the typical liberal does not view Jesus as the literal son of God incarnate and so our liberal friends dismiss and sometimes even scoff at biblical miracles and you know one of their favorite miracles one of their favorite targets of attack when it comes to their attack against the miraculous is their attack against the miraculous virgin birth of Christ our Savior however here is where our passage for this Lord’s Day morning is so very relevant our passage for this morning is a strong rebuke against theological liberalism and other false doctrines that would deny the supernatural realities revealed to us in the Word of God for in this clear messianic prophecy the prophet Isaiah writing some five hundred more than five hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ the prophet Isaiah writing under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration predicts that the promised Messiah would indeed be born in a supernatural fashion for as verse 14 of our passage tells us behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel so as we dive into our text for today the first thing I want us to consider brothers and sisters is what we learn here about the supernatural origin and birth of the promised Messiah the supernatural origin and birth of the promised Messiah now let me kind of review verses 10 to 13 in fact let me just read again verses 10 through 14 to give us the context here it says this again the Lord spoke to Ahaz this is King Ahaz who was the king of Judah at that particular time and what does the Lord say to King Ahaz verse 11 he gives him a command he gives him an offer of a sign and a command he says ask a sign of the Lord your God let it be deep as shale or high as heaven now how does Ahaz respond to this offer of a supernatural sign the Lord’s saying ask me anything I’ll show you that you can trust my word I’ll show you that my promise that Syria and Israel’s threat against the land of Judah will come to nothing you can ask me to do anything and I will do it and Ahaz in a pretentious act of hypocritical pseudo piety responds and says I will not ask and I will not put the Lord to the test which is another way of saying I’m not gonna obey you Lord and I’m gonna pretend that I’m pious but my heart has already gone after the king of Assyria and then it says in verse 13 and he said the Lord responds by saying this in verse 13 here then O house of David the Lord is not merely addressing at this point Ahaz as an individual but he addresses the whole house of David and and the you starting in verse 13 is in the plural he’s not just addressing a has but the whole house of a has the whole royal court and indeed as we will see future generations he said here then O house of David is it too little for you to weary men that you weary my God also the Lord our God is wearied by human unbelief again this is this is a way of saying that that his patience is tried if you will what is the historical setting here of this passage well this prophecy is given by Isaiah during a period of redemptive history of the divided monarchy the northern tribes of Israel had split off from the southern tribe of Judah and the time is around 735 BC when Isaiah delivers this prophecy to King a has at that time you may recall ancient Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel both Judas neighbors had threatened to attack the southern kingdom of Judah because a has the king of Judah had refused to enter into their military alliance against the kingdom of Assyria Assyria was seeking to expand its territory and therefore posed a grave threat to all of the nations that existed at that particular time at that particular region of the world in this passage the Lord is urging a has to trust in him against this threat but regrettably instead of trusting in Yahweh his faithful covenant God to deliver him and to deliver his people from the military threats coming from Syria and Israel a has refuses the Lord’s gracious offer of a sign and instead as other passages of scripture reveal King a has turns away from the Lord the divine King his faithful covenant God he turns away from the Lord and he puts his trust in Tiglath-Pileser the pagan king of Assyria and he calls upon the king of Assyria to deliver him from the threat of Israel and Syria now that leads to the Lord’s response not only in verse 13 where he rebukes a has for his unbelief for his putting the Lord to the test and wearying the Lord if you will but then the Lord goes on to say in these amazing words recorded in verse 14 therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign a has you refuse to ask a sign as the Lord commanded and invited you to do you refuse the Lord but that’s not going to stop the Lord from carrying out his purposes the Lord himself will give you a sign and what is that sign he says behold now that word behold it means pay attention but it also indicates that he’s giving a prophecy of something that is yet to come in the future behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son the Virgin shall conceive how is that possible of course in terms of natural biology that’s not possible but nothing is impossible for the Lord the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name notice by the way the Virgin shall call his name Emmanuel Emmanuel means God with us we’ll talk about that and discuss the significance of that that title soon but this is another evidence that clearly this is speaking of a virgin birth because normally in that time and in that culture the the husband the the man the father would name the son but here the Virgin shall bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel now I want to focus in on the term that is translated here in the English Standard Virgin as virgin but it’s translated in other versions such as the Revised Standard Version as young woman and please bear with me a little bit I need to get a little bit technical but I spoke about theological liberals the beginning of the sermon and how they they attack and deny the supernatural elements of the scripture and I spoke about how one of their favorite doctrines to attack is the doctrine of the virgin birth well one of the reasons that they give for attacking this doctrine is they look at passages like this in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 and they say well actually it shouldn’t be translated as virgin it should simply be translated as young woman that’s how it’s translated for example by the translators of the Revised Standard Version and other versions like that now the Hebrew word behind which is translated as young woman or virgin the Hebrew word is the word Alma and some make the case that this word simply refers to a young woman and not necessarily to a virgin I believe many liberal theologians who reject the virgin birth of Christ would make this argument the argument is made that if Isaiah had actually intended in this verse to refer to an actual virgin then there was a much better Hebrew word available for his use the word Bethulah but as many sound scholars like for example dr.

EJ young have pointed out while the word Bethulah may refer to a virgin it is a word like many words that has a semantic range and the semantic range of that word is such that it can also in some contexts refer even to a married woman in which case it would not be referring to a virgin so the word Bethulah is actually not the best word to use if the Lord is trying to convey through Isaiah that a virgin will conceive and bear a son but on the other hand the Hebrew word Alma which is used in this verse refers yes to a young woman to a maiden but a young woman of marriageable age who is chased and therefore one of the characteristics of such a young woman such an Alma in the Hebrew would be virginity and this fact is recognized not only by sound biblical scholars today you’ll also be interested to know that this fact was recognized by the translators the Jewish translators who translated the Hebrew Old Testament into the Greek language giving us the Septuagint now the Septuagint this Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament when was that version translated well it was translated about 200 years before the birth of Christ and in the Greek Septuagint this Hebrew word Alma was translated by these Jewish translators it was translated by the Greek term Parthenos and Parthenos is a specific Greek term for virgin isn’t that amazing several hundred years before Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary these Jewish translators seeking to translate the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek when they got to Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 they translated the Hebrew term Alma not as young woman but they translated it as virgin so even the Jewish translators of the Septuagint recognized that in this passage Isaiah was speaking of a miraculous virginal conception and birth of the messianic son Emmanuel God with us so indeed I hope I’ve established with clarity and sorry for the technicalities here hope I haven’t weary worried you too much with these technicalities but this is important because skeptics and liberals will often often use this argument that well it shouldn’t really be translated virgin and I’m trying to give you some apologetic ammunition if you ever find yourself in such a conversation with a liberal a liberally inclined theologian or professed believer but in any case what are some of the takeaways what are some of the lessons that we learn from our passage so far well I think one important lesson that we learned brothers and sisters is that in spite of the sin and unbelief of wicked King Ahaz and King Ahaz was indeed a grievously wicked King but in spite of a has his wickedness in spite of his rejection of the Lord in spite of his apostasy God would still keep his promise to send the Messiah and the supernatural sign of the arrival of the promised Messiah would be an extraordinary miraculous birth again as it says in verse 14 behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel friends among other things this glorious fact shows us that even human unbelief does not destroy God’s plan of grace and salvation I’m reminded of what Paul writes he says if we are faithless he remains faithful and we are faithless aren’t we even those of us who believe we fall short and we are of we are those of little faith sometimes our faith is only as a mustard seed but our faithlessness praise God our faithlessness does in no way nullify the faithfulness of our God nor thwart his promise and his plan of salvation so praise be to God for this glorious fact praise be to God for his amazing glorious grace he keeps his word even though we often do not I think this passage also underscores the truth of God’s providential control of history and a predictive prophecy like this is possible only because God is sovereign over history and is working behind the scenes as it were working out his sovereign plan and decree within human history how is it that the Holy Spirit could inspire the prophet Isaiah to see that God would one day hundreds of years in the future cause the Messiah to come and to be born of a virgin how is that possible it’s possible because God is in control of history he is sovereign over history that truth does not in any way negate human responsibility or human actions or what the theologians call secondary causes all of those things are established by God’s sovereign decree we are indeed responsible moral agents but nevertheless no matter what we do for good or for ill in faith or in unbelief no matter what we do God’s plan stands God’s purposes are going forward nothing thwarts or stops his plan of redemption and remember brothers and sisters we have the immense privilege of being part of God’s great story of redemption through the promised virgin born Messiah for why did God send this virgin born Emmanuel into the world why is he called Jesus Matthew 1 21 says that he is called Jesus why Yeshua the Lord is salvation why because he would save his people from their sins if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are part of God’s great story of redemption you and I have a part to play in that the Lord I should say not that we contribute to God’s plan of salvation but that we are the fruits of his grace he has redeemed us he has saved us in spite of our sin in spite of our wickedness in spite of our unbelief he’s brought us to Christ in faith and he’s made us trophies of his grace we brothers and sisters are part of God’s great story of redemption and it’s all made possible because of the promised virgin born Emmanuel but what is the meaning and significance of the virgin that’s what I would have us to consider next as we consider the next section of this passage verses 14 through 16 let’s consider the meaning and significance of the virgin born Emmanuel it will indeed he will indeed come through a supernatural miraculous birth but what will his name be he has given a symbolic name the name Emmanuel verse 14 you shall call his name Emmanuel what does Emmanuel mean it means God with us now isn’t it the case that God has always been with his people is that not the goal and the the end the telos the end of God’s covenant of grace where God says I will be their God they shall be my people and I will dwell in the midst of them what happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned they were thrust out from God’s gracious say God’s gracious presence they were thrust out of Eden thrust out into the dangerous world outside of Eden but God’s plan of salvation has been such that he is restoring not only restoring us to his favor but he’s restoring his dwelling place in our midst and that was symbolized in the Old Testament in many ways for example it was symbolized oftentimes through miraculous but temporary theophanies which were supernatural signs and miraculous signs of God’s special presence an example of that would be the burning bush you know the story Moses in the wilderness there tending his sheep and he sees this bush that is burning but it’s not being consumed and he goes over to check it out and what does the Lord say to him he says Moses take off your sandals the ground you are standing on is holy ground set apart in that burning bush was the intersection of heaven and earth Moses was going to have a revelatory encounter with God he was going to see and hear a revelation from God and God is assuring him that he has come to dwell in the midst of him to give him his word we also are reminded of God’s dwelling among his people in the Old Testament by the pillar of cloud by day the pillar of fire by night that attended the children of Israel and led the children of Israel in their wilderness wanderings in that miraculous cloud and fire that hovered over the tabernacle God was reminding his wilderness wandering people that he was with them he dwelt in their midst but my friends God’s dwelling in the burning bush God’s dwelling in the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night is not the ultimate way that God dwells with his people in Jesus Christ in the virgin-born Immanuel God is with us not merely in a theophanic sense not merely in a symbolic sense for the tabernacle and the temple in the Old Testament were symbols of God’s gracious dwelling amongst his people but no in Jesus Christ our Immanuel God is with us not merely theophanically or symbolically he is with us in the ultimate incarnate sense for friends in Jesus Christ our Lord God is with us in the flesh as the God man he is not merely as the liberals say a God intoxicated man a God conscious man a God indwelt man know he is the God man the word made flesh who came to do what to pitch his tent to tabernacle to make his dwelling in our midst my friends God is indeed with us and we know that this virgin-born Immanuel is divine because later on Isaiah tells us that he is divine skip over to Isaiah chapter 9 and let me read these familiar verses verses 6 & 7 where Isaiah is again giving us a messianic prophecy he is predicting the coming of this virgin-born Immanuel this messianic child and what does he say Isaiah 9 verses 6 & 7 the Holy Spirit through Isaiah says for to us a child is born he’s a real child he’s truly human for us a child is born to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder so he’s king he is an anointed one a king and his name remember in the Bible your name was a representation of your character of who you actually were his name shall be called what wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father prince of peace these titles are titles of deity this son this son Immanuel who was to be born was to be God in the flesh and then verse 7 of chapter 9 of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore and you say how is that possible well the Holy Spirit through Isaiah answers that question at the end of verse 7 the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this we have according to the New Testament the fulfillment of the prophecy of our passage for today recorded for us in Matthew’s gospel in Matthew chapter 1 verses 20 to 23 let me just read those verses very briefly to you Matthew chapter 1 verses 20 to 23 here is as Joseph was contemplating putting away Mary because she was with child says this but as he considered these things behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying Joseph son of David do not fear to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet and then this should sound very familiar verse 23 behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel which means God with us verse 23 Matthew is quoting of course from our passage for today Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 but as we move on in this passage some struggle to relate verse 14 to the verses that follow in verse 15 for example we read these words he shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse evil and choose the good what is this referring to this this eating of curds and honey is this is this referring to royal food some interpret it that way that the curds and honey you know God promises his people in the Old Testament that he’s bringing them into a land of flowing with milk and honey and so and and this eating of curds and honey may be a symbol of his his royalty as the Messiah but some have also suggested that it indicates desolation in the land that the only thing left for them to to eat is no longer the crops but the curds and the honey and again there’s differences of interpretation in that so this raises the question how do the verses that follow the Emmanuel prophecy of verse 14 how do they fit in with this messianic prediction well I need to confess to you brothers and sisters this is admittedly a tricky passage to interpret and a surface-level reading may seem to suggest that the virgin birth prophecy of verse 14 was expected to be fulfilled in the time of King Ahazor in that general time period of redemptive history some have suggested that this enigmatic passage should be understood as having a double fulfillment for example there is an immediate according to this view there’s an immediate fulfillment in one of Isaiah’s sons such as Shayar Jashub who is mentioned back in verse 3 when when the Lord tells Isaiah to go and and confront King Ahaz and give his word to King Ahaz the Lord says in verse 3 go out to meet Ahaz you and Shayar Jashub your son Isaiah’s son Shayar Jashub that his son’s name had symbolic significance it means a remnant will return and again we have that remnant theology coming out in that in that passage and so they would suggest that when we get into maybe verse 15 or maybe verse 16 we have a different son being referred to a different boy being referred to than the virgin-born Emmanuel well again how do we navigate this difficult passage well a couple and we could spend a long time looking at the various views offered by the scholars but I’m just going to give you a couple of things to keep in mind as you wrestle with this passage first of all friends remember as I mentioned beginning in verse 13 the Lord through Isaiah addresses not just Ahaz as an individual he addresses the house of David and he turned he goes from the singular tense to the plural tense the singular to the plural and so it would seem that starting in verse 13 the Lord speaks to more than merely King Ahaz he instead addresses the King’s court and the wording here implies that at this point in the passage the passage is addressing not just a has this generation but future generations as well and however we might understand the details of verses 15 through 17 we need to understand the general thrust of what the Lord is promising a has through this passage the thrust of this passage is that the threats the military threats that Judah was facing from Syria and Israel those threats would soon pass away not lasting longer than the time it takes for a boy to reach an age of moral consciousness which was generally believed to be around age 12 or 13 when a child reached the age of moral consciousness subsequent biblical history confirms that this was in fact the case since Syria fell to Assyria in 732 BC just a few years after this prophecy and Israel fell to Assyria in 722 BC what about verse 16 goes on to say for before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted because these two kings the kings of Syria and Israel are united together in their military purpose against Judah they are spoken of as being one land but the Lord assures a has that these threats will not last they will not stand but how are we to understand verse 16 I like what dr.

EJ young has to say he writes we should remember that the language of prophecy is filled with mystery and is sometimes obscure it is not simple history written in advance but his language of profound and beautiful symbolism clothed in an aura of mystery who is the boy or this boy as Matthew Henry would suggest is this boy in verse 16 Emmanuel or someone else such as Isaiah’s son Shayer Jashub whose name which meant a remnant shall return also had symbolic significance well again good scholars will differ but I tend to agree with Matthew Henry that the this boy referred to here in verse 16 is in fact Isaiah’s son Shayer Jashub and so if that is the case Isaiah in verse 14 had lifted his vision and put his focus on a long-term prediction of the virgin born Emmanuel but then the Lord brings him back to addressing the immediate threat the immediate situation in the verses that follow but what is the bottom line in all of this as we consider the meaning and significance of the virgin born Emmanuel well but the bottom line brothers and sisters the bottom line dear listeners is what do you make of Jesus who is he is he do you believe him to be the virgin born Emmanuel prophesied by Isaiah here in this passage or do you have some other view of Jesus our shorter catechism in answer to a question 22 gives us a good Bible based answer to the question of who Jesus is it asks how did Christ being the son of God become man the Bible based answer is Christ the son of God became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born of her yet without sin but that leads us to the last verse of our passage verse 17 where we read these words the Lord again he’s speaking to Ahaz here the Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah that’s speaking of he’s saying to a has into a has his court days of judgment are coming it will be significant days days such as the day when when the kingdom was divided into the northern kingdom of Ephraim and the southern kingdom of Judah and what will cause this this great change what will set in motion this judgment he mentions at the end of verse 17 the king of Assyria my friends the Lord Yahweh the true and living God had urged King Ahaz to trust in him for deliverance from the threat of Syria and Israel but again tragically Ahaz rejected his God and turned instead in apostasy to the pagan king of Assyria for help he trusted in the hand of man rather than the hand of God ultimately the king of Assyria would prove to be an agent of judgment against Ahaz and against Ahaz’s unfaithful people we have an unfaithful king here but there’s another king coming a king who will bring a different destiny the coming of the king of Assyria would mean a destiny of judgment it would be judgment against an unfaithful covenant-breaking people and their apostate theocratic king it would mean the defeat and the exile of the northern kingdom of Israel and it would set in motion events that would do away with the old order of the Israelite theocracy but though the king of Assyria would mean judgments against Ahaz and his people and though this would set in motion events that would eventually result in the ending of the Israelite theocracy and the exile of God’s people from the promised land the end of the old order of the theocracy was not the end of hope it was going to be an end of an era but not the end of hope in fact it would be the beginning of an eternal hope for even though the pagan king of Assyria would come as an agent of judgment against an unfaithful people there was another king coming the messianic virgin-born king the one who would be Emmanuel God with us he is our hope and now that he has come to this earth in the person of Jesus of Nazareth our hope rests firm our hope rests secure dear listener is Jesus Christ your hope is he your peace is he your security your salvation oh may you and I find our hope our peace our security and salvation not in the false kingdoms of this world but may we find our security in the true King the ultimate King the Messiah King the virgin-born Emmanuel who is God with us amen let us pray heavenly Father we praise you and thank you Lord God that you have sent Jesus the virgin-born Emmanuel and that in him not only do we dwell in him but he dwells in us and among us by his spirit Lord we would pray that by your spirit you would take what was proclaimed this day we pray that your word would find a lodging place in our and we pray that we would be blessed with your grace as we go from this place in Jesus name we pray and all of God’s people said amen let’s respond to what we’ve heard from God’s word by rising and we’ll sing together 279 Oh Christ our King creator Lord 279

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