“Immanuel—God with Us”
Isaiah 7:14

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Fourth Sunday in Advent—December 18, 2016

In the Name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

For our messages during Advent this year we have been looking at Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah. 

We began on the First Sunday in Advent with Isaiah proclaiming WHAT the Messiah would do when he comes, the comforting Good News of the Messiah’s mission, to earn by his own “hard service” forgiveness for God’s people, forgiveness so full and complete it is “double for all [our] sins.”  “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

The minor prophet Micah prophesied the PLACE of the Messiah’s birth, the little town of Bethlehem: “Though you are small among the towns of Judah, out of you will come for me One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

We continue this morning with a familiar prophecy from today’s Old Testament Reading in Isaiah chapter 7, announcing the amazing way HOW the Messiah will come into the world: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” 

In today’s Gospel Reading, that prophecy is quoted by the angel, who explains for Joseph and us the wondrous mystery of what the title Immanuel means, WHO the Messiah will be: “And they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘GOD WITH US.’”

“God helps those who help themselves.”  Perhaps you’ve heard that piece of advice at one time or another.  Perhaps you’ve given that piece of advice.  But, the problem is, all too often we rely on ourselves to the EXCLUSION of God.  All too often, we follow on our plans, our ideas, our ways, even when it contradicts God’s will and God’s ways.

God says, “Call upon ME in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you.” “Be still and know that I am God.” “Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened unto you.” But, like a little child we stubbornly say: “I can do it all by myself.” 

King Ahaz of Judah in today’s Old Testament Reading is a good example of that.  Ahaz’s immediate problems were Pekah, the king of the northern kingdom of Israel, and Rezin, the king of Aram.  These two had just formed a powerful military alliance and set their sights on conquering Ahaz’s own southern kingdom of Judah.  Isaiah says that, “When the house of David was told, ‘Aram has allied itself with Israel,’ the hearts of King Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.”

They were in a terrible situation, and they knew it.  Their country was at the mercy of these powerful enemies.  Where would they turn for help?  The psalm says, “Where does my help come from?  My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. . .  The Lord will keep you from all harm; he will watch over your life.”  But the writer of Chronicles says: “In his time of trouble, King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the Lord.” 

King Ahaz believed in helping himself—to the EXCLUSION of God.  Following his own plans, his ideas, his ways, even if it contradicted God’s will and God’s ways.  And so, instead of turning to the Lord for help, Ahaz’s solution was to make military alliances himself with the heathen nations of Assyria and Egypt.

In one of the saddest chapters in the Old Testament, Ahaz actually bribes the Assyrian king to help him with silver and gold looted from the Temple of the Lord.  And to get along with his new allies, Ahaz shoves the Lord’s altar off to one side and sets up an Assyrian pagan altar right in the temple courtyard and on it he offers pagan sacrifices.  In keeping with the horrible pagan religion of the Assyrians, Ahaz even burned his own son as a sacrifice.  Ahaz was willing to try anything and everything to help himself—EXCEPT the one thing that really would help: Turning to the TRUE God, and his will, and his ways.

The word from the Lord which Isaiah proclaimed to Ahaz in the face of an imminent invasion was for the king to do: NOTHING.  To be still, and let God be God.  “Keep calm and don’t be afraid.  Do not lose heart.  They have made their plots against you, but they will not succeed.”  That was God’s solemn promise.  Ahaz had God’s word that all the schemes of Rezin and Pekah would come to nothing.  What Ahaz feared the most had already been taken care of by the Lord.  The problem was solved.  All that King Ahaz had to do was nothing, simply to stand firm in faith, to trust the promise of God.  As the psalm says, “Be strong, take heart and wait for the Lord.”

God even offered to give Ahaz a sign of his promise: “Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”  Isaiah invites Ahaz to name whatever sign he would like from the Lord, and the Lord will grant it.  But, Ahaz refused. “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test,” he said.  Though the king sounded pious, he was really speaking out of pride and stubbornness, like a child who says: “I can do it all by myself”; “I’ll do it my way.”  Ahaz would not ask for the offered sign from the Lord, because he thought he had no need for the Lord’s help.

There’s a lot of King Ahaz in us all.  We call it the old Adam, the sinful nature.  Because of our inherited human sinfulness, all too often WE rely on ourselves to the EXCLUSION of God.  All too often we follow our own plans, our ideas, our ways, even when it contradicts God’s will and God’s ways.

Even though Ahaz rejects God’s offer of a sign, Isaiah proclaims the sign anyway: “Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men?  Will you try the patience of 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.”

Today’s Gospel Reading reports that some 700 years later, “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’  All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’—which means, ‘God with us.’”

The sign prophesied by Isaiah came to fulfillment in the womb of the Virgin Mary.  God himself came to be with us in Jesus of Nazareth.  He is true God, begotten of his Father from all eternity.  He is true man, born of the Virgin Mary.  Divinity and humanity are united in one person, the God-man Jesus Christ.  As Paul says in 1st Timothy, “Great is the mystery of our faith: He appeared in a body.”  That wondrous union of God and man is real meaning of Christmas.

The Lord said to Moses from the burning bush: “I have seen the misery of my people . . . I have heard their cries . . .  I know their suffering.  So I have come down to deliver them.”

“God helps those who help themselves”?  Well actually, it is precisely because so often we CANNOT help ourselves that God himself came down to be WITH US, to be, as the psalm says, “Our VERY PRESENT help in times of trouble.”  For, so often we really are helpless in the face of all the troubles, and struggles, and suffering of this life, and in the face of sin, death and the devil.  But, God has given you a sign that he is with you, that he forgives you, that he will never leave you or forsake you—the sign of his Son, who is with you always.  “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” 

Rejoice, rejoice, Immanuel HAS come—to you!