Isaiah offers a sign to prove the word he has given on
behalf of the Lord and Ahaz refuses. Why
would he refuse such a sign? Was it
deference to the Lord, I won't ask Him to prove Himself to me? No.
Ahaz was a wicked king. 1 Kings
16 tells us that he did not do right in the eyes of the Lord. What that chapter also tells us is that in
this particular circumstance, with the kings of Syria and Israel coming against
him, he had another plan than faith in the Lord. He had appealed to the king of Assyria by
writing, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand
of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking
me.” He had faith not in the Lord but in
the king of Assyria. The armies coming
against him were there because he wouldn't fight with them against Assyria and
now he offers himself as a vassal to that king.
Because of this, the Lord announces judgment against him but also
promises that one is to be born who before he has begun to eat solid food will
see the defeat of the Syrians and Israelites.
We see this as a Messianic passage, fulfilled quite amazingly in Jesus,
truly Immanuel, God with us.
The Passover is re-interpreted in light of what will come
next. Jesus' body is the fulfillment of
the bread of the Passover and His blood as the wine of that meal. Just as they ate the meal that night as God
acted on their behalf to deliver them from slavery, so this night the Lord is
at work to deliver us all from the slavery and bondage of sin. It won't look like it for the next 72 hours
or so but God is sovereignly working in all things to bring about His
plan. In whom will the disciples put
their faith? Their first move is to
argue over which of them is the greatest.
What a strange idea. Jesus promises
them kingdoms and that they will sit in judgment over God's people. They have earthly kingdoms in mind, they
still aren't getting it.
Paul knows the truth, that we live in a world peopled by
those who have no faith and who are themselves wicked and evil. He asks the Thessalonians to pray for him
that he and his group be delivered from such men. Prayer matters, even though we believe in the
sovereignty of God. We believe that
prayer shows that we are aligning ourselves with God, His purposes and His
kingdom, that it too is our priority. Paul
cares only about the advance of the kingdom, thanking the Lord for the faith of
all those with whom he has shared the Gospel and asking for protection against
the enemies of the kingdom. Is our
priority the alignment of our lives with God's purposes or in establishing our
own kingdoms? Where we put our faith reveals
much. Our anxieties do as well. Did we just fret ourselves to pieces in an
election of men?
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