A Young Woman Will Bear a Son

Creation: A Divine Cycle
The Savior Has Been born

Isaiah 7:10-17 The Message

^10-11 God spoke again to Ahaz. This time he said, “Ask for a sign from your God. Ask anything. Be extravagant. Ask for the moon!”

¹² But Ahaz said, “I’d never do that. I’d never make demands like that on God!”
^13-17 So Isaiah told him, “Then listen to this, government of David! It’s bad enough that you make people tired with your pious, timid hypocrisies, but now you’re making God tired. So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She’ll bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us). By the time the child is twelve years old, able to make moral decisions, the threat of war will be over. Relax, those two kings that have you so worried will be out of the picture. But also be warned: God will bring on you and your people and your government a judgment worse than anything since the time the kingdom split, when Ephraim left Judah. The king of Assyria is coming!”

For Reflection

Perhaps Israel found itself facing somewhat the same circumstance that we face today.  How do we deal with the process of living where there is so little presumption to tell the truth and the truth is trivialized or worse, considered irrelevant?  Pious, self-serving hypocrites in the Jewish religious/government leadership, spurred a gulf between the haves and the have-nots.  The anger among the have-nots had been building and revolutionary violence had already begun.  God warned of the impending consequences of dysfunction in God's people.  By protecting the freedom of Israel to choose God, God lets their alternative choices run the natural course of consequence, "Assyria is coming."

Rather than striking down the leaders and taking charge, God delivers the truth in the flesh of Christ.  No longer can it be said that the truth is unknowable.  The truth walks, talks and lives among us.  No longer rule bound, but bound to the compassion and forgiveness embodied in God's love made flesh, Immanuel, God-with-us, shows us how to collaborate with God and, thereby, enter the Kingdom of God in present time.  No more waiting for God to act.  God has acted.  Now God waits for us to act!

During this advent season, let us celebrate the truth, honor the truth, follow the truth, and become disciples of the Truth.

Pray

Pray for the courage to follow the Truth in the way of Jesus Christ.  Pray for courage to speak the Truth.  Pray for the will to walk in the Truth.