FROM THE PASTOR

Ahaz was a faithless slug, an unbelieving coward. He leaves a trail of slime across the priceless throne of David. It’s hard to believe that this faithless, hopeless, irritating hypocrite of a king is the one who first receives the prophecy of Immanuel and the Virgin Birth of Christ.

It always astonishes me about the faithless conversation and the hypocritical and terrified context into which this horrible hypocrite received the blessed revelation of the coming of the Messiah and the Virgin Birth. This disgusting excuse for a Davidic King refused Yahweh’s offer of a blank check, because he knew when God came through he would have to change his evil and wicked ways. So King Ahaz basically says “No, I won’t ask Yahweh for anything,” even though God had told him to ask for something quite miraculous.

In context, Ahaz would certainly have asked for victory in the coming war with the king of Israel and the king of Aram, which is Syria whose capital city was Damascus. The Bible says that Ahaz and the people of Jerusalem were trembling with fear, like trees shaking in a hurricane storm. And God very easily fulfilled what should have been his request. They were going to replace Ahaz with some son of Tabeel which would have thwarted the Davidic lineage through which Jesus would come.

I don’t think God was sweating that. And since Ahaz was too much of a coward to even ask Yahweh for anything, the Lord went ahead and gave the most miraculous sign that has ever been given to mankind: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call Him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”

And that’s the God that we serve. You may be asking Him for a miracle you need in your life or family right now, which seems insurmountable to you. But God is thinking so much higher than we are. We barely even have mustard seed faith for our little request, and God is ready to change the entire world! King Ahaz would have asked for victory in his upcoming war, and God is thinking He will just go ahead - way ahead, and announce the miraculous Conception of Jesus!

Is anything too hard for our Lord?

Randy & Pam