By Rachel Byrd
A Commentary on the Sabbath School Lesson for April 10–16, 2004, on Isaiah 7
In Isaiah 7, Ahaz, king of Judah, cannot see the future. But God foresees 185,000 Assyrians encamped outside Jerusalem about thirty years later (Isa. 37; 2 Kings 19; and 2 Chron. 32). God forbids the Assyrian alliance that will later harm Judah. God reveals to Ahaz that the kings of Israel and of Syria will die within two years. Through Isaiah God says, Do you believe me? Ask me for a sign to prove what I predict will come true.
Ahaz refuses.
God says, Will you wear out the patience of God? I will give you a sign anyway: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isa. 7:14).
A sign? The birth of Jesus will not take place for more than seven hundred years. Certainly Ahaz will not see the fulfillment of this prophecy. How can it be a sign?
Doubtless you have heard about receiving a sign from the Lord.
People ask for guidance:
"If I am to take this job, Lord, let our house sell in one week, or we’ll know we’re not supposed to move to California."
"If the second doctor recommends chemotherapy, Lord, I’ll take it as a sign from you."
Christians talk about little signs too:
"I’m not doing well in that class. I feel God is leading me to change my major."
"I felt the Lord put the right words into my mouth."
God does give signs. Hezekiah received a sign at the Lord’s direction (Isa. 38:8). And Jesus gave signs of his divinity (Matt. 11:3–5; Mark 2:9–12; John 11:4–42).
On the other hand, asking for a sign can be sin. The Devil said to Jesus, "If thou be the Christ, cast thyself down" (Matt. 4:5), and Jesus responded, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" (Matt. 4:7).
Jesus rebuked the nobleman who would believe if his son was healed: "Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe" (John 4:48).
Christ, the day after he had fed the five thousand, refused to repeat the miracle, saying, "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life" (John 6:27).
At his trial Christ gave Herod no sign, even though Herod "hoped to have seen some miracle" (Luke 23:8).
The chief priests taunted, "Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe" (Mark 15:32). And the unrepentant thief on the cross added, "If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us" (Luke 23:39).
Clearly asking for a sign is not a good way to test what God has already promised. Making our faith conditional upon God’s action or inaction is wrong.
Furthermore, we have in Scripture "a cloud of witnesses" (Heb. 12:1) whose experiences are written "that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing ye might have life through his name" (John 20:31). Jesus said to Thomas, "Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20:29). And Jesus prayed, "Neither pray I for these [the disciples] alone, but for all them also who shall believe on Me through their word" (John 17:20).
Although God does not respond to our every request in just the way we may wish, we certainly know what God has definitely promised to those who ask: his forgiveness (1 John 1:9); his peace (John 14:27); his joy (John 15:11); eternal life (John 3:16); the Holy Spirit (John 16:7 and Luke 11:13); his love, which casts out fear (1 John 4:18); his abiding presence (Matt. 28:20).
What we’re NOT promised in this life is freedom from poverty, uncertainty, pain, disease, and death. Jesus said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).
So what about cars and jobs and scholarships and healing and protection?
By experience I believe God has a sign for every earthly situation, the sign he gave King Ahaz: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (Isa. 7:14).
A friend of mine, Larry Patullo, suffered nine years with prostate cancer: radiation, terrible pain, debilitating drugs hopefully to prolong his life, finally a brain tumor, and months of a lingering illness at the end. But a couple of years before he died he told me, "I wish everyone could know Jesus as I have learned to know him. I don’t wish cancer on anyone—it’s a terrible experience—but before I was sick I didn’t have what I have now. I know the presence of Jesus."
Paul understood the value of Jesus’ presence:
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness … but … the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings." (Phil. 3:8-10)
What is this sign, "God is with us"?
Eleven years ago I had toxemia of pregnancy. About 2 a.m. as I went into convulsions my obstetrician and anesthesiologist prepared for an emergency caesarean. The next afternoon, I spoke with my mother and father on the phone: "The bad news," I said, "is that the baby will die in a few hours. The good news is that I am going to live." Though terribly sad at the loss of my newborn son, I felt grateful to God that my attentive doctors had saved my life. I would live to mother the four living children I already had.
Then my mother quoted to me, "Often your mind may be clouded because of pain. Then do not try to think. You know that Jesus loves you. He understands your weakness. You may do His will by simply resting in His arms" (Ellen G. White, Ministry of Healing, 251).
For many weeks when I knelt by my bed, I could not say any words to God. But I did feel—deep deep down—the abiding presence of Jesus. As my friend Carolyn Zimmerman reminded me, the Holy Spirit is the "Comforter." The Holy Spirit prayed for me "with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Rom. 8:26). I simply rested in the arms of Jesus.
I knew the promised sign. "Immanuel," "God is with us."
When the disciples begged Jesus to help them in the storm, Jesus said to them, "Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?" (Mark 4:40). Of life’s dark valleys we may say, "I will fear no evil: for thou art with me" (Ps. 23:4).
What does Jesus give to us in this life? The sign may not be for you a job or a house or a scholarship or good health or living children. In this world we will have suffering, disease, pain, and death.
But Jesus did promise freedom to us—freedom from fear, from shame, from guilt, from sin. He did leave to us his forgiveness, his peace, his joy, eternal life. Most of all he did leave to us his presence, his abiding peace: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth" (John 14:27). Nothing this world has to offer can match the peace that Jesus gives through his abiding presence.
This is God’s sign: "How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him" (Luke 11:13). Immanuel. God is with us.
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