Seeking a Sign

This morning, by a design not my own, I landed in Isaiah 7. 

"The hearts of the nation of Judah were shaken." It appeared all their foes were joining together to destroy them.  

Sometimes what we see in the natural is overpowering and will shake us if we do not or can not look to the spiritual. 

The prophet Isaiah assured them that their enemies had joined forces and were descending and planning their ruin, but he added 

"Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says, ‘It will not happen.’" 

He told Ahaz of the eventual defeat of the his enemies, and added "If you don't stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all."

Then God spoke directly to Ahaz and told him to ask for a sign. 

Ahaz had obviously been taught not to ask for signs because that is testing God. He replied "I will not!" and received a harsh reprimand from Isaiah.
“The LORD himself will give you a sign.” It's an interesting comment that caused me a lot of thought this morning as it has in the past.  I've never understood how these fit together so I asked for understanding. Maybe I'm starting to see it differently.

There are times when God wants to show us what he will do for us.  He desires to strengthen our trust and confidence for the battle ahead.  He is the victor and yet if we don’t stand firm in our faith, we will not be standing when the fighting is over even if our side wins.  

Faith is given to us to use against the “What if?” and “Oh my” of life.  Trust says “God is strong, faithful and present,” but faith says “I will stand and see God’s victory even if the battle I fear comes in the way I fear it most.”  Sometimes God wants to prepare us by showing us what he can do in the small things so we can trust in the huge things.  So he told Ahaz “Ask me!”  

Ahaz was not listed among the Godly kings.  God did give him that present victory, but Ahaz didn’t learn to trust in God.  How sad that he wouldn’t ask!

I see that there is a difference between a self-willed desire to have God’s support for our agenda, and a worried seeker asking for God’s reassurance in a test. Jesus said “A corrupt generation seeks a sign and no sign will be given except my death and resurrection.”  But even Jesus spoke of signs in a positive way.  The spirit knows the difference.  The flesh does not.

Perhaps I’ve considered the statement of Jesus from the wrong perspective.  Perhaps when a corrupt generation or individual tries to force God into their own plan and requires a sign that it will be as they want, they receive a different type of sign or none at all. And so I think the sign was given to Ahaz and all his people. 

Can God save us in the most desperate to times? Will God save us in spite of all that we have done and all we see developing?  The view Isaiah first gave Ahaz was the long term effect of the evil of his enemies and how it would destroy each of them without respect to his own evil.  But when Ahaz refused to ask for a sign even though God spoke the command, he was given a view of God’s ultimate redemption of the thing that causes all other defeats.  It was a faith changing, mind altering statement that would live on in the hearts of all young girls and an entire nation from that day forward.  And yet, not for Ahaz.  He just got the temporary fix he wanted and lived out his life as a King that did evil in God's eyes. My heart and spirit are stirred greatly. 

I shall continue asking for wisdom and understanding.