Advent Wonderful

Isaiah 9:1-7 - Advent I Midweek - December 4, 2013           
His Name Shall Be Called Wonderful

I have never been in a war.  I’ve never seen it.  I understand only what I have read in books and seen in movies.  Some in our congregation have seen war.  And they could, if so inclined, tell sad stories of what they have seen.  Others have been affected by war from right here at home as they suffered the loss of dear loved-ones fighting a faraway cause.  But barring a few terrorist attacks here and there in the United States, none of us have experienced what it is like for enemy forces to be moving at you on all sides to take over and occupy the land that we call home.  In such a war the cries of heart-broken mothers and widows can be heard right alongside and mingled with the cries of pain and defeat that their beloved sons and husbands shout out. 

This is how most war has been fought in the history of the world.  Right there close to home. War is horrible.  God has graciously preserved us from the worst of it.  It’s hard for us to imagine it here in the Midwestern United States, since we seem to be safe within the midst of a mighty empire.  But that’s what I’d like you to do for a moment.  Imagine.  This is what Jerusalem faced.  Judah was under attack – not only by foreign invaders, but from the apostate tribes of Israel to the north plotting against them with nearby Syria.  The northern kingdom of Israel had already been punished for its worldliness and idolatry, and now Judah faced what looked like certain doom for having committed the same sins themselves.  For them, little was left to the imagination.  The threat was imminent.  And they deserved it.  For fear of pain and for the knowledge of guilt, all of Judah was shaking in terror (Is. 7:2).  But God had compassion. 

Ahaz was the king of Judah.  He sat in David’s throne.  God sent his prophet Isaiah to Ahaz in order to comfort him: that despite what it looked like, God would not destroy them, but would instead destroy the two enemy nations that were rising against them.  He would lay aside his anger against his own people, and in mercy would preserve Judah.  Isaiah spoke God’s word: “Trust in God.  He will be your ally.  [It was good news!]  He will be your help.  Do not believe what you see – what you are afraid of.  Believe what you hear.  The Lord will accomplish what he has promised.”  And as God has always been wont to do, he offered to Ahaz a sign — to have this promise confirmed by a sign.  Any sign, Isaiah said:  “God wants you to have no doubt.  He wants your heart not to be troubled by the prospect of war, but to be encouraged by him who brings peace.  Ask for a sign, in heaven or on earth, from the Lord your God – anything, and he will prove that his word can be trusted.” 

But Ahaz didn’t want a sign from God.  He didn’t want a sign because he didn’t want to trust in God.  He wanted to trust in his own ability to defend himself and his kingdom.  In fact, he had already struck an alliance with the pagan kingdom of Assyria.  He had all the help he needed.  Isaiah’s good news was a joke to him.  So instead of taking God up on his generous offer, Ahaz pretended to be all pious and offended by the offer, saying that he would not “tempt” the Lord.  He refused to ask for a sign. 

But God gave him one anyway.  To Ahaz’ rejection of God’s grace, Isaiah said: “the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Is. 7:14). 

This virgin is, of course, Mary.  The sign the Lord would give was nothing other than the ancient promise of the gospel that would be fulfilled nearly 750 years later.  The virgin would bear the Savior of the world.  He would be of the house and lineage of his earthly father David.  He would be the true King who would free Israel from all their enemies, and unite the divided kingdom.  Indeed, he would draw all nations to himself, because his kingdom is not of this world.  Mary would give birth to God himself so that God himself would be with his people.  Immanuel means God-with-us.  God would save his people by taking their sin away, and by ruling them through the forgiveness of sins. 

So what kind of sign is this for God to give?  Why did God rebuke Ahaz with such a beautiful prophesy of the birth of Christ, one with which we are so familiar?  Well, Ahaz rejected God’s mercy.  And so it was God’s mercy that stood as a sign against him.  It’s as if God said, “Ahaz, I don’t need you to fulfill my promise.  I will fulfill it with or without you.  I only want you to believe in me.  But if you will not accept my help against your earthly enemies, whom you cannot defeat without me, then you must know who it is you are truly refusing.  You are rejecting him who comes to save you from your spiritual enemies.  You are rejecting Christ for whose sake I have always fought for my people, and for whose sake I promised to fight for you.  For his sake I will never stop fighting.  But now if you will refuse Immanuel, then have it your way.  God will not be with you.”

God kept the promise he originally made to Ahaz.  He defeated his enemies and brought them to nothing by means of Assyria with whom Ahaz had originally made an alliance.  But God was not with him; he was against him.  And so Assyria turned out to be an even more oppressive foe than what Ahaz was originally so scared of.  War was on the horizon worse than what anyone had feared.  And all because Ahaz refused the Lord’s help.  He refused Immanuel. 

What I have summarized for you just now is from Isaiah chapter 7 and some of the history behind it.  For the rest of chapter 7 and through chapter 8, Isaiah describes the hardship that awaits Judah.  War is horrible.  Death would be everywhere.  Darkness would overcome the land.  God’s people would walk blindly and helplessly in the unbelief of their hearts. 

But God’s promise still stood.  The sign once given still shone brightly – not least of all in the prophet Isaiah’s memory.  It was his hope.  And in the midst of carnage and sorrow and unbelief that God inspired Isaiah to describe, we see here in chapter 9 a return to this promise.  By God’s grace, after prophesying death and darkness, Isaiah was able to see and speak more clearly concerning how this sign would finally come to pass:

²The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.

This is the light of the Gospel.  It refers to Christ’s coming in the flesh, when the eternal God would join himself to our human nature in order to redeem us – to truly become Immanuel.   Isaiah then goes on to describe how war and oppression will become a thing of the past. 

How? Why?  How will this be?  Isaiah answers this question by speaking from the perspective of one who had just seen the virgin bear her Son and call his name Immanuel:

⁶ For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

War and oppression will be a thing of the past because the One who is born of the virgin will make peace for us.  He will bear the weight of the all sin upon himself.  But by bearing the government upon his shoulder – by bearing the demands and threats of the law, Jesus will establish a new government – a new kingdom – whereby he will rule us by grace, and will give to us peace with God.  This was the prophecy.  We see it fulfilled in Christ.  Isaiah did too – albeit 750 years ahead of time. 

⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, [Isaiah continues,] upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever.

Through Isaiah, God offered Ahaz a wonder – a miracle.  He offered victory and salvation from war.  Ahaz didn’t want a wonder.  He wanted what he could accomplish.  As a sign against him, God offered Ahaz another wonder.  It is the wonder of God becoming man.  It is the wonder of God reconciling the world to himself by becoming a little Child and giving himself into death.  What a wonder.  This wonder is why we call his name wonderful.  His name is wonderful because he is wonderful, because his birth is wonderful, and because what he does is wonderful. 

I’ve never seen war.  Neither have most of you.  But there is a war raging in our hearts that every one of us is acquainted with.  It is the battle against sin and guilt and the fear of death.  And it is worse and has much more devastating blowback than any war on earth.  Like Ahaz folks can imagine that they have all things figured out when facing this battle.  They know how to manage.  But we would be wrong to think like that.  God’s word tells us otherwise.  Our war is between God and man.  God is righteous. We are sinners.  This is what makes his advent to us so wonderful.  It is not only his incarnation – God becoming a man.  It is his love.  God becomes man in order to suffer in his body and soul the guilt of sinners – the sinners who are sinners precisely because they are enemies with God.  But Jesus is wonderful, because he makes us friends with God. 

He joins our race.  He joins our battle.  He is Immanuel.  He is not a distant hero.  He is the God who rules over all.  But he comes here.  In the midst of regret, pain, guilt, temptation.  And he gives to us what he came as our brother to win.  He gives us what only God can give us. 

Yet we are given a sign. 

Baptism.  A wonder that God unites himself to sinners, that he gives new birth and eternal life to us who continue to see and feel the battle raging.  But in our Baptism, in this sign of God’s favor, we see that the battle has already been won. 

He unites us to his death and resurrection. 

People say that they don’t want to “rely on their baptism,” but rather on their faith.  They won’t “tempt” God by clinging to the appointed sign.  But this is not to tempt.  It is to take God at his word.  It is to acknowledge that no other proof is available.  It is to see your enemies closing in all around and to cling to the promise that God gives.  Ask for a sign.  Ask for evidence that the almighty god is on your side.  But you don't.  We don't.  We ask for evidence that we are doing fine.  So God himself gives us a sign.  He holds himself to it.  He joins us to  the very birth that saved us.  He gives us a new heart and mind and a very new birth into his kingdom and family and heritage.  He gives us a sign.  We rely on it it.  It stands for us and unites us to God.  All our sins are washed away.  Our death has been made his.  His resurrection is ours.  God is with us and we shall always be with God.  Amen.