Stand Firm in Faith, or You Won’t Stand at All

Tragically, Ahaz refuses! He puts on the air of a humble man by saying, “I will not test the Lord” (v. 12). But God had commanded Ahaz to ask for a sign, and Ahaz refused. So Isaiah, exasperated in this man’s rebellion, rebuked him for testing the patience of God and man alike. And notice the shift from “your God” in the invitation of verse 11 to the “my God” in the rebuke of verse 13. Then the prophet spoke one of the most famous prophecies in the book of Isaiah: “Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel” (v. 14). The sign is given to the whole nation: the word “you” is plural.

This sign of Immanuel carries with it three difficult interpretive issues:

1. Was there an immediate sign in Ahaz’s time?

2. Does this verse teach the virgin birth?

3. What is the significance of the word “Immanuel”?

Let’s look at each issue.

First, was there an immediate sign in Ahaz’s time? Answer: yes. Christian prophecy often has a type and a fulfillment, a shadow and the reality. Something was acted out imperfectly in space and time illustrating some aspect of Christ’s future coming. Christ then perfectly fulfills that shadow with the bright light of his life and ministry. In Ahaz’s day an actual child was born and given this mysterious name “Immanuel.” Immanuel was a normal child, growing up in the normal way. His development was like a timepiece for the total erasure of the military threat to Judah from Ephraim and Aram: he will grow up to the point where he can learn to reject bad and choose good and eat butter and honey. Before all that occurs (perhaps a five- or six-year-old boy would have enough moral training to discern between good and bad), the land of the two kings they were dreading would be abandoned.

Second, does this verse teach the virgin birth? Again, yes. Matthew 1:22-23 directly ascribes this prophecy to Jesus, settling for Christians whether Isaiah 7:14 taught the virgin birth. The challenge with this prophecy is that the virgin conception and birth of Jesus Christ were unique in all of history. So the Hebrew word “virgin” is almah, a word that can refer to a virgin but that doesn’t emphasize her virginity.^[3] The imperfect, shadowy prophetical type of Isaiah’s day was that an ordinary young woman would conceive Immanuel in the ordinary way. But the perfect fulfillment was of a true virgin, Mary, who conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. More in a moment.

Third, what is the significance of the name Immanuel? This word means “God with us,” and the significance in Ahaz’s day was that the true source of Judah’s safety was the fact that Almighty God was protecting it. As Isaiah 8:9-10 will make plain, any nation can prepare for war against little Judah, and they can make lavish plans, but all such preparations will fail, for “God is with us.” As Paul would later write, “If God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom 8:31).

Isaiah 7:17-25

Sadly, Ahaz will not listen to any of these marvelous words. He will not stand firm in faith, so he will not stand at all (v. 9). He will trust in his scheme to make an alliance with the evil king of Assyria to deliver him from these two small kings. So in verses 17-25 God makes it plain that Assyria will most certainly come, having been summoned by both God and Ahaz, but for very different purposes. The tragic story of Ahaz’s faithless alliance with Assyria is told fully in 2 Kings 16:7-12. Turning away from these sweet promises of God through Isaiah, Ahaz invites the monster to save him from these two small kings. He pledges allegiance to Tiglath-pileser III, king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son! March up and save me!” Ahaz’s faithlessness led him directly into idolatrous worship of pagan deities. He eventually shut the doors of the Lord’s temple entirely, set up altars at every street corner in Jerusalem, and worshiped false gods after the pagan pattern of Assyria and the other nations. All of this came from the turn in Ahaz’s heart: I will not ask the Lord; I will save myself!

So the Lord would bring Assyria into Judah—“He will bring the king of Assyria” (Isa 7:17). Isn’t it amazing that both a wicked king and a holy God can bring about the same thing for radically different reasons? Ahaz wanted the king of Assyria to come and save him from Israel and Aram; God wanted the king of Assyria to come and judge his faithless people. So the Assyrian troops will swarm into the land like flies and bees, summoned by God’s whistling for them (vv. 18-19). The king of Assyria will be like a razor coming to shave the hair from the bodies of this faithless people—a sign of total humiliation (see 2 Sam 10:4). The final result of verses 23-25 is a land totally destroyed by the Assyrian invasion, symbolized by “thorns and briers” mentioned in all three verses. Bottom line: what you trust in other than the Lord will totally destroy you in the end.

Seven centuries later God remembered the sign he had given to Ahaz, and he fulfilled the words perfectly—virgin and Immanuel. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary, a virgin, became pregnant with a son. The Holy Spirit overshadowed her and the power of God came upon her, and she conceived a son, fully human and fully divine—Jesus Christ our Lord (Luke 1:34-35). The word Immanuel was fulfilled by the incarnation of Jesus Christ; “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). “Since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these” (Heb 2:14). He was God with us and God for us (Rom 8:31), and he became the focus of all saving faith. In him alone is fulfilled the words, “If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all” (Isa 7:9). He is with us in companionship through all our trials, for he has said, “I will never leave you or abandon you” (Heb 13:5). But by far the greatest deliverance Jesus will work for us is on judgment day, when he will claim us as his own; he will not abandon us on that day but will say, “I know you; you are mine. Enter into the joy of your salvation!” He will deliver us from death and hell and bring us safely into his eternal kingdom. All other deliverances are as nothing compared to that one.

The central lesson of this chapter is this one question: In what are you trusting? The various trials and crises of your life will reveal the true answer to this question, and it’s not always flattering. As you face lesser trials of financial struggles, health problems, or relationship issues with family members or friends, does your heart flutter and are you shaken like trees in a strong wind, as Ahaz was, or do you have a growing stability in faith in Christ? The ultimate trial we all will face is judgment day. What we rely on now for lesser trials is related directly to what we will be trusting in for the salvation of our souls. Romans 1:17 says, “The righteous will live by faith,” and that faith must be in Jesus Christ. He is Immanuel, God with us, our only Savior.