Call to Worship December 14, 2025
Isaiah 7:10-16
“But the Immanuel sign contained a promise as well as a threat. For Isaiah and his followers it meant the promise of God’s protecting presence and the eventual fulfilment of God’s good purposes for his people. The preservation of the remnant in Isaiah’s day was part of a process which led finally to the coming of Jesus, the perfectly faithful and righteous one, in whom all God’s promises come to fulfilment.So Matthew was right to see the ultimate fulfilment of the Immanuel saying in Jesus Christ. What was death to Ahaz is life to us who believe.
Two important themes from previous chapters are strongly developed here in chapter 7. The first is the Lord’s supreme, universal sovereignty, which was so forcibly set before us in 6:1–3. There he sat upon ‘a throne, high and exalted’ (1), and his glory filled the entire earth (3). He was the King (5), before whom all others paled into insignificance. Here in chapter 7 we see him exercising that sovereignty as he summons the nations to do his bidding. To him Egypt and Assyria, the two superpowers of the day, are but insects which swarm at his whistle (18–19; cf. 5:26). Assyria in particular is but a razor which he takes up temporarily (hired) to clear Palestine of its inhabitants, as a man shaves unwanted hair from his body (20).
The second theme is closely related to the first, namely, the absolute necessity of wholehearted reliance upon the Lord. In chapter 2 the alternative to such trust was reliance upon ‘man’ (22); here that general notion is developed in terms of trusting in the nations (especially Assyria) for protection instead of the Lord. The choice is put squarely to Ahaz in verse 9b: ‘If you will not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’ Whatever we rely on instead of trusting in God will eventually turn and devour us.”[1]
[1] Barry Webb, The Message of Isaiah: On Eagles’ Wings, ed. J. A. Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1996), 63–64.