The Promised One: Advent Day 9

Read & Journal

Read Isaiah 7:10-14. Use the following questions to help you meditate on what you’ve read:

• You may need to read a few passages before and after today’s reading to get a better sense of the context of what you’ve read. After you do so, jot down a few notes about what is happening and what is revealed in these verses.

• What do these verses help you to understand about God and his character?

• How do these verses point to Jesus? Do they reveal anything about his mission and purpose? Explain.

• Ponder the meaning of the name Immanuel, which means God with us. Why is it important that this is a name/title given to Jesus?

• Think about your life. How can you see how Jesus has been Immanuel in your life recently? Thank him for his presence and love for you.

Ponder

King Ahaz, the king of Judah, was the son of Jotham, a good, godly king who turned the people back toward God. But Ahaz didn’t follow his father’s example. Rather than rely on God for help, Ahaz tried to buy aid from the Assyrians using the silver and gold in the temple (2 Kings 16:8). God invited Ahaz to place his faith in God (Isa. 7:9), but Ahaz chose to trust an enemy nation that seemed like a sure bet. Ahaz chose faith in what he could see.

Firm faith in God isn’t always about doing what makes sense or what seems most reasonable according to the options you can see and identify. Ahaz made a dangerous choice to trust the Assyrians, placing his faith in options he could see and understand. Yet as Judah’s leader, God had called Ahaz to trust him and when push came to shove, Ahaz chose what he could see and understand. We can say we trust in God, but when the opportunity comes to exercise that faith and to actually believe God is faithful to his promises, it’s sometimes easier to believe in the options we can see and understand instead.

But out of Ahaz’s great failure to trust, God replies with a promise: a virgin will give birth to a son and his name shall be Immanuel. While the prophecy likely had at least some sort of fulfillment in Ahaz’s lifetime, it finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus. The Messiah, a Savior, will come, born of a virgin, and his name shall be Immanuel, God with us.

In Jesus, God offers us salvation. He is the one who rescues us from our sin and disobedience, the one who draws near when we try to trust what we can see and understand rather than exercise faith in God. In the most faithful moments of our lives—and in those when we cannot seem to trust God’s goodness, faithfulness or power—Jesus is still Immanuel.

Draw near to him today. Put your faith in him, trusting his salvation rather than your own. He will not leave you or forsake you (Heb. 13:5). He is faithful, even when we are faithless (2 Tim. 2:13).