Loneliness at Christmas
Loneliness is something that we all feel at times. In a culture that is highly connected through social media, we still feel isolated and alone. We’ve all been in restaurants and seen families or friends sitting together around a table but ignoring one another because they’re all on their phones or tablets. This explains the title of a recent book by Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other.
Around the holidays, many of us will struggle with loneliness in more pronounced ways because we’ve lost loved ones or because we’re unable to go home to be with our families. When people aren’t there who’ve always been there, or when we’re not where we’ve always been at Christmas time, we feel a weight of aloneness, grief, and longing for the way things used to be.
No matter where we spend Christmas or who we spend it with, Christmas carries with it a promise from God that we don’t ever have to be alone. Christmas tells us that God has come to our house, and not just for the holiday, but forever. The story of Christmas meets us in our loneliness and tells us that God sees us and understands what we feel. It tells us that God doesn’t just sympathize with us, but that he’s actually done something about it. Christmas tells us that God sent himself to come and be with us.
Where Was God?
The story of Christmas meets a very real need we all have, a need for relationship. In fact, the entire story of Scripture is meant to show us that God has worked in Christ to bring us back into a loving relationship with himself. God made us in his image but then lost the intimate relationship he had with us because of our sin and rebellion against him. Instead of immediately giving us the judgment that we deserve, he enacted a plan to reestablish a relationship of love and trust between us and him.
In the third chapter of the Bible, God says that the offspring of the woman will crush the evil Serpent’s head. God will use a baby to start to undo the effects of sin’s curse. Who will this promised child be? The Old Testament gives us pointers along the way concerning his identity, but, like a good game of Clue, it would take lots of time for God’s plan to unfold.
We learn that the identity of this baby who’ll kill Satan and rescue God’s people will be a descendent of Abraham (Gen. 12), from the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49), will speak as a prophet like Moses (Deut. 18), will be from the royal line of King David (2 Sam. 7), and will be full of the Spirit of the Lord (Isa. 61).
Israel waited and waited for this Promised One to come. By the first century, many Jews were languishing under the conviction that God was done with them. Israel was in the hands of Rome. The spirit of prophecy had ceased. Where was God?
Unexpected, Not Unpredicted
There were a few faithful Jews still waiting and watching for God to act. Luke tells us that Simeon was “looking for the consolation of Israel” (2:25), and that Anna was “looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (2:38). Little did they know that God was about to visit them. God was on his way to meet his people where they were. God was coming to meet people struggling to know if there was even a God out there who cared about them. He was coming to people like you and I. And he came in a way that no one expected.
Many of the Jews believed that God was going to send his Messiah. They didn’t know that God would send himself. The beauty of Christmas is that God didn’t send a proxy to do his work. He came himself.
The way that God would redeem his people was unexpected, but not unpredicted. Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth makes this clear (1:20-23). Mary’s virgin birth of Jesus tells us that Jesus’ birth was totally unique. Matthew’s corresponding quotation from Isaiah 7:14 tells us that it shouldn’t have been totally unexpected. This verse was one of the pointers along the way concerning the identity of the One who would crush the Serpent that God. Let’s look at this prophecy in its context and then see what it means for us.
Ahaz Was Not a Good King
In Isaiah’s time, the nation of Israel was divided into two kingdoms, Israel (or Ephraim) in the north and Judah in the south. Isaiah was a prophet to the northern and southern kingdoms. In Isaiah 7, the Lord sent him to speak to Ahaz, king of the southern kingdom. Ahaz was not a good guy. 2 Kings 16:1-4 tells us what kind of man he was. Verses 10-20 say that he told the high priest to make a new altar like the one the Assyrians had, and to reconfigure the way the temple was set up. All of this was against God’s law and God isn’t happy about it.
Ahaz’s Choice
In Isaiah 7, Ahaz is told that Syria and Israel are in league together and are coming to fight Ahaz and the southern kingdom of Judah (v. 1). Ahaz responds with fear (v. 2) and the Lord sends Isaiah to tell him to not be afraid (vv. 3-9). He says that Israel and Syria are like burned-out logs around a campfire (7:4). Ahaz shouldn’t worry about them because they’re about to be stomped out by the super-power of the region, Assyria.
Ahaz has a choice to make. Will he trust in the promises of God or not? The issue here is not political, but spiritual. The Lord says that if Ahaz will trust him and do nothing, the Lord will take care of Judah. If he’ll avoid any alliances with pagan nations like Assyria and trust in the Lord, the Lord will keep his promises to David and deal with the Assyrian threat. The issue is clear: will Ahaz seek salvation by works, through political alliances, or by a simple trust in the promises of God?
Verse 7 begins with a word from “Adonai Yahweh,” the Lord God, or the “Sovereign Lord.” The Lord is reminding Ahaz of his greatness in order to help his faith. God’s power and rule over all nations should help Ahaz to trust in him. Verse 9 says that if Ahaz will have faith, he’ll be able to stand firm. If Ahaz doesn’t put his trust in God and what God has said through his prophet, then his only recourse is fear. But if he’ll simply trust in God, he’ll be able to stand firm no matter how desperate the immediate circumstances appear.
Who Will We Trust In Every Area of Life?
We’ll see how Ahaz responds in a moment, but first let me remind us that this call to trust in God applies to our lives as well. When we’re faced with temptations at work to do things that aren’t right, we have a choice to make. Will we trust in God or do what is easy and expedient? When we have problems in our marriages, will we trust in the goodness of God’s way or lean on our own understanding? When our children are rebelling, will we trust in the Lord or give in to fear and anxiety? When our finances are tight and it’s unclear how we’ll make ends meet, will we trust in God’s promise to provide everything we need? Or will we circumvent his way and try to make ends meet in our way? When a church member is living in unrepentant sin, will we trust in God’s word on how to deal with the situation or just hope that the situation fixes itself and goes away? When we look at our nation and see all of its problems, will we trust God and his word or will we expect politics and politicians to fix things?
Our lives present us with a steady stream of opportunities to trust in God rather than ourselves. Every day we have to decide whether we’ll walk by faith in God or by the fear of the unknown. The Lord says, “Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint” (v. 4). Our daily decisions reveal who really rules our lives. The Sovereign Lord says, “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all” (v. 9).
Ahaz’s Response to the Lord
Ahaz had to decide if he would trust in the promises of God or not. Verses 10-17 tell us how he responded to Isaiah’s challenge. The grace here is amazing. Remember who Ahaz is. He burned his son alive as an offering to false gods. He made offerings to God in ways not authorized by God. He was a terrible king.
Yet, because of his promise to David, God was patient with Ahaz. He didn’t take him out the moment he rebelled against him. Instead, he came to him, giving him a word of hope and promising to defeat his enemies. This is what God does. He comes to people who don’t like him, people like Ahaz and people like us, and he offers them grace. In Christ, God has come to us and said that if we’ll simply trust in him and turn from our sins, all will be forgiven. We may not have burned our sons as sacrifices, but we’ve made idols out of our families – looking to them as our ultimate reason for living. We may not have reconfigured God’s holy temple, but we’ve sinned against the temple of the Holy Spirit – our bodies, through sexual immorality. Despite all this, God still comes to us and tells us all will be well if we’ll simply trust him.
God comes to Ahaz “again” in verses 10-11, offering to give him a sign in order to prove to him that he’ll do what he says he’ll do. He’s yet again giving Ahaz an opportunity to trust him. In verse 12, Ahaz responds by rejecting the offer of a sign. On the surface, this appears to be a pious and sincere response. It is sinful to “put the Lord to the test.” It’s essentially the sin of unbelief. It says, “I will trust in God if God proves himself trustworthy.” Or, “I will not believe in God unless God proves himself believable.” Atheists who refuse to believe in God until they get the proof they want are guilty of this sin. So are Christians who fail to trust in God because they think that bad things that’ve happened to them mean that God isn’t trustworthy.
Treating God like this is far more serious than we probably realize. It’s treating God like a pet, like a performing animal. If God jumps through the hoops we want him to, we’ll reward him with the treat of our trust. If he doesn’t do what we want him to do, then we’ll withhold our trust from him. Unbelief is the sin that God will never forgive because not trusting in him is like slapping him in the face and saying to the God who made us, “You should’ve performed better.”
Ahaz’s refusal of the sign that God offered is proof that he didn’t want to believe in God. His words sounded pious, but his heart was full of unbelief.
The Lord’s Response to Ahaz
In verses 13-17, the Lord responds to Ahaz’s unbelief. Isaiah says in verse 13 that Ahaz has tried the people’s patience and is now trying God’s patience. In verse 14, our main verse, Isaiah says that the Lord will give Ahaz a sign whether he likes it or not. On the surface, verses 14-16 simply say that there will be a child conceived at that time and that before the child is fully grown, the two nations that Ahaz fears will be destroyed.
The precise meaning of verse 14 has been debated among theologians for a long time. One question is what the word used to identify the mother of the child means. The word for “virgin” here is the Hebrew word almah. It literally means a “young woman of marriageable age.” The more precise word for “virgin” in Hebrew is betula and isn’t used here.
Much has been made about this. Liberal scholars think this means that Matthew is wrong to use this verse to argue for the virgin birth of Jesus. Conservative scholars think that Matthew is perfectly within the boundaries of orthodox Jewish hermeneutics because the prophets often spoke about things they didn’t fully understand.
When we’re trying to interpret prophecy, we need to understand that the prophets often spoke about events that could be fulfilled in multiple ways. The best way to illustrate this is to think about driving into a mountain range. When you see the mountains in the distance, you see them in a single, two-dimensional line. But once you get to the mountain range, you realize that there are multiple ranges that are separated by miles. In the same way, most prophecies have multiple horizons of fulfillment.
Isaiah 7:14 is a perfect example. The “sign of Immanuel” here most immediately refers to Isaiah’s son born in Isaiah 8:3, 8. But that’s just the first range of mountains. When we keep driving, we come to another range, we come to the birth of Jesus Christ, a towering range that is the ultimate fulfillment of this text. The New Testament always determines the ultimate meaning of Old Testament prophecy. As we drive through the mountain range of this prophecy, the inspired apostle Matthew makes us pull over and stop at a look-out point that shows us the ultimate meaning of this verse. He shows us a more beautiful and majestic range of meaning than Isaiah probably realized.
Yes, Isaiah uses a word that doesn’t narrowly mean virgin. He probably didn’t want Ahaz to be caught up in the mysterious prediction of a virgin birth, but rather wanted him to understand that this was about to happen in his time. But Isaiah does use a word that refers to a sexually mature, though unmarried, young woman. In Hebrew society, it was understood that this word referred to a virgin woman. Our English word “maiden” carries the same connotations as the Hebrew word almah. It’s also interesting that when the Greeks translated the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek before the time of Christ, what we call the Septuagint, they used the Greek word parthenos, the word for “virgin.” If almah didn’t convey virginity, then this translation is inexplicable.
The name that this child will receive also helps us see that something unique is being predicted here. He’ll be called “Immanuel,” or “God with us” (8:10). The immediate relevance of this name to Ahaz’s situation isn’t clear. The names of Isaiah’s two children (7:3, 8:3) are relevant to the situation at hand. This child’s name tells us that something more is going on with this child than meets the eye.
To summarize what we learn from the prophecy of 7:14, the sign has one meaning with two applications. The meaning is that God is with us and that we shouldn’t fear what any person may do to us. The first application is for Ahaz’s day. He should not go to Assyria for help because the Lord is with Judah.
The second application is for our day. We should not look to ourselves for deliverance but rather trust in the baby born of a virgin in Bethlehem because the Lord is with him and will be with all who trust in him.
What Does “Immanuel” Mean for Us?
What does the truth of Isaiah 7:14 mean for us today? What can we learn from Ahaz and the “sign of Immanuel”?
First, salvation has always been by faith and not by works. Isaiah told Ahaz to trust in the Lord and not his works of political maneuvering if he wanted to be saved. That principle has never changed. Galatians 2:16, “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.”
Second, being religious and having faith aren’t the same thing. Ahaz sounded pious but he lacked faith, so he invited the judgment of God into his life. Coming to church, doing devotionals, and trying to live a basically good life are good things, but they can never make us right with God and can never replace the necessity of simple trust in the Word of God.
Third, decisions made out of fear are almost always bad ones. Ahaz feared people more than he feared God, so his decision-making ability was compromised. Because of fear, he chose what was expedient rather than what was right.
Fourth, the “sign of Immanuel” empowers our evangelism. Matthew begins his gospel with the promise of God’s presence with us in Christ. He ends his gospel with Jesus’ promise to be with us as we scatter among the nations to make disciples. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations….And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (28:18-20). Jesus is with us as we help other people follow Jesus. We’re never alone when doing his work.
Fifth, the truth of “God with us” can create joy or sorrow in our lives, depending on how we’re living. When we’re walking in holiness, “the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him” (Ps. 147:11). When we’re walking in sin, we “grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom we’ve been sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30). Just because God is always with us doesn’t mean that we can do whatever we want. Like any good parent, God is pleased with obedience and displeased with disobedience.
Sixth, Matthew says that God is with us in Christ. The rest of the New Testament teaches us that the “us” in this sentence is the church. Paul says that the church is “a holy temple in the Lord…being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:21-22). The church is where Jesus is. The Spirit of Christ lives in those who’ve trusted in Christ. This means that the most tangible way that Jesus makes his presence known to the world is through the church. When we gather for worship, we function like the Old Testament temple, becoming a place where people can meet God. Our worship and fellowship and prayers and teaching should therefore be shaped by the word of the God who is with us. This also means that our life together should reveal that Jesus is with us. One of the most tangible ways that we experience the presence of God in our lives is when other church members pray for us, speak the truth to us, and encourage us in the gospel. If Jesus is with us then he’ll come out of us as we live together in community. Who did you touch last week? Who did you point to Jesus?
Seventh, and finally, “God with us” is the main promise of the gospel. In Christ, God removes our sin and gives us righteousness so that we can be with him, and him with us. In Christ, we’ll still battle loneliness, but we don’t battle it as those who’re alone. God sees our pain, understands what we feel more than anyone else, is ready to listen to us and speak to us, and promises to walk with us through all the narrow and treacherous paths of life.
Because God is with us, we can walk in courage and joy and peace and power. Because God is with us, we don’t have to walk in fear or anxiety or despair or defeat. The gospel teaches us that Christ is all we need in this world, and all that we truly have.
