From the Pastor – December 2024

“Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, ‘Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.’”  (Isaiah 7:10) —Ask for a sign Ahaz, O king of Judah.  Ask anything of your God.  It can be whatever you would like.  Anything at all and it shall be yours.  Ask for a sign that will prove to you and to all of Israel that God is with you and will never forsake you.   …  But Ahaz doesn’t ask for a sign.  In fact he down right refuses.  Ahaz didn’t ask because Ahaz didn’t want anything from God.  He didn’t want His comfort or care or protection.  King Ahaz trusted in the might of his own arm, in his own ability to conquer the foes that were before him.

And at this, you would think that God would turn His back on Ahaz and all of Judah.  You would think that God would say, “Fine!  Have it your way.  See just how far you get without me.”  That is what you and I would do.  But God is different than us.  And thanks be to God that He is.  …  Instead, God does it Himself; like He always does for us poor lost sinners.  He produces the sign for Ahaz to prove that He is the God of Judah, the God who has promised that He will always be the God of His children, that He will never forsake them and will always be with them.

The angel Gabriel tells a dumb-struck Joseph that the child within the belly of his betrothed is from God; even more then that, this baby is God in the flesh.  For that is what Immanuel means, God with us.  …  God has fulfilled His promise of always being with His children by becoming one of them, by taking on their flesh, by living their life and dying their death.  God has united Himself with all of mankind forever unto eternity in a way that we would have never dreamed:  He became man.

And this is where it gets really strange, because this promise that God had made to Ahaz, He made to a sinner.  He made this promise to a horrible king who didn’t want anything to do with Him, who wanted to go it alone, who thought that his own works and his own deeds were good enough and strong enough to rescue him from his enemies.  God made a promise of salvation and forgiveness and life and victory to a man who wanted nothing to do with any of that.  Here stands a faithless man, and beyond all human understanding or comprehension, God remains faithful to him.

The Incarnation, God taking on human flesh, is a promise and an act of salvation meant only for sinners.  The Incarnation is for Ahaz, that horrible faithless king.  The Incarnation is for the worst of mankind who doesn’t deserve even an ounce of grace and mercy.  The Incarnation is for all those who would rather go it alone than have God with them always.  The Incarnation is for you.  It is for me.  It is for sinners like us who are surrounded by our enemies of sin, death, and the devil with no hope of surviving them on our own.  …  What kind of God do we have?  We have one that loves us in the flesh, to death and the grave and beyond.  We have a God who is forever faithful to His forever unfaithful Bride.  We have a God who understands that the wages of sin is death and will stop at nothing to save us from it.

We have a God who said it would be better to suffer death and hell on behalf of a poor worthless sinner than have me suffer those horrible things.  We have a God who is with us in the midst of everything, who has promised to save us from all of our enemies, and who decided the best way to do that was to become one of us so that He could take on our sin and all of the punishment of hell that it deserves upon Himself.  God decided to be born so that He could die; and die for you.  …  For Christmas is about Good Friday.  If it isn’t then it is about nothing.  Trees and presents and Santa and cookies, even a baby in a manger, are worthless and pointless if God hadn’t decided to take on our flesh as that baby in a manger just so that He could walk His way to the cross and be sacrificed for the sins of mankind.

If you want a sign that God is for you, that He is always with you, that He will never forsake you, that He will always be your Heavenly Father and you will always be His child; if you want a sign to comfort you in the midst of all of your pain and anguish, all of your sin and all of its consequences, all of your sorrow, amidst the peril of death and the temptations of Satan; if you want a sign for all of this look no further than the sign that God Himself has given to you.  Look at that baby in a manger, that cooing and crying and nursing child of Mary, that God in the flesh Jesus, that dead man on a cross, that dead God on a cross, that resurrected Christ from the grave.  Because there is your sign.  There is your assurance and promise.  There is your comfort in the face of all of your enemies:  God for you!  Jesus for you!  God in the flesh for you!  God on the cross for you!  Immanuel for you!

In Christ,
Rev. Eli