Does God Give Signs?

Devotional Reflection, Friday, December 13, 2024

The week of the second Sunday of Advent

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying, 11Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. 12But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test. 13Then Isaiah said: "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? 14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. 15He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.

You will find the full text of today’s Hebrew Scripture reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 931)

AM Psalm 31; PM Psalm 35

Isa. 7:10-25; 2 Thess. 2:13-3:5; Luke 22:14-30

Today we celebrate the Feast of Lucy. (See below.)

David's Reflections

As a boy the idea kept recurring that I should become a minister.  As the second of 20 grandchildren and the oldest grandson, I had no cousin before me in ministry, no uncle, no aunt, no parent or grandparent. But, that idea would not go away.  At age 12, I put a bucket used for feeding pigs in the yard on a clear night and asked God to fill it with water as a sign. That failing twice, I spread a towel on the grass and asked God to keep it dry from dew as a sign. The towel got soaked.  No sign was given. The idea of call, however, persisted for several years and strengthened into a calling that has energized and been the central intent of my life.

Jesus would not give the religious leaders a sign to prove his identity, but, Isaiah takes a different tack. His appeal for Ahaz to count on God that we saw in yesterday's reading did not immediately evoke the king's faith. In today's reading, which probably reports a different encounter between them, Isaiah gives voice to God's invitation for Ahaz to seek a sign. He invites Ahaz to name the sign himself. It could be an earthquake (Sheol=grave, place of the dead) or lightening (heaven). If Ahaz's faith was weak or wavering, the sign would strengthen him to respond in faith to God’s message through Isaiah.

Otto Kaiser comments on this. ”It can be a sign of unbelief to ask for a sign, and it can be a sign of unbelief to refuse a sign. The criterion is whether a man is ready to expose himself to the future laid down by his God and subject himself to his will.”*  Ahaz refused the chance for a confirming sign. He did so by appealing to Deuteronomy 6:16, saying"I will not put the LORD to the test." Jesus referred to this passage when refusing to leap from the pinnacle of the Temple when encouraged by Satan to demonstrate his identity for the crowds.

 Why this refusal? Ahaz's motive for appealing to Scripture does not compare to our Lord's. Jesus was refusing to ask God for a sign because to have done so would be have been a rejection of God's will. Ahaz has rejected God's will and God's future by seeking to throw off an invasion through an appeal to Assyria for aid. He was unwilling to place his foreign policy at the mercy of a prophet's whim by asking for a confirming sign. As Kaiser observed, he was not “ready to expose himself to the future laid down by his God.” Were he to ask for and receive a sign, the public pressure to obey would be immense. With his falsely pious response he appeased his more religious public while maintaining control of his response to the military crisis.

Ahaz's insincere, pious answer prompted Isaiah to announce a sign, the near-at-hand birth of a successor. The birth of this child would demonstrate God's presence, Immanuel, among his people. Isaiah may have been referring to the birth of Hezekiah, Ahaz's son who succeeded him and was a devout person. The ultimate fulfillment of the words, "a young woman is with child and will bear a son" can be found in the birth of another davidic descendent of Ahaz, Jesus of Nazareth. But, in this historical setting Isaiah spoke of a more immediate sign. (Note verse 16 above.)

Isaiah's intent with Ahaz was to encourage and to enable Ahaz's obedience.  Do you find yourself regularly in need of a similar ministry of encouragement and enabling? Like Ahaz, we often are unwilling to release our version of the future, our solutions and designs, in favor of God's wise guidance. We may even be guilty of an appeal to Scripture, as was Ahaz, to buttress our vision of what we should do, all the while being driven by anxiety, uncertainty, and fear.

Better to seek a correspondence among several witnesses--the consistent inner voice that seeks our attention, the witness of Scripture, and the influence and counsel of our believing community. That consistent, recurring inner voice that prompts us toward faith and toward God probably is God's Spirit, the voice that spoke through Isaiah.  We can confirm that voice with the witness of the biblical text and the counsel of those we trust. The image of a God sensitive to our fear, sensitive to how tough it is to exercise faith, sensitive enough to encourage us even with a sign--what an incredibly encouraging image to keep before ourselves when faith wavers and threatens to dessert us.

"'What is the wind?' a little lad asked his grandfather, a hardy sailor. 'I don't know, my boy,' answered the old man, 'but I can hoist a sail.'"

*Otto Kaiser, A Commentary on Isaiah, vol. 1. The Old Testament Library. A comment on this text by Kaiser who was writing in the years before we began avoiding exclusively masculine gender pronouns in favor of a more inclusive use of language.

Collect of the Day, The Second Sunday of Advent

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation:  Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.  (BCP, 211)

Today we celebrate the Feast of Lucy, virgin and martyr (died ca 304 CE).

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/lucy.htm

Collect of the Feast of Lucy

Loving God, for the salvation of all you gave Jesus Christ as light to a world in darkness: Illumine us, with your daughter Lucy, with the light of Christ, that by the merits of his passion we may be led to eternal life; through the same Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Collect for Fridays

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (BCP, 97)

In the Evening

O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.   (BCP, 833)

A Collect for Mission

Merciful God, creator of all the peoples of the earth and lover of souls: Have compassion on all who do not know you as you are revealed in your Son Jesus Christ; let your Gospel be preached with grace and power to those who have not heard it; turn the hearts of those who resist it; and bring home to your fold those who have gone astray; that there may be one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (BCP, 280)

Daily Office Old Testament Reading, Isaiah 7:10-25

10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying, 11Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. 12But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test. 13Then Isaiah said: "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? 14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. 15He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.

17 The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah-the king of Assyria." 18On that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is at the sources of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures. 20On that day the Lord will shave with a razor hired beyond the River-with the king of Assyria-the head and the hair of the feet, and it will take off the beard as well. 21On that day one will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, 22and will eat curds because of the abundance of milk that they give; for everyone that is left in the land shall eat curds and honey. 23On that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns. 24With bow and arrows one will go there, for all the land will be briers and thorns; 25and as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns; but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer

Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer