Isaiah 7
13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?
14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
Will you weary my God also? It is the question of the Prophet. It is the question of the fervent preacher of the Lord’s convicting word. It is the question of Jesus to the ‘church crowd.’
Mark 7: 6 He [Jesus] answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
7 And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men…
9 He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition….
… And many such things you do.”
14 When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: 15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. 16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”
The fervent preacher asks a church part-full of those who prefer to have their ears tickled with familiar music and familiar ‘worship,’ “WHY do we hold to our Christian ‘traditions?’”
The challenge of of the prophet Isaiah would be, ‘Does that which makes us feel good weary our Lord God?’
Isaiah and Jesus were not preaching to the gentiles here, but to those who claim to follow God.
The fervent question of the preacher is not for the unchurched or occasional visitor, but a challenge to each of us who attend church to listen to teaching from the Bible.
Answer this, dear brother, dear sister in Christ: WHY do our churches hold to such things for an hour (on most Sundays) and pour defilement from unclean lips the rest of the week?
Have we become so familiar with Jesus Christ that we do not even know Him?
“Behold, a virgin shall conceive…” we witness as audience of our annual Christmas pageants. Our “Christian” traditions (like those against which Jesus later warned the Pharisees) have renewed our warm-fuzzy feelings about Christmas. Yes, Christmas is about BABY jesus.
(‘We say, ‘Merry christmas,’ not ‘happy holidays.’ Everybody knows I’m a good christian who knows what Christmas is all about. I even buy presents for some of my family and sing christmas songs. ‘ I usually go to church on Christmas eve, too.)
But will you weary my God, also?
“Fear not,” say the angels in the Christmas pageant, so we do not even fear the LORD GOD!
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. God with us!
God is ‘with us’ in Jesus Christ. He was born a man (like you and me) and lived and lives yet! Jesus IS God with us.
Jesus exuded love. God is love. God so loved the world… (etc. etc.)
Yet are you so familiar with Jesus that you will not humbly bow down to Him as your Lord?
If the President of the US, or Prime Minister or King of a country were, in this moment of time, literally in the room with you; would you not at least show some humility and respect to their position and office?
Would you not at least show a superstar or sporting hero acknowledgement of their greatness of accomplishment by comparison to your own, though for a time they appeared as a mortal person ‘with us’ in your very company?
If Jesus had shown up in your gathering (for something else) today as ‘God with us, Immanuel,’ would you not listen to what He asked you in Person and consider your answer as if the words of your mouth have eternal consequence?
If Jesus were in the room, will you weary my God also?
Why do we not apply the lessons Jesus so often taught us in the Gospels?
Why do we weary the body of Christ, His church, by our hardheartedness toward one other?
Are we any better than Ahaz, to whom the Lord sent Isaiah? Are we any better than the Pharisees, to whom the Father sent the Son?
Consider our ‘traditions’ of Christmas, how by them even christians may have forgotten Christ.
Isaiah’s continued prophesy would be unfamiliar to us, yet perhaps time is near for Christians and the world to consider it.
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
Butter and Honey
We must understand the meaning of the Prophet. It is not butter for bread to which Isaiah refers, but rather, curdled milk, the acid of which is grateful in the heat of the East.
Isaiah has used a metaphor from the sermon of Zophar on the wicked man, preaching to the righteous man, Job, with the Messiah of God being the antithesis of all things evil.
Job 20:17 He will not see the streams,
The rivers flowing with honey and cream.
Isaiah refers to the sweetness of Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, whom we would know as a humble man like us. Though Israel was the land of milk and honey; though the sweetness of Jesus’ heart spoke kindly of the lost souls of His beloved sheep of the remnant and we of pastures of the Nations – though Jesus is our sweet Redeemer, He IS God Immanuel: Jesus IS Lord, KING over the Kingdom of all creation.
May we have the acid of gratefulness for Immanuel, the refining fire of our souls.
Another note of research on this passage from the Prophet Isaiah points out that honey is abundant in Palestine. ‘ Physicians directed that the first food given to a child should be honey, the next milk [BARNABAS, Epistle]. HORSLEY takes this as implying the real humanity of the Immanuel Jesus Christ, about to be fed as other infants ( Luk 2:52 ). Isa 7:22 shows that besides the fitness of milk and honey for children, a state of distress of the inhabitants is also implied, when, by reason of the invaders, milk and honey, things produced spontaneously, shall be the only abundant articles of food [MAURER].
Did our Lord not eat the sweetness of scripture? Did our Lord Immanuel not refuse and rebuke evil in every instance? Did our Lord Christ Immanuel not instruct us to choose good, do good, speak good and witness the good known only in His Name?
If all is taken from us, do we not have the butter and honey of Christ’s righteousness?
If a man take all our earthly goods, if a man take our mortal life; do we not have in Christ Jesus, life eternal?
Will Christ Jesus Emmanuel not judge all the earth with fire? Will the Lord not bring forth the Kingdom of Heaven and the reward of righteousness for those who obey the Word of the Lord?
to be continued…
