Imagine telling General Patton that to defeat a fortified enemy, he needed to do nothing more than grab trumpets and march into the battle, blowing them as loud as he possibly could. His vast knowledge of military strategy would lead the general to dismissing the idea as utter foolishness. So it is, that the natural man, unregenerated by the Holy Spirit, often dismisses the message of the Gospel. Utter foolishness! However, God’s supernatural message thoroughly demolishes the self-sufficiency of man, crushes his pride and necessitates a response of repentance and faith, itself a gift of God.
Isaiah 7 illustrates the difference between divine wisdom and human reasoning. Here God’s guidance contrasts with King Ahaz’s reluctance to accept counsel, concluding with the prophecy concerning Immanuel. At the time these words seemed to offer limited practical assistance to a monarch confronted by imminent invasion.
Ahaz, king of Judah was threatened by Rezin, the king of Syria, in league with Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of the northern kingdom of Israel. They were about to wage war against King Ahaz. God tells the prophet to say to the king, “Be careful, be quiet, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps…” (v. 4). The reader may anticipate the Lord saying, “Ahaz, go and fight against these two kingdoms, and you will overcome them.” Instead, God says, “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be as deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” Ahaz, in his unregenerate heart, refuses to ask God for a sign, but quotes Moses (Deut. 6:16). Despite the divine invitation, he refuses to trust God and relies instead on his own shrewdness.
God speaks to Ahaz through the prophet Isaiah, not about armies and kings, but about a baby. In a context of war and the threat of conquest, God, in his unfathomable wisdom, is telling his people that their hope is in a baby that will be born to a virgin hundreds of years in the future. In the light of pending doom, such a prophecy seemed out of place; However, the wisdom of God is on full display in the name of a virgin-born baby, Immanuel.
The prophecy of Immanuel, “God with us,” must have seemed like the ultimate foolishness to King Ahaz, who was preoccupied with the immediate military crisis. Instead, God offered him a baby born of a virgin as the decisive sign of his sovereign deliverance, revealing that God will accomplish His eternal plan independent of human strength or conventional means. “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are” (1 Cor. 1:28).
Furthermore, God was operating on a timeline of millennia, executing his sovereign plan of redemption. The Incarnation of Jesus, the fulfillment of the Immanuel prophecy, was a display of wisdom that would solve Ahaz’s immediate problem in his day while also foretelling the ultimate, eternal solution to humanity’s deepest plight, the need for a Savior. The immediate deliverance was a shadow; the coming Christ was the substance.
Moreover, the very name Immanuel is at the core of God’s wisdom: that the ultimate problem is not external enemies, but the covenant separation caused by sin. God’s plan was to re-establish his presence with his people in a radical, permanent way through the Person of his Son.
Isaiah’s prophecy is a profound confrontation to man’s flawed, earthbound wisdom rooted in the effects of the Fall. Ahaz said he wanted to avoid tempting God, but his true motive was to trust in his own ability to manipulate circumstances, seeking earthly alliances instead of divine grace. Fallen mankind consistently seeks power in strength, wealth, and sophisticated plans. The message of the Incarnation flies directly in the face of this worldview. Our ways pale against God’s wisdom. We think we need a fortress; God sends a baby. We think we need a sword; God brings peace through suffering. The Incarnation does not fit their expectations of divine power.
Our problem is sin and separation from God. God’s answer is Jesus Christ, who “…became flesh and dwelt among us…” (Jn. 1:14). The message of the incarnate Christ is the ultimate evidence that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are infinitely higher than ours (Isa. 55:8-9).
The message remains the same today. We must humble ourselves, enabling God’s grace to embrace the divine wisdom revealed in the unexpected, supernatural story of the baby born to the virgin. “God with us.”
