While I Wait

God spoke again to Ahaz. This time he said, "Ask for a sign from your God. Ask anything. Be extravagant. Ask for the moon!"

But Ahaz said, "I'd never do that. I'd never make demands like that on God!"

So Isaiah told him, "Then listen to this, government of David! It's bad enough that you make people tire with your pious, timid hypocrisies, but now you're making God tired. So the master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She'll bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us)." Isaiah 7:10-14, msg

I haven't been very watchful of God lately. I haven't travelled God-consciously on my journey. I have had ingrown eyeballs. And strangely enough, I haven't even been asking God for much of anything. No, this doesn't prove me pious or selfless. It proves me so self-consumed that I haven't even stopped to recognize the giver of good gifts.

In the passage above, King Ahaz (descendant of David) was likewise drowning in self-thought. A threat of foreign invasion had him and his people shaking in their boots. When God asked him what he wanted, Ahaz sloughed him off. I don't need anything from God, he thought. Because he was certain that he could take care of himself. He feigned confidence in the strength of his own army. He was satisfied with what he was doing to make things right.

But, God wasn't having it. I'm going to give you a sign anyway, He says. Ahaz didn't deserve it. He wasn't asking. And YET, God showed him the greatest sign of hope. He told him about a hope he wasn't even waiting for. Years and years down the road, a teenage virgin would carry the Savior of the World in her flesh. Her humanity would make it possible for God to dwell with man. But, Ahaz couldn't see past his present troubles. He couldn't see that not only could God conquer a neighboring foreign army, He could conquer sin.

I, too, often neglect to come to the Lord in asking. I, too, am caught up in hypocrisy, too concerned with my own acts to realize that God is not short-sighted. But, the good news this Christmas, this Advent season, is that it doesn't matter. No matter how ready, how needy, how cognizant we are of our gracious God, He gives. He speaks. He acts.

Thanks be to our God who comes near.