{"id":7440,"date":"2016-03-08T00:05:06","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T08:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7440"},"modified":"2016-03-07T13:45:23","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T21:45:23","slug":"give-god-a-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2016\/03\/08\/give-god-a-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Give God a Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, \u201cAsk the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.\u201d <\/p>\n

But Ahaz said, \u201cI will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.\u201d <\/p>\n

Then Isaiah said, \u201cHear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah\u2014he will bring the king of Assyria.\u201d (Isaiah 7:10-17)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Isaiah told Ahaz to ask for a sign from God. Ahaz refused. Why? Perhaps because Moses had told the Israelites not to test God (Deuteronomy 6:16). But Ahaz was ignoring the context of Moses\u2019 words\u2014and he wasn\u2019t sincere to begin with. <\/p>\n

Ahaz simply didn\u2019t want to do God\u2019s will. He had his own plans that he thought would take care of his problems. He did not trust God, because he did not have a right belief about God. Like many people in his time, Ahaz believed that gods only had authority over their own nations, and that conflicts between nations were conflicts between those nations\u2019 gods. Ahaz thought that his enemies\u2019 gods might be stronger than his, and he wasn\u2019t willing to risk his kingdom based just on what a prophet of Judah\u2019s God told him.<\/p>\n

Isaiah gave him a sign, anyway. He told him that a child would be born to Isaiah and before that child was old enough to tell right from wrong, the two kings that Ahaz feared\u2014Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Syria\u2014would be dead. God would do what he intended, regardless of Ahaz\u2019s beliefs.
\nMatthew understood Isaiah\u2019s words about a virgin conceiving to be a prophesy of Jesus\u2019 birth (Matthew 1:22-23).<\/p>\n

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Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, \u201cAsk the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.\u201d But Ahaz said, \u201cI will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.\u201d … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7440"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7442,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7440\/revisions\/7442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}