When Asking Is an Act of Faith

Good morning. Today we are in Isaiah 7:1–16.

And when I say that there is a lot packed into these verses, that's—that's an understatement, almost. There is so much here.

In other days, you know, I felt like I was able to walk through a whole chapter and be like, "Okay, I get it and I understand it," and then be able to share my glittery thread with you guys.

But today I'm looking at this very much as if I needed to become a scholar of Isaiah.

And I will say that there are times, especially in Isaiah—and, of course, other books of the Bible—when having additional resources just becomes really important.

I have my John MacArthur Study Bible. I have a book by J. Alec Motyer called *The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary*. And when I say that book is thick, that book is thick.

And I'm sorry, I spent some time this morning sort of wandering through those books and reading Isaiah.

But really, that's—it's not necessary. It does help you understand the historical meaning. It helps you understand the style of writing that Isaiah is using. But it's not necessary.

And that's where the premise of SOAP really comes into play, of you can go as deep into this as you want, or you can sort of stay within just the words and ask God what He has for you there.

And so today I decided to focus a little bit more on the specific Scripture and the SOAP process that I normally do, with focusing on a few verses.

But I invite you to dig in to see the beauty of all that is hiding here in chapter 7.

So the verses that stuck out to me were Isaiah 7:10–12:

"Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 'Ask for a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; make it deep as Sheol or high as heaven.' But Ahaz said, 'I will not ask, nor will I put the Lord to the test.'"

And then in verse 13, it switches to Isaiah speaking. So it says:

"Then he," meaning Isaiah, "said, 'Listen now, house of David! Is it too trivial a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?'"

And I was like, "Oh."

At this moment in time, like, at first glance, I'm like, "Oh, okay. Ahaz isn't wanting, you know, to express doubt. You know, he's—he's choosing to not ask for a sign because, you know, he should just believe."

But then the response is not what I expected.

"Is it too trivial a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?"

Wow.

That's not the response of, "Wow, your faith is evident."

And that made me think of the story of Gideon and the fleece back in Judges 6:36–40.

And I had, at one point in time, been taught that this was an act of testing God, that he didn't really believe, that he was asking for a sign to know that it was God, and that he just was doubting.

And then, as I've grown in my time in Scripture and understanding, that sometimes it can be an expression of faith—of willingness to go forward, but wanting to be sure that we're being obedient correctly.

And so, you know, Gideon asked for two different signs in Judges.

And here we have Ahaz refusing to ask for a sign, which comes across, when you think of it that way, almost as fake humility.

Then you take in the rest of the chapter that we've been reading, where he's being encouraged to have faith in God, to believe that God will fulfill His promises, and he's just putting his faith in men and in alliances more.

And I just—wow.

There's a lot there to sit and to think about and to wander about.

Because then, you know, it does go on to speak about Immanuel, which we know later becomes Jesus and the promise of—

But I just want to sit with this thought that it's not wrong to ask God for clarity.

It's not wrong to ask for a sign to know that you're doing it right.

Maybe there could be a time when doing it is wrong because we're doubting a lot, because we don't believe, and we're asking for a sign for our unbelief. And we hear Jesus treat that pretty harshly, too, in the Gospels.

So again—again, everything we've been doing here, everything we've been reading from Isaiah 1 through now, God focusing in on the heart, on the relationship between the individual or the nation and God, and how He looks at our heart.

He wants that relationship with us, not the outward appearance, not our pride.

He wants our humility.

Oh boy.

Well, what stuck out to you? What grabbed your attention?

There's a lot there to dig.

Oh, dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank You that every day You show up. Every day You reveal Yourself in Your Word.

You show us that You are faithful. You show us that You are sovereign. You show us that there is a reason for us to worship You.

Oh, that our hearts would be right, Lord. We would humble ourselves before You. We would honor You with our actions.

Oh Lord, as we go out and step into the lives each one of us has, into the responsibilities and challenges that we each have in our life, I ask that You'd be with us. That we would trust You, lean on You to guide each of our steps. That our words and our actions would honor You, and that they would be a light on a hill for others to wonder about the difference in us and to come to know who You are, because there are so many lost out there, Lord.

It is in the precious name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Thank you for joining me today as we wandered through God's Word with wonder.