“And so the Holy One themselves will give you this sign. Look there, a young woman will bear a son, and she will proclaim his name as God-is-right-here-with-us. He’ll eat curds and honey, and know how to turn from evil and choose good. But before the boy will even be able to turn from evil and to choose what is good, this land these two rulers that have made you so anxious about will be a wasteland” (Isaiah 7.14-16).
Imagine the scene for just a moment. King Ahaz of Judah sits in his palace, gnawing on his knuckles. He is anxious, uncertain. And for good reason, the neighboring rulers of Samaria and Aram are pressuring him to join them in an allied attack upon Assyria. He’s so out of sorts that he irritates the prophet who has come to provide counsel.
Leading up to today’s passage, Isaiah tells Ahaz to ask for a sign, any sign at all. But Ahaz, cranky and irritable, says he won’t do it. He says he doesn’t want to test God. But deep down, I’ll bet he’s afraid of what he might hear.
So, annoyed, Isaiah looks and points to a woman in the court who is well along in her pregnancy and says, “Alright then, this is your sign. Look over there. That woman is going to give birth pretty soon. And those people you’re worried over will be dead on the battlefield before that child will be old enough to know right from wrong.”
Now, there’s nothing that tells me that’s how the scene played out, but based on the passage and what wiser minds than I have considered, that’s a fair guess. This passage, which the Gospel writers would later use as a way to understand Jesus’ identity, is not so much a declaration of a coming Messiah as it is a testament to the presence and the work of the Divine right then and there.
Because of its association with the Nativity, it can be hard to think about this passage without focusing in on the birth foretold. After all, particularly in this season, that’s what we’re thinking about. But in doing so, we miss the larger meaning within this declaration, one that permeates this moment in the year.
This passage isn’t about a child or a birth, that was merely a “sign” at hand. It could have been anything: the ripening fruit on the tree, the frost upon the grass, or even the clouds building in the west. This is why Isaiah was so bold to challenge Ahaz to ask for a sign, any sign; because, Isaiah knew that the signs were all around. Not signs of future kings or mysterious births, but of the presence of the Divine. The reality that God is with us, here and now.
None of this takes away from the birth whose celebration we await or the return that will redeem all things. But it is a reminder that our waiting, watching, preparing, listening is about this moment as well. All around us are the signs that things can and do change, that present anxieties may disappear before a small child will be old enough to discern between good and ill.
And that the One for which we wait is already here, with us.
Beloved One, deep in this season of watching and waiting for you, open my eyes to see the signs of your presence and the changes that presence are bringing right this moment.