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 tired 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). By the time the child is twelve years old, able to make moral decisions, the threat of war will be over. Relax, those two kings that have you so worried will be out of the picture.
(Isaiah 7:10-16)
Ahaz was more concerned with saving his own position than he was in preserving his nation and his people as God’s people. He ended up losing both.
Ahaz lacked the faith to trust in God and instead placed his trust in armies and alliances. Which is what Ahaz eventually did, he appeal to the King of Assyria for aid in dealing with the Syro-Ephraimitic coalition, stripping the gold and silver from the temple as tribute to pay for his assistance (2 Kings 16:7). That would only give the Assyrian king an excuse to invade and annihilate the Northern Kingdom and make Ahaz and the southern kingdom of Judah a vassal king and people subservient to Assyria (2 Kings 16:8-9). That unfolded with the destruction of Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom.
God is looking for the BOLD to trust him. We walk by Faith and not by sight….
