1.21 blog

This Sunday, I preached from Matthew 1.18-25, about the birth of Jesus. In this passage, he is revealed to us as Immanuel: God with us. We saw that the goal of the Christian life is to know and love God properly. We’ll be spending the next few posts exploring how this plays out in our lives.

In verse 23, we read that things took place the way they did in order to fulfill what God spoke through the prophet Isaiah. This refers to an exchange that God had with King Ahaz in Isaiah 7. God wants to assure Ahaz of his good intentions toward him and offers him a sign.

Ahaz responds by quoting Deuteronomy 6.16. He’s not going to put the Lord to the test. This sounds nice and pious, doesn’t it? “I don’t need a sign, I’ll just take him at his word.” But his word is offering you a sign (tacit assumption: you need a sign). How can you be taking him at his word when you refuse the sign that his word offers you?

God tells him that, basically, this isn’t a pious attitude at all. Instead, it’s wearying. It’s a tiresome rebellion in God’s sight when we won’t take the signs he offers. He’s not impressed that Ahaz doesn’t need a sign. When God offers us a sign we should take it. Furthermore, if God is the one offering the sign, then it’s not putting him to the test if we take it. Instead, it’s trusting him. Part of trusting God means taking all the help he offers us. If we don’t take his help, we’re implying that we don’t need his help. If we don’t need his help, then we’re trusting in someone else (often ourselves) instead of in him.

Oddly enough, plenty of times, we’re busily looking for signs. We want God to show himself to us in all sorts of esoteric ways: through our circumstances, through our emotions, but he’s not promised to do any of that.

First, we shouldn’t expect that our circumstances are going to be good conveyors of signs. They’re subject to multiple interpretations. If I’m on the way to a meeting and my car breaks down what does that mean?

• Am I not supposed to go to that meeting?
• Am I supposed to witness to the tow-truck driver?
• Is God testing me to see if I’ll really go to this meeting no matter what difficulties he gives me?
• Is God telling me I should take better care of my car?
• All of the above?
• None of the above?

Not only are they subject to multiple interpretations, but we have to bear in mind that every circumstance of mine is conditioned by and conditions the rest of the world. So with as complex a fabric as reality is, we shouldn’t expect that God’s providence is going to be directed towards giving me “signs,” especially when he’s already designated certain signs and given me the word.

Second, our emotions are even worse indicators. They’re entirely subjective. They’re affected by so many other forces (diet, exercise, sleep, etc.), they’re fickle, and they’re entirely within us. If we want a sign, we should expect it to come from outside of us.

So these aren’t very good ways of knowing God. But he has given us signs: the sacraments. And yet how many of us are bored with weekly communion? It’s not just a sign, but  a sign where God promises to act on our behalf. And we get bored with it. How many of us even think of our baptism anymore?

Our problem isn’t that we want signs. Our problem is that we ignore the signs God has given us, and seek after new ones that he has not given us. So ask God to help you appreciate the signs he has given you, to gratefully receive them, and to rest satisfied with them. He knows what we need, and he tells us that this is enough.

In our next post we’ll go a little further in understanding how we can know and experience God.

~ by geneschlesinger on December 28, 2009.

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