Isaiah - Verse By Verse

Isaiah - Day 131

versebyverse | October 25, 2008 18:05

Scripture:  Isaiah 7:12 (NIV):  "But Ahaz said, 'I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.' "

Thought:  To me, unbelief is at the root of most, if not, all sins.

Question:  Have I ever told God "No!"?

This reminds me of Peter's response to God when he was given the vision of the sheet full of animals.  God said, "kill and eat."  But Peter drew from his own "law within", (be it Judaism or whatever, doesn't matter), and told God, "No!"  Ahaz here does the same thing.  His reasoning, or "excuse", is that he did not want to "put the LORD to the test."  But if the LORD has invited the request in the first place, to shirk God's invitation is nothing less than to snub God's reaching out to you.   

Who in their right mind would ever tell God "No"?  Yet we do it all the time.  We convince ourselves that our code is God's code, even to the degree that we close ourselves off to any "new invitation".  In one sense we need to always remain open to truth that may be "new" to us but that comes from God.  In another sense, as New Testament Christians, we need to be very cautious and scrutinize all "new invitations" to see where they originate, "trying" the Spirits.  Scripture teaches the latter in many places, but never, to my knowledge, asks us to be close-minded.  We are to be carefully open-minded to God's creativity with us.  Ahaz closed himself down completely, stifling faith in God, and choosing to foster his own unbelief.  He said he would not "put the LORD to the test", but what he actually did was fail the test of his own faith.

Prayer:  Loving Father, as we read the record of Ahaz and his lack of response to You, may it ever stand as a lesson to us of the stifling coldness of the sin of unbelief.  Amen.

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