Chapter 12

REBELLION: THE FORGOTTEN
NAME

IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH service there is an act of worship called the General Confession. This is said by the minister and the people as they confess to God their failures and their sins. It begins, “Almighty and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own
hearts. We have offended against Thy Holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us.”

How true to say there is no health in us, for two basic reasons: we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done. In this chapter we are going to consider one of the most pathetic stories in the Old Testament. It is about a young man who possessed everything but enjoyed nothing. But before we come to his story, let us look in Matthew, chapter 1, and find the mystery of the forgotten name.

The Christmas story begins in verse 18, a well-known and much-loved account. In verse 21 the angel is speaking to Joseph and says, “she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” The end of verse 25 tells us that Joseph was obedient to the command. This blessed name Jesus is the one that fills all our hearts with joy and worship. “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear.” It tells us of forgiveness and peace and a home in heaven.

But then in verses 22 and 23 we read, “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Notice here is another name, Emmanuel. This verse says, “They shall call his name Emmanuel.”

Verse 21 said, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus,” and that is exactly what Joseph did. Verse 23 says, “They shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us,” and the tragedy is that this is the forgotten name; they do not call His name Emmanuel. We know Him by the lovely name Jesus, but not much reference is made to the other wonderful name.

The last words of Matthew’s Gospel are spoken by the Lord, and He says, “And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Can you see the name Emmanuel there: “I am with you alway”?

Matthew’s gospel begins and ends with this precious name and yet, to many believers, it carries little significance. We all rejoice in the name Jesus, but so many miss the added blessing of Emmanuel.

Just consider these two names for a moment. The name Jesus tells us what He did: He saved His people from their sins. The name Emmanuel tells us who He is: God with us. What He did, and who He is.

Jesus is the name connected with the saving death of Christ, that He bore our sins in His body on the tree. Emmanuel is the name connected with the saving life of Christ, that He ever lives in my heart to be my strength day by day.

Jesus is the name which tells that He saved me from my sins; Emmanuel, that He saves me from my self. Remember your biggest problem is not your past sins, but your present self. You are your greatest problem, your greatest enemy. The more I know of the implications of the forgotten name, the more I will be able to live here and now.

Jesus is His name as the sin-bearer. Emmanuel is His name as the burden-bearer, day by day. There will be some of you reading these words who are carrying burdens God never intended you to bear. Your sins are gone because of the wonder of Jesus. But your burdens remain because you have never come to know the unfolding glory of His presence day by day.

We began this chapter by recalling that “there is no health in us,” because we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done. We have a positive and a negative behavior problem.

Let us look into the Old Testament and see the sad story of a young man who had the same problem, and what God did about it.

We read in Matthew 1:22, “now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,” and then we saw the reference to Emmanuel. Most Christians know that these words are a quotation from Isaiah 7:14, “There the Lord himself shall give you a sign;
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” But do you know to whom these words were first spoken? Who was the first person to hear these glorious words foretelling the virgin birth of our Lord? If you did not know, you might reason thus: such glorious words must have been first given to a person whose life was worthy of such a blessing, someone holy, faithful to God, a great saint. But you would be wrong; he was one of the greatest rebels recorded in the Old Testament, a man full of problems, full of failure, and yet a man most religious in all his ways.

We can begin his story in 2 Chronicles 28. This is how we meet him: “Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; but he did not that which was right in the. sight of the LORD.” He was king upon God’s throne, God’s man in God’s place, when he was only twenty. He was dead and buried when he was thirty
six. Put in the context of today in the United States, he would be a college man, a radical, rebelling and demonstrating in his own misguided, confused way. Sometimes we get the idea that all the kings and prophets in the Old Testament were old men, feeble and decrepit. But this is not so; time and again we meet young men in these positions behaving just like some young college people behave today. The Old Testament has many radicals recorded in its pages and their stories make relevant reading in today’s world scene. Ahaz was one of the most consistent rebels in the book.

His basic problem was that, like Israel today, he was surrounded by enemies. On all his borders there were guerrilla bands making incursions into his kingdom. He was in desperate trouble; he needed all the help he could get. But, the amazing thing was that he would not turn to God and seek help from the Lord of hosts. He was the king with all power, he could do exactly what he wished and desired, but he could not solve the problem of the enemy attacks.

Verses 3 and 4 in this chapter tell of some of the attempts he made to reach the gods in his land: “Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.”

These verses record his pagan practice to enlist the help of idols and false gods. See that it says, “and burnt his children in the fire.” This hideous act only serves to show how sincere he was in his practice of religion. There was a vile god called Molech, who demanded human sacrifice. Little babies were thrown into the fire of sacrifice, their little lives given to pay the god to assist the worshiper. This passage says he burnt his children in the fire; more than one of his own babies died in the flames of Molech, seeking to buy help against the enemy.

The whole chapter is a build up of tragedy as Ahaz went his own way, frantically seeking help. Verse 18 gives a list of places captured by the Philistines and it goes on to say why, “For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked and transgressed sore against the LORD.” God was trying to get through to this young rebel, to bring him to his knees in confession and supplication.

Verses 20 to 22 tell that he tried to buy help from the king of Assyria. Ahaz took gold out of the house of the Lord, Solomon’s glorious teniple, and from his own purse and from the money of his princes. This he sent to the heathen king, but the Scripture records that he wasn’t helped by this king. Verse 22 says, “and in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that King Ahaz.” That last phrase is a bitter cry, almost as if the writer is spitting out the words, “this is that King Ahaz.”

Verse 23 records, “For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.”

It seems unbelievable that he could be so stupid, turning to pagan gods, and all the time he lived next door to the house of the Lord. As we shall see in a moment, God was longing to help him, waiting for this young man to realize his hopeless inability to “go it alone.” His rebellion was ruining his country, destroying his own family; but still he persisted, trying to find his own way out of the desperate situation.

The Bible tells us to measure ourselves against such stupidity, and the tragedy is that there are Christians who will also sacrifice anything to get their own way. We, too, find it hard to humble ourselves and come to the Lord, throwing our- selves on His mercy and trusting only in His power.

More about the man Ahaz is told in 2 Kings, chapter 16, especially one unusual incident. The chapter begins as before by listing his age, his death, his constant pagan worship, his ever-increasing difficulties. Then in verse 10 we read of a visit he made to Damascus to meet the king of Assyria, the one to whom he paid so much money. While he was there, he saw an altar. There was something about this altar that really fascinated him. It was a pagan altar of sacrifice and he conceived the idea that if he had an altar like that, he would really have power and success. So he ordered one of his men, so qualified, to draw, “the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.” Then he sent this design to Urijah, the high priest, at the temple in Jerusalem. He instructed Urijah to make an exact copy of this altar, so that when he returned he could try something new in his religious experiences.

We read what happened when he returned. The first thing he did was to offer four different kinds of offerings on his altar, as recorded in verse 13. But then he had a problem: what should he do with the other means of worship put there by King Solomon, at the direct order and plan of God, when it was first built?

God had established the pattern and the plan for worship in His holy temple. As the worshiper entered the wide, open courtyard he was faced, first, with the brazen altar. This was a magnificent structure on which the worshipper offered his sin offering as he made his approach to God. The priest who made the offering then went toward the building called the holy place. But before he entered, he cleansed himself at a large water container called the layer. This was a huge bowl resting on lion-shaped supports. God’s order was threefold: confession and sacrifice for sin, then the cleansing, then the entrance to worship.

But now Ahaz had brought his new pagan altar into the courtyard of God’s holy house. It is almost unbelievable to read what he next commanded. Verse 14 says “And he brought also the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar.” They moved God’s altar to one side and left Ahaz’s pagan altar at the entrance of the courtyard.

Then he had the layer of cleansing taken down and moved to one side, so that, when he had finished his remodelling, all he had was his own new, exciting pagan altar alone before the holy house of the Lord. He revised his theology—and perished. We can read in verse 15 the orders he gave concerning worship to God. He listed the offerings to be made, but he made no mention of a sin offering. There was no offering for sin, no cleansing, as God had ordained, only his own special altar and his own special sacrifice. Ahaz expected the Lord of hosts to come down to his miserable level and accept what Ahaz chose to do. No recognition of sin, no repentance for sin, just an arrogant demonstration of self-will. The end of verse 15 records his added comment concerning the holy brazen altar: “and the brasen altar shall be for me to enquire by.” He would ask God questions at the brazen altar. How ridiculous; the brazen altar was a place of confession of sin, not a place of argument or discussion.

And yet God still loved this young man, just as He still loved the two and a half tribes who chose less than God’s best. “God desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live.” In just the same way, the Lord gets no joy or glory when His people are crushed and limited by their own foolish failures. He is ever ready to forgive, to love and restore. If we turn to Isaiah, chapter 7, we can see a picture of the heart of God reaching out to this embittered rebel.

As we read the first half of this chapter, we see the humility of God. Ahaz would not turn to God, so God sent Isaiah to speak to him. Verses 1 and 2 tell once more of enemies moving in on Ahaz. “And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind” (v. 2). A vivid picture of the fear filling his heart.

Isaiah came to Ahaz and said, “Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted” (v. 4) . He then went on to tell of what God had planned, and ended with these words: “If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established” (v. 9). Then we read two glorious verses. It almost seems
improper to have them there; it is not right that the Lord should have to stoop so iow. Ahaz would not come to God, and he would not listen to Isaiah; so we read, “Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above” (vv. 10-11).

The Lord Himself spoke to Ahaz. See how He said, “Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God”; see the words thy God. The Lord had not given up Ahaz, even though Ahaz would have no dealings with God. I find this a most moving passage, God Almighty stooping to speak in love to a rebel who had consistently shunned the presence of the Lord. Who but a loving
heavenly Father would be so tender and patient.

Notice that the Lord encouraged Ahaz to ask for a sign either from earth or from heaven. Surely Ahaz would respond to such an overture of love from his God. See what his answer was: “But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord” (v. 12). Almost as if he had flung back in the face of a loving heavenly Father His offer of love, and mercy and help. How could a man be so wretchedly ungrateful? To think of all the failure in the life of Ahaz, and here was the one clear chance of success. He had been seeking peace all his reign, but when it was within his grasp, he pushed it away in bitter rebellion.

No wonder Isaiah came back with words almost full of disgust: “Hear ye now, 0 house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?” (v. 13).

Then came this glorious promise from the heart of God. With the smoldering bitterness of Ahaz still there, the whole atmosphere tense with this build up of ingratitude, we read this precious jewel of God’s own devising: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Who would have dreamed of finding such a verse in such a context!

But now see the tremendous importance of the verse in this pitiful setting. Ahaz is the typical picture of a self-willed, obstinate, ungrateful rebel. He is the example of a man seeking peace, constantly overwhelmed with problems, at his wits’ end to know where to turn. To all such the Word of
God comes ringing down the years; there is an answer. God will send His son, born of a virgin, to be Immanuel, “God with us.”

Thank God for Jesus who came to save the sinner; but now, thank God for Emmanuel who comes to save the saint from himself, his fears, his helplessness.

All that Ahaz needed he could have found in the Lord of hosts, if only he would come, but he turned away, to perish. All that you and I need is found in Emmanuel, the risen, victorious Christ who indwells us by His Holy Spirit. Isaiah’s word still has meaning: “If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.”

“They shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us.” Do you know Him by this name?