“Ask a sign from the Lord your God. Make it as deep as the grave or as high as heaven.” (Isaiah 7:11)
Isn’t it funny how certain memories stick in our minds from childhood? When I was probably 7 or 8 years old, my mom and I went over to her friend’s house for the afternoon. I remember very little about the visit except this one thing: the woman had red licorice on her kitchen counter. I must have been wandering around the house looking for something to do and then noticed it. Candy! I knew it was impolite to come right out and ask for it so I devised a plan.
Me entering the room where my mom and her friend were: “Mom?”
“Yes?”
“I don’t know why this is, but I’m really in the mood for licorice.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
**Me shrugging shoulders**
“Well, I don’t know how I can help you.”
Mom’s friend finally cluing in: “Oh, you know what, we have some licorice in the kitchen.”
I’m sure my mom knew exactly what I was up to, but I got the licorice anyway. Mission accomplished.
I was reading Isaiah 7:10-14 the other morning and there’s a verse in that passage that will get quoted a lot over the next few days. Verse 14: “Therefore, the Lord will give you a sign. The young woman is pregnant and is about to give birth to a son, and she will name him Immanuel.” But that’s not what I loved about the passage (don’t take it personally, verse 14). Earlier in the text, the Lord speaks to a man named Ahaz, a king of Judah. God utters what I quoted above at the top of the blog (Isa 7:11). Ahaz hemmed and hawed, however, and says, no, he won’t ask anything of the Lord. We might think, how admirable! A man who wants to do things for himself! But the Lord isn’t impressed. The next verse is spoken from the prophet Isaiah. It’s great: “Listen, house of David! Isn’t it enough for you to be tiresome for people that you are also tiresome before my God?” My interpretation: Good grief, Ahaz, get over yourself. Your act is wearing thin. God has asked you to ask for some help and yet you refuse. It’s getting old for others and it’s certainly getting old for God.
When it comes to petition prayers (when we make an “ask” of God), it seems like folks put themselves in two camps. There are those who only ask for stuff and there are those who feel like it’s not their place to ask for anything. “Doesn’t God have better things to do?” they might say. There has to be another way.
We’ll hear “It’s better to give than to receive” a lot over the next few days and it may seem a little rude to ask for things, unless you’re under a certain age. God seems to be saying something different here: Ask for a sign. I’ve taken God up on that this week: Show yourself, Lord! And my sense of the response is, “I’ll be happy to. Now, open your eyes.”