Fourth Sunday in Advent December 20-21, 2025
“Go Ahead. Put God to a Test.” Isaiah 7:10-17
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
“Don’t test God.” That is what your mom told you when you were going to do something really stupid. You’re in Rocky Mountain Park and you’re walking on a ledge. If you were to fall you would be dead, falling hundreds of feet to your demise. You were told, “Don’t test God, get off that ledge.”
You’ve been on that road between Central City and Idaho Springs, the one with no guard rails, and twisting turns and certain death if you make the slightest mistake – the one aptly called “Oh, my God” road. I believe you were testing God just by being on that road.
You eat every piece of chocolate in the house, and you are surprised that your blood sugar is over 300 and your weight is just about that same number. Testing God is what you’re doing.
It isn’t just your cautious mother who warned you about doing foolish things. God says the same thing – though about different things. Jesus was tempted by the devil three times shortly after His baptism. 1. Stones into bread. 2. Jumping from the height of the temple. 3. Bending down to Satan in order to receive all the kingdoms of the world. It is that second one where we are told not to put the Lord to the test.
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down.” For it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is also written: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:5-7)
I guess that would be the 11th Commandment. “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” So, the same God who says that, says just the opposite in our reading. What gives? In what I am going to read God says, “Go ahead. Put me to a test. See how I hold up.”
Our reading says:
Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, “Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” But Ahaz said, “I will not put the Lord to the test.” Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:10-14)
Go ahead. Put God to a test. You might think that King Ahaz, King of Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel, centered in Jerusalem, had it right when he said, “I will not ask. I will not put the Lord to the test.” That sounds pretty Biblical. But it wasn’t. And He wasn’t. The whole question for the king at that time was who was going to help Jerusalem from their enemies. God wanted to be considered. God wanted to be mentioned. God wanted to be their refuge. But Ahaz didn’t consider God as his best chance. He was going to seek a political alliance that He considered a better option.
With some type of pious schmoozing he says, “I would never put God to the test.” But what this was all about is this: God put him to the test. God put Ahaz to the test. Where was God in all of this? Would he look at God? Would he trust God? Ahaz thought he had it all figured out and he didn’t need God to enter into his plans.
Sounds like us, huh? We have life all figured out. Everything is going along just as it should be. And God can sit on the sidelines and marvel at how well we have life figured out. And then it happens. Life implodes. It all changes in a second. We are baffled – how did it get so screwed up? What do we do next? Where do we go?
And God says, “Go ahead. Put me to a test. See what I can do.” Unbelief, like Ahaz had, is a terrible thing. It leaves a person empty. Life has no greater purpose than self. We call the shots. We have our own plans. God is on the sidelines.
But living in faith is a whole different matter. Can God enter this problem? Does God care about this problem? Does God care about me?
I don’t know if you have read the Old Testament book of Isaiah before. I hope you have. It is an amazing book. But I know you have heard Isaiah 7:14 before. In the Gospel of Matthew we read it quoted, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel – which means ‘God with us.’” (Matthew 1:20-23)
Go ahead. Put God to the test. See if He will keep His word. I believe He will. I believe He will stay faithful to you. Please understand that God doesn’t say “yes” to every prayer that you have spoken. But He answers. Sometimes yes; sometimes no; sometimes wait – “My timing for this comes later.”
Will He be Immanuel – ‘God with us’ – ‘God with you’ – at all times? Yes. Psalm 139, “Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, the darkness is at light to you.” (Verse 12) Maybe I hear the worst from others, but some folks have a great deal of uncertainty in their lives. They need some assurance. You need some assurance. Immanuel. God with all of us, God with each of us.
I had Chapel on Tuesday with our preschool kids. I sensed there was one subject they wanted to talk about. Christmas!! The tree had been decorated in their house for a while and Christmas Eve can’t come soon enough!! At Chapel I spoke about the Advent Wreath, the Christmas Tree and our Christmas window. At the end of my talk, I took some ornaments off the tree. The manger scene. The star over Bethlehem. And the final one – a cross. We spoke about how little the cross as an ornament was and then one of the three-year-olds in Miss Shelly’s class said, “There’s a big one”, pointing to the cross above the altar. And all the kids were amazed at how big it was.
That cross of Jesus is big enough for you and me. It is big enough for our sins. It brings an assurance from God to us. We are deeply loved. We are forever treasured. All sins of living life without God, or even against God and His ways, find their answer in the cross of Christ. Christ was with us, standing for us, on that cross.
Within 4-5 days you are going to sing about a God who kept His promise. In a word of promise made hundreds of years before a birth in Bethlehem, the Lord said, “A virgin is going to be with child. That child is going to be a little Jewish boy. And get this – He is actually going to be God in the flesh. And…He will always be with you.”
Ahaz wouldn’t put God to the test. He didn’t want to follow God in any of his plans. How foolish. I hope that we put God to the test every day. Our sins are too much to carry on our own. We look to Jesus and ask for His cleansing. Our life has too many worries and problems. We seek the word of God, the promises He has made, and hold to every word from Him. We know that this bag of bones can’t make it much longer, but we hear from God, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O grave, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 15:55-57) Listen to the final chapters in the Book of Revelation where Immanuel presents the plan of our eternity to us. “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” (Revelation 21:3)
Go ahead. Put God to the test. He is big enough and strong enough. He is good enough and wise enough to meet your every need. Amen!!
