Mennonite Weekly Review

This week we consider two kinds of messengers, the prophet in the Book of Isaiah, and the angel in the Book of Luke. Both bring news of the coming Messiah.

Dueckman

Isaiah’s foretelling of Jesus’ birth contains the familiar passage, “The virgin shall be with child, and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (7:14, NIV). At the time of this writing, Isaiah is speaking to the wicked King Ahaz of Judah.

A sign from God

Ahaz finds himself in political turmoil. Syria and Israel are threatening to form an alliance to overthrow Jerusalem in the southern kingdom of Judah. Isaiah is sent to King Ahaz to assure him of divine protection if Ahaz places his faith in the Lord. All he has to do is ask for a sign. It can be large or small, says God (verses 10-11). He just wants Ahaz to trust enough to ask!

Outwardly, Ahaz pretends to be humble and righteous, saying he does not want to put the Lord God to the test (see also Deut. 6:16). But really this is just an excuse to go ahead and do what he is already planning in his own alliance with Assyria.

God’s answer is to give a sign anyway, and God gives the sign of the coming Messiah not just to Ahaz but to the whole house of David. It is here that we read that familiar passage, “The virgin shall conceive.” Perhaps, like me, when you read those words you hear them poetically set to music and sung by the alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah.

Fearsome angels

Now let us skip ahead more than 700 years to the time when Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel as described in Luke 1 and hears that she is the virgin who shall conceive. What could this young peasant girl be thinking when the angel Gabriel approaches her? Understandably, as Luke records, Mary is filled with fear.

Especially at Christmas, we tend to depict angels as innocuous, even cute. I have a large angel figurine collection that I bring out for display during Advent and Christmas, and this would describe most of them: cherubic, innocent, childlike.

But surely Gabriel’s appearance was overpowering and fearsome. His first words to Mary are, “Do not be afraid.” Angels utter those words a number of other times in Christ’s birth story: to Zechariah, when an angel appears to tell him Elizabeth is to bear a child; to Joseph, who is told he is to take Mary as his wife even though expecting a child not his; to the shepherds in the field upon hearing news of Jesus’ birth. A visit by an angel is an extraordinary, even fearsome, occurrence.

As God speaks through both human and heavenly messengers in these Scripture passages, the difference in reaction to the two announcements is striking. King Ahaz does not trust the Lord when he hears the word from Isaiah. He puts on the garb of false piety even as God wants to give him faith. Mary, on the other hand, when confronted by Gabriel, responds with humility as she says, “May it be to me as you have said.”

When confronted with a message from God, what is our first response?

Amy Dueckman, a former staff writer for Mennonite Weekly Review, works for Canadian Mennonite and Mennonite Central Committee British Columbia and is a member of Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford, B.C.