As deep as Sheol
Advent feels a little different this year, a little weightier than in previous years. Probably not because the world is in any more dire need of a Savior than it was last year but probably because the events of this year have stripped away some of the comforts that normally lighten my experience of the brokenness in me and around me.
It’s so weighty.
So this year as we move through the Advent season I decided to focus on the theme of Immanuel – God with us. Because what better way to move through the weightiness of this year than with the coming near of the one who calls me to draw near to him in my weariness, who bears my burdens and gives me his light load (Matthew 11:28-30)?
A friend of mine graciously sent me an Advent devotional she wrote for her own church, a slow meandering through the Christmas narrative in Matthew. This weekend we paused on the quote from Isaiah 7: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.” And it struck me that before we get those famous words, the Lord instructs Ahaz to ask him for a sign. He says, “Let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven” (Isaiah 7:11). A little background here – Ahaz is the king of Judah. And Judah has two big enemies: Syria and Assyria. It’s in light of the threats that the Lord invites him to ask without limits, a sign that will demonstrate his faithfulness to his people. Sadly, Ahaz doesn’t step up to the task. Instead he bows down to the king of Assyria saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me…” (2 Kings 16:7).
Despite Ahaz’s failure to ask for the sign he’d been promised, the Lord gives a sign anyway – mysterious to Ahaz but clear as day to us: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). This is his sign without limits, his sign that reaches from Sheol to the heavens. And this is the sign he continues to give. To the shepherds at Jesus’s birth, in the words of the angels, “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger”(Luke 2:12.) What an incredible thought! That Christ, the newborn King, is a sign as deep as Sheol and as high as heaven of the Lord’s faithfulness to his people, his trustworthiness to his promises.
We use the word brokenness to describe many things – sinfulness, decay, the fracture of a fallen world. It’s all the places death, as the greatest curse that sin wrought, is near. The death my soul deserves in its sinful state. The death of my body as it decays. The ravages of sin and suffering in communities and relationships. In Old Testament language, Sheol is the place of the dead. When Psalm 139 talks about making your bed in the depths of Sheol I often think of it as dwelling the devastation of brokenness. But the hope in the psalm is that even there the Lord is with me. He’s with me because the sign of his faithfulness, the demonstration of his love – his son sent down to dwell with us, is as deep as Sheol, as deep as any brokenness I could encounter.
This year as I reflect on all the things that break my heart – the fractures in communities, divisions in churches, isolations and death, a year full of devastation…. These are the things his sign reaches to. These are the things he came in inhabit. I imagine there are many moments my heart is given a similar choice as Ahaz. In light of things that threaten, to whom will I turn for rescue? My prayer is that my words are the same as Ahaz, except pointed toward the only one who truly saves. To the King of Heaven I say, “I am your servant and your daughter. You came and rescued me.”