Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
Ahaz was the king of Judah, which sounds pretty mighty and powerful. But taking care of neighboring forces that opposed the young king had a cost. He aligned with the Assyrians, which left Ahaz with less autonomy. To him, it was worth it. To the prophet Isaiah, trusting in the Assyrians rather than in the Lord was a monumental mistake, and he told Ahaz that on the Lord’s behalf in no uncertain terms in today’s first reading from Isaiah 7. History would agree with Isaiah; Ahaz is remembered as weak and as an idol worshipper.
Consider the contrast: a king who is more concerned about retaining good relations with a nation that has some leverage over him than with God. A young peasant girl, a nobody in the eyes of 
the world, who quickly decides obedience to the Lord is more important than understanding what He has asked, than how she might respond to those who will judge her for becoming pregnant before her marriage. Ahaz would not tempt God because he saw trusting the Assyrians as a sure thing; Mary saw trusting the Lord as the only sure thing. We know how history remembers her.
Doubtless, our infatuations with money, with power, with prestige, with our reputations, with self-pity, with bitterness weary the Lord as Ahaz’s uncertainty did. As we come close to the end of Advent, let us have the faith to stop weighing the potential cost of saying yes to God… and instead, like Mary, simply obey.
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