The Festival of the Annunciation of our Lord
Posted on March 25, 2026 by under
Scripture: Isaiah 7:10-16 (NKJV)
7:10 Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.”
12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”
13 Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. 15 Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.”
Devotion
King Ahaz is not the only person to weary God in this passage. There are many Biblical “scholars” who weary Him with their false interpretation! They try to make the “virgin” prophesied in this passage into simply a “young woman” who conceived and bore a son in a natural way. But if that were so, this sign given to Ahaz wouldn’t be much of a sign, would it?
We confess that this passage is a direct prophecy about Jesus Christ and His miraculous conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary. As our Nicene Creed says: “I believe…in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary…”
Instead of testing the Lord our God, we believe His Word and we thank Him for providing Jesus as our salvation. Jesus is truly our Immanuel, “God with us,” since He is God present in human flesh. He came and lived humbly with us on this earth so that we might live in Him in His heavenly glory. He reconciled us to God through His suffering and death so that God might be with man and man would be forever with God in the life of the world to come.
Collect: We beseech Thee, O Lord, pour Thy grace into our hearts; that as we have known the Incarnation of Thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by His Cross and Passion we may be brought unto the glory of His Resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for Judica (Passion) Sunday
We beseech Thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon Thy people, that by Thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for the Season of Lent
Almighty and Everlasting God, Who hatest nothing that Thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of Thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
