Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD. And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

Isaiah 7:10-13

Explanation:
The word “Moreover” indicates that God doesn’t just challenge Ahaz to believe Him. God challenged Ahaz to trust him in verse 9, and now He wants to help him to learn to trust.
Think about what God is offering. More than just the challenge to believe, He offers to give Ahaz a sign to help Him believe. And if that isn’t enough, God offers to let Ahaz choose what the sign would be! Notice the scale of the kind of sign He is willing to give. He says “ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.” It’s almost like God is saying, “The sky is the limit! Let me prove to you that I can be trusted.”

As amazing as that proposition was, what is more amazing is that Ahaz does not take God’s offer. He gives a pious reason why He won’t ask God for a sign. “But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.” At first glance that answer may sound spiritual, but think about it. If God is the one who came up with the idea and proposed it to you, you would not be tempting the Lord to participate in the proposition. This showed Ahaz’s lack of belief, and how unchanged his attitude was. We know all of this from verse 13. His attitude not only wearied the whole of Judah (called here the “house of David”), but now his attitude and response was wearying God. Ahaz was acting like the apathetic, snobby teenager who stubbornly will not respond in trust to God.

The truth was that Ahaz had already made an alliance with the King of Assyria to protect him against Syria and Ephraim. In an attempt to please the Assyrian king, Ahaz gave him tribute, built an altar, and modified parts of the temple. Ahaz was trusting in the king that he could see more than trusting in the God that he could not see, even when God Himself was speaking to him and offering him a sign. You can read all about Ahaz’s trust in the Assyrian king and sin against God in 2 Kings 16:5-19.

God expected Ahaz to respond in faith. He did everything He could do by intervening and revealing Himself supernaturally to Ahaz. He even offered to let him choose how he would be moved to trust, and yet Ahaz demonstrated a significant lack of faith.

Application:
You and I do not want to find ourselves in the position of being wearisome to God in our attitude and actions. God is patient, merciful, and kind. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But what does please God is faith. Read what the Bible says in Hebrews 11:6.

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

God expects us to be people of faith. We must not just believe Him to save us from our sin. We also must trust Him with the details of our lives. We demonstrate our trust by obedience, by seeking His will through His word, by abiding with Him in prayer, and by prioritizing Him in our lives.

Response:
In what way are you demonstrating faith in God today?