Chapters 7 & 8

The background for the next two chapters: The southern kingdom of two tribes plus the remnant of the northern tribes who were believers, the kingdom of Judah. To the south of Judah we have Egypt, to the north of Judah we have Ephraim (the ten tribes — minus a lot of their people, however). North of them, Syria. In the far north, Assyria, the great empire of that day. Actually there is a struggle between Assyria and Egypt and during the course of this struggle there are some smaller nations caught in between, such as Syria, Ephraim, Judah, the Phoenicians and the Philistines. And in this struggle we find Syria coming into power, and Syria combines with Ephraim in order to eliminate and destroy Judah. They have a man living in Jerusalem and they are going to put him on the throne and make him their puppet ruler. He is called the son of Tabeel. We have in Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, a king by the name of Ahaz who faces these problems.

We have had as our background now the first six chapters of Isaiah in which we found out, Why preachers, the desperate situations which existed at that time, and the need for the ministry and Isaiah’s call to the ministry. When Isaiah enters the ministry of prophecy he finds this particular situation on the scene of the middle east — Assyria versus Egypt, the Syrians and the ten northern tribes combining now to destroy Judah and, as usual, Jerusalem in the middle of this rather difficult hot spot. So the background for the next few passages is the story of the Assyrian empire, its attempt to dominate Egypt which eventually it does, the story of three nations caught in between. And specifically the background for the seventh chapter of Isaiah, an alliance between Syria and Ephraim, the ten northern tribes, to conquer Judah.

King Ahaz is on the throne in Judah in the Tabeel crisis. He has the choice of one of two things: listen to the message of Isaiah and follow the divine viewpoint or the Lord’s advice, or he can consult Satan through the system of necromancy by means of mediums (demon-possessed individuals) and follow their particular advice, Satan’s advice in reality. As a result of seeking Satan’s advice through the process of necromancy Ahaz will come in for some judgment. And although many true believers will suffer through this judgment, the Assyrian invasion, Isaiah reminds true believers of the future blessing of Israel in the land. This forms the background, for example, of verses eleven and twelve where we have a description of the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. Actually, we have in this section of Isaiah, chapters seven through twelve, the Syro-Ephraimite war.

The specific background of chapter seven: There are a number of characters mentioned in this chapter and we need to be oriented to them. Here are the three nations in between:

1. Syria [Aram] whose capital is Damascus and the king is Rezin. There are four ways in this passage by which Syria is referred to: Syria, Damascus, Aram and Rezin.

2. The kingdom of Israel, known as Ephraim. Its capital is Samaria and sometimes it is called Samaria. The king is Pekah, the son of Remaliah who is also called in our passage “the son of Remaliah,” without his actual formal name. In this particular passage you will find Ephraim, Samaria, and Pekah, son of Remaliah.

3. Finally we have the kingdom of Judah, the two southern tribes plus many of the believers from the ten northern tribes. The capital is Jerusalem, the king is Ahaz.

Background for the seventh chapter then is Ahaz under time of stress in Jerusalem. Isaiah approaches him with a message at a critical moment. The plot is an alliance between Syria and Ephraim, between Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah who is king of Samaria or Ephraim. (Please distinguish between Syria and Assyria) The union of these two kings was an attempt to conquer Judah and put an impostor on the throne in Jerusalem who is called in our context, the son of Tabeel.

There are two background passages of scripture for this passage in Isaiah. One is 2 Kings 15 and 16 and the other is 2 Chronicles 28. Please notice that it is the Lord who sends Rezin and Pekah against Judah — 2 Kings 15:37 — and this indicates that the coming of the Syria-Ephraim alliance is very definitely a judgment against the nation of Judah. We have seen the reason for the judgment. They are spiritual reasons, social reasons, economic reasons, political reasons. And we have seen already that the prophet Isaiah was the minister who has fulfilled the principle of exposing conditions in his country which were leading to the destruction of his country. And we also see from his ministry how he makes it very practical.

In Isaiah there are many things that are puzzling until you have these points definitely in mind: the struggle between Assyria and Egypt, the three nations caught in between which have their own separate struggle, and the two struggles becoming interwoven and involved. That is when Ahaz calls in and hires Tiglath-pileser III to get Syria and Ephraim off his back and the two struggles become one struggle. And the result is detrimental to all involved except Tiglath-pileser. Now all of the things that happened to Judah by way of Judgment — and many horrible things happened to Judah — all started when Ahaz rejected the Word of God when it was declared by Isaiah and went in for operation necromancy.

We have two of Isaiah’s sons who will come into the picture. The first is Shear-jarshub. His name means “a remnant shall return.” This is a message of salvation as well as a message of hope to the regenerate of Israel. It means that even though there are many intervening judgments and divine discipline that God keeps His word and the unconditional covenants to Israel will be fulfilled at the second advent of Christ. Then he calls his second son Maher-shalal-hash-baz, which means “haste ye, haste ye to the spoil.” In other words, as we have already seen in the first six chapters, Judah is a very wealthy nation. Consequently, haste ye, haste ye to the spoil means that pretty soon everyone is interested in Judah. All of the nations round about lack something that Judah has a lot of — money. Judah is the nice fat pie and everyone wants to get the largest piece, if not all of the pie. This is all a part of Satan’s plan to destroy Judah, to destroy Jerusalem, to annihilate Israel and, as a matter of fact, to interdict into the plan of God by trying to keep God from keeping His word to Israel with regard to the four unconditional covenants.

Chapter 7:1-2, the background for the message

Verse 1 — “And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz” .Ahaz is an apostate, he didn’t operate

like David; “that Rezin the king of Syria” — fag end number one — “and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel” — fag end number two — “went up toward Jerusalem to war against it; but could not prevail

against it.” In other words, they were besieging the city but they had not succeeded in conquering it. Things

were more or less at a deadlock when Isaiah preaches his message.

Verse 2 — “And it was told the house of David [a reference to king Ahaz], saying, Syria is

confederate with Ephraim [in other words, they had formed a league against him].”

And what was his response when he discovered this alliance? “And his heart was moved [he got all shook up and he became mentally unstable or upset. He moved into panic palace.], and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind [they were all unstable and upset].” They were very emotional about this thing and not very doctrinal and rational. Outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem the armies of Syria and Ephraim are attempting to come in and destroy. Inside of the city we have a king plus his people who are all upset. They are disturbed and are falling apart. And in the midst of all of this Isaiah is going to preach his first sermon after his ordination.

Verse 3 — “Then said the Lord unto Isaiah [Isaiah was commanded to preach], Go forth now.” .Apparently he had been doing some study otherwise the Lord wouldn’t say, Now. This idea that you just get up and the Lord inspires you and somehow puts thoughts in your mind is absolutely ludicrous and ridiculous. Whenever someone talks about speaking from the heart it means that he is not prepared and that his heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and it is a good time to pronounce the benediction and everyone go home before they get confused. Speaking from the heart means usually an extra biblical and often anti biblical message with a lot of emotion thrown in but not much else.

“to meet Ahaz.” Ahaz is on his way somewhere, he is very busy. If the people of Jerusalem are going to survive the siege they must be sure and have plenty of water on hand. And the source of water were some underground tunnels that were cut through the limestone where water came through. And apparently one of the conduits down on “laundry street” had been stopped up. It had been reported to king Ahaz that the primary source of water in the city was temporarily clogged up. Ahaz was very upset about this additional information and was rushing down “laundry row” to the end of the street where this tunnel came out and where the pool of water was located. And with him the General Staff, the VIPs, engineers etc. and they were going down to unstop, as it were, the pipes.

“thou, and Shear-jasub thy son, at the end of the conduit [aqueduct] of the upper pool, of the street [not the highway] of the fuller’s field [a fuller is a launderer].” The reason all the laundries were located here is because here is where the water is.

The smoking firebrand paragraph, verses 4-7

Verse 4 — “And say unto him, Take heed [or beware], be quiet [exactly the same as standing

still].” Stand still and watch the deliverance of the Lord. This is faith-resting it. It doesn’t mean to simply stop talking, it means to start believing. The principle is: Start faith-resting it; start claiming the promises of God. Remember what your great, great grandfather David said to Goliath — the battle is the Lord’s.

“fear not.” Fear and faith cannot coexist. One dominates the other. If it is faith, no fear; if it is fear, no faith. That is why David said: What time I am afraid I will trust in thee — Psalm 56:3. So if you are frightened about anything tonight, then you are not trusting the Lord in that particular sphere of activity. And your peace, your inner happiness, your stability and your blessing depend upon how many areas of life you use the faith-rest technique.

“neither be faint hearted.” Faint hearted really means being ruled by your emotions. If you live by your emotions you don’t live, you exist in status quo fear, instability. The most unstable Christians in life are the emotional crowd. Now we all have emotions but we should not be ruled by our emotions. Anyone who allows his emotions to rule him has had it completely. Being upset and being disturbed when once you understand the faith-rest technique and do not use it is not living as a believer at all.

“for the two tails of those smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin of Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.” The two tails are literally two fag ends. We would say today, two smoking butts, a couple of extinguished fags. The Hebrew word here is a word for something that has been burning, some kind of a torch, and someone has pushed it against a wall and extinguished it and now it is still smoking. These two fag ends are out there at the moment besieging Jerusalem with all of their armies and all of their power and all of their might. And all the king has to do is stand on the wall and see this tremendous military establishment of these two men — and what does God call them? Fag ends! Smoking butts! Extinguished torches! A little smoke but no fire left.

Now here is a real crisis for Ahaz, a genuine crisis much greater than the water crisis. These two kings who are besieging Jerusalem, who are they? They are a couple of fag ends. To human viewpoint, what are they? They are a couple of powerful men with great armies knocking at the gates of Jerusalem. So Ahaz, which way are you going to jump? Divine versus human viewpoint. Do you believe what God says? God says they are through, they are extinguished, they can go no further. That is the Word of God which says that these two will not break in, and they didn’t .If he believes the Word of God all he has to do is faith-rest it, but if he doesn’t believe, what is he going to do? Operation energy of the flesh. He is going come up with a scheme. And as a matter of fact he is going to come with a scheme which he gets from a demon in operation necromancy. And therefore what is he going to do? He is going to bribe the king of Assyria to come down, and once the armies of Assyria come down they are going to break through and they are going to tear up Judah.

Now if he had believed the Word of God Judah would have been omitted in several of the Assyrian invasions, just as on one other occasion. Because they had a king who trusted the Lord the Assyrians by-passed Judah on the way to Egypt — an impossible situation and yet it happened once in history. On that occasion they went through the land of the Philistines and they just tore up Philistia , but they didn’t bother Judah. Why? Because Judah once had a king who trusted the Lord and faith-rested the issue. It pays to believe the Word of God! When you believe the Word of God then the Word of God pays great dividends — that is the grace of God. There is another application here. You are what you are on the inside. What you are on the outside is not important, relatively. People emphasise Christianity today in terms of ethics but Christianity is not an ethic. Christianity is what you think, that’s what the Christian way of life is — your mental attitude, what goes on in operation frontal lobe. It is whether you look at life from the divine viewpoint. Proverbs 23:7 — you are what you think. Even sin isn’t an overt act originally; sin is a mental attitude. This is the issue with Ahaz, what goes on in his frontal lobe. And quite obviously, as we are going to see, it is all operation human viewpoint. These two kings have been called fag ends and all this king has to do is believe it. And if he believes it he will sit tight in his city and relax and God will remove these armies and there will be no Assyrian invasion. But he doesn’t believe it.

Verse 5 — “Because Syria, Ephraim, even the son of Remaliah, hath taken evil counsel against thee” .He is describing how they are fag ends and why they will be destroyed, because they have sought the destruction of Judah.

Verse 6 — “Let us go up against Judah, and vex it [destroy it], and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeel.” The son of Tabeel was apparently some Jew on their side in Jerusalem. The greatest enemies are often enemies within, and not enemies from without. The son of Tabeel is an enemy from within.

Verse 7 — “Thus saith the Lord God, it shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.” That is a promise! The Syro-Ephraimite alliance will not stand neither shall the destruction of Judah come to pass. Here is Ahaz. He can either believe the promise or he can go to operation energy of the flesh. If he believes the promise he will have peace, for as Isaiah says later on: “Thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.” “Mind", please notice, mental attitude; “perfect peace” — mental attitude. Why? “Because he trusteth in thee.”

The three head paragraph, verses 8-9

Verse 8 — “For the head of Syria is Damascus” .Now what does the word “head” mean? Capital! The capital of Syria is Damascus. Damascus is going to be destroyed; “and the head of Damascus” — the ruler, the king, “is Rezin.”

“and within threescore and five years [65 years] shall Ephraim be broken that it is no longer a national entity.” That is, of course, the destruction of the ten tribes by the hands of the Assyrians.

There are three judgments against this alliance from the Assyrians. The first one took place two years after Isaiah’s sermon when Tiglath-pileser invaded and destroyed the kingdom of Aram as it then existed in power. The power of Aram was broken — 2 Kings 15:29. Then a second judgment took place twenty years after Isaiah’s sermon in the invasion of Shalmaneser — 2 Kings 17:1-6. And in fulfilment of this prophecy of 65 years we have the invasion of Esarhaddon and the total annihilation of the last remnants of the Syrio-Ephramite coalition — 2 Kings 17:24; 2 Chronicles 33:11.

Verse 9 — “And the head of Ephraim is Samaria [Samaria is the capital of Ephraim, the ten northern tribes], and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be stabilised.” Now this is a message to Ahaz. Ahaz, if you will not believe the promise of the two fag ends, the promise of verse 7, it shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass if you don’t believe these thing you will never have stability. Principle: Stability comes through believing God’s Word, and believing God’s Word comes through knowing God’s Word. Therefore we have the great principle once again of knowledge plus application. The believer can be stabilised in life by believing God’s Word, no matter how dark the situation.

Verse 10 — “Moreover, the Lord spoke again unto Ahaz, saying [He is speaking through Isaiah].”

Verse 11 — “Ask thee a sign.” Not only is God gracious in giving a promise, which is all that is necessary, but He says I will give you a crutch for your faith. Which means that Ahaz either has no faith or very little faith and, therefore, his faith needs a a crutch. Remember this, “the Jews seek a sign” — 1 Corinthians 1:22. A sign is always a crutch. God is gracious in giving crutches but a person who has to use a crutch always limps through the Christian life.

“ask it either in depth, or in the height above” — you ask for any kind of a crutch. God will give you a sign. Any miracle you want, God will perform it.

Verse 12 — “But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.” If that isn’t the phoniest front anyone ever put up! It sounds so beautiful. Why, I wouldn’t think of asking a sign. I don’t believe in tempting the Lord!

You see, Ahaz has been indulging in a religion which is contrary to the Lord. It is a religion which involves idolatrous and licentious activity. It is a part of the phallic cult and he likes this religion because for salvation under this religion, three things are necessary. You must eat a lot of good food, you must drink a lot of wine, and you must chase beautiful women around the groves. Ahaz had entered vigorously into this plan of salvation. And to get right with the Lord is going to put a very definite crimp in his activities in the groves. So he said, No. He didn’t want God to perform a miracle, because what would it do? It would destroy his little religious package. And besides, he is already consulting necromancers who are telling him what to do and he likes the operation energy of the flesh plan. The demons have told him to take money from the temple and send it up to the king of Assyria and get his troops down there. He likes that package as well. So he puts on this hypocritical front.

Verse 13 — “And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David [Ahaz]” .Here is Isaiah’s reply: “it is a small thing for you to weary men.” In other words, I have had enough of you and if I had my way I would leave without the invitation even; “but will ye weary my God also?” You are dealing with God! Will you weary Him?

Verse 14 — Since Ahaz wouldn’t ask for a sign, Isaiah has been instructed to give him a sign, the greatest miracle of all, the sign of the virgin birth. Ahaz has refused a sign; God gave him a sign. And God gave him a sign which was not simply pertinent to the situation — the status quo of Ahaz in the Syrio-Ephraimite war — He gave him a sign which was pertinent down to almost the end of the dispensation of Israel, the point of the virgin birth, leading to the cross. For centuries Israel will be hamstrung by religion, Satan’s ace trump, and this sign will stand, not only pertinent to the day of Ahaz, but it will be pertinent to every generation of Jews from that point to the coming of Messiah through the virgin birth. It would always be before them as the sign, and the most religious generation of all. Remember Galatians 1:4? When did Christ come? He came in the fullness of time which means that every system of religion had been tried by Satan and every system of religion was bankrupt and could not provide salvation for one person. And religion reached its zenith and its peak under Judaism, and when religion had rejected Christ it had reached its peak. Therefore Christ came in the fullness of time. And constantly there would be the counter attack of Satan — religion, religion, religion, and this sign was not just for that day but this sign would persist right down to the coming of Messiah in the fullness of time.

“Therefore the Lord [Jehovah the Father] himself shall give you a sign.” God the Father is the author of the divine plan for the human race. Jehovah here refers to God the Father. So God the Father gave God the Son into the human race — virgin birth. And why did it have to be virgin birth? Because the human race is in the slave market of sin. We are born with the imputation of Adam’s sin, we have an old sin nature, we sin personally as a result of having an old sin nature, we are born into the slave market of sin, we are born spiritually dead. And the only one who can redeem or purchase us from the slave market of sin is a member of the human race and is a free man who is not born spiritually dead — i.e. a person who is born without a sin nature. And Jesus Christ came into the world through the virgin birth for this was the only way He could come into the world without possessing an old sin nature. The old sin nature is passed down through the man, as indicated in 1 Timothy chapter two, where Adam wilfully sinned but the woman was deceived. Both were involved in the transgression but she shall be delivered by means of child bearing. By means of the virgin birth one would come into the world — the God-Man — who would not have a sin nature, who would not have the imputation of Adam’s sin, who in the realm of His humanity would live a perfect life and therefore would be qualified to purchase freedom for those in the slave market. And, therefore, Christ could go to the cross, not simply because He had not committed a single act of personal sin, but He had no old sin nature and He had no imputed sin. Therefore, He was qualified to go to the cross and He opened the slave market of sin and redeemed the human race by His death — by bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. Now, all of this begins with the virgin birth. No virgin birth, no salvation.

“a sign” — is always extra natural or supernatural phenomena.

“behold a virgin” — the Hebrew word ha almah can mean a virgin or a young woman. It can be used either way in the Hebrew. But this verse is quoted in Matthew chapter one, verse 25, and when it is quoted in the Greek, the Greek word parqenoj is a virgin only, not a young woman. Therefore, ha almah can only be understood here as being a virgin and never young woman. One of the means of understanding the Word of God is the comparison of Old and New Testaments. And when an Old Testament verse is quoted in the New Testament canon of scripture God the Holy Spirit so directed that quotation that the mind of God would be recorded, and the quotation in Matthew 1:25 means only, always, and without exception, virgin.

“shall conceive” — and when a virgin conceives it is a miracle; “and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” — God with us, the humanity of Christ. He is a member of the human race. In the word Immanuel you have the doctrine of the hypostatic union or the doctrine of the uniqueness of the person of Jesus Christ, the God-Man. And, once again, you cannot have salvation apart from the unique person of Jesus Christ. Christ is different from God in that He is Man, He is different from all members of the human race in that He is God and also perfect Man. Christ is unique.

Four reasons for the humanity of Christ. Why did Jesus Christ who is eternal God have to become true humanity? 1. He had to be true humanity to be our saviour. The saviour has to be a perfect man who will be the substitute for sinful man — Heb. 2:14,15; Phil. 2:6,8; 2. Jesus Christ had to be true humanity to be our mediator. A mediator must be equal with both parties in the mediation [the cross is the basis of mediation but the One who hung upon the cross is the mediator — He is truly God and He is truly man] — Job 9:32-33; 3. Christ had to be true humanity in order to be our High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. A priest is a man who represents man before God — Heb. 7:4,5, 14, 28; 10:5,10-14; 4. The fulfilment of the Davidic covenant, stated in 2 Samuel 7:8-16; Psalm 89:20-37; 2 Chronicles 21:7. The Davidic covenant says that David will have a Son who will reign forever. The Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity is the Son of David. He had to be a literal Son of David in order to fulfil the Davidic covenant.

Verse 15 — Now we also have a reference to the sustaining of the humanity of Christ during Hid earthly ministry by the phrase, “butter and honey shall he eat.” Butter and honey is a reference to Children’s food. After children were weaned they still didn’t have teeth and there were a lot of things they couldn’t eat. They could eat butter, it melted and sustained them, and they could also eat honey. So our Lord will be sustained through His childhood and He will be sustained to the point of the cross where He will bear the sins of the world. And there are several things which characterise our Lord which are mentioned in this verse. The first is “butter and honey he shall eat” and that is a reference to the fact that He will be physically sustained in the realm of His humanity. In other words, His humanity will not die before His ministry at the cross is fulfilled; He will not physically until He dies spiritually by bearing the sins of the world by being judged in our place as our substitute.

Secondly, “he may know to refuse good and evil.” In the realm of His humanity He will have very definitely human volition and His freewill. His human volition will always choose good rather than evil, which means while He will be tempted many times He will be impeccable, He will not sin once along the way, even though His temptations were much greater than ours — as indicated by Matthew chapter four.

Verse 16 — The second sign: The sign of the believer in Israel. The second sign is only pertinent to this situation. “For before the child.” Now he is back with his son, Shear-jashub, who is standing beside him. You see this is the message of the two sons. The Son of God becoming the Son of Man and the son of Isaiah, Shear-jashub. “For before the child” — now he points to his own child — “shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good” — his child doesn’t know that, yet — “the land that thou abhorest shall be forsaken of both her kings” .The king of the northern tribes and the king of the southern tribes shall be destroyed before this son reaches maturity. In other words, You Ahaz, and the son of Remaliah will both be dead because of divine judgment before this child reaches maturity by my side.

That’s your sign. You refuse the first sign. Which sign comes first, the virgin birth sign or the sign of their death? — their death warrant. The virgin birth comes first on the basis of a principle which is never altered throughout the Word of God: God always offers grace before judgment. The virgin birth is a declaration of Christ in the gospel — Immanuel — and he can believe in Immanuel and avoid judgment but his rejection of Immanuel, his rejection of doctrine means that the alternative is always the same — judgment for those who reject the plan of God. And Remaliah outside the gates, the king of the northern tribes, and Ahaz inside the gates standing by the reservoir, these two men will be judged by God and removed from this life before Isaiah’s son Shear-jashub reaches maturity. Why? Basically because they have rejected the plan of God which is the grace of God and the principle of doctrine, you cannot reject the grace of God without the alternative. And the alternative to the grace of God is the expression of God’s righteousness and justice, and righteousness and justice expressed equals judgment.

Verse 17 — The message is continuing by the aqueduct where we have the VIPs, king Ahaz and his staff gathered. Isaiah is still speaking. “The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.” Isaiah is saying that unless you depend upon the Lord instead of persisting with depending on human expediency that you are going to have difficulties which have not been seen in this land since the day that the ten northern tribes revolted from the kingdom of Judah. And then he tells what the great catastrophe will be — the king of Assyria. Specifically this is a reference now to Tiglath-pileser, “even the king of Assyria”.

Verse 18 — “And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall hiss [a call of assembly] for the fly that is in the utmost part of the rivers of Egypt.” The fly will be called first, and the fly is Egypt [the word “hiss” is also a Hebrew word which means to whistle]. He called by whistling. The fly will be specifically the Pharaoh of Egypt known as Necho who will slay king Josiah at the battle of Meggido, recorded in 2 Kings 23:29,30; “and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria” — the land of Assyria. The bee and the fly are both going to attack Judah.

Verse 19 — “And they [Egypt and Assyria] shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys and in the holes of the rocks, and upon the thorns, and upon all the bushes.” They are going to completely saturate the land with their armies.

Assyria and Egypt are not in the land at this time and are not threatening it. The threat is coming from Syria and Ephraim. And in this particular crisis with Syria and Ephraim the big issue is, Will king Ahaz trust the Lord for deliverance or not. Isaiah says, If you do trust the Lord you will be delivered. If you do not trust the Lord the fly and the bee will take the place of Syria and Ephraim. And the fly and the bee are much tougher that Syria and Ephraim. In other words, I will bring you something worse than Syria and Ephraim, I’ll bring you Assyria and Egypt which are much worse.

Verse 20 — “In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired.” Assyria is also called the razor that is hired. You see what is going to happen is that king Ahaz is going to steal money from the temple and bribe the Assyrians to come in and attack Syria and Ephraim and take the heat off from him. In so doing the razor will come in and shave Syria [Syria is the head]; he will shave Ephraim [Ephraim is the foot], and then he will shave the beard [Judah is the beard]. The beard is shaven last. We would shave the beard first but in those days it was a disgrace to shave the beard.

Notice in this case that the beard is shaved last, not first. The head is shaved, the feet are shaved and then the beard. The head refers to Syria, the feet to Ephraim, the beard to Judah. In other words, once the razor gets sharpened up and goes to work it just shaves everything. The razor is Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria. “and it shall also consume the beard” — you, too, Ahaz will get it!

At this point there is a break-off. Here we are talking about the judgment on Ahaz because he will not faith-rest it and because he will not trust the Lord. And this is very discouraging to the people at the time because they have poor leadership, and obviously the leadership will lead them astray, bringing divine discipline upon them. It is discouraging to have poor leadership and know that the leadership is mistaken. And so there is a look into the future.

Starting at verse 21 and going down to verse 25 — the rest of the chapter — we have a picture of the poorness of the land as the result of invasion. Now Ahaz is the king and the ruler and he is primarily responsible but the people are going to suffer too.

Verse 21 — “And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep”

Verse 22 — “And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall everyone eat that is left in the land” .

Verse 23 — “And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall be for briars and thorns.”

These three verses simply describe the desolation that will be left behind after the beard is shaved. There won’t be many people left in the land when the Assyrians get through. One man will be able to sustain one cow and two sheep — not many but all he will be able to take care of because everyone is poor. And this is the rich man! Where they had butter and honey they will barely make butter and where they had thousands of vines they are going to have briars and thorns.

Verse 24 — “With arrows and with bow shall men come thither” — you can’t have armies marching through your land all the time without desolation; “because all of the land shall become briars and thorns.” When the Assyrians get through walking through the land it is not going to look very good.

Verse 25 — “And all the hills that shall be digged with mattock, thou shalt not come thither for fear of briars and thorns, but it shall be for the ending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep” .In other words, what is left for sustenance will be confined to the hills and the out-of-the-way places.

Now after this interlude of what is going to happen we go to chapter eight where we have :

The message of Isaiah’s second son (Chapter 7 was the message of Isaiah’s first son)

Here we have the recording of the name of the son before he is born.

Verse 1 — “And the Lord said unto me [Isaiah], Take thee a great scroll, and write upon it with a man’s pen.” In other words, the great scroll is the recording of births and I want to write out a birth certificate for your next son. “Maher-shalal-hash-baz” — which means Haste ye, haste ye to the spoil. The Assyrians are hired to protect Judah and they hasten to spoil Judah. This is an amplification of the razor shaving the beard. Isaiah’s second son will be the basis for presenting this message.

Verse 2 — “And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zecharaiah the son of Jeberechiah.”

Verse 3 — “And I went unto the prophetess and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me, call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz.” Why?

Verse 4 — “For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and, My mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.” Before Maher-shalal-hash-baz can utter the names of his parents Assyria is going to conquer Syria. You see the child’s name means “haste ye, haste ye” twice. The first “hasten you” is Syria; the second “hasten you” is called Samaria, sometimes called Ephraim, which is simply the ten northern tribes. That is the razor shaving the head and shaving the hair of the feet.

Verse 5 — “The Lord also unto me again, saying,

Verse 6 — “Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah [peace with a very strong accent — that flow peace] that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son.” This indicates the attitude of many of the citizens of Judah. Jerusalem is now surrounded by Rezin and Remaliah’s son and a lot of the people are very shaky about the deal and they say: Open the gates and let these people in. Let’s give in to them. They’ve promised to let us off easy so let’s open the gates and let them in! That is the attitude.

Here we have a twofold factor. We have Ahaz stealing gold out of the treasury and sending it north to Assyria. That is his solution — human viewpoint. Now we have the larger majority of the people who are actually in favour of surrendering to Samaria and Syria. This is the attitude of the people. Ahaz is going to trust in money and is going to depend on Assyria. However, later on his sons are going to start depending on Egypt. It is the same issue all the way through. Are you going to depend upon human expediency or are you going to depend upon the Lord. Ahaz was trying to buy friends and collectively you cannot do this. All you do is advertise the fact you have something worth stealing and they will come and try to get it. Individually you can’t buy friends either.

The waters [of Shiloah] are explained very simply as salvation by Isaiah 55:1 — “Ho everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters and drink.” These are called the waters of Shiloah, the waters of peace — doctrine of reconciliation — and the waters of Shiloah refer to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Basically, the problem in the land of Judah is the fact that they have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, they have refused to drink of the waters of Shiloah. Now why does Isaiah call the Lord the waters of Shiloah? Where is this thing taking place? Down by the conduit, by the big pool. The conduit has been blocked up and they can’t get water. But their problem isn’t water, their problem is that they refuse to drink of the waters of life freely. They are short on water so Isaiah reminds them that shortage of water is not their problem, their problem is that they have rejected the water of life.

Notice that the waters of Shiloah are said to go softly. It really means to flow gently. There is a very important principle here. The waters of Shiloah flowing gently means that no one can coerce or twist the arm of someone else to accept Christ. It is wrong to put human pressure on people to receive Christ. All the pressure to receive Christ must come from the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit can only put on pressure when the gospel is clearly declared, when the issue is made clear. We must remember the principle: God the Holy Spirit is the sovereign executive of personal witnessing. And our responsibility is to be an ambassador and to declare the issue. But we cannot force someone to accept Christ, just as you cannot force someone to drink water. So this brings in the whole principle of volition and the fact that the water flows gently.

There is another reason for the water to flow gently. Do you ever try to take a drink out of the rapids? You just can’t drink water very well out of rapids. The water has to flow gently before you can drink it. This means that the water that flows gently is available to all. Christ is available to all. There isn’t an excuse for anyone in Israel for not accepting Christ in his day. The waters flow gently that all may drink. That is why it says, “whosoever will, let him come to the waters of life and drink.”

What did the people do. Instead, “they rejoiced in Rezin and Remaliah’s son.” The people inside the walls have rejected the Son of God and they have accepted the son of Remaliah; they have rejected the saviour and they have put their confidence in a man.

Verse 7 — “Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the River.” You have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah so I am going to send the flood. You will not drink the water of life so I will send you more water than you have ever seen, to judge you.

“strong and many” — in other words we have rapids, destructive water; “even the king of Assyria and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks.”

This is flood water, this is destroying water, this is devastating water. Once you get trapped into depending upon a man there is no end to the ruin that can come to you. Jeremiah 17 says, Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh the flesh his arm. Instead of trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ they are depending upon people, powerful people.

Verse 8 — “And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over; he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.” Why the vocative here? Why O Immanuel? Because the vocative is a cry for help. The only One who can help Judah is Immanuel. Only the Lord can deliver from all of this folly. Isaiah is telling us that while he is the prophet of doom and gloom and while he is preaching all of these terrible things, he reminds us at the same time that there is always hope in the Lord. So right in the middle of this dissertation of doom we have the vocative, O Immanuel, to indicate that the Lord is the source of help and the source of strength.

Verse 9 — “Associate yourselves, O ye peoples, and ye shall be broken to pieces.” Associate means to make a treaty. “Make a treaty with Assyria, ye peoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces,” literally; “and give ear, all of ye countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces” — you people who want to depend upon the Assyrians to come and help you. You shall be broken in pieces; “gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.” Three times Isaiah says the same thing: Look here, you depend upon man and you have had it, you will never make it.

Now this alliance with Assyria backfired. The fulfilment of it is in 2 Chronicles 28:16-22; 2 Kings 16:7.

Verse 10 — “Take counsel together” .In other words, you sit down and try to figure this out; “and it shall come to nought.” What is the principle? When you sit down and try to think things out they always come to zero when you are depending upon man. And they are going to figure out human expediency and every time it will come to zero. When you sit down and try to figure things out instead of depending on the Lord you are going to come up with answers but they are going to be zero. What answers are going to be used? First answer: surrender to the Samarians and the Syrians. Second answer: hire the Assyrians to come down and get them off our backs. This is what they are going to do. And in so doing they will destroy themselves.

Whereas, what does God want them to do? Rest in the Lord. Wait patiently for Him. And that was in the Bible at the time that this was happening — Psalm 37.

Verse 11 — “For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people.” In other words, Isaiah is bucking the tide. And God’s servant may have to buck general opinion. He is not going with popular opinion. Isaiah has to trust in the Lord himself now because no one agrees with Isaiah. He stands all by himself. But he takes the divine viewpoint and therefore he must depend upon the Lord for his protection, he must remember that the battle is the Lord’s .And when he took the divine viewpoint he stood alone. He is not going to follow the people, he is going to lead the people.

Verse 12 — “Say ye not, A confederacy to all of them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear their fear, nor be afraid.” In other words, the people are all talking about an alliance. A confederacy simply means an alliance. Everyone is saying, “Let’s ally ourselves with someone. We’ve got to have help.” Now don’t you go around, Isaiah, and say that, is the point He is making.

“neither fear ye their fear.” What is their fear? The armies outside the gates. He is furthermore being told not to fear the people inside either. The principle is that Isaiah cannot exercise spiritual leadership in Judah if he has fear.

Verse 13 — “Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself.” Advice to Isaiah which means, be occupied with Christ. Set Him apart; keep your eyes on the Lord, instead of on the people. “let him be your fear, and let him be your dread” — the only thing you have to fear is the Lord.

Verse 14 — “And he shall be for a sanctuary [He will protect you];” This means that Isaiah can go anywhere in the world and he carries his own protection around with him. The Lord is his protection.

“but for a stone of stumbling” — for the unbeliever who is going to fall flat over Him. They reject Him and they are going to fall flat; “and for a rock of offence.” In other words the Rock, Christ Jesus, who is our sanctuary was also a rock of offence to “both the houses of Israel [i.e. to the northern tribes as well], for a gin [snare or trap] to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” The person who rejects Christ springs the trap, is what that means. And what they think is protection turns out to be a trap. In times of crisis you cannot depend upon some hideout, you cannot depend upon some kind of a cave or hole in the ground or that sort of thing, you depend upon the Lord for His provision. The people of Judah were depending upon fortifications, outside help, etc. instead of the Lord. There is nothing on which a person can depend, when man has built it, that some other man cannot crack. But no one can crack the Lord, that is the point.

Verse 15 — “Many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be snared, and be taken.” Who are the many who will fall and be snared? Those who reject Christ and those who depend upon the works of man rather than upon the Lord Himself.

Verse 16 — “Bind up the testimony, seal up the law among my disciples.” Now here is a beautiful change of pace. “Bind up the testimony” means give out the information. A lot of people are going to be trapped and so on. There is going to be a lot of discouraging lack of response but you go right ahead and give out the testimony. What does it mean to seal the law? It means to present what the Word of God has to say.

“Among my disciples” means those who are believers. Give them information.

Verse 17 — “And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look unto him.” The word “wait” is a word for faith actually. Originally it was a Hebrew word which referred to a very fine thread which could be broken. But it means to take hundreds and hundreds of threads until you have a great powerful rope which cannot be broken. In other words, we are fragile. We can be snapped very easily. But when you take this very fragile life which we have and this very fine thread, and weave it in to the divine protection, then nothing can break it. It is the same idea as the Lord is my sanctuary. “Wait” means to believe that, to trust the Lord so that the little thread of your life is woven into the great divine rope, and it can’t be broken. Your faith puts the thread of your life right there and nothing can snap it. So eventually the word means “faith” .

So Isaiah is saying: The Lord is judging Jacob but I will trust Him even in this judgment, I will look unto Him, I will keep my eyes on Him.

Then he says, I have a message for Israel.

Verse 18 — “Behold I [Isaiah] and the children [his two sons] the Lord hath given me

are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.”

Isaiah’s two sons are to be the basis of his message in this crisis. Until this crisis in over his

message will be built around these two sons. So what is Isaiah actually saying in verse 18? He

is saying I will be faithful in declaring the message that the Lord has given me, I will declare

the message of my two sons. And, of course, the message of his first son is tied in with the

virgin birth, the virgin birth is tied in with the person and the work of Christ, and therefore Isaiah is saying in the message of his first son, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and

thou shalt be saved [an evangelistic message]. And his second message will be a message of warning to the people of coming judgment if they depend

upon Assyria.

Isaiah’s message is going to be rejected by the majority, verses 19-22

Verse 19 — “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that hath familiar spirits.”

This is the way that king Ahaz finally gets around to hiring the king of Assyria for help. A

familiar spirit is a Hebrew word — Oob — [pronounced Ov] and it means a hollow sound. It

is a demon who indwells a person. When this word was translated into the Greek Septuagint

we get the word e)ggostramuqoj — which means a ventriloquist. And an Oob is a

ventriloquist demon. A ventriloquist demon is a demon who possesses a medium — called witches or

wizards. The demon indwelled and used the vocal cords of the medium in order to give a certain

message. Then he did something else; he could throw his voice and make it appear as though it

was coming out of the ground. So people who would go to a medium would think they had

contact with the dead. So actually Satan is using demons to indwell mediums and give his

advice. The Mosaic law warned the children of Israel when they came into the land not to

practice necromancy or go to mediums.

“and unto wizards” — a male medium — “that peep and mutter” — the ventriloquist

action. “Peep” is a high squeak and “mutter” is a low hollow sound.

“should not a people seek unto their God? for the living rather than the dead?”

Shouldn’t you seek advice from God who is alive rather than from people who are dead and

cannot advise?

Verse 20 — “To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this

word, it is because there is no light in them.” “To the law” merely says that the law has

forbidden necromancy and yet this is the means by which they are seeking advice and they are

going contrary to the Word of God — “they speak not according to this word.” Why? because

there is no light, no doctrine in them.

Verse 21 — “And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead [upset] and hungry

[starved out]: and it shall come to pass that when they shall be hungry, they shall worry

themselves, and curse their king and their God, and turn their faces upward [look upward in

vain. They are cursing God.]”

Verse 22 — “And they shall look unto the earth, and behold, trouble and darkness,

And dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness [they will become terribly

despondent].” They are a despondent people because they have trusted in man instead of the

Lord. Principle of application: Despondency can often result from the failure to use the faith-

rest technique. Those who have perfect happiness are those who take their problems to the

Lord and those who do not are in a life of perpetual misery which finally results in

despondency. What is the answer then? Casting all your cares upon Him for He careth for you

— 1 Peter 5:7.