- A lot of time has passed since Isaiah 6
- The power and glory of Judah is fading
- Assyria is rising
- Tiglath-pileser III became king of Assyria in 745 BC
- Rezin of Syria paid money to Assyria for a time
- Rezin tried to form an alliance of small nations against Assyria (Ahaz refused)
- King Ahaz, the grandson of King Uzziah (6:1), reigned in Judah from 735-715 B.C. altogether. Early in his reign King Rezin of Syria (Aram) and King Pekah of Israel allied against him (see 2 Kings 15:37; 16:5, 10–18; 2 Chron. 28:22–24). They attacked Jerusalem to force Ahaz and Judah to ally with them against Assyria, which was growing stronger in the northeast and threatening to annihilate them (2 Kings 15:37). God protected Jerusalem, and this dual enemy could not force Judah into a treaty. This verse summarizes the attack, and the following verses give more details about it. (Constable, Tom. Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible. Galaxie Software, 2003. Print.)
- Verse 1 summarizes the attack. The following verses in Isaiah give the background
- What do we know of Ahaz?
- "He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord"
- He worshipped the Baals
- He sacrificed his sons in the fire
- He worship Aram's god (2 Kings 16:10-18)
- So, it sounds like two different stories, although the time compression is quite different. How do we fit the stories
- Option 1: There could be two attacks over different times
- Option 2: It is the same general campaign, where Judah is defeated in the field, but survives as an entity (that is Jerusalem)
- There are a couple things about what God tells Isaiah to do which seem curious, do you see them?
- He tells him to take his son, Shear-Jashub (who name means a remnant will return)
- Suggestive of defeat but not total decimation
- Is important to understand the double prophecy
- He tells him to meet at a spot which will later be famous for Sennacherib's field commander hurling insults at Israel
- Ultimately God does not say they would not lose, only that they would not replace Ahaz as king (at least not yet)
- What was Ahaz and the people's response to the news of the two kings?
- Shaken, as in fear, or the stagger walk of a blind man
- Hebrew could also mean wavering heart, ie., what do we do? Do we seek God or since there does not appear to be any answer, do we seek another solution? What do we do? Isaiah previous prophecy of God not listening (Isa 5) probably does not help (if they even remembered it)
- Why are they attacking?
- They are trying to build an alliance against Assyria, by inserting a vassal on Judah's throne
- Who is "the son of Remaliah?"
- There is a little bit of humor in the passage in the sense that Pekah is not even named
- Apparently, Rezin is the real strength
- So who is Ephraim?
- Another name for the northern kingdom, also called Israel
- Ephraim was one of, if not the, largest tribes of the ten that separated
- Samaria was actually the capital city for a time
- What does happen to Ephraim?
- In 13 years it is destroyed (722 BC)
- In 62 years (671BC), King Esarhaddon began importing foreign settlers into the former northern kingdom, essentially creating the term "Samaritans" and deporting the original inhabitants
- Before we get to Ahaz's response, we need to look at God's question to the king next
- God tells Ahaz to ask for a sign, but Ahaz refuses, why?
- He does not want to put the Lord to the test. In this case, God asks for a test
- He does not want to believe in God. If he asks for a test and sees it fulfilled, he might have to change his decision
- So, with his kingdom crumbling about him, what does he decide to do?
- He sought outside help, he did it in his own strength
- 2 Kings 16:7-8 (ESV) So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me." 8 Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king's house and sent a present to the king of Assyria.
- 2 Chron 28:20-21 (ESV) So Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him. 21 For Ahaz took a portion from the house of the Lord and the house of the king and of the princes, and gave tribute to the king of Assyria, but it did not help him.
- He sought other spiritual solutions (Aram's god seem to work better than Judah's)
- 2 Kings 16:10-11 (ESV) When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details. 11 And Uriah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus.
- APPLICATION: What is our response to struggles? Sometimes, is it hard to wait upon God? Is it easier to develop our own solution than to wait?
- So this is clearly a prophecy of a virgin, why?
- One, it was well understood that a young maiden was a virgin before she was born. Of course, not always true, but expected
- Two, it would hardly be a sign for a young woman to have a baby …it happens every day
- So, this is a sign given to Israel, but interwoven with a sign to Ahaz. It is very cleverly done
- First, up until this point we have been dealing with the singular "you." What is the plural "you?"
- In the Hebrew and many romance languages, it is clear, but not English, unless you include Texan for "you all" (Stedman)
- In verses 13, God switches from a singular "you" to a plural "you." He was talking to Ahaz, he is now talking to all of Israel
- THE (not "a") virgin will give birth to a child whose name will be Immanuel ("God is with us"), who is THE virgin? You need an antecedent
- Gen 3:15 is the only possible antecedent
- Jewish scholars saw the verse in that light
- Only men have "seed," the woman's seed suggested a virgin
- What does it mean "he shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good?"
- Curds and honey is baby food
- He will know right and wrong (and choose right) while he is eating baby food (he will be sinless)
- Verse 16 seems to contradict verse 15, but the subject changes, how?
- We were talking about a baby
- Now, we talk about a child. What child? Isaiah's son
- Before he can choose between good and evil, the land of the two kings will be deserted
- Viewing from Ahaz's perspective, how long would it be before the two kings are laid waste?
- Less than three years (nine months plus around two years)
- Actually, Aram is killed two years later. Pekah is assassinated by Hoshea about the same time frame
- Also, who does Isaiah prophesy as "coming?"
- Assyria
- The same nation that Ahaz if seeking to set up an alliance with …
- APPLICATION:
- Why does God allow trouble into our lives?
- We are free to choose our own actions
- It is a consequence of sin in the world
- Because he wants us to draw near to him
- But where do we turn to in times of trouble?
- God draws a fascinating picture:
- He whistles for the fly from Egypt
- He whistles for the bee from Assyria
- And they will meet HERE (implication of the described landscape)
- Actually, it is true that both Egypt and Assyria will meet in Judah. Sennacherib of Assyria defeats Egypt at Eltekah
- Also, what happens to Judah?
- So the razor suggests that she will be dishonored
- She will be defeated but not completely. She will retain Jerusalem and some slight freedom
- She will be decimated economically. It will be better to milk a cow than use it for meat. They will be the ones eating baby food
- The vineyards will be destroyed (not sure if there is a meaning with the previous passage)
- APPLICATION:
- So everything is clearly seen by God and being used by God to accomplish his purpose. And yet, these are very dark days in Israel. How things look are not necessarily an indication of God's activity
Isa
7:1 (ESV) In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah,
Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came
up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack
against it.
2
Kings 16:1-4 (ESV) In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz
the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old
when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did
not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had
done, 3 but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his
son as an offering, according to the
despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people
of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and made
offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.
2
Chron 28:5-7 (ESV) Therefore the Lord his God gave him into the hand of the
king of Syria, who defeated him and took captive a great number of his people
and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hand of the king of
Israel, who struck him with great force. 6 For Pekah the son of Remaliah
killed 120,000 from Judah in one day, all of them men of valor, because they
had forsaken the Lord, the God of their fathers.
2
Kings 16:5-7 (ESV) Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah,
king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but
could not conquer him. 6 At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered Elath
for Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath, and the Edomites came to
Elath, where they dwell to this day. 7
So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying,
"I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of
the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking
me."
Isa
7:2-6 (ESV) When the house of David was told, "Syria is in league
with Ephraim," the heart of Ahaz
and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the
wind.
3 And
the Lord said to Isaiah, "Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your
son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the
Washer's Field. 4 And say to him, 'Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do
not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of
firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah. 5
Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against
you, saying, 6 "Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us
conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of
it,"
Isa
7:7-9 (ESV) thus says the Lord God:
"'It shall not stand,
and it
shall not come to pass.
8 For
the head of Syria is Damascus,
and
the head of Damascus is Rezin.
(Within
sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces so that it will no longer be
a people.)
9
"'And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and
the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you are not firm in faith,
you
will not be firm at all.'"
Isa
7:10-12 (ESV) Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 "Ask a sign of the Lord
your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven." 12 But Ahaz said,
"I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test."
Isa
7:13-17 (ESV) And he said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little
for you to weary men, that 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 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil
and choose the good. 16 For before the
boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings
you dread will be deserted. 17 The Lord
will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such
days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king
of Assyria."
Isa
7:18-25 (ESV) In that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the end
of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19
And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of
the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.
20 In
that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River—with
the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away
the beard also.
21 In that day a man will keep alive a young
cow and two sheep, 22 and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he
will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey.
23 In
that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand
shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns. 24 With bow and arrows a man will come there,
for all the land will be briers and thorns. 25
And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not
come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where
cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.
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