King Ahaz
7
📚And it came about in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but they could not conquer it.2 📚And the house of David was told, saying, “Syria has become an ally of Ephraim”. And his heart, and the heart of his people, was shaken like the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
7:2 The kings of Judah were all descended from the royal house of David. At this time Ahaz was on the throne. Ephraim was the leading tribe of the northern kingdom of Israel, and that whole kingdom is meant here.⚜
3 📚Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-Jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the road to the Fuller’s Field,
7:3 Shear-Jashub means “a remnant will return”.⚜
4 📚and say to him, ‘Be careful, and be calm. Do not be afraid or fainthearted because of these two stubs of smouldering firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah, 5 📚because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have made an evil plot against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah, and trouble it, and let us make a break in its wall for ourselves, and set the son of Tabeal as king over it”. 7 📚Thus says the Lord God 📖, ‘It will not stand, nor will it come to pass. 8 📚For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty five years 📖 Ephraim will be broken, no longer to be a people. 9 📚And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son 📖. If you will not believe, surely you will not be established 📖.’ ”
7:4-9 Though Ahaz was a bad king (2 Kings 16:1-4), God sent him a good message. God would deliver the southern kingdom of Judah from these attacks from the north. The two attacking powers were only smoking firebrands, soon to be put out. In 732 B.C. the Assyrians captured Damascus, Syria’s capital, and then defeated Israel.⚜
10 📚Moreover, the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 📚“Ask the LORD your God for a sign for yourself. Ask it to be either in the deep, or in the height above”.
7:10-11 God is willing to give signs to encourage weak faith in His promises (Ex 3:12; 4:1-9; Jud 6:16-22, 36-40). Here God tells Ahaz to ask for a sign. But in Matt 12:38-39 the Lord Jesus said that a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign. Sometimes asking for signs may be good, sometimes bad. It depends on the circumstances, or the persons, or the motive.⚜
12 📚But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I put the LORD to the test”.
7:12 Perhaps Ahaz wanted to put on a self-righteous front before Isaiah. As if to say, “I am not the kind of a man who needs any signs or who commits the sin of tempting God” (compare Deut 6:16). But the truth is, Ahaz was a wicked man who did not want any dealings with Jehovah the true God of the universe.⚜
13 📚And he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it so small a thing for you to weary men, that you will weary my God also?
7:13 God Himself had told him to ask for a sign, so Ahaz was trying God’s patience by disobedience and hypocritical self-righteousness.⚜
The virgin’s Son
14 📚Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and will call his name Immanuel.
7:14 This verse is a clear prophecy concerning the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know this because the Holy Spirit inspired the apostle Matthew to say so. See Matt 1:18-25. The name Immanuel, which means “God with us” can apply fully only to the Lord Jesus. He alone is the incarnation of God (Isa 9:6-7; John 1:1, 14.). This verse is a wonderful prophecy of a supernatural, miraculous event which took place more than 700 years after it was uttered. This birth of a child to a virgin is called a “sign”. A sign from God must be something very striking and remarkable. For a young woman, even an unmarried young woman, to have a child is no striking or remarkable thing. But for one who had never been with a man to have a child would be a divine miracle. This sign was to be for the whole house of David, not to Ahaz alone (v 13 – in v 14 the plural for “you” is used).
Some commentators believe that this verse must have somehow a twofold fulfillment. This is because they argue that the verses which follow deal with the historical situation of Isaiah’s day and the virgin’s son seemingly was to be a sign to the people then living. It may be so, is probably so, but the Holy Spirit has not revealed how it was fulfilled through the birth of any child in the time of Isaiah. And we are not told that any child was then called Immanuel. But in prophecy sometimes there does seem to be both a near and far fulfillment. Isa 8:18 may be an example of this.⚜
15 📚He will eat curds and honey, when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
7:15 The meaning of eating curds and honey is given in verses 22 in the context of verses 20-25. There would be an invasion of the Assyrian army and destruction and desolation in the land. More common food would not be available.⚜
16 📚For before the child will know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land whose two kings 📖 you dread will be deserted. 17 📚The LORD will bring the king of Assyria on you, and on your people, and on your father’s house, days that have not come from the day that Ephraim 📖 broke away from Judah”.
God will use Assyria to punish the Jewish nation
18 📚And it will happen in that day, that the LORD will whistle for the fly that is in the furthest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee 📖 that is in the land of Assyria. 19 📚And they will come and all of them will settle on the desolate valleys, and in the crevices of the rocks, and on all the thorn bushes, and on all the pastures.
7:19 The land of Judah would be overrun by foreigners from these countries.⚜
20 📚In the same day the Lord will shave the head and the hair of the legs with a hired razor, with those beyond the River, with the king of Assyria, and will also remove the beard.
7:20 For others to forcibly shave off one’s beard (and no doubt the hair of the body) was considered a disgrace (2 Sam 10:4-5). It indicated utter defeat. The “River” here means the Euphrates.⚜
21 📚And it will happen in that day, that a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep. 22 📚And it will happen, because of the abundance of milk they give, that he will eat curds; for everyone left in the land 📖 will eat curds and honey.
7:21-22 Signifies a time of trouble, when the produce of the fields would not be available.⚜
23 📚And it will happen in that day, that in every place where there had been a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be only briars and thorns. 24 📚Men will come there with arrows and with bows, because all the land will become briars and thorns. 25 📚And as for all the hills that were dug with a mattock, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but it will become a place for sending out oxen, and where sheep walk.
7:23-25 This will be the result of the exile of the people to other lands. “A thousand...shekels” (v 23) – about 11.5 kilograms.⚜