It’s a passage that gives us a glimpse of a perfect world before the fall. After the fall, it’s a passage that points us to a glimmer of hope in a newly fallen world as the good news of the gospel is proclaimed for the first time in scripture in Genesis 3:15. It sets forth a trajectory which will run throughout the rest of the Old Testament in the lead up to the Christ coming into the world.
Author: the Josh Benner Blog
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Immanuel Prophecy in Isaiah. Part 2: A sign given
BACKGROUND
Isaiah 7:10-25.
We’re around the year 735 B.C. The Kingdom of Judah is home to the chosen people of God and the promises of God. It’s the home to Jerusalem and the family line which leads to Christ.
A man named Ahaz is the King of Judah. Though they’re God’s chosen people, he’s a sinful king in a sinful kingdom. They have regularly disobeyed and dishonored the Lord. The first several chapters of the book of Isaiah largely revolve around the judgment which will befall Judah.
There are also a lot of military tensions in the region. The Assyrians are the super power in the Middle East at the time. They pose a threat to the various local kingdoms.
And so you have two other nations: Israel and Syria who have formed an alliance against Assyria. Israel and Syria try to pressure Judah into the alliance but Judah will instead opt to pay off the Assyrians for protection. As a result, Israel and Syria go to war with Judah. Through the prophet Isaiah, King Ahaz is told that the destruction of their oppressors: Israel and Syria is imminent.
We find out from other passages like 2 Kings 16 that Judah actually paid off the Assyrians for protection. Ahaz is told to ask the Lord for a sign, and where we concluded our last post in this series, Ahaz refuses the sign.
A SIGN REJECTED
Isaiah 7:10-11: 10 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.”
Ahaz has been sinful and faithless. But he’s given an incredible offer from the Lord. He can basically ask any sign he wants from the Lord. He can ask the Lord to reveal himself to him in a spectacular way.
I can’t think of another time in the Old Testament where this offer is given to someone.
If you were given that offer, what sign would you ask for? Whatever you want? Maybe you’d ask to see heaven, ask to be healed from a health issue, ask to see a loved one who’s passed away brought back to life?
Ahaz instead responds in verse 12: I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.”
Now at first glance, that can appear as a good thing. I will not put the Lord to the test. In the temptation story of Jesus, he talks of not putting the Lord to the test.
Matthew 4:5-7: the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
Jesus was asked to basically prove his identity by challenging God. He doesn’t. He points to the scriptures when he says “it is written” and then adds a command from the Old Testament “you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”
That’s a quote from Deuteronomy 6:16. You shall not put the your God to the test.So it can appear as though Ahaz is just being faithful to the commands of scripture. What’s the problem? It’s not a violation of the command when the Lord tells you to ask him for a sign.
Ahaz says he won’t test God but it’s God who tested Ahaz and Ahaz failed. Ahaz makes a mistake that has existed since the first sin which is misapplying the Word of God.
God tells him to ask for a sign and Ahaz balks at it. It’s because Ahaz doesn’t want a sign. He doesn’t care about seeing what God can do. Ahaz has already put his faith in his own industry in paying off the Assyrians for protection.
So when he says he won’t put God to the test, he’s just giving the appearance of faith. In Jesus’ day, it was a problem for the pharisees. They had attached all sorts of laws onto laws and outwardly appeared to be very religious and moral.
You can’t fool the Lord.
It’s easy to say the right things, it’s easy to talk the talk. But the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). The Lord sees through Ahaz’s attempt at outward piety.
Verse 13, he’s given a response: And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?
A SIGN GIVEN
Ahaz doesn’t ask for a sign but God gives him a sign anyway. The Immanuel prophecy in this passage is the same prophecy which is quoted at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew.
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
The gospel adds a note that the name Immanuel means “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23)
It’s a difficult verse in Isaiah. It’s cryptic. Its meaning is controversial and disputed. Numerous questions arise.
We will examine three of them.
1. WHY IS THAT THE SIGN WHEN JESUS ISN’T BORN UNTIL MORE THAN 700 YEARS LATER?
I don’t take this Isaiah passage as only referring to Jesus. Don’t misunderstand. The sign ultimately refers to Jesus, but I believe that the sign had a double-fulfillment.
The prophecy is given as a sign to Ahaz. Therefore I think it matters that the sign means something in the Day of Ahaz, and as we will see momentarily, I believe the context of this passage demands that it mean something in Ahaz’s time. As a general rule, I think we should be weary of Biblical interpretations where a verse has no significance to its original audience.
This is an important note about studying the Bible and studying prophetic literature in the Bible. Especially when you consider what else our present passage says. Let’s look at the Immanuel prophecy and the immediate context.
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.
What’s the meaning of those verses? There’s no apparent relationship between those verses and Jesus.
They have to mean something. We’ll examine them more closely in a few moments but I think that verses 15-16 refer to events in the lifetime of the first Immanuel.
A second issue to consider.
WHAT DOES VIRGIN MEAN?
What does the word virgin mean?
In English, our word “virgin” has a pretty straightforward meaning. Someone who has never had sexual relations. And virginity is certainly an important aspect of the birth of Jesus.
Gospel of Luke. 1:31, Mary is told she’s going to have a baby. behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.
The angel goes on to say what will happen during this ministry but Mary responds in Luke 1:34:
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
The virginity of Mary matters in the birth story of Christ because it demonstrates a miracle of God. That the birth of Christ is an entirely divine activity. So when people were reading the Old Testament hundreds of years before Christ, did they read this verse from Isaiah and take it to refer to a virgin having a baby?
Not necessarily.
If you’ve ever heard a sermon on this passage or the Matthew passage before, or if you’ve ever looked up these verses in a Study Bible, you might have seen a note that talked about how the word for virgin can also mean “young woman.”
That’s true. The closest example we have in English is probably a word like “maiden.” The word “maiden” isn’t used in English today as much as it was about 100 years ago, but a maiden refers to a young unmarried woman.
Now, in this Jewish culture in the 8th century BC, for a young, unmarried woman, it would have been assumed that she was a virgin. So that’s certainly part of what was meant, but my point is that Isaiah’s audience didn’t necessarily understand this passage referring to a virgin conception.
I think they would have taken the Hebrew word that’s used here to refer more to the woman’s I think it’s more likely that they understood this Immanuel sign as being the child of a young woman.
But here’s something that’s interesting.
While the word probably meant something more like young woman or maiden to its original Hebrew audience, by the time the text was translated from Hebrew into Greek, which was still prior to the birth of Christ, the Greek word that was used actually does more specifically mean virgin. So it is possible that a Greek reader, would have had an understanding in his time of a virgin birth.
WHO ARE IMMANUEL AND THE WOMAN?
There are several theories about who Immanuel is. Some think that the woman is King Ahaz’s wife and Immanuel is his son Hezekiah. Others think it’s the prophet Isaiah’s son. Some think that the name Immanuel became popular in Judah at this time and a lot of baby boys were named Immaneul and that that was the sign. Or perhaps it was the child of an official in the royal court who was named Immanuel.
And there are several other theories. I just point that out to again show that this is a difficult passage with several possible interpretations. But just because a passage in the Bible is hard, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t study it.
As far as the identity of the original Immanuel, we’ll cover that in another post. But the point that I want to make for right now is that there was a first Immanuel before Jesus, the ultimate and greater Immanuel. As this prophecy continues, Isaiah will elaborate on the circumstances of the world into which the first Immanuel will be born.
And he starts to talk about the immediate future within the region in its connection to this sign of Immanuel. There will be a time of difficulty in the region. The first subject to be dealt with are Judah’s oppressors: Israel and Syria.
This passage is talking about the early years of the first Immanuel. And there will be judgment for Israel and Syria, and later for Judah.
Verse 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.
When Immanuel is just a child, he will eat curds and honey. Now, when the Israelites are on their journey to the Promised Land, it’s often referred to as a land flowing with milk and honey and that’s seen as a good thing.
But in this passage, the curds and honey seems to be a negative for the young Immanuel. The region will be so desolate, war will make the kingdom such a wasteland, that he will be eating a nomadic diet.
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
Twice the prophet talks of a time associated with when this boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. The point of that is Immanuel will be very young when all of this happens. It’s before he will have reached an age of accountability. Historically, we know that this is correct because these events happen around 735 B.C. and the kingdom of Israel was conquered in 722 B.C.
The things the Lord says will happen in this passage do come to pass and they come to pass in the very near future.
End of verse 16, Isaiah throws down the gauntlet: the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.
Ahaz is specifically being told of the desertion which will befall Syria and Israel. And that is desertion because they will be conquered and taken from their land. It is a blessing that Syria and Israel will both be conquered for their sin.
JUDGED JUDAH
But Judah has also been sinful. Ahaz the king has been sinful. And there will also be consequences for them.
I said this in the beginning, but many of the early chapters of Isaiah have actually focused on the sins of Judah. They’re God’s chosen people but they’re sinful, and Ahaz is sinful. And Ahaz placed his trust in a pagan nation in Assyria for his hope and protection rather than God. There are consequences for that as well.
And so the rest of this passage ends by talking about judgment which would befall Judah. We will be fairly brief with these verses.
Verse 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!”
Where it says “upon you and upon your father’s house,” it’s a reference to the House of David who rules in Judah. It’s the monarchy. Then the text talks about days which have not come since Ephrairim departed from Judah.
I touched on this in a previous post, but it’s referring to to the split between Judah and Israel, Israel is here being referred to as Ephraim after its largest tribe.
What this verse is saying is that: while there is judgment for Israel and Syria, Judah will also experience a time of difficulty and upheaval. The challenge they will face will be the King of Assyria, as the verse ends.
The Assyrians, the nation in whom Ahaz had placed his hope will become their oppressor. So often the things we look to for freedom can enslave us.
The passage begins to talk about what will happen to Judah. Now with Syria and Israel, annihilation is the fate which awaits their kingdoms. By the grace of God, it won’t be quite as severe here for Judah. But they will still suffer.
18 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.
The verse is talking about military oppression which Judah will face. It talks of troops as if they’re swarms of bees and flies. Numerous soldiers will converge upon them. All of the hiding places will be overcome by enemy forces.
Verse 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.
Another picture of what will happen. It talks of the people being shaved. The point this is making is he humiliation that the Judeans will face at the hands of the Assyrians. Removing a person’s hair is often a symbol of stripping away their identity.
We see a third picture of the future for Judah.
Verses 21-22: 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.
That verse might not seem so bad because it does talk about people having livestock and an abundance of milk.
But given that everything else in the passage is a picture of judgment, I think the point is more that there will be an abundance of food and people will have livestock because there will be so much devastation about the population.
A FINAL PICTURE
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.
This is a picture of the devastation which will befall the land. The fertile ground will become briers and thorns. In the Old Testament, God talks of drought and of waste coming upon the farmland as divine judgment for Israel’s disloyalty to the covenant.
Give another example. Isaiah 5:5-6 says: I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. 6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
Around the year 701 B.C., the Assyrians did lay siege to Jerusalem. They did not ultimately conquer the city, that would happen at the hands of another empire a century and a half later. But for their sin, there was judgment upon Judah.
CONCLUSION
I understand that these are difficult passages. There’s a lot of history, a lot of context. It can be confusing that Judah’s enemies are judged by God but then so is Judah. One of the things that this passage again shows us is the weight of sin.
God does not take sin lightly. Anytime we act like sin doesn’t matter or isn’t a big deal, we are communicating a profound theological falsehood. God is deathly serious about sin.
Judah is God’s chosen people in his chosen land. It can be tempting to wonder if they suffered too much. But the real question is always why God gives grace to anyone when no one deserves it. Something else that we see in this passage is God’s sovereignty over the nations.
Both in our lives and in the dealings of the world, nothing happens outside of the sovereignty of God. There are many evil empires today. North Korea, China, dictatorial leaders in places like Venezuela. Countries that are torn apart by civil war and religious fanaticism.
God sees it all. That’s true throughout the world and in the lives of individuals.
All sin will be accounted for. Either it was nailed to the cross and you believe in what Jesus did. Or you will spend eternity separated from God because of your own sin. But there is nothing that is unnoticed to an all-knowing God.
As I close, I want to return to the Immanuel prophecy in verse 14.
Isaiah gives the sign of Immanuel. Again we often know it in connection with the Gospel of Matthew and Christmas time. Basically everything going on in Isaiah 7 revolves around war. Judah being attacked, Judah’s oppressors judged, but Judah also suffering at the end of the passage.
This is not a quaint, yuletide passage. It’s a passage about war and you’re given this one glimmer of light, the sign of Immanuel, which means “God with us.” In spite of all that is going on in the world, God is still with his people. There will be difficulties for the nations, but God is still faithful to his promise and his people.
There will be judgment on Judah, but God is still with them. This is a passage about war and the one hopeful message is a sign given to a king who didn’t even want it. We live in a world that is so often at war. War between nations, war within ourselves, conflict within our families, struggles against our sinfulness.
In the face of war and turmoil, Ahaz was offered a sign. He turned it down. The message that we need is not always the message that we want. In our sinful lives, we are given the message of the gospel. That you are separated and alienated from God due to sin, but you can have forgiveness when you turn your hope away from yourself and place it in Jesus and what he did on the cross.
There are difficulties in life. God with us. Is he the Lord in whom you place your trust?
Even as Christians we are not insulated from the sin that is in the world and our own lives. There are times of difficulty. But God is faithful. God never unjustly brings judgment.
My point with all of this is not to destroy a favorite Christmas verse from Matthew.
But I do think there’s value in knowing the original story. Because life is not the quaint, Norman Rockwell painting that we so desperately want the Christmas season to be. Life is hard. There is sin, disease, death. There’s hurt and betrayal. There’s war between nations and threats that we face.
Yet in spite of that, to an undeserving king, God gave the sign of Immanuel. And to an undeserving humanity, God gave the gift of the greater Immanuel, his son, God who came into the world, God with us.
Originally published December 25, 2020
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The gospel in Home Alone
Like many Americans, one of the ways I celebrate the Christmas season is watching Christmas movies. Some of my favorites include A Muppett Christmas Carol, The Santa Claus, and Elf. But my all time favorite Christmas movie, by far, is Home Alone.
Many classic Christmas movies have wonderful redemption themes (Christmas Carol is a great example of this). But Home Alone revolves around redemption. A couple of years ago, Les Lanpere of the Reforemd Pubcast made a video outlining redemption themes and asking if Kevin’s character finds faith in the film?
It’s a fascinating argument that Lanpere presents (and as much as I enjoy Home Alone, he’s clearly put much more thought into it than I have). Now, it’s impossible for me to not watch Home Alone through the redemptive lens that Les gave to it.Spoiler alerts (although who hasn’t seen Home Alone?!)
Early in the movie, Kevin is having conflicts with several family members, his older brother, his cousins, his parents, his uncle. And he wishes that they’d all disappear. This represents sin. It’s the eve of a special family trip to Paris over Christmas.
The following morning, Kevin gets his wish! The family is running late to the airport for their Paris trip. Through a headcount mishap, they leave, thinking that Kevin is in one of their shuttle vans. With the family off to Paris, Kevin awakens to discover that he is Home Alone. At first, he has a blast, basically doing whatever he wants but he will eventually begin to miss his family. He finds a department store Santa and expresses his wish to have them back, but he sees his powerless this figure is to bring restoration. This represents the false hope that idols can bring.
There is a second conflict in the movie: the Wet Bandits, two burglars who have been prowling in their neighborhood and robbing houses when families are traveling. They know that the McCallister’s are going to Paris. The Wet Bandits essentially represent evil in this movie (though comically).
Kevin finds out about their plot to strike his home. Since he knows that Santa can’t help him, on the night of their attack, he goes to church. A choir is singing hymns. Old Man Marley walks up to Kevin. He was introduced in the movie when Kevin’s brother Buzz told Kevin an urban legend about Marley being a killer. But when he introduces himself to Kevin, Marley is kind. Marley is a Messianic figure in this movie. He asks Kevin if he’s been good, Kevin admits that he has not. Marley tells Kevin he’s come to the right place. Marley also tells Kevin about a strained relationship with his son (prodigal son).
Back at the house, Kevin works on his plans to protect his home. We all see him pray before his evening meal. The dinner scene has essentially no relevance to the movie, aside from the fact that it shows him praying. Something that the family had not previously done. The robbers are stopped time and again, but eventually catch up to Kevin. In one of the most striking theological symbols of the movie, Harry is about to “devour” Kevin (bite his fingers) when Old Man Marley comes in at the last moment to intervene and save Kevin.
On Christmas morning, Kevin’s mother (who had been trying to get back to him throughout the film) returns home. The rest of the family follows soon after. We see restored relationships. We see the bad guys defeated.
The movie is a masterpiece.
Most importantly, it is a picture of the gospel. We have sinned against God, but we have a savior who has come to rescue us. Jesus was born on the first Christmas. He came to do what we could not: to reconcile us to God, to fix the relationship that had been broken. We could not do it on our own efforts (I actually take the scene of Kevin’s plan of stopping the Wet Bandits as being symbolic of this). He was eventually caught by them and needed a savior.
That savior is Jesus. He delivers us from sin. He restores us to God. He brings us life. He came to do that for all who accept his grace and trust in him.
Let us not trust in ourselves, let us not trust in our own pursuits, let us not trust in our own efforts or plans. Like the Santa who Kevin goes to visit, anything aside from God will fail us. We must go to the Lord himself.
Originally published December 19, 2018
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The rest Jesus gives – Genesis 2:1-3
From creation, we see that God had established a pattern for rest. Of the seven creation days, only the Sabbath is blessed by God. What the Lord has been given to us as a blessing is so often a challenge in a restless world. In today’s study, we also see the rest which Jesus provides.
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Immanuel prophecy in Isaiah. Part 1: A sign rejected
In the Gospel of Matthew, Mary and Joseph are engaged to be married. They’ve never consummated the relationship but then Mary finds out that she’s pregnant. Joseph did not want to bring shame upon Mary and so he prepared to divorce her quietly.
An angel appeared to Joseph. And the angel tells him to stay with Mary because the child she’s carrying has been conceived by the Holy Spirit.
The angel says: She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).
The Gospel of Matthew summarizes this exchange by quoting a prophecy from the Book of Isaiah: All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
While Isaiah’s quote in the Gospel of Matthew is familiar in its connection to Jesus, the original prophecy was given more than seven centuries before at perhaps the most tumultuous time in the history of Israel.
The original context for the Immanuel prophecy is often overlooked because it’s a complicated story. But while it’s complicated, it’s also a fascinating story that involves conquering empires, civil war, judgment and betrayal.
At the outset, I should also say that while these are passage which deal with war and conquest, and while those aren’t what we think of as Christmasy themes, these are also passages of hope and which point us to God’s grace and faithfulness.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
It’s important to start with some historical background of Isaiah 7.
This passage can get very confusing if you don’t know what’s going on or who the players are, so I think some introductory information is essential to understanding this passage.
First thing: timeline. These events happen around the year 735 B.C.
There are four nations which are mentioned in this passage: Judah, Israel, Syria and Assyria.
Israel is not the good guy in this story.
ISRAEL AND JUDAH
Something about the history of Israel that we can sometimes miss in the Bible is that for much of Israel’s history, Israel is a divided kingdom.
Think of it like this. We live in the United States of America. In the 1860s, we had a Civil War where 11 states seceded from the union. We had the union and the confederacy.
Similarly to how we have the United States, Israel was a collection of territories divided among tribes. Each tribe had their own land. The tribes were descendants of a man named Jacob.
And something that you have to know to understand this passage is that the Israelite territories were not always united. The Great King of Israel was David. His story is pretty familiar. He wrote many of the Psalms. He was the man after God’s own heart.
His son was Solomon. Solomon’s son was a man named Rehoboam and that’s where things really start to get bad in Israel. Rehoboam is eventually overthrown by a man named Jeroboam and it is at that point that Israel is no longer a united kingdom.
The northern tribes and the southern tribes split. They will never again reunite.
If this helps, I’ll call it a divided states of Israel. Here’s part of why it can get confusing.
You have two kingdoms. North and south. The northern kingdom is called Israel. The southern kingdom is called Judah. The Southern Kingdom, Judah, is home to Jerusalem. The royal line which leads to Christ in the genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew is the kings who reigned in Judah.
The Southern Kingdom, called Judah is also home to the tribe of Judah, which is the specific tribe from which Jesus was born.
None of this is saying the southern kingdom of Judah is perfect or righteous. The grace bestowed upon them was the same grace that is bestowed upon every believer in the gospel. It’s the undeserved gift of God which he freely gives.
To the north, you have Israel, but in the south, while it’s called Judah, the southern kingdom is actually the true Israel. It’s the true chosen people of God who have the promises of God.
Another point of clarity. While Judah is called Judah because of the Tribe of Judah. Well the northern kingdom of Israel is often called Ephraim because its largest tribe was Ephraim. And I point that out because the northern kingdom of Israel will be referred to as Ephraim in this passage.
Think of it like how the United Kingdom and Great Britain refer to the same place, or now Holland and the Netherlands refers to the same place.
The northern kingdom of Israel is the same place as Ephraim.
So that’s two of the players in our story. Judah and Israel. And just to reiterate, Israel is not on the good side in this passage.
Judah is sinful too, as we will see in this passage but the divine wrath is first placed upon Israel.
Two more kingdoms in this story. Syria and Assyria. And obviously that can add confusion to the story because it sounds like it’s the same place. They’re different.
Assyria was the regional superpower. They posed a threat to the territories in the region. Syria and Israel were in an alliance against Assyria.
They had attempted to get Judah to join their alliance to fight against Assyria. At one point, Israel and Syria actually wanted to stage a coup to overthrow the king of Judah and install a puppet king who would do what they wanted.
Serious geopolitical issues.
THREE KINGS
In Isaiah 7, the prophet begins by introducing Judah, Syria, and Israel.
Verse 1: 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.
Often times in the Old Testament, people are introduced in conjunction with who their father is. This passage is no different. With Ahaz, it tells us that he’s the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah. All these kings are direct descendants in the line of Christ.
So we have Ahaz listed at the beginning of the passage. He’s listed first because this passage ultimately revolved around his kingdom, Judah.
Few more things about Ahaz. Even though he’s king of Judah which is the kingdom who retains the promise of God, that does not mean that Ahaz is a good king or a good man.
In fact, he’s neither of those things.
Talking of Ahaz, 2 Kings 16:2 says: he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done.
That passage also tells us that Ahaz sacrificed one of his sons as a pagan offering (2 Kings 16:3). And he also took it upon himself to go outside the bounds of Old Testament worship and practiced other pagan religious rituals.
2 Chronicles 28 tells us that Ahaz made metal images to worship pagan deities (2 Chronicles 28:2).
He’s not a good king. He does not honor God.
Next up: Rezin the King of Syria. Syria is probably listed next because they were a more prominent provocator of the military conflict than was Israel.
Israel is listed last, their king was Pekah at the time.
So three nations, three kings.
And the passage tells us in verse 1 that Syria and Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it.
Keep in mind that it’s Assyria who’s the threat in the region.
And with that in mind, you may be asking yourself a logical question. If Assyria is the threat, then why are Syria and Israel wanting to fight Judah?
I briefly touched on this earlier but the issue was that Israel and Syria wanted Judah to join them in an anti-Assyrian alliance.
Isaiah 7:2: 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.
This verse refers to the southern Kingdom of Judah as the House of David. Another way of referring to that part of the kingdom.
They find out that Syria has an alliance with Ephraim, which is to say that Syria has an alliance with the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
So you have Israelites fighting Israelites. It’s very disheartening for Judah to learn that these two nations are against them. Eventually, Syria and Israel would attack Judah and hit some of the territories outside of Jerusalem, and they hit Judah with devastating results.
2 Chronicles 28:5-6: 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. For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed 120,000 from Judah in one day, all of them men of valor
And then again from verse 8: 8 The men of Israel took captive 200,000 of their relatives, women, sons, and daughters. They also took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria.
So Judah has over 120,000 casualties and over 200,000 taken enslaved.
A DILEMMA
Imagine if you were a citizen in Judah at the time and someone who was in the know about the diplomatic happenings in the region. It was a difficult time. You’re basically under threat of all the nations who surround you. You could join your fellow Israelites in the Northern Kingdom and band together with Syria.But then you might still have to battle Assyria, an empire who could be ruthless in their conquests. Perhaps you could try to find a way to appease them or pay them for protection.
What’s the right choice?
We’ll get to that in a bit.
A PROPHECY AND A NAME
Back to our passage. Verse 3, the Prophet Isaiah comes into the story for the first time.
Along with Isaiah, we’ll also meet his son. 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.
The son is significant to the passage.
In Hebrew, Shear-Jashub means “a remnant will return.”
Why does that matter? You have a corrupt king in a corrupt kingdom. The early chapters of the Book of Isaiah largely revolve around Judah’s sin. There will be judgment on them for their sin. And in 735 B.C, they find themselves losing battles to neighboring nations.
They’ve already suffered tremendous losses, but Ahaz is given a promise: a remnant will return. Even with as dark as the times were in Judah, the nation would not be totally destroyed.
Even within our passage, Israel and Syria attempted to overtake Jerusalem and couldn’t. We don’t know if Ahaz understood that at the time.
Verse 4. Isaiah speaks. 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,
After Isaiah has called Ahaz to trusting in the Lord, Isaiah continues by talking about the imminent destruction awaiting Israel and Syria. Isaiah calls Israel and Syria two smoldering stumps. He will elaborate more in this chapter but Isaiah is beginning to communicate the reality that Israel and Syria’s days are numbered.
Continuing in verse 4: at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.
Isaiah is addressing the two combatants who have gone to war with Judah.
Verse 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,”
A lot could be said there. It’s basically one prophecy.
Even though Judah has all sorts of issues with sin and with the sinfulness of their king, it’s still God’s chosen people and there is a severe penalty for Syria for attacking Judah. But what’s more, for the northern kingdom in Israel, also known as Ephraim, there is also a severe penalty for them attacking their fellow Jews.
But they have all of these plans against Judah, and the Lord says:
“ ‘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. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people. 9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
It shall not stand and it shall not come to pass.
This is the Lord God speaking through his prophet Isaiah. The text says that within 65 years, Syria would be conquered. Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
Again, remember that Ephraim is the northern kingdom of Israel.
So this is what Ahaz is told about his enemies.
And guess what? Those things do come to pass. Assyria would go on to conquer Syria. And in 722 B.C. the Northern Kingdom of Israel is conquered and they lose the land.
Earlier I talked about the tough situation which Judah faced. They had the option of joining the alliance with Syria and Israel. That’s option A. They didn’t choose that option. They could have tried to appease Assyria. That’s what Ahaz chose.
Let’s look at this story in 2 Kings 16.
2 Kings 16:5: 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.
Similarly to where our passage begins. Israel and Syria have come to attack Jerusalem but do not prevail.
Ahaz begs Assyria for help.
2 Kings 16:7: 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.”
He’s going to a pagan and enemy nation and begging them for help. He will pay off Assyria. Where’s he get the funds?
2 Kings 16:8-9: 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. 9 And the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir, and he killed Rezin.
Ahaz takes the gold and silver that’s in the temple in Jerusalem and that’s what he uses to pay Assyria for protection. And the 2 Kings passage begins by talking of Assyria attacking Syria and having Rezin killed.
In the next scene, Ahaz meets the king of Judah and continues to be reverential to the Assyrians.
2 Kings 16:10-11: 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.
And we will continue to see in 2 Kings that Ahaz does everything he can to show allegiance to Assyria. He practices their religious rituals.
So what was the right option?
Joining Syria and Israel? Or joining Assyria?
Trick question, the correct answer was option C. Ahaz should have trusted in God and his promises.
THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH
Instead he let fear draw him into sin. He let his lack of confidence in the Lord lead him to bowing down to other deities. He put his trust in his own abilities and not in God’s providence. He trusted a man, the King of Assyria for his protection rather than placing faith in the Lord.
Israel and Syria might have looked like giants to Judah. But their days were numbered. He had the promise of God. He had the divine kingdom, and yet he sold off the temple items for what felt like earthly security.
The issue with Ahaz was that his first hope was not ultimately God. And this passage was an opportunity to trust God.
Where is your dependence? Where is your hope?
It’s easy to judge Judah. It’s easy to say that Ahaz should have had more faith. And he should have. I’m not defending him. But it’s interesting to consider his situation. All the nations around them have reason to go to war with Judah. The super power is taking up territory. And so he does what we so often do in a crisis of faith, he takes matters into his own hands. He doesn’t trust in the Lord.
But for him, his life, his reign, his nation hung in the balance. I think of the thousand other situations we face in our lives all the time where it can be so easy to distrust God.
Situations that are so much smaller than what is happening in this passage.
What’s our excuse? We have God’s promises. Yet we often times what to do whatever we can to feel a sense of control over our lives. We have God’s Word, but it so often doesn’t bring us the comfort that it should. What God says will happen will happen. That’s true of both good and bad things.
In this passage, we see God’s faithfulness to his word. He told of the destruction which would befall Syria and Israel. And it happened.
God is true to his word. What does he say in his word that you struggle to believe?
At the end of our passage, Isaiah continues to speak to Ahaz. But they’re not Isaiah’s words. They’re the words of the Lord.
A SIGN OFFERED
Verse 10: 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.”
Ahaz is told to ask God for a sign. Signs are often used in the Bible to point to the miraculous works of God.
And the text says as “deep as Sheol or as high as heaven,” the point is that Ahaz can basically ask for any sign he wants. That’s a pretty incredible offer from the Lord. The Lord is saying that he will reveal his power and glory to Ahaz on Ahaz’s terms.
Imagine if you had such an offer? What would you ask for?
Maybe to see a relative or friend raised to life? Maybe to see heaven? Maybe to be instantly healed? Maybe to see a change the the weather or in nature like the day suddenly becoming 85 and sunny.
A SIGN REJECTED
What sign would you want to bolster your faith?
For Ahaz, the offer is meaningless. He’s already thrown his lot in with Assyria. That’s where his trust lies.
In verse 12, Ahaz says “I will not ask.”
He rejects the sign.
Tomorrow, we look at part 2 where we see a sign given.
