Before Isaiah continues with his prophecy, he introduces his credentials: (The king’s death was probably around 740 B.C.)
Read Isaiah 6:1-8
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.
3 And they were calling to one another:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’
And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’
Look again at the first three verses. In your mind, can you paint a picture of the inside of the Temple?
Now add verse 4
Standing there as an observer, what do you feel? How do you react?
Then verse 5: In the light of the glory of God, he recognised a deep sense of his own sin. Instantly he remembered Exodus 33:20 ‘No-one may see God and live’. Isaiah was afraid for his life.
Specifically he was concerned about what he may have said: ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips’
But then in verse 7 the seraphim symbolically touches his lips with the live coal, and says ‘your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for’.
Jesus’ ability to save and redeem extends through all eternity. God is not limited by Earth’s time and as in Hebrews 11 we can read of many old testament heroes who also had faith to believe.
Isaiah’s response was immediate: ‘send me’. Have we responded to God’s call?
God fully understood the difficulty of the task he was giving Isaiah.
Read Isaiah 6:9-13
9 He said, ‘Go and tell this people: ‘“Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.”
10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.’
11 Then I said, ‘For how long, Lord?’ And he answered: Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged,
12 until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.
13 And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.’
God knew Isaiah would be discouraged with the people deaf and blind to his warnings, but he had to remain faithful to his commission; even when the people received their punishment and were taken into captivity.
Jesus recognised the same condition and quoted these verses in Matthew 13:13-15.
What do we make of the last verse? Even though it would seem that God had abandoned his people and his land, there would still remain a ‘stump’ and in time the stump would again show signs of life (Isaiah 11:1).
Now we are about to read of a specific time (around 735 B.C.) when the Assyrians (Syria) were expanding their territory towards the Mediterranean sea. They had already taken a large area around Galilee and deported the inhabitants. (For a greater insight you could look at the first part of the 2Kings (n) study.
Israel in the north had then effectively become a vassal state and when the Aramean king Rezin of Damascus decided to take Judah too, he ordered the remaining Israelite king and army to fight with him. During the next passage, Israel is also referred to as Ephraim (the largest remaining tribe).
Read Isaiah 7:1-2
1 When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.
2 Now the house of David was told, ‘Aram has allied itself with Ephraim’; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
We should remember that the kings of Judah were all descended from David, and are included in Jesus’ genealogy provided in Matthew 1:2-16. Many were considered good kings, but Ahaz was not (2 Kings 16:2-4). Now under attack from an unholy alliance of the kings of Israel and the Arameans of Damascus, he would not naturally turn to God for help and he was shaking with fear. But it was not in God’s timing for Judah to fall now, so:
Read Isaiah 7:3-9
3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, ‘Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. 4 Say to him, “Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smouldering stubs of firewood – because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, 6 ‘Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.’ 7 Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “It will not take place, it will not happen,
This was no wishy-washy ‘I hope it will go away’. This was a very direct positive ‘It will not happen’.
(Notice that during these chapters God refers to king Pekah only as ‘the son of Remaliah’ – as if he can’t bear to speak his name.)
Read Isaiah 7:8-9
8 for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”’
While all the turmoil is taking place, the Lord knows that the defeat and exile of Judah will not take place yet. Now he is more concerned with Ahaz and his lack of faith.
Read Isaiah 7:10-12
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.’
12 But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.’
Why would Ahaz not do that?
What sounds like a correct religious response hides the truth. If Ahaz asked the lord for a sign, he knew the result would mean he had to make a choice. But he had already chosen to follow other gods.
Read Isaiah 7:13-16
13 Then Isaiah said, ‘Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.
Verse 14 is a truly prophetic vision of the birth of Jesus, ‘Immanuel – God is with us’, and is an irrefutable sign of God at work.
But it’s inclusion here is confusing. Many think that the reason that God told Isaiah to take his young son with him was for him to be a visual aid for verses 15 and 16. It will be only two years later that both the kings Ahaz feared would be killed by the Assyrians.
However Isaiah will return to this prophecy in the next chapter.
Read Isaiah 7:17-25
17 The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah – he will bring the king of Assyria.’
18 In that day the Lord will whistle for flies from the Nile delta in Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. 19 They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thorn-bushes and at all the water holes. 20 In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the River Euphrates – the king of Assyria – to shave your heads and private parts, and to cut off your beards also. 21 In that day, a person will keep alive a young cow and two goats. 22 And because of the abundance of the milk they give, there will be curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and honey. 23 In that day, in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be only briers and thorns. 24 Hunters will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns. 25 As for all the hills once cultivated by the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of the briers and thorns; they will become places where cattle are turned loose and where sheep run.
‘The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;’
Lord Byron
The coming destruction of the land will be truly terrible – but that will still be in the future. One would hope that Isaiah’s graphic description should have influenced Ahaz, but it didn’t.
Read Isaiah 8:1-4
The Lord said to me, ‘Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.’ (‘quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil’) 2 So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me. 3 Then I made love to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, ‘Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. 4 For before the boy knows how to say “My father” or “My mother”, the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.’
This prophecy was important. The two witnesses probably signed and dated it and it may have been on display publicly. There would be no argument as to God’s warning as the months passed. (The specific prophecy in verse 4 was accurately fulfilled – 2 Kings 16:7-9, but the respite Ahaz bought was only temporary).
Read Isaiah 8:5-13
5 The Lord spoke to me again:
6 ‘Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, 7 therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates – the king of Assyria with all his pomp.
It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks 8 and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck. Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, Immanuel!’
9 Raise the war cry you nations, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
10 Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand, for God is with us.
11 This is what the Lord says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:
12 ‘Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.
13 The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread.
Conspiracy theories are not a new idea! In those days too, no-one knew what to believe. Isaiah simply stated truth, from the Lord.
It was a fact that the Assyrians were coming and nothing and nobody could stand against them. They were God’s instrument of punishment, and if you are going to be afraid of them, rather be afraid of the God who directs them.
In our dealings with God and his Son, our response should be either to bow down in worship, or hide in fear.
Read Isaiah 8:14-15
14 He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.
15 Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.’
Romans 9:33, and 1 Peter 2:6-8 refer to verse 14 and explain the response of many to Jesus. As 1 Corinthians 1:23-25 has it ‘a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles’.
Read Isaiah 8:16-18
16 Bind up this testimony of warning and seal up God’s instruction among my disciples.
17 I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob. I will put my trust in him.
18 Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion
Basically, Isaiah is saying ‘Make a record of this, I am telling you the truth. God has placed me and my sons here as a sign to you as someone who has complete faith and trust in the Lord’.
Read Isaiah 8:19-22
19 When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people enquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
21 Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upwards, will curse their king and their God. 22 Then they will look towards the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.
Everyone is given the same choice as the one given to Adam. To obey God and worship him, or to turn our backs on God and be led by the devil.
Then we may blame God for our circumstances, but it is our choice, and verse 22 will be our destiny.
