CHAPTER 7

(742 B.C.)

THE ALLIANCE OF SYRIA AND ISRAEL AGAINST JUDAH

¹And it came to pass 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 toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. (Ahaz was one of the most wicked kings who reigned in Judah, yet God would repeatedly speak to him, endeavoring to bring him to Repentance, but without success.

Pekah, the king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, had the last prosperous reign in the ten-Tribe Kingdom of Israel. It began two years before Uzziah died and continued to the third year of the reign of Ahaz.

Rezin and Pekah desired to place on the throne of Judah a person in whom they could thoroughly depend. It was not really their design to conquer Judah, but only to change the king. But the Holy Spirit says, They could not prevail against it.)

²And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim (another name for the Northern Kingdom of Israel). And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. (The statement, it was told the house of David, refers to the Promises that God made to David concerning his lineage continuing on the Throne unto the coming of the Messiah. Even though Judah completely lost her way and was taken over by the Babylonians, still, the Throne was preserved exactly as predicted.)

GODS PROMISE OF DELIVERANCE TO AHAZ

³Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fullers field (Isaiahs child was to accompany him as a symbol in order that his name might carry a message of judgment and grace to the heart of king Ahaz. The little boys name is Shear-jashub, which means a remnant shall return. It is thought that the Lord had told Isaiah by Revelation to give his son this name; it was given in order to testify of his faith, both in the threats and in the promises of which he had been made the mouthpiece);

⁴And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. (To an energetic, warlike, and capable monarch like Ahaz, king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, the injunction to do nothing but believe was both trying and irritating.

To predict the destruction of both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and Syria within 65 years was the purpose of this Prophecy.

Also, to call the king of Israel merely the son of Remaliah was a sign of contempt by the Lord.)

⁵Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against you, saying,

⁶Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal (the Scripture does not say who the son of Tabeal was, but no doubt he was a prince chosen by the kings of Syria and Ephraim to be king of Jerusalem and, thereby, their servant. This was the effort of Satan to do away with the lineage of David and replace him with their own king. Satans design was to foil the Prophecy given to David concerning the Messiah coming through his family [II Sam. 7:12, 16].

In fact, until Judah was taken captive by Babylon nearly 200 years later, Davids heirs continued to occupy the throne; however, even though Davids house no longer occupied the throne after the Babylonian captivity, because there was no throne, the lineage continued. So Satans attempt was foiled):

⁷Thus says the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. (Actually, the statement says, The Lord Jehovah declares it shall not stand, meaning that the plans of Syria and Israel against Judah would not succeed.)

⁸For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.

⁹And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliahs son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established. (The implication here is that Syria and Ephraim [Israel] have merely human heads the one, Rezin; the other, Pekah but Judah, it is implied, has a Divine Head, even Jehovah.

Ahaz is given an opportunity to believe God and turn loose of the frail arm of flesh on which he was prone to trust. Yet the offer was given by the Lord in a somewhat negative way, since the Lord knew the evil heart of king Ahaz.

Distrust of this promise would lead him to take steps which would not tend to establish him, but would make his position even more insecure [II Ki. 16:7-18; II Chron. 28:16-20].)

¹⁰Moreover the LORD spoke again unto Ahaz, saying,

¹¹Ask you a sign of the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. (Ahaz had no faith in God, so he would not ask for a sign. He really desired to have help from Assyria and, thereby, to continue in idolatry [II Ki. 16:7-8].)

¹²But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD. (Such is the flesh. It refuses a sign when offered one and demands a sign when refused one [Mk. 8:12].)

SIGN OF THE VIRGIN BIRTH; IMMANUEL: GOD WITH US

¹³And he said, Hear you now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? (To weary a man is to doubt his promises. Ahaz is in such a weak spiritual condition that he neither realizes nor understands the threat of Satan. It is not against Ahaz only, but also against the house of David. Evil men are conspiring to move the house of David.)

¹⁴Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His Name Immanuel. (Without a doubt, this Prophecy is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, in the Bible.

In Hebrew, the word virgin is haalmah, which means the virgin the only one that ever was or ever will be a mother in this way.

The Son Who would be born would be the Son of God. The word Immanuel means God with us. Such was fulfilled in Christ.

This Prophecy was given by God as a rebuttal to the efforts of Satan working through the kings of Syria and Israel to unseat Ahaz. In other words, their efforts to make void the Promise of God given to David would come to naught.)

¹⁵Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. (The Prophecy actually was twofold: first of all, Isaiahs little son, a mere suckling of a child who was then present, served as the immediate sign. That sign pertained to the destruction of the kings of Syria and Ephraim, which would take place about 3 years later.

The greater part of the Prophecy concerned the virgin-born Child, Who would be born about 750 years later, Who, in effect, would be the Messiah.)

¹⁶For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that you abhor shall be forsaken of both her kings. (The prediction here is that the two kings of Syria and Israel will be killed. This happened, as stated, about 3 years later [II Ki. 15:30].)

INVASION OF JUDAH BY ASSYRIA

¹⁷The LORD shall bring upon you, and upon your people, and upon your fathers house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. (God, Who could read Ahazs heart and its plans, addressed to him personally the message of this Verse. He tells him plainly that great as were the miseries suffered by the kingdoms since the disruption [the separation of Israel and Judah], they would be exceeded by those now about to come.)

¹⁸And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. (The phrase, in that day, does not pertain here to the Millennium, as it often does, but speaks of Assyria and Egypt invading Judah.)

¹⁹And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes. (The colorful description characterizes the totality of the overflowing army respecting its invasion of Judah.)

²⁰In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard. (All of this refers to total destruction upon Judah.)

²¹And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;

²²And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat who is left in the land. (At first glance, these Passages seem to indicate abundance; however, they are really denoting poverty.

In his inscriptions, Tiglath-Pileser, the Assyria king, mentions his carrying off many thousands of horned cattle and sheep from the countries which he overran or conquered, which refers to these two Verses.)

²³And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns. (The general meaning seems to be that not even the best vineyards would be cultivated at that time [after the invasion of Assyria], but would lie in waste and grow only briers and thorns.)

²⁴With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns. (The references are to the land being depopulated because of war and its population being taken as slaves; therefore, desolation will rule.

What a sad commentary on the land that once flowed with milk and honey; a land that was Gods choice land; a land that was the joy of the whole Earth. All of this was because of sin.)

²⁵And on all hills that shall be dug with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle. (The sense of this Verse is that the briers and thorns will be so thick in some areas of Judah that it will be difficult for one to even walk. Men will send their cattle into these places, as they alone will be able to penetrate such a congestion without harm.)