Isaiah 8
A Word to the Public
It is intended to provoke questions, not to answer them.
A baby born for a sign
The prophetess was not, says Herbert, a courtesy title but was given to Isaiah’s wife because she was literally the bearer of the Lord’s word, incarnate in her son.
In 734 BC Tiglath-pileser marched down the Israelite sea-coast, through Philistia, to the Egyptian border, cutting off Egyptian aid to the treaty powers. In 733 BC Israel lost Galilee, Transjordan (2 Ki. 15:29), Megiddo and other cities and it was only the hasty submission of Hoshea which saved the kingdom for a few years more. Damascus fell to Assyria in 732.
The coming of Assyria
With the words ‘Therefore, behold’ Isaiah calls dramatic attention to the consequence of choosing an alternative salvation. The people had chosen on a worldly basis: the collective security of military alliance (Rezin) and the leadership of men who rose to power not by divine appointment but by human artifice (2 Ki. 15:25ff.). The nemesis of choosing the world is to get the world, in full and plenty: here, ‘the mighty and abundant waters of the River’ that is, the Euphrates. The motif of the two rivers Shiloah (6) and Euphrates (7) offers a telling contrast between the seeming weakness of faith and the seeming power of the world. To the human eye the way of faith (Jerusalem and its vulnerable water supply) is full of insecurity and hazard, but the believer sees all this and says, ‘He is faithful who promised’ (Heb. 10:23). But to choose the world is to be overwhelmed by the world. Isaiah will not allow people to escape the rigour of their own choices; to choose a saviour other than the Lord is to find a destroyer, in some form or another the king of Assyria with all his pomp. Even floodwaters fulfil divine purposes. The rise of empire and the imperialist mind is itself a sinful thing (see 10:5–15) but this does not mean that it is apart from the Lord and his holy rule. The waters only overflow their banks to go where he directs them. Thus, northern Israel began in 734 to reap the rewards of 1 Kings 12:16 and decisions made two hundred years earlier.
Sweep on (√ḥālap̄) expresses change, one thing replacing another (cf. 21:1), something coming on newly and freshly. The floodwaters which have drowned Israel gather fresh momentum to break through into Judah. The menace cannot be halted (sweep on … swirling over … passing through), but it is controlled and there is a ne plus ultra: reaching up to the neck. Immanuel’s land is swamped but remains with its ‘head above water’. Unlike Israel, which was swept away by Assyria, Judah survived the flood. The fulfilment of 6:8–9 awaits other hands. Judah made essentially the same decision as Israel—to choose an earthly king (Assyria) as its security rather than the Lord—and therefore it merited the same fate. But the Lord is sovereign also in the application of judgment; he is not bound by inexorable laws but freely does his own holy will. Its outspread wings could refer to the outward spread of the floodwaters, but is more vividly seen as a change of metaphor: the Assyrian, like a huge bird of prey, overshadows the whole land, ready to pounce. Your land, O Immanuel sums up the tragedy of Ahaz’s decision. Immanuel is caught up in the ruination brought about by unbelief. His kingship is stripped of earthly glory and he comes as a suffering king. Historically (cf. 2 Ki. 16), Ahaz’s appeal to Assyria and his submission to Assyrian overlordship brought peace and the cessation of the northern threat. Isaiah, however, saw through to the reality: the glory had departed and David’s throne was now a hollow unreality, never to return to sovereignty again. There was nothing now for Immanuel to inherit except suffering and loss.
The Sovereign protection of God
Obeying God’s word
Their lives are to be governed by a theological awareness of the LORD, Yahweh, the exodus God (Ex. 3:13–15; 6:6–8), who redeems his people and overthrows his foes. He is the LORD Almighty/‘of hosts’ (see on 1:9), the omnipotent God, the holy One. To regard him as holy is to so respond to him as to live in constant awareness of his holy nature.
The same God in his unchanging nature is both sanctuary and snare; it depends on how people respond to his holiness.
As a careful pastor and teacher he forewarns of a pressure that will be mounted (19a); clarifies the issue (19b); exposes the absurdity (19c); puts the positive alternative (20a); and issues a clear warning (20b–22).