The Birth of Immanuel

Isaiah 7

Isaiah 7:1–25 NKJV

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind. Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, and say to him: ‘Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, “Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel”—thus says the Lord God: “It shall not stand, Nor shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, And the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, So that it will not be a people. The head of Ephraim is Samaria, And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, Surely you shall not be established.” ’ ” Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!” Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings. The Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father’s house—days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.” And it shall come to pass in that day That the Lord will whistle for the fly That is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, And for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. They will come, and all of them will rest In the desolate valleys and in the clefts of the rocks, And on all thorns and in all pastures. In the same day the Lord will shave with a hired razor, With those from beyond the River, with the king of Assyria, The head and the hair of the legs, And will also remove the beard. It shall be in that day That a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep; So it shall be, from the abundance of milk they give, That he will eat curds; For curds and honey everyone will eat who is left in the land. It shall happen in that day, That wherever there could be a thousand vines Worth a thousand shekels of silver, It will be for briers and thorns. With arrows and bows men will come there, Because all the land will become briers and thorns. And to any hill which could be dug with the hoe, You will not go there for fear of briers and thorns; But it will become a range for oxen And a place for sheep to roam.

Introduction

Isaiah’s vision, call and commission changed his life. He now stands before the King and the Judean people to give them the message of God.

It was a very uncertain time in Judean history and Isaiah gives the message (That faith in the Lord and in His promises is the approach to life, however great the crisis.)

I. Historical Background (Vs1-2)

Isaiah 7:1–2 NKJV

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it. And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind.

King Ahaz, son of Jotham and grandson of Uzziah was king of Judah. King Rezin (King of Syria) and Pekah son of Remaliah King of Israel (Northern Kingdom) set out to attack Jerusalem, however they were not to carry out their plan.

When the news came to to the house of David ( a reference to Jerusalem and Judah that Syria and Ephraim (another name for Northern Kingdom) were joining forces in the Northern Kingdom, everyone trembled with fear like trees shaking from a storm.

II. The Message to Isaiah (Vs 3-9)

Isaiah 7:3–9 NKJV

Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, and say to him: ‘Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah. Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, “Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel”—thus says the Lord God: “It shall not stand, Nor shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, And the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, So that it will not be a people. The head of Ephraim is Samaria, And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, Surely you shall not be established.” ’ ”

The Lord speaks to Isaiah and tells him to take his son Shear-jashub whose name means a remnant will return and go meet King Ahaz. What’s fascinating to me is God is sending them a promise, verified by the message and Isaiah’s son’s name. What was the message?

The message for the King was for him to stop worrying because he did not need to fear those two burned out embers. Those two kings were in fact plotting against him and the people but this is what the Sovereign Lord says.

“The invasion will never happen, Syria is no stronger than its capital Damascus, and Damascus was no stronger than king Rezin. As for the Northern Kingdom within 65 years they would be crushed and completely destroyed. Israel (Northern Kingdom ) is not stronger than its capital Samaria.”

Isaiah gave this prophecy in 734 BC, so 65 years later was 669.

Ahaz was challenged to believe what Isaiah was telling him. Ahaz was not alive in 65 years , but he could have faith that God would fulfill both predictions, that Israel would be shattered and that the alliance of the North would not overpower Judah. If he refused to believe he too would fall.

III. The Rejection of the sign. (Vs10-12)

Isaiah 7:10–12 NKJV

Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”

Ahaz was told to ask the Lord for a sign. The king could choose any miraculous work he wanted from the deepest depths to the highest heights. This was a figure of speech a merism, that mentioned two extremes with the intention of including all the areas in between them. With the miracle Ahaz would have confirmation that Isaiah’s prophecy was truly from the Lord. Judah would not be defeated by the Northern Alliance.

Ahaz refused to request a sign and said he would not test God. Sounds spiritual but the truth was he was not trusting the message that had been given to him. How do we know that? Because the response of Isaiah.

IV. The Response of Isaiah. (Vs13-25)

Isaiah 7:13–25 NKJV

Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings. The Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father’s house—days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.” And it shall come to pass in that day That the Lord will whistle for the fly That is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, And for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. They will come, and all of them will rest In the desolate valleys and in the clefts of the rocks, And on all thorns and in all pastures. In the same day the Lord will shave with a hired razor, With those from beyond the River, with the king of Assyria, The head and the hair of the legs, And will also remove the beard. It shall be in that day That a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep; So it shall be, from the abundance of milk they give, That he will eat curds; For curds and honey everyone will eat who is left in the land. It shall happen in that day, That wherever there could be a thousand vines Worth a thousand shekels of silver, It will be for briers and thorns. With arrows and bows men will come there, Because all the land will become briers and thorns. And to any hill which could be dug with the hoe, You will not go there for fear of briers and thorns; But it will become a range for oxen And a place for sheep to roam.

Obviously this is the Lord’s response given through Isaiah. In rejecting the offer of the sign, Ahaz was rejecting the Lord. What was the sign? The sign would be a boy named Immanuel. There are three elements to the sign. First the boy would be born of a virgin, Secondly he would be raised in a time of chaos and lastly while he was a youth, the two king alliance would be broken. (Vs16)

There are three main views on this passage. The first view is that virgin in the Hebrew word almah can mean unmarried woman of marriable age. Those who hold that this word just means young woman interpret that the boy of whom Isaiah wrote was conceived shortly after Isaiah spoke this message. A young woman, a virgin married then had a baby and before he would be old enough to tell the difference between good and evil the Northern -Syrian alliance would be destroyed. Some say this child was to born to Isaiah because of 8:1-4. But that is not accurate because Isaiah’s child in chapter 8:1-4 was his second child and his wife was not a virgin and his child’s name was not Isaiah.

A second view is that this pertains only to the birth of Jesus and that since Isaiah spoke this prophecy to the house of David and not just Ahaz himself the sign was given to the entire kingly line and the entire nation. However the fulfillment did not occur until Mary and Joseph’s day how does the prophecy relate to Isaiah’s point that the Northern-Syrian alliance would soon be defeated?

A third view is a combination of the two. The prophecy is directed primarily to Ahaz regarding the destruction of the Northern Kingdom and Syrian alliance. The almah or virgin was a virgin at the time of this writing would marry and have a baby and the baby would be young when the alliance was broken. Centuries later the Holy Spirit would lead Matthew to quote this as a prophecy concerning the Birth of Christ.

Just as this sign would confirm to Ahaz that God would fulfill His promise of protecting Judah and breaking the alliance that sought to destroy them, He would also confirm through this sign that the Messiah was coming.

Matthew when quoting this knew that the Jews had knowledge of Isaiah’s message and that the ultimate fulfillment for Israel would come through the Messiah Jesus Christ. It was not uncommon for Biblical prophecies to have one level of fulfillment in the immediate future and a final fulfillment many years later in the person and work of Jesus. If my math is correct there are 22 such prophecies in Isaiah.

V. The Coming of Assyria to Judah (Vs17-25)

God said He would send the king of Assyria to Judah. This would be the worst attack since the 10 Northern tribes broke from the 2 Southern tribes.

From that day on Judah was troubled time on . 2 Kings 16 gives us a glimpse into what happened. Ahaz sent word to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria saying he was his servant and asked for his help. Ahaz took all of the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the House of the Lord. The king of Assyria went to Damascus and captured all of its people. Ahaz when he went to Damascus saw the altar there, then came back to Jerusalem and had an altar built just like the one in Damascus. Tiglath-Pileser gave Ahaz trouble.

In Hezekiah’s reign Sennacherib king of Assyria invaded Judah who asked help from Egypt and was about to take it in 701 BC but God miraculously delivered Jerusalem. God’s hand was in it for he would whistle for flies from Egypt and bees from Assyria.

Judah would experience deprivation and humiliation. In that day marks a time of judgment on the nation of Judah.

Isaiah reveals to Ahaz that judgment is coming upon Judah. Vs 9 says “If you will not believe surely you shall not be established”.

I contend it is far better to trust the Lord rather than make an alliance with unbelievers and give those unbelievers what is God’s. That’s exactly what Ahaz did.

Proverbs 3:5–6 NKJV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

Faith in the Lord and His promises is the approach to life however great the crisis. Never make an alliance with the enemy ! Trust the Lord!