Isaiah 7:1
I. (Chapters 1-39) Condemnation
A. (Chapters 1-12) Prophecies against Israel and Judah
1. \\#Isa 1:1-31\\ God’s Case Against Judah
2. \\#Isa 2:1-5:30\\ Israel’s Condition Described
3. \\#Isa 6:1-13\\ Isaiah’s Call
4. \\#Isa 7:1-12:6\\ Israel’s Choice - This is the fourth message of
Isaiah in this book and the longest, continuing to Isaiah 12:6,
the end of this section of prophecies. The message describes
the path of destruction that Israel chooses and the devastation
it will cause.
a. \\#Isa 7:1-25\\ King Ahaz’s Choice
(1) \\#Isa 7:1-2\\ A Dilemma
(2) \\#Isa 7:3-9\\ A Message
(3) \\#Isa 7:10-16\\ A Divine Sign
(4) \\#Isa 7:17-25\\ Divine Judgment
I. \\#Isa 7:1-12:6\\ Israel’s Choice
A. \\#Isa 7:1-25\\ King Ahaz’s Choice
1. \\#Isa 7:1-2\\ A Dilemma
a. \\#Isa 7:1\\ "in the days of Ahaz… king of Judah"
(1) Notice that time has passed since Isaiah’s last message.
Chapter six details events happening at the death of Uzziah
while this message deals with an event in Uzziah’s grandson’s
life. Because fathers and sons often co-reigned together,
the time gap may be small. Uzziah is believed to have died
around 739 BC, but Ahaz started reigning with his father,
Jotham, in 743 BC.
(A Survey of Israel’s History; Leon Wood; Zondervan Publishing House; Grand
Rapids, MI; 1979; Chronological Chart)
(2) Ahaz was not a good king.
2 Kings 16:2 Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned
sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of
the LORD his God, like David his father.
(3) God would have been just to leave Ahaz to his own devices,
but He will intervene for the sake of His people.
b. "Rezin… and Pekah,… went up toward Jerusalem to war against it"
(1) This is a confederation of two wicked kings, Pekah, king of
Israel (immediately to the north of Judah) and Rezin, king
of Syria, (north and west of Israel).
(2) Israel is sometimes referred to by its principal tribe, Ephraim
\\#2\\, and its capital, Samaria \\#8\\.
(3) Israel had joined with Syria and is referred to by its capital,
Damascus \\#8\\.
(4) These two wanted Judah to join them in alliance against
Assyria. but Judah refused.
(5) When Ahaz becomes king of Judah, Pekah of Israel and Rezin
of Syria joined together to besiege Jerusalem.
(Nelson’s 3-D Bible Mapbook; Jenkins, Simon; Nashville; Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1985)
c. \\#Isa 7:2\\ "And his heart was moved… as the trees of the wood are
moved" - A descriptive way to say both Ahaz and the people were
afraid.
2. \\#Isa 7:3-9\\ A Message - God tells Isaiah what is happening, and
sends him to the king with two messages.
a. \\#Isa 7:3\\ An veiled message - Isaiah is told to take his son with
him. God will use the sons of Isaiah to give an obscured
message. That message is hidden in the sons’ names.
(1) "She-ar-ja-shub" means "a remnant shall return."
(2) While the name might seem like a message of comfort, before
the people can return, they must be scattered.
(3) Taking Shearjashub to see King Ahaz was God’s way of
warning Ahaz that, if Judah continued in their present
direction, their days were numbered.
(4) As Ahaz is the king of Judah, the captivity that God will send
will be the Babylonian captivity which will not occur for
approximately 150 years. God’s judgment may sometimes come
slowly, but it comes none-the-less.
b. \\#Isa 7:4-9\\ An viewed message - At the same time, Isaiah plainly
tells Ahaz that the alliance against Judah will fail.
(1) \\#4\\ "neither be fainthearted" - God encourages Ahaz.
(2) \\#4-6\\ God retells the situation to Ahaz.
(3) \\#7\\ "It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass" - In
the end, the plot against Judah will fail.
(4) \\#8\\ Ephraim - The name of one of Israel’s prominent
tribe and a name often used to refer to the northern kingdom.
(5) "within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken,
that it be not a people"
(a) God promises that within 65 years, Ephraim will cease
to exist.
(b) The sixty-five years has caused some questions since
the Bible shows that Israel will be taken away within
20 years.
(c) This is seen by totaling the years of the kings. Ahaz
reigns a total of 16 years \\#2Kings 16:2\\ and the
removal occurs in Hezekiah’s 6th year \\#2Kings 17:6\\
\\#2Kings 18:1\\. At the most, that is twenty years.
(d) Some commentators reconcile the prophecy not to the date
when Israel was taken captive but when another Assyrian
king, Esarhaddon, returned to the land to remove
Manasseh, king of Judah, from his kingdom.
(e) That was also the time when Assyria planted foreigners
in the northern kingdom.
(6) \\#9\\ "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall be
established." God was giving Ahaz a choice. He could
either believe God or not.
(a) \\#2Kings 16:1-16\\ relates that King Ahaz made the
wrong choice.
(b) King Ahaz sent to Tiglath Pileser, Emperor of Assyria,
for help. The messenger takes gifts of silver and gold
from the temple.
(c) Rezin and Pekah fail to take Jerusalem.
(d) When the Assyrians arrive, they capture Damascus, kill
Rezin, and take captives.
(e) Ahaz goes to pay homage to Tiglath Pileser in Damascus,
but in calling upon the Assyrians for help, Ahaz lost
Judah’s political and religious independence.
(f) Ahaz returned to Jerusalem with new plans for an altar,
where the Assyrian gods will now be worshipped.
(Nelson’s 3-D Bible Mapbook; Jenkins, Simon; Nashville; Thomas Nelson, 1997, c1985)
3. \\#Isa 7:10-16\\ A Divine Sign
a. \\#Isa 11\\ "Ask… a sign…" - To encourage Ahaz’s faith, God does
something almost unprecedented. He offers to give Ahaz
whatever sign he desired.
b. \\#Isa 7:12\\ "I will not ask…."
(1) Ahaz also does something unprecedented. He refuses to ask for
a sign.
(2) The Jews are a people renowned for demanding signs before
they will obey God….
1 Corinthians 1:22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
(3) While Ahaz may have thought he was being pious by declining
the offer, he was being disobedient.
c. \\#Isa 7:13\\ "…will ye weary my God also?" Hence, the Lord’s rebuke.
d. \\#Isa 7:14-16\\ "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign
Since Ahaz will not ask for a sign, God gives one of His own
choosing. This sign will not help Ahaz since Ahaz declared he
did not need it. Instead, it will help the Jews to recognize
their Messiah.
(1) "…a virgin shall conceive…"
(2) This virgin shall "bear a son…"
(3) The Son’s name shall be IMMANUEL.
(a) The name did not have to literally be Immanuel. Some
aspects of the prophecy are symbolic.
(b) The name means, "God with us," and implies that the
Child shall be God in flesh.
(4) \\#15\\ "Butter and honey shall he eat"
(a) A phrase to mean the Child will dine on good things as
opposed to having an evil appetite.
(b) This is a reference to the Child’s holy and pure nature.
He will have nothing to do with evil.
(5) \\#16\\ "For before the child shall know… the land that thou
abhorrest shall be forsaken of both of her kings."
(a) "that thou abhorrest" - Isaiah may be standing before
King Ahaz but THOU refers to Jehovah. It is Jehovah
who is abhorred with the land.
(b) The land which is going to be forsaken has two kings,
BOTH HER KINGS. That is a reference to the while land
of Israel.
(c) This verse sets a maximum time for Israel and Judah’s
existence as autonomous kingdoms. Neither shall exist
by the time this Child is old enough to know good
from evil.
4. \\#Isa 7:17-25\\ A Divine Judgment
a. \\#Isa 7:17\\ "The Lord shall bring upon thee…even the King of
Assyria" - This is the first time Assyria is mentioned by Isaiah.
God was warning King Ahaz about the imminent judgment to come upon
Israel and Judah for their sin. The Assyrians would conquer and
remove Israel out of the land. At the same time, they would also
greatly distress and crush Judah. This is the result of King Ahaz
making the wrong choice.
b. "from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah" - Israel had not
seen the measure of grief that Assyria would bring since the two
kingdoms had split.
c. \\#Isa 7:18\\ "the Lord shall hiss for the fly" - HISS means to call
or whistle. God was summoning Assyria to carry out His will.
d. \\#Isa 7:19-25\\ These verses contain various descriptions of how
severe the judgment brought upon Judah by the Assyrians will be.
While Judah will survive and exist beyond the Assyrians, they will
suffer greatly.
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