Isaiah 7
A Message for King Ahaz Concerning God’s Protection and Plan for Judah
Chapters 7-12 belong to the reign of Ahaz, when Pekah, the king of Israel, and Rezin, the king of Syria (Aram), joined forces to attack Ahaz, with the aim of forcing Judah into their anti-Assyrian alliance. - Don Fleming
Though there are a number of chapter breaks, Isaiah 7-12 is one unit of prophecy concerning a number of signs that will take place. The scene is presented for us in verse 1 of Isaiah 7. Ahaz is the king over Judah. Rezin, the king of Syria and Pekah, the king of Israel, allied together to go to war against Judah. When Ahaz learns that Syria and Israel have allied to conquer Judah, Ahaz and the people become very afraid. God tells Isaiah to take his son, Shear-Jashub (whose name means, “a remnant will return”) and prophesy to Ahaz. Here’s the message to Ahaz: don’t be afraid of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands. Rezin and Pekah are nothing more than two smoldering stubs of firewood. - Brent Kercheville
The chronology of this account can be confusing and is best understood alongside the narratives provided in 2 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 28.
2 Kings 16:5 - Then Aram’s King Rezin and Israel’s King Pekah son of Remaliah came to wage war against Jerusalem. They besieged Ahaz but were not able to conquer him.
Judah Threatened
Vs. 4 - Say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Don’t be afraid or cowardly because of these two smoldering sticks, the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram, and the son of Remaliah.
When the Judean king Ahaz hears of the approach of the Israelite-Syrian army, he and all his people are terrified. While Ahaz is inspecting Jerusalem’s water supply in preparation for the siege, Isaiah meets him and points out that he need not fear Israel or Syria, nor need he ask Assyria for help. - Don Fleming
When the events of this chapter unfold, the nation of Judah had faced terrible calamity and was devastated. As the combined armies of Israel and Syria approached Jerusalem, it looked like everything would be lost. Ahaz was challenged to trust God when things were bad, and it looked like soon, all would be lost. - David Guzik
God Promises Protection and Provides a Sign
Stand Firm
Vs. 7 - This is what the Lord God says: It will not happen; it will not occur.
Vs. 9 - If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.
God is on the side of Judah. If Ahaz believes God, he has nothing to fear; but if he does not, nothing will save him. - Don Fleming
Ahaz’s responsibility, and the responsibility of all who heard this prophecy (the "you" is plural), especially the government leaders, was to believe this promise of God and trust Him. If they would not believe it, they would not last. - Thomas Constable
I Will Not Test
Vs. 12 - But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask. I will not test the Lord.”
Ahaz refused to ask for a sign. He did not want God to confirm that He would protect Judah because he had already decided not to trust God but to make other arrangements. He tried to justify his disobedience and his lack of faith with a pious statement that he did not want to test Yahweh. - Thomas Constable
The Sign of A Son
Vs. 14,16 - Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel. For before the boy knows to reject what is bad and choose what is good, the land of the two kings you dread will be abandoned.
Whether Ahaz asks for a sign or not, God promises to give one. Ahaz will have reassurance that God is with Judah when he hears of the birth of a child whose mother has named him Immanuel (meaning ‘God with us’). By the time this child is two or three years old, Israel and Syria will be powerless to trouble Judah further. - Don Fleming
Interpretive Observations:
Many commentators think that this was immediately fulfilled when a young woman in the royal household shortly married, conceived a son, and unknowingly naming him “Immanuel.” Before this boy came to eat solid food, Israel and Syria would be defeated. - David Guzik
It is possible that God is just referring, in a figurative way, to a year or two period of time. - David Guzik
Whoever the child was, Ahaz must have learned of his birth since the birth was to be a sign to him. Some writers believed that Ahaz’s son Hezekiah was the initial fulfillment. Whether the initial fulfillment was Maher-shalal-hash-baz, Hezekiah, or someone else, the name "Immanuel" may have been a secondary or less used name. - Thomas Constable
The meaning of the child’s name, “God with us,” would be a reminder for Ahaz and all of Judah that God was at work to protect and to preserve the Davidic line for the coming Messiah.
Matthew recorded (1:23) that the angel Gabriel quoted this prophecy to Mary when announcing Jesus’ birth: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
Perhaps this young child named “Immanuel” became a type of the greater demonstration of God’s presence at the incarnation of Christ.
Ahaz Fears And Forms an Alliance
2 Kings 16:7 - So Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. March up and save me from the grasp of the king of Aram and of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me.”
Despite Isaiah’s pleading and God’s promise, the author of 2 Kings recorded that Ahaz still asked the king of Assyria for help.
Israel and Syria Attack Judah
Vs. 5 - Then Aram’s King Rezin and Israel’s King Pekah son of Remaliah came to wage war against Jerusalem. They besieged Ahaz but were not able to conquer him.
The attack on Jerusalem was ultimately unsuccessful, but the war against Judah greatly weakened the kingdom's southern tribes. 2 Chronicles 28:6 documents the damage: “For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed one hundred and twenty thousand in Judah in one day, all valiant men, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.”
2 Chronicles 28:5 says that the Syrian army carried away a great multitude of them as captives. The king of Israel also captured 200,000 men, women and children but sent them back to Judah at the command of the prophet Oded (2 Chronicles 28:8-15). - David Guzik
Only three years after this prophecy, Syria fell to Assyria, and ten years later, so did Israel. Within 65 years of Isaiah’s prophecy, people of the former northern kingdom had become so scattered that they no longer had any national identity. - Don Fleming
Assyria Will Eventually Attack Judah
Vs. 17 - The Lord will bring on you, your people, and your father’s house such a time as has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah: He will bring the king of Assyria.
This section explains how the coming days would be the worst since the division of the kingdom. Assyria was not just a powerful and brutal enemy, but it would be a tool in Yahweh’s hand that He would use to discipline Judah. - Thomas Constable
This was bad news to Ahaz, who had been foolishly trusting in Assyria instead of the LORD. It is as if the LORD is saying, “It will seem to you like trusting in Assyria is a clever move, because the armies of Syria and Israel will be defeated. But the Assyrians will end up defeating you also.” - David Guzik
Yahweh would bring on Judah a worse threat than Judah had faced ever since Israel’s United Kingdom had split in Rehoboam’s day, namely: the king of Assyria. Even though Syria and Israel would disappear as threats to Judah, Ahaz had done the wrong thing in failing to trust God, because Assyria would pose an even worse threat. He had "taken a tiger by the tail.” - Motyer
Whatever a man trusts in place of God will one day turn to devour him. - Oswalt
