Firm in Faith: Isaiah 7.1 - 8.8
If you are not firm in the faith, you will not be firm at all. Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God: let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” And he said, “hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that 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
If you are not firm in the faith, you will not be firm at all. Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the Lord your God: let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” And he said, “hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that 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
The bleak ending of chapter five was mitigated by the hope offered in chapter 6 with an account of the atoning for Isaiah’s sin. If the sinner Isaiah, a repentant representative of a faithful remnant in Judah, may be saved through the Lord’s gracious intercession, then there is also a future hope for God’s covenant people. Indeed, Isaiah prophesied that a full tithe of Israel would be saved (Isaiah 6.13). The third panel of the 12 chapter triptych that opens Isaiah’s book continues to contrast judgment and hope by introducing a military threat to the security of Jerusalem through an alliance between the northern tribes (Israel, Ephraim or Jacob) and Syria. Ahaz stood at a major crossroad of Israelite history. Indeed, he was the last king to be identified as a ruler over “the house of David.”
“From the time of Ahaz there was never again a ‘house of David’ in the true sense but only a line of puppet, pretend-kings under alien domination until, at the exile, even they disappeared into the sand of history never to re-emerge. The name of the overlord power would change, from Assyria to Babylon to Persia to Greece and finally to Rome, before Immanuel would be born, but when he was born it was to share the poverty of his people, to inherit a non-existent throne and to feel the full weight of the oppressor. The blame for all this rested on Ahaz and his failure to believe the Lord’s word. The promise awaited its time but the threat was immediate” (J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, p. 87).
All of this came about because Ahaz was unwilling to stand firm in faith. When confronted to join with the oddly aligned forces of Ephraim and Aram (Syria) to stave off the threatening encroachment of Assyrian, Ahaz resisted. Recent experiences with Israel and Syria would have given him no cause to trust the welfare of Judah to this unholy alliance. When these two northern forces conspire to compel compliance from Ahaz, the southern king is confronted with a crucial choice. Isaiah and his son, Shear-jashub (a remnant shall return), deliver a message from the Lord: “Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands … It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. … If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” This is the place where the rubber meets the road. It is the valley of decision. Ahaz reasoned that the safest and most expedient course of action was to petition Assyria for help against the immediate threat from the north. The Lord’s counsel was to wait and do nothing. Isaiah tells the king that within 65 years Ephraim [Israel, the 10 northern tribes) will be broken to pieces. The presence of Isaiah’s son (a remnant shall return) was, no doubt, meant to be an encouragement to Ahaz, but it is likely it had the opposite effect. Ahaz was myopic, without a vision of God’s greatness (cf. Proverbs 29.18); because he had no promises of a covenant keeping God he had no means of grasping Yahweh’s plan for his covenant people. He was not looking for a righteous remnant in Judah. He wanted to enjoy the prosperity that Uzziah had enjoyed without the affliction of his grandfather’s leprosy. What was true in Isaiah’s day is true today, God searches the world for those who have an undivided heart. A pure heart desires only one thing; there is no division of its affection: Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73.25-6; cp. 2 Chronicles 16.9; Ezekiel 22.30; James 1.6-8). Sadly, Ahaz was not sufficiently self-aware of his office. He could have been a great king. Had he chosen wisely, history would have listed him among the faithful kings of the house of David.
“When you and I hover between the competing claims of good and evil, we’re only proving how empty and divided we are. True faith is not the capacity for victorious choices when faced with two equally compelling alternatives. True faith is the capacity to act fully, joyfully, enthusiastically because our eyes have been opened to the glory of Christ. “Creatures no more divide my choice.” Isaiah experienced that, and it saved him. We can't be saved without it. Ahaz knew nothing of it. And his unbelief was his undoing.” (Raymond Ortlund, Jr., Isaiah: God Saves Sinners, p. 86)
The crisis of faith is the same for all: Shall I trust God to save me or shall I take a reasonable and “safe’ course of action and preserve my good station in life? By seeking to save one’s life one will lose it. Only he who loses his life for Christ’s sake will find it (Matthew 10.39). Isaiah’s message to Ahaz is the common theme of Scripture: The righteous by their faith will live (e.g. Genesis 15.6; Habakkuk 2.4; Romans 1.16-17; 4.4-5; 2 Corinthians 5.7). So do not be anxious about your life or anything in it. The Lord will look after all the details of it: Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the glass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Matthew 6.28b-30).
A SECOND OPPORTUNITY FOR AHAZ (7.10-17)
The second time Isaiah confronts Ahaz he tells him to ask a sign of the Lord. The door is not yet closed to Ahaz. He still has an opportunity to begin living by faith and to fulfill his obligation as a spiritual son of David. The Lord is essentially giving Ahaz a blank check – he can fill in the amount for anything he likes – there were literally no limits in heaven or on earth. God desires Ahaz to know the rewards of living by faith, but tragically he has a heart of stone and will not be moved. As is often the case with those who refuse the grace of God, they do so with pious sounding words: “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” These are not the words of a righteous man, but the words of a fool. It was not Ahaz testing God, but God was testing Ahaz, and the king failed miserably. The gift of the King was rejected. Ahaz’s refusal of God’s gracious offer merely exposed his unbelief. Unbelief is the truly unpardonable sin (John 16.9). The consequences of Ahaz’s unbelief are far reaching, though it ought to be noted that “The failure of the house of David is wider than Ahaz. From the beginning it has failed to live up to its divine remit. It has produced neither the perfect king nor the golden age but rather the reverse” (Motyer, p. 84). God desires that we trust him boldly and without reservation. Consider the account of Israel’s king Joash, who was distraught when he learned that the great prophet Elisha lay on his deathbed. He went to him crying, My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen! He counted on the intercession of this great prophet to protect Israel from its enemies (Syria). Elisha instructed him to shoot an arrow out of the window eastward and afterward to strike the ground with the arrows in his hand. Joash struck the ground three times and stopped. Then the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Syria only three times” (2 Kings 13.19). When God invites you to trust him for one thing or another, you do not please him with modest requests, as though what you ask might be something of an imposition. He who spoke the world into being is able to do all things (Genesis 1.3; cp. Job 42.2; Jeremiah 32.27; Romans 8.32).
Ahaz’s refusal to believe God did not prevent God from acting, but it did alter the course of history and prevent God from interceding on Judah’s behalf. God is always active: those who are firm in their faith will be blessed, those who are not firm in faith face divine retribution. Though Ahaz refused to ask for a sign, the Lord gave him one anyway: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that 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.” God had given Ahaz a blank check without any limitations. The unbelieving king had refused to fill it in and cash it. So now the Lord God himself fills it in. The sign is an extraordinary one: a virgin (not a young woman: if you are interested in a well-reasoned argument as to why in Isaiah 7.14 the Hebrew word alma is rightly translated virgin rather than young woman see Motyer’s commentary on Isaiah pp. 84-87) will conceive a child whose name will be Immanuel, God with us. “Immanuel cannot be simply any child whatever. Also, how could any ‘ordinary’ child become the ground of security of the Lord’s people against the onset of the nations (8:10)? Finally, it is impossible to separate this Immanuel from the Davidic king whose birth delivers his people (9:4-7) and whose complex name includes the designation Mighty God (9.6). Following these pointers, we have a sign that lives up to its promise. Heaven and earth will truly be moved. Isaiah foresaw the birth of the divine son of David and also laid the foundation for the understanding of the unique nature of his birth” (Motyer, p. 86).
GOD’S SOVEREIGN JUDGMENT (7.18-8.8)
Having said all this about the birth of Immanuel, one must understand that there was also an immediacy to the prophetic word of Isaiah. The primary sense of the text refers to the overarching progress of redemption that carries forward the great redemptive theme of Scripture, but there is a more immediate sense of the prophecy, namely, the birth of Maher-shalal-hasbaz, Isaiah’s own son. Clearly Maher-shalal-hasbaz does not meet all the requirements of Isaiah’s prophecy, but his name, “The spoil speeds, the prey hasten,” foreshadows the imminent destruction of the Syro-Ephraimite alliance. “The message of Maher-shalal-hasbaz’s young life was Immanuel, ‘God with us.’ The enemy forces are doomed because God is with his people” (Ortlund, p. 91).
By seeking help from Assyria rather than the Lord, Ahaz pushed the first domino in a chain of events that would ultimately lead to the collapse of the dynastic house of David. The tragic irony of Ahaz’s faithless decision is inescapable: Assyria would not be Judah’s savior, but her executioner (cp. Motyer, p. 88). The plan of man always backfires when it conflicts with the inflexible plan of God. In the following two sections (7.17-25 and 8.1-8) Isaiah introduces the unfolding judgment of God with the phrase In that day (7.18, 20, 21, 23). The language of judgment is graphic and horrific. Those who will later look to Egypt (chapter 30) for deliverance will be afflicted by the fly (the fourth plague in Egypt: Exodus 8.20-21) just as those who are looking to Assyria will be tormented by bees. Nothing will be spared. Nothing in the land and nothing in the person. Ahaz’s alliance with Assyria brought a very temporary peace, but the prophecy of Isaiah looks beyond the immediacy of the moment to the destruction that lies ahead, and even beyond that to the true Prince of peace who will bring to all mankind what Ahaz forfeited because he was not firm in faith. As a result he had no foundation whatever. Thankfully, Isaiah 40 and the songs of the Servant are on the horizon. If you’ve not read it check out my commentary on the salvation of an incomparable God: https://www.myevensong.com/the-salvation-of-an-incomparable-god.html
“From the time of Ahaz there was never again a ‘house of David’ in the true sense but only a line of puppet, pretend-kings under alien domination until, at the exile, even they disappeared into the sand of history never to re-emerge. The name of the overlord power would change, from Assyria to Babylon to Persia to Greece and finally to Rome, before Immanuel would be born, but when he was born it was to share the poverty of his people, to inherit a non-existent throne and to feel the full weight of the oppressor. The blame for all this rested on Ahaz and his failure to believe the Lord’s word. The promise awaited its time but the threat was immediate” (J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, p. 87).
All of this came about because Ahaz was unwilling to stand firm in faith. When confronted to join with the oddly aligned forces of Ephraim and Aram (Syria) to stave off the threatening encroachment of Assyrian, Ahaz resisted. Recent experiences with Israel and Syria would have given him no cause to trust the welfare of Judah to this unholy alliance. When these two northern forces conspire to compel compliance from Ahaz, the southern king is confronted with a crucial choice. Isaiah and his son, Shear-jashub (a remnant shall return), deliver a message from the Lord: “Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands … It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. … If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” This is the place where the rubber meets the road. It is the valley of decision. Ahaz reasoned that the safest and most expedient course of action was to petition Assyria for help against the immediate threat from the north. The Lord’s counsel was to wait and do nothing. Isaiah tells the king that within 65 years Ephraim [Israel, the 10 northern tribes) will be broken to pieces. The presence of Isaiah’s son (a remnant shall return) was, no doubt, meant to be an encouragement to Ahaz, but it is likely it had the opposite effect. Ahaz was myopic, without a vision of God’s greatness (cf. Proverbs 29.18); because he had no promises of a covenant keeping God he had no means of grasping Yahweh’s plan for his covenant people. He was not looking for a righteous remnant in Judah. He wanted to enjoy the prosperity that Uzziah had enjoyed without the affliction of his grandfather’s leprosy. What was true in Isaiah’s day is true today, God searches the world for those who have an undivided heart. A pure heart desires only one thing; there is no division of its affection: Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73.25-6; cp. 2 Chronicles 16.9; Ezekiel 22.30; James 1.6-8). Sadly, Ahaz was not sufficiently self-aware of his office. He could have been a great king. Had he chosen wisely, history would have listed him among the faithful kings of the house of David.
“When you and I hover between the competing claims of good and evil, we’re only proving how empty and divided we are. True faith is not the capacity for victorious choices when faced with two equally compelling alternatives. True faith is the capacity to act fully, joyfully, enthusiastically because our eyes have been opened to the glory of Christ. “Creatures no more divide my choice.” Isaiah experienced that, and it saved him. We can't be saved without it. Ahaz knew nothing of it. And his unbelief was his undoing.” (Raymond Ortlund, Jr., Isaiah: God Saves Sinners, p. 86)
The crisis of faith is the same for all: Shall I trust God to save me or shall I take a reasonable and “safe’ course of action and preserve my good station in life? By seeking to save one’s life one will lose it. Only he who loses his life for Christ’s sake will find it (Matthew 10.39). Isaiah’s message to Ahaz is the common theme of Scripture: The righteous by their faith will live (e.g. Genesis 15.6; Habakkuk 2.4; Romans 1.16-17; 4.4-5; 2 Corinthians 5.7). So do not be anxious about your life or anything in it. The Lord will look after all the details of it: Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the glass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Matthew 6.28b-30).
A SECOND OPPORTUNITY FOR AHAZ (7.10-17)
The second time Isaiah confronts Ahaz he tells him to ask a sign of the Lord. The door is not yet closed to Ahaz. He still has an opportunity to begin living by faith and to fulfill his obligation as a spiritual son of David. The Lord is essentially giving Ahaz a blank check – he can fill in the amount for anything he likes – there were literally no limits in heaven or on earth. God desires Ahaz to know the rewards of living by faith, but tragically he has a heart of stone and will not be moved. As is often the case with those who refuse the grace of God, they do so with pious sounding words: “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” These are not the words of a righteous man, but the words of a fool. It was not Ahaz testing God, but God was testing Ahaz, and the king failed miserably. The gift of the King was rejected. Ahaz’s refusal of God’s gracious offer merely exposed his unbelief. Unbelief is the truly unpardonable sin (John 16.9). The consequences of Ahaz’s unbelief are far reaching, though it ought to be noted that “The failure of the house of David is wider than Ahaz. From the beginning it has failed to live up to its divine remit. It has produced neither the perfect king nor the golden age but rather the reverse” (Motyer, p. 84). God desires that we trust him boldly and without reservation. Consider the account of Israel’s king Joash, who was distraught when he learned that the great prophet Elisha lay on his deathbed. He went to him crying, My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen! He counted on the intercession of this great prophet to protect Israel from its enemies (Syria). Elisha instructed him to shoot an arrow out of the window eastward and afterward to strike the ground with the arrows in his hand. Joash struck the ground three times and stopped. Then the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it, but now you will strike down Syria only three times” (2 Kings 13.19). When God invites you to trust him for one thing or another, you do not please him with modest requests, as though what you ask might be something of an imposition. He who spoke the world into being is able to do all things (Genesis 1.3; cp. Job 42.2; Jeremiah 32.27; Romans 8.32).
Ahaz’s refusal to believe God did not prevent God from acting, but it did alter the course of history and prevent God from interceding on Judah’s behalf. God is always active: those who are firm in their faith will be blessed, those who are not firm in faith face divine retribution. Though Ahaz refused to ask for a sign, the Lord gave him one anyway: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that 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.” God had given Ahaz a blank check without any limitations. The unbelieving king had refused to fill it in and cash it. So now the Lord God himself fills it in. The sign is an extraordinary one: a virgin (not a young woman: if you are interested in a well-reasoned argument as to why in Isaiah 7.14 the Hebrew word alma is rightly translated virgin rather than young woman see Motyer’s commentary on Isaiah pp. 84-87) will conceive a child whose name will be Immanuel, God with us. “Immanuel cannot be simply any child whatever. Also, how could any ‘ordinary’ child become the ground of security of the Lord’s people against the onset of the nations (8:10)? Finally, it is impossible to separate this Immanuel from the Davidic king whose birth delivers his people (9:4-7) and whose complex name includes the designation Mighty God (9.6). Following these pointers, we have a sign that lives up to its promise. Heaven and earth will truly be moved. Isaiah foresaw the birth of the divine son of David and also laid the foundation for the understanding of the unique nature of his birth” (Motyer, p. 86).
GOD’S SOVEREIGN JUDGMENT (7.18-8.8)
Having said all this about the birth of Immanuel, one must understand that there was also an immediacy to the prophetic word of Isaiah. The primary sense of the text refers to the overarching progress of redemption that carries forward the great redemptive theme of Scripture, but there is a more immediate sense of the prophecy, namely, the birth of Maher-shalal-hasbaz, Isaiah’s own son. Clearly Maher-shalal-hasbaz does not meet all the requirements of Isaiah’s prophecy, but his name, “The spoil speeds, the prey hasten,” foreshadows the imminent destruction of the Syro-Ephraimite alliance. “The message of Maher-shalal-hasbaz’s young life was Immanuel, ‘God with us.’ The enemy forces are doomed because God is with his people” (Ortlund, p. 91).
By seeking help from Assyria rather than the Lord, Ahaz pushed the first domino in a chain of events that would ultimately lead to the collapse of the dynastic house of David. The tragic irony of Ahaz’s faithless decision is inescapable: Assyria would not be Judah’s savior, but her executioner (cp. Motyer, p. 88). The plan of man always backfires when it conflicts with the inflexible plan of God. In the following two sections (7.17-25 and 8.1-8) Isaiah introduces the unfolding judgment of God with the phrase In that day (7.18, 20, 21, 23). The language of judgment is graphic and horrific. Those who will later look to Egypt (chapter 30) for deliverance will be afflicted by the fly (the fourth plague in Egypt: Exodus 8.20-21) just as those who are looking to Assyria will be tormented by bees. Nothing will be spared. Nothing in the land and nothing in the person. Ahaz’s alliance with Assyria brought a very temporary peace, but the prophecy of Isaiah looks beyond the immediacy of the moment to the destruction that lies ahead, and even beyond that to the true Prince of peace who will bring to all mankind what Ahaz forfeited because he was not firm in faith. As a result he had no foundation whatever. Thankfully, Isaiah 40 and the songs of the Servant are on the horizon. If you’ve not read it check out my commentary on the salvation of an incomparable God: https://www.myevensong.com/the-salvation-of-an-incomparable-god.html