Today, two highly important chapters of Isaiah; sections repeatedly quoted in the NT, chapters that actually introduce Jesus here! Their flow isn’t instantly obvious. But if we look carefully, some dramatic things are happening, and they have major practical implications for us too.
First, as we’ve seen, Isaiah knows disaster is coming because his culture has turned away from God (5:24). That’s raised the question, what insights, and what vision, enable anyone to live and speak for God in such a time?- and we’ve seen last time how chapter 6, the vision of the stupendous glory and utter holiness of God, was the equipping Isaiah needed.
Now when we reach ch7 disaster has come. God’s ancient people have long been split into two rival kingdoms; what’s by now called “Israel”, the northern kingdom based in Samaria, has broken away from Judah based in Jerusalem where God’s temple was, and as a result gone over to idolatry, evil, and darkness. But in Judah too there’s decay: imagine this – for three generations no king of Judah has died a natural death, all were assassinated. And now Uzziah, who at last had been an effective king, has died (6:1) (and in disgrace). So now Ahaz is king, and he too (2 Chron 28) has turned to idolatry, and there’s been military disaster where 120,000 of his people were killed. It’s striking that God chooses this appalling time to raise up the greatest of the OT prophets; and not only that, He chooses this time to give the prophecies of Christ being born to be with us (Immanuel, 7:14, 9:6). Why, what does this say about God? But what also becomes clear in these chapters is, first, things are going to get even worse for Judah; and, second, there’s an immediate threat from the northern kingdom, who had slaughtered those 120,000.
Yet in this moment of danger and deep darkness, the disastrous king Ahaz is given one final chance: God makes him the offer (7:11) of a massive sign that will enable him to base his life and reign on faith in God (7:9). The offer is of something huge, even cosmological (v11), as actually happened later with his son Hezekiah (38:7-8). (Why does God offer something as huge as this right now? Motyer, in his brilliant Tyndale commentary on Isaiah, says it’s because this is a turning-point: 13 years later Assyria will come and smash the northern kingdom; but even more important, this is the point from which Judah too never recovered, when the house of David (7:13), that had been at the centre of God’s purposes, would lose their God-given glory of independence among the middle east’s great powers. From now on till Jerusalem fell, their rulers were mostly just puppet kings. And it could all have been so different: Ahaz’s son Hezekiah embraced God’s sign in faith, and in his time God delivered Jerusalem overwhelmingly from Assyria.)
But chapter 7 also embodies a challenge that suddenly has practical relevance for us. God promises that all will be well, but on Ahaz’s side there needs to be the response, the effort, of faith, deliberate faith (`be careful`, 7:4). So here we see two alternatives: living by faith (7:9, 8:12-13,17), or by `playing safe` in a worldly pragmatism (see 2 Chronicles 28, Ahaz trying to ally with godless Assyria) — which actually leads to disaster. Here’s the first practical lesson in this passage, one we surely recognize: we as God’s people have no need for such pragmatism; our loving Father is `sovereign` (7:7), He can `whistle` for the greatest power of the day and it will come running (7:18). And therefore Jerusalem will survive, and the conspiratorial alliance of Samaria with Syria will be destroyed (8:9-12). But Ahaz refuses to live by this faith; he rejects God’s offer (`Will you try the patience of my God?`, Isaiah reacts frustratedly, 7:13); and instead of trusting God he puts his trust in godless Assyria. God responds through His prophet that Ahaz will soon learn just what Assyria is like, which in fact will make things much worse (7:17,20,23, 8:8).
I sometimes don’t find this issue easy at all. We want to live by faith, rather than worldly pragmatism; but we also know we’re called to live responsibly, rather than `jumping off the temple roof` (Matt 4:6) and expecting God to pick up the pieces. How to tell? Key issues, I guess, are whether, when we reflect in serious prayer, we know deep down that we’re lacking faith; and especially if we find that, instead, we’re putting our trust in our equivalents of Assyria. Anyway it’s worth letting this passage run in our heads to remind us of the issue… God please help me see when I’m making this kind of `safety first` choice, basing on worldly pragmatism, rather than faith…
So we’ve come to a crucial historical turning-point. And even though Ahaz has rejected God’s sign & refused to live by faith, God still reaches out to Judah: a huge sign still comes. But now it’s a much more mysterious one, one that won’t make sense for the nation as a whole, but only to those who are serious about Him. The sign comes in 7:14: `The young woman` (thus probably the Hebrew word, though the Jews’ Greek old testament has `virgin` – that’s not just a creation of the Christian new testament) `will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.`
This seems to be a twofold sign: first that a baby will be born (presumably unexpectedly – was she infertile?) to a young woman in Ahaz’s court (7:14-16, 8:6-8), and will be called `God with us` – a sign that God is indeed `with us`, with them, in emergency, 8:8,10. But then, as so often with Bible prophecy, there’s a second, greater fulfilment much later: as Matthew says, Jesus’ birth was precisely `to fulfil what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).` And that, of course, Isaiah’s next chapter will pick up: `To us a child is born, to us a son is given… And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.` Jesus will be the ultimate example of how God in his love stands with us; in all our trouble, even in the collapse of our culture (cf 8:1, 4-8), Immanuel is there with us, `God with us` (8:8,10; and 8:18: even when God seems to be hidden, actually he still `dwells in Zion`, among His people). Isaiah 8:17-18 are quoted in Hebrews 2 which simply assumes they are about Jesus, and here again the whole point is He is with us to deliver us, He `shared in [our] humanity so that by His death He might… free those who all their lives were held in slavery.` (Thankyou Lord!) Deep, mind-stretching and wonderful stuff; this liberation was the point of the virgin’s Son’s Incarnation prophesied in 7:14. All this is embodied in the Immanuel, God-with-us sign revealed from heaven in that verse!
But there is one last vital point. After this incident in 7:12 we are now in the situation 6:13 warned about. By his stupid refusal to trust God, Ahaz has shut himself out of the blessing, stepped out of the sphere of grace into the sphere of decay and tragedy; but that’s not all, he spoke for his whole `house` and culture (7:13), and God has been rejected by Judah as much as by Israel (8:14). So God does have a counter-cultural `remnant` among the nation choosing to live by faith, and He is surely with them (`Immanuel`); but none of the rest will survive. Isaiah saw that this remnant issue was so important that he named his son Shear-Jashub, `A remnant will return`(7:3); and God brings it up also in 4:3, 6:13, 1020-22 (quoted in Romans), 11:11, 37:31-32 and elsewhere. The remnant who live by faith (8:17), distinctively from the world and the surrounding culture, are those for whom all will be well; but, if you want that deliverance you have to live that distinctive way, 7:9, 8:11-14,16-17. And so the question comes: in my own situation, do I want to be part of that distinctive, even despised, remnant?
Chapter 8 is given for this faithful remnant, and likewise, therefore, for us as counter-cultural remnant today. If we reread it now in the light of the big picture, what’s it telling us? The main thing, surely, is embodied in that name Immanuel: in all our trouble, even the collapse of our culture (cf 8:1, 4-8), Immanuel will always be with us, `God with us`, 8:10,13,18. (This is all quoted in 1 Peter 3:13-15 to say, don’t be afraid, set Christ as the thing that really matters to you.) But then, we do have to be prepared to be very different from this culture which is headed into destruction; and to make the deliberate choice, since `God is with us`, to fear God alone and not worry about anything else (vv12-14). (Does it remind us of the `Do not worry` section of the sermon on the mount, `Seek first God’s kingdom, and all these things will be given you as well`?) Choose then to live as one of God’s `remnant` people; for everyone else, what’s happening will make them stumble and fall, v14.
That last verse is quoted in the new testament both by Peter (1 Peter 2:8) and Paul (Rom 9:33). This couple of Isaiah chapters are deep and challenging, but they resonate time and again in the new testament; so we need to grasp them! When the culture can’t see God’s signs, indeed when to them it all seems `sealed up`, making no sense at all, and God if He exists seems not there at all but hidden (8:16-17) – then, says God through Isaiah, choose to `wait for the Lord` (v17), and look also to that Word you already have (v20); it will give you what you need!
So – that’s what we’re doing together right now!
