Isaiah 7

CHAPTER 7

The Sign of Immanuel (7:1–25)

1 Isaiah continues his prophecies against Judah, but now they are directed at a particular king of Judah, Ahaz (2 Kings Chapter 16). Rezin king of Aram (Syria) and Pekah king of Israel (the northern kingdom) had been trying to persuade Ahaz to join them in an alliance against the powerful Assyrians, but he had refused. So the kings of Aram and Israel attacked Ahaz in Jerusalem (2 Kings 16:5).

2 When the house of DAVID—that is, Ahaz and his family—was told that Aram (Syria) had allied itself with Ephraim⁴⁴ (Israel) against Judah, Ahaz’s heart was shaken. So Ahaz devised a plan to go to the king of Assyria for help (2 Kings 16:7–9)—a foolish plan, because Assyria was ultimately the greater enemy.

3–6 The Lord sent Isaiah and his son Shear-Jashub⁴⁵ to tell Ahaz not to make an alliance with Assyria. Ahaz didn’t need Assyria’s help: Aram and Israel were merely two smoldering stubs of wood (verse 4); they themselves were doomed. Yes, Rezin and Pekah son of Remaliah wanted to defeat Ahaz and replace him with their own man, but they would not succeed.

7–9 In these verses, the Lord gives the reason Rezin and Pekah would not succeed: they were mere men; they could not hope to stand against the Lord. Ahaz didn’t need to fear them or go running to Assyria for help; instead, he needed to put his faith in God. Isaiah told him: “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all”⁴⁶ (verse 9).

10–13 When Ahaz heard the Lord’s words spoken by Isaiah, he at first hesitated. So the Lord, through Isaiah, offered to give Ahaz a sign to strengthen his faith (verse 10). But Ahaz refused to ask for such a sign—because he had now made up his mind to disregard the Lord’s words. Ahaz made up a phony reason for refusing the Lord’s sign: quoting Deuteronomy 6:16, he said he didn’t want to put the LORD to the test (verse 12). Ahaz was misusing Scripture: it is not testing God to do what He says!⁴⁷ Isaiah then rebuked Ahaz for disregarding God’s word (verse 13), and told him he was going to get a sign whether he liked it or not!

14 The sign was this: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.⁴⁸ Then, before that son knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right,⁴⁹ Aram and Syria will be laid waste (verse 16), and Judah itself will be attacked by the king of Assyria (verse 17).

The sign, then, was this: a virgin would give birth to a son, and the son would be named Immanuel; when that happened, Ahaz would know that disaster was not far away.

As with much Old Testament prophecy, this sign must be understood on two levels. First, the sign relates directly to the situation in Isaiah’s time. When Isaiah spoke these words, there was a “virgin”—that is, an unmarried woman⁵⁰—who would at some time in the near future give birth to a son; she would name him Immanuel, which means “God with us.” The name Immanuel was meant to convince Ahaz that God would be with him as long as he trusted in God and not in Assyria.

But this son Immanuel who was to be born was not merely an individual who lived in Isaiah’s day; he was also a foreshadowing, a type, of One who was yet to come, One who would be conceived by an actual virgin (Matthew 1:20), One who would truly fulfill the meaning of His name—“God with us.” And we know this because the Holy Spirit inspired the New Testament writer Matthew to tell us so (see Matthew 1:22–23). Isaiah himself may not have known he was prophesying about a Messiah whose birth was still seven hundred years away. But the Holy Spirit knew, the same Spirit who inspired both Isaiah and Matthew to write as they did. It is noteworthy that Isaiah gave this sign not just to Ahaz but to the house of David (verse 13), the very house from which that future Son would come. That Son would save His people from their sins, not from physical enemies like Rezin and Pekah (Matthew 1:21).

15–17 The son must have been born soon after Isaiah gave his sign, because within a few years Rezin and Pekah and their kingdoms were laid waste, in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy (verse 16). And not many years after that, the king of Assyria began to attack Judah itself (verse 17). Then things were as bad for Judah as they were when Ephraim (Israel, the northern kingdom) broke away from Judah after the death of Solomon two centuries earlier⁵¹ (see 1 Kings 12:1–24).

18–20 Here Isaiah concludes with a final picture of God’s coming judgment on Judah. In that day, the day when Assyria attacks, the invaders will cover Judah like flies⁵² and bees (verse 18); they will occupy every part of the countryside. The razor hired from beyond the (Euphrates) River is the king of Assyria himself; he will forcibly shave the hair and beards of the men of Judah—an insulting and humiliating act. Ahaz imagined that it was he who had “hired” this “razor,” but soon the razor was going to be used against him!

21–25 When the invaders attack, the surviving people of Judah will lose their farmland but they will have enough curds and honey to keep them alive (verse 22); in this way, God will preserve a remnant among His people. The former agricultural economy will be replaced by a simpler economy based on livestock, symbolized by cattle and sheep (verse 25). The destruction of farmlands and vineyards will fulfill one of Isaiah’s earlier prophecies (Isaiah 5:5–6).