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Isaiah 7 β Commentary
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Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 7:1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. CHAPTER V THE WORLD IN ISAIAHβS DAY AND ISRAELβS GOD 735-730 B.C . UP to this point we have been acquainted with Isaiah as a prophet of general principles, preaching to his countrymen the elements of righteousness and judgment, and tracing the main lines of fate along which their evil conduct was rapidly forcing them. We are now to observe him applying these principles to the executive politics of the time, and following Judahβs conduct to the issues he had predicted for it in the world outside herself. Hitherto he has been concerned with the inner morals of Jewish society; he is now to engage himself with the effect of these on the fortunes of the Jewish State. In his seventh chapter Isaiah begins that career of practical statesmanship, which not only made him "the greatest political power in Israel since David," but placed him, far above his importance to his own people, upon a position of influence over all ages. To this eminence Isaiah was raised, as we shall see, by two things. First, there was the occasion of his times, for he lived at a juncture at which the vision of the World, as distinguished from the Nation, opened to his peopleβs eyes. Second, he had the faith which enabled him to realise the government of the World by the One God, whom he has already beheld exalted and sovereign within the Nation. In the Nation we have seen Isaiah led to emphasise very absolutely the righteousness of God; applying this to the whole World, he is now to speak as the prophet of what we call Providence. He has seen Jehovah ruling in righteousness in Judah; he is now to take possession of the nations of the World in Jehovahβs name. But we mistake Isaiah if we think it is any abstract doctrine of providence which he is about to inculcate. For him Godβs providence has in the meantime but one end: the preservation of a remnant of the holy people. Afterwards we shall find him expecting besides, the conversion of the whole World to faith in Israelβs God. The World in Isaiahβs day was practically Western Asia. History had not long dawned upon Europe; over Western Asia it was still noon. Draw a line from the Caspian to the mouth of the Persian Gulf; between that line and another crossing the Levant to the west of Cyprus, and continuing along the Libyan border of Egypt, lay the highest forms of religion and civilisation which our race had by that period achieved. This was the world on which Isaiah looked out from Jerusalem, the furthest borders of which he has described in his prophecies, and in the political history of which he illustrated his great principles. How was it composed? There were, first of all, at either end of it, northeast and southwest, the two great empires of Assyria and Egypt, in many respects wonderful counterparts of each other. No one will understand the history of Palestine who has not grasped its geographical position relative to these similar empires. Syria, shut up between the Mediterranean sea and the Arabian desert, has its outlets north and south into two great river-plains, each of them ending in a delta. Territories of that kind exert a double force on the world with which they are connected, now drawing across their boundaries the hungry races of neighbouring highlands and deserts, and again sending them forth, compact and resistless armies. This double action summarises the histories of both Egypt and Assyria from the earliest times to the period which we are now treating, and was the cause of the constant circulation, by which, as the Bible bears witness, the life of Syria was stirred from the Tower of Babel downwards. Mesopotamia and the Nile valley drew races as beggars to their rich pasture grounds, only to send them forth in subsequent centuries as conquerors. The century of Isaiah fell in a period of forward movement. Assyria and Egypt were afraid to leave each other in peace; and the wealth of Phoenicia, grown large enough to excite their cupidity, lay between them. In each of these empires, however, there was something to hamper this aggressive impulse. Neither Assyria nor Egypt was a homogeneous State. The valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile were each of them the home of two nations. Beside Assyria lay Babylonia, once Assyriaβs mistress, and now of all the Assyrian provinces by far the hardest to hold in subjection, although it lay the nearest to home. In Isaiahβs time, when an Assyrian monarch is unable to come into Palestine, Babylon is generally the reason; and it is by intriguing with Babylon that a king of Judah attempts to keep Assyria away from his own neighbourhood. But Babylon only delayed the Assyrian conquest. In Egypt, on the other hand, power was more equally balanced between the hardier people up the Nile and the wealthier people down the Nile-between the Ethiopians and the Egyptians proper. It was the repeated and undecisive contests between these two during the whole of Isaiahβs day, which kept Egypt from being an effective force in the politics of Western Asia. In Isaiahβs day no Egyptian army advanced more than a few leagues beyond its own frontier. Next in this world of Western Asia come the Phoenicians. We may say that they connected Egypt and Assyria, for although Phoenicia proper meant only the hundred and fifty miles of coast between Carmel and the bay of Antioch, the Phoenicians had large colonies on the delta of the Nile and trading posts upon the Euphrates. They were gathered into independent but more or less confederate cities, the chief of them Tyre and Sidon; which, while they attempted the offensive only in trade, were by their wealth and maritime advantages capable of offering at once a stronger attraction and a more stubborn resistance to the Assyrian arms than any other power of the time. Between Phoenicia proper and the mouths of the Nile, the coast was held by groups of Philistine cities, whose nearness to Egypt rather than their own strength was the source of a frequent audacity against Assyria, and the reason why they appear in the history of this period oftener than any other state as the object of Assyrian campaigns. Behind Phoenicia and the Philistines lay a number of inland territories: the sister-States of Judah and Northern Israel, with their cousins Edom, Moab, and Aram or Syria. Of which Judah and Israel together were about the size of Wales; Edom a mountain range the size and shape of Cornwall; Moab, on its north, a broken tableland, about a Devonshire; and Aram, or Syria, a territory round Damascus, of uncertain size, but considerable enough to have resisted Assyria for a hundred and twenty years. Beyond Aram, again, to the north, lay the smaller state of Hamath, in the mouth of the pass between the Lebanons, with nothing from it to the Euphrates. And then, hovering upon the east of these settled states, were a variety of more or less nomadic tribes, whose refuges were the vast deserts of which so large a part of Western Asia consists. Here was a world, with some of its constituents wedged pretty firmly by mutual pressure, but in the main broken and restless-a political surface that was always changing. The whole was subject to the movements of the two empires at its extremes. One of them could not move without sending a thrill through to the borders of the other. The approximate distances were these:-from Egyptβs border to Jerusalem, about One hundred miles; from Jerusalem to Samaria, forty-five; from Samaria to Damascus, one hundred and fifteen; from Damascus to Hamath, one hundred and thirty; and from Hamath to the Euphrates, one hundred; in all from the border of Egypt to the border of Assyria four hundred and ninety English statute miles. The main line of war and traffic, coming up from Egypt, kept the coast to the plain of Esdraelon, which it crossed towards Damascus, travelling by the north of the sea of Galilee, the way of the sea. Northern Israel was bound to fall an early prey to armies, whose easiest path thus traversed her richest provinces. Judah, on the other hand, occupied a position so elevated and apart, that it was likely to be the last that either Assyria or Egypt would achieve in their subjugation of the States between them. Thus, then, Western Asia spread itself out in Isaiahβs day. Let us take one more rapid glance across it. Assyria to the north, powerful and on the offensive, but hampered by Babylon; Egypt on the south, weakened and in reserve; all the cities and states between turning their faces desperately northwards, but each with an ear bent back for the promises of the laggard southern power, and occasionally supported by its subsidies; Hamath, their advanced guard at the mouth of the pass between the Lebanons, looking out towards the Euphrates; Tyre and Sidon attractive to the Assyrian king, whose policy is ultimately commercial, by their wealth, both they and the Philistine cities obstructing his path by the coast to his great rival of Egypt; Israel bulwarked against Assyria by Hamath and Damascus, but in danger, as soon as they fall, of seeing her richest provinces overrun; Judah unlikely in the general restlessness to retain her hold upon Edom, but within her own borders tolerably secure, neither lying in the Assyrianβs path to Egypt, nor wealthy enough to attract him out of it; safe, therefore, in the neutrality which Isaiah ceaselessly urges her to preserve, and in danger of suction into the whirlpool of the approach of the two empires only through the foolish desire of her rulers to secure an utterly unnecessary alliance with the one or the other of them. For a hundred and twenty years before the advent of Isaiah, the annals of the Assyrian kings record periodical campaigns against the cities of "the land of the west," but these isolated incursions were followed by no permanent results. In 745, however, five years before King Uzziah died, a soldier ascended the throne of Assyria, under the title of Tiglath-pileser II, who was determined to achieve the conquest of the whole world and its organisation as his empire. Where his armies came, it was not simply to chastise or demand tribute, but to annex countries, carry away their populations, and exploit their resources. It was no longer kings who were threatened; peoples found themselves in danger of extinction. This terrible purpose of the Assyrian was pursued with vast means and the utmost ferocity. He has been called the Roman of the East, and up to a certain degree we may imagine his policy by remembering all that is familiar to us of its execution by Rome: its relentlessness, impetus, and mysterious action from one centre; the discipline, the speed, the strange appearance, of his armies. But there was an Oriental savagery about Assyria, from which Rome was free. The Assyrian kings moved in the power of their brutish and stormy gods-gods that were in the shape of bulls and had the wings as of the tempest. The annals of these kings, in which they describe their campaigns, are full of talk about trampling down their enemies; about showering tempests of clubs upon them, and raining a deluge of arrows; about overwhelming them, and sweeping them off the face of the land, and strewing them like chaff on the sea; about chariots with scythes, and wheels clogged with blood; about great baskets stuffed with the salted heads of their foes. It is a mixture of the Roman and Red Indian. Picture the effect of the onward movement of such a force upon the imaginations and policies of those little states that clustered round Judah and Israel. Settling their own immemorial feuds, they sought alliance with one another against this common foe. Tribes, that for centuries had stained their borders with one anotherβs blood, came together in unions, the only reason for which was that their common fear had grown stronger than their mutual hate. Now and then a king would be found unwilling to enter such an alliance or eager to withdraw from it, in the hope of securing by his exceptional conduct the favour of the Assyrian, whom he sought further to ingratiate by voluntary tribute. The shifting attitudes of the petty kings towards Assyria bewilder the reader of the Assyrian annals. The foes of one year are the tributaries of the next; the state that has called for help this campaign, appears as the rebel of that. In 742, Uzziah of Judah is cursed by Tiglath-pileser as an arch-enemy; Samaria and Damascus are recorded as faithful tributaries. Seven years later Ahaz of Judah offers tribute to the Assyrian king, and Damascus and Samaria are invaded by the Assyrian armies. What a world it was, and what politics! A world of petty clans, with no idea of a common humanity, and with no motive for union except fear; politics without a noble thought or long purpose in them, the politics of peoples at bay-the last flicker of dying nationalities, -"stumps of smoking firebrands," as Isaiah described two of them. When we turn to the little we know of the religions of these tribes, we find nothing to arrest their restlessness or broaden their thoughts. These nations had their religions, and called on their gods, but their gods were made in their own image, their religion was the reflex of their life. Each of them employed, rather than worshipped, its deity. No nation believed in its god except as one among many, with his sovereignty limited to its own territory, and his ability to help it conditioned by the power of the other gods, against whose peoples he was fighting. There was no belief in "Providence," no idea of unity or of progress in history, no place in these religions for the great world-force that was advancing upon their peoples. From this condemnation we cannot except the people of Jehovah. It is undeniable that the mass of them occupied at this time pretty much the same low religious level as their neighbours. We have already seen (chapter 1) their mean estimate of what God required from themselves; with that corresponded their view of His position towards the world. To the majority of the Israelites their God was but one out of many, with His own battles to fight and have fought for Him, a Patron sometimes to be ashamed of, and by no means a Saviour in whom to place an absolute trust. When Ahaz is beaten by Syria, he says: "Because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me". { 2 Chronicles 28:23 } Religion to Ahaz was only another kind of diplomacy. He was not a fanatic, but a diplomat, who made his son to pass through the fire to Moloch, and burnt incense in the high places and on the hills, and under every green tree. He was more a political than a religious eclectic, who brought back the pattern of the Damascus altar to Jerusalem. The Temple, in which Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, became under Ahaz, and by the help of the priesthood, the shelter of various idols; in every corner of Jerusalem altars were erected to other gods. This religious hospitality was the outcome neither of imagination nor of liberal thought; it was prompted only by political fear. Ahaz has been mistaken in the same way as Charles I was-for a bigot, and one who subjected the welfare of his kingdom to a superstitious regard for religion. But beneath the cloak of religious scrupulousness and false reverence, { Isaiah 7:12 } there was in Ahaz the same selfish fear for the safety of his crown and his dynasty, as those who best knew the English monarch tell us was the real cause of his ceaseless intrigue and stupid obstinacy. Now that we have surveyed this world, its politics and its religion, we can estimate, the strength and originality of the Hebrew prophets. Where others saw the conflicts of nations, aided by deities as doubtfully matched as themselves, they perceived all things working together by the will of one supreme God and serving His ends of righteousness. It would be wrong to say, that before the eighth century the Hebrew conception of God had been simply that of a national deity, for this would be to ignore the remarkable emphasis placed by the Hebrews from very early times upon Jehovahβs righteousness. But till the eighth century the horizon of the Hebrew mind had been the border of their territory; the historical theatre on which it saw God working was the national life. Now, however, the Hebrews were drawn into the world; they felt movements of which their own history was but an eddy; they saw the advance of forces against which their own armies, though inspired by Jehovah, had no chance of material success. The perspective was entirely changed; their native land took to most of them the aspect of a petty and worthless province, their God the rank of a mere provincial deity; they refused the waters of Shiloah, that go softly, and rejoiced in the glory of the king of Assyria, the king of the great River and the hosts that moved with the strength of its floods. It was at this moment that the prophets of Israel performed their supreme religious service. While Ahaz and the mass of the people illustrated the impotence of the popular religion, by admitting to an equal place in the national temple the gods of their victorious foes, the prophets boldly took possession of the whole world in the name of Jehovah of hosts, and exalted Him to the throne of the supreme Providence. Now they could do this only by emphasising and developing the element of righteousness in the old conception of Him. This attribute of Jehovah took absolute possession of the prophets; and in the strength of its inspiration they were enabled, at a time when it would have been the sheerest folly to promise Israel victory against a foe like Assyria, to asseverate that even that supreme world-power was in the hand of Jehovah, and that He must be trusted to lead up all the movements of which the Assyrians were the main force to the ends He had so plainly revealed to His chosen Israel. Even before Isaiahβs time such principles had been proclaimed by Amos and Hosea, but it was Isaiah who both gave to them their loftiest expression, and applied them with the utmost detail and persistence to the practical politics of Judah. We have seen him, in the preliminary stages of his ministry under Uzziah and Jotham, reaching most exalted convictions of the righteousness of Jehovah, as contrasted with the peopleβs view of their Godβs "nationalism." But we are now to follow him boldly applying this faith-won within the life of Judah, won, as he tells us, by the personal inspiration of Judahβs God-to the problems and movements of the whole world as they bear upon Israelβs fate. The God, who is supreme in Judah through righteousness, cannot but be supreme everywhere else, for there is nothing in the world higher than righteousness. Isaiahβs faith in a Divine Providence is a close corollary to his faith in Jehovahβs righteousness; and of one part of that Providence he had already received conviction-"A remnant shall remain." Ahaz may crowd Jerusalem with foreign altars and idols, so as to be able to say: "We have with us, on our side, Moloch and Chemosh and Rimmon and the gods of Damascus and Assyria." Isaiah, in the face of this folly, lifts up his simple gospel: "Immanu-El. We have with us, in our own Jehovah of hosts, El, the one supreme God, Ruler of heaven and earth." CHAPTER VI KING AND MESSIAH; PEOPLE AND CHURCH 735-732 B.C. Isaiah 7, 8, 9:1-8 THIS section of the book of Isaiah (chapters 7-9:7) consists of a number of separate prophecies uttered during a period of at least three years: 735-732 B.C. By 735 Ahaz had ascended the throne; Tiglath-pileser had been occupied in the far east for two years. Taking advantage of the weakness of the former and the distance of the later, Rezin, king of Damascus, and Pekah, king of Samaria, planned an invasion of Judah. It was a venture they would not have dared had Uzziah been alive. While Rezin marched down the east of the Jordan and overturned the Jewish supremacy in Edom, Pekah threw himself into Judah, defeated the armies of Ahaz in one great battle, and besieged Jerusalem, with the object of deposing Ahaz and setting a Syrian, Ben-Tabeel, in his stead. Simultaneously the Philistines attacked Judah from the southwest. The motive of the confederates was in all probability anger with Ahaz for refusing to enter with them into a Pan-Syrian alliance against Assyria. In his distress Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-pileser, and the Assyrian swiftly responded. In 734-it must have been less than a year since Ahaz was attacked-the hosts of the north had overrun Samaria and swept as far south as the cities of the Philistines. Then, withdrawing his troops again, Tiglath-pileser left Hoshea as his vassal on Pekahβs throne, and sending the population of Israel east of the Jordan into distant captivity, completed a two yearsβ siege of Damascus (734-732) by its capture. At Damascus Ahaz met the conqueror, and having paid him tribute, took out a further policy of insurance in the altar-pattern, which he brought back with him to Jerusalem. Such were the three years, whose rapid changes unfolded themselves in parallel with these prophecies of Isaiah. The details are not given by the prophet, but we must keep in touch with them while we listen to him. Especially must we remember their central point, the decision of Ahaz to call in the help of Assyria, a decision which affected the whole course of politics for the next thirty years. Some of the oracles of this section were plainly delivered by Isaiah before that event, and simply seek to inspire Ahaz with a courage which should feel Assyrian help to be needless; others, again, imply that Ahaz has already called in the Assyrian: they taunt him with hankering after foreign strength, and depict the woes which the Assyrian will bring upon the land; while others {for example, the passage Isaiah 9:1-7 } mean that the Assyrian has already come, and that the Galilean provinces of Israel have been depopulated, and promise a Deliverer. If we do not keep in mind the decision of Ahaz, we shall not understand these seemingly contradictory utterances, which it thoroughly explains. Let us now begin at the beginning of chapter 7. It opens with a bare statement, by way of title, of the invasion of Judah and the futile result; and then proceeds to tell us how Isaiah acted from the first rumour of the confederacy onward. I. THE KING (chapter 7) "And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it." This is a summary of the whole adventure and issue of the war, given by way of introduction. The narrative proper begins in Isaiah 7:2 , with the effect of the first news of the league upon Ahaz and his people. Their hearts were moved like the trees of the forest before the wind. The league was aimed so evidently against the two things most essential to the national existence and the honour of Jehovah; the dynasty of David, namely, and the inviolability of Jerusalem. Judah had frequently before suffered the loss of her territory; never till now were the throne and city of David in actual peril. But that, which bent both king and people by its novel terror, was the test Isaiah expected for the prophecies he had already uttered. Taking with him, as a summary of them, his boy with the name Shear-Jashub-"A-remnant-shall-return"-Isaiah faced Ahaz and his court in the midst of their preparation for the siege. They were examining-but more in panic than in prudence-the water supply of the city, when Isaiah delivered to them a message from the Lord, which may be paraphrased as follows: "Take heed and be quiet," keep your eyes open and your heart still; "fear not, neither be fainthearted, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Remaliahβs son." They have no power to set you on fire. They are "but stumps of expiring firebrands," almost burnt out. While you wisely look after your water supply, do so in hope. This purpose of deposing, you is vain. "Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass." Of whom are you afraid? Look those foes of yours in the face. "The head of Syria is Damascus, and Damascusβ head is Rezin": is he worth fearing? "The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and Samariaβs head is Reinallahβs son": is he worth fearing? Within a few years they will certainly be destroyed. But whatever estimate you make of your foes, whatever their future may be, for yourself have faith in God; for you that is the essential thing. "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." This paraphrase seeks to bring out the meaning of a passage confessedly obscure. It seems as if we had only bits of Isaiahβs speech to Ahaz and must supply the gaps. No one need hesitate, however, to recognise the conspicuous personal qualities-the combination of political sagacity with religious fear, of common-sense and courage rooted in faith. In a word, this is what Isaiah will say to the king, clever in his alliances, religious and secular, and busy about his material defences: "Take unto you the shield of faith. You have lost your head among all these things. Hold it up like a man behind that shield; take a rational view of affairs. Rate your enemies at their proper value. But for this you must believe in God. Faith in Him is the essential condition of a calm mind and a rational appreciation of affairs." It is, no doubt, difficult for us to realise that the truth which Isaiah thus enforced, on King Ahaz-the government of the world and human history by one supreme God-was ever a truth of which the race stood in ignorance. A generation like ours cannot be expected to put its mind in the attitude of those of Isaiahβs contemporaries who believed in the real existence of many gods with limited sovereignties. To us, who are full of the instincts of Divine Providence and of the presence in history of law and progress, it is extremely hard even to admit the fact-far less fully to realise what it means-that our race had ever to receive these truths as fresh additions to their stock of intellectual ideas. Yet, without prejudice to the claims of earlier prophets, this may be confidently affirmed: that Isaiah where we now meet him stood on one side believing in one supreme God, Lord of heaven and earth, and his generation stood on the other side, believing that there were many gods. Isaiah, however, does not pose as the discoverer of the truth he preaches; he does not present it as a new revelation, nor put it in a formula. He takes it for granted, and proceeds to bring its moral influence to bear. He will infect men with his own utter conviction of it, in order that he may strengthen their character and guide them by paths of safety. His speech to Ahaz is an exhibition of the moral and rational effects of believing in Providence. Ahaz is a sample of the character polytheism produced; the state of mind and heart to which Isaiah exhorts him is that induced by belief in one righteous and almighty God. We can make the contrast clear to ourselves by a very definite figure. The difference, which is made to the character and habits of men if the country they live in has a powerful government or not, is well-known. If there be no such central authority, it is a case of every manβs hand against his neighbour. Men walk armed to the teeth. A constant attitude of fear and suspicion warps the whole nature. The passions are excited and magnified; the intelligence and judgment are dwarfed. Just the same after its kind is life to the man or tribe, who believe that the world in which they dwell and the life they share with others have no central authority. They walk armed with prejudices, superstitions, and selfishnesses. They create, like Ahaz, their own providences, and still, like him, feel insecure. Everything is exaggerated by them; in each evil there lurks to their imagination unlimited hostility. They are without breadth of view or length of patience. But let men believe that life has a central authority, that God is supreme, and they will fling their prejudices and superstitions to the winds, now no more needed than the antiquated fortresses and weapons by which our forefathers, in days when the government was weak, were forced to defend their private interests. When we know that God reigns, how quiet and free it makes us! When things and men are part of His scheme and working out His ends, when we understand that they are not monsters but ministers, how reasonably we can look at them! Were we afraid of Syria and Ephraim? Why, the head of Syria is this fellow Rezin, the head of Ephraim this son of Remaliah! They cannot last long; Godβs engine stands behind to smite them. By the reasonable government of God, let us be reasonable! Let us take heed and be quiet. Have faith in God, and to faith will come her proper consequent of common sense. For the higher a man looks, the farther he sees: to us that is the practical lesson of these first nine verses of the seventh chapter. The very gesture of faith bestows upon the mind a breadth of view. The man, who lifts his face to God in heaven, is he whose eyes sweep simultaneously the farthest prospect of earth, and bring to him a sense of the proportion of things. Ahaz, facing his nearest enemies, does not see over their heads, and in his consternation at their appearance prepares to embark upon any policy that suggests itself, even though it be so rash as the summoning of the Assyrian. Isaiah, on the other hand, with his vision fixed on God as the Governor of the world, is enabled to overlook the dust that darkens Judahβs frontier, to see behind it the inevitable advance of the Assyrians, and to be assured that, whether Ahaz calls them to his quarrel or no, they will very soon of their own motion overwhelm both of his enemies. From these "two smoking firebrands" there is then no real danger. But from the Assyrian, if once Judah entangle herself in his toils, there is the most extreme danger. Isaiahβs advice is therefore not mere religious quietism; it is prudent policy. It is the best political advice that could have been offered at that crisis, as we have already been able to gather from a survey of the geographical and political dispositions of Western Asia, apart altogether from religious considerations. But to Isaiah the calmness requisite for this sagacity sprang from his faith. Mr. Bagehot might have appealed to Isaiahβs whole policy in illustration of what he has so well described as the military and political benefits of religion. Monotheism is of advantage to men not only by reason of "the high concentration of steady feeling" which it produces, but also for the mental calmness and sagacity which surely spring from a pure and vivid conviction that the Lord reigneth. One other thing it is well we should emphasise, before we pass from Isaiahβs speech to Ahaz. Nothing can be plainer than that Isaiah, though advocating so absolutely a quiescent belief in God, is no fatalist. Now other prophets there have been, insisting just as absolutely as Isaiah upon resignation to God the supreme, and the evident practical effect of their doctrine of the Divine sovereignty has been to make their followers, not shrewd political observers, but blind and apathetic fatalists. The difference between them and Isaiah has lain in the kind of character, which they and he have respectively attributed to the Deity, before exalting Him to the throne of absolute power and resigning themselves to His will. Isaiah, though as disciplined a believer in Godβs sovereignty and manβs duty of obedience as any prophet that ever preached these doctrines, was preserved from the fatalism to which they so often lead by the conviction he had previously received of Godβs righteousness. Fatalism means resignation to fate, and fate means an omnipotence either without character, or (which is the same thing) of whose character we are ignorant. Fate is God minus character, and fatalism is the characterless condition to which belief in such a God reduces man. History presents it to our view amid the most diverse surroundings. The Greek mind, so free and sunny, was bewildered and benumbed by belief in an inscrutable Nemesis: In the East how frequently is a temper of apathy or despair bred in men, to whom God is nothing but a despot! Even within Christianity we have had fanatics, so inordinately possessed with
Illustrator
Rezin...and Pekah...went up toward Jerusalem to war against it. Isaiah 7:1-9 The confederacy against Jerusalem B. Blake, B. D. The reason of this war is not stated: but from the desire of those kings to dethrone Ahaz, and place on the throne in Jerusalem another, even Ben Tabeal, it may be inferred that Ahaz refused to join these two powers in a general rising against Assyria. Obviously, Ahaz was well advised in not taking a step of such decided opposition to Nineveh: for had he done so, the legions of that empire would only have spread desolation in Judah twenty or thirty years earlier than they did. To a certain extent, the policy commended by Isaiah was adopted: Ahaz did not take up his stand against Assyria. The prophet, of course, wanted more. For he urged an absolute and complete neutrality, in which Ahaz would have nothing at all to do with this power. So far as Ahaz acted on the prophet's advice, he was successful: for this confederacy against Jerusalem proved a failure. ( B. Blake, B. D. ) Ahaz and Isaiah, a contrast Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. Ahaz is timid and helpless, takes no position, and displays no promptitude or courage. Isaiah, on the contrary, steps forward with assurance: he is collected and calm: and his complete control of the political situation impresses us forcibly. ( Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. ) Isaiah's interview with Ahaz Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. At the date of Isaiah's interview with Ahaz the application to Assyria was meditated, but not actually carried into effect. To understand this interview two things must be borne in mind. Firstly, Isaiah is aware of the king's intention to solicit aid from Assyria, but it is not openly admitted between them. Secondly, the power and resources of the allied kings, especially of Rezin, so impressed the popular imagination that they were held to be practically invincible; Isaiah views both differently; describes them as "smoked out firebrands," and intimates that he considers the terror of the people to be unreasonable. ( Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D. ) The prophet and the king God speaks comfort to many who not only are not worthy of it, but do not so much as inquire after it. ( M. Henry . ) Unsuccessful attacks upon the Christian stronghold J. Parker, D. D. "We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth": clever arguments, witty retorts, brilliant repartees, criticisms that dazzle by their brightness and exasperate by their acerbity, come and go, and Jerusalem stands, sunlit, fair, invincible. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Take heed and be quiet. Isaiah 7:4 Take heed, and be quiet P. Delitzsch. D. D. That is, be on your guard and do not act precipitately, rather keep at rest. I. A WARNING AGAINST SELF-WILLED ACTING. II. AN EXHORTATION TO UNDISMAYED EQUANIMITY. ( P. Delitzsch. D. D. ) The true attitude of life W. L. Watkinson. This is the attitude we should observe in all this human life β on the one hand, vigilance, determination, earnestness; and on the other silence, resignation, hope. Just as we observe in due proportion the active and passive aspects of life will our character become complete and our heart find rest. I. ALL TRUE LIFE IS A LISTENING. 1. "Take heed," i.e. , be attentive, alert, susceptible. Light will not come to careless, inattentive souls. We must hearken, which really means the concentration of all the powers of the soul that we may detect the significance of things.(1) This is true in relation to nature. The light does not shine into our soul irrespective of our gazing; the secret does not disclose itself to us irrespective of our listening.(2) This is true in relation to revelation. The Bible is a great whispering gallery; but God's whisper is often lost because men come with souls full of noises, or because they do not lend their ear patiently and systematically.(3) It is so with our personal life. Our personal history is a revelation of the mind of God; but we often miss the precious instructions. 2. And when you have given full place to observation and reflection, "be quiet," for you will find plenty of room and reason for suspense, resignation, silence. When you have carried criticism to its final limit, see that no place is left in your heart for anxiety, unbelief, and despair. II. ALL TRUE LIFE IS A WATCHING. "Take heed." Be cautious, vigilant, circumspect. There is no room in life for presumption. But when we have felt the need of earnest prayer, when we have cultivated the habit of prayerful watchfulness, let us "be quiet." Many Christians feel the need of walking softly, of being on the alert, their soul is full of solemn caution; but they never know how to combine with this that strong confidence in God which brings the sensitive heart assurance and peace. Let us remember that when we have done our best God will do the rest. III. ALL TRUE LIFE IS A STRIVING. "Take heed." Life must be full of effort, aspiration, strenuousness, perseverance. The policy of many. is the policy of drift. But this is not the true idea of life. We are perpetually called upon to consider, to discriminate, to decide, to act. And yet with all this we are to be "quiet." Calm amid tumult, tranquil in severest effort, full of peace and confidence when life is most difficult and denying. Let us remember this β(1) In all our worldly life. God has not promised the things of this life to the lazy. We must be earnest, discreet, economical, prudent, painstaking. But when we have done our best to provide honest things we must be quiet. No painful, misgiving thoughts or words.(2) In all our religious life. We shall never moon and dream ourselves into spiritual knowledge, strength, beauty, completeness. But having given ourselves to God's service and glory with a single, purposeful heart, let us for the rest "be quiet." ( W. L. Watkinson. ) "The crooked serpent W. L. Watkinson. True rationalism not only investigates, but is cautious, reticent, patient, hopeful. Much about us is very mysterious and bewildering. 1. It is so with nature. Ages ago the patriarch Job found this out. "By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens; His hand hath formed the crooked serpent." "Garnished the heavens!" β that we can understand, that we can admire. The vast, the balanced, the magnificent, the beautiful, the benign β this is what we expected from the wise and generous Source of all things. "His hand hath formed the crooked serpent." Nature contains the mean, the unharmonious, the dark, the grotesque, the bloody; and this we did not expect. The thoughtful man is sorely puzzled in the presence of these confusions and contradictions. 2. It is so with revelation. We are often greatly delighted with the contents of the Bible. It is a firmament full of stars of light, speaking to us eloquently of the glory of God. We cry with rapture as we scan successive constellations which gleam with truth and love and righteousness. "By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens." But it is not long before the problems of nature reappear in revelation; there are teachings obscure and painful, in fact, the crooked serpent wriggles across the page. People who read cursorily-and think loosely may glide over such pages, but thoughtful souls are often sorely troubled. 3. It is the same in our personal history. There are times in our life when all things go smoothly with us β our health is good, in business we are in the swim, we are socially popular, and, full of gratitude and thanksgiving, we wonder how anybody can ever be fretful, or call into question the government of God; we feel that the Spirit that garnished the heavens has brought order and beauty into our persona! lot. But soon circumstances change: our health fails, we are called to attend two or three creditors' meetings, our popularity wanes; and then we are staggered, and begin to ask sceptical questions touching the ways of heaven. What is the matter? The crooked serpent crawls across our path of roses. Now what are we to do when these dark enigmas reward our study, when we witness the contradictions of nature, the tragedy of history, when we endure the pathos of our own life? Are we to take refuge in scepticism, cynicism, despair? Surely not. "Be quiet." ( W. L. Watkinson. ) A New Year's motto T. Spurgeon. I. A WORD OF CAUTION. "Take heed." It is as though Isaiah called a halt; as though, to use another metaphor, he swung the red light in front of the rushing train as though he put a detonator on the rails in the time of mist and fog. Saith he, "Take heed; you are very busily preparing, your mind is filled with a multitude of thoughts." He does not speak ill of these preparations and these plans, but he does say, "Proceed with caution; look before you leap, think before you act. Do nothing till you have thought it over and prayed about it. You will discover, Ahaz, that whereas some of your precautions are legitimate, others of them are dishonouring to God and to the throne of David." Well now, is there not a word for you and for me just here? Take heed! β do not rush blindly on, wait to be guided, slip your hand into God's. Ye people of God, take heed! Worldliness is gradually creeping into the Church and fastening its fangs upon her. Doctrine of all sorts is at a discount, except false doctrine. Take heed lest you sip of the poisoned cup or ever you are aware. And ye shepherds of the flock, take heed! Ministers are too busy nowadays "getting up" this, that, and the other Be it ours to bring the blessing down. Sunday school teachers, take heed that you do not merely amuse or only instruct the children. Win them for Christ. Take heed, ye who profess to follow Jesus! Look where you are going; ponder the paths of your steps. II. THEN THE PROPHET RECOMMENDED QUIET. "Be quiet." It is not the easiest thing in the world to be quiet, especially when there are two confederate armies coming up against you. It is ever easier to assault than to "sit tight." I do not believe there is anything that more honours our holy religion than self-possession in the time of stress and storm. It is then that the worldling says, "Why, I could not do that!" What is the secret of that wonderful composure! The secret is God. That heart is kept quiet that is stayed on Him. III. Then Isaiah says, "FEAR NOT." He has spoken of the outward attitude and action; now he refers to the reward emotion. Know you not that fear is fatal? I suppose that, humanly speaking, almost as many people die of fear as of anything else. Many of our best hopes are thwarted, not because there was any real necessity they should suffer so, but because we were afraid from the first that they would. Many of our high ambitions come to nought because we were never very confident that they would have any other ending. if the work be of God, trust God to see it through. We may have our fears, but we must not cherish them. There were words of cheer accompanying this message. The prophet said, "These great flaming firebrands that you fear are going out. Already they are smoking. They are only the tails of firebrands. A little patience and you will see an end of this trouble." We do not ask a sign of God that Ha will give us the victory in our warfare, and success in our work for Him. He gives it without asking. We would believe without a sign. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." But if God offers us a sign we do not refuse it. Ahaz did. He said β suddenly posing as a saint β "No, I will not tempt God." When God offers us a sign it is not reverence to refuse it; it is gross irreverence. But He has granted us the best sign of all, the sign to which I do not doubt that Isaiah made reference. Christ has come; nay, God has come, for Christ is God. "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." John Bunyan used to call unbelief a white devil. ( T. Spurgeon. ) Tails of smoking firebrands F. Delitzsch. The two allies are at once designated as what they are before God, who sees through things in the future. They are two tails, i.e. , nothing but the fag ends of wood pokers, half-burned off and wholly burned out, so that they do not burn any longer, but only still keep smoking. ( F. Delitzsch. ) Caution with confidence W. L. Watkinson. Life is danger. The more precious anything is the more enemies it has. You rarely see any lice on the wild rose in the hedgerow, but the prize rose in the garden will soon be covered with them if the gardener remits his severe attention; crab apple trees on a common may be left with confidence to take care of themselves, but the husbandman must watch by night and day an orchard full of sweetness. Man has the most enemies of all, they swarm on every hand, he walks in jeopardy every hour. But we often forget all this and act with strange heedlessness. Awhile ago, from the flowery cliffs, I was watching the beautiful gulls as they flashed between the sun and the sea uttering cues of joy, when some wretched sportsmen appeared on the scene and began to fire at the lovely creatures. I thought that at the first shot the birds would have vanished into space, but, strangely enough, as if they were enchanted, they continued to whirl around the very focus of destruction. Fortunately they were not hit, the marksmen's aim was as bad as their temper; but at any moment the glorious birds might have dropped shattered, bloody things, into the sea. It is very much the same with men. They go negligently, presumptuously, although moral dangers are thicker than all other dangers, and any moment might see the glory and hope of life quenched in midnight darkness. ( W. L. Watkinson. ) Morbid nervousness W. L. Watkinson. We all know suspicious souls whose nervousness gives them not a moment of peace. If they are going on a railway journey, they anxiously look out for the middle compartment of the middle carriage, fancying that the safest place, and there is no telling how many trains they miss looking for that carriage; if they are in the country, they will not drink a drop of milk until they have ascertained whether the foot and mouth disease has been in that district; and at the railway station they cross-examine the driver to know whether he has conveyed in that cab any passenger having an infectious malady. Now, if you once give way to a morbid nervousness of this sort, there is positively no end to the thing, and every bit of comfort is taken out of life. ( W. L. Watkinson. ) God the sure Protector of His people W. L. Watkinson. The sensible voyager lays his head on the pillow and goes to sleep, although the gleaming teeth of sharks are only a few inches away; the thickness of the plank or plate is practically the thickness of a planet: and although hell is always nigh., let us remember that God is still nigher, and that a bit of tissue paper in His hands is the munition of rocks to those who trust in Him. ( W. L. Watkinson. ) Vigilance and gladness W. L. Watkinson. The bird on the branch is intensely sensitive and tremulous; it looks around, above, beneath; all the world might be a fowler, a mare, a eat, and yet at the same time it goes on pouring out its happy soul in music. Let us be like it in watchfulness and gladness. ( W. L. Watkinson. ) Morbid introspection W. L. Watkinson. When I was a growing lad I was always measuring myself to see how much I had gained every week or two. Sometimes there was a distinct gain, and then another testing seemed to indicate that I was standing sty; so I fed my hopes and fears. But I did very well on the whole, and it would have been a great deal better if I had let the measuring tape alone and attended to my learning and my business. Do not afflict your souls with morbid solicitudes. ( W. L. Watkinson. ) God's contempt for Rezin and Pekah J. Parker, D. D. God will have those in derision who set their shoulders against His throne for the purpose of overturning it. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Harmfulness of fear T. Spurgeon. There is a legend which is in itself instructive concerning the time of plague in a certain Eastern city, to the effect that 20,000 people having died therein, a traveller entering the gates spoke to the plague as it was leaving, and said, "I understand that you have slain 20,000 people within these walls." "No," said the plague, "I have slain but 10,000; the rest have died of fear." It is an instructive story. ( T. Spurgeon. ) Injurious struggling C. S. Robinson, D. D. Once I remember I picked up a small bird which had fallen on the pavement by my feet. I sought to reinstate it among the branches overhead; but the creature could not appreciate my generosity, and with passionate eagerness struggled to escape. I began unconsciously to talk aloud to it, "Poor, silly thing; why do you not trust your best friend? All I want is to get you up again in the fork of the tree. You are making it harder for me, by dashing so against my fingers; for I am obliged to hold you firmly, and you do all the hurting yourself." Why is it we all struggle so, when the Lord is giving us help ( C. S. Robinson, D. D. ) Be quiet Dr. Love. Phoebe Simpson said to Ellice Hopkins, "I think, miss, religion is doing things still." Stillness of spirit is like the canvas, for the Holy Spirit to draw His various graces upon. ( Dr. Love. ) The happy people are calm Recreations of a Country Parson. The really and substantially happy people in the world are always calm and quiet. ( Recreations of a Country Parson. ) Christian serenity Hetty Bowman. The child of God should live above the world, moving through it, as some quiet star moves through the blue sky, β clear, and serene, and still ( Hetty Bowman. ) If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established. Isaiah 7:9 Faith in the Divine Word and promises the alone ground of the believer's establishment and happiness T. Gordon. There are only two sources from which human hope or happiness can be derived, and these are sense and faith. I. SENSE AS THE SOURCE OF HUMAN HAPPINESS. It is self-evident from the history of what is past and from observation and experience of what is present that, amidst all the enjoyments, whether more gross or more refined, the objects of sense can possibly furnish to flatter or gratify the passions, nothing is to be found that can give establishment to the human heart, or settle and compose the restless spirit. There are three things which render it impossible that any mere worldly object or pursuit should render us happy. 1. The difficulty of acquiring what, in imagination or forethought, we have placed our happiness upon, and in the possession of which we have fondly dreamed of enjoying all that our hearts could desire. 2. When with infinite labour we seem to have surmounted every difficulty and to have gained the point we had in view, our promised happiness is snatched from us in a moment, and we feel our disappointment and distress rendered more poignant from the flattering prospects that lay before us, and the ideal estimate we had formed of what we have lost. 3. But let us suppose that we could acquire with ease, and enjoy with security, for a limited time β to our dying day β the objects we so eagerly pursue; how do we know that we shall preserve our relish for them? "Our very wishes give us not our wish." II. FAITH ALONE HOLDS FORTH THOSE OBJECTS THAT CAN ESTABLISH THE HUMAN HEART OR QUIET THE RESTLESS SPIRIT. Nothing can give establishment to the mind of man but what can effectually remove the cause of our present disordered state and prove a never-failing source of inward peace and self-enjoyment. 1. What is the cause of this disorder; of this disquietude and restlessness, amidst all the objects of sense; of this vacancy of the human mind, amidst all the profusion of nature? The cause is evidently a departure from the original constitution of our nature. For no creature can be unhappy, continuing in that state, in which, he was placed by perfect wisdom and goodness. 2. The remedy which faith provides for the cure of this evil. It directs us to the righteousness of God, manifested without the law, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe; for there is no difference. The doctrine that holds forth a finished salvation by the blood of Christ, as the alone ground of a believer's hope, is, of all others, the best fitted to beget not only a humble submission, but a cheerful resignation to our gracious Lord in the various allotments of His providence concerning us. Who that believeth all this with all his heart could for a moment entertain a doubt that his bodily and temporal concerns would be safe in His hands? ( T. Gordon. ) Stability through faith W. Jay. 1. The promises of God are not at all times easily, steadily, and firmly believed. 2. God, in the communication of His Word, does not regard us as mere machines. The Word cannot profit unless it be mixed with faith in those who hear it. In the Christian's life there are three kinds of stability. I. THERE IS A STABILITY OF JUDGMENT. This regards the truths of religion. It is of great importance to have a judgment clear and fixed as it respects the great concerns of the soul and eternity, and the doctrines of the Gospel of Christ; for as we think we feel, as we feel we desire, as we desire we act, and as we act our characters are formed, and our conditions determined. There are some things in revelation concerning which a man's mind, so to speak, need not be made up. Little or no injury will arise from his hesitation or suspense. But this is not the case with all. There are some things which must be fundamental, and therefore sustain others; and according to the firmness of the foundation will be the firmness of the whole superstructure. Now what is to lead us into this stability but faith? It cannot be human authority among men. What one patronises another denies, and here you would soon find yourself like a man in a labyrinth, who on this side and on that is calling out, "Is this the way?" and knows not what direction to take with safety and comfort. Or, if you depend upon reason, this may do something from observation and analogy; but if you receive the revelation of God only as far as you can understand it, you will make your faith commensurate with your knowledge. Thus obstructions and difficulties will arise continually, and you will be strangers to all satisfaction and repose. No, we must believe all that the Lord has spoken to us in His Word, and because He has spoken it. "I had a little talent and a little learning," said Dr. Watts before his death; "but now I lay them all aside, and endeavour to receive the Gospel as the poor and unlearned receive it." II. THERE IS A STABILITY OF PRACTICE. This regards the duties of religion. By faith we stand. In order to see the strength and beauty of the sentiment contained in our text, let us place the believer in three positions. 1. In a place of secrecy. When alone, how do we act? Faith is a principle that always operates alike upon the mind, i.e. , its motives are the same in private as in public. Faith shows us the future and eternal consequences of our actions. Faith brings God and places Him before us Hence the closet is visited as the temple. The good fight of faith is carried on amidst many struggles, unobserved by any human being, but all well known to Him who is the Captain of our salvation. 2. In cases of prosperity and indulgence. How easily is a person drawn aside from the path of duty by the honour which cometh from men, by a regard to the friendship of this world, or by earthly riches! We are therefore told that the prosperity of fools destroys them. But the believer in Christ is not a fool: faith makes him wise unto salvation, wise both for time and eternity. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 3. In a condition of suffering and danger. What an agonizing trial was Abraham called to endure, when God bade him take his only son Isaac, whom he loved, and offer him up for a burnt offering! yet faith enabled him to do it. Moses had a hard task to accomplish, when he went and stood before Pharaoh, but we are told, "he had respect unto the recompense of the reward"; "by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible." And how was it with Daniel? There was something dreadful in being cast into the den of lions; but what was this to a man who saw that God would shut the lions' mouths, so that they should not hurt him? What was this to a man who by faith heard the voice of Him who said, "Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do; but fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell; yea, I say unto you, fear Him." Faith also views the Saviour as acting and as suffering for us. III. THERE IS A STABILITY OF HOPE. This regards the comforts of religion. How is it that Christians can rejoice amidst their sorrows? The Scripture assigns the reason when it tells us of the joy of faith. Faith appropriates. ( W. Jay. ) Isaiah's commission and King Ahaz Isaiah had a very heavy commission from God. He was to go and speak to people who would not hear him, and to be to them a messenger rather of death than of life. Though the message itself would be full of life, yet they would refuse it, and so bring upon themselves a ten-fold death. As a sort of experiment in his work, he was called upon first to go and speak to King Ahaz, that wicked king. He knew in his own soul that what he had to say would be rejected; but, nevertheless, at the command of God, he went to speak to the king. He was told where he would meet him. God knows where to send His faithful servants. He knows how to adapt the message with great speciality to the individual case of each person who is within sound of the preacher's voice; and He knows how to adapt even the voice itself to the ear of every hearer. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) No fixity without faith These words furnish us with a warning and an encouragement. I. GOD DESERVES TO BE BELIEVED. 1. He is God; and being God, He cannot lie. 2. His Word always has been true. 3. He has no motive for being untrue. 4. The honour of God is involved in His veracity. 5. Suppose even for a moment that we could not trust in the truthfulness of God, what would be left for us to trust to? When rocks move, what stands firm? II. SOME ARE NOT WILLING TO BELIEVE GOD. That is clear by the fear expressed in the text: "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." Believing is a matter of the will. God's grace works faith, not upon us, but in us. God works in us to will and to do; and in the willing He leads us up to believing. We voluntarily believe; and certainly men voluntarily disbelieve. Why is this, this strange unwillingness of some men, nay, in a sense of all men, to believe in God? 1. They are willing to believe other things. 2. Another thing is significant, that men cling tenaciously to faith in themselves. 3. Instead of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, some prefer an emotional religion. 4. Some stubbornly suffer under unbelief. 5. I notice, too, that such people demand this and that of God, beyond what He has revealed. III. FAITH IS NOT A THING TO BE DESPISED. Have you never heard people say, "Oh, they preach up faith, you know"? "Well, what is faith?" "Well, it is just believing so-and-so." Faith is a most wonderful thing, for β 1. It is a fair index of the heart. 2. A sure proof of a change of mind. 3. It inaugurates purity of life. 4. It is faith that leads to prayer, and prayer is the very breath of God in man. 5. It is faith that glorifies God. IV. THOSE WHO REFUSE TO EXERCISE FAITH WILL MISS MANY GREAT PRIVILEGES. I might mention many, but the text gives us the one which I will dwell upon: "If ye will not believe, surely he shall not be established." 1. It means, first, that those who believe not will miss establishment in comfort. 2. Ye shall never enjoy establishment in judgment. There are many persons who do not know what to believe; they heard one man the other day, and they thought that he spoke very cleverly, and they agreed with him. They heard another the next day, who was rather more clever, and he went the other way, so they went with him. Poor souls, driven to and fro, never knowing what is what! "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established"; you shall be like the moon, that is never two days alike; you shall seem to believe this, and to believe that, and yet really believe nothing. 3. Next, we want an establishment in conduct. 4. So it is also with establishment in hope. 5. We want to be established in spiritual vigour and strength. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) The principle of true permanence B. Blake, B. D. is here shown to be a holding of Divine truth. "He who confides in God will abide." ( B. Blake, B. D. ) Holding and being held F. Delitzsch. If Judah does not hold fast to his God, he will lose his fast hold by losing the country in which he dwells, the ground beneath his feet. ( F. Delitzsch. ) Ahaz a representative of double-mindedness J. Parker, D. D. Ahaz was a mixed character. He has been convicted in history of being an idolater as well as a professor of the true religion. He was therefore the representative of double-mindedness, a halting between two opinions, that double-mindedness which is unstable, and which cannot excel. Probably Isaiah, marking the workings of his countenance under the delivery of this communication, saw signs of fear, doubt, hesitancy: the king did not spring at the word with access of energy and with the confidence of inspiration; so the prophet, quick to detect all facial signs, blessed with the insight that follows the spirit in all its withdrawment, said instantly, "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established." ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Unbelief undermines character Sunday School Chronicle. To take an illustration from architecture, materialism cuts out the foundation of the soul structure just where the strain comes. We are told that the lamentable disaster to the Campanile of St. Mark's at Venice was due to the action of the Loggia architects in cutting out the stone coping in its whole length, thus making a wound on the side, where the pressure was severest, half a yard deep and half a yard high. If this be true, it is not remarkable that the massive tower came down bodily. Neither is the downfall of many a man remarkable to us when we come to know how his faith in God had been utterly destroyed. ( Sunday School Chronicle. ) The power of faith Sunday School Chronicle. Lord Wolseley said, "Give me 20,000 fanatics and I would march across Europe." Grotius , in describing the success of the Dutch in snapping the Spanish yoke, gives this as the secret of their prowess, "Believing that they could do it they did it." ( Sunday School Chronicle. ) Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God. Isaiah 7:11 God's grace towards the wayward F. Delitzsch, D. D. Jehovah does not scorn to call Himself the God of this son of David who so hardens himself. ( F. Delitzsch, D. D. ) A critical moment F. Delitzsch, D. D. In this hour when Isaiah stands before Ahaz, the fate of the Jewish people is decided for more than two thousand years. ( F. Delitzsch, D. D. ) But Ahaz said, I will not ask. Isaiah 7:12 Why did Ahaz refuse to ask a sign Sir E. Strachey, Bart. ? β Ahaz who looked on Jehovah not as his God, but only (like any of his heathen neighbours) as the god of Judaea, and as such inferior in the god of Assyria, and who had determined to apply to the King of Assyria, or perhaps had already applied to him as a more trustworthy helper than Jehovah in the present strait, declines to ask a sign, excusing himself by a canting use of the words of Moses, "Thou shalt not tempt Jehovah." He refused the sign, because he knew it would confirm the still struggling voice of his conscience; and that voice he had resolved not to obey, since it bade him give up the Assyrian, and trust in Jehovah henceforth. ( Sir E. Strachey, Bart. ) A secret disaffection to God is often disguised with the specious colours of respect to Him. ( M. Henry . ) Making a decision R. A. Bertram. How often men, like Ahaz, arrive at decisions which are irrevocable and unspeakably momentous! 1. To have to make decisions that may be solemn in both these senses is one of the things that make the position of a ruler or statesmen so serious. 2. Every man is at some juncture celled to make a decision, the results of which to him individually will be of unspeakable importance; e.g. , the young ruler. Every one of you will at some moment be called to decide for or against Christ, and the decision will be fina
Matthew Henry
7:1-9 Ungodly men are often punished by others as bad as themselves. Being in great distress and confusion, the Jews gave up all for lost. They had made God their enemy, and knew not how to make him their friend. The prophet must teach them to despise their enemies, in faith and dependence on God. Ahaz, in fear, called them two powerful princes. No, says the prophet, they are but tails of smoking firebrands, burnt out already. The two kingdoms of Syria and Israel were nearly expiring. While God has work for the firebrands of the earth, they consume all before them; but when their work is fulfilled, they will be extinguished in smoke. That which Ahaz thought most formidable, is made the ground of their defeat; because they have taken evil counsel against thee; which is an offence to God. God scorns the scorners, and gives his word that the attempt should not succeed. Man purposes, but God disposes. It was folly for those to be trying to ruin their neighbours, who were themselves near to ruin. Isaiah must urge the Jews to rely on the assurances given them. Faith is absolutely necessary to quiet and compose the mind in trials. 7:10-16 Secret disaffection to God is often disguised with the colour of respect to him; and those who are resolved that they will not trust God, yet pretend they will not tempt him. The prophet reproved Ahaz and his court, for the little value they had for Divine revelation. Nothing is more grievous to God than distrust, but the unbelief of man shall not make the promise of God of no effect; the Lord himself shall give a sign. How great soever your distress and danger, of you the Messiah is to be born, and you cannot be destroyed while that blessing is in you. It shall be brought to pass in a glorious manner; and the strongest consolations in time of trouble are derived from Christ, our relation to him, our interest in him, our expectations of him and from him. He would grow up like other children, by the use of the diet of those countries; but he would, unlike other children, uniformly refuse the evil and choose the good. And although his birth would be by the power of the Holy Ghost, yet he should not be fed with angels' food. Then follows a sign of the speedy destruction of the princes, now a terror to Judah. Before this child, so it may be read; this child which I have now in my arms, (Shear-jashub, the prophet's own son, ver. 3,) shall be three or four years older, these enemies' forces shall be forsaken of both their kings. The prophecy is so solemn, the sign is so marked, as given by God himself after Ahaz rejected the offer, that it must have raised hopes far beyond what the present occasion suggested. And, if the prospect of the coming of the Divine Saviour was a never-failing support to the hopes of ancient believers, what cause have we to be thankful that the Word was made flesh! May we trust in and love Him, and copy his example. 7:17-25 Let those who will not believe the promises of God, expect to hear the alarms of his threatenings; for who can resist or escape his judgments? The Lord shall sweep all away; and whomsoever he employs in any service for him, he will pay. All speaks a sad change of the face of that pleasant land. But what melancholy change is there, which sin will not make with a people? Agriculture would cease. Sorrows of every kind will come upon all who neglect the great salvation. If we remain unfruitful under the means of grace, the Lord will say, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth for ever.
Benson