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, came up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but they were not able to fight against it.
Isaiah 7 opens with a date and a threat: two kings marching on Jerusalem in the reign of Ahaz. What looks like an ordinary border war is really an attack on the royal line of David.
Syria and the northern kingdom had joined forces, and their war aim went beyond plunder. Commentators point out that they had already picked a replacement ruler for Judah.
The plot was of a very determined character. Those kings wanted nothing less than to wipe out the house of David and to set up a person called "the son of Tabeal." Little as they intended it, this was in reality a blow at the promised Messiah. If they did not mean this, Satan did; he was the real author of the movement, without question. This became at once a case for the Lord to deal with. It touched the carrying out of His purposes.
The verse says the siege failed. Yet other records of the same reign say God handed Ahaz over and his enemies struck him hard. One writer holds the two together.
These statements do not clash with what 2 Kings 16:5 records — that these allied kings "could not conquer him." They could not get into the city, nor reach the king personally, though they entered the land. "God delivered him," and "they smote him," means his people and kingdom… The aim of "these two smoldering stumps of firebrands" was to remove king Ahaz from the throne and put "the son of Tabeal" in his place — probably a Syrian, since it is not a Hebrew name… This was doubtless Satan's plot, if not man's, to destroy David's dynasty. For this reason God did not deliver Jerusalem into their hands.
The news reached the palace, and the king's heart shook. One writer traces that fear to the way the king had been living.
There they were in great fear, where there was no fear — and this, sadly, in Jerusalem and David's house. No wonder: the heir of David's throne did not walk like David his father, but in the ways of the kings of Israel or worse. He drew Judah with him into serious transgression against the Lord. Panic-stricken, yet in no way driven by his distress to God… the prophet meets Ahaz.
Ahaz had no claim on God's help. God acted anyway, because His own purpose was at stake.
But God takes care of His own purposes; no power on earth or in hell can frustrate them. He intends David's son and heir to rule over all in the coming day. So He would preserve the line to the end. "If we are faithless, He remains faithful — for He cannot deny Himself" (2 Timothy 2:13). So God sent the prophet to Ahaz to assure him about the evil plan of his enemies: "It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass." Ephraim would be broken within 65 years, in spite of the alliance with Syria.
God's message to Ahaz was not a rebuke.
The Lord sends Isaiah to meet the king. The prophet comes with his son Shear-jashub, whose name means "the remnant shall return." He speaks in grace to this wicked king… But how touching is the patient grace God has toward this evil king! He reassures him instead of crushing him; He announces deliverance to him; He says to him, "Take heed and be quiet" — let Me act. He says, "Fear not" to the man who for his own part had everything to fear.
God answered the threat to David's line with a promise reaching far beyond Ahaz's day.
Put this birth as far off as you please from the time of Ahaz. Doing so only makes the voice of God in prophecy and the sure mercies of David more obvious… Immanuel was an unfailing assurance that no alliance could put down David's house for good. Messiah, Son of David, is the divine guarantee. The virgin must bear Him of that line. The virgin's Son must also be, in some true though mysterious way, God Himself… Barely three more years passed before the kings of Israel and Syria fell to the treachery or the power of their enemies.
- The target. The two kings wanted David's house wiped out and their own man on the throne. Whether they knew it or not, the attack was aimed at the Messiah.
- The limit. They entered the land and did terrible damage. But they could not take the city or reach the king. God kept Jerusalem out of their hands.
- The reason. Not any goodness in Ahaz, who walked worse than the kings of Israel. God acted for His own purpose for David's line, which no power on earth or in hell can overturn.
- The tone. God sent comfort to a frightened king who would not turn to Him: be quiet, do not fear, let Me act.
- The outcome. A failed siege becomes the setting for a greater promise. A remnant will return, and Immanuel guarantees that David's house can never be destroyed.
And it was told the house of David saying, Syria is allied with Ephraim. Then his heart and the heart of his people shook, as the trees of the forest are shaken with the wind.
Two kings had joined forces against Judah: Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Ephraim, the northern kingdom of Israel. The news reached the royal house in Jerusalem, and this verse records what it did there — a king and a whole people shaking before a blow that never fell.
The alliance was more than a border war. One writer sets it in the history of the kings and shows what the plotters would have broken.
Isaiah 7 takes us into some historical details of the reign of Ahaz. 2 Kings 15 and 16 record them. He did much evil, and now an alliance threatened him: Pekah, who had seized the throne of the ten tribes, and Rezin of Syria. If they had killed or removed Ahaz, they would have broken the line of descent through which Christ came as a man. Matthew 1:9 shows that line.
The trembling was real; the danger was not. One writer traces the panic back to the king's own way of life.
There they were in great fear, where there was nothing to fear — and this, sad to say, in Jerusalem and in David's house. No wonder: the heir of David's throne did not walk like David his father. He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel or worse, and he drew Judah with him into serious wrongdoing against Jehovah. Ahaz was panic-stricken, yet his distress in no way drove him to God. There the prophet meets him.
Trees in a storm bend because nothing holds them. Ahaz and his people were short of more than soldiers.
Pekah, king of Israel, had turned away from God. He had formed an alliance with the king of Syria against Jerusalem, and this filled the hearts of Ahaz and his people with terror... They had no power to stand against such powerful enemies, and God was not in all their thoughts.
The verse names the target as a house, not one man. One writer shows what those two kings meant to do with it.
Those kings wanted nothing less than the wiping out of the house of David, and the setting up of a man called "the son of Tabeal." However little they intended it, this was in fact a blow at the promised Messiah. If they did not mean this, Satan did. He was without doubt the real author of the movement. This became at once a case for Jehovah to deal with. It touched the fulfilment of His purposes. True, the house of David was in a terrible state. David's heir was an evil man, one of the worst that ever sat on the throne of Judah.
Isaiah will call these two kings smoking stubs of firewood. The gap between the size of the threat and the size of the terror exposes something in the heart.
The people, being unfaithful, have no strength against their enemies. But there, in circumstances where all hope is taken away, God presents the promise that the remnant would be sustained by the testimony of God Himself... where there is a lack of faith, the heart is fearful before the enemy, even before a powerless enemy.
Ahaz did not sit still under his fear. He looked for a stronger ally, and one writer traces where that choice led.
The danger they faced comes to nothing. But if we seek any support at all in something of this world, God abandons us. He leaves us to the consequences of the tie we have chosen. So Pekah and Rezin had no strength against Judah, because God would not hand Jerusalem over to these allied kings. But Ahaz, fearful and unbelieving, rests on Assyria — and in the end it is from the Assyrian that Judah needs deliverance.
The chapter does not end with the shaking. One writer explains the comfort God gave to a frightened king.
The Lord spoke this promise when the house of David was discouraged and disheartened. King Ahaz, instead of trusting the Lord, went on in unbelief... Messiah is to be born, He is to come from Judah, and from the house of David. How could he, the king, fear destruction and extermination? This was the comfort of the sign.
- Shaken. Ahaz and his people trembled where there was nothing to fear. The king walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and his distress never drove him to God.
- Targeted. The plot aimed to wipe out David's house and put the son of Tabeal on the throne. Whatever the two kings intended, it struck at the promised Messiah.
- Unmoved. The plot touched God's own purposes, so He dealt with it Himself. The house of David was in a terrible state and deserved nothing.
- Chosen. Ahaz leaned on Assyria instead of God. Seek support in something of this world, and God leaves you to live with what you chose.
- Answered. God gave the discouraged house its comfort: the Messiah would still be born, from Judah and from David's line.
And Jehovah said to Isaiah, Go out now to meet Ahaz, thou and thy son Shear-jashub, at the end of the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller's field;
Judah's king was shaking with fear. Two enemy kings had joined forces against him, and God's answer was not a battle plan. He sent a prophet and a small boy to meet him on a road outside the city, and the boy's name carried the message.
The threat came from Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Israel, joined against the house of David. Ahaz's fear was real. So was his refusal to turn to God. God met him anyway, on a spot that would hear far worse words in years to come.
Ahaz was panic-stricken, yet his distress did not drive him to God at all. The prophet met him on the very same spot where Rabshakeh later spoke his blasphemies against Jehovah — "the aqueduct of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field."
God does not just send Isaiah; He tells him to bring his son Shear-jashub. The name means "the remnant shall return." God sends that name with the prophet because the royal family itself had failed. What follows from that failure shapes the whole book.
Now the house of David, the last support of the people in responsibility, has also failed in faithfulness. Ahaz has forsaken Jehovah, and set up the altar of a strange god in the temple of Jehovah. In Isaiah 7 the Spirit of God directs the prophet to the king, and addresses him. Isaiah was to go and meet him, with Shear-jashub his son — a symbolic child whose name means "the remnant shall return." … The two points of this prophetic announcement are the gift of Immanuel, the virgin's Son, and the complete desolation of the land by Assyria. These are the keys to the whole prophecy of Isaiah.
The boy did more than carry a message. He was a promise God's people could hold on to when their enemies pressed hard.
It is very interesting and instructive to see that the name given to one of Isaiah's sons, Shear-jashub, means "the remnant shall return." He was a pledge that the enemies of Judah would oppress them, but would not finally prevail against them (chapter 7).
Ahaz had turned his back on God. Notice the tone God takes with him anyway.
The Lord sends Isaiah to meet the king, and He speaks in grace to this wicked king… But how touching is the patient grace God has toward this evil king! He reassures him instead of crushing him; He announces deliverance to him; He says to him, "Take heed and be quiet" — let Me act. He says "Fear not" to the man who had everything to fear.
The boy walking beside Isaiah was himself a sign. Commentators differ over the "child" of verse 16. Some read it as Isaiah's second son. Others read it as Shear-jashub, the boy standing there that day — which is why he came along.
It is certain that the prophet's child Shear-jashub had the character of a "sign" (see Isaiah 8:18), though of course very distinct from God's great sign, the virgin's Son. From verse 16 the king was to learn this: before the boy was old enough to tell right from wrong, the allied kings must disappear from the scene. And so they did. Less than three years later the kings of Israel and Syria fell to the treachery or the might of their enemies.
Isaiah names the place with care: the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the Washer's Field. Older translations call that spot the fuller's field. The same place returns later in the book.
Notice a remarkable fact. We begin where we began in the first section, "by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field" (Isaiah 36:2 and 7:3). It was there that the Lord first promised the "sign in the depth" and "in the height." He first spoke of that sign to Ahaz the king in Isaiah 7. Now the sign of this section comes on Ahaz's own dial — "a sign from the Lord," on "the sundial of Ahaz."
- Crisis — Two kings marched on Jerusalem and Ahaz's heart shook. He was frightened enough to panic, but not frightened enough to turn to God.
- Grace — Into that unbelief God sends comfort, not a crushing word. He tells this king, who deserved nothing, to stay calm and stop being afraid.
- Pledge — God makes that grace visible in a child. Shear-jashub, "the remnant shall return," walks beside the prophet as God's living guarantee that Judah's enemies will not have the last word.
- Sign — The boy carried a deadline. Before he grew up, both enemy kings were gone, just as God had said.
- Greater sign — At this same spot God first promised a sign "in the depth" and "in the height." The boy was only a small sign beside God's great one: Immanuel, the virgin's Son.
and thou shalt say unto him, Take heed and be quiet; fear not, and let not thy heart faint before these two ends of smoking firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.
Syria and Israel have joined forces against Jerusalem. King Ahaz of Judah is shaking, and so are his people. God sends Isaiah to meet him with four short commands and one strange picture: two firebrands burned down to stumps, giving off nothing but smoke.
Ahaz was one of the worst rulers Judah ever had. Yet God's first word to him is not a rebuke. It is reassurance.
How touching is the patient grace God has toward this evil king! He reassures him instead of crushing him; He announces deliverance to him; He says to him, "Take heed and be quiet" — let Me act. He says, "Fear not" to him who on his part had everything to fear.
The picture sizes up the enemy by God's measure, not the king's. What looked like an unstoppable fire was already burning out.
The king might have considered his enemies fierce burning firebrands but, as the LORD told him through Isaiah, they were only smoking firebrands. There was no reason to fear or to be fainthearted. The LORD said about all the 'evil counsels' of Ahaz' enemies: 'It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass' (v. 7).
The wording itself carries a tone, as one commentator notes:
Ahaz cowered before the two smoking stumps of firebrands — the scornful name Jehovah gave to the fierce anger of the combined kings of Israel and Syria.
The reassurance is not optimism. The two kings had a clear aim: remove David's line from the throne and put their own man on it. That aim ran straight into God's promise.
Those kings had nothing less in mind than wiping out the house of David and setting up a man called "the son of Tabeal." Little as they meant it, this was a blow at the promised Messiah... It is true that the house of David was in a terrible state. David's heir was an evil man, one of the worst who ever sat on the throne of Judah (2 Chron. 28:1-5, 22-25). As far as he himself went, there was no reason for Jehovah to step in. Ahaz and Judah deserved the worst their enemies could do to them.
Another writer draws out what was at stake in the same event: it was not only Judah's comfort that was threatened but God's own word.
It was not merely that their enterprise, if successful, must vex Judah, but set aside David's line. It was a blow at the Messiah, little as they might have thought of this; and the oath and honour of God were thus at stake.
God shows Ahaz the plans behind the invasion. That is the ground of the calm He asks for.
God knew every detail, as He lets Ahaz see. Whatever Syria, Damascus, or Rezin might plan, it was not what God willed. Everything turns on this. What the Christian needs is a conscious sense of relationship with God: then there is nothing to fear. What the people have to dread is not the strength of the enemy, but their own sin, which makes them weak.
Ahaz did not stay quiet. He leaned on the king of Assyria instead, and the outcome shows a pattern.
Our fear that evil will come on us makes us look for support in what seems to us a safe path. God then uses those very things to discipline us. The kings of Israel and of Syria came against Judah of their own will. God stops them. Ahaz and his people would lean on the king of Assyria; and God makes the Assyrian come against them in the end.
The same call runs through Scripture. One writer turns it into a question for today.
What inner peace it would give us if we learned more how to 'be quiet' in our different circumstances and put our confidence in the LORD who is able to help. The same thought appears at the very start of Israel's history: 'Fear not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord' (Ex. 14:13)... 'It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD' (Lam. 3:26). Should it be less true in our day? Surely not.
- Fear — Ahaz trembled at a threat God had already cancelled. It looked real to him, but God said it would not stand.
- Grace — God says "Fear not" to a man who, judged by his own life, had everything to fear. Ahaz earned none of it.
- Sight — The enemy looked like fire; God calls them smoke. Quietness comes from seeing the threat at God's measurement, not our own.
- Reason — The plot aimed at the house of David, so it struck at the promised Messiah. God defended His own promise, not Ahaz's merit.
- Choice — Ahaz refused to be quiet and leaned on Assyria; the very prop he chose became the rod that beat him.
Inasmuch as Syria hath taken evil counsel against thee, Ephraim [also] and the son of Remaliah, saying,
Two powers stand behind Judah's fear: Syria, and Ephraim (the northern kingdom of Israel) under its king, the son of Remaliah. God tells Ahaz what they have plotted in private — and the question is whether a frightened king will believe Him.
Syria and Israel had not always stood together. Commentators trace the alliance to shared political interest.
The king of Israel had once been at war with Syria. Now he is its ally. No doubt he wanted, on the one side, to free himself from the yoke of Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, who, as we have seen, had stripped him of a large part of his land. He also wanted to win back what Judah had taken from him, while he served the plans of his ally.
The "evil" devised was not merely an invasion. The aim reached the throne itself, and that touched far more than Ahaz.
Their venture, if it succeeded, would not merely trouble Judah. It would set aside David's line… so the oath and honour of God were at stake.
Behind the two kings, writers see a hand they themselves never recognised.
These kings aimed at nothing less than wiping out the house of David and setting up a man called "the son of Tabeal." Little as they intended it, this was truly a blow at the promised Messiah. If they did not mean this, Satan did; he was without doubt the true author of the movement.
Isaiah does not simply tell Ahaz to calm down. He tells him what his enemies said among themselves — words Ahaz may never have heard.
God points out the intentions of the two kings (v. 4-6), intentions Ahaz may not have known. But God also has His king at Jerusalem, and they will not succeed in setting up another… God knew every detail, and He lets Ahaz see it. Whatever Syria, Damascus, or Rezin might plan, it was not what God willed. Everything turns on this.
The same passage puts Judah's real weakness somewhere other than the battlefield:
The people do not have to dread the strength of the enemy. What weakens them is their own sin. The danger before them comes to nothing. But if we look for support in anything of this world, God abandons us. He leaves us to face the results of the tie we have chosen.
The plot failed for no merit in the king it threatened. Ahaz was an evil man. God moved to guard His own purpose.
But God takes care of His own purposes; no power on earth or in hell can frustrate them. He intends David's son and heir to rule the whole world in the coming day. So He would preserve the line to the end. "If we are faithless, He remains faithful — He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim. 2:13).
Kelly draws out how the attack backfired on those who launched it:
The attempt to destroy seemed terrible to those it aimed at, all the more because their conscience was bad. Yet it led at once to God revealing the doom of the destroyers. The confederacy came to nothing. The Syrian chief could not shield Ephraim, who was more guilty still. God had sentenced Ephraim — yes, to be broken within sixty-five years, so that it would no longer be a people. That is just what happened (2 Kings 17).
Notice the tone God takes with a king who deserved judgment.
But how touching is the patient grace God has toward this evil king! He reassures him instead of crushing him. He promises him deliverance. He tells him, "Take heed and be quiet" — let Me act. He says, "Fear not" to a man who had every reason to fear.
Isaiah added a warning. Rescue from this plot would not cover Ahaz's refusal to trust God.
God might rescue Ahaz from the present danger. But unless he turned to the word of the Lord and rested on it, he would not escape the punishment he deserved.
- Counsel. Syria and Ephraim were once enemies. They joined for political gain: to shake off Assyria and win back land Judah had taken.
- Target. Their plan was to set aside David's line and put their own man on the throne. Commentators see a blow aimed at the Messiah, with Satan behind it.
- Exposed. God told Ahaz the enemies' intentions, which Ahaz himself may not have known. Nothing they whispered escaped Him.
- Overruled. The plot could not stand. God was guarding His own purpose, not rewarding Ahaz. The confederacy collapsed, and within sixty-five years Ephraim was no longer a people.
- Believed — or not. God met a wicked king with "fear not" instead of judgment. But He warned him too: rescue from this threat was no substitute for resting on His word.
Let us go up against Judah, and harass it, and make a breach therein for us, and set up a king therein -- the son of Tabeal;
Two kings, Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Israel, planned more than a raid. They meant to break Judah open and set their own man on David's throne.
This is not a rumour Isaiah passed on. It is the private plan of two kings, repeated by God to the king they were plotting against.
God points out the intentions of the two kings (vv. 4-6), intentions which Ahaz perhaps did not know. But God also has His king at Jerusalem, and they will not succeed in setting up another... God knew all the details, as He gives Ahaz to see. Whatever Syria, Damascus, or Rezin might plan, it was not what God willed. On this everything turns... It is not the strength of the enemy that the people must dread, but their own sin, which weakens them.
The verse names their candidate only as the son of Tabeal. The name itself is strange for such a plan, because it speaks of the goodness of God.
Tabeal means "the goodness of El," which was the name of the opposing king in Isaiah 7:6.
This was not an ordinary grab for power. It reached further than the two kings could see.
The plot was a very determined one. These kings wanted nothing less than to wipe out the house of David and to set up a man called "the son of Tabeal." However little they intended it, this was a real blow at the promised Messiah. If they did not mean it, Satan did; he was beyond doubt the one behind the movement. This became at once a case for Jehovah to deal with. It touched the accomplishment of His purposes.
Jerusalem's safety did not rest on the man wearing its crown.
David's heir was an evil man, one of the worst that ever sat on the throne of Judah. As far as he was concerned, there was no reason for Jehovah to step in. Ahaz and Judah deserved the worst their enemies could do to them.
The reason lay elsewhere — in a birth still to come.
The prophet urged Ahaz to ask a sign, and Ahaz refused. Then the Lord gave him a sign: the virgin who would conceive and give birth to a son and call His name Emmanuel. It is a prediction concerning the virgin birth of Israel's Redeemer King, the Son of God. The thought is this: how can Jerusalem and Judah perish as long as He, the Messiah, David's Son and David's Lord, has not come?
The plan did its damage before any army arrived. Fear took the king and his people first.
The occasion was the offensive and godless alliance of Rezin, king of Syria, with Pekah, son of Remaliah and king of Israel, against Judah and Ahaz... There they were in great fear, where there was no cause for fear — and this, of all places, in Jerusalem and David's house. No wonder: the heir of David's throne did not walk like David his father. He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, or worse, and drew Judah with him into serious sin against Jehovah.
The scheme may have found sympathy inside Judah itself. A royal house that looks weak is easy to write off.
The power of the allied kings of Israel and Syria seems to have attracted the people of Judah. They despised the weakness of the house of David, for God was little in their thoughts. The people of Judah and Jerusalem seem to have favoured this alliance. In it the kings proposed to set aside the house of David in favour of the son of Tabeal... But these were not God's thoughts. In His mercy He would not yet put out the lamp of David's house.
Ahaz was told the plot would fail. He still sent for outside help — from the very power God had named as coming against him.
God assured Ahaz that this unholy alliance would not stand, but He also said to Ahaz, "The Lord will bring upon you... the king of Assyria" (verse 17). Instead of relying on Jehovah to deal with these two kings who made war with him, Ahaz sent for help to the king of Assyria.
- Plot. Two kings meant to invade Judah, break it open, and put the son of Tabeal on David's throne.
- Exposed. God repeated their private counsel back to Ahaz; He knew the details before the king did.
- Aimed higher. Whether they knew it or not, removing David's house struck at the promised Messiah. So God took the matter up Himself.
- Preserved. Judah could not perish before the Son of David came. God would not yet put out the lamp of David's house.
- Wasted fear. Ahaz trembled where there was no cause. He leaned on Assyria — the power God named as his coming judgment.
thus saith the Lord Jehovah It shall not stand, nor come to pass;
Syria and Israel had joined forces against Jerusalem. King Ahaz and his people were shaking with fear. Into that panic Isaiah carries a single sentence from God about the enemy plan: it will not stand.
The "it" God rejects is not just an invasion. It is a plan: remove Ahaz and put the invaders' own man on the throne. One writer traces the plan back further than the two kings themselves:
The aim of "the two smoldering stumps of firebrands" was to dethrone king Ahaz and put "the son of Tabeal" in his place. He was probably a Syrian; it is not a Hebrew name. This was surely Satan's plot, if not man's, to destroy the line of David. For this reason God did not hand Jerusalem over to them.
God had sworn an oath about David's line. So an attack on that throne touched His own honour:
How could He look on in peace at a compact between apostate Israel and heathen Syria? Their plan, if it succeeded, would not only trouble Judah. It would set aside David's line. It was a blow at the Messiah, little as they may have thought of this; and the oath and honour of God were therefore at stake.
Ahaz had no claim on this help. He was faithless. The reason for the rescue lay outside the king altogether:
But God takes care of His own purposes; no power on earth or in hell can frustrate them. He intends David's son and heir to rule the whole world in the coming day. So He would preserve the line to the end. "If we are faithless, He remains faithful — for He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim. 2:13). So the prophet was sent to Ahaz to assure him about the evil plan of his enemies: "It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass."
God told Ahaz what his enemies were plotting in private. He knows their plan better than the plotters do:
God knew all the details, as He shows Ahaz. Whatever Syria, Damascus, or Rezin might plan, it was not what God willed. On this everything turns. What the Christian needs is to know the relationship he has with God: then there is nothing to fear. The people should not dread the strength of the enemy, but their own sin, which weakens them.
What looked overwhelming from inside Jerusalem looked very different from God's side. God measured the two kings differently:
The king may have seen his enemies as fierce, burning firebrands. But the LORD told him through Isaiah that they were only smoldering firebrands. There was no reason to fear or to be fainthearted. The LORD said about all the "evil counsels" of Ahaz' enemies: "It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass" (v. 7).
A word this sure asks to be believed. God was listening for an answer that never came:
Terrible as the failure had been, the LORD was ready to meet the heart that would respond to His faithfulness and trust in Him… He looked for some response from the heart before Him — some feeble "Amen" to His faithful word, a little link of faith. That would allow Him, so to speak, to bring about all He had promised. But no response came.
- Plot — The invasion aimed to unseat David's line and install "the son of Tabeal". Behind the two kings, writers see Satan's hand.
- Purpose — Messiah would come from that line. So God's own oath and honour stood in the way, and the plan had no future.
- Promise — The guarantee rested on God's faithfulness, not on Ahaz. God cannot deny Himself.
- Proportion — God called the enemies who terrified Judah smoldering firebrands. The real danger was Judah's own sin, not their strength.
- Response — A word this sure asks for faith; God waited for even a feeble "Amen" from Ahaz, and heard none.
for the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within sixty-five years shall Ephraim be broken, so as to be no [more a] people;
Isaiah speaks these words to a terrified king. Rezin of Syria and Pekah of Israel have joined forces against Jerusalem. God's answer is not an army. It is a list of names and a deadline.
Two kings were closing in on the throne of David. Commentators point out that far more than one king's safety was at stake.
But God takes care of His own purposes; no power on earth or in hell can frustrate them. He intends David's son and heir to have universal dominion in the coming day; He would therefore preserve the line until the end. "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself" (2 Tim. 2:13). So God sent the prophet to Ahaz to assure him about the evil plan of his enemies: "It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass." Ephraim would be broken within 65 years, despite its alliance with pagan Syria.
Ahaz himself gave God no reason to step in. The same writer calls him "an evil man, one of the worst that ever sat upon the throne of Judah." He adds that "Ahaz and Judah deserved the worst that their enemies could inflict upon them." So the rescue rests on God's promise, not on the king's worth.
The verse reads like a chain of titles: Syria has a capital, the capital has a king, and that is the end of the list. God is not on it.
God shows comfort to His people. He knows perfectly all that is happening, and He despises the strength of the enemy. He knows who Pekah and Rezin are, and that Damascus is head of Syria. When God sends our enemies to discipline us, we have no strength against them. God knows every difficulty. What is missing is the faith that gives perfect security.
The next verse repeats the same formula for the northern kingdom. One writer notes that the chief of Ephraim's capital "is paraded before us like his ally in due form and title. Such would each remain, and no more."
Sixty-five years is an odd, precise figure. Working it out shows why it was given.
Isaiah prophesied that in sixty-five years Ephraim would be broken and would no longer be a people (Isa. 7:8). He said this in 742 B.C. Samaria fell and Israel went into captivity in 721 B.C. So the prophecy no doubt pointed to Esarhaddon planting a colony of foreigners in Samaria in 678 B.C. That fulfils the sixty-five years. This also agrees with the prophecy saying "the head of Ephraim is Samaria."
The date can be checked. Other prophecies also name a set number of years.
Compare, for instance, three predictions. Jeremiah foretold the seventy years' captivity (Jer. 29:10). Isaiah foretold that within sixty-five years Ephraim would be broken and would not be a people (Isa. 7:8). Ezekiel foretold the desolation of the land of Egypt for forty years (Ezek. 29:11-12). These are plain instances of chronological prophecy.
Ephraim came to break Judah. Instead, Ephraim is the one who will be shattered.
How blessed are the ways of God! The attack seemed terrible to those it targeted, all the more because their conscience was bad. Yet at once it brought out the doom of the attackers themselves. The confederacy came to nothing. The Syrian leader could not shield Ephraim, who was more guilty still. Ephraim's sentence was fixed: within sixty-five years it would be so broken that it would not be a people. And that is exactly how it turned out (2 Kings 17).
Note the wording. Ephraim is not merely defeated. It is "shattered from being a people." A nation with a capital and a king is told it will stop being a nation at all.
The verse takes the threat apart. Ahaz still leaned on Assyria for help, and Assyria became the next danger.
Whatever Syria, Damascus, or Rezin might plan, it was not what God willed. On this all turns. What the Christian needs is a conscious relationship with God: then there is nothing to fear. The people should not dread the strength of the enemy, but their own sin, which weakens them. The danger they face ends in nothing. But if we look for any support at all in something of this world, God abandons us. He leaves us to the consequences of the support we have chosen. But Ahaz, afraid and unbelieving, leaned on Assyria — and it was from the Assyrian that Judah would need deliverance.
- Purpose. The attack struck at David's line, so God made it His own matter. No power on earth or in hell can frustrate His purposes.
- Measure. Syria's chain of command stops at Rezin; God names the enemy in full and shows him to be nothing more.
- Deadline. Isaiah set a date of sixty-five years. Esarhaddon settled foreigners in Samaria in 678 B.C., and Ephraim stopped being a people.
- Reversal. Those who came to destroy heard their own sentence instead, and it happened exactly as spoken.
- Danger. Their own sin, not the enemy's strength, weakened them. Leaning on worldly help left Ahaz to face what he chose.
and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If ye believe not, surely ye shall not be established.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.