therefore behold, the Lord will bring up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory; and he shall mount up over all his channels, and go over all his banks
God's people refused a quiet stream He had given them and leaned on human strength instead. Isaiah answers that the power they leaned on will flood their land, rising over its banks.
The previous verse names a quiet stream the people turned down. What that water stood for explains why God answers with a flood.
They refused the soft-flowing waters of Shiloah — those promises to the house of David, given to cheer the heart of the faithful one until Shiloh would come. They rejoiced instead in human strength, in Rezin and Remaliah's son. So the Lord Jehovah Himself would step in. Instead of the refreshing streams of Shiloah, He would bring on them the fierce torrent that would reach to the neck, overflowing its channels and its banks — the king of Assyria and all his glory.
Why would anyone prefer the strong current? Because something in us cannot rest on God alone for tomorrow.
This people had refused the softly flowing waters of Shiloah. They had despised the house of David and rejoiced in Rezin and Pekah. They did not rejoice in God's gentle way, which keeps the heart always dependent. If the flesh can have a support, it is in man, in what looks strong; it has no confidence if there is only God for tomorrow... God would have us be in appearance the most feeble, so that He should be our only strength.
Notice who brings the river. The Lord does it, and He shapes the punishment to fit the choice.
They despised the waters of Shiloah. So the Lord brings on them the waters of the river, strong and many. He sends against them as their master the one on whom they leaned. Such is the end of man's wisdom.
The "waters of the River, mighty and many" are not about weather. Rising, overflowing water is a standard picture in the prophets, and this verse names what it means: a king and his army.
This is a figure well known in the prophets, used to signify overwhelming destruction by invading hostile armies. See, for example, Isaiah 10:22; Isaiah 28:2; Jer. 47:2; Dan. 11:22. It may also allude to the flood of Noah's day, when the overflowing waters swept away the corrupt and the ungodly.
Others read the picture in a related way — rivers standing for peoples in motion, driven by the principles that rule them.
The rivers represent the activity of the people under certain principles; Isa. 8:5-8. The waters of the river (v. 7) are the king of Assyria and all his glory.
The flood rises high, but it does not drown the land. Kelly reads the picture as pointing past Isaiah's own day to the last days, and past the invader to the One who owns the land.
We are here looking at the scenes of the last days, whatever foreshadowing there may be in the partial fulfilment near at hand. The water of Shiloah was despised, so the far different waters of the Assyrian must come, and these are all but overwhelming. Then He shall at length appear to vindicate His land — the One whose coming as a man God had announced to the unbelieving Ahaz as His sign in mercy. The Assyrian fills the land in pride, reaching even "to the neck". Yet he is not simply checked and put to shame. He is broken utterly and for ever in Immanuel's land.
The chapter does not leave the godly to be swept along with the nation. They are given a different fear, and a shelter.
This overwhelming disaster would come on the nation as a whole. But God would keep a faithful and godly remnant safe. The pledge of that deliverance was that the virgin's Son, Immanuel, is with them (v. 10). The land is Immanuel's, and He will be in the midst of His people... The godly are therefore urged not to fear what the ungodly fear, but to "sanctify the LORD of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary" (Isa. 8:12-14).
- Refused — The people turned down God's quiet stream — the promises tied to David's house. They cheered for human strength instead.
- Preferred — God's gentle way keeps the heart dependent day by day. The flesh reaches for what looks strong. So God leaves His people looking weak, that He alone may be their strength.
- Repaid — The Lord Himself brings the river up: He sends back the power they leaned on, now as their master. That is where human cleverness ends.
- Restrained — The flood is an invading army, and it rises only to the neck. The land is Immanuel's, and there the invader is broken for ever.
- Refuge — In the rising water the faithful do not join the panic. They treat the LORD of hosts as holy, and He becomes their sanctuary.
and he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow it and go further, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel!
Isaiah has warned that Assyria will pour over the land like a river bursting its banks. Here the flood sweeps south into Judah — and the verse names the trampled land as Immanuel's, the child promised in the chapter before.
Shiloah was a small stream whose water flowed softly. The prophet uses it as a picture of God's gentle way with His people. Judah preferred the visible strength of neighbouring kings. One writer shows how the punishment matched the sin:
The people here had no faith, any more than the king in the earlier scene. Both of them despised the ways and the promises of God. Both their trust and their fear rested on man. Ahaz cowered before the two kings of Israel and Syria, whose fierce anger the Lord scornfully called two tails of smoking, burnt-out sticks. The people refused the softly flowing streams of Shiloah. Their punishment would be just. The violent river, the Assyrian, would rise and overflow and almost overwhelm the land.
Rezin and Pekah were the kings of Israel and Syria. Leaning on them instead of God exposes a habit of the human heart:
They had despised the house of David. They rejoiced in Rezin and Pekah instead of God's gentle way, which keeps the heart always dependent. If human nature can find support, it is in man, in whatever looks strong. It has no confidence when God alone is there for tomorrow.
The flood rises, but it stops at a line God draws. "To the neck" means the head is still above water. Assyria ravaged Judah, but Jerusalem stood.
Judah would not go unpunished. But the king of Assyria's power against Judah would be limited, for God would not allow him to take Jerusalem. This took place in the days of Hezekiah. Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, took Samaria and carried Israel into captivity. Some years later, "Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them" (2 Kings 18:13). But when Sennacherib sent his general Rab-shakeh against Jerusalem, the Lord stepped in, saying, "I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David" (2 Kings 19:34).
The invader's wings spread from border to border. Yet the verse names the true owner of the land: Immanuel.
Assyria did not know then, and the nations have not known since, that the land belongs primarily to Immanuel and only secondarily to the Jew.
Later the Owner came in person:
When Immanuel came into it, though it was His land, He had no place to lay His head in it. And who was to blame for that? The people who had sold the land and themselves into bondage, and did not recognise the Kinsman-Redeemer when He lived among them.
One writer reads the verse on two levels: the Assyrian of Isaiah's day, and a later invader he foreshadows.
Isaiah 8:8 foretells that the wing of the king of Assyria would fill the breadth of the land — the land of Immanuel. This happened soon after. Yet it is also a picture of the Assyrian's attacks in the last days.
For those who trusted God while the water rose, the name at the end of the verse was the whole answer.
This overwhelming disaster would come on the nation as a whole. But God would deliver a faithful and godly remnant. And the pledge of this deliverance was that the virgin's Son, Immanuel, is with them (v. 10). The land is Immanuel's. He will be among His people, as He was with the three young Hebrew men in the fiery furnace, and as Jesus was with His disciples on the sea.
- Refusal. Judah refused the quiet stream of God's way and leaned on stronger-looking men. So God sent the river they admired.
- Flood. God brought the Assyrian over Judah like a river bursting its banks, overflowing the land from border to border.
- Limit. "To the neck" is mercy inside judgment. The water rose high, but God fixed where it stopped and would not let Assyria take Jerusalem.
- Deed. Even at the flood's height God names the land Immanuel's. The nations occupy it, but they have never owned it.
- Presence. The name over the land is also the remnant's safety: Immanuel is with them, standing with His own inside the trouble, not only after it.