· Ahaz - A most wicked king: yet no prophecies are more comfortable than those which were delivered in his time; God so ordering it for the encouragement of the faithful that lived under his impious reign.
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· The mention of “David” alludes, in sad contrast with the present, to the time when David made Syria subject to him.
2 Samuel 8:6
“Then David put garrisons among the Arameans of Damascus, and the Arameans became servants to David, bringing tribute And the LORD helped David wherever he went.”
· There must always be this difference between the fear of the godly and of the ungodly, that the ungodly find no remedy for composing their minds; but the godly immediately betake themselves to God, in whom, knowing that they have a very safe harbour, though they be harassed by uneasiness, still they remain calm.
· Ahaz would trust Assyria rather than the Lord. As a result, at that same spot the Assyrian officer, with an army behind him, stood to threaten Jerusalem in Isaiah 36:2. In a few years, the same nation Ahaz had trusted came to destroy them.
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· Note, if God is often found of those who seek him not, much more will he be found of those who seek him diligently. He speaks comfort to many who not only are not worthy of it, but do not so much as enquire after it.
· Shear-jashub mean “a remnant shall return” and suggests both judgement (God’s people will be reduced to a remnant) and grace (that remnant will return).
· Note, God sometimes sends comforts to his people very seasonably and in what time they are most afraid, encourages them to trust in him.
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· Defiance in the face of evil is called for by the faithfulness of God.
· “Two stubs of smoldering firebrands” - Which have but a little smoke and will quickly be quenched.
· This metaphor yields high consolation, for it warns us to form a very different opinion about the violence of the ungodly from what it appears to be.
· Isaiah 6:9,10 predicted that dull hearts would not believe any word from God. Here by the aqueduct it happened. The message to Ahaz was to cease the kind of fretful preparations they were doing, a message of “be quiet and do nothing”. 30:15 gives the same message; with the Lord to protect them the proper response would be quiet confidence. God’s salvation comes by ceasing from our works to rest in Christ (Hebrews 4:9,10). Instead with a powerful army already gathering against him, Ahaz resorted to worldly pragmatism, political expediency, and covenantal betrayal.
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· They wanted to install someone whose name we do not know. He is referred to only as “the son of Tabeel”. There was no covenant of the Lord with him or his ancestors. In contrast to this, Ahaz could have rested in God’s promise, “… I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Samuel 7:14).
· Note that it was not Ahaz who described the plot against him (vv.5, 6), but the Lord reported it to Ahaz! The Lord knew his trouble.
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· Proverbs 21:30
There is no wisdom and no understanding
and no counsel against the LORD.
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· Unbelief in God destabilizes everything for Ahaz, not just his religious life.
· The grace of faith is absolutely necessary to the quieting and composing of the mind in the midst of all the tosses of this present time.
· Hence we ought to draw a universal doctrine, that, when we have departed from the word of God, though we may suppose that we are firmly established, still ruin is at hand.
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· The Lord is offering a sign for the confirmation of this thing that Ahaz enemies will be destroyed and him preserved.
· It was undoubtedly astonishing forbearance towards this wicked king and people of God, that not only did he patiently bear their distrust for a time, but so graciously condescended to them that he was willing to give them any pledge of his power which they chose.
· It is extremely rare that God would allow a man to choose what miracle he wanted performed. This was the amazing offer from God to Ahaz. (The angels must have been stunned at such a thing.) It was as if God had said, “What can I do to assure you that I am serious about keeping my promise to you?” Ahaz could have asked for the shadow to reverse (38:7,8). He could have asked for all the horses in the armies of Israel and Aram to run into the Sea of Galilee and drown; the Lord would have done it. Instead Ahaz was committed to his unbelief.
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· But there was the warrant of the prophet of God; to have asked a sign, when thus offered, would not have been a tempting of God. Ahaz true reason for declining was his resolve not to do God’s will, but to negotiate with Assyria, and persevere in his idolatry. Men often excuse their distrust in god, and trust in their own devices, by professed reverence for God.
· Not to believe Gods word without a sign is to tempt God, but to refuse a sign when God offers it for the aid and help of our infirmity is to rebel against him.
· Ahaz did not want a sign because he had already made up his mind about who he was going to trust.
2 Kings 16:7
“So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son; come up and deliver me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me."”
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· Is it a small thing - Is it not wickedness enough.
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· The prophecy concerning Immanuel is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Matthew 1:23
"BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US."
· It is related to the larger OT theme in which God brings new life to barren women.
· If He had not been Immanuel, God with us, He could not be Jesus (saviour)
· “The overwhelming majority of those who reject the virgin birth reject also the whole supernatural content of the New Testament, and make of the ‘resurrection’ just what the word ‘resurrection’ most emphatically did not mean — a permanence of the influence of Jesus or a mere spiritual existence of Jesus beyond the grave” (Christianity and Liberalism, p. 108).
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· Butter and Honey - Indicating the plainness and simplicity of the life in which the young Immanuel should be brought up.
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· Meaning, the Egyptians: for since the country is hot and moist, it is full of flies, as Assyria is full of bees.
· Assyria - In the empire of Assyria, or Babylon; for these two were united into one empire, and therefore in scripture are promiscuously called sometimes by one title, and sometimes by the other.
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· It is not without reason that he says that this razor is hired; for he expresses by it the dreadful nature of the calamity that would be brought upon them by the Assyrians.
· “Hair of the legs” - That is, that which is from the belly downward meaning that he would destroy both great and small.
· Many are beaten with that arm of flesh that they trusted to rather than to the arm of the Lord, and which they were at a great expense upon, when by faith and prayer they might have found cheap and easy succour in God.
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· The population of God’s people is so diminished that it takes only a few animals to produce more than enough food for the remnant.
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· The number of men will be so small that a little amount of milk will be able to nourish all abundantly.
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· With arrows - Either to hunt, or to defend themselves from wild beasts, which commonly abide in desolate grounds.
· Now, it is a most wretched change, when fields formerly cultivated and fertile are turned into woods and thickets.
Conclusion
The sin of a land is sure to bring foreign invasion and all kinds of trouble, but to those who will trust Him, God sends seasonable comforts, and the strongest consolations in times of trouble are those that come from expectation of and from Christ.
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