Isaiah 7:1-14

God protects those who place their trust only in Him. Because of their faith they are called according to His purpose for their lives.

God’s promises are true and His plans are just. The tribe of Judah would survive to bring forth the Christ child. What is our part in His plan? He requires us to be fair in our judgement, to have mercy and compassion even if the plans of destruction are His, and to know that it is nothing to do with our righteousness but everything to do with His. His ways are higher than ours and we cannot see the whole picture…He does!

Aram (also known as Syria) and Israel have joined forces to rebel against the Assyrian Empire. They are trying to force Judah to join their rebellion. The address highlights God’s promise to preserve David’s family on the throne of Jerusalem.

Isaiah’s meeting with Ahaz should have encouraged his faith in Yahweh to deliver Judah from its present predicament. Instead, Ahaz discounts the reassurance Yahweh offers, and compounds his sin by refusing a divine sign. The sign of Immanuel  has implications for the immediate future: Within a year or two—the time it would take for a woman to conceive, give birth, and rear a young boy—the threat from the Syro-Ephraimite alliance will have passed. The ultimate fulfillment of the sign points to the future restoration of God’s relationship with His people through the miraculous birth of God in human form. Faithlife Bible.

The Book of Isaiah was written over the period of the prophet’s lifetime; but chapters 7–12 were set in the context of the Syro-Ephraimite wars. Syria is the later name for the ancient nation of Aram. The phrase house of David is a substitute term for the king of Judah, Ahaz. This phrase recalls the Lord’s eternal covenant with David in which He promised to give to His servant an eternal seed, throne, and kingdom. The word Ephraim represents the northern kingdom, Israel. The heart of the nation was moved because Syria had defeated Ahaz earlier. God contemptuously dismissed the arrogant kings of Israel and Syria. 

Shear-Jashub means “A Remnant Will Return.” The name of Isaiah’s son spoke of a coming Exile and then the salvation of the remaining faithful. All this would occur long after Isaiah’s lifetime. The plotting of Syria and Ephraim was no secret to God, who made it known to His servant Isaiah. Tabel means “Good for Nothing.” Syria and Israel wanted to place an incompetent puppet king over Judah. 

The plans of humankind are futile when they oppose the will of God.

Believing entails having knowledge of God’s Word, accepting that it is true, and placing our trust in the Lord to help us keep it. Believing the Lord is the key to receiving His promises. The sign is for many. The word Lord speaks of the sovereignty of God, of His great control over all His creation. The pronoun Himself adds an absolute certainty to the impending sign. The Hebrew word rendered virgin means “a young woman of marriageable age.” But the word also connotes the idea of virginity, for the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible made in the second century b.c., translates the Hebrew word with a Greek word that specifically means “virgin.” NKJ Bible.

Isaiah 7:1-14

7 Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it. 2 And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind.

3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, 4 and say to him: ‘Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, 6 “Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel”—7 thus says the Lord God:

“It shall not stand,

Nor shall it come to pass.

8 For the head of Syria is Damascus,

And the head of Damascus is Rezin.

Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken,

So that it will not be a people.

9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,

And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son.

If you will not believe,

Surely you shall not be established.” ’ ”

10 Moreover the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, 11 “Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.”

12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord!”

13 Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

15 Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings. 17 The Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father’s house—days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.”

2 Samuel 8:6 | Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians became David’s servants, and brought tribute. So the LORD preserved David wherever he went.

2 Kings 16:5 | Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war; and they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him.

2 Chronicles 20:20 | So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.”

Isaiah 8:10 | Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; Speak the word, but it will not stand, For God is with us.”