Explaining the Book of Isaiah.
FOREWORD by John David.
Isaiah the poetic prophet begins the historical narrative of Judah’s descent into its wayward ways of idolatry and immorality. It is not always easy to discern between Isaiah’s own voice (viewpoint) and God’s direct voice to Judah through Isaiah’s prophecies. Isaiah the historian is not the same voice as Isaiah the poet whose verse embellishes much of what he says.
Then too, the poetic literary devices using simile, metaphor, metonym, and allegory make the text puzzling. This is because of the continuous flow of geographic references unfamiliar to all but scholars and those of the literati. Thus nearly half of its sixty six chapters seem so crowded they are obtuse. However, if the reader can persist in the slow digestion of this unusual book, and focus on the glorious main themes of Isaiah he will be amply rewarded for his perseverance. These themes are:-
1. Restoration;
2. return to Palestine;
3. preservation of the godly remnant;
4. the pleas of the Lord for repentance;
5. the overtures of an atoning Saviour to wholehearted seekers;
6. the irrevocability of the Messianic promise to David’s descendants;
7. the endearing place of Judah in the heart of God;
8. that painful suffering of divine chastisement has a merciful purpose;
9. that sins even in worst case scenarios can be forgiven at repentance;
10. that sin always has consequences;
11. that the sinner can pass the point of no return in his impenitence;
12. that the stubbornness was typical of God’s people called Israel;
13. that God uses godless nations to discipline the wayward godly;
14. that God shows vengeance towards enemies of God’s people;
15. that God is sovereign in the hearts of kings to accomplish His will.
Only under the evil reign of Ahaz (worse than all others except Manasseh) does he commence his anecdotal style weighed down with a multitude of varying literary devices and geographic place names. The metonym ‘Ephraim’ represents the rebel ten tribes in Samaria to the north, otherwise called Israel. What is confusing, however, is that Isaiah later uses ‘Israel’ to solely mean the southern kingdom of Judah (and Benjamin) with its capital Jerusalem. The alternating use of real name at one moment and the pseudonym the next moment is perhaps the prophet’s purposeful indirectness to confuse his hostile opponents. Thus it was a security measure to preserve his freedom and the continuance of his prophetic ministry. Jesus used parables in like manner.
In the midst of desolation and retribution for Judah’s idolatrous ways, Isaiah predicts the Saviour, God’s own beloved Son: Immanuel.
Compare Isaiah 7: 14-16, to 9:6-7.
Always bear in mind that the promises and offers of merciful loving-kindness that appear so unexpectedly in the sixty six chapters are based upon his avowed promise to David and his descendants of Judah on the one hand. On the other hand undeserved mercy is based on His promise to Solomon over Jerusalem. This is essential to fathom the Book of Isaiah and Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews.
Hereunder is: *KJV Bible Public Domain ex biblegateway.com
Chapter heading, sub headings, and footnotes by John David.
ISAIAH 7
Under evil Ahaz the Messianic hope is foreshadowed.
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.
2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.
3 Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field;
4 And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.
5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying,
6 Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal:
7 Thus saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.
9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.
10 Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying,
11 Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.
12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.
The sign of Immanuel, the Son of David, the Messiah..
13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?
14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15 Butter and honey shall he 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 thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
Unprecedented Assyrian attacks upon region predicted.
17 The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes.
20 In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;
22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.
23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.
24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.
25 And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.
*KJV Bible is Public Domain ex biblegateway.com Sub headings of text by John David.
FOOTNOTES by John David.
Isaiah 7:5.
Ephraim, one of the twelve tribes, is also used as metonym for all ten rebel Israeli tribes in Samaria. It would ally itself with Rezin of Syria to attack Jerusalem. Though this was the plan, Isaiah predicted it would be unsuccessful.
Isaiah 7:8.
Within 65 years Ephraim (Israel in Samaria) would not be a people. This obscure prophecy meant that the ten rebel tribes in Samaria, called Israel, would disappear within sixty five years. This was fulfilled within the time span predicted. Assyria, which would sack Damascus the capital of Syria, would also invade Samaria and deport the mass bulk of the population into exile. In their place Syrians would repopulate the region, similar to what occurred under Stalin using mass forced migration to accomplish his Soviet Union’s atheistic revolution. Millions of Russians were, for example, sent to repopulate Kazakhstan in central East Asia. .
Isaiah 7:9.
Remaliah’s son was King Pekah of the Israeli rebel tribes in the north.
Isaiah 7:11. Though the disbelieving Ahaz refused to even ask for a sign that the prophecy was true, two signs were indicated in this chapter: the messianic sign in vs.14, and the sign of Isaiah’s son being conceived. This alluded to Mahershalalhashbaz (Cp: 7.16; 8:4).
The purposeful indirectness of the prophet makes for difficult differentiation. The Son in 7:14 was not the same as the son in 7:16. The first would be seven centuries in the distant future: Immanuel, the Son of David, born to Mary the young virgin. The son in 7:16 was Mahershalalhashbaz to be born by Isaiah’s wife, the Prophetess.
Isaiah 7:14.
The sign of a renewed kingdom of David lay in the birth of Christ. The child would be given the name of Immanuel about 700 years later in Bethlehem, Judea born of the Virgin Mary. Cp. Isaiah 7:14-16; 8:13-15; 9:2; 9: 6-7. Though the angel Gabriel told Mary and Joseph to name the child Jesus, the gospel writer calls him Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:16.
‘The land that thou abhorrest,’ is an allusion to Samaria. Both the thrones of Samaria and Syria will be broken. The power of the confederate two kingdoms: Israel in Samaria and Damascus in Syria would cease to exist while the boy Mahershalalhashbaz is still only a young minor. Ephraim (poetic name) or Israel was at continual enmity with the southern kingdom of Judah.
Isaiah 7:17. ‘The land’, is an allusion to ‘The Promised Land of Israel’, once united under King David and Solomon. Both kingdoms would cease to exist when the boy is still only a minor, before the age of reason. Ephraim the poetic name of Israel was at continual enmity with the southern kingdom of Judah.
Isaiah 7:24. Because of enemy hostilities by Ephraim and Assyria farming would be neglected and the land arid.
