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And as you are, if you would
turn with me in your copies of God's word to Isaiah's prophecy,
Isaiah and chapter seven. This evening, the intention is
that we would, with God's help, come to the end of this chapter.
But instead of reading the entirety at one go, I'd like just to read
the first nine verses and then we'll pick up our reading as
we continue in our time together. So that's Isaiah chapter seven.
We'll commence our reading there at the first verse. Here once
again, the word of our God. 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 Amalia,
king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it,
but could not prevail against it. 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. Then said the Lord unto Isaiah,
Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shir Yahshub thy son, at
the end of the conduit of the upper pole in the highway of
the fuller's field, and say unto him, take heed and be quiet. Fear not, neither be fainthearted
for the two tales of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger
of resin with Syria and of the son of Amalia. Because Syria,
Ephraim and the son of Amalia have taken evil counsel against
thee, saying, let us go up against Judah and Vexit. Let us make
a breach therein for us and set a king in the midst of it, even
the king, even the son of Tabeo. Thus saith the Lord God, it shall
not stand, neither shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria
is Damascus, the head of Damascus. is resin, and within three score
and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,
and the head of Samaria is Romaliah's son." We'll pause our reading
of God's word just there. We are at this moment in time,
somewhere between five and 10 years removed, from the last
verse of chapter six. We find the prophet has in that
period of time done nothing that has been recorded at least for
us in scripture. We can infer from his commission in chapter
six that he has been incessant in his preaching. His commission
was to preach and to do so constantly. And so it's right for us to assume
that he did so. But in terms of anything noteworthy,
this is the first account that we have of the prophet since
the vision of the Lord in the temple. And as we see the timestamps
in chapter 6.1 and chapter 7.1, we recognize that there is somewhere
between five and 10 years that have elapsed. Now in this time,
in relative obscurity, we know that the prophet was, as we already
said, doing his work as a minister of the gospel. He's preaching. We also know that he has a family.
In fact, we know from this text that sometime between the end
of chapter six and the beginning of chapter seven, he has a son.
And his son is named Shir Yahshuv. Now, why is that significant?
Significant because Shir Yahshuv, as you might note in perhaps
the margin of your translations, it means that a remnant shall
return. What's striking is the very name actually appeared in
chapter 6 and verse 13. Or at least it's cognate. You remember in 6.13 we're told
that a tenth shall return. The word there in the Hebrew
is shur yashuv, very much. reminiscent of what we have here
in the text. And so some commentators have
suggested either that the son was named so, either by a divine
command directly, or simply Isaiah, looking with faith upon the promise
that was given to him in 613. And indeed, you and I, we shouldn't
see those two things as being mutually exclusive. Even if the
Lord God did command him to name his son so, beloved he, the prophet
would be willing to do so. because they believed what God
had revealed. Well, what we find in our texts is the prophet coming
out of a period of relative obscurity and coming on to the national
stage of Judean politics. He intervenes as God's prophet
in this moment. And friend, you and I, we note
that when the prophet intervenes, Judah is in a case that has not
been thus far in Isaiah's ministry. You remember under the days of
Uzziah, Judah was a prosperous kingdom. In fact, her prosperity
was only surpassed by that of Solomon. She was in a position
of strength. Economically, she was booming. But now, even as we read from
2 Chronicles 28, things have changed. You remember that in
that text that we just read moments ago, that actually Judah had
been ravaged by war. She had been defeated by Israel
and by Syria already. And only for the intervention
of God's prophet, did those who were captive make a return to
Judah. And so friend, though she was
miraculously rescued beforehand, she as a kingdom was certainly
demoralized. And now after that defeat, The
prophet goes to the fuller's field as Ahaz the king looks
upon the horizon and he sees thunderclouds of another affliction. He sees once again, the very
nations that had destroyed or nearly destroyed him previously
are now gathering once again around Jerusalem. And it's in
that moment that our prophet enters once again into our focus. He stands there in the fuller's
field with Shir Yeshuv, his son, standing before Ahaz and Ahaz's
men. And friend, the threat that's
on the horizon is the Syrio-Ephraimite alliance. It was an alliance
between Israel, that's the northern tribes, and Syria, that's the
kingdom of Syria that bordered to her north and east. And this
alliance was, we actually know quite a lot about it, both from
the pages of scripture and even through Assyrian records, but
the alliance essentially was an attempt, one of many attempts,
to pull themselves out from under Assyrian control. That was the
empire further to the north and to the east. Both the kingdom
of Syria and the kingdom of Israel wanted no part with the Assyrian
empire. And so they formed an alliance.
And we also know that at this time, this alliance at this stage
was in negotiations with Egypt. Egypt was interested as well
in opposing the Assyrian Empire. And friend, what this meant simply
was that if this alliance was to be formed, there needed to
be free movement of troops and supplies between Egypt, Syria,
and Israel. The only problem was Judah, stood
directly between the alliance and Egypt. And so, both the Syrio
and Ephraimite counselors contrive a plan. And the plan is recorded
for us in our text. The plan is not to decimate Judah.
The plan is not to ruin it, not at all. The plan is really to
engage in a coup d'etat. to overthrow the house of David,
to overthrow Ahaz because Ahaz had already pledged himself to
Assyria. And so the idea was by force,
Syria and Israel would remove Ahaz and the entirety of the
house of David from the throne. That's the crisis. It is a crisis
most pointedly, most directly for the house of David, not principally
for Judah. Judah really was supposed to
serve in the alliance by supplying forces as they continue to resist
Assyria to the north. That's the context. And friend,
as you look at the text, you notice that what we've read,
we were told directly that this was the plan. They were intending
to make a breach for themselves so as to put the king, that is
the son of Tebiel in place of Ahaz. Again, you find that in
verse six. But the prophet stands there
to tell Ahaz that none of it will come to pass, none of it. And so friend, he describes very
pointedly what will come. And note how he says it here
in verse 8, he says, the head of Syria is Damascus, the head
of Damascus is Rezan. Within three score and five years
shall Ephraim be broken. Then down to verse 9, and the
head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Romaliah's
son. Note what he's saying, he's saying, look, these kingdoms
and these capitals will only have influence within their own
bounds. In other words, they will not
succeed in subjugating Judah and removing the house of David
from the throne. That's what he's saying. These
kings will stay in their places regardless of their ambitions,
regardless of their conspiracy, and even Ephraim, that is Israel,
will be destroyed. Now friend, that's where we leave
the text. But as we continue through this
passage this evening, you'll notice that that really the focus
isn't even on the crisis. Most of the text is devoted to
dealing with Ahaz's response to the promise that has just
been given. Most of this text is concerned with Ahaz's very
apparent unbelief. This is a crisis for the house
of David. The fear was not that Judah would be destroyed, but
that Judah would have a different king, a different dynasty. And
Ahaz trembled. He feared that it might be so.
Now friend, what really was at heart in that fear? What lay
at its foundation? Friend, quite a lot. Was it not
the case that the house of David had been promised by God that
it would be through the Davidic line that Shiloh would come,
that is the one to whom the scepter of Israel belonged, he would
come. And it would be in Shiloh, that
is the person who is Shiloh, that the throne of David would
be established forever. In other words, that Messiah
would come. that he would reign and in him David's throne would
be everlastingly preserved. All of that had been promised
well before. And friend, that means then that Ahaz's unbelief
in this moment was really a very direct rejection of all of those
promises. The promise was that the house
of David would be preserved in the Messiah. and Ahaz now is terrified that
the Syrio-Ephraimite forces will somehow destroy the plan of God.
Now friends, as you look at this text, you recognize that this
is then a clear rejection of Christ, Ahaz is unbelief. But
I want you to notice as well, just very briefly that this is
perhaps the most, no, this is by far as most commentators agree,
the most complicated text in the prophecy of Isaiah. It's
complicated for Jewish expositors and understandably, because they
do not wanna see the Lord Jesus in this text. But even for Christian
commentators, this text is incredibly difficult. Even among our most
Orthodox men, as many men have made comments on this, there
seems to be just as many variations on the text. But I wanna say this, there is
one point of clarity friend, and that is that this text is
to direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ. I submit to you if we
keep that medium, that this text actually, it actually does become
quite clear. This text is about the Lord Jesus.
But as it is a text, friend, that points us to Christ, it
also is a text that exposes to us the folly of unbelief. It sets in contrast the one who
really does believe in the promises of God. and the man who will
take himself to any and every other savior. It's a text, in
other words, friend, that shows us that only faith in Christ
secures souls. And for us to see that, I want
us to go back to the text and we'll resume our reading there
at the end of verse nine. If ye will not believe, surely
ye shall not be established. Moreover, the Lord spake again
unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God. Ask it either
in the depth or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will
not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And he said, Hear now,
O house of David. Is it a small thing for you to
weary men? But will you weary my God? You and I, we see the prophet
standing there with Shir Yashuv, perhaps a boy no older than five
years old. They stand there in the fuller's
field and friend, as we see them in the text, the promise that
was just made, you imagine it echoing across the field. It
shall not stand. The friend interrupting that
echo is that last line of the ninth verse. No longer is the
prophet concerned with what is to happen, he's concerned with
Ahaz. He's concerned especially with Ahaz's response to the promise. And our text reads, he says,
if you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.
In the Hebrew, literally it is, if you will not believe, ye shall
not believe. I suppose that's somewhat difficult
for us to understand, but even in our marginal notes, it is
smoothed out for us. The sense is, if you will not
believe, it's because you have not faith. If you will not believe,
it is because you have no real habit of faith. That is, you
have no real inclination to believe. To put it even into the vernacular
for us, the sense, friend, actually in the original is, If you do
not believe, it is because you will not believe. But the Lord,
through the prophets, says, well, ask a sign. Ask a sign. If you will not believe and you
wish to have your faith strengthened, ask a sign and I'll confirm.
A friend behind that, of course, is a tacit question, isn't it?
Ahaz, do you want to believe? If Ahaz wanted to believe, Then
friend, here's his opportunity. If he is flagging in faith, if
he has any faith at all, then here is a sign that is supposed
to encourage him. Ask a sign. To which Ahaz responds,
I will not tempt the Lord. Now, in verse 12, we have Ahaz's
response, but verse 13 really, really, really helps us to understand
how we're supposed to read Ahaz's reply. Because there the prophet
very tersely rebukes the king. He says directly, is it a small
thing for you to weary men? Will you weary my God also? The
word weary there is the same word in the Hebrew for grieve.
The sentence is, are you grieving men? And Ahaz certainly was a
grief to the godly in the land. And now he comes to the king
and he says, will you grieve God? Who comes to you now so
extraordinarily? Who comes to you now so particularly? Will you grieve him? Friend, what you and I recognize
then is that Ahaz's response in verse 12 was not pious. It
was not from humility. In fact, friend, what you and
I hear in this text is a man who says, I won't ask a sign
of the Lord because I'm not interested in the Lord's help. That's ultimately
what it is. The sense, friend, in this text
is that Ahaz really is not interested in a sign because Well, he's
made other arrangements. That's the idea, and in fact,
he had. As we read from 2 Chronicles 28, and as we read also in 2
Kings 28, Ahaz had established an alliance with the king of
Assyria. He did not need the salvation of God, and so he did
not need to ask a sign. I think there are two basic lessons,
friend, that you and I can learn from Ahaz. I think Ahaz really
epitomizes, in one sense, the natural man and his response,
his natural response to the offer of God's grace. Here you have
a man, friend, who has no interest in salvation from God's hand.
He's a political, a practical man. A man who has his own connections
and will rely on his own ingenuity and on his own politicking to
get himself out of a difficult place. He doesn't need God. He sacrifices to his net. He
trusts in his industry. He does not need the Lord. That's
exactly what we find in the king. Friend, we also find a man here
who shows us that if you will not trust in Christ, and Ahaz
did not trust in the promise of Christ, as is evident in this
text, then you'll make another savior. I want you to notice
how Ahaz describes himself to the king of Assyria. He says,
he describes himself as servant and son to the Assyrian overlord. King of Judah. son of David,
but makes himself son and servant to a heathen king. What you see here is a man who
relies upon a counter alliance, not upon God. A man who relies
upon his politics and not upon divine promise. And beloved,
we even see this in how he engages in idolatry. He burnt incense
in the valley of the Son of Canaan, and burnt his children in the
fire. He burnt incense in the high places, 2 Chronicles 28.
And all that friend, as we find in that text as well, it was
simply a means to save himself. And beloved, all false religion
is. All false religion is simply
an instrument devised by men so as to save themselves. Beloved,
if you will not take the Lord Jesus Christ, Ahaz epitomizes
what you will do. You'll find another savior. You'll
entrust yourself to anyone and anything else. Beloved, the question
for us as we look at just these first few verses is, is Christ
alone your hope? Christ in the promise. As he's
held forth to us in the gospel, is he sufficient for you? Or
are you looking for some other kind of security? We need to
use lawful means. We're commanded even diligently
to use lawful means, but never to trust in them. Our calling is to make the Lord
God in Jesus Christ, our refuge. And only in him to trust. And
so is it Christ alone friend this evening, upon which your
life hangs? Our second point this evening
begins really with what you could say is the crux of this entire
chapter. It is the sign provided by God,
and we find that from verse 14 and following. So if you would
look back with me in your copies of God's word, Isaiah 7, and
we'll resume our reading there at the 14th verse. Therefore, the Lord himself shall
give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. Butter and
honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose
the good. For behold, the child shall know
to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou
aborest shall be forsaken of both her kingdoms. The Lord says
he will give you a sign. He will provide the sign himself.
And there's a command in the text, it's behold, look. And he's saying to Ahaz, look
now, look now. And he says, this is the sign.
A virgin shall conceive and bear a son. The word virgin there
should be taken as a young woman who has never known a man. She
will conceive and bear a son. To that next line, and you'll
notice this even in the margins of our authorized versions, the
next line is not addressed to Ahaz. It's in the feminine singular. The next line is addressed not
to Ahaz, but to the virgin. And thou shalt call him Immanuel. Thou shalt call his name Immanuel. What's going on here? Friend,
I want you to notice that he addresses the Virgin here. And
then if you would look over at chapter eight and verse eight,
the prophet addresses Emmanuel himself in the text. And he addresses both presently. It's as though the prophet is
looking through the corridors of time, as though present. And he's calling them to this
moment. and he's calling Ahaz's attention to them presently at
this moment as well. One of our forebears, J. Gresham
Machen, paraphrased it this way. It's as though the prophet says,
I see a wonderful child whose birth shall bring salvation to
his people. As though he's looking through
the corridors of time and seeing Christ presently. And before
such a period of time shall elapse, as would lie between his conception
and his coming to years of discretion, Israel and Syria shall be forsaken.
There we're looking at the last two verses that we read, verses
15 and 16. The idea being there that the prophet is really looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying, there is your sign.
There is your sign. And the sense of verses 15 and
16 run thus, that in the normal lapse of time it would take for
a child to mature from conception to adolescence. In that same
lapse of time, you will see those kingdoms that are your enemies
overthrown. Now friend, take the text that
way. You might ask the question, well, what benefit was that to
Ahaz? The prophet speaking of a Christ who is to come hundreds
upon hundreds of years after this moment. Friend, the answer
is that this was not necessarily to be a benefit to Ahaz, was
it? Ahaz had the opportunity to have a particular sign given
to him and he refused it. He refused it outright. And this
sign you'll notice is not addressed to Ahaz. It's addressed to the
house of David and friend, the pronouns are in the plural. This
is a sign to the house of David. a house of David for the running
centuries to see and to believe. Furthermore, friend, if Ahaz
at all is supposed to understand this text, he should understand
this as a rebuke to his own unbelief. You remember that even the Lord
Jesus, he does that kind of thing with the Pharisees and the scribes.
When they ask a sign after receiving so many personal signs from him,
he says, finally, well, you'll receive the sign of Jonas. For
the scribes and the Pharisees, friend, it would be an unintelligible
statement. It was something that certainly
would confound them. But friend, it was given as a
testimony against their unbelief. And we note here that this sign
was given in indignation, just indignation by God for Ahaz's
refusal. Friend, what you and I see in
this text is the prophet pointing to the very one in whom the promises
to the house of David were to be found. In other words, he points, ahas,
to the Christ whom he's rejected. And he says, behold him. See
the one whom you doubt, whom you so doubt that you think that
the promises of God may falter. See him. Ahaz didn't. But friend, it was
so that the people of God were supposed to see that in the Lord
Jesus Christ, they had signified in him their security and even
in him, of course, that security was accomplished. Christ was
then both signifier and secure of the church's salvation. And
all that the prophet is doing is he's saying, look to him.
Look to him. Friend, I want you to notice
that David did that. It's a striking text and we don't have time to
go at any length through it, but you remember at the end of
David's life, he makes this very connection himself. He says,
the God of Israel, these are the last words of David, he says,
the God of Israel said, the rock of Israel said unto me, he that
ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God, and
he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises,
even in the morning, without clouds, as the tender grass,
springing out of the earth, by clear shining after rain. What's
interesting, friend, is in the original, the words are that
he is the just one that reigns over men. And then he goes on
to describe what the just one will do. He will come up as the
day spring friend from on high. To put it in other words, he
sees the branch out of the root of Jesse. And what is David's
response as he sees this one? He says, even though my house
be not so, even though the house of David be rocked with all kinds
of afflictions that David himself would not have wanted to see,
yet he says this, an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things
and sure. This is what he looks to, and
this is his conclusion. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire. Friend, he looks to the just
one, the day spring from on high, and he says, if he is, then I
stand secured. As he sees the Lord Jesus, friends,
through the spirit of prophecy, he sees that his security is
indeed unquestionable. He sees the very thing Ahaz didn't. Friend, the question for us in
this evening is, do you see Christ so yourself? David says, my whole
life, all of my salvation hangs upon him, who is the day spring
from on high. Is that true of you? Very briefly, beloved, we close
just with the last few verses of this text. Turn with me again
to Isaiah 7. We resume our reading there at
the 17th verse. 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. 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. And they shall come. It shall
rest all of them in the desolate valleys and in the holes of the
rocks and upon all thorns and upon all bushes. In the same
day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is higher 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. And it
shall come to pass in that day that a man shall nourish a young
cow and two sheep, and it shall come to pass for the abundance
of milk that they shall give, he shall eat butter. For butter
and honey shall everyone eat that is left in the land. 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 be for briars and thorns. With arrows and with bows shall
men come thither because all the land shall become briars
and thorns and on all hills that shall be digged with a mat hook.
There shall not come thither the fear of briars and thorns,
but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen and for the treading
of lesser cattle." What's going on here in the text? Well, friend,
I want you to notice the prophet says pointedly. After he points
him to the Lord Jesus Christ, as it were through the corridors
of time, he turns to Ahaz and he says, the Lord will bring
upon you affliction. And friend, so pervasive, so fulsome is this
affliction that the Lord will bring that he says that one man,
note this, you see it there in verses 21 and 22, he says, one
man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep and they will produce
enough for him that he will eat butter and honey. Friend, the
sentence is there is that this man won't have any neighbors. The sense is that this man that
he is here described as even his own home will be so decimated
that the little that he has will be more than sufficient for himself.
That's the idea. In fact, it's the very idea that's
described there when the idea of the razor is used. The land
will be peeled, cut as it were, by whom? For this is the point
that I want us to close with. Who is the agent? of Judah's
peeling, the one whom Ahaz called his
father and his Lord, the one whom Ahaz trusted to
be his savior, the Lord says will become the agent of your
ruin. Whom you trust, he whom you trust
will be the one who brings your destruction. Friend, what you
find here is once again, something emblematic, not only for Ahaz,
but for all, all who make saviors out to themselves. Friend, if you have made for
yourself a false Christ, you'll find that that very thing will
be the agent of your ruin. The prophet Isaiah describes
this graphically. He says, he describes Egypt as a wall where
on if a man lean, it will go into his hand like a reed and
pierce it. The imagery is that somebody is leaning, putting
its weight against a wall and the wall cracks and the reed
that was there in the midst of the clay, it pierces the hand
that rested on the wall. Friend, don't we see that today?
We live in a society that has deified romance. Everyone now puts all of their
hope and their trust in finding a partner. And friend, how many people are
ruined by the very ones that they so hang their lives upon?
Other people place all of their hope and security in their occupations,
their jobs, and it literally extracts life from them. And friend, the list could go
on and it could go on, but we see the very same thing in principle
that we see in this text. If you will not take Christ,
any false Christ that you take to yourself will be the agent
of your ruin. And so we leave the seventh chapter
friend with something of course of a solemn note. But I want you to notice Friend,
as we leave this text, that we do leave with a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The house of David need not fear
any destruction because the Lord Jesus Christ stood. He stood
then in the promises and he ever lives now as our incarnate Christ. And friend, the prophet directs
Ahaz to see him. And beloved, you and I need to
see him this evening as well. This, friend, is where you and
I are to turn. It is, friend, that you and I,
after leaving this text, friend, we should be more of a people
who hang our whole lives upon the reality that he lives. To
be like David, saying that regardless of what affliction I've encountered,
regardless of what may lie on the horizon. The promises of
God are yea and amen in Christ. The covenant is an everlasting
one. And in him, I'm secured. And beloved may it be that as
we leave this evening, we do have our gaze so fixed, our faith
fixed on him and for his own namesake. Amen.
Immanuel the Sign
Series Isaiah (J Dunlap)
| Sermon ID | 722241226374282 |
| Duration | 37:28 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Isaiah 7 |
| Language | English |
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