Isaiah’s Long Story about the Birth of Christ

A visit to the King by Isaiah and his Boy

The Lord told Isaiah where he could find King Ahaz (not King Ahab). The king was worried about a major attack on Jerusalem, so he was inspecting the city’s water supply. The idea of an attack by Israel and Syria working together terrified the king and his people.

The Shocking Background

They had good reason to fear. In 2 Chronicles 28 we read of Syria taking many captive. Israel’s army had killed 120,000 soldiers from Judah in one day, and took 200,000 people captive. Ahaz was scared silly when he heard that they were getting ready to come again. This was a man who forsook the Lord and worshipped idols, even frying his little baby boy as an offering to a false god. God was responding to such rebellion against him.

The Expected Attack (7:1,2)

Though the planned attack did not come, the enemies of Ahaz intended to terrify Judah, conquer it, take it over, and install a new king in Ahaz’s place, the son of Tabeel. To understand this long passage it is clearly necessary to pay attention to these “son of” statements. The son of Tabeel is the son of a man we have never heard of. He was not a son of David. Pekah the son of Remaliah was not a son of David. Not one king of the ten northern tribes ever was. All had deserted the House of David. Of course Rezin as king of Syria had no covenantal connection to David at all. But Ahaz was a son of David. This meant that precious promises made to David were also to Ahaz, as unworthy as he was. All blessing in the covenant would be kept by the Lord if Ahaz would repent and be “firm in faith” (7:9). Ahaz paid no attention to the promises of the Lord God of his fathers. He stayed captive to his fears and resistant to the promise of God to rescue him.

God Spares Judah that Attack but Promises Another! (7:4-6)

God announced through Isaiah that the conspiracy of Israel and Syria would fail. There was no way that God would allow the line of David to be wiped out. Any wicked son of David could be and would be removed, but the covenant itself could not be broken. The son of Tabeel would not replace the son of David. Rather than fearing Israel and Syria, Ahaz should have cheered that they were like two smoldering sticks in a campfire about to turn cold. He refused to believe the message God sent to him.

The Word from God (7:7-9)

The wicked plan of Syria, with Damascus as its capital and Rezin as its king, would sputter and fail. “It would not come to pass” (7:7). Ephraim, with Samaria as its capital, would be shattered by the King of Assyria (8:4). Pekah murdered the king before him, and would be murdered by the next king to take over. And that king would be the last one. Assyria would wipe out Israel. The feared invasion of Judah by the two allied kings was not the real danger.

God’s Surprising Offer (7:11)

God followed up on that information with more. But without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:3), and the Lord insisted that if Ahaz was not firm in faith, he would not be firm at all (7:9). He would not be firm in his throne, and his nation would be run over. Ahaz did everything he could except trust in the Lord. In 2 Chronicles 28:16-27, Ahaz appealed to the King of Assyria for help and bribed him, but in time Assyria would invade Judah anyway. He also adopted the gods of Syria because they had defeated him, so they had to be powerful gods. Those gods were the ruin of him and of all Israel (v.23). He was desperate, but it never occurred to him to trust the Lord who delivered from Egypt and a host of enemies who afflicted his people. In this pathetic scene of ardent unbelief, God offered to show any miracle Ahaz could imagine. God’s intention was to prove his ability to fend off Israel and Syria, and to compel faith in the promises made to King David. Ahaz told God to go fly a kite.

Back to God’s Offer (7:10-12)

Ahaz was invited to ask for any sign he might choose (7:10). He turned God down with an insincere religious response. After that no more words from God are directed to Ahaz. The man had made his choice. But he was typical of the decay in the descendants of David with whom the covenant had been made, namely that he would always have a son to succeed him on the throne of Israel (2 Samuel 7).

The New Prediction of Christ (7:13,14)

The Lord made a unique promise that a son of unusual rank would enter the nation by a most unusual channel. The one to come would be God himself – finally the covenant with the Lord would be kept, namely by God himself. He would be called Immanuel. “God with us” means that the son to be born is God. But on the delivery end, this momentous entrance of God into human life was to be through a virgin woman. She had no male chromosomes and could impart none. Unlike unbelieving Ahaz we are to accept that God can do such a thing, and has done so as we read in Luke 1. God was through with Ahaz; all that awaited him was the death promised in the Covenant of Works. God had promised the house of David a son. With all the horrors that would be spelled out in the remainder of chapter 7, there was still the hope and promise of the coming of the Lord.

He Would Eat Curds and Honey (7:15,16)

Before Jesus as a little boy knew to refuse evil and choose good, both Israel and Syria would be deserted. ¹ The diet of honey and curds is a diet suiting people on the move; they could not take their garden with them, but cows can move around better than a row of carrots. Centuries later, Joseph was told to escape to Egypt because of the oppression of an alien king. Perhaps this cryptic addition in Isaiah 7 refers to that. If so, the future experience of the Messiah is parallel to the suffering of Israel and Judah centuries earlier.

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[1]   A number of good scholars choke on this, because Jesus’ birth was centuries later than the prediction. What was stated was true; God may make a prediction without spelling out the chronology. He does it all the time.

Meanwhile the Lord Hides His Face, and Here Comes Assyria! (17-25)

The irony must not be missed: the decision to trust in Assyria was rewarded by God bringing on the Assyrians as punishment. (See Isaiah 10:5-25.) And now the details: It will be an infestation of Egyptian flies and Assyrian bees. They will be all over the place. Assyria will be like a razor to shave the nation from top to bottom. Since the invaders can take anything they find, their grain, oil, and wine, there will be little left. Since a cow can be milked anywhere, survivors will depend on dairy products. Scrounging around, a man might find honey also. The Assyrians would take anything they could find from their vineyards, so carefully cultivated and expensive vineyards would lie uncared for and overrun by animals.

Another Word from God Officially Witnessed (8:1-4)

Throughout Isaiah the Lord emphasized that his predictions are real and not a message made up after the facts were known (Isaiah 41:21-29). The Lord here takes precautions to protect his word. He was saying that Ephraim and Syria would be overwhelmed very soon. The message was in the name of Isaiah’s son (note 8:18). The long name Maher-shalal-hash-baz meant that the two nations would be invaded and looted quickly. Thus the Lord chose to have two trusted officials witness the name chosen by God before the child was conceived. It was a message from God of events he would bring to pass. This was the message that Ahaz would not believe when it was given earlier.

The Lord Added More (8:5-8)

The Lord would bring on “the waters of the River”, namely the Euphrates where Assyria was located. They would flood the land and like a great bird of prey spread its wings over all of the Lord’s land. Judah declined the protection promised to David, and they were therefore to enjoy the tender mercies of cruel monsters. The Lord was using Assyria as his tool (Isaiah 10). Yet the Lord lost no control. The land still belonged to Immanuel. The Assyrians could do no more than what God had ordained. This message about a ravaging army ends up as a prayer to Immanuel (“your land, O Immanuel”) before his human birth.

A Message for the Evil Invaders (8:9,10)    

Assyria will do what God has chosen and no more. The Lord was still bound by covenant to preserve the nation and the line of David.² Thus the invaders will face the judgment of God for their sins. The message to the armies from the far country is: go ahead, form your alliances, get armed, make your plans, but your big effort will not succeed; it will come to nothing, because God is with us (in Hebrew, ‘Immanuel’). God’s believing people can take comfort that the devastation to come does not change the will of God. They could say in faith that though we are downtrodden, God is with us still! We are not abandoned.

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[2] Of an earlier wicked king in the line of David, who was married to a daughter of Ahab, we read in 2 Chronicles 21:7, “Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever.”

The Temptation to Think like the World (8:11-15)

Here is strong medicine to cure worldliness. Here is a paragraph greatly needed for living in a world of unbelief, but this text is not one well known in Christian circles today. Isaiah is told by God what to say and think. He is also told what not to say – in other words the Lord was preparing Isaiah with divine coaching on how to handle this crisis. The instructions are to Isaiah personally, which is quite different from receiving a prophetic word to be given to others.

Do not adopt the view of the people on this grave situation. They see it only as a human conspiracy. They have left the Lord out. He was the one who ordered the Assyrian invasion, a truth already repeatedly stated in chapter 7. God had his reasons (see 8:5) for his severe response; this is laid out in shocking detail in the entire chapter of 2 Chronicles 28. Ahaz was a monument to a determined refusal to include the God of Israel in any of his calculations. Concerning the true God, Ahaz was an atheist. Today we are surrounded by the same virulent unbelief. So the counsel of God is needed, “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy” (8:12). We must not share their presuppositions or conclusions.

That is just one aspect of not walking “in the way of this people” (8:11). Don’t talk the way they do. The Lord’s counsel to Isaiah and to us goes deeper; it enters our feelings whether expressed in words or not: “Do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread” (8:12). When the Assyrian flood rose to the neck (8:8), it was very difficult not to fear for one’s life. That is quite impossible unless there is a better fear, and that is to honor the Almighty Lord of armies as holy. We can have him as our fear and dread. He is not a passing threat or a treacherous covenant breaker as Assyria was (Isaiah 33:1). God called Israel and Syria smoldering sticks about to go out (7:4). He then gave an indication of how soon, and it did happen shortly after. The Lord gave a large picture of the effects of the Assyrian flood, but included in his oversight was the failure of the foreign invaders from far countries (8:9,10). Why be enthralled and bewitched with Assyria when all flesh is grass? The nations are a mere drop in a bucket, weightless dust on a scale (Isaiah 40:15). This God of Israel is an unassailable sanctuary to those who believe him and a crushing boulder to those who choose to go on apart from him. The counsel to have God as our fear and dread is pure wisdom.

The Great Hope – Sanctuary (8:14,15)    

The comfort is that our God is our sanctuary. We have sinned against him, but he welcomes us to come to him as the bread of life (John 6:35). The wrath of God once against us for our sin was absorbed for us by Christ on the cross, thus “we shall be saved by him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:9). It is essential that we take such a God seriously. As a sanctuary Immanuel is “a shelter from the storm” (Isaiah 32:2). This was the kind of protection poor Ahaz had no taste for, and so he perished. ³

The Great Warning – Stone of Offense (8:14,15)   

This Stone of Offense is what the rejecter of faith will run into with terrible force. I think it means that the one rejecting God’s counsel as nonsense will experience a sudden shock. They have not just hit a wall, they have run into Christ. To make it very clear, the Lord of Hosts is a stone of offense, a rock of stumbling, a trap, and a snare. Many shall stumble, fall, be broken, snared, and taken. “Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.” “Only a remnant of Israel will return” (Isaiah 10:22). In Isaiah’s day the Assyrian flood was to the neck; in Jeremiah’s day, Jerusalem was destroyed. This was no small warning. When the rejection of Christ reached its peak, the Lord said:

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[3] The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3:15 spoke of Christ as Lord when he quoted from this paragraph. By quoting the verse this way Peter said that Christ is Lord, and the word for Lord in Isaiah 8:13 is Yahweh, or to some, Jehovah. There is no higher name, and it is applied to Christ. (See also Philippians 2:9).

The Specific Issue (8:16-18)   

The Lord spoke to Isaiah (8:11), and he accepted it. That counsel has a famous response in Isaiah’s determination to stick closely to God’s Word. The divine exhortation to him was to steer away from the thinking of the world. The way to do it was to “bind up the testimony, and seal the teaching.” That testimony and teaching was what God had to say about the events swirling around the nation. Everyone had a solution; it was as if the word of God was being drowned out by the opinions of experts. Terrible events were combined with terrible rejection of the word of God. Lest he be carried away in this worldly passion, Isaiah resolved to bind up the testimony, predictions, and explanations God had spoken, so he would not lose such a treasure or turn away from it. This was a wise fear. Perhaps Isaiah would be stalwart, but he had to think of his disciples and his children.

Isaiah knew what God was doing, namely hiding his face from his unfaithful people who had covenanted obedience to him. The punishment was severe, but that was not all. The promise to the house of David remained certain. Isaiah believed it. That word from God was even found in the names of the males in his home. Isaiah means the Lord saves; Shear-jashub means a remnant shall return (7:3). Maher-shalal-hash-baz speaks of speed, because the fall of Samaria and Damascus would occur soon. These names were communications of the Lord (signs and portents, 8:18) that he remains the same; he is the unchangeable God who saved Israel from Egypt. And in spite of awesome judgment about to overwhelm Israel, a remnant would return from God’s chastening captivity. Believing the message in the names is believing what God had testified.

The Ugly Alternative to Believing God’s Word (8:19-22)    

Against all that God had said was the array of voices to replace God’s truth. That basic issue will not go away. To reject the testimony or doctrine of God is to embrace error and be led astray by it. Everyone who rejects God’s word ruins his life. The replacement was sorcery and demonic guidance even attempts to communicate with the dead. Instead of the counsel from the dead, God’s people could have the word of the living and true God. Of course, the belief that they could receive word from the dead was just another demonic deceit.

Instead of light to their paths (Psalm 119:105), Israel had a famine of the word of God (Amos 8:11) with no dawn, no sunrise, only darkness. The word from God was a call back to the law and to the testimony (8:20). Without that word all they say will be error and confusion. Isaiah does not moderate the consequences, which include distress, hunger, rage, rebellion, blasphemy, distress (repeated) and darkness. It is summarized as gloom and anguish. I wonder if Ahaz ever heard that the people would speak contemptuously against him. He did lead his people into darkness, and they did not honor him by laying his carcass in the tombs where other kings were laid (2 Chronicles 28:27). The people of God then and often later were walking around depressed not knowing where they were going, living without sanctuary and being crushed by the Lord whose word they rejected. Thus Israel was cut down to a stump, when once it had been a grand and glorious tree (6:9-13, especially v.13).  But Shear-jashub’s name was true; a remnant shall return. The stump of Israel did not die. A great light would penetrate the darkness.

Here comes the Lord, the Light is on and Darkness Dispelled (9:1-3)   

First, remember that Isaiah did not make these chapter divisions, and this one is a bad one. Chapter 8 ends with darkness, thick darkness, gloom and anguish. Then chapter 9 says, “there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish.” And more, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”  These words in chapters 8 & 9 belong together.

The former day of despair is dispelled by a very different one in which the horror of life without God is changed. A specific event brought on this change, and it happened in a specific place.  The place is the region of the Sea of Galilee, sometimes called “Galilee of the Gentiles.”  There Jesus lived most of his life on earth; there he did most of his miracles and most of his teaching. There John the Baptist preached, and there Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, the very river Isaiah identified. Galilee is called in Matthew 4 “the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.” Jesus lived all of his youth in Nazareth in Zebulun and “went and lived in Capernaum” by the sea in what used to be Naphtali. Matthew 4:12-17 is the only NT quotation of this text in Isaiah 9. The place of Jesus ministry was identified 700 years before his birth.

But while the location was predicted, the event was Jesus proclaiming in a later time that “the kingdom of heaven is [now] at hand.” Thus a great light had appeared; the deep darkness was lifted. Seeking answers from the dead failed. What they had in Jesus’ ministry was God himself teaching the Word of God. The time of resistance in Isaiah’s day was over, a famine of the word. Many flocked to hear his words. One time it was 5000 men plus women and children. The hunger of 8:21 is the opposite of the Lord saying, “Give them to eat.” Isaiah stresses light and where it would appear. Then he shows gloom replaced by joy (9:3). This prediction is fulfilled by many incidents such as Mark 2:12.

Joy was not the only thing increased, because the nation was multiplied (9:3). We move from the small remnant of Isaiah 6:13 to a nation no longer reduced but to one multiplied. The cause of all this light, joy, multiplication of God’s people, and later deliverance is climaxed in the “For” of 9:6. I had to add that now, because our attention might stop at benefits and fail to connect to the cause. That cause is that a child would be born and a son was provided.

The Nation Multiplied (9:3)

This cryptic statement is buried in a prediction of the time, place, and effect of the Lord’s first coming. Naturally we should wonder how this specific reversal of the nation was fulfilled. Moving from reduction to multiplication is a major reversal. The change from darkness to light is clear, as is gloom to joy, but what is this multiplication of the nation? Inward joy is difficult to measure, but a nation being multiplied is rather observable and objective.

When could this be? Did the people of Judea and Galilee multiply? There is no evidence of this, and remember that to increase is not the same as to multiply. If one views the nation of 9:3 as the nation of Israel during NT days, Israel did not multiply. When the Romans stormed Jerusalem they slaughtered everyone within the city. In Isaiah the remnant is sometimes referred to as survivors (as in 1:9 & 10:20), but in 70 AD Jerusalem had none. Those who declined Christ as sanctuary had him as the stone that crushed them. The kingdom was taken away from them and given to others (Matthew 21:43). When the great wrath actually came upon them (1 Thessalonians 2:16), it becomes impossible for us to view national Israel as enjoying the multiplication promised in Isaiah 9:1-7. Instead their house was left to them desolate (Matthew 23:37-39). Unbelieving Israel was being reduced not multiplied. So the fulfillment of 9:3 cannot be found in the ethnic descendants of Abraham.

The only possible fulfillment is that God added to the nation some who were born far off, strangers to the covenants made with Abraham and his descendants, aliens from outside the commonwealth of Israel – in other words, Gentiles. In Christ, these outsiders have been brought near, made to share in the promises made to Israel, and are included as fellow citizens in Israel (Ephesians 2:11-19). The church is God’s holy nation (1 Peter 2:9,10), and this is the nation that was multiplied. Scripture reports no increase in unbelieving Israel, but the Book of Acts emphasizes the growth of the church in 2:41 and 2:47; the 3000 soon became 5000 in 4:4, and more in 6:1. The description of multiplied is used in Acts 5:14 and also 6:7 which says, “And the word of the Lord continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”  Thus Isaiah 9:3 is another prediction made to Israel fulfilled in the church. Christ is the Son of David, the true King of Israel, and every Gentile joined to him by faith is part of the nation of which he is king. Sadly, dispensationalists resist this clear linkage, a problem that still continues among some highly cherished brothers and sisters.

Deliverance (9:4,5)

The oppressor in Isaiah 7 & 8 was Assyria. It was destroyed in Isaiah’s lifetime. Other oppressors came and went, but Rome was long term. However, the monster behind all monsters is Satan, who was destroyed in the Lord’s first coming (Hebrews 2:14), and will be cast into the lake of fire at his second (Revelation 20:10). In 9:4,5  the oppressor is likened to one back in Israel’s history, the Midianites. That swarm of invaders had physical weapons and blood soaked uniforms. No soldiers are mentioned, just the stuff they left behind. The threat is over. As God wiped out Midian in the time of Gideon (Judges 6-8), Christ will break the yoke of our enemy. All that is left to do is to clean up after them.

The Ultimate Son of David (9:6,7)

Nothing but trouble had come through Ahaz, a son of David. Isaiah 9 lists a variety of blessings, all of which will come because of the child who is to be born. Early in this 2½ chapter section, it has a supernatural human birth of God among us, a promise to the house of David. That theme is back, and it is now clear that the promised son of a virgin will reign over David’s enlarged kingdom on David’s throne. Later in Isaiah Christ is a priest who is offered for us (53:10). Here Christ is obviously king, but removing the darkness caused by rejection of God’s word, shows the Son of David proclaiming as a prophet. He will bring the word of God so that light would shine on them again (9:2). This Son of David is God among us as King, Prophet, and Priest.

His Names (9:6)

Earlier, the names were portents of revealed truth (8:18). Now more names describe the role and majesty of the coming Son of David. He is Wonderful Counselor; Wonderful is a name for God in Judges 13:18. He is Mighty God with the sense of courage highlighted. He is Everlasting Father in the sense that Isaiah had the care of his children on his heart (8:18 and Hebrews 2:13). Further Jesus replaces Father Adam as the new covenant head of a new human race. He is the Prince of Peace, a leader Ahaz was not, with a stability of safety Ahaz never achieved. Thankfully, the government is upon the shoulder of Christ. We can relax in faith.

His Government (9:7)   

Not only is the nation multiplied, his government increases. With many millions already in his kingdom, we see more clearly what the multiplied nation means. Ahaz the failure struggled desperately to hold his city and maintain his throne. Christ has a well-established and permanent kingdom which Satan can neither deceive nor defeat. What lies ahead is the continued multiplication of Christ’s nation and the utter defeat of all opposition to it. It is the purpose, intention, work and holy zeal of his Father that this shall be fully accomplished and implemented.

Conclusion   

This passage has an intricate web. Predictions of Christ’s birth naturally take center stage, but the two birth revelations are tied to issues that are as much our concern as they were centuries ago. Back then covenant promises were ignored, and the transcendence of God was dismissed; terrible judgments ensued from God with frightful personal consequences, as the land was overrun by marauding invaders. Yet the land was Immanuel’s, and so the people were not exterminated. They were promised light to replace their gloom and anguish. These were blessings brought by the true Son of David who deserved to reign and will reign forever. What a relief!