Isaiah 8
CHAPTERS 7, 8 and 9 to the end of verse 7 should be considered together as one prophecy, growing out of the attack upon Jerusalem by the kings of Israel and Syria, Pekah, the son of Remaliah, and Rezin.
In chapter 7 the son of David reigning over Judah had no faith, and in chapter S the people are seen to be as faithless as their king. They refused the softly flowing waters of Shiloah (Siloam in John 9:7, a pool on the south of Jerusalem by the king’s garden. Nehemiah 3:15). God known in grace they despised; and rejoiced in the wicked kings of the northern countries who were soon to be overthrown, and to lose their lives.
Grace despised, brings sure judgment, and this is indicated in the names of Isaiah’s two little boys: “A remnant shall return” (chapter 7:3), and “Swift for spoil, hasty for prey” (chapter 8:3). Before the older boy knew to refuse the evil and to choose the good; and before the younger one knew to cry “My father!” and “My mother!” the kings of Israel and Syria would be no more, and the glory of their countries would be gone (See 2 Kings 16:9, and 15:29, 30. In the latter passage, the “twentieth year of Jotham” is the fourth year of Ahaz; see verse 33). The Assyrian attack upon Syria and Israel was in the year 740 B. C.
Israel as a nation (the ten tribes) had so exceeded in sin, that their removal into captivity was now near at hand, but Judah (the two tribes still professing the worship of the true God and owning the line of David as their rulers, and Jerusalem as their capital city) was not far behind Israel in wickedness. Therefore the Assyrians were to be brought like an overflowing river through Judah,— “Thy land, O Immanuel!” (verse 8).
Christ then is the key to the Scriptures (John 5:39; Luke 24:27). He is the Immanuel of Isaiah 7:14 and 8:18, as Matthew 1:20-25 shows. The prophet is here again led on to the future day when the nations, with godless Judah will, according to Psalm 2, set themselves against God and His Anointed, and be broken in pieces. This has been before us in our reading of the Psalms, particularly. The remnant of Judah believing in Him will be preserved and blessed when the Lord Jesus appears for the setting up of His kingdom.
Those then who fear God are warned to keep out of the schemes of the unbelieving mass of the Jews (verses 11-17), and told not to fear them, but to fear Jehovah of hosts. In verse 14 is a passage quoted in 1 Peter 2:6-8, the truth of which is seen on every page of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Christ, and not Isaiah, is in view in verse 18, as we learn from Hebrews 2:13. With Him is seen the believing remnant. and in contrast we have the unbelieving Jews in verses 19-22, who, rejecting God and their Messiah will seek for help from the necromancers and soothsayers, and become the very picture of wretchedness, to be later judged according to their works.
ML 05/07/1933