Isaiah-8

Isaiah 8:1-4 – The Coming Assyrian Invasion

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters, ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.’ ² And I will get reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me.”

³ And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; ⁴ for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.”

Isaiah to write a message and God would get reliable witnesses….

The Hebrew law required this standard – IN this case, those that witnessed it were hostile witnesses and that was not relevant to the validity of the written statements on this tablet.

This was the name of his new son, though not yet born.  However, after the child was born Isaiah would be able to return to these witnesses and ask them to count back the days and witness that Isaiah wrote that was approximately nine months earlier.

V.3-4 – describes the conception, birth, and naming of Isiah’s son.

God told Isaiah to name this son Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, which signifies that both the spoils (šālal) of Samaria (the capital of Israel) and Damascus (the capital of Syria) will be plundered by the king of Assyria (8:4). Literally, the Hebrew name contains two parallel imperative verbs (“quick; swift”) plus two parallel words for booty (“spoil; plunder”), thus it says the same thing twice. It could be translated “hurry spoil, be swift plunder,” two cryptic exhortations that expect the defeat of some nation in the near future. The interpretation of this name in 8:4 fits this translation and explains who will be plundered (Samaria and Damascus) and who will defeat these nations (Assyria).  (Quote:  New American Commentary)

The prophecy was fulfilled in less than two years in 732 BC when Damascus and Samaria were defeated by Assyria.   Judah was spared at this time as God had promised to protect the throne of David at this time.  It should have awakened them to God’s presence and His word, but it did not.

Isaiah 8:5-10 (ESV)
⁵  The LORD spoke to me again:
⁶  “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
⁷  therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks,
⁸  and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”
⁹  Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered; give ear, all you far countries; strap on your armor and be shattered; strap on your armor and be shattered.
¹⁰  Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.

God give Judah a judgement message –

They will not have peace because they sided with Assyria and rejected God.  Instead God will destroy Judah and their proud king with a great flood of Assyrians.  (Used the river’s flow as an illustration of that.)

V.9-10 – but God does not destroy His people completely.  God will not let Rezin’s plan or any plan stand that is not according to His will.

Isaiah depicts a nation almost totally destroyed, with the flood waters reaching up to the neck.

Isaiah ensures his audience that God does not intend to destroy his people completely.

Judah will barely survive, but Assyria will eventually fade from history, and Judah will remain the land of Immanuel.  He will come to them in the fullness of time as a boy named Jesus.

This type of promise assures a person of faith that God cares during the worst of trials.

 Isaiah 8:11-13

¹¹ For the Lord spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: ¹² “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. ¹³ But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

The righteous must stand firm; they cannot fear what other people say or do.  There were many talking about a ‘conspiracy’ and would be called:  ‘fear mongering”.

Bottom Line:  it merely warns against being paralyzed by fear concerning all the rumors that will arise in the coming days.
Today: – we want to avoid being consumed by the fears of the ungodly.

Isaiah 8:14-15 (ESV)
¹⁴  And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
¹⁵  And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken.”

The holy are starkly contrasted to help listeners decide what action to take. 

God will be a sanctuary, a place of solid strength and refuge, a blessing, and a comfort for the strugglers.

Those in Judah and Israel that do not fear God that ‘rock’ will be a bock to stumble over as a snare or trap.    The rock would be their ruin instead of a refuge as the people will be destroyed.

Izaiah 8:16-22

¹⁶ Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples. ¹⁷ I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him. ¹⁸ Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. ¹⁹ And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰ To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. ²¹ They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. ²² And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.

 Isaiah and his followers have to make a firm commitment to remain faithful to God.

Isaiah provides the divine words and signs so people could see and hear.  However, they did not understand God as holy, fear him, or follow his words. Instead, the royal Davidic dynasty refused to trust God and instead depended on Assyria.

They rejected God and rejoiced in their own political alliance to eliminate the threat of Syria and Israel (7:4–9; 8:6).
They continued to fear conspiracies rather than God (8:12–13).
As Isaiah’s preaching from God was rejected – he could speak God’s Word and these words would preserve God in the hearts of his disciples (8:16) and  wait for God to act.

The New American Commentary makes this statement:  “Since the book of Isaiah never refers to a prophetic school of disciples (cf. 1 Sam 10:5–10; 2 Kgs 2:3–15), it is better to regard these people simply as followers of God who accepted the truthfulness of the revelation Isaiah proclaimed.”

Isaiah was told by God that the majority would not listen.  Therefore, his only course was to trust God and wait.  This commitment was personal and he perceived himself and his children as ‘signs’ & ‘symbols’ that were given by God.  His very name means “God saves” – “The Lord has saved”   (Luke 4:17-21)

Quote: Words in Life Study Bible:

Name means: “The Lord has saved.”  Home: Probably Jerusalem  Family: May have been related to the royal house of Judah; married to a woman he called “the prophetess” (Is. 8:3); father of two sons, Shear-Jashub (“A Remnant Shall Return”) and Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (“Speed the Spoil, Hasten the Booty”)  Occupation: An official of King Uzziah of Judah during his early years; later called by God to be a prophet. Best known today as: The O.T. prophet who so vividly predicted the coming of the Messiah.

V.20 – Shows Isaiah quickly pointing to that fact that it is God’s Word they should speak. These words are all one needs and the only source of true revelation about God’s will.

V.21-22 – What happens when one doesn’t listen to God’s Word.

Jonathan Edwards describes a true Christian:

As he has more holy boldness, so he has less self-confidence.… As he is more sure than others of deliverance from hell, so he has a greater sense that he deserves it. He is less apt than others to be shaken in faith, but more apt than others to be moved by solemn warnings, God’s frowns and the calamities of others. He has the firmest comfort, but the softest heart; richer than others, but poorest of all in spirit. He is the tallest and strongest saint, but the least and tenderest child among them.

Quote:  Ray Ortlund:

What does this fear of God look like? Verse 13 says: “The Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy.” In other words, “Dare to treat God as God. Don’t respond to life in a way that makes God look helpless and weak and worthless.” Living emotionally as if God were not really our Savior is practical atheism. If God is God, he is all that finally matters. The remnant respects God enough to live that way.

How we treat God determines how we experience God, either as a sanctuary or a snare: “And he will become a sanctuary and … a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (v. 14). Every one of us will experience God one way or the other. If we take him into account as God, we will enter his sanctuary and experience his presence. But if other things compel us—well, God isn’t going away. We end up colliding with him and tripping over him as a snare. The New Testament explains that God is the most unavoidable and the most dangerous in Jesus. He himself said, “The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him” (Matthew 21:44). Some people dismiss the gospel as irrelevant. They stumble, fall, and are broken. But grace awakens the remnant to a trembling faith.^[1]

^[1] Ortlund, R. C., Jr., & Hughes, R. K. (2005). Isaiah: God saves sinners (p. 96). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.