Bible Study: August 3, 2022

Come. Yeah, so tonight we're gonna cover chapter 7, but before we go to that, I want to just kind of recap what we've done so far so that we are kind of seeing the flow in the organization of the book of Isaiah. We went, we completed chapter 5 last time. Those first five chapters, you know, God sets the tone for what the book of Isaiah is about. We've read about warnings to Israel. He's given us the analogies of how he looked at physical Israel, how he still looks at physical Israel today. We've seen that even spiritual Israel, that's you and me, are in those verses and things that we need to be aware of so that we don't fall prey to our own, you know, our own, our own, I don't know, neglect of God, just wandering away from him like the people, like the people of old did, that we keep our focus on him. You know, we see that in Isaiah 5, and it's interesting that God opens the prophecy, it opens the book of Isaiah, a very long book with that prophecy. And then in chapter 6, he tells us, he records for us the calling of Isaiah, the prophet, and Isaiah 6, we read that back at the beginning when we began the book of Isaiah, but I'll just highlight a few things in there because it helps us, you know, lead into chapter 7 there. We remember when God called Isaiah, he came before him, Isaiah, as when people come in the presence of God do, he just completely, if you recall, crumbled. You know, we see that over and over in the Bible. When people come in the presence of God and they realize where they are, they just fall because his presence is magnificent, that we begin to see just how worthless, sinful, miserable we are, and wonder why does God even pay any attention to us, right? But in the Bible and in the chapter we'll even see tonight, we're going to see where God is so merciful and so loving, and he gives us every chance because he really, really wants us to receive eternal life and to become the people that he can use, that he, you know, that he wants to use and for the rest of eternity. So as we look at chapter six here, just a couple things that, you know, to note is Isaiah, you know, says there in verse seven, or, you know, he says, I have unclean lips and everything, and verse seven says, this angel touched my mouth with it and said, behold, this has touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.

So before God could use Isaiah as the prophet that he wanted to use him as, Isaiah had to be purged. Just like before God can use us in the millennium and for eternity, for the purpose he sees for each one of us, his purpose for each one of us, we have to be purged, we have to be purified, we have to allow God through his Holy Spirit to cleanse us, you know, we read about the washing of the water of the Word, and that we have to become those blameless people that he wants us to become, and he will lead us, he will give us the opportunity and all the tools to do that. We just have to work with him, and we just have to work with him and make choices in our life that indicate that we're very cognizant of the calling that God has given us, and that we show him by our choices we want to become, who he wants us to become, and we're willing to yield ourselves to him. And so when God does this with Isaiah, you know, in verse eight it says, it says, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, well, who will I send, and who will go for us?

Of course, capital U there, us, you know, the Elohim, God the Father, the one who became Jesus Christ. And Isaiah said, here I am, I'll go, I'll go, I'm here at your service, the same attitude we should all have, whatever you want, need to do, Father, I will, I will do. And so then he gives instructions, go tell this people. And then in verses nine and ten, he says something that is there for you and I, just as much as it was for the people of physical Israel then, people of physical Israel today, and you and I. You know, he talks about how they can hear and hear and hear the Word, but they don't do anything with it. Keep on hearing, but don't understand. Keep on seeing, but don't perceive. God will give us every opportunity, he will give us every opportunity, he will show us things, but sometimes we just ignore the warnings, we just ignore what the meaning of the trials are, the things that we should listen to or pay attention to, we might not, you know, get right over, just put out of our minds, that's not us, we don't have to do that.

You know, he's talking here about what happened then. Make the heart of this people dull, their ears heavy, shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears.

You know, they, it's a malady that can be, that can befall any of us. If we don't watch what we're doing, we always have to be in tune to what God has in mind for us and always be aware of our own human proclivities and our human nature that's going to want to ignore this and think that we're a-okay in every way, shape, and form. Always have to keep our ears in tune and always ready to repent and acknowledge where we are falling short and where we can, you know, where we can become closer to God. It's the attitude he wants to see in us because that's the attitude that will have to be there in the, in the millennium if we're going to work with him and teach the people that, that are there at that time in the same way that he teaches us. And then in verses 11 through 13 there, chapter 6, he gives a pretty ominous prophecy. Didn't happen in ancient Israel, hasn't happened in physical Israel today, but he talks about the cities being laid waste, houses being without a man, the land being utterly desolate. And in verse 13, he talks about the destruction that will come, that there will be a tent in it. So we know, you know, because of many over and over in the Bible, we always hear this happens because you have departed from God because you would not listen to him because you would not, not, not obey him and not yield yourself to him. And so, you know, so we come to chapter seven with all that preceding it. And in chapter seven, we go back and we meet one of those kings that we talked about in chapter one. Remember, we had Uzziah, we had, well, we have Ahaz, and we had Hezekiah and Jotham. Jotham was the other one.

The first two, Uzziah, remember, he started off very strong, very loyal to God, but as time went on, he became too enamored with himself, trusted in himself and other people, departed from God. Jotham, his son, saw the mistakes of his father. He remained loyal to God to the end. But then we have Jotham's son Ahaz that we're going to be talking about here in chapter seven. And under each one of these kings, Isaiah learned something, and God used their example to teach us lessons. You know, those kings that we read about in the books of Kings and Chronicles, they are valid examples for us today. God's training us to be kings, and we can go back and we can see what the good kings did and bring it into the 21st century things of how we purged the land of idols and the high places and the altars and everything. And we see what the evil kings did when they departed from God, and we can learn lessons about ourselves and how we live in this time. But we have Ahaz here. Now it says in verse one of chapter seven, it says, It came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that resin, the king of Syria and Pica, the son of Ramaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but they could not prevail against it. So here we have Ahaz. He's got Israel, the house of Israel. Remember, they separated, and we have a house of Judah. Ahaz is the king of it. We have Ramaliah or Pica over there as king of Israel, and Israel has allied with Syria against Judah. So they come up against it, but they could not prevail against Ahaz and Judah. And it was told to the house of David. Remember, David was king over Judah. He is his successors that are kings of Judah. It was told to the house of David saying, serious forces are deployed in Ephraim. Well, those were two mighty powers on the earth at that time. And so it says here, so when Ahaz, so his heart, Ahaz's heart and the heart of his people, were moved as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. Fear struck them. These two are combined against us. They are sitting there in the land of Ephraim, and they're ready to make war against us. How can we possibly stand against a mighty force like that? And it's kind of a beautiful little analogy that God has there. Their hearts moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind. It's just swaying. They were scared to death. They were in terror of this alliance that was there and united to form him or them. And in verse 3 it says, The LORD said to Ahaz, Go now and meet Ahaz, you and your son, shear Jehoshub, which means a remnant shall remain, at the end of the aqueduct with the upper pool and the highway to the fuller's field, and say to him, Take heed and be quiet. Don't fear. How many times does God keep telling us when we face dangerous things, when he told those things? Don't fear. The prophets, remember, in days past in the Old Testament times, God spoke to his people by prophets.

It tells us, and we see in Hebrews 1 and 1, we see that. Take heed. Be quiet. The same words that Moses gave to Egypt when they had their backs up against the wall at the Red Sea. Take heed. Be quiet. Don't fear or be fainthearted for these two stugs of smoking firebrands were the fierce anger of resident Syria and the son of Ramalaya. By saying, I mean, these were these were powder kegs. This is like China and Russia combined against us, right, with all their nuclear arsenals. If we heard China and Russia have allied, they are pledging nuclear war and the destruction of America with their combined arsenals, people in America would be shaking in their boots too, or having their hearts tossed like the trees in the winds.

So that was kind of the scale that we were there. And here's God through Isaiah saying, be quiet, be quiet, stand still. You know, these two guys, yeah, they're scary things, but when he says like, stubs, you know, it's like they're on their way out. They're strong. They have wreaked havoc on the earth, and they can't do that.

They've got smoke. He doesn't say there's the fire, but there's smoke. So yeah, there's danger here for sure. But he tells them, just be quiet, just be quiet. And of course, his message is trust in me. Now, it's helpful at this point, if we take a break from here and go back to 2 Chronicles 28, and see the account of which we're talking here. You know, as we go through the book of Isaiah, sometimes when they refer back to the kings to see exactly what was going on at that time, we learn a lot of lessons about Ahaz, and we see the blanks filled in, and the time frame filled in, of what we're talking about here.

Because there's a lot in those first five and six verses, and 2 Chronicles 28, and I think the second is King 16, talk about all the details here that Isaiah is summarizing to Ahaz. So let's read through this and see what the lay of the land was here with Ahaz at this time that Syria and Israel were allied against them. In chapter 28 of 2 Chronicles 1, it gives us some of the background of Ahaz, that we already know that he was an evil king.

Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king. He reigned 16 years, and he did not do what was right in the sight of the eternal, as his father David had done. For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and we remember that the house of Israel, those 10 tribes, they always departed from God.

They didn't have any righteous kings in Israel, and they fell in 720 or 722 BC because they never did follow God once they separated from Judah. He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He made molded images for the bales. He burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burned his children in the fire.

Now we know that God draws a line when children are sacrificed in the fire to pagan gods, that incenses and provokes God to anger. He burned his children in the fire according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.

Everything that God said don't do, Ahaz did. He completely turned his back against God. He completely led Judah away from God and embraced every single pagan act of religion that he could and none of God. He wiped God out of Judah at that time. Therefore, because he did all these things, it says the Lord is God delivered him into the hand of the king of Assyria. Ultimately, they did fall to Assyria, delivered him into the hand of the king of Assyria.

They defeated him and carried away a great multitude of them as captives. Now we read in Isaiah that the first time they came against them, they weren't delivered into Syria. God was going to do something here with Ahaz when he tells him, be quiet, stand still, see the salvation of God. He's trying to teach him, trust in me, you can't prevail against those armies, but I can.

You can't overcome them, but I can. Now we'll see in Isaiah 7 how Isaiah responded to those early admonitions of God. But here they have fallen to Assyria. Therefore, the Lord God delivered him to Assyria. They defeated him, carried away a great multitude of them as captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who defeated him with a great slaughter.

For Pekah, the son of Ramaliah, killed 120,000 in Judah in one day. All valiant men. Why? Because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers. All that carnage, all that loss, all that pain, because they departed from God. And Ahaz, we'll see, had a chance. God gave him a chance to turn to him, but Ahaz turned his back on God. Zikri, verse 7, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Messiah, Masiah, the king's son, Azikum, the officer over the house, and Alkanah, who was second to the king. And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren, 200,000 women, sons, and daughters. And they also took away much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria. So we have these two powers that have gone and they have just completely ransacked Judah. Hundreds of thousands killed, carried away captive, people killed. It has been a tremendous mess. Why? Because Ahaz and Israel forsook God. So here's Israel, you know, brother, if you will, to Judah. And here they are. They're defeating Israel. They're um, they're defeating Israel. They're carrying away captives. They're enemies. And it was kind of a heinous like, a heinous little thing that's going on here.

And so God is watching what's going on and seeing this pride in Israel as they rejoice and are carrying away their brothers to captivity. And so a prophet of the Lord named Oded here in chapter 28 verse 9 appears to Israel. The prophet of the Lord was there, whose name was Oded, and he went out before the army that came to Samaria. Samaria, remember the capital of Israel, and said to them, look, because the God of your fathers was angry with Judah, he has delivered them into your hand, and you've killed them in a rage that reaches up to heaven.

You know, don't think you did it. God is the one who delivered them into your hand to show them what happens when you depart from God, and his blessing and his protection is withdrawn from you.

And now you propose to force the children of Judah and Jerusalem to be your male and female slaves.

But are you not also guilty before the Lord your God? Do you see what you're doing? God used you to punish his Judah to get their attention, to show them what the effect of forsaking God is, but what you're doing is really wrong. You're enslaving these people. You're making them captives. You're as bad as they are. Do you get what you're doing? Aren't you guilty before the Lord your God? Now hear me therefore, and return the captives whom you have taken captive from your brethren, for the fierce wrath of the Lord is upon you.

So here's this prophet. Israel comes away from this great victory. You know, here they're carrying away people. They've got riches, they've got people, they've got the whole yard. You know, in the throes of victory, they have absolutely no empathy, no mercy, nothing on the people of Judah. They're just celebrating. And here comes this prophet saying, watch what you're doing. Watch what you're doing.

Now Israel, like he has, could have just ignored it, but it's heartening because Israel listened. Israel listened in this occasion. They got what the prophet said. They opened their ears, and they made a change in their behavior. It's very heartening when you see this happen.

And, you know, it's very heartening when God shows us something we need to do, and we do it, or someone might correct us in something, and we say, oh, yeah, you're right. I am doing that. How could I be doing that? Well, in verse 12, it says, some of the heads of the children of Ephraim, remember Ephraim, it's Ephraim and Asa, the sons of Joseph are of the tribes there.

Some of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah, Barakiah, Jehizchiah, and Amasa stood up against those who came from the war. So we had people who stood in the gap and said, wait a minute, wait a minute, what are we doing? Said to them, you shall not bring the captives here, for we already have offended God. You intend to add to our sins and to our guilt. For our guilt, let me put some light on here, our guilt is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.

So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the leaders and all the assembly. So they listened. They listened, said, no, we're not going to do this, okay, just leave them alone. And the men who were designated by name rose up and took the captives, and from the spoil they clothed all who were naked among them, dressed them, and gave them sandals, gave them food and drink, and anointed them. And they let all the feeble ones write on donkeys.

So they brought them to their brethren at Jericho, the city of palm trees, and then they returned to Samaria. Look at the mercy they showed. What does God say? You know, justice, mercy, and faith. Show mercy. Yes, yes, they had to be punished. Yes, they had to go through this, but show mercy. Don't rejoice and celebrate over the demise of people. And Israel did this very well, actually. Ahaz should have seen the mercy and maybe seen what went on with Israel as they listened to the prophet of the Lord.

It says at the same time, it's all this is going on, King Ahaz, his country's been defeated and humiliated. At the same time, King Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria to help him. Now we know that Assyria was like the most cruel of all the nations at that time.

They, if your heart sank, if you heard Assyria and Israel were coming against you, if Assyria was coming against you, you panicked. There was reason for terror when you even see what history tells us today, the type of cruelty that they enforced upon those who they took after. At the same time, Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria to help him. He didn't bother turning to God and seeing all this. I mean, here's his country decimated, but he has to go to God and say, okay, I've sinned, I've sinned, we shouldn't have forsaken you. He goes to Assyria to try to ally with them. It's a very sad picture.

Spiritually, we might find ourselves doing the same thing. You know, we might try something to solve a problem that we have. We make a mistake in relying on the world. After we rely on that, things get worse or they don't get resolved. Maybe after a few times, we should stop and think, you know what, I need to trust in God. He's the only one who can fix this. He's the only one who can make this all well. But sometimes we just keep going back to the world and do it again and do it again.

Let's try this and let's try that. We get further and further and further away from God. This is the same attitude that Ahaz has. I'll just keep looking to the people around me to deliver me. For again, the Edomites had come. They'd attacked Judah and they'd carried away captives. We got everyone beating up on Judah here. Ahaz is not turning to God at all. He's just, you know, let's get another ally.

The Philistines had also invaded the cities of the low land and of the south of Judah and had taken Beth Shevesh, Agelan, Gedarav, Soka and his villages, Timna and his villages and Ginzo with his villages, and they dwelled there. It is a complete disaster in Judah. And in verse 19, again, it tells us why.

For God brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had encouraged moral decline in Judah and had been continually unfaithful to God. It's all Ahaz's fault. It's all pride's fault.

It's all failure to yield to God's fault. That was what it did. Look at all the pain. Look at all the sorrow. Look at all the humiliation that came because Ahaz simply wouldn't yield to God.

And then we hear, then we have Assyria, right? Tiglith's police, or we read of him in other places.

King of Assyria came to him and distressed him and didn't assist him. I mean, here he is. He was relying on Assyria. It says, you know, Ahaz opened up the treasuries of God. He tried to open up the treasuries, gave all this stuff to Assyria. Please help us. Please help us. And, you know, and Assyria just turned their back on him, distressed him and didn't assist him. For Ahaz took part of the treasures from the house of the Eternal, from the house of the King, and from the leaders, and he gave it to the king of Assyrias. But he didn't help him. Is the world our friend? Did Ahaz learn, is the world your friend? Who will be there always by your side? Who is always there that can provide all everything we need? Is it going to be the forces of the world, the functions of the world, the whatever of the world, or will it be God? A tough, tough lesson Ahaz is learning, but Ahaz never learned it. How sad is this? Verse 22, in the time of his distress, Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to the God. He never got it. He never turned to God. He just kept moving further and further away from him. This is that King Ahaz. He sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which had defeated him, saying, because the gods of the kings of Syria helped them, I'll sacrifice to them that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him and of Israel. So Ahaz gathered the articles of the house of God, cut in pieces the articles of the house of God, shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and made for himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem. Satan has complete hold on Ahaz at this time. It's almost amazing what Ahaz does, right? And in every single city of Judah, he made high places to burn incense to other gods and provoked to anger the Lord God of his fathers. And so, yes, ma'am. Debbie? So, as an analogy, we could kind of think of our country with our leader of our country, our governors or whatever, like Ahaz, and the things that we don't even have a clue what is going on. The sexual immorality, the human marketing, the children that are being murdered, sacrificed, so to speak. So, is that not a warning to us as well? Yeah, I mean, have we not sought other countries to kind of help us like Ahaz did with Assyria and the different countries?

Are we not doing the same thing? We're doing the same thing, right? We're running all over the world looking for help in all those areas that God could help us, or we already have the resources. The analogy is clear for physical Israel. The lesson is there, but the lesson for spirit, us, too, right? That we don't do the same things in a lesser manner. We may not be running around the kings of the earth, but we could be doing the same things, too, and resisting God and what he's trying to teach us, and keep looking to the world. One thing, you know, when God says, come out of the world, He means come out of the world, right? Sanctify them by truth, come out of the world. Learn how not to rely on all those things that we have lived our lives, kind of relying on because we live in this society and whatever, but learning more and more to trust God. And that's what AHAS didn't do. It's something we have to do, something we have to do, too, and certainly Debbie, you're right. Our country is a picture, again, of what's going on. That's the modern-day story of what happens with AHAS there in 2 Chronicles 28. I want to mention one more thing. You know, when it talked about they hear, but they don't understand, they see, but they don't really see, or they don't see. Throughout the Bible, as I read the Bible, there are so many Old Testament, New Testament references to they have the eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear, and it's not because they don't want to, it's because they have closed their ears. Just like if we don't read our Bible, if we don't study, even being Christian called out once, we are having ears that don't hear and see and eyes that don't see, because we want to do other things. We don't want to pay attention to what God is saying, but there are so many scriptures about eyes to not see and ears that don't hear.

And it's a warning to all of us, right? Because we can find it. We can kind of just get dull of hearing. We hear something and like, nah, I've heard it a hundred times, but you would never do anything about it. But maybe we keep hearing it over and over and over again, because we need to examine and see if we're actually doing what God says to do. So, okay, with that is background, and it's very valuable background and key to understanding what is going on in Isaiah 7 here, because God dedicates really this whole chapter to what happened with Ahaz. Remember, he was the one of those four kings who never turned to God. In fact, he kept turning further and further and just rejected him completely. And God, you know, I don't think any of us could read that and say that God wasn't just Judah under Ahaz. God is exactly what they deserve. God says in Deuteronomy 28, what will happen to a nation that departs from God? They did. They lost a lot, as did Israel and Judah, ultimately, as well. So, if we go back to Isaiah 7, with everything that we've just read, seeing the history of Ahaz, seeing what happened to Judah under his reign, understanding who Syria is and Israel and Ephraim are, you know, we can let's go back to verse 5. We'd read there, you know, it's like, remember, God says Israel and Syria are allied against you, and they're panicked, right? They're panicked. They're panicked. We're going to see what God does, because the first time they come against them, they don't defeat them, but they do completely humiliate them later on. The Syrian, Ephraim, completely humiliate Judah. Verse 5, Because Syria, Ephraim, and the sons of Ramaliah have plotted evil against you, saying, let's go up against Judah and trouble it, and let's make a gap in the wall, its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of of Tabal, or Tabal. So here we have, you know, God's telling them, this is what they're plotting. We're going to come, we're going to conquer them, and we're going to set our own king up over them. We'll control that. Now, the commentary say we have no idea who the son of Tabal may be. It might have been someone from Judah, they say, who had been conspiring with, you know, these enemy forces, and he was going to get set up, or someone else like that. We just have no idea. The thing is, they were going to conquer it, and Judah was going to become their domain. So here we have them saying, let's go up against Judah, and we're going to set a king up over them. But because they say that, verse 7, thus says the Lord God, it shall not come, nor shall it come to pass. It's not going to happen. They won't completely overtake you. They won't set a king up over you. They won't set a king up over you, and we see in chapter 7, we didn't do that because Ahaz died, and then his son Hezekiah came, and he became a good king. He did the opposite of what his father did. So Judah continued. They didn't fall prey, and didn't get, while they had captains going away, Israel sent them back. But Judah survived. They're still a kingdom, and they have King Hezekiah, a good king over them after Ahaz dies. Thus says the Lord God, it won't stand. It won't come to pass, for the head of Syria, that means like the capital, the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezen. That was the king's name. Within 65 years, Ephraim will be broken so that it will not be a people.

Now that's a pretty exact little prophecy here that God gives Isaiah that he passes on to Ahaz, and as he gives them things, within 65 years, Ephraim will be broken so that it will not be a people. Now, there are scholars who do these things, and who calculate these things out.

I could have put the UCG Bible commentary up, because it pretty much echoes what this commentary from Adam Clark says about these 65 years, or three score and five years.

It's very interesting when you see during the reign of Ahaz, where these 65 years come from, and the fall of Ephraim. It says there was 65 years from the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, when this prophecy was delivered to the total depopulation of the kingdom of Israel by Ezra who carried away the remains of the ten tribes which had been left by Tiglath, Policer, and Shalmaneser, those were kings of Assyria, and who planted the country with new inhabitants. We read that, you know, we read of the fall of Israel in 720 BC, 723 BC, somewhere in that range. So it's like, okay, so this prophecy, and when Ahaz is there, was delivered, the country was not wholly stripped of his inhabitants by Shalmaneser, appears from many passages of the history of Josiah where Israelites are mentioned, and still remaining there. And it gives you many of the verses here to corroborate what he's saying. But it indicates that, indeed, within 65 years, and most of the commentaries, and I think our Bible commentaries, is from the second year of the reign of Ahaz when this prophecy was delivered early on in his reign within 65 years, if Ephraim and Israel really did fall to Assyria. So it's a remarkable prophecy that's given there, and history in the time frame of it bears all that out. Now, if you're interested, you can go back, and there's an awful lot of details. He mentions of the verses here. He's got other commentators that kind of give you the timeline of what's going on, and you can see exactly what's happening. But here it is. You know, God is here with Ahaz. Ahaz is resisting God on every single front, but God sends a prophet to him and says, this is what's going to happen. Assyria is now allied against you and Israel. They're going to come at you. They're already talking about who is going to conquer you, who's going to be set up over you, but it's not going to happen. In fact, within 65 years, Israel ceased to be a people, and indeed, Israel did cease to be a people when they were taken out of their country, scattered throughout the world eventually. Yeah, Sherry, did you have a comment?

Sherry? I'm sorry, I forgot to turn on my thing. Okay. Where can we get that document at to go over it later? Go online, type in for the Adam Clark commentary, and type in Isaiah 7-8, and then he'll give you all the details there. You can look at a number of commentaries or even go to the UCG Bible commentary at ucg.org, and he gives a pretty good explanation of that 65 years as well.

Okay, thank you. Okay, so what God is doing here, we're going to see a picture of God's mercy and God's reaching out. He wants people to understand. He gives everyone a chance to know him and a chance to trust him. So here he is reaching out to Ahaz, saying, hey, you know what? This is what's happening. It's not going to happen. In fact, within 65 years, ephraim will cease to be a people.

And verse 9, he says, the head of ephraim is Samaria. That's their capital city. And the head of Samaria is Remeliah's son. That's Pica. It's interesting because one of the commentaries say that the reason that it doesn't say Pica throughout here, the actual name of the king of Israel, is because he was so detested among Judah. And when they didn't have any respect for someone, they would always just call him the son of Remeliah. So whenever you see the son of, instead of the person's name, it means they don't have respect for Pica, and understandably so here. But anyway, so we keep saying the son of Remeliah. The head of Ephraim is Samaria. The head of Samaria is Remeliah's son, who is Pica. And then God says, if you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.

Ahaz, if you won't believe, surely you will not be established. Now Ahaz probably was not a student of the word of God, right? But if he had 2 Chronicles 20, or had any history of the kings who went before him, he would have known that Jehoshaphat uttered those very same words.

Jehoshaphat was a good king. He was loyal to God. He trusted in God. Now we remember some of the stories of Jehoshaphat and what he did, but here in chapter 20, in verse 20, when they're faced with a tremendous battle, Jehoshaphat says this. 2 Chronicles 20.

So they rose early in the morning. Let me see if I can...

Notice what they did, you know, verse 17. I'm just going to read a little bit of this. So you can go back and look at it more. But here they are faced with this battle. God says, you will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you, Judah and Jerusalem.

Don't fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow, go out against them, for the Lord is with you. Things that we need to remember, you know, we really remember when we face trials. God is there. Don't fear, don't be dismayed. Trust in him. And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the Lord, worshiping him. And the Levites and the children of the Kowathites and the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the Lord, God of Israel, with voices loud and high. So they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tkowah.

And as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and you would have as the citizens of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established. Believe his prophets, and you shall prosper. Pretty stirring words, and of course, God delivered Judah at that time. They continually sang praises to God. They didn't try to go out and get other allies. They weren't relying on their own resources. They knew that they were powerless against the enemy. It was going to be God who delivered them.

So those are our words, and most likely, I mean, I can't say for sure, but most likely, Ahaz, when God said those words, if you will not believe, surely you will not be established, probably struck a chord with him. Well, Jehoshaphat said that in that battle. Maybe, you know, maybe it struck him a little bit, but God was saying, Think back. When Jehoshaphat was in a similar situation, he trusted in me because God knew what was in Ahaz's heart, and he was giving him a chance to stop and think. Let's rely on God.

Moreover, the Lord spoke again to Ahaz. Ahaz didn't pay attention to that one, so God tried again. Ahaz, pay attention. I want you to succeed. I want you to follow me. The same thing he might do to us. He's patient. He's merciful. He wants us to succeed, if I can use that word. He wants us to overcome and turn to him, and he'll give us opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to do that.

Moreover, God spoke again to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God. Ask it either in the depth or in the height above. Ahaz, just ask me anything. I will prove to you I am God. I will prove to you I will give you a sign. I just want you to look at me, and rely on me, and trust in me. I will do anything you ask. Oh, and God says something like that, boy, you would think that Ahaz would have been like, okay, okay, let's see.

But Ahaz's retort in verse 12 is kind of insolent in a way. He goes, I will not ask. I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord. And as you read through the words that are there, you know, I will not ask, but he kind of tries to couch it as in he's worshiping God, right? I'm not going to tempt you. You don't need to give me a sign. All the while, he's, you know, trying to court to Syria to come to his aid and whatever. Kind of trying to think that he's fooling God, and he's got an answer in Syria to combat these forces rather than God.

God sees right through the heart. No one fools him, right? But he kind of counts it in a spiritual thing. And sometimes, you know, we hear those retorts. It's like, okay, you're saying the right words, but what are you really thinking? What are you really doing, right? So that's what Ahaz's resort, he didn't. He didn't. He didn't ask God, you know, and he just continued to turn against him, we see in 2 Chronicles 28.

And then he said, you know, the prophet, you know, says, here now, O house of David. Now he's addressing the entire nation. He has made his decisions. God's saying he's hardened his heart against me.

He won't listen. He won't even let me give him a sign that I am with him. I've given him every opportunity, and he's turning against me. Here now, O house of David. So he's speaking to the entire Judah now. Is it a small thing for you to weary men? But will you weary my God also?

It's the prophet speaking, right? Will you weary God also? I mean, you're wearing them out. He is trying. He is trying hard to get you. He is really trying hard to get you to listen to him. He is really trying hard to make you succeed. You know, he is really hard. He works really hard at trying to get us to become the people he wants us to become. He gives us every opportunity to grow and strengthen whatever. But sometimes, you know, we probably really weary God, and he thinks, boy, how many times am I going to have to do this with these people? Can they just yield to me? Well, they just come to the understanding and the acceptance that salvation only comes from God. It's not going to come through the powers of earth, the governments of earth, the riches of earth, or any man. It's only going to come through God. And in this world, it's going to come to ruin complete desolation because it moves further and further away from God, just as all the history of the Bible is of nations that do that. So verse 13, we have a God who is just weary at this point, and that's the end. And now we see, as he's going to suffer, he's going to reap what he sowed. Resist God, forsake God, and then nations come in over and over and over again and just ransack the country and completely destroy it. Therefore, verse 14 is an interesting verse. Now, remember, he's speaking to the house of David. He's, of course, also speaking to Ahaz. It's like, okay, you've rejected me. You're not paying attention to me. You don't want anything to do. You won't even ask for a sign, but I'll give you a sign. I'll give you a sign that I'm God and that I will deliver you. That because without me, you are nothing and you would not have any future like at all. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. And then he gives the Messianic prophecy. Now, as you read through the commentaries, they try to make, well, it's probably the Messianic prophecy, but it might be that, you know, Ahaz had a wife who he hadn't married yet, and he's talking about that son, and maybe it was Hezekiah that was. No, it's a Messianic prophecy. I will give Judah a sign. House of David hears the sign. A virgin will she'll conceive and bear a son, and you will shall call his name Emmanuel. God with us. That's the sign. Didn't happen today, but it was a sign that God gave. The Messiah will come. He will certainly come. And now we know he did, and he is the Savior of all of us without his life, without his death, without his willingness to serve all of mankind in that way. We're hopeless. Xavier?

Our brother Shabbi, in that verse, the word for virgin has a different article, ha. It is ha alma, the virgin. Yes, meaning a daughter of David, specific girl, God will choose.

The Jews like to say, no, it says a virgin. When we look at the Hebrew, it says the virgin.

Good point. Those articles make a real big difference sometimes, and in this case, it does.

In verse 15, it gives us something that we don't really speak in the same way today, but it talks about the Savior coming, and he'll be a child. Kurds and honey. Kurds and honey, he shall eat. We read that, and we think Kurds and honey, he shall eat. What does that mean? Again, this is where the commentaries help to help us understand what is it that, what does it mean when they say, Kurds and honey, you will eat. You look at it, it says the food of infants in that day was Kurds, milk, milk and honey. Kurds and honey, that the first foods that a baby should eat are milk, of course, and honey. When it says Kurds and honey, he shall eat. He will be born as an infant. He's not going to come as a full-grown man as a king from heaven. He will be born as a child. He will grow up. He'll be an infant. He will grow up. Kurds and honey, he shall eat. That he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good.

He's going to grow up. He's going to grow up. He's going to become a man. He will know to refuse the evil, and he will become a righteous man, is what they're saying there. That's exactly what Christ did. Born as a child, never sinned, but he had to learn life as a child, as an infant, and all the pressures that either are on our children, or that were on our children at that time, always without sin. He was the Son of God, so he had God's Holy Spirit, but he grew, and he was able to discern evil from good. The same gift we can give our children if we're working with them closely and helping them, especially in this world, to discern the evil from the good.

Verse 16, For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good. That's an infanthood, right, as you're growing. For before the high child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good. The land that you dread, who did they dread? They dreaded Syria, and they dreaded Israel. That's who this was about. We're scared to death because they're aligned against us, and they're allied against us, and they're going to come in, and they want to destroy us. And choose the good. The land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.

And indeed, Syria fell, and Israel fell. You know, well before Christ, well before Christ was born.

And Syria and Israel never did overtake Judah. They never did accomplish their mission of destroying Judah. It was eventually Babylon who destroyed, who conquered Judah, and Assyria, of course, that conquered us, Assyria that conquered Israel. Verse 17, the Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon you, and your people, and your father's house.

And indeed, we read that Assyria did come, and I won't take the time. I think it probably...

I thought I wrote down some verses here. Let me look at my notes for a minute. I can give those to you later. I don't remember where it is, but you see that Assyria did come against Judah. They did not conquer Judah. The Lord will bring the king of Assyria upon you, and your people, and your father's house. Days that have not come since the day that Abraham departed from Judah. So God is saying, you know, this is what's going to happen. You know, your life will be difficult because you turned from me. Okay, in verse 18, really 18 to 25, the rest of this is really like a dual prophecy. It happened, but it also says, it shall come to pass in that day. Whenever we see the words in that day, you know, it's talking about the time before the return of Jesus Christ when physical Israel is going to suffer the same type of fate, right? We read about the time of Jacob's trouble. We read about armies coming from afar, laying the land desolate, we talked about it many times in the prophecies. It's there in Deuteronomy 28 when God says, if you depart from me, here's what's going to happen to you. In Leviticus 26, he says, if you don't turn back to me, this is what God's going to do to you. And we see all these times that happen as God sends warning signs, exactly what the Bible says, but no one ever turns back, or the nation never turns back to him. Verse 18, it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. Notice how God says it. I mean, we already read back in 2 Chronicles 28, you know, when God warned Israel, hey, don't think you did that because of your power. God used you to punish Judah. God whistled from afar Israel, and you did it. Now you have mercy on your people. Judah has been punished, and God will do that. He will use other nations to punish the nation that has departed from him. We see it with Judah. We saw it with Israel. We'll see it with the United States. It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. They will come, and all of them will rest in the desolate valleys and the clefts of the rocks, and on all thorns and in all pastures. They will just simply invade the land, and they will lay it desolate. They won't be interested in moving into it and preserving everything like we have. They'll just lay it all waste, as it says back here in Isaiah 6 verse 11. The cities will be laid waste and without inhabitant, and the land is utterly desolate. They will just invade, and they will destroy they will destroy the land. That's exactly what God would say would happen to when He withdraws His blessings, when He no longer is watching over things, and we reap exactly what we have sown.

In the same day, verse 20, the Lord will shave with a hired razor with those from beyond the river with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the legs, and will also remove the beard. You know, when captives were taken captive, they just got shaved from head to head. There was a humiliation to have that done. God says, you will be humiliated. These nations will come in, and you will know that you've been had. You will rue the day that these things happen to you. Of course, these are ancient things. We can imagine what it would be like and how a nation would be humiliated today, especially one that's been so proud and has taken and destroyed the moral fabric, whatever moral fabric there was in the land and completely destroyed it, just like Ahaz was responsible for the moral decline of Judah. In the same day, God will hillimule only at you. You know, we can hearken back to the words where it says, you're going to be a byword. People will look at you. They'll be astonished. How did that happen to that great nation? What did they do to deserve that fate? Well, you and I know. You and I know what they when that happens, why we deserve it, right? We're living it. We're seeing it. And Israel, you know, when it happened to them, all because they departed from God.

And you read those words about you will be a byword. People will be astonished at you.

And you can imagine what will happen when the prophesied fall of the great nations, the English-speaking nations of the world, happen today. It'll be like, whoa, whoa, just a while ago, they were like, we were like, we were like listening to every command they gave. And now they're nothing. They're completely, they're completely useless. They're completely powerless. They're, they're the worst. They're the worst. They're the weakest in the world. It's going to be kind of an amazing thing for the world to see. Of course, when that all happens, the whole world is in a mess because they don't understand how everything is intertwined in this global economy, in this global market that we've created for ourselves. The whole world will suffer, but, but there will be, there will be that, that, you know, what happened, what happened over here, there will be a hissing and a byword, as it says. Verse 21, it shall be in that day that a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep. What it's telling here is that there's going to be, everyone's going to be at a subsistence level. Agriculture is gone. You don't read about agriculture anywhere in the remaining verses here of chapter seven. It's because why? The land is desolate. Nothing will grow. God's taken away the blessings of the field that, that he gave in Genesis 49 to, to the lands that's gone. It'll be in that day that a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep. That's going to be what he lives off of, the milk and whatever, you know, whatever these two, these two, these two, these two livestock or three livestock can give for him. You don't read anything about vegetables here. So it shall be from the abundance of milk they give.

What is he going to be eating? Is he going to be eating steaks? Is he going to be eating, no, what he's going to be eating? He will eat curds. He will be drinking milk. That's going to be what's there. It's going to be a very subsistence level type existence that goes on when the land is laid waste. It shall be from the abundance of milk they give. They give those animals that he will eat curds. For curds and honey, everyone will eat who has left in the land. Milk and honey, the food of infants, the food of babes, you know. I know if we thought about it, we would see the spiritual application of that as well, that sometimes, you know, God says you should be mature by now. We shouldn't have to go back to the milk of the word. You've already done that.

But Israel and the nations are going to have to go back and know who God is. They're going to have to start all over again. They're going to have to come to realize, yeah, it was God all along. We resisted him from the entire time of man's existence, but it was God. That's who we have to do, and we have to start all over again in our in development of our reliance and trust in him. Kurds and honey, everyone will eat who has left of the land. Verse 23 talks about those vineyards, those vines that we talked about the last couple weeks ago and a little bit last week. It shall happen in that day that wherever there could be a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, it will be for briars and thorns. If the land was still blessed, we would still have vines there that were producing great crops. Everyone would be working the fields. They would be yielding their fruit. There would be the wine presses. There would be things that were overflowing, and there would be value in the land that came, but now there's nothing. All where all those vineyards were that could be producing all that substance. Now there's nothing but briars and thorns, just the curses of the field, right? The things that are absolutely absolutely useless. Those curses of the land that will be removed when Jesus Christ returns, it will be for briars and thorns. Why did it happen? Because they rejected God, because he was put out. With arrows and bows, men will come there, because all the land will become briars and thorns. Now that you know that you might think that that indicates warfare, but reading through the commentaries and what those words indicate when they're there, it's like there won't be any vegetation, but there will be animals roaming the earth. So instead of people being in the vineyards, you know, picking grapes, going through the wine press, producing the fruit of the vine, it's all briars and thorns. Wild animals will roam there, and people will be out there hunting those. Instead of reaping the land, they will instead be hunting. Yeah, Dale?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Mr. Shavey, it reminds me of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, where they were in the original sin. And it says briars and thorns will produce in the garden.

Yep. So God gives similar consequences here in a certain way. Yeah. Yeah, no, you're exactly right. That's exactly exactly what's happening here. A guy who's showing that that's what you choose, that's what's going to happen. Exactly what he said at the beginning will happen at the end, too. So it's a very, it's a very, you know, it's one of those kind of movie, movie-like, you could almost tell someone making a movie of this, right? It's a desolate land. I'm sure there has been movies made of it after, you know, after nuclear war or something, the day after, probably show things like that. The land is all desolate. There's nothing growing. People are out looking for themselves. Anything that's, anything that's living, because everything that we've known has just been washed away in this desolation. In verse 25 there, then, he talks about one of those things we read about with the, with the vineyards as well. To any hill which could be dug with the hoe, remember, remember in chapter five, it talked about all these things you do when you build a garden or a vineyard. To any hill which could be dug with the hoe, you won't go there for fear of briars and thorns. Well, it doesn't mean you're going to be afraid necessarily of briars and thorns, but you wouldn't, you're, you're, there comes a time when you think something should happen, but it doesn't happen. And it's kind of like harrowing when you know this should work, but it's not working. So you're not going to go there because briars and thorns are going to do all this work and it's going to produce nothing. And there's, there's a fear that comes along with that and the fear of realizing everything we counted on is gone. And there's a time where it's all going to be gone if God isn't providing the blessings that really, that really He has provided the whole world. You know, we, we, we have to come to realize that even though, you know, God could have, He could have eliminated mankind. He could make all our lives miserable. Certainly the nations of the Israelite nations, He has blessed richly, but all over the world there is food. There are periods of famine and times of starvation and whatever, but overall God has provided for man. That's why we're still alive. He hasn't allowed, He hasn't allowed mankind to die out that, and, and won't because He has a purpose for all of mankind. Yeah, you won't, you won't be digging the hoe anymore where there used to be vineyards that for fear that briars and thorns will come there, but it'll become a range for oxen and a place for sheep to roam. It'll be a place that's kind of desolate and for animals, not for the rich vegetation that, that, that God gives and the blessing of the land. So we're there at the end of chapter seven. Why don't, why don't we stop there for tonight? I think I might have skipped over something because I had, let me look at my, I had two slides and I wonder what I skipped over here.

Oh, okay, yeah. Back in when we were in verse, around verse 17 when both those kings would be overwhelmed. Yeah, well we could read through this or, or you could reference second king 16 verse 9 there. It's talking about the fall of the king of Syria, Rezin. He was killed there, as hells us in second king 16 verse 9. Pica, the one who he said the son of Remaliah, he was slain by Hoxhaia, it says, and we read that in second king 1627. So indeed those two kings that were threatening Judah at that time did come to their demise and they were, they were completely overthrown again, just as God said, said what happened. So he gave as, he gave as, you know, the answers and the prophecies and they were for Judah, they were for Judah as well so that they knew and going forward would be like, yeah, God, God was with us. We just needed to listen to him. So, okay, well, let me, let me stop there and open it up for any discussion or questions or anything that anyone has.

Well, Shabir, in Second Chronicles, just the 28 verse 18, it tells a few of the cities that God turned over to the enemy and one of them is rather unique throughout history. It always gets ruined.

I think they're building condos there now, but it's called Beth Shemesh. Oh, okay. And it has to do with the sun goddess or God. And another word for it is the torch. I think I mentioned it to you before, though. And, but it's very, very interesting that it's one of the places that gets annihilated.

Yeah. Oh, yeah, all, yeah, no, I know. Good, good point. All those cities, I'm sure they're mentioned for a reason, right? And we're one day we'll understand everything that went on and those that they were specifically mentioned like that. So I'm gonna turn the record. Do we have some...