Isaiah 7:1-17
Notes
Transcript
How To Read the Bible
How To Read the Bible
The Bible has 66 books broken up into the old testamet 39 books and the new testament that has 27 books. Some Christians find the Old Testament a bit hard. Some only read the new testament becaus eit talks about Jesus and about how we can grow as Christians directly. When we come to books like Isaiah written in 740 BC we can wonder why bother reading it. What could Isaiah have to say today.
Well here is the answer if you read Isaih as a stand alone story then it might seem very out of date, but if you read the Bible as one big story, the book of Isaiah is like a chapter in the story. The Whole Bible teaches a Theology and we call this Biblical Theology. That is just a term that means the whole Bible is one story.
This makes Isaiah and the OT very relevant to us. The Bible is the Story of God and us. It’s message is that we are all sinners and we need a saviour. The message of the Bible is a message of Judgement and hope. The climax of the Story is that Jesus is judged on the Cross in our place and if we have faith in him we are forgiven for our sins and we have the hope of eternal life. If we don’t we face judgement for our sins ourselves. If we want to understand the whole Bible, it makes sence to read the whole of his story and not just part of it.
And teh reason that Isaiah is good to read as part of the Biblical Theology is that it is an im portant part of the story and it actually helps us connect up the Old testament and the new testament. It shows us the failure of the people of God to follow Him, his judgement on their sin and his offer of hope to those who repent of sin.
The Message of Isaiah
The Message of Isaiah
Last week we were introduced to the vision of Isaiah, it is a vision of judgement and Hope, this fits the overall Bible story because that is the theme of the whole Bible. So Isaiah is going to help us understand the message of judgement and hope better, that will help us to understand the hope we have in Jesus better so we can live it out in our lives better.
The Prophet Isaiah spoke to the leaders of Israel and Judah a message of judgement and hope.
1.Message of Judgement. God would use assyria and then babylon to judge the people of Israel and then Judge for their rebellion against Him.
2. Message of Hope. That God would fullfill his covenant promises, eventually send a king from the line of David remember 2 Sam 2:7. This King would lead his people in obedience to God’s Law given at Mt Siani Ex 19 and this would fullfill the Promise God made with Abraham in Gen 12. Be blessing to the whole world.
The Structure of Isaiah
The Structure of Isaiah
We are still in the first section of 3 in Isaiah that includes chapters 1-39. This section contains Isaiah’s warning of Judgement to Israel. The climax is in chapter 39 which includes the prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem and the exile of the people into babylon. In chapter 40-66 Isaiah picks up on the message of HOPE.
The Story of Isaiah so Far
The Story of Isaiah so Far
Like any good introduction we see the theme of judgement and hope introduced. We see to begin with the story of Judgement and hope for Jerusalem in Chapters 1-12. Old Jerusalem judgement and new jerusalem hope.
Last week God on throne, he and Israel are corrupt. God’s Holiness burning coal and not destroy but purifies him. Isaiah repents but unlike Isaiah Isral have already gone too far and they will harden their hearts and be judged and chopped down in a field as a smouldering stump, but it will create a holy seed and will survive. So there is judgement and hope. But who will be the hope and the seed.
Like any good book, the Bible leaves us hanging at the end of chapter 6.
The city rebelion and idolitary and injustice purify a remnent by destorying the city, age of peace and harmony.
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
The rest of the section 7-12 gives the answer:
In chapter 7 the people ask is God with us but the answer will be yes he is. We need to trust God in all circumstances.
Isaiah Confronts Ahaz King of Jerusalem. He is in the line of David.
Isaiah announces the downfall of Ahaz.
The empire of Assiria will chop Israel down and the land will be devistated.
But in Chapter 7 After the judgement there is hope. After the destruction God is going to send a new king called ‘immanuel’ means God is with us who will bring freedom, in 9-12 Imanuel will bring freedom from oppression.
He will be A new branch will grow from the stump from Davids family, new Jerusalem, bring justice and peace to all the nations.
The key verse in this section is found in 7:14
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
This much loved verse is the prediction that Jesus will be the great king who brings hope.
Fear
Fear
It’s 734 BC. Assyria is the world’s super power. They want to take over the countries around them. Syria (a different country) and Israel (the northern kingdom) want Judah (the southern kingdom) to join them in an alliance to oppose Assyria.
Ahaz is the king of Judah Who will he put his trust in? Syria and Israel? Assyria? The Holy One of Israel? Isn’t the Lord their King?
In verse 1 Israel the northern kingdom unites with Syria to attack Juhda. But does not succeed.
1 When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.
In verse 2
2 Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
Ahaz fears Syria and Israel, but he fears Assyria more.
Isaiah goes to meet Ahaz, Ahaz is at the aqueduct (v2), probably checking Judah’s
water supply in light of the coming siege of Jerusalem by Assyria
What will Ahaz put his trust in.
2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God. 3 He followed the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 4 He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.
he goes for assyria. weak character.
Isaiah gives him an alternative to Assyria
7 Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“ ‘It will not take place,
it will not happen,
8 for the head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus is only Rezin.
Within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.
Trust in God’s word.
But in v 10-11 Ahaz refuses
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”
Yet God gives Ahaz 4 more ways to trust him
3-7 Cooalition will not harm Juhda
4 Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.
7 Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“ ‘It will not take place,
it will not happen,
8-9 Coalition is only led by 2 men and God is more powerful than 2 men
10-13 God offers him a sign that Ahaz can ask for
13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also?
14-17 Ahaz rejects the sign but God gives him one anyway. One that he will not like.
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
17 The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.”
v14 The sign is the birth of a child Jesus.
v15a. 17-25But before this child the land will be devistated.
Israel and Damascus would be estroyed by Assyria 732ad. 722ad Syria destroyed.
Judah will be all but destroyed by Babylon another empire in 701BC.
o In Isaiah 36-37 we see the contrast to King Ahaz, where King Hezekiah puts his trust
in the Lord
o Assyria has besieged Jerusalem and it looks like the city will fall
o But then the Lord kills 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night and the Assyrians return
home defeated (2 Kings 19:35) *
• Judah survives but only for another 150 years (until the Babylonians came and conquer the
city in 586 BC)
What does God is with us mean:
do not fear their neigbours but they put their trust in their biggest threat
It is the failure of the king that leads to verse 14.
Who do we trust
1 Peter 1:10-12
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.