Sermon Tone Analysis

Isaiah 7-9

I know that you can tell already that tonight is going to be a fascinating study!

Our Wednesday evening studies are different that Sunday morning in that both contain teaching, but Sunday’s are more preaching, and Wednesdays more teaching.

So, it’s more like OTCF college of the Bible, for our midweek study.

I do encourage you to take notes, anticipating that the Lord has not just something for you to learn, but something for you personally.

Now how many of you remember me giving you the Scripture passages that give us the history and context of the book of Isaiah?

How many of you remember me encouraging you to read it?

For those of you that were well intended but didn’t get it done yet, lets look at 2 Chronicles 28:1-4

So we learn right off that Ahaz was not a good king, in fact, he was an evil king, a wicked king, I can’t think of a strong enough term as it says that he burned his children in the fire.

In this context, in our culture, you might be thinking like he burned them with a lit cigarette, or touched their hand to a hot stove.

That too is wicked, but Ahaz burned them alive to a false god.

2 Chronicles 28:5 (NKJV)

5 Therefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria...

Notice who it was that delivered him into the hand of his enemy!

Who was it?

Why would his own God do that?

Discipline, judgement.

Some of you guys have experienced this yourselves.

You start rebelling against the Lord, or perhaps what many call backslidding as a Christian, slidding back to who and what you used to be…and the Lord will whisper to you to stop that.

If you act like you didn’t hear, then that voice may get louder, the correction might get stronger, he may discipling you.

FI you still don’t listen it can get more and more severe.

Some of you have experience the master class of stubborn discipline....lets keep going.

2 Chr 28:5

If you read through the rest of the chapter, you’ll see how God dealt with Israel.

This next section in my Bible has the heading Israel returns the captives.

This was one fo the few times that they actually listened to God and did what He said, so they sent them back…look now with me down to verse 16. 2 Chr 28:16

Rather than turn to God, King Ahaz came up with his own solution to turn to the pagan nations around him.

Coming from the South.

Philistines from the west.

What he thought would help, didn’t help.

Turn to the book of 2 Kings.

Here is says his son, in Chronicles it said his children, so probably speaking of a son of significance here, like his firstborn, or the one who was in line to take the throne.

2 Kin 16:4-5

2 Chronicles gives us the details that are left out here.

Here we have that they came to take Jerusalem but couldn’t but they did take all the cities leading up to Jerusalem and had everyone in the land terrified that they were next, including the city of Jerusalem.

2 Kings 16:6-9

Damascus was the capital of Syria. 2 Kings 16:10

He saw this alter, ends up bringing it back.

So this gives us a little more detail the Assyrians came, they go up to Damascus, they took it, they killed the king.

They were a force to be reckoned with.

They took out Syria, Israel to the north, and now they were coming to Judah.

Compromise never works in our favor.

They asked for the Assyrians to come, and they got what they asked for…so the history is important for us to understand the prophecy, back to Isaiah 7

So when they had heard that these kings had joined forces together, terror struck their hearts, there was no peace.

Isa 7:3

A remnant shall return

a puppet king

So even though Ahaz is a wicked King, discipline has been metered out, cities have been overtaken, people have been taken captive, yet the prophet comes and says, God is trying to get your attention and speak with you.

Don’t be afraid, God is going to protect you.

Isa 7:8-9

In just a little while they will be no more, Remaliah’s son, Pekah the King, you don’t have to worry, but then the warning....about if he doesn’t believe....Does he believe?

No! We just read the history right, the outcome of this prophecy.

He failed to believe God and sent off a bunch of money to this Assyrian King, brought this evil wicked people into the land.

Isa 7:10-11

God gives a gracious invitation to him to ask for a sign…It is not common, What did Jesus say about those seeking signs in the new testament?

You wicked and adulterous generation seeking after a sign.

You don’t get a sign other than the resurrection.

Now verse 12 and this was another reason I wanted to read to you the history so you would get a feel for the character of King Ahaz that he sacrificed and burned his own children…Isa 7:12

What a hypocrite!

I will not test the Lord?

This is false righteousness, or self righteousness, it sounds like he tested the Lord ever single day putting false gods before Him.

Isa 7:13-14

This is a prophecy concerning who?

Jesus yes, there is also a near fulfillment of a sign in Isaiah’s time to King Ahaz concerning timing, that it would be soon, some history shows that there may have been a woman in the royal household that gave birth to a son and unknowingly named him Immanuel, and before he reached the age of knowing right from wrong, Israel and Syria would be defeated.

The far fulfillment is the virgin birth of Christ Jesus, and we are told so in the Gospel of Matthew.

You guys remember the Angel coming to Mary and telling her that she was going to have a child and she was to name him Jesus.

Joseph, who she was engaged to found out that she was will child and knew that it wasn’t his.

I sure he was broken hearted, couldn’t believe that Mary, sweet Mary of all people would ever betray him, but there was no other explanation.

The Bible tells us that Joseph had considered putting her away quietly.

See she was engaged, so under Jewish law the punishment for adultery was stoning.

Although wounded severely, he loved Mary and didn’t want to see here killed.

There would be enough shame for her if she went to live with a relative or a friend and had a baby without a husband.

Matt 1:20-24

So the Bible being the best interpretation of the Bible, tells us that this is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, then back in Isaiah we see the near or the local fulfillment of it verse 15.

Again Assyria was a brutal people!

They come down from the north and first destroy Syria, then Ephraim or Israel to the north, and then they come into Judah.

Now remember in the history that we read.

God is warning here, but then who does Ahaz reach out to for help rather than to God, to Assyria, the very ones coming to destroy them, the one God warned them about.

Isa 7:18-19

So the Egyptians will be coming up, the Assyrians are coming down and these two superpowers are going to be fighting each other and who’s stuck in the middle?

Israel.

Isa 7:20

Israelites like hair, but they are going to be taken slaves.

If you look into history and some of the history depictions.

Heads shaved, hooks through their faces chaining them together.

Isa 7:21-25

Get ready, your judgement is here…literally Speed the Spoil, Hasten the Booty “contraband” bounty

Damascus capital of Syria, Samaria capital of Israel.

This is probably linked to the prophecy in verse 14 of the last chapter.

I think it’s the same.

Isa 8:5-7

Euphrates -those powerful enemies were on this river, these powerhouses that you were trusting in are going to overflow.

Isa 8:8

This fulfilled with northern Israel and essentially all of Judah except for Jerusalem being overtaken.

Isa 8:9-10

(Immanuel)

So God is saying this judgement is coming, but turn to Me and I am going to deliver you.

We certainly see that in King Hezekiah's day, but even in Ahaz’s day, there is punishment, but God does not let them be completely overcome, He delivers them.

God is not done with the Kingdom of David and his line.

A sanctuary, a place of peace but also a stumbling block, that is what the cross is today to the house of Israel.