UNROLL
Dusk from Jerusalem’s wall: across the valleys to the north, two thin columns of gray smoke rise from the far hills where enemy camps lie, the city’s flat roofs quiet below.

Immanuel

Isaiah 7

Two armies are coming for Jerusalem, about 735 BC. When fear shakes you like a tree in the wind, what will you stand on?

25 verses≈ 5 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
  2. 6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
  3. 7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of JesseChapter 7
  4. 13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
  5. 24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
  6. 28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
  7. 36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
  8. 40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
  9. 49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
  10. 56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

A Message to Ahaz

Now in the days that Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, Rezin king of Aram marched up to wage war against Jerusalem. He was accompanied by Pekah son of Remaliah the king of Israel, but he could not overpower the city.

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A stand of oaks on a Judean slope at evening, every tree bending and tossing in a hard wind, leaves torn loose and dust blowing under a dark sky.

When it was reported to the house of David that Aram was in league with Ephraim, the hearts of Ahaz and his people trembled like trees in the forest shaken by the wind.

God
God

Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct that feeds the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field,

God
Close on a cold hearth of stones at dawn: two charred ends of firewood, nearly burned out, a thin thread of smoke rising from each, gray ash around.

and say to him: Calm down and be quiet. Do not be afraid or disheartened over these two smoldering stubs of firewood—over the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted your ruin, saying: ‘Let us invade Judah, terrorize it, and divide it among ourselves. Then we can install the son of Tabeal over it as king.’

God

But this is what the Lord GOD says:

‘It will not arise;

it will not happen.

For the head of Aram is Damascus,

and the head of Damascus is Rezin.

Within sixty-five years

Ephraim will be shattered as a people.

The head of Ephraim is Samaria,

and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.

God

If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all.’”

Question

Quick question

Ahaz is terrified of two kings. Look at how the LORD describes them in verse 4.

What does the LORD call the two kings Ahaz fears?

The Sign of Immanuel

God

Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying, “Ask for a sign from the LORD your God, whether from the depths of Sheol or the heights of heaven.”

Ahaz

But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask; I will not test the LORD.”

Isaiah

Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God as well?

Isaiah

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah
Isaiah

By the time He knows enough to reject evil and choose good, He will be eating curds and honey. For before the boy knows enough to reject evil and choose good, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

Judgment to Come

Isaiah

The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since the day Ephraim separated from Judah—He will bring the king of Assyria.”

Isaiah
A dark swarm of wild bees pours out of a crack in a sun-baked limestone hillside, the air thick with them above dry thorn scrub.

On that day the LORD will whistle to the flies at the farthest streams of the Nile and to the bees in the land of Assyria.

And they will all come and settle

in the steep ravines and clefts of the rocks,

in all the thornbushes and watering holes.

Isaiah
Isaiah

On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates—the king of Assyria—to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to remove your beard as well.

Isaiah
Isaiah

On that day a man will raise a young cow and two sheep, and from the abundance of milk they give, he will eat curds; for all who remain in the land will eat curds and honey.

Isaiah
Evening on once-tilled hill terraces gone wild with briers and thorns, a dead vine stump among them, oxen grazing on the slope and far off on the path a lone man with a bow over his shoulder.

And on that day, in every place that had a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels of silver, only briers and thorns will be found. Men will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns. For fear of the briers and thorns, you will no longer traverse the hills once tilled by the hoe; they will become places for oxen to graze and sheep to trample.

0:25

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

Pray

Lord, when my heart shakes like trees in the wind, help me stand firm in faith. Thank You for the sign You gave: Immanuel, God with us.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 7

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A verse to carry with you

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

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