Q: What’s worse than having a neighboring kingdom attack you?

A: Having 2 neighboring kingdoms attack you.

The Northern Kingdom of Israel has a new king – Pekah.

😏 Is his last name Boo? 🤣

🙄

😂 Bah-hahahahaha! 🤣😂

😑 No. It’s just Pekah.

😏 Ok. But I’m afraid I will be mentally inserting a “boo” after his name from here on.

Look, if it helps you remember that the next to last king of Israel was named Pekah Boo, you go right ahead.

So Pekah (boo)… darn it. Now you’ve got me doing it! 😖

🤣

He teams up with the former enemy of Israel, Aram (Syria – NOT to be confused with Assyria.) The king of Aram is Rezin…

🤔 Reason? Resin?

It’s pronounced retseen actually.

Anyway- Rezin and Pekah put aside the long history of Israel and Aram killing each other to join forces against Judah. And this has created a VERY big problem for Judah.

“The news had come to the royal court of Judah: “Syria is allied with Israel against us!” So the hearts of the king and his people trembled with fear, like trees shaking in a storm.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭7‬:‭2‬ ‭NLT‬‬

The LORD sends Isaiah (now a young father) to meet with King Ahaz. And God institutes “Take your kids to work Day.”

Isaiah is to take his son, Shear-Jashub, along with him. There is a reason for this. Shear-Jashub (Shay-ar-ya-shub) means “a remnant will return.” Isaiah’s son is a living prophetic sign.

🧔🏻 Isaiah: Excuse me, Your Majesty- could I have a word with you?

🤴🏽 King Ahaz: Ahh… Mr. Isaiah, our local prophet. Good to see you. And who is this fine young man with you today?

🧔🏻 Isaiah: This is my son, Sir. Allow me to make the introductions. A Remnant Shall Return, this is King Ahaz. King Ahaz, A Remnant Shall Return.

The word of the LORD to Ahaz is basically, “Don’t worry. Aram and Israel are never going to attack.” And then the LORD tells Ahaz to ask for any supernatural sign he likes to prove that this word is true. And Ahaz suddenly decides to get pious.

“But the king refused. “No,” he said, “I will not test the Lord like that.””
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭7‬:‭12‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Look. When the LORD tells you to ask for a sign, you ask for a sign. So we get this famous verse:

“All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). By the time this child is old enough to choose what is right and reject what is wrong, he will be eating yogurt and honey. For before the child is that old, the lands of the two kings you fear so much will both be deserted.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭7‬:‭14-‭16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This prophetic sign isn’t only about Jesus. There is also going to be a child born to Isaiah and his wife. The LORD gives Isaiah not only the name Immanuel for the child, but also Maher-shalal-hash-baz which means “quickly spoil, swiftly plunder.” So both of his sons are prophetically named as signs to Israel and Judah (8:19). Or, this prophecy may imply 3 sons of Isaiah in total.

“And I approached the prophetess, and she conceived, and she gave birth to a son. And Yahweh said to me, “Call his name Maher-Halal-Hash-Baz. For before the boy knows to call ‘my father’ and ‘my mother,’ one will carry away the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria in the presence of the king of Assyria.””
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭8‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭LEB‬‬

And we also get the beautiful detail that Isaiah’s wife was a prophetess. And he honored his wife’s call and anointing by referring to her as “the prophetess.” In Hebrew it is the feminine form of the word for “prophet.”

😏 Imagine having dinner with them. You better have your heart right with God.

There’s a detail in the prophecy about the child eating “yogurt (or curds) and honey.”

😝 Cuz if you let milk curdle, and you intend to eat it, you’re gonna need some honey to make it palatable.

True, but it’s a reference to the few food options left in the land after the LORD allows Egypt and Assyria to attack Judah and Israel.

“In that day a farmer will be fortunate to have a cow and two sheep or goats left. Nevertheless, there will be enough milk for everyone because so few people will be left in the land. They will eat their fill of yogurt and honey.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭7‬:‭21‬-‭22‬ ‭NLT‬‬

So there is a dark cloud of doom gathering on the future horizon.

It’s not very different from our own time. We’re reading Bible prophecy and watching the geo-political landscape change before our eyes. We’ve watched the internet emerge and now the A.I. Genie is about to be let out of the bottle. Our grandparents may not have been able to fathom a system capable of monitoring every transaction on earth so that “no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark…,” but we have no such trouble. With blockchain technology, A.I. and quantum computing just around the corner, it’s very doable. We’re already neck-deep in genetic engineering and other technologies where man is trying to be God. We even have technologies where people can do exactly what they were doing in Isaiah’s time: consulting the spirits of the dead.

Even on days when it’s not too bad, it still feels like there are dark clouds of doom gathering on the future horizon. I think we should heed Isaiah’s words ourselves:

“The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said, “Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don’t live in dread of what frightens them. Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear. He is the one who should make you tremble. He will keep you safe.
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭8‬:‭11‬-‭13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

It was sound counsel from the LORD then and it’s still good today.

So we will leave Judah and Israel here in the darkness at the end of chapter 8. But don’t worry. The light will dawn when we get to chapter 9.

But before we get too deep into Isaiah, we need to see what some of his contemporary fellow-prophets were saying. Tomorrow we will begin a side-quest into Amos.