WWUTT 1859 The Virgin Will Be With Child (Isaiah 7:1-17)

Isaiah 7 .14, Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name

Immanuel, meaning God with us, when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, teaching through a

New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and a Q &A on Friday.

With our Old Testament study today, here's Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. For the last few

Thursdays, we have been in the book of Isaiah, and today we are in chapter 7.

Just finished up chapter 6 last week. If you didn't hear it, go back and listen. That's a great chapter.

Isaiah 53 is a great chapter, another well -known chapter from the prophet Isaiah. So is chapter 7, this chapter also very well -known, for it is in this chapter that we are given the prophecy of a virgin who will be with child.

Let's begin by looking at the first nine verses out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the

Lord from Isaiah chapter 7. Now it happened in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Aram, and Pekah the son of Ramalia, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not conquer it.

When it was told to the house of David, saying, The Arameans have camped in Ephraim, his heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, Go now to meet Ahaz, you and your son

Sheer Jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool to the highway of the fuller's field, and say to him,

Take care and stay quiet, have no fear, and do not be faint -hearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands on account of the burning anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Ramalia, because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Ramalia, has counseled evil against you, saying,

Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in its walls, and set up the son of Tbil as king in the midst of it.

Thus says the Lord Yahweh, It shall not stand, nor shall it happen.

For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Now within another sixty -five years

Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people. And the head of Ephraim is

Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Ramalia. If you do not establish your faith in Yahweh, you surely shall not be established.

That's an important line, and we'll come back to that here in a moment. Here's our opener to Isaiah 7, and then we get into the next part, that we have the sign of Immanuel.

We'll read that here in just a moment. But let's consider what we've read thus far. It happened in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah.

Now we've skipped a pretty good chunk of time. Over ten years have passed here. From the vision that we had in Isaiah 6 to this message that is now going to be delivered to the king of Judah in Isaiah 7.

In Isaiah 6, that was in the year of king Uzziah's death. This is during the time of Ahaz's reign, who is the son of Jotham, the grandson of Uzziah.

So all of Jotham's reign has already happened by this point, and Jotham reigned for 16 years.

I think there was some overlap in there, but Jotham's reign was about a decade and a half. Then you have

Ahaz that is on the throne, and Ahaz did very wickedly. We read in 2 Kings 16 .2,

Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16 years in Jerusalem, and he did not do what was right in the sight of Yahweh, his

God, as David, his father, had done. Now, of course, David was not his immediate father.

He was born in the line of David, and was sitting on David's throne, and it's because of God's faithfulness to David and the promise, the covenant, that God would take a son of David and establish his kingdom forever, that God makes this promise to Ahaz through the prophet

Isaiah, which we're reading about here in chapter 7. So as we continue on with verse 1, Rezin the king of Aram and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not conquer it.

So what's happening here is that the Assyrians are coming against Israel, and the king of the

Syrians, not the Assyrians, but the king of the Syrians and the king of Israel have a partnership together to go against the king of Assyria.

But they don't trust Ahaz in that partnership, and so this whole thing of coming against Jerusalem is actually to remove

Ahaz off the throne. They did not really want Judah and Jerusalem. They just didn't want

Ahaz to be there. So the purpose is to unseat Ahaz and put someone else there whom they could trust who would partner with them in this battle.

Now, of course, God is going to protect that throne, because whoever is going to sit on that throne is going to be a descendant of David.

So God is not going to let anyone else be there. Hence this promise that he is making with Ahaz.

Even though in the long run Ahaz is a wicked king, God is going to fulfill his promise no matter what.

Ahaz is being given the choice, are you going to be with Yahweh or against him? So verse 2, when it was told to the house of David, that's going to be

Ahaz's house since he is of the line of David, saying, the Arameans have camped in Ephraim.

His heart, Ahaz's heart, and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

Now what's not given here in chapter 7, you have to get the backstory from 2

Kings and 2 Chronicles. What's not said here is that Ahaz has already suffered two losses.

So he really did not have the resources to be able to face another battle.

So hearing that, these armies have come against Jerusalem, and these are our allies, these are our brothers, it's the people from Israel.

And they're coming against Jerusalem? How are we going to be able to hold them back? So his heart shakes, and so do the hearts of his people, they're weak.

And they think this is it, we're done in. Because it's not just our own brothers we have to fight against, they've partnered with the

Syrians. So verse 3, Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, Go out now to meet

Ahaz, you and your son Shear Jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool to the highway of the fuller's field, and say to him,

Take care and stay quiet, have no fear, and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the burning anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remalia, because Aram with Ephraim and the son of Remalia has counseled evil against you, saying,

Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and make for ourselves a breach in its walls, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it.

God's not going to allow that to happen. He's not going to let this guy sit on the throne of David, this man who's not a descendant of David.

Thus says the Lord Yahweh, It shall not stand, nor shall it happen.

For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Now within another 65 years,

Ephraim will be shattered so that it is no longer a people. So the promise is being given to Ahaz here,

Ephraim's not going to succeed in this. They are going to be destroyed. And that would happen within 65 years.

So what ends up taking place is that the northern kingdom of Israel falls to the

Assyrians in 722. They're not able to fight off the Assyrians. God gives them over into their hands.

By around 760, the ethnic identity of that kingdom was not even recognizable.

You would not have recognized them as Israelites anymore, because the king of Assyria brought in these peoples from all of these other lands, and it just became a hodgepodge.

It became a mix of all different kinds of ethnicities. So that a clear distinction of those ten northern tribes could not even be identified anymore.

And those who were left that actually had some sort of a root or a descendancy from the ten tribes of Israel, they became the

Samaritans. The Samaritans were a hodgepodge of different nationalities and even different religions that came along with them.

So hence why, during the time of Jesus, the Jews hated the Samaritans so much, because they were considered unclean.

They were impure. It was Gentiles mixed with Israelites. So they're not even part of our ancestors anymore.

They were completely different people. And the Samaritans were hated by everybody. The Jews hated them. The people of other nationalities hated them.

So they really were an ostracized bunch, which would come about much later. But this all because of the judgment of God upon this land for worshiping idols, for all of the wickedness that they did.

Here of course we're seeing that Israel is coming against Judah, and God's not going to allow that to happen.

He even goes as far as saying, I'm going to strike them down. They won't even be a people anymore within six and a half decades.

Verse nine, and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remalia.

If you do not establish your faith in Yahweh, you surely shall not be established.

So God is saying here, here's what I'm going to do. And no matter what, this is what's going to take place.

But where are your alliances going to be? Now this word that is coming to Ahaz is to say, no scheme of man is going to stand.

It is not going to succeed. God's promises will always succeed. What did

God promise David? What covenant does Israel have in mind and even sing in their songs?

Because we see it in the Psalms as well as we see it in 2 Samuel chapter seven.

That's where God makes his covenant with David. But we also read about the covenant in the Psalms, the covenant that God made with David.

It's in the songs that Judah sings. What is declared even in those songs?

Do you think God is going to forget that covenant that he made with David? So do not fear.

The schemes of man won't succeed. God's plan will succeed. But where is your alliance going to be?

Where is your heart going to be affixed? Are you going to be in fear of these people? Are you going to make alliances with men or are you going to be allied with Yahweh?

Now consider what comes next. In verse 10, then Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz saying, ask a sign for yourself from Yahweh your

God. Make it as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.

So through Isaiah that has come to Ahaz and has told him the schemes of this people will not succeed.

You want a sign to prove it? Ask me to prove it. Ask me to prove to you that I will do this.

Ask for a sign, whatever it is, as low as Sheol, as high as heaven. Give me something.

I would love to prove myself to you. The scriptures say, do not put the Lord your God to the test.

But God is saying, I'm going to let you do it. I'm going to let you ask for a sign. You ask for the biggest thing you can even fathom or imagine and I will do it in your presence so that you may know that I am

God and I am with you. That is, that's amazing. If God said that to you, if God said to you, ask for a sign.

Tell me what you want to see that you can know that I am with you. Have you ever been in this place before?

Just wondering where God is in the midst of all of this, in the midst of whatever is going on.

I've been there and I was making those kinds of requests of God when

I didn't even have anything bad going on. I was just, you know, wondering where God is.

God, can you prove yourself to me somehow? I'd love to see a burning bush type of sign or my water turn to wine, you know, making some kind of a deal with God.

Is there some way that I can see and know you're there? Can I see some kind of miraculous sign like Moses saw or like Elijah saw?

Now when I was in that particular season of searching and even asking those things of God, what

I came to realize in studying the scripture is the Israelites got to see signs like that.

They saw the signs in Egypt. They saw the Red Sea part. They saw the signs in the wilderness.

They heard the voice of God from Mount Sinai. But what happened to them?

Their hearts grew faint in the wilderness and they fell away. And a whole generation of them perished in the wilderness, were not even allowed to see the promised land because they were not convinced by the signs.

Sometimes the signs were for their good. Sometimes the signs came against them to punish them because they doubted and grumbled.

Even either way, it didn't matter whether the signs were for blessing or for cursing. The people didn't believe.

Their hearts grew faint and they fell away from the Lord. And I recognize that reading through the scriptures, reading through the

Pentateuch in the Old Testament and I saw they had signs and yet they did not believe.

And here I am requesting a sign that I might believe. How can I even be sure that that would be convincing enough for me?

And that was when I came to fall in love with the scriptures unlike I had never fallen in love with them before.

I was trained up in the scriptures, always loved the Bible, but it was in that season of searching that I fell in love with God's word, like a passion for God's word like I never had before.

Because this, the Bible, is everything that we need. This is, this shows us even more than the

Israelites got to see, because we get not only Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, we also get

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and Revelation. We get to see how the whole story finishes up.

And what an amazing thing that is. Peter even says in 2 Peter chapter one, we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed.

We're living in an age right now that even the prophets and the apostles did not get to see in their lifetime.

How amazing is that? That we have the word of God. His completed plan from day one of creation, well, even before creation, to the end of the whole thing.

Revelation 22, it is laid out for us what God has done and is going to do in redemptive history.

Of course, there's many things that we don't know that are uncertain. First Corinthians 13 describes this as a dim glass.

We look as though through a glass darkly, but soon we will see face to face and then we will know as we are fully known.

So we don't see the whole picture. We won't get to understand how God was working in the midst of all these things until we get to the other side.

But it's still mind blowing to consider that what we have in front of us that we called the

Bible, the completed word is better than any sign or wonder. Still I would have loved to have been in Ahaz's shoes and have

God say to me, ask for whatever you want. I'll give you the biggest sign anyone has ever seen.

What would I have asked for? I still think about that. I don't know that I've ever come up with a good answer to that.

As much as I was asking God for a sign back in those days of searching, I still don't know what that would have been, what

I would have requested. What would I have said if I were in Ahaz's shoes? You know what Ahaz said?

Check this out. This is baffling too. Verse 12, but Ahaz said,

I will not ask and I will not test Yahweh. And that was extremely arrogant of him to say that.

Like when you read that answer, it may come across to you as, well, that was very humble of him, you know, to think that I don't need a sign.

I'm not going to put the Lord my God to the test. It was actually very arrogant.

It was very self -righteous of Ahaz to say that. And consider the answer that follows, verse 13, then

Isaiah says, listen now, O house of David, is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men that you will try the patience of my

God as well? Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Ah, there's going to be a sign anyway. It's going to be on God's terms since you decided not to accept his offer.

The Lord will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name

Emmanuel, which of course, you know, as it says in Matthew one, meaning

God with us. I'll come back to that here. Let me continue on. Verse 15, he will eat curds and honey in order that he will know to refuse evil and choose good.

For before the boy will know to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

Yahweh will bring on you, on your people and on your father's house days which have never come since the day that Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Assyria.

So, in case you don't know the story, what ends up happening here is Ahaz does not trust in God.

He decides to trust in his alliance with the Assyrians. So you have

Syria and Israel joining forces together to go against the Assyrians. Well, Ahaz forms an alliance with Assyria.

So these two kings of Israel and Syria want to come against Judah to unseat

Ahaz from the throne. Ahaz is going to depend on the Assyrians to protect him, but the

Assyrians, the king of Assyria actually takes that as an opportunity to come against Ahaz. So the very thing that Ahaz thinks is going to protect him, he doesn't align himself with God.

Remember back to verse 9, if you do not establish your faith in Yahweh, you surely shall not be established.

So he doesn't trust in God, he trusts in man. He fears man, so he trusts in man, which is just a crazy

Stockholm syndrome. But anyway, so Ahaz puts his trust in the king of Assyria, but the king of Assyria is going to be the very thing that ends up undoing him.

The Lord's promise is still going to stand. He is still going to deliver the throne of Judah, but Ahaz will not be on it.

So you have the promise of this child, a Messiah who is going to come to deliver, because the

Assyrians are not going to deliver, and Ahaz will not be able to deliver. So in verse 14, here is the sign that God promises, therefore the

Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold the virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name

Immanuel. Now there are all kinds of different theories about this particular verse.

We know that the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy is Christ, according to what

Matthew says in Matthew 1 .23. He cites this verse exactly and says that the birth of Christ from Mary, who was a virgin, is the fulfillment of the prophecy made in Isaiah 7 .14.

We know the ultimate fulfillment is in Christ, but there are many theories about this from a lot of different commentaries that will say this was a particular sign for Ahaz with Isaiah referring to a specific virgin.

Now we're talking just about a young maiden who had never known a man, and she doesn't have a miraculous virgin birth, as though she had never known a man.

It was just Isaiah making a reference to a woman who was a virgin who would be with child.

She would give birth to this son who would be called Immanuel, and that would be his actual literal name.

It's not just a sign fulfilled in Christ, but this boy would be called Immanuel, meaning

God with us, and that he would eat curds and honey in order that he will know to refuse evil and choose good.

Now the reference to that in verse 15, that he will eat curds and honey, that is forecasting the peril that is coming upon Judah, because curds and honey, that's the food of the wilderness.

That's all you can come up with is eating curds and honey. You won't be feasting at your own table.

You'll be scrounging around for whatever it is that you can find. But because he goes through this, because he has to endure this punishment that God afflicts

Judah with, he's going to learn from it. He will learn what Ahaz could not learn.

He will learn to refuse evil, and he will choose good. For before the boy will know to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

Again, God giving a timeframe on how long it will be before Ephraim and before the

Syrians will fall. So again, the theory exists that this is in reference to a particular girl, and somehow it is actually quite miraculous that she has a child, or at least the odds are against a virgin having a child at this particular time and place with all that's going on.

Men and women are not getting together in marriage and having children when their city is under siege.

That's the last thing on anybody's mind. We're going to raise up children. We're going to be killed by this enemy that's coming against us.

But Isaiah is saying, this virgin, whoever it is he's referring to, though he never calls her by name, this virgin is going to be with child, and this child is going to be the sign to you of these things that God is going to fulfill without you.

And yet great peril is going to come upon you, which is what we're going to get to when we read about trials that come for Judah in verses 18 to 25, and then the coming

Assyrian invasion that's promised in chapter eight. Again, we'll get to that next week.

Now, whether or not that theory is the case, whether there was an immediate application to a virgin woman that was right there,

I really don't know. I've personally not made up my mind on that. What I do know is that this is indeed a prophecy concerning the coming

Messiah, because the Bible says that it is. So there could be a micro fulfillment here.

I've referred to this as micro and macro fulfillment. The micro fulfillment is the immediate fulfillment, the sign that it would be to Ahaz.

The macro fulfillment is ultimately what this is pointing toward, and that is the coming of Christ, which would be fulfilled 700 years later.

And that, and that, my friends, that sign, that is the greatest sign we ever could have been given.

That is far beyond anything I could have asked God for, the Savior of mankind, born in a manger in Bethlehem, who grew up and lived a sinless life

I couldn't live, and died a death I was supposed to die. But there hanging on the cross, he took my sins upon himself as an atoning sacrifice, satisfying the wrath of God that I deserved, and he imputed his righteousness to me.

The grave could not hold him down, he rose again from the dead, conquering death itself also on my behalf, so that whoever believes in him will not perish under the just judgment of God that Ahaz deserved, that you and I deserve.

But everyone who is in Christ, we are justified by his blood, and in him we have not only the forgiveness of sins, the promise of eternal life, we are also made fellow heirs of his eternal kingdom.

That kingdom, which is talked about later on in Isaiah 9, has no end, and we'll continue our study of Isaiah 7 next week.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this sign of Jesus Christ the righteous one.

Teach us to know the difference between right and wrong, and may we walk in his ways because of what he has done for us.

Our sins forgiven, and clothed in righteousness, that we may live for you today.