Immanuel I. Questions A. What did the Immanuel prophecy mean for Judah in the eighth century BCE? B. What were the consequences of Ahaz's fateful decision? C. How would the Immanuel prophecy find its ultimate fulfillment? II. Base Text: Isaiah 7:10-25 III. Context A. The Syro-Ephraimite War (736-732; Isaiah 7:1-2) 1. In 742 BCE Tiglath-pileser III ascended to the kingship of Assyria; the Assyrians had been weak and stagnant for the previous forty years, but would now begin developing a new kind of empire heretofore never before seen in Mesopotamia 2. In light of the developments in Assyria Rezin king of Aram and Pekah king of Israel created an alliance for mutual protection against the rising Assyrian threat; Ahaz king of Judah did not want to join it (Isaiah 7:1) 3. In order to coerce Judah into joining their alliance, Rezin and Pekah fought against Ahaz, pinning him in Jerusalem; yet they were not strong enough to breach the defenses of Jerusalem; this is known as the Syro-Ephraimite War (736-734; 2 Kings 16:5, Isaiah 7:1-2) B. Important Reminder: Judah was its own kingdom but had fewer resources and thus less strength than Aram or Israel C. Ahaz and the Judahites were greatly afraid of the combined forces of Aram and Israel (Isaiah 7:2) D. So what would Ahaz do? 1. Ahaz's intention was to become a vassal of Tiglath-pileser III king of Assyria and to provide him with a lavish gift to incite him against Aram and Israel 2. Isaiah is a "court prophet," one who would frequently speak directly with the rulers of Judah, and with whom the king of Judah would consult; thus YHWH sent him with his son Shear-jashub ("a remnant will return") to meet Ahaz at the place where people wash and dry cloth ("Washer's or Fuller's Field; Isaiah 7:3) 3. Isaiah was to deliver a message of encouragement: Ahaz should not fear Rezin or Pekah, for within sixty-five years neither kingdom would remain; Ahaz should do absolutely nothing and let events play out as they would (Isaiah 7:4-9) E. What Ahaz would decide to do would be very consequential for the fate of Judah and its kings! IV. Interpretation A. The Immanuel Sign (Isaiah 7:10-17) 1. YHWH again spoke to Ahaz: "Ask for a confirming sign from YHWH your God. You can even ask for something miraculous" (Isaiah 7:10-11) a. YHWH invited Ahaz to ask for a sign b. A sign is a demonstration or event which would confirm the word spoken by the prophet in the name of YHWH c. "Something miraculous" is literally, "make it as deep as Sheol or make it high upwards" 2. But Ahaz responded, "I don't want to ask; I don't want to put YHWH to a test." So Isaiah replied, "Pay attention, family of David. Do you consider it too insignificant to try the patience of men? Is that why you are also trying the patience of my God?" (Isaiah 7:12-13) a. Ahaz proffered that he did not want to "challenge" or "provoke" YHWH b. Yet Isaiah saw it for what it was, a false display of piety; thus he rebuked him c. Notable that Isaiah's message is for the whole house of David, and the verbs appropriately follow in verses 14 and 15 3. "For this reason the Lord himself will give you a confirming sign. Look, this young woman is about to conceive and will give birth to a son. You, young woman, will name him Immanuel. He will eat sour milk and honey, which will help him know how to reject evil and choose what is right. Here is why this will be so: Before the child knows how to reject evil and choose what is right, the land whose two kings you fear will be desolate (Isaiah 7:14-16) a. Then Isaiah told Ahaz that God would give him a sign regardless b. The sign, in context, is not the child himself c. Possibly generic: a young woman will conceive and bear a child d. But also quite possibly specific, as in NET above: Isaiah points out a particular young woman washing clothes e. "Young woman": in Hebrew, 'almah, which can refer to a virgin woman as in Genesis 24:43, but is generically the term for a young woman; in the Greek Septuagint, rendered as parthenos, which does mean "virgin" f. Thus, a woman would conceive, give birth to a son, whom she should name Immanuel ("God with us") g. He would reach an age where he would eat milk and honey and know how to reject evil and choose good: it could be just a time marker, or, as in NET, since the prophecy turns more malevolent for Judah, could be about the bitterness of sour milk and honey as a diet which would compel the boy to know to choose good and reject evil h. Before the child would reach the age to know to choose good and reject evil, those two kings would be gone: this is the sign for Ahaz B. "YHWH will bring on you, your people, and your father's family a time unlike any since Ephraim departed from Judah - the king of Assyria!" (Isaiah 7:17) 1. Isaiah 7:17 is the "hinge" of Isaiah's whole message to Ahaz in Isaiah 7:10-25 2. YHWH would give the sign of the Immanuel child to express the short time that Aram and Israel would have 3. If Ahaz persevered in his present path, then YHWH would send against his father's house a fearsome enemy, the greatest enemy Judah experienced in its existence as an independent kingdom: the king of Assyria C. Desolation to Come (Isaiah 7:18-25) 1. "At that time YHWH will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. All of them will come and make their home in the ravines between the cliffs, and in the crevices of the cliffs, in all the thorn bushes, and in all the watering holes. At that time the Lord will use a razor hired from the banks of the Euphrates River, the king of Assyria, to shave the hair off the head and private parts; it will also shave off the beard. At that time a man will keep alive a young cow from the herd and a couple of goats. From the abundance of milk they produce, he will have sour milk for his meals. Indeed, everyone left in the heart of the land will eat sour milk and honey. At that time every place where there had been a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels will be overrun with thorns and briers. With bow and arrow men will hunt there, for the whole land will be covered with thorns and briers. They will stay away from all the hills that were cultivated, for fear of the thorns and briers. Cattle will graze there and sheep will trample on them" (Isaiah 7:18-25) 2. Isaiah proceeded to set forth four images for what would take place when the king of Assyria would come 3. Flies are irritating, and bees sting; by such images Isaiah envisioned how Judah would be hard pressed between the two, since Egypt would want to control Judahite policy to remain a buffer state between them and Assyria, and Assyria would want to dominate Judah in order to put pressure on Egypt 4. Assyria would be "God's razor"; to shave the hair off the head is shameful, and to have one's privates shaved would be humiliating (literal Hebrew "feet," but "feet" is often used idiomatically in Hebrew to refer to the genitals); very likely a prophecy of the devastation of 701 BCE 5. It might seem that eating milk and honey would be a good thing, since a land flowing with milk and honey has been a very positive image in Israelite history; since the content is otherwise negative, the NET makes good sense of it: sour milk and honey as all that is left in the land because the crops have been ravaged and destroyed by an enemy, representing a starvation economy 6. What had been a prosperous land would be reduced to wasteland ("thorns and briers"); what had been fertile agricultural areas would become hunting grounds, fit only for grazing D. Thus the Immanuel sign is a promise and a warning: a woman would conceive, give birth to a son, and before he would know to choose evil and refuse good, Aram and Israel would be destroyed; yet if Ahaz persevered in his ways, he would bring utter disaster upon his people V. Application A. Fulfillment 1. Ahaz had no intention of listening to Isaiah; he made his alliance with Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria, becoming his vassal, even copying the design of an Assyrian altar to build in Jerusalem (2 Kings 16:7-18) 2. The Immanuel sign was then contextually fulfilled 3. From 734-732 Tiglath-pileser III attacked Aram and Israel; Aram was eliminated as a going concern, and Israel was reduced to the land of Ephraim (cf. 2 Kings 15:29, 16:9); "Immanuel" would have been around 4 or 5 years old, fulfilling the sign 4. In 722-721 Sargon II and then Shalmaneser V attacked Ephraim and successfully besieged Samaria, eliminating Israel as a going concern (cf. 2 Kings 17:1-6); "Immanuel" would not even yet be a full adult 5. Now the pressure increased on Judah, the last part of Egypt's Canaanite buffer against Assyria to stand; encouraged by Chaldean Babylonian and Kushite Egyptian proffered support, Ahaz's son Hezekiah would rebel against Sennacherib king of Assyria, with devastating results: the Assyrians ravaged Judah, destroying its major walled cities and lands save for Jerusalem itself which was miraculously delivered (701; 2 Kings 18:13-19:37, Isaiah 36:1-37:38); thus the fullness of the Immanuel sign reached its fulfillment 6. If Judah ever fully recovered from this blow, it would have been in the days of Hezekiah's great-grandson Josiah, who would die foolishly attempting to uphold his obligations in alliance with the Chaldean Babylonians against Pharaoh Necho II who was trying to prop up what was left of the rump Assyrian state (609; 2 Kings 23:29-30) 7. For the next twenty-three years Judah found itself again under significant pressure, nominally still allied with the Chaldeans while claimed also by the Egyptians; Zedekiah would trust in Egyptian promises and rebel in 588, leading to the destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple, and the earthly Davidic monarchy in 586 (2 Kings 24:18-25:21) B. Thus YHWH was with Judah the whole time: YHWH made provision to eliminate Aram and Israel as He had promised; He visited upon Judah the punishment for Ahaz's faithlessness as He had promised; YHWH was with Judah, but Judah kept entangling itself in foreign policy machinations, and received the ultimate punishment for not trusting in YHWH C. For the better part of the next six hundred years, Jewish people had good reason to wonder if YHWH was with them 1. The exile was a time of great crisis; yet God delivered His people and they returned to the land of Israel and rebuilt the Temple (586-515 BCE; cf. Daniel, Ezra) 2. Yet Israel remained under the power of pagan oppressive forces: the Persians, then the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Macedonians, and then the Romans 3. The Shekinah, the cloud of presence which physically manifested YHWH's presence among His people in the first Temple, never descended upon the Most Holy Place of the second Temple; it was infamously an empty room, as Pompey would discover D. But then God would come to His people and dwell with them in a way heretofore unexpected and even unimaginable 1. Around 5 BCE a peasant girl in Galilee was visited by the angel Gabriel; she was a virgin and became pregnant through the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18) 2. Her husband Joseph was going to divorce her quietly, but the angel appeared to him and reassured him that the Child was of the Holy Spirit; he was to name the child Jesus, for He would save the people from their sins (Matthew 1:19-21) 3. Matthew then explained how this all fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14: a virgin would give birth to a son Immanuel - God with us (Matthew 1:22-23) 4. And Jesus literally was God with us: God in the flesh, fully God, fully man (John 1:1, 14, Colossians 2:8-9) E. Jesus our Immanuel 1. But how does Jesus fulfill this prophecy? a. Many have taken it deeply seriously and have tried to figure out how Jesus fulfilled every detailed aspect of Isaiah 7:14-17, straining credulity in application b. Others think Matthew is just proof-texting, taking whatever he can find in the Old Testament and forcing it to fit what Jesus did 2. We do best to understand Jesus' fulfillment in a middle way, for Israel in the first century was in a position very similar to the 8th century BCE 3. Second Temple Jewish Israel, like Ahaz of Judah, was afraid of an oppressive power, and was looking for a deliverer from their distress 4. God was going to give them a sign, but not one they had really wanted or desired 5. Whereas the former sign had been the duration, the latter time is the Child Himself: Immanuel, God with us 6. The hardest thing for Ahaz to have done in 736 BCE was to have done nothing, just as Isaiah said was the will of YHWH; the hardest thing for Second Temple Jewish Israel to do would be to put their trust in Jesus as their King 7. Ahaz did not trust in YHWH but in foreign policy; Second Temple Jewish Israel crucified Jesus: "the King of the Jews" on a Roman cross exemplified what they thought of Him and their rejection of Him (Matthew 27:37) 8. The "Immanuel" child embodied the promise that YHWH was with them: their deliverer proved to be their ravager, and they should have seen how YHWH was faithful to His promises and was present; Jesus is Immanuel, and the Jewish sects and Romans who conspired against Him would lead to the ravaging of Jerusalem forty years later, and they should have seen how God had vindicated Jesus as Lord (Matthew 24:1-36) 9. Ahaz's fateful decision proved to be the doom of the First Temple and the Davidic dynasty; Second Temple Israel's fateful decision proved to be the doom of the Second Temple and Israelite population within the land until the modern era 10. God was with Israel in prosperity and judgment; God then took on flesh and dwelt among us, fulfilled the story of Israel, and was made both Lord and Christ (cf. Acts 2:36) 11. In the resurrection and ascension Jesus delivers us from sin and death and reigns as Lord of lords and King of kings (Colossians 1:15-22) 12. Jesus remains God with us: in Christ we have forgiveness of sin so as to allow us to be reconciled to God in Christ, establishing relational unity with God and with one another; the Spirit of God dwells in us individually and collectively, and we yearn for the redemption of the body so we can dwell in Jesus' presence forevermore (John 14:3, 20-23, Romans 8:17-23, 1 Corinthians 3:14-16, 6:18-20, Revelation 21:1-9) F. Thus Jesus is the ultimate Immanuel of Isaiah's prophetic hope: the presence of God with His people, now and forever G. May we share in relational unity with God in Christ for eternity! H. Invitation Scripture, Meditation, and Application 1: "Ask for a confirming sign from YHWH your God. You can even ask for something miraculous" (Isaiah 7:11). Ahaz and Judah were in desperate straits. The Arameans and Israelites had allied against them and had invaded Judah. Ahaz was convinced his only hope was to submit to Tiglath-pileser III king of Assyria and bribe him to destroy Aram and Israel. Isaiah had told him to instead remain strong and do nothing, proving faithful to YHWH who would deliver. In such a high stakes moment Isaiah invited Ahaz to ask for a confirming sign. Ahaz would not ask for one. How difficult would it have been for Ahaz to have done nothing? 2: "For this reason the Lord himself will give you a confirming sign. Look, this young woman is about to conceive and will give birth to a son. You, young woman, will name him Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14) Ahaz may not have wanted a sign, but YHWH was going to give him one anyway. A young woman would conceive and give birth to a child. Before he would know to choose good and refuse evil, the two kings threatening Ahaz would be destroyed. This sign came to pass: within four years Rezin and Pekah were dead, Aram was no longer a going concern, and Israel so humiliated it did not bother Judah anymore. YHWH proved faithful to His promises. Why would YHWH give Ahaz a sign he did not ask for or want? 3: "YHWH will bring on you, your people, and your father's family a time unlike any since Ephraim departed from Judah – the king of Assyria!" (Isaiah 7:17) Ahaz would get the deliverance he sought; it would come at a steep price. His son would rebel against the king of Assyria and his land would be thoroughly devastated and humiliated. Ahaz's decision to submit to the king of Assyria set in motion the chain of events which would lead to the end of Judah as a going concern and the destruction of the first Temple. Judah proved faithless; YHWH had been with them, but they would come to feel He was with them no longer. How was YHWH with Israel even through judgment and distress? 4: This all happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: "Look! The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel," which means "God with us" (Matthew 1:22-23). The Immanuel prophecy would find its ultimate fulfillment 730 years later. He would be a sign which Israel really did not want. Israel proved faithless toward God and sought deliverance elsewhere; their deliverers would ravage them. Yet God is with them; He fulfilled the story of Israel, died for sin, was raised from the dead, and now in Him we can be relationally one with God and with one another now and forever. How is Jesus Immanuel and the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophetic hope?