Ahaz was to be a wicked king and was going to contribute mightily to the fall of Judah. But God tried to show him grace again and again.
The Aramians (modern day Syrians) and Israel to the north after the civil war were coming against Judah in the south. Ahaz was king and it didn’t bode well.
But the Lord told Isaiah to get send a message to the King. The Lord even told Isaiah to take his son with him although we have no idea how old he was.
He had a message for Ahaz and it was this:
“Calm down and be quiet. Don’t be afriad or cowardly because of these two smoldering stubs of firebrands” (Is 7:4).
The message was simple. The two enemies of Judah could plot but they would not be successful conquering Israel. And then this message to Ahaz that is a timeless word:
“If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all” (Is 7:9).
Then the Lord spoke to Ahaz that he could ask for a sign. And Ahaz said no thank you, I don’t want to test the Lord. The Lord was offering to him a gift and Ahaz refused. It didn’t go over well. But there was grace and God said he would give him a sign anyway: The virgin would be with child.
Of course we all know this as the prophetic word for the Messiah (Mt 1:23). But this brings up two questions for me.
1) What in the world did this mean for Ahaz?
2) And how was it taken as prophetic?
We know from other prophecies that prophecies tended to have an immediate application as well as oftentimes a Messianic one. And this does seem to have Messisanic overtones. It is addressed to “the house of David” and not just Ahaz or Judah, his name is Immanuel which means “God with us, and there’s the supernatural element of virgin conception.
But what did this mean for Ahaz? Was there another virgin birth in his time? Or is it that a young wife who was barren would finally conceive a child?
Let’s look at this in regards to Ahaz’ time.
- The Hebrew word for “virgin” here can also be translated young woman/maiden/not yet married. There is a more direct word for virgin/virgin but this isn’t that word.
- This could easily mean a woman who was a virgin at the time of a prophecy, but would marry, conceive and bear a child
- By the time this child was of age of responsibility (12-13 in Jewish culture), he would be eating curds and honey and the Syria and Israel would be deserted
- Immanuel means “God with us” and would mean that God would be with Judah, protecting the region
Isaiah’s child would also serve a sign
- Is 8:2 says Is would bear a child with the prophetess. Perhaps his first wife had passed away because we know that he did already have a child Is 7:3, or maybe she was the same woman.
- Perhaps this also could be the child of Is 7:14 ??
- The Lord says before the child is old enough to call out for its father or mother, both Syria and Israel would be carried off to Assyria.
- Thus the children of Isaiah would serve as a sign (Is 8:18)
Here’s what unfolded.
Ahaz did not put his trust in the Lord but caved into fear, rejecting the Lord.. He became a vassal to Assyria with the agreement that Assyria would take out Syria and Israel. Assyria readily complied. The kings of Israel and Syria were killed and the people carried off, leaving Syria and Israel empty.
Assyria, like many a ruler, now become the bully to its vassal state of Judah. It rolled into Judah and caused many a death. It didn’t destroy them completely as the Lord was with them, but there were so few left that there was an abundance of milk in storage. To preserve it the milk had to be turned into curds and thus the prophecy was fulfilled that the people would eat curds and the wild honey from the land.
So the prophecies were fulfilled. Is 9 will expand on these prophecies to talk about the Messiah who would be the ultimate fulfillment, but for now, all that had been prophesied came to pass.
I do think the child of Is 7:14 was probably a single young woman at the time, was married and had the child and during the time before the child came of age, the prophecy of destruction was fulfilled. I believe that’s what this is about.
And in Matthew the word is clearly for a virgin. The Greek translation of the OT translates it as such, the Scripture says Joseph had not been with her intimately, and she had the angelic visitation that declared she would be with child. The point was that just as the virgin was a virgin at the time of prophecy in Isaiah’s time, so Mary was a virgin at the time of conception.
