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CHAPTER 1

 

Amaziah, Ahaz and Spiritual Jazz,
Jangling, Entangling

and the Open Heavens from Isaiah

 

THE CASE IN MIND

 

It is good at times  to see things in their historical flow.  It is so in this case,  as we lead up to Isaiah 7 and the famous confrontation between Isaiah and King Ahaz. It demarcates the frontiers of faith and the perimeters of spiritual fraud. Moreover, it leads us to one of the most spectacular offers even divinely made, one which of course centred on the Messiah, but carried with it just that illimitable marvel of divine passion and interest which you find in Ephesians 3:20, namely:

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

That, it is power, but it is also divine involvement. That has its source, and it is not so very far to seek, for it is in the very preceding verses, in Ephesians:

"For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory,
to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height -

to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;

that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

It is in the love of God that it has its source, not that of a weak, willowy being, who is ready to negotiate and make a mental account of man as if he were different from what he is, had not been made and created indeed by God, but were some autonomous, independent-minded savant of vast power and grandeur, rather than a ready-to-decease sinner, gifted by divine fiat with greatness, but devoid of wisdom by sin.

When man is re-made by God, to excoriate the subtle, persistent and insidious, but anon blatant powers of sin, mere design-devastator that it is, then he too is to become incisive and decisive, not vague and willowy. Indeed then does he have FAITH in God by which he can become a FRIEND of God and so FUNCTION as so many have done, like David, like Daniel, like Joseph, like Hezekiah, or Jehoshaphat, like Paul, like Peter, like Stephen. Even these are by no means without sin;  rather do they glow with spiritual health and decisiveness. Yet neither do they relate to the downgrade case: they are a far remove from the wobbly, spiritual colly-wobbles which so many seem to want to institute, rather than have faith.

As to the latter: such a man was Ahaz.

It is he who is a very exemplar of that dissident pretension which even uses divinely granted terms and concepts, in order to ESCAPE deity, and to AVOID the grace given. His life seems the near perfect portrait of Hebrews 6 and 10, or spiritual recidivism in a special sense (cf. Isaiah 7 with II Kings 16:8ff.), resembling that of someone who has come nigh, but scattered far, drawn breath near the Messiah - like the rich young ruler who forsook Him, but has gone away sorrowing, shrinking from being filled with the Spirit, and in the end, from the very knowledge of God. To him it seemed to loom like a cliff overhanging, and he feared to relax by faith, receive Him and His redemption and proceed in His plan.

To be sure, he was not alone in his dumping of deity, this declension from opportunity, this formalistic function that replaced or tended to replace reality. He had forbears who, though not depraved in all cases by any means, were able to show here one weakness, there another, things which seemed by the time he arrived on the scene as king, to accumulate and synthesise in his artificial spirituality and appalling hypocrisy.

Let us look at some of these things, this background before we arrive at the high point of drama and definition, both for himself and those whom he serves as an example: beginning with Amaziah, the king.

 

FROM AMAZIAH TO AHAZ

Amaziah was the great-grandfather of Ahaz. He was King of Judah and son of one of the most celebrated malefactors in the royal line of Judah. That ? it was that Joash! Had he not, as a small child,  been rescued when Queen Athaliah had slain the children of the King who just slain by Jehu, of Israel, was in no position to protect them! Did not the justly renowned priest, Jehoiada protect him as a child, hidden from the Queen, herself intent on murdering all the heirs to the throne, so that she might rule unmolested ? He assuredly did and delivered him more than once. In time, this same Jehoiada helped instal Jehoash, for that was his name, and the boy became king, following it seemed, devoutly in the ways of Jehoiada, seeking justice, truth and righteousness.

However, when Jehoiada, being very old, died, then Jehoash showed what seems all too clear. What had appeared faith when he was young, was mere imitative faithfulness in the realm of power where he was placed, with the renowned priest so much his senior, and having done so much to preserve the nation. Remove him, that sanctified priest, and what then would Jehoash devise to do ?

When young, again, Jehoash  even repaired the temple (II Chronicles 24), but when Jehoiada died, the leaders of Judah persuaded the king to be more tolerant, not so intolerant of mere untruth; and idols became a way of life again. Thereon,  Lord sent prophets to warn the people, but set on their ways, now accustomed to power and prerogatives, with all the upbuilding work of Jehoiada,  the people did not heed them.

Eventually the Lord sent one of whom  the King himself had to take notice, even Zechariah, a son of Jehoiada who, unlike Jehoash, was faithful to the Lord. Here was an earlier confrontation than that between Isaiah and Ahaz, which was to come several generations later. The message to Jehoash was faithfully delivered by Zechariah. This, let us be clear, was not the later prophet, but the earlier one at this phase of Judah's history, he who has no book named after him, but whom Christ noted as in Matthew 23:35, as faithful, and one of those whose blood would  be required of an insolent Judah, rejecting as so often before, now in His own day, not only the things of God, but the LORD Himself! Let us see what happened when this earlier Zechariah rebuked the king.

The Spirit of the Lord then came on Zechariah as he publicly challenged Israel, and so confronted King Jehoash. "Thus says God,

'Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper ? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He also has forsaken you.' "

At the command of the King, a conspiracy had its undue fulfulment, and they stoned the prophet Zechariah,  whom the Lord had sent. This was the gratitude of Jehoash to Jehoiada, for saving his life and helping him to the throne: that he killed the now dead priest's son. And what did the King kill the prophet, the son of the kindly priest ? It was for carrying out the divine duties which had earlier saved his own life, at the hand of the impressive priest! This was the faith which fathered fruit ? but faith in what. This is no fruit of faith in the living God of truth, mercy and justice. What then of Jehoash, was this foul murder some isolated act, or was it rather a setting of character where the heart lay, and the spirit did not go ? No mitigant feature appears, and the clouds of destiny indeed grew stormy for stormy Jehoash.

God sent Syria as rebuke to the nation, and this nation "destroyed all the leaders of the people" and sent spoil to Damascus, and great was the spoil available from Jerusalem! This would of course touch near to the centre of the conspiring partners who were responsible for the death of Zechariah! Their come-uppance did not have long to wait! Force had been used BY them, and now, it seems UPON them. Living by the sword is prelude to dying by it.

Not only was this so, but the point was underlined: the Syrians came with a small army and defeated the larger army of Judah, a reversal of the wonders which the Lord had wrought for Israel, under Joshua, when it was on course. and with Asa, when that king was in the height of his career, crying (II Chronicles 14:11):

"And Asa cried out to the Lord his God, and said,

'Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You,
and in Your name we go against this multitude.

'O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!' "

No more did this trust apply! Instead Joash himself was severely wounded in the incursion of Syria to his land.  Then some of the servants of the King who were still living, conspired against him, just as he had formed part of the conspiracy against Jehoiada's son, Zechariah, and as he had killed by his command, so was he killed. The retributive sword despised as he had despised!

There you see what appears at least, a clear case of frantic force instead of fulsome faith, in the person of King Jehoash, great-great grandfather of Ahaz.

The next generation, with the King Amaziah, had perhaps something better, but there was still an under-current of a sort of arrogance, an unhumbled majesty which could erupt, so that despite some initial  good features, this King made a mistake, and then another,  which brought him a deep humiliation. At first, he seemed to do well, and having hired a large number of soldiers from Israel, and numbered the host of his own troops, he seemed to feel lifted up, with a total of some 400,000 troops at his disposal.

At his disposal ? that seems to have been his impression; but in fact Israel was formally bound to the Lord (as you see so clearly in the last chapter of Joshua), so that not entirely surprisingly, a prophet from the Lord challenged him on this import of troops from Israel which, after all, was a land whose very capital city, Samaria, was famous for its idolatrous image, the golden calf, and its pervasive disobedience, for which it would before long pay the price of national dismemberment, exile and devastation.

The prophet reminded King Amaziah of Judah, that the LORD was NOT with Israel, and that he would have to disband the soldiers, a token not of trust, as we readily see, but of self-aggrandising  and carnal, worldly power-seeking:  nothing in the least to do with the LORD!

To his credit, Amaziah did as he was told, though he was prone to and  challenged by a weakness which seemed to break out in his family line; and he dismissed those for whose services he had paid so much money. The Lord, the prophet told him, could do much more than such money implied.

Amaziah then waged successful war, and it might have seemed that a halcyon period of plenty and peace might proceed; but it was not, as is so often the case when people do not take a hint, indeed not at all to be. Having defeated the Edomites, Amaziah took some idols from Mt Seir, and had to be challenged on this second example of carnal concepts and this time, cultural wandering.

Thus a prophet was again sent to the King, asking this (II Chronicles 25:15):

"Why have you sought the gods of the people
which could not rescue their own people from your hand ?"

To the prophet, the King replied in a way which, while more mellow than the mode of Jehoash towards Zechariah, the prophet, yet showed a style of majesty which knew no bounds. "Who made you the King's counsellor ?" he impudently asked: for it was not the name of the prophet which mattered here, but the name of the Lord who sent him!

The prophet faithfully and courageously replied:

"I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this
and have not heeded my advice."

Next, reeling with his uplifted royalty, Amaziah challenged the King of Israel to a confrontation, to war, and this despite the clear message on this topic shown in I Kings 11:11ff., to Solomon, and that to his successor, Rehoboam (in I Kings 12:24). The Lord had acted on Judah because of Solomon's latter day rankness in religious rebelliousness, and He gave no note of change.

Accordingly, this blatant and wilful exhibition of regal power led to runin. Amaziah, looking higher than his head, but not to the Lord, was beaten both verbally and militarily. He had ignored another warning in the process, for at the very outset,  the mercy of the Lord was such that the King of Israel pled with him not to bring such suffering upon himself and his people, and to avoid the war. Indeed, he told a parable to vaunting Amaziah. A thistle, he said,  once wanted to marry the cedar's daughter, and sent to ask permission. However, a wild beast trod on the thistle, thus ending the suit...

Amaziah was not impressed, and proceeded to war.

In the war, Amaziah lost a vast number of troops, the treasures in large part that remained, and to add to the humiliation, found even part of the wall of the city of Jerusalem broken down. This failing Amaziah lived 15 years after this, and we would hope in a contrite and careful manner; but perhaps it was not so, for he was killed by the now time-honoured, though God-slighting method. As his heart turned away from the Lord, so that it became open rebellion, so his servants, like those of his father, formed a conspiracy and slew him!

Here again we find this ambivalence: Amaziah "did right in the eyes of the Lord, but not with a loyal heart, " we read. It is however the HEART on which the Lord looks (I Samuel 16:7). This may well have been another case of false faith, formal faith, ostensible religion; and it assuredly ended in open rebellion followed repeated lèse-majesté against the actual LORD of the land, and an open sepulchre for him, to be closed after a conspiracy against him. Where he ended, we can only hope; but where he began to stray, and yes that more than once, is all too apparent.

After two such devastations, you might think the next King might have learned something! His name was Uzziah (or Ahaziah) and he reigned long with great victories, the Lord helping him. He fortified Jerusalem with towers, and had 370,000 men in the army. He even made elaborate metal implements of war for them, shield, spears, helmets and body armour, bows and slings.

He had methods of repelling attack implemented, and strategies of defence.  Thus he prospered, and did right right in the sight of the Lord, indeed seemed to do far better than  Amaziah, who could be found reeling from sundry errors and self-exultations. However, this King Uzziah, for his own part,  managed a novel form of lèse-majesté. He went into the Temple where the priesthood had been entrusted with the ceremonial acts, and burnt incense on the ALTAR of incense.

The priesthood of course was a preliminary 'shadow', prototype or symbol of the Priest to come, the High Priest as in Hebrews 2-4, Jesus Christ. It was utterly forbidden to a King to act in this line: that, it was for the Messiah, to have both regal and priestly functions together (as clearly specified for Him, in Zechariah 6:12ff.).

Confronted by the priests in the Temple, some 80 of them, and with their prohibition of what he was illicitly engaged in doing, Ahaziah was in no good position! You have trespassed, they declared, and will have no honour from the LORD! Get out of the sanctuary! they ordered the King!

Uzziah "became furious" and as a result of this double confrontation, he became leprous, and thus had to be removed by law, not merely from the temple, but being a leper, from normal social relationships. He had to go to a special house! Thus too forward became too backward, and he remained leprous to the end of his life. However, his case though one for rebuke, was not like that of Jehoash.

In this line, then, there was a dangerous trend towards arrogance, which tended to form into boils on the very face: at times, it might be fatal, at others merely humiliating. This is a lesson to all kings and would-be kings, not to take too much upon themselves, and to our own Charles of England in particular, not to try to become a 'defender of faiths' rather than defend the faith to which the monarchy is committed; for it has many sad exemplars in the past, and while righteousness in the Lord exalts a nation, sin is a reproach to any people (Proverbs 14:32). Moving from the Lord, as leader, and seeking to have people go with you, this  is nothing new ...

Next came King Jotham, whose rigorous, vigorous actions seem so simple and straightforward after such a past, that it is delightful to read of his life (II Chronicles 27). At last, then, we come to his successor, AHAZ, our feature king because in his confrontation with Isaiah we find in high focus, the very theme of this volume. This relates to the soaring to the heights, the scanning of the depths, as also to the spanning of the breadth in the marvels of divine grace, power and provisions: to the power of the Lord without limit to faith.

By contrast, it must also relate to what by contrast one can see in the power of fictitious faith to bring rebuke and a match to its rebellion: a flurry which brings no small fire in the end.

 

AT AHAZ

The Proverbial Confrontation

With Ahaz, we come to the epitome of double-mindedness, the cynosure of second thoughts, an almost neurotic vacillation, a strong weakness, as he tries to defend an ABSOLUTE LACK OF FAITH, by charmingly religious sounding words, yes even sanctified seeming syllables.

The case is simple. Two smallish nations, Syria and Israel, together quite a bundle, and continual harassment centres for Judah, team up to affront and confront Judah. Ahaz is met by Isaiah and told that they will come to nothing in a few years, and not to be afraid, but rather to ASK of GOD ANYTHING, make it high going up, or low, going down, is the sense.

When the people of Judah heard of this, with no inspiring civil leadership, to say no more, and indeed when the King heard, their hearts "were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind"!

The prophet Isaiah is then sent by the Lord with the reassuring message, that this little duo of nations are not to be feared, have an unpleasant period to face themselves, and are merely two burning fire-ends. Who should fear fire-ends, burning bits left over after the main blaze, smoking out their last hours!

Then a direct appeal, evocative rather than provocative, is made to King Ahaz. Isaiah is sent by the Lord to give to him,  an option. No shares ever had such an option, nor any suitor. It is ultra-terrestrial, reaching to the heavens, inexhaustible in depth, moving down to any level, even to sin, even to its removal. Such is the scope, however high, however low, for the request that AhaZ NOW HAS ONLY TO MAKE!

How will this member of the reigning monarch series respond ? With arrogance ? Perhaps he has learnt by observation if nothing more, to avoid that. Then how ? With faith ? He is one of the greatest DIS-FAITH examples of which one can think. Then by what ?

He does it by equivocation, ostentatious exhibition of sanctity, and total rejection without even saying so. In the diplomatic corps alone, he might be praised. In truth and faith he is beneath the abyss. He does not act on the divine offer, using evasive words like some crooked lawyer instead. How many so treat the Lord Himself, now that He HAS come, retreating without rationality, defying grace without grace, defiling their sinful destinies with a needless load of retained sinfulness, dispensing with pardon, refusing to know God, who cannot be know without pardon, nor see when sin is sovereign. Thus, although his action is deplorable, there are millions who in rejecting Christ with no more ground than their preference, and in the face of reality, in essence do no better!

Let us however revert to Ahaz, the ultimate is misused opportunities.

Consider, he is given carte blanche, and the menu is what as King he wishes to secure, in face of this challenge from Syria and Israel, whom he has just been told are not going to accomplish anything, and need not be feared.

If there is any realm of power which he desires, any divine passion of protection, any purging of the sins of his land, any virtue or any knowledge, any courage or any leadership, be it in things martial or things administrative, if there is any purity of heart, without which you cannot see God, or kindliness of disposition, any cure of his fundamental faith lack; or if on the negative side, going 'down', he wanted to confront the enemies of Israel once and for all, or have them evacuate from the land - whatever it was, positive things for himself or negative for others, it was an open cheque book. It was an offer with no limit, but the Lord Himself, who made it!

In reply, he gives this insidious and ostensible sanctity:

"I WILL NOT ASK, NOR WILL I TEMPT (or test) THE LORD!"

History holds this baggage, sad forever.

Now Christ used such a text to show why He would not do a foolish thing, jumping off the pinnacle of the temple, when Satan tempted Him with such an advent spectacular. That WOULD be tempting the Lord, for it was near to nonsense, unspiritual, a short-cut that would merely lead to a false hope and trust, without facing the realities man must face. That text, so used,  is found in Deuteronomy 6:16, and its immediate example is what happened at the waters of Massah. That, narrated in Exodus 17, was an occasion where instead of ASKING simply and believingly for water, they stormed in with complaint asking whether Moses had brought them out of Egypt to KILL them!

In that case, water was granted miraculously, but the place was one of STRIVING instead of ARRIVING at the gates of grace with the request.

THAT is the context of Deuteronomy 6:16. It by no means tests God or tempts Him, if you ask Him for what you need,  to do His work. Rather, the fault there on the part of Israel was this, to attack Him INSTEAD OF ASKING by FAITH.

Now in what way would Ahaz be TEMPTING the Lord if he ACCEPTED an offer, RECEIVED a promised gift ? Would it not rather be tempting or testing the Lord to REJECT it, by a sort of negative edition of faith, anti-faith, as if God did not know what He was talking about, or His provisions for His people were the first thing you KNEW you could not trust. THAT is an attack on the character of God, on His word, on His faithfulness and 'striving' indeed!

In reply, the Lord through Isaiah asks "the house of David":  a question (NASV):

"Listen now O house of David!
Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of man,
that you try the patience of my God as well!"

Thus the Lord makes a prediction which, true to the situation of dis-faith, will not help those whose lack of faith was like lack of hands with which to receive a gift. There is to come a VIRGIN WITH CHILD!*1 (Isaiah 7:14). That in itself is amazing, but so it ought to be, in view of the tremendous build up, the power on tap as it were, the absolute rush of the illimitable, that came with the first divine offer. With a prediction matching the scope of the preliminary offer, the Lord outlines what is to come. A CHILD will be born, a virgin will be with this child, and God will so act on the result, the birth, the boy, that His name is GOD WITH US, Immanuel.

Indeed, it is this child to whom the land is attributed, as early as Isaiah 8:8, before His rule even comes, and since it is to God that the land over all time belongs, since the first promise and coming of Abraham, it is of course obvious that Immanuel is God, that the child of the virgin, is the Lord Himself. Here then is the seed of woman, a virgin to allow for divine parentage, whose coming is so deep, so high, so wonderful, who will fulfil the promise of Genesis 3:15. That is illimitable both in love and power, mercy and peace, unsurpassable, in category sublime.

This was the height granted in the original offer, the height used in the Lord's own choice, Ahaz in default, and His own announced gift of Isaiah 7:14. Ahaz has not altered the sublimity to invade history, only his own part in it!

There again is the modern parallel. Those who, too obsessed with autonomy, with fear, different lusts, things of no ultimate value at all, do not alter the Gospel, they present no challenge to the strategy of God where love and wisdom combine to satisfy mercy and meet law (II Cor. 5:17ff., Romans 3:23ff.,  Galatians 3), nor do they put pressure on God to change His ways. They simply act so as to evacuate themselves from the gift, retain the guilt and wallow in unwisdom.

God proceeds then in Isaiah 7 to outline the gift, and it is so prodigious that a very platoon of names is then given to it.

As in Isaiah 9, to come, the child has a remarkable array of other names. If you first consider 9:7, and then follow backwards from it, you first find that it is to be One whose government will have unmitigated increase, and continue for ever. Who is He then ? No one but God has this eternal name and fame, function and power.

The preceding name in Isaiah 9:6,  is Everlasting Father, and before that, Mighty God and Counsellor, yes and Wonderful. Impossible is it that the Prince should BE the everlasting Father, since son is not father; and any construction based on that is ludicrous.

Yet  necessary is it that His NAME be such, since God in any form, is ONE. As you identify the prince, you find this fund of names, going right back to the appearance of the Lord at the announcement of the birth of Samson, where His name is 'wonderful' (Judges 13). It is the same as in Isaiah 7, and it is here even more explicit, for not only will a virgin be with child, which is sufficiently amazing, and not only is this to be a  very criterion of holiness and help, but we now learn that the title there given, God with us, relates to an everlasting Prince. To His name belongs  an unmitigable empire, which can only be that of the Messiah of Isaiah 11, 22, 32, 42-55, the Saviour, since there is ONE LORD whose alone is eternal authority and rule (Isaiah 11:1-10, 4:6 with 32:1-3, Zechariah 14, Psalm 72, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Psalm 45, Isaiah 24:20-23).

It is He whose incarnation and death (Zechariah 12:10), that of the Lord Himself in human form,  lead on to rule in the end. It is that of the LORD who is to be King, in human form, as in Psalm 45, who addressed as God, holds all in thrall, sent as in Isaiah 48:16, God expressed, to effect the work of salvation, redemption and to triumph in grace for man.

Since, moreover,  GOD ONLY is Saviour (Isaiah 43:10-11), and this One is the Messiah on the throne of David, as in Isaiah 11, where His rule is relished, released and realised,  and since moreover He will REDEEM people (as in Psalm 72): it is God on this ground no less. Where God ALONE is Saviour and this is the One who in the most intimate and rigorous and eternal sense, saves, even BEARING their iniquity for whom He grants salvation, and SO justifying them! then this is God. 

Sent express and definitive of Himself, by God, this eternal Word of God, becomes man and having done all, sends from the Father the Spirit of God (John 15:26, Ephesians 3:16-17), who applying what has been done, stamps, seals and enables those so delivered (Ephesians 1, 3). Even here, in Isaiah 48, you have the trinity.

Let us apply this. It is the Saviour of Isaiah 53, therefore, whom we so early face in Isaiah. Since, as there shown,  this child is to BEAR sins, when grown, as Saviour, so that

"BY HIS KNOWLEDGE HE WILL JUSTIFY MANY,
FOR HE WILL BEAR THEIR INIQUITIES,"

this is God via virgin, incarnate.

You see the scent and fragrance, the intimation and dissemination of this salvation early in Isaiah as also late.

Thus it is found in
 

bullet 1:27 with 1:16, 4:6 with 32:1ff., 2:1-4, 2:17, 6:7, 8:20 with 9:1-2,6;
 
bullet 11:1-10 with Psalm 72, 
where His saving redemption and blessed rest appears, graciously delivered for man,
together with His majesty;
 
bullet 12:2-5, 22:24-25, where free water of salvation is to be found as in Isaiah 55;
 
bullet 24:14-16 where His humiliation through treachery  begins to be focussed, as in 49:7,
a part of the rigours also commenced symbolically in 4:6 with 32:1ff.,
for the tabernacle which this coming King IS (4:6 with 32:1ff.)
involves being the sacrifice and its offeror, just as 49:7 with 52-53
exhibits in no small detail;
 
bullet 25:8 where the Divine and personal involvement in deliverance from death is shown,
 
bullet 26:19 where the resurrection of His people as His 'dead body' is declared to be coming
(when you cease to add to the text),
 
bullet 27:5 (where the strength of God is the ground of making peace
(as illustrated as to method, in 25:8),
 
bullet 28:16 (where TRUST in the Messiah as in Psalm 2, is required,
though only God is the basis of trust - Jeremiah 17:5ff.,
and the 'tried stone' to be laid as foundation,  becomes the very foundation for life,
whereas ONLY GOD is the rock - Psalm 62, for there is no other - II Samuel 22:2-4,32-33); 
 
bullet 29:14 (where a coming work of the Lord, from the day of Isaiah somewhere in the future,
would make mere formalistic wisdom perish, and bring wisdom to light categorically, so fulfilling the 'going up upwards' scope of the offer of Isaiah 7);
 
bullet 29:17ff. (where with Isaiah 35, are shown the miracles of healing to come,
 and arrive when

"your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God,
He will come and save you", so that "the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped," and "Then the lame shall leap like a deer ..."),

clearly the work of the foundation to come, the swallower up of death in victory and forever,
since GOD is ONE and this is His supreme work, to rule over death and life by personal action,
for there is none other competent in Himself, in that place, nor is any other adequate,
whose ways are shown in all this, in Psalm 72);
 
bullet 32:17 (where the results of such action, the effect is seen in eternal peace, paralleling 9:7),
 
bullet 33:22 (where symbolically the Lord is seen as saving Jerusalem,
providing an eternal salvation), and in
 
bullet 34:4-10 (where the results of salvation's omission are shown).

The matter is given attention in SMR, from which a short excerpt is here taken (from pp. 766ff.), where various features, including Isaiah 11 are to be held in view:

As it is to God alone that all shall bow (Isaiah 45:22-24), and He alone will be acknowledged by those foolish enough to have disputed it (Isaiah 45:24, 21), it follows with simple necessity that this son of David is to be God in human form. (Cf. Philippians 2:9-10.) God and His graces, privileges, prerogatives, distinctives and glory is not cast about among finitudes, as if a teaspoon should contain an ocean; indeed, over and again in Isaiah (e.g. 42:8, 48:11), He stresses: He will not share His glory with another. But with this Messiah, sharing is the very character of the relationship, intimate sharing of glory and name and function.

The Messiah must be human as Isaiah 55, 52, 49... show, with indeed so many Messianic depictions of His reign and treatment on earth, as son of David (Psalm 110). Since human He must become, He requires a mother. This is shown, for example in the staggering and at first almost paradoxical seeming Isaiah 7 prophecy. Here, after summoning Ahaz to seek for events to heaven or to hell in depth and height, and being given a temporising response, God proceeds to tell the nation therefore to hear, and outlines the virgin-with-child event, so well analysed (*2) by E. J. Young in his Studies in Isaiah (Chapters 6 and 7), and so extensively treated by Machen in his Virgin Birth of Christ.

In this prophecy, language is used notoriously and obstructively like that applied to Hagar and to the mother of Samson when they were pregnant in the normal way, yet designating it with an astonishingly bold, high impact, in the very way that culturally might apply to those to be married. This is done as if to heighten the novelty of it, when applying it to one actually with child and yet a damsel; for the Lord declares of this virgin, qua virgin, the production of a child to be fundamental to the nation's peace.

As with Jeremiah 31:22 where the new thing is that a woman shall compass a man, so here in Isaiah 7, we are brought into the realm of nature surpassed, a sign, to use the divine word chosen! As in Isaiah 9:6, we see that this is the very word of God in human form, a prince of peace who is yet the Mighty God, indeed can bear the name of the "everlasting Father", the very telescope to glory, the face of the Almighty protoplasmically translated from unseeable-in-glory, to arresting reality to the eyes of man - when his eyes are opened (Matthew 11:27-28).

Naturally, the event is in context, in Isaiah 7, treated as engendering the highest astonishment possible in the whole scope of heaven and earth. God however, as Psalm 89 also indicates, is to make Him His "firstborn" (verse 27) on earth, the very express representation of Himself, eternally ruling. God calls Him God (Psalm 45:6, Isaiah 48:16, cf. Psalm 89:29,36-37, as in Psalm 45:3,5... in creation set as a man, He who was God indeed becomes for creation, the 'first born').

What however does Zechariah say of this branch (now well documented) ? "After the glory has He sent Me," says "the Lord of hosts" ! It is God who will act in the Person of His Son, in the format of servant. And He ? He will bear the glory of both priest and prince, allowable only to God, confusion of which led to leprosy as a penalty for the pride of King Uzziah! (II Chronicles 26:16ff., Zechariah 6:13). THAT glory is the joint totality that the Lord did not assign to man! He even 'sits' while He bears it, for it is consigned.

Again in SMR p. 771, we find this response:

Yet the 'case' for avoiding the virgin prophecy is far worse than that. How can a straightforward and not very uncommon 'fallen woman' syndrome be a sign (Isaiah 7:ll) of such magnitude as is found here, and found rather rarely in Scripture. As Machen points out (op. cit. pp. 290-291), the divine offer of the sign in this passage would naturally lead us "to think of some event like the turning back of the sun on Hezekiah's dial, or the phenomena in connection with Gideon's fleece" - the first in Isaiah, the other in Judges - such focus was made on a sign... Such focus ? some such focus, for in this case the focus is explicitly more than merely astronomical, it is CELESTIAL.

"Ask a sign!", God challenges, reaching up upwards into the heights, down into the depths ... There is not only a request to ask a sign, and this being God, the limits of magnitude are not there; these limits are explicitly off as well. Here is a sign to end all signs, making history a preliminary! Events in the coming will 'unwrap' what is more than remarkable, or even unique; they will paint, portray, institute a supreme marvel even in the action of the divine One, of God Himself, upon this earth.

 

As Machen puts it,

"Equally suggestive is the elaborate way in which the 'sign' is introduced. The whole passage is couched in such terms as to induce in the reader or hearer a sense of profound mystery as he contemplates the young woman and her child."

The offer to Ahaz was virtually infinite and the Lord's choice of sign, when Ahaz declined to activate the matter, is in the category that has no bounds. Such is this setting, situation and scope.

 

Thus here, as relayed in Matthew 1, there is the prodigious announcement of the virgin whose child would be the Saviour, God incarnate; and this is the ANYTHING going UPWARDS and ANYTHING going DOWNWARDS, in scope, the infinite, the illimitable, the marvel of all opportunities.

It is this which Ahaz with the dis-faith disease, did not accept at the personal and royal level, but which came in any case to ALL and to ANY, for the Messiah is for Gentile as well as Jew (Isaiah 42:6, 49:6).

Here in this splendid array *2 is the beautiful intimacy of Isaiah with other books of the Bible, on the one hand, together with the felicitous affinity of all the parts with each other, clearly illustrated; for it grows like a tree, or a babe into youth and then maturity, each part moving, now with a sudden spurt of growth, now with slender symbolism, now with mighty declarative simplicity, now with loving tenderness, as from one bent over an orchid; and it becomes one as it is always one, by virtue of this brilliant assemblage, resembling the photographs of a child, then the boy, the youth, the young man and then the man, seen in series, each with that familiarity, some showing a sudden onrush of maturity, some with less change.

It is our present focus, however, to consider the words of Isaiah 7, and the amazing offer to Ahaz, one which finds its finale in that work beyond all works, that "marvellous work and a wonder" of Isaiah 29:14, when "the eyes of the blind shall see" (29:18), the lame leap (Isaiah 35), and the virgin whose babe is God with Us, the child whose pedigree is God,  Almighty God His name, and Everlasting Father (His house, as in John 14:9), does indeed rule. Indeed, He so rules that it is a rule eternal,  so that of the increase of His government and rule there will be no end, and righteousness He will establish forever (Isaiah 9:7).

This marvellous work, this wonder, this light shining upon those settled and set in darkness (as in Isaiah 8-9), this Tabernacle (as in 4:6, 32:1ff.), this PERSON, this CHILD of virgin with God His eternal status, this Saviour which God alone is, this bearer of sin, this One whose cover is for all who believe in Him (28:16), who having broken death (25:8), will so provide for His own that as His dead body they will arise, constituting by His grace, that body over which He is Head,  His saints (26:19): it is a thing soaring forever upwards, for there is nought beyond it in majesty, in grace, in love, in mercy, in peace. It goes to the depths unsearchable to man, exploring and atoning for sin known and unknown, false motives, mockeries unintended, faults and trespasses, failure in stature and all the rest. It has no limit.

And this salvation ? It is the Messiah Himself, the sin-bearer and the bearer of triumph over death for ever.

In Him, it is found, in this child of the virgin, and in Him is the fulfilment of the illimitable scope of the gift offered in Isaiah 7. What then ? It is the CHOICE OF GOD, for Ahaz forewent His own choice, by fictional faith, and this choice of God is for all (Isaiah 42:6, 49:6), even Israel itself being far too small for the ambit of His grace in salvation (Isaiah 49:1-6).

Here is the scope which provides a stimulus for this volume, this illimitable power of God, this seeking upwards, scaling the heights, scanning the depths, spanning the breadth. It is not only what God HAS in purvey power, but what He has GIVEN in saving power, and what He is WILLING to use, in executive power, to enable His work to be done, His Gospel to be preached, His word to be taught, His day to come. It is then that the Ahaz syndromes of this world past, and all others like it, the earth itself is dismissed like a race track platform; and the trials being over, such an earth as this one with its limits, is no more needed (II Peter 3).

It goes like a rather large Autumn sheaf of leaves, swept away by the wind (Isaiah 51:6, Matthew 23:35). It is therefore necessary to do business with Him who came as a babe, went as a warrior, returns as King (John 8:24, Isaiah 66:22ff..

 

AN UPWARD LEAD

Before however we leave this historic scene, let us see its immediate sequel, in Hezekiah, the next King. It is one of the uplifting wonders of history and the marvels exhibiting divine grace that such a king as Hezekiah COULD have had Ahaz for a father!

Thus did the wonder of Isaiah continue right on from those magnificent revelations in Isaiah 7, 9, 11, exposing the virgin birth, the necessity for it in that it would be GOD HIMSELF, the Mighty God (as in Isaiah 9:6, 10:21) and flow into the realm of the incoming king. Isaiah 36-39 reveals something of this outstanding figure, as history moves on to that summit, when the child of the virgin arrived (to die on the date specified so clearly in Daniel 9*3).

Here, even in the nearer phase of history,  came a portent, an immediate exhibition of the power and grace of the governing God, whom you must KNOW and in whom you must TRUST, not as a form but as Almighty God, the One who acts for the one who waits for Him, and remembers Him in His ways, rejoicing (Isaiah 64:5).

Even near at hand, the very next King over failed Ahaz, whose failure was the occasion for such an exhibit of the heights which the Lord would make available for man, scaling them as man on man's behalf, was that type of Christ in many a phase: Hezekiah.

Here came at last that sweet flower of grace and kindness, concern for welfare, spiritual and mental, physical and national, with thoughtfulness allied with zeal. Such things you find in the record of his rule, in II Chronicles 29:3ff., 29:10,20,30-36, 30;5 where his evangelical zeal is shown, even moving out to Israel itself! in 30:17-20 where his solicitude is exhibited, as in 31:4, where concern for the priests' welfare appear.

Now we see the positive side, that of faith with legs, faith that works but is not foolish enough to trust in itself, or to imagine that any of its works is enough for the perfections of God, or that atonement is not necessary, as the entire cover from God alone: for here was one of the greatest atonement exhibitions ever made (II Chronicles 30) outside the coming of the Lamb Himself, who would make forever a thing past of these symbolic representations of the grounds of mercy to man. This covenant is immovable, and precise (Isaiah 8:20), yet free and composed (Isaiah 27:5, 55:1-6, 64:6, and this with Ch. 1).

Soon however this same Hezekiah  is to be challenged (II Chronicles 32, Isaiah 36-37), for the Lord uses such faith to stir and aid others, and so does the one who stands contribute much to those wallowing in the sands, whether it be tested or even if at some point, it is inadequate. Yet the one stands who has it, for his Master is able to make him stand. So was it for Hezekiah.

Thus is this King, challenged by an empire of terror,  one taunting him (Isaiah 36), yet shown to rest in the Lord, and not at all in his own righteousness, as had been a tendency, along with a woeful failure in the same, before him in many cases of the royal line. When confronted by that acne of empires, the Assyrian (cf. Nahum), horrid in cruelty, arrogant in power (cf. Isaiah 36-37), he calls on the Lord and HEEDS the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 37), and waiting PERSONALLY on the Lord (II Kings 19:14ff.), finds deliverance that no righteousness of his own could hope to begin to achieve, this in turn a symbol of the salvation of man spiritually.

Later in his life (Isaiah 38), Hezekiah showed that triumph has its perils, and is careless in dealing with ambassadors from Babylon, a signal for ever of the folly of dealing with pearls before swine, that is, showing the intimate things of the Lord to those who know and care nothing for them, as in fellowship with unbelievers, or prayer with them for things of mutual concern, without their salvation being in view beforehand and as a condition for any fellowship.

It was precisely this point which became a ground of this author's leaving his last pastorate in the USA, where there was an insistence on being free to PRAY in POLITICAL meetings with avowed atheists and others without the Lord. This is a horror, an abuse of His name, a flouting of His commandments (Romans 16:17 cf. Separation) and a confusing of the sacred with the secular, a degradation of the divine and an harassment of holiness.

Hezekiah paid for that, one slip of his quickly made, and quickly rebuked (Isaiah 38), yet such is the mercy of the Lord, that the impact was delayed.

Isaiah then flows on to the concentrated exposure of the Messiah in Chapters 40--55, the One who has been so sedulously prepared for, so painstakingly exhibited, so gloriously manifest; but for our theme we return for our final focus, to the virgin site of Isaiah 7 and the infamous failure of Ahaz. How vast was his lapse, not  to have ASKED BY INVITATION for the unlimited things offered! Far more amazing was that artful omission, than would be any billionaire's son, who might refuse to discuss the will and ignore his father's offer and desire,! Trickier was this royal failure, in attributing his refusal to faith, not as would match the case far better, to disinclination and dislike of the divine, more devious than many! Yet the result was to negate life, by declining to live by faith in its Source, and to reach for the Lord, active in offer to him.

This Ahaz was also the occasion of much loss to Israel. It was not however a loss to the world, for in HIS FAILURE to ASK for WHATEVER it was that he needed as king, came the Lord's own CHOICE of that great and illimitable thing. HE, the LORD,  decided what the gift would be, and it was Christ, the Lord! Sent by a virgin, He would be Lord of an endless kingdom, counsellor to all in the earth who received Him, prince of peace; and while He would be cut down and cut off, out of the land of the living, by treacherous dealers, as Isaiah calls them from the Spirit and mind of the Lord, yet this was the necessary prelude to His reigning as Prince. No absolute monarch, this Lord, with no taste for compassion for His kingdom, based on Himself as foundation, is therefore based on the Cross, which is His, and on His resurrection, which is for all who are His.

Thus did evil lead to good, and so was it overcome by it, that the refusal so much as to ASK, became the divine opportunity to TELL of His own choice for man.

Naturally, this, long exhibited beforehand in the Psalms for example, was not just at that time chosen, for God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), but this often declared intention was here given a wild-fire glow, a national focus, as the Lord made use of an historic occasion for its thrusting before all. In this way, the Lord in His wisdom USED Ahaz's failure, which of course He also foreknew (Ephesians 1:11, Romans 89:29ff., Ephesians 1:4, Isaiah 44-45), to bring a TRIUMPH of grace before the eyes of watching man. The political and military dangers to which Ahaz through lack of faith in that case, thought himself exposed, thus became a pulpit for the proclamation of the Gospel.

This we have seen from the outset, exposed in the Isaiah 7 chapter;and this has been a harbour from which we have sailed here and there, on allied works. Now we return to it.

 

WITH YOU

 

Meanwhile, it is necessary for every Christian to examine the heart, to ponder the pathology exposed in this Chapter, and be it like a small cold, or bronchitis, rather than spiritual pneumonia, yet to avoid the trench into which Ahaz so famously, yes infamously, fell. Not complaint, but confidence is needed, not whining and whingeing but winging of prayer to the Lord who is able to do not merely above all we ask, but all we think, and at that exceedingly abundantly above it (Ephesians 3). Faith can move mountains when the request is according to His word, and this sort of landscaping is more than professional, for it is the work of God, our God who "performs all things for me," as David put it in Psalm 57:2.

If robust health is needed for anyone's divinely given task (Moses had it to the end), then it yet needs request; if money for His work, then it needs asking for, at the hand of the Lord; if strength for the battle, then if the battle is His, so is the ammunition. He does not leave or forsake His people; but when people falsely called 'His people' masquerade with fiddling fancies, or wilful fantasies, without faith, merely with presumption, they may well get what Ahaz got, a rebuke and a promise far off from himself, which would benefit those more willing to receive it.

By faith, culture's efforts to capture your spirit with its octopus arms, like those of the giant octopus which tried to break the keel of a boat, but gave up, these are doomed. Endeavours for this or that sin to control you and make of you a funeral pyre for its deadliness, these are in vain. You are not without trial, test, temptation, nor without sin; but by faith, you can allow NO SIN to have dominion over you. If the Lord's X-ray of your heart reveals much of which you were not even aware, let that suffice. Falling before the wicked, whether man or idea, practice or moral, is a shame; and though the test may be prolonged, victory is by faith (I John 4:4).

Foozling by force, misapplied, or hoping by statistics, reasoned out, is by no means the same as believing by faith, and faith is by no means that of some empirical little machine, but the work of God in the heart of His people, and to bring people to become His own. That, the whole thing, the salvation through grace by faith, it is the work of God (Ephesians 2); and while some try to make this a diminution of the love of God, it is not so, except by confusion*4; what it is, however, is a diffusion of the power of God where nothing can impede it, make it recede.

If this is sublime, up and going upwards, and if it covers what is low, down and going downwards, what then would you expect of the Creator, who having redeemed and applying redemption to His people, one by one, through His Holy Spirit, cares for them, as purchased possessions, children of light, called to be holy, free to call on Him, enabled to know Him, to wait on Him, who is their God.

 

  NOTES

*1

See Matthew 1, and SMR pp. 766-774ff., Machen’s Virgin Birth of Christ, with E.J. Young’s Studies in Isaiah.

 

*2

For an extensive coverage of Isaiah in depth, see the Volume, With Heart and Soul, Mind and Strength, Chs. 4 and following, and other work their appended.

 

*3 See Highway of Holiness Ch. 4.

 

*4

See SMR Appendix B, Predestination and Freewill, Great Execrations ... Chs.   7 and   9.