For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Isaiah 7:1-7

1 When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.

2 Now the house of David was told, ‘Aram has allied itself with Ephraim’; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.

3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, ‘Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. 4 Say to him, “Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smouldering stubs of firewood – because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, 6 ‘Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.’ 7 Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘“It will not take place,
    it will not happen,

A. Find Out:

1. Who has come to fight against Jerusalem and when? v.1
2. What effect did this have on Ahaz and the people? v.2
3. Who was Isaiah to take with him to see Ahaz? v.3
4. What was he to say? v.4
5. What had the enemy planned to do? v.5,6
6. But what did the Lord say about it? v.7

B. Think:

1. What was the threat to Judah ?
2. What would their feelings have been?
3. When God’s word comes, what is now the crucial issue for them?

C. Comment:

We now appear to have moved on at least eight years from chapter 6 and the southern kingdom of Judah is now being threatened by the northern kingdom of Israel that has entered into an alliance with Aram (Syria) from the north. The effect is to greatly worry king Ahaz and his people in Jerusalem. It is at this stage that the Lord sends Isaiah to fulfil his first recorded role in the book as divine messenger.

The message he brings is to keep calm or keep still, don’t be afraid and don’t get down about these invaders; they plot your downfall but it will not happen!

Now what is the key issue here? It is whether to believe in God and trust Him, and that is the same issue that comes to each one of us again and again. Naturally speaking the odds are against us, the enemy outnumber us, things look bad, but then the Lord speaks and says that we will win through. Will we believe Him? The sign of believing is to remain at peace in the face of upset. The battle is always one of believing. It was true in the garden of Eden and it is still true today. The enemy would like us subdued, he would want to put us down, to make us worried and afraid and all God has given us is His word. We can trust it! Believe it!

D. Application:

1. When the enemy comes, the issue is, “What has God said?”
2. When we have heard that, the issue is then, “Will I believe Him?”

Passage: Isaiah 7:4-13

4 Say to him, “Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smouldering stubs of firewood – because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, 6 ‘Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.’ 7 Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

‘“It will not take place,
    it will not happen,
8 for the head of Aram is Damascus,
    and the head of Damascus is only Rezin.
Within sixty-five years
    Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
    and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son.
If you do not stand firm in your faith,
    you will not stand at all.”’

10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.’

12 But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.’ 13 Then Isaiah said, ‘Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 

A. Find Out:    

1. What, again, had Israel and Aram plotted? v.5,6
2. What 5 facts does God give in reply in verses 8 & 9a
3. What does He say is necessary? v.9b
4. What does the Lord then instruct Ahaz to do? v.10,11
5. Yet what was Ahaz’s reply? v.12
6. What was Isaiah’s response? v.13

B. Think:

1. What do you think was the Lord’s purpose in His answer in v.8 & 9?
2. Why do you think the Lord offered a sign for Ahaz?
3. Why do you think he refused to ask for one?

C. Comment:

In answer to the challenge from the north, the Lord is basically saying to Ahaz, “Get it in perspective!” Look, He says, the capital of Aram is Damascus and the ruler of Damascus is only Rezin, a human being. The capital of Ephraim (Israel) is only Samaria and the ruler of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son, an even less important man. I am God so don’t worry about mere human beings, for I have got plans for them. Within a lifetime Israel will have gone, for I have decreed it. All I ask of you is that you hold firm in your faith and do not go the way of Israel. If you follow Israel’s example you will go the same way.

Then the Lord speaks further to Ahaz and commands him to ask for a sign. Now normally asking for a sign is a show of unbelief but in this case failing to ask for it, when the Lord has commanded you to ask, is the show of unbelief. Ahaz unfortunately reveals his unbelief, to the frustration and anger of Isaiah. In the next study we’ll see his further response. Twice in this chapter the Lord has asked something of Ahaz. The first was simply to believe Him and be at peace (v.4) and the second was to ask for a sign. He clearly failed in the second so there was not much hope in his obeying the first as well. Read of this in 2 Kings 16:5-10 to see how he relied on Assyria and not the Lord.

D. Application:

1. The Lord calls us to believe His word.
2. Failure to respond is unbelief and sin.

Passage: Isaiah 7:13-17

13 Then Isaiah said, ‘Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. 17 The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah – he will bring the king of Assyria.’

A. Find Out:

1. What did Isaiah say Ahaz is doing? v.13b
2. What did he say God would do? v.14
3. What did he say the Lord would do? v. 16b
4. When did he say it would happen? v.15,16a
5. Who did the Lord then say He would deal with? v.17a
6. How would He deal with them? v.17b

B. Think:

1. What does the name of the coming son imply?
2. How soon will it be before the Lord deals with the invaders?
3. Will that mean everything will be all right with Judah ?

C. Comment:

Ahaz, in his unbelief, has refused to ask for a sign, so the Lord says, very well, this will be my sign to you, because I know in your heart you would like to be more sure of what I’m saying; I will deal with your oppressors and you will see it and know that it has happened.

Now at this point we might be focusing on the child to come, because we know now that this prophecy was also fulfilled in Jesus, but at that moment the child was only a part of the whole prophetic picture. A young woman would conceive and bear a child. That means at least nine months would pass. After he was weaned he would eat the food of the poor, curds and honey and that would be at the age when he was also learning to know the difference between right and wrong, perhaps between 2 and 3 years old.

But before that happened God would deal with the oppressors; in other words, probably before 3 years are up, the Lord would deal with them. In fact within 3 years Assyria had overcome Damascus (Aram) and thirteen years later Samaria was taken. It would appear from verse 17 that the Lord also warns Ahaz that because of his unbelief, he too would suffer under Assyria . See 2 Chronicles 28:20 to see that this did in fact happen. The Lord’s “sign” was in fact to be the events themselves, coming to judge and discipline.

D. Application:

1. When the Lord says He will do something, He WILL do it!
2. The Lord may take time, but He will do it.

Passage: Isaiah 7:18-25

18 In that day the Lord will whistle for flies from the Nile delta in Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. 19 They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thorn-bushes and at all the water holes. 20 In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the River Euphrates – the king of Assyria – to shave your heads and private parts, and to cut off your beards also. 21 In that day, a person will keep alive a young cow and two goats. 22 And because of the abundance of the milk they give, there will be curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and honey. 23 In that day, in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be only briers and thorns. 24 Hunters will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns. 25 As for all the hills once cultivated by the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of the briers and thorns; they will become places where cattle are turned loose and where sheep run.

A. Find Out:

1. What will the Lord call up and what will they do? v.18,19
2. Who will the Lord use to do what? v.20
3. What will people survive on? v.21,22
4. What will replace what? v.23
5. How will men react to that? v.24
6. What will change into what? v.25

B. Think:

1. What do the first two “in that day” pictures indicate?
2. What does the third one indicate?
3. What does the fourth one indicate?

C. Comment:

The Lord has just warned Ahaz that Assyria will come against them because of their unbelief. Now He gives details of what will happen in a series of pictures (and seems to add a reference to using Egypt for this as well).

First, He portrays Assyria & Egypt coming like swarms of flies or bees that settle over EVERYTHING. Then He uses the picture of Assyria being like a barber’s razor that will completely denude them, an indication that this will come intimately close and affect all of them.

Next, the Lord portrays the results of this: the land will be stripped of all its glory, the beautiful vineyards will be cleared away, crops will be taken and all that will be left for the people to survive upon will be milk that has gone off and honey gleaned from nature. The final picture is of a desolate land running wild, going back to nature with no one to care for it.

Each of these pictures is frighteningly graphic and there can be no doubt left in anyone’s mind as to what the Lord is saying. The only question that is left is will Ahaz and the people BELIEVE what God is saying and DO something about it?

D. Application:

1. God always gives clear warning of impending judgement.
2. The questions are, will we hear Him, will we believe Him, and will we do something about it? It still applies today.