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 8:1-10

1 The Lord said to me, ‘Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.’ 2 So I called in Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me. 3 Then I made love to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, ‘Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. 4 For before the boy knows how to say “My father” or “My mother”, the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.’

5 The Lord spoke to me again:

6 ‘Because this people has rejected
    the gently flowing waters of Shiloah
and rejoices over Rezin
    and the son of Remaliah,
7 therefore the Lord is about to bring against them
    the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates –
    the king of Assyria with all his pomp.
It will overflow all its channels,
    run over all its banks
8 and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it,
    passing through it and reaching up to the neck.
Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land,
    Immanuel!’

9 Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered!
    Listen, all you distant lands.
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
    Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
10 Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted;
    propose your plan, but it will not stand,
    for God is with us.

A. Find Out:

1. What was Isaiah told to write? v.1
2. What would the Lord then do? v.2
3. What then happened? v.3
4. What did the Lord say would then happen? v.4
5. What was the Lord about to do and why? v.7,6
6. How far would it go? v.8
7. Yet what could Isaiah say to whom? v.9,10

B. Think:

1. What are the two lots of judgement mentioned in this passage?
2. What indication is given of the timing of either of them?
3. What indication is given of the extent of either of them?

C. Comment:

Still the Lord is wanting the clear message He has spoken in chapter 7 to be held onto more firmly. He wants His warning to be heeded, and so He instructs Isaiah to write the summary of what will happen, in the form of a name which means “quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil”, obviously referring to the invader from the north that the Lord is bringing. Then when Immanuel is born, the Lord tells Isaiah to give him that name. “God with us” (Immanuel) isn’t always good news, it also means discipline and judgement where it is required.

The reason for the coming invader is twofold. First it is to deal quickly with Aram and Israel, as the Lord has previously said, but it is also to deal with the unbelief of Judah as well. The reason given for Assyria coming to Judah is that Judah have been looking to man and not to God. They will come like a flooding river into the land and will spread all over it but will not completely drown it (NB. ‘Up to the neck’ in v.8 meaning Jerusalem will survive).

Yet, even at the end, Isaiah is to warn such nations that God is still with Israel. It is as if he says God will allow you so far but don’t think you can take liberties with us, you can’t! That is security!

D. Application:

1. Behind history is the Lord moving to fulfil His will
2. We need to look to the Lord for the meaning of current history.

Passage: Isaiah 8:11-17

11 This is what the Lord says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:

12 ‘Do not call conspiracy
    everything this people calls a conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear,
    and do not dread it.
13 The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,
    he is the one you are to fear,
    he is the one you are to dread.
14 He will be a holy place;
    for both Israel and Judah he will be
a stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
    a trap and a snare.
15 Many of them will stumble;
    they will fall and be broken,
    they will be snared and captured.’

16 Bind up this testimony of warning
    and seal up God’s instruction among my disciples.
17 I will wait for the Lord,
    who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob.
I will put my trust in him.

A. Find Out:    

1. What did the Lord warn Isaiah in general about? v.11
2. What specifically was he not to do? v.12
3. Why? v.13
4. What would the Lord be to Isaiah, Judah and Israel? v.14
5. What would happen to Judah and Israel? v.13
6. So what does Isaiah do? v.16,17

B. Think:

1. What reason was given for Isaiah being different?
2. How was he to be different?
3. How did this affect his attitude to what was happening?

C. Comment:

From prophecies about Judah and the invaders we now come to an almost intimate passage where the Lord instructs Isaiah on how he should think. His general instruction is, don’t think like everyone else in Jerusalem thinks. Look, says the Lord, don’t look at what is going on and assume it is the machinations of men, don’t fear what they will do, but instead realise that I am the Lord God Almighty and I am the one who is behind everything, I am the one to be feared, not men with their petty scheming. I will be a place of refuge for you, He continues, but for Israel and Judah I will be a cause of stumbling, they will fall because of me.

The effect of this upon Isaiah is to cause him to have a sense of security. OK, he says to his young disciples, hold onto all our testimonies, the stories that have been passed down to us about our experiences with the Lord, hold onto the law that has come down to us from Moses, these are all still valid, but we are just going to have to wait a while for the Lord to move again; He is holding back from us at the moment but He will be seen again.

What a testimony! Can we say such things when the Lord seems far from us, I’ll hold onto what I know and wait patiently.

D. Application:

1. We are called to think differently and be different from the world.
2. We are called to wait and trust.

Passage: Isaiah 8:18-22

18 Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.

19 When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people enquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. 21 Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upwards, will curse their king and their God. 22 Then they will look towards the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.

A. Find Out:

1. How does Isaiah see himself and his children? v.18
2. What was obviously a practice in Israel? v.19a
3. What should have happened instead? v.19b
4. What did Isaiah say was the answer to this wrong? v.20a
5. What is the state of such people who go that way? v.20b, 21
6. What will be their end? v.22

B. Think:

1. What does a sign do? How did Isaiah and his children do that?
2. What need were people seeking to satisfy by seeking mediums?
3. What is their end as clearly portrayed by Isaiah?

C. Comment:

The Lord had just warned Isaiah not to be like the people around him, and Isaiah sees himself and his family as a signpost that stands out in the nation, pointing all who will look, towards the Lord. Then he addresses a practice that was obviously common in those days, of consulting mediums and spiritists about the future or about contact with their loved ones who had already died.

This was a practice clearly forbidden by God in the Law – Lev 19:31, 20:6, Deut 18:10-12 – and so Isaiah says, if you have any queries about anything, turn to God and ask Him. Look to the Law, he says, look to the testimony of Israel, that is where you should seek your guidance, not by turning to the works of darkness. Then, very graphically, Isaiah paints a picture of these people who look away from God. First of all they will have no hope; there will be no sign of light coming on the horizon from such practices.

There will be (spiritual) hunger and they will simply wander around in distress getting no satisfaction, indeed things will get worse and worse until in their distress they will turn back and curse God who they have so far ignored. As they look at the world around them, all they will find is darkness and fear, and they will find themselves going deeper and deeper into a darkness that is all-pervading.

D. Application:

1. Seeking knowledge through occult means is strictly forbidden.
2. It simply leads into ever increasing spiritual darkness.