Isaiah 8:1 – 22 Assyrian Invasion Prophesied
“Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary stylus: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz (The spoil speeds, the prey hastens or Swift to plunder, quick to carry away) And I will appoint for myself trustworthy witnesses—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.” And I had relations with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. For before the boy knows how to cry ‘Father’ or ‘Mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.”
And the LORD spoke to me further: “Because this people (the Northern Kingdom of Israel) has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah, the Lord will surely bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates — the king of Assyria and all his pomp. It will overflow its channels and overrun its banks. It will pour into Judah, swirling and sweeping over it, reaching up to the neck; its spreading streams will cover your entire land, O Immanuel!
Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered! Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not happen. For God is with us. ”
A Call to Fear God (Ecclesiastes 8:10-13)
For this is what the LORD spoke to me with a strong hand, instructing me not to walk in the way of this people:
“Do not call conspiracy everything these people regard as conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not live in dread.
The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded. And He will be a sanctuary—but to both houses of Israel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, to the dwellers of Jerusalem a trap and a snare. Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be ensnared and captured.”
Bind up the testimony and seal the law among my disciples. I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him. Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
Darkness and Light
When men tell you to consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God. Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.”
Rezin, the King of Syria, and Pekah, the King of the northern kingdom of Israel have joined forces to threaten Jerusalem. Isaiah has already prophesied that this attack will not come off. When Isaiah takes that prophesy to King Ahaz of Judah, Isaiah is accompanied by his son Shear – jashub, whose name means “a remnant will remain.” Now God is ordering Isaiah to father a second son, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, whose name will mean “The spoil speeds, the prey hastens or Swift to plunder, quick to carry away.” God promises that by the time this son can speak enough to cry “Mommy!” or “Daddy!” both Israel and Syria will be plundered and left in ruins by the Assyrians.
God says that He is going to destroy the Northern Kingdom because its citizens have rejected the living water of God’s peace, God is going to allow the might of Assyria to flood their lands. Despite the fact that both Israel and Judah are hundreds of miles from the Euphrates River, God uses the Euphrates as a symbol of the overwhelming destruction the Assyrians will bring, comparing that destruction to catastrophic flooding that sweeps away everything in its path.
Isaiah tells us that God has warned him not to copy the faithless citizens of Israel or Judah. ““Do not call conspiracy everything these people regard as conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not live in dread.
The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded.” In response, Isaiah states, “I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him. Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.”
As the people of both kingdoms have wandered further away from God, they have resorted to divination, something God expressly forbade in the Law of Moses. “When men tell you to consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead?” Those consulting diviners may be sacrificing far more than if they were to worship at the temple; however, they are trying to control their own destiny in this fashion. These people fail to realize that they are falling into utter darkness, an abyss where there is no dawn. “Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.”
APPLICATION: The test of a prophet is whether the prophesies come true, and Isaiah proves to be a true prophet; all these prophesies are eventually fulfilled. What Isaiah fails to mention is his personal feelings about these prophesies. After all, Isaiah was a native of Judah and Jerusalem. Those engaging in divination, witchcraft, and idolatry were likely his friends and relatives.
It is a sad fact that many times, a prophet finds himself or herself increasingly separated from dear ones because of the Word of God. The closest glimpse we have of Isaiah’s personal feelings is his statement, “Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.” Perhaps Isaiah feared for the lives of his sons; after all, while those two boys were alive, their very names would mean something to everyone who knew them. Those worshiping demons might believe that if they could simply eliminate those boys, they could somehow change their own destinies. Four years ago, the relatives of a Ghanaian pastor friend murdered him because they believed that he was bad luck. This man’s mother had died in childbirth, and those relatives believed that he was an unlucky man whose very existence was bringing curses on the family. Such people will make terrible decisions because they have become confused and have “no light and no dawn.”
“Do not call conspiracy everything these people regard as conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not live in dread. The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded. And He will be a sanctuary…” As the Medical Superintendent of two different mission hospitals, I have proven the truth of these statements many times. Remain in a leadership position long enough, and you may find yourself the target of vicious gossip or even wicked cabals. At that point, it is tempting to give way to fear and to begin seeing conspirators around every corner; meanwhile, you might be suspecting the very people God is raising up to help you. Rather than focusing on the conspiracies, it is far better to trust God and to keep moving forward, leaving the conspirators by the wayside. This does not mean that you should be blind to threats, but that you should not focus on them. If you know that God has called you to a particular work, then go to Him and remind Him that He is the One who has called you; therefore, He is the One who must empower you and keep you.
Throughout Isaiah’s prophecies, God is continuing to stretch out His hands to the people of Israel and Judah. Even if both nations are destroyed, a remnant will remain, and God will continue to bless those who fear Him. The choice is always between the darkness and the light, whether in Isaiah’s day or in ours. Will we choose to trust God and to find our sanctuary in Him, or will we consult wizards/social influencers/gurus who “whisper and mutter?”
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to trust in You at all times and to turn away from anything that is not of You, particularly from spiritists, mediums, and the like. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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