Isa 7:10-14 | KingComments | STEP | is a proof that the preceding verses are a speaking of the LORD. Isaiah does not speak about the LORD, but on behalf of the LORD, for the LORD is going to speak “again”. However, it does not only indicate the fact of speaking. These words also indicate that He is going to speak about more far-reaching and deeper things. The LORD says to Ahaz that he may ask for any sign from Him ( ). He gives Ahaz as it were a blank cheque. In order to win the trust of Ahaz He does so as “the LORD your God”. A sign is something – an event, a prophecy or a miracle – given by the LORD as a pledge or confirmation of His word or message. It can be compared to the signature of a director under a letter written by the secretary. A sign is God’s signature under the message of His prophets. Ahaz may ask for a sign “deep as Sheol”. Perhaps in veiled terms, this is a protest against his habit of resorting to consulting the dead. For example, a sign in the deep could be an earthquake. He may also ask for a sign “high as heaven”, for example a sign at the sun or the moon (cf. ). The choice is up to him. His choice makes it clear that he is not a real child of Abraham, that he does not possess the faith of Abraham. Shrouded in a veil of piety, his answer is a testimony of willfulness ( ). It is a hypocritical answer because the LORD Himself offers that he may ask Him. How can such a thing be finished up with a remark that he does not want to test the LORD! Ahaz even dares to quote something from God’s Word as a cover for his unbelief ( ). This is pious unbelief. He just doesn’t want to ask for a sign because he relies on Assyria. Why would you ask the LORD when you have help from people? Surely you don’t hand yourself over to Him, do you? If he asks for a sign, it also means that the LORD comes too close to him. That thought is always frightening for someone who knowingly refuses to believe and who refuses to break with unbelief. Isaiah blames him for his lack of trust ( ). He does not address the apostate Ahaz personally, but he speaks to the “house of David”. With this he addresses the royal line of privileges and honor with all further generations. On the one hand it indicates how much the royal line with a king like Ahaz has deviated from what the LORD purposed and may expect from it. On the other hand, the sequel shows that that line will not end with the wicked, unbelieving Ahaz, but will continue to exist through a merciful intervention of the LORD. By his refusal to take the LORD at His word, Ahaz tries the patience of men, of people like Isaiah, and others with him, who mourn the rebellious attitude of the king. Is he also trying the patience of God by an attitude of so much unbelief, as if it would be impossible for God to give a solution in His grace?

‏ Isaiah 7:10-14

Ahaz May Ask For a Sign

Isa 7:10 is a proof that the preceding verses are a speaking of the LORD. Isaiah does not speak about the LORD, but on behalf of the LORD, for the LORD is going to speak “again”. However, it does not only indicate the fact of speaking. These words also indicate that He is going to speak about more far-reaching and deeper things.

The LORD says to Ahaz that he may ask for any sign from Him (Isa 7:11). He gives Ahaz as it were a blank cheque. In order to win the trust of Ahaz He does so as “the LORD your God”. A sign is something – an event, a prophecy or a miracle – given by the LORD as a pledge or confirmation of His word or message. It can be compared to the signature of a director under a letter written by the secretary. A sign is God’s signature under the message of His prophets.

Ahaz may ask for a sign “deep as Sheol”. Perhaps in veiled terms, this is a protest against his habit of resorting to consulting the dead. For example, a sign in the deep could be an earthquake. He may also ask for a sign “high as heaven”, for example a sign at the sun or the moon (cf. Isa 38:7-8). The choice is up to him.

His choice makes it clear that he is not a real child of Abraham, that he does not possess the faith of Abraham. Shrouded in a veil of piety, his answer is a testimony of willfulness (Isa 7:12). It is a hypocritical answer because the LORD Himself offers that he may ask Him. How can such a thing be finished up with a remark that he does not want to test the LORD! Ahaz even dares to quote something from God’s Word as a cover for his unbelief (Deu 6:16). This is pious unbelief.

He just doesn’t want to ask for a sign because he relies on Assyria. Why would you ask the LORD when you have help from people? Surely you don’t hand yourself over to Him, do you? If he asks for a sign, it also means that the LORD comes too close to him. That thought is always frightening for someone who knowingly refuses to believe and who refuses to break with unbelief.

Isaiah blames him for his lack of trust (Isa 7:13). He does not address the apostate Ahaz personally, but he speaks to the “house of David”. With this he addresses the royal line of privileges and honor with all further generations. On the one hand it indicates how much the royal line with a king like Ahaz has deviated from what the LORD purposed and may expect from it. On the other hand, the sequel shows that that line will not end with the wicked, unbelieving Ahaz, but will continue to exist through a merciful intervention of the LORD.

By his refusal to take the LORD at His word, Ahaz tries the patience of men, of people like Isaiah, and others with him, who mourn the rebellious attitude of the king. Is he also trying the patience of God by an attitude of so much unbelief, as if it would be impossible for God to give a solution in His grace?

The Sign of the Lord

If Ahaz then in unbelief refuses to ask for a sign, the Lord (Adonai) Himself in His grace will give a sign (Isa 7:14). This sign will be chosen by no one but He as the sovereign Lord Himself. It is a sign far beyond the unbelief that prevails in the days of Ahaz. It becomes a permanent sign. With this sign, which is Christ, the prophecies and promises made to “the house of David” will be fulfilled in the future. Ahaz and people of his kind will neither experience nor participate in the blessings and glories of its fulfillment.

In the book of Isaiah, the word “behold” with which the sign is introduced is usually the introduction to something related to future circumstances. It is a call to look into the distance, into the future. What will be seen there is then presented. What the eye of faith is focused on here, is on the virgin who will become pregnant.

Already in the beginning of the Bible, just after the fall into sin, God said that the Conqueror of satan will be born of a woman (Gen 3:15). But the announcement of this could only be fully revealed in the New Testament: “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law” (Gal 4:4).

The Hebrew word for “virgin” here is almah and not betulah. Almah is the young woman who is ready for marriage, she is sexually mature and has the desire to marry, but she is still unmarried (cf. Gen 24:43). Betulah is the more specific word for ‘virgin’, but without the thought of age or sexual maturity (cf. Joel 1:8). The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament from the third century BC, translates the Hebrew word almah with parthenos, a word that only can mean ‘virgin’. We see that in Matthew's citation of this quotation of Isaiah from the Septuagint (Mt 1:23).

The various conditions associated with this prophecy make it clear that its only possible fulfillment is communicated in the Gospels. They make it clear that the birth of the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy (Mt 1:22-23; Lk 1:31-35). After this sign has been fulfilled in the coming of Christ, the Jews have cunningly tried to obscure the virginal aspect of this word. To this day, they are followed by unbelieving Christians.

The Lord Himself will give as a wonder sign that an ordinary (unmarried) woman will become pregnant. But that is not a wonder, is it? It is an everyday event and therefore a sign of much lower quality than what Ahaz was allowed to ask. What is so special about this? The wonder is that a virgin will become pregnant without the intervention of a man and that the Child That will be born will be the Son of God (Isa 9:6; Psa 2:7). It will happen because the virgin will be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:35). This Child will reign as the true Son of David (Isa 11:1-5; Lk 1:31-33).

The sign is also associated with a name, “Immanuel”, which means “God with us”. That name means that God comes to us, that He visits us, that He comes among us to be with us and to help us (Lk 1:68 ; 78 ; Lk 7:16). That Name is a great indictment against Ahaz and his way of acting through which he says as it were: Assyria with us.

In the name Immanuel we see the sign “in the deep” (Isa 7:11), for Immanuel – ‘God with us’, or more literally ‘with us is God’ – is God Who descends to become Man. And as Man He will descend even further into the depths of substitutionary judgment and death. In that Name we also see the sign “in the high” (Isa 7:11), for Immanuel is none other than God (Isa 8:10). Christ, the sign, first “descended into the lower parts of the earth” and then “ascended far above all the heavens” (Eph 4:9-10).

The food He will eat consists of “curds and honey” (Isa 7:15), in which we see the food of the promised land summarized (Exo 3:8). He will eat curds and honey “at the time He knows [enough] to refuse evil and choose good”.

Curds and honey are the only foods available when all arable farming has been destroyed by war. It is the food of the poor remnant. We see in it a reference to the circumstances of the birth and youth of Christ. There is no prosperity in the house of Nazareth where He grows up. He has become poor (2Cor 8:9). Israel became poor because of their unbelief, but Christ became poor because He identified Himself with the people.

Christ, as a Baby, depends on the care of His parents, until the time when He is able to choose for Himself. It shows that He is truly and utterly Human, with the exception of sin (Heb 4:15). As a Man, He increases “in wisdom and stature” (Lk 2:52), which of course can never be said of Him as the true, eternal God. As Man He has gone through the development of every human being.

Before the boy, Shear-jashub, the son of Isaiah, refuses evil and chooses good, the countries of Syria and Israel, the ten tribes realm, will also have fallen into poverty (Isa 7:16). The age at which a child knows the difference between good and evil, in other words, that conscience is going to work, can roughly be put at around two years of age. That is the length of time during which the two kings of whom Ahaz is still so afraid will forsake the land.