Year 2, Week 2, Day 2 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 2, Day 2

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Isaiah 7-8; Amos 1.

Today’s reading continues Isaiah’s word to Judah. Isaiah 7 records events that unfolded during the reign of Ahaz as King of Judah. Ahaz learned that an alliance was being formed against him by the Kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the King of Syria. Isaiah gives a word to Ahaz: “‘It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’” (Isaiah 7:7-9). Ahaz is to trust the LORD as the plot against him will fail. Whether it is the same child or a different child, Isaiah 8 reports on a child born to Isaiah, who would serve as a sign concerning the judgment on Syria and Israel: “And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, “Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; for before the boy knows how to cry ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria” (Isaiah 8:3-4). Today's reading also begin the words of Amos: “The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake” (Amos 1:1-2). The Book of Amos will be given more consideration in subsequent daily readings, but for now, it can be observed that the historical context for Amos is found in 2 Kings 14-15.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the sign that the LORD provided to Ahaz concerning the destruction of Syria and Israel: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). This sign was not requested by Ahaz, in spite of the fact that the LORD asked Ahaz to request a sign. Ahaz, who was a very evil king (see 2 Kings 16), was not deeply interested in what the LORD promised and therefore unenthused by any sign from Him. But the LORD provided a sign nevertheless. The LORD would protect the Southern Kingdom of Judah from Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The sign would consist of a virgin bearing a son, and while he was still young, the threat from Syria and Israel would cease: “For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted” (Isaiah 7:14). Perhaps due to his unbelief, it is possible that whatever expression this sign and its fulfillment were immediately implemented, Ahaz did not recognize it, for the judgment upon him consisted of blinding effects: “Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes” (Isaiah 6:9-10).

But while this word of prophecy had some aspect of immediate fulfillment, both in its promise as well as in its sign, there would be a fuller fulfillment: “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (Matthew 1:21-23). Just as the birth of a son would be a sign in the time of Isaiah that God would deliver His people, so too, in the arrival and birth of Jesus Christ, is there a sign that God would deliver His people. Matthew, moved by the Holy Spirit to write, saw what God’s word had foreshadowed in Isaiah’s day: the birth prophesied in Isaiah 7 was a sign or type of a greater birth to come. Jesus’ birth and arrival gives a greater implicant to the name of the child being Immanuel. For in Jesus, truly “God with us” is more than a term only; in Jesus, God becomes a man and from that point on, is the God/Man. And Jesus’ birth brought a greater deliverance—not from two warring earthly kings but from sin.

Tragically, Ahaz has refused the way of faith by embracing the sign that the LORD provided to him. Tragic as well is the reality that Jesus, the true Immanuel, is rejected by his own people: “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11). And the reason for the sign-rejecting blindness of Ahaz is still the case in people today: “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19). Ahaz was an early example of what Simeon says when he holds Immanuel in his arms: “This child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed” (Luke 2:34). But to all who do not oppose Jesus, there is life: “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe