Isaiah 7

In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, Rezin of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war, but could not yet mount an attack. Wesley: a most wicked king; yet comfortable words for the faithful under his reign.

“Days”—Syro-Ephraimite war. The city still stands. Uzziah’s year of death (6:1) has become Ahaz’s war.

Calvin: a second war after a first defeat, so the deliverance is the more a miracle. They could not prevail: the result first, then the design. Unthankful men would not have seen the hand if the details were not recorded. Kindness conferred that the Church might be preserved and Christ afterwards appear.

“Days”—Ahaz, failure to take the city. Ahaz, Rezin, Pekah, Jerusalem, could not yet attack.

When the house was told, Syria is allied with Ephraim. His heart trembled, and of his people, as trees of the forest tremble with the wind. Wesley: house of David—Ahaz and his relations; the message for David’s sake, not Ahaz’s; Ephraim—the ten tribes; fear from guilt and the enemies’ strength.

Panic in a palace. Trees still shake.

Calvin: house of David is the court. Terror spread from the palace to the nation. Un godly ease till danger; then they are seized so as to lose their senses. Two fears: the godly run to God as a harbour; the ungodly find no remedy.

The leaf is the punishment of slumber. House of David, Syria, Ephraim, trees, wind.

Go out now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shearjashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway of the fuller’s field. Wesley: Shear-jashub—The remnant shall return; Fuller’s field—waters for the city, as Hezekiah later (2 Chr 32).

“Go”—a meeting at a conduit. The boy’s name already preaches remnant (6:13). Ahaz is still to be met.

Calvin: God anticipates this wicked king; He does not wait for prayers. Shear-jashub: a seal of approaching captivity and of return, by secret inspiration. The place authenticates the history; the hypocrite running about when Isaiah comes to soothe him.

Remnant in the son’s name, before Immanuel is offered. Isaiah, Shear-jashub, upper pool, Washer's Field.

Be careful and keep calm; don’t be afraid, and don’t let your heart faint because of these two smoking stubs of firebrands—Rezin with Syria and the son of Remaliah. Wesley: settle thy mind by belief of the joyful message; firebrands—small ends, more smoke than fire, more shew than strength; Pekah called only son of Remaliah, usurper and murderer (2 Kgs 15:25).

An earnest command to a shaking king. He can still be quiet. The stumps are kings.

Calvin: refrain—do not wander in uncertainty. Ungodliness is never at rest; where faith exists the mind is composed. Fear not: not every feeling forbidden; two fears in the children of God. Tails of smoking firebrands: not a devouring fire but fragments going out, slight smoke of short duration. Form a different opinion of the violence of the ungodly than what it appears.

Faith keeps watch without being tossed. Be quiet, do not fear, two stumps, Rezin, son of Remaliah.

Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have plotted evil against you, saying— The plot is named so the no of v. 7 is heard against a scheme.

These are the plans of real kings. Evil is still theirs under a God who will not let it stand.

Calvin: he does not hide that their devices are cruel if the Lord do not restrain. Evil counsel: destructive. He relates their very words to set the plot before the eyes.

The scheme is theirs; the restraint is His.

Let us go up against Judah, tear it apart, divide it among ourselves, and set up a king within it, the son of Tabeel. Wesley: break their power and subdue it to ourselves.

Coup—replace David’s house with Tabeel. The house of David is the target; the remnant name already walked to the pool.

Calvin: open it—make a breach so entrance is easy when loyalty breaks. They hoped the sight of so vast an army would make Jerusalem surrender without a long siege. Tabeal: probably some Israelite, a dependent they would set up against David’s line.

Giants against the decree. Judah, terrify, son of Tabeel.

Thus says the Lord GOD says: It shall not stand, neither shall it shall not come to pass. Wesley: their evil counsel.

“Not”—a no over a plot. The word is enough to meet two armies.

Calvin: he first showed the greatness of the danger, then the decree. Whatever men attempt after the manner of giants against God shall not stand. It shall not be: reduced to nothing, as if it had never existed. The bare word contrasted with the vast army.

His sentence, not Judah’s odds. Lord God, shall not stand, shall not come to pass.

The head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be broken in pieces, so that it shall not be a people. Wesley: Damascus remains Syria’s capital; Jerusalem will not become Rezin’s; he keeps his own bounds.

God sets limits by naming each nation’s head. Sixty-five years is a dated shattering of Ephraim. Rezin stays Rezin.

Calvin: those kings shall have their limits. Broken: Israel annihilated, mixed with foreign nations, its name blotted out. Sixty-five years: reckoned from Amos’s known word, not from this day; Isaiah confirms a prediction already public, and mocks Israel for thinking the word had grown old.

Bounds He set. Damascus, Rezin, sixty-five years, Ephraim shattered.

The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If you will not believe, surely you shall not be firm at all. Wesley: Samaria remains Israel’s chief city; Pekah shall not conquer Jerusalem. If you do not believe this, but seek to the Assyrians for succour, ye shall not be established.

The promise of v. 7 is unconditional: the northern alliance will fail. Ahaz’s own stability, though, depends on believing it. Arminians see a condition attached to a sure promise—refuse to believe, and you will not stand.

Calvin: this is the only support. Wait calmly for the promised deliverance. If you do not wait, destruction. God will stand, though they disbelieve his word and as far as they can destroy its stability; they will not stand unless they rely on the promise. When we have departed from the word, though we suppose we are firmly established, ruin is at hand. Either we must believe the promises of God, or it is in vain to expect salvation.

He stands anyway; they stand only by relying. Samaria, son of Remaliah, firm in faith, firm at all.