Isaiah 8

Take a large tablet, and write on it with a man’s pen, For Maher Shalal Hash Baz. Wesley: a great volume, large and legible; concerning that which the child’s name signifies.

A public name, Speed-spoil, haste-prey. The tablet is for Judah to read.

Calvin: nothing new, but a seal of 7:16. A great roll so it may be read at a distance; a common pen so the uneducated can read. Four words to carry home the swiftness of wrath. Those who make this Christ spoiling the prince of this world cannot harmonize with the text.

Confirmation of the dated spoil, not a new gospel. Large tablet, common characters, Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

The name is attested before it is born.

Uriah the priest and Zechariah are named as witnesses. The word is meant to be checked, not whispered.

Calvin: I called-to-witness witnesses, as on important occasions. Faithful means worthy of credit by office, not that Uriah was a good man—the same priest who later built Ahaz’s Damascus altar (2 Kgs 16:11). The prophecy affixed to the temple gates.

“Witnesses”—office enough to bind the public word. Uriah, Zechariah, attest.

I went to the prophetess; she conceived and bore a son. Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Wesley: his own wife, so called because the wife of a prophet.

A child with a name, timed to the spoil. House of Isaiah, next to Shear-jashub (7:3).

Calvin: likely a vision sealing the prediction, though he will not dispute an actual son. Prophetess: she sustained a public character in the vision, not a courtesy title.

The name is the point, whether vision or birth.

Before the child knows how to say, My father and My mother, the riches of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried away by the king of Assyria. Wesley: within two years; this agrees with 7:16. Shear-jashub, born earlier, could refuse evil as soon as this one could name his parents.

A dated clock, Rezin and Pekah emptied by Assyria. Same near-term as 7:16, not Immanuel’s childhood.

Calvin: before children soon born can speak, Israel and Syria are spoiled before the Assyrian’s face, as booty in a triumph. Spoken to comfort the godly and to hold up the king’s foolish dread. The Lord by His goodness rises above the wickedness of king and people.

The same two kingdoms fall on a short clock.

The LORD spoke to me yet again. A second word after the child’s name: not only spoil up north, but a river over Judah.

He still speaks. The tablet is not the last line.

Calvin: he breaks off from general safety of the godly to threaten unbelievers, lest Ahaz slumber in unfounded expectation.

Consolation does not nullify the flood. The Lord spoke again.

This people has refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son of Remaliah. Wesley: this people—Israel, who rejoiced in their king and in Rezin; Shiloah—the small brook by Jerusalem, the Jews’ strength which enemies derided.

The quiet waters of Shiloah stand for the Lord’s humble, unimpressive provision. Judah preferred the flash of Rezin’s alliance, and Arminian readers stress that the refusal was a free choice between two sources of security.

Calvin: not a party but the great body of the nation—Judah distrusting weakness, longing for Israel’s wealth and a powerful king. They despised Shiloah, their lot with a promise. Shiloah ought to be our defense, preferred to the highest power of kings. He excepts a few servants of God.

Unbelief looking at nakedness, not at the promise. Shiloah, flow gently, Rezin, son of Remaliah. Wesley hears Israel deriding Judah’s brook; Calvin hears Judah despising her own.

The Lord brings upon them the mighty flood waters of the River: the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will rise over its channels and go over its banks. Wesley: Euphrates; the Assyrian forces; this monarch enlarges his dominions, adding Syria and Israel.

They asked for a great river; they get it. The Lord brings it.

Calvin: because they are not satisfied with their condition, I will show them what it is to have a powerful king. The more powerful, the more they oppress. Euphrates against Shiloah: the Assyrians waste Judea like a deluge. The sacred history assures these things were fulfilled: the Assyrians they called in destroyed them. He does not condemn human aid, but the wicked fear that no promise can restrain. If we have outward help we may use it; if not, let God alone suffice.

The ally is the flood. River, mighty, king of Assyria, channels, banks.

It will sweep onward into Judah, overflow and pass through. It will reach even to the neck; its wings will fill the width of your land, O Immanuel. Wesley: great danger of being destroyed; Sennacherib took the fenced cities (2 Kgs 18:13). Wings—his forces. Judah so called because the Messiah, Immanuel, should be born there. Consolation: Israel should not be a people; Judah restored for the sake of the Messiah, the place of His birth and ministry.

Shared christology—this land is His. Judah kept for His birth, as at 7:14.

Calvin: not only water Judah but drown it, up to the neck: Jerusalem the metropolis. Why address Christ instead of calling it God’s holy land? That desolation would not prevent the Redeemer. Nevertheless the land shall be thine, O Immanuel. A remnant of hope: the land, though torn, belongs to God and not to men. The Jews too are punished for unbelief, having despised promises and signs.

“O Immanuel”—same Christ, same land. The flood is to the neck, not over the head, because the land is His.

Listen, all you from far countries: dress for battle, and be shattered. Wesley: Syrians and Israelites; whoever conspires against Immanuel’s land; gird for war; repeated for assurance and the comfort of God’s people.

“Be broken”—a taunt after a flood. They still strap on armor; it still shatters.

Calvin: associate, gird, form a plan—pressed together as a dense mass. After mentioning Immanuel he rises into confidence and taunts enemies as if he had vanquished them. The Assyrian’s army was of various peoples. Not one stroke but incessant contests. Direct your eyes to Christ, by whose sight we triumph.

The watchman sees Immanuel and forgets the distress. Peoples, far countries, armor, shattered.

Take counsel together, and it will be brought to nothing; speak the word, and it will not stand, for God is with us. From Wesley on 8:8–9: plots against Immanuel’s land fail because Judah is kept for the Messiah, and God is with us.

“God is with us” echoes the name Immanuel (7:14; 8:8). The nations may plot, but their counsel comes to nothing. Arminian readers take the promise as the ground of Judah’s confidence, received by faith rather than guaranteed apart from it.

Calvin: forces and counsels both vanish. For God is with us—Hebrew Immanuel. He alludes to the name given to Christ. The majesty of God is not of itself sufficient to support us; he contemplates God in the person of the Mediator, in whom alone He has promised to assist us. Wicked men also boast that God is with them; their glorying is idle. The valor of the godly rests on the word and proceeds from true faith. Make sure God is with us, which cannot be unless we embrace the promises by faith. If God be for us, who shall be against us? (Rom 8:31).

Reformed God is with us: Immanuel in the Mediator, not a bare slogan. Either reading: counsel, come to nothing, word will not stand, God is with us.