Isaiah 8:5-8

THE STREAM REJECTED FOR THE RIVER

Isaiah 8:5. Forasmuch as this people refuseth, &c.

For “rejoice in Rezim and Remaliah’s son,” read “rejoice concerning Rezim and Remaliah’s son,” i.e., rejoice in the disaster which had befallen the allied powers who had inflicted such disasters upon Judah, and had threatened it with utter destruction.

We have here a prophecy given in symbols. One of them is explained by the prophet himself. He explains that by “the river” he means the King of Assyria. Commentators are generally of opinion that by “the waters of Shiloah” is meant the Davidic dynasty, which God, on certain conditions, had pledged Himself to maintain. But this put them to hard shifts to explain the rejoicing of the people. It is better to regard “the waters of Shiloah” as symbolical of the help which God offered His people. The contrast then becomes intelligible. Because that help was unseen—apprehensible only by faith—it seemed to the multitudes, when compared with that which the King of Assyria was visibly rendering them, in the overthrow of Syria and Israel, to be as little worthy of consideration as is the little stream of Shiloah [838] in comparison with that mighty river, the Euphrates [841] We have, then, here the case of men who are rejoicing in a success that is godless, that has been obtained by the rejection of God; and we are here told what the end of that success must be. Thus we find a theme that bears upon our life to-day.

[838] All accounts combine in asserting that the waters of the two pools of Siloam, as well as that of the many fountains of the “Mosque of Omar,” proceed from a spring or reservoir of water beneath the Temple vaults. There was no period of its history when such a provision would not have been important to the Temple for the ablutions of the Jewish, no less than of the Mussulman, worship; or to the city, which else was dry even to a proverb. It was the treasure of Jerusalem, its support through all its numerous sieges, the “fons perennis aquæ” of Tacitus, the source of Milton’s
[841] The Euphrates, i.e., the good and abounding river. The Euphrates is the largest, the longest, and by far the most important of the rivers of Western Asia. It rises from two chief sources in the Armenian mountains … they meet at Kebben-Maden, nearly in the long. 39° E. from Greenwich, having run respectively 400 and 270 miles. Here the stream formed by their combined waters is 120 yards wide, rapid, and very deep.… The entire course is calculated at 1780 miles, nearly 650 more than that of the Tigris, and only 200 short of that of the Indus; and of this distance more than two-thirds (1200 miles) is navigable for boats, and even, as the expedition of Colonel Chesney proved, for small steamers. The width of the river is greatest at the distance of 700 or 800 miles from its mouth, that is to say, from its junction with the Khabour to the village of Werai It there averages 400 yards.… The annual inundation of the Euphrates is caused by the melting of the snows in the Armenian highlands. It occurs in the month of May.… The Tigris scarcely ever overflows, but the Euphrates inundates large tracts on both sides its course from Hit downwards.—Rawlinson.

Considered in a commercial respect, as well as with regard to its uses in agriculture, the Euphrates manifestly stood in the same relation to Babylon and the surrounding region that the Nile did to Egypt; it was the source, to a large extent, of its prosperity, and the most important element of its greatness. It is in this relation that the symbolical use of the Euphrates in Scripture proceeds, and by keeping it in view the several passages will be found to admit of an easy explanation. Contributing so materially to the resources and wealth of Babylon, the river was naturally taken for an emblem or representative of the city itself, and of the empire of which it was the capital. In this respect a striking application is made of it by the prophet Isaiah (chap. Isaiah 8:5), where the little kingdom of Judah, with its circumscribed territory and its few earthly resources, on the one hand, is seen imaged in the tiny brooklet of Shiloah; while, on the other, the rising power of Babylon is spoken of under the emblem of “the waters of the river, strong and many, even the King of Assyria and all his glory.” And he goes on to expose the folly of Israel’s[Judah’s] trusting in this foreign power on account of its material greatness, by declaring that in consequence of this mistaken trust, and in chastisement of it, the mighty stream would, as it were, desert its proper channel, and turn its waters in a sweeping and desolating flood over the Holy Land.—Fairbairn.

“Brook that flowed
Hard by the oracle of God.”

But, more than this, it was the image which entered into the very heart of the prophetical idea of Jerusalem (Psalms 46:4; Psalms 87:7; Isaiah 12:3). It is the source of all the freshness and verdure of the vale of Hinnom. In Ezekiel’s vision the thought is expanded into a vast cataract flowing out through the Temple rock eastward and westward into the ravines of Hinnom and Kedron, till they swell into a mighty river, fertilising the desert of the Dead Sea. And with still greater distinctness the thought appears again, and for the last time, in the discourse, when in the courts of the Temple, “in the last day, that great day of the feast”[of Tabernacles], “Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me … out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”—Stanley.

The expression in Isaiah, “waters of Shiloah that go softly,” seems to point to the slender rivulet, flowing gently, though once very profusely, out of Siloam into the lower breadth of level, where the king’s gardens, or “royal paradise,” stood, and which is still the greenest spot about the Holy City, reclaimed from sterility into a fair oasis of olive groves, fig-trees, pomegranates, &c., by the tiny rill that flows out of Siloam. A winter-torrent, like the Kedron, or a swelling river like the Euphrates, carries havoc with it by sweeping off soil, trees, and terraces; but this Siloam-fed rill flows softly, fertilising and beautifying the region through which it passes.—Bonar.

1. Whatever be our life-work, there are two ways of seeking success in it—with God, or without God.
2. If we take God to be our ally, we must do our work on His terms and plans. But these are frequently contrary to our natural expectations, and opposed to what the world calls “common sense.” As helps to a speedy and great success, they seem to most men as despicable as the little stream of Shiloah in comparison with the broad river Euphrates.

3. Consequently the vast majority of men reject them, and seek for success without God, and contrary to His methods (H. E. I. 4198).
4. In this way, they frequently speedily attain to a success which appears to be a complete justification of the wisdom of their policy. When the prophecy contained in our text was uttered, the forces of Syria and Israel were being swept away by the triumphant Assyrian host, and no doubt Ahaz and His court felt they could afford to laugh at Isaiah, who had steadily opposed the alliance which appeared to have been so advantageous.
5. But the triumph of the wicked is short. The unholy success in which bad men rejoice contains within itself the seeds of peril and pain, of retribution and ruin (H. E. I. 4609, 4612). The ally in whom Ahaz had trusted presently became his oppressor; it was a verification in actual life of the fable of the horse that took a man for its ally. So is it to-day with all who prosper without God and against God. Their prosperity is, strictly speaking, unnatural, and everything that is unnatural speedily brings on disorder. For example, a family has been enriched by godless plans; to those who have no fear of God in their hearts, there is nothing so perilous as wealth; it is used for the gratification of the baser passions; by this gratification health is broken down; when the physical frame is shattered, conscience, that has been suppressed, breaks forth into freedom and activity, and remorse turns the gilded palace into a hell. The illustrations of the working of this great law are endless.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS.—

1. In the conduct of daily life, as well as in our spiritual concerns, let us walk by faith, not by sight. God’s help, though it may seem inconsiderable as Shiloah’s stream, is yet, like that stream, constant. Our reliance upon it will never issue in disappointment. By means of it we shall certainly attain to all the prosperity that would be for our real welfare (H. E. I. 3984–3986, 5059, 5060).
2. Let us not envy the prosperity of the wicked (H. E. I. 4943–4948, 4961–4966). It is short-lived, like the mighty flood of Euphrates itself. Out of that very prosperity heart-aches innumerable will spring. The rejoicing that is so exultant and scornful to-day, to-morrow will be turned into lamentation and woe. Then those who triumphed without God will find that in defeat they are without Him: this will be their description, “Without God, and without hope in the world.”

3. When Jesus of Nazareth was called to choose between the stream and the river, His decision was prompt and unhesitating (Matthew 4:8). Up to the very end of His life His choice seemed to have been a foolish one (Matthew 8:20); on Calvary it seemed to have been madness: but all history since has been a vindication of its wisdom (Philippians 2:9).