Isaiah 7:17-25

CALAMITY

TEXT: Isaiah 7:17-25

17

Jehovah will bring upon thee, and upon thy people and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah. even the king of Assyria.

18

And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah will hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

19

And they shall come and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the clefts of the rocks, and upon all thorn-hedges, and upon all pastures.

20

In that day will the Lord shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.

21

And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall keep alive a young cow, and two sheep;

22

and it shall come to pass, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the midst of the land.

23

And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, shall be for briers and thorns.

24

With arrows and with bow shall one come thither, because all the land shall be briers and thorns.

25

And all the hills that were digged with the mattock, thou shalt not come thither for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.

QUERIES

a.

Why is Jehovah to bring judgment upon Judah?

b.

What part do flies and bees play in this judgment?

c.

Who is the hired razor?

PARAPHRASE

But later on the Lord will bring a terrible curse on you and on your nation and your family. There will be terror, such as has not been known since the division of Solomon's empire into Israel and Judah. the mighty king of Assyria will come with his great army! At that time the Lord will whistle for the army of Upper Egypt, and of Assyria too, to swarm down upon you like flies and destroy you, like bees to sting and to kill. They will come in vast hordes, spreading across the whole land, even into the desolate valleys and caves and thorny parts, as well as to all your fertile acres. In that day the Lord will take this razor. these Assyrians you have hired to save you. and use it on you to shave off everything you have: your land, your crops, your people. When they finally stop plundering, the whole nation will be a pastureland; whole flocks and herds will be destroyed, and a farmer will be fortunate to have a cow and two sheep left. But the abundant pastureland will yield plenty of milk, and everyone left will live on curds and wild honey. At that time the lush vineyards will become patches of briers. All the land will be one vast thornfield, a hunting ground overrun by wildlife. No one will go to the fertile hillsides where once the gardens grew, for thorns will cover them; cattle, sheep and goats will graze there.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 7:17-20 GOD'S TOOL FOR JUDGMENT: Ahaz did not believe God's promise and he did not heed God's prophet. Ahaz turned to the Assyrian emperor for help. He so thoroughly submitted himself to the Assyrian he became a vassal of that pagan empire (Cf. 2 Kings 16:7-8). He also adopted much of Assyria's pagan idolatry (Cf. 2 Kings 16:10-16). So the prophet Isaiah goes from promises to threats. Days are coming upon Judah unequaled since the shame and humiliation of the revolt of the ten tribes. This judgment will be executed when Jehovah God calls, pssst (hisses) for the hordes of Assyrian soldiers to swarm into Palestine, overrun Israel and invade Judah. They will come in swarms like flies and bees. During the same time the Egyptians will swarm over the land of Palestine as these two great empires, Assyria and Egypt, struggle for domination of that territory. The hired razor will be the king of Assyria, God's instrument of shame and humiliation upon Judah. To shave the head and the beard completely off was a sign of deep humiliation and shame. Just how the Lord arranged for the king of Assyria to do His bidding we do not know. We know that the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to return the Hebrews to their land (2 Chronicles 36:22; Ezra 1:1) and that He sent a messenger among the nations to stir them up against Edom (Obadiah 1:1) and that in the book of Daniel the Lord deposed and enthroned pagan kings at His discretion.

Isaiah 7:21-25 GOD'S WAY OF JUDGMENT: The swarming armies of Assyria and Egypt tramping through the land and encamping upon it would completely devastate the land's agricultural potentialities. The massive armies of antiquity fed and supplied themselves almost entirely from foraging upon the countryside where they camped. To feed, clothe and supply other necessities for armies in the hundreds of thousands took incredible amounts of agricultural and building commodities. The devastation would be so thorough that the only thing left to eat for the local residents would be milk, butter and honey (Isaiah 7:22); the vineyards would be all stripped and weeds would grow in their place (Isaiah 7:23); only the hunter hunting the wild things of the thicket will be there, and tillable land will be so full of thorns and briers that tear clothes and flesh, no one will ever go there except animals to graze.

Precisely what Ahaz hoped to avert by becoming a vassal of the king of Assyria was what happened to the land because he refused to trust God and trusted in man.

QUIZ

1.

How thoroughly did Ahaz subjugate himself to Assyria?

2.

To what extent will the foreign armies come into Palestine because of the sin of Ahaz?

3.

How does God hiss for these foreign armies to do His bidding?

4.

Why was the devastation of the land of Palestine so great?

5.

How did the plan of Ahaz to use the king of Assyria for protection turn out?