Ahaz

Here's an email from Esther.

What is the immediate meaning to Ahaz of the virgin prophecy of Isaiah 7?

Let me pull up Isaiah 7.

No, I'm not going to pull up Isaiah 7.

paw at some of the names.

Ahaz?

Hezekiah? Jehoiakim? Zerubbabel? Amazing! We've met several of Messiah's ancestors, Nigel said, and, I dare say, many of them were rascals.

Yes, and there are also several women with questionable reputations like Tamar and Rahab.

So he starts prophesying at the beginning or the last year of Uzziah.

And then Uzziah's son Jotham takes over and then he dies and his son Ahaz is king.

And that's the setting for chapter 7.

Ahaz is king, and he's king at a very difficult time.

The Assyrian Empire is expanding.

They have taken care of things kind of at home.

But this is the story specifically of Judah.

So they are putting a tremendous amount of pressure on Judah to join their, I guess, alliance and rebel against Assyria.

Uzziah became the father of Yotam.

Yotam became the father of Ahaz.

Ahaz became the father of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh.

Manasseh became the father of Ammon.

And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste.

But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land." When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.

At the house of David it was told: "Aram has allied itself with Ephraim!" So the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.

Then the Lord said to Isaiah, "Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer's Field.

Say to him, 'Be careful, keep calm and don't be afraid.

Do not lose heart because of those two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.

Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.

The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah's son.

For the Northern Kingdom, Israel, their capital city is Samaria, the dominant tribe is Ephraim, and the king that will be relevant to our discussion is Pekah, the son of Remaliah.

In Judah, there's a series of Davidic kings, Ahaz and Hezekiah will be the ones that we focus on.

Judah is the dominant tribe, and their capital city is Jerusalem, also known as Zion.

Now, when we think about Jerusalem, we tend to imagine it as this large, powerful country.

I don't even want to read this chapter.

But if you look at the map, it's not that hard.

We're talking about Ahaz, king of Judah, And Rezin, king of Syria, Pekah, son of Ramaliah, these are all people from our map, king of Israel, went up to war against Jerusalem, but could not prevail against it.

So in context, you've got Syria and Israel coming to attack Judah.

In Judah, there's a series of Davidic kings.

Ahaz and Hezekiah will be the ones that we focus on.

Judah is the dominant tribe, and their capital city is Jerusalem, also known as Zion.

Now, when we think about Jerusalem, we tend to imagine it as this large, powerful country.

Now let's turn to chapter seven.

This might be one of the most important prophecies in Isaiah.

We read, and it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah.

Okay, I know some of us are already like, okay, forget it.

But the memory is real that the people of Judah felt they probably did have people in Judah die, that Israel did come down and attack.

And Ahaz is the king.

His name means to grasp, to seize, or take hold, but he seems to not grasp what's going on in the political situation or the spiritual situation.

Wow, I didn't even...

[laughs]

Right.

King Ahaz, he's, he's having a hard time.

He's grasping-