Ahaz – Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word https://www.iswasandwillbe.com Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty Thu, 12 Jan 2023 16:35:46 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cropped-headerlogo-32x32.png Ahaz – Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word https://www.iswasandwillbe.com 32 32 Study of the Book of Kings – 2Ki 16:1-20  “Bring no more vain oblations;  incense is an abomination unto me” https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/study-of-the-book-of-kings-2ki-161-20-bring-no-more-vain-oblations-incense-is-an-abomination-unto-me/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=study-of-the-book-of-kings-2ki-161-20-bring-no-more-vain-oblations-incense-is-an-abomination-unto-me Thu, 12 Jan 2023 16:21:41 +0000 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=26954 2Ki 16:1-20  “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me”
[Study Aired January 12, 2023]

2Ki 16:1  In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.
2Ki 16:2  Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father.
2Ki 16:3  But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel.
2Ki 16:4  And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
2Ki 16:5  Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.
2Ki 16:6  At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.
2Ki 16:7  So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me. 
2Ki 16:8  And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.
2Ki 16:9  And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.
2Ki 16:10  And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof. 
2Ki 16:11  And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus. 
2Ki 16:12  And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.
2Ki 16:13  And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, upon the altar.
2Ki 16:14  And he brought also the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar.
2Ki 16:15  And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king’s burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the brasen altar shall be for me to enquire by.
2Ki 16:16  Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.
2Ki 16:17  And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones.
2Ki 16:18  And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king’s entry without, turned he from the house of the LORD for the king of Assyria.
2Ki 16:19  Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2Ki 16:20  And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.

God’s word as shown in these verses (Isa 1:13-22, 1Pe 1:12-16) contrast so starkly with what king Ahaz did during his reign, which was in contrast to what Hezekiah the next ruling king of Judah would do for the nation of Judah. These verses in Isaiah (Isa 1:13-19) point to the reality of what must happen now in the lives of all those who are being dragged to Christ in this life (Joh 6:44). The verses in Peter’s writings confirm how we are to present our lives as a living sacrifice before God (Rom 12:1-2), bringing forth good fruit, meet unto repentance (Mat 3:8).

Isa 1:13  Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 
Isa 1:14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
Isa 1:15  And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. [Ahaz]
Isa 1:16  Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Isa 1:17  Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Isa 1:19  If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: [Hezekiah]

1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. 
1Pe 1:13  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
1Pe 1:14  As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
1Pe 1:15  But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 
1Pe 1:16  Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

Such an extreme turnabout from dark to light in character is shown from Ahaz to the next ruling king Hezekiah, typifying how we go from the corruptible seed of our father the devil to become an incorruptible holy seed in the hands of the Creator (1Pe 1:23).

1Pe 1:23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. 

What manifested in the life of Ahaz demonstrates the depth of depravity that our flesh can go to without God in our lives, as opposed to Hezekiah’s life that is typical of those who are called and chosen in this life and given power over the powers and principalities which we will wrestle against all our lives, becoming more than conquerors through Christ our head (Rom 8:37).

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

This seems to be the lowest point for Judah’s history in regard to the depraved way in which the people conducted themselves under the rulership of Ahaz. Their idolatrous lifestyle of the day is typical of our own lives, our own former conversation (Eph 2:2) that was full of our own idolatry until Christ, typified by Hezekiah, came in and began to tear all those idols down. This chapter of kings is like a pinnacle of evil, a ‘fullness-of-the-sins-of-the-Amorites’ moment in time, that is going to bring about great correction on the nation of Judah (Gen 15:16).

Multiple times we hear this well-repeated verse throughout the book of kings, “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done: he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin,” which sins of Jeroboam led to worse sins in the lives of all those who embraced them. Those sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat were just as potentially prevalent in the heart of Adam as they are in the hearts of those who claim to know Christ as Adam and Eve did, but who are yet with hearts and minds that cannot be obedient to the commandments of God (Luk 6:46). God allows for this ebb and flow of evil, but the truth is the heart was always deceitful and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9) along the way from Adam on. It is only through Christ, typified by Hezekiah, that we can begin to truly lay our lives down in His service and no longer “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting” of Isaiah 1:13.

Before we get into our study, here’s a little snapshot of the history of Judah and king Ahaz taken from the web [Who was King Ahaz in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org] that will help us organize the historical details of this section of kings, as we learn how God’s hand worked all these events according to the counsel of his own will and for our admonition upon whom the end the age is come (Eph 1:11, 1Co 10:11). I want to draw our attention to this statement in regard to how the author of this article struggles with how evil Ahaz was, as opposed to his father before him, saying “so it is unclear why King Ahaz departed so completely from the teachings of the Lord.” The answer to God’s elect now is clear. It is God who caused this wickedness to become more pronounced in the life of Ahaz to demonstrate His sovereign power over the clay which we are, to make one a vessel of honor and another fitted to destruction (Rom 9:17-23).

Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? (typified by the lives of Ahaz and Hezekiah in this section of kings)
Rom 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 
Rom 9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

[Excerpt from Who was King Ahaz in the Bible? | GotQuestions.org]: 

2Ki 16:1  In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah AhazH271 the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. 
2Ki 16:2  Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father.

Pekah was in his 17th year of ruling Israel when king Ahaz came on the scene. Ahaz was 20 years old and reigned for 16 years in Jerusalem. We are told he did not right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father, and so these numbers take on a negative application telling us that it had been better for him to have never reigned in the first place (2Pe 2:21).

2Pe 2:21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

The addition of Ahaz’s age when he began to rule at 20 years old and the length of his rule 16 years adds to 36 which numbers (3+6=9) adds up to the number of judgment (9) upon the flesh, (6) by way of a process (3).

Pekah being in his 17th year of reign when Ahaz begins his reign also adds to this story as (17) signifies the intent of all rulership which, in the positive, is to form the new creation, the new man which is the addition of (1+7=8), but that increase must come from God (1Co 3:6) and these stories are always to be understood as an admonition to which, Lord willing, we will take heed as we see the parable unfolding so we can be motivated to keep overcoming (2Pe 1:4). In the negative use, 17 points to upheaval and brokenness.

Gen 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

Gen 37:2  These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

God used this wicked king to accomplish His purpose of showing what was in the heart of the nation of Judah, telling us what is in the heart of all mankind until God begins to judge us and have those things burned out of our life (Jer 17:1-5, 1Pe 4:17). 

Jer 17:1  The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars; [negative example of being bound to an altar of sin according to the counsel of God’s will]
Jer 17:2  Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills. 
Jer 17:3  O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders. 
Jer 17:4  And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever. 
Jer 17:5  Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

We are being shown via king Ahaz’s bad example that we must be continually on our guard to follow Christ and to try the spirits whether they are of God or not (1Jn 4:1). This king’s actions were anything but godly. This was a time of judgment on Judah, now taking on a new elevated height, vis-a-vis wicked king Ahaz who was bent on deepening the nation’s idolatrous ways.

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 

1Co 3:6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 

2Pe 1:4  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

We can lay hold of something with a righteous intent to serve others, or we can lay hold of something or touch something for our own selfish personal pleasurable interests (Heb 11:25). Such was the case with Ahaz who was meant to lay hold of the nation and become a curse to them by the things he did (Pro 29:2).

Pro 29:2  When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

In the positive use of taking hold of something, Jacob was inspired to take hold of Esau’s heel, typifying how God’s elect would be overcomers of our carnal fleshly nature typified by Esau. This overcoming was predestined before we were born and is made evident to God’s elect via this prophecy that tells us so in Romans 9:11.

Rom 9:11  (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)

As certain as the prophecy is that there is a remnant that will lay hold of the righteousness of Christ (Gen 25:26), so too, does the scripture reveal that the first man Adam will lay hold of holy things that will bring about their death (2Sa 6:6). It is the oxen, representing the beasts which mankind are, that causes the ark to be shaken and then steadied by the other beast, Uzzah, that leads to his death (Ecc 3:18).

Gen 25:26  And after that came his brother out, and his hand took holdH270 on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.

2Sa 6:6  And when they came to Nachon’s threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took holdH270 of it; for the oxen shook it.

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

Ahaz  H271  ‘âchâz aw-khawz’

Strongs Definition:  — From H270; possessor; Achaz, the name of a Jewish king and of an Israelite: – Ahaz.  Total KJV occurrences: 41 

BDB Definition:  Ahaz = “he has grasped”
1) king of Judah, son Jotham, father of Hezekiah
2) a Benjamite, son of Micah, and great grandson of Jonathan
Part of Speech: noun proper masculine
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: from H270

2Ki 16:3  But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel.
2Ki 16:4  And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.

Notice how thoroughly corrupt this king was and how he used these evil practices of the heathen to keep control of the masses. It was “under every green tree” and in  “the high places, and on the hills” this all took place, typifying for us how these evil practices were steadily and healthily growing and being done in the high places and hills that represent our pride which causes us to hold fast to the practices of the heathen (Isa 57:3-5, Isa 57:7).

Isa 57:3  But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.
Isa 57:4  Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood, 
Isa 57:5  Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks? 

Isa 57:7  Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.

Sacrificing and burning incense in these places tells us that there was devotion to these idolatrous ways and an ungodly attachment to these wicked practices, regardless of the fact that the LORD had already “cast out from before the children of Israel” these evil practices. Walking in the ways of the kings of Israel symbolizes walking in our flesh and holding fast to the traditions of men and not God’s (Mar 7:7-8), even to the extent that Ahaz “made his son to pass through the fire,” which is symbolic for us today of how we offer up our children to the traditions of Baal found on an altar that has its origins in heathenism “Christmas, Easter, New Years, etc.” Without an experience of evil such as the one that Ahaz was bringing upon the nation of Judah, we have no way to compare the good fruit from the bad, and so God’s modus operandi for all of humanity is revealed to us in these verses (Rom 6:20-21, Rom 7:5-6, Ecc 1:13 [CLV], Jer 10:2).

Mar 7:7  Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Mar 7:8  For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

Rom 6:20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 
Rom 6:21  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

Rom 7:5  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
Rom 7:6  But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it. [The experience of evil is the way that seems right to man and yet is inspired by the spirit of Satan that leads to death. (Pro 14:12)]

Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

2Ki 16:5  Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.
2Ki 16:6  At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.

Now God’s judgment and wrath was going to be poured out upon Judah by way of “Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel“. Rezin is a gentile king who is the wicked sword in God’s hand that will be used (Psa 17:13) to chasten and scourge the nation of Judah for their idolatrous ways. Rezin “drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day” signifying our total inability to remain faithful even in times of trials and tribulations unless Christ is there. We reflected on the taking of Elath a couple of studies ago with King Azariah that is worth repeating here [taken from  Study of the Book of Kings – 2Ki 14:19-29]:

Both Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Syria came up against Judah to make war against Judah who “could not be overcome” at this time, but there were casualties (2Ch 28:5-8).

2Ch 28:5  Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.
2Ch 28:6  For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. 
2Ch 28:7  And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah the king’s son, and Azrikam the governor of the house, and Elkanah that was next to the king. 
2Ch 28:8  And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.

This battle does not represent ‘spirit against flesh and flesh against spirit’ as much as it represents flesh against flesh and how every man will be against his neighbor (Mar 13:12, Eze 38:21, Isa 3:5), as God uses that divisiveness to His glory to chasten the nations in question.

However, without the mind of Christ, when someone is in such a battle it normally means the battle is going to continue and ‘unholy alliances’ are going to be made, to assure victory for one of the parties. In the end, more death and destruction unfolds (Russia and the Ukraine as a modern example of that principle). Such was the case here with Ahaz who saw the writing on the wall for the nation of Judah. In typical in-the-flesh fashion, instead of seeking God through a prophet of the times, Ahaz sought out a physical ally to help give him the upper hand in battle against “Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel“. That aid came in the form of “Tiglathpileser king of Assyria” who consequently was very much an opportunist like Ahaz.

Mar 13:12  Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.

Eze 38:21  And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother. 

Isa 3:5  And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.

2Ki 16:7  So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me.
2Ki 16:8  And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.
2Ki 16:9  And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin. 

This alliance being forged with “Tiglathpileser king of Assyria” is purely a survival tactic of Ahaz who tries everything to get the king of Assyria on his side in this battle, reminding him that “I am thy servant and thy son” which he was not any more than king Pekah was the son of Rezin the king of Syria. It all demonstrates that desperate times call for desperate measures, and instead of doing the right thing and tearing down the idols within Judah, Ahaz digs in his heels and despises the chastening of the Lord in type and figure, building up his fleshly army to further preserve his idolatrous reign over Judah, at least that is his hope.

Ahaz does what he is good at doing best in bribing the king of Assyria, confident that money will talk, which it did. “And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.” This misappropriation of the LORD’s gold and silver to further the conflict in the nation of Judah has become a theme for Ahaz. The silver in the LORD’s house typically represents repentance, and the gold in the LORD’s house is His words that have been tried in the fire and made pure. Ahaz instead uses those riches to further hold onto his fading empire that was full of idolatry, typifying for us how Babylon today has tainted all the doctrine of God leaving no stay of bread or water in the harlot system (Isa 3:1).

Isa 3:1  For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water, [Mar 7:7-8]

2Ki 16:10  And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof. 
2Ki 16:11  And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus. 
2Ki 16:12  And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon. 
2Ki 16:13  And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, upon the altar. 
2Ki 16:14  And he brought also the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar.

King Ahaz has victory on his side now, and instead of having a change of heart in regard to all the idolatry that has brought about this war, he reaches out to his priest Urijah to ask him to make a copy of the altar of Tiglathpileser that he is seeing in Damascus. This sending the fashion of the altar and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof, sounds a lot like, and is exactly the opposite actions of, these words which this unfaithful king could not implement for the nation of Judah found in Ezekiel 43:10-11.

Eze 43:10  Thou son of man, shew the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern. [Christ the pattern]
Eze 43:11  And if they be ashamed of all that they have done, shew them the form of the house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and write it in their sight, that they may keep the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and do them.

How brazen can one man be (pun intended)! He not only comes back to offer polluted sacrifices with “his burnt offering and his meat offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, upon the altar,” he also altered the brazen altar’s position in the temple taking it “from between the altar and the house of the LORD” to “the north side of the altar.” Moving that “brasen altar” is symbolic of taking away from the word of God and when we do this, judgment is what is going to befall us (Rev 22:19, 1Co 4:6), which is why his actions led it to be put “on the north side of the altar” where judgment comes from (Jer 1:14).

Rev 22:19  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

1Co 4:6  And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. 

All these unholy actions and false worship by Ahaz represent our former conversation, and admonish us today to continue to worship our heavenly Father in spirit and in truth (Eph 2:2, 1Co 10:11, Joh 4:24).

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 

Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

2Ki 16:15  And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king’s burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the brasen altar shall be for me to enquire by.
2Ki 16:16  Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.

It’s not enough that Ahaz himself is going to worship in this manner, but his evil communications, his way of life, is going to be shared with the rest of Judah and his plans executed by Urijah the priest.

In this instance Ahaz is akin to ‘another Jesus’ and Urijah to the ministers of Babylon who serve out many meaty lies with all the religious pomp and pageantry that you would expect from such a wealthy harlot system as Babylon (Rev 18:6-7).

Rev 18:6  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.
Rev 18:7  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Jer 51:7  Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. 

Rev 18:3  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

2Ki 16:17  And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones. 
2Ki 16:18  And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king’s entry without, turned he from the house of the LORD for the king of Assyria. 

These next actions are just more of the same defiling of the temple of God we have seen unfolding, and we know that everyone who does this, which is all mankind in their appointed time, is going to be destroyed (1Co 3:17).

1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Ahaz, who represents our carnal first man Adam, has no problem misappropriating any part of the temple of God, in service, in offering, in taking away, or adding; it’s basically a free for all for the first man Adam.

In this instance he “cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones,” which symbolizes taking away the means by which we can be washed with the word of God. Having no borders is an expression of lawlessness, no restrictions, eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die (1Co 15:32).

1Co 15:32  If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.

Removing the laver is removing an implement that was used to wash the sacrifices, meaning the word of God would be taken away which is what this imagery symbolizes (Eph 5:26). 

Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Taking down “the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones” is symbolic of taking our minds off of the heavenly things which are above (Col 3:2-4) where we come boldly before the throne of grace to obtain help in time of need. Putting God’s word in a place that is stony represents how we prevent the word from growing because of our carnal behavior (Heb 4:16, Mat 13:5).

Col 3:2  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
Col 3:3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Col 3:4  When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Heb 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Mat 13:5  Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: [the earth is the church (Jer 22:29)]

Taking it away from the oxen is symbolic of taking the word of God away from the strength of Christ, which is found in the elect who make up the church and are symbolized by those twelve oxen that hold up “the sea,” representing the sea of humanity who God’s pillars will be used to hold up and lead unto salvation (Isa 30:20, Oba 1:21). 

Isa 30:20  And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:

Oba 1:21  And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

What Ahaz did here was no small feat as we consider the size of this brazen altar which was now no longer elevated but put down on the ground, on the stony earth from where Christ was raised so we could be washed by our high priest of all our iniquities (Rom 4:25). All of this moving around and shifting of this and that in the temple reminds us of how industrious Babylon has been and how effectively the word of God has been hidden by the millions of lies that exist within her walls (Rev 9:2).

Rom 4:25  Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. 

Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

The last defilement of the temple that is spoken of being done by Ahaz is this one, “the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king’s entry without, turned(H5437 as in changed or altered) he from the house of the LORD for the king of Assyria.” This symbolizes what Babylon has done to Christ, who is our Sabbath, our covering, and the only door by which we can enter into life. We all in our appointed time moved that door to a place that suited our carnal reasoning so that the “the king of Assyria,” who represents Satan, could come and go as he pleases in what is supposed to be a most holy place that is not defiled in any way (1Co 4:6).

1Co 4:6  And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

2Ki 16:19  Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 
2Ki 16:20  And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead. 

2Ch 28:27  And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead. 

These verses (1Co 3:18-19) are really apropos in regard to the life of Ahaz, which represents our carnal first man Adam who will not sleep with the kings but rather die and be buried without inheriting the kingdom of God. The wisdom of the world is what produces our foolish actions which don’t accord with God’s will that tells us to stop doing that, come out of her my people, and “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me” (Isa 1:13).

1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. 

1Co 3:19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 
1Co 3:20  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

Isa 1:12  When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
Isa 1:13  Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 
Isa 1:14  Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 
Isa 1:15  And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Isa 1:16  Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
Isa 1:17  Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow [Jas 1:27, Heb 11:26].
Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 

]]> Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 8:5-10 The King of Assyria…Shall Pass Through Judah https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-85-10-the-king-of-assyria-shall-pass-through-judah/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-85-10-the-king-of-assyria-shall-pass-through-judah Sat, 11 Mar 2017 23:29:23 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=13513
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The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 38 Discussion

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Isa 8:5-10  The King ​o​f Assyia... Shall Pass Through Judah

Isa 8:5  The LORD spake also unto me again, saying,
Isa 8:6  Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;
Isa 8:7  Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
Isa 8:8  And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.
Isa 8:9  Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
Isa 8:10  Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.

To understand the Lord's message to His creatures we must first understand the meaning of these words:

Isa 55:8  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

There is simply no way Ahaz, a type of us, can see an invisible God as more powerful than the threatening king of Assyria.

A good example of how our flesh cannot accept God's promises to protect us is this statement:

Job 12:22  He [the Lord] discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death.

Christ discovers the deep things, out of darkness, and "He brings out to light the shadow of death" because He is doing just that at this time only for His elect:

Isa 45:2  I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
Isa 45:3  And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
Isa 45:4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
Isa 45:5  I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: [Eph 2:2-5]
Isa 45:6  That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Which means:

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Christ's 'name' and His 'face' are His doctrines and His Words.

I am well aware that Isaiah 45:1-7 is addressed to Cyrus, the king of Persia. But that is just the outward, the letter, the earthly application of those words which actually speak to you and to me concerning what the Lord has in store for those who believe His Words in this age. He is 'going before us' to accomplish the very same things, only this time it is being done in a permanent and spiritual sense:

Col 1:28  Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

The point is that it is Christ's own words by which He "...created the darkness, [and by which He] commands the light to shine out of darkness". But because our natural thoughts are not His thoughts, our "light [is] darkness [and] how great is that darkness"!

Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

That darkness is so great that we believe "the first man Adam", the deceived, rebellious, epitome of spiritual darkness, was in reality created in physical and spiritual perfection. We do not know that it was God's own hand which created Adam in that darkened state. It is in that darkened state, which we consider to be light, that the Word of God itself is twisted to maintain our false doctrine of a man who was created in physical and spiritual perfection because we are told:

Luk 3:38  Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

And, after all, are we not also told:

Gen 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Yes, "the first man Adam is "the... very good... son of God" but that does not make him a physically and spiritually perfected Son of God. Satan himself is a son of God inasmuch as God is called "the father of spirits":

Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

It is because of the false doctrine of the fall of man, which is considered to be 'the light' and the truth of scripture, that our so called 'light' has blinded our eyes so that we cannot see these clear statements of the Word of God:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked ["first man Adam"] for the day of evil.

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Joh 12:40  He [God Himself] hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

2Co 3:10  For even that which was made glorious ["very good"] had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

We cannot see that Pharaoh's hard heart is also a type of our own hardened heart which has been hardened and blinded by the words of Christ Himself:

Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Isaiah makes it clear that Pharaoh's hardened heart is just a type of what the Lord is doing in all of His people:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

But all these truths are considered by the natural man to be lies and falsehoods, because at first our light is actually darkness, and we simply cannot see or understand how a just and loving God could possibly create evil or make wicked men for the day of evil. We simply cannot, as immature Christians, accept the Biblical doctrine which tells us:

Joh 12:40  He [God Himself] hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

We simply cannot see or understand how "Adam, the son of God" could possibly have had a relationship with His Father and at the same time be in total spiritual darkness. Neither can our immature "carnal... babes in Christ" minds understand that the ancient nation of Israel also had a relationship with God while being in total spiritual darkness.

Yet that is exactly what we have been shown in our studies in Isaiah. Chapter one sets the tone for this entire prophecy:

Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

But wasn't Isaiah sent to Ahaz with comforting words concerning the destruction of the two kings who were seeking to destroy the house of Ahaz the son of David and the kingdom of Judah? The answer is, yes, he was, but God's physical blessings are used throughout scripture to blind us from seeing our impending judgment. It is Christ Himself who tells us:

Ecc 8:11  Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

That verse describes how we have all dealt with sin in our own lives in the past, and it also describes how King Ahaz reacted to God's blessing of mercy upon him and his rebellious kingdom. It tells us how we react to God's patience and His mercies upon us while we are in our sins. We tell a lie, and nothing happens. We steal something, and it seems we got by with it. We hate our brother, which makes us a murderer, and we seem to get along just fine (1Jo 3:15). "The waters of Shiloah... go softly..." and we rejoice when we see others who are 'reaping what they have sown'.

Isa 8:5  The LORD spake also unto me again, saying,
Isa 8:6  Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;

What Ahaz and Judah rejoiced in concerning Rezin and Remaliah's son was that they had fallen prey to the king of Assyria. Ahaz certainly was not rejoicing in what Rezin and Remaliah's son Pekah were attempting to do to him and to Judah. Isaiah 7 and the first four verses of Isaiah 8 are all concerned with how the Lord was about to judge the northern kingdom of Israel, also called 'Ephraim' after Israel's most populous tribe. Israel, which was also called Ephraim, is symbolized by "Pekah the son of Remaliah", its king, and Samaria as its capital. Pekah was allied with Rezin, the king of Syria, against Judah and Judah's king, Ahaz.

Isa 7:1  And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.
Isa 7:2  And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his [Pekah's] heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.

"His heart was moved... as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind" means Ahaz and his people were 'shaking in their boots', to use a modern English idiom. But the Lord delivered Ahaz, and instead of repenting of his own apostasy and sins, he and his people gloated over the fall of Samaria to the extent that Ahaz went to Samaria to meet the Assyrian king who had destroyed his fellow Israelites.

Ahaz and we are commanded never to rejoice when the Lord chastens our enemies. These words had been scripture for many years before Ahaz came along:

Pro 24:17  Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:
Pro 24:18  Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

Isaiah's admonition to Ahaz and the kingdom of Judah was not to rejoice in the fall of Samaria and Damascus, rather his admonition to Judah is to repent of their own sins and to obey God and place their trust in His gentle waters. But Ahaz, as a type of us, much preferred to put his trust in the rushing mighty waters of the kingdom of the Eurphrates, the king of Assyria, and he refused to trust in the invisible God of His Fathers.

Here is the story of Ahaz. Here is the story of your flesh and my flesh:

2Ch 28:1  Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem: but he did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD, like David his father:
2Ch 28:2  For he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim.
2Ch 28:3  Moreover he burnt incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and burnt his children in the fire, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
2Ch 28:4 He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
2Ch 28:5  Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.
2Ch 28:6  For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men; because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.
2Ch 28:7  And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah the king's son, and Azrikam the governor of the house, and Elkanah that was next to the king.
2Ch 28:8  And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.

Notice now the mercy and patience the Lord shows toward Ahaz and Judah:

2Ch 28:9  But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded: and he went out before the host that came to Samaria, and said unto them, Behold, because the LORD God of your fathers was wroth with Judah, he hath delivered them into your hand, and ye have slain them in a rage that reacheth up unto heaven.
2Ch 28:10  And now ye purpose to keep under the children of Judah and Jerusalem for bondmen and bondwomen unto you: but are there not with you, even with you, sins against the LORD your God?
2Ch 28:11  Now hear me therefore, and deliver the captives again, which ye have taken captive of your brethren: for the fierce wrath of the LORD is upon you.
2Ch 28:12  Then certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim, Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, and Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai, stood up against them that came from the war,
2Ch 28:13  And said unto them, Ye shall not bring in the captives hither: for whereas we have offended against the LORD already, ye intend to add more to our sins and to our trespass: for our trespass is great, and there is fierce wrath against Israel.
2Ch 28:14  So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all the congregation.
2Ch 28:15  And the men which were expressed by name rose up, and took the captives, and with the spoil clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod them, and gave them to eat and to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of them upon asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brethren: then they returned to Samaria.

This now is how Ahaz responds to this act of God's mercy toward him and his nation. This is how our flesh first responds to the mercy we are shown at this time in our "one event" (Ecc 9:2):

2Ch 28:16  At that time did king Ahaz send unto the kings of Assyria to help him.
2Ch 28:17  For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives.
2Ch 28:18  The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Bethshemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and they dwelt there.
2Ch 28:19  For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the LORD.
2Ch 28:20  And Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not.
2Ch 28:21  For Ahaz took away a portion out of the house of the LORD, and out of the house of the king, and of the princes, and gave it unto the king of Assyria: but he helped him not.

"He made Judah naked" means that Ahaz removed all restraints in Judah, and set an example of lascivious living for the whole nation. All of God's patience and mercy is despised and taken for granted as weakness on the Lord's part. Our returning to our own vomit is the fruit of the false doctrine of substitutionary atonement. We accept His mercy as the healing of a very deadly wound, and we actually feel confirmed to continue serving the beast with whom we are convinced we cannot do battle and expect to win.

2Ch 28:22  And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against the LORD: this is that king Ahaz. [This is our own flesh]
2Ch 28:23  For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel. [The whole world seems to be doing well, so I will just throw my lot in with the world, and avoid the shame of bearing the cross of Christ]
2Ch 28:24  And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the LORD, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.
2Ch 28:25  And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger the LORD God of his fathers.
2Ch 28:26  Now the rest of his acts and of all his ways, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
2Ch 28:27  And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.

Ahaz, a type of you and me, was convinced that he could not withstand the power of the king of Assyia:

Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? [Who can make war with the kings of Assyria and Babylon?]

In time Judah's king was carried away by the Assyrians into Babylon, just as the Lord had earlier done to Israel:

2Ch 33:11  Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

Isa 8:7  Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:

Under King Ahaz Judah is not yet being judged as severely as Samaria and Ephraim. Nevertheless, Christ is speaking to both Israel and Judah as we read in this same chapter:

Isa 8:13  Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
Isa 8:14  And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

The Lord still sees Jerusalem as the capital of both nations, and He is intent upon judging both. In the sense that Judah is also rejecting Christ and His laws and His protection, she is also rejoicing in Rezin and in Remaliah's son. Both Israel and Judah "refuse the waters of Shiloah that go softly", preferring instead the waters of the mighty Euphrates, preferring the doctrines and the protection of the king of Assyria over the protection of an invisible God who insists that Israel separate herself from all other nations by being obedient to Him and to His laws.

Isa 8:6  Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son;

Since "both the houses of Israel... refuse the waters of Shiloah that go softly... therefore...  the Lord brings upon [both of the houses of Israel] the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria," who will take them completely out of the land and place them in the cities of the Chaldeans, and the Babylonians.

Isa 8:8  And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

"O Immanuel" lets us know these words are for us. All of this has already been written in Ahaz's and Judah's books (Psa 139:16). Nevertheless, the Lord always uses our sins for the occasion He is seeking to destroy the kingdom of our old man and to humble and, through that humiliating destruction, bring forth a new man who is conformed to the image of Christ.

But before the total annihilation of our old man we will conspire against our very Creator in an effort to maintain our own will and to retain the kingdom of the beast within our hearts and minds. The wild beast, which we are by nature, is loathe to relinquish the throne he has held for so long. Nevertheless, fortunately for us, it will all be in vain, and all of our attempts to retain the ability for us to continue to satisfy the man of sin will all come to nought.

Isa 8:9  Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
Isa 8:10  Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.

Outwardly we are determined to 'make America great again' while we remain in our sins as a nation. We think 'The Art of The Deal' will work by making the great red dragon our ally. But "it shall come to nought... and it shall not stand" because Christ Himself has "spoken the word", and "God is with us" who prefer "the waters of Shiloah that go softly'.

Our "covenant with death" will be annulled by Christ Himself at the appointed time:

Isa 28:15  Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
Isa 28:16  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Isa 28:17  Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
Isa 28:18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

All of our efforts to retain and rule our world for the rebellious wild beast who sits in the temple of God declaring himself to be God will also come to nought, and the kingdom of the beast within us will be completely destroyed by the brightness of His coming and the understanding of His doctrines.

2Th 2:6  And now you know what holds back, for him ["the abomination that makes desolate" Mat 24:15] to be revealed in his own time.
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of lawlessness is already working, only he is now holding back until it comes out of the midst.
2Th 2:8  And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming, (MKJV)

This is all being done and is being accomplished through the process of being judged and dying daily to all these things of the flesh which are shown by the example of King Ahaz being within each of us in our own time:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

We bring nothing to the table. Our part in God's plan for mankind was written before we were born, and He was working our lives while He still had our hearts hardened and was still making us to err from His ways (Isa 63:17).

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

]]> The Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 7:10-13 I Will Not Ask, Neither Will I Tempt The Lord https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-710-13-i-will-not-ask-neither-will-i-tempt-the-lord/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=prophecy-of-isaiah-isa-710-13-i-will-not-ask-neither-will-i-tempt-the-lord Sun, 15 Jan 2017 02:56:12 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=13136
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The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 31 Discussion

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Isa 7:10-13 I Will Not Ask, Neither Will I Tempt The Lord

Isa 7:10 Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying,
Isa 7:11 Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.
Isa 7:12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.
Isa 7:13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

Isaiah is now being obedient to the commission he was given:

Isa 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
Isa 6:9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Isa 6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

Our last study saw that the Lord sent Isaiah to assure Ahaz and Judah that the invasion of Israel, allied with Syria, would not be successful. Now we read "the Lord spake again to Ahaz" offering to give King Ahaz a sign which would assure Ahaz of the reliability of His promise to preserve Judah. Ahaz rejects Isaiah's offer to receive from God reassurances of His sovereignty over the powers coming against Ahaz.

But Ahaz in this story, is the type and shadow of the king of our religious, self-righteous old man. What we are being told, and what is being demonstrated here, is that God truly is working all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11), even our self-righteous old man's rebellions are His sovereign work to fulfill what He has already written in His book of our lives.

Ahaz is offered by God, through His established and acknowledged prophet, to be given a sign from God that the conspiracy against him would not succeed. God is demonstrating to Ahaz, a type of us, that the kings of this world are ruled by Him, and we, while being the adulterous, self-righteous wife of Christ, do not like Christ demonstrating to us His sovereign power over the kingdom of this world. That would mean that He is also sovereign over us, and we do not want to even hear such a thing, much less have it demonstrated to us. So we say to the Lord who has made us this offer:

Isa 7:12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.

There we are! From our rebellious, self-righteous perspective, just like Job, we have now demonstrated (to ourselves) that we are more righteous than God Himself, who we know has already specifically instructed us:

Deu 6:16 Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.

If indeed Ahaz were seeking and demanding a sign from God, he would indeed be demonstrating a lack of faith in the sovereign rule of God over the kingdoms of this world:

Dan 4:17 This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

But in this case it is God who has commanded King Ahaz, who typifies and foreshadows who we are as self-righteous, adulterous Babylonians, to ask of Him a sign, and Ahaz refuses to acknowledge that Isaiah is speaking for God.

The reason Ahaz acts in this manner is that He is the type of who we are as the Lord's adulterous wife. As such this is what we all do:

Pro 30:20 Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

Ahaz was not a righteous king. He rejected Isaiah's place as God's messenger, and He was intent upon putting himself above the priesthood as well as the Lord's prophets, as we are told of his history.

This is actually what we are being told about ourselves at this point in our "one event" (Ecc 9:2):

2Ki 16:2 Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father.
2Ki 16:5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.
2Ki 16:7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me.
2Ki 16:8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.

2Ki 16:10 And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.
2Ki 16:11 And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus.

2Ki 16:15 And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king's burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the brasen altar shall be for me to enquire by.
2Ki 16:16 Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.
2Ki 16:17 And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones.

"Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria." He had Urijah the priest to build an altar to replace the Lord's altar, but in his self-righteousness, he kept the Lord's altar in another location by which "to enquire [of the Lord]". King Ahaz is us as these "seven women":

Isa 4:1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

King Ahaz had not respect for the God of his fathers, yet when the Lord commands him to "Ask of me", Ahaz self-righteously condemns God by insinuating that God is contradicting His own commandment for us not to tempt him. That is what we do when we live the life of a hypocrite wanting the name of Christ, while rebelling against His doctrines. We want His name, but we do not want to eat his bread or wear his apparel.

It requires faith to depend on God when things appear to be hopeless. But as 'Ahaz' we have not yet been granted any faith in the power of God.

Typical of us, he gives all of God's treasures to the king of Assyria, and 'Assyria' is just and earlier type and shadow of Babylon. Ahaz therefore typifies our lives while we are in Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.

Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Ahaz hated both the priesthood and the Lord's prophets, and the priests under Ahaz are not as strong as the priests who withstood Ahaz's grandfather, Uzziah. Even the priesthood is now corrupted at this part of our walk.

Nevertheless, just as the Lord showed mercy to King Ahab when Ahab fasted before the Lord, so too, the Lord is willing to show mercy to Ahaz and Judah when their hearts show any fear of the Lord.

Because this really is a part of our experience, I will take the time to demonstrate how the Lord works with us to drag us to Himself "while we [are] yet in [our] sins":

Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Notice that God also showed mercy upon Ahab right at the time when Ahab, via his wife, Jezebel, had killed Naboth and had taken Naboth's vineyard:

1Ki 21:17 And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
1Ki 21:18 Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it.
1Ki 21:19 And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.
1Ki 21:20 And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the LORD.
1Ki 21:21 Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel,
1Ki 21:22 And will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin.
1Ki 21:23 And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.
1Ki 21:24 Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat.
1Ki 21:25 But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.
1Ki 21:26 And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
1Ki 21:27 And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
1Ki 21:28 And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
1Ki 21:29 Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house.

That is somewhat similar to the state of mind of Ahaz and Judah when Isaiah is sent with this prophecy concerning the demise of the two kings seeking to destroy Ahaz and Judah:

Isa 7:2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.

Neither Ahab nor Ahaz, as types of our old man, are reformed at this time, in spite of the Lord's mercy. The old man was made to be taken and destroyed, but that time is not yet come. Our old man's death is a slow, torturous, fiery and painful experience. Yet it is at this perilous time that the Lord gives us the prophecy of a savior who will deliver us out of our helpless and hopeless condition and situation.

Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isa 7:15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
Isa 7:16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

We do not have the time this week to discuss the spiritual significance of these three verses, but I do want to discuss the timing of this prophecy this week. Lord willing, we will get to the spiritual application of these verses within us next week.

It is most interesting that this promise is given to us at our lowest moment, as is demonstrated elsewhere in scripture by the stories of Adam and Eve, their son Cain, King David, and here in the case of wicked King Ahaz.

Notice at what point the Lord reassures us of our ultimate salvation:

Gen 3:16 Unto the woman [Eve is us, as the bride of Christ] he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception [I will judge you]; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to [Hebrew:  'el - against] thy husband, and he [Christ] shall rule over thee. [Christ will rule us all at the appointed time.]

In the next chapter we have the story of Cain killing his brother, Abel, but notice what the Lord tells Cain concerning the sin that dominates us as typified by Cain, murdering his brother, Abel:

Gen 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto [Hebrew: 'el - H413 against] thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him [over sin].
Gen 4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up againstH413 Abel his brother, and slew him. [The Hebrew word translated as 'against' in this verse is the word 'el, H413, and it is the same Hebrew word translated as 'to', as in "Thy desire shall be to thy husband..." in Gen 3:16. The same word is translated as 'unto' in Gen 4:7. They should all be translated as 'against'].

For those with eyes to see it is at King David's lowest point that God's prophet assures him of a good end:

2Sa 12:9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
2Sa 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

This is indeed the judgment of God upon the horrendous sin King David had committed against the Lord and against King David's own faithful captain, Uriah. But this is what the spirit reveals to us through King David:

Psa 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

That is the work of the judgments of God in our lives, and Isaiah himself longed for the Lord's judgments "in the earth":

Isa 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Oh, that the "sword [of the Lord will] never depart from [our own spiritual] houses", and that each of us will be "brought to [our] wits' end" and are "judged" in this age, as was King David in type and shadow!

Now let's consider another very important point. Did this prophecy which Christ gave to Isaiah to give to Ahaz have any "for the time then present" application (Heb 9:9)? Yes, of course it did.

In the very next chapter we are told:

Isa 8:3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.
Isa 8:4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

Mahershalalhashbaz means to 'hasten to the plunder', and it refers to what Assyria will do to Israel and to Syria. It is also a prophecy of what Babylon would later do to Judah and Jerusalem. In this chapter, chapter 7, Isaiah is sent to meet Ahaz with his son Shearjashub. The name 'Shearjashub' means 'the remnant shall return', an obvious prophecy of Judah and Israel being carried away into captivity with only a remnant returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the Lord's house:

Isa 7:3 Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field;
Isa 7:4 And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.

So while this prophecy had a "for the time then present" application, involving the prophetic significance of the birth of Isaiah's children, and the prophetic meaning of the names of Isaiah's sons, we are given faith to believe that as the New Testament tells us, this prophecy also refers to the virgin birth of Christ, who is our ultimate deliverer, as those who are the ultimate 'remnant' of Judah and Jerusalem who also must physically return from Babylonian captivity and "come out of her", as that remnant who were indeed plundered and carried away by the thieving merchants of Babylon.

Here is the spiritual fulfillment of this prophecy:

Rev 18:8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Rev 18:9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
Rev 18:11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Rev 18:12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
Rev 18:13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

Knowing that Christ and His Words have an is, was and will be character gives us the faith to believe and to accept the words of these verses as the holy spirit in the New Testament tells us we are to take them:

Mat 1:22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
Mat 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

This entire story 'happened to Judah, and it was written for our sakes upon whom the ends of the ages have come' (1Co 10:11). There was an outward application which assured Ahaz that the present conspiracy would not succeed, but the spiritual significance of these events is that these things all happened for our admonition (1Co 10:11), and they are all types and shadows of us as "the church, which is His body" (Col 1:24).

This entire story, containing the prophesy of the coming of Christ, is also a prophecy of the coming "time of reformation":

Heb 9:8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:
Heb 9:9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;
Heb 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

Judah is already established in this prophecy as "a figure for the time then present" of the great harlot who has committed fornication with all the kings of the earth:

Isa 1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Isa 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

And this is what "the faithful city [which became] an harlot... for the time then present" prefigured:

Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Judah and her king Ahaz are so corrupt that she has no faith in the God who destroyed Egypt for their sakes, brought them through the Red Sea and gave them the promised land. Instead King Ahaz, as a type of you and me, is making alliances with the King of Assyria. Like any harlot, Ahaz thinks his adulterous lovers will protect and care for him, but the reality is that it is just a matter of time before the beast on which she is sitting will turn on her and burn her with fire and devour her flesh:

Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
Rev 17:16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Rev 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

Ahaz rejected God's words through His prophet Isaiah. He had the illusion of dominating Israel and Syria because of his willingness to get in bed with the king of Assyria, but the spiritual significance of this entire story is nothing more than "the pleasures of sin for a season", and at the certain and appointed time the king of Assyria will turn on Judah and besiege her and her king. Her judgment will again be delayed, but the King of Babylon, a new king of the same Chaldean people, will hate the whore Judah is, and will "make her desolate and naked, and [will] eat her flesh and burn her with fire". That is exactly what the Babylonians did to Judah, just as the Assyrians had earlier done to the northern kingdom of Israel and to Syria.

2Ki 17:23 Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.

2Ki 24:14 And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land.
2Ki 24:15 And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.

But Judah's judgment has already begun. This conspiracy of Rezin of Syria and Pekah, King of Israel against Judah, had begun in the days of Ahaz's father Jotham.

2Ki 15:36 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2Ki 15:37 In those days [the days of Jotham] the LORD began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah.

So "the Lord" had been chastening Judah as a nation from before the time Ahaz became king, yet there is no sign of any sense of national repentance. This is exactly what happens to all of us with whom the Lord is working to bring upon us His judgments in this age. The seven plagues of the seven angels will be fulfilled before any of us will enter into the temple of God in heaven (Rev 15:7-8), but the seven plagues are preceded by the seven trumpets and the seven seals which must also be fulfilled and kept. So the threat of invasion by Syria and Israel is just the beginning of sorrows for Judah as a type of our own judgment.

It is in this state of fear and confusion that the Lord's words come to us "while [we are] yet sinners" (Rom 5:8 and Eph 2:5), and offer us hope, and remind us that our enemies are all in His hand and that they have no power but what is given them from above:

Joh 19:10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
Joh 19:11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

This is not a principle which did not exist before Christ spoke those words to Pilate. These words have always been true, and they were true when Rezin and the son of Remaliah were threatening Judah. Those men had no power except what was given them from above, and Christ has sent Isaiah to tell Ahaz that this is not yet the time to suffer the judgments of God upon Judah. At the same time the Lord informs us that though judgment is coming so too salvation is coming to God's people through that judgment, and the Savior, who is to bring that salvation will also come to His people at the appointed time.

Rom 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

The story of the prophecy being given to Ahaz happened to him and is written for our spiritual admonition.

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them [including King Ahaz and Jerusalem and Judah] for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

In spiritual terms this story and the prophecy within this story was not even ministering to Ahaz or Isaiah or to any of the people of their day as Peter makes so very clear:

1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

Being given faith to believe the words of 1Co 10:11 and the words of the holy spirit in 1Pe 1:9-12, next week, Lord willing, we will receive instruction concerning what the admonition of this prophecy for us is:

When Isaiah prophesied about the virgin conceiving Immanuel, we are told that before the child will know how to refuse the evil, and choose the good, he shall eat butter and honey, and the land shall be forsaken of both her kings.

Here again are our verses for next week's study:

Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isa 7:15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
Isa 7:16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

Learning how to refuse what is evil, and choose what is good is a process that involves [first] eating butter and honey, and having the two kings in the land, the beast and the dragon, to be forsaken. It's of no coincidence that during His initial conversation with Moses, the Lord, speaking from the burning bush, told Moses that He will bring his people out of Egypt and into a land flowing with milk and honey.

Exo 3:8 KJV And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

We will stop here for now, and next week, Lord willing, we will discover just how important it is that we begin our knowledge of Christ and His kingdom within us by consuming only 'milk and honey' to begin with.

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