It’s called grace!
The very fact that God wanted to encourage wicked King Ahaz!
How wicked? “Ahaz (father of good King Hezekiah) 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: for he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and made also molten images for Baalim. 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. He sacrificed also and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.” 2 Chronicles 28:1-4, terrible!
But still, when Ahaz’s Kingdom (Judah) was under dire threat from two warring (attacking) neighbors (namely Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel) … God wanted to show Ahaz that He (the Lord) could protect both his family and his country!
So the Lord dispatches Isaiah the Prophet to the scene!
“Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son …” Isaiah 7:3 (Isaiah’s children were often “object lessons” in his preaching, his sermons!)
The name “Ahaz” means “he has grasped.” But this King did not live up to the meaning his name! He did not “comprehend” the real impact of the sermon Isaiah was commissioned to preach to him that glorious day long ago! He either did not “get it,” or he “rejected” it once he did see the light!
The name “Shearjashub” (Isaiah’s oldest son) means “a remnant shall return!” God already trying to tell this wayward King that though the nation may face perilous times, she would not be totally destroyed! God would always preserve a believing “remnant,” a godly “few,” to stand true to the nation’s heritage. To its godly moorings!
Now to the matter at hand. Here is what Isiah was to preach to King Ahaz: “Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted (too soft) for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin (the first enemy king) with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah (the second enemy, Pekah, King Of Israel). Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel (plotted) against thee (Ahaz), saying, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king (thus killing Ahaz and placing their king on the throne) in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal (a “puppet” king): thus saith the Lord GOD, IT SHALL NOT STAND. NEITHER SHALL IT COME TO PASS.” Isaiah 7:4-7
God says that feeble (rebellious) effort was doomed!
Judah would survive!
King Ahaz should have been shouting with joy!
Then, displaying even more grace, God Almighty wants to provide Ahaz a “sign” that this two-nation confederacy (again, consisting of Syria and Israel … King Rezin and King Pekah) is to be short lived!
Read this! “For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim (Israel, thus called this because of her largest tribe) be broken, that it be not a people.” God is clearly talking, here in Isaiah 7:5. Within 65 years, both nations would be GONE! And history says this happened! In less than 65 years really! (How’s this for specific Bible Prophecy?)
Wow!
But there is more, not just the promise … but the “sign!”
“Ask thee (King Ahaz) a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt (he was living a sinful life, and could not honestly interact with God) the LORD. And he (Isaiah) 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? (Wearying God by not taking Him at His Word, by not obeying Him.) Therefore (anyway) the Lord himself shall give you a SIGN; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (meaning ‘God with us’). Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest (Syria and Israel) shall be forsaken of both her kings.” Isaiah 7:11-16
God is going to decimate Syria and Israel … soon! Within the time frame that it takes for a little boy to grow from infancy to adulthood (by ancient Near East standards) … about 12 years!
And that too (much sooner than 65 years) did occur! The giant nation Assyria attacked and conquered Syria and Israel within a few years of Isaiah’s prophecy here!
Wow!
But wait a minute!
What was that about a “virgin” conceiving?
Matthew, in his groundbreaking Gospel, boldly revels to us that this “virgin” is none other than the young lady we now know as “Mary,” the mother of the humanity of Jesus.
Watch … “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14
Watch again … “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet (Isaiah), saying, 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.” Matthew 1:22-23
Thus Isaiah’s prophecy has both a local and a long range emphasis. (As does a lot of Bible Prophecy!) Something that happened soon. Then Something that happened a few hundred years later, the miraculous Virgin Birth of Jesus!
Locally … a little boy would be born and before he reached the age of accountability (“for before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good”) … Syria and Israel would be gone!
Long range … God would send His Son Jesus into the world through the womb of a Virgin!
History … with a spiritual perspective!
History … with a prophetic perspective!
History … as really HIS STORY! (The Story of Jesus and the Gospel!)
Wow!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Yes, Mary was a virgin, literally so.