Meditation on Isaiah 7:10-16

Isaiah 7:10-16

The LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying, 11Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. 12But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test. 13Then Isaiah said: "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? 14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. 15He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted."

Ahaz, king of Judah, is a member of the House of David, and is actually an ancestor of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew (v. 1:9). According to 2 Chronicles 28:1-4, Ahaz was NOT a godly king, but instead “worshipped the Baals” and even practiced a truly appalling form of human sacrifice with some of his infant children, which was a feature of the worship of Molech.

In the first nine verses of this chapter of Isaiah, the situation is laid out as this: the kings of Israel and Aram(to the north) are threatening to attack Israel, but have been unable to so far. Nonetheless, Ahaz is out, inspecting the defenses, and pondering an alliance with Assyria, which is a SPECTACULARLY bad idea. Israel and Aram are nothing—but Assyria is the Nazi Germany of its time. Isaiah is sent to bolster Ahaz’s faith—and as we have just seen, he really doesn’t have much.

Once again, we see a choice of verses in the lectionary that seems really confusing because of the verses around the reading that are omitted. The part that gets our attention is, of course, the prophecy about the young woman bearing a son who will be called Immanuel, which will be a vital part of our gospel reading.

In our reading, God speaks directly to Ahaz, and encourages—dares-- him to ask for a sign. Ahaz refuses in the name of what in anyone else would be called piety. So Isaiah takes up the conversation, and after chiding him for his fear, offers a sign anyway in verse 14. “The young woman”—is translated in the Vulgate as “virgin,” although the Hebrew word “’almah” merely means “young woman old enough to be married.” The child will be a sign of hope and plenty—literally that “God is With Us.” Scholars have debated whether this woman in the Isaiah story is Ahaz’s wife or Isaiah’s wife; Isaiah already has been depicted in this chapter with one of his sons with a symbolic name, and Isaiah’s wife was also a prophet. The fact that the child will eat curds and honey in this context is a sign that any siege that may befall Jerusalem will not have lasting effect, since verse 16 implies the age of two (“before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good”).

As Christians, of course, we place these verses into a different context thanks to Matthew’s gospel. This child is a sign to us to not have fear, but faith, or trust in God. At a time when darkness is at its longest point of the year, there is light coming into the world. At a time when all seems black, hope dawns. Jesus comes to remind us not to accept the world as it is, but to work to build the world as it ought to be. God breaks into the world no matter how much we try to close it off, make it a closed system subject to immutable laws of our own discerning. There are miracles everywhere; let those who have eyes see.

Links for more information:

Walter Brueggemann, Westminster Bible Commentary: Isaiah 1-39

David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Feasting on the Word, Year A, vol. 1