8:1  The Lord said to me, Take a large scroll and write on it in common script: Hasten the plunder, hurry the spoil.

8:2  And I called in reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to witness for me.

So there were good men there that he could choose.  Why does he call them in?  To testify that Isaiah did, in fact, prophesy this or predict this before the time, before it was fulfilled.  Otherwise they might say, well, he just claimed that he prophesied it, to build himself up as a prophet.  Hasten the plunder, hurry the spoil    That kind of terminology has word links all the way through the Book of Isaiah, and particularly references to the King of Assyria.  In Chapter 10, for example, verse 5 and 6 where it says:  Hail the Assyrian, the rod of my anger! … I will commission him against the godless nation…  That is the Lord’s own people in their apostate state.  Appoint him over the people deserving of my vengeance, to pillage for plunder, to spoliate for spoil, to tread them underfoot like mud in the streets.  So the King of Assyria there is given power over God’s people to do the plundering and the spoiling.  So it’s along the lines of what we’ve just been reading that …In that day my Lord will use a razor hired at the River-- by the King of Assyria…  to come and do this destruction.

8:3  And when I had been with the prophetess, she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, Name him Maher-Shalal- Hash-Baz.

And that implied that she, herself, was a prophet in her own right.  It doesn’t just mean Mrs. Prophet, Mrs. Isaiah.  It gives her credit for who she is.  …when I had been with the prophetess, she conceived and gave birth to a son.  And the Lord said to me, Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.  which means “hasten the plunder, hurry the spoil”, which is what he wrote down that the two witnesses attested to.  And then the explanation,

8:4  For before the child knows how to say, Father, or Mother, the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be brought before the king of Assyria.

A youthful, infant state  …the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be brought before the king of Assyria.  The king of Assyria is going to come in and conquer those lands and plunder them, and impose his public rulers over their kingdoms, as they thought to do with Judea.

8:5–6  The Lord addressed me again, and said, Because these people have rejected the waters of Shiloah, which flow gently, and rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

In verse 6 it says these people.  It implies that the people have rejected the Lord’s covenant, too.  Just as King Ahaz has rejected his god, so the people of the Lord have rejected him, in this case speaking of the people of Judea as well, not just of the ten northern tribes.  Ahaz has rejected the Lord, and his people, King Ahaz’s people, have rejected him.  Have rejected the waters of Shiloah…  what’s that?  The waters of Shiloah are the same place where the Prophet Isaiah met King Ahaz with his son Shear-Jashub, which water symbolizes the Davidic dynasty.  So the people rejecting the waters of Shiloah means the people have rejected King Ahaz, or the Davidic dynasty.  So, just as King Ahaz rejects his God, so the people reject King Ahaz, or they manifest their rejection of God by rejecting King Ahaz, or the Davidic dynasty.  …the waters of Shiloah, which flow gently... Even though King Ahaz may be an oppressor of his people, may be oppressive, he’s not nearly so oppressive as the king of Assyria.

8:7  therefore will my Lord cause to come up over them the great and mighty waters of the River—the king of Assyria in all his glory. He will rise up over all his channels and overflow all his banks.

The great and mighty waters of the River—the king of Assyria in all his glory…  That’s the river and flood that floods all over everything, it inundates everything.  That’s real oppression.  The people, too, must be fearful, as it says earlier in Chapter 7 ...the minds of his people were shaken, as trees in a forest are shaken by a gale… And so they, it says, are rejoicing in Rezin and the son of Remaliah.  They are in favor of the northern coalition, and they want to go along with Rezin’s and the son of Remaliah’s plan to displace Ahaz and put a public ruler on the throne.  And so there the people are involved in the conspiracy, in other words, to overthrow their king, a ruler of the lines of King David.  Because these people have rejected the waters of Shiloah, which flow gently, and rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah… so they are rejecting God’s covenant relationship, as manifested by their rejection of the House of David. (Verse 7)  …therefore will my Lord cause to come up over them the great and mighty waters of the River---the king of Assyria in all his glory.  So they’re going to get more than they bargained for.  Instead of forming a coalition that’s able to prevent these Assyrians from coming into the land, these Assyrians will actually come in like a flood.  He will rise up over all his channels and overflow all his banks.

8:8  He will sweep into Judea like a flood and, passing through, reach the very neck; his outspread wings will span the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.

Whose land?  The land of Immanuel, in the days of Immanuel.  Who’s Immanuel?  King Hezekiah.  When did the Assyrians come in and flood the whole land of Judea?  In the days of King Hezekiah, in chapter 36.  See, we have such preconceived ideas.  We take things out of context, and we use scriptures for proof-text, and yet we neglect what the context is saying.  Does it still apply to Christ?  Certainly.  Does it apply to others than Christ?  Most certainly.  That’s the context.  The Assyrians come in the days of Immanuel, like a flood, and go right up to the neck.  The neck leaves the head.  What is the head?  The capital.  Remember the capital city?  The word for capital and head is the same word.  It leaves Jerusalem.  In chapters 36 and 37 the Assyrians come in and they’ve conquered the whole land of Judea, and the only place they haven’t conquered is Jerusalem.  They lay siege to Jerusalem.  135,000 of the Assyrian army lay siege to Jerusalem.  That’s fulfilled in the days of King Hezekiah in the next generation.  So Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled to the letter.  The king of Assyria rising up over all his channels and overflowing all his banks implies that he comes out of his own land.  His land is up there by the Euphrates, or today somewhere in the land of the north, and they will swarm down from there like bees, or they will flood over there.  That’s how the Assyrians did it.  They just kind of flooded over everything and annexed all the lands that way.  Also, he’s not likened to a flood only, but outspread wings, like the bees.  And of course it has modern connotations, depending on how you look at it, maybe a modern type of warfare.  So they are going to come into the promised land, the Assyrians will, in the days of Immanuel, the land of Immanuel.  If you apply this prophecy to Christ, then you will say, this is the land of Jesus Christ, right?  Anciently the land of Judea was the land of Hezekiah, the land of Judea, the promised land. 

8:9  Though nations form pacts, they shall be routed. Give heed, all you distant lands! You may take courage in one another, but shall be in fear; you may arm yourselves, but shall be terrorized.

So people are taking courage in one another, meaning they are forming pacts and alliances to try to prevent the Assyrians from invading their lands, like Rezin and Pekah.  It’s not going to work.  These pacts and treaties are not founded upon the Lord.  It’s the arm of flesh.  To fear is not of the Lord, to be terrorized.  Only the wicked are all the way through Isaiah in any situation.  Also, later on you will see in Isaiah the idolaters are the ones who kind of take courage and lean on each other.  They buoy each other up, saying, “Courage, man, hang in there.  We’re gonna’ hang in there together and we’re going to be all right.”  What happens to them?  They all get wiped out. 

8:10  Though you hold consultations, they shall come to nought; though you make proposals, they shall not prove firm: God is with us!

So those idolaters, or it implies that these people are idolaters - and of course to rely on the arm of flesh is a form of idolatry - holding consultations, these shall come to naught, these proposals do not prove firm.  God is with us!  What is that?  Immanuel.  “God is with us” means Immanuel.  Who is God with?  He is with those who rely upon the Lord.  He is with those who rely upon him.  He’s also with the Assyrians against the masses of his people, the wicked of his people.  He commissions the king of Assyria, like I read a moment ago in chapter 10, against his own people.  In chapters 36 and 37 the Assyrians actually claim that God is with them against this people.  They have made themselves God’s enemies, and God is with the Assyrians.  He raises them up against his own people to punish them.  But He’s also with the remnant.  He doesn’t prove to be with the Assyrians for very long, just so long as they do the Lord’s work, so long as they are instruments in God’s hands to punish the wicked, then he is with them.  And after they have done that work and try to totally destroy God’s people, even the righteous, then God is no longer with the Assyrians.  He no longer empowers them.  He takes away their power, and the Assyrians themselves are destroyed.  But for awhile there he strengthens them or allows them to do the destruction.

8:11  The Lord spoke to me, clasping my hand, and admonished me not to follow the ways of these people. For he said,

Now the clasping of the hand is like the experience we had in chapter 6, a personal visitation with the Lord.  …not to follow the ways of these people… meaning these alienated people, these covenant breaking people.  Otherwise he would have says my people, which is the covenant formula.  For he said,

8:12  Do not call a conspiracy all that these people call a conspiracy; be not afraid or awed by the thing they fear.

So there are those who are saying this conspiracy.  Is there conspiracy?  Yes, there is conspiracy, but these people are seeing conspiracy everywhere and it just isn’t that overwhelming.  You don’t need to be that afraid, or awed.  You don’t need to be in fear if you have the Lord’s guidance, if you have the Holy Spirit for your guide.

8:13  But sanctify the Lord of Hosts, making him your fear, him your awe.

So displace that fear with a righteous kind of fear, not actual fearfulness of God, but kind of reverence and esteem, an awesome feeling toward God, who has more power than all your enemies do; and relying upon Him, fearing to offend Him, fearing to transgress, living a righteous lifestyle, doing those things that God asks you to do - that’s fearing God.  If you do that, it will be a sanctuary to you. 

8:14  And to you he will be a sanctuary, but to the two houses of Israel a stumbling block or obstructing rock, and a snare, catching unawares the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

a sanctuary, meaning a holy place.  This is the Hebrew word for holy place, standing in holy places.  It also means a place of protection, it’s used as such in the Old Testament.  So it’s a place of protection, really, for the righteous or for the holy ones, those who are holy.  We saw in chapter 4 that those who survive the destruction are called the holy ones.  …but to the two houses of Israel… In other words, to everybody else in general, the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom of Ephraim and Judah.  …a stumbling block or obstructing rock, and a snare, catching unawares the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  And so instead of being a rock as a place of surety, where you are founded upon the rock, and when the storms come and the floods and lightnings and thunders, they beat upon you and you still stand because you are founded upon the rock.  That’s a different image from this image where the Lord is a stumbling block, an obstructing rock, because they’ve transgressed.  Now they are in a situation where they have to experience the covenant curses that come along with transgression.  So, to them, God becomes a snare, catching unawares.  Captivity is a covenant curse.  They are in a situation of covenant curse – the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the two houses of Israel, everybody else in general.  The mass of God’s people have become alienated, they’re experiencing covenant curse, and now only a few people, those who have sanctified the Lord of Hosts, that can  …., to them he’ll be a sanctuary, just a remnant of people

8:15  Many will stumble into them, and when they fall shall be broken, and when they become ensnared shall be taken captive.

That captivity, of course, is by the Assyrians.  They’re the ones that actually do the capturing of the Lord’s people, but it was because the people were not grounded in the Lord.  So, do we have people today crying conspiracy everywhere?  And they see conspiracy in every nook and cranny and they try to uproot it and expose it and everything, and that’s kind of a loss of perspective.  It’s not the focus that the Lord would have you have, but focus on the Lord himself, on doing good.

8:16  For the Lord has said, Bind up the testimony; seal the law among my disciples.

Meaning there are disciples all the way through this.  Even in the time of Elijah, for example, Elijah was growing very despondent because he thought he was the only prophet of God left and there were 500 prophets of Baal versus one prophet of God; and there were 5,000 men in Israel who had not kissed Baal yet.  So out of the hundreds of  thousands, or even millions, of people, there were a few.  In this context they’re called his disciples, the Lord’s disciples.  And the law and the testimony are bound up among them, meaning they’re confined to them.  At some point the Lord withdraws his law and his word from among the masses when they reject it. 

8:17  I will wait for the Lord, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and expect him.

Again, that personalized, individual “I.”   I will wait for the Lord... like Joshua.  “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  It’s just individuals -  a man here, a man there, a remnant of people.  I will wait for the Lord…  That’s a word link to many other instances of waiting for the Lord throughout the Book of Isaiah.  They wait for Him through the time of trouble and when they wait for him and wait for him, and even almost beyond the point of endurance, then He comes through for them in the end.  That’s the test of faith of the elect.  Waiting for the Lord, relying upon Him.  …who hides his face from the house of Jacob… meaning the rest of the people, the masses, the people of Israel in general, he’s cut them off, he’s no longer blessing them, he leaves them to the hands of their enemies.  I will wait for the Lord, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and expect him.  Not just waiting and waiting and waiting, but expecting, totally expecting.  That’s faith, that’s trust, that’s hope.

8:18  As for me and the children the Lord has given me, we shall be signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of Hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.

That’s a beautiful verse.  The word children here may be Isaiah’s own literal children, but certainly also his disciples that he had were called the sons of the prophets.  They shall be signs and portents.  Yes, his son, Shear-Jashub, and his son, Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, and probably his adopted son, Immanuel, Hezekiah, they are signs and portents in Israel because their names signify something.  Their names actually predict what will happen to the people in general.  …from the Lord of Hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.  In Psalms, like I mentioned, where it says the Lord is with us, it also says the Lord dwells in Mount Zion.  He dwells with us in Mount Zion.  And in chapters 36 and 37 that name Zion, or the word Zion, comes to the fore.  Also in chapter 4 we saw in Zion and Jerusalem there is deliverance as the Lord dwells there.  He dwells with his people and when He dwells with His people there is protection there.  …we shall be signs and portents of what’s coming.  We will be safe with the Lord, we will be in His sanctuary.

8:19–20  When men tell you to inquire of mediums and spiritists who huddle together and mutter, say to them, Should not a people inquire of their God? Should one inquire of the dead on behalf of the living for doctrine and for a testimony?

So it’s a time when people are turning to other forms of communication with God instead of direct revelation, by turning to mediums and spiritists.  What kind of answers do you think they’re going to get, when they transgress the commandments of God that way?  What kind of spirits on the other side, anyway, would answer such requests for information?  Only evil spirits would, and they will give you some truth and some falsehood with it, so it only leads further and further astray.  When men tell you to inquire of mediums and spiritists who huddle together and mutter, say to them, Should not a people inquire of their God?  As their covenant God?  Should one inquire of the dead on behalf of the living. “for doctrine and for a testimony?”  Should you find out things of God from them who are rejected, who wouldn’t even answer you anyway if they were of God because they were forbidden to?  So you are only going to get what you deserve when you do that.  …for doctrine and for a testimony?  We’re talking about binding up the testimony and sealing the law among the disciples.  It will be sealed up among the righteous of that day.  The wicked will not have access to it because they have rejected it,  so you can’t get doctrine or a testimony from them.  Surely, while they utter such words devoid of light,…  They are unenlightened people. 

8:20–21  Surely, while they utter such words devoid of light, 21 they roam about embittered by hunger; and when they are hungry, they become enraged and, gazing upward, curse their king and their God.

which is a covenant curse, which is a consequence of their transgression.  Why turn to covenant breakers for answers?  …and when they are hungry, they become enraged and, gazing upward, curse their king and their God.  And that implies that they are disloyal to God and also to the government that God has placed over them.

8:22  They will look to the land, but there shall be a depressing scene of anguish and gloom; and thus are they banished into outer darkness.

because in the cities it will all be oppressive and there’s no food  …but there shall be a depressing scene of anguish and gloom; and thus are they banished into outer darkness.  They may go into the countryside, but there’s nothing there, either; just outer darkness, like the five foolish virgins are banished into outer darkness.  Why?  Because they rejected the light and so they are made to suffer during that time as a consequence of rejecting the Lord.  The elect go into the sanctuary, right?  (Verse 14)  See how similar this is to Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins.  The elect go to the sanctuary and the foolish are out there suffering the consequences during that awful time of destruction and invasion.