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Summary of Chapter 8

The Lord ordered Isaiah to take a large scroll and pen and
write on it:Maher-shalal-Hash Baz, and Uriah the priest and
Zechariah will come as reliable witnesses to what he is to write.

Then Isaiah went into his wife, the prophetess, and she
conceived and had a son, and named him Maher-shalal, hash-baz.
And before the boy is only enough to say Father or mother, the
wealth of Damascus and of Samaria will be taken away by the King
of Assyria.

Since the people have rejected the gentle waters of Shiloah,
a pool on the SE side of Jerusalem, (standing for the true faith
in God), and feel confident over the fall of Rezin and the son of
Remeliah, the Lord will bring the pompous king of Assyria like a
flood, and he will sweep into Judah with water as deep as the
neck. The outspread wings will cover the land.

Then Judah will raise the war cry in the land of Immanuel,
and so Assyria will not always triumph. There will be punishment
for Ahaz for his lack of faith, but the faithful remnant will be
helped.

So God tells Isaiah not to think the way most of the people
think. The Lord is the Holy One. He will be a stone on which the
faithless will stumble and fall and be broken.

So Isaiah should bind up the flaps of the revelation, which
is for him and his disciples, the faithful remnant. They should
wait for the Lord. They are a type of Christ and His Church to
come. So they should not consult mediums, as so many are doing in
a time of great fear, but hope in the Lord, who seems to be
hiding His face at the time. . Those who do not accept his
revelation will wander in darkness and distress.

But Isaiah and his little group are to be a sign from the
Lord.

Comments on Chapter 8

The whole chapter is a warning of disaster to come. So
Isaiah is to write the prediction on a scroll, and get witnesses
to testify to it, seemingly so that later it will be proved he
had predicted it. On the scroll he wrote:Mahar-shalal Hash-Baz,
which seems to mean:quick plunder, swift spoil. He then goes to
his wife, whom he calls a prophetess, probably simply because she
was the wife of a prophet. In later centuries the wife of a
Bishop was sometimes called episcopa, feminine form of Episcopus,
and similarly the wife of a presbyter was presbytera. She had a
son, named him Maher shalal, hash baz, as above. Before the child
would be old enough to say My Father (age from 18 months to two
years), Samaria would be plundered. it actually fell in 723 or
722 to Tiglath -Pileser III. :2 Kings 15:29.

Now Isaiah shifts from literal statement to images as he
often does. The waters of Shiloah seem to refer to Jerusalem's
means of water in a siege, bringing it from the spring
Gihon. It stood here for the rule or God founded on Sion. The
River means the Euphrates, as usual in the OT. People were happy
at the defeat of the two northern kings - but that was not to
last, for Assyria was coming at Judah too, like a flood that
would sweep everything, but the depth would be only to the neck -
probably signifying that a remnant would be left - a theme
appearing now, that will be frequent in the future.

The outspread wings could mean that Assyria would cover the
land - or else be a means of recalling God's protection to Israel
under His wings at the time of the Exodus. Hence the mention of
Immanuel.

Then God speaks to Isaiah "with a strong hand", probably
meaning an overpowering action of God upon Him. (Cf. our remarks
in the introduction on the mode of messages given to prophets).
He tells Isaiah that he and his little group must not think the
way the people in general think. People think of the conspiracy
of Rezin and his allies. Yes, there was a danger, but God's power
was always greater. Rather than fear Rezin, they should fear the
Holy One, God. He will be the stone on which many stumble. They
thought of Him as their Rock, their solid support. But now Isaiah
turns the figure around:the Rock may make them stumble if they do
not have faith in Him.

The prophet is told to bind up the revelation. It seems to
mean to reserve it for the faithful remnant about him. Later it
is to be opened.

Many of the people, in their desperate state, are consulting
mediums from whom they may have a whispering sound, as if from
ghosts, or mutterings, as some of the so-called seers did. Such
people will wander in darkness.