Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz: “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Comment: God says ask as you want and Ahaz refuses, which doesn’t please God!) Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria!”
In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thorn-bushes, and on all the pastures.
Comment: Yes! About both for the time of Isaiah and for the time when Jesus was to be born! NOW – Apparently flies were in great numbers in the region of the Nile Delta and the reference to ‘whistling for the fly’ meant that the Egyptian army would, according to God, have dealings with Ephraim the Northern part of the country, the part which had rejected the progeny of David as their King. For most readers this is not common knowledge but I suspect very strongly that it was common knowledge in that area at that time and the prophecy made sense to them even if they doubted that it would happen. Historically we know that it did happen – the ‘flies’ of Egypt failed to provide any help which had been promised to Ephraim when the Assyrian ‘bees’ took them into captivity and later the ‘bees’ of Assyria took Judah into captivity! Future – Not only in the past, but looking centuries ahead, Jesus was announced before His birth to Mary by the Angel Gabriel, when he said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” This is recorded in Luke 1. Emmanuel in Hebrew means God with us or God saves, as does the name Jesus! Jesus, Yeshua, God’s Son came to live with us and deliver us from our broken relationship with God!
1 Timothy 1: 15 ……This ‘saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’.…..
Prayer: Thank You Jesus that the prophecy of Isaiah recorded here was fulfilled iin both the immediate past temporal and long term eternal sense!
As I read it! 