The Bible doesn't tell us who the son of Tabeel was or who Tabeel himself was. It's clear that he was a man whom Pekah and Rezin expected to be able to control. Judah would have been a vassal state for them and the king on its throne would have been a puppet king. Scholars are divided in their opinion as to whether this man was an Israelite or an Aramean but his father's name, Tabeel, appears to be a Hebrew name that means "God is good". Tabeel and his son were probably from one of the tribes of the northern kingdom, perhaps the tribe of Ephraim since the Lord keeps referring to Israel by the name of Ephraim in Chapter 7. However, some scholars propose that Tabeel and his son were of the tribe of Judah and that they were related somehow to the royal family, though not in direct line for the throne, and that this son of Tabeel was willing to submit to the kings of Israel and Aram in exchange for being placed on the throne of Judah.
Whoever he was, he did not have the right to wear the crown, and the royal line of succession is going to continue straight down from King David just as the Lord always said it would. That's how Ahaz can rest assured that the Lord is not going to allow Pekah and Rezin to place their man on the throne. The Lord then invited Ahaz to ask for a sign---a sign of whatever magnitude he chose because the Lord can do anything---but Ahaz hypocritically refused, claiming this would be "testing the Lord". The reason this was hypocritical was because Ahaz had bowed his knees and asked for things from many pagan gods but he was pretending to respect the Lord too much to ask something from the one true God.
Isaiah informs the king that a sign will be given even though he was too faithless to ask for it: "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14) This is a Messianic prophecy that won't be fulfilled until five hundred years later. But it's a promise that the house of David (by which term the Lord has already referred to Ahaz's household twice) will endure until the Promised One comes to reign forever. The Lord could not make or keep such a promise if He intended for Ahaz to be deposed from the throne, for in those times deposing a king meant killing him and all of his sons and grandsons and any other close male relatives that might try to lay claim to the throne. This would have cut off the royal line descending from David, preventing the Promised One from being born of David's line. But the Lord never makes a promise He doesn't intend to keep and the Lord never fails to keep a promise.
Immanuel was indeed born, just as the Lord said He would be. In Matthew's gospel account he provides us with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, clearly showing us that He was a direct descendant of the royal line of David, and Matthew tells us that the Holy Spirit caused a virgin to conceive the Promised One, wrapping up by quoting from the book of Isaiah, saying, "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel.' (Which means 'God with us'.)" (Matthew 1:22-23)
Immanuel is being used as a title rather than a proper name. Jesus' earthly parents were instructed to name Him "Jesus" but one of the many beautiful titles He holds is "God With Us". In the incarnation, He literally became "God With Us". We will close today's study with the words of the Apostle John who so wonderfully described how Jesus came to live among us, and here John is using another of the beautiful titles of our Lord: "The Word Of God". John says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made...The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-3, 14)
We will be resuming our study of the book of Isaiah on Wednesday, December 27th, in order for all of us to attend to the things of the Christmas season for the next few days. I have some family things, church things, and food-preparation things to do and I know many of you are probably doing the same or perhaps even traveling out of town. I would like to wish each of you all the blessings of Christmas, all the peace and joy of knowing that Immanuel---God With Us---has come!
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