In yesterday's study we talked about how King Ahaz is relying on King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria for help against the combined military forces of King Pekah of Israel and King Rezin of Aram. He should be trusting in the Lord but instead, as we learned from our study of the kings, he will take the gold and silver from the temple and from his palace to send it to Tiglath-Pileser to ensure his aid. As thanks for the Assyrian king's help, he will go up to Damascus to visit him after the Assyrian forces capture Damascus of Aram (Syria in today's world) and will see there a heathen altar he wants copied for the temple complex at Jerusalem.
Ahaz's alliance with Assyria will drive him even further into idolatry and will drive the people even further into idolatry when he commands all their offerings and sacrifices to be made on the heathen altar instead of on the Lord's altar. Because of his refusal to serve the Lord, and because so many people are refusing to serve the Lord, the very nation they are trusting in will plague them, along with other enemy nations. This is the Lord's doing, which He makes plain.
He says, "The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah---He will bring the king of Assyria. In that day the Lord will whistle for flies from the Nile delta in Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria." (Isaiah 7:17-18) The Lord is probably not referring to literal flies and bees but is calling the invading forces flies and bees because they will swarm in and cover the land. The Assyrians, who will conquer the northern kingdom of Israel, will set their sights on Judah too. Not only that, but the Egyptians will make incursions and raids upon Judah. We will be taking a look at these various troubles as we move on through the book of Isaiah.
These attacking and scavenging enemy soldiers will be as bad as any insect plague, which is why the Lord depicts them as devouring the land. "They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices of the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes." (Isaiah 7:19)
The Lord now refers to Assyria as a "razor" for several reasons. The first is that it was a common tactic of the Assyrians to shave all the hair off their captives. The second is that it was a shame and disgrace to have one's hair and beard shaved off. The third is that shaving symbolizes nothing being left; it symbolizes how desolate the land will become. Because King Ahaz and so many citizens have placed their trust in heathen kings and in pagan gods instead of the Lord God, they will be shamed and disgraced for trusting in what is untrustworthy. They will also be stripped bare of the abundance of the land, the land which the Lord vowed to make unfruitful if they forsook Him, the land from which He vowed to remove them if they forsook them. "In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River---the king of Assyria---to shave your head and private parts, and to cut off your beard also." (Isaiah 7:20)
The land of milk and honey will become to them a land where they must get by on very little. They must scavenge for food in the wild or hide what few animals they have in order to keep them. The enemy won't allow planting and harvesting because they will destroy the crops every chance they get. "In that day, a person will keep alive a young cow and two goats. And because of the abundance of the milk that they give, there will be curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and honey." (Isaiah 7:21-22) The Lord is still merciful in spite of their sin. He's not going to allow them to starve to death. But they will have to do without meat from domestic animals, wine from the vineyards, and crops from the fields.
"In that day, in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels, there will be only briers and thorns. Hunters will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns. As for all the hills once cultivated by the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of the briers and thorns; they will become places where cattle are turned loose and where sheep run." (Isaiah 7:23-25) Assyria will make waste of many parts of the land. It will only be by the divine providence of the Lord that Jerusalem is spared from falling later in the book of Isaiah. We know that it's the Neo-Babylonian Empire to which Judah and the nation will actually fall but that doesn't mean that Assyria won't be a continual threat from now until then.
This is happening because so many have forsaken the Lord. As we talked about yesterday, the one who bows before the Lord can stand before anyone, and this is what He promised them before He ever brought them into the land. As long as they served Him, He would protect them. Even now, as Isaiah talks with the king, this situation could still be turned around if the king and the people who are like the king would repent.
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