Commentary - Isaiah 7:18-25

Bird's-eye view

In this section of Isaiah, the prophet continues to lay out the consequences of King Ahaz's faithless decision to trust in Assyria rather than Yahweh. Having rejected God's gracious offer of a sign, Ahaz is now told in stark, earthy terms what his chosen savior will actually do to his kingdom. The Lord is sovereign over this whole affair, and He will summon foreign armies, depicted as swarming insects, to descend upon Judah. The judgment is portrayed as a comprehensive humiliation and a radical de-creation of the land. The carefully cultivated kingdom will be shaved bare, and the fruitful vineyards will revert to a wild state, fit only for foraging and rough pasture. This is a covenant lawsuit in poetic form. The blessings of the covenant are being systematically reversed into curses because of the king's and the people's unbelief. God is demonstrating that a hired savior is no savior at all, and that political expediency apart from faith is the fast track to desolation.

The central theme is the thoroughness of the coming judgment. It will affect every part of the land, from the ravines to the watering holes, and every part of the person, from the head to the legs. The economy will be shattered, reverting from a prosperous agricultural society to a subsistence-level pastoral existence. Yet, even in this stark depiction of judgment, there is a glimmer of the covenant faithfulness of God. A remnant will be left, surviving on the simple products of the desolate land. The judgment, though severe, is not final. God is purging, not annihilating. He is bringing His people to the end of their own resources so that they might learn to trust in Him alone.

Outline

Context In Isaiah

This passage is a direct continuation of the prophecy given to King Ahaz in the midst of the Syro-Ephraimite crisis. In the preceding verses (Isa 7:1-17), Isaiah confronts Ahaz, urging him to stand firm in faith and not to fear the coalition of Syria and Israel. God offers Ahaz any sign he wants to bolster his faith, but Ahaz, in a display of false piety, refuses. In response, God gives the sign of Immanuel, a sign that has both immediate and ultimate fulfillment, but which for Ahaz spells judgment. The child would be born, and before he reached a certain age, the two threatening kings would be gone. But because Ahaz has chosen to seek help from Assyria, that very nation will become God's instrument of judgment against Judah. Our text, verses 18-25, fleshes out the nature of that judgment. It moves from the high-level prophecy of the Immanuel sign to the gritty, on-the-ground reality of what an Assyrian invasion will look like. It is the detailed bill for Ahaz's faithless transaction.

Key Issues

The Lord of the Flies

One of the central biblical truths that our modern, democratic sensibilities choke on is the absolute and meticulous sovereignty of God over all affairs, including the messy and violent affairs of nations. When God decides to bring judgment, He is not a passive observer. He is the active agent. Isaiah here pictures Yahweh whistling for the armies of Egypt and Assyria. They are described as flies and bees, which is to say, they are mindless, swarming, irritating, and ultimately under the direction of a higher intelligence. Pharaoh and Tiglath-Pileser III may have thought they were acting out of their own geopolitical ambitions, but in reality, they were merely responding to the summons of the God of Israel. They were insects, and He was the one stirring up the nest.

This is a profound comfort for the believer and a profound terror for the wicked. It means that history is not a random series of events. It is a story being written by a sovereign author. When judgment comes, it is not an accident. It is an appointment. And because God is the one who summons the swarm, He is also the one who can call it off. He is the one who determines its scope and its duration. Ahaz made the mistake of fearing the bees more than the beekeeper. Our faith must always be in the one whose whistle commands the nations.

Verse by Verse Commentary

18 And it will be in that day, that Yahweh will whistle for the fly that is in the remotest part of the rivers of Egypt and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

The phrase in that day points to a specific time of God's intervention. Here, God is depicted as a beekeeper, whistling for his swarm. This is a picture of effortless, sovereign control. The nations that Judah alternately feared and trusted in are nothing more than insects to Him. He will summon the "fly" from Egypt and the "bee" from Assyria. Flies are associated with filth and disease, and bees with a painful, relentless sting. These are not pleasant images. Egypt and Assyria, the two great powers of the region, will be brought into Judah's land, not as allies, but as pests summoned by God Himself to execute His judgment.

19 And they will all come and rest upon the steep ravines, on the crevices of the cliffs, on all the thorn bushes, and on all the watering places.

The thoroughness of the invasion is emphasized here. The swarms will settle everywhere. No part of the land will be untouched. The imagery is of a complete infestation. From the inaccessible cliffs to the essential watering holes, the enemy will be present. This is a reversal of the blessing of a secure land. The promise of the covenant was that Israel would dwell safely in the land God had given them. But because of their unbelief, that security is revoked, and every corner of their home will be occupied by a hostile presence.

20 In that day, the Lord will shave with a razor, one hired from regions beyond the River (that is, the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the legs; and it will also remove the beard.

The metaphor now shifts from insects to a razor, but the theme of sovereign control remains. The Lord is the one doing the shaving. The razor is merely His instrument, and it is a hired razor. This is a deeply ironic statement. Ahaz thought he was hiring Assyria to be his protector. God says, "No, I am the one hiring Assyria, and I am hiring them to shave you." The act of shaving the head, the legs, and particularly the beard was an act of extreme humiliation and shame in the ancient Near East. A man's beard was a sign of his honor and virility. To have it forcibly removed was to be treated like a disgraced slave. God is saying that the very king Ahaz paid for protection will be the instrument of Judah's total public shaming. The nation will be stripped bare of all its dignity and honor.

21 And it will be in that day, that a man may keep alive a heifer and a pair of sheep;

The scene shifts to the economic consequences of this humiliating invasion. The judgment will be so severe that the agricultural economy will be decimated. A man will be considered fortunate to keep just a few animals alive. The picture is one of drastic reduction. Gone are the large herds and flocks that signified wealth and prosperity. All that is left is a bare-bones, subsistence-level existence. This is a direct reversal of the covenant blessings of abundance promised in Deuteronomy.

22 and because of the abundance of the milk produced, he will eat curds, for everyone that is left within the land will eat curds and honey.

This sounds like a blessing at first glance, an abundance of milk. But it is a blessing born of desolation. There will be so much milk because the land formerly used for crops will have reverted to pasture, and there will be so few people left to consume it. The diet of the remnant will be "curds and honey." This is the food of the wilderness, the food of a nomadic people, not a settled, agricultural society. It signifies a return to a more primitive state. The rich bounty of the promised land, grain, wine, and oil, will be gone. The survivors, the remnant left in the land, will be living off the wild produce of a depopulated and uncultivated landscape.

23 And it will be in that day, that every place where there used to be one thousand vines, valued at one thousand shekels of silver, will become briars and thorns.

The de-creation of the land is now made explicit. The most valuable and carefully cultivated land, a vineyard of a thousand vines being a symbol of prime real estate, will be completely overgrown with briars and thorns. This is the curse of Genesis 3 being reapplied to the covenant land. The vineyard, a key biblical symbol of God's people Israel, will become a wild, untamed thicket. The fruitfulness that was a sign of God's favor is replaced by the barrenness that is a sign of His curse.

24 People will come there with bows and arrows because all the land will be briars and thorns.

The land will have become so wild that it is no longer a place for farming, but a place for hunting. Men will go into the former vineyards not with pruning hooks, but with bows and arrows. This could be for hunting wild animals that now live in the thickets, or for self-defense against predators or bandits who lurk in the overgrown wasteland. The civilized, ordered space of the vineyard has become a dangerous, chaotic wilderness.

25 As for all the hills which used to be cultivated with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of briars and thorns; but they will become a place for pasturing oxen and for sheep to trample.

The prophecy concludes by summarizing the transformation. All the cultivated hillsides, once meticulously tended with a hoe, will be abandoned. The fear of the wild, thorny overgrowth will keep farmers away. The only use for this land will be for rough grazing. It will be a place where cattle are sent out and which sheep trample down. The picture is one of total agricultural collapse and neglect. The land is being handed back over to a state of chaos, a direct consequence of Judah's covenant infidelity.

Application

This passage is a stark reminder that God takes His covenant seriously, and that faithlessness has real-world consequences. Ahaz chose the path of worldly pragmatism over faith in God's promise, and the result was not security, but desolation. We face the same choice today. In our personal lives, in our families, and in our churches, we are constantly tempted to trust in "hired razors", in political solutions, financial schemes, clever strategies, or powerful personalities, rather than in the simple, naked promise of God.

This passage teaches us that God is sovereign over the razors. He is the one who hires them. The very thing we trust in for our salvation apart from Christ will be the very thing that God uses to humiliate us. The world's solutions always come with a steep price, and that price is often our own dignity and fruitfulness. The path of faith, on the other hand, though it may look foolish to the world, is the only path to true security and blessing.

Furthermore, we see the principle of de-creation. Sin reverses the cultural mandate. Where God commands us to be fruitful and take dominion, turning the wilderness into a garden, our sin and unbelief turn the garden back into a wilderness. When we abandon God's law, our vineyards become thorny thickets. This is true of our souls, our homes, and our societies. The only way to reclaim the vineyard is through repentance and faith in the true Vine, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who wore the crown of thorns, taking the curse upon Himself, so that our desolate lives could once again become fruitful gardens for the glory of God.