Three Reasons to Trust in the Lord – Isaiah 8:1-22
8 Then Jehovah said to me, Take a large tablet and write upon it in plain letters: Quick to the plunder, Swift to the spoil. (2) I will call Uriah the priest and Zechariah, son of Jeberekiah, as reliable witnesses to record my testimony. (3) So I had intercourse with the prophetess and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. Then Jehovah said to me, Name him Maher-Shalal-hash-baz; (4) for before the child knows how to say, My father, or, My mother, the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried away by the king of Assyria. (5) Jehovah spoke to me again, saying, (6) Because this people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and are white with fear before Rezin and the son of Remaliah, (7) the Lord will therefore bring upon them the mighty flood waters of the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will overflow all its channels and run over all its banks. (8) It will sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching as high as the neck. Its outstretched wings will cover the breadth of your land, O Immanuel!
(9) Make an uproar, O you peoples, and be shattered! Listen, all you distant lands. Prepare for battle, and be shattered! Prepare for battle, and be shattered! (10) Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted! Announce your plan, but it will not succeed!—for God is with us! (11) I proclaim these things because Jehovah spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, instructing me not to follow the way of these people. He said, (12) With regard to all that these people speak of as “The alliance!” you must not say, “Oh, the alliance!” Do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread of it. (13) Jehovah of hosts, him you must sanctify; he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread—(14) and he will be a sanctuary for you. But for both the houses of Israel he will be a stone over which men stumble and a rock at which they take offense. He will be a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (15) Many of them will stumble—they will fall and be broken; they will be snared and captured.
(16) Bind up the Testimony, and seal the Law among my disciples! (17) I will wait for Jehovah, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, I will look to him. (18) Look! I and the children whom Jehovah has given me are given as signs and wonders to Israel from Jehovah of hosts, the One who dwells on Mount Zion. (19) When men ask you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter; ask them, Should not a people consult their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? (20) Instruct them to ask you to look to the Law and to the Testimony! If they do not make this request, there will be no light of dawn for them. (21) They will wander through the land distressed and hungry—and when they are famished, they will become enraged, and looking upward, they will curse their King and their God. (22) Then they will look toward the earth, but they shall see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be driven into utter darkness.
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
