waited for Ahaz to reply, as Jehoshaphat did to the like promise of safety; but the king had made up his unbelieving mind to trust, as he thought, to more solid aid than the promises of a prophet. Then the prophet bade him ask a sign in heaven or earth that the words were true, but Ahaz was hardened, and pretended to be too piously humble to tempt the Lord, as he called it, because in truth he was resolved to give Isaiah's religion no advantage over him in the eyes of the people, and not to let them see his favourite idolatries put to shame. Isaiah then broke forth with the great prophetic sign. A virgin then meant a betrothed woman, not yet taken to her husband's house. The child yet to be born of a woman who when the prophecy was spoken was just about to be married should not be old enough to understand the difference between good and evil before both these foes of Judah should have perished, while the child himself lived on butter and honey, the true produce of the land flowing with milk and honey. There was another pause; and as the sullen king would not accept the sign, the prophet broke out into a woful prediction of the miseries that would come on him and his land through the king of Assyria, on whose alliance he was bent. Ahaz still was unmoved; but from that time forth it was felt that though there was a first fulfilment near at hand, this prophecy looked far forward. It had taken up the first prophecy, of the Seed of the woman; for a virgin was to bear a Son, and in the word Immanuel was declared that the child should be God, present and walking with us, and in that child should all the foes of God's people be destroyed. St. Matthew quotes the prophecy immediately after telling how St. Joseph was prepared for the birth of our Lord, giving the explanation in full :—

Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

The name, as we know, implied what the Person was, rather than His actual title, and so we shall find Isaiah using it a little further on. The eating butter and honey probably meant that He should be nourished like other children, His human nature being perfect, though He is God with us; and it perhaps also relates to the purity and innocence of His food, and, as before, to His being an inha

bitant of the land flowing with milk and honey. It is remarkable, too, that in His meal with His Apostles, after His resurrection on Easter-day, when He had triumphed over His enemies, it was a piece of a honeycomb that He ate, in order to prove to them that He was come with His own Body, and not merely as a Spirit.

B.C. 741.—2 KINGS xvi. 7, 8; 2 CHRON. xxviii. 17—19; Is. viii. 1, 8.

So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.

*

*

For again the Edomites had come and smitten Judah, and carried away captives.

The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Beth-shemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and they dwelt there.

For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked,† and transgressed sore against the LORD.

Meantime Isaiah continues :

Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz.

And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.

And the prophetess conceived and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz.+

For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

The LORD spake also unto me again, saying,

Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly,

And rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son ;

Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them

The waters of the river, strong and many,

*Not for the younger ones.

+ Defenceless.

Make haste to the spoil.

Even the king of Assyria, and all his glory :
And he shall come up over all his channels,
And go over all his banks:

And he shall pass through Judah;

He shall overflow and go over,

He shall reach even to the neck;

And the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land,
O Immanuel.

COMMENT.-Ahaz was determined to choose his own way of being helped. He knew that Tiglath-pileser, the great conquering king of Assyria, had already done much damage to Syria, and even to the northern and western tribes of Israel; for the history of the two tribes and a half who dwelt in the land of Gilead beyond Jordan is thus summed up in the fifth chapter of the First Book of Chronicles :

·

And the children of the half tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land: they increased from Bashan unto Baal-hermon and Senir, and unto mount Hermon.

And these were the heads of the house of their fathers, even Epher, and Ishi, and Eliel, and Azriel, and Jeremiah, and Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty men of valour, famous men, and heads of the house of their fathers. And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them.

And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day.

Full of hatred against Pekah, devoid of gratitude to the good Ephraimites who had sent home his prisoners, and by no means grasping even the worldly wisdom that might have shown him the fatal folly of one branch of the Israelite people inviting a powerful enemy against the other, he sent a message, abject in humiliation, to Tiglath-pileser, and backed it with a gift of all the treasures of silver and gold that his grandfather Uzziah and his father Jotham had delighted to dedicate in the Temple, and to store in the king's treasury. For indeed his need was increasing; the Edomites and Philistines had taken advantage of his distress and were rising against him and taking his villages, and Judah was brought very low.

Meanwhile the first fulfilment of the prophecy about the child was drawing on. Isaiah took a wife, who was probably a prophetess already, and made witnesses observe the time of his

marriage. The child born of that marriage was not named Immanuel. That prophetic name was still in reserve; but no doubt, if Ahaz had believed and accepted the sign of deliverance, the babe would never have borne the awful title of Maher-shalal-hash-baz"Haste to the spoil." Before he was old enough to call father or mother, Damascus and Samaria should indeed be laid waste and plundered by the king of Assyria-but for the misery, not the deliverance of Judah. And then follows a sad prediction, spoken to the Israelites, or perhaps to any traitors in Judah. The pool of Shiloah is a deep and peaceful one at Jerusalem, and the prophet warns the men who preferred the aid of Pekah and Rezin to trusting in the God of Israel, that trust in man was like neglecting the pool of Shiloah, which is deep and inexhaustible, though soft and still, and preferring some great and mighty river that would overflow and drown the whole country, rising even to the neck. For the king of Assyria shall come as if spreading the wings he bears on his ensign, and sweep over what might have been the land of Immanuel, but had become the land of Maher-shalal-hash-baz—the haste to the spoil.

Observe again how much of warning and prophecy there is to us. Isaiah's child (probably), a son of David, bore that dreadful and ominous name because Ahaz and the men of Jerusalem would not accept the sign. Our Immanuel's Name is very different-JESUS ; the Lord our Salvation-salvation instead of destruction. But it is true, even now, that to those who will not accept the sign of the Virgin-born, He will become their Maher-shalal-hash-baz—He who hastes to destroy.

Again, Shiloah is the same with Siloam, which the Evangelist St. John interprets to mean Sent, when he tells in the ninth chapter how our Lord sent the blind man to wash and recover his sight there. St. John thus connects the name with Shiloh, the name by which Jacob had prophesied of Christ in his dying song (Gen. xlix. Vol. I. Book 1, Lesson LXII.). Now, if we turn from the cleansing waters that flow softly from our smitten Rock (Book 2, Lesson XXIII. I Cor. x. 6), namely the Holy Spirit, as given by His Word and Sacraments, and seek instead aid from what seems to please our fancy better, we shall be swept away by the torrent we have brought upon ourselves. Whenever indeed there is a choice between the meek ways pointed out by conscience and the bold promises of the

world, it is a question between seeking the quiet pool of Shiloah, and opening the flood-gates of the devouring stream, which will then overwhelm us even to the neck, even in the Church, the very land of Immanuel, or God manifest in the flesh. Pray God in His grace that we may never desert the waters of Shiloah.

LESSON LXVIII.

THE APOSTASY OF AHAZ.

B.C. 740.—2 KINGS xvi. 9—18; 2 CHRON. xxviii. 20—25.

And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin.

:

And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.

And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus : so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus.

And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.

And he burnt his burnt-offering and his meat-offering, and poured his drink-offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace-offerings, upon the

altar.

And he brought also the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, from the fore-front of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar.

And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt-offering, and the evening meat-offering, and the king's burnt-sacrifice, and his meat-offering, with the burnt-offering of all the people of the land, and their meat-offering, and their drink-offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt-offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice and the brasen altar shall be for me to inquire by.

:

Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded. And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the layer from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones.

And the covert * for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's entry without, turned he from the house of the LORD for the king of Assyria.

*

*

*

And Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not.

* Shelter used on the Sabbath-day.