God with us.
The prophet looks out on the troubled prospect as on a deluge, amidst which the ark of promise carrying the elect, the remnant, the Church of the faithful and chosen, is seen riding.
I. TEMPORAL ALLUSIONS.
1. The foreign sympathies of the people. Tired of the inefficient reign of Ahaz, they watch for the approach of the two northern kings with interest. They have forgotten their patriotism, which once rallied round the house of David as a political and spiritual center. The "softly flowing brook of Siloah" by Jerusalem was symbolic of that house. 'Twas the river that made glad the city of God, the holy place of the Highest's dwelling (Psalms 46:1-11.). Small was it compared with the great flood of Nile or Euphrates, but mild and gentle. "Nile, with its monstrous crocodile and behemah, might be the image of the cruel Egyptian rule; and mighty Euphrates, with its frequent overflowings, that of the Assyrian power and of its swift extension." As in ancient folk-lore dragons were supposed to haunt the waters, so the Assyrian power was like the daemon of the great river (cf. Isaiah 27:1).
2. The wave of Assyrian conquest. Onward it will come, a magnificent flood, to punish, to purify. The Assyrian king, with all the "pomp and circumstance of war," an awful array, will, as the river breaking its bounds and overflowing all banks, rush into Judah, overflowing and rolling, till the flood reaches to men's necks; or, as with the outspread wings of the flying dragon, the foe will cover all the breadth of the land—land of the passionately hoped-for Immanuel.
II. VICTORIOUS SPIRITUAL HOPES. The name of the Messiah, "God with us," acts like a charm on the troubled spirit of the seer. His discourse suddenly becomes a bold menace against all heathendom.
1. Material power defied. Let the nations rage and let them—despair! Let them fit out their armaments and—despair! exclaims the prophet. Let them form their plans—they shall be broken; speak their words—they shall not stand. For "with us is God!" What magic in a name, in a phrase! Carrying our thought forward through the centuries, we recall what powers were defied, what wonders wrought, what force reduced to impotence, what counsels reduced to folly, by the magic of the Name of Jesus. Yet it is not the mere name, but the reality denoted by the name, believed and felt to he operating through the human spirit, which is the source of energy.
2. Personal inspiration Idle had been these defiances, if the prophet did not know of a secret warranty for them in his own breast, in his own spiritual record. "Thus said Jehovah unto me in the ecstasy." He had heard a voice which all could not hear, and had cleared his vision in a light not vouchsafed to the vulgar. It was a discriminating light. He was taught to see that not all the multitude called rebellious was really such, nor all that it feared was really to be dreaded. The allusion is somewhat obscure. Probably under the guise of fear the people were secretly rejoicing, and meditating the dethronement of Ahaz. The language strikes a side-blow at the pusillanimity of the time. The prophet has learned that Jehovah is the true Object of fear; that noble and steadfast reverence which, a mighter passion, expels the feebler and baser.
"Fear him, ye saints, and you will then
Have nothing else to fear."
If this condition be fulfilled, Jehovah will be found an inviolable Sanctuary, a Shelter from all coming trials. We find the same thought in Ezekiel 11:16. He will be a "little Sanctuary" to the fugitive and dispersed among the nations. Fleeing from the pursuer, men laid hold of the "horns of the altar." These things are to us a parable. Religion is the spirit's asylum from all distress. In times when the newspaper teems with war, revolution, rumors of dread, or the evils of social life seem intolerable, we may go into our chamber, shut to the door, pray to our Father in secret, flee to the steps of the altar that slopes through darkness up to God, and lo! a new scenery unfolds, and from the secret place of the Most High fear vanishes, and reverential contemplation reigns in the spirit.
III. SOLEMN WARNINGS. He who will ever prove an Asylum to the faithful and an Altar of refuge, will be to the faithless a Stone of stumbling, a Rock of offence, a Trap, and a Snare. We know how these thoughts were applied to the coming Christ, and how they were fulfilled. Set "for the fall and rising again of many in Israel," and for the "revealing of the thoughts of many hearts," he is to them that believe precious "a Stone, a tried Stone; and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded."
1. The Name of God is an object of dread or of delight to us according to the state of our own affections.
2. Truth is a touchstone. Either we recognize in it the "pearl of great price," and are willing to sacrifice all to possess it, or it is like a certain stone of which Plutarch tells, found in the river Inachos, which turned black in the hand of the false witness. Truth seems like falsehood to the debased imagination and depraved will.—J.