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Before its News: Daily Featured 5 Stories – 31st March 2011
Daily Featured 5 Stories
Welcome to the Before It’s News Daily Featured 5 Stories. Each weekday we deliver the most important and interesting alternative stories to your inbox. Be the first among your friends and colleagues to get the scoop on the stories everyone should be talking about today.
28 Things That Will Make You Think That There Is Something Seriously Wrong With This Country
Our economy is crumbling, our politicians are incompetent, we have just gotten involved in another war, corruption is everywhere and the Americans people are so addicted to entertainment that hardly anything can wake them from their stupor. It is enough to make you think that there is just not much hope for America…
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Highly Contagious AIDS-Like Disease Spreading In China
The disease seems to be highly contagious and can spread by contact with any bodily fluid–—through kissing, shared utensils, sweat, and even protected sex. Once infected, the immune system is attacked, which results in a decrease of white blood cells and the body’s ability to defend against infectious disease…
Click here to read, “Highly Contagious AIDS-Like Disease Spreading In China”…
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Garden As If Your Life Depended On It, Because It Does
There are at least five reasons why more of us should take up the spade, make some compost, and start gardening with a vengeance. In some American towns, and not just impoverished backwaters, as many as 30 percent of residents can’t afford to feed themselves and their families sufficiently, let alone nutritiously…
Click here to read, “Garden As If Your Life Depended On It, Because It Does”…
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Drugging America: The Drug Industry Exposed
Pharmaceuticals are a $650 plus billion dollar a year industry. For years the most profitable business in the U.S. has been the pharmaceutical corporations, which routinely top the annual fortune 500 list. Doctor prescribed drugs support an industry which out-earns the GNP of many nations…
Click here to read, “Drugging America: The Drug Industry Exposed”…
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Radiation From Japan Found In US Milk – Feds Say No Need To Worry
The news follows a recent press release from the Governor of Pennsylvania stating that levels of radiation detected in the Rainwater is 3,300 times above the levels of radiation allowed in drinking water, which the Feds also assure us is harmless to humans…
Click here to read, “Radiation From Japan Found In US Milk – Feds Say No Need To Worry”…
The Return Of Musa Kusa
March 31, 2011
The Return Of Musa Kusa
J. Millard Burr
Twenty years ago, give or take a few weeks, I was travelling north from El Fasher, the capital of the Sudan’s Darfur region, to investigate the issues of famine and food availability in Darfur’s far northwest. Some forty miles from El Fasher my vehicle was stopped by a curiously ragtag bunch of Sudanese military blocking the road to Jabal Meidob. I was told by the English-speaking officer in charge that my team could go no farther.The officer himself was unusually pleasant and loquacious. As we shared a pot of tea, the officer informed me that in their battle to destroy the government of Chad President Hissene Habre, Libya had been arming the Zaghawa tribe that straddled the Chad-Sudan frontier. In turn the Zaghawa were selling arms in quanity to the Arab camel and cattle nomad tribes (abbala and baqqara) of Darfur. The Arab tribes were in the early stages of the battle for land with “African” Muslim tribes that would eventually lead to the great Darfur crisis that truly exploded in 1999. In sum, the region was crawling with armed bandits, and a fuse having been lit, the regional powder keg was waiting to explode.In the course of our conversation, I was informed in no uncertain terms that the United States and the CIA were responsible for conditions in Darfur. To say the least, I was surprised because to my knowledge the United States Embassy in Khartoum had next to no interest in the region or Libyan activity therein. When asked to explain, the Sudanese officer claimed the man responsible for the chaos in the borderlands was one Musa Kusa (1949-), then a forty-two year old Libyan intelligence agent who reported directly to Muammar Qaddafi. Somehow the officer had learned that Musa Kusa was a graduate of an American university (Michigan State, Bachelor in Sociology, 1978), and he was convinced that all foreign students educated in the United States were offered (and accepted) CIA employment after graduating. Ipso facto, Musa Kusa was one of mine. A week later, I was on the road from El Fasher to the Fur heartland when I was again stopped and turned back. The reason was the same. The “rebels” were on the road, and once again the individual responsible for the mounting blooshed was the very same Musa Kusa.One does not easily forget the Musa Kusa rhyme, and I later found that very shortly after receiving his degree from Michigan State Kusa was already a senior government official. In 1980 he was named Libyan ambassador to the United Kingdom but was very soon thereafter expelled for publicly stating that he was determined to assassinate two Libyan political figures living in exile in the U.K.A decade later, Qaddafi was obviously pleased with the overthrow of the Hissene Habre regime and the role Musa Kusa had played in that affair. Kusa was then promoted through the ranks of the intelligence service (Mukhabarat) and the Libyan foreign service until he achieved the high rank of Minister of Foreign Affairs, which he held until a few days ago. Now, a man who has waded hip deep in the blood of African victims, and who has been tied to the Lockerbie bombing, has sought asylum and has been allowed to return to London from where he was so ignominiously expelled in 1980. One is left to wonder, What’s next? An honorary degree from Michigan State?
4 Articles; * Middle East Strange Things of the Day * Flash: Bashar al-Assad to Demonstrators: Surrender or Die * Egypt Leaves the Anti-Iran Bloc * It’s Official: Egypt Will Hold Parliamentary Elections in September
From Rubin Reports.Blogspot.Com
- Middle East Strange Things of the Day
- Flash: Bashar al-Assad to Demonstrators: Surrender or Die
- Egypt Leaves the Anti-Iran Bloc
- It’s Official: Egypt Will Hold Parliamentary Elections in September
| Middle East Strange Things of the Day
Posted: 30 Mar 2011 07:56 PM PDT By Barry Rubin Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has hinted that the United States and Britain might arm the Libyan rebels. Don’t you think it’s important to know who these people are before arming them and putting them in power? U.S. officials are basically admitting that they simply don’t know the political composition of the opposition so how can they be given full backing? Oh, right, that’s just what they did in Egypt. Now it is being reported that two weeks ago President Obama authorized covert operations on the ground in support of the rebels. Consider this scenario: The rebels attack and perhaps capture a pro-Qadhafi town (Sirte, for example), levelling it in the process, and killing civilians either through indifference to casualties or murder of those considered tribal enemies and supporters of the dictatorship. How would this compare to a mission defined as protecting civilians? At the same time, though, the use of covert operations makes sense and the CIA will be able to get a better picture of the rebels. But the CIA has been the U.S. government institution that seems to believe that if an Islamist isn’t in al-Qaida then he’s moderate. So the quality of the reporting is a concern. And what if operatives are worried about the rebels but are ignored or overruled by the White House? I hope we get some good leaks on what they are finding out in Libya. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the “target dates for reaching an Israeli-Palestinian agreement on permanent status issues and completing the Palestinian Authority’s two-year state-building program are fast-approaching.” What target dates? This notion that the conflict must be settled right away (or else what? Egypt and Tunisia will have revolutions? Libya will have a civil war? Iran will launch a campaign to get nuclear weapons? Hamas will take over the Gaza Strip?) on the Palestinian Authority’s terms is absurd. And since when did the PA’s claim that it would be ready for a state in two years become internationally accepted as the framework for global action? |
| Flash: Bashar al-Assad to Demonstrators: Surrender or Die
Posted: 30 Mar 2011 07:42 PM PDT By Barry Rubin Nowadays, Western officials and journalists seem to think that if you are a Middle East dictator and people start demonstrating you might give up, pack your bags, let your Swiss banker know to get the money ready, and make a run for it. That’s an illusion. The question is really: Who are the people with the guns supporting? And so faced with large demonstrations, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad took a traditional approach, which in American cultural terms might be described by a quote from “Dirty Harry”: “Think you’re lucky, punk? Make my day!” Assad’s message is this: No concessions. American and Zionist agents are attacking me because I’m such a great Arab nationalist and friend of Islam. Rally around me and we’ll repress them no matter how many I have to kill. I’m not saying I admire this approach but, frankly, it still works, as long as you have a strong base of support and the backing of those with the guns. Assad apparently has both. To begin with, the Alawite minority community to which he belongs is behind him because it knows that a revolution would mean the end of its wealth, privileges, and even lives. The Christians also back the regime because they fear Islamism. That’s about one-quarter of the population. And the Alawites control the elite armed forces’ units. Then there are the Sunni Muslims who make up about 60 percent of the population. Some of them are attracted to democratic reform; some to revolutionary Islamism; some to both. Yet many do back the regime because of its record of being so Islamist in its foreign policy: anti-American, anti-Israel, and pro-Iran, Hamas, Sunni Muslim insurgents in Iraq, and Hizballah. A lot—but by no means all—of the demonstrations have been in the poor south. The other big bloc of opposition is the Kurdish minority. But they have been cautious since the last time they revolted the Arabs didn’t help them. They don’t want to take a risk. Assad’s hardline is more likely to make them play it safe. My sympathies are with democratic reformers, but my analysis says that from his own standpoint Assad did the right thing. This is the precise opposite of how Westerners look at the situation. They assume that a hardline policy will make the people angrier and intensify the revolt. In fact, if the regime is serious about repression and has a large base of support, a tough stand it will put down the opposition. Iran had a revolution in 1978-1979 not because the shah was too tough but because he was too soft—that’s an analysis, not a value judgment. Iraq didn’t have a revolution after the 1991 defeat in Kuwait because Saddam Hussein used his iron fist. In Egypt, the message that the military is for change and the regime is vacillating led to a flood of opposition and the fall of the regime. This is what President Husni Mubarak meant when he said that President Barack Obama didn’t understand Arab culture. If you show weakness, you’re as good as dead. Needless to say this is a major problem with current U.S. Middle East policy. In the Middle East, nice guys don’t just finish last, they don’t finish at all. To complete the picture, Assad appeared relaxed during the speech and laughed at several points. The image he’s building is: I’m not worried at all. If he were to show fear and weakness, his allies would start deserting him and going over to the other side. (That’s sentence also applies to U.S. policy.) True, he gave some lip service to reforms and fighting corruption. But basically that’s what Assad has been saying for 11 years and he has changed nothing. With the U.S. government labeling him a “reformer” with such a record, there’s no pressure to do anything different. From the standpoint of the Syrian dictatorship—and I don’t say this lightly—it has U.S. support. Even to talk as if Assad might actually reform anything is a joke. His father killed between 10,000 and 20,000 people in a minor revolt in Hama in 1982. So far in this upsurge he’s only killed 60. And Bashar is trying to be his father. He knows that he has nothing to fear internationally no matter what he does. One can almost see Bashar looking up (though looking down would be more accurate!) and saying, “Are you proud of me now, dad?” The key factor that could prove this analysis wrong is whether Sunni Arabs desert the regime in large numbers. If they do so, they could go toward either Islamism or a moderate pro-democratic stance. Another indication is if the Kurds rise up that will be because they think the Sunni Arabs are likely to make a revolution. But for the time being my analysis is that this regime is going to survive by being brutal. |
| Egypt Leaves the Anti-Iran Bloc
Posted: 30 Mar 2011 10:09 AM PDT By Barry Rubin Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil el-Arabi said, “The Egyptian government doesn’t consider Iran to be an enemy state. We’re opening a new page with all countries, including Iran.” President Anwar al-Sadat cut relations with Iran in 1979, at the time of the Islamist revolution. For three decades, Egypt’s government has seen Tehran as a threat and a rival on many levels: –Persian versus Arab. –Shia versus Sunni. –A challenge to Egypt’s national interest and leading role in the region. –A destabilizing factor, producing war, terrorism, and revolution in the region. –In line with Egypt’s alliance with the United States–albeit for its own interests–Egypt opposed the spread of Iranian influence. But now, as I pointed out at the beginning of the revolution, this has all changed. Obviously, Egypt’s government has the right to do what it wants in its relations with Iran. But equally obviously this is a big setback for U.S. interests in containing and combatting Iran’s power. The next step will no doubt be Egypt’s rapprochement with the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip. All of this was completely predictable, but nobody in the U.S. government and very few in the media, saw it coming. |
| It’s Official: Egypt Will Hold Parliamentary Elections in September
Posted: 30 Mar 2011 10:17 AM PDT The following article is published in PajamasMedia. The full text is provided here for your convenience. By Barry Rubin The military junta ruling Egypt has announced that parliamentary elections will be held in September. Rather than spending the next five months complaining, those who aren’t supporting the Muslim Brotherhood better get started actually working and organizing. I’ll analyze this a lot more in the coming months but briefly the blocs are as follows: Islamists: Muslim Brotherhood says it is aiming at getting 30 percent of the seats. I think they’ll succeed. A smaller, moderate Islamist party–whose members split from the Brotherhood because they say it is too extremists–would be lucky to get any seats. Left: There are several neo-Marxist parties but no clue whether they will work together or run separately. In either case they are unlikely to get many seats, and none at all if they compete for the limited votes that might be obtained. Probably no more than 5 percent. Conservatives: The ex-regime’s politicians including leaders of the ruling National Democratic Party. This group could do better than outsiders expect. If they unite and put forward coherent positions, they could take as much as 20 percent. Nationalists: If Amr Moussa organizes his own radical nationalist party and does a good job, it might get up to 40 percent, especially if he brings in a lot of the former supporters of the Mubarak regime. This is the only group I think that could have a larger bloc than the Islamists. Centrist pro-democracy forces: This would be the party of Muhammad ElBaradei, Ayman Nour, and the Facebook kids. I doubt it would get more than 15 percent, almost all in Cairo and Alexandria. Obviously, these are tentative figures that will have to be revised as we see whether these groups do get organized and are able to remain united. The Brotherhood will definitely not “take over” Egypt this year–especially since Amr Moussa is the most likely president and the Brotherhood won’t run a candidate. But it will have lots of influence and a key role in writing the new constitution. Presumably, the Brotherhood will make deals to get religious and social clauses it wants in exchange for compromises on things it doesn’t care about very much. Egypt, then, will take a big step closer to Islamism and an even bigger step toward being hostile to the United States and Israel, while moving into a virtual alliance with Hamas. |
Assad: Fooled us twice, shame on us
March 31, 2011
Assad: Fooled us twice, shame on us
With slight of hand and a conman’s misdirection, Syria’s tyrant Bashar Assad wined and dined U.S. Representatives in his elegant offices, and the naïve and willingly gullible Americans fell for it, and continue falling and falling.A few years back, while courting the suave Assad, the fawning Americans failed to notice what was going on behind their backs. Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of our most seasoned diplomats, assured us that “The U.S. and Syria have a shared interest in stability in the region” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi viewed Syria as a reliable partner for peace. “Syria is willing to resume peace talks with Israel” and hailed Assad as a “model Arab leader.” Former President Jimmy Carter echoed the U.S. assessment of Syria’s peaceful intentions toward Israel. “In all my conversations with President Assad, whom I’ve known since he was a college student, I was impressed with [his] eagerness to complete the agreement on the Golan Heights. President Bashar Assad is eager to restart negotiations with Israel… ” All the while, Assad was preparing a little surprise: the construction of a nuclear reactor for the destruction of his Jewish neighbors. Fortunately the less gullible Israelis destroyed the nuclear facility.One would expect more skeptical U.S. attitude toward Assad after such a huge deception. In fact, we should have counted our fingers after shaking hands with him. On the contrary, the United States has recently gone out of its way to court and defend the Assad regime.
Assad has given us many more causes to doubt his good intentions. His reign has been described as, “a horror show of repression, torture, assassination, disappearances, and the near-total denial of civil and political liberties.” Syria holds the largest number of political prisoners of any Arab country according to Amnesty International. Bashar Assad, “knowingly harbors and gives financial aid, political support, artillery and military training to terrorist organizations, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Hezb’allah and other extremist groups whose mission is to destroy Israel and terrorize Israeli citizens… Syria provides financial, training, weapons, and explosives, political, diplomatic aid to Hezbollah ” (The Israel Project)Yet U.S. representatives such as Senator John Kerry and Rep. Howard Berman continue to provide Assad photo ops and legitimacy. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, who has met with Mr. Assad several times in the past two years, declared: “I remain absolutely convinced there is an opportunity to have a different relationship with Syria.”Now Assad’s security forces are openly slaughtering marchers in cities around the country and the Syrian government showing “… no qualms about shooting dead its own citizens for speaking out. Syrians have shown incredible courage in daring to protest publicly against one of the most repressive governments in the region, and they shouldn’t have to pay with their lives.” (Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s Middle East and North Africa director,) Still Mr. Kerry holds hope for the Damascus dictator. Says Mr. Kerry: “It’s a seminal moment. . . . You have to find out what they [the Syrian regime] are prepared to do.”Quoting Kerry and the others in the delusional lot, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton actually gave Assad her seal of approval. “Members of Congress of both parties who have gone to Syria in recent months have said they believe he’s a reformer.” Given a few pretty words, these American leaders would label Caligula a “reformer.”We luckily avoided a nuclear catastrophe because the Israelis have learned not to trust empty promises of their neighbors. The decimated reactor should have been a warning and learning experience from which we emerged wiser and better able to cope with the machinations of tyrants. Now as blood flows on the streets of Syria, we remain the same foolish tools we were before. We have failed to grow up. Shame on us and pity the world!
Peggy Shapiro
More Secret Executions in Iran
March 31, 2011
More secret executions in Iran
Ethel C. Fenig
While upheaval and protests rage in many Muslim countries of the mideast, in Iran the government continues its murderous ways against its own citizens.
Mohabat, an Iranian Christian news agency, discovered and reported the recent secret hanging of a Jewish Iranian woman and her Armenian-Iranian Christian husband a few weeks ago.
Why were they executed? In Iran the answer is why not?
It is still unknown what those prisoners were charged for.
Ominously
[T]he Revolutionary Court, located inside the Evin prison, in confirming this execution refused to provide any further details about the surrender of the executed bodies of the prisoners.
(snip)
It is noteworthy to mention that the families of the victims, who had asked the authorities to return the bodies of their loved ones in order to be buried according to their cultural and religious customs have received threats of arrest from the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence.
The UN’s Human Rights Council, which suspended Libya’s membership a month ago, had nothing to say about this violation of human rights of a nation that until a few years ago was an honored member of the Human Rights Council. Also silent was the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women, of which Iran is also an honored member.
Perhaps that is because in the spirit of gender equality, Iran treated the couple equally.
Horrifically.
hat tip: JTA
Bengladesh: Fourteen Year Old Girl Raped, Charged With Adultery, and Lashed to Death
March 31, 2011
Bengladesh: Fourteen Year Old Girl Raped, Charged With Adultery, and Lashed to Death
Andrew G. Bostom
A tragic example of Sharia perversity from Bangladesh provides gruesome context to the previous blog on the alleged rape victim in Libya, and her ominous predicament.Below are the salient, if repugnant details, reported by CNN.Her fellow villagers in Bangladesh’s Shariatpur district had already passed harsh judgment on her. Guilty, they said, of having an affair with a married man. The imam from the local mosque ordered the fatwa, or religious ruling, and the punishment: 101 lashes delivered swiftly, deliberately in public. Hena dropped after 70. Bloodied and bruised, she was taken to hospital, where she died a week later. Amazingly, an initial autopsy report cited no injuries and deemed her death a suicide. Hena’s family insisted her body be exhumed. They wanted the world to know what really happened to their daughter.Never mind that this 14-year old girl was raped. Under Islamic Law or Sharia rape is well-nigh impossible to prove, and the female victim typically is accused of “fornication,” or “adultery” and lashed, if not stoned. Despite a “ban” by ostensibly overriding secular law, Sharia law and its attendant discriminatory abuses of women compounded by barbaric punishments of these victims, persists in Bengladesh.Hena was walking from her room to an outdoor toilet when Mahbub Khan gagged her with cloth, forced her behind nearby shrubbery and beat and raped her. Hena struggled to escape, Alya told CNN. Mahbub Khan’s wife heard Hena’s muffled screams and when she found Hena with her husband, she dragged the teenage girl back to her hut, beat her and trampled her on the floor. The next day, the village elders met to discuss the case at Mahbub Khan’s house, Alya said. The imam pronounced his fatwa. Khan and Hena were found guilty of an illicit relationship. Her punishment under sharia or Islamic law was 101 lashes; his 201. Mahbub Khan managed to escape after the first few lashes.…activist and journalist Shoaib Choudhury, who documents such cases, said sharia is still very much in use in villages and towns aided by the lack of education and strong judicial systems. The Supreme Court also outlawed fatwas a decade ago, but human rights monitors have documented more than 500 cases of women in those 10 years who were punished through a religious ruling. And few who have issued such rulings have been charged.The United Nations estimates that almost half of Bangladeshi women suffer from domestic violence and many also commonly endure rape, beatings, acid attacks and even death…Sisters in Islam, a women’s advocacy group in Malaysia has reported, that in neighboring Pakistan,:[T]hree out of four women in prison under its Hudud laws, are rape victims. Because rape is equated with zina-adultery/fornication-under Hudud law, rape victims are required to produce four pious male witnesses. It is of course nearly impossible for the rape victims to produce the four male witnesses required to prove their allegation. Therefore their police report of rape was taken as a confession of illicit sex on their part and they were duly found guilty.In the real world, rape is unlikely to occur in the open, such that four pious males can observe the act of penetration. If they actually did witness such an act, and have not sought to prevent it, then technically they are abettors to the crime. In reality, unless the rapist confesses to the crime, women can never prove rape at all if rape is placed under syariah jurisdiction.Wednesday November 15, 2006 under the Musharraf government a measure was passed removing the crime of rape from the jurisdiction of Islamic law and establishing that it be judged by modern forensic evidence. The legislation angered political parties representing more devoutly Islamic constituencies. They demanded that the new law be withdrawn, claiming otherwise Pakistan would be transformed into a “free-sex zone.”During a marathon debate before the passage of the bill, he Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) legislators called the bill “un-Islamic” and reiterated their threat to resign. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, opposition leader and MMA general secretary, warned that the bill would “make Pakistan a free sex zone”. He said there were several women’s rights issues that the bill did not address. He also said the bill was meant to “appease” the United States.An astute editorial assessment of the reform effort in Pakistan was published in The Washington Times the next day (11/16/2006):The legislation passed Wednesday by Pakistan’s lower house of parliament modifying the country’s abominable rape laws is progress both for women’s rights and for the rule of secular law, and it should be heeded across the Muslim world…Dropped from the Hudood ordinance is the requirement that rape be tried in Islamic courts, allowing these trials instead to move to criminal courts, based on English common law, where they belong. Also removed is the requirement that a victim’s story be corroborated by four male witnesses – an insurmountable hurdle – in order to prove herself a victim of rape and innocent of adultery – a crime that the legislation would ensure is no longer punishable by death.
Isaiah 7:17-25; Judgments Announced; Note, The longer men continue in sin the sorer punishments they have reason to expect; Note, The creature that we make our hope commonly proves our hurt; Note, Many are beaten with that arm of flesh which they trusted to rather than the arm of the Lord; Note, God can soon turn a fruitful land into barrenness; But what melancholy change is there which sin will not make with a people? See the effect of sin and the curse; Heaven is a paradise not subject to such changes. B.C. 740
| Judgments Announced. | B. C. 740. |
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Isaiah 7:17-25
17 The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria. 18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes. 20 In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard. 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep; 22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land. 23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns. 24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns. 25 And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.
After the comfortable promises made to Ahaz as a branch of the house of David, here follow terrible threatenings against him, as a degenerate branch of that house; for though the loving-kindness of God shall not be utterly taken away, for the sake of David and the covenant made with him, yet his iniquity shall be chastened with the rod, and his sin with stripes. Let those that will not mix faith with the promises of God expect to hear the alarms of his threatenings.
I. The judgment threatened is very great, v. 17. It is very great, for it is general; it shall be brought upon the prince himself (high as he is, he shall not be out of the reach of it), and upon the people, the whole body of the nation, and upon the royal family, upon all thy father’s house; it shall be a judgment entailed on posterity, and shall go along with the royal blood. It is very great, for it shall be unprecedented–days that have not come; so dark, so gloomy, so melancholy, as never were the like since the revolt of the ten tribes, when Ephraim departed from Judah, which was indeed a sad time to the house of David. Note, The longer men continue in sin the sorer punishments they have reason to expect. It is the Lord that will bring these days upon them, for our times are in his hand, and who can resist or escape the judgments he brings?
II. The enemy that should be employed as the instrument of this judgment is the king of Assyria. Ahaz reposed great confidence in that prince for help against the confederate powers of Israel and Syria, and minded the less what God said to him by his prophet for his encouragement because he built much upon his interest in the king of Assyria, and had meanly promised to be his servant if he would send him some succours; he had also, made him a present of gold and silver, for which he drained the treasures both of church and state, 2 Kings 16:7, 8. Now God threatens that that king of Assyria whom he made his stay instead of God should become a scourge to him. He was so speedily; for, when he came to him, he distressed him, but strengthened him not (2 Chron. xxviii. 20), the reed not only broke under him, but ran into his hand, and pierced it, and thenceforward the kings of Assyria were, for a long time, grieving thorns to Judah, and gave them a great deal of trouble. Note, The creature that we make our hope commonly proves our hurt. The king of Assyria, not long after this, made himself master of the ten tribes, carried them captive, and laid their country waste, so as fully to answer the prediction here; and perhaps it may refer to that, as an explication of v. 8, where it is foretold that Ephraim shall be broken, that it shall not be a people; and it is easy to suppose that the prophet (at v. 17) turns his speech to the king of Israel, denouncing God’s judgments against him for invading Judah. But the expositors universally understand it of Ahaz and his kingdom. Now observe,
1. Summons given to the invaders (v. 18): The Lord shall whistle for the fly and the bee. See ch. 5:26. Enemies that seem as contemptible as a fly or a bee, and are as easily crushed, shall yet, when God pleases, do his work as effectually as lions and young lions. Though they are as far distant from one another as the rivers of Egypt and the land of Assyria, yet they shall punctually meet to join in this work when God commands their attendance; for, when God has work to do, he will not be at a loss for instruments to do it with.
2. Possession taken by them, v. 19. It should seem as if the country were in no condition to make resistance. They find no difficulties in forcing their way, but come and rest all of them in the desolate valleys, which the inhabitants had deserted upon the first alarm, and left them a cheap and easy prey to the invaders. They shall come and rest in the low grounds like swarms of flies and bees, and shall render themselves impregnable by taking shelter in the holes of the rocks, as bees often do, and showing themselves formidable by appearing openly upon all thorns and all bushes; so generally shall the land be overspread with them. These bees shall knit upon the thorns and bushes, and there rest undisturbed.
3. Great desolations made, and the country generally depopulated (v. 20): The Lord shall shave the hair of the head, and beard, and feet; he shall sweep all away, as the leper, when he was cleansed, shaved off all his hair, Lev. 14:8, 9. This is done with a razor which is hired, either which God has hired (as if he had none of his own; but what he hires, and whom he employs in any service for him, he will pay for. See Ezek. 29:18, 19), or which Ahaz has hired for his assistance. God will make that to be an instrument of his destruction which he hired into his service.
Note, Many are beaten with that arm of flesh which they trusted to rather than to the arm of the Lord, and which they were at a great expense upon, when by faith and prayer they might have found cheap and easy succour in God.
4. The consequences of this general depopulation.
(1.) The flocks of cattle shall be all destroyed, so that a man who had herds and flocks in abundance shall be stripped of them all by the enemy, and shall with much ado save for his own use a young cow and two sheep–a poor stock (v. 21), yet he shall think himself happy in having any left.
(2.) The few cattle that are left shall have such a large compass of ground to feed in that they shall give abundance of milk, and very good milk, such as shall produce butter enough, v. 22. There shall also be such want of men that the milk of one cow and two sheep shall serve a whole family, which used to keep abundance of servants and consume a great deal, but is now reduced.
(3.) The breed of cattle shall be destroyed; so that those who used to eat flesh ( as the Jews commonly did) shall be necessitated to confine themselves to butter and honey, for there shall be no flesh for them; and the country shall be so depopulated that there shall be butter and honey enough for the few that are left in it. (4.) Good land, that used to be let well, shall be all overrun with briers and thorns (v. 23); where there used to be a thousand vines planted, for which the tenants used to pay a thousand shekels, or pieces of silver, yearly rent, there shall be nothing now but briers and thorns, no profit either for landlord or tenant, all being laid waste by the army of the invaders. Note, God can soon turn a fruitful land into barrenness; and it is just with him to turn vines into briers if we, instead of bringing forth grapes to him, bring forth wild grapes, ch. 5:4.
(5.) The implements of husbandry shall be turned into instruments of war, v. 24. The whole land having become briers and thorns, the grounds that men used to come to with sickles and pruning-hooks to gather in the fruits they shall now come to with arrows and bows, to hunt for wild beasts in the thickets, or to defend themselves from the robbers that lurk in the bushes, seeking for prey, or to kill the serpents and venomous beasts that are hid there. This denotes a very sad change of the face of that pleasant land. But what melancholy change is there which sin will not make with a people?
(6.) Where briers and thorns were wont to be of use and to do good service, even in the hedges, for the defence of the enclosed grounds, they shall be plucked up, and all laid in common. There shall be briers and thorns in abundance where they should not be, but none where they should be, v. 25. The hills that shall be digged with the mattock, for special use, from which the cattle used to be kept off with the fear of briers and thorns, shall now be thrown open, the hedges broken down for the boar out of the wood to waste it, Ps. 80:12, 13. It shall be left at large for oxen to run in and less cattle. See the effect of sin and the curse; it has made the earth a forest of thorns and thistles, except as it is forced into some order by the constant care and labour of man. And see what folly it is to set our hearts upon possessions of lands, be they every so fruitful, ever so pleasant; if they lie ever so little neglected and uncultivated, or if they be abused by a wasteful careless heir or tenant, or the country be laid waste by war, they will soon become frightful deserts. Heaven is a paradise not subject to such changes.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Isaiah 7:10-16; The Promise of Immanuel;They shall call His name IMMANUEL–God with us, God in our nature, God at peace with us, in covenant with us; “Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God;” God tells us nothing but what He is able and ready to prove; See His wonderful condescention to the children of men, in that He is so willing to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel; He considers our frame, and that, living in a world of sense, we are apt to require sinsible proofs, which therefore He has favoured us with in sacramental signs and seals. B.C. 740
| The Promise of Immanuel. | B. C. 740. |
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Isaiah 7:10-16
10 Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD. 13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
Here, I. God, by the prophet, makes a gracious offer to Ahaz, to confirm the foregoing predictions, and his faith in them, by such sign or miracle as he should choose (v. 10, 11): Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; See here the divine faithfulness and veracity. God tells us nothing but what he is able and ready to prove. See his wonderful condescension to the children of men, in that he is so willing to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, Heb. 6:17. He considers our frame, and that, living in a world of sense, we are apt to require sensible proofs, which therefore he has favoured us with in sacramental signs and seals. Ahaz was a bad man, yet God is called the Lord his God, because he was a child of Abraham and David, and of the covenants made with them. See how gracious God is even to the evil and unthankful; Ahaz is bidden to choose his sign, as Gideon about the fleece (Judg. 6:37); let him ask for a sign in the air, or earth, or water, for God’s power is the same in all.
II. Ahaz rudely refuses this gracious offer, and (which is not mannerly towards any superior) kicks at the courtesy, and puts a slight upon it (v. 12): I will not ask. The true reason why he would not ask for a sign was because, having a dependence upon the Assyrians, their forces, and their gods, for help, he would not thus far be beholden to the God of Israel, or lay himself under obligations to him. He would not ask a sign for the confirming of his faith because he resolved to persist in his unbelief, and would indulge his doubts and distrusts; yet he pretends a pious reason: I will not tempt the Lord; as if it would be a tempting of God to do that which God himself invited and directed him to do.
Note, A secret disaffection to God is often disguised with the specious colours of respect to him; and those who are resolved that they will not trust God yet pretend that they will not tempt him.
III. The prophet reproves him and his court, him and the house of David, the whole royal family, for their contempt of prophecy, and the little value they had for divine revelation (v. 13) “Is it a small thing for you to weary men by your oppression and tyranny, with which you make yourselves burdensome and odious to all mankind? But will you weary my God also with the affronts you put upon him?” As the unjust judge that neither feared God nor regarded man, Luke 18:2. You have wearied the Lord with your words, Mal. 2:17. Nothing is more grievous to the God of heaven than to be distrusted. “Will you weary my God? Will you suppose him to be tired and unable to help you, or to be weary of doing you good? Whereas the youths may faint and be weary, you may have tired all your friends, the Creator of the ends of the earth faints not, neither is weary.” ch. 40:28-31. Or this: “In affronting the prophets, you think you put a slight only upon men like yourselves, and consider not that you affront God himself, whose messengers they are, and put a slight upon him, who will resent it accordingly.” The prophet here calls God his God with a great deal of pleasure: Ahaz would not say, He is my God, though the prophet had invited him to say so (v. 11): The Lord thy God; but Isaiah will say, “He is mine.”
Note, Whatever others do, we must avouch the Lord for ours and abide by him.
IV. The prophet, in God’s name, gives them a sign: “You will not ask a sign, but the unbelief of man shall not make the promise of God of no effect: The Lord himself shall give you a sign (v. 14), a double sign.”
1. “A sign in general of his good-will to Israel and to the house of David. You may conclude it that he has mercy in store for you, and that you are not forsaken of your God, how great soever your present distress and danger are; for of your nation, of your family, the Messiah is to be born, and you cannot be destroyed while that blessing is in you, which shall be introduced,”
(1.) “In a glorious manner; for, whereas you have been often told that he should be born among you, I am now further to tell you that he shall be born of a virgin, which will signify both the divine power and the divine purity with which he shall be brought into the world,–that he shall be a extraordinary person, for he shall not be born by ordinary generation,–and that he shall be a holy thing, not stained with the common pollutions of the human nature, therefore incontestably fit to have the throne of his father David given him.” Now this, though it was to be accomplished above 500 years after, was a most encouraging sign to the house of David (and to them, under that title, this prophecy is directed, v. 13) and an assurance that God would not cast them off. Ephraim did indeed envy Judah (ch. 11:13) and sought the ruin of that kingdom, but could not prevail; for the sceptre should never depart from Judah till the coming of Shiloh, Gen. 49:10. Those whom God designs for the great salvation may take that for a sign to them that they shall not be swallowed up by any trouble they meet with in the way.
(2.) The Messiah shall be introduced on a glorious errand, wrapped up in his glorious name: They shall call his name Immanuel–God with us, God in our nature, God at peace with us, in covenant with us. This was fulfilled in their calling him Jesus–a Saviour (Matt. 1:21-25), for, if he had not been Immanuel–God with us, he could not have been Jesus–a Saviour. Now this was a further sign of God’s favour to the house of David and the tribe of Judah; for he that intended to work this great salvation among them no doubt would work out for them all those other salvations which were to be the types and figures of this, and as it were preludes to this. “Here is a sign for you, not in the depth nor in the height, but in the prophecy, in the promise, in the covenant made with David, which you are no strangers to. The promised seed shall be Immanuel, God with us; let that word comfort you (ch. 8:10), that God is with us, and (v. 
that your land is Immanuel’s land. Let not the heart of the house of David be moved thus (v. 2), nor let Judah fear the setting up of the son of Tabeal (v. 6), for nothing can cut off the entail on the Son of David that shall be Immanuel.” Note, The strongest consolations, in time of trouble, are those which are borrowed from Christ, our relation to him, our interest in him, and our expectations of him and from him. Of this child it is further foretold (v. 15) that though he shall not be born like other children, but of a virgin, yet he shall be really and truly man, and shall be nursed and brought up like other children: Butter and honey shall he eat, as other children do, particularly the children of that land which flowed with milk and honey. Though he be conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, yet he shall not therefore be fed with angels’ food, but, as it becomes him, shall be in all things made like unto his brethren, Heb. 2:17. Nor shall he, though born thus by extraordinary generation, be a man immediately, but, as other children, shall advance gradually through the several states of infancy, childhood, and youth, to that of manhood, and growing in wisdom and stature, shall at length wax strong in spirit, and come to maturity, so as to know how to refuse the evil and choose the good. See Luke 2:40, 52. Note, Children are fed when they are little that they may be taught and instructed when they have grown up; they have their maintenance in order to their education.
2. Here is another sign in particular of the speedy destruction of these potent princes that were now a terror to Judah, v. 16. “Before this child (so it should be read), this child which I have now in my arms” (he means not Immanuel, but Shear-jashub his own son, whom he was ordered to take with him for a sign, v. 3), “before this child shall know how to refuse the evil and choose the good” (and those who saw what his present stature and forwardness were would easily conjecture how long that would be), “before this child be three or four years older, the land that thou abhorrest, these confederate forces of Israelites and Syrians, which thou hast such an enmity to and standest in such dread of, shall be forsaken of both their kings, both Pekah and Rezin,” who were in so close an alliance that they seemed as if they were the kings of but one kingdom. This was fully accomplished; for within two or three years after this, Hoshea conspired against Pekah, and slew him (2 Kings 15:30), and, before that, the king of Assyria took Damascus, and slew Rezin, 2 Kings 16:9. Nay, there was a present event, which happened immediately, and when this child carried the prediction of in his name, which was a pledge and earnest of this future event. Shear-jashub signifies The remnant shall return, which doubtless points at the wonderful return of those 200,000 captives whom Pekah and Rezin had carried away, who were brought back, not by might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts. Read the story, 2 Chron. 28:8-15. The prophetical naming of this child having thus had its accomplishment, no doubt this, which was further added concerning him, should have its accomplishment likewise, that Syria and Israel should be deprived of both their kings. One mercy from God encourages us to hope for another, if it engages us to prepare for another.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Isaiah 7:1-9; The Distress of Ahaz; Comfort Administered to Ahaz; A very formidable design laid against Jerusalem by Rezin king of Syria and Pekah king of Israel; Note, The sin of a land brings foreign invasions upon it and betrays the most dangerous posts and passes to the enemy; and God sometimes makes one wicked nation a scourge to another; but judgment, ordinarily, begins at the house of God; Note, God is often found of those who seek Him not, much more will He be found of those who seek Him diligently; He speaks comfort to many who not only are not worthy of it, but do not so much as enquire after it. B.C. 740
I S A I A H.
CHAPTER 7
This chapter is an occasional sermon, in which the prophet sings both of mercy and judgment to those that did not perceive or understand either; he piped unto them, but they danced not, mourned unto them, but they wept not. Here is, I. The consternation that Ahaz was in upon an attempt of the confederate forces of Syria and Israel against Jerusalem, ver. 1, 2. II. The assurance which God, by the prophet, sent him for his encouragement, that the attempt should be defeated and Jerusalem should be preserved, ver. 3-9. III. The confirmation of this by a sign which God gave to Ahaz, when he refused to ask one, referring to Christ, and our redemption by him, ver. 10-16. IV. A threatening of the great desolation that God would bring upon Ahaz and his kingdom by the Assyrians, notwithstanding their escape from this present storm, because they went on still in their wickedness, ver. 17-25. And this is written both for our comfort and for our admonition.
| The Distress of Ahaz; Comfort Administered to Ahaz. | B. C. 740. |
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Isaiah 7:1-9
1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. 2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. 3 Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shear-jashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field; 4 And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying, 6 Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal: 7 Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass. 8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. 9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.
The prophet Isaiah had his commission renewed in the year that king Uzziah died, ch. 6:1. Jotham his son reigned, and reigned well, sixteen years. All that time, no doubt, Isaiah prophesied as he was commanded, and yet we have not in this book any of his prophecies dated in the reign of Jotham; but this, which is put first, was in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham. Many excellent useful sermons he preached which were not published and left upon record; for, if all that was memorable had been written, the world could not have contained the books, John 21:25. Perhaps in the reign of Ahaz, a wicked king, he had not opportunity to preach so much at court as in Jotham’s time, and therefore then he wrote the more, for a testimony against them. Here is,
I. A very formidable design laid against Jerusalem by Rezin king of Syria and Pekah king of Israel, two neighbouring potentates, who had of late made descents upon Judah severally. At the end of the reign of Jotham, the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin and Pekah, 2 Kings 15:37. But now, in the second or third year of the reign of Ahaz, encouraged by their former successes, they entered into an alliance against Judah. Because Ahaz, though he found the sword over his head, began his reign with idolatry, God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria and of the king of Israel (2 Chron. 28:5), and a great slaughter they made in his kingdom, v. 6, 7. Flushed with this victory, they went up towards Jerusalem, the royal city, to war against it, to besiege it, and make themselves masters of it; but it proved in the issue that they could not gain their point.
Note, The sin of a land brings foreign invasions upon it and betrays the most advantageous posts and passes to the enemy; and God sometimes makes one wicked nation a scourge to another; but judgment, ordinarily, begins at the house of God.
II. The great distress that Ahaz and his court were in when they received advice of this design: It was told the house of David that Syria and Ephraim had signed a league against Judah, v. 2. This degenerate royal family is called the house of David, to put us in mind of that article of God’s covenant with David (Ps. 89:30-33), If his children forsake my law, I will chasten their transgression with the rod; but my loving-kindness will I not utterly take away, which is remarkably fulfilled in this chapter. News being brought that the two armies of Syria and Israel were joined, and had taken the field, the court, the city, and the country, were thrown into consternation; The heart of Ahaz was moved with fear, and then no wonder that the heart of his people was so, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind. They were tossed and shaken, and put into a great disorder and confusion, were wavering and uncertain in their counsels, hurried hither and thither, and could not fix in any steady resolution. They yielded to the storm, and gave up all for gone, concluding it in vain to make any resistance. Now that which caused this fright was the sense of guilt and the weakness of their faith. They had made God their enemy, and knew not how to make him their friend, and therefore their fears tyrannised over them; while those whose consciences are kept void of offence, and whose hearts are fixed, trusting in God, need not be afraid of evil tidings; though the earth be removed, yet will not they fear; but the wicked flee at the shaking of a leaf, Lev. 26:36.
III. The orders and directions given to Isaiah to go and encourage Ahaz in his distress; not for his own sake (he deserved to hear nothing from God but words of terror, which might add affliction to his grief), but because he was a son of David and king of Judah. God had kindness for him for his father’s sake, who must not be forgotten, and for his people’s sake, who must not be abandoned, but would be encouraged if Ahaz were. Observe,
1. God appointed the prophet to meet Ahaz, though he did not send to the prophet to speak with him, nor desire him to enquire of the Lord for him (v. 3): Go to meet Ahaz.
Note, God is often found of those who seek him not, much more will he be found of those who seek him diligently. He speaks comfort to many who not only are not worthy of it, but do not so much as enquire after it.
2. He ordered him to take his little son with him, because he carried a sermon in his name, Shear-jashub–A remnant shall return. The prophets sometimes recorded what they preached in the significant names of their children (as Hos. 1:4, 6, 9); therefore Isaiah’s children are said to be for signs, ch. 8:18. This son was so called for the encouragement of those of God’s people who were carried captive, assuring them that they should return, at least a remnant of them, which was more than they could pretend to merit; yet at this time God was better than his word; for he took care not only that a remnant should return, but the whole number of those whom the confederate forces of Syria and Israel had taken prisoners, 2 Chron. 28:15.
3. He directed him where he should find Ahaz. He was to meet with him not in the temple, or the synagogue, or royal chapel, but at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, where he was, probably with many of his servants about him, contriving how to order the water-works, so as to secure them to the city, or deprive the enemy of the benefits of them (ch. 22:9-11; 2 Chron. 32:3, 4), or giving some necessary directions for the fortifying of the city as well as they could; and perhaps finding every thing in a bad posture or defence, the conduit out of repair, as well as other things gone to decay, his fears increased, and he was now in greater perplexity than ever; therefore, Go, meet him there. Note, God sometimes sends comforts to his people very seasonably, and, what time they are most afraid, encourages them to trust in him.
4. He put words in his mouth, else the prophet would not have known how to bring a message of good to such a bad man, a sinner in Zion, that ought to be afraid; but God intended it for the support of faithful Israelites.
(1.) The prophet must rebuke their fears, and advise them by no means to yield to them, but keep their temper, and preserve the possession of their own souls (v. 4): Take heed, and be quiet. Note, In order to comfort there is need of caution; that we may be quiet, it is necessary that we take heed and watch against those things that threaten to disquiet us. “Fear not with this amazement, this fear, that weakens, and has torment; neither let thy heart be tender, so as to melt and fail within thee; but pluck up thy spirits, have a good heart on it, and be courageous; let not fear betray the succours which reason and religion offer for thy support.” Note, Those who expect God should help them must help themselves, Ps. 27:14.
(2.) He must teach them to despise their enemies, not in pride, or security, or incogitancy (nothing more dangerous than so to despise an enemy), but in faith and dependence upon God. Ahaz’s fear called them two powerful politic princes, for either of whom he was an unequal match, but, if united, he durst not look them in the face, nor make head against them. “No,” says the prophet, “they are two tails of smoking firebrands; they are angry, they are fierce, they are furious, as firebrands, as fireballs; and they make one another worse by being in a confederacy, as sticks of fire put together burn the more violently. But they are only smoking firebrands: and where there is smoke there is some fire, but it may be not so much as was feared. Their threatenings will vanish into smoke. Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise (Jer. 46:17), and Rezin king of Syria but a smoke; and such are all the enemies of God’s church, smoking flax, that will soon be quenched. Nay, they are but tails of smoking firebrands, in a manner burnt out already; their force is spent; they have consumed themselves with the heat of their own anger; you may put your foot on them, and tread them out.” The two kingdoms of Syria and Israel were now near expiring. Note, The more we have an eye to God as a consuming fire the less reason we shall have to fear men, though they are ever so furious, nay, we shall be able to despise them as smoking firebrands.
(3.) He must assure them that the present design of these high allies (so they thought themselves) against Jerusalem should certainly be defeated and come to nothing, v. 5-7.
[1.] That very thing which Ahaz thought most formidable is made the ground of their defeat–and that was the depth of their designs and the height of their hopes: “Therefore they shall be baffled and sent back with shame, because they have taken evil counsel against thee, which is an offence to God. These firebrands are a smoke in his nose (ch. 65:5), and therefore must be extinguished.” First, They are very spiteful and malicious, and, therefore they shall not prosper. Judah had done them no wrong; they had no pretence to quarrel with Ahaz; but, without any reason, they said, Let us go up against Judah, and vex it. Note, Those that are vexatious cannot expect to be prosperous, those that love to do mischief cannot expect to do well. Secondly, They are very secure, and confident of success. They will vex Judah by going up against it; yet that is not all: they do not doubt but to make a breach in the wall of Jerusalem wide enough for them to march their army in at; or they count upon dissecting or dividing the kingdom into two parts, one for the king of Israel, the other for the king of Syria, who had agreed in one viceroy–a king to be set in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal, some obscure person, it is uncertain whether a Syrian or an Israelite. So sure were they of gaining their point that they divided the prey before they had caught it. Note, Those that are most scornful are commonly least successful, for surely God scorns the scorners.
[2.] God himself gives them his word that the attempt should not take effect (v. 7): “Thus saith the Lord God, the sovereign Lord of all, who brings the counsel of the heathen to naught (Ps. 33:10), It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass; their measures shall all be broken, and they shall not be able to bring to pass their enterprise.” Note, Whatever stands against God, or thinks to stand without him, cannot stand long. Man purposes, but God disposes; and who is he that saith and it cometh to pass if the Lord commands it not or countermands it? Lam. 3:37. See Prov. 19:21.
(4.) He must give them a prospect of the destruction of these enemies, at last, that were now such a terror to them.
[1.] They should neither of them enlarge their dominions, nor push their conquests any further; The head city of Syria is Damascus, and the head man of Damascus is Rezin; this he glories in, and this let him be content with, v. 8. The head city of Ephraim has long been Samaria, and the head man in Samaria is now Pekah the son of Remaliah. These shall be made to know their own, their bounds are fixed, and they shall not pass them, to make themselves masters of the cities of Judah, much less to make Jerusalem their prey. Note, As God has appointed men the bounds of their habitation (Acts 17:26), so he has appointed princes the bounds of their dominion, within which they ought to confine themselves, and not encroach upon their neighbours’ rights.
[2.] Ephraim, which perhaps was the more malicious and forward enemy of the two, should shortly be quite rooted out, and should be so far from seizing other people’s lands that they should not be able to hold their own. Interpreters are much at a loss how to compute the sixty-five years within which Ephraim shall cease to be a people; for the captivity of the ten tribes was but eleven years after this: and some make it a mistake of the transcriber, and think it should be read within six and five years, just eleven. But it is hard to allow that. Others make it to be sixty-five years from the time that the prophet Amos first foretold the ruin of the kingdom of the ten tribes; and some late interpreters make it to look as far forward as the last desolation of that country by Esarhaddon, which was about sixty-five years after this; then Ephraim was so broken that it was no more a people. Now it was the greatest folly in the world for those to be ruining their neighbours who were themselves marked for ruin, and so near to it. See what a prophet told them at this time, when they were triumphing over Judah, 2 Chron. 28:10. Are there not with you, even with you, sins against the Lord your God?
(5.) He must urge them to mix faith with those assurances which he had given them (v. 9): “If you will not believe what is said to you, surely you shall not be established; your shaken and disordered state shall not be established, your unquiet unsettled spirit shall not; though the things told you are very encouraging, yet they will not be so to you, unless you believe them, and be willing to take God’s word.” Note, The grace of faith is absolutely necessary to the quieting and composing of the mind in the midst of all the tosses of this present time, 2 Chron. 20:20.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Marvels not yet beheld, mysteries and wonders
Psalm 119:18
Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.
The prayer implies conscious darkness, a dimness of spiritual vision, a powerlessness to remove that defect, and a full assurance that God can remove it.
It shows also that the writer knew that there were vast treasures in the word which he had not yet fully seen, marvels which he had not yet beheld, and mysteries which he had scarcely believed.
The Scriptures teem with marvels; the Bible is wonderland: it not only relates miracles, but it is itself a world of wonders.
Yet what are these to closed eyes? And what man can open his own eyes since he is born blind? God Himself must reveal revelation to each heart.
Scripture needs opening but not half so much as our eyes do; the veil is not on the book, but on our hearts. – C.H. Spurgeon.
How much the sustenance of our prayer life depends upon the answer to the prayer of our text for to-day?
They who have been greatest in prayer have known God’s word most thoroughly. Knowledge helps prayer – and prayer helps knowledge.
- Daily Meditations for Prayer.
