In Isaiah, chapter seven, verses one through twenty-five, the kings of Israel and Syria attacked Judah. King Ahaz of Judah was told by Isaiah to trust God for deliverance. Yet Ahaz refused to accept God’s offer of a miraculous sign, and he sought Assyria. God gave a sign anyway to the whole house of David: the birth of Immanuel. Though the Syrian and Israelite invasion was to fail, God would later send the Assyrians and Babylonians to devastate the land.
Shear-jashub in verse three is the name of Isaiah’s oldest son, which means, ” a remnant will return.” This name highlighted God’s intention to preserve a faithful remnant of the people to carry out His plan of salvation. Ephraim in verse eight (also known as Israel) was defeated by Assyria, and brought foreigners to the land to intermarry with the few remaining Israelites; the resulting racial mixture calling them Samaritans.
Ahaz, in verse twelve, rejected the counsel of the prophet Isaiah to trust in God for deliverance; Instead, he trusted his own limited understanding and sought the help of Assyria.
In verse fourteen, “virgin” can mean the word itself or “a young woman before marriage.” The immediate application of this sign was to a new bride, who would have been a virgin until the time of her marriage. Before her son was old enough to know right from wrong, the kings of Syria and Israel would be destroyed. The ultimate fulfillment was realized in the birth of Jesus Christ. The conception of her son came about by a miracle of the Holy Spirit rather than through the act of a man. The virgin’s son was to be called “Immanuel.” That name acquired a new depth of meaning in the personal coming into the world of God’s only begotten Son.