Old/New Testament
The stump remains: a testament to what the people used to be, a promise of what is to come.
7 When Ahaz (Uzziah’s grandson, Jotham’s son) was king here in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, a coalition of two other kings—Pekah (Remaliah’s son) from the Northern Kingdom (also called Israel and Ephraim) and Rezin from Aram (which is Syria)—determined to attack our capital Jerusalem. But they failed to take it. 2 This is what happened: When our royal house (descended from David) heard that Aram was in league with Ephraim against us, the king was terrified. The news shook the hearts of the people like trees in the wind. 3 So the Eternal told Isaiah to get involved.
Eternal One: Catch up with Ahaz at the end of the stream that comes out of the upper pool—you know, the one at the highway where they wash and bleach cloth. And bring your son who’s named Shear-jashub (which means “Returning Remnant”). 4-6 Tell Ahaz, “Keep your wits about you. Stay calm. Don’t panic just because those two angry northerners, Rezin of Aram and Pekah (Remaliah’s son), threaten you and say: ‘Let’s march against Judah, terrorize the people, overthrow it, and set up Tabeel’s son as our puppet king.’”
God promised that David’s dynasty would continue forever. Since Ahaz is of David’s line, he should be confident before the threat. But he needs the support of God’s prophet.
7 Here is what the Eternal Lord has to say.
Eternal One: It’s not going to work;
what they determine is not going to happen.
8-9 The head of Aram is Damascus, and its head is King Rezin;
Ephraim’s head is Samaria, and its king is Remaliah’s son.
Ephraim will fall apart as a nation and as a people within 65 years.
Now then, if you don’t hold firm, if you don’t believe, you will not remain firm.
10 The Eternal One also said this to our king, Ahaz:
Eternal One (to Ahaz): 11 Ask for proof, a sign from the Eternal your God. Go ahead, ask anything, anything at all; it can be high as heaven or as deep as the place of the dead.
Ahaz: 12 No way. I wouldn’t dare to ask, to test the Eternal One.
Isaiah: 13 Listen then. You are none other than the house of David, the one who inherited God’s promise of permanent kingship for David’s descendants. Is it so easy to be a bore to people that you would exhaust God’s patience too? 14 Suit yourself. The Lord will give you a proof-sign anyway: See, a young maiden[a] will conceive. She will give birth to a son and name Him Immanuel, that is, “God with us.”[b] 15 There will indeed be something Godlike about Him. He’ll be eating curds and honey when he knows to choose what is right and good and refuse what is not. 16 But before the boy has the wisdom to refuse evil and choose good the territory of the two kings you now dread will be abandoned.
17 But it’s not all rosy for you, either. The Eternal will bring against you, against this population, this blessed kingdom, such trouble as hasn’t been seen since the 10 northern tribes, led by Ephraim, seceded from Judah—trouble in the form of the Assyrian king. 18 At that time, the Eternal will summon the Egyptian flies and the stinging pests of Assyria, calling them 19 to settle into every crack and crevice of the country, every place high and low—mountains, fields, deserts, and cities—every thornbush and watering hole. 20 In that day, the Lord will hire the Assyrian king from beyond the Euphrates River to shave every part of you, humbling you like slaves. 21 Each person will hang onto only what he or she absolutely needs—a heifer and two sheep—in order to survive. 22 But some will survive because those who are left will eat curds and honey, for their animals will produce plenty of milk. 23 They will no longer live off the land because wherever there had been flourishing vineyards with 1,000 vines, worth 1,000 pieces of silver, they will produce nothing but briars and thorns. 24 No one will venture into this wasteland of briars and thorns without bow and arrow. 25 No one will dare to cultivate the hills that once were tilled for fear of what is out there; only the hardiest animals—cattle and sheep—are released to graze the ragged slopes.
8 The Eternal told me to take a large tablet and write—“Swift the Spoils of War and Speedy Comes the Attacker”— 2 and to get believable witnesses, both the priest Uriah and Zechariah (Jeberechiah’s son), to watch me do it. 3 I approached the prophetess—a woman who, like me, speaks for God—and she became pregnant and had a son, whom the Eternal said I should name Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Swift-the-Spoils-of-War-and-Speedy-Comes-the-Attacker); 4 because before he is old enough to say “My father” or “My mother” the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carted off to become the property of their enemy, the king of Assyria.
Prophets like Isaiah not only speak their messages, but they sometimes act them out. Isaiah is a master of both prophetic speech and prophetic acts. It is common for God to ask prophets to expose important aspects of their families’ lives to demonstrate a message He wants to convey. Perhaps it is because the prophet speaks for God and Israel is God’s family. In this case, God tells Isaiah to embed His message into the name of his child. And what is that message? “Ahaz, the two countries currently threatening you will soon be conquered by a greater power—Assyria. It will attack quickly, defeat soundly, and carry off the spoils of war from Damascus and Samaria. So there is no need to fear them; instead, trust in your God.”
5 The Eternal One explained to me,
6 Eternal One: This disaster will happen because this people have rejected the stream of Shiloah
that flows gently to Zion.
Instead they rejoice over Rezin and Remaliah’s son.
7 Just watch—the Lord will overwhelm them
with great waves of the Euphrates River.
Like a river, Assyrian might and glory will bear down on them;
it will rise over its banks as unstoppable as a raging flood.
8 This Mesopotamian power will pour into Judah, rise and pass through,
wreaking near-fatal havoc.
And its reach will extend over all your land.
God, be with us.
9 Go ahead, make your alliances, you peoples, yet you’ll be crushed.
Listen closely, even if you’re far away:
Get ready for battle—get ready to be battered;
get ready for battle—get ready to be shattered.
10 Go ahead, devise your plans, but they will fail;
your proclamations won’t matter because God is with us.
No one wants to believe that God would use foreign power to wreak destruction on other lands and peoples. Yet, as God is holy, so God’s place must be holy. He simply cannot dwell where holiness is not. He cannot make a larger-than-life Zion out of an earthly Jerusalem, unless that place (and its people, of course) are right. At best, these people seem to think that paying lip service to God is enough; at worst, they don’t even care about God. A simple explanation is the people must be clean and holy. And this condition of rightness, holiness, and cleanliness is a product of how they are—in relation not only to God, but also to each other and the very land itself; these things are inseparable. The consequences of their failure to ensure the holiness of this sacred place by being right with God, land, and others are dire indeed. God must cleanse His people and place because He determines to be represented within and by them. So, better days will come again, and His covenant people will be set right and be happy and prosperous again.
11 See, this is what the Eternal told me. God leaned in close—His strong hand on me—to keep me from following these people.
12 Eternal One: Don’t call for an alliance, like all the rest of this people do.
Don’t fear what they fear, or dread what they dread.
13 After all, only the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies, should terrify you.
Only God is holy. Only God should leave you trembling.
14 Look what I’m going to do in Zion:
The Eternal will be for you a sacred place,
But for both houses of Israel I’ll also be a stone that blocks their way
and a rock that trips them up;
For those who live in Jerusalem, I’ll be a trap and a snare.
15 Many will stumble over them. They will trip and be broken;
they’ll succumb to capture and be grabbed up.
God who provides a place of safety and security for those who trust in Him is the same God who puts obstacles in the way of those who disregard Him.
16 Now take care to keep this message as it is.
Seal up this teaching
and hand it over to my disciples.
17 As for me, I will wait for the Eternal, even though He feels absent, even though He has hidden His face from the family of Jacob. I will put all hope in Him. 18 You see, I and my children whom the Eternal One gave to me, we personify the promise. We are signs of what God intends and will do in Israel, what amazing things the Eternal, Commander of heavenly armies has in mind, the One who is indeed present in Zion, this heaven on earth.
19 People might tell you to ask the fortune-tellers, consult the babbling astrologers, conjure the dead to tell the living what’s to come, but shouldn’t they ask their God? 20 Go to God’s teaching and His testimony to guide your thoughts and behavior! If any response disagrees with the word of God, then it’s muddling and wrong and not the least bit illuminating. 21 It leaves the people bedraggled and desperate, drifting here and there. In their hunger, the people are bound to be infuriated and curse their king and God. They’ll look up to the heavens 22 and down to the earth, yet see nothing but trouble, gloom, anguish, and darkness. They will be driven out into the darkness.
Often in his letters, Paul records his prayers for his churches. He is constantly talking with God about those he considers his spiritual children. He prays that God will grant them wisdom, knowledge, and great power. This is the same power that was at work when God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him in heaven. Ultimately Paul knows all powers have been subjected to Jesus, the God-man, and He is destined to be head over all creation. In the resurrection of Jesus, the ultimate redemption of the cosmos has begun, and the church is the first act of God’s glorious drama.
2 As for you, don’t you remember how you used to just exist? Corpses, dead in life, buried by transgressions, 2 wandering the course of this perverse world. You were the offspring of the prince of the power of air—oh, how he owned you, just as he still controls those living in disobedience. I’m not talking about the outsiders alone; 3 we were all guilty of falling headlong for the persuasive passions of this world; we all have had our fill of indulging the flesh and mind, obeying impulses to follow perverse thoughts motivated by dark powers. As a result, our natural inclinations led us to be children of wrath, just like the rest of humankind.
4 But God, with the unfathomable richness of His love and mercy focused on us, 5 united us with the Anointed One and infused our lifeless souls with life—even though we were buried under mountains of sin—and saved us by His grace. 6 He raised us up with Him and seated us in the heavenly realms with our beloved Jesus the Anointed, the Liberating King. 7 He did this for a reason: so that for all eternity we will stand as a living testimony to the incredible riches of His grace and kindness that He freely gives to us by uniting us with Jesus the Anointed. 8-9 For it’s by God’s grace that you have been saved. You receive it through faith. It was not our plan or our effort. It is God’s gift, pure and simple. You didn’t earn it, not one of us did, so don’t go around bragging that you must have done something amazing. 10 For we are the product of His hand, heaven’s poetry etched on lives, created in the Anointed, Jesus, to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago.
The relationship between faith and works is often misunderstood. Some think that salvation is God’s reward for good deeds. If that’s true, then it can’t possibly be a gift. If it were a reward, then heaven would be a place where people might compare notes on what they did to make it through the gates. But Paul is confident in the truth of the gospel. The truth is that salvation is God’s gift through Jesus. Grace and faith make salvation real in us. When we are transformed by grace, then we become His new creation and begin to live out the good works He has planned for us. Works, then, aren’t the cause of salvation; they are its result. To put it another way, works aren’t the means of salvation; they are its presence.
11 So never forget how you used to be. Those of you born as outsiders to Israel were outcasts, branded “the uncircumcised” by those who bore the sign of the covenant in their flesh, a sign made with human hands. 12 You had absolutely no connection to the Anointed; you were strangers, separated from God’s people. You were aliens to the covenant they had with God; you were hopelessly stranded without God in a fractured world. 13 But now, because of Jesus the Anointed and His sacrifice, all of that has changed. God gathered you who were so far away and brought you near to Him by the royal blood of the Anointed, our Liberating King.
14 He is the embodiment of our peace, sent once and for all to take down the great barrier of hatred and hostility that has divided us so that we can be one. 15 He offered His body on the sacrificial altar to bring an end to the law’s ordinances and dictations that separated Jews from the outside nations. His desire was to create in His body one new humanity from the two opposing groups, thus creating peace. 16 Effectively the cross becomes God’s means to kill off the hostility once and for all so that He is able to reconcile them both to God in this one new body.
17 The Great Preacher of peace and love came for you, and His voice found those of you who were near and those who were far away. 18 By Him both have access to the Father in one Spirit. 19 And so you are no longer called outcasts and wanderers but citizens with God’s people, members of God’s holy family, and residents of His household. 20 You are being built on a solid foundation: the message of the prophets and the voices of God’s chosen emissaries[a] with Jesus, the Anointed Himself, the precious cornerstone. 21 The building is joined together stone by stone—all of us chosen and sealed in Him, rising up to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In Him you are being built together, creating a sacred dwelling place among you where God can live in the Spirit.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.