"Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and ... before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, ... The LORD shall bring upon thee, ... the King of Assyria." Isaiah 7:14-17 KJV
"By the time this child is weaned ... the mighty king of Assyria will come with his great army!" vss. 16,17 Living Bible
By the time he is weaned, (age 3 to 4 in that culture) the Assyrians "will come."
You gots to think
in context Buzz!
The prophecy is repeated but this time the child's name is Mahershalalhashbaz.
"... before this child is even old enough to say 'Daddy' or 'Mommy,' the king of Assyria will invade ... and carry away their riches." 8:4 Living Bible
Isaiah is so sure about this that he has his prediction recorded by "faithful witnesses."
In his first prediction Isaiah had said, "the virgin shall conceive" (Modern language Bible). In the second go around he says,
"I went in unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son."
The
holy spirit tells me that both of these kids were Isaiah's children. In one instance he calls their mother, the "young woman" (almah) and in the other he calls her the "prophetess" (nebiah). I cannot say whether they were married. I doubt it. But they did work the same profession. Isaiah already had one son (by her?); a son who went with him when he visited Ahaz to make the famous prediction concerning the Assyrian invasion. Imma', his second son, and Maher', his third, were merely incidental to the point of the prophecy; objective examples of how shortly the invasion would begin. ("before he is weaned" "before he can talk")
The names of all three sons are political statements!
Son #1 -Shearjashub- means a remnant returns i.e. "POW's Come Home"
Son #2 -Immanuel- means God with us i.e. "Our Side Wins"
Son #3 -Mahershalalhashaz- means Speedy-spoil-quick-booty i.e. "Easy Pickin's"
Further evidence of the contemporary nature of Isaiah's prediction is found in verses 7 through 10 of chapter eight. He compares the Assyrian army to the Euphrates saying,
"This flood will overflow all its channels and sweep into your land of Judah, O Immanuel, submerging it from end to end.
Do your worst, O Syria and Israel, our enemies, but you will not succeed--you will be shattered. Listen to me, all you enemies of ours: Prepare for war against us--and perish! Yes! Perish! Call your councils of war, develop your strategies, prepare your plans of attacking us, and perish! For God is with us." Living Bible
The last four words, 'God is with us' are a translation of the word
Immanuel.
Isaiah is already talking to his son
Immanuel.
To make a long story short, the Assyrians
did come, and
did kick butt; and Isaiah's prediction
did come true. Considering the fact that the Assyrian empire was long dead by the time JC arrived, He could not have fulfilled the requirements of this prophecy, even if he had wanted to do so.
I stumbled upon this in my reading many years ago and it angered me that I had been so gullible. I was horrified at the ignorance of my Bible instructors. I could accuse them of lying but I think they were merely unwitting parrots of a Roman Catholic tradition.
Need I say more?
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"I was very unwilling to give up my belief." Charles Darwin