Week 8: The People Walking in Darkness

Ahaz turned down God's sign and paid Assyria to rescue him, and Isaiah 8 shows what that bargain cost. Isaiah writes his second son's name on a public placard before the boy is born, and before the child can say "Daddy," Damascus and Samaria have fallen. Then the flood Ahaz invited rises over Judah up to the neck. It spreads across what Isaiah calls Immanuel's own land. The people stop listening to God, turn to mediums and the dead for answers, and end up in thick darkness. Isaiah and a few disciples choose to wait for the Lord while He hides His face. Then the gloom breaks. A light dawns over Galilee, the region Assyria stripped first, and a Child is promised for David's throne whose name is Mighty God. Seven centuries later Jesus made His home in Capernaum, began preaching there, and Matthew saw Isaiah's words come true.