For Signs and Wonders

 

Isa 8:17 And I will wait on the LORD, Who hides His face from the house of Jacob; And I will hope in Him. 18 Here am I and the children whom the LORD has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel From the LORD of hosts, Who dwells in Mount Zion.

Is there anything more difficult than waiting on the Lord in any given situation when He appears to have turned His face away? You know what I’m talking about. Those times when your soul cries out, “Where are You Lord?”

Isaiah has come to the point where he realizes God is judging His children. They have turned their backs on Him, and he, after giving them plenty of warning, is now turning His back on them.

But unlike the others Isaiah is holding onto hope. He is going to wait on the Lord, confident that the Lord will return. Assured that His face will once again shine on His people with grace and mercy.

His assurance came to him, through God’s gift of his offspring. The names of these two children, a prophecy in itself, given to Isaiah as a sign and wonder. The first son named Shearjashub, which means “the remnant shall return,” and the second, named Maher-shalal-hash-baz, which means “hasten to the spoil”.

 

Both names were assurances from God that Judah had nothing to fear from those planning an attack against Jerusalem. In the first place, God would use the Assyrians to take care of them as they would “hasten to the spoil,”  (Maher-shalal-hash-baz) and in the second place, in a more distant prophecy, (Shearjashub) would indicate that even when the children were carried off to Babylon, a remnant would return!

 

Isaiah was hanging his hat on the gift of these two children that God gave him, and the meaning of their names that God also supplied.

 

This would not be the only time that God would use a child and the name of that child as a sign and wonder:  Lu 2:12 says, "And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." And this child of course was Jesus! Why named Jesus?  Mt 1:21 tells us: "And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins."

 

When you think about it, every child is a wonder! A miracle that God knits together in the mother’s womb. And maybe there’s a lot of truth to this quote from the poet Carl Sandburg, who said, “a baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.”'