It has already been pointed out in Part IV of this series that Ahaz has already decided who to trust and it was not the Lord God. He has decided to side with the up and coming dominant power Assyria. He decided to become an ally, really a client state to Assyria, and a vassal, a subordinate, to the King of Assyria, and to pay him tribute/taxes, 2Kgs 16:7-9.

The author of 2 Chronicles comments on these arrangements.

“Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria came to him, and distressed him, but didn’t strengthen him.”
2Chron 28:20 WEB

In other words, even from the first this was not an arrangement which was beneficial to Judah. However even before Ahaz made his plea to the King of Assyria, Isaiah had warned what was coming.

Isaiah warned that God was going to use
Assyria to afflict Judah.

Isaiah warns that Judah is about to have trouble such as they had not seen those first days when Israel had withdrawn from Judah and had set up their own kingdom. This will all come from the king of Assyria, Isa 7:17

The Lord God is going to whistle for both the Egyptians and the Assyrians to camp in Judah, and they will come and settle in the land, in all of the defensible places, and all the watering places, Isa 7:18-19. God will used a hired razor to shave Judah. God is going to use Assyria to shave Judah bare. They will shave the head, and the legs, and yes, even the beard. In other words they will shave Judah bare, taking everything that is of value in the whole kingdom, Isa 7:20.

There will not be any planting or sowing going on in those days. Not for quite a while. The land itself will become so neglected that it will be overgrown in briars and thorns. Where they used to farm, then they will hunt with a bow and arrow, Isa 7:23-25.

In those days, if a man had a cow and a sheep he will be able to stay in food with curds and honey, Isa 7:21-22. But farming? There will be none for a while. Ahaz is going to Assyria for assistance, but instead of that, Assyria will bring disaster on the land of Judah.

This is Isaiah’s third prophecy in Isaiah 7.

The first was about the lands of Israel and Aram being abandoned, before a young child learns to distinguish between what is right and what is wrong. But some of that prophecy did not seem to fit Isaiah’s day. The second prophecy was about how that God/man the Messiah would come as a child. The answer was that He would be born of a virgin. The third prophecy was about how Assyria would not be deliverance to Judah, rather she would bring great affliction.

And when did this last prophecy happen?

Despite Ahaz going to Damascus to politic with Tiglath Pileser, all of these evils seem to have begin even in Ahaz day, but reached their full force in the days of his son who succeeded him, Hezekiah.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901