Isaiah 7:15
15 Butter [chem'ah] and honey [dabash] shall he eat, ['akal] that
he may know [yada`] to refuse [ma'ac] the evil, [ra`] and choose [bachar] the good. [towb] KJV-Interlinear
15
"He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil
and choose good. NASB
Again we have a verse
that will have a double meaning in its application toward the sign being given
to Ahaz, and the prophecy that is attributed to Christ as a child.
Butter and honey are
forms of foods that are typically given to infants. And as the infant grows up and begins to
learn of the differences between good and evil or right from wrong, so then the
diet will also change.
So this is a description
of the time period when the child is in its infancy. He does not learn right from wrong from his
diet, but this describes the period of infancy until he is able to discern the
differences between right from wrong.
As for the first sign,
then this applies to the first two or three years of the child, as it moves
beyond infancy and into the toddler stage of life.
And as for the sign for
Ahaz, this now includes the time that a virgin unmarried girl, then gets
engaged, then gets married and then gets pregnant, and then has a child and
then the child is raised out of infancy.
This whole time frame could possibly cover perhaps six years, give or
take.
Through all of this time,
Ahaz will witness that the invading forces will fail, that his economy will
continue to thrive and then the northern threat will eventually vanish as a
threat. Thus, Ahaz has his sign which is
reinforced repeatedly by the passage of time.
This also applies to the
Christ child, in that God does not require food for His nourishment, but a
human infant does. And the baby Jesus
will be raised in the usual manner as all children of his day were raised. Since this child, the Messiah, is God, then He
too is now referred to as man, and therefore is portrayed as both God and
man. The Messiah is both God and man the
unique person of the universe, born of a virgin, and raised as a normal human
baby.
The third principle from
this verse as it applies to Ahaz, is that butter and honey are not only the
typical foods for an infant, but they are also commodities that are readily
available in a prosperous society. Thus
even though the nation is under threat from Israel and Syria, that threat does
nothing to upset the balance of the economy of Judah.
The young virgin of
Ahaz’s day is not referred to as royalty, nor identified with any particular
quality, and therefore is from the common class of people, and therefore this
reinforces the concept of the stability and prosperity of the economy on the whole
for all citizens, both rich and poor.
A further indication that
the nation is safe, in accordance with Gods promise.
And even in the time of
Christ, there is a degree of prosperity in existence whereas a poor carpenter
is able to provide for his family with adequate means and under normal
circumstances, even though in Jesus' time the nation was under the yoke of
Roman rule.
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