e ordinary
laws of nature. Thus, _e.g._, Isaiah says to Hezekiah, in chap. xxviii.
7: "And this shall be the sign unto thee from the Lord, that the Lord
will do this thing which He has spoken," and, as a _sign_ that the Lord
would add fifteen years to the life of the King, who was sick unto
death, he makes the shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz to go back ten
degrees. Of this description were also the signs granted to Gideon,
and, in many respects, the plagues in Egypt also. In the passage before
us, no other sign can possibly be spoken of than one of the _two last
classes_. For it was a real, miraculous sign only which could possibly
exert any influence on a mind so darkened as was that of Ahaz, and it
was the vain offer of such an one only which was fitted to bring to
light his obduracy. If, then, the Prophet was willing and able to give
a real, miraculous sign, why, then, is the answer of Ahaz so
unsuitable? And we can surely not suppose, as _Meier_ does, that he
should have intentionally misunderstood the Prophet. The temptation of
the Lord by the children of Israel, to which the word of the Lord,
Deut. vi. 16, quoted by Ahaz, refers, consisted, according to Exod.
xvii., in their having asked _water_, as a _miraculous sign_ that the
Lord was truly in the midst of them. How could the Prophet reproach
Ahaz with having offended, not men merely, but God, unless he had
offered to prove, by a fact which lay absolutely beyond the limits of
nature, the truth of his announcement, the divinity of Him who gave it,
the divinity of his own mission, and the soundness of his advice?
_Hendewerk_ is of opinion that "it is difficult to say what the author
would have made to be the sign in the heavens; probably, a very simple
thing." But in making this objection it is forgotten that Isaiah gives
_free choice_ to the king. _Hitzig_ says: "Without knowing it, Isaiah
here plays a very dangerous game. For if Ahaz had accepted his
proposition, Jehovah would [Pg 41] probably have left His servant in
the lurch, and he would have begun to doubt of his God and of himself."
In these words, at all events, it is conceded that the prophets
themselves would not be what people in modern times would have them to
be. If such was their position towards _miracles_, then, in their own
convictions, _prophecies_, too, must be something else than general
descriptions, and indefinite forebodings. But how should it have been
possible that an order could have maint