In the southeast corner of Jerusalem is a spring called Gihon, or the Virgin’s Spring. It lies on the western, lower slope of the Kedron Valley and, in ancient times, was led inside the city walls near the junction of the valleys of Kedron and Hinnon by an aqueduct which fed what was called the Lower, or Old Pool.
To the spring, at the upper end of the “conduit,” were sent Isaiah and his son, Shear-jashub (“The remnant shall return.”) Their purpose was to meet the terror-stricken, wicked King Ahaz of Judah with a message of peace from the God of David. Isaiah and his sons were “signs” to Israel — the sons’ names were significant and set the scenes, by their presence at the pronouncement of their father’s prophecies. (Isa. 8:18)
Shear-jashub — the remnant shall return — represented a hopeful sign; and the message endorsed this hopefulness: “Take heed and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint hearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands …” — a derisive reference to Rezin, king of Syria, who, confederate with Pekah, king of Israel, was threatening Judah’s security and Ahaz’s peace of mind. But Ahaz didn’t have the spiritual resources to meet the challenge. To help bolster the king’s weak faith, Isaiah offered him a sign: “Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God . . . but Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.” No doubt it was only the ostensible reason. Quite probably Ahaz really wanted to shirk the responsibility which a life of faith implies. If one accepts the unarguable evidence of a sign from God, then one is necessarily committed to living one’s life within the constraint that faith implies — a position which presents, in many ways, a challenge far harder to meet than any Syrian-Israeli confederacy. The Ahaz syndrome is familiar. How do you meet the exigencies of secular life without allowing the God of Israel to enter in and control that life? And how do you lead a comfortable secular life if it is controlled by the God of Israel?
So, because of the intransigence of Ahaz, Isaiah offers a sign unbidden: “Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” —God with us. Gihon came to be known as the “Virgin’s Spring,” quite possibly because of its association with this famous prophecy, the ultimate fulfillment of which quite clearly relates to the birth of Jesus. But the prophecy had a far more immediate application. The word for “virgin” simply means “a young woman,” not necessarily unmarried. When Isaiah offered this sign to Ahaz, he very likely indicated, by his use of the word translated “virgin,” his own wife! For at the same time as the Immanuel prophecy was given, Isaiah was commanded to inscribe under the hand of solemn witnesses, in a “great roll” (portentious scroll), “concerning Mahershalal-hash-baz” — a son of Isaiah yet unborn (Isa. 8:1-3). Mahershalal-hash-baz means, ominously, “speed the spoil, haste the prey.”
On the event of the birth of Mahershalal-hash-baz, God said, through Isaiah, “Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and melt in fear before (RSV) Rezin and Remaliah’s son (Pekah) ; now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Syria … and he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and . . . shall fill thy land, 0 Immanuel.” So Mahershalal-hash-baz is Immanuel! Behold the goodness and the severity of God. Ahaz refused the waters of Shiloah. Shiloah, or Siloam in Greek, means “sent.” Like Isaiah and Shear-jashub, sent with a message of peace, the water of Gihon was sent softly down the aqueduct to pass inside the city wall and supply the water of life. It represents the quiet, gentle, controlled providence of God by which we may all “take heed, and be quiet; fear not, nor be faint hearted . . .”.
“There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her (Immanuel); she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.” (Ps. 46) And thus will God be with us — if our faith is sufficiently robust as to allow him to enter into our lives.
But if our faith is not sufficient to allow the waters of Shiloah to ‘go softly,” God will still be with us — there is always the other aspect to the Immanuel prophecy — “the waters of the river, strong and many . . .” (Euphrates) in which we will be all but engulfed (“to the neck” — Isa. 8:8). Thus we must choose — the softly flowing waters of Shiloah, or quietly assured, secure expectation of a life settled in commitment to the Truth, gained by total resignation to God’s provident hand; or else the certain turmoil, doubt, insecurity and possible deconstruction following from our trying to make our own way.
From where we stand, it is too easy to condemn the folly of Ahaz who, when offered the “quiet assurance for ever,” choose instead the way which “sped the spoil and hastened the prey.” But who among us would dare to claim never to have fallen into the same trap ?
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One