The verse introduces a further message from the Lord to Isaiah, continuing the prophetic account in chapters 7 through 9. That prophecy was given during the reign of King Ahaz, when God's people were in sin and in moral and physical darkness on the verge of destruction as a nation, yet even in that dark time there were rays of light and hope for the future. The surrounding chapters address the stubbornness of Ahaz and develop a prophecy about the coming Deliverer, Christ. The passage continues the account of the conspiracy against Judah, whose lessons serve as a type of conspiracies in the last days.
The waters mentioned in verses 5 to 8 symbolize peoples and nations. The verse illustrates one of three ways God identifies a nation in prophecy, by naming the river on which its country stands, so the river named identifies the power intended, just as the Euphrates identifies the power of the sixth trumpet. Careful study of the chapter locates its statements about the time of visitation and far-coming desolation and places them in their prophetic setting.
The verse begins an emphatic divine warning against religious confederacies. The later part of the chapter applies to earthly combinations that will unite to uphold human laws and purposes against God's law and will ultimately come into alignment with the beast power. Just as military alliances prepared the nations for the great European conflict, the religious confederacies forbidden here are preparing the religious world for Armageddon.
The verse introduces a further message from the Lord to Isaiah, continuing the prophetic account in chapters 7 through 9. That prophecy was given during the reign of King Ahaz, when God's people were in sin and in moral and physical darkness on the verge of destruction as a nation, yet even in that dark time there were rays of light and hope for the future. The surrounding chapters address the stubbornness of Ahaz and develop a prophecy about the coming Deliverer, Christ. The passage continues the account of the conspiracy against Judah, whose lessons serve as a type of conspiracies in the last days.
The waters mentioned in verses 5 to 8 symbolize peoples and nations. The verse illustrates one of three ways God identifies a nation in prophecy, by naming the river on which its country stands, so the river named identifies the power intended, just as the Euphrates identifies the power of the sixth trumpet. Careful study of the chapter locates its statements about the time of visitation and far-coming desolation and places them in their prophetic setting.
The verse begins an emphatic divine warning against religious confederacies. The later part of the chapter applies to earthly combinations that will unite to uphold human laws and purposes against God's law and will ultimately come into alignment with the beast power. Just as military alliances prepared the nations for the great European conflict, the religious confederacies forbidden here are preparing the religious world for Armageddon.