Isaiah 8:16

"Bind thou up the testimony, and the law among my disciples. And I will wait for Jehovah, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Behold I and the children whom Jehovah hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Jehovah of hosts, who dwelleth in mount Zion."

"Bind thou up the testimony ..." The meaning here is that Isaiah will interrupt his public ministry for awhile. It is already too late to replace the schemes of Ahaz with a return to the Lord and to trust in his word. We apparently have the same kind of instructions here that God gave to Daniel in Daniel 12:4. Isaiah will no longer (for awhile) lift his voice against the sins of the king and his people; but he will conceal and preserve the prophecies he has given until a later period. In the meanwhile, Isaiah and his two sons, Isaiah in his character and devotion, and the sons in their symbolical names, will continue to be silent, but nonetheless undeniable witnesses of the truth.

A very significant development here is seen in the fact that the righteous "remnant" is effectively separated from the sinful nation as a whole; and that proved to be the very plan that Christ would follow in the building of his Church and the spreading of the gospel.