28:1-6 The Fall of Israel

28:1 Ephraim was Israel’s dominant tribe; Samaria, the capital, was located in Ephraim. The ‘wreath’ was Samaria at the head of a valley, the crown of pride. In pride they dared ignore the Lord in such complacency, they would indulge in wine with no sense of danger. Their beautiful and glorious city would be captured.

28:2-4 The Lord (the word ‘Lord’ here infers sovereignty), had someone who would do that. God would use Assyria to throw down Ephraim’s wreath to the ground. Samaria would fall by the hand of the Lord and be trampled underfoot. It would fall as easily as picking a fig; ‘gulp’ – it is swallowed and gone from sight.

28:5,6 As Isaiah loves to do, the message is quickly reversed. For Israel there is hope; justice will be found among them again, when the Lord will be the beautiful wreath valued by His people. His true people are the remnant. The covenant people were all called to have the Lord as their God, but many rejected Him, yet God preserved His elect remnant, Romans 11:5. In contrast to Isaiah’s day of great injustice, the Spirit of the Lord will affect the ruler or rulers to come. (Compare Isaiah 11:1-3). This brief section is all there is in chapter 28 of Samaria; the rest is related to Jerusalem.

28:7,8 The words “these also” show the text has switched from Samaria to the other capital, the scoffers who rule in Jerusalem, (v.14). The drunken scene relates to more than intoxication. The physical stumbling is matched by unsteady decisions the leaders make (v.7). Priests and false prophets are part of this gross picture where vomit covers the tables.

28:9,10 They are mocking Isaiah, as if saying, “What is this simpleton trying to teach us?” They claimed he spoke to them as if they were children. This mocking shows that the pride of the capital of Israel is matched by the lack of humility in the capital of Judah. Any rejection of any word of God is a matter of a man thinking his wisdom is better than God’s, and that is manifestly very proud. His message of not trusting in Egypt but in the Lord as the refuge against Assyria, was understandable to a child.

Isaiah could write an intricate book with masterful command of his language; he could also speak in simplicity. There is no value in speaking over people’s heads. Yet God has chosen to give us Isaiah’s writings as one of the more intellectually challenging books in the entire Bible.

28:11 The message was rejected. Their ridicule of a message from God as childish language is turned around on them. Someday they will hear in their land strange languages from invaders. In this way God will ‘speak’ in judgment against them. They will struggle like children to learn the new language of invaders. They would not hear what God had said in simple words from Isaiah, so they will suffer defeat from a foreign power and be forced to hear strange new words.

28:14-19 They are called ‘scoffers’, a word used in Proverbs for those who ridicule the wisdom of God. Proverbs 1:22-27 fits this part of Isaiah very well. Scoffers or mockers in their godless ‘wisdom’ do not trust God’s promises. The rulers in Jerusalem had another trust; an alliance with Egypt (30:1-7; 31:1-3). This alliance is called a covenant, one in violation of a covenant with God. They would covenant with Egypt to protect them from Assyria.

Isaiah says what their covenant really means in his words. He ridicules it as a covenant with death, a falsehood. Instead of the resting place God offered, (v.12) they have their refuge and hiding place to shelter them in the storm to come, the Assyrian invasion. Who needs the Lord when one can have Egypt? Assyria is again presented as a flood by use of ‘overwhelming’, (v.15), as in 8:6-8.

In this setting of a false hope in a heathen nation that would let them down terribly, God gives one of the famous gems of His word about Christ. To understand it well, we must see this as a call for a genuine trust in reaction to a false trust. In Zion, God would establish a sure foundation, the very opposite of an unstable alliance. He will set in Zion a stone – in Zion, the very place that is threatened. Note these features:

· In saying “Sovereign Lord”, God emphasizes His authority. The nations have their plans, but so does God, and His is the only one that will happen.

· “I lay…” This is a way to say that His activity in the world is personal and direct. Psalm 2:6 uses the same verb for the same message, “I have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill.” Such language stresses God’s activity. The zeal of the Lord will accomplish it (9:7).

· This promised stone is in Zion, the center of God’s rule on earth.

· The stone is tested. To a builder that would mean it fits. But in salvation, this is a way of telling us that this is the right stone to do what is needed. The policy makers in Jerusalem had what they thought was a clever strategy. But their idea did not fit the plan of God, nor meet the need for safety from the Assyrian threat.

· The stone is precious to God. For those not sure what this stone is, this is an odd thing to hear. God does not mean the stone is pure jade. The value of the stone lies in Who the stone is.

· It is a cornerstone in the foundation, and the others must fit to it and be built on it.

· Isaiah does not say, “trust the stone”, but the stone is connected in some way to faith. In this text God does not say Who the stone is, but Zion was the city of God, the residence of the line of David that God had covenanted to maintain. In 33:6 it says the Lord is “the sure foundation”.

· Those who trust will not be dismayed, a word that always has the sense of hurrying.

Who is the Stone?

In Romans 9:33, Paul quotes Isaiah (8:14 & 28:16) in a conflated quotation. He says, “the one who trusts in him.” Thus the apostle tells us the Stone is a person we should trust in and repeats this in Romans 10:11. Then he says that that “no one can lay any other foundation than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ,” a reference to Isaiah 28:16. In Ephesians 2:20,21, Christ is the chief cornerstone in the foundation. Then Peter in 1 Peter 2:4-8 quotes three OT texts about Christ as the Stone, over whom men stumble in unbelief, (Isaiah 8:14) the precious Stone of Isaiah 28:16 and the Capstone of Psalm 118:22. So we know the Lord was speaking in this verse of Christ, the One in Whom we are to trust. Jesus was not born in Zion, nor did He live there. But as the Son of David, He is the One Who would rule in the capital city. Christ is the foundation on Whom a living building composed of all believers would be built, a holy Temple, the church.

28:17-19 The text speaks of justice and righteousness because the building will be built by such principles. It is on a sure foundation, but the alliance with Egypt is tenuous. Their ‘building’, like the one on sand in Matthew 7:24-27, will be swept away in the coming flood. Their covenant with Egypt will be worthless. The invasion is coming; there will be no stopping it. They ridiculed the simple message (of God’s protection) in v.9; now when they come to understand this current message (of judgment) they will be terrified.

28:20-22 They rejected a good place for repose, (v.12). Now in v.20 they find a different bed, one that gives no rest – too short to stretch out on, with a blanket too narrow to give cover. Thus does the prophet show what a frustrating inadequate arrangement they chose rather than the protection of God Almighty. With the Lord they could sleep well while He watched over Israel, (Psalm 122).

In the past, God rose up to struck down the Philistines at Perazim and Gibeon to preserve the throne of David. (See 2 Samuel 5:17-25.) He would do the same in Isaiah’s day but they did not believe Him. This work of death is God’s alien and strange task, not His preferred work. God in justice punishes sin and kills the wicked because He must to be true to Himself. God saves sinners with grace and compassion because He wants to. He has no joy in the death of the wicked. While the prophet speaks, the message of God through Him continues to be mocked. They should stop or their punishment would be greater. The Lord had told Isaiah what was coming; it was a settled decision.

28:23-29 Illustrations from farming When farmers plow the ground, they do not keep doing that one thing. There is a time when plowing is no longer needed and it is time to plant. They learned that from God. Since God teaches man how to farm, He must know how to do it Himself! He will not keep plowing in judgment; He will turn to planting. His judgments are not just so He can judge His people. Like a farmer, He has a purpose beyond that. Likewise, just as different grains and seeds are harvested with different techniques, so again the Lord knows what He is doing. A heavy-handed grinding would destroy certain seeds, so He will not do a similar thing. God is wonderful in counsel, (same Hebrew words as in 9:6 of Christ!) and in wisdom; He will accomplish His purpose. Just as a good result comes from all the plowing and threshing, these illustrations hint that that kind of wonderful result is coming, and it is in chapter 29.

Isaiah 29

29:1-4 Ariel the altar hearth Ariel is Jerusalem; this is clear when it says “Mount Zion” in v.8. The city of David in Luke 2 is Bethlehem, but in the OT, it is a section of Jerusalem (2 Samuel 5:6-9) where David settled. God’s judgment (“I will besiege Ariel”) is likened to the fire in the altar, a fire necessary for consuming the sacrifice. At that altar the wrath of God was directed against the sacrifice offered for sinners. Thus calling Jerusalem ‘Ariel’, a word that sounds like “altar hearth”, connects well with the message of Jerusalem under the wrath of God for its sin. The historical setting is the attack on Jerusalem in 701 BC by Sennacherib, but the ultimate hand against Jerusalem was the Lord. Three times we read “I” for the Lord Who besieges, encamps and encircles Ariel. Earlier they mock Isaiah loudly and reject the message from the Lord; now they are humbled, speaking only in a whisper.

29:5-8 The change is so sudden we might fail to see that the situation has radically changed. Jerusalem was under God’s judgment but, in His mercy, still alive. In v.5 it is their enemies who are brought to the dust of death to be blown away like chaff. Three times we read of the Assyrian hordes.

Assyria is not named. Sometimes a historical situation not identified, and an enemy not named, helps us apply words like ‘the hordes’ of God’s enemies to other situations. Most psalms are deliberately not specific as to their historical setting. This helps us take the words of such psalms and apply them to our similar setting more readily.

The thunder, earthquake, and noise are not literal; they describe the suddenness of God’s action. God reserves very carefully His sovereign right to act when and how He chooses. The Second Coming of Christ, likewise, will be a sudden unannounced event to the world, the surprise of all surprises. The suddenness here refers to the attackers of Jerusalem who think they have the city in their power, and then in one night find themselves in a very different reality. The man having a dream finds it is just a dream the instant he wakes up; so it will be with the Assyrians. The dreams in this text are of eating and drinking. Their enemies may dream they will consume the city of God; they will not. The same Lord punishing His people, saves His people when they call on Him.

29:9-14 In Isaiah 6:9,10 Isaiah was commissioned to go with a message that would blind those who heard it. Willful blindness brings on judicial blindness. God blinds people in their chosen falsehood when they are eager not to believe His truth. See the case of Ahab in 1 Kings 22. In 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, speaking in the context of Anti-Christ, those who refuse to love the truth shall not have it. God will send a spirit of delusion so that they will believe the lie. This is similar to those devoted to sexual impurity, they will find that God abandons them to it, (Romans 1:21-32), when the Lord gives them such a depraved mind they will pronounce themselves normal. Thus the Lord brings on people a deep sleep, (Romans 11:8), or in Romans 11:7 & 25, the punishment of being hardened by God.

Isaiah gives two scenarios of those who fail to get the message. One can read but won’t; the other cannot read. No one can be saved apart from accepting the Word of the Lord. They must receive God’s truth as truth in order to believe its message. With blind seers and prophets leading the blind (Matthew 15:14, a passage that quotes 29:13), the spiritual plight is horrible. Only a divine intervention can save them; even having the Word of God in hand will not do it. The problem God overcomes is a heart that will not believe. In the very presence of Christ Himself, most who heard Him did not believe even though they saw His mighty works, (Matthew 11:20-24; John 6:36). Therefore He praised His Father, “because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned,” (Matthew 11:25). Hiding truth from wicked men is a form of justice.

29:13 is a famous statement. (See Mark 7 & Matthew 15). To God’s dismay, the outward activity of worship continued without a worshipping heart, (1:10-17). This text raises another issue in worship: May we design our own worship service? The historic Reformed position is that we may not “worship Him in any other manner than He has commanded in His Word,” (Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 96). Thus we must not create our own rules or principles for how we will approach God. We must deduce the elements and principles of worship from Scripture. If something is not there, we may not add it. We must never forget that the broadest principle of worship is that, as sinners, we may approach God only and always by our Mediator, which means we come by way of the blood of Jesus shed for our forgiveness, Hebrews 10:19-22.

29:14 is also a famous statement. The wisdom of the wise will perish. In 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, Paul dismisses the wisdom of the philosopher of this age and of this world. There is no salvation in it. Opposed to this, and deliberately contrasted to it, is the message of the cross. By his wisdom, man has not known God. By God’s wisdom, Christ, the One “Who has become for us wisdom from God,” (1 Corinthians 1:30), we have everything: “our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”

In the context of Isaiah 29, it is clear that the wisdom of trusting Egypt is folly. God destroyed their ‘intelligent’ counsel by the defeat of Egypt. The hordes of Assyrians assembled at the walls of Jerusalem was one way God showed what He thought of their wisdom. Those trusting in Egypt were wrong. The Assyrians trusting in themselves and mocking the true and living God of the Jews were wrong, and Isaiah’s gospel message to trust the Lord was right. It is part of Christian ministry to “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,” (2 Corinthians 10:1-6). It is the activity of the Lord who protects His glory and His truth to do the same.

A wonderful angle easy to miss in this famous verse is related to the words, “once more”. It is also acceptable to translate them, “I will add to act.” This could hint that a new fresh act is in view, namely the destruction of false wisdom, a prelude to the establishment of truth in the minds of those He will save. Salvation is the theme of the next few verses. The destruction of error is a blessing because it opens the door to truth; thus it is part of God’s saving work.

29:15,16 V.15 opens with those who hide from the Lord (Romans 9:16-18), and the section ends with those who acknowledge the Lord, (v.23). Woe to those whose attitudes exclude God from their thinking. They deny His oversight, which is about as atheistic a spirit as one will find in the OT – close to the fool who said in his heart, “There is no God,” (Psalm 14:1). The answer to “Who will see us?” is, “No one!” They must go to great depths because being an atheist is hard work. Every wonder of creation must be denied as the work of an intelligent Lord. Every ethical principle, however essential to life, must be denied as a reflection that we are created in God’s image. The need to keep up a wall against pervasive truth is relentless and exhausting.

They get everything backwards. “As if the potter were like the clay” is another way to say, “As if God were like man.” God is transcendent and is not like us; we have been made to be like Him. Isaiah shows that men may deny God’s distinctiveness (now a major problem among evangelicals in the views of Open Theism). Man denies God’s sovereignty and role as creator when he says “He did not make me”. This is one of the chief confessions of falsehood to which the intelligentsia of our day is ardently devoted. No one is welcome in their club apart from affirming evolution. They also deny His wisdom (“He knows nothing.”) We do not understand our own time in history unless we see that man struts across the earth asserting “I am the potter and God is the clay.” The denial of God in these two verses is vivid, but it is the setup for the wonderful salvation this section moves to.

29:17-21 The turnabout is astonishing. These verses cover nature, spiritual deadness, classes of society, civil stability and a righteous legal system. Earlier the words on the scroll were inaccessible; now the Word will be heard and the blind will see. When the humble and needy are part of rejoicing in the Lord, then the ones at the bottom of a society are not left out. It is the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, they will worship. The streets will be safe from violent persons and justice will be done in the courts. This has only one explanation in light of the blindness and hardening seen in the earlier verses. God has moved to overthrow the wisdom of the world, and to change the hearts of men so they will believe. This all is a way of asserting the benefits of the new covenant, as in Jeremiah 31, a topic Isaiah has not yet opened up fully. The changes in this segment are not possible apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. V.23 will claim that this great change is the work of God’s hands.

29:22-24 The transformation continues from another angle. Both Abraham and Jacob learned to fear the Lord and live consistently in sincere respect for God. If they could see their children in the generations that followed, it would be a tremendous shame to them. By saving their children, God turns the hearts of the fathers approvingly to them, (Malachi 4:6).

Salvation in terms of spiritual life is complete in describing it as keeping God’s name holy; acknowledging the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob; and standing in awe of the God of Israel. The Lord of Jacob did much to change Jacob’s heart throughout his lifetime. Now God says He will do it for Jacob’s children. The wayward will be obedient, not going their own way (53:6), and teachable, taught by the Lord, (54:13).

Isaiah 30-32

The prophecies of Isaiah 28 & 29 are closely related to this section, but Egypt and Assyria were not named in the previous chapters; now they are. Isaiah moves from principles in 28 & 29 to current application in 30 & 31. He also looks to the future when God’s purposes will be completely fulfilled. These chapters should be studied together.

30:1-5 Jerusalem had turned to Egypt for protection. They sent delegates there so they could have Egypt’s help to resist the Assyrian threat. God’s children were obstinate because they did this contrary to warnings from the Lord. God says their plans were not His, not of His Spirit, not helpful and not profitable. “Alliance” is better translated “protective covering”, the same word for the “blanket” in 28:20 that could not protect or cover. Earlier the Lord said whoever trusts in the Stone He would set in Zion would not be dismayed or “put to shame”, (Romans 9:33; 10:11). Those who look to Egypt will be disgraced. (“Looking to” is a synonym for faith; see also 31:1). The people preferred the protective shade of Egypt rather than the Lord who is the real refuge, shelter and shade of 25:4. It is a double disgrace: unbelief in their reliable Lord, and disappointment that will come from trusting in Egypt.

30:6,7 An Oracle re the Negev Jerusalem’s emissaries are already in Egypt. They had to travel through the Negev, the desert region to the south of Jerusalem. They carried gifts to win Egyptian favor, and endured the danger and hardship of that journey, another example of sinners exhausting themselves for nothing, (Jeremiah 51:58). That kind of journey was in the opposite direction of the Exodus from Egypt. In their unbelief they were returning to the oppressor from which the Lord had delivered His people some 700 years earlier. The entire enterprise was a slap in the face of God. For all their effort they gain nothing. ‘Rahab’, which means ‘arrogant’, refers to Egypt (Psalm 87:4, Isaiah 51:9).

30:8 It is wonderful that God has committed so much to writing. Some people will not sign what they say, so their word on another day cannot be compared with their previous promise. Isaiah was to write down his message, (perhaps the oracle of vv.6 & 7), as a witness that he had said what he did. It is vital in a book like Isaiah that we connect the time of a prophecy to an event fulfilled later. The Lord shows His deity by His ability to say in advance what will happen, (See 43:9,10; the prediction is a witness that God is God). Isaiah’s written word was to be “an everlasting witness”. 2700 years later we are still going over every word recorded in his book. God’s people are doing this all over the earth!

30:9-14 Isaiah’s ministry of the Word was rejected, as in 28:9,10. In vv.10,11 Isaiah puts their attitudes into words, just as in 28:15. The people were willing to hear something as long as they could control what was being said. The message they preferred would be morally unchallenging, devoid of the holiness of God, new in the sense of not being the old message of His previous revelation. They wanted the message to be pleasant to them. By asking for illusions, they wanted to have error; they chose to be deceived. (See Zechariah 1:2-6). Isaiah said they were unwilling to listen.

There is a big difference between the one who is blind with no exposure to the Word of God, and the person who is willfully blind, by consciously choosing illusions in rejection of the truth of the Word of God. (Later in Isaiah 42:18-22, God will declare that Israel is blind.)

The result of rejecting the message Isaiah says of those seeking to be free of God’s path that they rely on oppression, an indication that rebels get the opposite of what they seek. They want freedom and get bondage. The penalty is given in vv.12-14 in illustrations of a wall collapsing and pottery being smashed. Again as in 29:5, where judgment is as sudden as an earthquake, the wall will collapse “suddenly, in an instant”. Often God gives no further warning to those already warned, (Proverbs 29:1; Matthew 24:36-39). His warnings may be an irritation to those whose hearts are hard, but they are a mercy ignored.

The rejection was not only of a message and the messenger Isaiah; it was a rejection of the Lord, described twice in vv.11,12 as “the Holy One of Israel”. The mind of human flesh is hostile to God, (Romans 8:7). Salvation cannot occur without hearing the Word, but for the Word to be accepted, there must be a change of heart, i.e., being born of God (John 1:13) by the cleansing Spirit, (John 3:5) in a birth that is from above”, (John 3:3). (The Greek word anothen, translated ‘again’, may also be translated ‘from above’ as it is in John 3:31.) The opposite of the intransigence of 30:9-14 & 16 is found in v.21, “your ears will hear”. Such hearing shows salvation has actually begun.

30:15-17 In this paragraph we are given the message Isaiah gave, which they rejected. Notice they would have none of it. Our sinful condition apart from God’s grace is frightful. They despised salvation and strength. In their delusion they hoped for salvation from Assyria through reliance on Egypt; they hoped for strength from military strength. That was to be frustrated. Isaiah called them to salvation by repentance, which means they should turn back to the Lord and His Word. He expressed faith as “rest”, a wonderful way to present it. (See Hebrews 3:16-4:11). It was not rest to send envoys to Egypt for their help. The trip through the Negev and its dangers carrying gifts to win the favor of liars was not rest; it was a strenuous effort in a vain attempt to secure safety. Quietness is the absence of frenzy and anxiety. Such quietness is trust in Israel’s Almighty God.

Their faith was in fast horses, but the enemies’ horses would be faster. God promised them in Leviticus 26:6-8 peace in their land without fear. This is what quietness is like. He promised to remove wild beasts (Leviticus 26:6), but Jerusalem chose to travel past lions and snakes (30:6). He promised the sword would not pass through their land; their rebellion meant foreign armies would roam through it, (1:7; 5:26). He promised five would chase a hundred (Leviticus 26:8) and now Isaiah says five of them will make the Jews run in fear. Their weakness is described as a thousand fleeing at the threat of one, (v.17), like a flag in a hill with all the soldiers gone.

30:18-26 Good news This paragraph is one of the most encouraging in the Bible. Vv.18-26 show that human sin cannot stop God from being gracious to His people. The section holds out both blessings and abundance. In verses 1-17 there is rejection of the Word, but vv.18-26 show the opposite: a receptive spirit to God’s Word and an obedience that rejects idols.

30:18 Compassion and justice Human sin will be treated in God’s justice; He cannot overlook sin and be Himself. The cross of Christ is the great evidence that God does not excuse sin. He may pardon it, but He never fails to punish it. When the penalty for sin is lifted from us, it is only because it was laid on Christ, (53:6).

V.16 had a double “therefore” as does v. 18 (though the NIV unfortunately does not show it in v.18). This is a link between the verses. In v.16 the “therefore’s” are related to judgment; in v.18, to compassion. The judgment had to come first since the grace of God does not circumvent the justice of God. Grace works by justice being satisfied, not by justice avoided. V.18 could be translated “He will wait in order to be gracious.” Here God stresses devotion to His purpose using language of longing. When we read that one ‘rises’, it shows motivation and strong desire, (Jeremiah 7:25).

30:19 By stating Jerusalem and Zion, it commits God to the specific place under threat. This is not a promise to some unidentified place. Knowing this, the people could live in quietness and trust, (v.15).

30:20,21 First their bread was adversity; later there will be plentiful food, (v.23). The contrast is between bread of adversity (i.e., suffering) and the presence of their teacher. Everyone who sins suffers the adversity that comes from sinning. That will change in this new day when instead of sinning, the Lord their Teacher, will be present to give constant instruction. (Teachers could be singular or plural here.) The Lord will no longer hide His face from them, (8:17; 45:15). They will see Him, i.e., immediate contact. He will watch over them so carefully that He will keep them from sinning. If they stray to the right or the left, they will have immediate correction. “So be careful to do what the LORD your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you… so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess”. This is the commandment in Deuteronomy 5:32,33, (a command tied to teachers in Deuteronomy 17:11, and to other gods in 28:12-14). But here in Isaiah 30 we have a situation where one can no longer stray; Isaiah speaks of the glorified state where His people are held to holiness by their divine Teacher, and are finally in full conformity to Christ, (Romans 8:29). An immediacy in answered prayer, instruction and of God’s presence among them, describes the New Jerusalem, (Revelation 21,22).

30:22 At one time Israel was devoted to the worship of the gods of their neighbors. This will change to a revulsion toward those idols, in spite of the work put into making them and the value of the gold and silver on them. In 2:20 men throw away their idols because the idols disappointed them, but in 30:22, they will reject idols out of love for God.

30:23,24 This is the result of redemption of the earth itself from the curse on it in Genesis 3:17-19. God will give rain, (i.e., proper conditions) and the earth will give in abundance. (See Amos 9:13-15). Even the animals will eat well. In broad meadows they will be undisturbed. Suffering from Adam’s sin will be over for both man, animal, and all creation, (Romans 8:18-25).

30:25,26 A great slaughter is in the future but not for God’s people, thus this reference to falling towers (see 2:12-18). For them there will be no more tears, the water of affliction of v.20. God’s blessing is deliberately exaggerated as if water actually flowed on the top of mountains, and the sun and moon would give greatly magnified light; there will be an awesome change. It is the picture of a creation that no longer holds back its benefits of water and light; both are released in their full power. This is in conjunction with the Lord healing His people. Once He inflicted them for their sin; now having redeemed them, He heals them. Full redemption includes the inanimate creation and the sinful creature. (Only fallen angels have no redemption at all.)

30:27-33 Back to Assyria This section begins with the name of the Lord and ends with the breath of the Lord, (v.33). His Name is the summary of His revealed character. The wrath of the Lord is against those who harmed His people, with a special focus on punishing Assyria in v.31.

30:27,28 All three stanzas of this section have consuming fire or burning in some form, with a climax in the prepared fire Topheth. This is like the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, (Matthew 25:41). While this is a figure of speech, fire is the metaphor most used for the wrath of God on sinners. The notion now being promoted that hell is only the consequences of man’s choices, is a half-truth that seeks to devalue the Biblical emphasis that eternal judgment is the direct punishment of God. Here the burning anger is presented as from His lips, His tongue, His breath and He is the one who shakes the nations.

God shakes the nations is a sieve of destruction. As in Matthew 13:47-50, this passage may also be teaching that there is a sifting in the day of judgment to separate the wicked from the righteous. In Matthew 13 angels separate; in this Isaiah text, it is God shaking the sieve.

30:29,30 Celebrating judgment This stanza contains singing and musical instruments (also found in v.32). In Revelation 19:1-4 there is cheering and praise to the Lord over the destruction of Babylon. Here they rejoice in His judgment. This is not the same as gloating, but when evil men finally face justice, it is always a matter of rejoicing, even if sorrow accompanies it. In this stanza, the arm of the Lord is God acting directly.

30:31-33 The music and judgment continue without any apology for God’s enthusiasm in dealing with Assyria so severely. Assyria may march confidently to Jerusalem, but it is God who has prepared the funeral pyre for the Assyrian king. Assyria was God’s punishing rod against others, including Judah (10:5). Now for its sin, it will face “the Light of Israel” as the flame (10:17) to light the ample supply of wood when God sets it all ablaze in His anger. The word Topheth may be a combination of the words for fire-place and shame. (See 2 Kings 23:10; Jeremiah 7:31,32).

31:1 Isaiah keeps up the theme that trust in Egypt is evil. Faith hopes for what is not seen, (Hebrews 11:1). The thinking of man who has no thought of God, is to rely on what he can see. In this verse it is horses, chariots, and horsemen. Maybe when they came near the Lord in worship (in the sense of 29:13), with good words such as Psalms 33 & 76 (both of which mention horses), they sang truth that did not affect them. In time of trouble, they would not choose the Lord but the horses of Egypt to be their savior.

31:2,3 It was the Lord Who brought the Assyrian disaster, (10:6). It was the Lord Who promised the preservation of the throne of David (He does not take back His words). It is the Lord Who will rise up against the help of Egypt, (the evil-doers), a help that competes with His help. These Egyptians are men and not God. God’s people failed to think of God as God, so their faith would naturally seek some other trust (no matter how unworthy) once the transcendent God faded in their thinking. When they lost the distinction between flesh and spirit; they were left with only flesh – in this case, horse flesh. God has no pleasure in the strength of a horse (Psalm 147); His delight is in those that fear Him. By simply moving His hand, God can make the helper (Egypt) to stumble and the one seeking such help (Judah) to fall. True faith believes in One we cannot see, (1 Peter 1:3-9).

31:4,5 Two animal illustrations For their sin, God fights against Mount Zion by using the Assyrians to chasten them. The Egyptians can no more prevent God doing that than a group of shepherds can frighten a lion growling over its prey. With the kind of abruptness we see in Isaiah (compare 29:5), the text turns to the Lord protecting His people. Punishment and protection can come together, (see 1:24-26). Like birds hovering overhead, the Lord will shield and protect Jerusalem.

31:6-9 Not believing in such a wonderful Lord is a terrible sin, so Isaiah calls for repentance. A misdirected faith will always lead to terrible disappointment. Strong feeling against idols will come for all who trust false gods. “The Lord will be exalted in that day; the idols will totally disappear,” (2:17,18) Isaiah probably means by “in that day” the Judgment Day. Then it will be horribly clear to idolaters that their idols are worthless. The message of the Bible is to turn from those idols before their helplessness is evident to all the world in that great day when all shall see that only God is God, (Phil. 2:9-11).

The deliverance from Assyria would not be one where any idol can claim credit. It would happen in such a plain way that Jerusalem will realize that it was the Lord alone Who rescued them. The sword of man would not be allowed on this occasion to have even the appearance of saving them. The Savior is not mortal man but the living God. He used a disease to devour the Assyrian horde, (10:16). Later, after whatever Assyrians still alive returned home, Assyria deteriorated till the day its young men became slaves of others. Their rock was their king, who at the walls of Jerusalem did not crash into a stone wall but into the Rock of Israel (30:29) and was destroyed. He ran into the stone that causes men to stumble, (8:14,15). He ran into Jesus Christ the Stone, (1 Peter 2:8) Who in protecting His people, made the mighty King of Assyria fall. Just as He hovered over Jerusalem to save them from Assyria, He later offered His wings again in His days on earth. But Jerusalem would not have it, so He left them unprotected in their unbelief to be overrun by a different horde, the Romans, (Luke 13:34).

The Assyrian defeat is one of terror because the Lord is in Zion and His fire is holy fire. Assyria approached the city where God had placed His Name and found the God of Israel to be a consuming fire. The Lord Who lived in Jerusalem is holy. As covenant keeper, God could be trusted to keep His promise; as holy, He would never approve of sin. Thus He is both a Savior of sinners and the danger to sinners still in sin. The King of Assyria walked into the consuming fire and learned truth about the God of Israel. Israel’s God is the real God. No man on earth is safe from God unless His only hope is the Lord Jesus Who, for His own, underwent the fire of divine wrath against sin.

Isaiah 32

In 31:6-9 there were two judgments, the ultimate one at the end and the one near in time against Assyria. Two kings are also mentioned: one was the evil king of Assyria (31:9); the other is Christ, the good King to come, (32:1). This part of Scripture speaks of the major transformation of the world itself. It shows the conduct of a people whose conduct and speech is radically changed when the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord, (11:9). In His Word, God often holds together what is with what should be and what will be when the Lord returns. (See 2:5 after the astounding prediction of 2:2-4!)

32:1 The Messianic King of chapters 9 & 11 will reign in righteousness, and so will the princes under Him. This chapter does not dwell on the righteousness of His reign but in the resulting righteousness to be found in His subjects, vv.3,4.

32:2 How this is translated obviously affects whether it speaks of the one man, Christ, or other men. We may say, “A man would be wise to do this …” and when we do that, we do not have only one man in mind. But while it is possible in the grammar of 32:2 to speak of “each man” without one man in mind, the context is describing a king, one certain king, Christ. Isaiah is not speaking of a number of men. Would Isaiah really say that a number of men are each a shelter and refuge, when the Bible presents only the Lord Himself that way? (See 25:4 and 4:6.) Isaiah speaks of “a king” (v.1), and then speaks of this great king as “a man”, referring only to Christ.

The picture is then of protection and provision – protection from natural dangers of wind and water, and provision of shade from heat and water to sustain life. Vv.1-8 show a spiritual change illustrated by spiritual sight and knowledge (vv.3,4). So vv.1,2 should be seen this way. The Lord is a shelter and refuge from eternal danger brought on us by our sin. The danger to every sinner is the Lord God Himself, because in His holy justice, He must reward our sin with death. But the Lord is our Refuge, because in His grace God has provided Christ. Since Christ took the guilt and punishment of our sin, in Him we have full forgiveness and shelter from the wrath of God. Apart from Christ that wrath would be upon us. Christ is our Shelter.

32:3-5 The reign of Christ will bring about change in those who enjoy His reign. These changes are perception (eyes), reception (ears), grasp of truth (mind), and communication of truth (tongue). Blindness to God’s truth (6:10; 29:9,10) will be removed. His people will no longer be rash; they will not talk without knowledge. No longer will fools be admired.

32:6-8 The future day will have no fools, but till then they are still with us. Isaiah describes in vv.6,7 how godless men speak and of the ruin they bring to others. They teach error concerning the Lord. We must beware of false teachers. (See Acts 20:29-31; all of 2 Peter and Jude; Philippians 3; 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 2 Timothy 3-4:5; 2 Corinthians 11:1-15, and Galatians). False teachers are noted for immoral lives and deceit. Following them brings emptiness, dissatisfaction, and destruction. This is a powerful Scripture to show us that doctrine is important. False doctrine and ungodly conduct are the devil’s trade. This must be answered by truth proclaimed and godly lives. When this is so, the quality of a noble man will be revealed. The wicked will not stand in the judgment; his way will perish, (Psalm 1).

32:9-14 Isaiah addresses different segments of society from prophets to priests to old and young. Here he speaks again, as in chapter 3, to complacent and selfish women. A failure to take serious things seriously is a sin. These women feel secure because they do not believe the prophet’s warning and cannot sense the famine that is coming. But the trouble is worse than a crop failure; the fields that produce the grapes will be overrun and the city itself will be deserted. Since Jerusalem did not fall to Assyria, Isaiah refers in this paragraph to the later Babylonian captivity when the people of Jerusalem would go into captivity. Then the animals could move in and live where people used to live. Unaware of all this, the women were confident of good times, but it was a false confidence. The stripping of clothes here probably refers to being taken as slaves.

32:15-18 Another great blessing is still ahead for God’s people. God will pour out His Spirit upon those who are truly His people. Vv.6-14 show how bad it can be among the covenant people. God cannot be defeated in accomplishing His purposes. To bring righteousness among us, He had to send Christ, our Refuge from wrath, the Redeemer of His people from their sin. This same chapter promises the other great ‘sending’, the sending of the Holy Spirit. The language used is “pouring” because the Spirit’s work of bringing life is sometimes compared to water poured on dry ground (44:3,4).

Just as water brings life to plants in desert and forest, the Holy Spirit will bring justice, righteousness, and peace, the opposite of the disaster in vv. 9-14. No longer is the new earth under a curse but blessing. The gospel is of salvation by resting in God’s promise (30:15). The Spirit produces righteousness in God’s people and that brings peace, quietness and confidence. In the new earth there will be no more war or conflict. The prophecy is not intended to inform us of what our houses will be like, but of peaceful life undisturbed by any external threat or internal sin. In the future kingdom of the Righteous King, Who pours His Spirit upon His own, there will be no threat to peace and righteousness.

32:19,20 The section ends with an epilogue. The world shall experience the wrath of God, shown by a destroyed forest and a leveled city. That judgment is real and is ahead for all who will not believe. The other experience is of the peace and happy fulfillment of one who can go about his business in safety. He is blessed and thus not under wrath. Even his animals live in security and without fear.

The Work of the Spirit We should note that the Spirit is poured out. Water is used a number of times as a way to describe the giving of life. Everyone born of the Spirit is born of water (John 3:1-8). The new life is like water on dry ground; nothing can live without new life from the Spirit. (Ezekiel 36:25-27). Christ’s work on the cross is outside us, but no one would ever believe in Him unless born of the Spirit, (John 1:13). Our salvation depends on a work entirely outside us (Christ’s finished work on the cross), and entirely on a work in us (the Holy Spirit’s continuing work). The Spirit is from “on high”, (heaven), a point emphasized in Luke 24:49 and Acts 2:33. Since Christ and the Father sent the Spirit, it was essential that our Lord should first ascend to heaven. John baptized with water, but Jesus would baptize with the Spirit, Matthew 3:11, Whom He poured out from heaven on His church on the Day of Pentecost. (See Acts 10:44-48).

Isaiah 33-35

This section of Isaiah is similar to 29:15-24 and stresses that God not only has a plan in mind, but that He acts on it in history. This section often places together what God did in Isaiah’s day and what He will do at the end of history. Thus the downfall of Assyria is related (not in time but in similarity) to the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom of Christ. We need to remember that God’s past acts are parallel to His future acts; the same Lord is at work. 33:1 has the last of 6 ‘woes’. Woes 1-3 focus on history and 4-6 include more of the ultimate future. Betrayers (33:1,8) cannot frustrate God’s will (33:3,10). His kingdom will come (33:13-24). The enemy will finally be defeated (chapter 34), and God’s people will make their pilgrimage back to Zion (chapter 35).

33:1 The destroyer is Assyria, a nation that had tricked Jerusalem into paying a large price to be spared. Hezekiah took gold and silver from the Lord’s Temple and gave it to the Assyrians, (2 Kings 18). This was shameful and it did not work, because Assyria broke covenant (33:8) and attacked Jerusalem anyway. God pronounces that the betrayer Assyria will be betrayed. The world is characterized by deceit.

33:2-4 Judah’s habit was to trust deceivers. Now we have the language of repentance. Now they cry to the Lord to save them. They should have prayed this way from the beginning instead of running to Egypt for help. The world looks for pragmatic solutions; the people of God look to God’s promises. “We long for you” shows a great change of heart. Now they trust in the Lord Who speaks/rises up to deliver His own. The verbs ‘scattered’ and ‘flee’ are past tense; the looting takes over when no opposition is able to stop it. This is written as if it had already happened. In prophecy a prediction of the future is so certain it may be spoken of as a past event. The destroyer Assyria (v.1) is spoken of as destroyed.

33:5,6 Now God’s people are no longer blind; they see clearly that God is the exalted Lord. Both things come together: the defeat of the wicked and the salvation the Lord gives. He is determined to fill Zion with justice and righteousness. Statements like that show an eschatological flavor. After Hezekiah, the reign of Manasseh was a very evil time. God spared Jerusalem from Assyria in Hezekiah’s day, but He will fill Zion with righteousness in the day of Christ. “Your times” are new and better days, the opposite of their times of distress. When eventually Zion is filled with justice, the Lord Himself Who cannot sin will be their sure foundation. (Our place is as secure as the conduct of Jesus is righteous.) Since ‘this’ treasure is masculine, it should read ‘His’ treasure. Thus all God’s resources will benefit His people, which is salvation complete. “Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed,” (Romans 13:11); it is not yet finished. God’s storehouse of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge is Christ (Colossians 2:2,3; 1 Corinthians 1:30). The fear of the Lord is a gift God uses to bless us.

33:7-12 This chapter is so focused on Assyria’s immediate betrayal that the betrayal by Egypt is already a fact. (See the note on 33:1 above). Vv.7-12 are God’s Judgment on the people, not an external enemy but sinners in Zion, (v.14).

33:7-9 The immediate crisis. The brave men of Jerusalem and the envoys negotiating with the Assyrians face the Assyrian demand for surrender (Isaiah 36). They are distressed. The danger is so great no one is traveling on the roads. The Assyrians have come to conquer. The agreement is broken; life and truth are not respected. The situation is pictured as if the cedars of Lebanon were dying. Fertile places with more rain like Carmel and Bashan face drought, and Sharon on the coast is like the Arabah, a desert. The dire situation is of nature in decay; man’s sin brought God’s curse on the earth, (Genesis 3:17-19).

33:10-12 In man’s terrible plight, God loves to show His glory. Three times we read ‘now’. ‘Now’ is a word of time, the decay precedes the ‘now’ of God’s intervention. When the wrong counsel of their wise men is shown to be worthless – mere chaff and straw – there is a ‘now is the time’ for God in His exalted role. For God to be truly high, man must be brought low, (2:9-11). In their supposed wisdom they left God out of their thinking (29:1; 30:1,2; 31:1).

They brought on themselves consuming fire. Isaiah is very clear that God does not save people by avoiding condemnation and the active wrath of God on our sin. The consuming fire is never an option for either sinners in their sins or those being saved from sin. The consuming fire is a necessity, a necessity for God to be God. The cross of Christ is not merely an illustration of self-giving love; it was Christ enduring from the Father all that our sins deserved. Then when the consuming fire has done its holy work, the benefits of God’s kindness to us may flow unimpeded.

33:13-16 Who can live in the Presence of the Lord? Vv. 13-24 are a proclamation, “Hear!” This is followed by a second proclamation, “Listen; pay attention” (34:1-17). The first says more of the salvation of Zion; the second is entirely judgment on the nations.

33:13 The Book of Isaiah opens with a call to heaven and earth to hear God’s complaint about His rebellious people, (1:2-4). Here in v.13 all who are far and near must hear. (When Isaiah refers to extremities, such as “near & far”, it is a literary device to indicate all everywhere). The Lord has something to say! Beginning an announcement this way indicates its importance. The Lord Jesus sometimes used “truly, truly” to begin a very important statement (John 5:24). What is this very important message in vv.13-16? It is a word to sinners that God will not allow sin in His presence. Sinners should heed this; if they do not, they will be terrified.

33:14 I think the question, “Who of us can dwell in the consuming fire?” must be answered, “None of us, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23). But the Bible teaches that there is forgiveness and that God does produce righteousness in His people. God does both: He gives righteousness as a gift to secure our status, and He also produces holy living in us. Here in vv.13-16 the text speaks of the holiness that must be in the life of everyone in God’s presence. “Without holiness no one will see the Lord,” (Hebrews 12:14). The godless are “sinners in Zion”; though they are covenant people, they are still godless. They are covenant people in His holy city who are hypocrites. Their confidence that they may reside with God in His city is a false confidence.

They are unaware of God’s purity and hatred of sin, a holiness that responds to sin as a consuming fire. Those who live in sin are not His true people (I Corinthians 6:9-11; Ephesians 5:5-7) and will be consumed, (Revelation 21:7,8). Isaiah 33 is meant to sober everyone, because we all have sins. It should make us take confession of sin and repentance very seriously. It should also make us keenly aware that it is Christ we need, and in the gospel, Christ that we have. He died for the sins of His people; He gives the Holy Spirit who produces righteousness in us. At His coming that transformation will be complete, so that in the New Jerusalem, we will be without sin. Then God, the consuming fire, will walk with all His redeemed children without consuming them. In later verses, the Lord is the one who saves (v.22) and forgives (v.24), so it is clear that “he who walks righteously” is a sinner who has been forgiven. The Lord Jesus is the only man in heaven Who can be in the presence of God in His own righteousness.

Remember, if God should mark our sins and charge us for them, none of us could stand, (Psalm 130:3). Thank the Lord, with Him there is forgiveness, (Psalm 130:4, Micah 7:18) and purification from all our sin, (1 John 1:9). Salvation includes justification in which we are forgiven, and sanctification in which we are made holy. The two are never separated; if one is absent, so is the other. God heals the waywardness of His people, (Hosea 14:4).

One terrible error some make in reading a text like Isaiah 33:13-16 is that they see clearly that the justified are holy. From this they make a false conclusion, they think people are justified by being holy. This is the old error of telling people that a person becomes a Christian by being one. The Bible teaches that justified persons are saints and become saints, so they suppose that people are justified because they are saints. That confuses cause and result. We are justified only because of the obedience of Christ for us; this new status results in God declaring us righteous and giving us the Spirit Who makes us obey.

33:15,16 So we are warned in vv. 13-16 that how we walk and speak, how we treat others concerning money, whether we will pervert justice for a bribe, whether we will respect the life of our neighbor, and whether we plan evil – all these reveal whether we are true covenant people or sinners who live in Zion, who will be consumed in the holy fire of God. The man who shuns his sin will dwell safely on high with the Lord, enjoying the Lord’s care and provision forever. A text like this must be read in the light of Revelation 21,22.

The Lord among His People 33:17-24

33:17 The preceding verse places the righteous man “on the heights” with the Lord; now the dwelling of God is with men, (Revelation 21:3). Like Job, in our flesh we shall see God, (Job 19:25-27). We know from v.22 the king of v.17 is the Lord Himself. The spacious land not divided or restricted (the way the land of Israel is today) will stretch into the distant horizon, (v.17).

33:18,19 When that day comes, people will reflect on what it was once like. They will remember foreigners who occupied their land; now they are gone! No longer will the sounds of an alien language be among them, as in 28:11-13. They are free from oppressors.

33:20 The festivals represent their religious life; the Lord will be worshipped. Jerusalem will have peace and will be settled in one place. The days of pilgrimage are over; no more pulling up the tent and moving on; they are home at last.

33:21-23 These verses combine the Lord’s presence with the mention of ships. I think it is a picture of God’s might protecting them from a foreign warship. The land is safe, (v.20); now Isaiah adds that no enemy will approach by sea and go upstream to attack. The enemy vessel lies dead in the water, destroyed, and its goods the possession of all God’s people. (Even the slow ones, the lame, go home with plunder.) The Lord is Mighty, the Judge who delivers and the Lawgiver who directs into His will. In that day, His will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven.

33:24 Sin afflicts us physically and in our relationship with God. The future experience is that all will be well in body, and all sins are removed.

34:1-17 This second announcement is of judgment; all nations must pay attention. There is not one word of appeal and not one word of mercy in it. When final judgment finally comes, there will be no opportunity for repentance. If they call, God will not answer, (Proverbs 1:28-33). The mercy of God is that he tells us all this in advance. So v.1 calls on the nations to listen. Why should they listen? Four reasons are given:

1) The Lord has indignation, 34:2-4 Strong words are used for the heat of wrath and anger. The wrath of God is always on those who do not believe, (John 3:36). Often God in patience restrains His wrath, but this wrath will be released in acts of judgment, when sinners get what they deserve. When God’s wrath is released, there is a pile of bodies, those He will kill in His anger. This text includes the smells and sights. It is so drastic it is like the entire universe caving in with stars falling from their place, (an example of apocalyptic language).

2) The Lord’s sword is active 34:5,6 God’s sword is not a decoration that sits unused. It is full as if it could drink blood, and bathed as if covered with blood. Edom is spoken of for reasons given above. Its destruction is total (v.5) with no survivors, (Obadiah 18).

3) The Lord has a sacrifice 34:6,7 This is one of the saddest things in the Bible to read. So often the sacrifice of animals is given to teach the grace of God in providing a substitute who would be sacrificed for us. Christ is the sacrifice Who has suffered the wrath of God for His people, (1 Corinthians 5:7; Ephesians 5:2; Hebrews 9:26 and Hebrews 10). But that sacrifice may be rejected, as Hebrews 10:26 warns, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” In Isaiah 34 the Lord has a sacrifice different from all the sacrifices in His Temple. No longer is there a sacrifice in the place of sinners; this one is the sacrifice of sinners themselves.

4) The Lord has a day of vengeance 34:8 This great slaughter is a day of vengeance, (v.8) and retribution. In Isaiah 34 there is a memory of Edom’s past sins against Zion. It is God’s role to avenge and He will do so, (Romans 12:19). The books will be opened and the dead will be judged according to what they have done, (Revelation 20:11-15). Either way, the justice of God is satisfied; it will be through the sacrifice of the Savior or the sacrifice of those who have no Savior. Justice will never be violated. Never has God given any sinner more than he deserves.

34:10 This part ends with the words “generation to generation”. The land of Edom is pictured as on fire, God’s frequent metaphor for the ultimate judgment. Even its streams of water are burning pitch. As in the end of Babylon in Revelation 19:3, the smoke rises forever. God has emphasized finality; there is no new day, no recovery, no hope; God is done with them. The destruction is permanent.

34:10-17 It is desolate because no man will be part of Edom again. Weeds and animals overtake the land. They are the ones that will not be disturbed by people again in Edom. Her nobles and princes are gone, (v.12). The words chaos and desolation in v.11 are the same Hebrew words translated formless and empty in Genesis 1:2. For the redeemed, God makes everything new, (Revelation 21:5). For sinners who end life still in their sin, God makes their world like the chaos prior to the original creation. So for Edom, the animals move in and make their home in the homes of those who can never return. God has so ordered and will make it happen by His Spirit. The way an inheritance is given out, with this item assigned to one person and that to another, the animals and birds will receive as their inheritance what once belonged to Edom, and that is how it will be forever. In hell, when people have thoughts of their homes, there is this sober Scripture (committed to writing on a scroll, v.16) to tell them all has been given to the birds and it will remain that way forever from generation to generation. (See v.10).

35:1,2 Under the judgment of God, the dust of Edom will turn to burning sulfur, (34:9). Now we read the opposite; parched land will be glad. It will shout for joy. In this chapter, the results are told before the cause. The physical creation is changed to new life, but there is more; it has other qualities; it is joyful. In this way the outer is symbolic of a great inner transformation. Yet with all this glory from God all around them, they see the glory of God. The joy of the future is not merely improved surroundings, but communion with God and a true knowledge of Him in every heart. “They will see the glory of God…” The text does not yet say who the “they” are.

35:3,4 Here is a call to be encouraged. We are responsible for our own encouragement by heeding the things God has said to promote it. This chapter just gave a picture of a renewed earth as an expression of God’s glory, plus the assurance that we shall see the glory of God and His majesty. This is a promise of more than what God allowed when Moses asked to see God’s glory, (Exodus 33:18). In the light of what God will do, we are called upon to strengthen feeble hands. (See Hebrews 12:12). Discouragement is related to a refusal to keep in mind God’s promises. Encouragement is related to obeying the Lord who directs our minds into His ways and His purpose. Faith believes that what He says, He will do. Faith looks to the city Isaiah 35 reveals. Faith gives hope for the future, and sees in the distance what God has promised, (Hebrews 11:10,13,14). Faith obeys the command to look to the Lord. V.4 says, “Behold your God”, and pays attention to what He will do. God will set things right in relation to our adversaries, and in relation to His own, bring about a completed salvation. We cannot ask for more.

35:5,6 Then – we must be patient till the then comes – THEN will all our weaknesses be removed. Eyes and ears are receptive organs; legs and tongues are tools needed for activity. Incapacity will be gone, enabling greater enjoyment of the Lord, as in v.2. Joy (v.6) is already a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22,23), but God has not yet given the Spirit to all in the fullness of His power. (To this, Christ was the exception, John 3:31-35). God presently makes love, joy and other fruit of the Spirit increase; in the Day of the Lord it will be complete, (1 Thessalonians 3:12,13), with no more sorrow, (v.10).

35:6-8 Why will this happen? The reason is that water will gush in the desert. Water is mentioned in four ways. The message is that new life – always from the Holy Spirit – is being generated in nature again. In vv.5,6 this new life affects people. The change is the opposite of desolation, the opposite of the judgment of God in Isaiah 34. In this new setting, there is a Highway. It will “be there”. It is the Way of Holiness, but who will travel this road? Before he tells, Isaiah says who will not be there: no unclean, no fools. (Fools, as in Proverbs, reject the wisdom and fear of the Lord.)

God says we have sin; if we say we have no sin, we make God a liar, (1 John 1:8-10). If the unclean cannot enter, who then can be on this road? Salvation includes the righteousness of Christ imputed to us – not ours improved, but His perfect righteousness given. Then the Spirit’s transformation will be complete and all those in Christ will qualify, because God qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light,” (Colossians 1:12,13). In Christ, we are declared clean (righteous) when we believe. Christ is our righteousness, but He is also our sanctification, (1 Corinthians 1:30), so His saints are those who have begun to walk in the way of holiness.

35:9,10 There and then, there will be safety; no lion can attack there and then. Danger is still with us in this life, (1 Peter 5:8). In vv.9,10 the text is explicit on who will make it safely all the way to Zion: “The redeemed will walk there.” Then they are called ransomed. Both words indicate that the payment of a price has been made. ‘Redeemed’ means a payment has been made to acquire. ‘Ransomed’ is more that a payment has been made to liberate. It is our Lord Jesus Christ Who has redeemed us with His blood, (Ephesians 1:7). It is He Who came “to give His life as a ransom for many,” (Mark 10:45). In the OT a man who took on the place and duty of a dead relative, or a relative in poverty, is called a “redeemer’. For Jesus to call Himself our redeemer means He has taken us in as His next-of-kin and then acted to take on the burden of our trouble. The opposite of the joy Isaiah 35 mentions is sorrow. Sorrow and sighing will flee away, never to return.

36:1-3 Just as 1:7-9 says, Jerusalem was like a city under siege, its surrounding cites burned with fire. The Egyptian army had already been defeated; now a high Assyrian officer demands Jerusalem’s surrender. He met Jewish officials [see names in 22:15-25] at the very place where Isaiah talked with King Ahaz some years earlier (7:3). At that location Ahaz had rejected the promise of the Lord when he decided to put his faith in Assyria. The aqueduct was the water supply Jerusalem trusted rather than the Lord (22:8-11). Now in Isaiah 36, with Assyria on the verge of overwhelming them, the officer made his threats beside the famous aqueduct.

36:4-10 The first message to Hezekiah

The officer argues that Egypt can be no help, that they have a problem with the Lord, that they lack a powerful army and the Assyrians even have a mandate from the Lord to attack Jerusalem. This pagan man had two misunderstandings about the Lord:

· In his mind it would be a sign of rebellion against the Lord for Hezekiah to remove those high places and altars. Hezekiah had reestablished the worship of the Lord at the Temple, (1 Chronicles 29:35; 2 Kings 18:1-4). The officer interpreted this as Hezekiah drawing back from the Lord, but it was really the opposite.

· He misunderstood prophecies he had heard that the Lord would bring Assyria against Jerusalem. The officer being there was a fulfillment of prophecy! (7:17). At the time the enemy was to come against them (29:3), the people of Jerusalem would be brought low. God would hear their whisper (29:4) and be a devouring fire to fight the hordes that attack Jerusalem (29:6,7). He did not know God promised to defend Jerusalem.

Isaiah had appealed for trust in the Lord. His countrymen would not listen. Then he said they would hear the same message in a foreign language (29:11), a message not to trust Egypt. Here is the fulfillment; an Assyrian in a foreign tongue telling them the same thing in vv.6 & 9.

36:11-21 The second message

Here is one of the most famous blasphemies in history. The officer spoke of the Lord as if He were like one of the false gods. (See 10:9-11).

The officer spoke so Jerusalem would be terrified of a siege. He knew somehow that Hezekiah’s view was to trust the Lord. This he quoted accurately and contradicted. Like Satan, he invited with sweet words that they should accept (slavery) in Assyria. But his greatest error and sin was to compare the covenant-keeping Almighty Lord with the gods of other nations. He ridiculed the Living God (37:4). God takes it personally when He is blasphemed (37:6; Exodus 20:7). That officer had no idea that Assyria was a mere tool in the hand of the Sovereign God (10:5-7,15). God was using Assyria for His purpose, (Proverbs 21:1). The Assyrian mistakenly thinks of his king (v.4) as “the Great King”. (See Psalm 95:3) He asks the right question, “Who of all the gods is able to save…?” He will get a shocking answer when God displays His glory. (The Book of Isaiah stresses that God is Savior. In later chapters, 43-63, God is called Savior seven times, and four in the other prophets.)

God has given us the prophecy of Isaiah that we might know the glory of the Lord. The earth is full of His glory (6:3). He will not be thought of as one like the idols (42:8). He cannot yield His glory as God to anyone, or allow His Name to be defamed (48:11). Among His people He gains glory (26:15), and thus He must enlarge that nation and not let Jerusalem fall to Assyria when His people trusted Him. He displays His glory in Israel (44:23), a glory Israel will proclaim to the nations (66:19). The nations will see this (62:2) and join in giving glory to the Lord, (24:15,16).

36:22 – 37:7 The appeal to Isaiah

The intimidating message comes to Hezekiah, and he sends word to the prophet. Finally, they are taking the Lord seriously; they seek the intercession (37:4) of Isaiah – the same prophet who earlier had been ridiculed, (28:9,14). Notice they ask prayer for a remnant because that is all that is left. They were in more than distress, since Hezekiah added “rebuke and disgrace,” (v.3). The rebuke was that God controlled events to show their past strategy was wrong, when they rejected His Word through Isaiah. Their foolish choices led to disgrace. Their Egypt policy had made fools of them, yet God is a God of mercy to all who will humble themselves before Him. There is no record that Isaiah stopped to pray. The Word of the Lord had already been revealed, so Isaiah gave it immediately

That message was that they should not be afraid; the Assyrians will leave. The so-called great king will return home and eventually he would be the one to be cut down with the sword, (37:38). The king of this world will be destroyed; Hezekiah, the son of David, will live. God would put a spirit in Sennacherib to cause him to go home (after great loss of life for his army). God would confuse him. The Lord sent an evil spirit on Saul (1 Samuel 16:14). He controls even demons and rumors. The report was false, one God used for His purpose. (See 19:14; Revelation 17:17)

37:8,9 The rumor

The report of v.9 is not the same as the report of v.7. The immediate report or rumor is that the Egyptians were approaching. That made the Assyrians leave Jerusalem for a while to go join the rest of their army at Libnah, about 50 km west of Jerusalem, in the path an Egyptian army would likely use. It was just a rumor; no army was coming, so the Assyrians would return to Jerusalem – this time led by their king.

37:9-13 The letter

The letter was from Sennacherib himself. It meant the Assyrians would return. He speaks of Assyria’s past military conquests as proof that the other gods were not able to deliver those defeated nations. He was sure it would be no different with Jerusalem, because he was convinced that Jerusalem’s God was no better. Earlier he urged, “Do not let Hezekiah mislead you.” His letter now dares to speak of God deceiving them. By such words Sennacherib compounded his blasphemy. (The cities mentioned are not all known to us today.)

37:14-20 Hezekiah’s prayer

Earlier Hezekiah showed repentance. Earlier he succumbed to paying off the Assyrians, an act that was not one of trust, (2 Kings 18). He also made some alliance with the Babylonians in Isaiah 39! His good reforms of 2 Chronicles 29-31 preceded the Assyrians appearing outside Jerusalem, (2 Chronicles 32:1). In the two messages from the officer, he turned to Isaiah for his intercession. Later on receiving this letter, Hezekiah did not send for Isaiah, he went to the Temple and prayed. The earlier sin of trust in alliances, weapons, walls and water supply is over. We can do good things but still have a divided heart (James 1:6-8). In this prayer Hezekiah, with singleness of heart, trusted in God alone. God was now the only hope he had, but the Lord did not despise him when he repented. It is the simple prayer of a man in weakness threatened by overwhelming force, a man who is sure that God is the One Who rules over all. In this prayer of simplicity and clarity, Hezekiah –

· went to the Lord in trouble. Because he was trusting, he was not in a panic, (28:16).

· recognized God as the living God, standing in the tradition of his fathers, reiterating the true faith of Israel. God the Creator is sovereign over all kingdoms. (Hezekiah’s prayer is theologically sound.)

· recognizes the covenantal bond: God dwells only in Israel in the Temple between the cherubim. (See Psalm 80) He is their God since God had graciously chosen them as His people, (Deuteronomy 7).

· presents Sennacherib’s words as blasphemy.

· admits the Assyrians had had great success against everyone else.

· views idols as powerless gods of wood and stone.

· prays to be delivered. His prayer says more about God than it does about the deliverance he sought.

· prays that God’s action will glorify God in the observation of all kingdoms on earth, a request that can be fulfilled only if they learn that the Lord alone is God.

Sennacherib’s letter seems to indicate that he was informed that Hezekiah was depending (37:10) on the Lord. It is possible that Sennacherib knew this from a reply to his officer, a reply not recorded in Scripture. Earlier, in 38:6, God had told Hezekiah He would defend Jerusalem. (I will show in the next lesson why Hezekiah’s sickness in Isaiah 38 is earlier than the events of 36,37.)

37:21-35 The Lord’s response The Lord sent word to Hezekiah through Isaiah, “because you prayed to me,” (v.21). The answer to Hezekiah’s prayer was deliverance promised and new information given, the opposite of a false report. God revealed His thoughts about the Assyrian King (vv.22-29) ending with a word that he will return home. The Lord also gave to Hezekiah another sign, words of comfort, and even some detail of the deliverance to come, (vv.30-35), ending again with Sennacherib not entering Jerusalem, (v.34). Isaiah then records that Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, (v.37). The fact that they would leave receives greater emphasis in the predictions than the number of soldiers who died.

37:22-25 It will be Jerusalem who will shake her head at Assyria, for Assyria will flee, not the people of God, (v.22). The Holy One of Israel takes the King of Assyria’s arrogant words and deeds seriously. His boasting includes words against God and arrogant actions towards its neighbors. God speaks with contempt for such boasting. Assyria claimed self-sufficiency as it seemed able to do whatever it wished. (This is the prerogative of God alone, Psalm 115:2-4.) The two references to water in v.25 fit the pattern of ability to supply their own needs. To this falseness, we must remember it is only God who can say, “I live” as One dependent on no one. Sennacherib spoke as if he were God, (See Deuteronomy 32:39,40).

37:26 These words are from God to the King of Assyria, whether he ever heard them or not. They continue to reside in Scripture as a Word from God suitable for every arrogant ruler. God claims sovereign direction over the deeds of the King of Assyria. That king thought he was acting on his own, but his decisions fit into the divine plan, even though the Assyrian did not know it. (See Micah 4:11,12) In v.26 the Holy Spirit repeats the same doctrine given in 10:5-19. That longer passage in Isaiah 10 makes clear that Assyria was God’s tool, doing what God had planned for His purposes. The Assyrian deeds were cruel and arrogant, yet Assyria’s victims were receiving by such a tool in God’s hands what the Lord did to them in His justice. This truth is mysterious to us, but it is as clear as it is perplexing to our minds. Now in Isaiah 37, God adds another element; He not only had planned and ordained what Assyria has done, He planned these deeds “long ago” and “in days of old”. This is just a way to state that it all fit in with His eternal plan, (Ephesians 1:11), because Sennacherib’s deeds were determined prior to them ever entering Sennacherib’s mind. V.26 says even more. It does not stop at the concept of a prior plan acted out by Sennacherib; it is explicit that his attacking those fortified cities was actually God bringing His plan into events. In other words, God’s ordained plan was being executed when Sennacherib was conquering those cities. The Assyrian really was a tool in God’s hand, and by means of this tool, God was active in human history. When Assyria attacked Jerusalem, it was God punishing His people; it was God’s hand upraised (5:25) calling a faraway army to come (5:26) as punishment for their sins. The Lord is the One Who brought the King of Assyria into His land (7:17,18). Sennacherib was doing an errand for God; he was God’s razor to shave Judah, (7:20). Men seek to hide their plans from the Lord (29:15); here the Lord shows some of His secrets to His own. (For more on God’s plan see especially 14:24-27.)

37:27-29 V.27 speaks of the weak victims of Assyrian power. All Assyria did and said was under God’s scrutiny, (v.28) and therefore under His judgment. In the way Assyrians treated their captives, God will put a hook in Sennacherib’s nose and lead him home. God can use them and then punish them, (10:12). (See also Acts 2:22-24 and Acts 4:27,28.)

37:30-35 God has spoken to the Assyrian king, and there follows a word for His ordained son of David, Hezekiah. Hezekiah’s father, Ahaz, rejected the sign God offered him to support his faith, (7:10-14). Now another sign has been given to Hezekiah. With so much disruption of agriculture, (32:12,13) how would they be fed? God promises this sign: enough food is growing wild to feed them for two years and then they can plant and harvest crops normally. The remnant/survivors (1:9) of Jerusalem would be preserved and fed. The zeal of the Lord would protect the people of God (v.32) and the throne of David (9:7). For the sake of David (v.35), the Lord preserved that line and through it brought to us our Lord Jesus in that line of ancestors, (Matthew 1).

37:33,34 Detail on the Assyrian return They would not enter the city, nor would they even come close enough to reach it by arrow. The Assyrians were not so distant as not to be seen at all, as we can tell from v. 36. The Lord once spoke of a hedge removed because of sin (5:5); now that circle of protection was restored, (Psalm 34:7). As birds hover overhead so the Lord would shield Jerusalem (31:5). Jerusalem would have no casualties in a battle they did not fight.

37:35 God did not save Jerusalem because its people were good. Hezekiah’s faith was genuine, but the people are described in previous chapters as those who would not listen to the Lord. After Hezekiah died, Manasseh, a most wicked king, followed; Judah sank into idolatry more and more, not finally cured till the Babylonian Captivity, (2 Kings 21:10-16). Legend says that Isaiah himself was murdered by being sawn in two – what Hebrews 11:37 may have had in mind. God saved them for His own glory – “for my sake”. He did not save them because they were good. He remembered the patriarchs (Romans 11:28). “ … If we are faithless He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself!” (2 Timothy 2:13).

37:36-38 The Fall of Assyria

God promised Jerusalem a “Passover” type of visitation (31:5). As in Egypt (Exodus 12:23), He would pass over and strike only Assyrians. The Assyrian army returned. The Lord struck; when the people got up the next morning, they saw 185,000 who did not get up. Isaiah 10:16,17 speaks of what God would do in a single day through a wasting disease. (Perhaps ‘disease’ is literal, and they died of the plague). It was still the sword of the Lord, (31:8). Sennacherib had run into the consuming fire of God (31:9). God took Sennacherib home by the nose; his kingdom decayed; eventually his city fell to the power of Babylon.

He went to worship Nisroch one day and his own sons murdered him. This man had mocked the Holy One of Israel thinking the Lord powerless to save, and then died in the temple of his false god who was unable to save him.

The chronology of Isaiah 36-39 Merodach Baladan died in 702 BC, so the visit to Hezekiah may have been in early 702 BC. The attempt by Sennacherib to take Jerusalem was 701 BC. Thus the events of Isaiah 38, 39 precede 36,37! In 38:6 it says, “I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria.” That is obviously not something God promised after He did it but prior. Isaiah finished reporting events related to Assyria and found it appropriate to save events related to Babylon for the next section of his book.

38:1-8 The illness “You are going to die” is a way to indicate a terminal illness. The Lord later relieved Hezekiah of the grip death had on him. Hezekiah’s prayer shows interest in himself, and 39:8 does so in an even worse way. In light of the earlier alliances with Egypt, Hezekiah’s claim to wholehearted devotion, (v.3) is a great exaggeration. When the Word of the Lord came to him, (v.5) the Lord did not indicate agreement that Hezekiah’s faithfulness was a factor in God extending his life.

God’s gracious promise was not merely life but saving the city. God gave much more than Hezekiah prayed for. God announces that the city also would be spared from Assyria. This promise made Hezekiah’s later response to the Babylonians an even greater sin. God had already granted longer life and promised more than Hezekiah prayed for – deliverance of the city – yet the vacillating king still accepted the overture of a heathen nation.

In Isaiah 7 God had offered Ahaz a sign and he rejected it! Hezekiah asked (v. 21) and he was granted a sign that occurred on the very stairway named after Ahaz, his unbelieving father. The sun’s shadow reversed on the steps. If the Lord can move the sun and earth at will, surely He can defend Jerusalem. Ahaz could have asked for such a sign! Such a supernatural event should show Hezekiah he had no need to rely on Babylon. The later distress, rebuke and disgrace (37:3) would bring him to abject reliance on God. When he was still shaken by being so near death, he promised to walk humbly, (v.15). The Lord’s people are weak; we sin easily, so we pray, “All that we have accomplished, you have done for us,” (26:12).

38:12-14 After he was well, the sobered king reflected on his ordeal. It had made him pray. Trouble is good if it makes us pray. (The One Who is our real God is always the One we pray to.)

Death would mean lost contact with the living who remain and the privilege of worshipping with them. His life would end like a tent being taken down, like a weaver cutting the finished product off the loom, like a lion crushing his bones. His moaning prayers sounded like birds. In all this Hezekiah was conscious that it was God who had brought him to the point of death. Hezekiah knew the hand of God was against him because of his sins, (v.17).

38:15-17 This very sick man was promised life and received it gratefully. He was aware God had restored life, (v.16) even though he received medical treatment on the orders of God’s prophet, (v.21). God had spoken and God had acted, (v.15). Hezekiah’s experience is a lesson for all, for by such things as God’s words and acts men live. The Lord who was taking his life (vv.12,13) was the Lord who restored it. As it was with the king, so it would be with the city. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, but in the case of Hezekiah and Jerusalem, the Lord was taking away and then giving back. He also gave a spiritual benefit with the chastening, a truth understood better by believers in trouble than by those merely observing from outside.

38:17 Hezekiah’s words anticipate later themes. Salvation is motivated by the love of God that can only happen if our sins are put behind God’s back. But that can only happen if God has been satisfied concerning our sin. In later chapters, Isaiah will focus on how sins are removed by Christ. Sins are never just forgiven; there must be an atonement to remove them. We can never be saved from sin by what we do with them but only by what God does. Salvation is of the Lord.

38:18-20 Here Hezekiah speaks of what it would be like to die without sins forgiven: he would not sing God’s praise but live under His wrath. However, God had brought him to repentance, giving him life, song, and a purpose to serve the next generation. “The Lord will save me” is the simplicity of faith. Hezekiah’s testimony to the saving grace of God ends with a corporate “we will sing”. He moves away from his individual experience to an obedient exercise of the Lord’s corporate worship in His temple. True worship does not occur in one’s individual way; it follows in the path laid out for us by the Lord, with God Himself the center of all His redeemed people.

38:21 This text is clear that it was the Lord who heard Hezekiah’s prayer and promised him healing, yet God’s prophet ordered medical treatment. The Lord may work with or without means.

Isaiah 39:1-8 By showing his storehouses, Hezekiah showed his strength, a strength soon to be worthless! (See 22:8). His action indicated a commitment to work with the Babylonians who would later devour Jerusalem. Isaiah confronts the king, (v.3), a role a prophet has under the authority of the King over all kings, (Matt.14:3-5).

Hezekiah showed all and would lose all. Removal of God’s people and their valuables to Babylon is certain. Hezekiah’s descendants would become eunuchs! – how shall the line of David survive? It would only be some. God would preserve the line and keep His covenant with David. Through the Son of David to come, He will bring salvation to all nations, (55:3-5). Jerusalem would travel to Babylon, but it is Babylon that would sink to rise no more (Jeremiah 51:64). To the New Jerusalem and to the Lord Who lives there, nations will travel with joy to learn His holy ways (2:1-4).

We have so much more of God’s words and acts than Hezekiah had, that faith and obedience must be even more the proper response of our hearts.

Isaiah 31

Isaiah 32

The Lord among His People 33:17-24

Isaiah 34: The Final Judgment

Isaiah 35