In this section, Isaiah renews his message of judgment on Israel and Judah. It is split by six ‘woes’ in 28.1; 29.1, 15; 30.1; 31.1 and 33.1. Compare the six woes of 5.8-24. This appears to be an Isaianic pattern. The six may indicate the doubled completeness of the woes (twice three indicates intensification of three - three was a recognised number of completeness).

The first woe is against the drunken pride of the northern kingdom, Israel. The second is against the spiritual blindness of Judah. The third woe is against those who seek to hide what they are doing from God. The fourth is against those who look elsewhere for help to other than God. The fifth is specifically against those who pursue the Egyptian dream, depending for their future on the assistance of Egypt. And the final woe is against those who are treacherous to His people. So as is so common in Isaiah he begins with rebuking God’s people and ends with rebuking their enemies and with a promise of restoration.

Chapter 28 The Future For Israel, and For Judah If They Continue As They Are.

This chapter begins with a description of God’s view of Israel and its leaders in their pride and self-sufficiency, depicting them as being really like drunkards with a false view of life and of their own importance, which can only result in soon-coming judgment. Then, following a flash-forward in which what God will be for the remnant in the future is depicted, Isaiah turns to a description of Judah’s leaders, seeing them as equally culpable, and indeed despicable. But for them at least he has an offer of hope. God has not yet determined the full end of Judah.

The First Woe. The Coming Judgment on Ephraim Because of Its Parlous Condition (28.1-4).

Here Israel is depicted as a drunken festival king, proudly wearing a garland of faded flowers, while sadly unaware of its true condition, who is soon to be dragged down to earth by the Lord’s ‘strong one’.

Analysis.

• a Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley of those who are overcome with wine (1).
• b Behold the Lord has a mighty and strong one (2a).
• c As a tempest of hail, a destroying storm (2b).
• c As a tempest of mighty waters overflowing (2c).
• b He will cast down to the earth with the hand (2d).
• a The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, will be trodden underfoot, and the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, will be as the first-ripe fig before the summer, which when he who looks on it sees, he eats it up while it is yet in his hand (3-4).

In ‘a’ we have a woe to ‘the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley’, and in the parallel what is to happen to their crown, their fading flower and the head of the fat valley. In ‘b’ we have the Lord’s mighty and strong one, and in the parallel what he will do. In ‘c’ we have comparative descriptions.

28.1

A woe is called on Samaria. because of its ‘crown of pride’. It is within God’s sights for judgment, and the reason for it is clearly revealed. It is like a crowned ‘king of the festival’, slumped on his throne, and yet drunkenly proud, who in his drunken state wears, with inordinate pride, a crown which was once beautiful but was now a faded and wilted garland of dying flowers, and is unaware of his true condition.

The fat valley is probably to be seen as that outside Samaria with its fertile fields and terraced vineyards. Its ‘head’ is the proud city of Samaria, perched on its hill. It is pictured as proudly wearing the garland crown as it drunkenly celebrates, depicting the residents of Samaria, ‘the drunkards of Ephraim’, as behaving as though they were in a permanently inebriated condition. It is a sad picture, for its supposed glorious beauty, its flowered crown of which it is so ridiculously proud, is seen on closer inspection to be made up of but fading, wilting flowers. It is a crown only the foolishly drunken could be proud of, for although worn with drunken pride it is made up of the wilting blooms which are a pathetic last remnants of good days gone by, which would have been discarded by any but those well inebriated.

So the residents of Ephraim are pictured as proud, but not justly so, because in their pride they behave like inebriated sots, proud in spite of being in a dishevelled and careless condition, and glorying in folly and in a faded past. They fail to see what they really are. But they are too proud to turn to Yahweh. Compare here 9.8-12 where a similar attitude is revealed. Ephraim, as the largest tribe numerically in the northern kingdom, here represents Israel, and thus reveals Israel as a whole to be in a sad condition.

28.2-4

In contrast to these proud and drunken fools is the sovereign Lord’s ‘mighty and strong one’. Previously they had been chastised by the invasions of Syria and Philistia (9.12), now they will have to face a greater. He is in perfect condition and comes to cast Samaria down to earth with his hand, descending on them like a tempest of hail, like a destroying storm, like a tempest of mighty waters overflowing. The dreadful storm and hail pour down on them and soon produce the fearsome flash floods which overwhelm them.

And he will tread underfoot Ephraim’s proud but wilting crown, and eat up the contents of the faded garland, in the same way as someone who notices the first ripe fig, casually picks it and eats it up immediately. Her pride will have collapsed. It will be all over in moments, plucked by a stranger.

There can be little doubt that Assyria is in mind here, but Isaiah keeps it deliberately anonymous. He is concerned that all should recognise that this is the hand of the sovereign Lord, Yahweh. Yahweh could have used whoever He wanted to. It is a further reminder that Assyria is His, to do with as He will, and that it is at His behest that they are ‘the rod of His anger’ (10.5).

Flash Forward - The Coming Day of Deliverance (28.5).

In the future Yahweh will have a proper crown available for those who serve Him.

Analysis.

• a In that day will Yahweh of hosts be for a crown of glory (5a).
• b And for a diadem of beauty, to the residue of His people (5b).
• b And for a spirit of judgment to him who sits in judgment (6a).
• a And for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate (6b).

In ‘a’ Yahweh will be ‘for a crown of glory’, and in the parallel will be ‘for strength’ for those who defend His city. In ‘b’ He will be a diadem of beauty, and in the parallel a spirit of judgment.

28.5-6

Suddenly in true Isaianic fashion we have a flash forward to the coming day when God will deliver His people. However dark the horizon Isaiah wishes to stress that beyond it is always Yahweh’s deliverance for the remnant. The false crown of Samaria has brought to mind the true crown which His true people will receive, and the comparison is made accordingly. This therefore looks back to verses 1-4. However the ‘spirit of judgment’ looks forward to the following verses.

‘In that day’, that is, whenever Yahweh steps in to deliver. The same pictures are used as in verses 1-4 but this time they indicate something that is real and precious and lasting. One day Yahweh will be for a true crown of glory (not a crown of misplaced pride) and a genuine diadem of beauty (not a wilting diadem of flowers) to the residue of His people, one that they can truly wear with ‘pride’. Judgment may be coming but it will produce a residue, (but only a residue), on behalf of whom God can act. Gone will be the false pride and the wilting flowers of the past, replaced by this genuine glorious crown and beauteous diadem.

Then ‘the one who sits in judgment’ will be filled with a spirit of judgment so that his judgments are in accordance with the divine will. This is in deep contrast to the present when His people can only learn little by little. Associated as this one is with the crown and the diadem, and spoken of in the singular, Isaiah may well have in mind here the coming Prince, the son of David (7.14; 9.6; 11.1). For He is the One who is coming to rule and will be given the spirit of wisdom in judgment (11.1-5).

Furthermore, those who guard the ‘weak point’, the gate, of the strong city (26.1) will have the strength of Yahweh and be able to turn back any attack. It will no longer be a weak point. So in that day both prince and people will be strong with Yahweh’s strength. Many, however, see it as referring to taking the battle to the gates of their enemies. Either way the point is that He will give certain victory.

Back To the Present. The Condition of Judah (28.7-8).

Many view this movement back to the present as commencing a reference to Judah (see verse 14), as against Israel in verses 1-4, which would explain the reason for the intervention, which was to turn attention to the coming David and the strong city. Isaiah now points out that their leaders are too much involved in overmuch drinking to come to sensible decisions. Their riposte will be to accuse him of speaking to them as though they were children, to which he will reply that as they will not rest in Yahweh they will fall into His snare.

Analysis.

• a But these also have erred through wine, and have gone astray through strong drink (7a).
• b The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they have gone astray through strong drink (7b).
• b They err in vision, they stumble in judgment (7c).
• a For all tables are filled with vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean (8).

Note how the second item covers the same ground as the first in reverse, but with an added feature, although applying it to priest and prophet. The spirit of judgment is lacking, replaced by strong drink. The writer’s pattern is complicated. Note how in ‘a’ they have been surfeited in wine and strong drink, and in the parallel it has made them filthy their surroundings with their vomit. In ‘b’ priest and prophet have erred and gone astray and in the parallel they have erred in vision (prophets) and stumbled (failure of the teaching of the priests).

28.7-8

‘These also’ refers back to the one who sits in judgment and those who guard the gates, the people of Judah. Those who are presently in this position are not guided by the spirit of judgment, they are guided by false ‘spirit’, by wine and strong drink. Whether the people turn to priest or prophet they will discover the same. Their judgments (the responsibility of priests - Malachi 2.5-7) and their vision (the responsibility of prophets) err because they are under the influence of drink, soaked in it, swallowed up by it, and going astray. They stumble in their judgments, and spew out the contents of their stomachs. So bad is the situation that, when they are at table, the table is covered with their vomit and their filth. Thus all is unclean.

There could not be a worse picture of debility. Here they are gathered to make decisions on behalf of God’s people, but they appear hopelessly drunk. Thus they stumble in judgment, they stumble in vision, and they behave disgustingly. They vomit all over the table. All is filthy with no place clean. It is like a pigsty. The picture is of those unfit to govern. It is only later that we discover wherein they err. They look to Egypt for help against Assyria rather than to Yahweh. But at this point Isaiah is more concerned to point out that they are cut off from Yahweh in all their deliberations by their condition. God is disgusted with them.

His Opponent Mock Isaiah’s Teaching (28.9-13).

Isaiah’s opponents mock him because all that he does is proclaim a repetitive message. In their view that is to treat them like children. But his reply is that God will indeed speak to them through what they see as babbling, because He will bring against them people who speak in a strange tongue, which to them will seem like babbling. And this will happen because they have refused the rest that He has repeatedly offered them. And the result can only be disaster.

Analysis.

• a To whom will he teach knowledge, and whom will he make to understand the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts? (9).
• b For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little (10).
• c No, but with babbling lips and with a different tongue, will he speak to this people (11).
• c To whom he has said, “This is rest, give rest to the weary, and this is a resting place”, but they would not hear (12).
• b Therefore will the word of Yahweh be to them, “Tsaw latsaw tsaw latsaw, kaw lakaw kaw lakaw, ze‘er sham ze‘er sham” (precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little) (13a).
• a That they may go and fall backwards, and be broken and snared and taken (13b).

In ‘a’ they mock him declaring that his teaching can only be for babes, and in the parallel like babes they try to ‘go’, fall over backwards, and are ensnared. In ‘b’ his message is repetitive and in the parallel the word of Yahweh is repetitive to them. In ‘c’ he speaks to the people as with babbling lips, and with a different tongue (because they have been exiled abroad in a place where there is no rest), and that because in the parallel they would not hear his message of rest in their resting place.

28.9-10

In their drunken state the leaders reply by deriding Isaiah. They see themselves as wiser and more superior in thought than he is. They think that he clearly does not understand politics. They ask, to whom then should he convey his knowledge, to whom should he give his message? Who is there who can possibly be expected to listen to what he wants to tell them? Their answer is that it can only be those who are so young that they have just been weaned from their milk, or even recently withdrawn from the breast. For what he says is like rote teaching, constant repetition, a message that never changes, elementary repetitive words unfit for grown men, with a bit here and a bit there added as words are seen to be remembered, but constantly repeated over and over again. (For all he can say is ‘trust in Yahweh, trust in Yahweh, trust in Yahweh’, but that is for children. People today say the same thing about the Gospel).

‘Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.’ That is he teaches in an elementary fashion and by rote. The Hebrew is ‘tsaw latsaw tsaw latsaw kaw lakaw kaw lakaw ze‘er sham ze‘er sham’, a clear example of childish rote learning or even a baby’s babbling. So they deliberately insult him saying, ‘he just goes on and on saying tsaw latsaw tsaw latsaw kaw lakaw kaw lakaw ze‘er sham ze‘er sham’. He just teaches repetitively at a child’s level or even as a babbling baby.

28.11-12

The stern reply comes back. He has offered them the option of resting in Yahweh, and of helping their weary subjects by giving them rest. Indeed he has offered them a complete resting place in Yahweh (see verse 16; 7.4; 26.3-4; 30.15). Note the deliberate repetitiveness of ‘rest’ and ‘resting place’, sarcastically confirming what they say. But they still will not listen to him, and instead accuse him of babbling. So be it, is his reply. God will in turn speak to them through babbling lips in a foreign tongue. In other words He will now speak to them in Assyrian (Akkadian)!! God’s word will come through the strange foreign words of Assyrian generals, and by action through the Assyrian invasion. And they will have to learn them in exile once they are taken to Assyria. The Assyrian ‘words’ from Yahweh will be difficult to understand and even more difficult to accept, but they will certainly speak powerfully.

28.13

So Yahweh’s word to them will appear like the meaningless repetition that they have accused him of. Thus because they will not listen they will go and fall backwards into the camouflaged trap prepared for them where their bodies will be broken and they will be ensnared and captured. The picture is of the hunter’s pit with its wooden pointed stakes waiting to receive them. There may also be in mind the unsteadiness of a babe on its feet.

“Tsaw latsaw tsaw latsaw, kaw lakaw kaw lakaw, ze‘er sham ze‘er sham.” That is, ‘line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little.’ They might mock in this way, but in fact this is how spiritual growth takes place, learning verse upon verse, doctrine upon doctrine, here a little, there a little, until we grow to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

But in context it is a reminder to us that if we treat God’s word to us as fit only for children we can only expect devastating consequences.

Isaiah Sternly Warns About The Threatening Future If They Will Not Look to God’s Sure Foundation (28.14-22).

The leaders of Judah reply that they are not afraid of his threats because they have got it all worked out. They have an agreement with Egypt to come to their assistance, while meanwhile keeping the king of Assyria happy with deceitful words. Isaiah points out that that is to have a covenant with death and the grave (Sheol). What they should rather be doing is looking to the foundation stone that God will lay in Jerusalem (to Immanuel). If they looked ahead to His coming then they would accept their present situation and not be in such a hurry to be ‘free’. As it is their machinations will only result in disaster for them.

Analysis.

• a For this reason hear the word of Yahweh, you scornful men who rule this people in Jerusalem. Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we at agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hidden ourselves” (14-15).
• b Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone giving a sure foundation, and he who trusts will not be in a hurry (16).
• c And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet, and the hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place, and your covenant with death will be disannulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand (17-18a).
• d When the overflowing scourge passes through, you will be trodden down by it (18b).
• d As often as it passes through it will take you, for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night (19a).
• c And it will be nought but terror to understand the news. For the bed is shorter than a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it (19b-20).
• b For Yahweh will rise up as in Mount Perazim, He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work, and bring about His act, His strange act (21).
• a Now therefore do not be scornful men, lest your bands be made strong. For a consummation, and that determined, have I heard from the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, on the whole earth (22).

In ‘a’ Yahweh speaks to the scornful men and in the parallel they are not to be scornful men. In ‘b’ Yahweh lays a sure foundation stone in Zion, and in the parallel He rises up to do His strange work and bring about His strange act. In ‘c’ He will make justice His plumbline and sweep away their false agreements with death and the grave because they are incompatible with His will and in the parallel they will find their resting places incompatible so that the news can only bring them terror. In ‘d’ they will be trodden down by the overflowing scourge that passes through, and in the parallel when it passes through it will take them whether by night or by day.

28.14-15

‘For this reason.’ That is, because they have accused Isaiah of babbling and are therefore unable and unwilling to understand what God has to say to them and so are doomed to fall into a trap. Therefore let them hear what Yahweh has further to say.

Isaiah addresses them as ‘you scornful men’. This description is regularly found in Proverbs of those who are self-satisfied, beyond correction, arrogant and scornful of spiritual truth (Proverbs 1.22; 13.1; 14.9; 21.24; see also Psalm 1.1), as these have proved themselves to be.

They also rule Jerusalem. They sit in the place of the Davidic king, but it is quite apparent that their hearts are set in another direction than the service of Yahweh. They should be those by whom God’s Law goes out to the world (2.2-4), but instead they look to their own reputation and purposes. That is why Jerusalem will be subject to judgment, for great privilege brings great responsibility.

The words are not the ones that they would actually have spoken, but Isaiah’s ironic interpretation of them. They had probably boasted of their covenant with Egypt, but Isaiah interprets that as their making a covenant with death, and being in agreement with Sheol (the world of the grave), in other words as having received guarantees from death and Sheol that they would not touch them (see on verse 18). But if they were not fools they would have realised that death and Sheol are not to be trusted. Rather their mouths are open wide to receive them

They also boasted of the fact that ‘when the overflowing scourge passes through it will not come to us’, because they actually believed that Egypt would be able to turn the tide of Assyria. Isaiah, however was of a different mind. He knew from God that Egypt stood no chance against Assyria. ‘Overflowing scourge’ combines the idea of the scourge and the overflowing of a flood against which men have no hope. It will be a scourge of terrifying proportions.

‘For we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hidden ourselves.’ This is again not what they said but Isaiah’s interpretation of it. This may refer to their deceiving of the Assyrian king, pretending one thing when doing another, or more likely it may be Isaiah’s way of indicating that their covenant, made with Egypt and its gods, was relying on something that was nothing but lies and deceit, the religious claims of Egypt. And yet the sad thing was that they would rather trust in these than in the living God, and His truth!

28.16

God’s reply is to set certainty against uncertainty. He declares that there is only one tried and tested thing to trust in. And that is the tested stone, the cornerstone of great value which gives a sure foundation and guarantees the stability of the building. This is the corner stone on which the whole building would depend. It is the everlasting rock (26.4) on which the strong city is founded.

But what is this tested stone, this sure foundation?

• 1). Probably primarily in mind is a looking forward to the rock of the coming son of David, ‘God’s anointed’, Immanuel, especially as described in 9.6, for when He comes all that is false will be swept away (verse 17), and He is mentioned again in 32.1; 33.17. This would tie in with the fact that as the coming Servant of Yahweh He would be a covenant of the people, in contrast to their false covenant. (See 42.6; 49.8; 55.3).
• 2). Alternately (or combined with 1) the thought may be of God Himself as the foundation to which they should look and in which they should believe in contrast to the false foundations they are laying.
• 3). A third possibility is that the tested stone may be Mount Zion, His mysterious dwelling-place which is in both heaven and earth, and is the way to God and to the fulfilment of the promises concerning Immanuel.
• 4). Fourthly the tried and trusted stone could be the statement with which the sentence ends, translating ‘that is to say, he who trusts will not be in a hurry’. This last would include the other three, for the whole point of the statement is that the faith must be in God and His promises, including the promise of the coming Immanuel.

Whichever it is it confirms that whoever trusts in what God has provided will not be in a hurry to seek alternative security, whether in Egypt or anywhere else. They will rest confidently in Him, because He provides a firm foundation.

Indeed like many promises of God it could have a near and far view thus having both a present and a future significance. It could be intended first to turn their thoughts on God and their need for firm trust in Him alone, and their need to be founded on Him, and then to look ahead also to its wider fulfilment in the God-sent One Whom Isaiah had promised, the coming Immanuel (God with us - 7.14; 9.6-7; 11.1-4), which is indeed all tied up in true faith in God. Certainly we may see its supreme fulfilment in Jesus Christ, for when He came from God He became the foundation stone in which men could trust and on which they could be established with confidence and certainty (see 1 Peter 2.4-6; Matthew 21.42; Romans 9.33; 1 Corinthians 3.11-12; Ephesians 2.20).

The word for stone (‘bohan’) is possibly an Egyptian loan word and signifies an especially hard stone suitable for carving. What was to be seen as being carved on it may well have been ‘he who believes will not be in a hurry’.

28.17-18

Having laid His foundation stone God now declares that He will use justice and righteousness as tools with which to measure the population of his strong city. There can be no deceit there. All must be above board and morally true. It is a city of righteousness, the faithful city (1.26). Thus each who would enter its gates must be measured to determine their worthiness to be there.

Meanwhile on this basis their refuge of lies will be swept away by hail, and the hiding place of falsehood will be overflowed by floodwater, both regular symbols of the judgment of God. This possibly refers to the defeat of Pharaoh’s army by the Assyrians. Compare how the activities of the Assyrians are described in these terms in verse 2. Furthermore the covenant with death will be disannulled, and the agreement with Sheol cancelled, for man cannot determine his own destiny. The day of his death is in the hands of God.

‘When the overflowing scourge passes through, you will be trodden down by it.’ The fact that it will ‘tread them down’ reveals that the overflowing scourge is indeed the army of the king of Assyria. The symbol is no longer being figuratively applied.

28.19-20

The overflowing scourge will continually pass through, morning by morning, and by day and night. The Assyrian annals in fact report that their armies did make numerous and constant returns to the same areas, every return being accompanied by massive slaughter and pillage. The steady blows of such attacks would create a sense of terror as the next visit was anticipated. And as the news reached them of the next advance their hearts would quail within them.

‘For the bed is shorter than a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.’ They had rejected God’s resting place (verse 12) and now the bed that they had made for themselves was distinctly uncomfortable. But having prepared it they had to lie on it, even though it was both unpleasant and ill fitting. They could not stretch comfortably on it because it was too short. They could not curl up on it because their covering was too narrow. They had sentenced themselves to night-long misery. How different it was from Yahweh’s foundation stone.

28.21

It was at Mount Perazim that Yahweh arose on behalf of David against the Philistines on their first invasion against him as king and broke them (1 Chronicles 14.8-12). And at Gibeon He again intervened on David’s behalf so that David achieved another important victory (1 Chronicles 14. 13-16). These deliverances were vital occasions, and they established Israel and were the foundation of David’s kingship. So Yahweh declares that here again He will arise and act, but this time it will be a strange work and a strange act that He performs. For it will not be on behalf of His people but against them. He will work and act in His anger so as to punish them, for His anger will this time be directed against His own people and not against the enemy.

Each nation expected their gods to favour them and to defeat the enemy. Judah too looked to Yahweh to do the same for them, although their alliances demonstrated that they did not really have much confidence in Him to do so. But things have got to a state where He will not do so. Because they would not trust Him He will do the opposite, so that they might learn to trust. He will bring their enemy against them. He will arrange for them to be taken into captivity, so that they might be faced with their own wrongdoing and unbelief.

28.22

So Isaiah makes a final plea for these men to themselves cease being scornful men, lest the worst come on them. The bands being made strong might refer to future threatened captivity, or to their becoming finally bound in the state in which they now are so that there is no hope of repentance. Both are in fact connected (compare 6.9-12). And this plea is in the light of the fact that a consummation is coming, one which is set and determined (compare 10.23) which will affect the whole known earth (or ‘the whole land’), as he has been informed by the One Who is the sovereign Lord, Yahweh of hosts Himself.

The word for ‘consummation’ regularly means ‘a full end’ or a ‘set purpose’. The thought therefore here is of something momentous, purposed by God. In the light of the captivity of Israel, this may well signify his awareness that Judah faces the same prospect of exile (39.6-7).

The Parable of the Farmer and his Crops (28.23-29).

The point behind this parable is that the wise farmer thinks carefully about what he is doing and does not get bogged down in one activity. He looks at things as a whole, and does each thing in its proper course, ready to change as the occasion demands. He is fully flexible. In the same way these men of Jerusalem should consider that now is the time for a change. They should cease to look to other nations and should look instead to Yahweh, as the farmer does. For now is Yahweh’s day, and God has great purposes for Israel if only they will take note of what He is saying.

We must remember that the purpose behind all Isaiah’s words is not to ‘foretell the future’. It is to speak of the future in order that it might stir to action. Every revelation should cause his hearers to think again of what God would do through them if only they would respond rightly to Him.

Analysis.

• a Give ear, and hear my voice. Listen, and hear what I say (my speech) (23).
• b Does the ploughman plough continually in order to sow? Does he continually open and break the clods of the ground? (24).
• c When he has levelled and broken up its surface (literally ‘made plain its face’), does he not cast abroad the dill, and scatter the cummin (25a).
• d And put the wheat in rows and the barley in its appointed place, and the spelt in its border? (25b).
• e For his God instructs him aright and teaches him (26).
• d For the dill are not threshed with a sharp instrument, nor is a threshing wheel revolved over the cummin (27a).
• c But the dill are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod (27b)..
• b Bread corn is ground, for he will not be ever threshing it, and though the wheel of his cart and his horses scatter it, it does not grind it (28).
• a This also comes from Yahweh of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom (29).

In ‘a’ they are to listen to Yahweh’s voice, and in the parallel the wisdom and counsel comes from Yahweh. In ‘b’ the ploughman does not restrict himself to the initial action of ploughing, and in the preparation of the grain in the parallel he does not restrict himself to the initial threshing. In ‘c’ he does not sow the dill and cummin, and in the parallel the dill and cummin are beaten out with a rod. In ‘d’ everything is put in its appointed place, and in the parallel the dill and cummin are treated in the appointed way. And in ‘e’ all is done according to the wisdom provided by Yahweh.

28.23-24

Isaiah calls for careful attention to what he will now say. His first question is, does the farmer never do anything but plough? Does he only ever break up the ground? The answer he expects is, “Of course not.” Otherwise he would never achieve anything.

28.25-26

We must remember that each farmer had only a comparatively small patch in which he had to grow his different crops, somewhat like a large market garden. He had to decide what to plant in each section and arrange carefully so that he produced all the crops he needed using all available space, which would come to fruition at different times. Thus he takes each type of seed and carefully sows it in the place which he has determined, different types of herbs or different types of grain in different places, even planning which will be sown on the border. This is because God gives him wisdom and shows him what to do. The hint is that that too is what these men of Jerusalem should be doing. Listening to God’s voice and planning accordingly.

‘In rows’ and ‘in its appointed place’ are two Hebrew technical farming terms and any translations are simply guesswork. (Even LXX omitted them not knowing what they meant). We do not know exactly what they mean, but the idea is clear. Each crop is dealt with in the appropriate way.

28.27-29

But once he has planted it the farmer does not leave matters like that. He plans ahead. Later he will deal with each crop as it requires. He does not thresh the dill with a sharp instrument like a threshingsledge, rather he beats it with a staff. He does not revolve a threshing wheel over the cummin, he beats it with a rod. He threshes the corn (with his sharp instrument), but he does not go on threshing it forever. He then grinds it ready for use. The wheel of his cart and his horses scatter the seed, but the wheel does not grind it. (Something was probably fitted to the wheel to aid the process of threshing).

So each thing is dealt with according to requirements, and each is dealt with differently. Each instrument has its purpose and must be used correctly. And all this, as guided by God, is extremely good advice and very wise. In the same way should the men of Jerusalem consider whether they are using the right instruments for what they are about to do, whether trust in Egypt or trust in Yahweh. For that too is wise advice.

There is possibly also an indirect threat here that God will have to plough up Judah if it is not responsive to His guidance. Unlike Samaria it still had the option, and God is pointing out that as the Great Farmer He is quite ready to deal differently with Judah if the situation warrants it.

It has been objected that horses would not be used for this kind of work and that the text should be amended. But Isaiah was not an experienced agriculturalist or zoologist and was probably speaking loosely. In his world in Jerusalem horses were what he came across, and he may well have meant ‘horse-like animals’. e.g. asses. Nor can we in fact be sure that they did not use horses in this way.

Chapter 29 The Second Woe. A Woe Against The False Jerusalem.

Isaiah stresses that although they boast of their city as the city of David, Yahweh will soon cause her to be besieged by an army which He will bring against her. But then, when they cry out of the dust He will act on their behalf in power and deliver Jerusalem.

Analysis.

• a Woe to Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped. Add for yourselves year to year, let the feasts come round. Then will I distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation, and she will be to me as Ariel.
• b And I will encamp against you in a circle (literally ‘like a circular object’ surrounding the city), and will lay siege against you with a fort, and I will raise siegeworks against you.
• c And you will be brought down, and you will speak from the ground, and your speech will be low out of the dust,
• c And your voice will be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper (chirp), out of the dust.
• b But the multitude of your alien foes will be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones as chaff that passes away. Yes, it will be at an instant suddenly, from Yahweh of hosts she will be visited, with thunder and with earthquake, and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest and flame of a devouring fire,
• a And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be as a dream, and as a vision of the night, and it will be as when a hungry man dreams ,and behold he eats, but he awakes and his inner man is empty, or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold he drinks, but he awakes, and behold he is faint, and his inner man has an appetite, so will all the multitude of the nations be, who fight against Mount Zion

In ‘a’ Ariel is David’s city, which he made his headquarters (encamped there), but as time goes by Yahweh will distress Ariel and there will there be mourning and lamenting, and in the parallel those who come against Ariel and distress her will dream of victory but will find that the reality is far different, for they are fighting against Mount Zion. In ‘b’ at Yahweh’s behest they will lay siege to Ariel, but in the parallel they will experience the visitation of Yahweh Who will devastate them. In ‘c’ Judah will be brought low and speak out of the dust, and in the parallel it will be similar to the way in which mediums speak out of the dust.

29.1-2

Having declared His woe on Israel (28.1) God now declares His woe on Jerusalem under the name of Ariel. It is to be distressed with mourning and lamentation because it has become superficial in its response to Yahweh. It is to be besieged. This occurred around 701 BC at the hand of Sennacherib, and we must not in the wonder of the deliverance overlook the awfulness of the siege and what led up to it. Judah paid a heavy price for not trusting Yahweh earlier.

‘Ariel.’ The Akkadian arallu can mean either the ‘mountain of the gods’ or ‘underworld of the gods’, both places where gods were thought to dwell, and thus the dwellingplaces of the gods. Here Isaiah’s purpose might well be, by a play on the word, to draw attention to the fact that while Jerusalem prided itself on having within it Mount Zion, the mountain of God, the mysterious mountain which was seen as joining heaven and earth and was the dwellingplace of God, by their manner of living they were debasing the fact and were making it rather ‘an Ariel’, a pagan dwelling place of the gods, no longer the ‘holy city’ even though they called themselves by that title (48.2). The reference to David encamping there might be seen as backing up the idea of seeing it as a dwellingplace.

But the ‘ariel’ was also the name used for the altar hearth near the top of Ezekiel’s high altar (Ezekiel 43.15), the place where the sacrificial fires continually burned. This was probably a technical term which had lost much of its original meaning but was originally associated with the above idea of the mountain of God, the stepped altar being seen as typifying a mountain (compare the stepped ziggurats). It was also used in this sense of altar hearths on the Moabite Stone demonstrating the probable wide use of it as a technical term for this outside Israel. Perhaps there is therefore also contained in the use the idea that Jerusalem is God’s altar hearth, ready for sacrifice.

It is described here as ‘the city where David encamped’, confirming that this is indeed referring to Jerusalem. Isaiah is indicating that once in the time of David it had been true to Yahweh. It had had an honourable and noble past. Then it had been filled with genuine worship and praise, led by the king himself. It had become the earthly dwellingplace of God in His Temple. What a contrast with the present. Now things just carried on year by year, with a round of meaningless festivals. It is no longer Mount Zion but Ariel (see verses 7-8 where it reverts). Well let them continue. They are simply leading up to a time of mourning and lamentation. The use of ‘encamped’ might be seen as indicating that even David only had a right to camp there and had no right to a permanent dwelling on the holy mountain.

Thus this mountain of God/the gods is to be downgraded. ‘She will be to me as Ariel’. It is to be treated as an Ariel, as a mountain of the gods and not as containing the Mountain of God at all. God is on the point of disowning it, at least temporarily. (Ezekiel later demonstrates in chapters 40 onwards that He has by then disowned it completely).

29.3-4

There is a direct contrast between David encamping in the city in verse 1 with God encamping against it here. The tables have been turned.

Some however translate verse 1 as ‘against which David encamped’, a possible translation, and see this as indicating parallel action (Hebrew prepositions are not always as clear as we would like). David had once encamped against it when it was a pagan city, and now God was doing the same for the same reason. The basic idea is the same.

Yahweh (initially through the king of Assyria) intends to lay siege to Jerusalem, this false mountain of God, raising siegeworks against it and humbling it. It will be brought so low that its voice will, as it were, seem to come out of the ground, from the very dust. They will be utterly humbled. And they will be in such a state that their prayers will be like the whispered words of a medium, like the chirp of an enchanter who seeks to the dead. (For the idea of prayer seen as such chirping/whispering in distress see 26.16). Again there is a mixing of the contrast between the idea of God with ‘the gods’, especially underworld gods, as the people’s prayers to God seem almost similar to appeals made to these ‘gods’.

29.5-8

However the siege will be lifted because in some way the attackers will, as it were, be blown away as if they were dust, the huge army of terrible ones (‘terrible’ is a regular description of those to do with large empires, see 25.4, 5; compare 13.11; 25.3; 29.20; 49.25; Jeremiah 15.21; Ezekiel 28.7 etc.) will be wafted away like chaff. And it will happen suddenly and unexpectedly. A fulfilment of this took place when the Assyrian army withdrew to face the Egyptian army at Eltekeh, and a further fulfilment is found in 37.36, when some unknown cause (humanly speaking) wrought death in the camp of the Assyrians causing them to withdraw.

Note the movement from Ariel in verse 7 to Mount Zion in verse 8, from the pseudo ‘mountain of God/the gods’ to the real ‘mountain of God’, a sign of the movement in the hearts of many of the people from the unreal to the real, from lack of belief to real belief as a result of their deliverance. Before deliverance, Ariel, afterwards, Mount Zion.

‘‘From Yahweh of hosts she will be visited with thunder and with earthquake, and great noise, with a stormy wind and tempest and flame of a devouring fire.’ This is the picture of the God of the covenant, the God of Sinai. This is simply a majestic way of saying that the God of Sinai will come to act on behalf of His people. There too there was thunder and a great noise, there the earth shook, there too there was tempest and the flame of a devouring fire, only the stormy wind was unmentioned (Exodus 19.16-20 with 24.17) and that finds mention in the Psalmist’s description of the Exodus deliverance (Psalm 77.18), which was thus part of the tradition. It is thus a way of saying that the mighty Creator of Sinai and of the Exodus will come to act in power.

The thought is of what He is rather than of the phenomena being visible. It is God in His power Who acts, even if invisibly. There may be no outward manifestations that can be seen but this will be the spiritual effect. In the account itself it is described as being by the angel of Yahweh (37.36).

We can compare for this how David described Yahweh as coming to his aid in similar language when he was in trouble (2 Samuel 22.8-16). There too he was visualising the unseen power of God. Assyrian kings would also describe their approach in similar language. It was the way of the age.

‘And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be as a dream, and as a vision of the night.’ The result of Yahweh coming in invisible but genuine power as visualised by the prophet will be that the many nations in the army of Assyria will be powerless against Jerusalem. They will simply have the same effect as a dream or vision of the night, frightening but rapidly disappearing in the morning. The certainty of the dream will give way to the uncertainty of the day. And certainly when the Assyrian army lay down on the awesome night that the angel smote them, they were full of confidence and certainty, and when those who were left awoke it had all vanished. The angel of Yahweh had done His work (37.36).

‘And it will be as when a hungry man dreams ,and behold he eats, but he awakes and his inner man is empty, or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold he drinks, but he awakes and behold he is faint, and his inner man has an appetite. So will all the multitude of the nations be who fight against Mount Zion.’ The siege of Jerusalem will seem so threatening, but its threat will turn out to have the potency of a dream. It will be to the enemy like a man having dreams of eating and drinking and then waking to discover he is still hungry and thirsty. It will be an unreality that has no effect in real life. The enemy will go to sleep dreaming of seizing and despoiling Jerusalem, and enjoying all the good things that they will pillage, they will awaken to find that their hopes are in vain. This will be the potency of the international army of Assyria. And why? Because they are not fighting against Jerusalem, nor against Ariel, they are fighting against Mount Zion, the heavenly and earthly dwellingplace of Yahweh, and against the God Who dwells there.

The Unbelieving Response of the Majority To God (29.9-14).

There are at least two ways of looking at this passage. One is to see it as Isaiah’s words prior to God’s amazing deliverance, seeking to inculcate faith but seeing instead obstinacy, in which case verse 14 points to that event, the other is to see it as Isaiah’s words after that amazing deliverance when the careless final response of the majority of the people to it has left him baffled. The modern Christian is similarly amazed that men do not see the glory of Christ and follow Him.

Analysis.

• a Make yourselves hesitate, and wonder. Blind yourselves (literally ‘be smeared’, and to do with the eyes), and be blind (9b).
• b They are drunk, but not with wine, they stagger, but not with strong drink, for Yahweh has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, the prophets, and has covered your heads, the seers (10).
• c And all vision has become to you as the words of a book which is sealed, which men deliver over to one who is learned, saying, “Read this, I beg you”. And he says, “I cannot for it is sealed”. And the book is delivered to him who is not learned, saying, “Read this I pray you”, and he says, “I am not learned” (12).
• c And the Lord said, “Forasmuch as these people draw near to me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is but a commandment of men which has been taught them,
• b Therefore behold I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder.
• a And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their astute men will be hid.

In ‘a’ the people are seen at work making themselves hesitate and wonder and then putting a blind on their eyes and blinding their own eyes, and in the parallel the wisdom and understanding of both their wise and astute men will cease and be hidden. In ‘b’ their state is seen to be the action of Yahweh who has poured out on them the spirit of stupor and in the parallel it is described as a marvellous work, a work and a wonder. There is nothing as wondrous as the unbelief of men in the face of God revealing His mighty works as he did at Jerusalem with Sennacherib. Or alternately the parallel may mean that He did a marvellous work and a wonder, but because of their stupor they did not appreciate it. In ‘c’ all vision has been hid from them because of their unwillingness to see, and in the parallel it is because they have withdrawn their hearts from Him.

29.9-12

The use of the imperative vividly brings out Isaiah’s own perplexity and growing awareness of the obduracy of the people. Although God had warned Him that the people would mainly continue to be blind he still found it difficult to take in. If this was before the great deliverance it expresses his growing awareness of their deliberate blindness. If this was after the event, the wonder of what happened at the deliverance of Jerusalem would have come home strongly to him, and it represents him as seeing that it had left many of them unchanged. Momentarily, in the exultation of the moment, they might have become convinced but they will soon deliberately begin to hesitate, and then wonder if it ever happened. They will smear over their own eyes by means of their doubt and unwillingness to believe, thus they will finish up blind. They will convince themselves that there was a natural explanation, talk it down and shrug off its effects. They will have seen a wonder of the world and will remain unchanged, even hardened. (Just as the Pharisees will later do with Jesus in the face of even greater wonders).

In either case Isaiah cannot understand it. He is baffled. So he speaks to them almost as in a daze. ‘Make yourselves hesitate (reflexive) and wonder.’ He is warning them that if they make themselves hesitate, they will soon begin to wonder whether God will indeed work, or whether He has so worked. Rather they should respond to Yahweh’s amazing act, or His past acts, with full belief and gladness of heart. But he senses their hesitation, and fears what the result will be. They will go on hesitating and then they will begin to wonder in the end whether it meant anything significant at all. His words are drawn out of him almost unwillingly, as he warns them what the result of their attitude will be. By smearing up their own vision they will become blind. It is always dangerous to hesitate when the call comes to ‘follow Me’.

If this refers to before the event then the words are to be seen as a rebuke at their continuing unwillingness to trust Yahweh. As he sees their determined opposition to his position of trusting in Yahweh, the One Who in the past has acted so mightily on behalf of their people as their past history reveals, he can only see it as fulfilling what God had said to him at his inauguration as a prophet (6.8-12), that they would be subject to blind unbelief. If after then it is even more incredible, and the rebuke is to be seen as even stronger.

And so in either case he decides that there can be only one explanation for their attitude, it must be because they are drunk. But as he recognises that it must be with something more permanent than wine, he concludes that they must be staggering about, seemingly incapable of understanding, not because of what they have drunk, but because Yahweh has poured out on them a spirit of deep sleep. They are in a divinely wrought coma. It is the only explanation that comes to hand. Indeed on top of their own obduracy he sees an even deeper wonder, that those who profess to be their eyes, who should have helped them to appreciate what had happened, the prophets, seem to have their own eyes closed, while those who should have been in a position to explain everything, the seers, seem to have had their heads covered over lest they see.

His perplexity is understandable. It is always difficult for one who believes to understand deep doubt. Everything seems so clear to believers. Thus they can only then conclude that if there is doubt it is Yahweh’s work. It must be because He wants it that way. And in the end they are right. Not because He wants men to be blind and directly acts, but because He has made mankind as he is, to grow in doubt if he refuses to believe. So such blindness and hesitation are not Yahweh’s direct work. They are the result of sin and rebellion, and of an unwillingness to be in submission to God. They are the result of man’s obstinate free will. And Isaiah sees that that is the case here.

‘And all vision has become to you as the words of a book which is sealed, which men deliver over to one who is learned, saying, “Read this, I beg you”. And he says, “I cannot. The book is sealed.” But he recognises that this is not the result of their extra intelligence. It is because they have closed minds. So he tells these men that they are like those who have a sealed book, which is full of knowledge, but to them it is hidden knowledge because they will not open the seal. In the same way, something has clearly sealed their minds so that they have failed to grasp the significance of what God’s activity past or present really means. And when they go to the learned (the prophet and the seer) and beg them to read it, they will demur. They cannot, they say, for the book is sealed, that is, they cannot understand it. But this would not be humility, it would be stubbornness and unwillingness, a further example of blindness. They do not want to see God’s ways, they prefer their own.

Then in their perfidy the people take the book to one who is unlearned, and ask him to read, and he refuses, saying, “I am not learned (cannot read fluently)”. No one wants to make the attempt.

God’s Response To and Verdict on Their Unbelief (29.13-14).

29.13-14) ‘And the Lord said,

When men harden their hearts against God’s revelation, given in one way or another, it often results in continuing hardening. It is as though having hardened themselves they have made it almost impossible for them to do anything else, and so they go on more and more firmly closing their eyes. This is what God saw would be the result here.

‘And the Lord said.’ This, says Isaiah, is the sovereign Lord speaking, Who now gives His verdict on their attitude. They go on and on with their religious ritual, they all continue to say what seem to be the right things, repeating it by rote, but there is no true inward response in their hearts, as is shown by the way that they are acting. And it is of their own choice. They deliberately stop their hearts being taken over by God. So their supposed piety is simply something that they do because of the pressure of those in authority over them, and not because they have responsive hearts.

So He will act in a wondrous way which will be amazing to all, and He stresses the wonder of what He will do and men’s responsive amazement. He will do a work which will result in the wise men’s wisdom perishing, and the astute men’s astuteness being hidden. He has already described it in terms of the great stupor He has brought upon them. As a result of what He will do they will appear as fools. All their clever words will be seen to have come to nothing. And later generations will wonder at it.

However, if the previous words were prior to the great deliverance then these words may well have in mind that deliverance. Then he may be saying that Yahweh will do a great work, a mighty work, a marvel, but because of their obduracy they will fail to see it and to properly appreciate it. They will close their minds against it.

Either way in the end it is simply a way of saying that man’s opposition to Him and His ways, and their refusal to trust Him, is folly, a folly which the future, as controlled by Him, will reveal. History is full of such examples. Men make great statements and are greatly admired, and then they are seen to come to nothing. So will it be with these wise teachers and astute thinkers. They and all they have taught will perish, but God’s word and God’s purposes will go on.

The Third Woe: Against Those Who Seek To Hide What They Do From God, But Yahweh Will Triumph In Spite Of It (29.15-24).

Analysis.

• a Woe to those who seek deep, to hide their counsel from Yahweh, and their works are in the dark, and they say, “Who sees us?”, and “Who knows us?” (15).
• b You turn things upside down. Will the potter be counted as clay, that the thing made should say of him who made it, “He did not make me,” or the thing framed say of him who framed it, “He has no understanding”? (16).
• c Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be counted as a forest? (17).
• d And in that day will the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness (18).
• d The meek also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel (19).
• c For the terrible one is brought to naught, and the scornful one ceases, and all those who watch for iniquity are cut off, who make a man an offender in a cause, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and turn aside the righteous in a thing of naught (20-21).
• b Therefore thus says Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob. Jacob will not now be ashamed, nor will his face now grow pale. But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name, yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel (22-23).
• a Those also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will learn instruction (24).

In ‘a’ the people seek to hide what they do from Yahweh, but in the parallel those who err will come to understanding, and those who murmur will learn instruction. In ‘b’ His people are turning things upside down, forgetting that Yahweh is the Potter who made them and framed them, and saying that He has no understanding, and in the parallel Jacob’s children are the work of His hands, and thus His people set Him apart as holy and stand in awe of Him. In ‘c’ Lebanon which is being crushed by the enemy will be turned into a fruitful field, and all will prosper, the fruitful field will be counted as a forest, and in the parallel the terrible one is to be brought to naught, and all will prosper for the scornful one will cease, and all those who watch for iniquity will be cut off, who make a man an offender in a cause, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and turn aside the righteous in a thing of naught. In ‘d’ ‘in that day’ the deaf will hear the words of the book (which was previously a mystery - verse 11), and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness, while in the parallel the meek will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

29.15

The verbs are important. The opening participle is speaking of something continual. These men are always seeking to go deep and hide their discussions and ideas from Yahweh. It is their practise. The imperfect then refers this to their present continuing activity, they are choosing to perform their works out of sight.

The picture is of men digging themselves a hideout where they can hide what they are thinking and doing from God. They then go into their hideout and assert their independence of God. It is not literal but figurative. It refers to all who think that they can carry on their activities without God knowing, who think that they can hide their ways from God. It is the example of ultimate folly, for ‘all things are open to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do’ (Hebrew 4.13).

So here Woe is declared on them. They come under God’s direct condemnation. In the background is the thought of all the plans and activities of men seeking to counter the Assyrian threat without recourse to God, especially those who have gone to Egypt for consultation and to make alliance, and have kept what they are doing secret from Isaiah. But it applies finally to the plans of men of all ages.

29.16

These people who are ignoring God should consider. They have got things the wrong way round. They are treating Him as though He is but the clay. But it is He Who is the Potter, and it is they who are the clay. It is He Who made them and fashioned their frame. They would therefore be wise to recognise that they are responsible to Him as their Creator, and to recognise that as such He has more understanding than they. But they rather reject His authority and question His wisdom. What folly!

If we were more aware that He is the Potter and we are the clay we might well find that we were more responsive to Him. Indeed it can be a comforting thought. It means that He takes final responsibility for what we become if we trust in Him (see verse 23). But some of us still tend to treat God as the clay with His ways to be fashioned by us.

If They Were Wise They Would Recognise That God Has Everything In Hand (29.17-24).

For the truth is that Yahweh, the Potter, will take the poor and the lowly and will work on them to make of them His new people. All who are unjust and work contrary to God’s law will be rooted out. In Paul’s words they will be pruned from the olive tree. And His own will then grow and develop into a godly nation. And as he has shown elsewhere this includes those who were Gentiles. They will be adopted into Israel, become sons of Abraham by faith (Galatians 3.7, 29) and be grafted into the olive tree (Romans 11.17).

29.17-19

The Potter will very decisively show His authority and His wisdom in the future. And He will do it ‘in a very little while.’ That is, a little while from God’s viewpoint. When the time comes He will act.

‘Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be counted as a forest’ Lebanon was proverbial as the essence of fruitfulness because of its tall cedars (Psalm 104.16). Perhaps the thought here is of the devastations wrought by the Assyrian invasion which God will in His time put right (37.24). Alternatively the thought may be that God will at some stage humble the mighty. That the tall cedars of Lebanon, often a symbol of man’s pride (see 2.13; Ezekiel 31.3), will as such be cut down and Lebanon be turned into garden land which will be accepted as being as good as a forest. The proud will be laid low, but the humbled will be fruitful. This suggestion of humbling would tie in with what follows.

‘And in that day will the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The meek also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.’ We can compare here verses 9-12. In contrast with the present those in the future, ‘in a very little while’ when God acts to humble the mighty, will receive what is in the book of vision, for it will be read out for the deaf to hear. This demonstrates that God appointed prophets and seers will then be willing to open the book. And they will then will have their blindness removed. The idea here is primarily of the spiritually deaf and blind.

‘In that day’, which in itself is very general, looks forward to the time of the humbling of the mighty, and the blessing of the deaf and blind, and the poor and meek (compare on 11.4), the lowest members of society, and an increase in joy and rejoicing (Luke 1.14; 2.10; 10.17; John 15.11). This is specifically referred to the time of Jesus in Matthew 5.3-5 and Luke 1.52-53 and of the Spirit anointed prophet (61.1 compare Luke 4.18-21; Matthew 11.5) and the Spirit anointed king (11.4). Indeed as the Gospels make clear Jesus also opened the ears and eyes of the literally deaf and blind, and examples of such healings were used by Him as symbolic of spiritual deafness and blindness. For ‘darkness’ compare 9.1; Matthew 4.16; Luke 1.79; John 1.5; 3.19; 8.12;12.46; Acts 26.18; 1 Thessalonians 5.4). That this was fulfilled through the ministry of Jesus and the Apostles can hardly be doubted. We need look no further.

29.20-21

There will also be an increase in social justice, and the unrighteous and unjust will be removed from Israel. Three types are warned against. The terrible, the scornful and the busybodies. The first could refer to the Assyrian king but in context more probably refers to ‘the oppressor’ in a judicial sense, one in high authority who uses his authority to pervert justice. The scornful are those who are not really concerned for justice and despise the law and use it for their own ends. Those who watch for iniquity are those who make use of the law to catch out unwary people who accidentally go astray, in order to gain a reward. All are misusers of the judicial system, and all will be dealt with.

‘Him who reproves in the gate.’ The gate was where the elders would gather to dispense justice and hear complaints. Thus this is a righteous and just elder who has annoyed the ungodly by reproving their unrighteousness so that they are trying to bring him down.

What they get up to is also described. They make people guilty by manipulating the law, they trap those who reprove them and seek to establish true justice, and they find legal loopholes so as to get the righteous found guilty. Note how the second three are in reverse order compared with the first three, typical of Isaiah. The oppressor turns aside the righteous, the scornful cut off the man of truth and honour, the unrighteous busybody catches out the unwary. Jesus constantly spoke up against these things and the spreading of Christianity increased social justice, and in Paul’s language resulted in the unjust in Israel being pruned from the true Israel. And when He returns, full justice will be established for ever, and all who have thwarted it and have not repented will truly be brought to naught.

To modernise the ideas, politicians will manipulate the law which they themselves have set up, while applying it rigidly to others for their own advantage, scorners will deny moral absolutes (compare 5.20; 28.14, 22), those intent on doing evil will bend law and order to achieve their own ends. Specifically in mind are those who abuse the legal system by such things as using politics for their own gain, committing perjury, tampering with witnesses, and preventing the innocent from getting justice, and they include crooked politicians, false witnesses, amoral lawyers, and biased judges (compare Hosea 4.1-2; Amos 2.6-8; 5.10-11; Micah 2.1-2).

29.22-24 ‘Therefore thus says Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob.

Yahweh speaks as the One who redeemed Abraham. The Old Testament elsewhere makes no specific reference to ‘the redemption’ of Abraham, but see Genesis 48.16 where the root is applied to Jacob, where it refers to God spending effort in keeping Jacob from evil. We need not doubt that He was seen as doing the same for Abraham, for having first called him and brought him out from among his unbelieving family, He had brought him into a land where he could walk with God. Indeed the saving and keeping of Abraham from evil fits this passage well. It is saying that Yahweh is the Saviour and Keeper of His chosen ones from evil by the expenditure of His power. This is what their redemption involves. The mention of Abraham takes them back to their roots, and reminds them of the first promises on which their hope for the future is based. They are chosen because of him.

The motif of Abraham is important in Isaiah. He was the one whose original faith and response to God not only resulted in him being ‘redeemed’ and seen as ‘righteous’ in God’s eyes (Genesis 15.6), but will also result in the redemption of his ‘children’. They will be saved for Abraham’s sake. Later we will learn that it was because Abraham was His friend and servant, the one whom He loved, that Israel is privileged to be called on to be His Servant, in order to carry out His will (41.8). And in 51.1-2 they are to look to Abraham, the rock from which they were hewn, something directly related to the covenant, ‘when he was but one I called him, and blessed him, and made him many’ (51.2). That is why they too will be made many, because they are one with Abraham in the covenant.

The use made here of the name Jacob is typically Hebrew. It refers both to the man and his tribe seen as one. (Just as ‘Abraham’ in Genesis referred to the man but was regularly to be seen as including his family tribe). Jacob, the descendant of Abraham, was present among them in his descendants, and there would, in the future being outlined, be nothing that they would do to bring shame to ‘him’ or pallor to ‘his’ face, i.e. to his descendants’ faces. When ‘he’ sees his children who have been transformed by the work of God’s hand in ‘his’ midst, instead of bringing shame on God they will by their lives and behaviour ‘sanctify’ (show as set apart as unique and special) God’s name, the name of the Holy One of Jacob.

In view of the fact that the title is always elsewhere ‘the Holy One of Israel’ this demonstrates that Isaiah had a special reason for using Jacob’s name in this passage rather than that of Israel, his other name. Possibly it was in order to bring out that just as Jacob became Israel, a man transformed as a result of wrestling with God, so now has the tribe of Jacob been worked on by God and been transformed, producing a new Israel. They too will have ‘wrestled’ with God. Thus they will also stand in awe of ‘the Holy One of Jacob’, sanctifying His name as ‘the God of Israel’.

‘When he sees his children, the work of My hands.’ Note the reference back to the work of the Potter. The people may forget that He is the Potter, but He still continues His work, and it will in the future become obvious.

‘Those also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will learn instruction.’ The new Israel will not yet be perfect, but they will make a recovery from the position in verse 15. Having previously erred in their inner beings, they will recover and be brought to understanding. They may sometimes murmur, as Israel murmured in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 1.27). But it will not be fatal. They will be instructed and learn from it, because God is with them for Abraham’s sake.

The picture is of people transformed by the action of the living God and growing in grace and stature, a true picture of the new Israel who will be established, and of the true church of Christ who will be grafted into Israel by adoption, and will become the true Israel. This is not to distort the passage, or ‘spiritualise’ it. We who are Christ’s are the continuation of Israel, we are the true Israel arising out of the old (Matthew 16.18; 21.43; Romans 11.17 onwards; Galatians 6.16; Ephesians 2.11-22; 1 Peter 2.9). Israel always welcomed any who would respond to the covenant, and submit to the God of Israel, whether they were the immediate foreign servants of Abraham, the mixed multitude of Moses (Exodus 12.38) or the covenant people of Shechem (Joshua 8.30-35, note the reference to resident aliens). In fact the large majority of Israelites were not literally physically descended from Jacob. They were ‘adopted’. Thus this has in mind the new Israel, which includes the Israel of God (Galatians 6.16), all those united with the new Israel in Christ.

So whenever those who err in spirit come to understanding and learn doctrine, that is, the truth as it is in Jesus, so they are seen to be the work of His hands, and they then begin to ‘sanctify His Name’, by recognising His otherness and His holiness, and standing in awe of Him, in loving worship. They will know God in truth. And it all began with Abraham, whom God graciously redeemed.

Chapter 30 The Fourth Woe. Against Those Who Trust in Egypt Rather than in Yahweh (30.1-7).

Having broken with Assyria and withheld tribute, as a result of the death of Sargon II of Assyria and the troubles that the new king Sennacherib was experiencing in cementing his kingship, Hezekiah and Judah now had to choose what they would do. Babylon’s rebellion had failed and she had been crushed by Sennacherib. She could no longer be counted on. Would they look to and depend on Egypt, who were making representations to them and to other allies, with all the compromises that that would involve, or would they look to and depend solely on Yahweh? Isaiah’s stress was on total dependence on Yahweh, but Hezekiah and his advisers favoured Egypt.

It was ironic that the people who had been delivered from Egypt’s bondage could not shake off their connections with Egypt. They had only to look at their history to realise which choice would be better for them. But they had a mistaken view of Egypt’s power and preferred the help that they could see. They overlooked the fact that in the end Egypt, if successful, might make even greater demands on them than Assyria. Such help did not come cheap.

We too must choose whether we will look back nostalgically to the past and also whether we will look at the things that are seen, or alternatively whether we will look at the things which are unseen, for the past is behind us and the things which are seen are temporal, while the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4.18).

Analysis.

• Woe to the rebellious children,” says Yahweh, “Who take counsel, but not of me, and who cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they might add sin to sin” (1).
• “Who walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt” (2).
• ‘Therefore will the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion (3).
• ‘For his princes are at Zoan, and his ambassadors have come to Hanes. They will all be ashamed of a people who cannot profit them, who are not a help or a profit, but a shame and also a reproach (4-5).

In ‘a’ the people take counsel anywhere but of Yahweh, and in the parallel their counsel is sought from Egypt. In ‘b’ they walk down to Egypt and look to the strength of Pharaoh, and trust in the shadow of Egypt, and in the parallel the strength of Pharaoh will be their shame and the trust in the shadow of Egypt their confusion.

30.1-2

God now declares a woe on His people. The act of seeking to Egypt for help against Assyria rather than to God is here seen as rebellion against God. For the stark choice lay before them. Would they trust in Yahweh, seek, and walk in His guidance, and make their plans accordingly, or would they seek the guidance of Pharaoh, seen by Egyptians as the living Horus, son of Osiris, and be guided by Egypt, making their plans in alliance with them?

Note that their choice of Egypt is said to be because of their predilection for sin. They were like rebellious children, looking to anyone but their Father for advice. They were adding sin to sin. For the real truth was that seeking to Yahweh was too demanding. He then expected them to obey Him and walk in His ways. And that is why they looked elsewhere. It was history repeating itself. Thus did they add to their sins, their ‘falling short’ of God’s requirements. When a man says, ‘I no longer believe’, what he usually means is ‘there are things I want to do which my belief is preventing’.

So the reason that they had lost faith in Yahweh was not because they saw Him as inadequate or unable to cope, but because they had turned their eyes from Him because of His covenant demands. They had found the covenant too burdensome. The result was that they then had to look elsewhere, and that is when they rested their new faith in Egypt. They then walked in the wisdom of the world and not in the wisdom of God. Was not Egypt a mighty nation? Must their gods not be powerful? Look at their chariots and horsemen. And did they not have a reputation for wisdom? But it would never have happened if they had not first turned away from Yahweh.

To ‘cover with a covering’ meant taking as a form of protection. But the covering they took was not that of the Mighty Yahweh, it was not as guided by His Spirit, or as within His will, but it was the covering of the shadow of Egypt. They did not trust to the strength of Yahweh but to the strength of Pharaoh. They preferred what they could see to what they could not see (compare 2 Corinthians 4.18).

‘Walk to go down into Egypt’. That is, they made the deliberate choice. They chose the direction in which they would walk. When the option was given to them they had to choose what they would do. It was not that they were not faced with the options. Isaiah’s voice was loud and clear. They simply had to choose what they would do, listen to Isaiah and to Yahweh, or listen to Pharaoh’s messengers (18.2). They chose Pharaoh.

All of us face similar choices in our daily lives and walk. Which will it be for us? God’s way or man’s way?

30.3

He stresses that they will live to regret their choice. They will find the strength of Pharaoh insufficient. It will leave them exposed. They will find the shadow of Egypt brings defeat and disaster. It will fill them with confusion. The corollary is that the only sensible path would be to trust Yahweh, Whose shadow would be sufficient, and Whose strength would guarantee deliverance.

30.4-5

The consultations will take place at Zoan in the northern Delta, the power base of Shabako, the Cushite king of Egypt, and at Hanes. Hanes is possibly a transliteration of the Egyptian Ha-nesu meaning ‘the king’s mansion’. The princes and ambassadors are probably those of Hezekiah. They have made their choice and now here they are. But it is a great mistake. In the end they will discover that Egypt cannot help them, will not profit them, and in the end will not be willing to back them sufficiently. Thus they will in the end shamed by them. For Egypt itself will fail in its promises and be a shame and a reproach to them. (Egypt always ensured that they did not commit themselves sufficiently to bring disaster on themselves. They knew that they could always retire beyond their strong borders. They were fair weather friends). Indeed the defeat of the Egyptian army by Assyria at Eltekeh will simply add to their shame and confusion.

The Burden of the Beasts of the South (30.6-7).

A prophetic burden usually indicates judgment on the subject of the burden. Here the judgment is on the beasts who carry the bribes to Egypt. For they carry them to no purpose, for Egypt is a powerless monster.

Analysis.

• a ‘The burden of the beasts of the south (the Negeb). Through the land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the viper and the fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures on the humps of camels (6a).
• b To a people who will not profit (6b).
• b For Egypt helps in vain and to no purpose. (7a).
• a Therefore have I called her, “Rahab who sits still” (7b).

In ‘a’ they make a great effort to seek Egypt’s help circumventing all the fearsome creatures of the desert, and in the parallel Egypt is a monster who sits still and does nothing. In ‘b’ they go to a people who will not profit, and in the parallel discover that Egypt helps in vain and to no purpose.

30.6-7

This is a word heavy with sarcasm. Isaiah declares himself to be burdened over the asses and camels that have to carry the heavy burden of the gifts sent by Hezekiah to Egypt, foreseeing judgment on them because of the task they carry out. The judgment will really be on their owners. They are being taken through the Negeb, a place full of wild and dangerous beasts, possibly in order to avoid the easy route along the coast lest news of their journey gets out. The caravan is doing exactly the same in the opposite direction as Israel did when they came out of Egypt at the Exodus, avoiding the trade route, presumably for the sake of secrecy. This is probably intended to be seen as significant. Israel are retracing their steps towards their previous tormentors instead of trusting in Yahweh.

They bear gifts to Egypt in order to prepare the way for their discussions on the Assyrian question. But they are here warned that they will gain no benefit from it, because Egypt’s aid will be in vain (as it did indeed prove to be).

‘The land of trouble and anguish.’ That is, the wilderness where all kinds of problem can be encountered, from heat and lack of water, to fierce and dangerous wild animals and rough terrain. ‘The south’ was the description often used for the Negeb, the semi-desert land on the south of Palestine, and stretching into the desert.

‘Therefore have I called her, Rahab who sits still.’ Rahab was a mythical monster whose name was applied in black humour to Egypt (see Psalm 87.4). Here the mockery is increased by calling her ‘the great monster who sits about and does nothing’, depicting the half-hearted attempts that Egypt will make to fulfil her part in the alliance. Hezekiah’s men have braved the creatures of the desert in order to get this monster on their side, and all it does is sit still.

‘The fiery flying serpent.’ Possibly the action of the particular snake as it lunged and struck gave the impression that it was flying so that it gained this nickname.

Their Trust in Other Than Yahweh And Their Tantamount Rejection of Him Can Only Result in Disaster. Security Rests in Trusting in Yahweh (30.8-18).

Isaiah is to write his words down as a testimony to the future, because at present men will not listen. They deliberately close their eyes and refuse to hear His word, and by doing so are bringing on themselves trouble and disaster, rejecting His call to them to trust Him and have confidence in Him. And yet even now Yahweh is waiting to bless them and will yet have mercy on them, and all who do put their trust in Him can be sure that they will be blessed.

Analysis.

• a Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come, for ever and ever (8).
• b For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of Yahweh, who say to the seers, “See not”, and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things. Prophesy lies. Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us” (9-11).
• c For this reason thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and rely on them (12).
• d Therefore this iniquity will be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, the breaking of which comes suddenly in an instant (13).
• d And he will break it like a potter’s vessel is broken, breaking it in pieces without sparing, so that there will not be found among its pieces, a sherd to take fire from the hearth, or to take water with it out of the cistern” (14).
• c For thus says the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you will be saved. In quietness and confidence will be your strength”, and you would not’ (15).
• b But you said, “No, but we will flee on horses”. Therefore you will flee. And “we will ride on the swift ones”. Therefore those who pursue you will be swift. One thousand will flee at the rebuke of one. At the rebuke of five you will flee. Until you are left as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as a banner on a hill (16-17).
• a And therefore will Yahweh wait, that He may be gracious to you, and therefore will He be raised (exalted), that He may have mercy on you. For Yahweh is a God of judgment (one who makes good judgments). Blessed are all those who wait for him (18).

In ‘a’ Isaiah is to write before them on a tablet, and inscribe in a book, what he has prophesied, so that it may be for the time to come, for ever and ever, for in the parallel Yahweh is waiting to be gracious to them, and will be raised that He might have mercy on them, for He acts wisely and blesses those who wait for Him. In ‘b’ they do not want to hear His words, nor do they want His interference, and in the parallel they assert their preferred response which is to trust in horses. In ‘c’ the Holy One of Israel speaks of their ‘despising this word, and trusting in oppression and perverseness, and relying on them’, and in parallel the Holy One of Israel calls on them rather to ‘return and rest’ and ‘be quiet and confident’ for in this they would be saved, an offer they refused. In ‘d’ their iniquity will be to them like a collapsing wall, and in the parallel like the breaking of a potter’s vessel.

30.8-11

Isaiah is told to write down his prophecies so that future generations would know what God had said to His people. For the people were in a state where they did not want to hear God’s Law and wanted seers and prophets who would say what they wanted to hear, while God wanted His own acts to be judged in the light of the truth and of what He had promised.

‘Write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book.’ The writing on the wooden writing tablet would be for display as a public record (compare 8.1). It was to be placed where all could see it, ‘before them’. It probably especially refers to verses 6-7 or verses 9-15. The inscribing in the papyrus or leather scroll was for future use and would include wider prophecies as a permanent record of what Isaiah had proclaimed. Both commands show the importance laid on prophecy being written down.

‘For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear the law of Yahweh, who say to the seers, “See not”, and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things. Prophesy lies (‘illusions’). Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path. Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.’ This is God’s verdict on Judah. They were rebellious, rejecting trust in Yahweh. They were deceitful because they pretended to be His children but did not behave like it (compare 1.2). They made subtle, lying excuses for their behaviour and made a feigned submission to Yahweh that was not genuine. For they were children who did not want to listen to authority. Above all they did not want to listen to the Instruction of Yahweh (God’s Law in Scripture). They wanted to avoid the impact of the word of God and its demands on their lives.

Thus they asked their teachers and preachers to tell them what they wanted to hear, and to avoid telling them the truth. They did not want them to receive a word from God. They preferred, and demanded, smooth preaching which would not ruffle their consciences (compare Amos 2.12; Micah 2.6) and to be told illusions that would make them happy (such as how good it was to trust in safe, reliable Egypt). They did not want to be told the truth.

They especially did not want to be faced up to the Holy One of Israel with His strong requirements and absolute morality. Those were out-of-date concepts suitable only for wilderness existence. Yahweh was old-fashioned. What they wanted was more modern preaching for a different age, that did not lay an emphasis on divine imperatives. (They would of course have put all this more delicately, but that was what they really wanted). So they were basically telling their teachers to go astray, and to leave the way and path of Yahweh because it was too demanding.

Today so many are guilty of the same thing. They want the security of being Christ’s but they do not want the transformation that goes with it. They think, as Israel did in Isaiah’s day, that they can have the one without the other. But we cannot be His without beginning the process of being like Him. For God will not allow it. ‘Whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives, -- but if you are without chastening, of which all are made partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons’ (Hebrews 12.6-8).

30.12-14 ‘For this reason thus says the Holy One of Israel,

But the Holy One of Israel cannot be so avoided and He speaks back directly to them. So they despise His word? They prefer to oppress people, bringing pressure on them to do what they want, and to behave perversely, following their own ways, their ‘new morality’? Indeed they trust and rely on these things. Well, let them consider what the consequences of this will be. Despising His word is like having a high wall which has not been properly built and has become unstable, suddenly beginning to bulge out and then collapsing violently. It will be like a potter’s vessel which has gone wrong in the making and is therefore deliberately smashed to pieces by the potter. And the pieces will be so small that they cannot be used for anything, not even for carrying out the most basic and simple tasks such as poking the fire or ladling up water. (A sherd was a fair sized piece of broken pottery). They will be useless.

Note the two aspects of the stated consequences. The wall collapses because it has been badly built, it has relied on man’s unreliable craftsmanship, it is unstable, just as their moral choices are unstable in themselves. Man’s wisdom always fails in the end because it results from not seeing the whole picture. How regularly man’s relieving of restrictions and his establishing of his ‘freedoms’ result in unseen consequences that result in suffering for all. The vessel smashes because it is smashed by the Potter, and the reason is that he is not satisfied with it. So will God act against those who despise His instruction, His Law, because He is not satisfied with how they have turned out.

The breach in the wall and its being in danger of collapse may well have in mind despoliation by an enemy as they see their walls collapse under his attack, and the smashing to pieces could signify the result of such invasion as their city is ransacked.

30.15 ‘For thus says the Holy One of Israel,

These, he stresses, are the words of the same Holy One of Israel Whom they have rejected. This is His alternative approach. This is where they could find security and strength. If they return to Him and trust Him they will be saved. Their deliverance is dependent not on Egypt or any other outside assistance, but on returning to Yahweh, a positive putting aside of sin and disobedience and a renewal of their covenant with God resulting in responsive obedience, accompanied by a trusting in Him and a resting on His reliability. But they ‘would not’. They made their choice and were not interested. They preferred lying words, despising Yahweh’s word and trusting in oppression and perverseness, living harshly and behaving intolerably.

But they would indeed remember this when they later stood within Jerusalem, looking out over the walls and seeing the vast hordes of the enemy that had approached again and had made encampment after the defeat of the Egyptian army. Then they would have only one last place to look, to Yahweh. And this time when they cried to Him He forgave them and acted for them. But only after they had learned a bitter lesson through much suffering. For even though Jerusalem was delivered from the worst, the surrounding region was not.

But we must remember that a century later in time the same thing would happen and they would cry and would not be forgiven. Then it would be too late, they would have gone too far, and the city would be taken, and the people would go into exile. We must recognise that we cannot presume on God’s mercy for ever. There are limits even to that.

‘In quietness and confidence will be your strength” The only real solution to a satisfying and inwardly secure life is quiet confidence in and trust in Yahweh, with its resulting obedience to His word. Then a man can be strong whatever comes because he knows that Yahweh is with him to act for him and with him. The implication is that had the quietness and confidence of Judah been in Yahweh by an obedient and responsive people, they would not have needed to creep secretly off to Egypt. Nor would they later have been besieged.

The question for each of us is the same, what is our Egypt? What are we leaning on rather than leaning on God?

30.16-17

This probably reflects the confident humour, or arrogant self-confidence, with which Isaiah’s pleas for trust in Yahweh had been met. ‘We are not worried, we will flee on horses. Our horses are like racehorses,’ while confident that they would not have to flee at all. So Isaiah assures them that what they have suggested is what will indeed happen. But then they will find that their enemy have super-racehorses and will overtake them.

Indeed their enemies will be so mighty that all that they will need to defeat a regiment will be one man, and five will defeat the whole army. A ‘five’ was possibly the smallest known military unit at the time, or may mean a handful.

‘Until you are left as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as a banner on a hill.’ This probably refers to a last stand made by a defeated force, when they have rallied on a convenient mountain or hill and raised their banner or sent out their distress signals (compare Judges 20.47). And when finally routed all that remains are the traces of the beacon fire, or a solitary, ragged banner blowing in the wind.

30.18

In verse 15 God had stressed that they must return to Him and rest in Him quietly and confidently, but they had declined His offer in favour of their own self-sufficiency. So now we learn of the patience of God. He is prepared to wait. We should never cease to be amazed at God’s capacity to wait, even though one day it will come to an end. But it is not a waiting of inactivity. During it He brings men into situations in which their minds are forced to consider Him, as He will with Judah. And then He looks for their response.

He commences with two ‘therefores’. In verse 16 they had learned that because of their trust in their own abilities ‘therefore’ they would flee and ‘therefore’ those who pursued them would be swift. Now He stresses that ‘therefore’ also He will wait, allowing what is to happen to happen, so that they might learn their insufficiency, and then, when they finally do seek Him, He can be gracious to them, revealing His undeserved love, and ‘therefore’ He will finally act on their behalf, He will rise (or ‘be exalted’) in order to reveal to them His mercy and compassion. The latter may refer to what He is about to do in sending His angel to bring relief from the siege of Jerusalem, which will truly exalt His name.

For He is too wise to react hastily. He is a God Who makes sound judgments, and acts in grace. And He will, despite all, wait patiently and then work on behalf of His own. Thus those who wait for Him will be blessed, and others will be blessed along with them. But it was not something to presume on, for many would perish before that time came.

For God’s Final Purpose is To Bless His True People Who Will Remain After His Chastisement and Purification, And To Defeat Their Enemies Himself (30.19-33).

While the future holds adversity for them, His final purpose is to bless those who are His true people. In the case of those who will hear His voice, He will be there to guide them. And once they have learned their lesson through their sufferings then they will enjoy great prosperity.

Analysis.

• a O people who dwell in Zion at Jerusalem, you will weep no more. (Or, ‘the people who dwell in Zion will weep no more’). He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When He will hear He will answer you (19).
• b And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet will not your Teacher be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your Teacher, and your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left (20-21).
• c And you will defile the overlaying of your graven images of silver, and the plating of your molten images of gold. You will cast them away as an unclean thing. You will say to each one, “Leave us” (22).
• d And he will give the rain of your seed, that you sow the ground with it
• d And bread of the increase of the ground, and it will be fat and plentiful (23a).
• c In that day your cattle will feed in large pastures. Similarly the oxen and the young asses which till the ground, they will eat salted provender, which has been winnowed with the fork and with the fan (23b-24).
• b And on every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be rivers and streams of waters, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall (25).
• a What is more the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the hurt of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound (26).

In ‘a’ the promise is that one day His people will weep no more because He will hear their cry and be gracious to them, and in the parallel all their benefits will be enhanced in the day when He acts to heal them. In ‘b’ although they must suffer adversity and affliction they can be sure that they will hear His voice leading and guiding them in the right way, and in the parallel there will be rivers of waters on the hills, even though there is great slaughter and the towers fall. In ‘c’ when they get rid of their idols and destroy them, in the parallel they will prosper and enjoy prosperity. In ‘d’ He will feed their sown seed with rain, and in the parallel this will result in abundance of provision.

30.19-21 ‘O people who dwell in Zion at Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When he will hear he will answer you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet will not your Teacher be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your Teacher, and your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.’

In typical fashion Isaiah now promises hope, because it is finally God’s purpose to bless those of His people whom He preserves. His words are addressed to those in Zion, at Jerusalem. It is true that they must first face the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, that is, that adversity and affliction will for a time be their staple diet in days to come, but there will come a day when weeping is no more. The present is bleak because of their sin, but the future is bright because of God’s sovereign mercy (but only for those who survive).

For when they do call on Him in genuine repentance and seek His face, when they ‘cry’ to Him, then He will hear and answer them. Then they will know Him as their Teacher, who will not be hidden from them any more (contrast 29.11-12). Their eyes will see Him and their ears will hear Him. And when they begin to stray the voice of their Teacher will speak to them, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it”.’

The picture is of a Guide, who when the caravan he is leading takes the wrong road because he has gone ahead to scout, calls after them, ‘this is the way, walk in it’.

‘Your eyes will see your Teacher.’ Isaiah here probably means acknowledge and recognise, but it was to receive a greater fulfilment than Isaiah probably intended, when the Counsellor Himself walked and taught in Palestine and men saw Him with their own eyes, and they could say, ‘we beheld His glory’ (John 1.14).

It may, however, be that he did here have ‘the Counsellor’ in mind (9.6), and that the reference here is to the coming Immanuel, Who is later spoken of in this way (42.7; 49.2, 6; 50.4; 61.1-2).

So God promises that one day there will be a Teacher in response to their prayers (whether God or Immanuel), a Teacher Who will care for them and be available to them and lead them in the right way (compare 2.3; 28.6, 26; Psalm 25.8; 94.10, 12). A Teacher whose concern for them will be such that He is ever watchful of their spiritual welfare, bringing to them His Law and guiding them by it (2.3).

Note again the near and far view. Jerusalem would be delivered in the near future, and the deliverance would certainly have a spiritual impact, but the greater impact awaited another day when God would act in a more wonderful way to finalise His work, because their response of faith would be insufficient.

30.22

One sign of their reformation will be that they will rid themselves of their idols made of wood, and covered with precious metals. They will first denude them of their silver and gold, and then throw them away, declaring their intention to be rid of them, and that they want no more of them, demanding that they go on their way and leave them.

It is noteworthy that the final result of exile and the suffering that they subsequently endured was that Israel did finally finish with idolatry. From then on it became anathema to them. So fulfilment was both near and far. Isaiah foresaw what would happen, but he was not aware of the timetable.

30.23-24

Then instead of the bread of affliction and the water of adversity, they will enjoy rain from heaven enabling them to sow their seed with certainty, and sufficient harvest that they have plentiful soft bread. The cattle will enjoy pasturage in large fields, the oxen and the young asses will eat well-flavoured provender, which has been thoroughly sifted and fanned (contrast verses 6-7). The latter has in mind that when grain is short it is better not to remove too much of the chaff in order that the food may appear more plentiful, but now there is so much that it can be well sifted. The contrast demonstrates that the emphasis is not on the detail, but its significance. Instead of affliction will come freedom and joy; instead of adversity will come peace and blessing.

As so often the fulfilment is greater than the promise. Days did come in their future prior to the time of Jesus when Jerusalem enjoyed the physical blessings promised. Times became prosperous. But the greater fulfilment lay in Him Who was the bread (John 6.35, 51) and water of life (John 4.14; 7.37-38), which was to be enjoyed while His people were on earth and will be enjoyed even more abundantly, without the weeping (verse 19), in eternity, when the curse will be no more (Revelation 21.4, 6; 22.1-3). Then life will flourish beyond all understanding.

To an agricultural community the greatest blessings conceivable were plentiful rain, fruitful harvests, and large pasturage, and that is why their future was pictured in these terms. The curse would be lifted, the blessings of Eden would return. That is why their everlasting future is depicted in those terms. They were terms that they understood. They indicated that the curse of Eden will have been removed and that Paradise will have come. John in Revelation would later depict the same future in terms of a city made of gold and precious jewels, and of a river of life surrounded by fruitful trees. None are finally to be pressed literally.

(If you were to go among a remote Eskimo group that had no conception of a life beyond the grave or of advanced spiritual concepts, how would you present Heaven to them? Would it not be in terms of plentiful extra fat seals, bigger igloos and larger holes in the ice? So it was here, but in different terms. It is ever so. God can only speak to us through pictures, and that is equally true even in our modern age).

30.25 ‘And on every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be rivers and streams of waters, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.’

This verse brings out the parabolic nature of the prophetic words. All the mountains will run with streams of water! (Compare 33.21). Canaan was a land which depended on rain and not on mighty rivers, and so blessing is pictured in those terms. So on the one hand for the people of God who trust in Him the mountains and hills will run with water, a sign of fruitfulness and plenty, while on the other for God’s enemies there will be great slaughter and the destruction of their strongholds (compare 25.2; 32.19). It will thus be a time of judgment and of separation. On the one hand those deemed righteous will enjoy life-giving water, on the other those deemed unrighteous will face destruction and ‘the great slaughter’.

30.26 ‘What is more the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that Yahweh binds up the hurt of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.’

In the day spoken of the whole of nature will be abounding. The moon will shine like the sun (compare Revelation 21.26) and the sun will have sevenfold brightness, sufficient sun in one day for seven days. That man could not naturally survive in these conditions is apparent, but that is not the point. The point is to indicate that man’s blessings and provision will increase ‘sevenfold’, that is, will increase in terms of divine perfection. We are not here speaking of literal happenings but of a heavenly kingdom spoken of in earthly terms when all will be magnified and far more wonderful than we can ever imagine.

‘In the day that Yahweh binds up the hurt of His people, and heals the stroke of their wound.’ That is, when the everlasting kingdom begins and all is made well (contrast verse 20; 1.5-6). In New Testament terms it is the day of the Parousia, the day when Christ Jesus takes up His own to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4.13-18). This day is in contrast with the day of great slaughter in verse 25. His people will come out of that time of distress, to healing and restoration. And yet for His true people it begins here and now, for ‘out of the innermost beings will flow rivers of living water’ (John 7.37-39), while the healing of the wounds is carried out by the Great Physician in all who trust in Him (Mark 2.17).

The Destruction of Assyria (30.27-33).

However, although there will be no help for them in Egypt, they will be delivered, for God Himself will act to deliver them. For the remnant who come through the fire, those who have sought refuge on God’s mountain, the true believers, there will be mercy, because God will act for them and sweep away the enemy.

This passage opens with ‘the name of Yahweh’ being revealed in judgment and fire, and closes with ‘the breath of Yahweh’ expressing itself in judgment, as the enemy are offered up like a sacrifice to a heathen god. His name represents His greatness and glory, His breath His powerful judgment. It describes the dreadfulness of Yahweh’s judgment on Assyria.

Analysis.

• a Behold the name of Yahweh comes from far, burning with his anger and in thick rising smoke. His lips are full of indignation, and His tongue is as a devouring fire, and his breath is as an overflowing stream, that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of worthlessness, and a bridle that causes to err will be in the jaws of the peoples (27-28).
• b You will have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart as when one goes with a pipe to come to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Rock of Israel (29).
• c And Yahweh will cause His glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descending blow of His arm in the indignation of His anger, and the flame of a devouring fire with the crashing of a storm, and tempest and hailstones (30).
• c For through the voice of Yahweh will the Assyrian be broken in pieces, who smote with a rod (or ‘whom he smote with a rod’) (31).
• b And every stroke of the appointed staff that Yahweh will lay on him will be with tambourines and harps, and He will fight with them in battles of shaking (32).
• a For a Topheth is prepared of old, yes, it is made ready for the king. He has made it deep and large. Its pile is fire and much wood. The breath of Yahweh like a stream of brimstone kindles it (33).

In ‘a’ Yahweh will come burning with anger in thick smoke, His breath like an everflowing stream which reaches to the neck, to sift the nations, and in the parallel He has prepared for a sacrifice on piles of fire, and His breath is like a stream of brimstone which kindles it. In ‘b’ they will have a song and gladness of heart as they rest on the Rock of Israel, and in the parallel they will have tambourines and harp as the enemy are defeated by Yahweh. In ‘c’ Yahweh will reveal His effective power, and in the parallel will break the Assyrian in pieces.

30.27-28

The approach of the name of Yahweh demonstrates that He has come for vindication, to establish His name and reputation. Assyria, His rod, has thwarted His will and gone beyond its remit (10.6-7, 12-15). Now Yahweh comes to make matters right. For anger combined with thick rising smoke compare Genesis 19.28 of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (compare 13.19 of the judgment on Babylon). Also see Exodus 19.18. For devouring fire compare 29.6; 33.14; Exodus 24.17. The thick rising smoke emphasises the burning nature of His anger. It is all consuming. Whenever people saw thick rising smoke in the distance they knew that it was always ominous, and that destruction accompanied it.

Thus we have here the God of Sinai, the God of the covenant, the Great Deliverer, appearing to exercise His wrath. He ‘comes from far’ for He has been standing back, out of this world, allowing events to go forward, but now He can stand by no longer. He burns with anger, His lips flow with indignation, His tongue is like a devouring fire, His breath (or wind) like a devastating flood that reaches even to the neck (compare 8.8; 11.4), because of the treatment meted out to His people. (Isaiah’s purpose is to bring out Yahweh’s depth of feeling for His people). He has come to sieve their oppressors in ‘the sieve of worthlessness’ which will analyse and reveal what they are, revealing their worthlessness and futility, and to lead them into disaster with a bridle that causes to err, to go astray. They are still under His control, no longer as the rod of His anger, but now as the butt of His anger. They have overstepped the mark. And He will work His will on them.

The idea of the flood to the neck, which is recompensing Assyria’s earlier behaviour (see 8.8), while stressing its depth, may be to give an assurance that it will not be like the flood in the time of Noah, all consuming. While it will be severe judgment, it will not be final.

30.29 ‘You will have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart as when one goes with a pipe to come to the mountain of Yahweh, to the Rock of Israel.’

Israel/Judah on the other hand will rejoice because their enemy are being dealt with. As they watch over the walls in amazement they will see large numbers of dead men being carried from their tents and piled up, and will recognise that it can only mean the cessation of the siege. The previous day the camp had been vibrant with hostility and purpose. Now it was a graveyard. Yahweh has visited their enemies. Assyria and its allies have suffered a cruel blow from which they cannot recover.

The watchers will thus sing as they would by night at a holy feast, possibly especially at Passover, the feast of deliverance, which was specifically celebrated at night, with spontaneous delight and a sense of release. But the emphasis here is on the fact that it will be spontaneous worship, not the result of a specific feast but of a unique event that has brought them special joy, just as the original Passover did. They will be as they would when they play their pipes and ascend the mountain of Yahweh, the Rock of Israel, full of gladness and rejoicing in Him. The name ‘Rock of Israel’ confirms the solidity of their foundations (compare 26.4). They have found Him to be so and have cause to rejoice.

30.30-31 ‘And Yahweh will cause his glorious voice to be heard, and will show the descending blow of his arm in the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire with the crashing of a storm, and tempest and hailstones. For through the voice of Yahweh will the Assyrian be broken in pieces, who smote with a rod (or ‘whom he smote with a rod’).’

For Yahweh will have spoken with a majestic and glorious voice by His act of power in destroying the Assyrian army. His mighty arm will have descended revealing His fierce anger against their sin, His devouring fire will have done its work like thunderbolts and forked lightning in a mighty storm. This need not signify a literal storm. It is a picture of the invisible power of Yahweh at work, bringing about the havoc that such a storm causes. For Yahweh will have decimated the Assyrians with one mighty blow.

‘Who smote with a rod (or ‘whom he smote with a rod’).’ This refers to the fact that what Assyria had initially done to the cities of Judah was as Yahweh’s rod (compare 10.5). But now the rod itself will be punished and destroyed because it went far beyond Yahweh’s remit. For Assyria had not knowingly acted as Yahweh’s rod, they had acted as they did because they were greedy, rapacious and bloodthirsty, and even while ‘controlled’ they had been uncontrolled. Alternately it could refer to the smiting with a rod by Yahweh of the Assyrian army. Either way it is a reminder that Assyria is receiving what it sowed.

30.32-33 ‘And every stroke of the appointed staff that Yahweh will lay on him will be with tambourines and harps, and he will fight with them in battles of shaking. For a Topheth is prepared of old, yes, it is made ready for the king. He has made it deep and large. Its pile is fire and much wood. The breath of Yahweh like a stream of brimstone kindles it.’

Yahweh in turn has appointed a staff with which to smite His people’s enemies, and every stroke it makes results in music of rejoicing from the besieged. Note how the music here parallels verse 29. Only those who have been under siege in a walled city with a cruel enemy surrounding, awaiting what seems to be the inevitable cruel end for themselves, their wives and their children, can appreciate the exaltation when the siege is unexpectedly lifted by the defeat of the enemy, and the wild expression of release in the playing of every instrument to hand and the singing of songs of deliverance.

In divine contrast with the tambourines and harps is Yahweh fighting for them in ‘battles of shaking.’ Compare 19.16. ‘Battles’ is probably a plural of intensity. It is the mother of all battles. The reference would appear to be to the hand of Yahweh shaking (or ‘waving’) with expressed power over them in battle, which will cause their enemies also to shake, but with fear. It may even also be a deliberate comparison with the people’s shaking of their tambourines. As they shake their tambourines He will be shaking the enemy. Also included may be a reference to the shaking that resulted from the fever with which Yahweh possibly smote the Assyrian army. The phrase may signify ‘an intensive battle (plural of intensity) which results in shaking’.

But all the while from the battlements of Jerusalem will be heard the tambourines and the harps as they give glory for their deliverance. We have here a wonderful illustration of what it means to ‘stand still and see the salvation of God’ (Exodus 14.13), when God does it all and His people watch in rejoicing.

‘For a Topheth is prepared of old.’ Topheth probably means ‘abominable fireplace’. The root tpt relates to the Aramaic and Arabic for fireplace, with the vowels of bosheth (‘shame’) applied to it. It was the name given to a high place in the Valley of Hinnom where children were passed through the fire to Melech (‘King’ - from which comes Molech - using the vowels of bosheth to denote shame). It is thus a place of burning which is shameful, and thus suitable for this idolatrous king and his arrogant pride. God has made it deep and large, sufficient for its purpose. He has piled it high with burning wood, and His breath kindles it like a stream of brimstone, a stream of burning sulphur. Destructive fire is often spoken of in terms of brimstone.

The whole picture is demonstrating the awful end of the king and his armies at the hand of Yahweh, as though they were being burned in a fire as a heathen sacrifice to the gods. All are doomed.

Such passages remind us of the holiness of God. They remind us that He is not to be treated lightly. That He is the Holy One. That His fury at sin results in judgment. But they also indicate that He will protect His own when they look to Him. Then we will have cause for singing when we enjoy His deliverance.

Chapter 31 The Fifth Woe On Those Who Trust To Egypt And To The Strength Of Their Horse Propelled Armaments. Rather They Must Trust In Yahweh Who Will Fight For Them.

This chapter is a chapter of contrast. On the one hand are those who fatally trust in Egypt because of their horses and chariots, And on the other the call goes out to trust in Yahweh Who will deliver without needing either, for He will hover over Jerusalem as He did at the Exodus and will smite their enemy with His voice.

They Must Trust In Yahweh and Not In The Horses of Egypt (31.1-3).

The Assyrians had powerful chariotry and horsemen, and in order to combat them many felt that their only hope was in Egypt, famous for its horses. But Yahweh here points out that the Egyptians are but men, and their horses are but flesh. Where they should be looking is to the One Who can act by His voice and by His Spirit.

Analysis.

• a Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and are depending on horses; and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horses because they are very strong (1a).
• b But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor do they seek Yahweh (1b).
• c Yet He also is strong, and will bring evil, and will not call back His words (2a).
• c But will arise against the house of the evil-doers, and against the help of those who work iniquity (2b).
• b Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses flesh and not spirit (3a).
• a And when Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all fail together (3b).

In ‘a’ he declares woe on those who seek help elsewhere than in Yahweh, and who depend on Egypt’s strong horses and in the parallel those who help will stumble when Yahweh stretches out His hand. In ‘b’ they fail to look to the Holy One of Israel or seek Yahweh, and in the parallel are reminded that the Egyptians are not God but men, and that their horses are ordinary horses, not ‘spirit’. Thus how foolish to look to them rather than to the Spirit of God. and His heavenly power. In ‘c’ Yahweh also is strong, (stronger than the Egyptian horses, see verse 1), and He can and will bring evil (what is looked on by the enemy as evil) and in the parallel will arise against the house of evildoers and against the assistance given by those who work iniquity.

31.1-2

A further woe is declared on Judah. The men of Judah had clearly been impressed by the Egyptian horse weaponry, both their many chariots and their fine cavalry. This had given them renewed confidence in an Egyptian victory, something which they seemingly drew to Isaiah’s attention. They had become horse-dependent (continuous tense) rather than Yahweh dependent. They had stopped looking to Him.

But Isaiah points out that Yahweh too is strong, far mightier than the Egyptian horses. And that they should beware, for when He purposes misfortune He will not call back His words. Indeed He is the Holy One of Israel, therefore He must go against the house of evildoers (Egypt), and those (the Egyptians) who are the help of those who work iniquity (the people of Judah and especially the Egyptian party in Judah). Note again the stress on the fact that Yahweh so acts because those against whom He acted were sinful and wicked. His dislike of Egypt and the Egyptian party in Judah was not arbitrary. It lay in their sinfulness.

31.3

Indeed Isaiah reminds them that, in contrast to Yahweh, Who is God and of the spiritual realm, the Egyptians are but men and their horses but flesh. Thus when God chooses to act to demonstrate their human frailty He will simply stretch out His hand and both helper (the Egyptians) and the helped (Judah) will stumble and fall. Both will fail together. For it is God Who is against them. This might suggest that there was a contingent of men from Judah assisting Egypt when they were defeated by the Assyrians at Eltekeh, as there almost certainly would be. Pharaoh would not expect to march through Judah towards Eltekeh without gathering support along the way.

The whole tenor of the passage is of the folly of trusting in men when they could trust in God and the certain promises that He has given them, the folly of trusting in human strength rather than in divine aid.

In The End It Is Yahweh Who Will Deliver His People (31.4-9).

Isaiah points out that God is not afraid of the rantings of Assyria. Rather He will come to act on behalf of His people as He did at the Exodus when the angel of death slew the Egyptian firstborn. For like a giant bird He is hovering over His people to protect them, and they will therefore be delivered, but not by a human agency.

Analysis.

• a For thus says Yahweh to me, “Just as when the lion growls, and the mature young lion over his prey, if a large group of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself because of their noise (4a)
• b So will Yahweh of hosts come down to fight, on Mount Zion and on its hill. As birds flying, so will Yahweh of hosts protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it, He will pass over and preserve it (4b-5).
• c Turn to him from whom you have deeply revolted, O children of Israel (6).
• c For in that day they will cast away every man his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made for you for a sin (7).
• b Then will the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of man, and the sword not of men will devour him. And he will flee from the sword, and his young men will become tributary (8).
• a And his rock will pass away by reason of terror, and his princes will be dismayed at the banner, Says Yahweh, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem (9).

In ‘a’ Yahweh is like a powerful lion who is not frightened of a group of shepherds, however large, He will not be dismayed or afraid, while in the parallel Assyria will be dismayed and afraid, because of Yahweh, Whose fire and furnace is in Jerusalem. In ‘b’ Yahweh will come down to fight for His people, and in the parallel the Assyrians will flee to their own land, smitten by a sword which is not human. In ‘c’ Israel is to turn to Yahweh from whom they have so deeply revolted, and in the parallel are to cast away the idols which they themselves have made, which they have preferred to Yahweh.

31.4 ‘For thus says Yahweh to me,

However, in contrast to the Egyptians who will flee before Assyria God will rise like a young strong lion on behalf of His people, undismayed by the size and boasting of the enemy. Note the stress on the noise they make and compare the speeches of the Assyrian leaders (36-37), they are like shepherds making a loud noise to frighten the lion off, but they will not succeed, for the Lion is Yahweh. And Yahweh will be fighting on Mount Zion. This is not so much Jerusalem that is in mind as Mount Zion His earthly dwellingplace with its heavenly connections, and all that it means and signifies. That is where He will take His stance as He protects Jerusalem, and is one reason why He does so.

31.5

The picture now moves on to that of birds fiercely aroused to protect their nest, taking off from Mount Zion and protecting Jerusalem. The king of Assyria had boasted that he collected the riches of the nations like an egg collector collected eggs, without the helpless parent birds protesting (10.14), but now he will discover that there is one Parent Bird Who will protect His young, and will succeed in delivering them. He will not allow Jerusalem to be robbed of its eggs. He will ‘pass over’ Jerusalem and preserve it. The idea behind ‘pass over’ is unquestionably intended to remind the reader of the previous time when God ‘passed over’ His people in deliverance and Egypt was left to bewail its dead (Exodus 12). Now it will be Assyria’s turn to bewail their dead because of their treatment of His people. The twin double verbs, ‘protect and deliver’, ‘pass over and preserve’, making four in all, stress that what will happen is a double twofold witness to God’s delivering power.

31.6-8 ‘Turn to him from whom you have deeply revolted, O children of Israel, for in that day they will cast away every man his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made for you for a sin, then will the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of man, and the sword not of men will devour him. And he will flee from the sword, and his young men will become tributary.’

Their deliverance must, however, go in parallel with their repentance and turning. When His people look to him and cast from them their idols of silver and gold which they have made for themselves so that they can sin with them (note the sarcasm, they have made them with their own hands for themselves; and the description of what idolatry achieves, it makes them sin), then He will reach out and smite the Assyrians without the aid of a human sword. The sword He will use will be His own strong sword (27.1), and it will devour the Assyrian. And it will not stop there. For it will also make the Assyrian flee and in the end result in their young men becoming enslaved to another nation. In the end the empire of Assyria will be overthrown by the sword of Yahweh.

Note how Judah are called ‘the children of Israel’. As far as the prophets were concerned there was only one Israel, the combined tribes. (Which is why it is sometimes difficult to know which is in mind when the term ‘Israel’ is used).

‘In that day.’ Here this means in the day when they cease to trust Egypt and turn to trust in Him (37.1-4). It must always be interpreted in context. It means basically in a day when God brings about His particular purpose.

31.9

‘His rock’ is the rock ‘of the Assyrian’, that is, their king. Unlike the strong rock of Judah (26.4; 30.29), their rock will be terrified and depart for Assyria. While Yahweh will ‘pass over’, their rock will ‘pass away’. As will their princes. Both will be dismayed at the One Who is Israel’s banner (compare 11.10; Exodus 17.15 - ‘Yahweh my Banner’). Or it may well be that the Davidic banner is in mind (11.10), with Hezekiah seen as Yahweh’s representative and as a predecessor to the coming king, for we move immediately on to a description of that coming king (32.1-2).

‘Says Yahweh, Whose fire is in Zion and His furnace in Jerusalem.’ The Assyrians had approached Jerusalem with confidence. It was but another city to fall before their onslaught. What they did not appreciate was that the God of Sinai was there. The fire of Yahweh was in Zion and His furnace in Jerusalem. He was the fire that was to both destroy them and purify Israel (10.16-19; 4.4), the furnace prepared for their king (30.33). He will totally burn up both them and him, and purify His people.

Chapter 32 The Coming King Will Open Men’s Hearts, Reveal What Is True And Right And Encourage Nobility of Life. What Life Will Be Like Before His Coming. The Pouring Out Of The Spirit.

The banner at which Assyria will be dismayed points towards the coming king, the hope of Israel (11.10). The king of Assyria will perish, burned up in Yahweh’s furnace, but Israel’s hope is to be in Yahweh’s king Who will come in righteousness and be to His people all that they require, the king already expanded on in Isaiah 9.5-6; 11.1-9, when the prince of Peace will bring peace and harmony to His people.

Israel/Judah laid great stress on the house of David and saw all their future hopes as tied up in that house. The King was to them the representative of God and acted on their behalf and in their name with God. It was in him that the everlasting promises were tied up (2 Samuel 7.12-16; Psalm 2; 45; 89.19-37; Ezekiel 37.24-28). These promises were central to the everlasting covenant. They were seen as ‘the sure mercies of David’ (55.3).

Thus their king was the very source of their life (Lamentations 4.20). We can imagine with what hopes they therefore looked forward for the greater David who would establish the everlasting kingdom, and towards the good days that were coming. That is why the writers of the book of Kings laid such great stress on whether the king did good or evil in the sight of Yahweh. He was seen as acting for the nation and in its name, and his failure was their failure.

So Israel looked forward in accordance with God’s promises to the fact that one day would come a King Who would be all powerful and all triumphant, Who would establish righteousness and justice, and Who would introduce the everlasting kingdom (9.6-7; 11.1-10; Psalm 2; 45; 89.19-37; Ezekiel 37.24-28).

The Coming King (32.1-3).

The final result of Yahweh’s activity will be the rise of the righteous king and the establishment of the perfect kingdom. This can be compared with 11.1-9.

Analysis.

• Behold a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice (in wise and right judgment ) (1).
• And a man will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest (2a).
• As rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land (2b).
• And the eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen (3).

In ‘a’ the king will reign in righteousness an his princes in justice, and in the parallel the eyes of all will be wide open, and the ears of all will listen. There will be perfect rule and perfect response. In ‘b’ ‘a man’ will be a hiding place from trouble, and in the parallel he will refresh men in a dry and hot land.

32.1-2

Beyond God’s judgments as expressed in His treatment of Assyria lies the coming of a King who will rule in righteousness, and Whose reign will epitomise true justice, (9.7; 11.1-5) so that all who serve under Him will be just and fair. (See Matthew 19.28; Luke 22.30). It will introduce the coming Paradise. As always no time limit is laid down, only that it is ‘in the future’.

Then comes the even better news. ‘A man’, someone unique and special but truly human, will be a hiding place, a covert, a river of water to the thirsty, the shadow of a great rock (note the contrast with 31.9). Elsewhere such ideas are linked with God (see 4.6; 26.4; 30.29; 33.21 compare Psalm 46.4), but now they are applied to ‘a man’. And this can only be the One Who will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (9.6), for He must be a man and yet more than a man, or how could He do and be such things? He will be a shelter from wind, tempest and heat, and a provider of the water of life to those who thirst, the great Sustainer in the strength-sapping desert of life.

Some kings would partially fulfil the dream, kings such as Josiah, but none would make it a full actuality until the coming of Jesus, great David’s greater son. He alone could represent the future king in all His aspects. He did so when He offered men entrance under the Kingly Rule of God, and was there for them to meet their deepest needs, and especially so when, having sacrificed Himself on their behalf (see chapter 53) He was raised and seated on the throne at the right hand of God to watch over them permanently. So whatever wind blows, whatever tempest arises, whatever great heat makes weary His people, He is their shelter, their Protector, their hiding place, and the provider of the water of life (compare 55.1; John 4.10, 13-14; 7.37-38).

32.3

And in response to the righteous king will be a responsive people. They will see clearly and will hear the words of righteousness. The sad state of the people as in 6.10 will have been reversed. For when this king reigns those who see will understand, their eyes will not be dim, those who hear will listen. This is in direct contrast to 6.10 where the people were described as heavy of ear, closed of eye and fat in heart and thus unwilling to respond to Yahweh.

While we may possibly include the literal opening of the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf in the thought (compare 35.5-6), the main intention is to stress the response of men’s hearts and lives to God. Jesus combined the two when He interpreted His healings as parables as well (Mark 7.32-36 and 8.22-26 with 8.18).

A Comparison of the Wise and Honourable With The Foolish And The Crafty (32.4-8).

In describing what will happen in the coming kingdom Isaiah analyses wisdom and folly. The king will deliver His people from folly and craftiness, and will give them understanding in the truth, and make them noble.

Analysis.

• a The heart also of the hasty will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly (4).
• b The fool will no longer be called freethinking, nor will the crafty be said to be bountiful, for the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity (5-6a).
• c To practise profaneness, and to utter error against Yahweh (6b).
• c To make the soul of the hungry empty, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail (6c).
• b The instruments also of the crafty are evil. He devises wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy says what is right (7).
• a But the noble plans noble things, and he will continue in noble things (8).

In ‘a’, in the kingdom that is coming those who usually interpret things too superficially will understand knowledge, and those who usually stutter over things will be able to speak them plainly, while in the parallel the noble will plan noble things, and will continue in noble things. All ignorance and folly will be put aside. In ‘b’ the fool will no longer have any place, nor will the ‘crafty’ be able to pretend to be bountiful, for firstly the fool will be seen to speak folly, and will be seen as a worker of iniquity, while in the parallel the methods of the ‘crafty’ will be exposed as evil, and his devices revealed as lying words . In ‘c’ the activity and consequence of the fool in his foolery is described.

32.4

When this king reigns men’s hearts will be open to knowledge, for even those who are hasty and superficial in their thinking will understand knowledge (some see it as meaning that people will be in a hurry to hear His words). To this is also added the fact that those who found talking difficult will now be able to speak plainly. For their teachers will now speak truth to them, and they will be well taught. The result is that all His true people will respond totally to Him. They will receive and see knowledge, they will hear and obey gladly, they will be careful to hear His word, they will plainly tell out the Lord’s glory from the heart.

And we have only to see the life of Jesus to see how this wonderfully came about, for He had come to enlighten His people and bring them under God’s Kingly Rule.

32.5

When the king reigns and teaches, people will be shown up as they really are. Nothing will be hidden. Both the fool and the crafty will be exposed.

The word for ‘fool’ means one who thinks foolishly, especially in moral terms. He will accept no moral or spiritual obligation. Thus in his heart he rejects God and His ways (Psalm 14.1). He thinks of himself as freethinking and noble but his mind is in fact bound by sin and its ways. Thus the truth about him will now be known, that he is not freethinking but bound by his own prejudices and desires. He will be exposed for what he is. He will be seen to be in contrast with the truly noble and liberal person (verse 8).

And those who make a great show of being bountiful, but really give very little, will be shown up for what they are. The crafty (or ‘conspirers’) are those who make a great outward show in the right places. They want to impress and increase their reputations, and to win people to their own ways (Numbers 25.18). But their minds are really fixed on what they can obtain for themselves from their actions, and in dragging others to their own level, and the true mainspring of their actions will now be made clear.

Life As It Will Be Before the King Comes In Terms Of The Fool and The Crafty (32.6-8).

Having mentioned the fool and the crafty Isaiah expands on them. Firstly he deals in detail with the fool and his folly (verse 6), then he deals with the crafty and his deceit (verse 7). This is a general description of what the king will deliver His people from in terms of the fool and the crafty, whom Isaiah clearly sees as generally representing the condition of many of the people prior to the king’s coming.

32.6-7

Here life as it will have been before the king comes and exposes them is described in terms of the fool and the crafty. The fool reveals what he is by turning people away from Yahweh by his supposed freethinking. He leads them into error. But his heart is wicked, deceitful and profane (he is not really freethinking at all), and what he says about Yahweh is untrue. Having deceived himself by his own cleverness he goes on to deceive others, and by doing so he steals their spiritual food and drink and leaves them empty and in hopelessness. We cannot but be reminded here of Jesus’ castigation of the Scribes and the Pharisees (Matthew 23) as He revealed to them how they had failed in the responsibility that they saw as having been given to them by God. This is one reason why He spoke of them as ‘fools and blind’ (Matthew 23.17)

The crafty, on the other hand, use their craftiness to deceive the poor and lowly. They take advantage of their trust and lack of discernment, persuading them otherwise even when the needy are actually right, so that they can gain advantage from them. No doubt they called it ‘doing business’, but they are really swindlers. Many an ‘investment adviser’ is in mind here, as well as many a one who persuades people to part with their money for one reason or another in a way that is deceptive or not for their good. But these are examples only, for man is deceitful at heart.

So between them the fool and the crafty lead men astray from the truth and keep them in poverty by clever dealings and trickery. Both are common in every age. But the point is that when the king comes both will be revealed as what they are, and inherent in that is that they will one day be called to account.

32.8

In contrast with the fool and the crafty are the noble. They seek to do noble things. They are honest and reliable and truly consider the good of others. There were always such, even when things were at their worst. In modern terms we would say that they were ‘godly men’. Of such has always been the Kingly Rule of God.

Life As It Will Be Before The King Comes In Terms of Careless Women At Ease (32.9-14).

Isaiah showed neither fear nor favour. He was as ready to draw attention to the sins of the womenfolk as well as those of the men. He was concerned that none should be able to hide behind a cloak of anonymity. Here he castigates the better off women who enjoy their ease and are overconfident and complacent, we might almost say ‘cocky’, about themselves and their importance. He no doubt met many of them around the court, full of their opinions and derogatory of others. It is probable that he saw them as depicting the spiritual barrenness of the nation more than most, for they paraded their condition openly (3.16-23), and because it is often the women who are the most openly devout, their behaviour emphasised what little devoutness there was in the nation.

Analysis.

• a Rise up you women who are at ease, and hear my voice. You complacent (overconfident) daughters, give ear to my speech. For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you complacent (overconfident) women (9-10a).
• b For the vintage will fail, the ingathering will not come (10b).
• c Tremble you women who are at ease, be troubled you complacent (overconfident) ones (11a).
• c Strip yourselves and make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth on your loins (11b).
• b They will smite on the breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine (12).
• a On the land of my people will come up thorn-briars, yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city. For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city will be deserted, the hill and the watchtower will be dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks (13-14).

In ‘a’ the women at ease are to rise up because trouble is coming, while in the parallel thorn-briars will come up and all in which they trust will be done away. In ‘b’ the vintage will fail, and in the parallel they will smite on their breasts for the fruitful vine. In ‘c’ they are to tremble and be troubled, and in the parallel they are to publicly demonstrate their despair.

32.9-12

These women enjoyed plentiful leisure and indulgence, and this had made them somewhat above themselves. They were at ease and complacent. They felt that nothing could disturb the equanimity of their lives. As they paraded themselves they no doubt looked down arrogantly on the poor and lowly women who had to work in the fields or do menial labour. But now Isaiah warns them that hard times are coming, even for them, shortage of wine and summer fruits, their treasured delicacies. And it would go on for more than one bad year. It would be better for them therefore if they now took off their splendid clothes and put on sackcloth and mourn. For shortly would come the time for the beating of breasts at the lack of harvest, at the emptiness and devastation of the fields that always results from invasion or drought.

Indeed the stripping off of the clothes may be intended to signify more than mourning. Perhaps he is here already preparing them for the long march into exile, for in 20.2-3 stripping off the clothes indicates exile and captivity as men are led off in shame and ignominy. As the following verses make clear it is finally exile that is in mind. But we must accept that Isaiah in his warning probably still hoped for a repentant people, and therefore longed that they might show signs of returning to God.

32.13

This is the picture of a deserted land. Thorn-briars (wilderness weeds) would spring up everywhere, even in the houses in the cities where there was so much hilarity. The complacent women at ease would no longer be complacent but would feel the prick of the thorns.

32.14

All that the women at ease looked to would be gone. The palace would be forsaken, the city, once so populous, deserted, and even the watchtowers would be home to the wild ass. ‘The hill’ was probably a recognised watch place, possibly the southern projection of the temple mount, the Ophel, paralleling the watchtower. They will no longer have a use but will instead be made use of by wild asses and flocks who will enjoy them to the full.

This is either speaking of exile or of a land so devastated that comparatively few are left. In view of 6.11-12 we may presume the first, although both were no doubt true. While he was aware that God would deliver Jerusalem from Sennacherib he looked beyond that and recognised what the end must be. Indeed these words may well have been spoken after that great deliverance when it was apparent how little real effect it had had on the lives of the people. Either way he had his inaugural instructions which had told him how it must finally be. ‘For the cities will be waste without inhabitant, and the houses without men, and the land become utterly waste. And Yahweh has removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land’ (6.10-11). And he knew now with sinking heart that it had to be. Even Hezekiah had shown himself as unreliable (39.1-6).

(The one piece of light in the darkness was that this fate did not affect the whole of the promised land. While different groups were taken into exile, from Galilee, from Samaria and from Jerusalem, this did not cover the whole land. The poor were not taken and there were many parts which were not left so empty of population (even though for a time they had fled to the mountains) and would recover. Those who were exiled were the leadership and the artisans, the aristocratic and the educated from the targeted places. The ordinary people were left behind. So the picture was not quite as bleak as it seemed, looked at from the point of view of the whole land. But it undoubtedly was for Jerusalem and for those directly involved).

The Great Turn-Around (32.15-20).

Analysis.

• a Until the Spirit is poured on us from above, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest (15).
• b Then ‘judgment’ (justice and fair-play) will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness will abound in the fruitful field (16).
• c And the work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness quietness and confidence for ever (17).
• c And my people will live in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places (18).
• b But it will hail in the downfall of the forest, and the city will be utterly laid low (19) .
• a Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send forth the feet of the ox and the ass (20).

In ‘a’ the Spirit will be poured forth from above, and the land will blossom, and in the parallel those who ‘sow beside all waters’ and plod on through the times of trouble and patiently watch over their ox and ass can be sure that they will be blessed. In ‘b’ justice will dwell in the wilderness and in the fruitful field, but in the parallel hail will be poured out on the forest and the city. In ‘c’ righteousness will prevail, and will bring peace and quiet confidence, and in the parallel the people will live in peaceable habitation in security and quietness.

The Pouring Out Of The Spirit (32.15-20).

As ever Isaiah sees beyond the gloom. God will finally work on behalf of His remnant (6.12). After the destruction and the coming exile will also come the time when God acts again on behalf of His true people. Isaiah does not know how long after but he knows that it will happen. The picture is put in terms of both a transformed land and a transformed people, the result of the Spirit being poured forth. Then the land will blossom and so will the people.

32.15-17

God will act on behalf of His people through His Spirit. The verb ‘poured out’ demonstrates that rain is in mind in the description, thus the Spirit is seen as active in producing rain on the land resulting in fruitful fields where there was wilderness, and the land which was once fruitful field becoming so luxurious that they will appear like a forest (compare 29.17). It is the picture of a redeemed earth, another Eden, a new creation, an agriculturalist’s heaven (compare Psalm 104.30), but as 44.1-5 makes clear it will also result in the transformation of the people.. To Israel it is finally a picture of the new heaven and the new earth (65.17; 66.22; Revelation 21.1) when evil has been done away.

But we are here dealing with God, And the commencement of the pouring out of the rain producing the heavenly fruitfulness need not mean that we limit this to happening within a man-period. The time between the commencement of the pouring out of the ‘rain’ of the Spirit, and the final Paradise could be ‘a thousand years’ or even ‘a thousand generations’ (a long period designated by God), for this is the heavenly harvest.

So the Spirit Who initially hovered over creation ready to act (Genesis 1.2), will now act in full measure in the restoration of God’s purposes, directly intervening to restore what has been spoiled.

But stress is also laid on true judgment and righteousness which will result in peace, quietness and confidence (compare 30.15), and while to some extent the fruitfulness will be a vindication to Israel, that can only be so because the nation has itself become just and righteous in the sight of God. There could be no vindication otherwise, as previous chapters have made clear. Like Abraham they will have believed God and it is counted to them for righteousness (Genesis 15.6; 53.11).

Thus the working of the Spirit must be seen as also producing righteousness in men’s hearts through faith, resulting in right judgments and righteous living (compare 44.1-5). And the result of that righteousness will be peace, and its continual effect everlasting quietness and confidence. So the overall picture of the Spirit’s outpouring is of heaven-like fruitfulness and heavenly righteousness in men’s hearts, resulting in perfect spiritual rest and joy, the result of their new trust in Yahweh (contrast 30.15).

This pouring out of the Spirit has already been indicated in 11.2 where it makes the coming king righteous and successful, and in 28.6 where it gives true judgment to the one who judges and strength to the people of God who defend against the enemy. It is therefore seen as powerfully effective through men’s lives. We will come across more of this in a short while (42.1-4; 44.1-5), and it is also taken up even later by Joel 2.28, and in a slightly different way in Ezekiel 36.25-32.

That is why John the Baptiser will drench men and women (baptise) in expectancy of this promised pouring out of the Spirit, of which he sees himself the forerunner (that is what his baptism pictured as coming), and will preach in terms of a harvest of men and destruction of the unfruitful (Matthew 3.7-12). He considered rightly that he was introducing the end days. He just did not know how long they would be.

And Jesus Himself was drenched in the Holy Spirit at His baptism as the One Who would finally drench with the Holy Spirit all Who are His. Indeed the New Testament sees Him as the One Who brings about this outpouring of the Spirit, both through His life, when the working of the Spirit was already apparent (Luke 4.1; John 3.1-7), then in those who responded to Him (Luke 11.13), and then in the Upper Room and at Pentecost (John 16.7; 20.22; Acts 2.1-2).

There would be a partial fulfilment in the inter-testamental period when ‘Israel’ once again began to flourish, and their fields became abundantly fruitful, and there would also be a spiritual fulfilment in the coming of the king in His humility, the king Who would reign in righteousness, and in the coming of the Holy Spirit. But the final fulfilment undoubtedly awaits His second coming, and the new heaven and the new earth, the eternal realm. This distinction was not, however, specifically known to Isaiah. He knew that full deliverance would come about, what he did not know was how, and on what time-scale. He saw the future as one whole. What he did not know was the intermediate process, what he did know was the final result. For the prophets were not predicting events as such, (although they did also do that). Rather they were predicting the triumph of God as He acted in His own way to bring about His will.

32.18

The result of the Spirit’s work will be that God’s true people, refined and purified (4.4), will have peace and security and wherever they dwell, peace, security and rest will be all-prevailing (compare 11.1-10; John 14.1-2). It is a picture of Heaven on earth for them in their spiritual lives (as citizens of Heaven - Philippians 3.20) followed by Heaven above, an eternal Paradise.

32.19

In contrast with the pouring out of the Spirit on the righteous will be the hail, which results in the downfall of the forest. The forest has in past chapters been symbolic of Israel’s enemies (10.18-19, 34), and the city is ever symbolic of corrupt and rebellious man (24.10, 12; 25.2; 26.5), while hail is symbolic of judgment (28.2, 17), and the result of this downfall will be that the world cities with all their pretensions and arrogance will be laid low (25.10-12; 26.5). As ever mercy and glory is paralleled with judgment and destruction (30.25).

Note the contrast between righteousness coming in the wilderness and in the fruitful field (verse 16), whereas judgment comes on the forest and the city (verse 19). The one represents living freely and openly away from evil influences, the other those who cause harm and danger (both man and wild beast) and those who live in sin and corruption.

This contrast can be interestingly compared with the laws of uncleanness. The ‘clean’ animals were those who lived in the fields and partook of what was ‘clean’. The ‘unclean’ lived in the bare mountains and the forests, and scrabbled after what was ‘unclean’, and connected with the dust of death.

32.20

Finally Isaiah ends on an encouraging note for the present believers. Blessed are those who sow beside all waters, both when times are hard, and when times are promising. They make use of all God’s provision. They never fail to send forth the feet of the ox and ass to do their work, they never slacken in the service of Yahweh. They will be truly blessed, because God has blessed them for their faithfulness. In the analysis this parallels with the pouring out of the Spirit. These already enjoy the work of the Spirit, which is available through all ages (Psalm 51.10-11; 139.7; 143.10), even before His pouring out at Pentecost.

Chapter 33 The Sixth Woe Against Those Who Despoil Others and Who Are Treacherous.

The sixth woe seems in context to be directed against Assyria for some treacherous act. We can compare and contrast how the previous list of woes ended with a ‘ho’ (or ‘woe’) towards Assyria (10.5), but now Assyria has gone beyond the pale and receives ‘woe’ instead. The treacherous act may be seen as occurring in 2 Kings 18.13-18 when Sennacherib accepted peace terms and tribute from Hezekiah but then later advanced and besieged Jerusalem. Behind his change of heart may have been news of the gathering of the Egyptian army, possibly supplemented by auxiliaries from Judah. No doubt he persuaded himself that he was justified because of this, but Jerusalem and Isaiah saw it as treachery, for they had had no part in the rebellion since the surrender.

Here the chapter then proceeds with a prayer to Yahweh, followed by a declaration of the victory He achieved, which resulted in an at least temporary transformation in Jerusalem as we would anticipate (33.2-6). But it would not last for long as the previous chapter has made clear. This is followed by further mourning over the act of treachery, and Yahweh’s promise to respond to it, resulting in a description, as so often in Isaiah, of the triumph of God and the time of final blessing.

The Great Deliverance At Jerusalem (33.1-6).

Assyria is chided for its greed and treachery, and Yahweh’s people plead for deliverance. But the invasion is going forward and the spoil is being gathered rapaciously. However, they are assured that Yahweh, Who dwells on high, will be exalted, and will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, and the promise is therefore that at that time peace will prevail, and there will be stability and deliverance.

But it does not appear that way immediately. Those who have sought to establish peace are in despair because of Assyria’s treachery, and the land mourns and languishes, but then Yahweh declares that He will arise and lift Himself up and be exalted, and the result will be that Assyria conceives chaff and brings forth stubble and brings forth judgment on itself.

Analysis.

• a Woe to you who spoil, and you were not spoiled, and deal treacherously, and they did not deal treacherously with you. When you have ceased to spoil, you will be spoiled, and when you have finished dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you (1).
• b O Yahweh, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. May you be their arm every morning, our deliverance also in the time of trouble (2).
• c At the noise of the tumult, the peoples are fled, at the lifting up of yourself, the nations are scattered, (3).
• d And your spoil will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers, as locusts leap men will leap on it (4).
• e Yahweh is exalted, for He dwells on high, He has filled Zion with judgment and righteousness (5).
• e And there will be stability in your times, abundance of deliverance, wisdom and knowledge. The fear of Yahweh is his treasure (6).
• d Behold their valiant ones cry outside, the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly. The highways lie waste, the traveller ceases, he has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, he does not regard man (7-8).
• c The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is ashamed and withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves (9).
• b “Now will I arise,” says Yahweh, “Now will I lift myself up, now will I be exalted” (10).
• a You will conceive chaff, you will bring forth stubble, your breath is a fire that will devour you. And the peoples will be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut down that are burned in the fire (11-12).

In ‘a’ Assyria is chided with its greed and treachery and is warned that it will come back on its own head, and in the parallel that they will conceive chaff and produce stubble and they will be devoured by their own breath. In ‘b’ Yahweh’s people call on Him and Isaiah adds his plea to theirs, and in the parallel Yahweh will arise and act in a way by which He will be exalted. In ‘c’ the people flee at the noise of tumult and the nations are scattered by one who lifts himself up, while in the parallel the land mourns and languishes. In ‘d’ the spoil is gathered with the rapacity of caterpillars and locusts, and in the parallel those who have sued for peace weep because of what is being done to the land through treachery. In ‘e’ Yahweh is seen as exalted, dwelling on high, and filling Zion with justice and righteousness, while in the parallel the result will be stability in their times, and abundance of deliverance, wisdom and knowledge because the fear of Yahweh has become his treasure.

33.1

The point behind this woe is that Assyria have gone beyond their remit. God had summoned them to chastise His people, but they are now bent on going further. They have despoliation of the temple treasury, captivity and exile for the people in mind (36.17). They have no excuse for this. No one has done it to them. But they are greedy and treacherous. Thus their greed and treachery will rebound on their own heads. They in turn will be despoiled by others and they will experience treachery at first hand, just as they have been treacherous. What a man sows he will reap. This is a principle that God has built into creation.

33.2

The plea now goes up to Yahweh for help. His people seek His compassion and undeserved love. They point out that they are trusting Him at last, they have at last ‘waited for Him’. So Isaiah prays that Yahweh will indeed be their arm every morning, their strength and uplifter. Then he includes himself and prays for deliverance for them all in the trouble that they now face, which may well have been the sight of the siege army of Sennacherib surrounding Jerusalem, and the words of the army commander calling on them to surrender (36-37).

33.3-4

It is not always easy to discern the detailed trend in Isaiah’s prophecies, and some see this as portraying Yahweh’s deliverance and the partial fulfilment of the woe, with Yahweh devastating the camp of the Assyrian international army (37.36). The tumult that arose as a result of the mysterious deaths is then seen as resulting in speedy departure, for at His lifting up of Himself the nations are scattered, as they were at Babel (Genesis 11.1-9). Then the people of Judah are seen as emerging from the city of Jerusalem like caterpillars and locusts, spoiling what remained of the camp, with all the goods and provisions which have been left behind. This results from seeing ‘yourself’ and ‘your’ as signifying the Yahweh of verse 2. The story is then seen as repeated in verses 7-12.

But in verses 11-12 ‘you’ is Assyria and our analysis above suggests that what is rather being described in these verses is the spoliation resulting from the Assyrian’s advance towards Jerusalem and laying siege to Lachish, during which they gather spoil like caterpillars and locusts (compare Joel 1.4). All the peoples who have been in alliance against them have previously fled, all the nations have been scattered, and now Jerusalem is in Sennacherib’s sights. But what he has overlooked is that Yahweh is exalted and dwells on high.

33.5-6

Assurance of the coming victory is now described. His people need not fear. Yahweh is exalted for He dwells on high. And as a result of His action and His deliverance which is about to take place there will be a great renewal of the covenant in Zion, with the result that it will be filled with right judgments and righteousness. And the result will be stability in Hezekiah’s day (compare 39.8). Wisdom and knowledge will grow as men again look to Yahweh. And while Hezekiah’s treasure house has been emptied (2 Kings 18.15-16), it will be replaced by a greater treasure, the fear of Yahweh, which is the true treasure which Yahweh gives to His own.

The future therefore would seem bright, but it would not be long before the strains underneath were detected and the people returned to their old ways under Manasseh, and even while Hezekiah was still alive. It would not be long before Isaiah detected the crumbling of the revival.

Yet one importance of this incident for us is not only that it reveals the power of God, but also that it assures us that God does see the treachery against His own people of their enemies and will Himself in His own way deal with it, often in ways that are unexpected, even if not quite so spectacular as at this time. For in all these prophecies Isaiah is not only detailing events, he is enunciating great principles which are true in every age. This is one reason why he keeps so much of it general rather than specific.

Bewailing The Treachery of the Enemy (33.7-12).

Meanwhile the Assyrian advance continued. Yahweh had promised action, but had not yet acted. He was waiting above for the right time to arrive. All was in suspense.

33.7-8

Humanly speaking great hopes had been placed in the surrender treaty made with Sennacherib, but those great hopes had come to nought, and here we see those who had sought to establish the treaty in tears. The further interference of Egypt had probably devastated them, and had demonstrated yet again that it is never wise to trust in man. Thus the commanders and mighty men (the valiant ones) in the field are ‘crying outside’, and the ambassadors who had achieved the treaty wept bitterly. Both thought that they had succeeded, the one in holding off Sennacherib long enough for the treaty to be signed, the other in actually formulating a treaty which at least seemed to give some hope, even if it was at great cost. But it had all been in vain. For Sennacherib’s advance now continued, men were shut up for protection in their cities, the roads and highways were wasted, no one travelled on them in peace, for Sennacherib had rejected the treaty and torn it up, and his warlike attentions were again turned on the cities of Judah. He had no regard for men nor for what they thought. His aim was destruction and despoliation. And this is a picture of the world and its ways continually. It will ever be thus.

33.9

‘The land mourns and languishes’ (compare 24.4). The names chosen all indicate plenty and prosperity, Lebanon with its great cedars, Sharon with its fertility, Bashan with its great oaks, Carmel (‘garden land’) for its luxurious growth and scrubland pasture (compare 35.2). But now all is in mourning and is failing. None can stand against the enemy. The cedars of Lebanon have been cut down (37.24), the fields have been devastated, the pasturage despoiled. Even the leaves have fallen from the trees because of the fear of the enemy. Indeed we might see Lebanon as northward, Sharon as southward, Carmel as eastward and Bashan as westward. Nothing escapes his hand.

33.10

It is often in the hour of greatest darkness, when His people’s faith has been tested to the limit, that God arises to act. And here there is a great emphasis on ‘now’, thrice repeated. The time had ‘now’ come. God had waited but He will stand by no longer. Note the progression, He will arise, His first movement; He will lift Himself up, His divine action; He will be exalted, the final result. From beginning to end He will be effective. Once begun His work will not cease until its final triumph and His subsequent exaltation. Sennacherib has done his worst, and now God will do His best.

33.11-12

And the result will be this which delineates His sentence on the Assyrians, and on all who oppose Him. Sennacherib’s achievements, and all the achievements of great kings through the ages, are depicted here. All their efforts will bring to birth nothing but chaff and stubble, they breathe out fire but they will be burned up by their own breath. And those who follow them will be so thoroughly burned up that it will be as though they were burned in a limepit. They will be as thorns cut down and consumed in the bonfire. Indeed the description covers all men’s achievements without God. So does God confirm that He will step into the situation and reveal the truth about man’s accomplishments by means of their destinies. As He will also in the final judgment.

God Is So Holy, Who Can Know Him? (33.13-16).

What Yahweh has done in defeating Assyria and delivering Jerusalem leads on to His depiction of His holiness and power. He is above all and will bring about His will and none but those whom He has chosen and made fit may dwell with Him in His glory, amid the everlasting burnings.

Analysis.

• a Hear, you who are far off, what I have done, and you who are near acknowledge my might (13).
• b The sinners in Zion are afraid, trembling has surprised the godless ones, “Who among us will dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us will dwell with the everlasting burnings?” (14).
• b He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly. He who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hand from the holding of bribes, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking on evil (15).
• a He will dwell on high. His place of defence will be the strong places of the cliffs. His bread will be given to him. His waters will be sure (16).

In ‘a’ the call is by Yahweh to all who are for off or near, to consider what He has done and acknowledge His might, and in the parallel the one who responds rightly will dwell on high and be placed in a fully defensible position, protected from all enemies. In ‘b’ the question is put as to who can dwell with the awesome holiness of God, and in the parallel the reply is that it is the one whose life is pure, who walks righteously, speaks uprightly, despises dishonest gain, rejects bribes, shuns violence and closes his eye to evil.

33.13-14

The effect of His destruction of the army of Assyria now causes God to challenge the nations. Let all both far and near consider what He has done and acknowledge His power. For what He has done has even awakened the sinners and the godless in Zion to consider their position. It has made them aware of His holiness and power, and of what He essentially is, so that they cry out and ask who can possibly hope to dwell with One Who is so holy that He is like a devouring fire, One Who is like an everlastingly burning flame (compare Deuteronomy 4.11-12, 33, 36; 5.24-25).

The word for dwell means ‘to dwell as an outsider, an alien’. They have therefore rightfully recognised that those who are strangers to Yahweh and what He is cannot hope to reside in His presence. And they compare themselves with those strangers. For they know that He is a consuming fire of holiness, that He is glorious in holiness, that He is the Holy One of Israel, and can only be truly known by those who have been made holy (compare 4.3-4).

The experience described here is similar to that of Isaiah in chapter 6. There Isaiah himself had drawn back in shame and anguish in His awareness of the glory of God, and now the sinners in Zion and the godless ones, which in this context signifies God’s people as they are made aware of their extreme sinfulness, do the same.

But the reply comes that there are those who can survive and enjoy His presence, and live with His holiness, and of those we now learn. Compare for this Psalm 15.

33.15-16

This is the description of the one who can dwell with God’s holiness. It is the one who has responded to God and to His covenant, who walks in accordance with God’s requirements, and whose word is totally true, honest and reliable. He does not seek to obtain gain by the wrong use of power or influence. When any seek to bribe him, pushing something quietly into his hand, he shakes his hand free. If there is talk of injuring others he stops up his ears from involvement. He closes his eyes against all evil sights and refuses even to look at them.

Such a man can dwell on high spiritually with God (compare 57.15), where he will be situated far out of reach of men in a place where he cannot be harmed. He will receive from God all the sustenance he needs, both spiritual bread and water. He will eat of the bread of life, and drink of the water of life (compare Psalm 1). The thought is of him being safe in an impregnable fortress, fully provisioned in every way with a totally safe water supply. He need fear nothing. Here we have the Old Testament equivalent of Paul’s ‘heavenly places’, the spiritual realm in which His people can live in close contact with Him (see Ephesians 1.3; 2.6).

The Glory That Is Coming (33.17-20).

In stark contrast with all that has gone before is the destiny of God’s true people. For them the future holds the promise of a permanent existence in the presence of God, of a permanent beholding of His glory, of a permanent experience of His presence, when all that is of the past will have been done away, and He has become all in all.

Analysis.