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Isaiah 33:13-24

Through His prophet Isaiah, God calls those ‘’who are far away’’ (the Gentile nations) and those ‘’who are near’’ (the Jews) to hear what He has done (13). He has both consumed His enemies and purified His own people. He Himself is ‘’consuming fire’’ (14; see Deuteronomy 4:24 and Hebrews 12:29). But only those who are rebellious towards God need to fear being ‘consumed’ by Him. For those who are right with Him, and who therefore walk ‘’righteously’’ (15), there is a life of security to be enjoyed (poetically spoken of in terms of dwelling on the ‘’heights’’ and in the ‘’mountain fortress’’  in verse 16). ‘’The answer’s simple: Live right, speak the truth, despise exploitation, refuse bribes, reject violence, avoid evil amusements. This is how you raise your standard of living! A safe and stable way to live. A nourishing, satisfying way to live.’’ The Message. The answer is still simple! But the majority head down a route where incineration in God’s fire can be the only end result.

In (17-22) Isaiah states the central promise of the chapter: ‘’Your eyes will see the king in his beauty…’’ (17; 4:2, 32:1. See also 21, 22, where the eye returns to fix on the Lord Himself as strength and sovereign). I find it fascinating that this assertion follows on from the words about holiness in (15, 16; see also Psalms 15:1-5 and 24:3, 4), because in Matthew 5:8 Jesus says the ‘’pure in heart’’ are ‘’Blessed…for they will see God.’’ (Someone pointed out that the vigorous renunciations in verse 15 recognize the potency of habits, words, thoughts and sense-impressions as the seeds of action.) If you are right with God, and seeking to live right, His ‘’fire’’ will be a beautiful, drawing sight to your eyes, like a glowing hearth on a winter’s evening. Isaiah is looking beyond the attacks of the Assyrians and Babylonians (18, 19) to the restoration of Jerusalem (20). Jerusalem was initially ‘restored’ after God struck down Sennacherib’s army (2 Kings 19:35, 36). One hundred and fifty years later it was again restored when the Jewish exiles returned from Babylon and rebuilt the city. Jerusalem will be restored a final time when Jesus the Messiah returns to establish His Kingdom (Revelation 21:2). Only then will the prophecy in (24) fully come to pass: ‘’No one in Zion will say, ‘’I’m sick.’’ Best of all, they’ll all live guilt-free.’’ The Message. Both sickness and sin will be removed from the city.

In (23) Isaiah pictures Assyria as a ship that is unprepared to sail; not ready to resist the Lord. Its cargo will be plundered and carried off even by the ‘’lame’’ – the weakest of nations. No people are so powerful that they can shake their fists at God and get away with it. There are hosts of shipwrecked anti-God civilisations to prove the point.

‘’God’s victory over Assyria was but a ‘’dress rehearsal’’ for His victory over the whole Gentile world system that will one day assemble to destroy the Holy City (Zech.14:1-9). When our Lord was ministering on earth, the unbelieving Jews said, ‘’There is no beauty that we should desire him’’ (Isa.53:2). But when they see Him and believe, then they will perceive His great beauty (Zech. 12:3-13:1; Ps.45).’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘The Wiersbe Bible Commentary’ (Old Testament), p.1178.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for revealing to me the beauty of Jesus. I further pray that Christ’s beauty will be seen in me, drawing people to Him.

Isaiah 33:1-12

It is a solid Bible principle that you will reap what you sow (Galatians 6:7, 8). This chapter opens with a statement that Assyria will receive the same treatment she has meted out to others (1).

The overthrow of all evil (foreshadowed in the judgment on Assyria) will be carried out by the Sovereign Lord of history. Although there is a strong element of mystery surrounding this, we know that He acts in response to the earnest prayers of His people (2-6). In these verses Isaiah prays for the deliverance of Judah from the Assyrians, and He looks forward to a certain answer (see also 10-12). ‘’History belongs to the intercessors.’’ For ourselves, we continue to live in desperate times, and there is an underlying fear that things are set to get a lot worse before they improve. We are witnessing terrible evil unleashed in the world. But (6) holds good for whatever ‘’times’’ we live through. The key to experiencing all the rich resources available in God is to ‘’fear’’ Him (6b; see Proverbs 1:7). That means we revere and worship and honour Him. We can prove God to be true and trustworthy. This is open to all. ‘’With God there is not only the prospect of the final answer (3-4) but meanwhile his strong arm (2) sufficing for each day’s demands (cf. 50:4).’’ Derek Kidner: ‘The New Bible Commentary’, p.653.

But what happens when we don’t trust Him? In (7-12) you have an example. The scene abruptly changes to the desperate plight of Judah and Jerusalem in Isaiah’s day. Judah came to be occupied by the Assyrians (2 Kings 18:13). Judah’s ‘’brave men’’ cried aloud in the streets (7). The ‘’treaty’’ king Hezekiah made with Sennacherib king of Assyria was broken (2 Kings 18:14, 15). Lebanon and Israel had already fallen (9).

But, ‘’the darkest night is just before the dawn’’, and when it seemed things couldn’t get much worse, God intervened (10-12). ‘’Now I’m stepping in,’’ GOD says. ‘’From now on, I’m taking over. The gloves come off. Now see how mighty I am.’’ The Message. The Assyrians’ plan to capture Jerusalem will come to nothing; they will merely ‘’give birth to straw’’ (11). They will be consumed by their own evil plans. God’s intervention, however, will not be confined to the enemy (10-12). He will also burn the evil out of Zion (13-16). We can take encouragement that God can act; He does act; He will act.

Let’s heed the call in this chapter to shape history by our prayers: ‘’All of this was discouraging, but one thing encouraged Isaiah: a godly remnant that trusted the Lord and interceded for the land (vv.2-4, 14-15). When you pray, you see the Lord exalted (vv.5-6), you hear His words of encouragement (vv.10-13), and you view your King in glory and power (vv.17-24). Are you looking in the right direction? Are you a part of the godly remnant of intercessors?’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.471.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for the privilege to be a partner in your work through prayer. Help me to play my full role, and see history changed for your glory.

Isaiah 32:9-20

‘’Get serious, you pampered dolls!’’ (11) The Message. It seems that Isaiah had a particular concern for the ‘flaky’ ladies of the land (see also 3:16-26, and Amos 6:1ff.) Someone pointed out that wives and mothers can have a great influence for good, but these women were living complacently as judgment was about to fall. Their happy homes were about to be destroyed and they didn’t seem to have any understanding of what was just around the corner. They had a false sense of security (something Isaiah emphasises in 9, 10, and 11).They would lose not just their luxuries but also their necessities.

In the ‘New Bible Commentary’ the point is made that the disaster of verse 14 and the glory of verses 15-20 surpass anything that happened in Isaiah’s time. But such pictures of a secure and well-watered land portray the ‘new things’ God will do in the future in terms of things already known.

There is a basic principle here, and it is that ‘’righteousness’’ is indispensable to ‘’peace’’. There is no easy path to peace. God does not superimpose ‘peace ‘on a rotten society. No, the ground must be cleared, and then re-sown with ‘righteousness’, and then ‘peace’ will be its fruit (17). For this, the outpouring of the Spirit is essential (15), and, as we saw yesterday, this is the secret of sharing the qualities and characteristics of the Messiah. The Spirit enables us to get into a right relationship with God, and live right, and so we can enjoy God’s own peace (Romans 5:1, 2; James 3:17).

‘’RIGHTEOUSNESS must precede peace…The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews clearly affirms that Melchizedek, the type of Christ, is first King of Righteousness and then King of Peace…Many seek for peace apart from righteousness. They refuse to adjust some wrong in their lives which calls aloud against them. They refuse to permit the light of God’s Spirit to ransack their past, because they are conscious that to do so will expose them to the inevitable need of confession and restitution; and as they will not submit to the laying of the foundations of peace, they miss the peace.’’ F.B.Meyer: Great verses through the Bible, p.281.

Meyer goes on to rightly point out that righteousness precedes peace in any peace-making attempts between people. Wrongs and injustices can’t be just swept under the carpet. They must be adequately addressed:

‘’Be sure to go to the bottom of disputes and disagreements. There is a right and a wrong in every question. It is always wise to lay the foundations of justice at any cost, assured that peace will inevitably result sooner or later. Honeyed words will not abide; but just deeds are a permanent basis for a happy and lasting reconciliation.’’

Prayer: Thank you Lord that you transform desert places by the power of the Holy Spirit. Come upon all that is barren and desolate in me, and make me a fruitful ‘land’ for you. I bring to you all those things that disturb my peace, and ask that you will so graciously cleanse my conscience. I let go of the wrongs that have to go before I can ever enjoy your peace. Thank you for your mercy in disturbing my peace so that I may ultimately find true ‘shalom’.

 Isaiah 32:1-8

Right smack in the middle of Isaiah’s series of ‘woes’, he gives a shining prophecy of hope concerning the Messianic Kingdom to come. In it, not only will the Messiah rule with righteousness (9:7, 16:5; and see also 25:4), but also the ‘’rulers will rule with justice’’ (1). Each subordinate of the Messiah, in his serving role, will share in the work of ruling, protecting and blessing God’s people (2; see Matthew 19:28). This is a beautiful picture, and something for every leader to aspire to: ‘’Each one will stand as a shelter from high winds, provide safe cover in stormy weather. Each will be cool running water in parched land, a huge granite outcrop giving shade in the desert.’’ The Message. Let us pray that all those who are called to serve with and for the Messiah will fulfil their destiny. Here is a portrait of true leadership. (See also 26:4).˙

Godly leaders protect people, care for them and give to them. They are ‘channels of blessing’ to others. They don’t use them for their own purposes. The only hope we have for true leadership is to be found in the rule of Jesus, and in Him shaping His leaders into the design He has for them. Let Jesus Christ reign over all your heart and He will make you more and more like Himself. Leaders in the Kingdom of God ‘’…should be both rocks and rivers, providing security and sufficiency. Rocks do not move or change, while rivers are ever moving and changing. Leaders must be both consistent and adaptable, combining the faithfulness of the rock with the fruitfulness of the river.’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.470.

This section is headed ‘’A kingdom of true men’’ by Derek Kidner in the ‘New Bible Commentary’. He writes: ‘’This fourth oracle on the coming king (cf.7:14; 9:6-7; 11:1-5) shows his greatest triumph, in the flowering of his own qualities (given by the Spirit of the Lord, 11:2; cf. 32:15) in the character of his subjects, from his office- bearers downwards.’’ p.652. Where Jesus reigns as King, He changes people into His image. He supplies the power to live differently and swim against the current.

In the Kingdom of the Messiah, people’s spiritual eyes and ears will no longer be shut as they were in Isaiah’s day. It will be a time of bright revelation (3, 4). For those of us who have got to know Jesus, ‘’the light of the world’ ‘(John 8:12), we can verify by experience how true this is. He has given to us truth to know and to speak (4), and He gives us the ability to proclaim it as well as understand it.

It is also true to say that in the fullness of that Kingdom, still to come, all bad leadership will be overthrown (5-8): ‘’No more will fools become celebrities, nor crooks be rewarded with fame. For fools are fools and that’s that, thinking up new ways to do mischief. They leave a wake of wrecked lives and lies about GOD, Turning their backs on the homeless hungry, ignoring those dying of thirst in the streets. And the crooks? Underhanded sneaks they are, inventive in sin and scandal, Exploiting the poor with scams and lies, unmoved by the victimized poor. But those who are noble make noble plans, and stand for what is noble.’’ The Message. Isaiah saw the demise of those who used their position for personal profit and not for the common good. In Isaiah’s day, as in our own, the ordinary people were dazzled by the lives of the ‘rich and famous’, even though the character and conduct of these ‘celebrities’ were not deserving of respect. They had money, fame and influence, and in the eyes of many that made them important. But God saw through the glossy magazine myth, and He still does.

Prayer: Reign in me, Sovereign Lord, reign in me. Captivate my heart; make me more like you.

Isaiah 30:18-33

When God inflicts ‘’wounds’’ on His people, it is only ever because He has their deep healing in mind. He is causing them to come to Him and be enveloped in His love (26b). It is a sad fact that sometimes we have to be hurt in order to be cured.

As we saw yesterday, there is a change of tone and atmosphere at verse 18. In (19-22), Isaiah describes the blessings the people of Judah will experience after the prophesied exile. They will ‘’weep’’ no more (19; see 25:8). God will answer their heart cries for help (19). He will guide them with His voice (21). They will now listen to Him and throw away their idols (22). This twenty second verse is a powerful picture of repentance. You will see that it is more than just feeling sorry. It involves radical action to put distance between you and sin (see also 31:6, 7 and Matthew 5:29, 30). ‘’You’ll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You’ll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, ‘’Good riddance!’’ ‘’ The Message. Is there some messy thing that you ought to discard today?

Isaiah goes on to say that the people will once more receive the covenant blessings Moses promised (23-26; see Leviticus 26:3-13). In (26) he says that the sun and moon will shine brighter: ‘’…moonlight will flare into sunlight, and sunlight, like a whole week of sunshine at once, will flood the land.’’ The Message. It’s not clear whether the prophet is speaking figuratively at this point, or whether he is referring to the new Jerusalem to come at the end of world history (21). Both meanings are possible.

Finally, this chapter depicts God coming to judge the nations, and especially Assyria (27-33). Even as God’s judgment is being carried out, His people are rejoicing (29, 32). ‘’Oh yes, at GOD’s thunder Assyria will cower under the clubbing. Every blow GOD lands on them with his club is in time to the music of drums and pipes…’’ The Message. They are not full of pride and gloating, but they are glad to see evil overcome and the righteous vindicated. Who would not be?

We do not all share the same destiny. Those who turn to God will be saved; but those who reject Him will be destroyed. ‘’Topheth’’ (33) was a valley outside Jerusalem where children were sacrificed by fire to the pagan god Molech (2 Kings 23:10). The king of Assyria was going to meet his own fiery end.

Prayer: Lord I constantly need to hear your voice behind me, saying, ‘’This is the way; walk in it.’’ Let me know your guidance today. Keep me from every wrong turning.

Isaiah 30:12-18.

Today’s passage starts with a ‘’Therefore’’ (12). I have heard it said that whenever you find a ‘’Therefore’’ in the Bible ‘’you need to look back and see what it’s there for!’’ Looking at what immediately precedes these words (8-10) , you have to say that the rejection of God’s ‘hard-centred truths’ in preference for softer, gooey, sweet and mushy lies is going to land a person in big trouble! If we will not have God’s way we will end up having our own, and then find it’s not what we wanted after all. I have heard it said that people don’t ‘backslide’ from the Christian faith in a single moment, but they tend to gradually, and perhaps almost imperceptibly, drift away from their moorings over a long period. Tom Hale has pointed out that spiritual decay often goes unnoticed for a long time. The ‘cracks’ and ‘bulges’ are ignored, and then suddenly there is a great collapse. The people of Judah rejected Isaiah’s prophetic ‘’message’’ (12). Instead of walking in the way of God’s truth, they chose to ‘oppress’ the poor and needy, and they preferred to believe ‘deceitful’ words which bolstered them with false confidence. Therefore they were heading for disaster (12-14): ‘’This perverse way of life will be like a towering, badly built wall That slowly, slowly tilts and shifts, and then one day, without warning, collapses – Smashed to bits like a piece of pottery, Smashed beyond recognition or repair…’’ The Message. Isaiah saw that the wall would be destroyed so utterly that none of its fragments would be big enough to even use as a scoop (14).

But it did not have to be this way (15-17). As we have seen often, this is the central call of Isaiah’s entire prophecy: to a quiet, calm, peaceful trust in God: ‘’Your salvation requires you to turn back to me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me- The very thing you’ve been unwilling to do.’’ The Message. Instead they trusted in their ‘’horses’’ (16). But their enemies were going to pursue them. Even one enemy would make a thousand run away (see Lev.26:8; Deut.32:30). Isaiah could see that, sadly and tragically, in the end there would be nothing left of Judah but a lonely ‘’flagstaff’’ on top of a hill (17).

Then, suddenly, as so often happens in Isaiah, the tone changes; the tempo becomes more upbeat (18). Judgment is coming, but God doesn’t take pleasure in judging His people. He ‘’longs to be gracious’’. But sometimes we have to ‘’wait’’ for His grace and mercy to be manifested. In this case the punishment for sin had to come first. ‘’GOD takes the time to do everything right – everything.’’ The Message. ‘’ The people had to come to the end of themselves.

‘’As long as the people tried to help themselves, sending ambassadors to Egypt, and seeking an alliance against the invader, God could do nothing for them; He could only wait until they returned to simple reliance upon Himself… At first they said No. They were opposed to the idea of simple trust in God. It seemed impossible to believe that if they simply rested on Him He would do better for them than their most strenuous exertions could do for themselves. And all the time God was waiting till every expedient failed, and they were reduced to such a condition that He could step in and save them…all the while God has been waiting…till like a spent struggler in the water, you ceased from your mad efforts and cast yourself back upon his strong everlasting love…The soul that waits for God will always find the God for whom he waits.’’ F.B.Meyer: Great verses through the Bible, p.280

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to cease struggling and start clinging.

 Isaiah 30: 1- 11

This chapter shows the possibility of making plans without reference to God, and of trusting in that which is not God. Leaders in particular should take good note. But there is a warning sign erected for all believers. Let’s be wary about where we place our confidence. There came a time when the leaders of Jerusalem, under King Hezekiah, sought to make an alliance with Egypt, in order to defend their territory against Assyria (2 Kings 18:19-21). Isaiah foresaw the disastrous consequences of such a move and gave fair warning. In (4), he indicates that Egyptian envoys were already in the cities of ‘’Zoan’’ and ‘’Hanes’’ (in northern Egypt), waiting to meet with their counterparts from Judah. The repeated call of God through Isaiah (and through all Scripture) is to trust in Him; no-one else and nothing else. ‘’Going off to Egypt without so much as asking me…Well, some protection Pharaoh will be! Some hideout, Egypt!…Anyone stupid enough to trust them will end up looking stupid – All show, no substance, an embarrassing farce.’’ The Message. It is imperative that leaders of God’s people should seek the Lord to know His mind, and not just go off at their own whim. When we get any sense that something is not of God, let’s not be ‘’obstinate’’ (1; see also 8-11). If a warning light shows on the ‘dashboard’ don’t ignore it or you will pay a heavy bill. We do well to spend much time in heaven’s ‘consulting rooms’ (2a, 3). Let’s get our advice; our counsel from on high. Today, we can be like the people of Judah were back then (8-11), ignoring the ‘hard teachings of the Bible; cherry-picking God’s promises and largely ignoring His commands. ‘’Tell us what makes us feel better.’’ The Message.

(Compare verses 2 and 3 with chapter 25:4. The Lord would always be to them what they were looking for elsewhere, if only they would run to Him.)

Already envoys from Judah were carrying gifts to the Egyptians in order to buy their protection (6). It seems they were travelling secretly through the Negev, a barren desert wasteland to the south of Judah. But again Isaiah states that there will be no help found in Egypt. When will the church realise that the help of ‘Egypt’ is ‘’utterly useless’’? God uses the nickname: ‘’Rahab the Do-Nothing.’’ (7). Rahab was a mythical sea monster. It was also a symbolic name for Egypt. ‘’Thinking you can buy protection from that hollow farce of a nation? Egypt is all show, no substance, My name for her is Toothless Dragon.’’ The Message.

‘’Egypt was as helpful as a shadow (30:1-5), a wall about to fall down (30:12-13), or a broken clay vessel (30:14). The Egyptians were only men, not God (31:1-3). Are you trusting things that cannot help you while the Lord waits for you to come to Him for help (30:15, 18)? Those who wait on the Lord for help will experience blessings, such as answered prayer (30:18-19), God’s guidance (30:20-21), cleansing (30:22), fruitfulness (30:23-26), victory (30:27-33; 31:4-9) and a song (30:29). The horses of Egypt can never take the place of the chariots of God (Ps.20:7-8).Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, pp.469, 470

Prayer: Lord it is my sincere ambition to hear your voice and do your will. I never want to fight You or be trusting in anyone else. Help me Lord God for I know I need you. Thank you for hearing me.

Isaiah 29:13-24

We are undeniably living in troubling times. We are used to seeing and hearing bad news, disseminated by the mass media. But recently it has come cascading out of our televisions and radio sets on a daily basis, flooding our living rooms with stories of appalling evil being carried out just a short plane ride away. It is deeply unsettling. I believe a lot of people feel this. So it’s good to be able to affirm that a day is coming when evil will finally be overthrown. A part of today’s passage seems to anticipate this (20, 21): ‘’The castoffs of society will be laughing and dancing in GOD, the down-and-outs shouting praise to the Holy of Israel. For there’ll be no more gangs on the street. Cynical scoffers will be an extinct species. Those who never missed a chance to hurt or demean will never be heard of again. Gone the people who corrupted the courts, gone the people who cheated the poor, gone the people who victimized the innocent.’’ The Message.

Verse 21 relates to the perversion of justice in Isaiah’s day. It also strikes me that this was Jesus’ experience. He was crucified on false charges. His execution was the greatest miscarriage of justice in history. This leads me on to the further thought that we may not know why we suffer, but we do know that Jesus has suffered more than anyone, and he continues to suffer with us. Furthermore, He has suffered more than anyone. In the face of the enormous problem of mankind’s sufferings, one well-known preacher said that were it not for the cross of Christ he would find it difficult to believe in God. In this passage God expressed anger about a people who could go to ‘church’ on a Saturday (the Sabbath 13), and live badly for the rest of the week (20, 21). It didn’t add up, and it wasn’t true worship. It was a sham, a façade, a cover-up. ‘’These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren’t in it. Because they act like they’re worshiping me but don’t mean it, I’m going to step in and shock them awake…’’ (13, 14a) The Message. God’s judgment will fall on all false worship. True worship leads to holiness of life, and ultimately this is going to come about (22-24). Following the exile the Jews did re-establish a godly community in Jerusalem. But first there would have to be a purging. (Ultimately, of course, these final verses in the chapter look forward to the Messianic age when there will be perfect holiness.)

The spiritual blindness we were considering yesterday (9, 10) is linked with lifeless formalism in worship (13; see verse 18, however, for the good end to the story. A day will come when the deaf will hear and the blind see.). But for now, the people of Jerusalem worshiped God with their lips but not with their lives. There was a ‘credibility gap’ between their talk and their walk. (See Jesus’s use of verse 13 in Mark 7:6, 7). Because of their blindness and hypocrisy, judgment was going to come to the people of the city. Their human ‘’wisdom’’ and ‘’intelligence’’ would ‘’vanish’’ when faced with the ‘’wonder upon wonder’’ of God’s judgments (see 1 Corinthians 1:19, 20). They thought they were wiser than God. They made their plans, and formed their political alliances and thought God didn’t know. Although they engaged in public worship they were practical atheists. In fact, they were like clay pots questioning the very existence of the Potter who made them (15, 16). ‘’You treat the potter as a lump of clay. Does a book say to its author, ‘’He didn’t write a word of me’’? Does a meal say to the woman who cooked it, ‘’She had nothing to do with this’’?’’ The Message. It is good that the chapter does not conclude at this point. We have a God who deals in turnarounds.

Prayer: I ask that my lips and my life will move together down the same road of godly living. Keep me from mouthing empty platitudes in your presence dear Lord.