Isaiah

[Resource Manager]

33:5,6 "The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure."

 

Another of Isaiah's quick switches of theme. Yet they are all interpreted, a fact which is only discernible when set against the Hezekiah background. Also, once again, there is a sudden accumulation of apparently abstract ideas. Yet, in truth, the verses embody an anticipation of a very real practical situation in the experience of king and nation. As in 32:1-8 what is described here is the sudden change to wholesome government and godliness which came with the dramatic recovery of Hezekiah and his sacking of the princes who, during his sickness had appropriated to themselves such a worthless faithless regency (see 1:21).

 

The new regime is essentially an act of God: "The Lord is exalted, he dwelleth on high." He has "lifted up himself" (v.3b; Num. 10:35) and has gone into action against His enemies within and without. The result: a godly administration described in Messianic terms which deliberately echo the Messianic prophecy of chapter 11: "judgment, righteousness, wisdom, knowledge, stability (faithfulness), salvation, the fear of the Lord" (v.2-5).

 

But the real "treasure" of the Lord, the "plunder" that He gains from this transformed situation, is "the fear of the Lord" — a much greater gain than the ransacking of the Assyrian camp could produce (and contrast the treasure which had been earlier handed over to the Assyrians; (2 Kgs. 18:14-16).

 

33:7-9 "Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly. The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man. The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits."

 

The main ideas here are easy enough. But one or two details provide problems There is a picture of "the ambassadors of peace", who have been to the Assyrian camp loaded with a placatory tribute, (2 Kgs. 18:16; cp. Is. 36:3) now returning in gloom and distress at the complete failure of their mission. The Assyrian intention to smash all opposition from men who were weaklings (enoshim; v.8d) and to devastate the Land from end to end has not been affected in the smallest detail. (It is just possible that the reference is to the ambassadors who had been sent off to Egypt (30:4; 31:1) and who were now returned reporting a fruitless errand. But the context (v.8,9) seems strongly in favour of the other reading).

 

The treaty with Sennacherib, which was to prove such a life-saver (28:15) has been contemptuously torn up by "the treacherous dealers" (21:2; 33:1), the fenced cities which were to have been an enduring barrier to the invasion had all cravenly capitulated (Hab. 1:10).

 

All commerce and movement about the country had come to an end (there seems to be a quote from Deborah's description of the Canaanite oppression in her day: Jud. 5:6).

 

The whole Land (eretz) was reduced to misery and dereliction (24:4). Its most luxurious and fruitful areas were devastated by army foragers and troops living off the land. Trees were stripped of their fruit, and much high timber of Lebanon was ruthlessly felled to provide siege engines (37:24).

 

One phrase: "their valiant ones shall cry without (the city)" is largely translator's guess work. With a very slight adjustment it becomes "the lions of God" (cp. 29:1), and in this context the words are most intelligible as an allusion to the impressive lions which adorned the royal throne in Jerusalem (1 Kgs. 10:19,20), these being fairly obvious symbols of the king's counsellors flanking his royal presence. Read thus, there is an intelligible parallelism with "ambassadors of peace."

[Resource Manager]

33:10-12 "Now will I rise, saith the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself. Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you. And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire."

 

"Now...now...now..." when the crisis of His people has become so acute, Jehovah who never slumbers or sleeps goes into action in drastic fashion. This is what "I will rise...I will be exalted...I will lift up myself" certainly means (cp. v.5; 5:16; 30:18; Ps. 118:16 — a Hezekiah psalm — 59:19; 26:11; Mic. 5:9).

 

It may be that Isaiah's language reflects knowledge of an Assyrian plan to fire the gates of Jerusalem by piling chaff and stubble against them. Sennacherib may have known of the plans of the defenders (36:16), but the prophet was no whit behind in understanding beforehand, the tactics of the Assyrians. This "blast" of the enemy would be anticipated by a mightier "blast" from the destroying angel of the Lord (37:7).

 

There is even intimation here beforehand of how the people (amim, Israel) would dispose of the great piles of corpses sprawled in a gruesome circle round the city — "by the burnings of lime" and "burned by fire" (a sardonic contrast with Ps. 80:16, another commemoration of this great crisis).

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33:13-16 "Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure."

 

The fact that verse 14 describes the stunning effect on the people of Jerusalem of the mighty theophany already foretold a score of times suggests that "ye that are near" are God's people in the city and the Land, whilst "ye that are far off" apostrophizes those who had already been taken away in their thousands into captivity. But there are other possible readings. Dt. 13:7 suggests application of both phrases to Gentiles, both near and far. And this certainly happened (2 Chr. 32:23). Again, the "near" may be God's own people, and those "far off" the Gentiles (57:19?).

 

It is all too easy to read the story of the destruction of Sennacherib's army as though it left Jerusalem untouched. But the effect on the city of a quite uniquely destructive "scattering and tempest and hailstones" must have done a fair amount of damage within the strong-built city and would certainly frighten the ungodly amongst its inhabitants out of their wits. But just as the Israelites were safe on Passover night and unscared because well-prepared in their minds beforehand, so also now at this Passover, the faithful remnant, taking heed to Isaiah's repeated warnings, had no need for panic, no matter how awestruck they might be.

 

There were "sinners" and "hypocrites" enough in Zion, as the earlier chapters of denunciation (e.g. 1,3,6) very plainly show. So the same language of terror is employed here as is used in Psalm 48:6 to describe the panic in the Assyrian camp. The "devouring fire" and "everlasting burnings" with which the divine judgment was manifest (30:27-33; 31:9) provoked the same reaction in these Jewish sinners as a like theophany had done in the hearts of their forefathers at Sinai (Ex. 20:18,19; Dt. 4:24; Num. 17:12,13; Heb. 12:29).

 

So again, in Zion this time, sinners cowered away from the Glory of the Lord. Was there a selective judgment among them, as happened when the ark was brought to Zion (2 Sam. 6:3-7; Ps. 24:3,4) and at the time of David's numbering of the people (2 Sam. 24:16-25; Ps. 15:1 ff)? Here, six samples are given of the social righteousness God looked for in His people. The fact that these have to be bluntly insisted on shows how deeply the corruptions of an earlier generation had taken root. Among most of the people of Jerusalem Hezekiah's great reformation of some fourteen years earlier had been only skin deep (1:15-23; 3:13-15; 4:4; 5:23; 10:1f).

 

On the other hand, the man of faith could rest tranquil and assured amidst all the frightful roar of the divine storm and fire. As Moses dwelt "on high" in the very presence of the Shekinah Glory (Ex. 33:19-23), so also these who were close to their God would experience His even closer manifestation and yet have no fear. Not for them, literally, Moses' "high cave in strong rock" (LXX), but certainly they would know a comparable protection — and exhilaration!

 

And as Israel, facing wilderness hardships, were openly assured of daily bread and adequate water of refreshing, so also in the siege which all could see to be in­evitable there need be no fear of the rigours of starvation (v.16).

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33:17-19 "Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off. Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers? Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand."

 

"The king in his beauty" might refer to a vision of the Shekinah Glory (the word not infrequently has that meaning, and the word for "see" normally means a vision); but perhaps even more appropriate is the reference to king Hezekiah, making a marked contrast with his deformity by sickness (38:1) when there was no beauty in him that people would desire him (53:2). Also, when the king went into the divine presence to intercede for the safety of his people, he was seen with clothes rent and covered in sackcloth (37:1). Yet in the days of his recovery he was "fairer than the children of men" (Ps. 45:2).

 

The promise of enjoyment of "a Land of far distances" (cp. v.20) makes a happy contrast with a ravaged Land of Promise in Assyrian hands and with Jewish survivors hemmed in and besieged. Instead, there is to be an "increase of govern­ment and peace" (9:7), and the whole "Land full of knowledge of the Lord" (11:9). The people will rejoice that "thou (the Lord) hast removed far (i.e. extended) all the boundaries of the Land" (26:15b).

 

What a contrast with Moses who saw the Land from end to end but did not personally enjoy it (Dt. 34:1)! And what a contrast, differently, with Shebna who meant to be set on high (22:16; contrast v.16a here) but instead was to be cast forth into a distant land (22:18).

 

Here, now, is assurance of removal of all terror and misery. The frightening theophany of the mighty God of Israel will itself pass away, leaving a much relieved and thankful people in Jerusalem, but also piles of corpses and a rout of thoroughly terrified Assyrian warriors, who for the rest of their lives would "meditate (talk about) the terror" they had experienced.

 

Where now is the haughty scribe writing out the exorbitant terms of the treaty to be signed by Hezekiah's deputation? Where now the "receiver" (cognate with 'shekel'), the official who took charge of the massive tribute brought out of the temple treasury? Where now the arrogant general, making a survey of all the siege towers he had had prepared at the expense of much depredation of the land's fine timber (33:9; 37:24; 2 Kgs. 19:23). These towers were to fall (30:25), given over to good civilian uses; and by contrast, the besieged would soon "walk about Zion, and go round about her, telling the (unharmed) towers thereof, and marking well her bulwarks" (Ps. 48:12,13; certainly a Hezekiah psalm).

 

The Assyrian threat would soon be swept away completely. "Thou shalt not see (i.e. any longer) a fierce people" —just as their forefathers had been promised and experienced the complete removal (at Passover!) of the Egyptian tyranny (Ex. 14:13). (But why does Isaiah use to describe the Assyrian the word 'am normally reserved for Israel? Because at this critical period all Assyrian might would be brought into subjection to the angel of the God of Israel?) And (how like Ps. 114:1!) the rough speech of Rabshakeh and unintelligible tongue of his warriors would be heard no more.

[Resource Manager]

33:20-23 "Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey."

 

It is a contrasting picture with that of a cocksure Assyrian brought to nought and also with the "sinners of Zion" paralysed with fear by the shock of an experience of divine Glory such as only the pure in heart can sustain. These last will relax in a Jerusalem of "quiet habitation" (32:18). They will thankfully "walk about Zion, and go around her, telling her towers, marking well her bulwarks, considering her palaces" (Ps. 48:12,13).

 

This assurance of blessing seen with their own eyes, is a constant repetition (v.17-19; 29:18; 32:3; 35:5; 42:18). Yet this Hebrew word for "see" (chazah) normally means 'to see in vision'; in other words, it is important that the godly man should discern the deeper reality behind the experience of superficial redemption by act of God. An even greater than Hezekiah is here; and a more holy city than Zion, saved from the Assyrian threat, is to be perceived. It is to be seen as a taber­nacle, a tent of meeting for the holy solemnities, which although apparently frail and impermanent outlasts all the efforts of the might of a man to dismantle or wreck it. What a contrast with the shattered camp of the enemy, broken and derelict. Again, as happened with Gideon's Midianites (Jud. 7:13; Hab. 3:7), the organized panoply of men was to be brought to nought.

 

But the same figure of a flimsy tent was appropriated also by Hezekiah to describe his own frailty in the time of his sickness (38:12). So the present picture of a taber­nacle not taken down suggests also the double meaning of not only a city preserved but also a godly king restored and vindicated.

 

There follows a slightly scornful contrast with the pride and self-reliance of the more prosperous powers. "The glorious Lord will be unto us instead of broad rivers and streams." Jerusalem turns out to be better off than Egypt with its Nile (contrast 19:6) or Nineveh with its Mesopotamian rivers or Tyre confident of its sea defence. The Judge and Lawgiver and King and Saviour of Jerusalem (a strange paradox that He should be both Judge and Saviour!) has no need of "galleys with oars" or "gallant ships". His Glory, unknown and uncomprehended by these stronger powers, is the only panoply of protection His people need. Jerusalem has Immanuel and the quiet waters of Shiloah (8:6-8), a river of a besieged place that cannot be dried up by the enemy (37:25), an ark of safety which has ridden in complete security the vast inundation which lately swept against it {54:9,11).

 

What a contrast with the proud galley of Assyria which could not "strengthen (hazak) its mast" because it had no Hezekiah (s.w.). It could not spread a sail or fly a flag, an ensign (s.w.). The divine hurricane which desolated the military might of Assyria also broke Tyre's ships of Tarshish with its east wind (2:16; Ps. 48:7). The naval resources of Phoenicia, put at the service of Sennacherib, found all their nautical skill a pathetic futility.

 

And then the figure changes to the stark incredible fact of a gleeful plundering of the Assyrian camp: "the blind divide a great spoil, the lame take the prey." When David first sought Jebus as capital of his new kingdom, the jibe thrown at him was that except he take away their blind and lame he had no hope of success. And now history was, in a manner, repeating itself — the blind and the lame in Zion were not only impregnable, they also cheerfully foraged about amongst the military disorder of a shattered encampment (2 Sam. 5:8; see 35:5,6).

 

It is useful to notice the alternation of ideas in this paragraph.

 

v.21: The Lord's city has no need of an impressive pride of shipping.

v.22: For it, the Lord himself is all-sufficient.

v.23a: The fine Assyrian ship is unseaworthy and helpless.

v.23b: It is at the mercy of wreckers.

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33:24 "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity."

 

"Inhabitant" may be a collective noun for all the population of Jerusalem, but more probably this singular describes Hezekiah, the sick king, who is now healed of his leprosy. And it is for his sake that the Lord has forgiven the people — He has "laid on him the iniquity of us all" (53:4; see commentary on that chapter). The firm condemnation which had been pronounced earlier (22:14) is cancelled, but not because of any worth or high merit in those now forgiven, but because of their leader and king.

 

The Last Days

 

The entire pattern of events in Hezekiah's day will reproduce itself in the time of Israel's final salvation.

 

The treachery of Sennacherib (v.1) will yet be matched by Arab skullduggery. These enemies who, for all their numbers and immense military resources, are no match for the efficiency of Israel, tried the methods of deceit in 1974, and came near to pulling off success. The next time success will seem to be complete. The Egyptian treaty will be found to be worthless. And PLO willingness, at last, to recognize the State of Israel and to negotiate will all at once prove to be a smoke screen for a worse phase of villany.

 

The "valiant ones" and "ambassadors of peace" on whom the thin political hopes of Israel have depended will prove to be utterly futile. The entire nation will give itself over to hopelessness (except for the faithful remnant, the saving remnant of the seven thousand that at last realise the futility of bowing the knee to the modern Baal). The Land will be ravaged from end to end, the cities despoiled (v.7,8). All hope of human aid will have fled. In high glee the Arabs will fire the forest and desolate the kibbutzim, letting in the wilderness (v.9).

 

Salvation (v.2) will come from the Lord's Messiah only because, again at last, there will be a willingness to turn to Him in a time of the direst trouble (Mt. 23:39). Then, in the morning of a glorious new day the startling completeness of God's salvation will be appreciated.

 

Out of this tumult (v.3) will emerge also the completeness of the overthrow of Israel's dedicated enemies, so that over a wide Arab area all the resources of limitless petro-dollars (in every Arab territory, but not at all in Israel) will be at the service of a small bankrupt state (v.4). "Silver and gold, cattle and goods" will suddenly be theirs in abundance.

 

There will come a positively startling transformation from the corruption and paltry party manoeuvring in Israel's political caucus to a completely new administration, headed by Messiah himself and those who are now exalted to reign in this nucleus of the kingdom of God in "judgment and righteousness, wisdom and knowledge" (v.5-6; 11:2,5). Revelation 20:4,5 seems to imply a preliminary resurrection of a limited number of the Lord's chosen men like the patriarchs and apostles — who in their day and generation were plainly promised their everlasting inheritance and a special share of their Lord's royal dignity. No need for judgment of such, but certainly need for judgment by such as Messiah's personal helpers.

 

But the divine intervention through the might of the Messiah will be a shattering experience for "the hypocrites...the sinners of Zion." As their forefathers were terrified at the presence of the Lord of hosts on mount Sinai, so now these who have hitherto been so godless, at Jerusalem (v. 14). How can these unworthy members of a Chosen Race survive the explosion of divine wrath which is now cleansing the Land of bloodthirsty enemies (v.14)? Only by a drastic change of character appropriate to those who "dwell with God's devouring fire." The man who ascends into the hill of the Lord must show himself to be such as the Lord approves (v.15).

 

For those who are reckoned among the Lord's faithful remnant in the midst of so many faithless there will be more than adequate protection (v.16), but only after an initial period of bitter persecution such as other Scriptures speak of in frightening terms (e.g. Rev. 11:7-12; 13:7).

 

After an interim period of utter hopelessness "the Lord will lift up himself" (v.10), and the fiery blast which was intended to finish for all time the hated Race will be turned against their implacable enemy: "as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire" (v.11,12). The proud ships of Tarshish and the galleons of Nineveh and Egypt will be reduced to a drifting shambles (v.23; Ps. 48:7). The enemy, with his uncouth and hateful speech, will be swept out of the Land (v.19). Those who had gleefully assessed the value of the plunder and made plans for a final elimination of the last survivors will themselves come to a sudden end (v.18). The fatuous futility of human wisdom and contrivance will all at once become evident to all the world (1 Cor. 1:7,19,20=ls. 29:14; 33:18; 44:25b).

 

And in miraculously quick time all will be tranquillity (v.21). Jerusalem will become, and for all time, "a quiet habitation" (except when loud with the praise of Jehovah), "a tabernacle that shall not be taken down" (v.20). And its Prince who once was smitten with the sins of his people (v.24; 52:13,14) will be seen in all his glory in the midst of his now willing subjects who dwell there, with all their iniquity forgiven (v.24). They, who in the days when they were spiritually blind and lame had taunted "David" with his inability to make them his subjects (2 Sam. 5:8), will now be healed of their infirmities, and on their Messiah's behalf they will gather a great Gentile spoil.

 

What Isaiah saw as a vision (v.20 Heb.) will become simple factual truth.

[Resource Manager]

Chapter 34

 

34:1 "Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it."

 

Just as the ten Burdens are followed by the "little Apocalypse" of chapters 24-27, so now the five Woes have another little Apocalypse in the chapters 34,35, the first of these chapters being a doom of violent character and purple language, whilst the latter is quite one of the most alluring and charming pictures ever written about the Messianic kingdom.

 

This introduction, so much like Psalm 49:1, has an easy and effective ABBA formation:

 

A. Come near, ye nations.

 

B. Hearken, ye people.

 

B. Let the Land hear, and the fulness thereof.

 

A. The world, and all things that come forth of it. The third item here quotes Psalm 24:1, as though saying: The King of Glory is coming in.

 

It is very easy to misunderstand the reference to "ye nations." This is not a comprehensive apostrophe to all nations of the world, but to all nations round about Israel. This usage is by no means uncommon; e.g. 29:7,8; 17:12,13; 14:26; 2 Chr. 9:23; 32:23; 1 Chr. 19:17; 18:11; Ps. 118:10; Jer. 27:7; Joel 3:2; Obad. 15.

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34:2-4 "For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree."

 

This divine wrath is being pronounced against the invaders of Israel. No explicit reason for this indignation of the Lord is specified, but is plainly implied (a) in the phrase: "their slain also shall be cast out," i.e. as Israel's slain have been; (b) in the symbolism of "the host of heaven," so often a figure of Israel (Gen. 37:9,10-Jer. 31:35,36; Dan. 8:10; Rev. 6:14), and the vine and fig tree (5:1-7; Ps. 80:8; Jer. 24:1ff; Jl. 1:7,12).

 

The picture of the land round Jerusalem (v.3) full of stinking corpses and running with blood is very gruesome, but also must have been near to literal truth when Sennacherib's army of Assyrians and confederate Arab nations (Ps. 83:2-8; 2 Chr. 32:22) was "delivered to the slaughter."

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34:5,6 "For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea."

 

The sensational character of the figurative language in this prophecy intensifies as it proceeds. The fury of the Lord is directed specially against Edom because where there should be national friendship and brotherly loyalty and affection, there is instead treachery, bitter hatred, and gloating over Judah's sorry plight. This comes out specially in contemporary Obadiah 1-14. And here is the explanation for the sweeping judgment pronounced later on, against Edom (63:1-6), and also to a milder extent against Moab (25:10).

 

In spite of divine injunctions to cultivate good relations with Edom (Dt. 2:4-8; 23:7-8) — commandments which must have had a strong influence in Israel, even if not obeyed fully — from earliest days there was ill-will between Israel and Edom (Esau). Jacob partially succeeded in placating the vengeful wrath of Esau (Gen. 27:41) by means of lavish gifts and by relinquishing to him the inheritance which should have been shared after the death of Isaac (Gen. 36:6). But Israel's later attempts at friendliness were fruitless (Num. 20:14-21). In the time of David what might have been a desperate crisis in the reign of the new king was averted by brilliant God-blessed victories over Edom (Ps. 60: title; 2 Sam. 8:13,14). When, thanks to the fecklessness of Ahaz, Judah was in a period of political decline, the Edomites took aggressive advantage of the situation. And, again, in the reign of Hezekiah they gave enthusiastic support to the irresistible Assyrian invasion and were utterly callous in their treatment of desperate defenceless men of Judah (Obad. 10-16; Ps. 137:7).

 

Here Isaiah threatens divine retribution of a dramatic character. "My sword" means the angel wielding the sword of the Lord, as in Gen. 3:24. It is a striking contrast with the blessing now cancelled out, which Isaac had pronounced on his firstborn: "By thy sword thou shalt live" (Gen. 27:40). Now, by the sword of an angel of judgment, beside himself with righteous indignation, Esau would die. He who pursued his brother Judah with the sword (Am. 1:11) would himself be pursued with a mightier sword. Instead of blessing (Gen. 27:38) there would be the curse, the ban of ruthless and complete extermination (Obad. 5).

 

The blessing of Isaac had promised: "Thy dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth"(Gen. 27:39), But now, the sword of the Lord, filled with fury, is to be made fat with a mighty holocaust of sacrifices — a wholesale slaughter of flocks and herds which could not be driven off as plunder. "The kidneys of rams" are mentioned as the specially delectable part of peace-offerings to the Lord (Lev. 3:4). These are "a sacrifice unto the Lord" (LXX), a token of appeasement of the violence of divine wrath.

 

All this, it may be inferred, came to pass when the Assyrian threat against Judah no longer existed, and Hezekiah, now on the crest of a wave of unexampled prosperity, was able to organize a strong punitive expedition against these traitorous disloyal Edomites (63:1-6; 1 Chr. 4:39-43). The cowardice of the Arab mercenaries at a crucial time was not forgotten (see commentary on 21:15).

 

Bozrah is a double-meaning name, signifying both "grape gathering" and "fortified city." There is sustained play on the first of these in Isaiah 63:1,2,3,6 and Obadiah 5. The second meaning suggests identification of Bozrah with Petra (Obad. 3).

[Resource Manager]

34:7,8 "And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion."

 

The commentators come to grief on the identification of these unicorns, their best guess being an allusion to an extinct type of wild-ox. The best Biblical hint is in Ps. 22:21: "From the lion's mouth, save me; from the horns of the unicorns, thou hast heard me." This context, and its reference to the crucifixion, suggests allusion to the cherubim of glory in the sanctuary of the Lord. (It was an answered prayer — the veil of the temple was rent in two). Lion and ox were certainly two of the cherubim faces. So also in Ps. 92:10: "My horn shalt thou anoint like an unicorn." There were certainly horns, and probably figures of cherubim, on the altar of incense (where they were anointed with sacrificial blood; Lev. 4:7) and on the altar of burnt-offering; and certainly there were cherubim on the base of the seven-branched candlestick (cp. also Num. 23:22).

 

In support of this interpretation, the phrase "come down" can be seen as an idiomatic allusion to a theophany; cp. "The Lord came down on mount Sinai" (Ex. 19:20), and: "Oh that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence" (Is. 64:1).

 

Also, "come down with them, even the bullocks with the bulls" probably indicates again co-operation of Ephraim with Judah in this punitive expedition against Edom, for the bull is the symbol of the tribe of Joseph (Dt. 33:17).

 

"Their (Edom's) land shall be drunk with blood" appears to be a deliberate contrast with Obadiah 16: "As ye have drunk upon my holy mountain," celebrating a certain conquest of Jerusalem which instead turned into ghastly defeat and a horror of destruction. This "day of the Lord's vengeance" is again so described in the later prophecy which celebrates its achievement.

 

"The controversy of Zion" means, of course, the struggle for Jerusalem and its temple. Obadiah's equivalent phrase is: "Thy violence against thy brother Jacob" (v. 10).

 

That prophet adds another picturesque detail in the course of his denunciation: "In the day that the strangers carried away captive his (Judah's) forces...and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou (Edom) wast as one of them" (v.11). It is a picture of the confederate leaders throwing dice to decide which section of Jerusalem each of them would have for plunder when captured (cp. Jl. 3:3). Instead, as it turned out, it was their camp that was plundered (33:4).

[Resource Manager]

34:9,10 "And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever."

 

The language becomes more and more violent. It is clearly based on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19). "Brimstone and fire...out of heaven...the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace (Jl. 2:30: palm trees of smoke)" (Gen. 19:24,28; and compare Dt. 29:23 — about Israel!). And Jeremiah (49:17) leaning heavily on Isaiah for his picture of judgment on Edom makes that link explicit, naturally enough, for Edom was the nearest inhabited territory to that ancient desolation. Isaiah says the same about Babylon-Assyria (13:19), perhaps because these allies shared in the outpouring of divine wrath just outside Jerusalem.

 

Significantly the same language is employed in Moses' prophecy of judgment on Israel's unfaithfulness. But the difference is that, whereas here there are no less than four phrases emphasizing the everlastingness of this desolation of Edom, no such irreversibility is spoken concerning Israel. Instead, Isaiah 35 promises an unbelievable recovery.

 

The final threat here: "None shall pass through for ever and ever," makes a sardonic contrast with Israel's first historic contact with Edom (Num. 20:21ff), when the chosen people politely sought peaceful passage through Edom and were more than willing to pay well for any help afforded them. But no! They were not allowed to pass through!

 

In Isaiah's time nothing quite as horrendous as is described here ever took place. Doubtless the burning of cities and crops brought a desolation from which recovery was exceedingly slow. But this experience would be, at best (at its worst) only a prototype of the Last Day judgment which is yet to come on Arab enemies of God's people.

[Resource Manager]

34:11-15 "But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate."

 

Whilst one part of Edom is given over to burning and desolation another part becomes the preserve of all kinds of wild and horrific creatures. The point is: there is no civilization or ordered life of any kind. "The line of confusion (tohu) and the plummet of emptiness (bohu)" ensure the same care and exactness with which God prepared for His creation in the beginning (Gen. 1:2), He will now set about ordering the permanent disorder of Edom (cp. the temporary overthrow of Israel — the same language; Am. 7:7-9); but contrast the encouraging promise of recovery and re­building in the Land where God's people are to be blessedly secure: 63:4). "Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom, all her princes will vanish away" (NIV). What a contrast with the early days, when a sequence of twelve proud "dukes" ruled confidently in Edom (Gen. 36:40-42,31) long "before there reigned any king over the children of Israel." Instead, now Edom's territory is given over to twelve kinds of frightening wild creatures (v.11,14,15) — the devil's own nature reserve. The thorns and thistles angrily encouraged by God in what had been His vineyard (5:6) now become a permanent inheritance of Esau's blasted land.

 

There seems to be no certainty possible about the exact translation of the Hebrew terms describing the wild heirs of Esau's land. Commentaries and versions vary enormously among themselves. "Tohu...bohu" seem to describe their best endeavours. But the over-all idea is unmistakable. Whereas in Zion's new order God Himself finds a resting place in the man that is of a contrite spirit, who trembles at His word, the creatures who find rest in Edom are ghoulish and repulsive, a lasting memorial to the character of those who once dwelt there.

[Resource Manager]

34:16,17 "Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them. And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein."

 

Skinner, in Cambridge Bible, a scholar not exactly outstanding for his confidence in the inspiration of the Old Testament makes this astonishing comment: "The expression 'the book of Jehovah' appears to point to the existence of a prophetic canon; and the opening exhortation ("Seek ye...") presumes a habit of searching for evidence of the fulfilment of prophecy." How right, for once!

 

W.A. Wordsworth quotes phrases from the inscription found in Hezekiah's conduit: "a man to meet his mate...the voice of a man calling to his mate...a man towards his mate;" cp. here: "none shall want her mate." And he comments that prophecy and fulfilment are like that, going to meet each other, and meeting exactly.

 

The rest of that verse should surely read: "for my (Isaiah's) mouth He hath com­manded (that is, the prophecy is certainly God-inspired), and His (the Lord's) Spirit (i.e. an angel) he hath gathered them" (cp. 48:16). "And he (the angel of the Lord) hath cast the lot for them (to decide what territory shall be permanently assigned to them), and his hand hath divided it unto them by line" (precisely as parts of Canaan were allocated to the tribes of Israel in ancient days; Num. 26:55).

 

The emphasis of verse 10 is repeated: "for ever...from generation to generation." In the primary fulfilment the desolation was considerable but not perpetual, for again in Jeremiah's time (49:7ff) (and in Malachi's? 1:4) the old animosity was resumed. But the twentieth century is to see the full, inexorable, and lasting fulfilment of these grim words.

[Resource Manager]

The Last Days

 

Joel is very explicit that in the Messianic age "Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land" (3:19).

 

Isaiah 34 is an expansion of this brief but grim expectation. Whereas the primary fulfilment is inferred from hints about the contemporary hostility of Edom, the ghastly fulfilment that is yet to come is guaranteed by the emphatic character of the language and by the use made of it in the New Testament. And in this twentieth century it is all too easy to see that the extreme vigour of the prophecy is justified by the extreme character of the offence, now building up to a crisis, against God's people.

 

The tohu...bohu" language (Gen. 1:2=34:11) pointedly suggests the bringing in of a New Creation. But, first, that which is unworthy of Messiah's use is to be stamped as fit only to be discarded.

 

In the time of Israel's desolation, now impending, there will be unquenchable Arab glee that at last the ancient resolve to "slay my brother Jacob" (Gen. 27:41) has been brought to achievement.

 

It has already been shown that "all nations" means "all nations around Israel." The combined armies of these Arab states will find themselves helpless against a power such as no army can cope with — and this because they have already "rolled together as a scroll" the heavens of Israel and all the host of them. The identical language is used with precisely this meaning in the Sixth Seal (Rev. 6:14), where through several verses every phrase has an obvious reference to Israel. The allusions in the same sentence to vine and fig tree require a like reference.

 

When Gentile enemies lay violent hands on the people of Abraham, they invite catastrophic judgment. This, precisely, will be the experience of Arab nations who now seek to out-Hitler Hitler. They are now inevitably "the people of my curse." "The controversy of Zion," which has dominated the Middle East ever since World War I, now comes to an end. Problem solved! The cherubim of glory, manifesting the four standards of Israel, "come down" to ensure Israel's final deliverance.

 

The most obvious outcome of this remarkable divine intervention will be the utter devastation of Esau's land for all time. The language of its wasteness is remarkably like that of Sodom and Gomorrah. How will this come about? It is tempting to assume that Israeli nuclear bombs will be used against an Arab oilfield so as to set going the mightiest conflagration the world has ever known. Sodom and Gomorrah over again, only worse. But how is one to reconcile this with the hint of cherubim of glory and divine action? There is a remarkable catena of prophecies which foretell that God will impose His final judgment on the nations by the simple device of allowing full rein to human devilry: Ez. 38:21; Is. 24:19; 9:14 (=Jud. 7:22); Hag. 2:22; Zech. 14:13; Jl. 3:11,12.

 

Thereafter Edom is one intense incurable desolation — "night and day...for ever ...from generation to generation...for ever and ever."

 

It is a judgment which comes on "Babylon" (13:19-22; 14:23; Rev. 18:2; 19:3) — but on Edom world without end.

 

Later Isaiah presents this contrast: "They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations." But this is Israel's future, not Edom's.

[Resource Manager]

Chapter 35

 

What a crossroads of Holy Scripture this chapter is!

 

First, the entire picture is undoubtedly a designed contrast with the dereliction and curse on Edom, in chapter 34:

 

a. The wilderness and the solitary place and the desert which Israel has become, now takes on unexampled fruitfulness and glory.

b. The glory of the Lord (v.2) contrasts with the cherubim of judgment (34:7).

c. Instead of the indignation of the Lord (34:2), "your God will come...and save you."

d. In Edom there is pitch, brimstone, and smoke — but in God's Land "the parched ground becomes a pool, and thirsty land springs of water" (v.7)

e. "In the habitation of dragons (34:13), grass with reeds and rushes" (v.7).

f. For ever and ever none pass through Edom (34:10), but here is a route for wayfaring men, and it is a way of holiness (v.7,8).

g. There shall be "no lion nor any ravenous beast" (v.9), nor any "wild beast of the desert" (34:14).

h. Edom's nobles shall be men without a kingdom (34:12), but the redeemed of the Lord shall come to Zion with everlasting joy upon their heads (v.10).

i. "Your God with a recompense" (35:4); cp. Edom's recompense for "the controversy of Zion" (34:8). There are also copious verbal links with chapter 40, thus clearly establishing that the two halves of Isaiah belong to one another, with the Hezekiah history (36-39) as a natural bridge between them.

	Chapter 35		Chapter 40
1,6b	wilderness, desert	3
2c	The glory of the Lord	5a.
4a	Say to them of a fearful heart, Be strong	1,2	Comfort ye.
4b	Behold your God	9d
8a	A highway	3.
10	is quoted entire in	51:11
10b	Come to Zion	9a	Good tidings for Zion
6b	Streams in the desert.	43:19
3	Strengthen ye the weak hands...Your God shall come	31.	They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
5.	The blind and the deaf	42:18
3a	Strengthen ye (hazaq, the name of Hezekiah)	41:9	Thou whom I have taken (hazaq).
9	The redeemed ( ga'al)	41:14	my redeemed (s.w.)

 

 

There is also a sequence of eloquent allusions to Israel's wilderness journey — for reasons which will soon become obvious.

	Chapter 35
1.	Wilderness, desert.	Wilderness journey
2.	See the glory of the Lord	Ex. 14:13; 16:7.
4.	Fear not.	Joshua; Dt 31:7.
8.	A highway.	Num. 20:17.
9.	he redeemed.	The same term often used of Israel saved out of Egypt.
10.		Quoted in 51:9,10,11 with specific reference to Israel leaving Egypt and in the wilderness.

[Resource Manager]

Also, the language takes on greater fulness when it is read as an expansion of the lavish God-given blessings of the Year of Jubilee promised to Hezekiah (2 Kgs. 19:29) at the most critical moment of his reign. There is the picture of the desert blossoming abundantly, through the glory of the Lord (v.1,2). Abundant rain­fall means exceptionally good growth, even without special tillage (v.6,7). And the redeemed — captives taken away by the Assyrians, and now set free by captors made fearful by what happened at Jerusalem — these now come home unhindered (v.8-10). Their sorrow and sighing flee away. Scarcely able to believe their good fortune, they return home full of unquenchable gladness.

 

In the New Testament an unexpected sequence of parallels comes to light with the Emmaus encounter of two disconsolate disciples with their risen Lord (Lk. 24)

 

8. "And he shall be with them, walking in the way (see RVm), and fools shall not wander any longer." Cp. "O fools and slow of heart to believe..."

 

4. "Say to them that are of a fearful heart. Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come

raised up

(the Hebrew word only needs re-pointing to give this reading), even your God rewarded; he will come and save you."

 

5. "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped." First, the Lord opened their eyes and ears to the meaning of Scripture, and then to recognition of his own person and voice.

 

6. "Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing."

 

3. "Confirm the feeble knees." The Hebrew word for "confirm" sounds almost exactly like Emmaus. Accident?

 

10. "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion, with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away!" What a picture of the two disciples returning to Jerusalem to tell the story!

[Resource Manager]

After this it is almost to be expected that somewhere or other in the New Testament the same idea would be taken up. And it is. Hebrews 12:11ff is a passage with a steady series of allusions back to Isaiah 35:

Is. 35	Heb. 12
3	12	Lift up the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees.
1,2	11	The peaceable fruit of righteousness (?)
6	13	The lame
8	13	The way
8	14	Holiness
2	14	See (the glory of) the Lord
10	22	Mount Zion
8	15	Unclean (Gk. Defiled).
34:6	16	Esau.
34:10	29	Not quenched night or day.

 

And the reason for this particular Old Testament Scripture being made such copious use of in Hebrews 12, is easy to see. Isaiah 34,35 begin with an Arabian wilderness and end with ineffable joy in Zion; and readers of Hebrews 12 who have strayed from the true Zion and are again captives under the Law, given in Arabia, are led back to Zion and its new covenant.

 

Yet there can be no manner of doubt that the greater fulfilment of this Isaiah prophecy belongs to the future. The language takes on an impressive heart-warming fulness when it is read, in a half-literal half-figurative fashion, as an anticipation of the blessedness of the Messianic age. It is a picture not to be resisted. Who would wish to resist it?

 

The consideration also has to be faced: If this short section of Isaiah's writing has so many different facets, is it not to be expected that the rest of his prophecy is shot through with the same diverse characteristics? How much of Isaiah's meaning is being lost because those who read or study it lack the insight to make progress? However, one day "the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped."

[Resource Manager]

35:1,2 "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God."

 

In the opening words here, "shall gladden them" and "the desert shall rejoice" two words occur, both very often used for being glad in the Lord, because of what he has so unexpectedly achieved for His people. And whereas "the glory of Lebanon and the excellency of Carmel and Sharon" had been given over to the heedless destructiveness of boastful Assyrians (33:9; 37:24), now these shall be "given unto her", the perquisites of a redeemed Jerusalem. And in the phrasing, there is the implication of exceptional growth during the "Year of Jubilee." It may even be true that the radiation associated with the passing of the heavenly glory through the Land would also quicken the growth of trees and vegetation to a remarkable extent.

 

In the wilderness ancient Israel had seen the glory of the Lord in the giving of manna (Ex. 16:7,10). The returned captives would see it also in "the excellency of our God", that is, the beauty which He imparted to the Land in pools and springs of water (v.7).

[Resource Manager]

35:3-6a "Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing:"

 

From the healing of the Land, Isaiah turns to the healing of the people. There is hardly a phrase which does not carry more than one meaning — the mending of bodies and of minds.

 

Hands and knees both do their finest work in prayer to God. When faith falters, both are weak and feeble.

 

"A fearful heart" really describes the same characteristics in other terms, for "fearful" is really "hasty" (as in 32:4), those who in time of crisis jump to wrong conclusions about the inactivity of God. In Isaiah's own time, the faith of the faithful remnant was stretched to the limit.

 

The prophet's antidote is his repeated exhortation: "Be strong; fear not!" (7:4; 8:12; 10:24). And in 2 Chr. 32:7 Hezekiah learned the lesson from him, and passed it on to those among the people who were disposed to heed his word.

 

"Behold, your God will come with vengeance...and recompense" (Jl. 3:4; Dt. 32:35). Again, a double meaning. Not only was there to be an active inter­vention to "come and save you" by the dramatic manifestation of divine Glory and a mighty destruction in the Assyrian camp, but also "your mighty one (king Hezekiah himself, no less) will come raised up (from a bed of incurable sickness)", and for his sake — a man of unique faith bearing in himself the sins of the people — there would be a quite unforeseen salvation.

 

In an earlier lugubrious burden of woe Isaiah had pronounced on the people a judicial blindness and deafness — not literal affliction, of course, but a total atrophy of power to discern spiritual truth: "make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears" (6:10). But — with what gladness! — he now has to go back on this in a message of immeasurable charm and assurance: "The eyes of the blind opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped, and the lame man leaping as an hart, the tongue of the dumb singing." An earlier passage makes plain that something more than the healing of physical disability is intended: "In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the Book...the meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord" (29:18,19). So also 50:5: "The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious". So also the lame who "go halt (with uneven gait) between two opinions" (1 Kgs. 18:21), seeking to serve the true God and yet pay respect to "Baal" (as is done by many in the New Israel). These now "leap as an hart" to enter with undivided soul into the temple of the Lord (Acts 3:8). And "the tongue of the dumb", hitherto tied by other considerations of timidity or self-interest, now bursts forth readily into the loud praise of God.

 

That great deliverance from the Assyrian threat, a salvation so sudden and marvellous as to be past believing (Ps. 126:1-3) must have achieved for many of the half-hearted and indecisive in Israel, what the earlier vigorous enthusiasm of Hezekiah's reformation could not bring about.

[Resource Manager]

35:6b,7 "For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes."

 

The picture of God-given Jubilee blessing on the Land (v.1) is now continued. Waters, streams, pools, springs are everywhere in abundance (43:19,20; 48:21; 49:10). It must have been a remarkable year of frequent and copious rainfall, so that with little effort on men's part there was abundant fruitfulness (Lev. 25:21). For the freed captives (Lev. 25:10), streaming back from Babylon, the hardships of the way were made easy by the ready availability of food and water. As Israel in the wilderness had the smitten rock to save them from the horrors of thirst, so now this later generation saw "waters break out...in the desert" — the verb means "cleave (the rock or the ground)."

 

And what is described here as "the parched ground" is really an allusion to the heart-breaking deceit of a desert mirage, falsely luring the traveller on to the satisfying comfort of an oasis that is not there. The promised help of a countless Egyptian army, routed by the Assyrians at El-tekeh, had been such a mirage. And "the habitations of dragons" (jackals actually, an apt figure of Assyrian marauders) were become places of lush plenty and comfort.

 

35:8,9 "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The Way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:"

 

The theme switches back to the Lord's faithful remnant, and particularly to those who are to return home from what had seemed a hopeless captivity. Of course they would not have to cross rough country, for there were arterial roads in this Assyrian empire. All empire builders have to have good supply roads. But now this route followed by returning captives was not a highway of conquest and rapine but a way of holiness, for this is a people happy to re-consecrate themselves to the God of their fathers: "Make straight in the desert a highway for our God" (40:3), that is, for these redeemed people to return to their God (cp. Ps. 84:5,6). The odd isolated phrase: "and a way," must surely be written off as a dittograph undeservedly preserved. The Hebrew text certainly reads as though that is its character.

 

The "unclean" who do not share the highway with these ransomed ones are the Assyrian warriors, such as were left of them. There is no longer a disposition for these jack-booted men of war to march out to the Levant to bully and oppress small nations. "From henceforth there shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcised (Egyptians) and the unclean (Assyrians)" (52:1).

 

"Fools shall not go to and fro on it". These fools are Egyptians (s.w. 19:11), presumably captured officers. But they do not gain release, for no god of Egypt had stamped his fear on Assyrian minds as did Jehovah.

 

Nor is there any Assyrian lion (cp. the figures outside Nineveh's temples and palaces) or other ravenous beast of the allied nations who had gladly augmented Sennacherib's army going against Jerusalem.

 

Instead, this high road is for "the wayfaring men" (LXX: the dispersed) who are soon to be seen finding their way back to their Holy City. These had been whipped away into the wretchedness of captivity before ever that fateful Passover came on, when an angel of the Lord with a blast of divine power desolated the proud Assyrian camp. But did not the Law of Moses decree that for a man in a journey a late Passover could be observed (Num. 9:10)? And to sanctify these, "he (their Lord) shall be with them, walking in the way" (RVm), just as He was with Moses and Israel in their long trek from Egyptian bondage to the Land of Promise.

[Resource Manager]

35:10 “And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

 

This verse is reproduced in 51:11, with only one letter difference but without any change of meaning. Here is an interesting problem regarding the copying of the text.

 

These ransomed ones (padah) have been redeemed (ga'al) by the Lord because they are, so to speak, His kinsfolk — Israel is His firstborn. Their joy and gladness is past describing. But in what sense do they have songs and everlasting joy on their heads? It can be argued that this is the figure of the anointing of the high priest (Lev. 8:7; Ps. 133:2), he on behalf of all the rest. But does this idea of consecrated priesthood harmonize with that of captives returning from a foreign land? For this reason there is some attractiveness about the reading (perfectly valid): "songs and everlasting joy because of their Head," with reference to good king Hezekiah upon whom God had laid the sin of all the nation. But now he is recovered, and (in a different sense) the vast multitude of captives are also recovered — and the Land is recovered out of the grip of the enemy, and its fertility also is marvellously recovered through the blessing of the Year of Jubilee.

[Resource Manager]

New Testament fulfilment

 

The detailed links which have already been catalogued between Isaiah 35 and (a) the Emmaus disciples and their experience of the risen Lord; and (b) an eloquent Paragraph in Hebrews 12, should be sufficient to emphasize strongly enough that the early church read this comforting prophecy with reference to their present experience of the blessings of the gospel. Two other examples serve to underline this important truth.

 

John the Baptist, perplexed that there was no open sign that Jesus was either "the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world" or the expected Messiah with a fan of judgment, sent messengers to beg that his doubts be resolved. Jesus responded with a display of dazzling Messianic miracles, and bade John's men report back to their leader. It must have been immediately obvious to John, that in every detail Jesus was alluding to the text of his beloved Isaiah, and specially to Isaiah 35:

The blind receive their sight.	Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened.
The lame walk.	The lame man shall leap as an hart.
The lepers are cleansed.	The unclean (from leprosy, the sin disease) shall not pass over. (Cp. ch.53: Messiah described as a leper.)
The deaf hear.	The ears of the deaf unstopped.
The dead are raised up.	Your God will come, raised up.
To the poor the gospel is preached.	Joy and gladness; sorrow and sighing flee away.
Blessed is he who shall not be caused to stumble by me.	Confirm the stumbling knees. (A stone of stumbling; 8:14 — the rejected altar; also: the young men shall stumble, but those that wait upon the Lord...40:30).
And note:
Art thou he that should come?	Your God will come...with a recompense; he will come and save you.

 

 

The healing of the lame man (Acts 3) affords another clear instance of the meaning of Isaiah 35 in the gospel era: he is described as "walking and leaping and praising God" (v.8). Here each separate expression looks back to Isaiah 35.

 

In harmony with these palpable New Testament allusions it is possible now to see how "strengthen ye the weak hands" is designedly illustrated by the Lord's healing of the man with the withered hand (Lk. 6:6).

 

Similarly, the "opening of the eyes of the blind," already recalled by the way in which Emmaus disciples had their eyes opened to the presence of their Lord, and the apostles in Jerusalem had the eyes of their understanding of Holy Scripture opened, so also (Lk. 24:31,45). Very appropriately Jesus used the same prophetic figure when sending Paul forth to bring spiritual sight to blind Gentiles (Acts 26:18).

 

Water is hardly to be expected in a desert highway, but this blessing, promised by Isaiah, became the experience of the Ethiopian eunuch as, by Philip's help, he went on the Way, both literally and also spiritually through the prophecy of Isaiah: "See, water! What doth hinder me to be baptized?" — and thereafter he went on his way rejoicing "with songs and everlasting joy because of his Head."

 

Nothing is so satisfying as this gospel. Here is no habitation of dragons or of jackals or of lions. Those who faithfully travel this highway to Zion are never heard to complain that "there is a lion in the way", for instead they have heard a reassuring voice bid them "Be strong; fear not."

 

There remains one further exercise in interpretation of this amazing prophecy, and that is its application in yet greater fulness, both figuratively and literally, to the loveliness and blessedness of Messiah's kingdom. Here the ideas are both familiar and straightforward. There is no more mirage. The parched ground becomes a pool, in truth and righteousness.

[Resource Manager]

ISAIAH

PART THREE

 

 

40 (1). History and Prophecy

 

Nowadays the student who reads Isaiah 40-66 as from the pen of Isaiah stamps himself as one who is out of touch with the "assured results" of modern Biblical scholarship. So be it! This study of Deutero-lsaiah comes from the pen of one who with the passing of years becomes more and more satisfied that only by reading this prophecy against the background of the reign of Hezekiah is it possible to make sense of its phraseology.

 

The opening words of comfort to Jerusalem and the declaration of warfare accomplished, both fit beautifully the period of relief, blessing and prosperity which ensued after the destruction of Sennacherib's army. (There was no warfare round Jerusalem during the seventy years of Babylonian captivity! If these words were written in the days of Cyrus, they are irrelevant.)

 

"Double for all her sins" is language appropriate to the days of Hezekiah — doubly so if there is here also allusion to the double blessing (Lev. 25:18-22) of the Year of Jubilee appointed as a sign to both king and people, in the time of their distress (2 Kgs. 19:29,30).

 

The proclamation of a wilderness highway, with the crooked made straight and the rough places plain, likewise gears up with this jubilee, for it was a time of freedom for slaves and captives (Lev. 25:10). After the Assyrian debacle at Jerusalem those 200,000 Israelites taken off to Babylon and Assyria by Sennacherib (Taylor Prism) were packed off back home — too hot a potato to hold! Thus Hezekiah's reign witnessed deliverance from bondage and a wilderness journey comparable to the deliverance God gave under Moses (and hence the copious allusions throughout Isaiah to Israel in Egypt and the wilderness).

 

In the destruction of the invincible Assyrian army, "the glory of the Lord was revealed", and all flesh withered as grass and faded as the flower of the field. The prophet told these good tidings to Zion, and Hezekiah, the Arm of the Lord, ruled for Him and fed his flock like a shepherd in the time of their distress.

 

At a time when Israel lamented that: "my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God," there was given proof past argument that "the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary."

 

That night "the nations (in the Assyrian alliance) became as a drop in a bucket, and were counted as the small dust of the balance...princes were brought to nought, and judges of the earth made as vanity...The Lord blew upon them and they withered, and the whirlwind took them away as stubble."

 

That campaign was not just a struggle of Hezekiah against the tyranny of Nineveh; it was a contest between the claims of Ashur and Jehovah to be the True God. Sennacherib had thrown down the gauntlet not only before Hezekiah but also before Hezekiah's God, and from that moment his Judaean campaign was destined to ignominious failure. The folly of the man who "seeks a cunning workman to Prepare a graven image" was scornfully exposed by "Him that sitteth upon the circle of the earth — and that spreadeth out the heavens as a tent to dwell in."

[Resource Manager]

40 (2). "Comfort ye" (v.1-8).

 

All four gospels emphasize that John the Baptist's mission was the fulfilment — a fulfilment? — of the opening section of Isaiah 40. John himself declared explicitly: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness". Therefore he was. It just will not do to say, in the modern fashionable jargon, that John saw himself as a fulfilment of the Isaiah prophecy. Behind all such declarations is the insinuation that John knew no better than to say this of himself, or that his religious idealism led him to think of his mission in this way. How John himself would have blasted such an attitude to the OT.!

 

More detailed examination reveals the superb appropriateness of this prophecy to the work of John and Jesus. And since John was the greatest of the prophets (Mt. 11:11), it is to be expected that not only Messiah but also his forerunner should find a place in the word of prophecy.

 

"Repent ye!"

 

There is a superb double meaning about this opening phrase of John's prophetic message. "Comfort ye" also means "Repent ye." In general, the different forms of the same Hebrew verb are used to mean "comfort" (Niphal) and "repent" (Piel), but there is no consistency about this usage. Ultimately context has to be the decider; and here it is difficult to be sure.

 

In the rest of Isaiah's message the emphasis is on "comfort": "The Lord shall comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness (40:3) like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord" (51:3; note the remarkable similarities with 40:6,21,22 in v. 12,13); cp. also the loveliness of the message of comfort in 49:13.

 

The truth is that the greatest real comfort a man can reach is through his own intense uninhibited repentance, for thus, and only thus, can he be at peace with his own conscience. And thus, and only thus, can he know the assurance of sins forgiven.

 

Nations and individuals alike have to learn this wholesome principle of acceptance and blessing. The only alternative is to stifle conscience with a chloroform pad of hypocrisy.

 

John the Baptist

 

Appropriately, then, John came to his people with his ringing call to repentance — "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Here again there is ambiguity. Did he mean: "your opportunity of the kingdom is now within your grasp" (as in Lk. 10:9,11)? or was he declaring: "here is your Messiah: Behold your God"? (v.9). Though, indeed, the most natural meaning of the words is: The kingdom is about to be established.

 

John proclaimed his message in the wilderness and the desert (40:3; Mt. 3:1), yet the good news was for the ears of the people of "Jerusalem and the cities of Judah" (40:9); and they heard it, because "there went out unto him Jerusalem and all Judaea" (Mt. 3:5).

 

So this man of austerity "spoke to the heart" (40:2 RVm) of his hearers. One of his great themes was: "warfare accomplished, iniquity pardoned." Here again are key phrases with double meaning. for the "warfare" he bade cease may have been struggle against invaders or imperial overlords*. Warfare was also the Torah's term for priestly service in the sanctuary (Num. 8:24-26mg).

 

Here, then, Jewish legalists were being bidden cease their dependence on works of law and the blood of bulls and goats. The LXX reads: "Comfort ye, my people. Speak, ye priests, to the heart of Jerusalem." But the priests were the least ready of all the nation to apply this exhortation. So the responsibility was taken up instead by John the Baptist, himself a priest, and the son of a priest. He bade men cease their dependence on their own self-made righteousness, and instead find a new life serving God's Messiah, knowing the blessing of "iniquity pardoned" without the elaborate observance of ritual and legalism.

 

Here is yet another phrase with double meaning: "her punishment is accepted" (RVm). A long and eloquent passage in Lev. 26 sets out God's terms for Israel's re-acceptance: "If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers...then will I remember my covenant...and I will remember the Land..." (Lev. 26:40-42).

[Resource Manager]

No national repentance

 

This is repentance, the necessary prelude to acceptance and blessing. So, that repeated "Comfort ye" is also an insistent "Repent ye". When punishment is accepted as a just retribution for sin, then iniquity is pardoned (cp. Ps. 32:1-5). And the fact that God destroyed temple and city in A.D. 70 is plain proof that John's mission failed (Lk. 7:30; Mt. 17:12). Such repentance as his appeal evoked was a mere flash in the pan, brief in duration, poor in quality. Everything written about John's ministry goes to establish such a conclusion.

 

Jerusalem "received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." That unusual Hebrew word for "double" refers to the breastplate of judgment, a pouch or pocket made by doubling a square of material and then attaching it suitably to the ephod of the high priest. In this pocket were Urim and Thummim, the holy lots by which God gave decision of guilt or innocence. Hitherto Jerusalem had only known God's adverse pronouncement: "Guilty". But now John brought the happy prospect of iniquity pardoned and righteousness imputed through the One whom he announced to the nation.

 

But Israel must show itself appreciative of such blessings. Due preparation for Messiah's coming must be made, and that drastically. In their spiritual wilderness let them make a straight smooth road for his royal advent — dark narrow wadis filled in, mountain obstructions ruthlessly bulldozed out of the way; instead of a narrow twisting boulder-strewn track let there be a highway, broad, level, smooth and hand­some.

 

So John called the entire nation to repentance — the common people, sunk in the sordid triviality of their small affairs; the publicans, bondslaves of Rome and money; the harlots, the bondslaves of men and money; the rebels, with a delusive freedom as their target and the dogs of war at their heels; the powerful Sadducees, thinking only of wealth and more power; and even the Pharisees, preening themselves on their reputation for sanctity. All of these came to John, fascinated by his primitive way of life, his hoarse voice, his vivid eloquence, his peremptory message, his sublime self-confidence, and his phenomenal humility.

 

And for all, whatever their standing, he had only one word: "Repent ye, repent ye, my people, saith your God." Let them turn right round. Let them abandon their way of self, and instead diligently seek God's ways. Repent! — start thinking differently.

 

This they all must do, for "all flesh is grass." Fresh, attractive, bedecked with flowers — but in a few days, cast into the oven of summer's heat, it is shrivelled, dry and dead, useless now except to proclaim an eloquent unheeded lesson about the frailty of "flesh."

 

In the message John thundered out, unrelenting, untiring, the Spirit of the Lord was blowing into the life of the nation, even as the hot wind swept across the hillside and shrivelled the grass. And like the grass they all must die in order to live a new and better life before God.

 

Even the Messiah whom John announced must know this experience. A man of Israel like themselves, in him too, "flesh" must die, so that "the Word of our God might rise up for ever."

 

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* "Be content with your wages" (Lk. 3:14) was almost certainly spoken to men who were being recruited for Barabbas's insurrection.