Isaiah 4

Chapter 4. Isaiah and JerusalemWhile the great prophet surveys the whole worldwide horizon and has a message for all nations, yet his special message is to Judah and Jerusalem, and he looks at every other question from the standpoint of the chosen people. A Vision of Sin and Judgment

1. His first message to his own people is a vision of sin and judgment. This occupies the first chapter and is a fearful indictment to the sinful nation, closing with the solemn announcement of judgment which is surely coming. I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove your impurities. (Isaiah 1:25) Zion will be redeemed with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness. But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the Lord will perish. (Isaiah 1:27-28) A Vision of the Last Days2. This is followed in the second chapter by a glorious vision of Judah and Jerusalem in the last days. In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in His paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. (Isaiah 2:2-4) The vision of faith does not rest long upon the dark shadows of sin and judgment, but looks onward to the glory of the latter days, “for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29), and Jehovah will not suffer even Judah’s sins to frustrate His purpose of blessing. The Approaching Judgment
2. The prophet’s vision next turns to the approaching judgment which is about to fall upon Jerusalem on account of her rebellion and disobedience. This is described in chapter Isaiah 22:1-12. This message is called “The Burden of the Valley of Vision” and is a vivid picture of the siege of the city by the Assyrians. What troubles you now, that you have gone up on the roofs, O town full of commotion, O city of tumult and revelry? Your slain were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle. Therefore I said, “Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.” The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision, a day of battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains. (Isaiah 22:2, Isaiah 22:4-5) The vision is repeated in chapter Isaiah 29:1-8, where Jerusalem is represented under the name of Ariel; that is, the Lion of God. “Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel, that attack her and her fortress and besiege her, will be as it is with a dream, with a vision in the night” (Isaiah 29:7). Warning About the Egyptian Alliance
3. Next we have the warning of Isaiah against the Egyptian alliance in chapter Isaiah 31:1-3. The prophet foretells the humiliation of Egypt and the confession of the foolish politicians that had leaned on this broken reed, instead of trusting in the Lord. “But Pharaoh’s protection will be to your shame, Egypt’s shade will bring you disgrace…. to Egypt whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing” (Isaiah 30:3, Isaiah 30:7). Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord. Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster; he does not take back his words. He will rise up against the house of the wicked, against those who help evildoers. But the Egyptians are men and not God; their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, he who helps will stumble, he who is helped will fall; both will perish together. (Isaiah 31:1-3) A Vision of Hope and Deliverance5. But now the vision changes from warning and judgment to hope and deliverance. God sees His people in the distress which they have brought upon themselves and He flies to their relief. This is what the Lord says to me: “As a lion growls, a great lion over his prey— and though a whole band of shepherds is called together against him, he is not frightened by their shouts or disturbed by their clamor— so the Lord Almighty will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and on its heights. Like birds hovering overhead, the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it.” (Isaiah 31:4-5) This, no doubt, refers to the sudden and glorious deliverance of Jerusalem from the army of Sennacherib (Isaiah 37:36). This promise is repeated when the hour of danger comes; and like the answering echo, the word is answered by the deed and the record of promise and deliverance follow each other. Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,” declares the Lord. “I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!” Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! (Isaiah 37:33-36) The Return From Captivity
4. The prediction of Judah’s captivity was left for a later prophet, Jeremiah; but to Isaiah was given the distinguished honor of looking beyond the captivity and foretelling the glorious return of the captive bands from Babylon. Chapter Isaiah 35:1-10 is the exquisite panorama of this joyful procession. As they passed homeward “the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom” (Isaiah 35:1). This beautiful picture has become the panorama of the pilgrim’s progress along the heavenly highway to the home above. What a beautiful return it was to the captives of Zion, we learn from the story of Ezra, as he tells us how the fathers that remembered the time when they had left Jerusalem led in chains, wept for joy when they looked once more upon the heights of Zion after the 70 years at Babylon. In the vision of Isaiah 44:28 to Isaiah 45:4, we have a more exact account of the principal circumstances connected with their return at last, with the most important of these circumstances; namely, the fact that it was to come about through Cyrus, king of Persia. That Isaiah should be able to tell us the name of the very man that would be sitting upon the throne of Persia at that time, and that would send back the captives of Jerusalem, is one of the miracles of prophecy. When we realize that this was nearly 200 years before the event occurred, it is not wonderful that the critics, who cannot understand anything supernatural, should feel compelled to conclude that there must have been two Isaiahs, one in the days of Hezekiah and one in the days of Cyrus, who knew what he was talking about, because he was describing the history of his own times. How sublime the picture given of this mighty conqueror, like a pawn in the hands of Jehovah. “For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a tide of honor, though you do not acknowledge me” (Isaiah 45:4). Many of the later visions of Isaiah are but echoes of this glad story of Israel’s return from Babylon. To the prophet’s imagination the vision came with no exact logical or chronological order, but with mingled lights and shades in which events overlapped, and often overleaped each other in sublime confusion, so that the same verse often describes the return of the captives from Babylon, and the restoration of Israel in the last days. As when we gaze at two mountains perspectively, they seem to blend as one mountain, although they may be miles apart; so the vision of the prophet often combines two events far removed in time and yet having common features of resemblance. The Coming of the Messiah
5. The next chapter in the history of Judah was the coming of Messiah and His rejection by the nation. The light which falls upon this vision in Isaiah is somewhat dim, and yet it is clear enough for us to recognize “the man of sorrows.” “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3). Still later we see Him treading “the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with [him]” (Isaiah 63:3). The Apostle Paul quotes from Isaiah with reference to the rejection of Christ by Israel and says, “all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people” (Romans 10:21). The very chapter which most vividly describes the coming of the Messiah, Isaiah 53, begins with a wail of disappointment over the unbelief of the nation, “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (Isaiah 53:1). The Restoration of the People
6. But there is a brighter vision in Isaiah—the restoration of the people at the last, through the coming of their Messiah once more and their repentance and return to Him. The Apostle Paul quotes again, from Isaiah 59:20 in his triumphant conclusion in Romans 11:26 : “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” The last five chapters of Isaiah are bright with the promise of the glory of Jerusalem in the latter days. “Arise, shine, for your light has come” (Isaiah 60:1) is the call that summons Zion to her restoration and glorious destiny. Her blessing is to overflow to all the nations. The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. (Isaiah 62:2) Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. (Isaiah 65:17-18) As the apostle expresses it in his profound discussion of the whole question of Israel in Romans 9-11 : “For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15).