Isaiah 32
OGCEXAMINATION Chapter S THIRTY-TWO AND THIRTY-THREE
DEFINITION
(Define the following words or phrases as they were discussed in the comments.)
a man shall be as a hiding-place
churl
careless ones
Spirit
hail in the downfall of the forest
be thou our arm
as locusts leap
Ye shall conceive chaff
munitions of rocks
a people of deep speech
broad rivers and streams
Thy tacklings are loosed
MEMORIZATION
Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and ye that are near, _____ my might. The _____ in Zion are afraid; trembling hath seized the _____ ones: Who among us can dwell with the devouring _______? who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh _____, and speaketh uprightly; he that _____ the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from taking a _____, that stoppeth his _____ from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from looking upon _____: he shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be the _____ of rocks; his _____ shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. (Isaiah 33:13-16)
EXPLANATION
Explain why the king reigning in righteousness is the Messiah (Isaiah 32:1-2).
Explain how Judah’s enemy broke its covenant? (Isaiah 33:7-8)
Explain why the inhabitant of Jerusalem shall not say, I am sick. (Isaiah 33:24)
APPLICATION
(In its context every scripture has one meaningthe author’s intended meaning. How may the following be applied in the believer’s life?)
How does the discussion of the fool no longer being called noble and the churl bountiful apply to the Messianic age? (Isaiah 32:1-8)
How does the faith of the remnant in Jehovah’s arm bring stability to the nation and how does that lesson apply today? (Isaiah 33:1-6)
What three attitudes or areas of human relationship to God expressed in Isaiah 33:13-24 brings serenity? How does this still apply to the believer today?
SPECIAL STUDY KINGSHIP OF GOD
by Paul T. Butler INTRODUCTION
I.
SCRIPTURES
A.
O.T.
The Lord is king for ever and ever, Psalms 10:16.
He is the king of glory, Psalms 24:7-10.
He is the king of all the earth, Psalms 47:7.
The Holy One of Israel is our king, Psalms 89:18.
B.
N.T.
The Magi came seeking the One born King of the Jews.
Mary’s son was to receive the throne of David and
reign forever.
The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem brought forth the prophecy from Zech. Behold thy king cometh unto thee.
The people shouted, Blessed be the king who comes in the name of the Lord.
Pilate’s first question to Jesus was: Are you the king of the Jews? Jesus-’ answer: You have said so.
II.
AMERICANS CANNOT APPRECIATE KINGSHIP
A.
It means absolute rule.
Simeon, holding the baby Jesus in his arms, said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart. Lord is a translation of despotes, from which we get the English word despot.
It is allegiance to a MONARCH!
B.
The church is a kingdom, not a democracy.
Its citizens have no authority in formulating its laws, covenants, means of administration.
Its citizens can only decide whether they shall accept and respond to its rule or whether they will rebel and refuse to have its King rule over them.
III.
THREE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE KINGSHIP OF GOD
A.
Justice
B.
Beneficence
C.
Glory
DISCUSSION
I.
JUSTICE (The ONE thing man needs above everything else is a Divine Dispenser of Perfect Justice; man is a moral being and morality demands not only a knowledge of right and wrong but a Divine enforcement of right and wrong; this is the very essence of the power necessary to motivate man in all his moral potentialities such as love, holiness, etc.)
A.
The King’s Actions in Justice are twofold.
Punishing the Rebel
a.
Christianity is a moral religion; it is moral life itself. Whenever we talk about anything moral judgment necessarily enters into it.
b.
If there is any difference between right and wrong, God in His perfect Justice and Righteousness must be hostile to the wrong.
c.
Hebrews 1:9 says of Christ the King, But of the Son he says, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, the righteous scepter is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. GOD HATES REBELLION AND LAWLESSNESS AND WILL PUNISH IT!
d.
God is the Judge who in any transaction decides who is in the right and who is in the wrong.
It is God who allots to each man his reward. God’s judgment falls upon the arrogant, the insolent, and the oppressor.
e.
God’s methods of punishment and judgment are many:
He has built some of his judgments into the natural laws of our physical existence. If we violate physical right, we will suffer the consequences. He has built some of his judgments into the conscience of man. If we violate the mental and spiritual right, we will suffer guilt, spiritual disorientation and disintegration. He has built some of his judgments into the social structures necessary for this existence. If we violate them we shall suffer chaos, anarchy, frustration.
f.
BUT HE HAS RESERVED HIS PERFECT WRATH FOR THE NEXT LIFE, THE FUTURE EXISTENCE.
Protecting the Righteous
a.
A corollary of JUSTICE is that God the Judge-King protects the rights of the defenseless.
b.
He delivers the one who believes and trusts and obeys Him.
c.
God’s justice will vindicate the righteous and obedient.
d.
God has punished all sin, potentially, in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. He has carried out His justice and has, by grace, offered to justify all guilty sinners who accept Christ’s death in their place by faith and obedience (Romans 3:21-26).
B.
The Citizen’s Reaction to the King’s Justice
Fear (Reverence and Awe); one of the three meanings of phobos is reverence and awe.
a.
This fear is the source of the chaste life, 1 Peter 3:2.
b.
This fear is the source of holiness, 2 Corinthians 7:1.
c.
This fear is connected with the godly sorrow that brings repentance, 2 Corinthians 7:11.
d.
This fear is the source of Christian effort. working out one’s own salvation with fear and trembling.
e.
This fear is the basis of mutual respect and service which Christians are bound to render to each other, Ephesians 5:21.
f.
This fear can be the motive power of persuasion. Christianity always comes to men with a promise and an offer, but any promise can be disbelieved and any offer can be refused, and there is a necessary consequence of disbelief and refusal.
g.
Christian discipline is to be publicly exercised that others may see it and fear (1 Timothy 5:20). It is an interesting thought that Christian discipline is to be exercised not only for the sake of the man who has sinned, but also as a means of warning the man who has not sinned to abide in the right way,
In the N.T. phobos is one of the great words. There can be no religion at all without the awe of the creature in the presence of the Creator. The feeling of reverence, the awareness of God, is at once the prophylactic against sin, the dynamic of the Christian life, and the mainspring of the Christian effort.
Faith (obedience, trust); reverence (phobos) must turn to faith and not fear in the lower, paralyzing sense.
a.
Faith in God’s fairness
b.
Faith in God’s mercy
c.
FAITH IN GOD’S HOLINESS. Those who rebel against God’s Kingship are really those who disbelieve in God’s righteous and holy wrath. THEIR FAITH IS FANCIFUL AND NOT BASED ON THE FEAR OF GOD!
II.
BENEFICENCE (It is evident from the failing attempts of human governments and other human institutions that man needs a benefactor, a Divine Supplier; man doesn-’t even know what he needs, let alone being incapable of supplying his needs.)
A.
The King’s Actions
Provider (physical necessities)
a.
He provides physical well-being; health, safety, a world full of challenge in which to work.
b.
He provides friends and loved-ones to help us.
c.
Seed-time and harvest are controlled by Him.
d.
It is all His domain; He is king of the earth, of the universe.
It is His by right of creation, but He sees fit to share it with us.
e.
He could take it all away with merely a word; He could banish us from its boundaries by merely wishing it to be so.
Pilot (spiritual necessities)
a.
Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
b.
He supplies the water of life that quenches the eternal thirst of the soul which dries, withers and dies without it.
c.
He supplies the bread of life that fortifies, edifies and energizes the soulwhich starves, sickens and dies without it.
d.
He is chart and compass, He is the Way, the Truth and the Life giving direction to lifewhich is directionless, chaotic, stormy and lost without it.
e.
He supplies light to life, dispelling the darkness of ignorance, illuminating the ugliness of sin, beaming the brightness of holiness to man.
B.
The Citizen’s Reaction
Stewardship
a.
Jesus taught more on stewardship than any thing else!
b.
A steward is one who tends to another’s property or affairs.
c.
A steward is one who works!
d.
The king has provided, but we are to work.
e.
We hear a great deal these days about helping the helpless, and I believe it to be the very nature of a Christian to do so, for after all God helps each of us in our helplessness. BUT IT IS JUST AS GOD-LIKE AND CHRIST-LIKE TO CONSIDER THE MATTER OF STEWARDSHIP, WORK, LABOR. GOD WORKED SIX DAYS. JESUS WORKED.
f.
The apostles taught that the Christian community was not to tolerate the shiftless, lazy, parasite who could work. The apostles practiced what they preachedthey worked.
g.
If such is the norm for the Christian, certainly we ought not to think we are doing the non-Christian a favor by condoning laziness.
h.
Stewardship implies wise judgment and forbids indiscriminate pampering or perpetuation of either social or spiritual laziness.
- Discipleship
a.
Jesus, the King, has beneficently provided our spiritual life also.
b.
Here again, WE ARE TOLD TO WORK.
c.
Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life. John 6:27.
d.
This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. John 6:29.
e.
It is well for us to remember that all our spiritual life comes by grace, but that grace has to be SOUGHT AND BOUGHT WITH THE SACRIFICE OF SELF AND THE DISCIPLINE OF SERVICE!
f.
Jesus said the kingdom is like a man going on a long journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Mark 13:34
g.
The Pearl of Great Price, when found (note the man was searching to find it), demands a cost, a trade.
The Field with Buried Treasure, when discovered (God’s beneficence is sometimes discovered and sometimes searched for), demands cost.
III.
GLORY (Man will glorify someone or something. Man, whether he admits it or not, inherently and inevitably worships some other than his own person. He has demonstrated time and again that he must glorify some other outside his own individuality, even if it is mankind in general he glorifies.)
A.
The King’s Acting Glory
His Greatness (His Creative Power)
a.
The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork, Psalms 19.
b.
Who is the King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! Psalms 24:8.
c.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory. Isaiah 6:3.
d.
… myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. Revelation 5:12.
e.
The word Glory literally means, to be heavy or laden with riches, power and position.
f.
NO HUMAN BEING WILL BE EXCUSED FOR FAILING TO SEE THE GLORY OF THE IMMORTAL GOD IN NATURE AND MAKING SOME RESPONSE.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men. For what can be known about God is plain to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Romans 1:18 ff.
His Goodness (His Moral Beauty)
a.
Perfect in Holiness; Perfect in Love; Perfect in Humility; Perfect in Wisdom; Perfect in Consistency (Unchangeablness) Perfect in Justice; Perfect in Power.
b.
It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance.
c.
Moses had a craving to come to grips with God as he was in himself. In reply, God emphasized his goodness. His moral beauty (Exodus 33:19).
d.
Oh, the ineffable worth of God’s moral richness.
e.
We glorify the wisest of menthe powerfulest of menthe most charitable of menthe most consistent of menthe purest of menthe richest of menthe most just of men BUT GOD EXCEEDS THEM ALL AS A MILLION MT. EVERESTS EXCEED ONE GRAIN OF SAND!
f.
And all His glory was exhibited to men in a Man, Christ Jesus. We beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father. In him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily.
g.
And look how Jesus exhibited the GLORY of God to men.. as a servant, as a redeemer, as a sinless, holy, powerful, compassionate, KING WHO CAME TO WOO AND WIN A THRONE IN MAN’S HEART!
B.
The Citizen’s Reacting Glorification of the King
Worshipping His Glory
a.
Praise, adoration, honor
b.
Preaching His ineffable characterOUR PREACHING IS TO GLORIFY GOD AND HIS SON CHRIST, AND HIS CHURCH.
We have no reason to praise men, except as their lives exemplify and glorify God.
c.
This can be done by writing books to glorify His name, by composing and singing music to His adoration, by giving of our means to honor His name throughout the world.
Walking In His Glory
a.
He made us in His image and glory, BUT WE HAVE FALLEN SHORT!
b.
He wants us to be changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another.. THIS IS DONE BY BEHOLDING HIS GLORY.
c.
Beholding His glory means to imbibe of it. to wrap ourselves in it. to assimilate it into our nature.
d.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, and become partakers of the divine nature 2 Peter 1:3-4.
e.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.
f.
Remember the definition of glory? To BE HEAVY.. GOD WANTS US TO WALK AROUND LADEN DOWN WITH HIS RICH CHARACTER OF MORAL PURITY AND GOODNESS.
Instead of Jesus people, we might call ourselves GOD HEAVIES!
CONCLUSION
PAROUSIA: THE ARRIVAL OF THE KING
In the papyri and in Hellenistic Greek, parousia is the technical word for the arrival of an emperor, a king, or a ruler, into a town or province. For such a visit preparations had to be made. All things had to be readied. New coins were always struck to commemorate the visitation of a king. It was as if with the coming of the king a new set of values had emerged. One of the commonest things is that provinces dated a new era from the parousia of the king. A new section of time emerged with the coming of the king. WHEN OUR KING COMES HE BRINGS WITH HIM HIS JUSTICE, HIS BENEFICENCE, HIS GLORY.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Isaiah 32:1-8
C. FUTURE THAT IS FRUITFUL, Chapter S 32-33
- SOVEREIGN
TEXT: Isaiah 32:1-8
1
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice.
2
And a man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
3
And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.
4
And the heart of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
5
The fool shall be no more called noble, nor the churl said to be bountiful.
6
For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise profaneness, and to utter error against Jehovah, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
7
And the instruments of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the meek with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.
8
But the noble deviseth noble things; and in noble things shall he continue.
QUERIES
a.
Who is the king?
b.
What is a churl?
PARAPHRASE
Behold, a king who will reign righteously. His entire kingdom will be characterized by the administration of righteousness and justice. The man on the throne will be a refuge from danger, a source of life and a resting place. When He comes things will be as they actually should bepeople will see as they should see and hear as they should hear; confused men will understand clearly and men will speak the things of God clearly and boldly. In His reign a man will be acknowledged for what he actually is and not for what he appears to bea fool will not be called a great leader nor will a deceitful man be called noble. The fool will be shown to be what he really is, dedicated to opposing God’s will and doing harm to man. And the crafty man, despite all his cunning, is evil because he is dedicated to the exploitation of his fellow man. The truly noble man is one that advises true and pure ways and lives that way also.
COMMENTS
Isaiah 32:1-2 RULER: Who is the king predicted? Our view is that it can only refer to the Messiah. He will rule in righteousness. The Messiah is the only one who truly reigns in righteousness. We do not think Isaiah is talking about a relatively righteous rulerather he is predicting a rule that is completely righteous. Furthermore, this king (or perhaps citizens of his kingdom) will become a refuge, a source of life and a rest. Certainly no human king is intended here. What Isaiah is predicting is that sometime in the future (Isaiah does not say exactly when), as a result of God’s judgment upon Judah and her consequent repentance, Jehovah is going to send a king to rule in righteousness and be a spiritual benefactor. This king’s kingdom will consist of citizens fully converted. The princes might be a reference to the apostles whom Jesus said would sit on twelve thrones and judge Israel (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30) which meant the apostles would preach the gospel to the Jews and in so doing give Israel the divine criteria by which God will judge all men. Princes might, on the other hand, be merely an adaptation to the mentality of people used to a monarchy and not intended to refer to any particular person or office in the messianic kingdom.
Isaiah 32:3-8 RULED: Isaiah wants it understood that when the king reigning in righteousness comes things will be as God wishes them to be. The contrast between this new kingdom and the kingdom of Isaiah’s day will be as different as daylight and darkness. Men will see as they should and hear and obey (which is what hearken means) as they should. The Hebrew word mohar is translated rash in Isaiah 32:4 and could also be translated hasty or impetuous with the connotation of the confusion resulting from impetuosity and impropriety. In this new kingdom men will not act rashly or out of confusion as the people of Isaiah’s day were acting in turning to pagan gods and pagan kings for help. They will not have their minds stupefied by drunkenness so they stammer as they were doing in Isaiah’s day (cf. Isaiah 28:7-8; Isaiah 29:9). The Hebrew word nokal in Isaiah 32:5 is translated churl in the ASV and knave in the RSV. It means someone who is miserly, deceitful, crafty or fraudulent. In the messianic reign a man will be known for what he is, not who he is as was the case in Isaiah’s day. In the messianic reign God’s covenant people, Christians, are the true realists! They not only see men as they are but as they may potentially be should the power of God’s gospel be permitted to make them new creations. Christians regard no one from a human point of view (2 Corinthians 5:6-21) but as they are looked at from God’s perspective! The value judgments of the worldly-minded man may cause him to call a man smart, and good when God calls such a man a fool (cf. Luke 12:13-21). Or the worldly-minded man may call the godfearing, Bible-believing person a fool. But with God’s revelation to guide him, the Christian has a set of values that tells him who is the fool and who is the noble man.
But Isaiah reveals in Isaiah 32:6-7 what these people really are who were held in such esteem in his day. The man who profanes God by rebelling against God’s law and teaches error against God’s word in order to exploit others for his own ends, this man is a fool. There will be none of those in God’s new kingdom. The man who knows the plight of the needy and plots and deceives in order to exploit such a situation is a churl, a knave, and there will be no such people in God’s new kingdom. Those who are to be ruled by the king who reigns in righteousness will be noble people. The word used for noble in Isaiah 32:8 is nediyviym which connotes willingness as opposed to stubbornness, or liberality as opposed to obstinancy. It means noble-mindedness. This characterizes the attitude and the actions of the citizen of God’s new kingdom which is to come.
QUIZ
Why is the king undoubtedly the Messiah?
What is to be the nature of those ruled over by the king?
Why will the citizens of this king’s kingdom be realistic?
What does noble mean in Isaiah 32:8?
Isaiah 32:9-20
- SECURITY
TEXT: Isaiah 32:9-20
9
Rise up, ye women that are at ease, and hear my voice; ye careless daughters, give ear unto my speech.
10
For days beyond a year shall ye be troubled, ye careless women; for the vintage shall fail, the ingathering shall not come.
11
Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones; strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.
12
They shall smite upon the breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
13
Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
14
for the palace shall be forsaken; the populous city shall be deserted; the hill and the watch-tower shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
15
until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest.
16
Then justice shall dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness shall abide in the fruitful field,
17
And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence for ever.
18
And my people shall abide in a peaceable habitation, and in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.
19
But it shall hail in the downfall of the forest; and the city shall be utterly laid low.
20
Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth the feet of the ox and the ass.
QUERIES
a.
Why appeal to the women?
b.
When will the Spirit be poured?
c.
What city shall be laid low?
PARAPHRASE
Get up from your lounging around in luxury, you women who have the I could not care less attitude, and pay attention to what I have to say to you. In just a little more than a year you are going to change your attitude to that of caring immensely because the vintage which gives you the wine from which you get so much pleasure will failthere will be no harvest of grapes. You should be trembling now instead of lying around in luxurious ease. You had better strip off all the luxuriant clothes and frivolous dress and put on sackcloth and repent now than wait until you are driven to smite upon your breasts in mourning for the desolation of judgment that will surely come. When this judgment comes it will turn the land of my people into fields of thorns and briers. Thorns and briers will engulf the whole land, grow up over the houses, and over the palaces, for they will all be deserted. The cities will be empty and wild asses and goats will roam through the ruins of walls and watchtowers, sleeping in them and pasturing in the city gardens. This desolation of His people shall continue until the Spirit is poured down on us from heaven. Then desolation will be turned into abundant blessing. Justice and righteousness shall be sown among His people. Peace and rest and security will be harvested from the sowing of righteousness. My people will have a safe and restful place to dwell. But for my enemies I will rain down a hail-storm of judgment that will sweep them away. But whatever my people do will be prospered with all abundance.
COMMENTS
Isaiah 32:9-14 WARNING PRONOUNCED: Once again the prophet appeals to the women to repent (cf. Isaiah 3:16 to Isaiah 4:1). Womanhood is the adhesive fibre of any society. They are the earliest teachers of each succeeding generation; they are the motivators of men; they are keepers of the home which is the essential element of all other social structures. When womanhood becomes decadent or deserts its God-ordained calling the last stronghold of societal cohesion is gone. Isaiah challenges the women of his day, lying around in luxury and self-indulgence, to rise up and listen to his warning. The women of Isaiah’s country were probably much like the women of Israel in Amos-’ day, revelers, drunkards, greedy and careless (cf. Amos 4:1-2; Amos 6:4-6). The word careless in Isaiah 32:9-10 is from the Hebrew, betahk, which means safe, secure. Thus, they were at ease in Zion with the false sense of security brought on by the deceitfulness of sin. The prophet is trying to startle them from their luxurious, indulgent lethargy. Isaiah predicts that in just a little over a year they will be brought up short because the ingathering of the vintage (the annual grape harvest) will not come as usual and their supply of wine and other luxuries will be unavailable. When the Assyrians swept down through Israel (722 B.C.) and on through Judah (cir. 704-700 B.C.) they practiced the scorched earth policy of warfare. Most ancient armies burned and destroyed all fortifications, cities and farmlands as they went so their enemies could not use them. Isaiah is probably writing here about a year before the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib (cf. Isaiah 36-39). At that time Assyria had conquered and plundered most of Judah with the exception of Jerusalem, and Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem were caged like a bird by the Assyrian army. All those so safe and secure would tremble then!
Now is the time to tremble, says Isaiah. Repentance now will save you from the judgment of God that will surely come, and its beginning will be in little more than a year. The prophet predicts that unless they have a change of mind and heart about their rebellion and sin, and tremble, the Lord is going to make their once fruitful land a desolate ghost town. Thorns and briers will grow up and over houses; the palace of the king will be forsaken and Judah’s teeming cities will be deserted. Why? Because the people will all be taken captive. Judah was not taken captive for another 100 years after Isaiah’s prophecy here, but the judgment of Judah began with Assyria and continued through Babylon until its restoration in 536 under the Persians. During that period Judah was continually plundered and exploited by pagan empires and her people were being taken into captivity until the final captivity and destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. Judah was restored to her land beginning in 536 B.C. (70 years after Nebuchadnezzar’s first assault upon Jerusalem in 606 B.C.). She enjoyed a relatively peaceful existence for 200 years until Alexander the Great came conquering the world (cir. 332 B.C.) and his successors, the Seleucids, occupied Palestine. Then from about 165 B.C. until 64 B.C. Judah was free of foreign occupation for another 100 years during the times of the Maccabeans. But Pompey occupied Palestine (64 B.C.) for the Romans. Then in 70 A.D. the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and scattered the Jews to the ends of the earth. When Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one (cf. Daniel 9:24-27) came, the Jews were offered their final overture from God to receive the blessings promised through the prophets. The blessings of the prophets all focus on the first coming of the Messiah. He is the only way left for anyone to repent toward God. There will be no other way (cf. Hebrews 6:1-8; Hebrews 10:1-31). A reinstituted Judaism with a reinstituted Hebrew priesthood and a rebuilt Jewish temple is not promised anywhere in the N.T. or the O.T. for that matter. For people to return to Judaism, in the light of the finality of the sacrifice of Christ, is apostasy, and it is impossible to renew anyone to repentance through law, Jewish law, or any other law. This leads us to our next section.
Isaiah 32:15-20 WEALTH PROMISED: This desolation of Judah, which at its very core was spiritual, would continue (cf. Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi to see the spiritual destitution of this people even after their restoration to their land) until the Spirit was poured out from on high. This evidently has reference to the accomplishments of the Messiah (cf. Daniel 9:24-27) in redemption and establishment of the church (Acts 2:38). The agricultural setting of this prophecy should not confuse the careful student of the New Testament since there are some specific keys in the N.T. which provide clues to proper interpretation of such passages. Consider the following passages:
compare with
compare with
compare with
See also our list of key New Testament passages in Minor Prophets, by Paul T. Butler, College Press, pages 25-27.
The essential nature of the future fruitfulness which Isaiah is predicting is to be justice (true relationship between man and man) and righteousness (true relationship between man and God). These proper relationships are accomplished only through the agency of the Spirit of God, at first incarnate in the Son, then dwelling in believers through faith and the agency of the Word. When these relationships are accomplished, peace, rest and safety are the results. This is exactly what the Messiah brought to the world and gave to all who will receive it by faith (cf. Matthew 11:25-30; John 14:27; John 15:11; Ephesians 1:14; Ephesians 2:11-22). For the true Jew in the eyes of God is one who is one inwardly (Romans 2:28-29); indeed the promises made to Abraham’s progeny was intended to be found by anyone who would become one of his children by faith in the one seed, Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:6-9; Galatians 3:15-18); and all who are new creatures by faith in Christ are the Israel of God (Galatians 6:14-16). One thing is certain; the promises of Isaiah here in Isaiah 32:16-18 have not found fulfillment in the Jews or in Palestine to this point in history. And to hold out a special dispensation for the Jews in some future age seems to us to disparage the finality and completeness of the New Testament, to say the least.
Isaiah 32:19 seems to indicate a prediction of the defeat of all that opposes this future Messianic purpose of God. Enemies of God are likened unto forests in Isaiah 10:18-19; Jeremiah 46:23; unto images and beasts in Daniel 2-8; unto dragons and beasts in Revelation 12-13. God will overcome all opposition as He completes His work of redemption and establishing a place of peace, rest and safety on earth. What God will do on earth will last forever (Isaiah 32:17). The kingdom of God established on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) is an eternal kingdom.
Those who by faith become citizens of this kingdom will enjoy God’s blessings in abundance (John 10:10; 1 Corinthians 3:21-23; Ephesians 1:3; Romans 8:17-18; Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18). Whatever they do, wherever they sow, wherever they work, it will prosper.
QUIZ
What kind of women were prevalent in Isaiah’s day?
How would the vintage fail?
How long did the spiritual destitution of the Jews last?
What is the pouring out of the Spirit to bring with it?
Name some N.T. scriptures where we may find the fulfillment of these promised blessings.
Who are the true people of God?
When did God defeat the ultimate opposition of the forces of evil?