A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 32: The Controversy of Zion

In our last presentation we discussed The Treachery of the Spoilers, in relation to the reasons for which Jerusalem and Judah had been judged and ultimately destroyed by Yahweh their God through the hands of the Assyrians and Babylonians. In Isaiah chapter 33, it is evident that there were men within Jerusalem who were spoilers, who had oppressed the people, and especially the poor and vulnerable. That is evident where the people had prayed for grace, as they had been portrayed in the words of the prophet in the first half of the chapter, and then Yahweh had responded to their prayer. As they had prayed, they had been characterized as not having made any admission of sin nor any expression of repentance, and all they wanted were the spoils of their enemies. Then when they were answered, Yahweh had rejected them as hypocrites who would conceive chaff, and bring forth stubble. So they were warned once again, and their character is revealed where the Word of Yahweh had explained to them the nature of those among them who would survive the impending trials, where the Word had described: “15 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; 16 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.”

Where Yahweh had told the people that the survivors would be those who walk righteously and speak uprightly, He is describing men of just judgment as opposed to men of corrupt judgment. Therefore the men whom He called hypocrites must have had corrupt judgment, and they must have also loved the gain of oppressions, they must have taken bribes, they must have conspired in murder, and they must have relished, or at least accepted, evil. However in the time of Isaiah, the advent of such spoilers in government or among the rulers of Judah was not a recent phenomenon in Jerusalem. By then it had existed already for at least two hundred years, and had begun around the same time that the kingdom was divided. This is found in 1 Kings chapter 12, at the time of the death of Solomon:

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 31: The Treachery of the Spoilers

In Isaiah chapter 32, accompanying a promise of a Righteous Ruler, one who would protect the people and open their eyes to truth and knowledge, there were also messages foreboding punishment for the wicked in Jerusalem, and suffering for the careless women who had lived at ease, but who would be stripped bare and girt with sackcloth. Briers and thorns would overtake the land which had been emptied of its people, and the city would be left desolate “until the spirit be poured upon us from on high … and my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation”, all of which compliments the Messianic promise of a Righteous Ruler in the opening verses of the chapter. So we would assert that this chapter follows the same pattern of prophecy which has been observed throughout Isaiah, where there are found repeated ominous warnings of destruction for Israel and Judah, woven together with Messianic promises of a future redemption, salvation and reconciliation for the people. So while the prophecy of Isaiah had contained many messages of tragedy and hope for the people of Israel of his own time, it is much more relevant to Israel over the course of the national punishment which was only just beginning in the time of Isaiah.

As we had come to the end of Isaiah chapter 32, in nearly the same breath in which it is said that “my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation”, it is said in the very next verse that “19 When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place.” This must be a reference to Jerusalem, the future of which had been the subject of this prophecy, and as we had presented it we had discussed a problem with the original reading of the verse, where one manuscript of the surviving portions of Isaiah found among the Dead Sea Scrolls has a very similarly spelled Hebrew word which means wood rather than city, and the translators of the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible had asserted that it was more likely to have been the original reading. (Making that discussion, I had hurriedly checked the passage in Origen’s Hexapla but erred in my interpretation of the Latin, so I struck it and repaired it in the notes.) There is no corroboration for the reading of wood in any of the manuscripts employed by Origen. However I may have also discussed the quite different reading found in the Septuagint version of the verse.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 30: The Righteous Ruler

Only Yahweh God may justly rule over the children of Israel, and only He can truly be a righteous ruler. When Israel had demanded an earthly king, as it is described in 1 Samuel chapter 8, they had actually rejected the rule of Yahweh their God. There we read, in part: “4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, 5 And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. 6 But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. 7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” 

Of course, Samuel had not yet died, that his sinful sons might become their judges, so the elders and the people should have instead prayed to God for a righteous judge, and not for a king. They had sought an earthly solution to a problem that only God could have been expected to resolve. However a sinful people have the government that they deserve, and men shall have a tyrannical government when they deserve to be punished, as Paul of Tarsus had explained in Romans chapter 13. This is certainly a signal example of the truth of the adage, Be careful what you ask for, as the descendants of those ancient children of Israel continue to suffer on account of their demands. So today men must come to the realization, that if demanding an earthly king was a national sin, then subjecting oneself to Christ and rejecting all earthly kings, or presidents, or whatever else such a ruler may be called, must be an element of national repentance.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 29: No Reason to Run

In the early portion of Isaiah chapter 30, the people of Judah were portrayed as Fugitives from Justice, seeking either to flee to Egypt or to attain help from the pharaoh in order to stave off the Assyrians in their endeavor to escape from the judgment which Yahweh had decreed as punishment for their sins. But much earlier in Isaiah, in the burden of Egypt in Isaiah chapter 19, the prophet had begun warning the people of Judah against this, and the warnings continued throughout subsequent chapters. So in chapter 20 where the burden of Egypt continues we read in part, where it refers to the children of Judah as well as to the inhabitants of the coastal towns with whom Hezekiah had evidently been in league: “5 And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. 6 And the inhabitant of this isle shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria: and how shall we escape?” The kings of Ethiopia, or properly Kush, had been in control of most of Egypt at that same time.

Likewise, in Isaiah chapter 21, the burden upon Arabia was also on account of the children of Judah who would flee to the south for refuge, as we read in reference to them that “14 The inhabitants of the land of Tema brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled. 15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.” There we had noted in relation to verse 14, that other translations have it to read “Bring water for the thirsty, O inhabitants of the land of Tema, Meet the fugitive with bread.” Therefore just like Egypt, Arabia was also portrayed as having harbored the fugitives of Judah who would flee from the wrath of Yahweh, and the children of Judah, those who could not escape by sea, had nowhere to run, but here, as we continue with this 30th chapter of Isaiah, we shall see that they also had no reason to run. 

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 28: Fugitives from Justice 

Near the beginning of his long series of burdens on the nations, in Isaiah chapters 18 and 19 the prophet had announced the Burdens of Captivity, as we had described his burdens for Egypt and the land beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, or Kush. Then in Isaiah chapter 20 we read: “3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia,” or Kush, and in Isaiah’s time kings of Kush had ruled over Egypt, something which they had done for approximately seventy-five years, or by some accounts, nearly as long as ninety years. Having discussed those burdens, we had posited that they had more than one aspect of meaning. The people of Judah at the time of Isaiah had indeed sought help from the Egyptians, in order to fend off the encroaching Assyrians, while many of them had also sought refuge in Egypt, having fled from the Assyrians. But Egypt is also used as an allegory for the Israelites, who had once been in captivity in Egypt, and in that manner also as a prophetic metaphor for Israel in captivity.

The twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt is often called the dynasty of “Black Pharaohs”, but that concept is entirely laughable, and the archaeological evidence is contrary, as many ancient statues of Kushite rulers with fine European features have been discovered, and since the Kushites of Africa had several language dialects among them which were clearly derived from the Akkadian language of Mesopotamia, which had also once belonged to the empire of Kush in Mesopotamia. However it is evident that the Kushites in Egypt had been accompanied by Nubians, having had Nubians in their own armies. The ultimate union of Kush and Nubia is described perhaps a hundred years after Isaiah, in Jeremiah chapter 13 where the Word of Yahweh asks a rhetorical question and its says: “23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” This is a Hebrew parallelism, where we see that by Jeremiah’s time the skin of Kush in Africa had become as that of a leopard, mixed with both black and white. (Isaiah chapter 43 also touches on this subject.)

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 27: Instruction from God

Thus far in the course of our discussion of Isaiah chapter 28, we have once again observed that as the children of Israel had been taken off into captivity for punishment for their sins, they were given hope in promises of a future reconciliation. However the terms of that reconciliation had also been expressed along with those promises. So where the prophet had asked “whom shall He teach knowledge?” and “whom shall He make to understand doctrine?”, as those questions had been answered in his prophecy it becomes manifest that doctrine and knowledge as they are taught by the Word of God are prerequisite to entering the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, as we discussed those answers, we noticed that Paul of Tarsus had cited this very passage in Isaiah where he wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 that “21 In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.” There Paul had purposely omitted the reference to the rest of Yahweh which is found in that same statement he had cited from Isaiah 28:11-12. However writing in (what we now know as) Hebrews chapter 4, Paul spoke of the necessity of hearing the Word of Yahweh in order to enter into His rest, where he had said in part: “7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 8 For if [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”

Here in Isaiah, hearing the voice of Yahweh is described as learning His knowledge and understanding His doctrine, so Paul of Tarsus was essentially teaching the same things which the prophet Isaiah had also declared, even if it was from a somewhat different perspective. The hardening of hearts is the rejection of the Word of God, as Paul wrote earlier in that same epistle, in chapter 3, “15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” This is explained in Proverbs chapter 28 where we read “13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. 14 Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.” There, hardening the heart is a rejection of the Word of God, and concealment of sin leads to evil, or, as the Hebrew word may also mean, distress, injury, misery or calamity. That is what happened to the children of Israel, they just kept sinning, and justified themselves for their sins. So the evil which resulted was the destruction of their kingdom, and their calamity was their going into captivity. 

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 26: Terms of Reconciliation

Here we must attest once again, that the main purpose of Isaiah was not so much for his own time as it was for his distant future, and that the purpose of the prophet was not only to warn the children of Israel of their impending captivity, but also to describe both what would become of them in captivity, and how they should ultimately be redeemed from captivity and reconciled to Yahweh their God. Therefore in Isaiah, the reasons for the punishment of Israel are described, the taking of Israel into captivity is described, and the terms of reconciliation for Israel is described, along with allusions to the dismal alternatives if Israel could somehow refuse those terms, some of which we shall see here in Isaiah chapter 28. Along the way, it is made evident in the words of the prophet that in the course of events future to his time, the things which Yahweh God has purposed for the world are all for the benefit of the children of Israel, whether they be for their punishment or for their edification.

Therefore, throughout the past few chapters of Isaiah, we have discussed The Burden of Tyre which had begun in Isaiah chapter 23, and then, where Tyre had been used as a type for the Mystery Babylon of the Revelation, as it had been a great mercantile city, in chapter 26. There we also discussed The City of God for which Jerusalem had been used as a type, and the two cities were set in contrast to one another. Then, presenting our commentary for the closing verses of Isaiah chapter 26 along with chapter 27, we discussed the Triumph of the Righteous and prophecies of the resurrection of the dead, and we also began to exhibit from later chapters in Isaiah that in the end, all of the children of Israel shall be justified by God in Yahshua Christ.

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 25: Triumph of the Righteous

In our last presentation, The City of God, we hope to have demonstrated that in these chapters of Isaiah, ancient Tyre is a prophetic type for the Mystery Babylon of the Revelation, and Jerusalem is a type for the City of God which is ultimately described in the final chapters of the Revelation. So in the course of this description of Jerusalem, the strong city in the land of Judah, the people are portrayed as fixing their minds on God and trusting in Him, as emulating the path of the just, and as desiring and awaiting the judgment of God. With that, the high and lofty city, corresponding to Mystery Babylon, is tread down by the feet of the poor and needy. This evokes the words of the 37th Psalm: “10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. 11 But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. 12 The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. 13 The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming. 14 The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. 15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. 16 A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. 17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholdeth the righteous.” Now here at the end of this chapter of Isaiah, and throughout the following chapter, there is another promise of the destruction of the wicked, and the triumph of the righteous. 

As for the correlation of the righteous with the poor and needy, which is an element of that psalm, while some of the men whom Christ had justified during the course of His earthly ministry had been wealthy, such as Joseph of Arimathaea and Zacchaeus the chief publican, this would not be the case for most of the righteous who would follow Christ. Even today, many righteous Christians are oppressed by the wealthy, and most of them are not even aware of their oppression. However a wealthy man may live a humble life, and even the room where the disciples of Christ had prepared the feast on the day before His trials had been owned by a man of substance who must have also been righteous. So while a wealthy man may certainly have a place in the Kingdom of God, as we read in the words of Christ in Luke chapter 6: “20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. 21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. 22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.” Having made enemies with the wicked society for the sake of Christ, whether wealthy or poor a man certainly shall be humble. Joseph of Arimathaea was secretly a disciple of Christ, as John had explained in his Gospel (John 19:38). But through his wealth he was able to fill a significant role in the quite significant events of the final days of His earthly ministry. 

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 24: The City of God

Describing the words of the prophet in the opening verses of Isaiah chapter 25 as we had discussed them in our last presentation, The Wonder of Seeing, the prophet had explained that when the people saw the destruction of the city, which continues to be a reference to the burden of Tyre that had begun in Isaiah chapter 23, that they would know that God is true, speaking in reference to those who had His Word in the first place. Therefore upon seeing the prophesied judgment, they should exalt God and praise His Name. This evokes the words of the 64th Psalm, attributed to David, where he wrote of men who witness the judgment of God and said: “9 And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing. 10 The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.” So the righteous should be glad when they see, or even understand, the judgment of Yahweh whenever it is executed in the earth. Here in Isaiah chapter 26, the then-future destruction of Tyre remains in view, from Isaiah’s perspective, and now it shall be set in contrast to Jerusalem. However the Jerusalem portrayed here is not necessarily the Jerusalem of Isaiah’s time.

The destruction of ancient Jerusalem had already been prophesied in earlier chapters of Isaiah, and especially in chapters 3 through 5 and chapter 10, but as recently as chapter 22 and the burden of The Valley of Vision. While Yahweh had explicitly protected Jerusalem from the siege of the Assyrians in the time of Hezekiah, which we shall also see here in later chapters of Isaiah, there are also further prophecies of its ultimate destruction. However before that destruction was fulfilled, there were even later promises that Jerusalem would be rebuilt, and that it would remain at least until the coming of the Messiah, which is evident in Daniel chapter 9, whereas here it was stated that Tyre would not be rebuilt. As we have asserted, while there may have been structures at the site of ancient Tyre in later times, it was certainly not the same as the ancient city, simply because the land was occupied once again.