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