Book of Isaiah Isaiah 30
Isaiah 30:1-18,
this whole chapter is a prophecy condemning
Isaiah 30:1-17, “‘Woe to the obstinate children,’ declares
the Lord, ‘to those who carry out plans that are not mine,
forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin;
who go down to Egypt without consulting me; who look for help to
Pharoah’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge. But
Pharoah’s protection will be to your shame,
An
oracle concerning the animals of the Negev: Through a land of hardship
and distress, of lions and lionesses, of adders and darting snakes,
the envoys carry their riches on donkeys’ backs, their treasures
on the humps of camels, to that unprofitable nation, to Egypt,
whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing.
Go
now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it
on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting
witness. These rebellious people,
deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s
instruction. They say to the seers, ‘See no more
visions!’
and to the prophets, ‘Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave
this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One
of
Therefore,
this is what the Holy One of Israel says: ‘Because
you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended
on deceit, this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked
and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant. It will break in pieces like pottery,
shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will
be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of
a cistern.’
This
is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of
Verses 18-24, take
a peek into the
Verses 18-25, “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to
you; he rises to show you compassion. For
the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed
are all who wait for him! O
people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How
gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread
of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be
hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether
you turn to the right or left, your ears will hear a voice behind
you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’ [That’s
us, folks, resurrected immortal beings, gently ruling over mankind
with Yeshua, Jesus!] Then
you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images
covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth
and say to them ‘Away with you!’
He
will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and
the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In
that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. The oxen and donkeys that work the soil
will eat fodder and mash, spread out with a fork and shovel. In the
day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water
will flow on every high mountain and every hill…”
Then verses 25-33 go back into the description of part of the
“the Day of the Lord.” Verses
25-33 are a “Day of the Lord prophecy” that directly cross
references to Rev. 16:8. These verses are most definitely 2nd coming
verses, going from the 4th of the 7 Last Plagues to his descent
onto the
Isaiah 30:26-33, “The moon will shine like the sun, and
the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven
full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and
heals the wounds he inflicted. See
, the Name of the Lord comes from afar, with burning anger
and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and his
tongue is a consuming fire. His breathe is like a rushing torrent,
rising up to the neck. He
shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction; he places in the
jaws of the peoples a bit that leads them astray. And
you [“you”, i.e.
Isaiah 31
Isaiah 31:1, “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.” At first glance vs. 1-3 might be thought
to apply to
Isaiah 31:4-9, “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
‘Assyria
will fall by a sword that is not of man; a sword, not of mortals,
will devour them.” [now
some would think this could refer to when the sword of one of the
Lord’s angels slew 185,000 Assyrians who had laid siege to
Jerusalem at the time of Isaiah, but this next verse projects this
text to the 2nd coming, and how the “ruthless
conquering nation” will be used as slave labor, described
elsewhere in Isaiah.] “They will flee before the sword
and their young men will be put to forced labor. Their stronghold will fall because of
terror; at sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,’ declares
the Lord, whose fire is in
Isaiah 32
Isaiah 32:1-8 goes
again into a Millennial Kingdom of God prophecy—a king will
rule, eyes will see, ears will hear, rash will understand. Verses 9-14 takes
a look at the women of Jerusalem probably up until the tribulation
breaks out, complacent, feeling secure, amounts to a nasty prediction
on the women of Jerusalem. Halley
vacillates between thinking this prophecy is for the Assyrian attempt
to take Jerusalem in his days or the Last Days, when the Messiah
will rule from
Isaiah 32:1-8, “See a king will reign in righteousness
and rulers will rule with justice. Each
man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the
storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a
great rock in a thirsty land. Then the eyes of those who see will no
longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. The mind of the rash will know and understand,
and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear. No longer will the fool be called noble
nor the scoundrel be highly respected. For the fool speaks folly, his mind is
busy with evil: He practices ungodliness and spreads error concerning
the Lord; the hungry he leaves empty and from the thirsty he withholds
water. The scoundrel’s methods are wicked, he makes up evil schemes to destroy the poor with
lies, even when the plea of the needy is just. But
the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands.”
The Women of
Isaiah 32:9-14, “You women who are so complacent, rise
up and listen to me; you daughters who feel secure, hear what I
have to say! In little more than a year you who feel
secure will tremble; the grape harvest will fail, and the harvest
of fruit will not come. Tremble, you complacent women; shudder,
you daughters who feel secure! Strip
off your clothes, put sackcloth around your waists. Beat
your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vines and
for the land of my people, a land overgrown with thorns and briers—yes,
mourn for all houses of merriment and for this city of revelry. The
fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and
watchtower will become a wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys,
a pasture for flocks, (vs. 15) until the Spirit is poured upon
us from on high, and the desert becomes a field, and the fertile
field seems like a forest.”
Verses 15-20 go
back into a description of the
Verses
15-20, “…till the Spirit is poured upon us from on
high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field
seems like a forest. Justice will dwell in the desert and righteousness
live in the fertile field. The
fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness
will be quietness and confidence forever. My
people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes,
in undisturbed places of rest. Though
hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely, how
blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting
your cattle and donkeys range free.”
Isaiah 33
Isaiah 33:1-4, seems
to be a tribulation/pre-tribulation prophecy, vs. 3 describing
the effect of the Lord’s coming to
Verses 20-24 most
definitely describe the Millennial Kingdom of God Jerusalem, so
the rest of the chapter, in context with vs. 20-24, are for our
future, and thus do not refer to ancient Assyria and Sennacharib. In
vs. 21 makes reference to the two mighty rivers that now flow out
of
Isaiah 33:1-4, “Woe
to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not
been betrayed! When
you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying,
you will be betrayed. O Lord, be gracious to us; we long for
you. Be our strength
every morning, our salvation in distress. At
the thunder of your voice, the peoples flee; when you rise up,
the nations scatter. Your plunder, O nations, is harvested
as by young locusts; like a swarm of locusts men pounce on it.”
Verses 5-6, “The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he
will fill
The Condition of the
Land,
Some major “Peace
Treaty”
has been broken
Verses 7-9, “Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets;
the envoys of peace weep bitterly. The
highways are deserted, no travelers
are on the roads. The treaty is broken, its cities are despised, no one
is respected. The land mourns [or “dries up”]
and wastes away.
2nd Coming
of Yeshua
Verses 10-13, 14a, “‘Now will I arise’, says
the Lord. ‘Now will I be exalted; now will
I be lifted up. You
conceive chaff, you give birth to straw; your breath is a fire
that consumes you. The peoples will be burned as if to lime;
like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze.’ [cf.
Zechariah 14:12-13] You who are far away, hear what I have done; you who are
near, acknowledge my power! The
sinners in
Then the Lord asks
a scary question of believers, and describes how the righteous
in Him will be protected (during the Day of the Lord). Some
Christians are fair-weather Christians, have not followed the Lord’s
sanctification process. It
appears by what is said here that only those that have been sanctified
and are actually living righteous lives (through the power provided
by the indwelling Holy Spirit, of course) are given protection. Scary
thought, ought to wake some of us up. Go to “What is Grace” on the
nav bar for greater enlightenment on the subject of sanctification.
Verses 14b-16, “‘Who of
us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who
of us can dwell with everlasting burning?’ [a reference
to the Lord, the glorified Jesus, cf. Rev. 1:13-16] He
who walks righteously and speaks what is right, who rejects gain
from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes, who stops
his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating
evil—this is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose
refuge will be the mountain fortress [KJV: “munitions
of rocks”, often thought to be a direct reference to
Petra as a “place of safety” for those described here,
i.e. “the saints”—is it all the saints, or just
Messianic believers living in modern Israel? Who knows?]. His
bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him.”
A question the Lord
may be asking the returning captives, 17-19
Verses 17-19, “Your eyes will see the king in his beauty
and view a land that stretches afar. In
your thoughts you will ponder the former terror: ‘Where
is that chief officer? Where
is the one who took the revenue? Where
is the officer in charge of the towers?’ [guard towers,
say, in a concentration camp?] You
will see those arrogant people no more, those people of an obscure
speech, which their strange incomprehensible tongue.”
A picture of
Verses 20-24, “Look upon
|