Exposition by Max A Forsythe
Interestingly enough, this chapter begins with an obscure reference to the city of Jerusalem. The word "Ariel" there is not understandable except through speculation. Try as hard as they might scholars have been continuously frustrated in finding the meaning. Dr Young is very hesitant to even suggest "belonging to God" as a possible translation. Certainly we see in the second phrase that the reference is to the city of David. And it is to David's city that the warning of this chapter is addressed.
This warning chapter may be easily divided into five portions. Let us outline this division before we proceed. In verses one to four, Isaiah identifies the city of David as the object of this woeful revelation. In verses five to eight, Isaiah promises the deliverance of Jerusalem from her many enemies. In verses nine to fourteen, Isaiah reports the strangeness of God's words to the fallen wisdom of mankind. In verses fifteen to twenty-one Isaiah continues God's observations on man's presumptuous wisdom which obscures their ability to understand His own word. Finally in verses twenty-two to twenty-four God promises a day when God's redeemed people will be separated from the great body of the physical nation, which was still steeped in superstition and unbelief.
As we return to our introductory portion we may learn from Isaiah's observation that in spite of a regular cycle of years and in spite of the regular celebration of festivals, Jerusalem will be visited and besieged. Like Israel, too often we may believe that as year follows year, the times, seasons and predictable events will be much the same as we have been accustomed to. We may only imagine the heart wrenching destabilization of Europe and Asia during the two world wars of this century. Add to that the difficulties of all wars and depressions which upset and destroy the natural cycles of economy and nature.
We have been very fortunate to live in peace and security in our time, but there is no guarantee that things will always remain as they are now. Just as ancient Israel had abandoned the true worship of and obedience to God required by their Old Covenant, so has our nation strayed from the foundational principles upon which our nation's Covenant was based. Already we can see hints of instability in our own land. The mayor of Washington DC would like very much to call out the National Guard to assist her police in protecting the common citizens in the nation's Federal district. In the sense of that growing destabilization we may very well understand that like Jerusalem, even our own District of Columbia could settle into a siege mentality. Isaiah observes that even the proudest city can be brought low and turned into a ghost town where former greatness is only a whisper.
Even so, Isaiah's report of the coming woe is not for God's own people alone. All of those who bring invasion, destruction and suffering to those who belong to God will be visited and destroyed. This is the faithful promise of our second four verses. Yes, wicked empires may temporarily flourish for a short time, but they will all come to naught. The very churches oppressed and persecuted by the Nazis and Communists in our own time have survived their oppressors. Both of those empires are but distant nightmares now. Some are even claiming that the Nazi holocaust never even happened, yet the survivors may still tell their experiences for a few more years. The dreams and memories are very real indeed. Yet God in His infinite love and care has put an end to evil empires even in our own age.
But will the countries of our day and time admit the justice of this century's afflictions? Will people even admit the drastic depths of our century long spiritual state which has brought forth a multitude of punishments? As we consider Isaiah's report in our third portion we begin to understand the complete justice of God's heavy hand in the affairs of man both then and now. Now the teaching here is difficult for people to accept in our century, but it is nevertheless true. Those people in all times who purposely cover their eyes to spiritual matters have their blindness multiplied by God so that they will never perceive Isaiah's truthful vision. In verse eleven Isaiah gets downright personal with his readers and hearers. The words of the prophet will be too strange for the people to comprehend.
Those who can read will not open the scroll, those who cannot read will not be able to learn. In verse thirteen God condemns those who only give lip service to His Son and His Kingdom. "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." Their faith is only ritual and religion; their practices and beliefs are not worth anything. But God has a plan; the worldly wisdom will perish and worldly intelligence will vanish. One social commentator recently observed that the more experts we employ to solve our problems the worse our problems become.
Woe to such people, Isaiah declares in our fourth section today. In an age of shredders and computer dumping, many deep dark secrets apparently can be made to disappear. One dishonest candidate for the United States Senate erased all of his computer files while working for a Republican Whitehouse. A computer technician came in and was able to restore every file by simply finding the unerased files and giving them new names! The whole sorry record of deceit and secret deals was exposed to the light of day. Believe me, our God in heaven is much more efficient than any mere computer technician. There is no secret hideable from our mighty God in heaven. Neither is their any final denial of God allowed at the end of the age. "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'He did not make me'?" Isn't this the greatest and first sin of our evolutionary century?
"Can the pot say of the potter, 'He knows nothing'?" Won't the worldly ever learn? Just as the Greeks and primitives favored their myths over the truths of God's eternal Word, so too have the myth makers of our century been very busy teaching strange knowledge. Knowledge that if the worldly were able to obscure the truth, would hide forever the Name and wisdom of the holy. A few years back, a major Ohio University cleansed its library stacks of almost three thousand books because they had religious contents. The Seminary I went to, had ten years before I got there, hidden the valuable works of the last century in an unused attic. If it hadn't been for the shared Catholic library, I might never have found a few old reliable authors.
The Lord may be hidden in plain sight, but in the final analysis, this is no real obstacle to our God in heaven. If our God can turn a mountainous land like Lebanon into a fertile field, He can do anything. He can even cause the deaf to hear His words. Out of our blindness, out of the worldly gloom and darkness we can see Him by His great gift of grace. By His grace, the humble and needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
Like the oppressors of Israel, the ruthless mockers will go the way of all evil. God's eternal justice will prevail. To that day, like Isaiah we still look forward. And the promise in our final portion today should give us a deep hope. The hint of hope here will be further developed in the last chapters of Isaiah's prophecy. But for now we may know like the true believer's in Isaiah's day that there need be no shame for trusting in God alone.
King Hezekiah desperately needed to learn that lesson so that he could withstand the temptations of depending on the worldly power of Egypt. It was a difficult lesson for Hezekiah with Isaiah there in the palace day by day. Since we have so much more in the way of revelation, we should learn that the strange language of God's revelation must lessen our worldly dependence as well. After all, we are the children who have acknowledged the holiness of God; we are the children who stand weekly in awe before His holy throne to praise, honor and glorify Him. And why do we gather? Isn't it because we who were wayward in spirit were given understanding? Isn't it because we who complained finally accepted instruction? Praise God that He has made us so.
Resources Used:
Ellis, Charles..
The Wells of Salvation.
Thomas, Derek..
Welwyn Commentary Series: God Delivers.
Uprichard, Harry.
A Son is Given: Christ in Isaiah.
Young Edward J..
The Book of Isaiah
The Holy Bible.
New International Version (1984 Edition)
NOTE: I am not able to automatically
recommend any future editions.
Christ Covenant Reformed (Presbyterian Church in America) -
Box 13926 - Columbus, OH 43213
(c) 2001
01 May 1994
Permission granted to redistribute unedited versions with this notice.