Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my ninety eighth episode. In this episode we are going to study Isaiah chapter 33. This chapter announces the decline of the Assyrian Empire in the wake of their failed siege on Jerusalem. Basically, the Assyrians were a mighty and cruel force who conquered much of the known world and then targeted Judah. God promised Judah that He would rescue them from the jaws of the empire, but Judah didn’t trust Him and they decided to form their own alliances. Assyria invaded Judah and crushed their cities. Then they arrived at Jerusalem and set up camp outside the walls. It was at this point that God descended on them and destroyed 185,000 of their warriors, fulfilling His promise to protect Jerusalem and putting the empire to flight. This chapter is going to give us details on the geographical, political, and psychological tensions of Judah leading up to the invasion. Then we’re going to see these tensions thrust upon the Assyrians after they are turned away by God. The chapter concludes with a vision of peace and stability under God – the outcome which Isaiah had kept encouraging Judah to have the faith to hope for. As you read through the book of Isaiah, it can seem like the prophet repeats his messages about the same historical events. The secret to mining the depth of Isaiah’s writings is to understand that each vision gives us a unique perspective on these repeated events. It’s like he’s hitting the same picture with different brush strokes to fill in the rich details of the painting. This particular chapter will give you a framework for maintaining hope and acting rationally even when it looks like all is lost. God always knows the way. Let’s begin with verses 1-6:
Isa 33:1 Ah, you destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed, you traitor, whom none has betrayed! When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed; and when you have finished betraying, they will betray you.
Isa 33:2 O LORD, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble.
Isa 33:3 At the tumultuous noise peoples flee; when you lift yourself up, nations are scattered,
Isa 33:4 and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; as locusts leap, it is leapt upon.
Isa 33:5 The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,
Isa 33:6 and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure.
The past few chapters gave us oracles of judgment aimed at Judah, but we open these verses with the attention directed at Assyria. The great Assyrian Empire, the rod of God’s anger, has run its course and reached the end of its reign of terror. Assyria has served its purpose of being God’s weapon to mete out judgment – but the empire became arrogant in the process. The accumulated guilt of its excesses is about to overwhelm it. It’s likely that Egypt would be watching these developments intently – trying to figure out how they could maneuver into a position of greater power and influence.
We should notice how Assyria is being described here. The destroyer is terminology used to describe any superior nation that attempts to destroy weaker ones. The traitor indicates that Assyria has broken covenants or treaties with other nations. They had become so powerful that they preyed on weaker nations and no longer honored their own deals. You might know some people like this. It’s not uncommon for individuals in powerful positions to abuse subordinates and readily sacrifice honor for some type of gain or advantage. It is this conduct that sparked God’s anger against Assyria which led to their demise – so we can infer that we ourselves should be careful to avoid acting this way.
Isaiah’s proclamation of God’s judgment against Assyria brought hope to the people in Jerusalem. Knowing that God intended to destroy the Assyrians and rescue Judah sent Isaiah into a dizzying mixture of prayer and prophecy. He petitioned God to be gracious to Jerusalem. He anxiously sought for God to take action, to be their arm, their strength, and their salvation. But all the while Isaiah resolved to God in front of the people that they would have the faith to wait for Him. Some of our worst mistakes are made when we get too excited about a way to solve our own problems. Mark Twain said it isn’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble – it’s what you know for sure that just isn’t so. Isaiah and company were excited about the news that God would deliver them, but they still had to remember that the only way Assyria was going to be defeated was by God. So we should seek God while we seek to solve our problems. It’s true that we should take up the responsibility of learning and growing, but we should also remain with God each step of the way. Bad solutions have a way of spawning new and sometimes worse problems. We want to beware of jumping out of the frying pan only to land in the fire.
The Angel of the Lord descended on the Assyrian army with a roaring sound or a tumultuous noise. This was most likely the sound of God’s voice as He spoke into the system – destroying nearly 200,000 Assyrian soldiers. Chaos quickly followed. What remained of the army scrambled and fled to escape the violent event – leaving nearly everything behind. The Assyrians had a big army and they plundered many cities on their way to Jerusalem, so you can imagine how much treasure was up for grabs in the wake of their departure. You can think of it as looting, but it might be more appropriate to think of it as the people of Judah taking back what Assyria had stolen from them. While the people sought after these material goods, there was another treasure at hand that was infinitely more valuable.
You have to understand that Judah had endured the strains of war, the loss of Egyptian help, and the treachery of Assyria as their treaties were broken. In the midst of this chaotic scene the people began to worship God and He was exalted. They could see that God had written the narrative of history and He determined its critical changes. They understood that God had used these chaotic events to reestablish justice and righteousness. Worship provided the people with some much needed stability. And the worship of God unlocked the treasures of abundant salvation, wisdom, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. These treasures were far more valuable than material loot and these treasures were an endless resource. We can still access them today through faith in Christ. The stability of God as our foundation. The peace of knowing we are saved. The fear of the Lord giving us the necessary perspective to arrive at wisdom and knowledge instead of folly and nihilism. Let’s read verses 7-12:
Isa 33:7 Behold, their heroes cry in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly.
Isa 33:8 The highways lie waste; the traveler ceases. Covenants are broken; cities are despised; there is no regard for man.
Isa 33:9 The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is confounded and withers away; Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.
Isa 33:10 “Now I will arise,” says the LORD, “now I will lift myself up; now I will be exalted.
Isa 33:11 You conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble; your breath is a fire that will consume you.
Isa 33:12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime, like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.”
Before the Assyrians invaded Judah it’s likely that Hezekiah tried to pay them off. The Assyrian king Sennacherib accepted this money and then violated the treaty anyway. This is why Judah’s diplomats returned to the city in great bitterness. The news of Assyria’s betrayal caused the brave men of Jerusalem to melt in fear. With legal procedures being ignored, violent confrontation with no regard for life and limb became the order of the day. Travel and trade was ground to a halt and the highways running through Judah became desolate. The Assyrian army was so large that when it moved into Judah it consumed all of their crops, cut down their forests for fire wood, and caused the farmers to abandon their farms. Territories like Lebanon, the Sharon plains, Bashan, and the Carmel mountains were renown for their fertility, lush green trees, and crops. After the Assyrians moved through these places were left to resemble withered deserts.
All of this pressure and calamity caused the people in Jerusalem to repent. Their hearts were brought down off their pedestals of arrogance and turned back to God in desperation. So God rose up and rebuked both Judah and Assyria. To Judah He declared that their human attempts to resist Assyria were worthless. The leaders and diplomats in Jerusalem tried everything from forming an alliance with Egypt to paying off the Assyrians. Judah prioritized their political designs and practical efforts because they wanted some way of surviving the crisis without calling on God. This behavior wasn’t born of some monumental responsibility, rather it was the fact that the people in Judah wanted to be their own gods and so they refused to bend the knee. You might know someone like this. A person whose behavior continuously hurts themselves and others yet they insist that it’s not their own fault. Sometimes people are afraid to look at the truth of themselves because they can’t handle the guilt. This is why they need the forgiveness of Christ. But other times individuals refuse to accept responsibility because they know that doing so will require them to submit that they are wrong and their plans need to be adjusted. Those are the people God is speaking to when He says, you conceive chaff; you give birth to stubble.
As for Assyria, God rebuked them much more severely. They were arrogant deceivers with a lust for blood. To this day Assyria remains infamous for its cruelty to and torture of the people they conquered. This nation had gone so far sideways that the people had a pathological view of themselves and the world – they were not repentant at all. So God laid waste to their army. In ancient days human remains were sometimes burned to extract lime. This was the fate Isaiah pictured for the Assyrians. The allusion to thorn bushes cut down and burned in the fire was an indication of the hot wrath of God’s judgment against them. Let’s read verses 13-24:
Isa 33:13 Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; trembling has seized the godless: “Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?”
Isa 33:15 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil,
Isa 33:16 he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure.
Isa 33:17 Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar.
Isa 33:18 Your heart will muse on the terror: “Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute? Where is he who counted the towers?”
Isa 33:19 You will see no more the insolent people, the people of an obscure speech that you cannot comprehend, stammering in a tongue that you cannot understand.
Isa 33:20 Behold Zion, the city of our appointed feasts! Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an untroubled habitation, an immovable tent, whose stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken.
Isa 33:21 But there the LORD in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, where no galley with oars can go, nor majestic ship can pass.
Isa 33:22 For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us.
Isa 33:23 Your cords hang loose; they cannot hold the mast firm in its place or keep the sail spread out. Then prey and spoil in abundance will be divided; even the lame will take the prey.
Isa 33:24 And no inhabitant will say, “I am sick”; the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.
As we’ve mentioned before, God destroyed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. The empire never recovered. News of this violent event travelled far across the land to distant nations. People everywhere witnessed that departure from God’s path meant judgment. When foreign powers were in charge, many people turned away from God to worship idols. These idols included Nisroch – Assyria’s god. But it wasn’t just idolaters who turned away from God, it was also individuals who took advantage of the political uncertainty to ignore all laws of justice and decency. Once God raised Himself up these people began to tremble. When the evil and the wicked look at God they don’t see a Savior, they see a devouring fire. They cannot dwell or abide in the presence of Deity. This is the problem that reaches all the way back to Adam and Eve and permeates the entirety of Scripture. God is holy. We are not. We cannot stand in the presence of a holy God without being destroyed by the awareness of our imperfection. This is the reason Christ came to earth to be crucified – so that He could bridge the gap between a holy perfection and us. The essence of worship is the understanding that God’s mercy has made it possible and even desirable to live in the presence of the Holy One.
The sinners in Jerusalem finally understood that in their present condition they were doomed to face God’s wrath. So they asked the questions: Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings? Isaiah answered them with the description of a person who is transformed by God’s grace. He who walks righteously means a person who does his or her best to stay on God’s path. He who speaks uprightly refers to a person who is committed to the truth and doesn’t use deception to manipulate his or her surroundings. A person who despises the gain of oppression is someone who refrains from using threats of violence, social pressure, or political pressure in pursuit of undeserved gains. He who shakes his hands lest they hold a bribe means the person who refuses to bend the truth or favor the one who offered the bribe.
Isaiah goes on to say that a righteous person stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil. Many Christians read that and they think it means they should cloister themselves away from the fallen world. This is a misunderstanding. Stopping your ears from hearing of bloodshed means refusing to allow plots of wickedness to influence you. Shutting your eyes from looking on evil means refusing to allow the sight of sinners to influence you into contemplating committing the sin yourself. So this is not about you avoiding the presence of any and all sinful stimulus. It’s about being able to dine among sinners without you yourself becoming one.
According to Isaiah, the righteous person respects others. Righteous people want to do what is just and will not use devious means to take advantage of others. If you trust God, you don’t need to manipulate your circumstances to produce an advantage by way of deception or oppression. Contrast this righteousness with the behavior of Judah prior to their repentance – they were playing god and trying to control the events around them by any means necessary irregardless of God’s plan.
People who allow God’s grace to transform them away from ungodly behavior patterns and toward righteousness will dwell on the heights – in the very residence of God. God will be their Protector and their Defender, as well as their Provider. This prophecy had a near-view and a distant-view. The near-view was directed at Jerusalem and described the days when the Assyrian threat was stamped out and Hezekiah stood in the beauty of God’s support. Finally the oppressive presence of the empire was just a memory. This meant a time when Jerusalem would muse on the terrors of war they had endured. No longer would they have to suffer the stress of being an Assyrian vassal state. As a vassal, Judah had to put up with their own military being ready to answer the call for Assyrian expeditions. Their soldiers were paid by Assyrian officers. Their forces were monitored by Assyrian supervisors who made sure Judah was strong enough to assist in their conquests but weak enough to prevent rebellion. Judah had suffered the humiliating routine of tax collection and the weighing of tributes for Sennacherib – but no longer. The daily sight of the arrogant Assyrians with their foreign language had become just a memory.
Liberation from the Assyrians meant that Jerusalem returned to stability, permanence, and a peaceful quiet that was only interrupted by its celebratory festivals. The metaphorical broad rivers and streams meant that Judah became a place of smooth prosperity – in contrast to the turbulent waves of the ocean. Jerusalem returned to the status of a small, landlocked country in no need of galleys or majestic ships. With the Assyrians gone, Judah’s governance reorganized itself in accordance with God’s law. This was reminiscent of the time when God was Israel’s King before they protested and made Saul their king.
Under Assyria, apportionments had been made for the people of Judah. This meant peasants were assigned to work certain fields for a time, land was assigned by the crown, and permits were issued to do business in the cities. When God destroyed the Assyrian army, their military and police officials were driven off as well. This meant that Assyria could no longer defend its flag and the apportionments that were made. After Assyrian law enforcement disappeared, the civilian apparatus was quick to follow. This meant jobs, privileges, and land previously given to foreigners returned to the hometown people of Judah. There was so much bounty that even Judeans who couldn’t work received their share. The sickness of deprivation was gone and general amnesty for past crimes was given out in celebration of the new-found freedom.
So that was the near-view of Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the liberation of Judah. The distant-view tells us that our own eyes will behold the beauty of Jesus as Messiah-King. The land that stretches far represents freedom of movement that is finally absent the suffocation characteristic of vulnerability in the fallen world. The redeemed will experience eternal joy as they recall God’s victory and His grand design of history. We will be secured forever in a perfect home with abundant provision. We will finally be able to see that our joy is attributable to our all-sufficient Lord alone. The Messiah will reign in righteousness as judge, lawgiver, and king. In life we drift and struggle like blundering ships on a rough sea, but in the hereafter even the lame and the sick will have their salvation. Every person from the beginning has been plagued with a sinful nature, but in heaven all who come under Jesus will be healed and forgiven.
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