And so we reach the final chapters of Isaiah’s first half. They start with chapters chewier than some, but what practical jewels en route!
They’re chewy, first because we have to get used to how God inspires Isaiah in these chapters: going back and forth between serious warnings about how His people are sinning, and the results, on the one hand; and the sheer glory of their (and our!) wonderful future on the other. (Look how that works in chs 30-32.) Read them at a good pace and let them wash over you and shape your imagination, because both are vital realities!
But they’re chewy for a second reason too: Isaiah keeps coming back to a political issue of his own time, urging people in this huge crisis not to let “practicality” trump faith, not to put their trust in the supposedly great power of Egypt when they should put it in the genuinely great power of God. (Thus 30:1-7,15, 31:1-3, 28:15, 36:6.) We may think, What does that have to do with me?- until we recall: The real issues of faith aren’t theoretical, they embody in real life choices; and my job is prayerfully to use Isaiah to learn where similar choices are coming up for me, and see how God is beckoning me to live by faith now…
But in ch29 come the jewels we can immediately turn into reflection and prayer. Absorb these: `The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me”` (v13a) – is that true of me? `Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught` (v13b) – is that true of me? `The wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish’ (v14), a verse Paul flags up: the advice of godly leaders is a treasure, but it’s easy to have undue respect for those declared to be `intellectuals` by this world’s godless media and academic systems – to say nothing of self-appointed prophets (v10)… Then again, `They say to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions` (30:10) – is that what I go to church for? (Nice, comfortable, therapeutic thoughts, merely confirming me in my ways, rather than God speaking the unexpected to my heart!) `They say, “Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!”’(v11)… It surely happens!
It’s striking how much the new testament quotes Isaiah 28 and 29; clearly apostles Paul and Peter saw their own situation illuminated by what God said to the parallel one in Isaiah, and we can learn to listen for the same. And as we listen there is hope. Israel has made a real mess of religion, but chs27 and 28’s ends make clear that they are still God’s people, and God is surely bringing them to glory through chastisement. So do chs 29 and 30: ` People of Zion, you will weep no more. How gracious He will be when you cry for help!… Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction… Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Then you will throw your idols away… They will keep My name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and stand in awe of the God of Israel. Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding’ (chs 29 and 30). It’s like the assurance Paul gives us in Romans 8: `Those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son`; if we’ve given ourselves to Christ, God has unimaginable glory guaranteed for us (imagine what it means to be `conformed`, made just like Jesus! – all that joy, all that love, all that power for good!); so, if indeed we’ve given ourselves to Christ we wayward people may do stupid things, slipping into idolizing things we shouldn’t, and we may make ourselves go the long way round, and we may even force God to do serious surgery on us, but in the end He will get us there to that eternal glory!; thank you Lord!…
It’s not surprising, then, that as we get to the end of Isaiah’s first half things start to get very clear. 33:14 poses a memorable question: `Trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”’ The reality that `Our God is a consuming fire` (Hebrews 12:29) runs through these chapters, making clear that it’s a serious thing to be in the presence of `the Lord whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace is in Jerusalem` (31:9; Ariel, the name ch29 uses for Jerusalem, , means `altar-hearth`). So – who can survive in the presence of this holy fire (actively hostile, as Motyer says, to sin)?? Only those whose natures have been transformed into this same fiery thing – who have, in new testament terms, been born again of the Holy Spirit’s nature. Which is us! But the word about holy lifestyle is very clear too – only `Those who walk righteously and speak what is right, who… shut their eyes against contemplating evil; they are the ones who will dwell on the heights… The fear of the Lord` (reacting with obedient awe to the `majesty` of the Lord, 26:10) `is the key to this treasure` (33:6,15). (So Lord, may I be increasingly marked by the `fear of the Lord`, the `consuming fire`…)
Then the last two chapters fly us to the time of the End, as did our section two weeks ago. God’s forgiveness of 33:24 has evidently been rejected, and the time comes (cf ch24) when the evil uncovered by Isaiah has spread to all nations. And God’s wrath, God’s judgment, is on all of them; and on `all their armies` (34:2) – presumably because this is when the world’s nations will set aside their enmities to unite in conscious military defiance of the Lord revealed from heaven in the second coming (as is described in Zec 14 and Rev 19:11-21). But as in our section two weeks back, judgment is not the end! The first half of Isaiah’s book ends with the wonderful ch35, the Lord’s restoration of this broken planet:
` The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;
it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
the splendour of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the LORD,
the splendour of our God.
Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;
say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
He will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
He will come to save you!”
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow…` (NIV)
(Maybe this reflects an ultimate fulfilment, greater even than now, of Joel 2’s promise, `I will pour out my Spirit on all people`; look at 32:15, `till the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest. The LORD’s justice will dwell in the desert, His righteousness live in the fertile field…’)
But let’s end with the verse in ch35 that I find a special comfort, v8. `A highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness… the unclean will not journey on it`, and (here’s the thing; Motyer’s translation), `even simpletons will not stray!` Sometimes I feel I’ve been a right simpleton, and this promise does me so much good! (Like four paragraphs back: Those who are wayward will gain understanding, 29:24.) There is a Way, and once on it I will not permanently stray. And from John 14:5-6 I know what that Way is: it’s Jesus, stay centred on him! When I’m at a loss, Jesus is the answer (eg John 11:21-25). When I sin, Jesus is the Forgiver. When we are stymied by intellectual problems, turn back to the gospels and the person of Jesus. When we’re emotionally exhausted & things are too much for us, HE is our solution, our anchor, our way. `Those who walk on the Way, even though they are fools, they shall not go astray` (Isa 35:8 ESV). Thank you Lord, so much!
And I love the final verse; we used to sing it frequently when I was a student: `Therefore, the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head! They shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow, and mourning, shall flee away!`
