We have seen Isaiah depressed by the painful realities of the present and the exultant at the glorious prospect of the future. But between these extremes lies the settled disposition of patient trustful waiting to which the people of God must return again and again. It is to be their hallmark as they live out their lives in the world as it is. This note was struck in 25:9, is now developed at some length in a song which captures beautifully the tension between the promise of the “then” and the pain of the “now”. It begins with anticipatory celebration (vv. 1-6), turns back to reflect on the pain of waiting (vv. 7-19), and concludes with an oracle which confirms the final victory (vv. 26:20-27:1).

The formula “in that day” runs like a refrain through these chapters, and it is full of the certainty born of faith. No matter how perplexing or painful the present might be, Isaiah was confident that the whole of human history was converging on a single point which had been determined by God in advance. And then God’s people would have much to celebrate. The first stanza (26:1-6) is about two cities. The strong city of verse 1 is the new Zion, the city of God of the future that will rise above the ruins of the lofty city (v. 5), the human city which God will have destroyed by His judgment. He will destroy the false only to raise up the true. While this city is in the land of Judah, it should not be understood in narrowly nationalistic terms, for its gates are open (v. 2), and the one qualification for entrance is a steadfast trust in the Lord (vv. 3-4). This truth is gloriously filled out for us in the New Testament. We, as the people of the new covenant, have already become citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem which will one day become an earthly reality. The righteous nation of verse 2 is in fact a new people of God drawn from all over the earth. They are the oppressed and the poor whose righteousness consists simply in this: they have cast themselves wholly upon the Lord for their salvation.

The keynote for reflection which follows the song is struck in verse 8: Lord…we wait for you. While they wait for the final day to dawn, the righteous are perplexed by the perversity and blindness of the wicked who surround them on every hand (vv. 10-11). Such people do not understand kindness; the longer the Lord delays the worse they get, hence the longing for Him to act decisively to establish righteousness (vv. 9, 11b).

More perplexing, however, is the apparent harshness with which the Lord treats the very ones who are looking to Him to save them. He chastises them so severely that they twist and turn likes a woman in labor (vv. 16-17). Their commitment to the Lord brings them nothing but frustration and a sense of complete failure (18b). There is surely an acute crisis of faith here which must issue in either despair or a breakthrough to a new understanding of God’s ways. It is a testimony to the resilience of Old Testament faith that such crises always do, in fact, turn out to be occasions for fresh light to breakthrough, and that is certainly the case here.

The Lord has come to the rescue of His people time and again in the past (vv. 13-14) and He will certainly do so again (v. 15). But there is one further perplexity to be faced before the breakthrough can come, and it is implicit in verse 19. What about those who die in the time of waiting, who have put their trust in the Lord but experienced no fulfillment? Will they suffer the same fate as the wicked, described in verse 14, and miss out on the triumph to come? Verse 19 issues a resounding “No!” Their waiting will not be in vain. They will be raised from death to share in the final victory. Here again is that victory over death already glimpsed in 25:8. The short oracle of 26:20-27:1 adds the capstone to the theme of waiting in language that recalls the experience of the Israelites in Egypt.

Isaiah’s contemporaries could not put the world right any more than their ancestors could, nor were they expected to do so. All the Lord required was trustful waiting. To them the wait seemed long; to Him it was only a little while (v. 20). So too for us. The truths which break through the clouds in this chapter are trumpeted from the housetops in the New Testament. There the certainty of our own resurrection is signed and sealed by the resurrection of Jesus, and we are encouraged to count the troubles of the waiting time as nothing compared with the glory that awaits us.

Isaiah 26:1-27:1 Reflection Questions:

What is your patience (waiting) level? When you finally gave in and patiently waited for God what was the result or blessing you received? What can you learn from that?

What can help you deal with the “In between time”?

Do you have a steadfast trust in the Lord?

Have you cast yourself wholly upon the Lord Jesus for your salvation?

What is the main message you gain from this study?

It’s fitting that the triumph of God should be celebrated with feasting and song, and this is in fact what we have in this chapter. The banquet in verses 6-8 is certainly the centerpiece, and it is framed by songs of praise: a personal song in verses 1-5, and a communal song in verses 9-12. The theme of both songs is the character of God which has been plainly revealed in His acts of judgment and salvation. And this God is no stranger to the singers; they know Him (vv. 1 & 9).

The lone singer of verses 1-5 is best taken as Isaiah himself, whose gloom has at last been dispelled by glorious prospect with which his vision in chapter 24 ended. Isaiah is impressed by the sheer power of the Lord’s deeds, but even more by their purposefulness and moral character. The city of verse 2, like that of the previous chapter, represents the world as a whole organized in opposition to God. He destroys it, not for any spiteful satisfaction He may have in doing so, but in order to bring the nations to their senses (v. 3) and to deliver those who have been victims of their misuse of power (vv. 4-5). God always has been and always will be on the side of the poor and needy. It’s something that we who profess to believe in Him would do well to remember.

This focus on the poor and needy in the opening song makes it particularly appropriate that final salvation should be pictured in verses 6-8 as a feast at which, by implication, the food is free. That food is the very best of fare, and the Host is the Lord Almighty Himself. It is of course, a victory celebration, but in the description of the feast new dimensions of that victory are revealed. It will be total victory because it will include victory over the ultimate enemy – death itself (v. 8a). Hence the destruction of the shroud or sheet in verse 7, which represents the universal sorrow that death has brought into the world, and the wiping away of tears in verse 8a.

Chapter 55 sheds a little more light (the rich food is abundant pardon), but we have to turn to the New Testament for the full picture. The banquet consists of the blessings of the gospel, of which all are invited to partake, the decisive victory over death is won in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and God’s people enter fully into that victory when Jesus returns. It is then that death is finally “swallowed up” forever, pain and sorrow (Isaiah’s shroud) are removed, and tears are wiped away. Isaiah’s words, as always, are pregnant with gospel truth.

But final judgment is just as much an aspect of gospel truth as final salvation, and it is this solemn note that is struck as we move from the end of the banquet scene into the second song. The people of God have waited long for their salvation (v. 9), and during this time they have been objects of disgrace (v. 8) in the world. But the day of which Isaiah speaks here will see a complete reversal in their fortunes: they will rejoice and be glad (v. 9) while their proud enemies (represented by Moab) will be cast down and experience utter humiliation (vv. 10-12). In the end their will be a great gulf fixed between those who are at the feast and those who are not. It will not suffice to have belonged to a group close the kingdom, to have stood on its very threshold, or to have known some who have entered. Either repentance will bring you to the feast or pride will keep you away, and the consequences will be unsullied joy or unspeakable terrible judgment. The alternatives which the gospel sets before us are as stark as that!

Isaiah 25:1-12 Reflection Questions:

What famous sermon did Jesus talk about the poor and needy?

Do you have a personal song to glorify God for what He has done for you? How often to you sing it?

How does this study impact your understanding of David’s Psalm 23?

Are you a part time Christian or are you all in? The road is narrow.

Over the next few weeks we will be studying these four chapters that are often called “Isaiah Apocalypse.” They discuss God’s judgment on the entire world for its sin. Isaiah’s prophecies were first directed to Judah, then to Israel, then to the surrounding nations, and finally to the whole world. The theme is the triumph of God, which is good news (hence the singing) because it means that the reign of sin and death is at an end; the kingdom of God has at last come in its fullness. The “apocalypse” or “unveiling” of the end (for that is what the word means) in many ways anticipates that better known apocalypse, the Book of Revelation, which serves as the grand finale of the Bible as a whole.

Isaiah 24:1-23 The earth laid waste: The judgment of God is both terrible and glorious, especially when, as here, it is the final judgment which is in view. Much of chapter 24 is taken up with the terror of it, but the glory breaks through briefly in the middle (vv. 14-16) and again, more brilliantly, at the end (v. 23).

There are both certainty and expectancy in the opening words of verse 1. For Isaiah the final judgment was not only certain; it could happen at any moment. He lived every day in the light of it, just as we ourselves must do today as those who await their Lord’s return. That is one reason why the judgment is glorious; it’s a manifestation of His total sovereignty. In exercising that judgment, as verses 1-3 make clear, God will be no respecter of persons; in language reminiscent of the account of the great flood in Genesis 7. Flood gives way to drought in verses 4-6, making it clear that we are dealing not with literal description but with a series of powerful images. There is more connection with what has gone before however, than first meets the eye. The earth mourns, we are told, because its inhabitants have broken His everlasting covenant (v.5). This is almost certainly a reverence to the covenant between God as Creator and humankind as creature implicit in the very act of creation itself, and reaffirmed to Noah after the flood. God has given us fair warning of where our abuse of His world is leading us! The solution is not to deify the earth, as some do today (allowing paganism to re-enter by the back door), but to turn to its Creator in repentance before it is too late.

But then suddenly, just as at the time of the great flood there were a faithful few who were spared to inherit a new earth, so, it appears from verses 14-16, will there be a remnant on the final day. Scattered among the nations will be those who acknowledge the Lord and welcome His judgment as the triumph of right over wrong. Over the scene of desolation, a song of praise goes up from east and west and from the earth’s farthest limits (vv. 15-16). This is the “new song” of Revelation 5:9-10, the song of the redeemed. God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked. He will spare those who have turned to Him and waited for His salvation.

The basic idea of verses 17-22 is the impossibility of escape for those destined for judgment, whether people in general or kings or heavenly beings (vv. 17, 21). They will be like animals vainly fleeing from a hunter who has anticipated their every move (vv. 17-18a). There will finally be nowhere to go because the very ground they tread on will break up under their feet (vv. 18b-20). Like captive rebels they will be thrown into prison, never to be released (v. 22). This message needs to be sounded clearly today when the church has grown squeamish about the truth of divine retribution. There will be no escape for rebels who refuse to lay down their arms. The day on which He will punish them has already been entered in God’s diary (v. 21a).

The final goal of judgment, however, is the glory of God, the visible display of His character. And so in verse 23, the chapter ends fittingly with a burst of light so brilliant that it shames the sun which is a thumbnail sketch of God’s glorious reign over a renewed earth. There is surely a touch of special grace in the fact that the redeemed people of God are represented here by “the leaders of His people.” The Lord’s triumph will not be for Himself alone, but for His people as well. His glory consists not only of His righteousness (v. 16), but also of His grace (v. 23). How thankful we should be for that tremendous fact!

Isaiah 24:1-23 Reflection Questions:

What is a New Testament Scripture that Jesus said that He would return at some time?

How would you describe the way are you living each day as if Jesus is returning at any moment?

How are you preparing for His return each day?

This prophecy of the fall (vv. 1-14) and the subsequent rise (vv. 15-18) of Tyre is a minor landmark within this part of the book. It’s the last of the series of oracles concerning particular nations which began in chapter 13 and is followed by what scholars commonly call the “Isaiah Apocalypse” (chapters 24-27) in which cosmic acts of judgment and salvation bring history to a close. It stands at the end of a distinct block of material within the larger unit, chapters 13-27.

Tyre probably closes the series of oracles against the nations for the same reason that Babylon opens it; it was so famous for one particular aspect of worldly achievement that it had a symbolic value that could be used to good effect by Isaiah and others who followed him. As Babylon was proverbial for its military might and cultural achievements, Tyre was proverbial for its commercial wealth. Standing in the first and last positions as they do, then, Babylon and Tyre sum up all that is impressive and alluring in the world. A connection of a different kind is made between Tyre and Babylon in verse 13, which points clearly to the historical setting of the present oracle. It is clear that the fate already suffered by Babylon provides the background to the present prediction that Tyre, too, will fall. Again indirectly, but none too subtly, Isaiah hammers home his message. Then as now, the security that seems to be available through unholy alliances with the world is a cruel illusion.

Verses 1-7 picture the stunning news of Tyre’s fall reverberating around the Mediterranean world. Home-bound sailors first hear of it in Cyprus (v. 1b); a deathly hush falls over Sidon at the news (vv. 2-4); Egypt weeps because of the impact on her wheat exports (v. 5), and finally refugees carry the news right back to Tarshish (v. 6). There is more involved here than the personal suffering of the inhabitants of the city. A lot of people had a great deal to lose in the collapse of Tyre. When it came it would hit the Mediterranean world like a Wall Street crash of devastating proportions.

Isaiah doesn’t leave it at that, however. In verses 8-12 he presses beyond the event itself to its cause, and in characteristic prophetic fashion bypasses all secondary causes to trace Tyre’s fall to the determined purpose of the Lord Almighty (v.8). Sentence had already been passed on the city in heaven, not (take note!) because of its wealth, but because of its pride. There is no intrinsic connection, of course, between wealth and pride, but sadly they do all too often go hand in hand. The wealth of Tyre had made its merchants princes (v. 8), but, like the rich fool in Jesus’ parable, they had failed to recognize their accountability to Him from whom their wealth had come. Wealth had bred in them an illusion of self-sufficiency which had made God – or at least the true and living God – seem irrelevant. It would take God’s swift and severe judgment to jolt them back to reality.

But God’s judgments on nations within history are seldom final, and that is certainly the case here, for in verses 15-18 Isaiah sketches in the longer-term prospects for Tyre in God’s purposes. There is hope in the seventy years of verses 15 and 17, a conventional number for a long but limited time. Tyre will not rise quickly, but rise she will, and in the continuation of the prostitute image through to verse 17 there is more than a hint that she will return to her old ways. But – and this is where history gives way to eschatology – the wealth she has hoarded up will be taken from her. It will flow into Zion as the rightful inheritance of the people of God (v.18).

Isaiah 23:1-18 Reflection Questions:

If Isaiah were to write a letter today what country or counties would he use to “sum up all that is impressive and alluring in the world”?

In what areas of your life are you putting your security through unholy alliances with the world? Will you repent?

Have you ever had God jolt you back to reality? What was it for?

What is the “hope” that you see in this study?

The dire vision of 21:1-10, with its revelation that Babylon was doomed, filled Isaiah with dread. If Babylon could not stand, how could Judah? But the same news apparently produced quite a different reaction among the people of Jerusalem in general, as summarized in 22:13b. The response of some, including the king, was more measured and purposeful: they looked to the city’s armaments, walls and water supply in anticipation of an attack (vv. 8-11a). But what no one did was to look to the Lord in repentance and faith (v. 11b), and it is this that calls forth the severe announcement of judgment to come in this oracle (v. 14).

We need to see the descriptions of Jerusalem beset by armies in verses 2b-3 and 5-8a as the content of a revelation (vision) which Isaiah has received rather than the description of a past event. In the midst of a city given over to senseless revelry (vv. 1-2a) Isaiah sees a very different scene, which causes him to weep (4a). He is inconsolable, for what is portended by revelation is nothing less than the destruction of his people. The mention of Elam in verse 6 is a further link with the dire vision of the previous chapter, and suggests that, like that vision, this one too reaches beyond the immediate threat to the city (in this case Jerusalem) to its ultimate fall. Warriors from Elam probably formed part of the forces of Nebuchadnezzar which destroyed Jerusalem in 587. Isaiah saw that, whatever her fortunes in the short term might be, Jerusalem’s faithlessness would eventually be her downfall (vv. 8a, 14).

The reservoir between the two walls in verse 11 is almost certainly Hezekiah’s famous water tunnel, still to be seen in Jerusalem today. So Hezekiah, as king, is alluded to but not named, partly perhaps out of deference to him, but mainly because he is not being singled out for individual blame (he later evinced a faith not evident here, as we will see in chapter 37). The indictment is general rather than particular at this point and remains so to the end of verse 14. But there is a sharp shift of focus in what then follows.

Both men named in verses 15-25 were court officials under Hezekiah. In Shebna in particular the passage gives a concrete example of the faithlessness for which the people as a whole are condemned in verses 1-14. Verses 15-19 predict his fall, and verses 20-25 his replacement by Eliakim. Eliakim is the very antithesis of Shebna, an ideal leader called and established by the Lord. Verses 24 and 25 therefore, come as something of a surprise. Eliakim’s family is apparently not made of the same stuff as he is. They take advantage of his high position to better themselves and in so doing bring about his ruin. Eliakim is destroyed from below.

In the end then, it’s not just the Shebnas of Jerusalem that will bring it down, but the common people as well. What is presented in general terms in verses 1-14 is particularized in verses 15-25, but the message is the same. The failure of the people of Jerusalem to rely upon the Lord will bring both them and their leaders to ruin. Jerusalem, Mount Zion, is in reality a valley where no real vision exists. The people of Jerusalem are blind to the Lord’s purposes. Isaiah sees them clearly, and weeps.

Isaiah 22:1-25 Reflection Questions:

What does it say about God’s character in verse 14?

What lesson can we learn from Eliakim’s story?

Are you blind to the Lord’s purposes in your life?

There are two short oracles here, the first concerning Dumah in verses 11-12, and the second concerning Arabia in verses 13-17. They are closely related to one another, as we shall see.

Between Judah and Babylon lay the north Arabian Desert with its Bedouin tribes, its oases and its overland trade routes. Dumah, Dedan and Tema all lay in this region. The Babylonian envoys of chapter 39:1 probably passed this way en route to Judah in order to avoid going through the Assyrian heartland to the north, and as they did so, they no doubt tried t enlist the support of these desert tribes for their cause. If they succeeded, as they appear to have done, then the subsequent action taken by the Assyrians against Babylon would have serious repercussions for these people, and that appears to be the situation reflected here. The people of Dumah anxiously await news of what is happening (vv. 11-12). While further south, fleeing refugees seek food and water in Tema (vv. 13-14), Kedar in verses 16-17 is a collective term for the desert tribes in general, so that these final two verses really act as a conclusion to both oracles. They predict a sudden end (within one year) to the prosperity of these proud desert-dwellers, and the decimation of their fighting men. Their involvement with Babylon was soon to cost them dearly. Judah herself felt Sennacherib’s wrath at about this time (as we know from chapter 37), and escaped complete destruction only because of the Lord’s miraculous intervention (37:36).

The close connection with the preceding oracles against Babylon is confirmed by the watchman imagery of verses 11-12, but now it’s Isaiah himself who is the watchman. The one who calls to him from Seir (which is also Edom), a visionary figure, is probably a fugitive who has fled westward from Dumah. He receives a mysterious response (v. 12), but its implication is clear: no news yet; Dumah’s fate hangs in the balance. It is apparent, however, from verses 16-17, which way the balance finally tipped, not by accident, but by the sovereign determination of the Lord, the God of Israel.

Isaiah 21:11-17 Reflection Questions:

Why has Edom been a constant enemy of God’s people?

What does it say about the doctrine of election concerning Edom?

How are you doing in being a watchman (watching and waiting on the Lord)?