The Book of Isaiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The oracle opens with a haunting title, "the burden of the desert of the sea," and a picture of judgment rushing in "as whirlwinds in the south pass through," sudden and irresistible, "from a terrible land." What Isaiah is shown is Babylon's fall, and the instruments are named: "Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media", the very powers (Persia and Media) that would one day overthrow Babylon. It is a "grievous vision," a scene of treachery and plunder, "the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth." What is remarkable is the prophet's reaction. This is judgment on Israel's oppressor, yet Isaiah does not gloat. The vision tears him apart: "my loins filled with pain... pangs... as the pangs of a woman that travaileth." He is "bowed down" and "dismayed," his heart panting, "the night of my pleasure" turned into terror. To see the fall of any people, even a wicked empire, under the hand of a holy God is a fearful thing.

Gospel Focus

Notice the heart of the true prophet. Isaiah is given a word of judgment against the enemy of God's people, and instead of rejoicing he is shaken to his core, doubled over as in the pangs of childbirth. This is the spirit of God's servants in every age. Jeremiah wept over the very city he was sent to condemn. Jesus looked on Jerusalem, which would reject and kill Him, and "wept over it" (Luke 19:41). Paul carried "great heaviness and continual sorrow" in his heart for his lost kinsmen (Romans 9:2). We are not to preach judgment with a hard heart or a secret satisfaction that our enemies will fall. "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD" (Ezekiel 18:23). If God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, neither should we. The warning of coming judgment should be carried the way Isaiah carried it, as a burden that breaks us, and drives us to plead with people to flee to God while there is still time.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Verse 5 catches Babylon in careless luxury, "Prepare the table... eat, drink", the very picture of Belshazzar's feast on the night the city fell (Daniel 5). Suddenly the alarm sounds: "arise, ye princes, and anoint the shield." Then God tells Isaiah to "set a watchman" and have him "declare what he seeth." The watchman strains at his post, watching "continually" by day and set in his ward "whole nights," until he sees the advancing column, "a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen." And then comes the cry the whole vision has been building toward: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground." The proud empire and her lifeless idols come crashing down together. Isaiah closes by turning to his own suffering people, threshed and crushed like grain on the threshing floor, "O my threshing, and the corn of my floor", to assure them this is a sure word: "that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you."

Gospel Focus

Here is the calling of every true minister of God: to be a faithful watchman. God said to Ezekiel, "I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me" (Ezekiel 3:17). The watchman does not invent the message; he reports what he sees and hears from the Lord, and he stands his post through the long night without sleeping. It is costly, lonely work, but souls depend on it. And notice the great comfort in the cry itself: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen." Babylon is the Bible's name for this world's proud, God-defying system, and its fall is certain. Revelation lifts this very cry over the last great Babylon, and adds the command, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins" (Revelation 18:2, 4). Every kingdom that exalts itself against God, along with all its idols, will be "broken unto the ground." The child of God need not fear the might of Babylon; her doom is already spoken. Our task is to keep watch, sound the warning, and keep ourselves separate from her, waiting for the sure word of the Lord to come to pass.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

This is one of the shortest and most mysterious oracles in Isaiah. From Seir, the land of Edom, a voice keeps calling to the watchman, urgently, twice over: "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?" They are desperate to know when their long night of trouble will end. The watchman's answer is deliberately double: "The morning cometh, and also the night." Yes, a morning is coming, there will be relief; but night is coming too, more darkness lies ahead. It is not a simple "all will be well." Then comes the open invitation: "if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come." The door is not shut. If Edom will truly seek, truly turn and come back, they are welcome to come and ask again. The answer places the burden of response squarely on the ones who asked.

Gospel Focus

"Watchman, what of the night?" is the timeless question of the human heart in its darkness, how long, and is there any hope of morning? And the answer of God's watchman still stands: "The morning cometh." For those who will turn to God there is a dawn, "Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings" (Malachi 4:2). Jesus Christ is the "bright and morning star" (Revelation 22:16), and "the day star" that arises in the heart (2 Peter 1:19). But the warning is just as real: "and also the night." For those who will not turn, the darkness only deepens. The decisive word is the invitation, "if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come." God does not force the morning on anyone. He holds the door open and says, in effect, come and ask, turn and come back. "Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near" (Isaiah 55:6). Whether the night ends in morning or in deeper darkness depends on whether we will heed that "return, come" while the invitation still stands.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The final burden falls on Arabia, the proud desert tribes to the east. War is coming, and the great trading caravans, "the travelling companies of Dedanim", are driven off the roads to hide overnight in the scrub, "in the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge." The people of Tema are pictured going out to meet the fugitives with water and bread, for these are refugees, fleeing "from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war." Then God fixes the sentence with exact precision: "Within a year, according to the years of an hireling", one year, counted as strictly as a hired hand counts his term, "and all the glory of Kedar shall fail." Kedar was famous for its flocks and, above all, its skilled archers; but "the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished." And the guarantee is the word of God Himself: "for the LORD God of Israel hath spoken it."

Gospel Focus

Kedar's boast was in its warriors, its "mighty men" and their bows. Yet God set a clock on that glory: within a year it would fail. This is the settled testimony of Scripture against all confidence in human strength: "There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength... An horse is a vain thing for safety" (Psalm 33:16-17). "The bows of the mighty men are broken" (1 Samuel 2:4). Every generation trusts in its "archers", its armies, its economies, its technologies, and the glory of each fails on God's appointed day. What makes it certain is not the strength of the enemy but the word of the Lord: "for the LORD God of Israel hath spoken it." When God speaks a thing, it is as good as done; "hath he said, and shall he not do it?" (Numbers 23:19). The same word that dooms proud Kedar upholds His people forever. So do not measure the future by the might of nations or the size of armies. Measure it by the word of God, for "the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever" (Isaiah 40:8).