The Book of Isaiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God cries "Woe to Ariel," to Jerusalem, "the city where David dwelt." Let her keep piling up her religious calendar, "add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices", it will not save her, for God Himself says, "I will distress Ariel." He will "camp against thee round about" and lay siege, until the proud city is "brought down" so low that her voice comes "low out of the dust," a ghostly whisper "as of one that hath a familiar spirit." Yet even as He humbles her, God turns to her enemies with a stunning promise: the besieging "multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly." In a moment they will be swept off "with thunder, and with earthquake... and the flame of devouring fire," and the whole host that fought against Zion will prove "as a dream of a night vision", as empty as a starving man's dream of a feast that leaves him hungry on waking. God disciplines His city, but He will not let her enemies devour her.

Gospel Focus

Two truths sit together here. God will discipline His own people, even His holy city, when their religion has become empty; He loves them too much to let their formality go unchallenged. But He will not hand them over to their enemies. The very armies that seem overwhelming, "the multitude of all the nations that fight against mount Zion," dissolve "as a dream of a night vision." This is the pattern of every enemy that rises against God's people: it looks unstoppable, and then it is gone. Pharaoh's army, Sennacherib's host, and every power since have learned that "no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper" (Isaiah 54:17). What terrifies us in the night proves in the morning to be a dream. So do not measure the danger by its noise. The God who humbles His people to refine them is the same God who scatters their foes "at an instant suddenly." Fear Him enough to let Him deal with your empty religion, and trust Him enough to know that no army arrayed against His purpose will stand.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Isaiah describes a strange, self-induced blindness. The people "stagger, but not with strong drink"; they are "drunken, but not with wine." Their stupor is spiritual. And God, in judgment, confirms the very dullness they chose: "the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes." Even the prophets and seers, meant to give sight, are "covered." The result is tragic: God's revelation has become "as the words of a book that is sealed." Hand it to an educated man and ask him to read it, and he says, "I cannot; for it is sealed." Hand it to an uneducated man, and he says, "I am not learned." Neither can reach it, because the barrier is not education, it is a heart closed to God. The word is right there in front of them, and they cannot hear it. Nothing is more frightening than to sit under the truth and be spiritually asleep to it.

Gospel Focus

This sealed book is a picture of spiritual blindness, and only God can open it. Paul explains why the same Scriptures are clear to one person and closed to another: "the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not" (2 Corinthians 4:4), and "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God... neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14). The barrier is never merely intellectual; the learned man and the unlearned man are equally shut out, because the problem is the heart, not the head. But what man cannot open, God can. On the Emmaus road the risen Jesus "opened... their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures" (Luke 24:45), and in Revelation it is the Lamb alone who is found worthy "to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof" (Revelation 5:2, 5-9). If the Bible has ever seemed sealed to you, dead words on a page, the answer is not more cleverness but a cry for God to open your eyes: "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Psalm 119:18). Ask the One who holds the seals, and He will open the book.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Now God exposes the root of the whole problem: "this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men." Their religion was real on the surface, right words, right rituals, but the heart had gone elsewhere, and their reverence had become a memorized human custom. Because of this hollow worship, God says He will "proceed to do a marvellous work... even a marvellous work and a wonder," a work so stunning that "the wisdom of their wise men shall perish." He then turns to the schemers who think they can plot in the dark unseen: "Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD... and they say, Who seeth us?" What folly, to imagine the clay can hide from the Potter. "Shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not?" To live as though God does not see is to turn reality upside down, the pot pretending it has no maker.

Gospel Focus

Verse 13 struck so deep that Jesus lifted it word for word to expose the religion of His own day: "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:8-9). Here is the danger every religious person must face: worship can be perfectly correct on the outside and utterly empty on the inside. God is not after our lips; He is after our hearts. "My son, give me thine heart" (Proverbs 23:26). It is possible to sing the songs, say the prayers, keep the rules, and have a heart that is far away, and God calls that worship "vain." The cure is not to abandon the forms but to bring the heart back, to worship "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). And verse 14 has its own gospel echo: "the wisdom of their wise men shall perish." Paul quotes it of the cross, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise" (1 Corinthians 1:19), for God's "marvellous work" of salvation in Christ confounds all human cleverness. Examine your worship. Is your heart near, or only your mouth? Give Him your heart, and the God who cannot be hidden from will not be honored in vain.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

After the darkness, dawn. "Is it not yet a very little while," and everything is turned around: barren Lebanon becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field a forest. In that day the judgment of blindness is reversed: "the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity." The sealed book is opened, and those who could not hear now hear. And it is the lowly who rejoice: "The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel." Meanwhile the oppressors are undone, "the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed," along with all who twist justice, who "make a man an offender for a word" and "turn aside the just for a thing of nought." Then comes the tender promise to God's people, from "the LORD, who redeemed Abraham": Jacob "shall not now be ashamed." Seeing his children, "the work of mine hands," transformed, the people "shall sanctify my name," and best of all, "they also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding." God does not only judge the blind; He heals them.

Gospel Focus

This closing promise is soaked in the gospel of Jesus Christ. When John the Baptist sent to ask whether Jesus was the Coming One, Jesus answered in the very words of this chapter and its neighbors: "the blind receive their sight... the deaf hear... and the poor have the gospel preached to them" (Matthew 11:5). The opening of the sealed book, the deaf hearing, the blind seeing, the poor and meek rejoicing, all of it came to pass in His ministry, and comes to pass still wherever He is preached. Notice who receives it: not the wise and self-secure, but "the meek" and "the poor among men," the very ones the world overlooks. And notice the sweetest line of all: "they also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine." God's grace reaches even the ones who went astray and complained; He brings the wanderer back and teaches the murmurer. If you have been spiritually deaf, blind, poor, or even one who erred and murmured, this chapter is for you. The One who redeemed Abraham redeems still, opens sealed books still, and turns those who erred into those who understand. Come to Him, and He will open your eyes.