Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Isaiah 33:7-12
Bewailing The Treachery of the Enemy (Isaiah 33:7).
Meanwhile the Assyrian advance continued. Yahweh had promised action, but had not yet acted. He was waiting above for the right time to arrive. All was in suspense.
‘Behold their valiant ones cry outside,
The ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.
The highways lie waste, the traveller ceases,
He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities,
He does not regard man.'
Humanly speaking great hopes had been placed in the surrender treaty made with Sennacherib, but those great hopes had come to nought, and here we see those who had sought to establish the treaty in tears. The further interference of Egypt had probably devastated them, and had demonstrated yet again that it is never wise to trust in man. Thus the commanders and mighty men (the valiant ones) in the field are ‘crying outside', and the ambassadors who had achieved the treaty wept bitterly. Both thought that they had succeeded, the one in holding off Sennacherib long enough for the treaty to be signed, the other in actually formulating a treaty which at least seemed to give some hope, even if it was at great cost. But it had all been in vain. For Sennacherib's advance now continued, men were shut up for protection in their cities, the roads and highways were wasted, no one travelled on them in peace, for Sennacherib had rejected the treaty and torn it up, and his warlike attentions were again turned on the cities of Judah. He had no regard for men nor for what they thought. His aim was destruction and despoliation. And this is a picture of the world and its ways continually. It will ever be thus.
‘The land mourns and languishes.
Lebanon is ashamed and withers away.
Sharon is like a desert.
And Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.'
‘The land mourns and languishes' (compare Isaiah 24:4). The names chosen all indicate plenty and prosperity, Lebanon with its great cedars, Sharon with its fertility, Bashan with its great oaks, Carmel (‘garden land') for its luxurious growth and scrubland pasture (compare Isaiah 35:2). But now all is in mourning and is failing. None can stand against the enemy. The cedars of Lebanon have been cut down (Isaiah 37:24), the fields have been devastated, the pasturage despoiled. Even the leaves have fallen from the trees because of the fear of the enemy. Indeed we might see Lebanon as northward, Sharon as southward, Carmel as eastward and Bashan as westward. Nothing escapes his hand.
“Now will I arise,” says Yahweh,
“Now will I lift myself up, now will I be exalted.”
It is often in the hour of greatest darkness, when His people's faith has been tested to the limit, that God arises to act. And here there is a great emphasis on ‘now', thrice repeated. The time had ‘now' come. God had waited but He will stand by no longer. Note the progression, He will arise, His first movement; He will lift Himself up, His divine action; He will be exalted, the final result. From beginning to end He will be effective. Once begun His work will not cease until its final triumph and His subsequent exaltation. Sennacherib has done his worst, and now God will do His best.
‘You will conceive chaff, you will bring forth stubble,
Your breath is a fire that will devour you.
And the peoples will be as the burnings of lime,
As thorns cut down that are burned in the fire.'
And the result will be this which delineates His sentence on the Assyrians, and on all who oppose Him. Sennacherib's achievements, and all the achievements of great kings through the ages, are depicted here. All their efforts will bring to birth nothing but chaff and stubble, they breathe out fire but they will be burned up by their own breath. And those who follow them will be so thoroughly burned up that it will be as though they were burned in a limepit. They will be as thorns cut down and consumed in the bonfire. Indeed the description covers all men's achievements without God. So does God confirm that He will step into the situation and reveal the truth about man's accomplishments by means of their destinies. As He will also in the final judgment.