College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Isaiah 32:9-20
2. SECURITY
TEXT: Isaiah 32:9-20
9
Rise up, ye women that are at ease, and hear my voice; ye careless daughters, give ear unto my speech.
10
For days beyond a year shall ye be troubled, ye careless women; for the vintage shall fail, the ingathering shall not come.
11
Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones; strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.
12
They shall smite upon the breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
13
Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city:
14
for the palace shall be forsaken; the populous city shall be deserted; the hill and the watch-tower shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks;
15
until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest.
16
Then justice shall dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness shall abide in the fruitful field,
17
And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence for ever.
18
And my people shall abide in a peaceable habitation, and in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.
19
But it shall hail in the downfall of the forest; and the city shall be utterly laid low.
20
Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth the feet of the ox and the ass.
QUERIES
a.
Why appeal to the women?
b.
When will the Spirit be poured?
c.
What city shall be laid low?
PARAPHRASE
Get up from your lounging around in luxury, you women who have the I could not care less attitude, and pay attention to what I have to say to you. In just a little more than a year you are going to change your attitude to that of caring immensely because the vintage which gives you the wine from which you get so much pleasure will failthere will be no harvest of grapes. You should be trembling now instead of lying around in luxurious ease. You had better strip off all the luxuriant clothes and frivolous dress and put on sackcloth and repent now than wait until you are driven to smite upon your breasts in mourning for the desolation of judgment that will surely come. When this judgment comes it will turn the land of my people into fields of thorns and briers. Thorns and briers will engulf the whole land, grow up over the houses, and over the palaces, for they will all be deserted. The cities will be empty and wild asses and goats will roam through the ruins of walls and watchtowers, sleeping in them and pasturing in the city gardens. This desolation of His people shall continue until the Spirit is poured down on us from heaven. Then desolation will be turned into abundant blessing. Justice and righteousness shall be sown among His people. Peace and rest and security will be harvested from the sowing of righteousness. My people will have a safe and restful place to dwell. But for my enemies I will rain down a hail-storm of judgment that will sweep them away. But whatever my people do will be prospered with all abundance.
COMMENTS
Isaiah 32:9-14 WARNING PRONOUNCED: Once again the prophet appeals to the women to repent (cf. Isaiah 3:16 to Isaiah 4:1). Womanhood is the adhesive fibre of any society. They are the earliest teachers of each succeeding generation; they are the motivators of men; they are keepers of the home which is the essential element of all other social structures. When womanhood becomes decadent or deserts its God-ordained calling the last stronghold of societal cohesion is gone. Isaiah challenges the women of his day, lying around in luxury and self-indulgence, to rise up and listen to his warning. The women of Isaiah's country were probably much like the women of Israel in Amos-' day, revelers, drunkards, greedy and careless (cf. Amos 4:1-2; Amos 6:4-6). The word careless in Isaiah 32:9-10 is from the Hebrew, betahk, which means safe, secure. Thus, they were at ease in Zion with the false sense of security brought on by the deceitfulness of sin. The prophet is trying to startle them from their luxurious, indulgent lethargy. Isaiah predicts that in just a little over a year they will be brought up short because the ingathering of the vintage (the annual grape harvest) will not come as usual and their supply of wine and other luxuries will be unavailable. When the Assyrians swept down through Israel (722 B.C.) and on through Judah (cir. 704-700 B.C.) they practiced the scorched earth policy of warfare. Most ancient armies burned and destroyed all fortifications, cities and farmlands as they went so their enemies could not use them. Isaiah is probably writing here about a year before the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib (cf. Isaiah 36-39). At that time Assyria had conquered and plundered most of Judah with the exception of Jerusalem, and Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem were caged like a bird by the Assyrian army. All those so safe and secure would tremble then!
Now is the time to tremble, says Isaiah. Repentance now will save you from the judgment of God that will surely come, and its beginning will be in little more than a year. The prophet predicts that unless they have a change of mind and heart about their rebellion and sin, and tremble, the Lord is going to make their once fruitful land a desolate ghost town. Thorns and briers will grow up and over houses; the palace of the king will be forsaken and Judah's teeming cities will be deserted. Why? Because the people will all be taken captive. Judah was not taken captive for another 100 years after Isaiah's prophecy here, but the judgment of Judah began with Assyria and continued through Babylon until its restoration in 536 under the Persians. During that period Judah was continually plundered and exploited by pagan empires and her people were being taken into captivity until the final captivity and destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. Judah was restored to her land beginning in 536 B.C. (70 years after Nebuchadnezzar's first assault upon Jerusalem in 606 B.C.). She enjoyed a relatively peaceful existence for 200 years until Alexander the Great came conquering the world (cir. 332 B.C.) and his successors, the Seleucids, occupied Palestine. Then from about 165 B.C. until 64 B.C. Judah was free of foreign occupation for another 100 years during the times of the Maccabeans. But Pompey occupied Palestine (64 B.C.) for the Romans. Then in 70 A.D. the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and scattered the Jews to the ends of the earth. When Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one (cf. Daniel 9:24-27) came, the Jews were offered their final overture from God to receive the blessings promised through the prophets. The blessings of the prophets all focus on the first coming of the Messiah. He is the only way left for anyone to repent toward God. There will be no other way (cf. Hebrews 6:1-8; Hebrews 10:1-31). A reinstituted Judaism with a reinstituted Hebrew priesthood and a rebuilt Jewish temple is not promised anywhere in the N.T. or the O.T. for that matter. For people to return to Judaism, in the light of the finality of the sacrifice of Christ, is apostasy, and it is impossible to renew anyone to repentance through law, Jewish law, or any other law. This leads us to our next section.
Isaiah 32:15-20 WEALTH PROMISED: This desolation of Judah, which at its very core was spiritual, would continue (cf. Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi to see the spiritual destitution of this people even after their restoration to their land) until the Spirit was poured out from on high. This evidently has reference to the accomplishments of the Messiah (cf. Daniel 9:24-27) in redemption and establishment of the church (Acts 2:38). The agricultural setting of this prophecy should not confuse the careful student of the New Testament since there are some specific keys in the N.T. which provide clues to proper interpretation of such passages. Consider the following passages:
compare with
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See also our list of key New Testament passages in Minor Prophets, by Paul T. Butler, College Press, pages 25-27.
The essential nature of the future fruitfulness which Isaiah is predicting is to be justice (true relationship between man and man) and righteousness (true relationship between man and God). These proper relationships are accomplished only through the agency of the Spirit of God, at first incarnate in the Son, then dwelling in believers through faith and the agency of the Word. When these relationships are accomplished, peace, rest and safety are the results. This is exactly what the Messiah brought to the world and gave to all who will receive it by faith (cf. Matthew 11:25-30; John 14:27; John 15:11; Ephesians 1:14; Ephesians 2:11-22). For the true Jew in the eyes of God is one who is one inwardly (Romans 2:28-29); indeed the promises made to Abraham's progeny was intended to be found by anyone who would become one of his children by faith in the one seed, Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:6-9; Galatians 3:15-18); and all who are new creatures by faith in Christ are the Israel of God (Galatians 6:14-16). One thing is certain; the promises of Isaiah here in Isaiah 32:16-18 have not found fulfillment in the Jews or in Palestine to this point in history. And to hold out a special dispensation for the Jews in some future age seems to us to disparage the finality and completeness of the New Testament, to say the least.
Isaiah 32:19 seems to indicate a prediction of the defeat of all that opposes this future Messianic purpose of God. Enemies of God are likened unto forests in Isaiah 10:18-19; Jeremiah 46:23; unto images and beasts in Daniel 2-8; unto dragons and beasts in Revelation 12-13. God will overcome all opposition as He completes His work of redemption and establishing a place of peace, rest and safety on earth. What God will do on earth will last forever (Isaiah 32:17). The kingdom of God established on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) is an eternal kingdom.
Those who by faith become citizens of this kingdom will enjoy God's blessings in abundance (John 10:10; 1 Corinthians 3:21-23; Ephesians 1:3; Romans 8:17-18; Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18). Whatever they do, wherever they sow, wherever they work, it will prosper.
QUIZ
1.
What kind of women were prevalent in Isaiah's day?
2.
How would the vintage fail?
3.
How long did the spiritual destitution of the Jews last?
4.
What is the pouring out of the Spirit to bring with it?
5.
Name some N.T. scriptures where we may find the fulfillment of these promised blessings.
6.
Who are the true people of God?
7.
When did God defeat the ultimate opposition of the forces of evil?