Isaiah 9:18-21

ISRAEL'S PERVERSITY

TEXT: Isaiah 9:18-21

18

For wickedness burneth as the fire; it devoureth the briers and thorns; yea it kindleth in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.

19

Through the wrath of Jehovah of hosts is the land burnt up; and the people are as the fuel of fire: no man spareth his brother.

20

And one shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:

21 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

QUERIES

a.

How does wickedness burn?

b.

What is the meaning of snatching on the right hand ?

c.

Were they literally to eat the flesh of their own arms ?

PARAPHRASE

The consequences of your wickedness will consume you like a fire that burns up all vegetation. God's graciousness will be replaced by God's all-consuming wrath. He will devour everything in His anger. The people will be as fuel for the fires of His righteous indignation. They will fight against one another to steal one another's food, but they will never have enough. Finally they will even eat the flesh of their own people. Manassah against Ephraim and Ephraim against Manassah in civil war and then both Manassah and Ephraim in a truce long enough to unite against Judah. Yet even after all of this, God's anger is not yet satisfied. His hand is still heavy upon them, to punish them.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 9:18-21 CIVIL WAR: The plague of wickedness has infected the whole society and its culture. Rich and poor, powerful and weak, educated and illiterate alike are contaminated with evil. It has spread like fire spreads through dry stubble and forest. The fire which is about to consume the people and their land is the mighty moral rule of God which inevitably must fall upon those who break all moral bounds. The people were about to experience the removal of God's grace. When that happens man is left alone to the consequences of his perversity and when that happens man consumes himself. Some commentators seem to think the statement, they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm means figurative cannibalism. However, literal cannibalism is not unknown to ancient history or modern history (Cf. 2 Kings 6:24-31; Jeremiah 19:9, etc.). In modern times the people of Russia in the siege of Leningrad (WW II) are reported to have eaten human flesh to survive starvation. Social and moral anarchy resulted in civil warbrother killing and robbing brother. And all these woes were but the beginning of tribulation on this once favored people. The hand of God was stretched out still. The end was not yet. That came with foreign conquest, captivity and slavery.

QUIZ

1.

What is the fire that is about to consume the people and land?

2.

Does the Bible mention literal cannibalism anywhere? Where?

3.

What brought on the civil war?

4.

Why was this tribulation not the end of Israel's woes?