The order of events is not clear to us today. But many people’s joy
about the defeat of Babylon would not last long. The army that
overcame Babylon will next head south. Then that army will attack
Judah and *Jerusalem.
• The flat roof of houses was the usual place where people talked to
neighbours... [ Continue Reading ]
ISAIAH: GOD CONTROLS THE NATIONS
GOD CONTROLS THE FUTURE
ISAIAH CHAPTER S 21 TO 30
_NORMAN HILLYER_
CHAPTER 22
GOD WARNS *JERUSALEM
V1 (A special message that God gave to Isaiah about *Jerusalem’s
future.) You people should not be standing on the flat roof of your
houses. V2 You ought not to... [ Continue Reading ]
Isaiah is surprised that the happy people do not realise the real
situation. An enemy is preparing to attack and Judah is without any
proper defence.... [ Continue Reading ]
Elam and Kir were probably nations in part of what is today Iran.... [ Continue Reading ]
Enemy forces are surrounding *Jerusalem to prepare for the final
attack.... [ Continue Reading ]
‘The House of the Forest’ was the royal store for weapons
(military arms) in the palace (see 1 Kings 7:2-5 and 10:17). The room
was called by this name because its beautiful wood came from the
famous forests in Lebanon.
• Because so many soldiers had run away, the citizens stole arms
from the royal... [ Continue Reading ]
The inhabitants of *Jerusalem needed to store water in case an enemy
surrounded the city. Only a small supply of water was otherwise
available.... [ Continue Reading ]
It was the *Lord who gave *Jerusalem to David to be his capital (see 2
Samuel 5:6-10). And it was the *Lord who gave the entire country to
his people (see Joshua 1:2). The people could not have obtained either
the city or the country by their own efforts. So there was no
possibility that they could... [ Continue Reading ]
The people were behaving in a very different manner from how the *Lord
intended them to behave.... [ Continue Reading ]
The people only cared about their own pleasures. They did not bother
themselves about God’s instructions. They had not obeyed him. And
their actions showed that they were not sorry about their evil
behaviour.
• The people did not really expect to ‘die tomorrow’. It was
merely a way to say that only... [ Continue Reading ]
The *Lord knew the future. These people would never change their
behaviour. So they would never qualify for him to forgive them.
GOD WARNS SHEBNA
V15 The *Lord (commander of heaven’s armies) told me to go to this
man called Shebna. He was manager of the palace staff. The *Lord said,
‘Give him thi... [ Continue Reading ]
People must choose between trust in God and trust in human effort. In
fact, whole nations must choose between trust in God and trust in
human effort. These verses show this principle.... [ Continue Reading ]
Shebna was the king’s chief minister. He expressed his feelings of
importance by his proud actions. He tried to use his job to make
himself even more important and powerful.... [ Continue Reading ]
Shebna’s proud actions made God very angry. God’s judgement would
soon follow. Shebna would lose everything.... [ Continue Reading ]
Only important people owned a key, which was long and heavy. In
ancient times a key was a long piece of wood. It had wooden *pegs at
one end. The *pegs fitted small holes in a wooden bar on the inside of
the door.
• Only the owner of a key could use it to open or to close a door.
So a key was also... [ Continue Reading ]
Should people choose to depend only on Eliakim, and not on God, they
too would completely fail.
JERUSALEM ~ at the time of David and Solomon, the capital of the
country called Israel. During the time of Isaiah, Jerusalem was the
capital of the country called Judah. But the ‘New Jerusalem’ is
God’s... [ Continue Reading ]