THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Isaiah: Jahweh Is Salvation

Part LI: God's Encouraging Promise Of The Wonderful Deliverance Of The Righteous

(Isaiah 33:13-24)

I. Introduction

A. After predicting the end of the humanly seeming unstoppable threat of Assyrian invasion, God through Isaiah in Isaiah 33:13-24 promised the blessed deliverance His people would enjoy in the future Messianic Kingdom.

B. We view that passage for insight and edifying application for us in our era (as follows):

II. God's Encouraging Promise Of The Wonderful Deliverance Of The Righteous, Isaiah 33:13-24.

A. After predicting in Isaiah 33:1-12 the fall of the Assyrian invaders and those in Judah who faithlessly relied on them, God addressed all men everywhere, be they far or near, to acknowledge His acts and might, Isa. 33:13.

B. In response, the sinners in Zion, the city of Jerusalem in Judah in the midst of coming divine judgment, would be afraid and trembling, asking who among them could dwell with God, the consuming fire in judgment, who could dwell with everlasting burnings of divine wrath, Isaiah 33:14. [Note how this question coincides with the question people facing God's Great Tribulation wrath will ask in Revelation 6:15-17.]

C. Isaiah responded that the upright who practiced righteousness would dwell with such a God (as follows):

1. Those who walked righteously and spoke uprightly would dwell peacefully with God, Isaiah 33:15a.

2. Those who despised gaining wealth by oppression and bribes, who refused to listen to plots of murder to enhance their gain and who kept their eyes from beholding evil would dwell with God, Isaiah 33:15b.

3. These upright ones would not only dwell with God Who was a consuming fire to the wicked, but they would dwell on the heights in a fortress of rocks, and their food and water would be given to them in great grace and security free from any invading Gentile nation that was sent as God's judgment, Isaiah 33:16.

D. Expanding on the theme of the blessings of the upright, Isaiah described the Messianic Kingdom blessings for the righteous when they would dwell with the God Who was a consuming fire to sinners, Isaiah 33:17-24:

1. The King, Who we know will be the risen and glorified Lord Jesus, will be on His throne in Judah, and the righteous will see Him in His beauty, and they will see their land stretching far and wide in contrast to the experience of the people of Judah in Isaiah's day when they were confined to the cities due to the threat of invading Assyria, Isaiah 33:17; Edward J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, 1974, v. II, p. 421-422.

2. God's people will recall the past terrors (Isa. 33:18a), and ask where was the Assyrian official who had counted and weighed out the oppressive tribute to be raised by Judah and where was the Assyrian officer who had counted the number of defense towers Assyria let Judah's king possess, Isa. 33:18b; Ibid., p. 422.

3. Indeed, the righteous in the Messianic Kingdom will no more see the oppressive Assyrians, a people of an obscure speech that they could not comprehend and stammering in a language they could not understand, Isaiah 33:19. The Mosaic Covenant clarified that Judah's exposure to people of foreign speech signaled God's judgment on His people (Deut. 28:49), but in the Kingdom, His judgment of Judah will be past.

4. In place of the departed, oppressive Assyrians, God's people will be told to look upon Zion (Isaiah 33:20a), the city of their appointed places of meeting where God would meet with them as opposed to meeting with the Assyrian officials who had oppressed them, Isaiah 33:20b; Ibid., p. 423. They will behold Jerusalem to be like a permanent tent dwelling, whose tent pegs would never need to be pulled up for moving elsewhere for safety, nor would any of its tent cords even be broken in instability. Rather, God in majesty would be for Judah a place of surrounding broad rivers and streams where no invading galley with oars like the 'ship' of Assyria could go nor will any majestic enemy ship even pass it by, Isaiah 33:21; Ibid., p. 424-425.

5. God as Judah's Judge, Lawgiver and King would then completely save Judah's people, Isaiah 33:22.

6. In sharp contrast to Jerusalem and Judah, defeated Assyria will be like a shipwreck, whose spoils will be divided among the people of Judah, with even the handicapped lame folk taking spoil from it, Isaiah 33:23.

7. Illness will then be removed from Judah's people (Isaiah 33:24a), for those who will then dwell in the Kingdom will be forgiven their iniquity opposite the judged sinners of the past, Isaiah 33:24b.

Lesson: For properly facing and handling sin, believers in the coming Messianic Kingdom will enjoy a very blessed life in sharp contrast to their past sufferings under the then absent evil oppressors and their oppressions.

Application: Since today's evil oppressors will be gone in divine judgment and the upright will be richly blessed in the Messianic Kingdom, may we live uprightly regardless of today's oppressions in hope of our coming future.