Isaiah_31-32

Isaiah 31:1-9 (ESV)
¹  Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD!
²  And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.
³  The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together.
⁴  For thus the LORD said to me, “As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him he is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the LORD of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.
⁵  Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it.”
⁶  Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel.
⁷  For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.
⁸  “And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor.
⁹  His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

V.1-5

The Jews at that time did believe in him but in their way for they were not looking to him.  Their real faith was in human power. 

Today, we may need money so we go out and work for it.  We can work to acquire money for our needs, but we cannot go out and just take it.  Thus, you work and trust God at the same time.  But you can’t steal it and trust God at the same time as stealing factors God out of the picture.  God wants us to trust him in ways that count.

God had already promised them that He would protect them from this Assyrian army, so why were they going down there and back to the bondage they left?

When we feel vulnerable recall these scriptures:   John 14:1 and Hebrews 13:5

John 14:1 (ESV)
¹  “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

Hebrews 13:5 (ESV)
⁵  Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Our real crisis is our own unbelief in God.  Our real danger is when our hearts are not filled with a sense of God.

Today, as then, they were impressed with what human minds and human skills that could control, manage, and understand.    Flesh, no matter how great and strong is no match for spirit.  V. 3 “The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.”

V.6-7 -Return to the fire in Zion…

Isaiah is talking about repentance in these words:  “Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted,”  They and we are counseled to throw away the idols of silver and gold.  Then they we will finally see how contemptible their self-image is and it needs to be surrendered to Christ.  That is what an idol does to us in our life.  That idol obscures God and magnifies self-idealization.

An idol can be ‘our dreams’ that we pour so much time and effort into acquiring we lose sight of God’s presence in us.  It is to him we worship and do as He wants.  What value does our heart give to the significance of Christ?

V.8-9 – What and how God will do it:

Isaiah 32 – The King Who is to Reign in Righteousness!

Isaiah 32:1-8 (ESV)
¹  Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice.
²  Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.
³  Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.
⁴  The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.
⁵  The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.
⁶  For the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the LORD, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.
⁷  As for the scoundrel—his devices are evil; he plans wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right.
⁸  But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.

V.1-2 – These verses project into the Kingdom Age.  It is the character of His reign in righteousness and a kingdom that the world has never had so far.   The Lord is not only the King, but he is the Savior-King.

V.3 – There will be spiritual understanding given to all of God’s people….  Paul speaks of that time:

1 Corinthians 13:12 (ESV)
¹²  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

True spiritual values will then be ascertained and made obvious. 

1. 5-8 Today, in our country, we have lost the sense of moral values.

Isaiah 32:5 (ESV)
⁵  The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable.

Isaiah 32:5 (KJV)
⁵  The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.
Isaiah 32:5 (NKJV)
⁵  The foolish person will no longer be called generous, Nor the miser said to be bountiful;

Today, the “liberal” society has been an instrument of change in the moral values of this world.  They fight to have prayer removed from the schools, to have “in God we trust” removed from the coinage and many more.  The feeling is:  “not let us listen to the old stuff – Yet we know that the ‘old stuff’ is going to be the future ‘stuff’.

The rich man can afford to be ‘liberal’ as the middle man is taxed and taxed again.  The mask of hypocrisy will be removed in God’s day.

Isaiah 32:8 (NKJV)
⁸  But a generous man devises generous things, And by generosity he shall stand.

Isaiah 32:8 (ESV)
⁸  But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.

Isaiah 32:9-20  – Complacent Women Warned of Disaster

Isaiah 32:9-20 (ESV)
⁹  Rise up, you women who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech.
¹⁰  In little more than a year you will shudder, you complacent women; for the grape harvest fails, the fruit harvest will not come.
¹¹  Tremble, you women who are at ease, shudder, you complacent ones; strip, and make yourselves bare, and tie sackcloth around your waist.
¹²  Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,
¹³  for the soil of my people growing up in thorns and briers, yes, for all the joyous houses in the exultant city.
¹⁴  For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;
¹⁵  until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.
¹⁶  Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field.
¹⁷  And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
¹⁸  My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
¹⁹  And it will hail when the forest falls down, and the city will be utterly laid low.
²⁰  Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.

V.9-14 – God is saying that in the last days prior to the great tribulation that women will become so insensible that they will not recognize the danger that is coming.  That they will have no sense of coming judgment.

V.15+ – the 3^rd division of the promise of the Spirit to be poured out in the last days.

The Question:  When will the spirit be poured out?   It is during the Millennium when Christ reigns.  A time of greatest spiritual blessings and turning to Christ.  Then there shall be a time of testing:

Joel 2:28-29 (ESV)
²⁸   “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
²⁹  Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

This prophecy was not fulfilled at Pentecost nor any time since then.    Acts quotes Joel 2:28-29:

Acts 2:15-21 (ESV)
¹⁵  For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.
¹⁶  But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
¹⁷  “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;
¹⁸  even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
¹⁹  And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
²⁰  the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
²¹  And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

The Pentecost was similar of what would take place during the millennial Kingdom. What Joel and Peter described will take place during the Kingdom Age when the Lord pours out His Spirit upon all flesh.  At Pentecost it was poured out on only a few people, but it was similar to that which will occur during the Millennium.

Quoting from V. McGee:

THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT

Now we come to the third division: the promise of the Spirit to be poured out in the last days.

Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest [Isa. 32:15].

Here is a case where you need to pay attention to the development of prophecy in the Word of God. When will the Spirit be poured out? The Spirit will be poured out during the Millennium when Christ reigns. That is going to be the greatest time of spiritual blessing and turning to Christ, for at that time He will be reigning in person. That doesn’t mean that every knee is going to bow to Him at that time. Every knee will bow to Him eventually, but the Kingdom will be a time of testing. Joel mentions it: “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit” (Joel 2:28–29). This looks forward to the coming Kingdom. This prophecy was not fulfilled at Pentecost nor any time since then.

In Acts 2:15–21 Peter quotes from Joel 2:28–29 and explains the passage. Peter did not say that Pentecost was a fulfillment of the prophecy in Joel, but that Pentecost was similar to what Joel described. The people who were filled with the Holy Spirit in Peter’s day were ridiculed as being drunk early in the morning. Now that could happen in Los Angeles today, but people did not get drunk in the morning in Peter’s day. Peter was saying that what was happening at Pentecost was similar to what would take place during the millennial Kingdom.

What Joel and Peter described will take place during the Kingdom Age when the Lord pours out His Spirit upon all flesh. On the Day of Pentecost it was poured out on only a few people, but it was similar to that which will occur during the Millennium.

Joel’s prediction was of tremendous phenomena: “And I will shew wonders in the heavens and the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come” (Joel 2:30–31). My friend, these tremendous signs have never yet taken place.

Notice also that Joel predicted, “…  and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams  …” (Joel 2:28). Today our young people are not fulfilling this prophecy, and our old men are in a retirement place playing golf. These things did not happen on the Day of Pentecost, neither are they happening today. This prophecy looks forward to the coming Kingdom. There is always a danger of pulling out a few verses of Scripture and trying to build on them a system of prophecy. We are just to let the Word of God speak to us—line upon line and precept upon precept—as He wants to do it. This is the way God gives it to us.^[1]

^[1] McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Prophets (Isaiah 1-35) (electronic ed., Vol. 22, pp. 210–212). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.