Year 9, Day 17: Isaiah 33

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Isaiah addresses several groups of people in this passage.  First comes the words for the destroyer.  These words most likely apply to Assyria.  They are the ones that God has called out of their place to bring His people into judgment.  God wans them that when they are done destroying they will be destroyed.  God called them for the purposes of being the consequence for the insolence of the Hebrew people, but the Assyrians took the power God gave to them and abused it.

The second group of people receive the majority of words.  These are the faithful remnant.  Even as the Assyrians come towards Jerusalem, there are a group of people who continue to have faith.  There are those who see the Lord as their salvation.  He is their arm, they wait for Him.  They know that He scatters the nations.  They believe that in Him is an abundance of salvation.

These are the faithful remnant.  They believe when others feel hope failing.  They turn to the Lord when others turn to human sources of strength.  They stay loyal when others grasp at straws.  They continue to place their hearts on the things of God while others give birth to chaff and stubble.  They fear the Lord, and this becomes the treasure of the Lord.

The third group of people are spoken of near the end.  When the Lord rises up to save His people, we are told that those who are saved will no longer see the insolent people.  The people who have an obscure speech will be gone.  The people who stammer and cannot be understood will be gone.

These words indicate a people who do not live in truth. They do not speak the truth.  They do not use words that inspire truth in others.  They do not have the ability to speak words that last and have a deeper meaning.  They are not God’s people; they are people who pursue their own desires, their own thoughts, and their own ways.

The point at the end is that they are gone.  They are put away from God and God’s people.  They are dismissed from God’s eternal presence.

In the end, we see a people beloved by God juxtaposed between two examples of people who are dismissed by God.  In the one case we have people who are empowered by God and abuse the power for their own selfish gain.  In the other case we have people who deny God’s truth and instead utter their own folly.  The ones that God treasure wait for Him, stay loyal to Him, and have the ways of the Lord near to their hearts.

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