Week Eighteen-Day Two: End of Day

This is Isaiah’s last prophecy against Sennacherib, the great King of Assyria. While Sennacherib is great, God is clearly greater and will have the last word. In this section Isaiah bounces back and forth between denouncing Sennacherib the “destroyer” and his “brave men” on the one hand, and exclaiming the greater greatness of the LORD who “dwells on high” on the other.

For you and I, the key is to read this passage with a view toward our own “Sennacheribs”. How do we see them? And how do we see God in the context of dealing with them? How does of our view of these things affect our behavior?

CHAPTER 33

¹ Woe to you, destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, betrayer, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed.

² LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress. ³ At the uproar of your army, the peoples flee; when you rise up, the nations scatter. ⁴ Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts; like a swarm of locusts people pounce on it.

⁵ The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with his justice and righteousness.
⁶ He will be the sure foundation for your times, A rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.

⁷ Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly. ⁸ The highways are deserted, no travelers are on the roads. The treaty is broken, its witnesses are despised, no one is respected. ⁹ The land dries up and wastes away, Lebanon is ashamed and withers; Sharon is like the Arabah, and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.

¹⁰ “Now will I arise,” says the LORD. “Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up. ¹¹ You conceive chaff, you give birth to straw; your breath is a fire that consumes you. ¹² The peoples will be burned to ashes; like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze.”

¹³ You who are far away, hear what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge my power!
¹⁴ The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless: “Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?”

¹⁵ Those who walk righteously and speak what is right, who reject gain from extortion and keep their hands from accepting bribes, who stop their ears against plots of murder and shut their eyes against contemplating evil—¹⁶ they are the ones who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress. Their bread will be supplied, and water will not fail them.

Lights out!