Isaiah Part XXIX – Michael Bunker Commentary

 

CHAPTER 29

 

This chapter begins a very interesting group of prophecies.  Some able commentators have seen this chapter as a single unit, separate and unconnected to the chapters that precede and follow it.  While some commentators have found this prophecy to be specifically about the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrian army, others have concluded that this chapter is exclusively a prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. by the Roman army.  I hope to offer a substantially different view of this chapter, interpreting it typically as a layered prophecy of the several destructions of Jerusalem and the Temple, and anti-typically as the beginning of a very specific and important prophecy (consisting of about 4 chapters) concerning what is to befall the Church (Spiritual Jerusalem) in our very own time.  This chapter consists of a prophecy concerning Jerusalem, referred to here as Ariel.  The prophecy in the chapter consists of two parts: (1.) The invasion of Judea and the siege of Jerusalem by enemies, with its sudden deliverance. (2.) A reproof of those who call themselves by God’s name for their infidelity and impiety.

 

Verses 1-2 - Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel; Jerusalem here is referred to by the symbolic name of Ariel, which indicates that Jerusalem is the place of the altar of God, where David dwelt, and is considered the Mountain of the Lord.  The Hebrew word Ariel signifies the Lion of God.  Jerusalem was the head city of Judah which had the sign of the Lion.  The altar was said, like a Lion, to consume the sacrifices, so we can be certain that the city of Jerusalem, wherein the altar of God was, is in view here.  Jerusalem is told that, although they continue in sacrifices and in a show of religious diligence and obedience day by day, their judgment will be sure, and they shall be soon afflicted with heaviness and sorrow.

 

Verses 3-4 - And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee. And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust; Because God’s people have refused to hear and obey Him in a spiritual way, He will bring judgment against them in the form of the armies of their enemies.  By way of warning, he will bring the armies of the Assyrian to encamp around the city and lay siege to it.  Though Jerusalem will be spared for a time after that event, God will eventually bring the Babylonians to destroy the city and the temple.  And though it would eventually be rebuilt, God will send the Romans to accomplish the work of both the Assyrians and the Babylonians in laying siege to, and utterly destroying the city and the sanctuary.  The Apostles teach us that there are two Jerusalems; a physical Jerusalem and a spiritual Jerusalem.  These several judgments of physical Jerusalem (the Jerusalem which now is – Ga. 4:25) should teach us how to view the several judgments that were to come upon spiritual Jerusalem (Gal. 4:26, the spiritual Church of God).  The city will be razed to the dust, so that the people would be heard to speak like starving, vanquished people who fall on the ground before their captors.  Those who are carried away into captivity (spiritual apostasy) will speak as those which have a familiar spirit, and will show no spiritual life or vitality like those who stand on their feet and are strong in the truth.

 

Verses 5-6 - Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly. Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire; “thy strangers” signifies those enemies the Lord will send against Jerusalem, that the multitude of them would be like the almost invisible particles of small dust in a vast dust-storm.  The multitude of those who will lay siege to and eventually destroy Jerusalem will be compared to the amount of chaff that fills the wind during a threshing.  The Lord promises to visit those who call themselves by His name with “thunder, an earthquake and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire”; this signifies all the different types of judgment God has brought against any people in the past, so that Jerusalem might know that the same Just God of Judgment who has grievously afflicted and judged their enemies has now set His righteous hand upon those who believe they are His elect.

 

Spiritually we can see the Church which calls itself “Christian” suffering from the same several judgments.  Remember that physical Jerusalem was besieged by the armies of the East, personified by the Assyrian invasion.  Then it was destroyed by the armies of Mystery Babylon, personified by the Babylonians.  Finally it was besieged and destroyed by the Roman army, a great army bent on world domination.  The invasion and siege of the Christian Church by the spiritual armies of the East, made known through Gnosticism, Eastern Mysticism, the New Age movement, was followed up by the utter destruction of the Church by the Babylonian invasion we call the Roman Catholic Church – who is called “Mystery Babylon the Great” in the scriptures.  While God allowed some of His people to escape Babylonian Captivity to the Romanist Church, the modernist “church” that bears the name “Christian” is now being swallowed up by the religious Roman Empire made up of the Antichrist Papacy and the False Prophet of False Protestantism (which is based on Romanist doctrines).  The Roman army combined all the tenets of the Assyrian and the Babylonian army, just as the last days Roman religious army combines the tenets of the mystery religions, eastern mysticism, the new age, Catholicism, etc.  This siege is almost complete.  The destruction of the nominal “church” is all but accomplished.

 

Verses 7-8 - And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision. It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion; While this chapter certainly prophesies the great suffering and destruction of Jerusalem, God always provides a word of comfort for the few elect within her walls.  While the enemies of Jerusalem will be awful and multitudinous, the distress of God’s true people will be as a dream of a night vision.  It will soon enough pass.  Isaiah utilizes the comparison of a man who, either thirsting or hungered, dreams of being satiated, but wakes up to find that it was all a passing dream.  In this way, those that fight against mount Zion will be very real and horrible, but in the grand scheme of things they will pass soon from the stage as in a dream.

 

Verses 9-12 - Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned; Take some time, ye elect of God, and ponder.  Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear should take some time and consider the source of the drowsiness of Jerusalem.  They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.  They indeed have had a spirit poured out upon them, but it is not the Holy Spirit of God – it is the spirit of slumber and of deep sleep.  He has caused the prophets and teachers, the rulers and leaders to be covered with the spirit of slumber.  The truth of this vision has been written here in the book of Isaiah for several thousand years, but note how the carnal religious man cannot understand it or heed it.  The truth is sealed from the learned, and the unlearned cannot understand it.  God has sent a spirit of slumber across the land so that the people will not understand the truth about the work He works upon His people.  We should remember that the prophets and teachers are made to slumber by God, and that it is His purpose to cause the professing Church to sleep, even to their own destruction – so that His elect among the Church will see His providence and sovereignty and give Him all the glory for His great work.

 

Verses 13-16 - Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?; God now begins to lay out the cause and effect which is being made known through the prophecy.  Because the people draw near with their mouths and honor God with their lips only, but have hearts which are removed far from Him – God will do this marvelous work.  Note that Isaiah is teaching a spiritual precept through the typical fulfillment that is to come concerning these prophecies.  The people of Jerusalem have continued with their bare religious duties, even though their hearts are far from God, and the fear that they should have for God has been replaced with a carnal fear of violating the letter of the law.  Jesus (and the Apostles) completed this teaching of Isaiah by teaching that the heart of man was wicked and unable to be anything BUT far from God.  All the religious duties in the world could not save a man, since God rightly judged the position of the heart towards Him.  Only the renewed (regenerated) heart is capable of being close to God, or of properly fearing Him.  Those who continue on in bare religious duties (going to Church, spirit-less rote prayer, etc.) and who think that they are saved because they have some religious affections, and because they have a notional certainty of the existence and reality of God and Christ, will be horrified to finally learn that their hearts were far from Him all along; meaning that they were unregenerate hearts, fulfilling ritual duties for purposes other than the overwhelming Love of God that is the mark of the truly redeemed.  This spiritual anti-type cannot be emphasized strongly enough, nor can studying it be any more important to your own well-being.  The Church that calls itself the Church of God, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, is made up primarily and almost completely of those who have no real heart-knowledge of God; mere professors whose hearts are truly far from Him.

 

Because of the heart condition of the professing Church, and so that His glorious works in and for His elect will be made known, God has engaged in a marvelous work and wonder which He has hidden in these prophecies of Isaiah, and throughout the Bible.  He has caused a deep spirit of sleep and slumber to come over those who profess to be His people, but who have hearts of stone that have not been divinely replaced with hearts of flesh.  The prophets and leaders of the modern nominal Christian religious world will not understand, because their wisdom will perish.  And the leaders of the Christian world will not be allowed to understand, because understanding will be hid from them.  Woe unto those, the scripture saith, who seek deep to hide their works and doings from God – who think that God does not see or know what goes on in hidden places.  Conspiracy theories abound, because conspiracies are real – and God has promised to make them known and to discover their plans to the whole world.  What is it that these conspirators do?  They turn things upside down and invert the power structure within professing Christianity.  Nothing other than blatant Romanist Arminianism can be the final fulfillment of this prophecy.  Who is it that inverts the Potter and the Clay?  Who is it that denies God’s providence and sovereignty and teaches that God ignorantly created, either not knowing or not caring who would eventually come to Him?  Who but an Arminian or a Papist teaches that fictional Free-Will is actually the last and final savior of man?  Who is it that “turneth things upside down” by declaring that man co-operates in His salvation?  We know that the very ones who deny or twist the Doctrines of Election and Predestination are those who have triumphed temporarily in the modernist professing Church.  The Apostle Paul specifically refers to these scriptures about the Potter and the Clay when discussing God’s divine predestination and election in the book of Romans.  Despite the teachings of the Apostles, the early Church, the Reformers and Puritans - the professing “church” today is overwhelmingly Arminian, Dispensational and even Romanist.  The final siege by the Roman armies is almost completed, and the free-will doctrines of Antichrist are the siege-engines and weapons formed against the little flock of God.  The great mystery of God’s true salvation is being hid from multitudes in the professing “church”, while they imbibe poison in mass quantities from the pulpits and pens of slumbering prophets.

 

Verses 17-19 - Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel; To further make the point that election is not based upon the bloodlines of natural Israel, nor on the geography of physical Jerusalem, Isaiah goes on to point out that God will raise up His elect from wherever He has hidden them in the world.  The uncultivated and unconsidered land of Lebanon will be esteemed as a forest; which signifies that the uncultivated and unconsidered gentiles will be caused to bring forth a great harvest unto God.  “The deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness”; While it was the active agency of God in sending a spirit of sleep and in the blinding of those who thought they were God’s people, so it will be the active agency of God in causing those who were once deaf and blind to both hear and see.  The deaf shall hear the words of the book; which is to say that those who before were deaf to the words of God, will now be caused to hear the truth in God’s word and to understand mysteries.  Those who were deaf will hear; which means that they will hear, understand, and obey, the things that are written in the book.  Those who were blind will see, and where they once were in obscurity and darkness, they will see the truth, bright like the noonday, opened up before them.  The meek and the poor among men will rejoice and increase their joy in the Lord.  Those who were lowly and unconsidered, who recognized their wicked estate and were brought to groan and moan over it; those who recognized their poverty and their need of salvation – these are those who will be brought into the covenant joy of the Lord, and who will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 

 

Verses 20-21 - For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought; The terrible one is brought to nought; which signifies that all those who have filled the role of terrible persecutors and scorners of God’s true elect and their doctrines, will be brought to nothing.  The Pharisees and Sadducees, the other Jewish persecutors, the Roman Caesars, the Romish Antichrist, the False Prophet religious system – all these have fulfilled the office of the “terrible one” as persecutors and scorners of God’s little flock.  God will see them brought to naught in time, just as He did with their fathers who killed the Prophets.

 

all that watch for iniquity are cut off;  Some understand this to be speaking of those who seek for every opportunity for sin, and who cannot sleep without engaging in iniquity.  Most likely this phrase is to be connected with those that follow, in the context of those who persecute and scorn God’s true elect Church.  Watching for iniquity, they are seeking for the sins and failures in others with themselves as the benchmark of true obedience.  They are said to “make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just”.  This perfectly fits our understanding of the verses, that these men were to persecute and even put men on trial for a word, and who would try to ensnare just men in traps for reproving false teachings and doctrines.  The Pharisees, Caesars, and the Romanist Church put millions on trial for disagreeing with even one word of their understanding, and for rebuking their false teachings in the gate.  These are the “terrible one” who turn aside God’s just ones into prisons and privations, and who condemn men far more righteous and just then themselves.

 

Verses 22-24 - Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel. They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine; The same LORD who redeemed Abraham has this to say:  When those who are truly of the house of Jacob see the children of the promise made to Abraham among or within the professing body of Israel, those who are remaining of the elect will sanctify and fear the God of Israel.  Those who are elect and who have erred in spirit shall come to understanding and they that murmured against true doctrine will learn true doctrine.  This is not a promise of the salvation of all of those who call themselves national Israel, nor is it a promise that all those who call themselves “Jews” will be saved.  This is a promise that God will use obedient children to spiritually chastise, rebuke, reprove and correct the rest of His Body.  Those who are in Jerusalem, who call themselves “Christians” but who have erred in the spirit or who have murmured against true doctrine, will see the obedient, converted elect and will be brought to repentance.  They will glorify God and sanctify the Holy One of Israel and will come to understanding and learn true doctrine.  This is a promise of salvation for all of the elect of God, the spiritual sons of Jacob and of Abraham, who have received the gifts of repentance, faith, belief and obedience through imputation.  Christ will save all who are His to the glory of His Father and by the power of the Spirit.

 

This chapter is a great lesson because it begins a very wonderful and spiritual dissertation on what it is to be separate unto God, or to lean on the world for life, protection and defense.  The next three Chapters will be a greater explanation of the sins of Jerusalem, and of the promise to the elect concerning the great outpouring of judgment that is being poured out upon the professing “Church” of God.  These four chapters are really a small book on the final spiritual judgment of the Church of God, and of the roots of infidelity and impiety within the professing Church.  God’s spiritual judgment against the Church is not without reason or purpose.  Those who call themselves the children of God have married themselves and followed after the world and not after Christ.  They have the name “Christian” upon themselves, but reject Him with their hearts and actions.  They draw near to Him with their mouths and lips, but their dead hearts belie their dead words.  These 4 chapters will be an interesting and well needed study on the prophetic significance of Isaiah in our times, and will culminate in the promise of the Messiah to those who have fled to the spiritual wilderness to escape the world and her false religious systems.

 

I am your servant in Christ Jesus,

 

Michael Bunker