Isaiah 33

Isaiah 33 still concerns the Assyrian aggression.  Some people had received Isaiah’s message.  But many had not.  Even in the reign of Hezekiah there would have been people who would have advised seeking an alliance with Egypt.  In this chapter we read of the heart’s desire and prayer of these righteous ones (33:1-9) and then God’s encouraging answer to them (33:10-24).  We will also see, along the way, the lack of hope among those whose faith was in Egypt.

The chapter begins with a woe (characteristic of this part of Isaiah) to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered (v1).  This is directed at Assyria, a confident message from the prophet that God will do as He has promised.  

This pronouncement leads those who are faithful in Jerusalem to lift a wonderful prayer to the LORD.  Verse 2 is a very usable prayer, by application, for us today and I have used it often.  It comes from faithful people in a time of national difficulty.  The prayer is that God will be gracious to those who are waiting for His answer.  Waiting for God’s time is not usually easy for God’s people.  So they pray for salvation in the time of trouble and for God’s arm to be holding them at the beginning of every day in the meantime.

God’s faithful ones know the enemy is strong (v3-4,7-9).  But they are sustained by the realization of who God is (v5a) and of His commitment to Israel (v5b-6).  They know the day is coming, in the time of Messiah if not sooner, when Zion will be full of justice and righteousness.  The nation will be stable because she will be on firm footing with God.  Again, we would say that 33:6 has a strong application to any nation as well as to any family or individual.  The fear of the LORD brings wisdom and knowledge from the LORD and puts us in the place where we can experience the strength of His deliverance.

The words now I will rise (v10) begins the LORD’s answer.  To Assyria He says their plans will not prosper (v11-13).  To the righteous ones He says that, unlike the sinners in Zion (v14) you will dwell on high, in a place of strong defense (v15-16).  They will see the King in his beauty and will meditate on the terror in the past, wondering where it has gone (v17-18).  They will not face the fierce people that the LORD had promised to send upon Judah (Isa. 28:11). 

(33:17 sounds Messianic to some and may refer to the Messiah, Israel’s future glorious King, as God promises they will see the glories of the Davidic King in their own time.  Hezekiah was king when this deliverance came, as we will see in Isa. 36-37, and was gloriously blessed by God as Isa. 38-39 will show.)

The vision of a blessed Jerusalem continues (v20-24), and again, it is based on the fact that the people will be trusting in the LORD.  The stability that comes because Israel fears the Lord (33:6) is a stability that comes because the LORD is every branch of government: the judicial, legislative and executive (33:22).  How blessed any nation would be whose God is the LORD (Psa. 33:12 ).