Isaiah 32, part two. The whole counsel of God
Isaiah 32: Have you read the entire Book of Isaiah? Did you skip parts that seemed less interesting or confusing? If you have skipped parts, you are not alone. Most people who read the Bible pick and choose sections and chapters and avoid challenging portions.
Choose to be exceptional
But, the exceptional reader/student of the Bible includes every word, passage, chapter, and book in his or her study. Consequently, good students conclude that If God said it and his prophets wrote it, then we should read and study it.
So in light of that, this article continues a larger series of articles covering the entire Book of Isaiah. You’ll find that every chapter and verse of the Book has significance to the whole message. Therefore, there is no filler in the book. Everything Isaiah wrote had meaning for those alive at the time of his writing. And those same words and passages have meaning for the modern reader also. But I should note; that some passages are much more important to us today as we draw closer to the climax of God’s story. But, If you are a serious student you owe it to yourself to study the entire text. If you are a teacher, you owe it to your students to study every Word God’s prophets and writers penned.
Here’s a free tip:
The Word of God is far more important than the commentaries or devotionals. Therefore I always include the biblical text with my commentary. Sometimes, as in this article, I will include As a general practice, I never assume a reader has the Bible open while they read a commentary.
Unfortunately, there are too many Bible students or Christians in general who read small portions of the scripture — if they read at all. The whole Bible is God’s message to every individual. God’s Word is addressed to the religious and secular communities. It is His Word to all of humanity. Some refer to it as God’s love letter to us.
Good students read the whole Book
I am writing this extended commentary on every chapter of Isaiah’s book because it’s all God’s message. As faithful students and competent teachers, we need to include everything the Lord said. Some things are more challenging, while other passages include explosive and controversial topics. Many readers or teachers prefer to skip the seemingly unimportant passages in order to focus on the explosive and controversial ones.
Pastor Chuck
My first Pastor, Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, taught every chapter and verse of the Bible. Every time I attended his services, I knew we would read through several chapters verse-by-verse. I follow in his thorough footsteps. The Book of Isaiah is easily one of the most important prophecy books in the Bible. So, if you haven’t studied the entire book in context then you have fallen short in your God-given imperative to study the whole Word of God.
Cat-video distractions
If you consider yourself a student of God’s Word, I challenge you to resist the “Cat-video” mentality of today. Thirty-second sound-bites and funny videos usually win our attention. A good laugh is a great medicine for the soul. There’s no doubt about that. There are few things as enjoyable as a great laugh at innocent cat videos.
But you, yes I’m talking to you, need to break out of the short attention span reading model and read every book and every chapter.
Okay, now let’s get into the second half of Isaiah 32.
Isaiah 32:11 They take their leisure for granted
“Tremble, you women who are at ease. Be troubled, you complacent daughters.”
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 11. – Tremble… be troubled. The repetition of this verse is, as usual, emphatic. Its object is to impress those whom the prophet is addressing with the certainty of the coming judgment. Strip you, and make you bare; i.e. “bare your breasts,” in preparation for the beating which is to follow (see the comment on the next verse).
Isaiah 32:12 The fruit of the vine will fade
“Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.”
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 12. – They shall lament for the teats, etc.; rather, they shall beat upon the breasts for the pleasant fields, etc. (so the LXX., the Vulgate, Jarchi, Gesenius, Ewald, Maurer, Knobel, Delitzsch, and Mr. Cheyne). Dr. Kay prefers the rendering of the Authorized Version, understanding by “the teats” such “dry breasts” as Hosea speaks of (Hosea 9:14). But nothing has been said in this place of any such affliction. For the pleasant fields, etc.; i.e. for their loss (see ver. 10).
Isaiah 32:13 Thorns will replace blessings
“For the land of my people in which thorns and briars shall come up. Yes, for all the joyful houses, and for the jubilant city.”
Pulpit Commentary
Verses 13-20. – A FURTHER MINGLING OF THREATS WITH COMFORTING PROMISES. The women require, like the men, to be both warned and comforted, wherefore the prophet addresses to them, as to the men in Isaiah 30. and 31, an intermixture of threatening (vers. 13, 14) with promise (vers. 15-20).
Isaiah 32:14 Abandoned and forsaken
“Because the palace has been abandoned, the populated city is forsaken. Hill and watchtower have become caves forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks.”
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 14. – The palaces shall be forsaken; literally, the palace; but the word is used in a generic sense. The prophet sees in vision Jerusalem deserted by her inhabitants, the grand houses of the rich empty, the strongholds haunted by wild beasts, and the slopes of the hills fed on by sheep, and even occasionally visited by the timid and solitude-loving wild ass. The description suits well the time of the Babylonian captivity, but not any earlier period. Probably it was not revealed to the prophet how soon the condition would be reached.
Isaiah 32:15 Then God’s Spirit will be rest upon all
“Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fertile field.”
God’s Spirit poured out upon everyone! There is a similar passage in Joel chapter two. The entire book of Joel is often used as a textual argument to support the idea that God will bring about a great revival in the last days. That revival, as taught by many, will awaken the church to welcome Jesus back before the rapture of the Church.
I disagree with that idea. I see the Bible pointing to a revival and God’s Spirit pouring out but it will come at the end of the days of wrath. The context of this passage and the ones in Joel points to God’s Spirit coming upon all once the worst has finished.
It is one of many ways in which the Lord will begin to restore the brokenness of the planet and the failed stewards of God’s world – humanity.
Please take note of the additional commentary below.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 15. – Until. The expression “until” modifies the previous “forever,” showing that the desolation was not always to continue. The Spirit be poured upon us from on high. An affluence from the Holy Spirit of God on individuals of eminence, prophets, kings, artificers, to fit them for their tasks, is recognized in many of the earlier books of Scripture, and especially in the Davidic psalms.
But a general affluence of the Spirit of holiness on a nation, to produce a change of heart, seems to be first announced by Isaiah. The nearly contemporary prophecy of Joel (Joel 2:28, 29) is, perhaps, as wide in its scope, but limited to the prophetic gift, which is not necessarily conjoined with spiritual-minded-ness or holiness of life. Isaiah, the “evangelical prophet,” first teaches that the conversion of a nation is God’s work, affected by the Holy Spirit, and effectual to the entire change of the heart of a people.
Isaiah 32:16 Finally, Justice will be fair for all
“Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness will abide in the fertile field.”
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 16. – Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness. In all parts of the kingdom of Christ, the lowest as well as the highest, “judgment” and “righteousness” shall prevail (compare verse 1).
Isaiah 32:17 But The work of righteousness – true peace will finally rule
“And the work of righteousness will be peace. And the service of righteousness, quietness, and confidence forever.”
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 17. – The work of righteousness shall be peace. Peace – a true peace, not a false one (Jeremiah 6:14) – shall be the result of the reign of righteousness. War, quarrels, enmity, hostile feelings, are all of them the fruit of unrighteousness. In the kingdom of the Messiah, just so far forth as it is thoroughly established, “the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace” (James 3:18).
The effect of righteousness; literally, the service of righteousness, which perhaps means here “the wages of righteousness.” Quietness and assurance; or, quietness and confidence (comp. Isaiah 30:15). The final happiness of the blessed in Christ’s kingdom is always spoken of as a state of “rest and quietness” (see Psalm 95:11; Job 3:17; Jeremiah 6:16; Matthew 11:28; Hebrews 4:9-11, etc.). The “confidence” felt would be an assured confidence, not a rash, and foolish one, like that of the women of vers. 10, 11.
Isaiah 32:18 “Then, My people will live in peace
“Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation, and in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places.”
Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation,… Jews and Gentiles and all the saints shall dwell in peace and love one with another, and shall be free from all the outrages and persecutions of the enemy; which, when these happy times of the pouring forth of the Spirit and of the spiritual reign of Christ come, will be no more:
and in sure dwellings; where they may dwell safely and confidently, secure from all enemies, in no fear of them, and free from all hurt and danger by them:
Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
and in quiet resting places; where they may sleep and rest quietly, and none to disturb them, and make them afraid: and though all this may be understood of their private houses and habitations, yet may well enough be applied to the several Christian communities and churches to which they belong; where they shall enjoy much spiritual prosperity and safety, great peace and quietness, comfort and rest, under the ministry of the word, and administration of ordinances.
Isaiah 32:19 Bringing Hail (Hell) down on the forest
“And it will hail when the forest comes down, and the city will be utterly laid low.”
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 19. – When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; rather, but it shall hail in the coming down (i.e. the destruction) of the forest. “The forest” has commonly been regarded as Assyria, on the strength of Isaiah 10:18, 19, 33, 34. Mr. Cheyne, however, suggests Judah, or the high and haughty ones of Judah, whose destruction was a necessary preliminary to the establishment of Christ’s kingdom.
May not God’s enemies generally be meant? The city. Nineveh (Lowth, Gesenius, Rosenmüller); Jerusalem (Delitzsch, Knobel, Cheyne, Kay); “the city in which the hostility of the world to Jehovah will, in the latter days, be centralized” (Drechsler, Nagel) – the “world-power,” in fact. The last view seems to give the best sense.
Isaiah 32:20 And a Well-watered land will provide for all
“How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters, who let out freely the ox and the donkey.”
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 20. – Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters. The idyllic picture, begun in ver. 15, terminates here. The people of the kingdom have a well-watered land (Isaiah 30:25), where they live peacefully, sowing their seed beside the water-courses, and having abundant pasture for their peaceful beasts – the ox and the ass (comp. Isaiah 30:24). A spiritual meaning doubtless underlies the literal sense.
So let’s dig deeper here: Isaiah 30
Let me know what you think.