CHAPTER 32

(713 B.C.)

THE COMING MILLENNIAL REIGN OF THE RIGHTEOUS KING, THE MESSIAH

¹Behold, a King shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. (The flavor of the Prophecy continues from the previous Chapter. The Antichrist, the false king, is now defeated, and the true King now reigns in righteousness over the entirety of the world. This King is the Lord Jesus Christ.

The princes refer to the resurrected Saints of all time, who will be kings and priests in the coming Kingdom Age [Dan. 7:19; I Cor. 6:1-3; Zech. 14:5; II Tim. 2:12; Rev. 5:10; 12:5; 20:1-10; 22:4-5].)

²And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. (This Man is The Man Christ Jesus. As well, the world is a dry place, spiritually speaking. He will be rivers of water that will cover this world with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea [Isa. 11:9]. Christ is the Great Rock, and His Shadow will cover the entirety of the Earth.)

³And the eyes of them who see shall not be dim, and the ears of them who hear shall hearken. (Heretofore, it has been very difficult for people to see and hear the Gospel. But, in that coming day, the Kingdom Age, all eyes shall see, and all ears shall hear and hearken, meaning that most will hear and believe.)

⁴The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. (Those who are rash refer to the ones who would not give themselves time to understand the warnings addressed to them, or to think of the real character of their actions. Then, they will be given a different heart and shall understand knowledge, meaning the Bible.

The tongue of the stammerers speaks of Preachers of the Gospel, who will then have perfect knowledge of the Word of God and the anointing to deliver it. They shall be ready to speak plainly.)

⁵The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. (The vile person of this Verse refers to the modern Preachers of today who are fools and churls. They are admired as liberal [i.e., broadminded] and bountiful, [i.e., emancipated], but the Holy Spirit calls such Preachers and their preaching folly, iniquity, profaneness, and error.

The world and most of the Church calls them liberal and bountiful. God calls them vile persons.)

⁶For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. (This speaks of false prophets in Isaiahs day, false apostles in Pauls day [II Cor. 11:13-15], and false Preachers in our day.

Consequently, those who are spiritually hungry are not fed, and those who are spiritually thirsty do not have their thirst slaked. Such characterizes the far greater majority of modern Christendom.)

⁷The instruments also of the churl are evil: he devises wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks right. (The instruments [i.e., the arguments or teaching] of the false apostle are also evil; they impoverish and destroy the seekers with lying words, though opposed by the needy [i.e., Christs servants] who speak the right [i.e., plead Truth.])

⁸But the liberal devises liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand. (The liberal, in the spiritual sense [and good sense, we might add], refers here to the Preacher of the Gospel who truly preaches the Word of God. In the minds of people at the present, the word liberal is the same as in Verse 5. For example, the modernists, who do not believe the Word of God, are presently called liberal. As we have previously stated, God calls them vile.)

WARNING TO THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM

⁹Rise up, you women who are at ease; hear my voice, you careless daughters; give ear unto my speech. (The women and daughters symbolize here the Hebrew people. In essence, the entirety of the population of Judah is admonished to hear what the Lord is saying through the Prophet.)

¹⁰Many days and years shall you be troubl ed, you careless women: for the vintage shall fail, the gathering shall not come. (The portend of this Verse is frightening! The vintage definitely did fail. The gathering, which speaks of the harvest, shall not come. A little over a hundred years from this time, Judah was destroyed and Jerusalem taken by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. They remained captive for some seventy years.)

¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease; be troubled, you careless ones: strip you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins. (The repetition of this Verse is, as usual, emphatic; its object is to impress those whom the Prophet is addressing with a certainty of the coming Judgment.

The sackcloth speaks of extreme suffering and sorrow.... Still, Judah would not repent!)

¹²They shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. (This says that everything will be barren in Israel and all because of sin!)

¹³Upon the land of My People shall come up thorns and briers; yes, upon all the houses of joy in the joyous city (this was literally fulfilled! Sennacherib carried off approximately 200,000 captives from Judea before he was turned back by the visitation of the Angel. The joyous city has the sense of unholy mirth; in other words, Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!):

¹⁴Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens forever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks (in Vision, the Prophet sees 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, etc.

The Scholars say that the entirety of this Passage is grammatically strange, the language becoming more complicated, disjointed, and difficult. It is as if there is no language in which the Holy Spirit can properly express Himself, at least that human beings can properly understand);

¹⁵Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. (The Holy Spirit being poured out upon Israel, and in fact the entirety of the world, which will make the wilderness a fruitful field, will happen at the very end of the Great Tribulation, after the Battle of Armageddon, immediately after the return of Christ [Zech. 12:10-13:1].)

¹⁶Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. (The word then signifies when the Spirit is poured out upon Israel and the world from on high. Then judgment and righteousness will remain. Everything that God does is attended by the Holy Spirit.)

¹⁷And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. (The word forever in this Passage means forever, eternity without end. The Righteousness which will cover the Earth then, without fail and perpetually, will be the Righteousness of Christ, which is made possible by what He did at the Cross.)

¹⁸And My People shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places (the picture is one of total security; war has forever ended; the boundaries and dwellings are sure, i.e., secure.

The world has ever tried to bring this about, but with no success, because the world cannot bring such about; it can only come through Christ);

¹⁹When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place. (Babylon, which has always symbolized mans rebellion against God and which is yet to be rebuilt on or close to its ancient site, will be completely destroyed at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation. It is necessary for the intrusion of this Passage in order to portray the demise of mans efforts and the victory of the Holy Spirit.)

²⁰Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass. (During the Millennium, seed-time and harvest will be times of happiness, and not of apprehension, as now. The idea is that every effort of prosperity will be blessed. No effort will be fruitless; all will be bountiful!

The Glorious One, Whom the world now scorns, will be the One Who brings peace, prosperity, and great glory to the entirety of the world. His Name is Jesus.)