CHAPTER 33

(713 B.C.)

WOE TO THE ANTICHRIST

¹Woe to you who spoils, and you were not spoiled; and dealt treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with you! when you shall cease to spoil, you shall be spoiled; and when you shall make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with you. (The whole of this Chapter contrasts Christ with the Antichrist. The one king is willful, a spoiler, a traitor, a devastator, and a murderer. The Other came not to do His Own Will; He enriches with abundance of Salvation, Wisdom, and Knowledge; He is faithful; He fills the land with plenty; and He abolishes sickness and death.

The first they of Verse 1 means the servants of Hezekiah; the second they, the sons and servants of Sennacherib.)

²O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for You: be You their arm every morning, our Salvation also in the time of trouble. (The Spirit of Christ in Isaiah pleads with and for the sons of Israel; hence, the change of pronoun from we to their. The word arm means defense.)

³At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of Yourself the nations were scattered. (The tumult spoken of refers to the night of terror, when the host of the Assyrians was destroyed by the coming of the Angel; 185,000 Assyrians died that night. More particularly, it speaks of the tumult that will prevail when Jesus Christ comes back in the Battle of Armageddon and destroys the Antichrist. At this time, the nations will be scattered.)

⁴And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them. (Upon the coming of the Angel who killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, the Israelites gathered the spoil as locusts leap upon and gather every green thing. Likewise, when Jesus Christ abruptly intervenes in the Battle of Armageddon, the armies of the Antichrist will be destroyed and much spoil gathered [Zech. 14:14].)

⁵The LORD is exalted; for He dwells on high: He has filled Zion with Judgment and Righteousness. (On this night in question when the Angel was sent, Jehovah did indeed lift up Himself; hence, He is declared to be exalted. And yet, the total exaltation awaits a future fulfillment.)

⁶And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of Your times, and strength of Salvation: the fear of the LORD is His treasure. (The stability of Your times is a beautiful statement which the world has little enjoyed. It refers to the Messiah as the true Hezekiah. In His times, there shall be a boundless Salvation; the wealth which will distinguish Him will be His fear of Jehovah.)

⁷Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly. (The ambassadors of peace, sent by Hezekiah to Sennacherib to beg him to respect the covenant, were refused admission to the kings presence and had to remain without. As well, this is a portend of the coming Great Tribulation, when Israel will try to make peace with the Antichrist, but to no avail [Dan. 7:19-25; 8:20-25; 9:27; 12:7].)

⁸The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceases: he has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, he regards no man. (Hezekiah stripped the Temple of its wealth and gave it to Sennacherib. The Assyrian king took the money, broke the covenant that had been made, and devastated the country. All this suffering, as well as the Temple sacrilege, would have been avoided, if only Hezekiah had obeyed the Bible and not followed his own counsel. All of this was totally unnecessary!)

⁹The Earth mourns and languishes: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits. (Man now being at his extremity of misery and helplessness, Grace can act and Judgment fall Grace to Gods People and Wrath to their foes but sadly, most have to come to the extremity of misery before Grace can work.)

¹⁰Now will I rise, says the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up Myself. (The word now gives us the time. Sennacherib has robbed Judah, insulted God, and now threatens Jerusalem. The Lord will lift Himself up by sending one Angel, who will destroy 185,000 of the troops of Sennacherib.)

¹¹You shall conceive chaff, you shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you. (All the Assyrian plans against Jerusalem shall be mere chaff and stubble. They shall all come to naught. On an even greater scale, this will happen to the Antichrist and all who are with him.)

¹²And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire. (Thorns and lime burn very hot but are consumed very quickly. Such will be the brevity of time that God will use to stop Sennacherib.)

MESSIAHS MILLENNIAL REIGN

¹³Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might. (The great miracle that God brought about by the sending of an Angel and destroying 185,000 of the Assyrian army in one night was definitely heard far off. As well, it was acknowledged that it was the Hand of the Lord and not of man [II Chron. 32:23].)

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? (The Jews who desired to go down into Egypt and seek their help were now afraid. The Holy Spirit called them sinners and hypocrites. The devouring fire spoken of here is the Wrath of God. The everlasting burnings have to do with the Judgment of God, which would come upon them next, as well as eternal Hellfire. Although in Zion, yet were they Godless, i.e., without God and unlike God, that is, unconverted. Similarly, multitudes today are in that which professes to be the City of God, but their hearts are strangers to Christ.)

¹⁵He who walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he that despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands from holding of bribes, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil (if a person really knows the Lord, Righteousness is going to be their lifestyle, which will be obvious; in other words, when a person comes to Christ, they are gloriously changed; otherwise, they havent really come to Christ!);

¹⁶He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. (In todays terminology, to dwell on high refers to being raised up together, and made to sit together in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus [Eph. 2:6].

The munitions of Rocks refer to Christ. Paul said, That Rock was Christ [I Cor. 10:4].

The Bread that is given is the Bread of Life, which is the True Bread, Christ Jesus [Jn. 6:32, 35].

The sure waters refer to the mighty Baptism with the Holy Spirit [Jn. 7:37-39].)

A VISION OF JERUSALEM UNDER THE MESSIAH: AT PEACE, RESTORED

¹⁷Your eyes shall see the King in His beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off. (At this time, Jerusalem saw Hezekiah in sackcloth, but the day is coming when they will see the Messiah, the King, in His beauty.)

¹⁸Your heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he who counted the towers? (Gods Wrath, as exhibited with terror in the destruction of the Assyrian host, shook with terror the heart of the unconverted in Zion, but was a subject of profitable meditation for the heart of the converted. The faithful, when musing on the destruction of the enemy, exultingly ask, Where now are these unbelieving officials?)

¹⁹You shall not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than you can perceive; of a stammering tongue, that you cannot understand. (That generation did no longer see the Assyrians; however, the Verse has a far greater meaning. The greater meaning goes all the way to the Antichrist. The word not is to be understood in the sense of never again. Israels enemies will never again be seen, for war in the Kingdom Age will now be a thing of the past [Isa. 2:2-4].)

²⁰Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: your eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. (Sennacherib thought to reduce Zion to ashes, destroying its Temple. Instead, he was destroyed. More particularly, this Passage refers to the coming Glad Day when Christ will reign supreme in Jerusalem. The Believer will feast his eyes upon the King and upon His Kingdom.)

²¹But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. (Great rivers were the foundation of wealth and strength for Assyria and Egypt, the greatest Monarchies of that day; however, the Messiah, and not rivers, etc., will be the foundation of all wealth and strength in the coming Millennial Day. The Lord will be to all as broad and deep streams of Grace and Glory. On such streams, no warship will ever sail; for there will be no war, because the Messiah will be Judge, Lawgiver, and King. He will be an Almighty Saviour.)

²²For the LORD is our Judge, the LORD is our Lawgiver, the LORD is our King; He will save us. (Jesus Christ is everything!)

²³Your tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil di vided; the lame take the prey. (The overthrow of the enemy is compared to a shipwreck and to a ruin so complete that even cripples would become victors. The spoil at Armageddon will be in great abundance, and those who were thought to have been defeated will take the prey. This refers to Israel.)

²⁴And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people who dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. (When sin is abolished, sickness shall no more exist. The one is the cause; the other, the effect. This will be the blessing of the coming Kingdom Age, when Christ will reign Personally and Supreme.)