UNROLL
Night over the hills around Jerusalem: the city a dark ridge with a few lamps, and on the far hills all around it a wide ring of small campfires.

Woe and a King

Isaiah 29

Can you say all the right words to God and still be far from Him?

24 verses≈ 5 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
  2. 6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
  3. 7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
  4. 13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
  5. 24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
  6. 28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beautyChapter 29
  7. 36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
  8. 40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
  9. 49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
  10. 56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

Woe to David’s City

God
Festival morning in the temple court: fire glowing on the hearth of the great square bronze-faced altar, smoke rising, the plain temple house behind, a few worshipers small at the court's edge.

Woe to you, O Ariel,

the city of Ariel where David camped!

Year upon year

let your festivals recur.

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God

And I will constrain Ariel,

and there will be mourning and lamentation;

she will be like an altar hearth before Me.

God

I will camp in a circle around you;

I will besiege you with towers

and set up siege works against you.

God

You will be brought low,

you will speak from the ground,

and out of the dust

your words will be muffled.

Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground;

your speech will whisper out of the dust.

Isaiah
Isaiah

But your many foes will be like fine dust,

the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff.

Isaiah

Then suddenly, in an instant, you will be visited by the LORD of Hosts with thunder and earthquake and loud noise, with windstorm and tempest and consuming flame of fire.

Isaiah
First light on the hills around Jerusalem: thick white mist in the valleys, rows of low dark army tents half dissolving into it, no one in sight.

All the many nations

going out to battle against Ariel—

even all who war against her,

laying siege and attacking her—

will be like a dream,

like a vision in the night,

as when a hungry man dreams he is eating,

then awakens still hungry;

as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking,

then awakens faint and parched.

Isaiah

So will it be for all the many nations

who go to battle against Mount Zion.

Question

Quick question

The LORD besieges His own city, and then, in an instant, the besiegers are gone. Look at 29:7–8.

What will Jerusalem’s attackers be like (29:7–8)?

Isaiah

Stop and be astonished;

blind yourselves and be sightless;

be drunk, but not with wine;

stagger, but not from strong drink.

Isaiah

For the LORD has poured out on you

a spirit of deep sleep.

He has shut your eyes, O prophets;

He has covered your heads, O seers.

Isaiah
Isaiah

And the entire vision will be to you like the words sealed in a scroll. If it is handed to someone to read, he will say, “I cannot, because it is sealed.” Or if the scroll is handed to one unable to read, he will say, “I cannot read.”

God

Therefore the Lord said:

“These people draw near to Me with their mouths

and honor Me with their lips,

but their hearts are far from Me.

Isaiah 29:13

God

Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.

God

Therefore I will again confound these people

with wonder upon wonder.

The wisdom of the wise will vanish,

and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.”

Isaiah
Night in a low rock-cut room under a Jerusalem house: three richly dressed men bent close over a table in whispered counsel by one clay oil lamp, the door barred, a sealed leather pouch between them.

Woe to those who dig deep

to hide their plans from the LORD.

In darkness they do their works and say,

“Who sees us, and who will know?”

Isaiah
Isaiah

You have turned things upside down,

as if the potter were regarded as clay.

Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,

“He did not make me”?

Can the pottery say of the potter,

“He has no understanding”?

Besieged and blind

yetAriel besieged29:1–4: by the LORDFoes like adream29:5–8: suddenly goneEyes shut29:9–12: a sealedscrollLips, nothearts29:13: near with themouthClay to thepotter29:16: He did not makeme?

Whiteboard

God would rescue the city in a moment. The harder siege was their hearts.

Sanctification for the Godly

Isaiah
Spring on the lower slopes of the Lebanon ridges: dark cedar forest above, and below it new terraces of fig, olive and almond trees in fresh leaf and blossom, a stream between them.

In a very short time,

will not Lebanon become an orchard,

and the orchard seem like a forest?

Isaiah

On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

Isaiah

The humble will increase their joy in the LORD,

and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah
Isaiah

For the ruthless will vanish,

the mockers will disappear,

and all who look for evil

will be cut down—

those who indict a man with a word,

who ensnare the mediator at the gate,

and who with false charges

deprive the innocent of justice.

God

Therefore the LORD who redeemed Abraham says of the house of Jacob:

“No longer will Jacob be ashamed

and no more will his face grow pale.

God
Dusk over terraced Judean hills: two small villages of flat-roofed stone houses, thin smoke from the roofs, lamps lit in doorways, children's figures small in a lane.

For when he sees his children around him,

the work of My hands,

they will honor My name,

they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,

and they will stand in awe

of the God of Israel.

Then the wayward in spirit will come to understanding,

and those who grumble will accept instruction.”

0:18

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

Pray

Lord, I can honor You with my lips while my heart drifts far away. You are the potter and I am the clay. Open my ears to Your word and bring my heart near to You. Amen.

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Isaiah 29

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A verse to carry with you

Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.

Isaiah 29:13

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