Isaiah-33

 [Isaiah 33:1] WOE TO THEE THAT SPOILEST, AND THOU WAST NOT SPOILED; AND DEALEST TREACHEROUSLY, AND THEY DEALT NOT TREACHEROUSLY WITH THEE! WHEN THOU SHALT CEASE TO SPOIL, THOU SHALT BE SPOILED; AND  WHEN THOU SHALT MAKE AN END TO DEAL TREACHEROUSLY, THEY SHALL DEAL TREACHEROUSLY WITH THEE.
As a person does so is done unto him. When disaster strikes us or even discomfort comes upon us we should examine our deeds and attitudes. Maybe there is something in  us that needs correction. This does not mean that we should disregard direct causes or ignore harmful elements. It is another aspect. In addition in doing what we have to or what we should to cope with life and avoid future unpleasantness to ourself and others we should also look for our own faults and try to correct them.

 [Isaiah 33:2] O LORD, BE GRACIOUS UNTO US; WE HAVE WAITED FOR THEE: BE THOU THEIR ARM EVERY MORNING, OUR SALVATION ALSO IN THE TIME OF TROUBLE.
Put strength in our arms to keep going with renewed strength and vigor. In time of trouble endow us with added energies and might to overcome adversity.
The people were in trouble asked for strength and received it.

 [Isaiah 33:3] AT THE NOISE OF THE TUMULT THE PEOPLE FLED; AT THE LIFTING UP OF THYSELF THE NATIONS WERE SCATTERED.
People make a lot of noise.  As soon as it is clear that the noise-makers are going to face disaster if they continue they usually fly away.  So would we.  “He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day”.

The Prophet is moving back and forth. He is giving expression to a situation in its before-and-after sequences and back again. How it was , what happened, how it should have been, how we should be, how it was again.

 [Isaiah 33:4] AND YOUR SPOIL SHALL BE GATHERED LIKE THE GATHERING OF THE CATERPILLER: AS THE RUNNING TO AND FRO OF LOCUSTS SHALL HE RUN UPON THEM.
Explained like the visitation of locusts. Locusts and caterpillars of a certain type are “Kosher” and can be eaten. Today we do not eat them but in Ancient Times the Israelites used to. Swarms of locusts would come up, make a great humming noise (like the sound of  numerous motors and aircraft), and settle on the ground in great swarming hordes. The people would go out and simply gather them up to be eaten.
So too, the enemy will come up in horded masses of numbers, cover the face of the earth, make a great humming noise, and then flee away leaving all his equipment  and wealth to be gathered up by the Judaeans and Israelites.

 [Isaiah 33:5] THE LORD IS EXALTED; FOR HE DWELLETH ON HIGH: HE HATH FILLED ZION WITH JUDGMENT AND RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Amos Chacham says these verse is understandeable at one and the same time in the following ways:
God does righteous judgement against enemies of Judah who cam to fight against Zion..
Causes Judah and the Israelites to repent so that they do judgment and righteousness.
 Fills Zion with booty taken from the enemy. Even though the booty is taken from what belonged to the enemy the people of Zion have a just claim to take it as their own.

 [Isaiah 33:6] AND WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE SHALL BE THE STABILITY OF THY TIMES, AND STRENGTH OF SALVATION: THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS HIS TREASURE.
“WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE” Each generation has its own pecularities. In the past there were times were emotion or “spirituality” held the key. In our time we need knowledge, intellectual appreciation, facts.  This is the pathway in our time to lead Israel back to repentance and belief. The height of religious acheivement however is beyond acknowledgement and concerns the FEAR OF THE LORD.  

 [Isaiah 33:7] BEHOLD, THEIR VALIANT ONES SHALL CRY WITHOUT: THE AMBASSADORS OF PEACE SHALL WEEP BITTERLY.
The Prophet appears to have switched back in time to the stages that preceded the salvation described above. Our ambassadors were going out and begging for terms of surrender. The terms offered were so heartless and cruel that the emissaries broke down weeping bitterly.

 [Isaiah 33:8] THE HIGHWAYS LIE WASTE, THE WAYFARING MAN CEASETH: HE HATH BROKEN THE COVENANT, HE  HATH DESPISED THE CITIES, HE REGARDETH NO MAN.
“HE HATH BROKEN THE COVENANT” The enemy does not keep his agreement. How can you expect him to? Like a wild dog before a freshly-wounded pigeon how can you expect the beast to restrain himself?

 [Isaiah 33:9] THE EARTH MOURNETH AND LANGUISHETH: LEBANON IS ASHAMED AND HEWN DOWN: SHARON IS LIKE A WILDERNESS; AND BASHAN AND CARMEL SHAKE OFF THEIR FRUITS.
These are all places in Israel according to the Bible.
Lebanon – mountainous, good for grapes, etc and milk products. The names Albion applied to England and Alban for Scotland derive from the name Lebanon.
SHARON – a fertile plain on the coast. Good for orchards and field produce.
Bashan- east of the Jordan: Prairie like. Still good for cattle and sheep grazing. Once quite productive now somewhat arid due to Arab ecological practices.
Carmel – a fertile field, English countryside type country.

 [Isaiah 33:10] NOW WILL I RISE, SAITH THE LORD; NOW WILL I BE EXALTED; NOW WILL I LIFT UP MYSELF.
God will reveal His might.

 [Isaiah 33:11] YE SHALL CONCEIVE CHAFF, YE SHALL BRING FORTH STUBBLE: YOUR BREATH, AS FIRE, SHALL DEVOUR YOU.
He is talking to the enemy. The fiery breath (specialised weaponry) that your brought to use against Zion will backfire and destroy you.

 [Isaiah 33:12] AND THE PEOPLE SHALL BE AS THE BURNINGS OF LIME: AS THORNS CUT UP SHALL THEY BE BURNED IN THE FIRE.
Jews were gassed and their bodies burned. Babies that suckled their mother’s breast and thus were somehow saved from the gassing were hurled alive into the furnaces.
The Arabs would do the same if they could.
What was done to us will God do to the enemy.

 [Isaiah 33:13] HEAR, YE THAT ARE FAR OFF, WHAT I HAVE DONE; AND, YE THAT ARE NEAR, ACKNOWLEDGE MY MIGHT.
People all over the world will see what has happened and begin to repent.
In the Gulf War we had a glimpse of how God can protect us:
About 30 Scud missiles were sent against Israel. When whole streets of houses were destroyed  all the inhabitants were in the street; when half a house was obliterated the entire family were sitting in the half that escaped; when the major gas depot of all Tel Aviv received a direct hit all the gas had been removed due to the detection of an unexplained leakage, etc. Thousands of miracles were recorded. It is true that one person was killed from a direct hit and about a hundred died due to heart attacks, asphyxiation due to not putting the gas masks on correctly etc.  A chain of Chemist shops received direct hits on three different occasions. This chain had insisted on opening its shops on the SABBATH.
On the whole we saw that God was with us even though we may not have deserved it.  I was in Israel at the time I remember the whole country reading the Psalms and remaining quite calm throughout the whole affair.
The USA and Britain lead the War. British pilots were outstandingly brave. They fought for their own interests but later claimed to have been fighting on behalf of  the State of Israel.  In a sense they were.
The fact that this claim was made (by the then President Bush) was in itself significant. It was not strictly true but to my way of thinking reflected a subconcious acknowledgement of what should be.

Incidentally the State of Israel had contingency plans to take Sadam out. Israel was requested not to participate. After the War Israel received a “payment” in the form of nuclear submarines from Germany and other goodies for not having taken part.

I  heard on the news this morning that a wedding hall in Jerusalem collapsed. Perhaps more than 20 people have been killed and hundreds injured. This is without a war.

More people are killed or injured in Israel through traffic accidents on the Sabbath Day (when driving for Jews should be forbidden) that all the wars of Israel.  

 [Isaiah 33:14] THE SINNERS IN ZION ARE AFRAID; FEARFULNESS HATH SURPRISED THE HYPOCRITES. WHO AMONG US SHALL DWELL WITH THE DEVOURING FIRE? WHO AMONG US SHALL DWELL WITH EVERLASTING BURNINGS?
“THE SINNERS IN ZION ARE AFRAID” – Who would not be?
To be a dead hero for a good cause may be one thing, but for bad things you never really enjoyed and did not really want anyway?

 [Isaiah 33:15] HE THAT WALKETH RIGHTEOUSLY, AND SPEAKETH UPRIGHTLY; HE THAT DESPISETH THE GAIN OF   OPPRESSIONS, THAT SHAKETH HIS HANDS FROM HOLDING OF BRIBES, THAT STOPPETH HIS EARS FROM HEARING OF BLOOD, AND SHUTTETH HIS EYES FROM SEEING EVIL;
This describes someone who takes bribes. He may not have started out that way. Often a person sins a little here a little there and then finds himself in a quagmire he cannot get out of but  which seems to drag him deeper and deeper to depths he would never have dreamt of descending to.  e.g. A policeman who takes a minor bribe to overlook  something he could not do anything about anyway suddenly finds himself forced to look away from things he would once have given his life to prevent. This is an extreme case but in little ways we all are faced with the temptation top make similar compromises that entrap us.
If each one of us does the best he can in his own particular field he also strengthens others and vice versa. People subconsciously communicate with each other. Strengthen one another, encourage – or the opposite.  One can generate an enormous amount of good without realizing it with just a little effort.

 [Isaiah 33:16] HE SHALL DWELL ON HIGH: HIS PLACE OF DEFENCE SHALL BE THE MUNITIONS OF ROCKS: BREAD SHALL BE GIVEN HIM; HIS WATERS SHALL BE SURE.
Someone who is righteous and does not take bribes but does what he should will be looked after by God.

 [Isaiah 33:17] THINE EYES SHALL SEE THE KING IN HIS BEAUTY: THEY SHALL BEHOLD THE LAND THAT IS VERY FAR OFF.
The righteous shall return to Zion and see the land. They shall see the Messiah.

 [Isaiah 33:18] THINE HEART SHALL MEDITATE TERROR. WHERE IS THE SCRIBE? WHERE IS THE RECEIVER? WHERE IS HE THAT COUNTED THE TOWERS?
Things one would not have imagined. Indescribable in their glory will be revealed to us.

 [Isaiah 33:19] THOU SHALT NOT SEE A FIERCE PEOPLE, A PEOPLE OF A DEEPER SPEECH THAN THOU CANST PERCEIVE; OF A STAMMERING TONGUE, THAT THOU CANST NOT UNDERSTAND.
The foreigner who came against us, who spoke a language we did not understand will have disappeared.

 [Isaiah 33:20] LOOK UPON ZION, THE CITY OF OUR SOLEMNITIES: THINE 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.

 [Isaiah 33:21] BUT 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.   

 [Isaiah 33:22] FOR THE LORD IS OUR JUDGE, THE LORD IS OUR LAWGIVER, THE LORD IS OUR KING; HE WILL SAVE US.
God will help us allways.

 [Isaiah 33:23] THY TACKLINGS ARE LOOSED; THEY COULD NOT WELL STRENGTHEN THEIR MAST, THEY COULD NOT  SPREAD THE SAIL: THEN IS THE PREY OF A GREAT SPOIL DIVIDED; THE LAME TAKE THE PREY.

 [Isaiah 33:24] AND THE INHABITANT SHALL NOT SAY, I AM SICK: THE PEOPLE THAT DWELL THEREIN SHALL BE FORGIVEN THEIR INIQUITY.
The bottom line is that God wants to forgive us and to bless us.

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Chapter Thirty-Four
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