Year 2, Week 6, Day 3 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 6, Day 3

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Isaiah 30-32.

Today’s reading continues Isaiah’s prophecy to Judah. Isaiah 30 opens with a rebuke of Judah’s decision to form an alliance with Egypt for protection: “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the LORD, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!” (Isaiah 30:1-2). Isaiah 31 brings up the matter again: “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD! The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit” (Isaiah 31:1,3). Through Isaiah, the LORD calls Judah back to Himself, but they refuse: “For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling” (Isaiah 30:15). Isaiah 32, while acknowledging the troubles that await Jerusalem, promises the future reign of a King: “Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land” (Isaiah 32:1-2).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is the role that God’s Spirit would play in promised restoration that Isaiah speaks of: “For the palace is forsaken, the populous city deserted; the hill and the watchtower will become dens forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks; until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest” (Isaiah 32:14-15). While things are in disarray and desolation, the Spirit would be poured on God’s people from on high. The outpouring of the Spirit would usher in a time of righteousness, peace, and joy: “Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. And it will hail when the forest falls down, and the city will be utterly laid low. Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free” (Isaiah 32:16-20).

In an ultimate sense, Isaiah describes a time that is still future: “But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). But we can also speak of a partial sense to Isaiah’s promises—not complete, but truly present. In the aftermath of Christ’s ascension, the Spirit has been poured out on God’s people: “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (Acts 2:33). God’s people now have the Holy Spirit: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19). The Spirit internally works righteousness, peace, and joy in us and through us: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). The blessings of the New Covenant, ratified by the blood of Christ, have now become operative in our hearts: “And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:27-28). While future elements of Isaiah’s promises still await, the era of the Spirit has begun: “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).

Experiencing the operations of the Spirit is always referenced in connection to repentance: “Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you” (Isaiah 31:6-7). The same call to repentance was seen on the Day of Pentecost: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). And while the Holy Spirit dwells believers permanently, their is a dynamic interplay between our obedience and repentance, and the experience of the Spirit’s presence: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice” (Ephesians 4:29-31). Our lives should not sorrow the Spirit, for we need the Spirit’s work in our hearts. There is no substitute to the righteousness, peace, and joy that the Spirit produces.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe