87. The LORD Is King

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Hymns: RHC 217 Rejoice – the LORD Is King! 218 See the Con-q-ror Mounts in Triumph 219 There’ll Be No Dark Valley

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. 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. 3 At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered. 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. 5 The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. 6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure. 7 Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly. 8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man. 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. 10 Now will I rise, saith the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself. 11 Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you. 12 And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire. 13 Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might. 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? 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; 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. 17 Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off. 18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers? 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. 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. 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. 22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD isour lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us. 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. 24 And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.

The LORD Is Our King

OUTLINE

  • Look to the LORD in Time of Trouble (v1-6)
  • Despair Looking at the Trouble (v7-9)
  • The LORD Will Show Himself Mighty for His people who Acknowledge Him (v10-19)
  • The LORD Shall Deliver Them (v20-24)

INTRODUCTION

When the LORD superintends over His people and His people are looking to Him, there shall be fruitfulness, the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. God’s people shall dwell in peaceable habitation and in sure dwelling and in quiet resting place (Isaiah 32:16b-18).

Isaiah 32:16b-18 (KJV) … and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. 17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. 18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;

This was the blissful state of man in the Garden of Eden before the hissing of the serpent disturbed the peace of God’s paradise carefully and wonderfully made for the peace and joy of Adam and Eve. God in fellowship with man. When men fell, God made coats of skin to cloth Adam and Eve to cover their shame and nakedness as a result of their rebellion against the rule of God over their lives.

Genesis 3:15 (KJV) And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Fast-forward, to the wilderness of Sinai, God delivered Israel out of Egypt. It was the first day and the first year of the Jewish calendar. And on the first day and the following year, the Tabernacle was raised, God in fellowship with His people. A replica of Eden. That was 1444 B.C. On the 14th day, of the second year, they partook of the Passover, to commemorate their deliverance by the lamb that was killed and the blood spread over their homes that spared their first-born when the plague sent by God came into Egypt, a year earlier.

Exodus 40:32-38 (KJV) When they went into the tent of the congregation, and when they came near unto the altar, they washed; as the LORD commanded Moses. 33 And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. 34 Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. 36 And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: 37 But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. 38 For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

God led Israel and God cared for all the needs of His people as He brought them into through the wilderness to the Promised Land.

When Israel entered the Promised Land, the First Temple was built in 1000 BC by King Solomon after King David conquered Jerusalem and made it his capital. 

2 Chronicles 6:21 (KJV) Hearken therefore unto the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, which they shall make toward this place: hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven; and when thou hearest, forgive.

2 Chronicles 6:24-25 (KJV) And if thy people Israel be put to the worse before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee; and shall return and confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house; 25 Then hear thou from the heavens, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers.

2 Chronicles 6:28-31 (KJV) If there be dearth in the land, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting, or mildew, locusts, or caterpillers; if their enemies besiege them in the cities of their land; whatsoever sore or whatsoever sickness there be: 29 Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house: 30 Then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according unto all his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men:) 31 That they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, so long as they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers.

This chapter relates to the same events as the foregoing chapter, the distress of Judah and Jerusalem by Sennacherib’s invasion and their deliverance out of that distress by the destruction of the Assyrian army. The time is 710 B.C.

There are significant remains of preparations made by King Hezekiah when a siege on the city by Sennacherib King of Assyria was imminent. Today, those remains include Hezekiah’s Tunnel and the Broad Wall in the Jewish Quarter.

More than the arms of flesh, it will be the prayer of His people to their God that will bring forth their deliverance.

It will be a lesson not just for Israel but for the nations of the world to see that the God of Israel is the living and true God of the universe.

In the fullness of time, God came to dwell with man, Emmanuel, the Word was made flesh and dwelled among men. Jesus Christ is the final revelation of the presence of God with His people and no further. In Him, is redemption for their sins, which the Tabernacle and the Temple signify.

God dwelling with His people will find its culmination in the return of Christ to establish His millennia Kingdom on earth from Jerusalem. There will be a Millennia Temple in Jerusalem according to Ezekiel’s prophecy Ezekiel 40-48.

The great privilege of God dwelling with His people was the message of the prophet Isaiah to Judah, the remnant of God’s people in Israel. 

  • Look to the LORD in Time of Trouble (v1-6)
  • Despair Looking at the Trouble (v7-9)
  • The LORD Will Show Himself Mighty for His people who Acknowledge Him (v10-19)
  • The LORD Shall Deliver Them (v20-24)
  • Look to the LORD in Time of Trouble (v1-6)

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. 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. 3 At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered. 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. 5 The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. 6 And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.

With the impending approach of the Assyrian army, the remnant of Judah pleaded with the LORD to be gracious unto them as they wait upon Him (v2a). They understood that salvation comes from the LORD in the time of trouble (v2b).

The enemy will plunder and has plundered the surrounding nations (v3) but will be discomfited and the spoiling of the Assyrian will be the enriching of His people (v4).

In the defeat of the Assyrian, the LORD will be exalted. There in Zion, where God dwells, there will be His justice and righteousness meted out on behalf of His people – And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, andstrength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.

The fear of the LORD, to resort to Him first, will be their salvation. 

The proud and false Assyrian justly reckoned with for all his fraud and violence and laid under a woe (v1). The sin which the enemy had been guilty of. He had spoiled the people of God, and made a prey of them, and herein had broken his treaty of peace with them and dealt treacherously. 

Truth and mercy are two such sacred things, and have so much of God in them, that those cannot but be under the wrath of God that make conscience of neither, but are perfectly lost to both, that care not what mischief they do, what spoil they make, what dissimulations they are guilty of, nor what solemn engagements they violate, to compass their own wicked designs. Bloody and deceitful men are the worst of men. 

The aggravation of this sin. He spoiled those that had never done him any injury and that he had no pretense to quarrel with and dealt treacherously with those that had always dealt faithfully with him. The less provocation we have from men to do a wrong thing the more provocation we give to God by doing it. The punishment he should fall under for this sin. He that spoiled the cities of Judah shall have his own army destroyed by an angel and his camp plundered by those whom he had made a prey of. [Matthew Henry]

  • Despair Looking at the Trouble (v7-9)

7 Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly. 8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man. 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.

The approach of the Assyrian will be frightening by all accounts. There will be carnage all through the route the enemy came by, plundering and destroying.

There is no reasoning with the enemy. Ruthless, cruel and complete will be the plunder as their trails are followed.

The choicest plains of Israel made desolate in Sharon, Bashan and Carmel! Lebanon further up north has already been decimated.

There is no use talking to them, the enemy will make no peace and so the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly. No reconciliation!

  • The LORD Will Show Himself Mighty for His people who Acknowledge Him (v10-19)

10 Now will I rise, saith the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself. 11 Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you. 12 And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire. 13 Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might. 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? 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; 16 He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall bethe munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure. 17 Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off. 18 Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers? 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 prophet Isaiah predicted the LORD answering the prayer of His people who come before Him for help. They acknowledged Him that He is God and there is none other.

For the righteous in Jerusalem, the LORD will show Himself strong for them. He will deliver them by His power.

The praying people of God earnest at the throne of grace for mercy for the land now in its distress (v2): “O Lord! be merciful to us. Men are cruel; be thou gracious. We have deserved thy wrath, but we entreat thy favour; and, if we may find the propitious to us, we are happy; the trouble we are in cannot hurt us, shall not ruin us. It is in vain to expect relief from creatures; we have no confidence in the Egyptians, but we have waited for thee only, resolving to submit to thee, whatever the issue of the trouble be, and hoping that it shall be a comfortable issue.” 

The Assyrian army ruined and their camp made a rich but cheap and easy prey to Judah and Jerusalem. 

He has struck a terror upon the sinners in Zion (v14). 

He has graciously provided for the security of his people that trust in him: Hear this, and acknowledge his power in making those that walk righteously, and speak uprightly, to dwell on high (v15-16). 

The good man’s character, which he preserves even in times of common iniquity, in divers instances. He walks righteously. In the whole course of his conversation he acts by rules of equity, and makes a conscience of rendering to all their due, to God his due, as well as to men theirs. 

His walk is righteousness itself; he would not for a world wilfully do an unjust thing. He speaks uprightly, uprightnesses(so the word is); he speaks what is true and right, and with an honest intention. He cannot think one thing and speak another, nor look one way and row another. His word is to him as sacred as his oath, and is not yea and nay. 

He is so far from coveting ill-gotten gain that he despises it. He thinks it a mean and sordid thing, and unbecoming a man of honour, to enrich himself by any hardship put upon his neighbour. He scorns to do a wrong thing, nay, to do a severe thing, though he might get by it. He does not over-value gain itself, and therefore easily abhors the gain that is not honestly come by.

If he has a bribe at any time thrust into his hand, to pervert justice, he shakes his hands from holding it, with the utmost detestation, taking it as an affront to have it offered him. 

He stops his ears from hearing any thing that tends to cruelty or bloodshed, or any suggestions stirring him up to revenge (Job 31:31). [Matthew Henry]

  • The LORD Shall Deliver Them (v20-24)

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. 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. 22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us. 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. 24 And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.

Looking to the LORD is deliverance. As the psalmist says in Psalm 46 – Psalm 46:1-11 (KJV) To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. 4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. 5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. 6 The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. 7 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. 8 Come, behold the works of the LORD, what desolations he hath made in the earth. 9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. 10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. 11 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us. Amen.