Passage:
Isaiah 29:1-8
The Siege of Jerusalem
The Siege of Jerusalem
1 Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel.
3 And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you.
4 And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper.
5 But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly,
6 you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.
8 As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.
Journal: Apparently, the setting of Chapter 29 is about 20 years later than the events of Chapter 28 [around 701 B.C.]. Here, the threat of Assyria is great, Jerusalem is under siege, and King Hezekiah is wavering in his faith while being tempted to solicit assistance from pagan Egypt. [Recall from Isaiah 20 that Isaiah had persuaded King Hezekiah to not call on Egypt for assistance during the "Ashdod crisis" around 711 B.C.] It is in this context that God uses his prosecutor, Isaiah, to charge the people with wavering faith and with disobedience. It is here that the second woe is announced - the woe of God's displeasure towards unfaithfulness.
First, Isaiah proclaims that the proud of Jerusalem will be "brought low." ["29:4 And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper."] My daughter Vera [age 8, down syndrome], when she is scolded, often looks to the ground and whispers her acknowledgement of the root of her parent's displeasure. It is barely audible and she is in great emotional pain. I can picture the rebellious standing before God in much the same manner. The "fist shaking" of life on earth will become the "speechlessness" of the dust of eternity. [The picture of "dirty Vera" illustrates our filth outside of God's grace. The picture of "clean Vera celebrating her birth" illustrates a new birth due to the work of Christ.]
Yet, this dust of eternity, though a reasonable destiny for us all, is not the destination of us all. For God, in His mercy, has granted a reprieve for His children through Christ Jesus. Much like the dust of the Garden of Eden became the life of Adam, the dust of eternity becomes life for God's children through the work of the second Adam [Christ]. The reprieve granted Jerusalem in 701 B.C. is illustrative of God's grace. Assyria, though poised to strike a deadly blow to God's chosen nation, is completely thwarted by miraculous intervention. [29:5-8 "But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly, you will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire. And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night. As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion."]
Isaiah speaks of this great miracle in Chapter 37 --
33 "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. 34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD.
35 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David."
36 And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
36 And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
37 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh.
The miracle is far larger than a battle fought almost 3,000 years ago. And so was the message of the Father to Satan. You shall not lay siege against my chosen children. For I will defend my children for my own sake. And thus Christ was crucified for the sins of those who believe. And so Satan was defeated and thus departed to the loneliness of his dust . . .
