Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 28

Verses 1-24

XVI

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 8

Isaiah 28-33

"This section, Isaiah 28-33, is called "The Book of Zion," or "The Book of Woes." The time of this prophecy is the reign of Hezekiah. In the preceding section the prophet contemplated the judgments which were to come in the course of the ages, upon the nations of the world, but in this section he is brought back to his own time and people.

Quite a long time has elapsed since the prophet first foretold the destruction of Samaria (Isaiah 7:17; Isaiah 8:4-8), but the crisis is now close at hand. The northern invaders who have been held back by the divine order so long, are now ready to be let loose, and the "crown of Ephraim’s pride" is about to be buried to the ground. At this solemn period a most important work must be accomplished in Judah, if Jerusalem is to be saved from Assyria. This must be a religious and moral preparation for a divine intervention, which was necessary for her salvation. This indeed had been begun by Hezekiah but it would not prove permanent unless followed up by a steady culture and patient discipline. This was now the task of Isaiah, the prophet. In order to do this he must alarm the "sinners of Zion," reprove the infidel, stir up the worldly and careless to repentance, assure the men of Judah, who trusted in their political schemes of alliance with Egypt, that God would bring their schemes to nought, all this without unduly disheartening the poor and the meek. On the other hand, the faithful disciples were to be cheered. They were to be told that their hope was in the stone which Jehovah had laid in Zion; that Jehovah himself would defend Jerusalem; that the Holy City should be as & tabernacle whose stakes should be secure, and all this without fostering a reliance upon external privileges. This was no mean task, but the prophet rose to the demand of the hour. The prophetic word went forth, giving warning to the rebellious, confirming and establishing the true hearts, and putting all on probation.

The word which determines the natural divisions of this section is "Woe," which occurs at Isaiah 28:1; Isaiah 29:1; Isaiah 29:15; Isaiah 30:1; Isaiah 31:1 and Isaiah 33:1. The divisions are as follows:

1. Woe unto Samaria (Isaiah 28)

2. Woe unto Ariel [Jerusalem] (Isaiah 29:1-14)

3. Woe unto the worldly-wise (Isaiah 29:15-24)

4. Woe unto the rebellious (Isaiah 30)

5. Woe unto them that go down to Egypt (Isaiah 31-32)

6. Woe unto the destroyer (Isaiah 33)

This outline does not coincide with Dr. Sampey’s, but it has the merit of following the author’s divisions rather than the chapter divisions.

In Isaiah 28:1-6 we have the woe unto Samaria, "the crown of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim." This is a solemn warning to Samaria of her speedy downfall. Then the prophet turns to Judah and pronounces the woe upon Jerusalem because she has followed the example of Samaria. This he gives in a series of pictures: In Isaiah 28:7-8 we have the drunken priests and prophets, revelling in their self-indulgence and failing in their visions and judgments. In Isaiah 28:9-10 we hear them mocking Isaiah in his message, saying, "His words are but repetitions, suited to sucking babes." "For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little." Then in Isaiah 28:11-13 the prophet retorts that God would speak to them by men of strange lips, the Assyrians, because he had offered them rest and they would not hear. So now the words of Jehovah would be to them, "precept upon precept," etc., that they might be broken, snared, and taken. In Isaiah 28:14-22 there is a severe arraignment of the rulers of Jerusalem, who had made, or were about to make, secret arrangements with Egypt which, as they thought, would secure Judah against injury at the hands of the Assyrians. This the prophet calls a covenant with death and an agreement with Sheol, and instructs them that their boasted arrangements would fail completely in the time of trial; that Egypt, their refuge would be a refuge of lies and Assyria, the overflowing scourge, would pass through the land and carry all before it; that only those resting on the precious cornerstone would be secure; that in the time of this vexation of the land, their bed which they made would not suffice, for the decree of destruction had already gone forth. In Isaiah 28:23-29 is a parable to comfort believers, to the end that God’s wisdom in dispensing judgment and mercy may be inferred from the skill which he gives to the husbandman. But this he left to their spiritual insight to discover.

Two passages of this chapter are quoted in the New Testament:

1. Isaiah 28:11 is quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:21 to show that the gifts of the baptism of the Spirit, just as the work and message of the prophet, were for a sign.

2. Isaiah 28:16 is quoted in several places in the New Testament and applied to Christ, as the stone of stumbling for the Jews in all ages.

Isaiah 28:20 may be used in accordance with the context here to show how futile it is for a man to turn away from God’s plan, in the matters of salvation, to the devices of men. When the testing time comes, the bed is found to be too short and the covering too narrow.

In Isaiah 29:1-4 we have the prophet’s address to Ariel (Jerusalem) in which he predicts her siege by a terrible army and her great humiliation during that siege. In Isaiah 29:5-8 is the vivid description of this vast host coming up against Jerusalem, but just as the enemy expects to capture her, the host of them is scattered. As it is with one who dreams, so shall it be with this multitude of besiegers. In Isaiah 29:9-12 is a description of Israel’s awful judicial blindness visited upon them by Jehovah because of their sins. All prophecy is to them as a sealed book. In their blindness they cannot read the message. What a picture of the effects of sin! This reminds us of the picture of Jerusalem which was drawn by Christ. The natural man cannot understand divine revelation. The educated and the uneducated are alike helpless. Over against this stands the contrast of Isaiah 29:18. In Isaiah 29:13-14 we have the cause stated. They are in this state because of the condition of their hearts. With the lips they honored God, but their hearts were not with him. How significant is the application of this truth to all our worship and service! In Isaiah 29:17-21 is the prophecy that this condition shall not always pertain to them. The day will come when this condition shall be reversed. The deaf shall hear the words out of the book and the blind shall see. To many this was fulfilled in the days of Christ, but we look ahead of us for the full fruitage of this great promise. In Isaiah 29:22-24 is the climax of the vision in which the marvels of God’s grace upon the sons of Jacob are exhibited. God speed the day of its realization!

The prophetic description here (Isaiah 29:1-8) fits well the historical events of Sennacherib’s siege and the poem, "The Destruction of Sennacherib" by Byron is the best poetic description of this event. Two passages from this chapter are quoted in the New Testament:

1. Isaiah 29:10 is quoted by Paul in Romans 11:8 where it is used to show the judicial hardening of Israel which lasted to Paul’s day and will continue till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

2. Isaiah 29:13 is quoted by our Lord in Matthew 15:8-9 to upbraid the Jews for their hypocrisy and following the commandments of men, showing that the conditions which existed in Isaiah’s time existed also in Christ’s time.

Isaiah 30 consists of an exposure of the alliance with Egypt. In Isaiah 30:1-5 we have the plain prediction that the alliance with Egypt, then forming, would be of no assistance to Judah. The prophet in Isaiah 30:6-17 states the oracle with great power, showing the sin and evil effects of trusting in Egypt rather than in Jehovah. In Isaiah 30:18-26 there is set forth the hope of the future success of God’s people when he shall be gracious to them and confer upon them marvelous prosperity. In Isaiah 30:27-33 we have another vision of the supernatural overthrow of the Assyrians.

In Isaiah 30:33 we have the image of a funeral pyre on which the king of Assyria is to be consumed. Topheth was a place in the valley of Hinnom, that was desecrated by idolatrous human sacrifices (Jeremiah 7:31; 2 Kings 23:10). This was fulfilled, not by the death of Sennacherib in Judah, but by the destruction of his army there, and his own death at home twenty years later (881 B.C).

Chapter 31 is a brief summary of what has been so frequently set forth about Samaria, Jerusalem, and Assyria. The points are as follows: (1) Those who trust in the Egyptian alliance shall fall; ’(2) Jerusalem shall be protected by divine love; (3) the Assyrian shall be driven away in terror. In verses 4-5 Jehovah represents himself as a lion and a mother bird, a picture of his power and tenderness.

By all scholars Isaiah 32 is accounted messianic. It must be considered as a whole in order to understand its parts. It tells us under what king justice shall be rendered in human government, and what influences shall bring about an appreciation of this justice in the hearts of the people, and what shall be the effects of the righteousness rendered by this government and appreciated by these people under this divine influence.

The righteous King is our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Governor of this world. "A king shall reign in righteousness." We have never yet on this earth been blessed with a perfect human government. We do not know experimentally what a genuinely good government is, whose ruler rules according to principles of exact righteousness and uses his office for the benefit of the governed, and to subserve the ends of justice; nor have we ever seen a people whose hearts would properly appreciate that kind of a government, who really desire it or who are willing to work for it and willing to submit to it. The conditions call for a righteous King and righteous subjects. Granted these two and the effect is righteousness, peace, and confidence forever.

We may conceive in our minds of an ideal king whose scepter is a righteous scepter, who loves righteousness and hates iniquity, who holds an even balance when he administers justice, who has no respect to men’s persons, who is a terror to evildoers and as the shadow of a high rock in a weary land to the oppressed. We may conceive of such a ruler, but in earthly governments, we have never known him. We may conceive of a people in their hearts desiring such a government, voting for it, supporting it, on demand sacrificing whatever they have to its maintenance, and then joyfully resting under its benign influence. What a sweet picture to the contemplative mind! Such a king, such a people, and peace and quiet throughout the land, perfect confidence, no doors locked at night, no hired policemen, no standing armies, no dread of burglars or assassins, no distrust in business, engagements, perfect confidence! It is a charming conception. God’s Word declares that this conception shall be realized on this earth; that "a king shall reign in righteousness, and all of the rulers shall rule in judgment."

The influence that prepares the people for that kind of a government is here distinctly set forth. It is said that "thorns and briers shall come up on the land of my people until the spirit be poured out from on high." Without the influence of God’s Spirit the people themselves are not prepared for a righteous administration of affairs. They have what they want. If they wish to promote the wicked they promote them. If they wish to be placed in bondage to the covetous they yield their necks to the yoke. The people are not prepared for good government. And what things disqualify them for living and working for such a government? We get at the disqualifications by ascertaining from this chapter what the blessings are which the Spirit confers by way of preparation.

The first blessing specified is that under the influence of the Spirit they shall see clearly: "the eyes of them that see shall not be dim." This refers to the moral perceptions. Where there are no clear perceptions of right or wrong, where the vision is clouded, everything else will be wrong. If the moral sense of the people be distorted in vision, it will see light as if it were darkness, and darkness as if it were light; it will call a churl a liberal man, and a liberal man a churl; it will label things contrary to their essence and nature. If the eye be not single our very light is darkness, and how great is that darkness! So that we have as the first effect of the Spirit poured out on the people, that they shall see clearly.

It is now painful and humiliating, distressingly so, to get any ten or twelve men or women together and submit for their consideration a question involving morals, and see how variously they look at it. They do not see clearly. And particularly they do not see clearly with reference to the outcome of things. They look at immediate results. They look at present effects. They judge of things by what may immediately follow their performance. They do not project their vision far enough, and they are unable to do it on account of their moral blindness. So the prophet in the middle of this chapter calls on the women to hear his discussion. We do well to recall the words of the apostle Peter concerning the Christian graces, the fruits of the Spirit:

For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins" – 2 Peter 1:8-9.

Yes, he that lacketh these things is dim-eyed. His vision will be blurred. He cannot see things afar off. First of all, therefore the outpoured Spirit enlightens the eye, the moral eye. It makes us see things as they are in the sight of God. If a man is a miser, a covetous man, a churl, we see him to be that way. He appears so to us. He does not seem to be a liberal man. Oh, when the Spirit is poured out then no longer will the liberal man be called a churl and the churl a liberal man. There are examples that may be known and read of all men in every community, of those whose hearts are as hard as a millstone, hearts that have never been melted, never known any mercy, never felt one heartthrob of joy in ministering to the necessities of the distressed, and yet the community stands off and bows before them, and calls them the liberal men of the community. When the Spirit of God is poured out, clearness of vision will be given, and men will see a soul just as easily as they can see a body and the soul that is black will look black, the soul that is shriveled and miserly will look so, and the soul that is slimy and obscene and foul will appear to be so. That is the first effect. Now if people have not that vision, how can they love a righteous king? How can they love a righteous government? How can they desire evenhanded justice? How can they wish to be rid of favoritism, nepotism, and every other form of mischief in government, seeing their eyes are dim and their vision distorted? Clear vision distorted! Clear vision, that is first. They shall see clearly.

The second effect of the out-poured Spirit is, "The ears of them that hear shall hearken." They shall hear distinctly and see clearly. To hear distinctly! You know there is such a thing as hearing and not hearing, "having ears to hear and hearing not," what is called in the Bible an "uncircumcised ear." An ear that does not hearken to what? To the divine voices, to the voice of wisdom speaking on the streets, speaking in places of business, speaking in places of pleasure, speaking in the family circle, speaking in the church and in the Sunday school, the voice of God. The whole earth is filled with the voices of God. As the psalmist says: There is no speech nor language; Where their voice is not heard. There line is gone out through all the earth; And their words to the end of the world.– Psalms 19:3-4.

But if the people have not a hearing ear what matters it about a voice? "Incline your ear and come unto me. Hear and your soul shall live," exhorts the prophet. The giving heed to the monitions of God’s Spirit, to the declarations of his Word, the submitting to the voice of God as the end of controversy, we must have that, to see clearly, to hear distinctly. The right kind of a conscience will hear the faintest whisper of God. God will not have to speak aloud. God will not have to send storms and earthquakes and pestilence and famine and blasting and mildew and other judgments to secure attention. If they have the hearing ear, though God speaks in the stillness of the night, that ear hears his whisper, and like a little Samuel rising up from his bed, saying, "Speak Lord, thy servant heareth."

Oh, for the ear that will hearken to God’s Word, to righteousness. The evil-minded may devise a most mischievous falsehood, a shameful, sensational scandal, without the shadow of foundation in fact, and then with tongue set on fire of hell whisper his story of malice and, behold, the whole earth hears it. They have the ear set for hearing such things. But the good deed has no sound, seems to create no air waves, attains to no publicity. No wonder Paul said, "Whatsoever things are good, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are of good report, think on these things." But they do not hear them. To get an audience, to come within the range of the ear of the world, speech must have a different character.

The third effect of the Spirit is "the heart of the rash [the hasty] shall understand." That means to choose wisely. And what a blundering world this is, as to the choices made! All the time going to the forks of the road, so many times taking the wrong road, so many times preferring the worse to better things, so many times electing that which will bring shame instead of that which will bring honor. Every day there are put out before men and women multitudes of things from which to make a selection. Which will you take? And just see how they do take the poisons, how they take the rubbish, and the degraded, and that which tends downward, and that which debases. Oh, for choice God-guided! And that must come to the people. The hasty! Yes, when Spirit-guided the hasty need never apologize, thus: "I beg your pardon. I was inconsiderate. I acted unthoughtedly. I was indiscreet in that." If we had the clear vision, if we had the hearing ear, then could we decide quickly on a moral question, and decide right. Even the heart of the hasty would be able to understand.

The fourth blessing is to speak plainly. What does the record say? "The tongue of the stammerer shall speak plainly." Now, it is a somewhat ludicrous conception, and yet it does present the truth in a very striking manner. In a time or urgency, where one needs an utterance at once, and clean-cut, how a sharp question confounds a stammering man! It throws him into a fit of agitation. He tries to say something and stammers and stutters, and every kind of an answer seems hanging on the end of his tongue, and he cannot say anything. So there are moral stammerers. Ask him, "How do you stand on this question?" and he begins to stammer at once. It distresses one to listen. We feel like crying out: "Oh, speak plainly! Tell where you are. Don’t stutter all over a world of morals. Do gay one plain, straight-out word." We are cursed with moral stuttering.

The church is cursed with it. Try some time to find out the attitude of even God’s people on a perfectly plain question of morals, or of doctrine, or of practical righteousness, and hear them begin to answer, "Well, I don’t know. Some people think it is this, and some people think it is that." And thus they go limping around, stuttering over it. Do we not know that if the Spirit of God was poured out to give us clear moral vision, so that we could see things as they are, and the hearkening ear, so that God’s whisper would be louder to us than the devil’s thunder – do not we know that if we had that wiseness of heart to choose as quick as lightning between good and evil, that there would not be any stuttering speech? A man would speak right up and Bay: "Here is where I stand; let there be no mistake about it."

We have found the effects of the outpoured Spirit to be clear vision, acute hearing, wise choice, and plain talk. But work follows qualification. The outpoured Spirit exhorts: "Sow beside all waters." The "sowing beside the waters" refers to that planting of rice and wheat in the overflowed waters, as in the overflow of the Nile. They go out in boats when the water covers the whole surface of the country, and they sow it down – "cast your bread upon the waters," i.e., your bread seed. And then they bring the cattle, and drive them up and down, tramping the seed down in the slime so that when the waters recede it has been plowed under by the feet of the stock.

"Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, driving thither the feet of the ox and of the ass." That simply means covering it under. "Cast your bread upon the waters." A distant blessing then that cornea from the outpouring of the Spirit in this ideal government set forth in this prophecy will be that every piece of land fertile enough to grow grain will be sowed down with grain. "Sow beside all waters," that is, cast your seed on every spot of earth that can sprout the seed and make it bear a crop.

To bring the thought a little more closely: Where we have a righteous king, and a people who are endowed with clear vision, hearing distinctly, choosing wisely, and speaking plainly, these people will occupy every foot of ground which God commands them to occupy. They will let no spot of earth remain without a crop, if it can bear a crop.

But look at society as it stands, even Christian societies! You say, "Here is water out here. God has sent the overflow laden with rich soil in solution, which the receding waves deposit. Come, let us sow seed by that water." "No, no; I have my little pond here at home. I must sow in this home pond, this and this only. I will not sow out yonder. Let the waves come and deposit the fertile soil, and the earth wait expectantly for seed to be deposited in its glowing bosom, ready of itself to make it send up the ripening grain that shall bless the earth with bread, all in vain. I won’t sow out there."

What a miserable Christian! What an infinitesimal soul that man has! God brings soil for bread seed, and says, "Go forth, bearing precious seed; go forth casting your bread seed upon the waters; sow beside all waters," and the delinquent church says, "I cannot hear that; I cannot hear that now. We have heathen at home – the Greeks are at our door. I don’t believe in sowing in waters that are far off." No, and he doesn’t believe in sowing in them at home. That is nearer the truth. He does not believe in any sowing at all. The root -of the matter is not in him. The spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ doesn’t reign in his soul; for where the spirit is poured out from on high, and they have the vision of clearness, and the hearkening ear, the wise choice, and the unstammering tongue, they will not stop to consider the clouds. They will not stop to ask whether this or that shall prosper. They will not stop to talk about the narrow circumference of their own field, but they will say, "Lord God, let me send out thy word wherever hearts are hungering and souls are in bondage; wherever the devil throws his black pall of midnight and superstition over the hearts and souls of the people. Oh, God, let me by thy grace send them light to shine in the darkness! Oh, let me hold up my light higher and throw its radiance farther." That is the spirit of the Christian. "Sow beside all waters."

A final fruit of the spirit is: The liberal deviseth liberal things, and in liberal things shall he continue. "Ye did run well for a season," says Paul. What hindered you? Why did you stop? What warranted it? Has God’s plan been modified? Have Christ’s desires abated? Is heaven full? Is the ground of salvation all pre-empted? Are the corridors of deliverance crowded so that there is no room for another one? Is Jesus Christ satisfied? Has he seen all of the travail of his soul that he wanted to see? No. There is room yet; the desire of God for human salvation is unabated; the needs of the lost are increased; the hell that threatens them is nearer to them. Oh, it is near. The damnation is not lingering. It is coming stealthily as the footfall of a tiger, or the spread of a pestilence, but coming nearer and deadlier than before, and we say, "Let us call a halt in liberal things."

"Thorns and briers shall come up on the land of my people until the spirit be poured out from on high." But if the spirit be poured out from on high, and we see clearly, and hear distinctly and choose wisely and speak plainly and sow beside all waters and devise liberal things and continue in liberal things, then that is heaven on earth. The kingdom of heaven has come. Christ is reigning whenever that has come to pass. And the nearer we approach it the nearer we are to heaven. Louder than the big guns of our battleships, louder than the voice of many waters, louder than mighty thunder should be the acclaim of God’s people, saying, "Hosanna to the Iambi Hallelujah! The Lord God omnipotent reigneth, and let the earth rejoice."

Isaiah 33 is a woe against the Assyrian invaders. The prophet, after the great messianic ecstasy in the preceding chapter, comes back to his own times again to take another start. At first he deals with the local situation picturing the invading army of Assyrians, the desolation of the land by them and the awful distress in Jerusalem. Then follows the prediction of the miraculous deliverance of the city and the destruction of the enemy, upon which sinners are made to tremble and the inhabitants of Zion rejoice in quiet confidence by reason of Jehovah’s protecting presence. There are several messianic gleams in this chapter, as "the king in his beauty," "Zion, . . . Jerusalem . . . a quiet habitation, . . . a place of broad rivers and streams," where there is no sickness and the "iniquity of the people is forgiven"

The historical background for this prophecy is the invasion of Sennacherib’s host, the desolation of the land, and the threat of Jerusalem, all of which is described in 2 Kings 18:13-19; 2 Kings 18:37. The essential items of this history are as follows: Sennacherib received at Lachish the stipulated tribute from Hezekiah, but then he demanded the unconditional surrender of Jerusalem. He captured many cities and had broken up all travel. Hezekiah’s ambassadors came home weeping. Then Sennacherib sent an army against Jerusalem to enforce his demands, but Rabshakeh, though skilful in speech, failed to get the keys to Jerusalem. He returned to Sennacherib whose army was visited by Jehovah and destroyed. Sennacherib returned to his own land and was smitten while worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god.

In Isaiah 33:1-6 we have the woe pronounced against the destroyer, showing his destruction, at which he would cease dealing treacherously. Then follows a prayer by the prophet to Jehovah in which he exalts Jehovah as the God of their salvation and the destroyer of the enemy. In this exaltation of Jehovah the prophet gets a glimpse of glorified Zion, filled with righteousness and justice, a city of stability and abounding in salvation, wisdom, knowledge, and the fear of Jehovah. Thus be gives the general outlines of the things which are to follow. In Isaiah 33:7-12 we have the particulars of what the prophet has just stated in general, viz: the shouting of the enemy without, the weeping of Hezekiah’s ambassadors, the waste and desertion of the highways, Sennacherib’s disregard of his covenant and his spoiling of the cities, the languishing of the land, specifying the destructive work of the Assyrian army, at which point he presents Jehovah as rousing himself, delivering his people and disposing of the enemy, as thorns cast into the fire.

In Isaiah 33:13-16 is a description of the effects of this intervention of Jehovah, upon the sinners and the citizens of Zion in which the prophet again leaps upon the messianic heights to show us the characteristics of a true citizen of the New Jerusalem, whose everlasting dwelling place is with Jehovah.

In Isaiah 33:17-24 the prophet assures us that, in that glorious state, we shall see the King in his beauty, we shall behold a universal kingdom, whose inhabitants shall muse on the days of terror and their triumphs over their many adversaries. Then he invites them to look upon Zion and contemplate her security, her king, her broad streams, her feasts and her inhabitants, who are never sick, but are in the joy of the fellowship of their majestic Lord, who reigns forever and ever.

The characteristics here given by the prophet of a true citizen of Zion are very similar to those given by the psalmist in Psalm 15. This true citizen is herein described as righteous, upright in speech, hating oppression, rejecting bribes, stopping his ear to murderous suggestions, and closing his eyes to sinful sights, a blessed ideal yet to be realized. How different now! We are vexed in our righteous souls to behold the unrighteousness, the prevarication, the oppression, the graft, the murders and sinful sights in the present order of things. But this must give way to the principles of the majestic and beautiful king who will reign forever in justice and righteousness.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the section, Isaiah 28-33, called in our outline and what the date?

2. What is the difference in the character of this and the preceding section?

3. What arethe conditions under which this prophecy was delivered, what Isaiah’s task and how did he meet it?

4. What is the key word which marks the natural divisions of this section and what the divisions thus marked?

5. Give a brief synopsis of Isaiah 28, showing its interpretation.

6. What are two passages of this chapter are quoted in the New Testament, what use made of them in each case and what use may be made of verse 20 as touching the plan of salvation?

7. Give a brief synopsis of Isaiah 29, showing its interpretation.

8. What is the fulfilment of Isaiah 29:1-8 and what the best poetic description of the destruction of Sennacherib’s army?

9. What two passages quoted from this chapter in the New Testament, and what use made of them there?

10. Give a brief statement of Isaiah 30 with the important points of interpretation.

11. What is the meaning of Isaiah 30:33?

12. What is the nature of Isaiah 31 and what the points contained therein?

13. What is the nature of Isaiah 32, what in genera] its contents, how does the ideal set forth correspond with present conditions and what the ideal state herein contemplated?

14. What is the influence that prepares for this ideal and what its importance?

15. What is the first blessing of the Spirit herein specified?

16. What is the general condition now respecting moral and spiritual vision and the lesson of Peter on this point?

17. What is the second effect of the outpoured Spirit and what the importance of it? Illustrate.

18. What is the third blessing of the Spirit and what its importance? Illustrate.

19. What is the fourth blessing of the Spirit and what its importance? Illustrate.

20. What is the fifth blessing of the Spirit? Explain and illustrate.

21. What is the sixth blessing of the Spirit and what its importance?

22. What is the nature and contents of Isaiah 33?

23. What is the historical setting of this chapter?

24. Show the progress of this prophecy from the local conditions to the broader mesaianic phases of the kingdom.

25. What are the characteristics, here given by the prophet, of a true citizen of Zion?