Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 34

Verses 1-8

XVII

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PAST 9

Isaiah 34-39

Isaiah 34-35 form an appendix to the preceding parts of the book, setting forth the storm of God’s wrath upon the whole world, and the face of nature in its sweetest forms and brightest colors, after the storm is over.

They constitute the counterparts to one great picture. The first part contains a denunciation of divine vengeance against the enemies of God’s people and the second, a description of the glorious state of things after the execution of these judgments is finished. The awful picture, with its dark lurid hues, prepares the way for the soft and lovely portraiture of the blessed condition which follows.

This section opens with a call to all nations and people, the earth and the fulness thereof, the world and all things therein, to hear the prophet’s message concerning Jehovah’s indignation, which shows that the judgments to follow embrace the whole world.

There are three distinct paragraphs in Isaiah 34. In Isaiah 34:1-7 we have announcement of the final judgment upon the whole world, including Edom as the leader. In Isaiah 34:8-15 we have the details of the judgment upon Edom as the ideal representative of the world. In Isaiah 34:16-17 the prophet appeals to the written word.

The allegorical view of the use of the word, "Edom," in this chapter is in no way inconsistent with the existence of a basis of historical fact, therefore we adopt this view for the following reasons:

1. The invitation shows that the message to be delivered was on universal interest arid application, yet the language is parabolical in kind.

2. The allegorical character of Isaiah 35 is undeniable, but the two chapters are linked together by the very phraseology’. As the Zion of Isaiah 35 is the ideal "city of God," so the Edom of Isaiah 34 must include all who hate and persecute the mystical Zion.

3. The names, "Edom and Bozrah," occur in another allegorical passage (Isaiah 63:1-6).

4. Edom, the surname of him who "despised the birthright," was a fitting designation for those who profanely slighted their privilege as God’s special people.

5. The context is admittedly figurative, but if the lambs, bullocks, and goats be symbolical, then the unclean animals that are to occupy their places should be so, too.

6. In Hebrews 12:16-17 Esau stands as the type of profane and sensual-minded men, who are identified with those against whom Moses warned Israel in Deuteronomy 29:18-23. The idea is further carried out in the next paragraph. In Isaiah 34:8-15 we have the more detailed account of God’s vengeance against the enemies of Zion, which is likened unto that upon Sodom and Gomorrah. This, of course, is not literal, but typically represents the punishment of God’s dreadful vengeance upon all his enemies while Edom is here again made the type. Isaiah 34:10 shows that this curse is to be everlasting in its typical aspect while the following verses show that Edom, as an example of such destruction, was to be literally and perpetually laid waste, and history verifies this prophecy respecting Edom.

The book referred to in Isaiah 34:16 is the book of Moses and perhaps includes the earlier prophets which had written in them the threatenings against the ungodly. At this time the Pentateuch and history of Joshua and Judges, and the history of the reigns of the kings up to this time had been written and preserved, but the reference is very likely to the Pentateuch, primarily, which was complete in one book and kept in the ark of the covenant. This appeal to the book by Isaiah is to prove that he was in line with the threatenings and judgments which preceded his time and that his prophecies were to be regarded as equal in inspiration and authority with the other scriptures of his day.

Isaiah 35 is a glorious counterpart of the judgment on Edom in Isaiah 34 and is distinctly messianic. The outline of these contents consists of three items. In Isaiah 35:1-2 we have the blessings on the land pronounced which reverses the corresponding desolation of Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon, because of "the glory and excellency of our God." This is a general statement of the reversal of the judgments before predicted. In Isaiah 35:3-4 is a general announcement of the hope and good cheer on account of the recompense of God. Then in Isaiah 35:5-10 the prophet particularizes these blessings which were literally fulfilled in the ministry of Christ. Then the prophet shows us the highway that shall be there, the way of holiness, with no unclean person, no fools and no ravenous beasts walking therein, over which the redeemed shall walk and the ransomed of Jehovah shall return with songs of joy to Zion, where they shall have everlasting joy upon their heads and where sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Thus commencing with the restoration to their land, then passing on to the coming and healing work of the Messiah the prophet closes with the blessing of their conversion. This hope is kept constantly before the holy remnant of Israel by Isaiah, stimulating them in these dark and gloomy hours, just As when the weary traveler gains The height of some o’er-looking hill, The sight his fainting spirit cheers, He eyes his home, though distant still.

This section, Isaiah 36-39, in our outline of Isaiah is called "The Historical Interlude," sometimes called "The Book of Hezekiah." There is a reference to this section in 2 Chronicles 32:32, thus: "Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his good deeds, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel." as a matter of history almost all this section is embodied in 2 Kings 18-20, which should be carefully studied in connection with this passage in Isaiah.

This section may be regarded as the history of how Hezekiah stood the test applied to him. A like test was put to Ahaz (Isaiah 7:3-17), and he, an unbeliever as he was, simply put the offered grace from him, as swine would deal with pearls cast before them. But Hezekiah’s test reveals a different character, one vastly more interesting and instructive for God’s people in all ages. He proves to be a man of faith in God and, in a large measure, wins out in the conflict, but fails in the matter of the Babylonian messengers and the pride of his heart. Yet again he shows that he was a child of God in that he humbled himself so that the threatened wrath of Jehovah came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah. The case of David and Solomon, in which the consequences of Solomon’s sins were deferred till after his death for the sake of David, is similar to this.

This section divides itself into two parts, viz: (1) Sennacherib’s invasion (Isaiah 36-37) ; (2) Hezekiah’s sickness, and the embassy from Babylon (Isaiah 38-39).

Isaiah 36-37 contain a history of an event which had been predicted long before and frequently alluded to afterward (see Isaiah 8:5-10; Isaiah 10:12-19; Isaiah 10:33-34; Isaiah 30:28-31; Isaiah 31:8). It was stated definitely that the stream of Assyrian conquest, after it had overflowed Samaria, would "reach even to the neck" of Judah, and then be suddenly turned back. The fact of the prediction is unquestionable. The actual overthrow of the Assyrian power is as certain as any event in the world’s annals. These two chapters are thus the historical goal of tile book from Isaiah 7-35. So this part of the book is as inseparable from the preceding part of the book as fulfilment is inseparable from prediction itself.

Isaiah 38-39 are, on the other hand, the historical starting point for the rest of the book. These two chapters tell of the failure of the man who had checked the stream of national corruption; who suppressed idolatry, restored the Temple worship, and followed the guidance of the prophetic word; who had been rescued, both from a fatal malady and from the assault of the Assyrian king. When such & one fell away, no higher proof could be given that Judah must be subjected to the severe discipline of the captivity. With this dark foreshadowing there was a necessity for the following chapters of comfort.

The date of Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem is significant. The record tells us that this event was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, king of Judah, which was forty-six years after the vision of Isaiah 6. This taken in connection with Isaiah 37:30 indicates that they were on the threshold of the Jubilee Year which, with its blessings, should be the sign unto Hezekiah that God would make the Jubilee laws effective at this time and deliver the land from the hand of Sennacherib.

From 2 Kings 18:13-16 we learn that the immediate cause of Sennacherib’s invasion at this time was Hezekiah’s refusing to pay tribute. But the record also tells us that Hezekiah righted this wrong to the king of Assyria by sending the tribute and begging his pardon. This did not satisfy Sennacherib because he had a motive beyond that of getting the tribute, for we see him demanding the unconditional surrender of Jerusalem avowedly to be followed by deportation. This was an act of perfidy, as well as of cruelty and arrogance. Undoubtedly Sennacherib’s motive was not merely political, but he was bent on proving that Jehovah was on a level with the gods of other nations. Assyria had become a great power and, as she thought, had overcome the gods of all the other nations, including Samaria whose God was Jehovah. Just one more step now was needed to make Assyria the lord of the world, and that was the capture of Jerusalem. This evidently was his ulterior motive in this invasion.

In Isaiah 36-37 we have the details of this history which is a thrilling account of a conflict between the true and the false religion, similar to that of Moses and Pharaoh, or Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Here it is the Assyrian gods versus Jehovah. The items of this history are as follows: Rabshakeh was sent by Sennacherib from Lachish against Jerusalem with a great army which stopped at the upper pool near the Joppa gate, where Isaiah met Ahaz some forty years before.

Messengers from Hezekiah at once went out to meet Rabshakeh through whom he sent a message to Hezekiah belittling his confidence in Egypt and in Jehovah, saying that Egypt was a bruised reed and could not be depended upon, and that Jehovah had commissioned him to destroy the land of Judah. Then the messengers asked Rabshakeh to speak in the Assyrian language so the people on the wall could not understand, but he deliberately refused to comply, saying that he was sent to speak to the people on the wall. Then he grew bold and made a strong plea to those who heard him to renounce allegiance to Hezekiah and come over to Sennacherib, but they held their peace as they had been instructed to do. Upon this came the messengers to Hezekiah with their clothes rent and told him the words of Rabshakeh. Hezekiah when he heard it rent his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of Jehovah.

Then he sent messengers to Isaiah to ask him to pray for the remnant. Isaiah returned word that there was no need of fear, for Jehovah would send Sennacherib back to his own land and there he would die. Rabshakeh returned to find his master pushing the conquest on toward Egypt and hearing at the same time that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, was coming out to help Hezekiah. This seemed to provoke Sennacherib and he sent a letter to Hezekiah to warn him again putting his trust in Jehovah, reminding him also of the Assyrian victories over the gods of the other nations. Then Hezekiah took the letter and spread it before Jehovah and prayed.

For pointedness, faith, and earnestness, this prayer has few equals on record. Just at this time came another message from the Lord through Isaiah, assuring Hezekiah of the Lord’s intervention, as in very many instances before, to deliver his people from this Assyrian, whom he would lead by the nose back to his own land. Then follows the sign of Jehovah to Hezekiah assuring him that the remnant should prosper under Jehovah’s hand, reannouncing also the defeat of the plan of Sennacherib to take Jerusalem. The rest of Isaiah 37 is an account of the destruction of the Assyrian army by the angel of Jehovah and the death of Sennacherib in his own land.

Isaiah 38 opens with the statement, "In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death," which is far from being a precise date, but the promise of fifteen years added to his life and the twenty-nine years of his reign in all, fixes the date in the fourteenth year of his reign, which is the date given in Isaiah 36:1. In Isaiah 38:5-6 the two deliverances are coupled together in a way which suggests that they stood in some close relation to each other. Thus we are led to look on these two pairs of chapters, not as successive in point of time, but as contemporaneous.

In the record here Hezekiah’s malady is called a boil, but we learn that it was a special disease marked by the signs of leprosy. The same word occurs in Exodus 9:9-11 to describe the Egyptian plague of "boils," in Leviticus 13:18-20 to describe the boil out of which leprosy sprang, in Deuteronomy 28:27; Deuteronomy 28:35 to describe the "boil of Egypt" and the "sore boil that cannot be healed," and in Job 2:7 to describe the "sore boils" with which Job was smitten. So, humanly speaking, his disease was incurable.

When the prophet announced that Hezekiah must die he prayed and wept. The prayer, as recorded here, is very brief but pointed, pleading his own faithfulness to Jehovah, an unusual petition though allowable in Hezekiah’s case because it was true and was in line with the promise made to Solomon (1 Kings 9:4).

It was no weak love of life that moved Hezekiah to pray for recovery. It was because that he, who had followed God with all sincerity, appeared to be stricken with the penalty fore-ordained for disobedience. Leprosy means "a stroke," and was believed to be a stroke from God. That was what made the stroke so exceedingly bitter. He was not to witness that great exhibition of God’s truth and mercy toward which the faithful had been looking for almost thirty years. Such was a sore trial to Hezekiah.

Upon the direction of the prophet, a cake of figs was applied. This remedy is said to be employed now in the east for the cure of ordinary boils. But it was quite an insufficient cure for this incurable "boil" from which Hezekiah was suffering. In miraculous cures, both the Old Testament prophets and our Lord himself sometimes employed means, insufficient in itself, but supernaturally rendered sufficient, to effect the intended cure. (See 1 Kings 17:21; 2 Kings 4:34; 2 Kings 4:41; 2 Kings 5:14; John 9:6; Mark 7:33-8:23, etc.) These are examples of the natural and the supernatural working together for the desired end.

The sign given Hezekiah was the turning back of the shadow on the dial ten degrees. The dial was, perhaps, a large structure consisting of steps upon which the shadow of a great shaft was allowed to fall, which indicated the position of the sun in the heavens. In this case the shadow was made to run back, instantly, ten degrees. How this miracle was performed the record does not say, but it may have been seen by the law of refraction which does not make it any less a miracle. Hezekiah wrote a song of thanksgiving for his recovery, which in the first part looks at the case of his sickness from the standpoint of the despair and gloom of it, while the latter part treats the case from the stand point of the deliverance and wells the note of praise. In the middle of this poem we find his prayer which he prayed in this dark hour.

Hezekiah made a great mistake in the latter part of his life in allowing himself to become exalted in his prosperity and not humbling himself before the Lord as in former years (2 Chronicles 32:24-33). So when God tested him again in the matter of the messengers from Babylon, he failed because he had not the spirit of discernment so as to know their purpose to spy out the land. He showed them everything and thus prepared the way for the capture of Judah by the Chaldeans.

The closing part of this section shows the necessity for the second division of the book. This part closes with the announcement of the captivity and gives us a very dark picture which calls for the opening sentence of comfort in the next division. Hezekiah is reconciled to it as we see from his language, but evidently it is to be understood in this connection that the prophet had already revealed to him that there should be peace and truth in his days. Now, if Hezekiah had his message of comfort and was thereby able to joyfully acquiesce in the future calamity already announced, should we not expect a message of comfort also for Judah? The last twenty-seven chapters furnish just such comfort for Judah, that she too might not despair in view of the approaching captivity.

From the many lessons that might be selected from the life of Hezekiah I take but one. Though he was upright and so highly commended in the Scripture (2 Kings 18:5-7) he had a burden of guilt, from which only God’s grace could absolve him. He could not stand as the "Righteous Servant," who should "justify many" by "bearing their iniquities." If good Hezekiah could not, what child of man can? Nay, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the relation of Isaiah 34-35 to the preceding parts, especially the preceding section, of the book?

2. What is the relation of these two chapters to each other?

3. How does this section open and what the nature of the prophecy as indicated by it?

4. What is the analysis of Isaiah 34?

5. Why adopt the allegorical view of the use of the word, "Edom," in this chapter?

6. How is the idea further carried out in the next paragraph?

7. What is the book referred to in Isaiah 34:16 and what the import of this appeal to the Word?

8. What is the nature of Isaiah 35 and what the brief outline of its contents?

9. What is the section, Isaiah 36-39, called, where may we find a reference to them and where do we find nearly the whole of them embodied?

10. What, briefly, is the theme of this section, what similar test was applied to a king of Israel prior to this and what the difference in the deportment of the two kings under the test of each, respectively?

11. What case in the history of Israel similar to this?

12. How is this section divided and, briefly, what does each part contain?

13. What is the date of Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem and what the significance of the date in the light of Isaiah 37:30?

14. What is the cause of Sennacherib’s invasion at this time?

15. What are the essential points in the narrative of Sennacherib’s attack upon Jerusalem?

16. What is the date of Hezekiah’s sickness?

17. What was Hezekiah’s malady and what ita nature?

18. What did Hezekiah do when the prophet announced that Hezekiah must die and what plea did he make?

19. Why did Hezekiah pray to be healed?

20. What is remedy did he apply and why?

21. What is the sign given Hezekiah?

22. How was this miracle performed?

23. What expression have we of Hezekiah’s gratitude for this divine deliverance and what the viewpoints from which it deals with the case?

24. What was Hezekiah’s great mistake in the latter part of his life?

25. How does the closing part of this section show the necessity for the second division of the book?

26. What is great lesson from the life of Hezekiah?