Day 205 Isaiah 29-31

As we said earlier, the oracles of Isaiah of Jerusalem (sometimes called First Isaiah), who was active between 742 and 700 B.C., are not arranged in any strict chronological order—so his collection of visions and prophetic utterances addresses one emergent situation and then another—and then the first again. Each of the oracles should, therefore, be read as a separate work complete in itself, and the collection is united by certain themes and by the wonderfully vivid style in which Isaiah writes, and not by a chronological sequence.
That said, our reading for today dates from the time of the siege of Jerusalem by the Assyrian armies—701 B.C.—and a few years before. Ariel (29:1.2) is the poetic name of Jerusalem, the city of David; it has two meanings—"lion of God" and "altar hearth." It is the probably the second meaning that the prophet has in mind when he says that "Jerusalem shall be [to the LORD] like an Ariel"—in other words, the city will burn like an altar. But it is not the Assyrian armies, but it the LORD himself who menaces Ariel, besieging it just as David once did. God is the lion who threatens the city. The citizens of Judah cannot recognize that God is responsible for their dilemma because their prophets are "blind" and "drunk, but not with wine" (29:9). "The LORD has poured out upon [you prophets and seers] the spirit of deep sleep," Isaiah says, so that "the vision of all this has become for you like the words of sealed document"
(29:10-11).
But even though other seers are unable to read the words of that sealed document, Isaiah prophesies "shocking and amazing" things the LORD will do to shake his people into consciousness. They are lulled by their rituals and caught up in the hypocrisies that always seem to gather around organized religion. In Matthew 15:8-9 Jesus quotes this passage from Isaiah to denounce the rigid, pharisaical Judaism of his own time—"These people draw near [the LORD] with their mouths and honor [him] with their lips, while their hearts are far from [him], And their worship . . . is a human commandment learned by rote" (29:13). It is Isaiah's role to prophesy certain destruction to the sleepy and complacent people of Jerusalem.
Yet the prophet always holds out the promise of restoration beyond the inevitable disaster that is coming. The armies that besiege Jerusalem and indeed "all the nations that fight against Ariel" and "distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision in the night" (29:7), he says. They will all flee away like a waking dream. After the present danger has passed, 'the tyrant [Assyria] shall be no more," together with those who "without grounds deny justice to the one in the right" (29:21). The house of Jacob shall return to the LORD, "and those who err in spirit will come to understand, and those who grumble will accept instruction" (29:24).
The next oracle jumps back in time. Earlier Judah had foolishly made diplomatic overtures to Pharaoh, hoping to set the two super-powers of Assyria and Egypt against each other. The prophet denounces these machinations, because the plan does not belong to God (30:1), and therefore it is doomed to failure. Such scheming represents a lack of faith in the power of the LORD to save his people. Egypt's help will prove as "worthless and empty" as the body of the dead monster Rahab, personified chaos, killed in order to create the world (30:7). Isaiah denounces all false optimism, condemning those prophets who speak only "smooth things" and "prophesy illusions" (30:10). Such prophecy shall be "shattered so ruthlessly that among its fragments not sherd [will be] found for taking fire from the hearth or dipping water out of the cistern" (30:14). No, says the LORD, the strength of Judah shall not be found in alliances with Egypt or in their
horses and chariots (31:1). "The Egyptians are human, and not God, their horses are flesh, and not spirit" (31:30
It is "in returning and rest [the people] shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be [their] strength" (30:15). And the LORD promises that when they abandon their "idols of silver and idols of gold" (31:7), their "eyes shall see their Teacher" (30:20-21) and he will guide them. And for them "the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on the day when the LORD binds up the injuries of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow" (30: 26).
The ruthless armies of Assyria, through whom the LORD's judgment has come, will themselves be judged. They will be "terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod" (30:31). God has a plan for their destruction—their "burning-place has long been prepared, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it" (30:33). Like a young lion the LORD fights to protect Ariel. The Assyrians and their king shall fall, not by a human sword, but by the sword of the LORD, "whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem" (31:9).