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Agape Bible Study
Isaiah Isaiah 32-33
Chapter 32: Hope and Woe: A Description of the Righteous Kingdom
Isaiah 32:1-8 ~ Characteristics of the Righteous Nation
Question: In this passage, Isaiah mentions two characteristic of a righteous nation; what are they?
Answer:
- Just/righteous leadership
- A rejuvenated society that is able to rightly discern between justice and injustice and between righteousness and evil
Question: Isaiah used what four similes to describe the blessings of righteous leadership in 32:2?
Answer:
- Like a shelter from the wild
- [Like] a refuge from the storm
- Like streams on arid ground (streams in the desert)
- Like the shade of a solid rock in a desolate land
A rejuvenated society is Isaiah's second important feature of the righteous kingdom God will bring about. The former negative aspects of society will be replaced by right judgment.
Question: What four parallels or contrasts does Isaiah use in verses 3-4?
Answer:
- The closed eyes of God's visionaries will be opened.
- The ears of hearers will hear.
- The hearts of those who were impulsive will become discerning.
- The tongues of those who stammer will become coherent.
Baruch
Isaiah 32:9-20 ~ Prelude to the Kingdom: Judgment, Mourning, and the Outpouring of God's Spirit
Question: What does Isaiah call the complacent women of Jerusalem to do and why?
Answer: He calls them to mourn because within a year hard times were coming.
The Ophel and the Keep in verse 14 refer to the oldest inhabited part of the city of Jerusalem where David established his palace in the residence of the former Jebusite rulers.
Isaiah is probably referring to the Assyrian advance through Judah and their siege of the city in 701 BC. But there is hope because God's spirit will bring restoration to the land and the people.
Question: In what four ways does Isaiah say God's spirit will bring restoration at all levels in 32:15-18?
Answer:
- The land will become fertile including desert areas (verse 15).
- Domestic animals will have plenty of areas to graze in peace (verses 16-17).
- Justice and righteousness will prevail in the land (verses 16-17).
- The people will enjoy lasting security (verse 18).
The restoration Isaiah foretold would come as a result of the working of God's divine will for His covenant people. It is the same work of God in Isaiah's time that is active today in the lives of individuals and nations "in blessings for the good for the righteous and in judgment for the wicked.
Chapter 33: The Final Oracle Against Assyria and Judah's Salvation
Isaiah 33:1 ~ God's Woe against Assyria
This is Isaiah's 6th woe judgment. It is obvious that the judgment is against the Assyrians. God has used them as His instrument of judgment against the Northern Kingdom, but they have not behaved as a just people in destroying the focus of their aggression and betraying even their allies.
Question: What is the divine judgment that is pronounced against them?
Answer: They in turn will be destroyed and betrayed by their allies.
The Assyrians had not realized their role in Yahweh's divine plan, but they day will come when they will understand it was not by their might alone that they have conquered nations (see Is 10:5-7).
Isaiah 33:2-6 ~The People's Plea for God's Mercy and their Enemy's Destruction
After the hopeful announcement in verse 1, the people now petition God to show them mercy and to be their protector (verse 2). They have confidence that God's power alone can scatter their enemies (verses 3-4).
Question: When the enemy is driven off, what will become of the spoil they left behind that is now rightfully Yahweh's?
Answer: It will be stripped from the ground like grasshoppers and locusts strip a grain field when the people enter the enemy camp and collect the spoils.
Isaiah 33:7-9 ~ The People Lament and wait for Redemption
In verse 9 Lebanon is in the north, the Plain of Sharon is the fertile coastal plain extending south of Mt. Carmel, and Bashan is the fertile plateau of south Syria extending across to the foothills of Gilead on the east side of the Jordan River. In Hebrew the word carmel means "garden" or "orchard," but the reference is probably to Mt. Carmel, a range of fertile forested hills on the western border of the land near the Mediterranean coast.
Isaiah 33:10-24 ~ The Lord's Reply
Yahweh replies to the people's lament in verses 10-14.
Question: What does God tell His people? What groups of people will be affected?
Answer: He is ready to act. They have been ineffective in defending themselves (verse 11), but He will demonstrate great works on their behalf (verse 12) to afflict the enemy (verse 13), and the sinners and godless of Jerusalem/Zion will be fearful and panic-stricken by the realization that divine judgment is upon them (verse 14).
Isaiah 33:17-24 ~ Isaiah's Description of God's Day of Restoration
Question: How does Isaiah describe the day Jerusalem will witness God's restoration?
Answer:
- Their king, Yahweh, is secure on His throne (verses 17 and 22).
- They will recall the past terrors and ask where their insolent oppressors have gone "the enemy who spoke a strange language and their own leaders who abused their authority (verses 18-19).
- They will see that the holy city of Jerusalem is secure as the center of worship and a secure beacon of peace (verses 20-21).
- The people will again acknowledge Yahweh's sovereignty over His people as divine judge, lawgiver, king and savior (verse 22).
The major theme in chapters 7-33 has been the sovereignty of God over Judah and other nations. The question for Judah has been whether the covenant people will trust God and allow Him to be their king or whether they will deny His sovereignty over them in trusting to their own plans and in accepting the help of foreign nations. Verse 22 is the climax of that theme in a spiritual reawakening of Judah to the real nature of their relationship with Yahweh as King, lawgiver and Savior.
DAY 206 The Resurrection of Jesus
CHALLENGE: “There’s no good evidence that Jesus actually rose from the dead.”
DEFENSE: The Resurrection explains the evidence we have better than any alternative hypothesis does.
According to the Christian message, Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried. He rose from the dead, his tomb was found empty, and he appeared to his disciples. Finally, he ascended into heaven in their presence.
The pivotal claims here are that he died, rose from the dead, and ascended. The latter is often overlooked, but it was a key part of the Christian message, both for its theological significance and—for our present purposes—because it explains why Jesus was no longer walking the streets of Jerusalem.
People saw Jesus die and ascend, but nobody saw him resurrect, since it happened while he was in the tomb. The evidence the apostles offered for the Resurrection is that the tomb was found empty and Jesus began appearing—alive—to the disciples.
How else might one explain the above ? Some have proposed that the disciples lied: They were crooks, stole Jesus’ body, and lied about the Resurrection appearances and the Ascension.
If they didn’t lie, how could we explain the empty tomb? Some have proposed the disciples went to the wrong tomb, that someone other than the disciples stole the body, or that Jesus didn’t he just became unconscious on the cross. That could also explain how he later appeared to the disciples.
Other proposals for how he could have appeared include that it wasn’t really Jesus who was crucified but an identical twin, that an impostor afterward appeared to the disciples, or that they simply hallucinated. Some have even proposed that the disciples didn’t think the tomb was empty and that they believed Jesus had been “spiritually” resurrected.
All these hypotheses are fraught with problems. Most explain either the empty tomb or the Resurrection appearances, but not both. Most also ignore Jesus’ Ascension into heaven.
To fix the problems, it could be tempting to combine hypotheses (e.g., the disciples went to the wrong tomb, then hallucinated the Resurrection appearances), but combined hypotheses inherit problems from both originals.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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