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Agape Bible Study
Isaiah 34-36
Chapter 34: Eschatological Condemnation of the Nations
Chapters 34-35 serve a similar purpose as chapters 24-27 (Isaiah's Apocalypse) in that these chapters are an eschatological summation of the previous section in chapters 28-33. Some scholars refer to chapters 34-35 as Isaiah's "Little Apocalypse." Biblical scholars have even suggested that chapters 34-39 form a literary bridge between chapters 1-33 and 40-66 (Brevard Childs, Isaiah: A Commentary, page 255). In this chapter Isaiah answers the people's questions: Is Yahweh really the people's only hope for their salvation, and can they count on Him to establish His kingdom among them?
Isaiah's description of God's wrath against the nations is revealed in three sections:
- Isaiah calls the nations to experience God's wrath (verses 1-4).
- Isaiah announces that Edom is singled out as representative of hostile foreign nations who will receive God's judgment (verses 5-15).
- Isaiah gives God's assurance that He will accomplish all that He has spoken through His prophet (16-17).
Isaiah 34:1-4 ~ A Call to the Nations
Judah has responded to God's judgment in sending the Assyrians as His instrument of judgment by repenting and once again acknowledging God's sovereignty over them, but the foreign nations have not. Now God declares war against those nations who interfere with His covenant people and His divine plans for them (verse 1).
The Hebrew word herem means both the "curse of total destruction" and "consecration;" in both cases the deaths become a sacrifice to Yahweh. The wicked are utterly destroyed while the innocent who perish because of the wickedness of their people become a consecration to God who loves the innocent who are free of guilt, as in the case of the conquest of Canaan when the Canaanites were judged with herem for their sins against humanity in the sacrificial murders of children. In that case, the Israelites were God's instrument of judgment.
God will avenge Himself against the wicked of the nations, and Isaiah's words function as a prediction of events to come (verses 2-3). The gruesome language in verse 3 speaks of devastation so total that no one will be left to bury the dead.
Isaiah 34:5-15 ~ Judgment against Edom
The nation of Edom, located at the south end of the Dead Sea, had a long history with the Israelites. They were the descendants of Esau the son of Isaac and Rebekah who was the twin brother of Jacob-Israel, the physical father of the twelve tribes of Israel (Gen 36:1). There was an earlier judgment against the Edomites in Isaiah 21:11-16, but in this case the destruction of Edom represents God's general judgment on foreign nations, like the judgment against Moab in Isaiah 15:1-9. There is a historical reason for this hostility. When the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem in 587/6 BC, the Edomites took advantage of the misfortune of the citizens of Judah, and later prophets took a severe view of the Edomites for this reason (see Ps 137:7; Lam 4:21-22; Ex 25:12; 35:15; Oba 10-16). Both the Moabites and the Edomites had the opportunity to remain a part of God's covenant people "Lot, the father of the Moabites with Abraham and Esau with Isaac with whom the Abrahamic covenant with Yahweh continued. Both groups of peoples separated from the covenant people and went the way of paganism. Therefore, that their judgment will representing all nations that turn away from Yahweh is fitting.
Isaiah 34:16-17 ~ Summary Statement
Yahweh's book in verse 16 might refer to the record of Isaiah's visions that he was told to write down (30:8) or perhaps to the whole of Sacred Scripture up to the time of Isaiah as in, for example, God's creation of the animals, each with its mate (Gen 1:25; 2:18-20).
Chapter 35: The Redeemed will see God's Salvation
Isaiah 35 is a hymn celebrating God's promised restoration of Jerusalem in the era of the Messiah. The Church uses Isaiah 35:1-10 in the Advent liturgy of the 3rd Sunday, Cycle A, to encourage the faithful in the joyous hope that God will come again to complete His mission in bringing salvation to His people.
Isaiah 35:1-3 ~ God will show His Salvation in the Messianic Age
The "asphodel" in verse 2 is a plant of the lily family.
The focus of Isaiah's message shifts abruptly from judgment that awaits everyone who opposes God's divine plan for the nations in chapter 34 to the announcement of the joy of the redeemed as they witness and experience the salvation God will bring to His people in chapter 35. God's redemption features three elements:
- God will show His salvation in nature (35:1-2).
- God will encourage the weary and downtrodden (35:3-6a).
- God will renovate the land (35:6b-10).
In verses 1-2, Isaiah announces that Yahweh will first show the coming of salvation in nature. Growth would spring up in formerly unproductive desert areas. He compares those areas with the fertility of Lebanon and the Plain of Sharon near Mt. Carmel.
Sennacherib's Invasion
Chapter 36: Sennacherib's Invasion
Sennacherib was the son of King Sargon II of Assyria, the king who completed the conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and deported its citizens into Assyrian lands to the east. Sennacherib ruled the Assyrian Empire from 705-681 BC. The chief concern of his reign was the continued resistance of the Babylonians to Assyrian rule which culminated in the complete destruction of the city of Babylon in 689 BC. He carried out military campaigns against the nation of Judah, against other nations in the Levant, against the kingdoms of Anatolia and against the Arabs. He was also known as a builder, and it was during his reign that Assyrian art and culture reached its peak.
Hezekiah was 25 years old when his father King Ahaz died, and he became sole ruler of Judah. He was either king from 727 to 698 BC or from 715 to 686 BC. The former dates are calculated by a synchronism with the reign of King Hosea of Israel (2 Kng 18:1), while the latter dates are derived from a synchronism between 2 Kings 18:13, Isaiah 36:1, and Sennacherib's inscriptions. The differences in date may be accounted by the fact that Hezekiah probably served as his father's co-ruler for a number of years and the differences in which the Assyrians and the Northern and Southern Kingdoms calculated the reigns of kings.(1)
The practice of elevating the heir to co-ruler was common when a Davidic king was ill and worried about a smooth succession for his son or when the nation was threatened by war:(2)
- When King David was close to death, he made his son Solomon co-regent to safely secure Solomon's ascension to the throne of Israel (1 Kng 1:28-40).
- When King Asa became ill he made his son Jehoshaphat co-regent (1 Kng 15:23; 2 Chr 16:12).
- The threat of war made Jehoshaphat establish his son Jehoram as co-regent (1 Kng 22:4, 32-33; 2 Kng 8:16).
- When Uzziah/Azariah was struck with leprosy, he made his son Jotham co-regent (2 Kng 15:5; 2 Chr 26:21).
- Jotham made his son Ahaz co-regent during the threat of the Syro-Ephraimite War (2 Kng 15:32-16:9).
Isaiah does not record that King Hezekiah withdrew from the alliance his father made with the Assyrians, but it is recorded in the Book of 2 Kings: And so Yahweh was with him [King Hezekiah of Judah], and he was successful in all that he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him. He beat the Philistines back to Gaza, laying their territory waste from watchtower to fortified town (2 Kings 18:7-8).(3) When Sargon II died and his son Sennacherib succeeded him in 705, a number of Assyrian vassal kingdoms revolted and declared their independence, including the Kingdom of Judah. It was Hezekiah's revolt against the Assyrians that brought about the Assyrian army's invasion of Judah.
The year of the Assyrian invasion of Judah was 701 BC. Isaiah chapters 36:1-38:8 contain a near verbatim repeat of the narrative found in 2 Kings 18:13-20:11, but it does present some additional information not found in Isaiah. For example Isaiah does not mention that Sennacherib's invasion was in response to Hezekiah's revolt (2 Kng 18:7-8) or the details of the invasion found in 2 Kings 18:13-16 ~ 13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria advanced on all the fortified towns of Judah and captured them. 14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish, "I have been at fault. Call of the attack, and I will submit to whatever you impose on me." The king of Assyria exacted three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold from Hezekiah king of Judah, 15 and Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the Temple of Yahweh and in the palace treasury. 16 At which time, Hezekiah stripped the facing from the leaves and jambs of the doors of the Temple of Yahweh, which an earlier king of Judah had put on, and gave it to the king of Assyria. Also see 2 Chronicles chapter 32 and Sirach 48:17-25.
Realizing an Assyrian invasion was imminent, Hezekiah attempted to form an alliance with Egypt. It was an alliance that was condemned by the prophet Isaiah when Hezekiah's embassy was leaving for Egypt to ask the Pharaoh for Egyptian support against the Assyrians in c. 703-02 BC (see Is 30:1-7; 31:1-3). Sennacherib's campaign against the rebellious states of Phoenicia, Philistia, and Judea in 701 BC is documented in Assyrian Annals and bas-reliefs.(4) According the Assyrian records, the imperial Assyrian forces captured forty-six Judean towns. The most important fortified Judahite town was Lachish. Sennacherib took the city in 701 BC and set up his headquarters there. When Sennacherib took Lachish, about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem, Hezekiah capitulated and sent a letter repenting his rebellion together with a large amount of tribute to the Assyrian king, hoping to appease the Sennacherib and to save the nation of Judah. Unfortunately Hezekiah's tribute and his repentance did not appease Sennacherib. A more complete history of Hezekiah's reign including his many religious reforms is found in 2 Chronicles 29:1-32:33.
Isaiah 36:1-10 ~ King Sennacherib's Rab-shakeh (cupbearer-in-chief) addresses King Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem
See the parallel passages in 2 Kings 18:26-37 and in 2 Chronicles 32:9-23. When Sennacherib became king (705-681 BC), he immediately set about putting down the revolts against the Assyrian Empire generated by his father's death. First he addressed the revolt in Babylonia which gave Hezekiah some time to prepare of an inevitable Assyrian invasion. Hezekiah appears to have consolidated Judah into four administrative districts and stored food supplies for his army in specially marked containers. He also prepared Jerusalem for a possible siege by repairing and strengthening the city walls, adding a new line of walls and building watchtowers. The springs outside the city walls were stopped up and the city's main water source, the Gihon Spring, was redirected into a tunnel to fill a new reservoir made at the southwestern end of the hill of Zion in Jerusalem (2 Kng 20:20; 2 Chr 32:1-8, 30). "Hezekiah's Tunnel" was an engineering marvel for its time, and today water still flows through it the 1,748 feet from the Gihon Spring to the pool of Siloam through the limestone bedrock of Jerusalem. Two teams dug the tunnel from opposite ends and met at the mid-point.
Isaiah 36:11-12 ~ King Hezekiah's Ministers' Request
Aramaic had become the dominant language of the region, and therefore, the diplomatic language, but the Assyrian commander was speaking in Hebrew.
While the diplomats understood Aramaic, the common people did not, and Eliakim did not want the people standing inside the top of the city walls to hear the terrible things the Assyrian minister was saying to intimidate them and to cause a rift between the king and his people. The Assyrian minister refused the request because it was his intent to speak directly to the people and to cause them to oppose their king's plans. His reference to dung and urine in verse 12 was intended to make the people think of the terrible consequences of a prolonged siege.
Isaiah 36:13-22 ~ The Rabshakeh of King Sennacherib attempts to intimidate the People
The Rab-shakeh stopped addressing King Hezekiah through his ministered and directly addressed the people listening and watching from the city wall. He continued: 14 The king says this, Do not let Hezekiah delude you. He will be powerless to save you. The literal translation is to "save you from my hands." It is a phrase repeated six times with slight variations from 36:14 to 37:20; "hands" is the key word that identifies the theme of this section which is the threat of falling into the hands of the Assyrians.
Question: What three arguments did the Assyrian minister make to the people of Jerusalem in his attempt to persuade them to surrender?
Answer:
- King Hezekiah and Yahweh your God are as powerless and impotent as the king and the gods of the Northern Kingdom and are incapable of saving you.
- If they surrender, they can stay on their own property until it is time for them to go into exile.
- They will be exiled into a land of plenty that is very like their own land.
The expression "vine and fig tree" is found frequently in Scripture and expresses a peaceful and prosperous life (i.e., 1 Kng 4:25/5:5). Eating from the fruitful vine or fig tree and drinking clear well-water are a vivid antithesis to the squalid conditions the besieged people of Jerusalem will experiencing as the siege drags on and they find themselves drinking their own urine and eating their own excrement.
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A Daily Defense
DAY 207 The Wrong-Tomb Hypothesis
CHALLENGE: “Why can’t we explain the Resurrection by saying that the disciples simply went to the wrong tomb—a tomb that was empty?”
DEFENSE: There are multiple problems with this hypothesis.
First, the Gospels indicate the women who visited the tomb were also eyewitnesses of the burial, and even name the women involved (Matt. 27:61; Mark 15:47; cf. Matt. 28:1, Mark 16:1). The women thus knew where Jesus was buried.
Second, the tomb’s location was publicly known. It was in the place where Jesus was crucified (John 19:41–42), so the women merely had to return to the site of the Crucifixion.
Third, the owner of the tomb was known. It was Joseph of Arimathea, who had also performed the burial (Matt. 27:57–60; Mark 15:43–46; Luke 23:50–53; John 19:38–42). If there had been any doubt about the matter, it would have been dispelled by consulting with him.
Fourth, Matthew indicates a guard was placed on the tomb (Matt. 27:62–66), who also served to mark the spot.
Fifth, the wrong-tomb hypothesis at most explains how the disciples could have innocently thought Jesus’ tomb was empty on the morning of the Resurrection. However, it implies Jesus’ body remained in his own tomb, and once the disciples began proclaiming the Resurrection, the Jewish authorities would simply have gone to the correct tomb—performing a search of recent burials if necessary—and produced Jesus’ corpse.
Sixth, this hypothesis does not explain why the disciples would have thought Jesus was resurrected. The disciples were not expecting a resurrection to happen in their own time. They viewed the resurrection of the dead as something that was to happen on the last day (John 6:39 40, 11:24).
Seventh, the Gospels record that when the disciples found the tomb empty they did not leap to the conclusion that Jesus had been resurrected. The first interpretation was that someone had moved Jesus’ body (John 20:2–13), which was how a Jew who believed in a last-day resurrection would interpret the discovery.
Eighth, the wrong-tomb hypothesis does nothing to explain how the apostles could have innocently thought they saw Jesus alive after the Crucifixion. If Jesus’ body was still lying in his tomb, why did the disciples claim to see him, hold conversations with him, and physically interact with him?
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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