Latest Posts
View the latest posts in an easy-to-read list format, with filtering options.
View the latest posts in an easy-to-read list format, with filtering options.
Multi-part posts on a particular topic, grouped together in "series" pages.
Look through our blog archive by year / month, or in a massive title list.
12/02/2024 - Moses says in Deuteronomy 24:19, 19 When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a... Read More
12/01/2024 - The FFI Issue for December, Joel: Prophet of the Day of the Lord, Part 1, is now live for online v... Read More
11/30/2024 - Yesterday and today were watch dates. November 29, 1947 the United Nations passed Resolution 181 d... Read More
Read over 100 books written by Dr. Jones, available to read for free online. Several of the books have also been translated into different languages, and are also available to read for free. The only time you pay is when you purchase a physical version of a book.
View Full Book List
Read a variety of tracts that condense a topic into a short, single page format. These tracts can be read for free online, or physical copies can be purchased in bundles. If you are subscribed to the FFI Newsletter, you will receive new tracts when they are released.
View Full Tract List
Isaiah is the prophet of Salvation. He is also known as the truly "Universalist" prophet, by which is meant that He makes it clear that salvation is extended equally to all nations and not just to Israel. He lived to see the fall of Israel and the deportation of the Israelites to Assyria, and he prophesied of their "return" to God (through repentance). He is truly a "major prophet" whose prophecies greatly influenced the Apostle Paul in the New Testament.
Category - Bible Commentaries
God’s rebuke of the wicked continues in Isaiah 57:9, 10,
9 “You have journeyed to the king with oil and increased your perfumes; you have sent your envoys a great distance and made them go down to Sheol. 10 You were tired out by the length of your road, yet you did not say, ‘It is hopeless.’ You found renewed strength, therefore you did not faint [chalah, “wear down”].”
We noted earlier in our study of Isaiah 18 how Hezekiah was induced to seek help from Egypt and Ethiopia against the Assyrian army, instead of seeking the word of the Lord. It appears that Hezekiah’s envoys took olive oil and essential oils (“perfumes”) as a present or gift. The road was long and tiring, but they remained confident and “did not faint” along the way.
Nonetheless, they were unsuccessful in their mission. The Assyrian invasion thus continued until the Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem and threatened to destroy it. Then Hezekiah finally sent word to Isaiah to see what God had to say.
Isaiah 57:11 continues,
11 “Of whom were you worried and fearful, when you lied and did not remember Me nor give Me a thought? Was I not silent [chashah, “to be silent or quiet”] even for a long time so you do not fear Me?”
The prophet seems frustrated at Hezekiah’s tendency to follow the advice of his advisors instead of the word of the Lord as he had promised to do. So the prophet essentially accuses Hezekiah of lying.
Had the king contacted the prophet to get his input before deciding to send those envoys on their mission? Did the prophet tell him to stand firm and see how God would deliver the city? Did Hezekiah agree to this at first? Did the king’s counselors dissuade him, causing Hezekiah to break his word?
These are all intriguing questions that verse 11 raises. Because Hezekiah decided not to give God a thought, God was then “silent even for a long time” until the king at last found himself in a hopeless situation (2 Kings 19:1-3). Only then did he realize that his advisors had led him into disaster. It must have been quite humiliating for the king to finally seek the word of the Lord through Isaiah. But he put on sackcloth in humility and sought God’s deliverance.
Isaiah 57:12 concludes,
12 “I will declare your righteousness and your deeds, but they will not profit you.”
Isaiah himself never called Hezekiah a “righteous” king, although 2 Kings 18:3 says that “he did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.” It took a long time for him to do what was right, but in the end, he showed himself to be righteous. Therefore, Isaiah too acknowledged his righteousness and his deeds.
Nonetheless, Hezekiah also sowed the seeds of Jerusalem’s destruction when the Babylonian envoys came to wish him well. The king showed them all of his treasures. Isaiah 39:5, 6 says,
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts, 6 ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.”
So the prophet says that the king’s righteousness “will not profit you” in the long term. The destruction of the Assyrian threat was to give the city another century before the Babylonian army took the city and ultimately destroyed it.
The prophet then looked ahead to the time of Jerusalem’s destruction. Isaiah 57:13 says,
13 “When you cry out, let your collection [kibbutz, “collection, assembly”] of idols deliver you. But the wind [ruach, “wind, spirit”] will carry all of them up, and a breath [hebel, “breath, vapor”] will take them away. But he who takes refuge in Me will inherit the land.”
The NASB interprets this “collection” to be an assemblage of idols, but this goes beyond the Hebrew text itself. Certainly, there were idolaters in Jerusalem, but the general flow of prophecy seems to indicate that this kibbutz is the collection or assembly of the king’s political advisors. They may have been idolaters, but more likely they simply lacked faith in God’s protection and deliverance.
These advisors stand in contrast to those who take refuge in God; that is, they rely upon their weapons of war and their city walls. Righteous kings always found it difficult to resist building natural defenses, because normally, the citizens as a whole did not trust in God’s protection. They did not think that it was “practical” to put themselves in the hands of God.
The problem was that when divine judgment threatened them (in the form of a foreign army), they tried to defend themselves against God. Their first act should have been to repent and seek His face.
Yet there were always a few, known as the remnant of grace, who did indeed put their trust in God and took refuge in Him, rather than in their own strength. Such people, the prophet says, “will inherit the land.” Paul tells us in Gal. 4:30 that the children of the flesh are not the inheritors. Only those of the “Isaac” company, the remnant of grace, are inheritors.
Isaiah thus tells us that the political advisors and those who follow their fleshly advice will be carried away by the “wind” (ruach) and “a breath” (hebel). The word ruach also means “spirit” and often refers to the Holy Spirit.
No doubt Isaiah saw the double meaning. Even as a strong wind carries things away, so also the Spirit of God was to carry away the people into exile. In fact, just a tiny “breath” of the Spirit can take them away. Those exiled were being disinherited, even as the faithful remnant were being promised a permanent inheritance.
We are only able to do what we do because of your support. If you feel led to support this ministry, we deeply appreciate it
