Isaiah 7–39 (Part 2)

Richard Belcher focuses on this section of the Book of Isaiah, highlighting the prophecies related to judgment and the promise of a future hope through the coming Messiah. He emphasizes God’s sovereignty and faithfulness in the midst of Israel’s trials and the importance of faith and obedience from God’s people.

The following unedited transcript is provided by Beluga AI.

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Isaiah 7-39. We started last time to look at chapters 13 through 27, the judgment against the nations. We talked about the perspective in these chapters, moving from chapters seven through twelve now to 13 through 27, as the people of God and the worldwide kingdom sort of take center stage. And still, the question of who are you going to trust is at issue in these chapters. Now, we said last week you can divide this section into three parts: 13 through 20, 21 through 23, and 24 to 27. The oracles in chapters 13 through 20 all have precise historical headings, and we went through that last week.

In the second section, we also, I think last week, looked a little bit closer at Isaiah 19, which is that interesting passage about Egypt and Assyria becoming a part of the people of God. In Isaiah 21:23, the oracles in this section do not have precise historical settings or headings. For example, 21:1 talks about the oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. Now, everybody believes that this is Babylon, but it’s not specifically identified. In the heading 20:1-11, the oracle concerning Duma. Duma silence again, because of what’s mentioned. Seer is mentioned.

Everybody agrees that this is related to Edom. But there’s only one heading that specifically mentions the historical nation against which that oracle is given. And that’s 23:1, the oracle concerning Tyre. So what do you have going on here? In the first part, 13 through 20, all of the oracles have precise historical headings.

¹ The oracle concerning Tyre. Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor! From the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them. (Isaiah 23:1, ESV)

They identify who they’re against. In the second section, four of the oracles are enigmatic. In other words, they don’t specifically identify the nation. One of them does. Everybody’s pretty much agreed about who is in view in the oracles, but the headings don’t always identify that particular nation. Then when you come to chapters 24 through 27, which is the third part of this section, there are no overt headings. The oracle structure is not used. There are no plain pointers to history. And people call this an eschatological section. So we started the first part of this section rooted in history. The second part is a little bit more nebulous, although still connected to history.

And now the third part is clearly eschatological, and the structure of it is totally different than the preceding sections. It does focus on redemption on a worldwide scale. And you have universal judgment proclaimed in chapters 24 through 27 related to universal sin. Sin has impacted all of the world. That leads to a salvation that also encompasses the whole world. Universal in that sense. Not universal in the sense that everybody is delivered, but universal in the sense that the deliverance, the salvation, encompasses the whole world.

So you have this movement away from the specifics of the historical situation, and just about everybody agrees that 24 through 27 is escalating something at the end of history, something even perhaps beyond history in that sense. Now, this section closes 27, verses two through 13, with a song of restoration. It’s a song that focuses on a protected vineyard, which is the opposite of chapter five. You remember chapter five? We didn’t spend a lot of time talking about chapter five. But in chapter five, Israel is an abandoned vineyard because of her sinfulness.

Well, that picture of Israel as an abandoned vineyard is now counter argued, if you will. The other side of that coin is given where here is a song of restoration and a restored vineyard here at the end. All right, we’ll just keep moving. Unless you have comments or questions, we come to the next section of Isaiah, called the volume of Hezekiah, chapters 28 through 39. And these have been called woe, woe, woe, oracles against those who do not trust in God. We come back to the same theme about trusting in God.

We may need to talk about the historical situation just briefly. You know that the northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 722. We talked briefly about that. But when Israel, the northern kingdom, fell to the Assyrians in 722, it was the Assyrian policy to move out of that nation people who were native to that area and that land. They would move those people out, and they would move in people who were not native, people who were foreign to that area and land.

So they would deport people, and they would move in foreigners to settle permanently. They would deport people permanently, and they would move in people permanently. The reason they did this was the foreigners that they would move in would not have the close emotional ties to the homeland. And so the prospect of rebelling against Assyria was greatly diminished. It sort of kept down nationalistic pride and rebellion. Well, they moved in. The Assyrians moved in a group of foreigners into the northern part of Israel, and they intermarried with the Israelites that were living there.

And you probably know the result. The result of that intermarriage between Israelites and foreigners was the Samaritans. Samaritans are a result of this intermingling and intermarriage. And you can understand why some Jewish people looked down on the Samaritans as being not full Israelites. And you see that reflected in John 4. As there was hostility between the Jewish people and the Samaritans, they even developed their own religious traditions. They had their own Pentateuch. They had their own mountain where they worshiped.

So all of that was a result going back to 722 with the Assyrians moving out Israelites and moving in foreigners. So that’s an important result of the fall of the northern kingdom and partly the significance of those events.

Now, Hezekiah moving our focus to the southern kingdom. Hezekiah became sole ruler of Judah in 715. Hezekiah was a good king. He began to move the nation back toward God. Remember, Ahaz was not a good king. He had rejected trust in God in chapter seven for calling, really for trusting Assyria.

He trusted Assyria rather than trusting in God. Hezekiah was a good king. He began to move Israel, or, I’m sorry, Judah, the southern kingdom, back toward a proper acknowledgement and a proper worship of God. This meant a breaking of ties with Assyria. This may also have had religious implications, because you remember, Ahaz had copied some of the worship from an altar in Damascus. And so for Hezekiah to begin to move Judah back toward a proper worship of God, it meant breaking ties with Assyria religiously, perhaps because of some of the things that Ahaz had done.

But also, many times, what comes along with breaking ties with a nation is to stop paying tribute, which can get you into big trouble. And as Hezekiah moves Judah back toward God and tries to break ties with Assyria, that does cause some trouble. As we will see, Judah is feeling the brunt of the Assyrian army through these events, partly because of what Ahaz had done. And we likened Assyria last week to floodwaters that have overflowed their banks. You can’t control it, like the levees when they break in New Orleans.

You just can’t get that water back up in there unless you do a lot of sandbagging with huge equipment, as they’ve done down there. So that’s the problem. The problem of Assyria and Hezekiah trying to move Judah back toward God, that’s going to produce problems with Assyria. This is the issue in chapters 28 through 35. The same issue that we saw with Ahaz is going to culminate in chapters 36 through 39. When we get over there, we’ll see this culmination, the assyrian crisis. But who are you going to trust? God?

The temptation with this Assyrian threat, the temptation was to find help from other nations, to trust in other nations. So chapters 28 and 29 of this section set forth the problem. Chapter 28 actually deals with the sinfulness of Ephraim, with the northern kingdom. Chapter 28 may actually come before 722, but it’s sort of a model of what they did wrong, which Judah should learn from. Sadly, Judah doesn’t always learn from that. But Hezekiah is trying to do the right thing.

But chapters 28 and 29, the sinfulness of Ephraim, and then the sinfulness of Judah in light of the Assyrian threat, is laid out. Then in chapters 30 through 31, you have the proposed solutions to the Assyrian threat. And if you look at chapter 30, the first three verses, you can see one of the proposed solutions that was being offered in light of the Assyrian threat. Chapter 30.

¹ “Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord , “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; ² who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! ³ Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation. (Isaiah 30:1-3, ESV)

There were some people telling Hezekiah that in light of this Assyrian threat, they needed to trust in Egypt and call for Egypt to help make an alliance with Egypt, and therefore will be stronger to stand against Assyria. That’s one of the proposed solutions in light of the Assyrian threat. Well, verse 15 of chapter 30 gives God’s solution. And you’ve heard this solution already, same solution, same encouragement God gave to Ahaz through Isaiah 30:15. You may have memorized this verse. This is a fairly familiar verse.

¹⁵ For thus said the Lord God , the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling, (Isaiah 30:15, ESV)

It’s what God told Ahaz. Don’t do anything. Trust in God. Rest in God, hope in God, and God will take care of this coalition. That was Isaiah 7. Now, this is the exact same message being given to Hezekiah: in returning, in rest you shall be saved, and quietness and trust shall be your strength. Now, the next part of it may not be directly related to Hezekiah.

Some people think that Isaiah 28:35 is actually against an unnamed king, but I don’t know who that king would be, necessarily. Necessarily. We are going to see that ultimately Hezekiah does do the right thing. But here, end of verse 15, you were unwilling.

¹⁵ …But you were unwilling, ¹⁶ and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. (Isaiah 30:15-16, ESV)

So there were many within Judah who were pursuing this policy of trusting in Egypt or other things, rather than trusting in God. Chapters 32-33 give the true solution. 30 through 31 obviously also includes within it a proper response. 32 through 33 goes beyond just a response of trust and sort of lays out the benefit of following the way of God versus some other solution. You have in chapters 32-33 the revelation of a righteous king. 32 behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. And you have laid out here the results of what will happen if a righteous king would rule. You have a reversal in chapter 32 of the problem of God’s people.

Going back to Isaiah 6. You remember Isaiah 6 where he got his vision of the Holy One of Israel, and God told him, basically, your ministry, Isaiah, will be to harden the hearts of God’s people because they will reject your message. They have eyes that are blind and ears that are deaf. Well, here in Isaiah 32:3-4, you have a reversal of that, the power of a righteous king leading God’s people.

³ Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention. ⁴ The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly. (Isaiah 32:3-4, ESV)

So there is a reversal of the condition of God’s people. This is held out, I think, as partly of what could happen if Hezekiah would become this kind of king. And we see some evidence of that in chapters 36 through 39. But ultimately these chapters describe what will happen beyond Hezekiah, in line with some of the passages we saw in chapters seven through twelve.

But this is held out as the ideal for King Hezekiah and for the other kings of Judah, the power and the effect of a righteous king. And we’ll see some of that with Hezekiah in chapters 36 through 39. Then 34 and 35 further lay out the results of the choice of whether you trust in God or not. Chapter 34 is a picture of a productive land being turned into a desert, and it’s primarily against Edom and some of the nations, and talks about the judgment of God coming on the nations.

And the picture is of a productive land being turned into a desert. And part of the focus is, why would you trust in a nation like Edom? Or you could broaden this out like Egypt that is going to experience the judgment of God. I mean, if the nations are in the hands of God, doesn’t it make sense to trust in God and not to trust in the help of some nation? That’s part of what’s going on here. Chapter 35 pictures a desert being turned into a garden.

So you have two pictures back to back, opposite pictures with chapter 35, a desert, a wilderness, being turned into a garden. Trusting in God can transform the wilderness into a garden. So the effect of trusting in God is laid out for God’s people. That brings us then to the final section of this first part of the book of Isaiah with chapters 36 through 39. And you have two things going on here: 36 to 37 is the Assyrian crisis, and then 38 to 39 really deals with an envoy from Babylon and the illness of Hezekiah.

Actually, the illness probably would come first there. But the context of 36 through 37 is that the Assyrian army has made its way toward Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is under siege, or very soon will be under siege. And Assyria sends to Jerusalem a field commander, I think is what the NIV translates it. It’s Rabshaka, the Hebrew. And some of your translations just have that he sent to the officials of Judah at Jerusalem. And if you look closely at chapter 36, this Assyrian official raises the issue 36:4.

The Rabshaka said to them, these officials say to Hezekiah, “Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, on what do you rest this trust of yours?” you see, this is the issue. Who are you going to trust? Hezekiah? And this Assyrian official goes through all the options. He gives all the options that Hezekiah could put his trust in. Verse five, you’re going to trust in military strength. That’s foolish. Neither you nor anybody else has enough military power to stand against Assyria. Don’t put your trust in military strength.

Verse six specifically says,

⁶ Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. (Isaiah 36:6, ESV)

Don’t think that Egypt can help you against us. That’s foolish. Verse seven. But if you say to me, we trust in Yahweh, our God, oh, you tell me you trust in Yahweh.

He goes on to say, is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, you shall worship before this altar? Now, there’s one of two things going on here with this Assyrian official. Number one, either he doesn’t understand the worship of Yahweh is one altar, not several altars. And so he’s thinking from a polytheistic perspective that, you know, what God would be happy with tearing down all these altars and just worshiping at one altar. That might be what’s going on here.

The other possibility is he’s got inside information, and he knows there are people within Judah who don’t like the religious reforms of Hezekiah, and he’s playing factions against each other. I wouldn’t be surprised that that might also be a part of what’s going on, because many Israelites might have felt the same way. What good is it to take away all these places of worship?

Verse ten, the Assyrian official says, Yahweh has sent me to destroy Jerusalem. There’s some truth to that, isn’t there? Assyria, chapter ten, is an instrument in God’s hands. Now, I don’t know if he really believes this, but he’s certainly using it to his benefit. Then in verse 13, it says, the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah. Now he begins to speak to the officials and all who are there in the language of Judah. He now begins to speak in Hebrew. Up to this point, he was probably speaking in Aramaic, the diplomatic language, the language of communication between nations of that day. But now he speaks in Hebrew.

And the reason he does this is because he wants everybody there to hear what he has to say, not just these officials. So he begins to talk to them in Hebrew, and here is what he says. Verses 18 through 20 is the meat of it.

¹⁸ Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? ¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? ²⁰ Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'” (Isaiah 36:18-20, ESV)

Don’t believe what Hezekiah is telling you, that Yahweh will deliver you. You know what other nation has been able to stand before Assyria? What other God has been able to deliver from the power of Assyria? Don’t think Yahweh has the power to deliver you from the might of Assyria. Verse 21 says,

²¹ But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” (Isaiah 36:21, ESV)

The king’s command was, “Do not answer him,” which was probably wise in this situation. So Hezekiah is now facing a situation very similar to what Ahaz faced, except with Ahaz, he faced the combined coalition of Aram or Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel. Hezekiah faces the powerful nation of Assyria. Both Ahaz and Hezekiah are in the same dilemma. The issue is the same, in fact, the very place where this Assyrian official stood.

And it tells you in verse two of chapter 36, the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem with the great army. He stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Watcher’s Field. The Rabshakeh stood at the very place where Isaiah confronted Ahaz when Ahaz was facing the siege of Jerusalem. Same place, same crisis, type of a situation, same issue. Who are you going to trust? Hezekiah. Who are you going to trust? Hezekiah responds in the appropriate way. In chapter 37, he seeks Isaiah’s help.

He prays for God, for Yahweh to deliver his people. He trusts in the Lord, and God brings a great deliverance. You see what happens when a king and a nation trusts in God? And that great deliverance is described in chapter 37:36-38.

³⁶ And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. ³⁷ Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. ³⁸ And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place. (Isaiah 37:36-38, ESV)

This crisis is the crisis of 701, the siege of Jerusalem. That’s what chapters 36 and 37 describe. Then Isaiah jumps forward at the end of this chapter to 681, verse 38, as Sennacherib was worshiping in the house of Nisroch, his god. Adramalech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place. Where was Sennacherib when he was struck down, worshiping his god? His god can’t protect the very same king that challenged Yahweh and challenged Hezekiah not to trust in Yahweh.

Yahweh delivered. His God has no power to deliver. Worshiping in the temple of his God, struck down. You don’t challenge the Lord. The kid catches up with you eventually. 701, 681, he gets his due.

So Hezekiah, trusting in God is the right response. Look at what a righteous king can accomplish. Who will trust in God. It’s not what the king accomplishes, but it’s trusting in God. Look what God can accomplish through trusting in God.

Now, this first section of the book ends chapters 38 and 39 with Hezekiah’s recovery from illness and his reception of the Babylonian envoy. Many believe that chapters 38 and 39 are chronologically prior to chapters 36 to 37. So, if you were going to look at these chapters in their chronological order, you would put these chapters and these events before the events of 36 and 37. There are two possible scenarios. We know Hezekiah reigned 29 years and he received 15 years after his illness.

So if you date the beginning of his reign early with when he began to co-reign, 727, 726, and you go 29 years, and then you go back 15 years, you see what we’re doing? 727, 726. At the beginning of his reign, he reigned 29 years. And then you go back 15 years, you come up to about 711. So it’s possible that these events took place in 711.

If you date the beginning of his reign in 715, when he began to reign as the sole ruler of Judah, you go 29 years and then you come back 15, then these events may have taken place right before the 701 crisis. That certainly makes a lot of sense, whether you 711 or 701, because this Babylonian envoy headed up by Merodach BalAdan, that’s the name of, actually, Merodach BaLAdan is the son of BalAdan, king of Babylon. He’s the one leading this envoy.

The Babylonians are under the thumb of the Assyrians, but they are beginning to foment rebellion. In fact, we are going to see, as we move into the 600s, that the issue is going to be on the national scene. Assyria or Babylon, which nation is going to be the powerful nation? And throughout the 600s, AssYria, although it reaches its height, it starts to fall and Babylon starts to rise toward the end of that century. And we’ll see how that works itself out.

But at this stage in the early 700s, Babylon is under the thumb of Assyria. But Babylon is trying to muster support with other nations to cause trouble for Syria. And so they’re trying to get support in trying to overthrow Syria. And so a visit to Judah was looking for support from Hezekiah, strengthening anti-Assyrian ties. Well, you, hopefully, if you haven’t read this, will read this soon. Hezekiah basically opens up and shows Babylon all of his treasures, everything that he has, and that doesn’t please God. Perhaps he’s being too pro-Babylonian.

Perhaps he’s not at that moment trusting in God as he should. And this leads to a statement from Isaiah at the end of chapter 39:6.

⁶ Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord . ⁷ And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” (Isaiah 39:6-7, ESV)

But it won’t be in your day, Hezekiah. But there’s coming a day when Babylon will be the nation that gives Judah trouble. Now, what this does in terms of the ending of this first major section, chapters one through 39, is it sets you up for chapters 40 to 66, because chapters 40 to 66 deal with the babylonian crisis. So this is sort of an introduction to what’s coming.

And that may be the reason that if these chapters are not in chronological order, maybe the reason 38 through 39 was placed where it was, because it does lead you into chapters 40 through 66, because the whole context of 40 through 66 primarily is Babylon and the exile. Yes, sir. Well, there’s several reasons. If you look at your chart, whatever on your chart, you see something like this. Well, this is kind of full range. And again, there may be several reasons for that. Sometimes a king in his old age gets incapacitated.

Sometimes you want to ensure a smooth transition. So there, and this was one of the major issues relating to the dating and the team is that has been worked out by scholars. But that’s what we mean by co-wrangling. We have two kings sort of reigning at the same time. You got a major king and one sort of the next in waiting. Does that answer your question, so to speak? Yeah, I’ll get more of the reason why they have two kings, older king, more incapacitated, smooth transition.

You want to make sure that son continues and there’s not a problem when you die as to who will be the next king. That may be part of it.

This audio lecture is brought to you by RTS on iTunesU at the virtual campus of Reformed Theological Seminary. To listen to other lectures and to access additional resources, please visit us at itunes.rts.edu. For additional information on how to take distance education courses for credit towards a fully accredited Master of Arts and Religion degree, please visit our website at virtual.rts.edu.