59. So Shall It Stand (2)
Hymns: 339 When I Fear My Faith Will Fail 354 God Leads Us Along 358 What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Isaiah 14:28-32
28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden. 29 Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. 30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant. 31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times. 32 What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.
So Shall It Stand (2)
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- God’s People Strengthened (v28-32)
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God’s People Strengthened (v28-32)
Here is given by Isaiah the prophecy concerning the destruction of Philistia. It was given when King Ahaz died, a man who rejected the LORD, an unbeliever at heart. Recall in Isaiah 7, the LORD affirmed the hope of the Davidic lineage in Immanuel’s terms. Indeed, the faithlessness of people does not dilute the faithfulness of God. [J. Alec Motyer]
Philistia was one of the great political agitators of Judah. In 734, Gath refused to pay tribute and was sacked, and in 720 the Philistine cities were conniving with Egypt against Assyria but Sargon II defeated Egypt at Gaza and conquered Ashkelon and Gath.
In 711 Ashdod was in some way central to a general west Palestinian revolt which was quelled, and the Ashkelon rebellion of 705 was overtaken in 701 by Sennacherib’s punitive expeditions.
When Ahaz, the arch-collaborator with Assyria, died in 715 it would seem that Philistia took the opportunity to make overtures to Hezekiah, presumably under cover of a mission of condolence. At any rate, such a scenario fits with the wording of this oracle.
We can see this if we ask what question would elicit the answer given in v32 – 32 What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it. A strength other than the Lord must have been on offer and a refuge other than in Zion.
It is likely, therefore, that Philistia, backed by Egypt, was offering the strength of an anti-Assyrian alliance as the way to recover national sovereignty. To Isaiah, this was pernicious. Certainly, the times were menacing (v31) and certainly, the aspiration to independence was enticing and legitimate, but all the security Zion needed was to be found in the Lord who had founded the city. [Motyer]
For the people of God, the Lord is their Source of strength. In Him only they are to find their bearing and guidance. When the people of God are turned aside from the LORD, they are confounded. But if they were to humble themselves and come to the LORD, the LORD’s care for them is in no way diminished just as it was during the time of King Ahaz when they departed from the LORD, the LORD did not leave them.
2 King 16 gives us the background of King Ahaz’s reign in Judah.
2 Kings 16:1-20 (KJV) In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin. And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof. And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus. And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon. And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, upon the altar. And he brought also the brasen altar, which was before the LORD, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of the altar. And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king’s burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the brasen altar shall be for me to inquire by. Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded. And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones. And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king’s entry without, turned he from the house of the LORD for the king of Assyria. Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.
When Ahaz refused the way of faith (7:9b-13), Isaiah made no secret of the unparalleled damage that had been done to David’s house (7:17) but, nevertheless, in that setting he affirmed the hope of David’s line in ‘Immanuel’ terms. So here, on the death of the unbeliever, Isaiah steps forward to reiterate the promises. The faithfulness of people does not dilute the faithfulness of God.
… If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.
Isaiah 7:10-13 (KJV) Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD. And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?
Isaiah 7:17 (KJV) The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
29 Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
The city-states of Philistia did not always act in concert, hence the need to specify (all you Philistines/Philistia, all of you) that the danger threatened all alike.
The rod that struck him was David himself. No other king was so consistently victorious over the Philistines, and indeed it was in the teeth of specifically Philistine opposition that David established his kingdom and dynasty.
Up to the time of Ahaz, David’s kingdom, whatever its vicissitudes, had remained a sovereign state, but by the time of Ahaz’s death, his policies had resulted in vassalage to Assyria. Thus, the rod was broken.
Though the Philistine delegation may secretly have hoped to win Hezekiah to the anti-Assyrian cause, they felt able to rejoice that they had nothing to fear from a puppet monarch.
To this depth had unbelief and disobedience brought the Lord’s kingdom.
Exodus 4:2-3 and 7:10-12 account for the odd movement of thought from rod to snake.
Exodus 4:2-3 (KJV) And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
Exodus 7:10-12 (KJV) And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.
David is broken but the Lord’s power of victory resides in the fallen rod.
Asp in Isaiah 11:8 (Viper) is a species of poisonous snakes. Darting
Isaiah 11:8 (KJV) And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.
Darting, venomous serpent/fiery flying one is the same as Isaiah 30:6 (KJV) The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them.
The picture is impressionistic: the rod which had received its death-blow would, nonetheless, increase in strength, vitality and deadly menace to its foes. Thus, Isaiah keeps faith with the motif of Moses’ rod, just as in Isaiah 11:14, under the kingly metaphor, he saw the Philistines as conquered by force. [Motyer]
Isaiah 11:14 (KJV) But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.
While it is by no means obvious what the phrase the poorest of the poor/the firstborn of the poor’ means, the firstborn is another exodus motif (Exodus 4:22).
Exodus 4:22 (KJV) And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
In Egypt, Israel, downtrodden and doomed as far as the power of the world (Egypt) is concerned, had a status which made them indestructible and inevitably victorious.
It means here “pliant” to the will of God; in its bad sense, those who can be bent to the will of others and hence, “exploited”.
Find pasture is another Exodus motif – Psalm 77:20 (KJV) Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Your root is in contrast with the vitality of the Davidic root (v29). For Philistia, whatever hold promise for the future (root) and whatever exists in the present (survivors/remnant) are alike doomed: there will be total destruction.
31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.
The gate was the key target in an attack; once it yielded the city is fallen. The address here is not to any particular city but to city and gate as such, in Judah as well as Philistia. Both are equally under the Assyrian threat. But beyond the outcome is different. Dissolved means to be demoralized, with no heart for resistance. So will Philistia be against the cloud raised by the advancing army.
32 What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.
Isaiah now offers a reply to the Philistine envoys. In substance, the future of Zion is different. In the face of the same threat, it will be secure and its people safe.
The LORD is emphatic, it is the LORD who.. the primary reality for the Lord’s people in any situation is the Lord Himself.
The availability of a safe place to turn to. The Zion-people have no need to seek Philistia’s help or to fear what Philistia fears, they have the Lord in Zion. Amen.