A lot of prophecy isn’t necessarily about Jesus. At least not in an immediate sense. In the context of the Ancient Near East standing on the precipice of Assyrian, then Babylonian, invasion, many nations were unsure of the future. Isaiah was given divine knowledge as to what awaited each nation and people-group. In these chapters, he issues a series of prophecies about some of these ancient peoples.
We also have a psalm of blessing and hope. I needed that. I actually read it earlier today for something, not realizing I would be seeing it again later in the day. The blessing upon sons and daughters is appreciated. So much of what I do, I do for them. In an ultimate sense, everything I and you do should be for his glory. That means we prioritize holiness even above parenting goals. This is a hard thing to understand.
As God can destroy and save nations, so he can and does do the same for each one of us. There is nothing more important in this life than aligning rightly under the lordship of Christ. Everything else, even fatherhood of these precious children, comes behind that.
Isaiah 16
Send the tribute lambs
to the ruler of the land,
from Sela in the desert
to the mount of Daughter Zion.
Like fluttering birds
pushed out of the nest,
so are the daughters of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon:
“Give us counsel;
render a decision.
Shelter us at noonday
with shade as dark as night.
Hide the refugees;
do not betray the one who flees.
Let my fugitives stay with you;
be a refuge for Moab from the destroyer.”
When the oppressor has gone, destruction has ceased,
and the oppressors have vanished from the land,
in loving devotion a throne will be established
in the tent of David.
A judge seeking justice and hastening righteousness
will sit on it in faithfulness.
We have heard of Moab’s pomposity,
his exceeding pride and conceit,
his overflowing arrogance.
But his boasting is empty.
Therefore let Moab wail;
let them wail together for Moab.
Moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth,
you who are utterly stricken.
For the fields of Heshbon have withered,
along with the grapevines of Sibmah.
The rulers of the nations
have trampled its choicest vines,
which had reached as far as Jazer
and spread toward the desert.
Their shoots had spread out
and passed over the sea.
So I weep with Jazer
for the vines of Sibmah;
I drench Heshbon and Elealeh
with my tears.
Triumphant shouts have fallen silent
over your summer fruit and your harvest.
Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard;
no one sings or shouts in the vineyards.
No one tramples the grapes in the winepresses;
I have put an end to the cheering.
Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp,
my inmost being for Kir-heres.
When Moab appears on the high place,
when he wearies himself
and enters his sanctuary to pray,
it will do him no good.
This is the message that the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab.
And now the LORD says, “In three years, as a hired worker counts the years, Moab’s splendor will become an object of contempt, with all her many people. And those who are left will be few and feeble.”
Isaiah 17
This is the burden against Damascus:
“Behold, Damascus is no longer a city;
it has become a heap of ruins.
The cities of Aroer are forsaken;
they will be left to the flocks,
which will lie down with no one to fear.
The fortress will disappear from Ephraim,
and the sovereignty from Damascus.
The remnant of Aram will be
like the splendor of the Israelites,”
declares the LORD of Hosts.
“In that day the splendor of Jacob will fade,
and the fat of his body will waste away,
as the reaper gathers the standing grain
and harvests the ears with his arm,
as one gleans heads of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
Yet gleanings will remain,
like an olive tree that has been beaten—
two or three berries atop the tree,
four or five on its fruitful branches,”
declares the LORD, the God of Israel.
In that day men will look to their Maker
and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
They will not look to the altars
they have fashioned with their hands
or to the Asherahs and incense altars
they have made with their fingers.
In that day their strong cities
will be like forsaken thickets and summits,
abandoned to the Israelites
and to utter desolation.
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
and failed to remember the Rock of your refuge.
Therefore, though you cultivate delightful plots
and set out cuttings from exotic vines—
though on the day you plant
you make them grow,
and on that morning
you help your seed sprout—
yet the harvest will vanish
on the day of disease and incurable pain.
Alas, the tumult of many peoples;
they rage like the roaring seas and clamoring nations;
they rumble like the crashing of mighty waters.
The nations rage like the rush of many waters.
He rebukes them, and they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
like tumbleweeds before a gale.
In the evening, there is sudden terror!
Before morning, they are no more!
This is the portion of those who loot us
and the lot of those who plunder us.
Isaiah 18
Woe to the land of whirring wings,
along the rivers of Cush,
which sends couriers by sea,
in papyrus vessels on the waters.
Go, swift messengers,
to a people tall and smooth-skinned,
to a people widely feared,
to a powerful nation of strange speech,
whose land is divided by rivers.
All you people of the world
and dwellers of the earth,
when a banner is raised on the mountains,
you will see it;
when a ram’s horn sounds,
you will hear it.
For this is what the LORD has told me:
“I will quietly look on from My dwelling place,
like shimmering heat in the sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
For before the harvest, when the blossom is gone
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife
and remove and discard the branches.
They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey,
and to the beasts of the land.
The birds will feed on them in summer,
and all the wild animals in winter.
At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts—
from a people tall and smooth-skinned,
from a people widely feared,
from a powerful nation of strange speech,
whose land is divided by rivers—
to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.
Isaiah 19
This is the burden against Egypt:
Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud;
He is coming to Egypt.
The idols of Egypt will tremble before Him,
and the hearts of the Egyptians will melt within them.
“So I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian;
brother will fight against brother, neighbor against neighbor,
city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out from among them,
and I will frustrate their plans,
so that they will resort to idols and spirits of the dead,
to mediums and spiritists.
I will deliver the Egyptians into the hands of harsh masters,
and a fierce king will rule over them,”
declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.
The waters of the Nile will dry up,
and the riverbed will be parched and empty.
The canals will stink;
the streams of Egypt will trickle and dry up;
the reeds and rushes will wither.
The bulrushes by the Nile,
by the mouth of the river,
and all the fields sown along the Nile,
will wither, blow away, and be no more.
Then the fishermen will mourn,
all who cast a hook into the Nile will lament,
and those who spread nets on the waters will pine away.
The workers in flax will be dismayed,
and the weavers of fine linen will turn pale.
The workers in cloth will be dejected,
and all the hired workers will be sick at heart.
The princes of Zoan are mere fools;
Pharaoh’s wise counselors give senseless advice.
How can you say to Pharaoh,
“I am one of the wise,
a son of eastern kings”?
Where are your wise men now?
Let them tell you and reveal
what the LORD of Hosts has planned against Egypt.
The princes of Zoan have become fools;
the princes of Memphis are deceived.
The cornerstones of her tribes
have led Egypt astray.
The LORD has poured into her
a spirit of confusion.
Egypt has been led astray in all she does,
as a drunkard staggers through his own vomit.
There is nothing Egypt can do—
head or tail, palm or reed.
In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble with fear beneath the uplifted hand of the LORD of Hosts, when He brandishes it against them.
The land of Judah will bring terror to Egypt; whenever Judah is mentioned, Egypt will tremble over what the LORD of Hosts has planned against it.
In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the LORD of Hosts. One of them will be called the City of the Sun.
In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the center of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD near her border.
It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of Hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of their oppressors, He will send them a savior and defender to rescue them.
The LORD will make Himself known to Egypt, and on that day Egypt will acknowledge the LORD. They will worship with sacrifices and offerings; they will make vows to the LORD and fulfill them.
And the LORD will strike Egypt with a plague; He will strike them but heal them. They will turn to the LORD, and He will hear their prayers and heal them.
In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together.
In that day Israel will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing upon the earth.
The LORD of Hosts will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.”
Isaiah 20
Before the year that the chief commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it,
the LORD had already spoken through Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and the sandals from your feet.”
And Isaiah did so, walking around naked and barefoot.
Then the LORD said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has gone naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush,
so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old alike, naked and barefoot, with bared buttocks—to Egypt’s shame.
Those who made Cush their hope and Egypt their boast will be dismayed and ashamed.
And on that day the dwellers of this coastland will say, ‘See what has happened to our source of hope, those to whom we fled for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?’ ”
Psalm 144
Blessed be the LORD, my Rock,
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
He is my steadfast love and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer.
He is my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples under me.
O LORD, what is man, that You regard him,
the son of man that You think of him?
Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow.
Part Your heavens, O LORD, and come down;
touch the mountains, that they may smoke.
Flash forth Your lightning and scatter them;
shoot Your arrows and rout them.
Reach down from on high;
set me free and rescue me
from the deep waters,
from the grasp of foreigners,
whose mouths speak falsehood,
whose right hands are deceitful.
I will sing to You a new song, O God;
on a harp of ten strings I will make music to You—
to Him who gives victory to kings,
who frees His servant David from the deadly sword.
Set me free and rescue me
from the grasp of foreigners,
whose mouths speak falsehood,
whose right hands are deceitful.
Then our sons will be like plants
nurtured in their youth,
our daughters like corner pillars
carved to adorn a palace.
Our storehouses will be full,
supplying all manner of produce;
our flocks will bring forth thousands,
tens of thousands in our fields.
Our oxen will bear great loads.
There will be no breach in the walls,
no going into captivity,
and no cry of lament in our streets.
Blessed are the people of whom this is so;
blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.
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