Chapter 31
2024 - Just read it...out of time and focus. After reading it, I can't help but wonder if both Isaiah and Jeremiah were looking at Armageddon here, and not the immediate future. Perhaps the whole idea is not that first Israel and then Judah ought not go down to Egypt, but that Egypt is entirely off the table as a refuge. That this injunction against turning to Egypt STARTED with Assyria, but continues to this day. And that is why we see it repeated by Jeremiah? How many times in the OT do we hear a prophet say "Don't go to Egypt"...and then an angel tells Joseph to take his family there...How interesting is that?
2021 - It's been a long morning. I am going to try and just read on through 31 this year, especially in light of the above insert, saying this is about horses and chariots.
I note, though, that vs 1 ties this to the "near" prophecy and don't believe we are looking far into the future.
Starts off with a woe to those who go to Egypt without consulting God about it. This theme is continuing since the beginning of 28. Says both the helpers (Egypt) and the helped (those who flee to Egypt) will perish together. Those fleeing know that Egypt has a large army with horses and chariots, and their evaluation is that Egypt can stand against Assyria. This is a human evaluation, with no consultation with God, and no seeking of His will for them. Their expertise turns out to be mistaken.
God will come down to Zion and stand over it, fight over it, like a young lion over its prey. Shouting and noise will not frighten Him.
2021 - I can't help it. The word picture in vs 4 is too incredible not to put in here:
[Isa 31:4 ESV] For thus the LORD said to me, "As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him he is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the LORD of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.
A lion, fighting on Mt. Zion, unfrightened and unfazed by the noise, racket and posturing of his enemies. He will not turn and flee, not ever!
5 Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it." [Isa 31:5 ESV]
Does this indicate that the Assyrians will bypass Jerusalem, and destroy Egypt, and then ultimately be wiped out (the 185000 dead) as they besiege Jerusalem? MSB doesn't say. MSB explains the image of a mother bird protecting her young. He more or less goes to allegory instead of trying to make this a specific instance. I suppose that is the right way, since the verse starts with "Like..." It is telling you that it is making an allegorical statement. In vs 4 we saw "As a young lion..." This might be a good thing to remember when looking at prophecy. If the wording tells you it is allegory, don't sweat trying to make it apply to a single, specific, definable event. The opening words are guidance as to how to look at what follows.
2021 - Here is that same language for the fourth time!
[Isa 31:7 ESV] For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you. I am convinced that the previous three times we saw this language, we were talking about the wrath of God during Great Trib. I am just going to fiat that it means the same here.
vs. 6 refers to "that day", when all will throw away their idols. Assyria will flee from the sword, not man's sword, but God's. They will abandon their army, they will go into forced labor. They will run away in a panic. "That day" here does not seem to be referring to the far future, but to something closer. Assyria being mentioned by name brings "that day" into Isaiah's time. Assyria is an instrument of God's wrath against Israel, and so "that day" applies.
(2021 - I now disagree with the vs. 6 analysis. This is about Jesus' victory that ushers in the Millennium. Here is a new, and interesting thought though. Look at this verse:
[Isa 31:8 ESV] "And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor.
If some young men will be put to forced labor, cleaning up the aftermath of the battle perhaps, then they will still be alive, but they aren't going to be thrown immediately into the bottomless pit. Jesus, as judge, will decide who works, and who goes on into eternity. What a different picture this paints of the composition of the planet during the Millennial!)