Chapter 33
2021 - Not really any new notes this time. This seems to be mixing together the coming invasion - I think the Assyrians, though it could be Babylon - the downfall of those invaders at some further future point, and also the Millennial, when all the invaders will be gone and Israel will be restored and elevated to world prominence. It also seems to be written in the form of a prayer that Isaiah is praying, perhaps encouraging the people to pray.
Starts with a little paragraph about traitors being betrayed and destroyers being destroyed. I suppose this could be referring to the Assyrians. These chapters, starting with 30 or so, have gotten increasingly difficult to peg to a specific time. They seem to jump around more. Or I am losing touch with the narration? In any case, I'm not very sure about what is being said here. MSB says near is about Assyria, but looks out to any power that opposes Zion, and the ultimate price of doing so.
2-4 seem to be a prayer for deliverance from times to come, the time when the people flee God's wrath. These, and the verses following could well be about trib and great trib, about God's ultimate pouring out of His wrath, and the destruction of the corruption man has caused, and starting fresh with a new heaven and a new earth.
7,8, The Lord will fill Zion, stabilize it. I like this phrase:
"...the fear of the Lord is Zion's treasure." Isa 33:6b.
Also 8b - "...there is no regard for man."
12a "...peoples will be as if burned to lime."
All these speak of widespread death and destruction, of men dying by the thousands, maybe millions, yet no one cares. So much death makes death "normal".
7-9 speak of a really bad time, after the cities are laid low, covenants broken, and so on. The land mourns, it says. This must be the time after the Assyrians have destroyed the northern kingdom? Or maybe it is about Jerusalem. True...but doesn't it also speak to Antichrist breaking his covenant with Israel? To the sudden shock and dismay of the Jews when this happens?
2023 - Or to the wrath of God being poured out on earth after the rapture. Widespread, unprecedented, worldwide destruction.
In 10-12, the Lord is speaking. Says he will arise. As be pours out his wrath during the time of Antichrist, he "takes over" the events of the world, and marches them forward according to His final plan. Is this Isaiah's version of Trib and Great Trib? Sure seems to fit.
2023 - Look at this verse more closely:
12 And the peoples will be as if burned to lime, like thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire." [Isa 33:12 ESV]. Is this insight into the wheat and tares judgment? Is that in fact NOT a single event but a period of time, when the Jews are pulled aside and protected as never before from the wrath of God poured out through events natural and super-natural on the earth? 30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. [Mat 13:30 KJV]. Maybe not...Isaiah is about thorns, Matthew is about tares. There are also these:
40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. [Mat 13:40 ESV]
6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. [Jhn 15:6 ESV]
8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. [Heb 6:8 ESV]
In light of all these, it seems pretty difficult to NOT connect this verse in Isaiah with the end time wrath of God. And it may well mean that trying to isolate the wheat and tares to an event, rather than a time, is an error. BUT, I think the Sheep and Goat judgment still stands as a single event.
2023 - What if we see the entire span of history from the invasion if Israel by Assyria to the return of Israel post rapture as a single "time", or even a single "dispensation", during which Israel is and remains cursed and beaten down and despised - an epoch of enduring anti-Semitism in the world - and the cursed age to which Isaiah and Jeremiah so often refer? What if we stop trying to do the whole near/far breakout thing and understand these horrible prophecies as lasting for millennia instead of just 70 years? Then all the horror that has befallen Israel from the Assyrian invasion and continuing until at least today - including the holocaust, the pogroms, and October 7, 2023, are all the continuing but as yet unspent wrath of God toward Israel? And when his wrath toward them ends, it will be superseded by his wrath against the Gentiles of the world, upon whom he will pour out his final wrath, both on them and the planet, while restoring his chosen people, and combining them from the GWT onward. Wow. What a great lens through which to view 1500 BC to the end of time!
He continues speaking in 13...Those far off should hear that in Zion, the sinners are afraid and tremble, and those who love righteousness will be protected. This seems likely to be about the Millennial. MSB confirms. (2020 - MSB does not say Millennial. It says "final enemies of Israel". I think that while the Millennial is in view, so are the seven years leading up to it, and Trib and Great Trib may be more the main topic than the Millennial. I have never before seen "Revelations" in Isaiah, but I surely do this year.) This is about the time when Zion's enemies worldwide are finally defeated. This verse also seems to confirm. Jesus, as King, will be visible on earth. Millennial.
But the righteous will be preserved in this time. Does this speak of the repentance and homecoming of the Jews? Of their protection in the rocks and hills as the persecution of Antichrist intensifies? This verse about the righteous in the middle of all this death:
16 he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure. [Isa 33:16 ESV] Revelation says "the woman" will be driven into the wilderness and provided for there. Here is that verse:
14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. [Rev 12:14 ESV]
17 Your eyes will behold the king in his beauty; they will see a land that stretches afar. [Isa 33:17 ESV] This may be the verse that signals the vision is moving on from Trib and Great Trib into the characteristics of the Millennial reign. Israel will be immune from the troubles the rest of the world has at this time. This description of the Millennial kingdom continues through this verse:
22 For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king; he will save us. [Isa 33:22 ESV]...and on to the end of the chapter.