Now I Will Arise

The oracle of the Word of the LORD continues as Isaiah foresaw God’s judgment on the Destroyer. ‘Woe to you, O Destroyer, while you were not destroyed; and he who is treacherous while others did not dealt treacherously with him. As soon as you shall finish destroying, you shall be destroyed.’ What a judgment! God has placed limitations on the Destroyer and his days are numbered by God. Isaiah broke out in prayer to the LORD to be the refuge and salvation of Israel in the face of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and Judah in his days, and also the destruction that would come before the King returns and reigns upon the earth. 

At the sound of tumult the nations flee. As God lifts Himself up off His throne to action, the nations disperse. The LORD will be exalted, for He alone dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness and He shall be the stability of your times. He shall be a wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the LORD is his treasure. As the brave men weep in the streets, as they were in Isaiah’s day as Assyria was beseiging Jerusalem, the highways desolate as the travelers cease, they would proclaim that God has broken His covenant because He has allowed the Destroyer to come. He will never break His covenant, but He has and will send the promised calamity on the land of Israel until the land itself mourns and pines away, until Lebanon is shamed and withers, Sharon becomes like a desert plain, and Bashan and Carmel lose the foliage. Then the LORD would arise.

At that point the LORD will arise and be exalted. His breath will consume the Destroyer like a fire. The peoples would be burned like cut thorns in a fire. Those far off would hear what God has done and those near will acknowledge the might of the LORD. Sinners in Zion would be terrified as the fiery judgment of God and wonder aloud, ‘Who among us can live with the Consuming Fire?’ The answer will be, ‘Those who walk righteously, and speak with sincerity, who reject unjust gain and bribes, and he who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil.’ The righteous ones will be able to live with the Consuming Fire.

He will dwell on the heights. His refuge will be the impregnable rock. Bread and water will be given to Him. Your eyes will see the King in His beauty. They will see the far distant land. Your heart will meditate on terror and ask, ‘Where is he who counts? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?’ You will no longer see a fierce people of unintelligible speech which no one understands or comprehends. Instead, they will see Zion with its appointed feasts, Jerusalem as an undisturbed habitation, a tent which shall not be folded. It will never be pulled up again.

There, in Jerusalem, the Majestic One, the LORD, shall be for Israel a place of safety, a place of rivers and wide canals on which no might ship shall pass. The LORD is the Lawgiver, the King, the One Who will save Israel. When He delivers Jerusalem, the prey of an abundant spoil will be divided, the lake will take the plunder, and no resident will state, ‘I am sick,’ because the people who dwell there will be forgiven their iniquity.

This prophecy was fulfilled in the past, when lepers at the gate of Jerusalem decided to give themselves up to the Assyrian army, only to discover an abandoned camp. They plundered the camp, then the inhabitants of Jerusalem plundered it completely. It will be fulfilled again as Jesus returns to Jerusalem and tramples His enemies underfoot, delivers the remnant of Israel, and reigns as King over all.