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If you’ve ever driven on a dangerous, winding road you’ve likely seen the signs that say “Danger Ahead!” We see this traffic sign to warn us of falling rocks, sharp turns, or icy bridges. We would discover these dangers on our own soon enough, but the sign is there to alert us to the danger so we can adjust our actions to avoid fatal outcomes. The sign doesn’t cause or change the conditions, but it should change our behavior. 

Isaiah 24 is a warning sign for the people of Israel and for us. In The Message translation of scripture, this chapter begins with “Danger ahead! God’s about to ravish the earth and leave it in ruins. . .” This chapter begins a section of apocalyptic literature that continues through Chapter 27, preparing people for the coming devastation. The Bible Project defines an apocalypse as a heavenly perspective on an earthly situation. The apocalypse described in Chapter 24 provides a heavenly perspective on earthly rebellion. 

Isaiah defines the situation in verse 5: “The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant.” Let’s look at the four charges against humanity Isaiah outlines in this verse:

1. The people defiled the earth, both literally and figuratively, damaging the beautiful environment and relationship God created for us.
2. The people disobeyed [crossed over the line of] God’s laws, provided at creation and throughout history. This rebellion broke their relationship with Him.
3. The people violated or changed the statutes, the boundaries God prescribed to keep them safe. 
4. The people broke the everlasting covenant. The “everlasting covenant” may refer to the covenant made when God created humans or to the promise made to Noah after the flood. In both of these, God provided life and earth to humanity, and humanity has taken that for granted.

While these charges were written for the people in the 700s B.C., they also were written for us today as we continue to struggle with this same rebellious behavior.

 Isaiah describes the natural and supernatural consequences of this behavior as a warning. Watch out for dried up resources, wars, inescapable situations, and overwhelming guilt. God is warning us, along with Isaiah’s original audience. Remember: a sign doesn’t cause or change the conditions, but it should caution us to change our behavior. The time to repent is now.

Isaiah 23 is the story of Tyre and the redemption the Lord brings to it. Tyre was a city that essentially ruled the trade waters with the port being in Northern Israel. In the ancient world, Tyre was bustling with trade from all over, but also had a cloud of materialism and pride to cover it. It had strongholds of selfish glory and was dishonoring to the earth (v. 9). The Lord recognizes the land as a place of anguish, bareness, and ruin. The Lord then declares for seventy years the city of Tyre be forgotten, but when the seventy years have come and gone, He will declare it holy in His eyes. Tyre will return as a supplier of abundant food and fine clothing with all the wages deserving.

Before we begin to unpack what this story of a city means for us reading today, it’s important to note that this turns from an impersonal story to an intimate story. The words used in the beginning of the passage refer to the city as “it” and on occasion refer to the city as “her”. By the end of the story and as a result of the redemption of the city, the city is referred to as “her” multiple times over the course of one verse (v. 18). There seems to be less pointing of “that city over there” and more of personal ownership and upholding in the word usage of “she.” 

In the writing of the story, the city is once lost, but now has a true Owner of abundance.

We could easily look at this story and look down upon Tyre, but isn’t this a symbol of the story of us? Once being lost, broken, and prideful, then encountered by the one true God, later to be restored completely. He takes our brokenness and heals it. We go from being separate from God, broken, filled by selfishness to being fully restored and blessed through Jesus’ justifying us on the cross. He pulls us near to say, “This one is mine.” Thank you, Lord, for being in the business of restoring Your people.

This chapter, the fourth oracle spoken through the prophet Isaiah, is directed toward Jerusalem. This city is God’s chosen city, home to the people He set apart as His own. They have been called to look different and live differently because they belong to God. In all that the Lord has brought Jerusalem through, in all the victory and blessing, Isaiah 22:11 says “You did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.” The people have forgotten their God. They have turned to their own power, relying on their own strength to try to protect themselves and provide for themselves. They have forgotten the God who ordains all that has happened and all that will happen. The God who has provided and protected, and who will be the one to provide and protect again.

It’s the same storyline we see again and again throughout Scripture. God makes a promise to His people, they lose patience, they lose trust, and they grasp at control. Humankind is so prone to attempts at self-sufficiency–wanting not to wait on God and trust His faithfulness, but to be our own god. Isaiah reminds us how deeply this grieves the heart of God, but let’s not lose sight of His character in hearing of His wrath: Why does God despise their rebellion? Why does God give such a strong admonishment through the prophet Isaiah?

It’s because He loves His people. He loves us. His anger burns toward anything that would separate us from His presence. As often as we see a pattern of disobedience throughout Scripture, we also see a God who would do anything to bring His people close to Himself. Verse 20 introduces us to Eliakim, who would care for the people of Jerusalem, would be seated with honor, and would determine who could approach the king. He is just a shadow of the Savior that would come, the One who would care for His people in a way no one else ever had or ever would, and the One who would make a way for eternal access to the King–access that no sin or attempts at self-sufficiency could ever get in the way of. Let’s not miss the heart of the God we serve–a God who hates anything that would separate us from Him, and who sacrificed His Son so that nothing could.

This chapter contains the first three of a series of five oracles that the Lord speaks through Isaiah. There is abundant wickedness throughout the nations, and God is proclaiming His judgment over them. Isaiah had long waited for God to intervene in the sin that has captivated the nations around him, but when he sees what God’s response to the nations’ sin will look like he is gripped with anguish. Verse 11 says, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?” It’s like we can hear him yelling, “How much longer? How much longer?” There is desperation in the peoples’ voices as they see the consequences of their sin surrounding them.

In her book Holier than Thou, Jackie Hill Perry reminds us of God’s identity as Holy, and how that determines His relationship to sin. She says, “When God sees sin in all of its different colors, He doesn’t see himself, He being the most beautiful. There is nothing so unlike God than sin. Nothing so awful as that presence within us that is repelled by God’s voice.” Because God is holy, He cannot be in the presence of sin and sin cannot remain in His presence. His justice and wrath is rooted in His holiness.

God’s holiness defines how he is unlike us. He cannot sin, He is only good, only love, only righteous, only holy all of the time. A right understanding of God is a right understanding of His identity as holy. With this proper understanding of God, our only response to Him is to fall flat on our faces in worship and surrender. 

May we see and know God for who He is, and trust His ways all the more deeply because of His character that has been revealed to us all throughout Scripture. Praise God that sin and wickedness cannot stand in His presence, that there is justice for all of the pain, brokenness, and wrongdoing that we come face-to-face with each day. Praise God for covering us with the blood of Jesus through sacrificing His Son on our behalf. Because we are seen as righteous through Jesus, we are able to come near to God. He is good, just, and holy, and he will come again to make all things right. 

Isaiah 20 is one of the shortest chapters in the Bible, and it is also notable for the oddity of God telling Isaiah to be naked while prophesying about Egypt and Ethiopia (Cush). But why would God ask him to do this? Why would Isaiah abide by preaching naked for three years? 

In the year 711 BC, God spoke through Isaiah. Generally, Isaiah was simply delivering a verbal message from God. However, on this occasion God told Isaiah to provide a visual: “Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet” (v. 2). The Lord commanded Isaiah to walk naked and barefoot among the Jews for three years as a warning not to make the same mistake Ashdod made in trusting the Egyptians for protection. Those who depended on Egypt could no longer look to that nation for help, but instead should only depend on God. 

It’s important for us to note that Isaiah wasn’t completely without clothing. Naked in this context means he only wore the inner garment customary in that day—sort of like underwear. The message here wasn’t to try and provoke controversy. It wasn’t even about nudity—it was about complete poverty and humiliation. This is Isaiah putting on humility for the sake of proving a point. Isaiah dressed in the same way the poorest and most destitute around him would dress. 

God’s message to the Jews urges His people to trust fully in Him. God did not have to warn the people, but He allowed them to have three years of warning so that individuals could prepare and turn to the Lord. God wanted Israel to trust in Him and lean on Him, not on anyone else. Through this story, we can see God’s patience and grace in our own lives. While Isaiah’s ministry of preaching (almost) naked wasn’t in our time, it shows that God cares about his people, and He will use various means to communicate His message to His people. We just have to pay attention to what God is doing all around us. 

We all pursue comfort in some form or fashion. Comfort is not inherently bad or evil. However, if we are not proactively careful, comfort will naturally pull us away from God who calls us to consistently pursue discomfort for the sake of His Kingdom. When we get too comfortable, often we slip into more sin. When we slip into more sin, we naturally descend into more and more debauchery all the while becoming more and more numb to the Holy Spirit.

Then, eventually, our lives begin to fall apart. We look around and ask, “How did I get here?” Maybe you’ve been there, maybe you know someone who has, or maybe this is you right now. How did we (the world) get here (how the world currently looks around us)? Every day there is news of sin, debauchery, and evil that directly produces fear, anxiety, and sadness.

You are probably reading this on a phone, laptop, tablet, or some other form of technology that did not exist until recently. If you look around, we have more access to more comforts than any other human in history. However, we are looking more like the Egyptians in Isaiah 19 every day. “Egyptians against Egyptians…city against city…kingdom against kingdom…rivers dry and parched…branches of Egypt’s Nile diminished and dried up…workers in despair…pillars of the land crushed…” and the list goes on and on.

In those days, the Nile was the source of life and of comfort for the Egyptians. With the Nile dried up, so did comfort and provision. What is your Nile? Your investments? Your job? Your relationship? It may seem like these aspects of your life are drying up like the Nile. The comfort they once provided is drying up as well. So, what do we do? Do we run to another worldly comfort that will dry up? Another Nile? Or do we run to the One who provides living water and eternal comfort?

When all that is temporary begins to show that it is indeed temporary, it should serve as a reminder to run to the only thing that is eternal: Jesus. At the end of Isaiah 19, we see that Egypt will eventually repent and find the life they were looking for all along. Instead of turning to other temporary pleasures and provisions, they create “an altar to the Lord and a pillar to the Lord at its border.” When they do this, the Lord promises that “He will send them a Savior and Defender and deliver them…and make Himself known.” As we read this, we know that the savior is Jesus, who was the same then as He is today. 

Turn to Him. He will make Himself known. He is not a hidden, dead god. He is a fully revealed, alive God who fully knows and loves you.

As we read through Isaiah 18, we read a prophecy of the balance of hope and judgment. Although men (like Isaiah) are speaking out warnings against the people of Israel, it is clear that the heart of the message is the Lord’s. When reading this passage, we can be encouraged knowing that the Lord is extremely powerful and aware. His omniscience is evident through the fact that He knows his creation. Nothing is hidden from Him! We can trust his timing and His guidance when He instructs us to take a step in faith. 

Sometimes, that step in faith could be patience and endurance through a tough time in our lives, knowing that God desires to protect and love His people. This passage establishes a relationship between the Creator and His creation. He is asking us to trust Him, and we can see His wisdom and protection, as well as his patience in acting. God is inviting us to trust Him in every season, specifically the seasons that appear hopeless and barren. 

We can read this passage and grow our trust in the Lord, knowing that He is extremely transparent in his communication with His people. Isaiah serves as an announcer, or a forerunner, of God’s plan for the people that is meant to instill hope for the future. Verse four also helps us see into God’s character, because He is slow to act, and does not act on emotion like we tend to do. He cares about his people and, although He is a just God, His promise of restoration and hope is something we can lean on today. Sometimes we begin to think that evil will prevail in our life, but we can be encouraged by this passage knowing that God will execute His judgment on every spectrum in the end.

Sometimes, it can feel like everything around us is in flux. This can be extremely frustrating and disorienting (especially when we finally start to feel settled), and we can imagine the Israelites felt this in some sense as well. Isaiah 18 presents the hope of the refining process of the Lord, in that God is stopping a seemingly good thing for an even better thing in the future. Be encouraged knowing that God wants us to be planted in Him and bear healthy fruit instead of the fruits of this world. 

Isaiah 17 is a prophecy of the judgment and ruin that is to come in the city Damascus, which is the capital of Syria (also called “Aram”). During this time, the people of Damascus and Israel, (referenced by its dominant tribe Ephraim), shared a border and were closely working together against the southern kingdom of Judah and to resist Assyria. The Assyrian empire was extremely powerful, and Judah (ruled by King Ahaz) refused to join a coalition against them. We see in chapter 7, that King Ahaz rejects Isaiah’s counsel not to fear Israel and Syria and instead offers treasures to the king of Assyria in exchange for protection from them (2 Kings 16:5-9). The king of Assyria responded to this by capturing Damascus in 732 BC, along with Israel in 722 BC. The Assyrians were God’s instrument of wrath against the Israelites (Isaiah 10:5).

The destruction of Damascus was correlated to the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel. In verse 3, it says, “The fortress disappears from Ephraim, and a kingdom from Damascus.” This passage has a dual fulfillment prophecy, meaning there is prophecy that has been fulfilled and there is prophecy that is waiting to be fulfilled. The Assyrians conquered Damascus, but it still remains to be a city today and it is one of the oldest cities in the world. The prophecy of Damascus will ultimately be fulfilled in future judgment. 

Damascus being destroyed is in essence taking away Israel’s fortress and protection, a place where they were finding security and peace. The destruction would lead the Israelites to have no choice but to look to “their Maker” and “turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel”. It would cause them not to “look to the altars they made with their hands” or to the “shrines they made with their fingers” (v. 7-8). Israel had forgotten they were the people of God. They had forgotten who they belonged to. They had forgotten that the Lord was their true fortress and Savior. They had forgotten that their only protection would be found in their Maker. They had forgotten the God of their salvation and the rock of their strength (v. 10). 

We too, can forget where our security comes from. We can try to find peace in places it was not meant to be found. We can look for things in this world to find protection, but they will ultimately fail us. We need to remind ourselves that God is our refuge and strength, and our ever-present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1). He gives us peace, not as the world gives, so that our heart doesn’t have to be troubled (John 14:27). We can find safety in His name, which is a fortified tower (Proverbs 18:10). Through the protection and strength that comes from the Lord, there is nothing that we can’t walk through because He is with us. Let us look to our Maker today; our peace and our security are on the other side of our trust in Him. 

In chapter 16, Isaiah continues his prophecy concerning Moab. In Isaiah 16:6, we finally get some insight into what the Moabites sin was. It says “We have heard of Moab’s pride—how great is her arrogance!—of her conceit, her pride and her insolence; but her boasts are empty.” Moab was a fairly small nation. Historians conclude that it was probably only 60 miles from north to south and 20 miles from east to west. This was significantly smaller than the thousands upon thousands of miles of land ruled by larger kingdoms such as the Assyrians and Babylonians. Yet, what does Isaiah tell us was the sin responsible for the judgment of this seemingly small and insignificant nation? Pride.

We tend to associate the sin of pride with people who are great and famous, but as we heed Isaiah’s prophecy to Moab, we are reminded that pride can take root even where we don’t expect it. Pastor David Guzik points out that “the seemingly small can be just as consumed with pride as the great.” Despite its size, Moab had rich agricultural resources and we can conclude that the Moabites became prideful and arrogantly consumed with their agricultural success. The New Living Translation of Isaiah 16:8 says “The farms of Heshbon are abandoned; the vineyards at Sibmah are deserted. The rulers of the nations have broken down Moab— that beautiful grapevine.” God destroyed what the Moabites took pride in. 

Proverbs 16:5 says “The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.” As a result of the Moabites’ pride and unrepentant hearts, Isaiah is telling them that the Lord will in fact punish them. Moab was a rival nation to Israel, but instead of pointing a finger and telling them they were getting what they deserved, take note of Isaiah’s response in verse 11. “My heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.” Both the prophet and the Lord are deeply grieved over the judgment that Moab will receive. 

This is an important lesson for us to learn as believers: we should feel genuine sorrow over the miseries that come upon people because of their sin. Proverbs 24:17 says “Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,” May we learn from the prophecy of Isaiah to Moab to be aware of the sin of pride in our lives and the powerful destruction that it can cause. And may we realize that we serve a sympathetic God who is grieved by the consequences we suffer as a result of those sins.