- Isaiah 32 (Contemporary English Version)
- A king and his leaders will rule with justice.
- They will be a place of safety from stormy winds, a stream in the desert, and a rock that gives shade from the heat of the sun.
- Then everyone who has eyes will open them and see, and those who have ears will pay attention.
- All who are impatient will take time to think; everyone who stutters will talk clearly.
- Fools will no longer be highly respected, and crooks won't be given positions of honor.
- Fools talk foolishness. They always make plans to do sinful things, to lie about the LORD, to let the hungry starve, and to keep water from those who are thirsty.
- Cruel people tell lies-- they do evil things, and make cruel plans to destroy the poor and needy, even when they beg for justice.
- But helpful people can always be trusted to make helpful plans.
- Listen to what I say, you women who are carefree and careless!
- You may not have worries now, but in about a year, the grape harvest will fail, and you will tremble.
- Shake and shudder, you women without a care! Strip off your clothes-- put on sackcloth.
- Slap your breasts in sorrow because of what happened to the fruitful fields and vineyards,
- and to the happy homes in Jerusalem. The land of my people is covered with thorns.
- The palace will be deserted, the crowded city empty. Fortresses and towers will forever become playgrounds for wild donkeys and pastures for sheep.
- When the Spirit is given to us from heaven, deserts will become orchards thick as fertile forests.
- Honesty and justice will prosper there,
- and justice will produce lasting peace and security.
- You, the LORD's people, will live in peace, calm and secure,
- even if hailstones flatten forests and cities.
- You will have God's blessing, as you plant your crops beside streams, while your donkeys and cattle roam freely about.
We come to realize that until Christ reigns over the earth, the hope of righteousness and peace outlined in the first 8 verses of this chapter will not occur. Through his book Isaiah makes numerous references to the hope of a time when people obey God and act as they should toward each other. Some commentators try to identify a period in Israel's history following Isaiah's time when these hopes were fulfilled. But any period given consideration is only a partial portrayal of the hopes outlined by Isaiah. For Israel never really fully follows the Lord, and such a period as described in the first verses of this chapter can only be fulfilled when they fully follow the Lord. Thus we have to look to the millennial period, further out in the future, to see these hopes realized. In the meantime, as we individually make Christ Lord in our lives, we can experience much of what he describes but it cannot be complete as long as unrighteousness is rampant.
Verses 9-15 take us back to the period in which Isaiah was prophecying and he describes the people as complacent and overconfident. They are complacent about their spiritual condition and overconfident about escaping judgment. But their overconfidence would be shattered in "a little more than a year." It would begin with the failure of their grape crop leading to no harvest. Their wonderful vineyards, in which they had great delight, would become overgrown with thorns and briers. The city (of Jerusalem?) would be abandoned and the palace forsaken. All of this is most likely a reference to Jerusalem's destruction by Assyria which caused the failure of the grape crop and abandonment of the city and surrounding area which left the vineyards overgrown and the city deserted. This condition would last until "the Spirit from heaven is poured out on us." With this reference in verse 15, we are taken back to the millennial period when Christ will reign.
Under Christ's reign there will be righteousness among the people which will bring peace and a quiet confidence. Those who allow Christ to reign in their lives already recognize that any hope for world peace prior to Christ's millenial reign is naive. Those who speak of world peace in our time fail to recognize the connection between one's spiritual condition and obedience to God's teaching and the possibility for peace. They speak as if all that needs to happen is for world leaders to quit leading their nations to war. But the disposition of nations is determined by the disposition of its people, and even on an individual level they are unable to have peace with one another. Even those who speak loudly about world peace do not have peace with all others in their lives. Many do not even have peace within their own families. How can there be any expectation of world peace when people cannot have peace in their personal lives? Peace is not possible at any level until people submit themselves to the reign of Christ in their lives. And peace at all levels is not possible until all people submit to Christ's reign.
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