God is a Warrior

Isaiah 29:1-8

The chapter begins with an “Ah” or “Woe” to Ariel and goes on to tell us it is the city where David encamped, we understand that to be Jerusalem.  Ariel has two meanings; “Lion of God” or “Altar Hearth,” and many believe Isaiah is seeing what God is going to do with Jerusalem, by calling it an “Altar Hearth” God is telling how it will be destroyed.  (Thoughts taken from page 1170 of the HCSB)

Note: We should never look at prophesy as one event taking place after the other, for one to do so they would only end up with a totally wrong picture of history and the Scriptures.  Often the prophet has a message for then and one for later.

In verse four, God is speaking in the second person and He is using (you and your) and like a buried body it will speak from the ground.  Then with verse five, we see a move from judgment to the restoration of Jerusalem.  Later in chapter 36, Isaiah tells us about Sennacherib’s invasion in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah. Sennacherib was the king of Assyria and he attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.  And then Sennacherib sent Rabshakeh, along with a large army to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, and this warrior sent by the King of Assyria begins to ask questions of the King’s key men; “What are you relying on?  I say that your strategy and military preparedness are mere words.  What are you now relying on that you have rebelled against me?  Look, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will enter and pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it.  This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.  Suppose you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God.’  Isn’t He the One whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You are to worship at this altar?”  (Isaiah 36:4b-7)   Dropping down to verse 10, “Have I attacked this land to destroy it without the Lord’s approval?  The Lord said to me, ‘Attack this land and destroy it.”

In chapter 37, Isaiah gives this report of King Hezekiah humbling himself before God and 

praying to the Lord, and God speaks these words to the King through his prophet Isaiah: 

“Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this 

city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. 

By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, 

declares the LORD. For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake 

of my servant David.”  And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the 

camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were 

all dead bodies.”  (Isaiah 37:33-36 ESV)

Back to chapter 29:6-8, what a reminder that our God is a warrior, and because He chooses 

any weapon of His pleasure, many times He comes against His foe in the form of hail, 

storms, even earthquakes and fire.  The Assyrian armies early success will seem like a 

dream as they leave in defeat.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice