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of prophetic vision, "and the land of far stretching distances" in contrast with the
cramping limitation of a siege.
Once more the Prophet turns back to the stricken foe:
"Thine heart shall reflect upon the terror (that threatened, and you shall ask in wonder)
Where is he that counted? Where is the weigher of tribute? Where is he that counted the
towers?" (Isa. 33: 18).
Sennacherib and his host will have gone, and instead of looking upon a people of
fierce countenance and ridiculous language, the people are exhorted to
"Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet
habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall
ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken" (Isa. 33: 20).
This prophecy takes us beyond the type, Sennacherib, and his destruction, to the
anti-type, the antichristian Beast and his overthrow at the time of the end. It looks on to
the day when Israel shall say,
"The Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King (Israel's triune
Lord). He will save us" (Isa. 33: 22).
Two millennial blessings conclude the chapter. The inhabitants of the Land in that
day shall not say, "I am sick", and the people that dwell in the Land "shall be forgiven
their iniquity", for the New Covenant will at length be put into effect. Other nations may
depend upon their galleys and their ships, but the defence of Israel, as demonstrated by
the overthrow of Sennacherib, is the Lord. Isa. 34:, which follows, takes us into "the
day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion"
(Isa. 34: 8). The language is apocalyptic and looks to the great and dreadful day of the
Lord. While Idumea is the place named, the great Edomite at the time of the end is
intended, for this judgment is world-wide. Nations are called upon to hear, the peoples of
the earth and all therein, and the world and all things that come forth of it.
The special objects of the Lord's indignation and fury are the "nations and all their
armies". This looks to the great gathering against Jerusalem,
"When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation
thereof is nigh . . . . . For these be the days of vengeance . . . . . until the times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the
stars" (Luke 21: 20-25).
"And I saw the beast, and the Kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to
make war" (Rev. 19: 19).
Zechariah speaks of the gathering of all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the
descent of the Lord with an accompanying earthquake (Zech. 14: 1-5). The dreadful
slaughter that ensues is suggested by the words of verse 16 where it speaks of "every one
that is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem". This is literal Armageddon