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"Desolation shall come upon thee suddenly" (Isa. 47: 11),
which words expand the threat of verse 9:
"But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day."
A passage that bears upon Isa. 48: 3 is that found in the prophet Malachi:
"Behold I will send My messenger . . . . . and the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly
come to His temple" (Mal. 3: 1).
The `sudden' coming is associated by Malachi with the `refining' of Israel:
"But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth?
for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and
purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver,
that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness" (Mal. 3: 2, 3).
The reader will remember that in Isa. 48: we have not only a passage speaking of a
`sudden' work of the Lord, but of a refining work also:
"Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of
affliction" (Isa. 48: 10).
In chapter 1:, the prophet had said:
"Thy silver is become dross . . . . . I will turn My hand upon thee, and purely purge
away thy dross, and take away thy tin, and I will restore . . . . ." (Isa. 1: 22-26).
The Psalmist said:
"Thou, O God, hast proved us: Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried" (Psa. 66: 10).
And the prophet Zechariah says:
"An I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is
refined" (Zech. 13: 9).
Israel shall be refined as silver is refined. What therefore does the prophet Isaiah
mean when he says:
"Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver"? (Isa. 48: 10).
We have sufficient knowledge of the Word of God to know that there can be no
contradiction or discrepancy here. The Psalmist said they had been refined as silver, the
prophets declare that they shall be refined as silver. Isaiah as surely declares the same
thing, for we have already quoted his words in Isa. 1: 22-26. He must therefore be
speaking of something else in Isa. 48: The Lord's anger he tells us is `deferred'.
This word translates the Hebrew arak, which means to `lengthen' ("That thy days may be
long upon the earth"); and is found in Isa. 53: 10 "He shall prolong his days". The
Lord's anger was not deflected or deferred, it was attenuated, stretched out, and the idea
is translated by the Greek makrothumia `longsuffering'.