For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Isaiah 29:1-12 

1 Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel,
    the city where David settled!
Add year to year
    and let your cycle of festivals go on.
2 Yet I will besiege Ariel;
    she will mourn and lament,
    she will be to me like an altar hearth.
3 I will encamp against you on all sides;
    I will encircle you with towers
    and set up my siege works against you.
4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground;
    your speech will mumble out of the dust.
Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth;
    out of the dust your speech will whisper.

5 But your many enemies will become like fine dust,
    the ruthless hordes like blown chaff.
Suddenly, in an instant,
6     the Lord Almighty will come
with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
    with whirlwind and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
7 Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
    that attack her and her fortress and besiege her,
will be as it is with a dream,
    with a vision in the night –
8 as when a hungry person dreams of eating,
    but awakens hungry still;
as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking,
    but awakens faint and thirsty still.
So will it be with the hordes of all the nations
    that fight against Mount Zion.

9 Be stunned and amazed,
    blind yourselves and be sightless;
be drunk, but not from wine,
    stagger, but not from beer.
10 The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep:
    he has sealed your eyes (the prophets);
    he has covered your heads (the seers).

11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, ‘Read this, please,’ they will answer, ‘I can’t; it is sealed.’ 12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, ‘Read this, please,’ they will answer, ‘I don’t know how to read.’

A. Find Out

1. Why does the Lord call Jerusalem Ariel (v.1,2 +footnote)
2. What will happen to it? v.3,4
3. But what will happen to its enemies? v.5,6
4. How will it be for them? v.7,8
5. What is the Lord bringing over the people? v.9,10
6. With what outcome? v.11,12

B. Think:

1. What physically is going to happen to Jerusalem?
2. How is the Lord going to use her?
3. But what will He do to those who bring it about?

C. Comment:

Here the Lord calls Jerusalem, Ariel (v.1a) for it is clearly the city referred to “where David settled”. But, the page footnote tells us ‘Ariel’ sounds in Hebrew like the words ‘altar hearth’ and that is what Jerusalem will become as it is besieged by enemies (v.2). When those enemies encamp around the city it will be as if it is the Lord Himself coming against them (v.3) and out of the devastation it will be as if their voices whisper into history (v.4) the truth of what this is all about.

Yet although the Lord will use foreign hordes to bring this chastisement on Jerusalem yet they will not get away with it (v.5), for the Lord will come against them (v.6) so that the hopes of the enemy for greatness will simply become like a dream that passes in the night (v.7). The prophet emphasises it by thinking of a hungry man dreaming of food or a thirsty man dreaming of drink. When they awake they are still hungry and thirsty (v.8) and so this is how it will be by those the Lord uses for this task. They may dream of greatness in their sinful desires to destroy the people of God but they will never achieve it.

The verses that follow about blindness are not directed at any specific people and so apply to all whose hearts are hardened by sin: they will be blind (v.9) and it is as if the way the Lord speaks He has brought this on them (v.10) and so although this word is written down readers will make excuses and be unable to take it in (v.11,12).

D. Application:

1. Sin has a hardening, blinding effect so we cannot ‘see’ the truth.
2. The only remedy is to cry out to the Lord in humility.

Passage: Isaiah 29:13-16

13 The Lord says:

‘These people come near to me with their mouth
    and honour me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
    is based on merely human rules they have been taught.[f]
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people
    with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
    the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.’
15 Woe to those who go to great depths
    to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
    ‘Who sees us? Who will know?’
16 You turn things upside down,
    as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
    ‘You did not make me’?
Can the pot say to the potter,
    ‘You know nothing’?

A. Find Out

1. What did this people do? v.13a
2. What was their real state? v.13b
3. What was their worship? v.13c
4. What will the Lord do? v.14
5. Who are especially in trouble? v.15
6. What do they do? v.16 

B. Think:

1. How were things not as they seemed?
2. How was their thinking completely wrong?
3. So what was the Lord going to do?

C. Comment:

The Lord never disciplined Israel without first warning them and making clear their situation that needed correcting. The reference to “These people” (v.13a) must refer back to the people of Jerusalem (v.1). In the previous verses here, the Lord has already spoken about the inability of the people to understand His word of warning.

Now He exposes their failures. First, they appear to speak spiritual words but the reality is that their hearts are far from God (v.13a,b) and indeed their worship does not come from the heart but is simply following rules (v.13c). They think they can get away with what they want which is contrary to God’s will (v.15) and in their silly thinking they think they are greater than God and can hide from Him and get away with wrong things (v.16).

But the Lord is not going to let this situation just continue on. He is going to intervene and will yet do wonders in their midst (v.14a). That may be good or bad from their perspective; they aren’t told at this stage. But all the cleverness of those who consider themselves either wise or intelligent will get swept away. (v.14b).

This part of the prophecy is remarkable in its clarity in pointing out the foolishness of this people who should know better, but what is amazing about it, is what follows (see next study) for the Lord is going to bless this people. It may be by correction but the outcome will be good!

D. Application:

1. Sin makes us stupidly think we’re better than God.
2. God, in His love for us, will not let that attitude prevail.

Passage: Isaiah 29:17-24

17 In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field
    and the fertile field seem like a forest?
18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
    and out of gloom and darkness
    the eyes of the blind will see.
19 Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord;
    the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 The ruthless will vanish,
    the mockers will disappear,
    and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down –
21 those who with a word make someone out to be guilty,
    who ensnare the defender in court
    and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.

22 Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob:

‘No longer will Jacob be ashamed;
    no longer will their faces grow pale.
23 When they see among them their children,
    the work of my hands,
they will keep my name holy;
    they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob,
    and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding;
    those who complain will accept instruction.’

A. Find Out

1. What two transformations are coming? v.17,18
2. How will the humble and needy respond? v.19
3. What will happen to the ruthless and mockers? v.20,21
4. What does the Lord say to whom? v.22
5. What will they see and acknowledge? v.23
6. Who else will be changed? v.24

B. Think:

1. How will the physical world be changed?
2. How are people going to be changed?
3. How will Israel be specifically affected?

C. Comment:

Despite all the negatives in the assessment of the world or of Israel or of Jerusalem that we have seen previously, the grace and mercy of God means that He still intends to bring good to this world. At some point in time – short by His standards – He is going to bring transformation to the natural world (v.17) – for that is what Lebanon represents. But in that day there is going to come sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf (v.19) i.e. there will be transformation for humans as well.

The humble, needy and downtrodden will rejoice in that day (v.19) for the changes that the Lord brings will transform their lives as well. On the other hand, as the Lord brings justice to His world, those who are ruthless and mockers (v.20) and those who bring injustice (v.21) will be dealt with by the Lord, and removed.

Whether such a time is the outworking of what we call ‘revival’ or refers to the end of time, is unclear. The word then specifically turns to Israel – referred to as Jacob, the schemer, the nation that so often sought to go their own way, ignoring the Lord, bringing on themselves the consequences of all that. No longer will they be in a place of correction and pain and shame (v.22) but they will know ongoing fruitfulness, they will have a future (v.23a) and they will honour the Lord (v.23b) and that includes all (v.24), including those who had previously had wrong attitudes.   

D. Application:

1. Discipline is and will be brought by God to correct wrongs.
2. Yet in His mercy He will also bring blessing.