32:1–2 A king shall reign in righteousness and rulers rule with justice. And a man shall become as a shelter from the wind or refuge from the storm, like brooks of water in a desert place, or the shade of a large rock in arid country. This king reigning in righteousness is very similar to what is spoken of in chapter eleven, where "righteousness will be as a band about his waist. He will judge the poor with righteousness," and could be speaking about the Lord himself reigning righteously, because he's the one spoken of as the King. The Lord is the king, in the book of Isaiah. Or he could also be using the Servant who personifies righteousness, as his "deputy," and ruling, in one sense, through the Servant, and the ruler's ruling with justice, with the other servants ruling, in the book of Isaiah. There's the one Servant and the many servants, or other servants, as we'll see later on in the book of Isaiah. As the book of Isaiah progresses, out of Zion comes certain righteous servants and their rule. And it's very similar to the form of government we saw earlier, in chapter one, verses twenty-five and twenty-six where it says, "I will restore my hand over you. I will restore your judges as at the first." They judge; they rule with justice. So, it's kind of a government of Moses and the elders of Israel—the greater judge and the lesser judges. And a man shall become as a shelter from the wind, or refuge from the storm, like brooks of water in a desert place, or the shade of a large rock in arid country. There are a lot of terms here that are word links, like shelter, refuge, shade or shadow. The people seek protection from Pharaoh's shadow, or shade, where it's actually the Lord that provides that protection. But individual servants of God also do so. A man implies individuals, not generally across the board, but some. And this protection is connected with the king and rulers in the preceding verse. So those people, or those kings, who rule have a particular function of providing protection. The storm is the day of judgment. The wandering in the wilderness goes through the desert: "like brooks of water in a desert place, or shade of a large rock in an arid country," a large rock. As the Lord is a Rock, so these people become a rock. As he's a Refuge, so they become a refuge. This kind of alludes to the idea of people emulating the God of Israel, who is our Savior, or is the Savior, or Redeemer of his people. As individuals become like him, then those men become protectors. That's their function; it defines the function of men, not of women. Women's function is also defined, in the book of Isaiah, through the women imagery associated with the woman Zion. The thing that Zion does exemplifies the female role. But this role here is the particular role of men—to be a shelter, a refuge, a protection especially during rough, difficult times. And the men who end up becoming rulers in that day, that Millennial age, are those kind of men who proved to be savior-protector types during that time of judgment. They fulfill that function then, and they continue to fulfill it during the Millennial time of peace. 32:3 The eyes of those who see shall not be shut, and the ears of those who hear shall listen. Now it's referring back to the blind and deaf, again. But people will have their eyes opened and their ears unstopped, at that time, and they'll be attentive; they'll be ready for more, to see and hear more things. 32:4 The minds of the rash shall learn understanding, and the tongues of the stammerers master eloquence. Just like it said earlier, "Those who erred in spirit gain understanding, and they who murmured accept instruction." People are on upward path of spiritual progress, here, in that time of righteousness and justice. Justice and righteousness, as we've seen earlier, are the foundation of all blessings. Also, it implies that people will obtain healing. We saw, earlier, that the Lord heals; "He binds up the fractures and heals the open wounds." Many forms of healing will be evident then. A little later on, in chapter thirty-five, verse five and six say, "The eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. The lame will leap like deer, and the tongues of the dumb shout for joy." There will be physical healing of impediments, disabilities, and sicknesses, and so forth, among individuals as well as healing of the people in general. And it's that great reversal of circumstances that Isaiah keeps talking about. "Hear stammerers master eloquence." That's a big turnaround. "The minds of the rash"—people who just go through life willy-nilly-- "will learn understanding and become wise." Those who see and those who hear will see and listen. Remember the discourse of Jesus with the Pharisees who claimed that they saw, and then when they rejected him they were really blinded. And in that same discourse, in the book of John, the blind man who was blind from birth sees, after being blind. And the Pharisees, after seeing, become blind. Those who see, then, will really see. And those who hear, then will really hear. 32:5 The godless shall no longer be regarded as noble nor rogues considered respectable. As in our present society where it's all turned around. Because of wealth, power, or position, and popularity, scoundrels are highly regarded now. But not so, then. 32:6 For the godless utter blasphemy; their heart ponders impiety: how to practice hypocrisy and preach perverse things concerning the Lord, leaving the hungry soul empty, depriving the thirsty soul of drink. Here we see the word of God as spiritual food and drink. Like we saw, earlier, with the tables filled with vomit and excrement. It doesn't just refer to literal vomit and excrement, but also to the word of God, half digested by people. That imagery is not just literal. In other words, it's symbolic. It defines the godless as people who utter blasphemy, or are impious. They ponder impiety the practice hypocrisy. They go through a form of godliness but deny the reality, or the essence, thereof. And those who listen to them, or those who come to them for knowledge, really come away empty. There's really nothing there when you listen to them, and sit down at a lecture. After it's all over what did you really gain? Not much. You're still hungry and thirsty for the word of God. These teachers are the imitators, counterfeits of true preachers. 32:7 And rogues scheme by malevolent means and insidious devices to ruin the poor, and with false slogans and accusations to denounce the needy. So we had the religious or the spiritual aspect, and now the political, or plain economic aspect. These people are into fraud and trying to rip everybody off, and also, at the same time, imputing those very things in others. The poor and the needy are the people the Lord looks out for and the rogues are trying to destroy the poor, and denounce the needy. So they're oppressing God's people, in other words. 32:8 But the noble are of noble intent, and stand up for what is virtuous. The noble are in contrast to those depraved, or malefactors, malevolent people, as he gives a definition of what they do and are. So the noble are defined, here, as those with "noble intent who stand up for what is virtuous." Remember chapter one, verse seventeen, where you stand up for the widow? He says, "Stand up for the oppressed, lead the cause of the fatherless, appeal on behalf of the widow, demand justice." And the noble stand up. They're valiant in pleading the cause of others, not just themselves. They don't just look out for themselves. The noble are "of noble intent and stand up for what is virtuous." They're not afraid to stick their necks out, to let themselves be heard as a voice for the truth. They don't cave in to peer pressure. 32:9 Up, and listen to my voice, O complacent women; you careless daughters, hear my words! As he judges the men, so he judges the women, the people of Zion, people of God. The voice is the voice of the Lord—whether given through the prophet, or in this case, personified by the Lord's Servant. The women are at ease in Zion and think everything's going to be just fine and keep going the way they are, perhaps kind of like Lot's wife in Sodom, thinking that things would just go on as usual, when it was actually a time of judgment and they need to get out or else be destroyed with Sodom. "Up, and listen to my voice, O complacent women; you careless daughters, hear my words!" [transcriber's note: Aren't the "women" here, not just literal, as this commentary leads one to understand, but are churches, religious groups— as in latter-day context of stakes, branches, wards, or Christian denominations?] 32:10 In little more than a year you shall be in anguish, O carefree ones, for when the harvest is over, the produce shall fail to arrive. The produce has been arriving, year after year, to the cities, and everything's been just fine. But it's all going to change. A warning has been given that in about a year all that will be different. The produce failing to arrive means a covenant curse. People will be deprived. So what they haven't laid up in store, they won't have. [transcriber's note: Isn't this also metaphorical—with righteous offspring of the woman--the church-- being the produce which has failed to arrive when God expected a righteous harvest?] 32:11 Be alarmed, you complacent women; be perturbed, O careless daughters! Strip yourselves bare; put sackcloth around your waists. In other words, go into a state of mourning and repentance. When you repent, you put on sackcloth. And whether they will do so, literally, as was done anciently, as an outward sign of inward repentance, or in other ways—"tear down your plenty--" and show you are in repentance mode. 32:12–13 Beat your breasts for the choice fields and flourishing vines, for my people's land shall be overgrown with briars and thorns. As Isaiah keeps saying, in this great reversal of circumstances, the fields that are now productive and fertile will become wilderness, or bush-- or briers and thorns, in this case. The land will revert to wilderness, as it says in chapter seven. Chapter five talks about briers and thorns overgrowing the vineyard. All of that will happen at that time of judgment. Stripping bare and putting sackcloth around your waist is what the harlot Babylon does also, in chapter forty-seven. So rather than do it then, and be forced to put on sackcloth—do it now, and repent, and participate in God's salvation, at that time. Repent, before the time. Briers and thorns is a covenant curse, or the land reverting to wilderness or unused status covenant curse. But Briers and thorns also alludes to wickedness, or is synonymous with wicked people in the book of Isaiah, so the land being overgrown with briers and thorns alludes to the wicked being pervasive in the land and overrunning the land. Whether they are the wicked of the Lord's own people, or the wicked invaders, doesn't matter. 32:13–14 Mourn for all the amusement houses in the city of entertainment, for the palaces shall lie abandoned, the clamorous towns deserted. High rises and panoramic resorts shall become haunts for ever after, the playground of wild animals, a browsing place for flocks. We saw some of that in chapter thirteen, verses twenty-one and twenty-two, where buildings overflow with weasels, birds of prey find lodging there, demonic creatures prance about, jackals cry out from its palaces, howling creatures from its amusement halls." This has several levels of meaning. It can be literal that all these places—amusement houses, the city of entertainment or any city, the inner city where entertainment houses are—that all of those places will lie empty and desolate. But it can also mean that the people themselves were like wild animals—jackals and so on, that lived there, or entertained there, before. And because they were entertaining there, this curse came upon them. This society, today, is so much into entertainment, and so self-serving and self-seeking and seeking to satisfy some of the more basic instincts, rather than serving God, that it's easy to identify with this prophecy of Isaiah. Becoming the haunt of wild animals, the playground of wild animals is a covenant curse. When animals take over where people left off, then it's going back to primitive conditions, which implies wickedness on the part of the people, and the covenant curse is taking effect. 32:19* For by a hail shall forests be felled, cities utterly leveled. Verse nineteen, which comes after verse fourteen, here, in order of content. It's a time of judgment. The hail is, again, the storm imagery, day of judgment imagery. The hail of fire and brimstone, in effect, is the fiery destruction from above. "By that hail shall forests be felled." Who actually felled forests, literally? The forests, here, are paralleled with cities, cities utterly leveled. The felling of the forests, or the leveling of the cities are in a synonymous parallelism which lets you know that forests is a metaphor for cities, the same as mountains is a metaphor for nations. And trees are a metaphor for people. So we have mountains as nations, forests as cities, and trees as people which will be felled, in that day, by the king of Assyria who's described as the Lord's ax and saw, in other destructive ways. 32:15 Then shall a Spirit from on high be poured out on us; the desert shall become productive land and lands now productive be reckoned as brushwood. So there's a two-fold action by God: hail from above felling the cities and forests, but the Spirit from above falling on the righteous people. They will be given an added spirit, or a different spirit; the Spirit of God will be poured out upon them. It says, "The desert shall become productive land, and lands now productive will become as brushwood," or backwoods. This will be that great reversal of circumstances, when the wicked are put down and the righteous are ennobled and elevated. The desert becoming productive land implies a covenant curse reversal. That which was cursed, was under a curse, which was desert, now becomes productive land. And the lands now productive becoming brushwood, is a covenant curse upon the wicked inhabitants of the lands that are now productive. So, there's a covenant curse upon the one, and a covenant blessing, or reversal of covenant curse, upon the other. 32:16 So shall justice inhabit the desert, and righteousness abide in the farm land. Here we have justice and righteousness again, that keeps popping up all over the place. Justice inhabiting the desert and righteousness abiding in the farmland means that the people who are just and righteous are given an inheritance of land in the desert areas that blossom. Desert areas that blossom become their new inheritances of land, that will be fertile, and they will be agricultural. Farmland implies a rural agricultural economy, not the economy of the works of men's hands, a materialistic economy in pursuit of material pleasures. So the people who practices justice and righteousness will abide there. Righteousness is a metaphor describing the Servant who lives there, too. And he has something to do with this whole scenario. In personifying righteousness he is an exemplar of his people. So those who respond to the Servant's message, or the Lord's message through the Servant, emulate him and become like him and inherit a like blessedness. 32:17 And the effect of justice shall be peace, and the result of righteousness an assured calm forever. There will be peace and calm, for the righteous. And it is shown,in other places that there is no peace for the wicked, as Isaiah says. But for those who are just and true and righteous, there is peace --the effects justice and righteousness, or the results, or the blessings that come with that. Righteousness, again is a metaphor for the Lord, also, besides being an actual Divine attribute; justice and righteousness are Divine attributes that people emulate. The result of righteousness, therefore, would be the effect of the Servant's mission among the people of God, in that day, reclaiming them from their oppressed and their dispersed condition, and teaching them God's justice and covenant so they can inherit these blessings. 32:18 My people shall dwell in peaceful settlements, in safe neighborhoods, in comfortable dwellings. There is the peaceful settlement, the settlement as a whole, the neighborhood within the settlement, and dwellings within the neighborhood—all is at peace—comfortable, safe production, totally a blessed situation. It won't be like now when you have to wonder what's going to happen when you walk down the street at night. In that Millennial time of peace there'll be complete protection and safety and comfort. 32:20 Blessed are you, who shall then sow by all waters, letting oxen and asses range free. The oxen and asses will come home, and you put up fences. It will be a whole different dimension in our society, then. "Blessed" implies a blessed situation because the keeping of the covenant by the Lord's people