29:1  Woe to Ariel—Ariel, the city where David lodged! Though you add year to year, and the feastdays recur in succession,

The word, altar hearth in verse two, is again, the same as Ariel. The word, Ariel, can mean alter hearth, but it also means “lion of God.” So it kind of has a two-fold connotation. The people can go two ways. Either become as a lion of God or they become burned up on the altar hearth.
The city where the Lord’s servant, David, lodged is alluded to here. There’s an instance of what’s called Zion ideology: destruction of the wicked, deliverance of the righteous, at the mention of the Lord’s servant. This alludes more to the Jewish aspect rather than the Ephraimite aspect of the Lord’s people. The Jewish people are very, very much into feast days. And they celebrate them from year to year, in succession. But, the outward performance, just as we saw earlier, doesn’t serve very much. In that days you’re going to need more than just outward performances. It’s part of the same covenant-with-death syndrome, or the arm of flesh, or the human schemes or human ideas that are relied upon, here, versus revelation from God. How is God going to deal with them?

29:2  yet will I distress Ariel: there shall be mourning and sorrow when she becomes as my altar hearth.

29:3  I will encamp against you round about, and beleaguer you with assault posts, and erect siege installations against you.

So, they’re going to come under invasion, a siege, or an attack from all sides.

29:4  And when you have been laid low, you will speak from the ground, your words uttering out of the dust: your voice from the ground shall be like that of a medium; your sayings shall whisper out of the dust.

When will this happen? Well, at any time. It happened in the past when the Lord’s people, the Jews, in particular, were destroyed by the Romans or by the Babylonians. Their recorded, scriptural, history was kept by the prophets and scribes, the righteous of the Lord’s people. And, in some future day, when the masses of the Lord’s people have been wiped out in some future day, their words will have meaning for future generations and, perhaps, be a lesson to them, then, when history repeats itself.

Now, in the book of Isaiah the “siege round about” happens when the Assyrians lay siege to Zion, or Jerusalem, in chapters thirty-six and thirty-seven. That is likely a linking idea, so that the wicked of Judah or of the Lord’s people are besieged by an Assyria alliance or Assyrian armies from all sides, or will be, in that day of judgment. And they will be laid low, then, as the Lord’s people were laid low, anciently. And also, as to the voice from the ground, “voice” is a metaphor describing the Lord’s Servant. So, this alludes to his ability, or his gift, to act like a medium to translate the sayings, or the words, of the ancient generations of God’s people to the present day, or to the modern generations of God’s people. They are the words of those who were laid low in the dust who disappeared because of wickedness or the judgments of God coming upon them. He’s like a Seer who can see the past and the future, and also convey the words of those lie in the dust, to his generation.

29:5  Suddenly, in an instant, your crowds of evildoers shall become as fine dust, your violent mobs like flying chaff.

Dust and chaff are chaos motifs, again. And who is it that’s turned into dust? The righteous? No. The righteous are preserved, in the book of Isaiah, in an exodus. They walk through the water and fire; the elements can’t hurt them. No army arrayed against them can hurt them. There is protection for the righteous of the Lord people. But, the crowds of evil-doers, the violent mobs-- alluding to that to the fact that in day of judgment there will be people crowding into mobs of a violent nature--there’ll be a lot of that going on. It will be a sign of the times, so to speak. They will be the ones who will become a non-entity, in an instant, suddenly. In other words, like at the Sodom and Gomorrah destruction. That was instantaneous, or like you would have today with nuclear weapons. People are there, one minute, and in the next minute they’re gone.

29:6  She shall be chastened by the Lord of Hosts with thunderous quakings, resounding booms, tempestuous blasts and conflagrations of devouring flame.

This could be alluding to a nuclear destruction. Those two verses, together--thunderous quakings, resounding booms, tempestuous blasts, conflagrations of devouring flame, and destruction in an instant, suddenly—certainly, that’s possible with today’s military technology. Flame, also, is a metaphor describing the king of Assyria. So, it alludes to his orchestration, or engineering, of this destruction. And he’s the one whom the Lord commissions against his wicked people to destroy them, anyway. “She” is the harlot, the Lord’s people who are the “wife” of the Lord, but here, in this case, in their wicked aspect.

29:7  And the nations amassed to fight against Ariel, all who congregate at her stronghold to distress her, shall be as a dream seen in the night:

Now, even thought these nations, this Assyrian alliance of nations—this is what it is in the book of Isaiah—even though they come against the Lord’s people, and cause such horrendous destruction of the wicked, they themselves, also, don’t last very long. They themselves are also destroyed. We see, over and over, that whatever the Assyrians do to God’s people is also done to them. They don’t stay around very long, themselves. These nations amass to fight against Ariel. They congregate at their stronghold. In chapters thirty-six and thirty-seven we see them having conquered the whole world and laying siege to Zion. And, in chapter seventeen, it talks about “Wo to many peoples in an uproar, who rage like the raging of the seas, tumultuous nations in commotion like the turbulence of mighty waters.” And it says, there, that those nations will be driven before the wind, like chaff on the mountains, or like whirling dust in the storm.” After they cause that destruction, after they serve the Lord’s purpose of destroying the wicked, then they, themselves, are dealt with in like measure. It says they will be like “a dream seen in the night,”

29:8  like a hungry man who dreams he eats, but awakens famished, or like a thirsty man who dreams he drinks, but wakes up faint and craving. So shall be all the nations that amass to fight against Mount Zion.

Here, Ariel is parallel with Mt. Zion. In verse seven they amass to fight against Ariel. In verse eight they amass to fight against Zion. That’s not necessarily a synonymous parallelism,; it may be a complimentary parallelism. It’s the same when we have Zion and Jerusalem. They’re not necessarily the same place in the book of Isaiah. Sometimes they appear in parallelism, but that doesn’t mean to say they are synonymous entities. They may be complimentary entities. At any rate, the Assyrians amass to fight against both. And this is where that idea of fighting against Mt. Zion comes from, from this verse in the book of Isaiah.

And Mt. Zion is that level of people on the spiritual ladder that’s a step above Jacob, or Israel. It is the Jerusalem or Zion level, which is the level of the righteous people of God. And they’re the ones who are preserved. Zion is the safe place. There is deliverance in Zion. It’s a specific place, just as Ariel was a specific place, like Mt. Zion. It also designates a level of people. It’s both a people and a place, like Babylon is both a people and a place which is the world at large, and its wicked inhabitants. Zion is those who repent, and the place to which they assemble, or return to, is a protection for them. In Mt. Zion, the sinners of the Lord’s people are also destroyed, in the book of Isaiah. There are sinners in Zion, spoken of. That is what happens. It’s a two-fold scenario. On the one hand, the destruction of the Lord’s people, in their own land. And on the other hand, the deliverance of the righteous of the Lord’s people, in their own land. So, Ariel fits the bill, the same way. That’s why you have the two-fold meaning of that word: the lion of God alluding to those who survive, and the altar hearth alluding to those who are wiped out.
Back to the man who dreams, “the dreams seen in the night.” This day of judgment is compared to a night. It just kind of happens overnight, and the next morning it’s over. It’s the morning of the Millennium. The hungry man, and the thirsty man allude to covenant curse. It alludes to “these” people who will be under a covenant curse. The enemy thinks they will deal the death blow to God’s people, by conquering even the righteous people in Zion, and they come away empty. That’s when they come to grief. It’s at the time after they’ve conquered the whole world, as we see in chapters thirty-six and thirty-seven. Then, when they lay siege to Zion, then the Assyrian alliance, themselves, they are destroyed, and they are wiped out. So, all those who remain after the wicked have killed the wicked, then those wicked, are themselves destroyed, and only the people of Zion are left. It’s like an overnight destruction.

29:9–10  Procrastinate, and become bewildered; preoccupy yourselves, until you cry for help. Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not from strong drink. The Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep: he has shut your eyes, the prophets; he has covered your heads, the seers.

This is similar to chapter twenty-eight but not exactly the same imagery. Word links, yes: drunkenness, prophets, seers. What is the problem here? In chapter twenty-eight it was delusion and relying upon falsehoods and deception. Here it is more or less a preoccupation with other things. Perhaps with the feast days reoccurring, and people observing performances and ordinances; maybe it’s a preoccupation with those things, so that when the Lord’s work of destruction and deliverance begins, they’re bewildered. They don’t know what’s going on. They cry for help. So, the two, in a way, are in a drunken state. But not necessarily the wine of falsehood. The drunkenness could be a preoccupation with temporal things.

“The Lord has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep.” They’re in a drunken sleep because their preoccupation with things causes them to be asleep, spiritually. They’re like the babe that doesn’t grow. Their eyes are not open because their just preoccupied with trivia. “He has shut your eyes, the prophets. He has covered your heads, the seers,” showing that the eyes are the prophets, and the heads are the seers. “ This alludes to the leadership of the people, again. The prophets are suppose to be the eyes and ears of the people. But they don’t have them anymore. It’s a reflection of the people themselves. You can’t blame the prophets and seers, because they are simply a reflection of the masses, in general. The Lord gives the people what they want. The prophets’ spiritual state reflects that of the people.

29:11–12  For you the sum of vision has become as the words of a sealed book that they give to one who is learned, saying, Please read this, and he answers, I cannot; it is sealed. Or if they give it to one who is unlearned, saying, Please read this, he answers, I am unlearned.

So, either way, apocalyptic vision is a mass of confusion to people, to the learned and the unlearned, alike. Why? It gives you the answer in the next verse.

29:13  But my Lord says, Because these people approach me with the mouth and pay me homage with their lips, while their heart remains far from me—their piety toward me consisting of commandments of men learned by rote—

This is very similar to chapter twenty-eight, kabblah kab, kabblah kab, tabblah tab, tabblah tab type mentality, the rote method of learning. These are actually religious people. They’re preoccupied with the outward observances rather than with the real meat of the word of God. It says, “these people,” alluding to the alienated condition of the people. They approach God with the mouth, pay him homage with their lips, but their heart is far from him, commandments of me versus commandments of God, learning by rote versus receiving revelation.

29:14  therefore it is that I shall again astound these people with wonder upon wonder, rendering void the knowledge of their sages and the intelligence of their wise men insignificant.

So, while the people are in this condition, remaining in this phase of religious observance, not getting to the heart of things, not getting revelation through prophets and seers, the Lord is going to astound them, or surprise them. He will spring a surprise upon them,of some kind that’s going to serve as a test for them. But he’s not going to do something totally new that he hasn’t done before. The Lord has done new things in the past that surprised people and took them off guard. It took the wicked off guard. The knowledge of their sages and their wise men becomes nothing. All the books written about God’s revelations don’t mean very much when they don’t help you in the present situation. Now, there’s all these commentaries of the scriptures and what are they all really for if they don’t get you out of the fix or teach you what God is going to do in that day so that you can participate in his saving events rather than the destructive events? Their knowledge is useless, in that day. Just like the idols of Babylon are useless. They’re no God; they can’t save you in that day.

Also, the word, knowledge, implies a covenantal type of knowledge. Knowledge, in the book of Isaiah, is correctly, or properly defined as the knowledge of God, knowledge of the things of God. The idea is to get to know God, through his word, and through living his law and his commandments. Instead, these are commandments of men. The people are not getting closer to God; they’re actually getting further away from him. “These” are alienated, in the sense that their piety, or religious observance is really not for real. It’s just surfacey.

29:15  Woe to those who contrive to hide their schemes from the Lord! They work in the dark, thinking, Who will see us? Who will know?

And it may be an illusion to those who are living religious observance on the one hand, on the outside, and doing other things like this, on the other hand, in an underhand way. That’s why they’re blinded as to what’s really happening. Maybe that’s why they’re buying into the knowledge of the sages, of the wise men, of the rabbis, or the scholars, or whoever it may be. They’re buying into that and they don’t want to know better. Their own lives are full of machinations, preoccupied with schemes-- political schemes, money-making schemes, and so forth. “Who will see us? Who will know?”

29:16  What a contradiction you are! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay? Shall what is made say of its maker, He did not make me, or a work of its designer, He doesn’t understand?

“What a contradiction you are!” They, themselves are a contradiction, because they’re children of God acting like they’re children of the devil, or that God doesn’t exist, or doesn’t see them. “Shall the potter be regarded as the clay?” The Lord is the potter. Do you think you can mold God? “Shall what is made say of its maker, He did not make me, or a work of its designer, He doesn’t understand?” In a sense they think they know better than God is the Maker and Designer, and they act as if they, themselves, are Gods.

29:17  In a very little while, shall not Lebanon again become a fruitful land, and lands now fruitful be considered backwoods?

Or bush, or forest, or jungle. What is that alluding to? That means that the Lord is going to turn the whole situation around. There’s going to be a reversal of circumstances. And those who are now scheming and contriving, and working in the dark, will be exposed. They will become backwoods; they’ll be gone; they’ll swallowed up. Lebanon a figure of Israel, or the Lord’s people and their land, the Promised land which has been a desert or a waste ever since the ancient destructions, will now become fruitful. And lands that are not fruitful where these people are living will become backwoods. There won’t be anybody there, anymore. The backwoods will be the deserted areas, for the wicked people will be destroyed off the land. This is the allusion to the circumstances that’s the theme all the way through the book of Isaiah.

29:18  In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book and the eyes of the blind see out of gross darkness.

The book is the one spoken of in verse eleven: the book that is sealed. That is sealed as far as the apocalyptic vision of the end of the world is concerned. They can’t see that. But “in that day,” in that day of judgment, that book will be unsealed and people will be able to hear and see what it contains. “That book,” is, first of all, the book of Isaiah, which is a sealed book. And only when its literary devices are unsealed, will it help you to see the book of Isaiah as a vision of the end from the beginning, a vision of the end of the world, a vision of coming destruction, and the deliverance that the Lord has prepared for his righteous people and their Millennial inheritance. But the book can also be any book that has apocalyptic vision in it, such as the book of Daniel, the book of Revelation, or any sealed book. All sealed books in that day will be unsealed. “The sum of vision has become as the words of a sealed book,” any sealed book, any sum of vision, any apocalyptic vision.

The deaf and the blind are the Lord’s own people, in the book of Isaiah. We see that in the forties, later on in the book of Isaiah. The Lord’s people are blind and deaf because they’re into idolatry and other things. In this case they’re blind and deaf because of their only partial religious observance. They’re also blind and deaf, in chapter twenty-eight, in this sense, in that day when they’re drunk with the wine of deception. If they will repent they will see and hear, again. Their eyes will be opened, their ears unstopped. We saw that in chapter six, where Isaiah receives a commission. It says, “lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears and repent and be healed.” That’s a formula for salvation. It means that certain people will taking the right steps and they will be the ones to understand the sealed books. Not everybody will, because many people will also remain blind and deaf, at that day.

Also, darkness implies that the Lord’s people have been in a state of ignorance, as far as the law and word of God are concerned. They are brought of the darkness into his marvelous light through the agency of the Lord’s Servant who is the one who enlightens them, who lightens up the darkness. That’s his job. In chapter forty-two it says it’s his job to open the eyes of the blind and free captives from confinement, and from prison those who sit in darkness. He is to be a light to the nations. So, the one who unseals the book is the Lord’s Servant.

29:19  The lowly shall obtain an increase of joy in the Lord, and the poorest of men rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

That’s linked to the blind and deaf. As you’ve already seen before, the lowly and poor are the ones who are the Lord’s own people. They are called his covenant people, on that day. So we’re talking about here, the elect, the righteous who come out of a situation of darkness and blindness and deafness, and perhaps, poverty or underprivileged conditions. And then they are brought into a situation of light and prosperity again, and joy. Implying that there was no joy there, before. “They shall have an increase of joy in the Lord and the poorest of men rejoice in the Holy One of Israel,” as they have hitherto not done. They didn’t know the Holy One of Israel. They were blind and deaf; they were in darkness. Now, they rejoice! It alludes to their conversion to the Holy One of Israel. Holy One because that’s his exemplary attribute, his Holiness. This implies that they, themselves, become holy.

29:20  For tyrants shall come to nought and scorners cease; all who persist in wickedness shall be cut off—

So, those who don’t follow that course, those who don’t repent, and see and hear and are healed and saved, they will be cut off. The scorners, we saw those in chapter twenty-eight, those who preside over the people: the tyrants, the Assyrians, particularly, or anybody who’s tyrannical and follows the king of Assyria’s example of tyranny. All who persist in wickedness shall be cut off from among the people of God. All through the scriptures that phrase, “cut off,” means to be cut off from among the people, the people of God. And also it means to be cut out of life, cut off from the face of the earth.

29:21  those who at a word adjudge a man to be guilty, who ensnare the defender at court, who for nothing turn away him who is in the right.

Someone said, well he did such and such.” And so you judge that person on the basis of someone’s word, which may be a false word, which may be a rumor or false judgment. And so people judge the person on the basis of lies, without proof or two or more witnesses. “Those who at a word adjudge a man to be guilty, who ensnare the defender at court.” Liars trying to trick people into incriminating themselves, “ who for nothing turn away him who is in the right.” On a technicality you case has no merit, so there’s nothing we can do to help you. Sorry. It’s some kind of scenario like that, the underlying theme being injustice and oppression. That is the condition of the wicked. And that justifies their being cut off.

29:22  Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, to the house of Jacob: No longer shall Jacob be dismayed; his face shall pale no more.

“Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, to the house of Jacob.” Whenever it uses a name like that, “who redeemed Abraham,” then it implies that Abraham of old set a precedent of being redeemed. How did God redeem him? He redeemed him from destruction in Babylon. He delivered him from the famine and the curse, there, and in many other instances. Abraham’s redemption is a type of his descendants’ redemption, in this case. As he redeemed Abraham, who was just one guy, he says in chapter fifty-one: “Look to Abraham, your father. He was but one when I called him, but I blessed him by making him many.” So, individuals, like Abraham, can be redeemed of the Lord. No matter how bad a situation they may be in, no matter what situation of covenant curse they may be under, they can be like Abraham.

“ No longer shall Jacob be dismayed; his face shall grow pale no more.” Jacob was dismayed when Esau confronted him. But, as the Lord delivered Jacob from Esau, so he can deliver Jacob’s descendants from modern Esaus, or from those who assume that they have the birthright who have really sold their birthright for a mess of pottage. “No longer shall Jacob be dismayed; his face shall grow pale no more.” There are those, in other words, who are oppressing the humble people of God, the poor and the lowly, and the blind and the deaf. There are those who are oppressing them; they’re living in a situation of oppression and injustice. And God is going to redeem those people and claim them as his own, and bring them into his covenant again. The descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, today, will become as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob of old, who are their type and their ancestors.

29:23–24  For when he sees among him his children, the work of my hands, hallowing my name, devoted to the Holy One of Jacob, reverencing the God of Israel, then will the erring in spirit gain understanding and they who murmured accept instruction.

This implies conversion, again, the same as the blind seeing and the deaf hearing, That’s conversion. They will gain understanding. Those who erred in spirit. Those who were in error, for one reason or another. Because of their false religious observance, perhaps, or perhaps because they were so generally oppressed that they couldn’t see the light of day, and also those who murmured, those who, perhaps, fell away religion of God, or even apostate or erroneous versions of God’s religion or God’s law and word, the commandments of men—whatever.
“Whoever murmured.” We saw ancient examples of murmuring of the Israelites in their Sinai wilderness wandering. These then will accept instruction. Instruction, again that word he used before, in chapter twenty-eight: “Whom shall he give instruction? Whom shall he enlighten with revelation?” It’s for those people who come up from a state of total darkness to a state of accepting revelation and instruction from God. When he sees among them his children, that is, returning home from exile, as Abraham returned from exile, and as Jacob returned from Haran, as Abraham came into the Promised land from Babylonia, and as Jacob came back from Haran into the land of Canaan, the Promised land.

“The work of my hands” alludes to the Ten tribes. We saw that in chapter nineteen, and some of the other places. The Ten tribes go into the land of the north, and they return from land of the north, and are called the work of the Lord’s hands, “Assyria the work of my hands,” in chapter nineteen, verse twenty-five, alluding to the remnant of Assyria, or those who remain of Assyria who are the Ten tribes who return from exile back to the Promised land, in that day of judgment. “Hallowing my name, sanctifying the name. The Lord is the Holy One of Jacob, reverencing the God of Israel. This is the idea of conversion, again. And so, then, the commandments of men will be done away and Divine revelation and understanding (rest of words cut off from recording).