"O Jehovah, have mercy on us; we have trusted in You; Be our strength every morning; Even our salvation in the time of distress. From your terrible voice the peoples fled; When You did raise yourself up, the nations were dispersed. But your spoil shall be gathered, as the locust gathers; As the caterpillar runs to and fro, so shall they run, and seize it. Jehovah is exalted; yea, He dwells on high: He has filled Sion with judgment and justice. And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times, The possession of continued salvation; The fear of Jehovah, this shall be your treasure. Behold, the mighty men raise a grievous cry; The messengers of peace weep bitterly. The highways are desolate; the traveler ceases; He has broken the covenant; he has rejected the offered cities; Of men he makes no account. The land mourns, it languishes; Libanus is put to shame, it withers: Sharon is become like a desert; And Bashan and Carmel are stripped of their beauty. Now will I arise, says Jehovah; Now will I lift up myself on high; now will I be exalted. Ye shall conceive chaff; you shall bring forth stubble; And my Spirit like fire shall consume you. And peoples shall be burned, as the lime is burned; As the thorns are cut up, and consumed in the fire. Hear, O you that are afar off, my doings; And acknowledge, O you that are near, my power. The sinners in Sion are struck with dread; Terror has seized the hypocrites: Who among us can abide this consuming fire? Who among us can abide these continued burnings? He who walks in perfect righteousness, and speaks right things: Who detests the lucre of oppression; Who shakes his hands from bribery; Who stops his ears to the proposal of bloodshed; Who shuts his eyes against the appearance of evil: His dwelling shall be in the high places; The strongholds of the rocks shall be his lofty fortress: His bread shall be duly furnished; his waters shall not fail." (Isaiah 33:2-16,Lowth)
Mercy to the Trusting
"O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for You: be their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble." (Isaiah 33:2)
The prayer with which this lesson opens is not a vain one, for we are assured, "He that trusts in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about." (Psalm 32:10)
Even in sinful man, the very fact of being trusted makes one kindly disposed; we cannot help being drawn to one who manifests confidence in us; it put us, as it were, on our honor. What then shall be said of God, whose nature is love, and who delights in mercy? He also cannot do otherwise than do kindness to them that trust Him.
Every Morning New
This mercy endures for ever, and is unlimited. We may draw on it at will. We are continually recipients of it, for "it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, ... They are new every morning." (Lamentations 3:22,23)
Yet we ourselves determine to a great extent how much of it we will enjoy. We often claim but little, although the amount that we may enjoy is limited only by our willingness to receive. Here is a prayer inspired by the Holy Spirit. "Let your mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in You. ... The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy." (Psalm 33:22,18)
Whatever the Spirit of the Lord tells us to ask for, we may be sure will be granted, for when "we know not what we should pray for as we ought," (Romans 8:26) the Spirit comes to our aid. Do you want unbounded mercy? Then trust in the Lord without reservation.
The Mercy of the Dayspring
"Trust in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." (Isaiah 26:4)
Yea, for the mercy of the Lord is strength: "As the heaven is high above the earth, so powerful is His mercy toward them that fear Him." (Psalm 103:11)
So as the Lord's mercies are new every morning, He is our strength every morning. Now, "Through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high has visited us," (Luke 1:77)
He gives the knowledge of salvation unto His people "by the remission of their sins." (Luke 1:78)
Therefore every morning's dawn is an assurance to us that God is merciful to our unrighteousness. As the light springs forth from the east, it should be a reminder to us of "the dayspring from on high." The beams of the morning sun are to remind us of "the Sun of righteousness [who] arises with healing in His wings." (Malachi 4:2)
So every morning God in His endless mercy gives us the assurance of forgiveness of sin, and of overcoming grace. "Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." (Ecclesiastes 11:7)
The Lord Our Arm
The word rendered "strength," in verse 2, is literally "arm." So the inspired prayer is, "be our arm every morning." (Isaiah 33:2)
What a wonderful promise! for every inspired prayer is a promise of God. God's mercies are new every morning, and His mercy is strength; but He does more than merely to strengthen our arm: He himself promises to become our arm. Truly, "They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength." (Isaiah 40:31) "It is God that works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)
God has "a mighty arm;" His hand is strong: "You have a mighty arm: strong is your hand, and high is your right hand." (Psalm 89:13)
But think of the courage with which one could go forth to his work in the morning, who knew that God was not only at his right hand, but was indeed his arm. Well, this is only saying in another way what we learned in: "The Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation." (Isaiah 12:2)
It will not be difficult for us to see how literally true this is, if we but stop to consider the conditions of our life. God is our life, and the length of our days: "That you may love the Lord your God, and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave unto Him: for He is your life, and the length of your days: that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." (Deuteronomy 30:20)
We have no life in ourselves; everything comes from above. We eat the Word of God, even the very life of Christ, in the grains and fruits. Thus all the strength that anybody has is the strength of God; for He alone has power. He is the Almighty. (Genesis 17:1) All power in heaven and earth is Christ's. (Matthew 28:18) Our lack of strength, therefore, is due to our failure to live by faith in God--to eat and drink the flesh and blood of Christ by faith. The prayer, "be our arm every morning," (Isaiah 33:2) should be prayed every morning, and that would mean that we propose to live only by the Word of God, as, like the manna, it comes to us fresh every morning. Thus our every-day life becomes to us the pledge of eternal salvation.
"While there's life there's hope,"--Heauton Timorumenos (The Self-Tormentor) by Publius Terentius Afer, 2nd century BC. because life itself is hope.
Wisdom is a Defence
"Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of your times." (Isaiah 33:6)
Knowledge is indeed power, provided it is right knowledge.
Wisdom is certainly power, for: "Christ, the wisdom of God, [is] the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:24) "Wisdom is a defense, and money is a defense; but the excellency [the advantage] of knowledge is that wisdom gives life to them that have it." (Ecclesiastes 7:12)
How much stability does wisdom give? Consider the heavens and the earth, the works of God, and you will see; for: "He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by His discretion." (Jeremiah 10:12)
The last message, the last proclamation of the Gospel, calls upon men with a loud voice to give glory to God, "and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." (Revelation 14:7)
We are to recognize God in His works, to trust the power and the wisdom that are manifested in the tiniest flower or the smallest insect, as well as in the shining orbs of the sky. The knowledge of God is wisdom and strength and riches. "Thus says the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the Lord." (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
That wisdom which made and upholds them will also sustain us, if we trust it.
That hand which bears creation up,
Shall guard His children well.
--Philip Doddridge, Hymn: How Gentle God's Commands, 1755.
A Vital Question
"Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" (Isaiah 33:14)
One would naturally say that such a thing is impossible; but the Lord says that some can and will do it. Who are they? "He that walks righteously, and speaks uprightly; he that despises the gain of oppressions, that shakes his hands from holding of bribes, that stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil." (Isaiah 33:15)
It is the one who walks in righteousness, even "the righteousness which is of God, by faith," (Philippians 3:9) who speaks right things, who will have nothing to do with anything gained by fraud, who cannot be bribed, and who will not hear of bloody deeds, or look upon evil. Such a one can live in eternal fire, and be at ease amid the devouring flame.
No Future for the Wicked
Take particular notice that only the righteous can dwell with everlasting, devouring fire. The wicked will suffer the vengeance of eternal fire,--they will be cast into the fire that never shall be quenched,--but they cannot abide there; the fire will consume them as chaff. "As thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire." (Isaiah 33:12)
There is therefore no eternity for the wicked. "The transgressors shall be destroyed together; the end [literally, "the future time"] of the wicked shall be cut off." (Psalm 37:38)
So to the oft-repeated question, "Where will you spend eternity?" there can be but one answer. Those who spend it anywhere will spend it in the presence of God, dwelling in Him and His light; those who do not live in His righteousness, dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, (Psalm 91:1) will spend eternity nowhere. "They shall be as though they had not been." (Obadiah 16) "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, you shall diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." (Psalm 37:10) "For, behold, the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch." (Malachi 4:1)
Yet the righteous will dwell in that same fire in safety, and will bask in its grateful warmth throughout eternity.
The Fire of God's Presence
By comparing Isaiah 33:14-16 with Psalm 15:1-5 and 24:1-5, it will be seen that the people who dwell with the devouring fire and the everlasting burnings, are the same people that "ascend into the hill of the Lord," (Psalm 24:3) and abide in His tabernacle. Thus it must be that the everlasting, devouring fire is in the tabernacle, the secret place, of God. That is exactly the case. Let us collect a few texts of Scripture that show this. Verse 11 of this chapter, according to Lowth's reading, says, "My Spirit, like fire, shall consume you." (Isaiah 33:11,Lowth)
This agrees with "He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked," (Isaiah 11:4) and 2 Thessalonians which says that the Lord shall consume "that wicked ... with the Spirit of His mouth." (2 Thessalonians:8) "Our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:29)
He descended on Mount Sinai in fire, (Exodus 19:18) and spoke to the people "out of the midst of the fire." (Deuteronomy 4:12) "From His right hand went a fiery law for them." (Deuteronomy 33:2) "The Lord ... sits between [or upon] the cherubims." (Psalm 99:1)
When He drove Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden, "He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (Genesis 3:24)
This was the indication of His own presence; to this place Adam and his family came to worship, and from here Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. "The Lord reigns ... [in] righteousness, [and] A fire goes before Him, and burns up His enemies round about," (Psalm 97:1-3) [and] "The hills melt like wax at the presence of the Lord." (Psalm 97:5)
So when Christ comes, it is "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Thessalonians 1:8)
So at the last, when the wicked are all gathered together to do battle against God and His people, fire comes down from God out of heaven, and devours them. "And [Satan] shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." (Revelation 20:8-9)
In Isaiah 30 we have read that "the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone," (Isaiah 30:33) kindles Tophet. "[God] covers himself with light as with a garment," (Psalm 104:2) "[and] dwells in light that no man can approach unto." (1 Timothy 6:16)
When Isaiah saw the Lord, sitting on His throne, "the house was filled with smoke," (Isaiah 6:4) indicating the presence of fire; and this is still further indicated by the fact that the beings that stand above His throne are the "Seraphim," (Isaiah 6:2) that is, "the burning ones." Remember also that God went before Israel, to guide them, in a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. (Exodus 13:21-22)
In this Presence, amid this fire, the saints of God will dwell throughout eternity, but in order that they may do this, they must here become accustomed to the glory of God, of which the whole earth is full. "The whole earth is full of His glory." (Isaiah 6:3)
By beholding it they become "changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18)
The presence of the Lord consumes everything that is evil, and so their dwelling with God in this time fits them for His unveiled glory. The sunlight, which destroys disease germs, is a daily proof to us of the fact that the glory of God consumes evil. But those who refuse to recognize God as He is now revealed, will not be able to abide the day of His coming, and will be consumed.
So it is indeed eternal fire that consumes the wicked, but it is not fire specially created for that purpose, nor does the fact that it is eternal prove that those who suffer from it will live eternally, but just the opposite. All, both saints and sinners, will be in the midst of it, so that all will be treated alike, and God cannot be accused of injustice; but the nature of the individual will determine how the fire will affect him.
Only those who have become transformed into the likeness of God, who have His life as their life, so that they are partakers of the Divine nature, sharers of the glory, will be able to come through the fire unscathed, and, in fact, to continue dwelling in it. They are of the same nature as the devouring flame, and hence can dwell in it and not be consumed. All others will perish.
The mercy of God endures for ever, and that which perpetuates the existence of those who become assimilated to it, ends the existence of the rebellious. How pertinent, therefore, the message, "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come." (Revelation 14:7)--Present Truth, June 29, 1899--Isaiah 33:2-16.