Dwelling With Fire

Isaiah’s Judgment on Assyria and the Lord’s Exaltation

Please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 33. Isaiah 33, we'll begin in verse one and continue through our preaching text, which is verses 10 through 16. Please stand when you have that for the reading of God's word.

Ah, you destroyer, who yourself have not been destroyed. You traitor, whom none has betrayed. When you have ceased to destroy, you will be destroyed. And when you have finished betraying, they will betray you.

O Lord, be gracious to us. We wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble. At the tumultuous noise, peoples flee. When you lift yourself up, nations are scattered and your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers.

As locusts leap, it is leapt upon. The Lord is exalted for he dwells on high. He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness and he will be the stability of your times. Abundance of salvation, wisdom and knowledge.

The fear of the Lord is Zion's treasure. Behold, the heroes cry in the streets. The envoys of peace weep bitterly. The highways lie waste. The traveler ceases. Covenants are broken. Cities are despised.

There is no regard for man. The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert and Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves. Now I will arise, says the Lord.

Now I will lift myself up. Now I will be exalted. You conceive chaff. You give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will consume you and the peoples will be as if burned to lime, like thorns cut down that are burned in the fire.

Hear you who are far off what I have done and you who are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless. Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings?

He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly. Who despises the gain of oppressions? Who shakes his hands lest they hold a bribe? Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil?

He will dwell on the heights. His place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks. His bread will be given him. His water will be sure. Amen, you may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, once again, we thank you for your word that you have given us.

We thank you for these promises, for this guidance, this rule of salvation that we might know how we may be saved from the wrath to come. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, the question before us in this passage is how can one dwell with God?

It's the great goal of the Christian life to dwell with God, to dwell with Christ forever. It is the only path to being completely fulfilled and having everything you want is to dwell with God as Adam did in the garden.

But those who are sinners are not able to dwell with God and all mankind are born sinners. So how does one dwell with God? Who can dwell with God? Let's consider this passage piece by piece here. It begins in verse 10.

The Lord Arises Against Assyria’s Self-Destruction

Now I will arise, says the Lord. Now I will lift myself up. Now I will be exalted. You conceive chaff, you give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will consume you. And the peoples will be as if burned to lime, like thorns cut down that are burned in the fire.

Now, it speaks of the Lord arising. He is arising against the enemy nation that is Assyria at this time. And so he will arise and exalt himself over this nation that has exalted itself. We see this many times throughout Isaiah that God has promised that this will happen, that he will raise himself up above those who have raised themselves up.

And here, finally, he declares that it's, he speaks in such a way that we are to imagine it is happening now. It has been happening, it is going to happen, but now it is finally happening. And we see that in several chapters, that Assyria will be decimated.

However, it is not just the Lord who is acting in this destruction. It continues on and says, you conceive chaff. You give birth to stubble. Your breath is a fire that will consume you. So who is it that is destroying Assyria here?

It says that Assyria conceives chaff and gives birth to stubble. What is chaff and stubble? This is the kindling of a fire. And then who lights the fire? They are the ones who light the fire themselves.

Your breath is a fire that will consume you. You know, he's speaking to either Sennacherib the king or the people as a whole. And their own sin will consume them as they have come against the Lord. This is repeated several times in Scripture.

Perhaps most famously, Psalm 716 says, his mischief returns upon his own head and on his own skull, his violence descends. To quote a little more of that, it says, behold, the wicked man conceives evil.

Remember conceiving chaff, giving birth to stubble? The wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out and falls into the hole that he has made.

His mischief returns upon his own head and on his own skull, his violence descends. Now on one hand, it is true that God is the one who punishes the wicked. On the other hand, this punishment is a punishment that they have created for themselves.

Psalm 7 describes it as one digging a pit and falling into it, one conceiving iniquity, giving birth to lies that fall on their head and crush them. And here we see the same thing. They are conceiving like a pregnant woman and giving birth to, kindling for a fire that their own breath ignites so that it destroys them.

And this is the case for every sinner. It is our own sins that consume us. It is our own doing that we will be destroyed and yet, all the same, it is the hand of God as he uses the things in this creation, even the wicked themselves, to accomplish his purposes and to exalt himself above others who have exalted themselves above him.

Says the peoples will be burned, will be as if burned to lime, like thorns cut down that are burned in the fire. This is spoken of earlier in Isaiah, in Isaiah 10, 16. It says, therefore, the Lord God of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors and under his glory a burning will be kindling like the burning of fire.

Now, what's interesting there, and as I've been trying to point out as we are in this section of Isaiah, many of those curses that have been said to Israel, said to Judah, as was the case in chapter 10, where God says that they would be burned up like thorns.

They'll be burned up like briars. Sorry, I should have kept reading there. The light of Israel would become a fire and his holy one a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briars in one day.

Speaking of Judah there, many of the curses that have been placed on Judah in the earlier parts of the book are now, in this chapter and the previous one, being turned into curses against Assyria, against Judah's enemies.

And this is how God is giving salvation. He takes the curses that are to this particular people that he's saving, and he turns those curses around against their enemy. So though it is due to God's own people that they be burned up, it is instead Assyria, who also deserves the same punishment, that is the one burned up instead.

All and the peoples will be as if burned to lime. Burned to lime meaning down to just finest ash, right? This is used, this kind of phrasing is used in the context of cremation. You know, I was reading recently how Josiah went around to all the graves of the pagan priests and dug them up just to burn their bones down and cremate them to nothing in order to dishonor them.

So this is what he's describing. He's describing a dishonoring of the people of Assyria, of Sennacherib the king. Like thorns cut down, burned in the fire. So what are thorns? Why are thorns significant here?

Well, thorns are the initial curse given by God in Genesis three. Because Adam sinned, thorns grew up from the ground, made it hard to take care of the soil. Frequently throughout scripture, it speaks of thorns, their end is to be burned as it says in Hebrews six.

And so they are the curse itself and they bear that curse. They are to be burned. And what's interesting here too, is that this doesn't merely talk about Assyria, but it says in the peoples will be as if burned to lime.

The fact that this starts with Assyria, but it goes out to all the nations is something very wonderful because it speaks of not only what was about to happen in Isaiah's own time, but it speaks of something that happens ultimately as all the nations will be destroyed by God.

Every human power that raises itself up above him will be destroyed. At the end, there will be no nations other than the kingdom of God. There will be no kingdoms other than his kingdom. He is the holy one.

He is distinct from all others. To raise yourself up and compete with him is foolishness. It's interesting how much here alludes to that sixth chapter that commissioning chapter of Isaiah. It says, now I will arise, now I will lift myself up, now I will be exalted.

That threefold repetition of God being clearly greater than all others. Where have we seen that before in Isaiah? He is, as the angels sing, holy, holy, holy. And God is now showing himself, not just in his courtroom where Isaiah saw him, but to the worlds, not in a private venue, but in a public venue for all to see.

He is now showing that he is holy, holy, holy. He has arisen, he has lifted, and he is exalted above all the others. And if you remember that commissioning, when did God say that he had a timeline in mind?

He said that the people would be prophesied to by Isaiah so that they would not hear and they would not understand. And Isaiah asks, how long, how long, O Lord? And he says, until cities lie waste without inhabitant and houses without people.

And the land is a desolate waste and the Lord removes people far away. And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. Though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled, the holy seed is its stump.

And this has happened, this has taken place in Isaiah. You see all throughout the previous verses in this chapter, it's talking about the desolation, it's talking about the fact that the streets are empty, the cities are empty, et cetera.

God has accomplished his purposes. As he has disciplined his people, he now turns that curse against the enemy and he saves his people. And this is often how he saves people even today. It's often the case that people remained blind, remained hardened in their sin until they repeatedly experience the kind of desolation that's described here, that God softens them and they are able to repent from their sin and he saves them from that sin.

So remember this, if you are under the hand of God in discipline, that he will continue to discipline you until you are, until that moment that he deems fit. And that moment is the moment that he has softened you to the point where you repent.

If you repent now, then you do not need to continue going under the discipline of the Lord. And yet, this whole life will be full of trials and discipline in the sense of God refining his people. So I'm not promising an easy life by impromising God's kind compassion toward all those who come to him and anticipate his mercy.

Dwell with the Consuming Fire by Acknowledging God’s Might

It continues on here. Here you who are far off what I have done and you who are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless. Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?

Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings? So people are to hear what he has done. They are to acknowledge his might. If they do not acknowledge his might, they will continue on in sin. They will continue doing what they want to do.

If they acknowledge his might, they will humble themselves before him. Once again, similar for us, if we do not spend time thinking about the word of God, thinking about his might, we will continue operating in foolishness.

But as we see his might, as we see his strength, we will fear him as we ought. And he will develop on us that heart that he requires. So they ask this question as they are afraid. Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire?

Who among us can dwell with everlasting burnings? Now it's generally understood even by Jewish interpreters of the time, this is referring to that great and terrible day of hell. It's talking about the fires of hell.

Who can dwell with that? But it's not just talking about hell. It's talking about the presence of God in general. Hell is not a place where he is absent. It is a place where his favor is absent. It is a place where he is very much present.

But those who are there cannot dwell with him because he is an all-consuming fire, and they are not equipped to dwell with him. Deuteronomy 4 .24 says that God is an all-consuming fire. There are a lot of people who, because the Bible says God is love, they have no category for understanding that he is also a consuming fire.

These things are both true. God is love, and he loves what is good. That love for what is good demands a hatred for what is evil. And so it is true that he is both of these things. In fact, they are not in conflict.

Rather, they are necessary for the other to be true. To truly hate evil is to truly love good. To truly love good is to truly hate evil. And this is what God is. He is a consuming fire. He is a jealous God.

And yet he is also a God of love. And we see here in this passage both promises of judgment but also promises of salvation to his people. One good analogy that I really like from Stephen Charnock, if you've ever read him, he speaks of the sun being consistent.

And yet to flowers, the sun makes them smell more sweet, and to corpses makes them smell more noisome. So what's changing there? It's not the sun that's changing. It is the presence of the sun near a corpse and the presence of the sun near a flower that is different because of the flower and the corpse being different.

And so who can dwell with everlasting burnings is a question of who can dwell with God? Who is fit? The corpses cannot handle it. Those who are dead in their sins cannot handle this. And yet we all find ourselves dead in our sins.

We all have great sins in our lives. If you look at this past week about how you treated your family, your neighbors, about what was going on in your heart when you were being tested in the various ways that God tests people throughout the week.

And you have to acknowledge that you are a sinner and you are due a great wrath unless you have an answer to it. This passage has an answer. It does have an answer. And you know where that answer is going.

It's found in Jesus Christ. But before we move off of this, a couple of points. One, it says the sinners in Zion are afraid, right? These are the people among God's own people. You know, when it says that vengeance is mine, says the Lord in Deuteronomy, it's speaking of against those who identify as part of God's people but are secretly rebellious.

This is the case. This is the case in Christendom as a whole. There are many churches, there are many people in those churches who identify as part of God's people. You know, the fact that you are sitting here today does not make you one who is not a sinner in Zion.

In fact, apart from the mercy of Jesus Christ, every person falls into that category. In verse 15, it says, he who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, this is the one who's able to stand before God, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil, he will dwell on the heights.

His place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks and his bread will be given him his water shore. So it describes who can do this, who can stand before God. Well, it's one who is righteous, who walks righteously and speaks uprightly.

Who walks right, who speaks right, that's a merism. You know, if you talk about the heavens and the earth, you're talking about all of creation, we're talking about speaking and walking. This is your actions and your words and your thoughts.

It's everything. Someone who is doing everything right. One who despises the gain of oppressions. Now, you know, many people would consider themselves of that category. In fact, I'd say almost everybody thinks of themselves as one who hates oppression, who hates corruption.

Well, that's because those who are corrupt usually aren't unaware of it. Proverbs 28, 16 says a ruler without understanding is a cruel oppressor. You know, a ruler without understanding, you realize these people who are oppressors usually have no idea that they're oppressors.

They're just without understanding. A lot of the legislation that exists that keeps people from being able to do the things they need to do. You know how certain legislation has affected our food pantry so that because the grocery stores are now required to do inspections of the various places that are distributing food for their waste, redirecting their food waste.

We've had a lot of trouble being able to distribute food to the poor as we were doing. This is cruel oppression. And, you know, people don't realize that. They think of it as good intentioned and they don't understand what they're doing, right?

A ruler without understanding is a cruel oppressor. So just because you may think that, well, I'm not a cruel oppressor. I care about the poor. Look deeper and see whether or not there are things in your life that are oppressive toward others, that are taking away from others what belongs to them.

You know, there is honor due to many. There is honor due to your parents. There is honor due to people that you might be taking away from them. There is a love and a patience that's due to others that you might be taking away from them.

Do consider whether or not you've gone beyond your own rights and taken away from others what is due to them. It says, who shakes his hands lest they hold a bribe. Who stops his ear from the hearing of bloodshed.

This is not stopping your ear from hearing the cries of the oppressed, of course. This is talking about not thinking approvingly of any bloodshed, not participating in any conspiracies against someone.

And shuts his eyes from looking on evil. You know, all these different things. You notice there's this very long list. And I would argue that the way that this is phrased, especially if you look at Hebrew, it's phrased as a list of 10 things.

Now, if you read this in English, it doesn't really feel like 10 things. But if you were to line up the meter, and Hebrew meter's not very precise, so I'm making a loose claim here. But if you line this up, most of these things, if you break it down into two words, it comes out to a list of 10.

It says, he who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, despises the gain of oppression. And I believe it's, if I remember right, it's the gain of oppression that is, rather than being two words, just being one very long word.

Who shakes his hand lest they hold a bribe. Who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed. And shuts his eyes from looking on evil. Right, so each of these, if you're looking at, if you're thinking about the Hebrew meter, because that's the way Hebrew poetry works, you've got this list of 10 sets of two words, one of those just being a single word that's very long.

And why is that? This happens several other times in scripture. It's not just in the Old Testament, although it happens there. You see it in 1 Corinthians 6, where he describes that no evil person will inherit the kingdom of God.

It happens in Ephesians also, where you have a similar list. And what this is doing is painting a picture of the tenfold law of God. The tenfold law of God is complete, it is perfect. It defines what good is.

It defines what evil is. And the one who lives up to God's standards must be perfect as their heavenly father is perfect. This is what's being described here. So, you know, I used to know of a shop, of a mechanic shop, where, so here you don't have to do, you don't have to get inspections of your vehicle, you just have to get a smog test.

In Virginia, yes, you get an inspection every year, and you get a sticker on your window. I knew this one guy who wouldn't do the full 30 points or whatever that were required. He would just go kick the tires and then hand you your sticker for a fee.

That's what I think a lot of people do in their Christian life, if they're analyzing whether or not they live up to the law of God, right? They go and they kick the tires, and they say, yeah, this looks good enough for me.

Here's my sticker, good job, Conley. But the job of the Christian is to know God's law. It's to be a lawyer. Maybe you've never thought being a lawyer sounds like an exciting job, but our job is to know the law of God, to know it completely, to be able to apply it into all its implications, and see, and not just to live it out, although that's important too, but to see how far short we fall and how in need we are of the grace of Jesus Christ.

But it is through his grace that there is an answer to these things. Now, I wanna show you a couple of other passages that are very similar to this. Maybe they already actually came to mind as you're reading this.

If you're familiar with a lot of the Psalms, maybe you realize that this sounds very familiar. He walks righteously and speaks uprightly, despises the game of oppressions. Please turn to Psalm 15. I wanna read two Psalms for you.

One is Psalm 15, the other is Psalm 24. Psalm 15 says, oh Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell in your holy hill? Now, this is interesting because Psalm 15 is talking about dwelling in the blessed presence of God.

Who can do that? Whereas Isaiah was talking about who can dwell in the terrifying presence of God. These are asking the same question, but they're asking them from different angles. One is, how do I receive blessing?

One is, how do I avoid the curses? Verse two, he who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart and does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend, and whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord, who swears to his own hurt and does not change, who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent.

Now, I appreciate the way the ESV breaks this up because it recognizes this as a tenfold list. You look at some translations and they don't do the same, but I believe this is designed to be a tenfold list as well.

Who is it that can stand before God? The one who walks perfectly before him. He who does these things shall never be moved. Now, please turn to Psalm 24, and I'll go ahead and start in verse three. Psalm 24, verse three.

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? Asking the same question once again. He who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully, he will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation, such as the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.

You have the same answer here, the same answer. Who can do it? The one who walks righteously, the one who obeys these various laws, the one who is perfect as their Heavenly Father is perfect. Perfect.

But then see what Psalm 24 continues to say. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors. Who's allowed to come in to this holy city? Who's allowed to come to the hill of the Lord to dwell with everlasting burnings?

That the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. And who is the King of glory who enters into Jerusalem with hosannas being sung to him to save the people from their sins, that they might dwell with God, even though they on their own do not have the qualifications necessary in order to stand before him?

It is Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus Christ that this is found. He is the one who is able to stand before God. And we don't just know that from Psalm 24 that talks about the King of glory coming in, the Lord of hosts himself, who is the King of glory coming in.

It's right here in this text as well, Isaiah 33, 17, which we'll be looking at in more detail in coming weeks. Your eyes will behold the King in his beauty. They will see a land that stretches afar, et cetera, et cetera.

And then we get to verse 22. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King, he will save us. Who is the one who is able to save the people? It is the Lord himself. He's the lawgiver, he's the judge, he is the King, he will save.

And he has become our King in Jesus Christ. It is in him that we are able to perfectly stand before the Lord. He is the one who is able to dwell in the heights, who has the place of defense, the fortresses of rocks.

In fact, not only does he have those things, the Bible says he is those things, that he is the strong tower, that he is that fortress, he is that rock that we can hide on. It says his bread will be given him, his water will be sure.

In Matthew 6, it speaks of bread and water being provided by Jesus Christ. It says that if you seek first the kingdom of heaven, all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about what you will eat or what you will drink, et cetera.

Why? Because Jesus himself is that bread of life given to us. The spirit that he gives us is that water of life. It says these things in John 6 and John 4. All of this is found in Jesus Christ. He has those things, he is those things, he gives those things.

It is only through Jesus Christ that one can dwell with everlasting burning. You know, you should ask yourself, who can dwell with God? How can I prepare myself for that eventual fate that awaits me, death?

How can I prepare myself for what lies beyond death? How can I prepare to ascend God's holy hill, to dwell with him, to dwell with everlasting burnings forever, not in the way the unbeliever does, as a fire that consumes, but as one who is clothed with the necessary righteousness in order to withstand such flames and to enjoy the bright and glorious presence of God?

And the answer is Jesus Christ is that clothing of righteousness who can protect us that we might not only withstand, but even enjoy the presence of God, because he is accepted as perfect, and as we are found in him, we are accepted as perfect in Jesus Christ.

You know, sometime later, after Isaiah, people would be asking this question again, not about an eternal fire, but even just the physical one. They would ask, who can dwell in this fire that we have here?

A fire that was so great, people would come close to it and would be destroyed because it was so great. And they threw three Hebrew servants into this fire, and they were not consumed, why? Because Jesus Christ, the pre-incarnate son of God, was standing there next to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

If you want to be able to dwell in that fire, an everlasting fire, an even greater one than the one that they faced, you need the righteousness of Jesus Christ, just as they had, but we can enjoy more fully being ones who are able to look back at the sacrifice that he has made in order that we may be closed with his righteousness.

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the righteousness of Jesus Christ, by which we can not only withstand, but enjoy your glorious presence. We ask that you would reassure us of the forgiveness that we have in him, and that you would give us a lawyer's mind to know your word and to apply it to our own lives, not only so that we may serve you and obey you, but also that we might understand our desperate need of you and your goodness and forgiveness.

In Jesus' name, amen.