Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, Book 5, part 13

Those who see the coming King in His beauty are those who “behold a far-distant land.” They are like Abraham, those who see by the eye of faith a “better country” than the physical land in which we live. Such people will meditate on some vital questions, Isaiah 33:18 says,

¹⁸ Your heart will meditate on terror: “Where is he who counts [safar, “scribe, record keeper, numberer”]? Where is he who weighs [shaqal, “weighs” (silver to pay for goods)]? Where is he who counts the towers?”

The one meditating is not terrified but is wondering how it disappeared so quickly. Of course, even in the midst of terror, we who behold the face of the King can live without fear, for we are changed by beholding Him (2 Corinthians 3:18). So whether we now live without fear or are among the many who will attain to a life without fear in the future, we may ask for a scribe to read us the record of terror that others claim to have seen.

The prophet paints a picture of a man of faith who seems ignorant of the terror that others are seeing, a man who does not understand their fear. Thus, he needs a scribe to inform him of what is terrifying other people, because he himself does not see it.

Scribes and Record Keepers

From a historical perspective, Isaiah was foretelling the destruction of the Assyrian army, whose scribes enlisted the soldiers and kept the records. On their stone monuments they always pictured two scribes keeping a record of the spoils of war that had been captured, including cattle, sheep, prisoners, and even the heads of the slain. Hence, Isaiah also asks, “Where is he who weighs.” The word is shaqal, which is related to the shekel. It speaks of a merchant buying or selling goods and weighing out the silver payment.

Thirdly, there were those whose job it was to count the towers. These were responsible to report the strength of the fortified city that was to be captured. These too had disappeared from the scene, at least from the perspective of the men of faith who could only behold the beauty of their King. Isaiah thus prophesies that the Assyrian army would suddenly evaporate and men would wonder where it went and how they could have been so afraid.

Unintelligible Speech

Isaiah 33:19 continues,

¹⁹ You will no longer see a fierce people, a people of unintelligible speech which no one comprehends, of a stammering tongue which no one understands.

This, of course, brings us back to Isaiah 28:11,

¹¹ Indeed, He will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue.

In our earlier study of this verse, we showed how “the drunkards of Ephraim,” drunk on the wine of false teaching, refused to hear the word of the Lord in their own language. For this reason, God raised up foreigners to speak to Israel and Judah in an unintelligible language. This was also prophesied in the law in Deuteronomy 28:49 as part of the divine judgment upon a disobedient people.

We also saw how the Apostle Paul quoted Isaiah in his discussion of the gift of tongues (1 Corinthians 14:21). Paul understood that the soul (“old man”) could not receive (or hear) the word of the Lord, for it was incapable of comprehending spiritual things (1 Corinthians 2:14). Hence, the fleshly soul was judged through the gift of tongues, for it could not accept prophecy, which is the word spoken in an intelligible language.

Isaiah probably knew nothing of the gift of tongues as Paul understood it, but yet he prophesied of tongues in Old Covenant terms set forth in the law of tribulation. Paul had an advantage in that he lived and wrote in the early years of the Pentecostal Age, where more light had been given through the impartation of the Holy Spirit. Hence, Paul was able to see and apply the law and prophets in a greater way.

Rabshakeh, God’s Cupbearer

Getting back to Isaiah’s prophecy and his immediate context, the prophet foresaw the deliverance of Jerusalem and the removal of the army that had been speaking the words of judgment in a foreign tongue. The prophet was setting the stage for the actual history of the siege that his readers would be reading just a few chapters later.

When the Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem, Rabshakeh tried to get the city to capitulate. We read in Isaiah 36:10, 11,

¹⁰ “Have I now come up without the Lord’s approval against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it’.” ¹¹ Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak with us in Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

Rabshakeh was prophesying inadvertently by telling the people the word of the Lord: “Go up against this land and destroy it.” He prophesied in plain Hebrew, i.e., “in Judean,” but the people again refused to hear the word of the Lord in their own language. They requested that Rabshakeh should speak in Aramaic, the language of Babylon, and in so doing they inadvertently prophesied of their captivity to Babylon a century later.

All of this plays into the New Covenant application of this law of tribulation. The gift of tongues was requested by carnally-minded men who had identified with their soul (“old man”) and who therefore refused to hear the word of the Lord in their own language. In fact, I have learned by experience that it is only when a person is able to hear the word of the Lord coming from an enemy that one truly has ears to hear. If one is able to hear the word of the Lord only through a believer, that person has not yet developed his ability to hear.

This is the New Covenant lesson presented through the words of Rabshakeh.

Rabshakeh’s name means “chief of the cupbearers.” He was Sennacherib’s butler. He was to Sennacherib what Nehemiah was to Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 1:11). It was probably the most trusted position in the realm, for if the chief cupbearer could be bribed, the king would be in danger of being poisoned.

Rabshakeh’s name is also prophetic in this story, for although Jerusalem was spared at that time, the city was later taken by the Babylonians in the days of Jeremiah. So we read in Jeremiah 25:15-18,

¹⁵ For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. ¹⁶ They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.” ¹⁷ Then I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it: ¹⁸ Jerusalem and the cities of Judah….

In Isaiah’s day, Rabshakeh, the king’s cupbearer, was called by God to bring judgment against Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. In a prophetic sense, Rabshakeh was God’s cupbearer who was sent to cause the people of Jerusalem to drink “this cup of the wine of wrath.” Of course, we know that this cup of wrath was postponed at the last minute after King Hezekiah appealed to Isaiah and repented in sackcloth. Nonetheless, we see the prophetic principle at work here.

The Undisturbed City

Isaiah 33:20 says,

²⁰ Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed habitation, a tent which will not be folded; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its cords be torn apart.

Zion was the government of Jerusalem, “the city of our appointed feasts.” The law mandated that the feasts were to be kept in the place where God had chosen to place His name (Deuteronomy 16:2, 11, 16). The first such place was at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1). God later forsook Shiloh and moved to Jerusalem (Psalm 78:60, 67, 68). Still later, God would forsake Jerusalem as well (Jeremiah 7:12, 13, 14) and ultimately move to the heavenly Jerusalem, inhabiting a temple made of living stones (1 Peter 2:5).

The Old Testament prophets never distinguish between the two Jerusalems, even though the Hebrew name of city (Ierushalayim) literally means “two Jerusalems.” It was left to the New Testament writers to distinguish between the earthly city and the heavenly city, for this was a Pentecostal revelation. Hence, whenever the Old Testament prophets speak of “Jerusalem,” we must discern which city is meant.

Likewise, when the prophets speak of “Zion,” we must discern if it is about the Zion in the earthly city or the Sion associated with the heavenly city where God has now chosen to place His name (Hebrews 12:22 KJV). Sion is Mount Hermon (Deuteronomy 4:48), where also Jesus was transfigured and proclaimed from heaven to be “My beloved Son” (Matthew 17:5). We no longer gather at the earthly Jerusalem, for this is the bondwoman who cannot bring forth the inheritors of the Kingdom (Galatians 4:25, 30, 31).

Neither is it lawful to keep an appointed feast in the earthly Jerusalem, for God’s name is no longer there. The law mandates that we should keep all of the feasts only in the place where He has placed His name. To go to the earthly Jerusalem to keep a feast is now the equivalent of going back to Shiloh, which God forsook in earlier times.

Hence, the “undisturbed habitation” in Isaiah 33:20, which is the permanently-established city, is not the earthly Jerusalem but the heavenly city that Abraham himself sought. This is the city whose “stakes will never be pulled up.” Though Isaiah does not try to distinguish between the two cities, we ourselves can discern the truth through the revelation of the apostles, who spoke under the greater revelation of Pentecost.