Isaiah 30:18-33--The LORD Will Be Gracious

Isaiah 30:18-33
English Standard Version

The LORD Will Be Gracious
18 Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you,
    and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
    blessed are all those who wait for him.

19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 22 Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!”

23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, 24 and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar,
    burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke;
his lips are full of fury,
    and his tongue is like a devouring fire;
28 his breath is like an overflowing stream
    that reaches up to the neck;
to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction,
    and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.

​29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel. 30 And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones. 31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod. 32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them. 33 For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

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We've just finished a couple of passages on the coming judgment and the LORD reminds the people that He is a God of both justice and mercy--that if they wait on Him and rest in Him, they will see the mercy of the LORD that He wants to pour out on them.

God's Spirit will be with His people to guide and teach them (Jesus did this partially while He was on earth and acted as a Teacher for the apostles, but He promised if He went away that He would send the Comforter to fulfill this prophecy).

The LORD promises to make both the Land, the people's flocks and herds--I think the fertility of the people themselves is specifically not mentioned because they won't be afraid of death.  If we are talking about the New Heaven and the New Earth (and I think we might be from some other things said about there being light all day and all night), then there will be no death for us.  There will however be good work for us to do.  It appears we will still eat food and there will still be weather like rain that will come at the right time to water the crops.

The LORD's judgment and wrath are for the nations that do not belong to Him--for those that are not His people (though there will be some who are descendants of the Twelve Tribes who fall into this category too, remember that all of us that are saved are Adopted into the one family of God, the one True Vine, though we may be wild branches).  Even the mighty nations like the Assyrians will cower in fear, but the people of the LORD will worship at the sound of His wrath being poured out on the wicked.  The LORD will fight His own battle and will be victorious for His Name's sake and for the sake of His covenant and His covenant people.  All those who rebel against Him will have their place in the Lake of Fire that was prepared for them (though not specifically named here, it seems to be described in a way consistent with the other descriptions of the Lake of Fire--eternal flame, the place of eternal judgment for the damned, and a place of burning sulfur).  It is your choice today which destination, and which destiny will be yours.  You can be a part a part of God's family and His Kingdom by faith and receive His mercy and blessings, or you can be a part of the kingdom of this world and experience the same end as the prince of this world, the devil, who wants to steal, kill destroy and lie.  Those who rebel against the LORD (that's all of us until God transforms us) will certainly be damned and perish in the Lake of Fire. Those who receive this message and understand it must cry out to the LORD for salvation and believe in the finished work of Jesus that He took the penalty (the judgment and wrath) that you deserved so that you might have the blessings that only He deserved.  He rose from the death on the third day to show He was not guilty and that He was victorious over sin and death, and He now sits at the right hand of the Father to make intercession for His people as He serves as our Great High Priest.  One Day soon the day of His wrath is coming on the nations, and He will make war with His enemies, and they will all be destroyed by the Word of His mouth.  Only after this time of judgment will His blessings come to His people--the blessings that are promised in this passage and at the end of the book of Revelation.