Isaiah 32:9-14 – Grief and Terror
We see these people cast down because of their sin, because of their foolishness, and then God and His grace lifting them up, promising to do so in a time yet to come. We see the casting down in verses 9-14. God speaks of the fact that He is about to bring judgment on luxury and living for pleasure. It’s not something that will happen in the distant future. For these women of Judah and Jerusalem it will be just over a year before this judgment happens. These women were living in luxury and living for the pleasures of life. But instead of pleasure, instead of luxury, there would be hardship, affliction, and pain. The countryside would be ravaged. There would be no food and no drink. You can see the destruction that comes to the cities. These beautiful places, these palaces, these mansions, all laid low. All we see there are weeds and waste, and it’s a place for animals to go.
The second thing we see is the attitude that this judgment brings upon these people. There is fear in verse 11. Troubles do that to people. They bring them great fear. Secondly, we see there is grief. These women are weeping. They are wracked with grief over what is happening. But, friends, I tell you, sadly, there is a fear which is merely a terror and drives away from God. We often think, oh, if only something hard could come to this person or that person, it might lead them to repentance. No, friends, without the grace of God, the hardship of oppression merely sets a person more firmly in their sin.
Who particularly is addressed here? It is the women of Judah and Jerusalem. God is addressing these women, because their situation is a leading symptom of an underlying spiritual malaise or sickness. They’re part of a society that calls itself the people of God, but who have rejected Him. These women care only about how they look and what is pleasurable. They don’t care to be doing the job that God has given them to do. This is a symptom of the underlying problem. An entire society that no longer cares about God, in fact, rather wishes He’d go away. Well, He’s about to show His very presence to them, and it will not be pretty.
Questions
- What do these women care about?
- Do troubles always drive someone to God?
Prayer Points
- Pray that God would bring people to Himself.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.