seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Isaiah 29:1Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel,
the city where David settled!
Add year to year
and let your cycle of festivals go on.
2 Yet I will besiege Ariel;
she will mourn and lament,
she will be to me like an altar hearth.[a]
3 I will encamp against you on all sides;
I will encircle you with towers
and set up my siege works against you.
4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground;
your speech will mumble out of the dust.
Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth;
out of the dust your speech will whisper.
5 But your many enemies will become like fine dust,
the ruthless hordes like blown chaff.
Suddenly, in an instant,
6 the Lord Almighty will come
with thunder and earthquake and great noise,
with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire.
7 Then the hordes of all the nations that fight against Ariel,
that attack her and her fortress and besiege her,
will be as it is with a dream,
with a vision in the night—
8 as when a hungry person dreams of eating,
but awakens hungry still;
as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking,
but awakens faint and thirsty still.
So will it be with the hordes of all the nations
that fight against Mount Zion.
9 Be stunned and amazed,
blind yourselves and be sightless;
be drunk, but not from wine,
stagger, but not from beer.
10 The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep:
He has sealed your eyes (the prophets);
he has covered your heads (the seers).
11 For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I can’t; it is sealed.” 12 Or if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” they will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”
13 The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is based on merely human rules they have been taught.[b]
14 Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
15 Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
“Who sees us? Who will know?”
16 You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
“You did not make me”?
Can the pot say to the potter,
“You know nothing”?
17 In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field
and the fertile field seem like a forest?
18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
and out of gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind will see.
19 Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord;
the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
20 The ruthless will vanish,
the mockers will disappear,
and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—
21 those who with a word make someone out to be guilty,
who ensnare the defender in court
and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.
22 Therefore this is what the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob:
“No longer will Jacob be ashamed;
no longer will their faces grow pale.
23 When they see among them their children,
the work of my hands,
they will keep my name holy;
they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob,
and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
24 Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding;
those who complain will accept instruction.”
a. Isaiah 29:2 The Hebrew for altar hearth sounds like the Hebrew for Ariel.
b. Isaiah 29:13 Hebrew; Septuagint They worship me in vain; / their teachings are merely human rules
This is from Bible-studys.org.
The next prophetic “woe” is pronounced against “Ariel, the city where David dwelt”. Ariel is another name for Jerusalem.
The prophet condemns religious formality, pointing out that their empty religion will not stop the judgment of God. Therefore, Jerusalem will become “as Ariel,” meaning that God will turn it into what in fact that it is, a place of burnt sacrifice.
Verses 13-24: Jesus (Mark 7:6-7 quotes verse 13), as the epitome of Pharisaism. The prophet condemns his own people for honoring God with their “mouth” and “lips” but not their “heart”. He further notes that their “fear” or reverence was merely an intellectual accommodation “taught by the precept of men”.
True worship must begin with a proper reverence for God and His Word. Isaiah further announces that since the intellectual leaders of Israel will not follow the Lord, the “deaf, blind, meek,” and “poor” (i.e. the Gentiles), “shall rejoice” in Him.
This is from the easy English site.
The Hebrew word ‘ariel’ appears 5 times in verses 1-8. It means a ‘place where people burn things in a temple’. It is also the ‘place where God (called ‘El’ in Hebrew) has his fire’. But at the end of verse 2, the word has its normal meaning. That is, a place with a fire. Verse 8 shows to us that Isaiah used the word ‘Ariel’ to mean Zion, a name for Jerusalem. But here in verse 1, that is not yet clear to us. That is because David camped with his army near many cities. But David did camp outside Jerusalem. The story about that is in 2 Samuel 5:6-10.
Poor church. Back when I read Revelation I saw that Jesus took stock of the church. Out of seven churches Jesus mentioned, only one had a half way descent review from Jesus. That one had some way to go. Poor church.A sister in Christ passed the other day. I had a couple short conversations with her and she truly believed in Christ. Her husband is having a "memorial" service tonight. I would like to honor the passing of my sister in Christ [even though I am jealous that she got to go before me]..... but.... well you know how facebook can shine little lights where someone might not want the light shone???? This sister and I became acquainted at one of the neighborhood activities. She volunteered at some of the fun stuff. Her husband [a self proclaimed gospel singer and star] held a bible study every other Sunday. I went twice. And ran...... One morning I checked my messages on facebook and the most repugnant stuff I had read in a while was posted..... and it was under this woman's name on facebook.... so I contacted her and asked her why she would post such an awful thing..... she said her husband had her phone. They had been together for a long long time. This sister loved her husband. She believed what he taught her. She believed his twisted view of Christian Life. I believe this man started out right.... but somehow his path got horribly warped.... and he drug his wife with him. She was a Christian.... but her Christian walk was warped.
IMHO....Preachers don't set out to hurt the church. This sister's husband didn't start out to warp her Christian walk. I believe it happens over time.... the duties of the church.... and honestly.... I think most go bad because of money. The Word gets twisted and after time... the twisted Word becomes normal.... and the path goes off kilter.... and because no one is watching.... it goes way off..... Thousands may visit the church but if the message is warped.... damage is done.
I think Isaiah is warning that humans will get a big head and convince themselves they don't need God telling them what to do. That, is dangerous.... God is the potter.... we are the clay..... and potters who have a warped pot.... will smash it into mud and start over again. Be careful... don't be a warped pot.
