Woe to Wandering Jerusalem

Isaiah 29:1-8 

1 "Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt!
Add year to year;
Let feasts come around.

2 Yet I will distress Ariel;
There shall be heaviness and sorrow,
And it shall be to Me as Ariel.

3 I will encamp against you all around,
I will lay siege against you with a mound,
And I will raise siegeworks against you.

4 You shall be brought down,
You shall speak out of the ground;
Your speech shall be low, out of the dust;
Your voice shall be like a medium's, out of the ground;
And your speech shall whisper out of the dust.

5 "Moreover the multitude of your foes
Shall be like fine dust,
And the multitude of the terrible ones
Like chaff that passes away;
Yes, it shall be in an instant, suddenly.

6 You will be punished by the LORD of hosts
With thunder and earthquake and great noise,
With storm and tempest
And the flame of devouring fire.

7 The multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel,
Even all who fight against her and her fortress,
And distress her,
Shall be as a dream of a night vision.

8 It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams,
And look—he eats;
But he awakes, and his soul is still empty;
Or as when a thirsty man dreams,
And look—he drinks;
But he awakes, and indeed he is faint,
And his soul still craves:
So the multitude of all the nations shall be,
Who fight against Mount Zion."

This prophecy against Jerusalem also known as Ariel was where king David had lived as a man after God’s own heart, but now was disobedient and wandering away into judgment.  No matter how life just seemed to go on for one season and festival to the next, year after year, it was not for God’s glory and they did not really honor Him.  Sorrow and distress would be given them in return for leaving their first love.  God would bring their enemies to the doorstep and lay siege to the city to bring them done in the humility of defeat while they still held to the broken covenant of protection which they had forfeited.  In their humbling they would be brought down to the dust of a buried man, the same dust of which Adam was created by the hand of God and which now would accept them back without the ability to speak anymore.  The illustration of a medium speaking as a whisper out of the ground showed how their idolatry of continuing sinful disobedience had relegated them to judgment and death.  But their enemies were still God’s as well, and they would suddenly suffer as dust and chaff which the wind blows away by His quick omnipotent breath.  They would be punished by natural disasters and consuming fire, these who fought against Jerusalem, and would be relegated to being as a bad dream.  Those fighting the Lord and His people would go hungry and remain unsatisfied and weak as they crave something out of reach, the blessings of the Lord who loves and defends His people even when they stray into sin.  Yes, the word of the Lord brought woe to Jerusalem, but a worse fate to those opposing Him through them.  Even now God defends His people who are the church from Jacob and all nations through the faith of Abraham, and He will vanquish His enemies who oppose us for Christ’s sake in judgment, blowing them away as useless chaff from the fruitful wheat of His chosen ones.  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God as Hebrews 10:30-31 tells us.