Isaiah 32:9-20
9 Rise up, you women who are at ease,
Hear my voice;
You complacent daughters,
Give ear to my speech.
10 In a year and some days
You will be troubled, you complacent women;
For the vintage will fail,
The gathering will not come.
11 Tremble, you women who are at ease;
Be troubled, you complacent ones;
Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare,
And gird sackcloth on your waists.
12 People shall mourn upon their breasts
For the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
13 On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers,
Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city;
14 Because the palaces will be forsaken,
The bustling city will be deserted.
The forts and towers will become lairs forever,
A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks—
15 Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
And the wilderness becomes a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field is counted as a forest.
16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness,
And righteousness remain in the fruitful field.
17 The work of righteousness will be peace,
And the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
18 My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation,
In secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places,
19 Though hail comes down on the forest,
And the city is brought low in humiliation.
20 Blessed are you who sow beside all waters,
Who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.
The complacency of Israel was addressed as if they were women who laid about doing little and who needed to take heed to God’s word to them. God warned them that they would face fruitlessness and that the only remedy was repentance, to turn from complacency to attention for the things of the Lord according to His word. The mourning for their loss of a bountiful harvest of the pleasure of the vineyard and the grain for food would make the cities empty as everyone left them to ruin because they had left their Lord God and chose laziness and inaction. The Lord told them to wait until he poured out His Spirit on them all from heaven (Joel 2:28, Acts 2:17, 21) to deliver and make them fruitful once more in Him. This is a picture of how the church was formed and is being added to daily through His Spirit and our repentance to turn from the unfruitfulness and complacency of sin to Him for bountiful living in giving the Lord glory in our purposeful regenerated lives. He spoke through Isaiah to further promise justice and righteousness in their empty lives which would result in peace with God with the further effect of a settled assurance in quietness through that righteousness which we now know is Christ’s in whom we live and not our own. The peace of God we have as Romans 5:1 speaks of is in Him and the solid peace of the soul in His imputed righteousness which is not imparted as if our own, but which is always His in whom we dwell because His Spirit lives in us to sanctify each is us. Therefore, we find peace while living in turmoil and abundance of fruitfulness while living in a barren world of sin. We are secure in His work which quiets the troubled and complacent soul with purpose and meaning no matter the world situation. Like the picture of redeemed Israel sowing food by the waters and sending out the stock to become more food to sustain themselves, we sow the reconciliation of the gospel of peace with God by Christ’s righteousness in His work to deliver us from sin to follow Him. May we freely go out and on our way in His footsteps of redeeming grace with this good news of peace with God in Christ as we speak of the consequences of spiritual complacency and the reconciliation of peace and purpose with God. Amen.
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