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Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, Book 8, part 14

God’s rebuke of the wicked continues in Isaiah 57:9, 10,

⁹ “You have journeyed to the king with oil and increased your perfumes; you have sent your envoys a great distance and made them go down to Sheol. ¹⁰ You were tired out by the length of your road, yet you did not say, ‘It is hopeless.’ You found renewed strength, therefore you did not faint [chalah, “wear down”].”

We noted earlier in our study of Isaiah 18 how Hezekiah was induced to seek help from Egypt and Ethiopia against the Assyrian army, instead of seeking the word of the Lord.  It appears that Hezekiah’s envoys took olive oil and essential oils (“perfumes”) as a present or gift. The road was long and tiring, but they remained confident and “did not faint” along the way.

Nonetheless, they were unsuccessful in their mission. The Assyrian disaster thus continued until the Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem and threatened to destroy it. Then Hezekiah finally sent word to Isaiah to see what God had to say.

The King Broke His Word

Isaiah 57:11 continues,

¹¹ “Of whom were you worried and fearful, when you lied and did not remember Me nor give Me a thought? Was I not silent [chashah, “to be silent or quiet”] even for a long time so you do not fear Me?”

The prophet’s frustration at Hezekiah’s tendency to follow the advice of his advisors instead of the word of the Lord is again reflected here. The envoys, after all, were just following the king’s command. So the prophet essentially accuses Hezekiah of lying. Had the king contacted the prophet to get his input before deciding to send those envoys on their mission? Did the prophet tell him to stand firm and see how God would deliver the city? Did Hezekiah agree to this at first? Did the king’s counselors dissuade him, causing Hezekiah to break his word?

These are all intriguing questions that verse 11 raises. Because Hezekiah decided not to give God a thought, God was then “silent even for a long time” until the king at last found himself in a hopeless situation (2 Kings 19:1-3). Only then did he realize that his advisors had led him into disaster. It must have been quite humiliating for the king to finally seek the word of the Lord through Isaiah. But he put on sackcloth in humility and sought God’s deliverance.

The King’s Righteous Deeds

Isaiah 57:12 concludes,

¹² “I will declare your righteousness and your deeds, but they will not profit you.”

Isaiah himself never called Hezekiah a “righteous” king, although 2 Kings 18:3 says that “he did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.” It took a long time for him to do what was right, but in the end, he showed himself to be righteous. Therefore, Isaiah too acknowledged his righteousness and deeds.

Nonetheless, Hezekiah also sowed the seeds of Jerusalem’s destruction when the Babylonian envoys came to wish him well. The king showed them all of his treasures. Isaiah 39:5, 6 says,

⁵ Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts, ⁶ ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.”

So the prophet says that the king’s righteousness “will not profit you” in the long term. The destruction of the Assyrian threat was to give the city another century before the Babylonian army took the city and ultimately destroyed it.

Political Advisors vs. the Remnant

The prophet then looked ahead to the time of Jerusalem’s destruction. Isaiah 57:13 says,

¹³ “When you cry out, let your collection [kibbutz, “collection, assembly”] of idols deliver you. But the wind [ruach, “wind, spirit”] will carry all of them up, and a breath [hebel, “breath, vapor”] will take them away. But he who takes refuge in Me will inherit the land.”

The NASB interprets this “collection” to be an assemblage of idols, but this goes beyond the Hebrew text itself. Certainly, there were idolaters in Jerusalem, but the general flow of prophecy seems to indicate that it is a reference to the king’s political advisors. They may have been idolaters, but more likely they simply lacked faith in God’s protection and deliverance.

This kibbutz stands in contrast to those who take refuge in God, that is, they depend upon God rather than in weapons of war or city walls. Righteous kings always found it difficult to do this, because the advisors and the general population did not trust in God’s protection. They did not think that it was “practical” to put themselves in the hands of God.

The problem was that when divine judgment threatened them (in the form of a foreign army), they tried to defend themselves against God.

Yet there were always a few, known as the remnant of grace, who did indeed put their trust in God and took refuge in Him, rather than in their own strength. Such people, the prophet says, “will inherit the land.” Paul tells us in Galatians 4:30 that the children of the flesh are not the inheritors. Only those of the “Isaac” company, the remnant of grace, are inheritors.

Isaiah thus tells us that the political advisors and those who follow their fleshly advice will be carried away by the “wind” (ruach) and “a breath” (hebel). The word ruach also means “spirit” and often refers to the Holy Spirit. No doubt Isaiah saw the double meaning. Even as a strong wind carries things away, so also the Spirit of God was to carry away the people into exile. In fact, just a tiny “breath” of the Spirit can take them away. Those exiled were being disinherited, even as the faithful remnant were being promised a permanent inheritance.