Bible Study: Isaiah 16:1-14

Today's lesson continues the burden of Moab, describing a holy charge from God that the Moabites will ignore.

Isaiah Chapter 16

Lessons from the text

Pointing to Christ

In Luke 24:27, Jesus teaches two disciples about the purpose and mission of Christ from the Old Testament.  As have seen in this chapter and earlier chapters, most of the prophecies in one way or another reference Jesus. 

Here, we see that His kingdom will be established on mercy and that He will haste righteousness. In one verse, the essence of God revealed; He is merciful, seeks justice, desires righteousness for all, and is the truth.

What an amazing King.

So here we have a glimpse of Jesus the Sovereign King.  Chapter 9 spoke of His birth through a virgin. Psalm 23 speaks of His death on the cross. Scattered all throughout God’s Word, nestled in prophecy, are so many details about Jesus.  Whenever you read Scripture, stop to ask yourself, “Is that referring to Christ?”  You’ll be amazed at what you will find.

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Verse by Verse Commentary

A picture of modern-day Saudi Arabia, whose northern portion belong to Moab during Isaiah's day.

1-2  Sela is a mountain to the far south-east of Israel, located in modern day Saudi Arabia.  The Arnon River flows into the Dead Sea on the boarders of what was then Moab.  The lamb is a reference from II Kings 3:4 when Moab was under Israeli control.  As it was in the past, on Moab’s day of destruction, they will turn to pay tribute to Jerusalem.

3-4  God calls Moab to be righteous and to open their borders to refugees.  In chapter 15 verse 5, God cries over the state of Moab. Now, that tenderness is explained as a chance for redemption; God is going to plead with Moab once more.

5  In that time, the ruler of the region will be a king in Jerusalem.  As the throne of Judah will be vacant until Jesus' return, chapter 15 as well as this chapter points to events from the end times when Jesus will take the Throne of David, which was promised to David in II Sam 7.

6-8  God returns to the theme began in chapter 2 of judging man for haughtiness.

9-11  God cries over the fact that He has to destroy His creation because of man’s sins; He takes no pleasure in seeing one suffer for the consequences for one's choices.

12  God’s calling for Moab in verses 3-4 will be discarded, as Moab will in that time seek to their place of worship (false gods) rather than to Jerusalem and the True God.

13  God uses past tense while referring to a future event.  Being outside of time, God sees every choice one will make as if it has already occurred.

14  God is decreeing a new, immediate prophecy against Moab.  This prophecy was given three years prior to the Assyrian invasion, around 730BC.

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