Isaiah 29 - Bible Study in 5 Minutes

Isaiah 29 Short Summary:

Isaiah prophesies for and against Ariel in chapter 29. Ariel, another name for Jerusalem, was asleep with apathy for the Lord’s commands. God was going to humble them through foreign enemies, but He was not ready to bring total destruction on them. The end of Isaiah 29 prophesies of a time when God’s people would return their devotion to Him and receive fresh mercies of blessing from Him.

Isaiah 29 Bible Study

TIMELINE:

• The prophetic ministry of Isaiah spanned the reigns of King Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

• We do not know the date Isaiah spoke/recorded this prophecy.

KEY CHARACTERS:

• Isaiah – The son of Amoz (1:1). God commissioned Isaiah as His prophet to Judah.

• The People of Ariel – Ariel appears to be used as another name for Jerusalem. We will discuss this term further in the outline.

DEFINITIONS:

• Mount Zion (29:8) – Zion refers to the hill/mountain where David’s palace was built in Jerusalem. This area was on the southeast side of the city. Zion is sometimes used to refer to the city of Jerusalem as a whole.

• Seer (29:10) – A person with spiritual insight who receives supernatural information through dreams, visions, omens, intuition, or divination.

OUTLINE:

• A PROPHESY OF THE HUMBLING OF JERUSALEM (29:1-4):

  • Jerusalem is referred to by the name Ariel. This is the only place in the Bible where this occurs. Ariel is thought to mean “lion of God.” God may have used this terminology to refer to Jerusalem because its inhabitants thought of themselves as untouchable, protected by God, and invincible. Though the people of Jerusalem thought God would never let them fall, they receive a reality check from God in this chapter when He informs them that He is going to humble them.

  • God used the language of a siege to illustrate how He was going to punish Jerusalem. He was going to encamp against it, raise siegeworks, defeat the city, bring them low, and humble them into the dust. 

  • They would not think of themselves as a lion (Ariel) when God was through with them.

• HUMBLED BUT ULTIMATELY SAVED BY GOD (29:5-8):

  • God wasn’t pleased with Jerusalem, but He also wasn’t yet ready to give them over to their adversaries. He would let foreign enemies humble them, but He promised to save them from total destruction.

  • When Jerusalem’s enemies had satisfied God, He would remove them, in an instant, with power like an earthquake, a whirlwind, and a devouring fire. This may refer to when God allowed the Assyrians to oppress Judah but stopped them short of demolishing Jerusalem by sending an angel to destroy the Assyrian army (2 Kings 19:35).

  • God would frustrate their enemies at the decisive moment. They would think they had won but then they would be thwarted. They would be like a hungry man who dreamed of eating delicious food, only to wake up and find out their feast was only a dream.  

• JERUSALEM’S SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS (29:9-16):

  • God wanted the citizens of Jerusalem to be astonished at their own condition. They were spiritually blind and incapable of understanding God’s words (like illiterate people incapable of reading, 29:11-12).

  • They honored God with the external motions of religion, but their hearts were far from Him.

  • It was so bad that God had poured out a “deep sleep” on the prophets and seers in Judah. They were of no benefit to the people.

  • They were drunk on sin, haughty in pride, and God assured them their sins were not hidden from Him.

  • God reminded them that they were like clay, and He was the potter, and He had power to do whatever He willed with them.

• A PROPHESY OF BETTER TIMES (29:17-24):

  • God did not need the proud rulers of Jerusalem; He planned to do “wonderful things” with the city when He removed them from power (29:14).

  • He would make them into a fruitful forest (28:17).

  • He promised that one day He would make the deaf hear and the blind see.

  • Ruthless people would be removed, evil cut off, and injustice snuffed out.

  • He foretold that one day, God’s people would give their hearts back to Him, and fresh joys would come to Judah.

APPLICATION:

• The people of Jerusalem were going through the external motions of faith, but it wasn’t their heart that was motivating their actions, and their hearts weren’t moved by their actions.

• They were doing “religious things” but didn’t know the heart behind those things.

• And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men…” (29:13).

• They only did religious things because they were taught and expected to do them by others.

• When we make application from the Bible, we need to think about God’s heart in giving a command, and the way our heart should respond in following that command.

• When we teach other people God’s instructions, we need to make sure they know the way their heart responds to an instruction and engages with an instruction is just as important as physically performing that instruction.

• We want our hearts to motivate and feel our obedience. That is far superior to obedience stimulated through rote muscle memory that is partitioned off from our heart and mind.