Clearing the Site: From Vainglory to True Glory

For all of this, God is bringing severe judgment on his people. But in the middle of this dire warning, God speaks a message of consolation to the righteous in verse 10. God will judge everyone according to their deeds (Rom 2:6-8), and he makes no mistakes.

Isaiah 3:16–4:1

Isaiah gets very specific in 3:16-24 about the arrogance and selfish luxury of the “daughters of Zion.” In a chapter in which the plundering of the poor is exposed and judged, we have a long list of luxury items with which the women of Judah made themselves beautiful. First Peter 3:3-5 makes it plain that a godly woman’s beauty does not come from outward adornments but from the godliness and submissiveness of her heart. But these women are like the proverbial pigs wearing gold rings in their snouts (Prov 11:22); the only beauty they possess is a lie, an outward disguise of their inner corruption. When the judgment falls, all their outward luxuries will be snatched away by their conquerors. Then, instead of soft garments and luxurious accessories, they will wear sackcloth bound with a rope; and instead of smelling lovely, they will stink (Isa 3:24). In the end their physical condition will match the ugliness of their souls.

The women of Zion will have lost their men in battle and now they stand exposed, with no shelter (3:25-26). Their shame is completed by seven of them pleading with one of the few men left for the mere honor of a marriage in name only; he wouldn’t even have to provide food or clothing for them (4:1). How the mighty have fallen!

Isaiah 4:2-6

In the midst of the darkest night of Zion’s history, the glory of the Lord shines the brightest. God will not finally exterminate the seed of Abraham; his promises to David will be fulfilled. God will protect a remnant by his sovereign power (4:3); and in the smoldering ruin of Jerusalem the Branch of the Lord will flourish. The branch of the Lord in Isaiah 11:1 is clearly Jesus, growing from the stump of Jesse. Christ is called “Branch” in other prophetic passages (Jer 23:5; Zech 3:8). In Isaiah 4:2 the word “Branch” could be seen to refer first to the remnant of Jews that the sovereign Lord allows to survive and then ultimately to Jesus, whose human ancestry would come from those survivors (Rom 1:3).

The Branch here is described as “beautiful and glorious,” a radiant display of the attributes of God. So Jesus was seen to be the “radiance of God’s glory” (Heb 1:3). By contrast with the darkness and wickedness of the circumstances in Jerusalem leading to the judgment of God, Christ will stand forth as the perfect man, the perfect ruler.

In the immediate horizon, Isaiah predicts that God will restore the remnant to a peaceful and fruitful dwelling in the promised land. The people will delight in the fruit of the land and take pride in it as evidence of God’s restorative favor. But the ultimate glory of the people will be in the Branch, Jesus Christ. Not only will Christ be our perfect ruler, but the fruit of his perfect righteousness will be the pride and glory of the remnant whom God will save by his grace. According to 4:3, this remnant was elected by God’s grace, for the Hebrew says they were “recorded for life.” For eternity this remnant will boast in the Lord, and his achievements at the cross will be their righteousness, their glory. The remnant will be called holy, and all their filth will be washed and burned away by the spirit of God’s judgments (4:3).

The final image of this chapter is one of a lasting dwelling place between God and his remnant. God will create a cloud of smoke by day and the brightness of a flaming fire by night. The smoke and fire refer immediately back to the “spirit of burning” of verse 4 by which God purged Jerusalem. So our God who is a “consuming fire” will actively guarantee the ongoing purity of his holy city. But beyond that, the cloud and fire evoke memories of God’s leadership of Israel during the days of the exodus. Just as the pillar of cloud and fire led Israel every step of the way (Exod 13:21), so God now promises to guide his settled city of Jerusalem. And just as God’s pillar stood between Israel and Egypt as a wall of protection (Exod 14:20), so God will now be a shelter of protection from the heat, storm, and rain. This image is one of total safety for the people of God against all their enemies, a safety ultimately fulfilled in Christ. The atoning work of Christ on the cross is our final protection from all our enemies. These rich images point ahead to the day when, at last, the dwelling of God will be with his people, and he will live with them (Rev 21:3).

We should realize the gift of God that all skilled laborers and leaders are to society, and we should thank God for them when they do their work well. Anarchy is a great judgment on a society, and so we should pray for our leaders, that they would do their leading for the glory of God. We should yearn for God to raise up competent and skilled men to be our leaders, and we should pray that they would not use their positions to crush the poor and needy but rather to care for them. Any man should read Isaiah 3 and yearn to be a strong leader of his home and in society as God raises him up to lead. Any woman should read Isaiah 3 and yearn not to be characterized by the vapid, arrogant, and deceptive beauty of outward adornment. First Peter 3:3-5 is an excellent remedy to the kind of selfish “beauty” that Isaiah 3 describes. The accumulation of a wardrobe or the latest fashion accessories is shameful if not accompanied by “a gentle and quiet spirit.” The overall wickedness and corruption of the people in Isaiah 3 should make us yearn for God to search us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It should make us confess our sins in detail and have the fire of his Spirit and Word purify us. Finally, Isaiah 4 points to a day when Christ’s saving work will be completed and God and redeemed humanity will dwell together forever in the new Jerusalem. We should look forward to this day and speed its coming.