AUGUST 2

Chapter 31:1 says, “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for
help.” Throughout the Scriptures, Egypt is a picture of the world.
For the Israelites to be in Egypt was for them to be out of God’s
perfect will for their lives, to be unseparated from the things God
had instructed them to be separated from.

In the first eight verses of chapter 32, Isaiah is thinking
of the joyous aftermath of Zion’s deliverance from the Assyrian
army. Included in his thinking is the future reign of our Lord here
on earth. In verses 9-15 he talks about careless women. It is
difficult to see the connection between the first eight verses and
verse nine, but there must have been a group of influential godless
women in the court who had set themselves against everything that
Isaiah stood for. Very likely, his meaning here is that a period of
trouble is to intervene between the defeat of the Assyrian army and
the reign of the Messiah. The forest (verse 19) is the Assyrian
army! The city is Nineveh, or the centralized forces of evil in the
latter days.

In verse 20 he says, “Blessed are ye that sow beside all
waters.” Waters are expression of trouble, and sowing is the
continuance of a godly Christian in paths of daily duty.

Chapter 34 is one of the darkest chapters in the Bible.
Verses 1-7 speak of the Battle of Armageddon; verses 8-15 about the
desolation following the disaster; and verses 16 and 17 speak of the
divine guarantee that Israel will possess and inhabit the land that
God has promised her.

In contrast, chapter 35 is one of the brightest and most
joyful chapters in the Bible. It speaks of the restoration of the
land and the manifestation of the Lord, and ends by speaking of the
return of the redeemed remnant to Zion. This return will be an
appointed way, a highway, a holy way, a plainly marked way, and a
safe way. The redeemed will joyfully return to Zion, with
everlasting exultation. At last they will obtain gladness, and the
sorrow and sighing that has so long plagued them will flee away.