INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH CHAPTER 16

Refugees are seen at the border crossing of willow creek seeking counsel─trying to stay hid from their enemies─begging other nations to allow them sanctuary among them─the pride of Moab is brought down as she begs for help.  The destruction of her cities and farms caused the hearts strings of the prophet to reverberate with sorrow upon sorrow.  Her wines that she exported have ceased─all her vineyards have been destroyed and her homes burned.  She goes up to her house of worship and seeks help from Moloch her idol god but nothing happens except disaster upon disaster.

EXPOSITION TO ISAIAH CHAPTER 16

1Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughter of Zion.

Moab which has been paying tribute to the Israelites is exhorted by the prophet to send lambs to the kings of Judah as a sign of subjection.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT BEAR OUT THE TEXT:

2Sa 8:2  And he smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive. And so the Moabites became David’s servants, and brought gifts.

2Ki 3:4  And Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster, and rendered unto the king of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool.

2Ki 14:7  He slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day.

2For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.

The women of Moab who are now refugees are like a bunch of fluttering birds flushed from their nest and are at the border crossing of the river Arnon.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT RATIFY THE TEXT:

Jdg 11:18  Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, but came not within the border of Moab: for Arnon was the border of Moab.

Num 21:13-15  From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites: for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.  Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD, What he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon,  And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab.

3Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth.

They are advised to take counsel and execute judgment that they might be hid from their oppressor like night at noontime.  They are seeking help to hide the outcasts and hoping that they will not be betrayed.  These fugitives are seeking counsel and shelter from the neighboring nations.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT ARE CONCLUSIVE AND FINAL:

Oba 1:12-14  But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.  Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity;  Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.   Read:  Jer 22:3; Zec 7:9; Isa 32:2

4Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.

They are seeking help from those who have looted their homes and driven them from their homeland.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT ATTEST TO THE TEXT:

Jer 48:18  Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the spoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strong holds.

Isa 25:10  For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.   Read:  Deu 23:15-16

5And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness.

If you will let the outcasts dwell among you─if you will hide them from their enemies that are hunting them down─then God will be merciful to you for your mercy to them and establish the house of David and give you a righteous king.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT PRESENT OVERWHELMING PROOF

OF THE TEXT:

Psa 61:6-7  Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations.  He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.

Pro 20:28  Mercy and truth preserve the king: and his throne is upholden by mercy.

 2Sa 7:16  And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.

6We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be so.

Moab had be of long time a boastful, proud, scornful and overbearing group of people─now her futile boastings are seen as lies and as such are as empty as a deserted birds nest.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES THAT

ESTABLISH THE CERTAINTY OF

THE TEXT:

Jer 48:25-30  The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, saith the LORD.  Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.  For was not Israel a derision unto thee? was he found among thieves? for since thou spakest of him, thou skippedst for joy.  O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole’s mouth.  We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud) his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart.  I know his wrath, saith the LORD; but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it.

Jer 48:42  And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against the LORD.

Oba 1:3-4  The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?  Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD.

7Therefore shall Moab howl for Moab, every one shall howl: for the foundations of Kirhareseth shall ye mourn; surely they are stricken.

From town to town and village to village the people have gathered together to howl and wail.  Tides of ruin was everywhere─walls broken down─building burned─farmlands ruined─the situation looked hopeless.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT AUTHENTICATE THE TEXT:

Jer 48:20  Moab is confounded; for it is broken down: howl and cry; tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled,

2Ki 3:25  And they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees: only in Kirharaseth left they the stones thereof; howbeit the slingers went about it, and smote it.

8For the fields of Heshbon languish, and the vine of Sibmah: the lords of the heathen have broken down the principal plants thereof, they are come even unto Jazer, they wandered through the wilderness: her branches are stretched out, they are gone over the sea.

The fields of Heshbon are deserted─farmland lying bare─the finest grape vineyards in all the world was in this area and now they had been cut down by invading war lords.  Her branches had stretched out over the sea by means of exporting seedlings to other countries and selling her wines.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT DEMONSTRATE THE TEXT:

Jer 27:6-7  And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.  And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.

Isa 24:3  The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.  Read:  Isa 24:4-12

 9Therefore I will bewail with the weeping of Jazer the vine of Sibmah: I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon, and Elealeh: for the shouting for thy summer fruits and for thy harvest is fallen.

The prophet is drenched with tears because the grape vines which had been established over many years were all cut down and the joy associated with a bountiful harvest was turned into wailing.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT LEND EVIDENCE TO THE TEXT:

Isa 15:5  My heart shall cry out for Moab; his fugitives shall flee unto Zoar, an heifer of three years old: for by the mounting up of Luhith with weeping shall they go it up; for in the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry of destruction.

Jer 48:32-34  O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer: thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer: the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage.  And joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from the winepresses: none shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting.  From the cry of Heshbon even unto Elealeh, and even unto Jahaz, have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even unto Horonaim, as an heifer of three years old: for the waters also of Nimrim shall be desolate.

10And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.

The bountiful vineyards that had the voices of singing and gladness were now silent.  All merriment because of the time of vintage was gone─No grapes in the wine fat to trod out.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT INDORSE THE TEXT:

Jer 48:33  And joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from the winepresses: none shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting.

Amo 5:17  And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass through thee, saith the LORD.

Hab 3:17  Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:

Zep 1:13  Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.

11Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kirharesh.

His heart and soul was throbbing for Moab─The pity that filled his heart was causing a quivering like the strings of a harp─The prophet is weeping, weeping, weeping.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT LEND EVIDENCE TO THE TEXT:

Jer 4:19  My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

Jer 48:36  Therefore mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and mine heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kirheres: because the riches that he hath gotten are perished.

 12And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail.

Moab will come to her holy place of her heathen gods and bow before her idols and lay out her pleas for help but none will come to help her.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT INDORSE THE TEXT:

Isa 26:16  LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

Pro 1:28  Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:

Jer 48:35  Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, saith the LORD, him that offereth in the high places, and him that burneth incense to his gods.

13This is the word that the LORD hath spoken concerning Moab since that time.

Since the time that Moab began from the days of Lot and his daughters incest and their resistance to God─their Idolatery─their pride and arrogance─God’s prophets had spoken concerning Moab.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT ILLUMINATE THE TEXT:

Isa 44:8  Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.

Amo 3:7  Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

14But now the LORD hath spoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble.

The prophet tells us that within three years─counting the time like a hired servant serving out his contract─the glory of Moab with all its teeming population will become contemptible and shorn of its glory like a disease ridden body losing its vitality.  Moab’s glory will be gone─no longer a thriving and prosperous nation.

CROSS REFERENCE SCRIPTURES

THAT MAKE THE CASE:

Jer 48:46-47  Woe be unto thee, O Moab! the people of Chemosh perisheth: for thy sons are taken captives, and thy daughters captives.   Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith the LORD. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.  Read: 2Ki 14:7; Isa 23:9; Nah 2:9-10