Isaiah 16

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Dave Burnette's Commentary

Isaiah Chapter 16

Written By: God through Inspiration

Penned By: Isaiah

Date Penned: (700-681 BC)

Overview: To Tell of God's Salvation through the Messiah (c 1-66)

Theme: Words of Judgment (c 1-39)

Message: God Rebukes Moab Over Pride (v 1-14)

Isaiah 16 Commentary

(16:1) The Moabites - Attacked by the Assyrians, Moabite refugees would flee to Sela, which lay in the country of Edom to the south. Desperate Moabites would send a tribute of lambs to Jerusalem asking for Judah's protection. Jerusalem would be a safe refuge for a while. Isaiah advised Judah to accept these refugees as a sign of compassion during the enemy's time of devastation.

(16:5) Hezekiah - This prophecy was fulfilled when Hezekiah became king over Judah. Hezekiah was a descendant of David and a good king. Hezekiah's story is found in 2 Kings 18:1-20:21.

(16:6) Pride - The Moabites had a reputation of being a proud and arrogant people. Jeremiah said the pride of Moab was well known (Jeremiah 48:29), and Zephaniah mentioned the taunts of the Moabites mocking God's people (Zephaniah 2:8). Their excessive pride and arrogance prevented them from turning to God for mercy. This same pride and arrogance lives in all people; it is part of our fallen human nature. Don't think that the pride of the Moabites was any different than the pride that resides in you. The only difference is that they had watered the seeds of pride into fully bloomed arrogance. When pride blossoms in our lives, it obscures our vision of God and our dependence on him. Do you have a clear sense of your absolute need for God? If you have trouble answering that question, you may have allowed pride to grow too strong in you. Don't allow it to thrive in the soil of your heart. Only humility kills the weeds of pride. Ask God for a good dose of it today.

(16:10) Treading the Grapes - The treading of grapes (squeezing the juice from them by mashing them with bare feet) was the climax of the harvest season, a time of great joy in the vineyards. But the joy of harvest would soon end because the people, in their pride, had ignored God and rebelled against him.

(16:12) Our Own Way - When the people of Moab experienced God's wrath, they sought their own idols and gods. Nothing happened, however, because no one was there to save them. When we seek our own ways of escape in order to get through our daily troubles, the effect is the same: No pleasure, pastime, painkiller, or human-made religious idea can save us. Our hope lies in God, the only one who can hear and help us.

(16:13-14) A True Prophet - Tiglath-pileser III invaded Moab in 732 BC; Sennacherib invaded Moab the same year that he invaded Judah, 701 BC. The earlier event occurred three years after Isaiah's prediction, marking Isaiah as a true prophet. In these events, the people of Israel saw prophecy fulfilled before their very eyes.

Dave Burnette's Life Application
The Sin of Pride

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today, we continue in the Book of Isaiah with Chapter 16. In our text today, we see God rebuke Moab for its pride. In applying, we see the Biblical truth that pride cometh before a fall because pride is a form of self-worship as we lift ourselves above others and the Lord. How about you? Do you wrestle with Pride? Let us learn from our text today and the example of Moab to remember that pride is a sin and that pride cometh before a fall.

Isaiah 16

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Isaiah 16

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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