Isaiah 32:9 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, God rises up in judgment against wicked people to punish their evil, and later returns in mercy to the generous to reward their kindness. When society becomes deeply corrupt and people keep provoking the holy God, bad times should be expected. So the prophet warns the women who were at ease and the careless daughters in (Isaiah 32:9), because their pride, vanity, and love of luxury tempted their husbands and fathers to neglect the poor.

They are told to rise up and listen with reverence and attention. God was about to bring wasting and destructive judgments on the land where they lived in comfort and pleasure. This likely points first to the destruction caused by Sennacherib's army, when he captured the fortified cities of Judah. The phrase many days and years can also mean a little more than a year, which would fit the long period of devastation from that army’s first invasion until its defeat.

The warning also applies to anyone who sets their heart on the world and thinks happiness can be found there. “You will be troubled, careless women.” Casting off care does not keep trouble away. In fact, small troubles become very heavy for people who choose to live carelessly. They were careless because they had enough money and enough entertainment, but the prophet tells them their comforts will soon be gone.

The land that supplied their tents and fine food would be laid waste. The vintage would fail, so there would be no wine for their feasts. The fruit harvest would not come, because there would be nothing left to gather (Isaiah 32:10). They would also lack milk, pleasant fields, and the fruit of the vine. The land’s useful produce, the things that support life, would disappear.

This is a fitting judgment, because plenty abused in the service of sin often ends in scarcity. People who use God’s gifts to feed their lusts and offer them to false gods deserve to be deprived of them. The cities of Judah, where these women lived at ease and enjoyed their wealth, would also be ruined (Isaiah 32:13-14). Briars and thorns, signs of sin and curse, would grow not only on uncultivated land, but even over the houses of joy, the places of pleasure in those lively cities.

When a foreign army ravages the country, houses of joy quickly become houses of mourning. The palaces would be abandoned, perhaps because their owners fled for safety, and the common people would be left to fend for themselves. Those grand houses, once like strong towers, would become places for wild animals and flocks. They would be deserted for good, and no one would rebuild them. Sin brings many houses to ruin, and what once was great glory can become empty ground.

In view of this coming trouble, the prophet calls them to tremble, grieve, strip off their fine clothes, and put sackcloth on their waists (Isaiah 32:11). This means more than outward signs of grief. It also points to repentance, humble sorrow for sin, and a better way of living before the judgment arrives. Those who will not bend in repentance will break under judgment. It is also a call to live with self-denial now, so that when trouble comes, they are already loose from the comforts of this world.

At the same time, while a faithful remnant still remained, there was reason to hope for better days. The prophet gives them a hopeful vision of those days, which were seen in the later part of Hezekiah's reign and may also look ahead to the days of the Messiah, the King of righteousness and peace. The great promise is that these blessed times will begin with the outpouring of the Spirit from on high (Isaiah 32:15). This speaks not only of God's favor toward his people, but of God's work within them. Good times come when God gives people good hearts by his grace.

God’s gift of the Holy Spirit is, in effect, his gift of all good things. He gives the Spirit to those who ask him, as shown by comparing (Luke 11:13) with (Matthew 7:11). This is the great comfort of God’s people, that the Spirit will be poured out more richly than before, as the church’s need requires. Since this comes from on high, they look up to their Father in heaven for it. When God plans mercy for his church, he first pours out his Spirit to prepare people to receive his blessings and to equip those he uses as his tools. Without the Spirit, efforts to repair the church’s ruins fail. With the Spirit, the work is done quickly.

The kingdom of the Messiah was brought in and established by the pouring out of the Spirit in (Acts 2), and it continues in that same power to this day. It will remain that way to the end. Then a wonderful change will come. What was a wilderness, dry and barren, will become a fruitful field. What we now call a fruitful field, by comparison, will then seem like a forest. The earth will give its increase.

This promise fits the days of the Messiah, when the fruit of the earth would grow abundantly, like Lebanon (Psalm 72:16). Some understand this as the Gentiles being brought into the gospel church, turning a wilderness into a fruitful field, while the Jews, who rejected the gospel, were left like a forest that had once been fruitful. The Gentiles received a spirit of life, but on the Jews there came a spirit of slumber.

See here the proof and result of the Spirit being poured out on any soul: it becomes fruitful and bears fruit that leads to holiness. Three things make these times happy.

First, there is judgment and righteousness (Isaiah 32:16). When the Spirit is poured out on a land, justice will live in places that were once like a wilderness, and will turn them into a fruitful field. Righteousness will stay in the fruitful field and make it even more fruitful. Ministers will explain God’s law, and rulers will carry it out, both wisely and faithfully. In this way, the bad will be changed for the better, and the good will become even better. Among all kinds of people, the poor, lowly, and unlearned, who are often treated like a wilderness, and the rich, great, and learned, who are valued like a fruitful field, there will be right views of things, good guiding principles, and a serious concern for what is right and wrong, sin and duty. Or, in every part of the land, both open country and enclosed land, both city and countryside, both rough places and more polished ones, justice will be carried out properly.

The law of Christ gives a rule for how we should live, and the gospel of Christ gives the righteousness, or right standing with God, by which we are saved. Wherever the Spirit is poured out, both of these live on as an everlasting righteousness.

Second, there is peace and quietness (Isaiah 32:17, Isaiah 32:18). The peace promised here is of two kinds. There is inward peace, which follows righteousness living within us. Those in whom this work is done will experience this blessed result. Righteousness itself is peace, and its effect is quietness and assurance forever, that is, a holy calm and safety of mind. By this, the soul enjoys itself and enjoys God, and this world cannot disturb that joy.

Peace, quietness, and lasting assurance may be expected, and will be found, in the path and work of righteousness. True satisfaction is found only in true religion, and there it is found without fail. These are the quiet and peaceful lives that are lived in godliness and honesty (1 Timothy 2:2). Even the work of righteousness is peace. When we do our duty, we find great pleasure in it, a present and rich reward for obedience. Though the work of righteousness may be hard, costly, and lead to contempt, it is still peace, enough peace to meet all our needs.

The effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance, not only until the end of our time, and at the end of life, but for the endless ages of eternity. Real holiness is real happiness now, and it will be perfect happiness, that is, perfect holiness, forever.

There is also outward peace. It is a great mercy when those who have quiet and peaceful spirits by God’s grace are placed by God’s providence in quiet and peaceful homes, with no trouble in their houses or gatherings. When the terror of Sennacherib’s invasion, the Assyrian king’s attack, was over, the people likely felt more deeply than ever the mercy of a quiet home, free from war alarms. Every family should work to keep peace within, with no strife or quarrels at home, and then trust God to let them dwell safely and be free from fear outside.

Jerusalem will be a peaceful home, compare Isaiah 33:20. Even when hail falls and a fierce storm strikes the bare forest, Jerusalem will be a quiet resting place. The city lies low, sheltered by the mountains around it (Psalm 125:2). The high forts and towers are brought down (Isaiah 32:14), but the city that lies low will be a quiet resting place. Those who are humble and willing to live low are safest and can live most peacefully (Isaiah 32:19). If we want to dwell in a peaceful home, we must be willing to live humbly and in a low place. Some think this points to how the land of Goshen was protected from the hail that destroyed much of Egypt.

Third, there will be plenty and abundance. There will be such good crops, gathered everywhere and every year, that the farmer will be praised. Happy is the one who sows beside all waters (Isaiah 32:20), who uses every suitable field, and who casts seed upon the water, that is, who makes use of every opportunity, as in Ecclesiastes 11:1. God gives the increase, but the farmer must still work diligently and do his part by sowing beside all waters. If he does, the grain will grow so thick and heavy that he can let cattle, even the ox and the donkey, graze on its tops and keep it from growing too rank.

This can be applied to the preaching of the word. Some think it points to the apostles, who, as farmers, went out to sow their seed (Matthew 13:3). They sowed beside all waters, preaching the gospel wherever they went. Waters stand for people, and they preached to many crowds. Wherever they found hearts softened, ready, and willing to receive the word, they planted the good seed.

By the law of Moses, the Jews were forbidden to plow with an ox and a donkey together (Deuteronomy 22:10). That showed that Jews and Gentiles were not to be mixed together then. But now that division is removed, and both the ox and the donkey, both Jews and Gentiles, will be used in, and share the blessing of, the gospel work.

This also applies to works of charity. When God sends these happy times, those who make the best use of them are blessed. They do good with what they have, sow beside all waters, and take every chance to help those in need, for in due season they will reap.