Isaiah 32
by Pastor David Groendyk

This whole chapter is a description of the coming Messiah and what his reign and rule over his people will look like. In the previous chapter, Isaiah described the downfall of Egypt and Assyria and all other manmade powers and idols. In their place, God’s chosen king will reign. And as Christians living at this point in time, we know that it is Jesus Christ who is the true fulfillment of this chapter.

This reign and rule of God’s chosen king, Jesus Christ, brings about the change and transformation that God had been looking for in his people all along. Christ reigns “in righteousness” (v. 1). Unlike the apostate human kings of Israel and Judah or the wicked kings of Assyria and Egypt who use and abuse their power and God’s people to build their own personal kingdoms, Christ decrees and acts in such a way to bring about true justice. Human leaders—even the “good” ones—never act in a totally fair and unprejudiced way. There will always be at least a tinge selfishness in their motivations and actions. That’s just the nature of sin. But because Christ is completely just in his rule, we know that we will be treated fairly and that we can trust him to do what is right and good.

We also see Christ’s transforming rule in the way his people are caused to respond to him (vv. 3–8). Without Christ, we all remain blind, deaf, foolish, hasty in speech, busy with iniquity, full of error in our thoughts and words about God, and schemers of wickedness. But we can rejoice and be glad that through Christ’s work, our eyes and ears have been opened and our hearts have been changed. Because of Christ, we can recognize and respond to his reign and rule. Praise God that he has put his own Spirit within you to bring you to life and recognize him! Without that work, we would all be living in hopelessness.

Isaiah makes a similar point in verses 9–16. These verses are a call to repentance, but they also describe what happens when God acts to redeem his people from their blindness and hard-heartedness. Before Christ saves, we are a barren wasteland, but when Christ pours his Spirit out upon us, we become a fruitful field and a forest. The ESV Study Bible has a great phrase to describe our need for God’s Spirit: “Salvation is beyond all human capability.” God has to be the one to act. We are nothing on our own. But what does it mean that we become a fruitful field? We are given new, righteousness-creating, justice-loving life. One of the effects of having our eyes opened to God is that we are now capable of doing righteous deeds and, in fact, we do start doing righteous deeds. If you have been saved by God, you should love good and hate evil. That is a command for us to follow, but it is also something that God promises to accomplish in you through his Holy Spirit.

God’s community of saints is a place of righteousness, fairness, equity, justice, and love. Do you know what effect that has on us if we actually follow those directives well? Peace and security (vv. 17–18); rest and refreshment (v. 2). This is the inward, spiritual reality that we enjoy now, but it is also the outward, global, eternal reality that we look forward to in the life to come. The transforming rule of Christ is a tremendous promise and reality for his people. Spend time in prayer today 1) praising and thanking him for ruling and for transforming you, and 2) asking for him to continue transforming you in the ways you read about today.