Isaiah 20:6
6 And the inhabitant [yashab] of this isle ['iy] shall
say ['amar] in that day [yowm], Behold, such [koh] is our
expectation [mabbat], whither we flee [nuwc] for help [`ezrah] to be
delivered [natsal] from [paniym] the king [melek] of Assyria
['Ashshuwr]: and how shall we escape [malat]? KJV-Interlinear
6 "So the inhabitants of
this coastland will say in that day, 'Behold, such is our hope, where we fled
for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and we, how shall we
escape?'" NASB
When you trust
in, or are impressed with, your own devices, your own opinions, your own
ingenuity, and in so doing you ignore or do not listen to the instructions
given in the Bible, then your destiny is doom and nothing more.
And who do you
trust in?
That question is
asked in this closing verse, leaving the answer to the obvious.
Yet, even the
answer is ignored.
This isle, ‘iy,’
is a reference to the thin piece of land called Palestine, which is bounded by
the Mediterranean Sea on the west and the Jordan River on the east.
Back in Isaiah’s
day it was Judah.
Not as powerful
as Egypt. Not as vast as Ethiopia. Just a thin little strip of land by
comparison, and bounded on all sides by much more powerful regions, than
itself.
In that day, is
a phrase that we have seen many times before in Isaiah. It is a reference to the general time frame
when all of these things will come to pass, and more specifically, the final
time frame in history, when history will reach its culmination. That is the
Tribulation, which is still to take place at some time in the future.
Just as in
Isaiah’s day, the warning was made, do not place trust in earthly solutions,
but in God, so too, in those final days of history, the Bible teaches all, do
not trust in earthly solutions against earthly tyranny, but trust in Christ.
And as they did
not listen back then, so too, people will not listen in the future.
People do not listen
even in our current day of smart phones and internet and so forth.
And when all is
lost, when the problems of the world are smothering, then the question that is
inevitably asked, ‘how shall we escape?’
And, all the while the answer has been right there, in writing, ever
since Isaiah’s day.
And yet a desire
to learn bible doctrine has been nothing more than a trivial interest for most.
And so what can
one expect, really!
