Monday, July 28, 2014

Isaiah 22:3

Copyright Ó 2014 J. Neely
Isaiah 22:3ues

3 All thy rulers [qatsiyn] are fled [nadad] together [yachad], they are bound ['acar] by the archers [qesheth]: all that are found [matsa'] in thee are bound ['acar] together [yachad], which have fled [barach] from far [rachowq].  KJV-Interlinear

3 All your rulers have fled together, And have been captured without the bow; All of you who were found were taken captive together, Though they had fled far away.  NASB

Jerusalem is in view here.  It is spiritually dysfunctional because the people disregarded God and His Word and did not learn anything.  The city that is supposed to be the representation of Gods vast wisdom and peace, is now in its deepest valley of spiritual despair.

Its leadership will run away.

Bound, here represents the feeling of fear or being seized or bound up with fear at the prospect of an advancing enemy.

They are so in terror, that even the professional military types, here represented as the archers, cannot even lift or use their bows and arrows.  They drop their weapons and run without firing off a single shot.  The average citizen is left unprotected.

All will run and all will try to run far away, but there is no place that is far enough, for they will be captured and thereby placed in prisons, tortured, executed and probably worse for many of them.

And so is the nature of those who have no doctrine in their souls.

Bible doctrine produces courage and the courageous.

Lack of doctrine produces cowards.

Everyone in life will face pressures of one sort or another.  If you have committed yourself to a daily study, then you will learn and you will eventually be able to handle anything that comes along.

With such preparation, then God never places anything greater before you, that you cannot handle.  Because, with spiritual maturity, you will be able to handle anything.

Without doctrine, without any spiritual growth, then nearly everything will cause you to be seized with fear and anxiety.  And even if you are able to handle the little things, like a broken finger nail, there will be sooner or later, something that will destroy your poise.

With doctrine in the soul, you will be able to handle the little things as well as the huge problems of life.