29 Woe, O [a]Ariel, [b]Ariel the city where David once camped!
Add year to year, [c]observe your feasts on schedule.
2 I will bring distress to Ariel,
And she will be a city of lamenting and mourning;
And she will be like an Ariel to me.
3 I will camp against you [d]encircling you,
And I will set siegeworks against you,
And I will raise up battle towers against you.
4 Then you will be brought low;
From the earth you will speak,
And from the dust where you are prostrate
Your words will come.
Your voice will also be like that of a [e]spirit from the ground,
And your speech will whisper from the dust.5 But the multitude of your [f]enemies will become like fine dust,
And the multitude of the ruthless ones like the chaff which [g]blows away;
And it will happen instantly, suddenly.
6 From the Lord of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise,
With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.
7 And the multitude of all the nations who wage war against [h]Ariel,
Even all who wage war against her and her stronghold, and who distress her,
Will be like a dream, a vision of the night.
8 It will be as when a hungry man dreams—
And behold, he is eating;
But when he awakens, his [i]hunger is not satisfied,
Or as when a thirsty man dreams—
And behold, he is drinking,
But when he awakens, behold, he is faint
And his [j]thirst is not quenched.
Thus the multitude of all the nations will be
Who wage war against Mount Zion.9 Be delayed and wait,
Blind yourselves and be blind;
They become drunk, but not with wine,
They stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For the Lord has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep,
He has shut your eyes, the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, the seers.
In case it isn’t clear, because it wasn’t to me either, “Ariel” is another name for Jerusalem. The thread woven through this passage is a little buried, but lets see what we can dig up. At the beginning, Isaiah writes, “Add year to year, observe your feasts on schedule.” It is interesting, and perhaps telling, that he calls them “your feasts”. He doesn’t say “God’s feasts” or anything similar, even though God instituted many feasts.
That’s not to say the people didn’t think they were following God’s instructions. I can see them saying, “Hey, we observe the feasts, we do it every year, just like God said!” There is then a description of nations attacking, and God’s judgment coming with fire and tempest and earthquakes and more. That all seems pretty straightforward until we have this bit (v. 7-8) about dreams and hunger and thirst.
In their dreams, there is an illusion of food and drink, but when they wake, when reality hits, there’s still nothing to eat, and their thirst has not been quenched. It was all an illusion, just like their service to God. It looked good, but their hearts weren’t in it at all, or at least not in it for God. They were just there to eat, drink, and gorge themselves in the name of serving God.
So then, he rightly tells them, “You might as well blind yourselves, because you aren’t seeing the truth and reality anyway.” It’s just as if they were drunk, but without needing any sleep. The prophets eyes are shut, and the seers do not see with their heads covered.
We saw an echo of this message in the previous chapter, but what are we doing differently? Do we just come and do our religious duty? Is it all just fun and enjoyment without any of the hard things? Do we have any hard things in our life? I sure hope so, or we need to check our hearts to find out why not, when Jesus promised His followers hardship.
Serving God may be simple at face value, but it isn’t easy in practice, so if we’re just coasting, or taking the easy road, look out! We need to wake up, rub the sleep from our eyes, and ask God to show us reality. We need to see broken hearts around us, folks that need His hands and feet to work in their lives (through us).
Or maybe we need His work in our own lives, to clean up the mess we’ve made, so that we can then be His hands and feet at work. Don’t let the years pass, year after year, same old thing. Lift up your eyes and let Him do something new in you, something real and lasting, for His kingdom and His glory.