Today let’s look at the last part of chapter 30. Today is the conclusion of the whole 30th chapter. Even though God said to Israel, “in repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength,” (15) they “would have none of it.” (15) They fled, running off on horses to Egypt. They depended upon Egypt. However, the result was “shame and disgrace.” (5) It was “hardship and distress”. (6) It brought destruction and ruin. However, the Lord showed them compassion. Even so God said to Israel who continued to rebel, “Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.” (18) In such a case it would not be strange for the Lord to give up on them, but even so the Lord showed compassion to them. Then we saw that the Lord gave wonderful blessings to those who waited upon Him. The result is written in today’s passage.

I. The Name of the LORD comes from afar (vs.27,28)
Please look at verses 27 and 28. They say, “See, the Name of the LORD comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire. His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction; he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit that leads them astray.”
Here, the Lord comes to judge Assyria who had tormented Israel (Judah). The phrase, “the Name of the LORD comes from afar” (27) is used only in this passage. “The Name of the LORD comes” means that the ruler of the entire world, the Savior of God’s people, the Redeemer is coming. He “comes from afar” (27) is thought to mean that God, who had up until now left Judah in the condition of being like she was forsaken by God, is coming. For them God was far away. There was a deep severance. They didn’t depend upon God, but depended upon Egypt so they were called “obstinate children”. (1) However, the Lord is answering them because they responded to the Lord’s Words, returned to the Lord and were quiet. The result of them being calm and depending upon the Lord was that they were to receive strength. God who up until now seemed so far away, will help them, and will come to judge their enemy Assyria. In the age of Isaiah this is the judgment against Assyria. At the same time it is a prophecy about the end of the world. This is prophesying that Jesus Christ will come again to judge his enemy, Satan. How he will judge is written in these verses.
“With burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;
his lips are full of wrath and his tongue is a consuming fire.
His breath is like a rushing torrent,
rising up to the neck.

He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;
he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit
that leads them astray.” (27, 28)
The wrath that God has towards Assyria, the enemy of Judah, is really great. Here it says, “burning anger and dense clouds of smoke”. (27) God used Assyria as an instrument to punish Judah. However, God did not approve of them doing any more than His purpose of punishing, but Assyria pushed their way into Judah and raided them in any way they wanted to. “His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck.” (28) Before Isaiah compared the invasion of Assyria to a flood in 8:7, 8 and 28:18. Here the Lord’s breath will attack them on a greater scale and with more force. Also, “He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction; he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit that leads them astray.” (28) God will by “the sieve of destruction” (28) sift and separate the countries. Their real nature will become clear. Then the good and the evil will be divided. Then just like a bit is put in a reckless, raging horse the Lord will treat Assyria in the same way. By this God’s people, Israel, will not be oppressed anymore. They will be confronted by such great power and authority. This is the same now and in the future. At the end of the world too there will be worldly armies that will gather at Armageddon to challenge the Lord to war. However, the Lord will completely destroy the army by a sword coming from his mouth. In all ages the Lord comes to destroy the enemies who agonize his own people. Also the Lord will come to you.
Here it says, “See, the Name of the LORD comes from afar.” (1) We must look for the Lord’s coming. The Lord will come to help you. Please understand that God has a plan for you whom he loves and has chosen.

II. God who gives enjoyment and rejoicing (Vs. 29)
Next, please look at verse 29. Here it says, “And you will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people playing pipes go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.” The Lord will come to you and destroy not only your enemies, but will restore your joy. “You will sing as on the night you celebrate a holy festival; your hearts will rejoice as when people playing pipes go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.” (29)
This will be like before when Israel was set free from Egypt. It was like this when Israel left Egypt. In the midst of a dangerous situation of the Red Sea before their eyes and Egypt pursuing them, they were saved by the overwhelming Lord’s work. The Lord divided the Red Sea and made a dry road and by taking that road they were saved. The Lord made the sea waters cover the Egyptian army that pursued them so they were thrown in the waters and destroyed. Moses and Israel who saw the great works of the Lord sang praises to the Lord from their heart. “I will sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my defense, he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” (Exodus 15:1, 2) Also Moses’ sister, the prophetess Miriam, danced with a tambourine and praised the Lord.
Please realize that this God is your Lord and your God. The Lord will restore your joy. The Lord sent Jesus Christ to this world to set you free from sin and bring you joy. This is Christmas.
☆“Do not be afraid, I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.　(Luke 2:10,11)☆
Christmas is really “good news” (Luke 2:10) of joy. “God did what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3, 4) That means that by our own strength or by our own effort we cannot be saved from our sin, but God did what we could not do through Jesus Christ. By Christ being put on the cross and dying, he took upon himself all of our sins so he made it possible for anyone who believes in Christ to go to heaven. No one can go to heaven except through him. Jesus Christ said the following, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
No one can go to heaven except through Jesus Christ. God sent his only son Jesus Christ to this world and prepared a way to be saved from our sin by believing in him. This is the way. In our lives there are various ways, and we are really lost no knowing which way to go, but this is the way. If you go that way, you will be saved. Then you too will have the joy that Israel experienced before when they were saved from Assyria and also the joy of being saved from Egypt.
In the hymnal there is a song, Blessed Assurance. In this hymn this joy is sung.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.
This is my story, this I my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior all the day long.
*The Japanese chorus says that the joy of our spirit can’t be compared to anything else.

This hymn was written by Fanny Crosby. It says that God’s salvation is unbelievably wonderful. “All the day long” she testifies to and praises the greatness of God’s salvation. The hymn is filled with her joy.
Fanny Crosby who wrote this hymn was in fact blind all of her life. She was born in New York in 1820. When she was 6 weeks old, by a medical miss by her doctor she lost her eye sight. Also the doctor wasn’t able to endure the people’s criticism and fled during the night and became unaccounted for. In addition before she became a year old her father died. She was brought up by her mother and grandmother’s love and faith and when she was 8 years old she wrote a poem as follows.
Oh, what a happy child I am,
Although I cannot see!
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy
That other people don’t!
So weep or sigh because I’m blind,
I cannot, nor I won’t!
She wanted to become a missionary so that she could spread the love of Jesus Christ’s cross, but it wasn’t granted. It wasn’t granted, but she prayed that by her songs she would lead 100,000,000 people to Christ. She gave all the money she received as a poet to poor people, and until her death she lived in a low grade house close to the slums of New York.
Also she realized that the doctor that made her blind was greatly pained by it, and she wrote in her autobiography,　“I have heard that this physician never ceased expressing his regret at the occurrence; and that it was one of the sorrows of his life. But if I could meet him now, I would say, ‘Thank you, thank you-over and over again-for making me blind, if it was through your agency that it came about!’
This sounds strangely to you, reader? But I assure you I mean it-every word of it; and if perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow, I would not accept it…
Why would I not have that doctor’s mistake-if mistake it was-remedied? Well, there are many reasons; and I will tell you some of them.
One is, that I know, although it may be been a blunder on the physician’s part, it was not mistake of God’s. I verily believe it was His intention that I should live my days in physical darkness, so as to be better prepared to sing His praises and incite others so to do. I could not have written thousands of hymns-many of which, if you will pardon me for repeating it, are sung all over the world-if I had been hindered by the distractions of seeing all the interesting and beautiful objects that would have been presented to my notice.
Another reason is, that, while I am deprived of many splendid sights (which, as above mentioned, might draw me away from the principal work of my life), I have also been spared the seeing of a great many unpleasant things. The merciful God has put His hand over my eyes, and shut out from me the sight of many instances of cruelty and bitter unkindness and misfortune, that I would not have been able to relieve, and must simply have suffered in seeing. I am content with what I can know of life though the four senses I possess, practically unimpaired, at eighty-three years of age…” (Fanny Crosby’s Life-Story)
She was blind all her life. However, God gave her an ability to write poems. She was deeply thankful for God’s grace and continued to sing about the love of God shown on the cross. The joy of faith always inspired her heart. Her face was shining. It was said that when people went near her, that joy was caught.
In verse 2 of Blessed Assurance it says, “Visions of rapture now burst on my sight.” The reason that she could say this even though she was completely blind was because she wasn’t seeing with her physical eyes, but she saw the Lord clearly with the eyes of her heart, the eyes of faith.
This joy is being offered to you. All of mankind, as long as we live in this world, have many troubles and difficulties. We can live a life complaining about these hardships. We can live a life with no hope thinking that troubles are natural and give up. However, we can also like Fanny Crosby find hope within our troubles and can live a life flowing with joy. This begins when we believe and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. Please realize that you too can have joy and hope through Jesus Christ.

III. Assyria will be shattered (Vs. 30-33)
Lastly, let’s look at verses 30 to 33.
Verses 30-33
God’s judgment upon Assyria was a time for Judah’s joy to be restored. However, it was not the same for Assyria. For them it was a time of terror and lament. Towards Assyria the Lord’s wrath “will cause men to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his…raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorms, and hail.” (30) By God’s wrath Assyria will lose all its spirit. With God’s “scepter he will strike” (31) Assyria down. He will put to ruin the Assyrian army that surrounded Jerusalem. This is written in 37:36. This is the event when the Lord’s angle went and killed 855,000 Assyrian soldiers. That occurred in 701 B.C. Jerusalem was surrounded by the Assyrian army, but in one night God’s angel went out and killed 855,000 Assyrian soldiers.
Also please look at verse 33. Here it says, “Topheth has long been prepared.” Assyria is sent to Topheth. Topheth is a region outside Jerusalem where children were sacrificed to the deity Molech. Thus it was a place of burning. Here it is being used to refer to the ultimate place of burning, hell. “Its fire pit has been made deep and wide” (3) It will burn eternally. In Greek this word is gehenna which means hell. What hell is like is clearly described here. It is a place where the fire continues to burn eternally. Lots of people think that death is the end, but in reality it is different. When a person dies his body will rot and perish, but our souls will go to heaven or hell. Heaven will be as we looked at earlier a place that is overflowing with joy. “There will be no more…mourning or crying or pain.” (Rev. 21:4) That is because “the old order of things has passed away.” (Rev. 21:4) The place that has completely no “mourning or crying or pain” (Rev. 21:4) is heaven. Those who want to know more in detail about it please look at Revelations 21 and 22 later. Heaven is described well there. However, Hell is different. Hell is a place where a fire that can’t be quenched is forever burning. There eternal suffering will continue eternally. Eternally you will suffer in the fire. That is hell. Assyria was thrown into it.
This Assyria refers to the antichrist. Behind the antichrist is Satan. Satan and all those who rebel against God are Assyria. All these people will be thrown into Topheth. They will go to hell.
There are some people who say, “if God is love, why would he send people to hell?” However, that thinking is wrong. According to the Bible it is clear that hell was not prepared for man. It was made for Satan and demons. Please open your Bibles to Matt. 25:41. Here it says, “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” The eternal fire was a
place “prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matt. 25:41) God doesn’t have the slightest intention of wanting to send man to such a place. Rather, God is “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9) That is why God gave his son.
☆”For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) ☆
“For God so loved the world that he gave his” (John 3:16) son whom he loved more than himself. God loves you. God is “not wanting anyone to perish.” (II Peter 3:9). He doesn’t want anyone to go down to hell. God is “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9) Therefore, God is not responsible for man going to hell.
The reason man goes to hell, is because he chose to go there. He thinks that he doesn’t really have to go to heaven. When he dies it’s the end. He doesn’t believe in heaven or hell. Such people will go to hell. No matter how much God love us he can’t force us to go to heaven. If he did such a thing God would not be able to have a free loving relationship with us. That wouldn’t be love at all. God wants a free loving relationship with us.
Therefore, God is not throwing people into hell. That is being determined by mankind on his end. Unfortunately, the numbers are greater than we are thinking.

However, those who believe in Jesus will certainly not go to hell. Not even one person will go to hell. All those who believe in Jesus will go to heaven. Jesus went to heaven for that purpose. He went to heaven to prepare a place. John 14:1 to 3 says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”
Jesus went to prepare a place for us. It’s a mansion! We will be able to live in such a house. There will be no bugs or rust. No cockroaches will come out. There will be no bee hives. It won’t rust and need painting. It won’t become old or have scratches or be damaged. It won’t get dirty. It won’t have to be rebuilt after being lived in for 20 years. Also robbers won’t make a hole and steal from it. Heaven will never disappear. It is an eternal home. Really valuable things don’t rot. Heaven is a place where nothing rots. We can go there.
Therefore, now while you have the chance, let’s store up treasures in heaven. Believe and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Become a child of God, and receive the inheritance of the kingdom of God. Then in the eternal. kingdom while rejoicing and enjoying it, let’s enter into the grace of praising the Lord. Which will you choose, heaven or hell?
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
In quietness and trust is your strength.” (15)
May you return to the Lord and walk “in quietness and trust” in the Lord. May you only just depend on the Lord and only just follow the Lord not Egypt, not depending on the world. May we be able to go together to the glorious kingdom of heaven. Let’s do the preparations to go there now.