Isaiah 32:1

There are obviously only three paragraphs in this chapter: a blessed promise (Isaiah 32:1-8), a warning to complacent and indifferent women (Isaiah 32:9-15), and a return to the message of hope (Isaiah 32:16-20).

Isaiah 32:1-8

"Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice. And a man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a great rock in a weary land. And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. And the heart of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongues of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly. The fool shall be no more called noble, nor the churl said to be bountiful. For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice profaneness, and to utter terror against Jehovah, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail. And the instruments of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the meek with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right. But the noble deviseth noble things; and in noble things shall he continue."

There is much difference of opinion about the identity of that "King who shall reign in righteousness," which is the prominent feature of this paragraph. Jewish commentators usually take the position that it is Hezekiah who is here spoken of; and some Christian scholars have accepted this. Barnes stated flatly that, "This king is Hezekiah."[1] He defended this position by pointing out the superiority of Hezekiah's rule over that of the evil Manasseh who succeeded him, and also such scripture references as the following:

"He removed the high places and broke the images and cut down the grove. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him, for he clave unto the Lord, and departed not from following him" (2 Kings 18:3-5).

Yes, indeed, in the context of a record of other kings of Israel, Hezekiah was indeed righteous; but in the absolute sense, no. The situation is the same as it was with other Old Testament heroes who bore the designation of "righteous men." For example, Lot, Noah, and others whose lives were indeed blemished with sin were called, "righteous in their generation" (Genesis 7:1); and that is the way we understand the "righteousness of Hezekiah." Certainly, Hezekiah was not righteous when he was going along with that plot to make an alliance with Egypt, contrary to God's will.

There are serious reasons why the theory of this "king's" being Hezekiah cannot be accepted. (1) Neither Hezekiah nor the conditions during his reign fulfill the conditions of justice, righteousness, and proper understanding and discernment by the people in all the land. "The evidence does not seem to warrant this interpretation."[2]

(2) It is also impossible to receive this as a promise of Hezekiah's reign, because Hezekiah was already reigning, and the passage speaks of a "future situation.," not one that already existed. "The king here is not Hezekiah, who was already on the throne, whereas a future time is contemplated."[3]

(3) Objections to the refusal to see this as a Messianic passage are weak and ineffective. Some, of course, say that in Christ's kingdom, there are no "princes" to reign with Him. While true enough in an ordinary sense, it is nevertheless true that "all Christians" are a "royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9); and does not the Bible say, "He hath made us (Christians) to be kings and priests unto God" (Revelation 1:6 KJV), and that Our Lord himself is "The prince of the kings of the earth" (Revelation 1:5), and that, "They (Christians) lived and reigned with Christ"? (Revelation 20:6). Furthermore, the fundamental Pauline teaching of the New Testament is that every Christian is "baptized `into Christ,'" is therefore a member of Christ's spiritual body; and that it is proper to say that Christians are in a sense "actually Christ." Whatever Christ does, Christians also do. Whatever he did, they "have therefore done"; and that is why the redeemed may lawfully say that they "have already died to sin" in the person of their Savior.

The germ of that very important Pauline conception is therefore right here in this chapter of Isaiah.

(4) Another objection is that no clear picture of Christ appears in these verses; and that objection disappears completely when the passage is understood, not as a picture of the King, but as a prophecy of His Kingdom, of the Messianic Age; and a number of discerning scholars have properly understood this:

"Christ's kingdom will fulfill God's holy ideal of a holy commonwealth, administering perfect righteousness throughout the earth.[4] This is the fourth of Isaiah's promises of the Messiah: Isaiah 7:14; 9:6f; 11:1ff; and 32:1.[5] The role of the coming Messiah fits the description in this verse. He is the King who shall role in righteousness.[6] Here are the characteristics of the future age."[7]

As excellent a commentary on this passage as any we have seen is the following from Peake, who, although a critical scholar, offered the following:

"Here is a description of the Messianic time, though the figure of the Messiah does not appear in the passage. King and princes will reign in righteousness, each of them a source of shelter and refreshment. The present failure in moral insight and responsiveness will be removed; the inconsiderate will gain judgment, the faulty speaker the faculty of lucid expression. Men will be designated in harmony with their true character. The fool shall no longer be called noble, nor the swindler an aristocrat; for fool and swindler will act in accordance with their nature, but the noble will resolve on noble schemes and persist in their execution."[8]

Before leaving these first eight verses we should notice a little further the satanic habit of giving sins and sinful men names that tend to ameliorate their shame and unworthiness. The drunkard is called an "alcoholic"; the vicious murderer is judged to be "sick"; the grossly immoral is labeled as a "schizophrenic"; the shoplifter, the gambler, and other sinners are also dignified with special names and descriptions. In the kingdom of Christ, however, things will be called what they are! "God's standard of judgment will at last become man's standard."[9]