Isaiah 32:1-8 - Exposition

SECTION VIII . A PROPHECY OF MESSIAH 'S KINGDOM ( Isaiah 32:1-8 ).

A PROPHECY OF MESSIAH 'S KINGDOM . It is generally allowed that this prophecy is Messianic; but some critics insist that it is not so "in a narrow sense." They regard Isaiah as expecting Messiah's kingdom to follow immediately on the discomfiture of Sennacherib, and as looking to Hezekiah to inaugurate it. According to this view, Hezekiah, renovated in character, was to be the Messiah, and might have been so had he been "equal to the demands providentially made upon him." But he was not; and the task of establishing the kingdom fell to "another," at a later date. It is simpler to regard the prophet as looking for a greater than Hezekiah (comp. Isaiah 7:14 ; Isaiah 9:6 ), but ignorant how soon, or how late, his coming would be.