Isaiah 14:32, commentary and pictures

The question put by envoys from surrounding nations about the fate of their people is met with the declaration that Jehovah Himself has established Zion as the enduring refuge, not Babylon. The declaration stands within a foretelling of Babylon's overthrow, rising from its earthly king to Lucifer who inspired its wickedness as a false religious system from whose doom God provides escape. The needy and afflicted of His people, whether poor in goods or poor in spirit, meek and oppressed, are promised safety, shelter and hope there that will not betray their trust. That safety endures when the grandest human empires and earthly cities fall and prove frail, because Zion rests on God and not on worldly power, wealth or material defenses. Its foundation is the tried character of Christ, so that those built on Him remain secure through the shaking of the world and are called now to flee to Him as the sheltering Rock and find rest in the simple gospel.

Prophetic Setting and Meaning

The verse stands in a foretelling of the destruction and overthrow of Babylon. It is part of the prophecy against Babylon and its downfall, spoken before Babylon fell. What was predicted was fulfilled in the city's later capture and the end of Babylon's rule.

The verse belongs to predictions concerning Babylon, Palestina, and Moab in Isaiah 13 and 14. Within those prophecies of Babylon the vision rises from the earthly king of Babylon to Lucifer, the day-star, the son of the morning. He is the highest king who has inspired Babylon in all her wickedness. Satan rules Babylon as a false religious system, from whose doom God provides refuge in the Zion He founded as a place of trust for His poor people.

The chapter presents Sheol as an underworld where the dead keep distinctions of rank with kings sitting on thrones. Yet it gives no definite or clear distinction between the places of the righteous and the wicked. The verse itself is the answer to be given to the messengers of the nation, the foreign messengers, and the messengers of the nations concerning the nation's fate. That answer is that the Lord has established Zion, where His poor and needy and afflicted people can find security and trust and take refuge.

It shows the Lord's second choosing of Israel to give rest from sorrow and fear and hard bondage. The oppressor who smote the people with a continual stroke and ruled the nations in anger is the Papal king of Mystery Babylon. He ceased at the breaking of the staff of the wicked and sceptre of the rulers in 1798, when the whole earth came to rest and quiet. Since he was laid down no feller has come up against God's people. Therefore the poor of His people trust in Zion, never again to be delivered over into the hand of another oppressor to be trodden under foot.

Zion Founded as Refuge

The answer to be given to the messengers of the nation is that the LORD, Jehovah, has founded and established Zion, the city of God, and His purpose for Zion stands. It is not Babylon but Zion that is the secure refuge, founded by the Lord as a sure place of hope and safety for His afflicted people. The poor specially named as those who trust in Zion are those lacking this world's goods, and they are also the poor in spirit — the meek, lowly, needy, afflicted and oppressed who earnestly seek God's help. Its blessings and sure refuge are open to the poor as well as the rich, and even the poor can place their trust there.

The afflicted and poor of His people shall take refuge in her, finding there refuge, safety, security, shelter, hope and trust. The Lord has established Zion for His poor and needy people to find security, and the answer to foreign messengers is given with confidence in God's established city and care. Their trust will not be betrayed. After the destruction of earth's grandest empires proves how frail all human structures of shelter and refuge are, the answer about where humanity will find refuge remains the same. Mighty war-armed Assyria and Egypt, Philistia, Media, and Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, fall and are broken never to rise again, while earthly nations decline into greed, corruption, violence and godlessness. Zion's security rests on God, not on worldly power, wealth, earthly cities or material refuges.

Unlike earthly cities and material possessions, Zion cannot be moved by disaster or overcome by death, and God's care reaches beyond earthquake and death to the renewal of the earth and the lasting safety of those who have faith in Him. Heavenly Zion is now offered as refuge to seekers of home and rest before Jesus comes again when the cities of the nations will fall. Zion is the coming capital of the renewed earth coming down out of heaven from God, whose Builder and Maker is God. It has streets of gold and walls of precious stones and pearl gates opened night and day, needing no fortifications because only peace remains. God invites all the perturbed, tried and warring factions of earth there as their refuge, where righteousness brings peace and quietness and assurance forever and there is no sickness because iniquity is forgiven.

God has founded a true refuge where the distressed, grieving and heavy-laden find consolation, peace and rest. This stands in contrast to senseless idols and household gods before whom sorrowing souls like the bereaved Chinese widow burn offerings and pray and find no comfort. Zion is the place of safety for the afflicted who know Him who invites them to come to Him for rest.

Christ and Present Trust

Zion is founded on character, on the tried character of Christ, and those who build on this foundation need not flee in panic or be put to shame, unlike those who trust in earthly cities and material refuges. It cannot be moved by disaster or overcome by death, because its security rests not in material possessions but in what God has founded. The Lord has founded Zion as the secure refuge for His people, and the answer to the messengers of the nations is to point them to it.

Zion is God's sure foundation in Christ Jesus, and those built on Christ's righteous character will remain secure through the shaking of the world and will live with Him forever, even if they die. The afflicted of His people may take refuge there, for the Lord Himself established it as their shelter. Zion in this sense is the church, whose head is Christ, the Son through whom all things were created and by whom they consist, and the same creative power revealed through Christ also sustains the church as the new creation.

What was given to those fleeing the perils of that time now means running to Jesus Christ as the riven sheltering Rock to hide from all earthly perils and the coming storm, accepting Him as the Way, the Truth and the Life and accepting the everlasting Gospel to be saved eternally in God's own way. It is glad tidings to hearts longing for rest in days of uncertainty and to painful, toilsome feet plodding weary ways to hill altars of perverted truth who have sought rest and found it not. Such are called to turn from human sophistry, speculative philosophy and the glory of man to the simple Gospel of Christ, coming in the ugliness of sin and nakedness of self-renunciation to be cleansed and healed and clothed by Him. The refuge gives a salvation more joyful here than earth can give or promise, reaching beyond all perversions of good and all hopelessness of human helping to the glorious eternal land and city of light and love. Amid national turmoil the answer to those questioning is that the Lord has established Zion, where even the poor can place their trust, and its blessings and sure refuge are open to the poor as well as the rich. Those who trust God's Word can rely on His promised safety and salvation and their trust will not be betrayed, and fulfilled prophecies of Scripture stand as evidence that God's work and promises are trustworthy against challenges to Christ's divinity and the truth of God's Word.