Isaiah 33:14, commentary and pictures

The fearful question in Zion asks who can live in the presence of God, for the devouring fire and everlasting burnings are His consuming holiness and burning glory, a destroying fire to lawbreakers but a safe shelter to His own people. The sinners and hypocrites who tremble are professed Christians still unsanctified in heart and life, claiming to keep the commandments while loving the world and breaking the law. When God's judgment is declared near and far, their deeds are brought to account and mere profession exposes rather than protects them. The one who can dwell securely amid that fire walks righteously and speaks truthfully, refusing oppression, bribes, violence and evil, and he shall dwell on high with sure defense and provision and see the King in His beauty. Therefore sinners in Zion must not delay but fully confess and put away sin and lay hold of Christ now, for without purity of heart and transformation by the Holy Spirit they will be found wanting and have no place among God's people.

Fire and Fear in Zion

The devouring fire and everlasting burnings are figures of spiritual realities, the consuming holiness and presence and burning glory of God. He is a devouring fire to those who break His law, yet to His own people He is a safe shelter, so that the same fire that brings fear to sinners does not consume those who belong to God. They pass unharmed through tempest, earthquake, pestilence and the final judgments and calamities, sheltered in safety in Him while transgressors face destruction.

The wicked cannot bear that burning glory when they meet God as Lawgiver, because they have trampled His authority and broken His law. The glory that sinners could not safely approach at Sinai foreshadows the consuming glory they will meet at last.

The sinners in Zion and hypocrites are professed Christians mixed with the holy, world-loving hypocrites among true disciples whose corruption harms the faithful. They are members walking in church capacity yet unsanctified in heart and life and liable to err, some far from what they should be, walking in transgression of the law. They claim to be God's chosen, commandment-keeping people while professing to wear Christ's righteousness without putting on Christ, their course denying Him, their characters reproaching Him, and their corrupt communications corrupting good manners. Satan hurls his darts at the church and seeks to plant his feet in it, and his evil host and the enemies of the faith seize every error and crooked work of these sinners to exult over the weakness of the church and to scourge those who would be right. Sinners and hypocrites have no place among God's people without purity and heart holiness.

When God's might is declared to those near and far off, these sinners are afraid and the hypocrites are surprised with fearfulness and ask who among them shall dwell with devouring fire and with everlasting burnings. Their deeds are brought to account and the lying tongue is stopped when judgment comes and God's day confronts them. Mere profession of faith does not protect those who cherish sin but exposes their true condition.

Among them are unfaithful professed believers in positions of responsibility, Christians in name but unchristlike in ways, whose conduct brings strife, contention, difficulty and reproach on God's people and shame to Christ. Their standing does not excuse their wrongdoing, shield them from plain rebuke and condemnation, or require their brethren to sustain and strengthen them. Their presence among God's people does not mean God approves their work or serves their interests, and leaders who cooperate with evil and obstruct Christ's work give the false impression that God is aligned with sinners. Some are hypocrites whose business is turning the truth of God into a lie, with words and works on Satan's side against the truth, hating His messenger and messages though evidence is piled upon evidence that the Lord is at work among His people, counterworking His cause as selfish men unsanctified through the truth, to whom no smooth words of peace and safety can be spoken. They are called to watch and strengthen what remains because their works are not perfect before God, and to offer the sacred fire of Christ's works, love, mercy and righteousness, acceptable like fragrant incense.

Who Can Dwell Securely

The question who can live in the presence of devouring fire and everlasting burnings is answered by the life that can bear it. He who can dwell there walks righteously and speaks uprightly and truthfully. He despises and rejects the gain of oppression, shakes his hands from holding bribes, stops his ears from hearing of blood and refuses violence and bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from seeing evil and turns away from it. Only the righteous so characterized can dwell with God when judgment comes and sinners and hypocrites are seized with fear.

Such a person shall dwell on high, with the munitions of rocks for his defense. He is kept secure and delivered, and every need is provided. His bread is given him and his waters are sure.

His eyes shall see the King in His beauty and the land that is very far off, a distant land. Those who are cleansed and made white in the blood of the Lamb receive immortal glory at Christ's coronation and welcome Him. While those who rejected His rule see His victory, the faithful behold Him and enter that glory.

The same fire that brings fear to sinners does not consume those who belong to God, for to them He is a safe shelter. They pass unharmed through tempest, earthquake, pestilence and the final judgments and are sheltered in safety in Him. This promise belongs to the church's final struggle immediately before deliverance. Then God fills Zion with judgment and righteousness, and wisdom and knowledge and salvation are the stability and strength of His people.

Warning to Repent Now

Sinners and hypocrites in Zion have no place among God's people without purity and heart holiness, for the question who can live amid everlasting fire exposes their fear before consuming judgment. They must fully see their wrongs, confess them and put them away, with correction sent in love to humble them and lead them to forsake sin. They must repent of cherished sins kept as precious treasures, have self crucified and emptied out, see their sins and thrust them from the soul, and have every faulty, unlovely trait of character transformed by the Holy Spirit's influence into vessels unto honor with solidity of character through Christ abiding within. Mere church profession never makes them Christians, and until sin is recognized and cast out God cannot manifest Himself in power or reveal His power among them. Without this converting power and revival of the Spirit they will be unready for Christ's coming, weighed in the scales of the heavenly sanctuary and found wanting, and there is more hope for the open sinner than for the professedly righteous who remain impure, unholy and undefiled.

The warning of dwelling with devouring fire and everlasting burnings as the fate of the wicked must be faithfully presented to careless people rather than offering false reassurance that all is well or assuring transgressors that disobedience does not matter. God's messengers must plainly call the sinners in Zion, who are the churches walking in transgression of the law, to recognize God's law and the Sabbath, with a decided and earnest warning and no concessions to transgressors, to give them opportunity to repent and be restored to God's favor. This applies especially to those who claim to be God's chosen, commandment-keeping people yet remain unsanctified in heart and life, professing to wear Christ's righteousness without putting on Christ, denying Him by their course, reproaching Him by their characters, and corrupting good manners by corrupt communications. Sure retribution will come upon them, and the terror of the Lord constrains His messengers to cry aloud with warning and reproof laying bare that inconsistency, even while they would rather dwell on the glories of the world to come and the precious reward of the saints.

The warning is a plea not to delay accepting grace and laying hold of Christ while the end is near and men stand on the very borders of the eternal world. Drawn by Satan's bribes and baits of worldly advantage for worship, they put off without a moment's delay hearing His voice and drinking the water of life. They risk finding it too late to be ready for the end, like lamps going out with no oil of grace in their vessels to replenish them. They must tremble and be seized with terrific fear of that result, and receive the Saviour and seek God before it is too late, securing the grace they need now.

God's might declared to those far off and near makes sinners afraid and surprises hypocrites with fear, while only the one who walks righteously and speaks uprightly and truthfully, despises gain of oppression, shakes hands from bribes, stops ears from hearing of blood and refuses violence, and shuts eyes from seeing evil can dwell on high with secure defense, provision, and sight of the King in His beauty and the distant land. This prospect calls those in responsible positions to be faithful householders giving meat in due season and present truth, guarding their publications from unsuitable articles for this time, and working as in full view of heaven, hid to see Jesus and quickened by His Spirit, because important issues must soon be met. Those addressed as sinners in Zion must watch and strengthen what remains because their works were not perfect before God, offering the sacred fire of Christ's works, love, mercy and righteousness, acceptable to God like fragrant incense.