Isaiah 8:21, commentary and pictures

Spoken in Judah's troubled time under King Ahaz when Syria and Israel threatened Jerusalem, the verse belongs to the first prophecies of Isaiah and shows God's people in moral and physical darkness on the verge of destruction, yet with rays of light and hope in the Messiah to come. To pass through hardly bestead and hungry is to pass through hardship without benefit or blessing, fretting in distress and hunger, cursing king and God and looking upward, then looking to the earth to find only trouble, darkness, dimness of anguish, and being driven to darkness. The hunger is a famine of hearing the words of the Lord, searching for God's word and not finding it as foretold in Amos 8:11-12, standing opposite the happy estate of the redeemed where there will be no hunger, no thirst, no discontent, no weariness, no tears, no sickness and no death. Those who reject the law and the testimony and seek knowledge from familiar spirits and the dead instead of seeking the living God have no light and are driven into darkness, fretting when hungry to argue God's law changed or abolished while the great majority heed peace and safety and the peeping of wizards to their own confusion and impending destruction. It marks the waiting time immediately before Christ's second coming after the sealing work, when the wrath of God in the seven last plagues falls and deceptions are exposed, so the wicked in hunger and distress curse their king and God and look upward without repenting, while the saints trust God completely for food and He miraculously provides bread and water as He did for Elijah.

Historical Setting and Wording

The prophecy belongs to the first part of Isaiah, among the prophecies of chapters 2-12 given for Judah in troubled times, addressing both those present distresses and the last days and God's judgments. It was spoken during the reign of King Ahaz when Syria and Israel threatened Jerusalem, and it includes the coming of Immanuel while also pointing forward to events before Christ's second coming, including spiritualism. It shows God's people in sin and in moral and physical darkness, a condition that brought the nation to the verge of destruction and the shadow of death, yet even in that low depth there were rays of light and hope for the future in the Messiah.

The conspiracies against Judah in this setting are types of conspiracies that will arise in the last days. Its distress and desolation belong to the day of visitation, and Isaiah 8 supplies expressions that illuminate Isaiah 10:3, where people face what they will do and where they will entrust their wealth when desolation comes.

To pass through hardly bestead and hungry is to pass through hardship without benefit or blessing, as do those who reject the law and testimony. The verse portrays people in distress and hunger who fret themselves and become angry, cursing their king and their God and looking upward, then looking toward the earth to find only trouble and darkness and dimness of anguish and being driven to darkness. When hungry they fret as they try to argue that God's law has been changed or abolished. It shows the future of the wicked, who now seem gay and thoughtless but will shortly pass through a dismal land of horrors, storms and earthquakes, war, famine and pestilence under the wrath of Heaven. Even amid the terrors of the end they will not give glory to God, so at last they will be sternly taught that God is justice and sovereignty as well as love and will learn by bitter experience the wrath of the Lamb and confess that judgment, though his strange work, is his work, until the King in majesty appears across their path and they miserably perish beneath the sword of his mouth.

The hunger is a famine of hearing the words of the Lord, falling on those who seek familiar spirits and guidance from familiar spirits rather than from God. Deprived of the Lord's word, they search for God's word but cannot find it, as foretold in Amos 8:11-12, and in frustration they become angry and curse their king and God while looking upward. This belongs to the time preceding the great day of God, to the time of the battle of the great day of God Almighty, and to the final conflict associated with unclean spirits. It shows the condition of those who do not put trust in the Lord but count Providence as blameworthy for their hard lot. Their hunger, discontent, misery and woe stand opposite the happy estate of the redeemed, where there will be no hunger, no thirst, no discontent, no weariness, no tears, no sickness and no death.

Sin and Its Punishment

While God's people wait and look for the Lord, some will seek knowledge from familiar spirits and the dead instead of seeking God. Those who turn to these sources have no light in them and are driven into darkness. Protection is not to be sought in human alliances or false religious orders, but in the Lord, in whom men must hide.

Those who reject God's law and testimony and seek knowledge from the dead instead of the living God pass through hardship without benefit or blessing, suffering hunger and distress. When they are hungry they fret themselves, become angry, curse their king and their God, and look upward, and then looking to the earth find only trouble, darkness, dimness of anguish. In their hunger they fret while trying to argue that God's law has been changed or abolished. After the law and the testimony have been faithfully held up before the world for the last half century, only a few believe it, while the great majority do not heed it but listen to the cry of peace and safety and to the peeping and muttering of familiar spirits and wizards. Their hard and hungry wandering is darkness, confusion, and impending destruction as the result of neglecting great light and truth, the distress and spiritual darkness and bitter desperation that follow seeking guidance from the dead instead of God.

In the last days Satan works with all power and signs and lying wonders by spirits of devils coming in the guise of the spirits of the dead. Those who seek to familiar spirits and wizards instead of seeking to God and to the law and to the testimony show the distress and rebellion that follow trusting devils' deceptive miracles. These occult practices of necromancy and spiritism rest on the false belief that the dead are alive, and rejecting God's truth leaves men in anguish and darkness. In its spiritual application this fate of passing through in distress and hunger, becoming angry and cursing king and God and looking upward for help, belongs to those who reject God and turn to deceptive spiritual powers.

The sufferers are those deceived by false prophets and unclean spirits who have accepted Satan as their king and god. They do not put trust in the Lord but count Providence as blameworthy for their hard lot. When their deception is exposed and completed its work, including under the sixth plague, and when they are hungry, they fret themselves and curse their king and their God and look upward in desperation. Their hunger, discontent, misery and woe stand opposite the happy estate of the redeemed, where there will be no hunger, no thirst, no discontent, no weariness, no tears, no sickness and no death.

The verse belongs to the church's waiting period immediately before Christ's second coming. To worldly professors, whether they consider His first or His second advent, Christ is a stumbling stone, and He hides His face from them.

Last-Days Fulfillment and Warning

The verse describes the church's waiting period immediately before Christ's second coming, the time preceding the great day of God. It applies to the time of the battle of the great day of God Almighty and to the final conflict associated with unclean spirits. Those who seek familiar spirits pass through distress and hunger, then become angry and curse their king and God while looking upward. Their hunger is a famine of hearing the words of the Lord, as foretold in Amos 8:11-12, when people search for God's word but cannot find it.

The verse marks the next event after the sealing work as a time of trouble, when people pass through the land distressed and hungry, become angry, and curse their king and God. It places the seeking of familiar spirits and the dead before a time of divine judgment marked by famine, distress and darkness, which is the wrath of God in the seven last plagues. The wicked during the time of God's plagues after probation closes suffer hunger, become distressed, and curse their king and God while looking upward instead of repenting. This is the time when deceptions have completed their work and are exposed, including under the sixth plague, when those deceived by false prophets and unclean spirits who accepted Satan as their king and god suffer distress and hunger and curse him and look upward. In contrast, the saints will trust God completely for food, and He will miraculously provide bread and water, as He did for Elijah.

The verse depicts last-day confederacies and the vice of spiritism. It describes the poorer class passing through the land in severe distress and hunger in the last days, whose attempts to gain relief through unions and shared counsel will fail and point instead to waiting for the Lord. It describes the end-time condition when all earthly trusts, combines and unions, secular and religious, are joined together into one great trust or combination confederated to uphold human laws and purposes against the law of God in alliance with the beast power, so that all the world worships the beast.

The verse shows the future of the wicked, who now seem gay and thoughtless but will shortly pass through a dismal land of horrors, storms and earthquakes, war, famine and pestilence under the wrath of Heaven, hardly bestead and hungry, fretting themselves and cursing their king and their God and looking upward. Then looking toward the earth they will find only trouble and darkness and dimness of anguish and being driven to darkness. Even amid the terrors of the end they will not give glory to God, so at last they will be sternly taught that God is justice and sovereignty as well as love and will learn by bitter experience the wrath of the Lamb and confess that judgment, though His strange work, is His work, until the King in majesty appears across their path and they miserably perish beneath the sword of His mouth.

The verse is part of a warning that the second house of Israel is taking its last opiates and will soon be vulnerable to Satan's final deception.