Your eyes will see the King in His beauty;
They will behold a far-distant land, (33:17).
While destruction rips through the land, and while the destroyer is convinced he has the upper hand, the tables will turn; and when it does, oh, woe to him.
Woe to you, O destroyer,
While you were not destroyed;
And he who is treacherous, while others did not deal treacherously with him.
As soon as you finish destroying, you will be destroyed;
As soon as you cease to deal treacherously, others will deal treacherously with you, (33:1).
As Isaiah declares what is coming, he is reminding the nation of Israel of every promise of God. And God has promised a day is coming, He has promised that in that day He will lift Himself up, and in that day the enemy will be put to flight.
At the sound of the tumult peoples flee;
At the lifting up of Yourself nations disperse, (33:3).
And while to the natural mind, it may appear that man is the master of his own fate and that God has somehow left the scene, the Lord is forever exalted on high and He will come to fulfill His promises to Israel as He fills Zion with His justice and righteousness.
The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high;
He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness, (33:5).
Evil will never triumph, for the Lord has appointed His “Now,” His time when He will arise and be exalted not only over Jerusalem, but over all the earth.
“Now I will arise,” says the Lord,
“Now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up,” (33:10).
And when He says, “Now,” our faith will become sight as we see every promise fulfilled; but even more astonishing, even more breathtaking, we will see Him as He is, as we are granted the wondrously glorious privilege of seeing the King in His Beauty. And in the light of the King in His Beauty, we will no longer see the enemy as strong and fierce, but God’s enemy will become as those without any wits at all.
You will no longer see a fierce people,
A people of unintelligible speech which no one comprehends,
Of a stammering tongue which no one understands, (33:19).
And in that day, we will dwell in an undisturbed place of worship, forever triumphant, never to be separated from the King in His Beauty
Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;
Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed habitation,
A tent which will not be folded;
Its stakes will never be pulled up,
Nor any of its cords be torn apart. (33:20).
Consider the King in His Beauty
When we see the King in His Beauty, our eyes will be opened to see and experience everything He has prepared for us.
Your eyes will see the King in His beauty;
They will behold a far-distant land, (33:17).
The King in His Majestic Beauty will be for us a place of rivers, not for boats and ships, but rivers of living water. This place of rivers was also promised by the prophet, Ezekiel. Jesus revealed that when we believe in Him, we receive the Spirit Who gives rivers of living water flowing from our innermost being. And when He finally speaks, “Now,” in that day, people from all nations who have trusted Christ for salvation will know the true healing of the place of rivers, when literally enabled to see the King in His Beauty.
But there the majestic One, the Lord, will be for us
A place of rivers and wide canals
On which no boat with oars will go,
And on which no mighty ship will pass—(33:21).
“By the river on its bank, on one side and on the other, will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither and their fruit will not fail. They will bear every month because their water flows from the sanctuary, and their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing,” (Ezekiel 47:12).
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified, (John 7:37-39).
Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations, (Revelation 22:1-2).
And in that day, all will be brought before Him, the perfect Judge and Lawgiver; and all will understand that His Justice must, and will be, fulfilled. And those who have placed their faith in His Promise will see the King in His Beauty through the salvation provided in the gift of His Son.
For the Lord is our judge,
The Lord is our lawgiver,
The Lord is our king;
He will save us— (33:22).
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him,” (John 3:16-17).
And all those who have eyes of faith and humility, all those who refuse to trust in their own ability and righteousness, all those who believe in the Son Who came as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, will be saved and granted that wondrously glorious privilege to see the King in His Beauty when He overcomes every enemy of God.
The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful, (Revelation 17:14).
Perhaps one of the most indescribably Beautiful aspects of our Holy and Powerful King, is His patience towards the lost and His desire that all would be saved.
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance, (2 Peter 3:9).
And God’s heart for His chosen people of Israel has not changed, as conveyed in Paul’s letter to the Romans.
Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. 2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. 3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes, (Romans 10:1-4).
But attempting to keep the law is not God’s Way. There is one Way, and only one Way that is given that will open eyes to see the King in His Beauty.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. 7 If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him... 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father…” (John 14:6-7, 9).
And when we see Jesus, we will see the King; and He is Beautiful!
How do we respond to King in His Beauty?
As we all know, sometimes this world is not very pretty; actually it can be downright ugly. But His promises will be fulfilled for His people. And sometimes, He withholds that we would trust the Beauty of His rivers of overflowing grace as our sufficiency.
And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9a).
And I can’t help but wonder if that is why His chosen dwelling place was a place without the Beauty of rivers, that His people would know that His faithful provision is all they need.
“One great peculiarity of Jerusalem, which distinguishes it from almost all other historical cities, is that it has no river. Babylon was on the Euphrates, Nineveh on the Tigris, Thebes on the Nile, Rome on the Tiber; but Jerusalem had nothing but a fountain or two, and a well or two, and a little trickle and an intermittent stream. The water supply to-day is, and always has been, a great difficulty, and an insuperable barrier to the city’s ever having a great population,” MacLaren Expositions of Holy Scriptures
But we know the day is coming when He will speak, “Now,” and His Kingdom of Righteousness will come and His reign will be established, overflowing in the Beauty of His holiness and justice.
But until that day, we are offered the choice to see the King in His Beauty, each and every day. Actually, we are called to do so. We are called to consider and set our minds on the Beauty of things above, as we wait in faith for that day when the King in His Beauty will be perfectly revealed
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory, (Colossians 3:1-4).
As we wait for His “Now,” let us choose to see His sufficiency as we trust the Beauty of His grace to overflow us with all that we need.
O Lord, be gracious to us; we have waited for You.
Be their strength every morning,
Our salvation also in the time of distress. (33:2).
And let us choose to seek His Beauty rather than the artificial charm and riches the world constantly dangles before us. Oh, that we would treasure the fear of the Lord so as to live in holiness, knowing that as we set our minds on the King in His Beauty, He will provide all we need for our stability, wealth, wisdom and knowledge.
And He will be the stability of your times,
A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge;
The fear of the Lord is his treasure, (33:6).
And although we cannot literally see Him now, for He dwells in the unapproachable light of His perfect holiness, let us wait for that day in surrendered obedience and worship; and with all that all that we are let us give glory and honor to the King in His Beauty, the King of kings, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness!
Tremble before Him, all the earth, (Psalm 96:9 NKJV).
I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen. (1 Timothy 6:13-15).
As we wait for His “Now,” for that day when we will dwell in the undisturbed place of worship, forever triumphant and never to be separated from Him again, let us choose to walk by faith as we daily seek just one thing, the wondrously glorious privilege to daily see the King in His Beauty.
One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord
And to meditate in His temple, (Psalm 27:4).