A Comparison of the Wise and Honourable With The Foolish And The Crafty (Isaiah 32:4-8).
In describing what will happen in the coming kingdom Isaiah analyses wisdom and folly. The king will deliver His people from folly and craftiness, and will give them understanding in the truth, and make them noble.
Analysis.
a The heart also of the hasty will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly (Isaiah 32:4).
b The fool will no longer be called freethinking, nor will the crafty be said to be bountiful, for the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity (Isaiah 32:5-6 a).
c To practise profaneness, and to utter error against Yahweh (Isaiah 32:6 b).
c To make the soul of the hungry empty, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail (Isaiah 32:6 c).
b The instruments also of the crafty are evil. He devises wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy says what is right (Isaiah 32:7).
a But the noble plans noble things, and he will continue in noble things (Isaiah 32:8).
In ‘a', in the kingdom that is coming those who usually interpret things too superficially will understand knowledge, and those who usually stutter over things will be able to speak them plainly, while in the parallel the noble will plan noble things, and will continue in noble things. All ignorance and folly will be put aside. In ‘b' the fool will no longer have any place, nor will the ‘crafty' be able to pretend to be bountiful, for firstly the fool will be seen to speak folly, and will be seen as a worker of iniquity, while in the parallel the methods of the ‘crafty' will be exposed as evil, and his devices revealed as lying words. In ‘c' the activity and consequence of the fool in his foolery is described.
The heart also of the hasty will understand knowledge,
And the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.'
When this king reigns men's hearts will be open to knowledge, for even those who are hasty and superficial in their thinking will understand knowledge (some see it as meaning that people will be in a hurry to hear His words). To this is also added the fact that those who found talking difficult will now be able to speak plainly. For their teachers will now speak truth to them, and they will be well taught. The result is that all His true people will respond totally to Him. They will receive and see knowledge, they will hear and obey gladly, they will be careful to hear His word, they will plainly tell out the Lord's glory from the heart.
And we have only to see the life of Jesus to see how this wonderfully came about, for He had come to enlighten His people and bring them under God's Kingly Rule.
‘The fool will no longer be called freethinking (or ‘noble'),
Nor will the crafty be said to be bountiful.'
When the king reigns and teaches, people will be shown up as they really are. Nothing will be hidden. Both the fool and the crafty will be exposed.
The word for ‘fool' means one who thinks foolishly, especially in moral terms. He will accept no moral or spiritual obligation. Thus in his heart he rejects God and His ways (Psalms 14:1). He thinks of himself as freethinking and noble but his mind is in fact bound by sin and its ways. Thus the truth about him will now be known, that he is not freethinking but bound by his own prejudices and desires. He will be exposed for what he is. He will be seen to be in contrast with the truly noble and liberal person (Isaiah 32:8).
And those who make a great show of being bountiful, but really give very little, will be shown up for what they are. The crafty (or ‘conspirers') are those who make a great outward show in the right places. They want to impress and increase their reputations, and to win people to their own ways (Numbers 25:18). But their minds are really fixed on what they can obtain for themselves from their actions, and in dragging others to their own level, and the true mainspring of their actions will now be made clear.
Life As It Will Be Before the King Comes In Terms Of The Fool and The Crafty (Isaiah 32:6-8).
Having mentioned the fool and the crafty Isaiah expands on them. Firstly he deals in detail with the fool and his folly (Isaiah 32:6), then he deals with the crafty and his deceit (Isaiah 32:7). This is a general description of what the king will deliver His people from in terms of the fool and the crafty, whom Isaiah clearly sees as generally representing the condition of many of the people prior to the king's coming.
‘For the fool will speak folly,
And his heart will work iniquity,
To practise profaneness,
And to utter error against Yahweh.
To make the soul of the hungry empty,
And to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
The instruments also of the crafty are evil.
He devises wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words,
Even when the needy says what is right.'
Here life as it will have been before the king comes and exposes them is described in terms of the fool and the crafty. The fool reveals what he is by turning people away from Yahweh by his supposed freethinking. He leads them into error. But his heart is wicked, deceitful and profane (he is not really freethinking at all), and what he says about Yahweh is untrue. Having deceived himself by his own cleverness he goes on to deceive others, and by doing so he steals their spiritual food and drink and leaves them empty and in hopelessness. We cannot but be reminded here of Jesus' castigation of the Scribes and the Pharisees (Matthew 23) as He revealed to them how they had failed in the responsibility that they saw as having been given to them by God. This is one reason why He spoke of them as ‘fools and blind' (Matthew 23:17)
The crafty, on the other hand, use their craftiness to deceive the poor and lowly. They take advantage of their trust and lack of discernment, persuading them otherwise even when the needy are actually right, so that they can gain advantage from them. No doubt they called it ‘doing business', but they are really swindlers. Many an ‘investment adviser' is in mind here, as well as many a one who persuades people to part with their money for one reason or another in a way that is deceptive or not for their good. But these are examples only, for man is deceitful at heart.
So between them the fool and the crafty lead men astray from the truth and keep them in poverty by clever dealings and trickery. Both are common in every age. But the point is that when the king comes both will be revealed as what they are, and inherent in that is that they will one day be called to account.
‘But the noble plans noble things,
And he will continue in noble things.'
In contrast with the fool and the crafty are the noble. They seek to do noble things. They are honest and reliable and truly consider the good of others. There were always such, even when things were at their worst. In modern terms we would say that they were ‘godly men'. Of such has always been the Kingly Rule of God.