WHAT  IT  MEANS  FOR  A  MAN  TO  "DWELL  ON  THE 
  HEIGHTS, HIS REFUGE A FASTNESS IN THE CLIFFS."
(Isaiah 33:16 NEB).

The "heights" described in the prophecy of Isaiah are spiritual heights difficult to approach. (Isaiah 33:16 NEB & NWT). It is where the spirits of mature men dwell in their spiritual attainments, having had superfluous badness removed by the subjecting work of The Christ operating within them, and by personal effort in obedience to the Word of God. (James 1:21).  Because such men live an upright life in accordance with the "Way" of The Christ, their spirits reside in a place too difficult for apostates and unbelievers to reach. (Isaiah 33:15 NEB)  (John 14:6). Attempts by unspiritual persons to dispirit such ones are ineffectual, because a man "gifted with the Spirit can judge the worth of everything, but is not himself subject to judgement by his fellow-men"whereas "a man who is unspiritual refuses what belongs to the Spirit of God;  it is folly to him; he cannot grasp it, because it needs to be judged in the light of the Spirit."  (1 Cor 2:14,15 NEB).

Having been persecuted and suffered for righteousness' sake, spiritual men have knowledge of both worlds.  (Matt 5:10-12). They are aware of the spiritual blindness of rebellious ones who try to dispirit them, and because spiritual men "dwell on the heights" of spiritual awareness, apostates and unbelievers find them too difficult to reach with deception in order to mislead them.  (Matt 24:24 NEB).

Servants of God are too difficult to reach by cowardly persons refusing to endure the persecutions that Christians have to suffer in the exercise of their faith in The Christ. They are also too difficult to reach by all who demonstrate their contempt for the Lifegiver Almighty God.  (Rev 21:8 & 2 Esdras 9:7-12 NEB).

Some of the characteristics of spiritual men too difficult to reach are described in Isaiah 33:15,16 (NEB): "The man who lives an upright life and speaks the truth, who scorns to enrich himself by extortion, who snaps his fingers at a bribe, who stops his ears to hear nothing of bloodshed, who closes his eyes to the sight of evil     that is the man who shall dwell on the heights, his refuge a fastness in the cliffs, his bread secure and his water never failing."  The exemplar is the king of righteousness Michael, the heavenly Son of God.  (Michael is The Christ's heavenly name).  (33:17 NEB).

Isaiah 33:17-24 describes the future, when people of God will muse on the terror that has suddenly vanished and ask, "Where are the tyrant's officers who taxed us, charged us, took our tribute?" (33:18,19 Moffatt).  These insolent officers of the political "wild beast", who used meaningless jargon to wrest away justice from the afflicted ones of God's people, will be consumed by the Spirit "fire" of the Lord's Judgement upon them.  (33:10  14 NEB). "For the Lord our Judge, the Lord our Law-giver, the Lord our King     He Himself will save us." (33:22 NEB).  People of God shall be comforted by the knowledge that under the authority of the heavenly "Zion" of God, they can live without fear of persecution or injustice.  (33:20-24 NEB).

26/4/04.
 

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