Hello Mike,

What is your understanding of Isa 54:16. (Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.) Could the destruction be thought of as the serpent feeding on our dust? Look forward to hearing from you.

Your brother who is laboring in the word,

M____

Hi M____,

It is always good to hear from you. Thank you for your question.

You ask:

What is your understanding of Isa 54:16? (Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.) Could the destruction be thought of as the serpent feeding on our dust?

Here is that verse, and the next verse:

Isa 54:16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
Isa 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

You are exactly right about the waster feeding on our dust. That is what this verse is saying. What is so little understood is that when we acknowledge that the waster has destroyed us and we repent of that destructive life style, we are then in the position, by God’s design, to rule over that destroyer within our own lives.

In other words, it is God who forms both us and the weapon formed against us. And, as the book of Job demonstrates so graphically, that weapon, “that old serpent the Devil, and Satan… [ does] not prosper”, but all of his efforts and all who he sends to oppose us become “bread for us”.

Num 14:6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:
Num 14:7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.
Num 14:8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
Num 14:9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not

So what Isa 54:16-17 is telling us is that when “the Lord is with us”, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn,” and they become “bread for us”.

Here is the way Paul puts this same principle:

Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

I hope you find this to be confirming to you that what you are seeing there in Isa 54:16 is exactly right. I also hope you are encouraged by coming to understanding that our trials, while they are “fiery trials” and they are destructive of our old man, are at the very same time “food for us”, and in the end they increase our strength and help to make us into “another vessel, as seems good to the Potter to make it”.

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Here is how our Lord describes this process:

Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Your brother in that process,

Mike