Isaiah 29:6-7 — Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision. (Isaiah 29:6-7) 
Writing about the Boxing match in London’s Docklands yesterday reminded me of another night in London.
It was a Friday night — April 10, 1995. I can’t remember what we had been doing, but we were driving through the city when, at 9:20 pm, a bomb set by the Provisional IRA destroyed the front of the Baltic Exchange  killing three people. It was stunning. We were bewildered. We were not that close to the building, but we felt the concussion and heard the explosion. It was beyond comprehension. Sometimes God can be like that — He can strike with devastating and destructive suddenness (though not, like the terrorists, for anything but the most wonderful reasons).

Through Isaiah, the Lord recounts several woes that He will strike Israel with. To me, this one in chapter 29 is especially noteworthy. It is pronounced upon a nation that is deficient in worship, and it contains just that stunning element that I’m talking about. First “Ariel” — Judah and especially Jerusalem — is punished by being besieged by the Assyrians led by Sennacherib.

Suddenly, with that stunning power — Divine shock and awe — the Assyrians are assaulted by “thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire”. Only God’s divine power could have saved Jerusalem — but when He chose to wield it the Assyrians were blown away like chaff, they were “as a dream of a night vision”.

What makes this “woe” so interesting to me is that is not just a “near” prophesy for the time of Senacherib. It’s also a “far” prophesy for the time after the Tribulation when nations will attack Jerusalem and the Lord Almighty will come and destroy each attacking nation. 

“So what?”, you might say, “What’s the application?” Well I  think there are two.

First, we need to be aware that when life seems to be running smoothly, the Lord can drop hand-grenades without a moment’s warning. 

The second application is that God can just as well drop His thunderbolts on those that afflict us as He can on us — and we will be thunderstruck just the same.