The Lord is furious with the nations. When smoke comes out of His nostrils, you want it to be in your defense, not in your being devoted to destruction.

There are plenty of warnings in this chapter, but the “lines” that drew my attention are in verse eleven of Isaiah thirty-four. “He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.”

I hate being confused. Confusion doesn’t come from God. Confusion isn’t a peaceful mind at rest. It’s searching here and there trying to find what it can trust and rest in.

When we dwell in the place of shalom, in the presence of the Almighty, then we are at rest. There are answers, not confusion.

Even if we don’t know everything, and we never will, we can have peace of mind knowing God knows it all and let that be enough. He can give us enough clarity on our situation to give us His vantage point and a trusting confidence of His power and authority and care in our situation.

When our eyes aren’t on Jesus, when we’re looking around us, or at ourselves, we can get lost. Things become muddied. Our eye isn’t clear and full of light unless our eyes are on the Light.

When we’re looking at ourselves and our feelings and what we think we need, we can end up confused and empty.

Selfish thinking, though we may be thinking it’s necessary in order to preserve ourselves, is really killing ourselves. It’s not what we need.

Verse sixteen gives us what we need. “Seek and read from the book of the Lord.”

There we find clarity. There we eat and are satisfied. There nothing is missing. We can find fullness. Fullness of rest, peace, joy, life, satisfaction. Nothing is missing there. There is no search for more, except to know our God more, so we go back to His word again and again.