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Isaiah 33:18 "Your mind will muse on the terror: 'Where is he who counted, where is he who weighed the tribute? Where is he who counted the towers?'"

 

As we approach the new land we are all promised, the place where we "will see the king in his beauty; [and] behold a land that stretches afar" (Isaiah 33:17), we will wonder what became of the ones who always seemed powerful. The ones who weighed the tribute and counted the towers will be nowhere in sight. They will have fled or have been humbled. They will have been afraid, saying "Who among us can dwell with the devouring fire ... with everlasting burnings? " (Isaiah 33:14).

 

Getting closer to God's Kingdom will feel like joyous relief to the righteous, but like unbearable fire to entrenched sinners. The righteous will muse on the terror of the sinners, but they will not feel it. The sinners will be in mad disarray, as they experience the terror of approaching judgment.

 

The sinners’ terror and disarray will affect the world, since so many will be undergoing it, so the righteous will see it around them, they will live through it, and they will muse on it. They will wonder at what is happening to those who counted and weighed, secure in their own self-righteousness and power. But then the righteous will look past the terror and "Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts ... an immovable tent, whose stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken." (Isaiah 33:20). That city will then rightfully capture all their attention, and the terror will be forgotten.