Have I Got Nude For You (Isaiah 18:1-20:6)

Oh, yes, they call him the Streak

(Boogity, boogity)

Fastest thing on two feet

(Boogity, boogity)

Ray Stevens’ song was #1 on the music charts at the height of streaking. In February of 1974 the press labeled it an epidemic. By the first week of March, college campuses across the country were competing to set streaking records.  

The most memorable streak occurred on national television at the 46th Academy Awards in April. During one of the presentations, Robert Opel streaked naked across the stage of The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles flashing a peace sign.  

Appearing naked in public has a storied history, including religious protests and warnings. Seventeenth century Quaker Solomon Eccles walked nude through London with a chafing dish of fire burning upon his head, crying, “Repent!”

He was doubtless influenced by Isaiah.

“The LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot… three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia” (20:1-2). 

Isaiah’s nudity was a visual of “the king of Assyria lead[ing] away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt” (20:4). 

When you saw Isaiah’s ‘newsflash,’ you were seeing Egypt and Ethiopia as naked captives. 

Unbelievers today are naked captives.

Jesus told the Laodiceans in the letter He wrote them in the Revelation, you “do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (3:17). 

Should we be walking around naked today? No. 

Spiritually, however, we are told to “bear [Christ’s] reproach,” “partake of Christ’s sufferings,” share “the fellowship of His sufferings,” and “fill up in [our] flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.” 

With the help of God the Holy Spirit, people can “see” their spiritual captivity and nakedness and their need to be clothed as we are, with the righteousness of the sinless Son of God.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 God Has A Message For The Naked Nations, and #2 You Are The Messenger To The Naked Nations.  

#1 – God Has A Message For The Naked Nations (18:1-19:25)

We are in a long section in which God reveals His future dealings with nations who are not particularly interesting to us. He mentions Assyria, Babylon, Moab, Damascus (Syria), Ethiopia, and Egypt. 

What if Isaiah was talking about 20^th century Czechoslovakia? We likely would still be uninterested. But that’s only because we are not prone to look into the unseen realm to discover God’s remarkable providence.

Israel officially became a nation in May of 1948. They received aid from an unusual source. Russian strongman Joseph Stalin supported Israel because he thought the Jewish state would be communist. Russia supplied Israel arms through Czechoslovakia. This infusion of weapons was crucial to Israel’s survival. 

It was God, using nations to accomplish His purposes. I wonder how he set that one up!

God has different purposes He has purposed for each nation, but there is one message for all of them: The Savior of the world promised in the Garden of Eden came in the fullness of time through His chosen nation, Israel, in order to redeem and restore His creation and redeem mankind. God provides for His plan by His providence using nations. Whether a nation cooperates or not, God’s program will succeed to its completion. 

Isa 18:1  Woe to the land shadowed with buzzing wings, Which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,

Isa 18:2  Which sends ambassadors by sea, Even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying, “Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth of skin, To a people terrible from their beginning onward, A nation powerful and treading down, Whose land the rivers divide.”

Their motto, on their “vessels of reed” was, “The land shadowed with buzzing wings.” Insects were aplenty. 

Epic description of Ethiopians. They were taller than Jews, and not genetically inclined towards facial hair. They enjoyed a good reputation as patriotic, fierce when necessary. 

Ethiopia had sent ambassadors to Judah, seeking to form an alliance with them against Assyria. Isaiah said, “Go away,” sending them home treaty-less. 

Isa 18:3  All inhabitants of the world and dwellers on the earth: When he lifts up a banner on the mountains, you see it; And when he blows a trumpet, you hear it.

I love that scene in The Return of the King, when Pippin lights the beacon to call Rohan to help Gondor. God needed no such help. When the time came, God with deal with the Assyria on his own terms.There would be no “banner,” no “trumpet,” calling for aid.  

Isa 18:4  For so the LORD said to me, “I will take My rest, And I will look from My dwelling place Like clear heat in sunshine, Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

While nations make their political alliances and conduct back room diplomacy, God rests. 

The indication is that God’s people can rest with Him.

Face it – We may well believe the weapons God has provided us are powerful, but when it comes to it, we are more comfortable with the weapons of the world. Otherwise the apostle Paul would not have needed to warn us that having begun in the Spirit, we ought to continue in the Spirit. 

Isa 18:5  For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect And the sour grape is ripening in the flower, He will both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks And take away and cut down the branches.

Isa 18:6  They will be left together for the mountain birds of prey And for the beasts of the earth; The birds of prey will summer on them, And all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

Two metaphors describe the severity of God’s dealings with Assyria:

• God would “prune” back the Assyrians. 
• Their carcasses would be food for beasts. 

Isa 18:7  In that time a present will be brought to the LORD of hosts From a people tall and smooth of skin, And from a people terrible from their beginning onward, A nation powerful and treading down, Whose land the rivers divide – To the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, To Mount Zion.

We see a partial fulfillment of this in the Book of Acts when an Ethiopian came to worship the LORD at Jerusalem, and then trusted in Jesus at the preaching of Philip.

Further out, Isaiah saw the Millennial Kingdom when Ethiopians and peoples from all nations will worship the Lord.

Nations don’t always survive. Czechoslovakia, for example. I don’t know its history, but I think it’s safe to say that God had His hand of providence on it so that they could be available in 1947. 

Isa 19:1  The burden against Egypt. Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, And will come into Egypt; The idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.

Isa 19:2  “I will set Egyptians against Egyptians; Everyone will fight against his brother, And everyone against his neighbor, City against city, kingdom against kingdom.

Isa 19:3  The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst; I will destroy their counsel, And they will consult the idols and the charmers, The mediums and the sorcerers.

Isa 19:4  And the Egyptians I will give Into the hand of a cruel master, And a fierce king will rule over them,” Says the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

Satan constantly tries to infiltrate the Church with occult influences and practices.  He’s gotten pretty good at it. 

Grave soaking. It’s not what happens when the cemetery groundskeeper forgets to shut the water. Also known as grave sucking, it is the act of lying across the physical grave of a deceased preacher or evangelist for the purpose of pulling out the residual power of the Holy Spirit, a power that was purportedly trapped within the body upon the person’s death. Perhaps you’ve heard of the wildly popular Bethel Church in Redding. Grave soakers. 

Isa 19:5  The waters will fail from the sea, And the river will be wasted and dried up.

Isa 19:6  The rivers will turn foul; The brooks of defense will be emptied and dried up; The reeds and rushes will wither.

Isa 19:7  The papyrus reeds by the River, by the mouth of the River, And everything sown by the River, Will wither, be driven away, and be no more.

Isa 19:8  The fishermen also will mourn; All those will lament who cast hooks into the River, And they will languish who spread nets on the waters.

Isa 19:9  Moreover those who work in fine flax And those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed;

Isa 19:10  And its foundations will be broken. All who make wages will be troubled of soul.

It would not take much for Egypt to fall from power to poverty. In their case it was their dependence on the Nile. 

We depend upon electricity. Renowned author and military historian William Forstchen told the Washington Examiner that the blast from an EMP would devastate the US because America’s electrical infrastructure is outdated and ill-equipped to handle the sudden loss of electricity caused by the blast.

In a linked article, intelligence officers said, “High-altitude balloons are considered a key ‘delivery platform’ for secret nuclear strikes on America’s electric grid.”

Isa 19:11  Surely the princes of Zoan are fools; Pharaoh’s wise counselors give foolish counsel. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise, The son of ancient kings?”

Isa 19:12  Where are they? Where are your wise men? Let them tell you now, And let them know what the LORD of hosts has purposed against Egypt.

Isa 19:13  The princes of Zoan have become fools; The princes of Noph are deceived; They have also deluded Egypt, Those who are the mainstay of its tribes.

Isa 19:14  The LORD has mingled a perverse spirit in her midst; And they have caused Egypt to err in all her work, As a drunken man staggers in his vomit.

Isa 19:15  Neither will there be any work for Egypt, Which the head or tail, Palm branch or bulrush, may do.

What was that? “The LORD has mingled a perverse spirit in her midst?” There is a similar incident described in First Kings 22:19-23.

1Ki 22:19  Then [the prophet] said… “I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of Heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left.

1Ki 22:20  And the LORD said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner.

1Ki 22:21  Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’

1Ki 22:22  The LORD said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the LORD said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’

1Ki 22:23  Therefore look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you.”

Do you know who or what is meant by “spirit,” or a lying spirit, or a perverse spirit? It doesn’t seem to be a fallen angel. Or a demon. If it was a demon, that wouldn’t help us because the Bible nowhere tells us what a demon is. We can’t reverse the words and call it “the spirit of lying.” All we are sure of is that the “spirit” is some kind of supernatural entity. 

The word for “spirit” is the common Hebrew word for wind or breath. Notice, too, and this is important: This spirit is not described as evil. We assume that it is because of the strategy he suggests. Is it, though? God permitted the “spirit” to provide misinformation so that wicked King Ahab would be fooled. It’s a common military strategy.  

In the next few verses, sixteen through twenty-four, feature the phrase, “In that day” six times. William MacDonald writes, “The first fifteen verses have already been fulfilled. The rest of the chapter is still unfulfilled.” 

Isa 19:16  In that day Egypt will be like women, and will be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which He waves over it.

Isa 19:17  And the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt; everyone who makes mention of it will be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts which He has determined against it.

Isa 19:18  In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear by the LORD of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction.

Isa 19:19  In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border.

Isa 19:20  And it will be for a sign and for a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of the oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them.

Isa 19:21  Then the LORD will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day, and will make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a vow to the LORD and perform it.

Isa 19:22  And the LORD will strike Egypt, He will strike and heal it; they will return to the LORD, and He will be entreated by them and heal them.

The LORD will wound them and then heal them and bring revival – a revival which will be intimately connected with Israel.

Isa 19:23  In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians.

Isa 19:24  In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria – a blessing in the midst of the land,

Isa 19:25  whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

This is mind-blowing, futurist prophecy. Israel, Egypt, and Assyria (modern Iraq) will be the three Mideast Amigos. Finish this thought: “A Jew, an Egyptian, and an Assyrian walked into the Temple…”

Egypt & Assyria will be nations in the future Kingdom.  

What about us? Are we in Bible prophecy?

We are, but only in the sense that every Gentile nation is. I keep returning to Jeremiah 18:7-10. 

God told Jeremiah, “The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it” (18:7-10). 

Is the US doing evil in God’s sight? Tragically, Yes. Where is Solomon Eccles when you need him??

#2 – You Are The Messenger To The Naked Nations (20:1-6)

It was not unusual for God’s prophets to dramatize prophecy. Ezekiel and Jeremiah did some wild stuff. With Isaiah, God pushed the limits. 

Isa 20:1  In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it,

Isa 20:2  at the same time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and remove the sackcloth from your body, and take your sandals off your feet.” And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

Isa 20:3  Then the LORD said, “Just as My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia,

Isa 20:4  so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

Isa 20:5  Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and Egypt their glory.

Isa 20:6  And the inhabitant of this territory will say in that day, ‘Surely such is our expectation, wherever we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria; and how shall we escape?’ ”

Isaiah exchanged his normal business attire of sackcloth for his birthday suit. Yes, he was totally naked. The word means naked, and it only means naked. Critics don’t like that, citing the fact that it is so shameful. But that is the whole point. There would be no mercies when the nations were taken captive and led away naked by the Assyrians. 

Unbelievers are slaves to sin and to Satan. They are captives, and like all captive slaves, they are naked. No amount of this earth’s goods can cover the kind of spiritual nakedness we are talking about.

A naked person needs clothing.

The Bible says that when Jesus died on the cross, He took upon Himself your sin and shame, and gave you His righteousness in exchange. His righteousness is often illustrated by Him giving you a perfect, pure, white robe of righteousness. It is the garment you need to be recognized by the Father, as being in Christ, and to gain entry into Heaven.

We are not called upon to walk around nude. However, God does ask us go naked in this sense: We must be willing to bear His shame. 

The apostle Paul told us to follow him as he followed Jesus. He provides great examples for us:

• Arrested in the city of Philippi, Paul and his companion, Silas, were beaten and thrown into the dungeon. The next morning, when the officials came to release them, Paul declared that he was a Roman citizen with rights, and that they had violated his rights.
• On another occasion, he demanded his rights as a Roman citizen to plead his case before the Cesar.

Paul did not always demand his rights, nor did he always surrender his rights. He was led by God the Holy Spirit to act in the way that would bring the most good attention to Jesus and the Gospel.

Paul used a clothing metaphor to encourage us about how to reach naked captives. “Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). 

He went on to say we can remove “wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking… with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (4:31-32).

Think of some of the situations of your life. How did you respond? How are you responding?

As a rule of thumb, ask yourself what answer, or behavior, or course of action, will bring the most good attention to Jesus and the Gospel; then do it.

The Purpose Driven Nations (Isaiah 14:24-17:14)

History 140 – Africa & the French Atlantic.

That is an elective History class you can take at my alma mater, UC Riverside. Maybe it’s just me, but that title doesn’t really grab me. 

History 001 – The Historian as Detective.

I’d sign up for that! 

8^th Century BC Semitic Conflicts.

I’d pass on that, too, except it isn’t a college class. It’s chapters 13 through 27, fifteen chapters, in the heart of the Book of Isaiah. 

Two verses in chapter fourteen provide a great explanation. “This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the LORD of hosts has purposed, And who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, And who will turn it back?” (v26-27). 

God has His purposes for the Gentile nations. The ‘purpose God purposed’ for four of the nations is in our passage: Assyria, Philistia, Moab, and Damascus. 

We are not Isaiah’s audience. But we can be sure Jesus is in this passage, since we know that He came “in the volume of the book” (Hebrews 10:7). 

The Lord will tell us four things about His nature:

1. From Assyria God says, “I remove your burdens.”
2. From Philistia God says, “I am your refuge.”
3. From Moab God says, “I am not willing that any perish.” 
4. From Damascus God says, “You forget Me at your own peril.”

#1 – Assyria – “I remove your burdens.” (14:24-27) 

What if it was the day after Christmas in 1991 and you heard that the Soviet Union had dissolved?  That is the kind of excitement a Jew would derive from these nation prophecies of Isaiah. 

Isa 14:24  The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, “Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, And as I have purposed, so it shall stand:

There’s that word, “purposed.” We might say, “It’s all going according to plan.” History is not random. It has a beginning in Genesis and reveals a forever future in the Revelation. God has published His plan, and “so it shall stand.”

Isa 14:25  That I will break the Assyrian in My land, And on My mountains tread him underfoot. Then his yoke shall be removed from them, And his burden removed from their shoulders.

In every sports movie, I expect someone to say, “This is our house.” God would “break the Assyrian in [His] land… on [His] mountains.”

The devil takes the battle to God’s house. He advances, he accuses, he attacks. Individually and together – we are God’s house on Earth. We should adopt a “Not in my house” attitude. 

Isa 14:26  This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.

Isa 14:27  For the LORD of hosts has purposed, And who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, And who will turn it back?”

• God has a purpose that He has purposed. A plan. It is to save mankind through Jesus, who came to Earth as the God-man through the nation of Israel.
• His “hand” represents the power. You could with accuracy say, “He’s got the whole world in His hand.”
• He stretches it out, employing His providence, to see to it nations accomplish His will. 

Nations don’t always obey God.

Every nation decides its own course. Jeremiah explained it this way: “The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it” (18:7-10). 

People often wonder about the place of the United States in Bible prophecy. It depends on how we respond to Jeremiah 18. You might say we are in Jeremiah 18, along with all other Gentile nations.

If you are not a believer, God removes the yoke of sin and death that burdens you. He took it upon Himself. 

You say you are a believer? Why, then, are you carrying any burdens? In the classic allegory, Pilgrim’s Progress, Christians burden is a heavy weight that represents the weight of sin on his soul. He is desperate to find a way to be relieved of this burden. Along his way, he meets various characters who offer him advice and guidance, and he encounters many obstacles that test his faith and resolve. Eventually, Christian comes to the foot of the Cross, where his burden is lifted and he experiences a profound sense of relief and forgiveness. From that point on, he is able to continue his journey with a renewed sense of purpose and faith, unencumbered by the weight of his past sins.

Martin Luther said, “Either sin is lying on your shoulders, or it is lying on Christ – and if it is resting on Christ, you are free.”

#2 – Philistia – “I am your refuge.” (14:28-32)

If any nation was an arch enemy to God’s people, it was the Philistines. Their animosity towards one another is illustrated nicely in the story of David and the Philistine giant, Goliath.

Isa 14:28  This is the burden which came in the year that King Ahaz died.

Isa 14:29  “Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, Because the rod that struck you is broken; For out of the serpent’s roots will come forth a viper, And its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent.

The phrase “all of you” is accurate because Philistia was a confederacy of five cities: Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gaza, Ekron, and Gath.

Isaiah warned the Philistines not to rejoice in the death of the current king of Assyria, for his son would be worse. 

Who do the snakes represent? Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum concludes, “[They represent] three key members of the House of David. Ahaz was the snake, and under him territory was lost to the Philistines. Under Ahaz’s successor, Hezekiah (the viper), most of the territory would be regained. The fiery flying serpent is the Messiah, under whom there will be the total future occupation of Philistia.”

Isa 14:30  The firstborn of the poor will feed, And the needy will lie down in safety; I will kill your roots with famine, And it will slay your remnant.

The “firstborn of the poor” are the poorest of the poor. For Israel, there will be food and safety. For the Philistines, there will be famine, and those who survive that would be slain.

Isa 14:31  Wail, O gate! Cry, O city! All you of Philistia are dissolved; For smoke will come from the north, And no one will be alone in his appointed times.”

Isa 14:32  What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD has founded Zion, And the poor of His people shall take refuge in it.

The invading Assyrians would be seen afar off. If any Gentile messengers asked what was going on, they would be told that the LORD was fulfilling His promises to Zion, and protecting the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Zion is synonymous with Jerusalem, the place that God loves. gotquestions.org explains,

The word Zion is also used in a theological or spiritual sense in Scripture. In the Old Testament Zion refers figuratively to Israel as the people of God (Isaiah 60:14). In the New Testament, Zion refers to God’s spiritual kingdom. We have not come to Mount Sinai, but “to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22).  

Christians are not promised physical refuge. Quite the opposite. Jesus told us that we would have tribulation in the world. Persecution is the norm, not the exception.

We are pilgrims, strangers on Earth. That sounds almost romantic. Do you think of yourself as a refugee? It carries a much different connotation. Our church – the people, not the building – is a refugee camp.

You won’t seek Jesus as a refuge if you don’t see yourself as a refugee.

#3 – Moab – “I am not willing that any perish.” (15:1 – 16:14)

Moab gets the most ink. Moab had strong ties to Israel, but always opposed them, spiritually as well as politically. 

Isa 15:1  The burden against Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste And destroyed, Because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste And destroyed,

Isa 15:2  He has gone up to the temple and Dibon, To the high places to weep. Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medeba; On all their heads will be baldness, And every beard cut off.

Isa 15:3  In their streets they will clothe themselves with sackcloth; On the tops of their houses And in their streets Everyone will wail, weeping bitterly.

Isa 15:4  Heshbon and Elealeh will cry out, Their voice shall be heard as far as Jahaz; Therefore the armed soldiers of Moab will cry out; His life will be burdensome to him.

There would be nowhere in Moab that wasn’t affected, and that didn’t mourn. 911 affected us like that. It was a national event in the truest sense. 

Isa 15:5  “My heart will cry out for Moab; His fugitives shall flee to Zoar, Like a three-year-old heifer. For by the Ascent of Luhith They will go up with weeping; For in the way of Horonaim They will raise up a cry of destruction,

It gave Isaiah no pleasure to announce the terrible judgment that would befall Moab. More on this later. 

Isa 15:6  For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate, For the green grass has withered away; The grass fails, there is nothing green.

Isa 15:7  Therefore the abundance they have gained, And what they have laid up, They will carry away to the Brook of the Willows.

Isa 15:8  For the cry has gone all around the borders of Moab, Its wailing to Eglaim And its wailing to Beer Elim.

Isa 15:9  For the waters of Dimon will be full of blood; Because I will bring more upon Dimon, Lions upon him who escapes from Moab, And on the remnant of the land.”

Moab fled with whatever they could. Some escaped, until wild “lions” got them.

Isa 16:1  Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, From Sela to the wilderness, To the mount of the daughter of Zion. 

“To send lambs” meant to pay tribute as a sign of submission. Isaiah admonished Moab to submit and pay tribute by sending lambs. They were given a choice. 

Isa 16:2  For it shall be as a wandering bird thrown out of the nest; So shall be the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.

Isa 16:3  “Take counsel, execute judgment; Make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day; Hide the outcasts, Do not betray him who escapes.

Isa 16:4  Let My outcasts dwell with you, O Moab; Be a shelter to them from the face of the spoiler. For the extortioner is at an end, Devastation ceases, The oppressors are consumed out of the land.

Isa 16:5  In mercy the throne will be established; And One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David, Judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness.”

Hmm. Suddenly it is Moab being told “Let My outcasts dwell with you.” That, plus the mention of “the Tabernacle of David” is a clue that this is a far future prophecy of the Kingdom Age. Prior to the Second Coming, during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, Israel will seek refuge from enemies. Satan, cast down to Earth, will vent all his anger against them. (Revelation12:13-16.) Those who befriend them by so much as giving a cup of cold water will be rewarded by God.

Coming back from the future…

Isa 16:6  We have heard of the pride of Moab – He is very proud – Of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath; But his lies shall not be so.

Isa 16:7  Therefore Moab shall wail for Moab; Everyone shall wail. For the foundations of Kir Hareseth you shall mourn; Surely they are stricken.

Isa 16:8  For the fields of Heshbon languish, And the vine of Sibmah; The lords of the nations have broken down its choice plants, Which have reached to Jazer And wandered through the wilderness. Her branches are stretched out, They are gone over the sea. 

Isa 16:12  And it shall come to pass, When it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, That he will come to his sanctuary to pray; But he will not prevail.

Instead of turning to the LORD Moab sought her own useless gods. Unbelievers turn to the useless methods of this world for help. The religions, the philosophies, the psychologies, of the world can, sometimes, reform you. They cannot transform you. Only God can transform you by giving you His gift – God the Holy Spirit to indwell you. 

Isa 16:13  This is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning Moab since that time.

Isa 16:14  But now the LORD has spoken, saying, “Within three years, as the years of a hired man, the glory of Moab will be despised with all that great multitude, and the remnant will be very small and feeble.”

Isaiah gave the prophecy, then some time later received more. Always be growing in knowledge. Receive more from the Lord. 

“My heart will cry out for Moab” (15:5). We skipped, but now return to, verses nine through eleven. 

Isa 16:9  Therefore I will bewail the vine of Sibmah, With the weeping of Jazer; I will drench you with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh; For battle cries have fallen Over your summer fruits and your harvest.

Isa 16:10  Gladness is taken away, And joy from the plentiful field; In the vineyards there will be no singing, Nor will there be shouting; No treaders will tread out wine in the presses; I have made their shouting cease.

Isa 16:11  Therefore my heart shall resound like a harp for Moab, And my inner being for Kir Heres.

God’s prophets felt their messages. It helped to reveal the heart of God, not only His hand. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God wanted to save them. We would say that He was not willing that any should perish, but all come to repentance and believe Him. 

We must constantly remind ourselves that unbelievers cannot obey God. If they misunderstand us, mistreat us, persecute us, they are only acting according to their nature – their sin nature.

I was never a cat person. Then one day, in a fit of temporary insanity, while we were at Petsmart, Pam bought a cat. We acquired another one when we heard noises under a bush in our backyard. One lone kitten crawled out.

That second cat, Cora, is my cat. She follows me around, sits in my lap purring, and occasionally will do a somersault for me while we’re walking down the hall.

Cat lovers post meme’s and videos, showing their cats doing destructive things. We give cats a pass, because, after all, it’s in their nature without warning have the zoomies. It’s my fault if I don’t take their nature into account and think we can have furniture. 

The unsaved sinners all around you cannot do anything but sin. It is their nature. They need a new nature. They must be born again, and receive God the Holy Spirit.

#4 – Damascus – “You forget Me to your own peril.”

The northern kingdom of Israel was also referred to as “Ephraim.” They and Damascus, the capital of Syria, had been allies against Judah. Both would be besieged and deported by Assyria. Israel was singled out for special rebuke since they had forsaken their Rock. We Christians, born again, should be held to a higher standard.

Isa 17:1  The burden against Damascus. “Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, And it will be a ruinous heap.

Isa 17:2  The cities of Aroer are forsaken; They will be for flocks Which lie down, and no one will make them afraid.

Isa 17:3  The fortress also will cease from Ephraim, The kingdom from Damascus, And the remnant of Syria; They will be as the glory of the children of Israel,” Says the LORD of hosts.

It was brother-against-brother in the Promised Land. Other Christians are not the enemy. You’d never know that if you are on social media.

Isa 17:4  “In that day it shall come to pass That the glory of Jacob will wane, And the fatness of his flesh grow lean.

Isa 17:5  It shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain, And reaps the heads with his arm; It shall be as he who gathers heads of grain In the Valley of Rephaim.

Isa 17:6  Yet gleaning grapes will be left in it, Like the shaking of an olive tree, Two or three olives at the top of the uppermost bough, Four or five in its most fruitful branches,” Says the LORD God of Israel.

Isa 17:7  In that day a man will look to his Maker, And his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.

Isa 17:8  He will not look to the altars, The work of his hands; He will not respect what his fingers have made, Nor the wooden images nor the incense altars.

Isa 17:9  In that day his strong cities will be as a forsaken bough And an uppermost branch, Which they left because of the children of Israel; And there will be desolation.

Isa 17:10  Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, And have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold, Therefore you will plant pleasant plants And set out foreign seedlings;

Isa 17:11  In the day you will make your plant to grow, And in the morning you will make your seed to flourish; But the harvest will be a heap of ruins In the day of grief and desperate sorrow.

A remnant would “look to his Maker, And his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel.” There are a few other hopeful statements concerning their repentance. God’s discipline was working, but it must be carried through.

Isa 17:12  Woe to the multitude of many people Who make a noise like the roar of the seas, And to the rushing of nations That make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!

Isa 17:13  The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters; But God will rebuke them and they will flee far away, And be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, Like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

Isa 17:14  Then behold, at eventide, trouble! And before the morning, he is no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, And the lot of those who rob us.

Dr. Fruchtenbaum believes that these three verses are looking forward to the Battle of Armageddon. The nations are described as being as massive as the raging of the seas and the roaring of great waters. The Lord shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the whirling dust before the storm. The nations will experience sudden terror and annihilation.

President Ronald Reagan once said, “If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”

Isaiah warned, “You have forgotten the God of your salvation, And have not been mindful of the Rock of your stronghold.” The Hebrew word translated “forgotten” means “to mislay, that is, to be oblivious of, from want of memory or attention” (Strong’s #H7911). It is a willful forgetting. 

Our beloved United States is willfully forgetting God. Unless we repent, it will be to our detriment and, possibly, downfall. Billy Graham said, “If we fail to solve this moral and spiritual crisis we may be doomed like the great nations of the past.”

The US, Russia, Ukraine, China, Iran, Turkey.

It is easy to stress over what is unfolding. Keep the big picture in mind. Factor Israel into your thinking.  

Ask yourself: “Am I a carefree refugee who looks upon everyone with compassion, not forgetting God?”

Lucifer In The Sky With Delusions (Isaiah 13:1-14:23)

I’m addicted to watching fail videos.

They are brief videos that capture something that has gone terribly wrong. Right now my favorites are about tree trimming and tree removal. Let’s just say, you should hire a professional if you want to live. 

When reading the history of the nation of Israel in the Bible, it’s easy to think you are watching an epic fail compilation.

There are so many fails to choose from. Can You say, “The Golden Calf?” Stephen, the first Christian martyr, would say to Israel, “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers” (Acts 7:52).  

The first verse of chapter fourteen is thus a surprise: “For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob.”

Did you catch that? God “will still choose Israel.” Despite all her notorious failures, God will not revoke His choice of them as His special nation. He has promised them they will be saved, live in their Promised Land, and be the key nation during the thousand year Kingdom of God on Earth. 

The apostle Paul in his letter to the Church in Rome, explains it by saying, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (11:29).

• God’s call to Abraham to be the father of a new nation cannot be revoked. 
• The grace that the LORD promised Israel through Abraham can never, ever be revoked. 

They are unconditional promises based upon God’s faithfulness and not theirs. 

Every unconditional promise God has made to us cannot be revoked. 

If you are saved, God “will still choose you.”

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 The LORD “Will Still Choose Israel” Is How You Interpret The World, and #2 The LORD “Will Still Choose Israel” Is How You Interpret The Unseen World.

#1 – The LORD “Will Still Choose Israel” Is How You Are To Interpret The World (13:1-22) 

You know who else has a lot of fails? Me. John Stott once said, “Seldom if ever do I leave the pulpit without a sense of partial failure, a mood of penitence, a cry to God for forgiveness, and a resolve to look to Him for grace to do better in the future.”

You know who else has a lot of fails? You. Henry Drummond once said, “Our efforts after Christian growth seem only a succession of failures, and, instead of rising into the beauty of holiness, our life is a daily heart-break and humiliation.”

Let’s read the key verse (14:1) again: “For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob. 

“Jacob” was Abraham’s grandson. God changed his name to Israel. He was the father of the twelve boys who became the twelve tribes. The “strangers… joined with them” are the Gentile nations – anyone not a Jew. 

Isaiah was looking past his own time, past our time, to Jew & Gentile living in peace in the Kingdom of God on Earth. 

I find it interesting that the way God chose to comfort and encourage His people was to show them the far future. A person might think, “How does it help me today to know the future?” God says it does, and we should take Him at His word.

Let me put it another way: You come to gather with believers hoping and expecting God to minister to you. The preacher talks about events that have not yet happened. How is that helpful? It must be, because it is God’s common way of comforting His people, both Israel and the Church. 

Isa 13:1  The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. 

We don’t immediately catch it, but Isaiah wrote this one hundred fifty years before Babylon was a world power. Throughout these next several chapters, Isaiah will be jumping back and forth in time. We will see him speaking about his own time, a near future time to him, and the far future beyond our time. 

What he had to say was a “burden.” In the Fillmore the hippie VW bus version, we read, “That’s heavy, man”

The next several chapters of Isaiah involve the nations of the Earth, specifically Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Cush, Edom, Tyre, and Sidon. One-by-one from chapter thirteen through chapter twenty-three, Isaiah gives a history lesson. 

God is over all nations. History is anchored to Jerusalem. We interpret history, and nations, by God’s plan of redemption through Israel. 

Isa 13:2  “Lift up a banner on the high mountain, Raise your voice to them; Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles.

Isa 13:3  I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have also called My mighty ones for My anger – Those who rejoice in My exaltation.”

The Medes & Persians would conquer Babylon. God considered them His “sanctified ones,” set apart by Him to do His will. They were His “mighty ones” in that He allowed them to rise to power. 

Their conquest of Babylon was God’s victory, but they would “rejoice” as if it were theirs. Nations would do well to acknowledge God rather than supposing their own wisdom makes them great. 

Isa 13:4  The noise of a multitude in the mountains, Like that of many people! A tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together! The LORD of hosts musters The army for battle.

Isa 13:5  They come from a far country, From the end of Heaven – The LORD and His weapons of indignation, To destroy the whole land.

This seems far future. Isaiah was made aware of the rebuilding of the city of Babylon during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, the Great Tribulation. Two chapters,17&18, in the Book of the Revelation are dedicated to the End Times Babylon. 

“Kingdom’s of nations” will be “gathered together” from “far,” to “destroy the land.” Ring a bell?

It is a description of the Battle of Armageddon in the Valley of Megiddo.  

Leading to the Battle of Armageddon is a time of global tribulation greater than anything the world has ever experienced. Isaiah gives an eleven verse summary.   

Isa 13:6  Wail, for the day of the LORD is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Isa 13:7  Therefore all hands will be limp, Every man’s heart will melt,

Isa 13:8  And they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their faces will be like flames.

Isa 13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD comes, Cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, To lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it.

Isa 13:10  For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not give their light; The sun will be darkened in its going forth, And the moon will not cause its light to shine.

Isa 13:11  “I will punish the world for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, And will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

Isa 13:12  I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, A man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.

Isa 13:13  Therefore I will shake the heavens, And the earth will move out of her place, In the wrath of the LORD of hosts And in the day of His fierce anger.

Isa 13:14  It shall be as the hunted gazelle, And as a sheep that no man takes up; Every man will turn to his own people, And everyone will flee to his own land.

Isa 13:15  Everyone who is found will be thrust through, And everyone who is captured will fall by the sword.

Isa 13:16  Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; Their houses will be plundered And their wives ravished.

It’s the Great Tribulation. We rather call those seven years the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. It is the title given by Jeremiah (30:7). It keeps our focus upon its purpose, which is to save all Israel before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Sure, there will be Gentiles on Earth. They are called “the inhabitants of the Earth” in the Revelation. But Israel is the focus. 

Isa 13:17  “Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, Who will not regard silver; And as for gold, they will not delight in it.

Isa 13:18  Also their bows will dash the young men to pieces, And they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb; Their eye will not spare children.

The Jews would be held captive in Babylon for a period of 70 years, as prophesied by Jeremiah. God would raise up “the Medes” to conquer Babylon, setting the stage for Israel to return to Jerusalem. 

Isa 13:19  And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, The beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Isa 13:20  It will never be inhabited, Nor will it be settled from generation to generation; Nor will the Arabian pitch tents there, Nor will the shepherds make their sheepfolds there.

Isa 13:21  But wild beasts of the desert will lie there, And their houses will be full of owls; Ostriches will dwell there, And wild goats will caper there.

Isa 13:22  The hyenas will howl in their citadels, And jackals in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, And her days will not be prolonged.”

The conditions described here have never been entirely true of Babylon. We read in the Revelation that “Therefore her plagues will come in one day – death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her” (Revelation 18:8).  

Will Babylon be rebuilt on the ancient site? Some argue that Babylon is merely a symbol indicating some other wicked world city. We like to take things at face value unless there’s a good reason to see them as symbolic or typical. While it may be difficult to see how Babylon could be restored in the End Times, that seems the most likely scenario. 

Has God cast away His people? No; God “will still choose Israel.” 

“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” is a promise to Israel that what God started by calling Abraham.  Their “gifts” were to reveal to the other nations of the world, “the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God…” (Romans 9:4-5). 

Despite failure after epic failure, God has revealed Himself through them.

Let’s call failure it what it is: Sin. We should never willfully sin so that grace may abound, but when we sin, grace abounds. God has made many unconditional promises to you. Here is a doozy passage: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (First Peter 1:3-5). 

Unconditional promises include: He saved you, you serve Him and will be rewarded, you are “kept”by His power, and He is coming for you. 

If you’ve failed – sinned – repent and get moving in your walk. 

#2 – The LORD “Will Still Choose Israel” Is How You Are To Interpret The Unseen World (14:1-23)

Behind the conflict between nations, there is a cosmic conflict playing out. It involves malevolent, powerful, supernatural beings, who are in rebellion against God. One of their key strategies is to destroy Israel. If they can do that, then God will have failed epically. We meet their leader.

Isa 14:1  For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob.

Isa 14:2  Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the LORD; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.

The Medes would allow Jews to return to Jerusalem. That history is recorded in the OT books of Ezra & Nehemiah. 

Isa 14:3  It shall come to pass in the day the LORD gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve,

Isa 14:4  that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say: “How the oppressor has ceased, The golden city ceased!

Isa 14:5  The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, The scepter of the rulers;

Isa 14:6  He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke, He who ruled the nations in anger, Is persecuted and no one hinders.

Isa 14:7  The whole earth is at rest and quiet; They break forth into singing.

Isa 14:8  Indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you, And the cedars of Lebanon, Saying, ‘Since you were cut down, No woodsman has come up against us.’

Isa 14:9  “Hell from beneath is excited about you, To meet you at your coming; It stirs up the dead for you, All the chief ones of the earth; It has raised up from their thrones All the kings of the nations.

Isa 14:10  They all shall speak and say to you: ‘Have you also become as weak as we? Have you become like us?

Isa 14:11  Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, And the sound of your stringed instruments; The maggot is spread under you, And worms cover you.’

These verses describe a very human king of Babylon in his defeat:

• Other kings of the Earth address him.
• He is called “the man.” 
• He possesses a physical body. 
• He’s on his way to “Hell” to be with other deposed tyrants. 
• His body is maggot food and a worm’s bed. 

There is an abrupt shift in verse twelve. A supernatural is introduced, and we learn he is responsible for puppeteering the world’s tyrants.  

Isa 14:12  “How you are fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations!

“Lucifer” is not a proper name. It is the Latin word for morning star or day star. It referred to the planet Venus, but metaphorically was used to refer to earthly kings, emperors, and even pagan deities. Leonardo DiCaprio is the self-proclaimed king of the world. There are any number of monarchs in human history who called themselves, the king of kings, but we know that Jesus is the only King of kings. Jesus is the bright and morning star.

Charles Ryrie writes that this person is “evidently a reference to Satan, because of the inappropriateness of the expressions of verses 13-14 on the lips of any but Satan.” 

In the NT he is called the “god of this age” (Second Corinthians 4:4), the “ruler of the power of the air,” and the “spirit now at work in the disobedient” (Ephesians 2:2).

Satan energized the King of Babylon and he will do it again, in the future rebuilt Babylon. He will energize the Beast of the Revelation, the antichrist. 

It is one of his favorite spots on earth apparently. It was there he launched a rebellion against God, inciting the post-flood population of the world to build a tower to the gods. It’s not wrong to say that all of the worlds false religions have their origin in Babylon.

One of his most successful strategies is weakening nations. I think most evangelical Christians would agree that the United States has been weakened spiritually, especially over the past century. We have done almost everything possible to exclude God. Public schools had prayer for nearly 200 years before the Supreme Court ruled that state mandated class prayers were unconstitutional in June 1962. Removing prayer – has it helped public schools?

Jim Nelson Black wrote, “As I have looked back across the ruins and landmarks of antiquity, I have been stunned by the parallels between those societies and our own…Three important trends demonstrate moral decay. They are the rise in immorality, the decay of religious belief, and the devaluing of human life.”

Is there moral decay in America? Are once Christian churches and colleges denying the faith once for all delivered? Have we murdered upwards of 63m babies?

Preachers are obligated to say that Satan has an “I” problem:

Isa 14:13  For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north;

Isa 14:14  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’

What can be said about Satan’s sin? Where did it originate? Certainly not with God; He is not the creator of evil. I speculate it has to do with man’s free will.  

Opponents to the idea we have free will say things like, “Free will makes man his own savior and his own god.” Nonsense. They need to take into account how precious to God free will is in His plan. It would be easy for God to make an automaton. It’s really something to make a man or woman in His image. In the end, when we are with the Lord, in our new bodies, we will have what might be called perfect free will. Like God, we will no longer be able to sin. We will be in his image and able to enjoy an eternity of fellowship with Him.

Isa 14:15  Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, To the lowest depths of the Pit.

Isa 14:16  “Those who see you will gaze at you, And consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, Who shook kingdoms,

Isa 14:17  Who made the world as a wilderness And destroyed its cities, Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’

King Theoden, hold up in Helm’s Deep, looked upon the approaching orcs and lamented, “What can we do against so much hate? Against so many enemies? Against so much chaos, so much stress, so much evil – so much false worship!” 

What we are told to do is Go and with the Gospel make disciples of all men. Whatever the question, the answer is Jesus. 

Isaiah gives us a final look at the human king of Babylon in defeat. 

Isa 14:18  “All the kings of the nations, All of them, sleep in glory, Everyone in his own house;

Isa 14:19  But you are cast out of your grave Like an abominable branch, Like the garment of those who are slain, Thrust through with a sword, Who go down to the stones of the pit, Like a corpse trodden underfoot.

Isa 14:20  You will not be joined with them in burial, Because you have destroyed your land And slain your people. The brood of evildoers shall never be named.

Isa 14:21  Prepare slaughter for his children Because of the iniquity of their fathers, Lest they rise up and possess the land, And fill the face of the world with cities.”

Isa 14:22  “For I will rise up against them,” says the LORD of hosts, “And cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, And offspring and posterity,” says the LORD.

Isa 14:23  “I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, And marshes of muddy water; I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says the LORD of hosts.

We are rightfully concerned about the war in Ukraine. About the alliance that is growing between Russia and China. About China and Brazil switching from the US dollar to the Chinese yuan. About the superpower China has become. Let us not forget to factor in that there is a supernatural power behind those nations. Satan has a strategy to align nations against God, against Israel. He will kill and destroy anywhere he can.

Thanos chided the Avengers, surprised they never used their most powerful weapon. We ought to use ours first and foremost. Prayer, corporate prayer, worship, testimony, and, of course, the Word of God. 

We also need these little used weapons, cataloged by the apostle Paul: patience, tribulations, needs, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, sleeplessness, fastings; purity, knowledge, longsuffering, kindness, the Holy Spirit, sincere love,  the word of truth,  the power of God,  the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,  honor and dishonor, evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things (Second Corinthians 6:4-10). 

Isaiah 11:1-12:6 – I Am Root

What does POTUS do all day?

I don’t mean President Joe Biden specifically. I mean, “What is a day in the life of the President of the United States like?” Obviously every day is going to be a little different. Let’s pick a president and take a look at his Palm Pilot.

The 43rd President of the United States woke up at 5am every day and would be in the Oval Office for early morning briefings. “I go to work a little before 7am, and I expect everybody to show up on time when I have a meeting,” George W. Bush said in 2008. 

At midday, Bush would take a break for a workout – usually jogging or cycling – which was then followed by lunch. He was a fast eater, eager to get back to work.

Around 5.30-6pm, Bush would wrap up his workday and make his way home. Bed was generally no later than 10. Bush thought it important to get eight hours of sleep.

Isaiah takes us to ‘work’ with King Jesus in the future Kingdom of God on Earth.

We wonder what we will be doing in the future Kingdom. Since we will be serving the Lord in our resurrected or raptured bodies, it is better to ask, “What will King Jesus be doing in the Kingdom?”

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 King Jesus Will Spread His Righteousness, and #2 King Jesus Will Savor Your Praises. 

#1 – King Jesus Will Spread His Righteousness (11:1-16)

The future Kingdom of God on Earth is also called the Millennial Kingdom, or the Millennium, because it lasts for a solid one-thousand years.

• We are currently in the Church Age that ends when Jesus the resurrects and raptures believers. The rapture could occur any moment, and it definitely will occur before the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. 
• Sometime after the rapture, the Time of Jacob’s Trouble lasts for seven years. It is known by its more popular name, the Great Tribulation.  
• At the end of the seven years, Jesus returns in His Second Coming. He establishes the Kingdom on Earth, the Millennium. 

Isa 11:1  There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

The International Standard Version of the Bible translates this, “A shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch will bear fruit from his roots.” “Jesse” was King David’s father. 

It illustrates the fact that the king would be both the ancestor and the descendent of David. The promised king existed before David was born, but was Himself born in the line of David – after David. 

It’s no mystery who this describes. Jesus called Himself, “the root and the offspring of David” (Revelation 22:16). 

Jews immediately recognize this as the fulfillment of what is called the Davidic Covenant. God promised David and Israel that the Messiah would come from his line and would establish the Millennial Kingdom.

Isaiah is going to be showing us the future. This passage is a day in the life of King Jesus. 

Isa 11:2  The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

The “Him” Isaiah describes is Jesus, God’s

Anointed, the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world. 

He was God from eternity; then in His virgin birth He added humanity to His deity; and now He is fully God and fully human, the unique God-man, forever. 

“The Spirit of the LORD” is God the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. Jesus will be aided by God the Holy Spirit. It’s not that He can’t rule without help. He’s not in over His head. There is a precious, cooperative intimacy between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Not three gods, one God, eternally existing in three persons. They act harmoniously. 

God the Holy Spirit is named before any words or works the Lord performs. If Jesus will be in constant contact and communion with the Spirit, how much more do we need Him? 

Christians in the Church Age have the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit the moment they are born again. Our problem is that we inhabit unredeemed bodies, with a propensity to sin. God the Holy Spirit enables us to obey God’s Word, and empowers us to serve the Lord. 

When the first century church needed men to serve widows, the apostle Peter instructed they choose men who were “full of the Holy Spirit, and wisdom” (Acts 6:3). Why specify that they needed to be full of the Holy Spirit, if all believers enjoy His indwelling? 

Not all believers yield to the Holy Spirit, many preferring the wisdom of the world, or their own.

David’s son, Solomon, was encouraged in a dream to ask for whatever he wanted from God. He asked for wisdom to rule God’s people.

God, the Holy Spirit has many attributes, certainly more than six. But six attributes especially necessary for the Millennial King are “wisdom,” “understanding,” “counsel,” “might,” “knowledge,” and “the fear of the LORD.”

Isa 11:3  His delight is in the fear of the LORD, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;

Jesus wants His subjects to see His relationship to God the Father. He thus acts “in the fear of the LORD,” interdependent upon the Father. His judgments are not only from His “ears” and “eyes,” but involve the Father and the Spirit. 

Isa 11:4  But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.

On this day-in-the-life, the King is out among “the poor,” and “the meek.” The Millennium cannot be a perfect utopia. Not as long as there are human beings in mortal bodies. Jesus, however, will immediately act to protect the poor and the meek. His very words and breath will “slay the wicked.”

 Isa 11:5  Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist.

The Message Version translates this, “Each morning He’ll pull on sturdy work clothes and boots, and build righteousness and faithfulness in the land.” 

The Millennium comes immediately after the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, the Great Tribulation. Earth is devastated. The Lord is not going to simply snap His fingers and restore everything. There will be a lot of building to do. Jesus, as we like to say, will get His hands dirty. 

The apostle Paul uses the illustration of building to describe our serving. We are to build with the best materials, being faithful stewards. 

Isa 11:6  “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them.

Isa 11:7  The cow and the bear shall graze; Their young ones shall lie down together; And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

Isa 11:8  The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.

Isa 11:9  They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain… For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.

Jesus pauses His schedule in order hang out with some kids and deadly animals He has made safe.

I can’t think of a better way of communicating that there will be universal peace on Earth than to show that the wild beasts will get along with one another, and with us.  

Of course, you know what this means. There will be no hunting, no killing, and we will all be vegetarians or fruitarians.

Isa 11:9  … For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.

We understand God’s Word to be alive and powerful. It will be even more powerful in the Millennium, in that nothing and no one will oppose its reaching the entire planet. An Earth “full of the knowledge of the LORD” will undergo many marvelous changes simply because of that. For example, later in Isaiah we read, “waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert” (35:6). It’s like when Jesus said the rocks would praise Him. One commentator said, “If God had never breathed life into humanity, He would still receive worship and praise. His perfection provokes the heavens to declare, the sky to proclaim, the rocks to cry out, the trees to clap, and the waters to roar the praises of His glory.”^[1]

Isa 11:10  “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious.”

This “root of Jesse” thing reminds us how bleak the prospect of God keeping His promise to the Jews really was. It seemed that their lineage, illustrated by a mighty tree, had been cut down and was only a stump. True, but God would bring a shoot from its roots that exceeded all its former glory. 

“Gentiles” are everyone who is not a physical descendant of Abraham. Like a “banner” – hopefully not one of those creepy air inflatables with the wild arms – Jesus will draw Gentiles from all over the world to Jerusalem. 

His “resting place” is better understood as Jesus giving rest, spiritual rest. Funny, all the worlds religions promise spiritual rest, but their programs exhaust you trying to work your way to Heaven. 

If you’re not a believer, you are under a heavy burden of sin. Jesus is the only person who has the shoulders broad enough to take upon them your sin, and the sins of the world. Following Jesus is not a burden. It is not a weight, it is a wing. 

Isa 11:11  It shall come to pass in that day That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time To recover the remnant of His people who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea.

A major feature of the seven year Time of Jacob’s trouble will be the antichrist attempting to exterminate all Jews. They will disperse over the planet, and receive help from many Gentile nations. 

The Great Tribulation ends when Jesus returns in His Second Coming. A saved remnant of dispersed Jews will be drawn by Jesus to Jerusalem from all over the Earth in the future “that day.” 

He says it is “the second time” He has done it. When was the first? 

• Some commentators immediately point to the Exodus from Egypt.
• Some commentators say it was when the Jews returned from a 70 year captivity in Babylon.

Those were remarkable regatherings, but not from all corners of the Earth. It would seem that the regathering Isaiah is speaking of is the one that is happening now, in the modern state of Israel, as many Jews are returning from all over the world. It is part of setting the stage for the last days. 

Isa 11:12  He will set up a banner for the nations, And will assemble the outcasts of Israel, And gather together the dispersed of Judah From the four corners of the earth.

Isa 11:13  Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart, And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, And Judah shall not harass Ephraim.

The nation of Israel had split in two after King David’s son and successor, King Solomon, died. The northern kingdom of Israel, also called “Ephraim,” was conquered by the Assyrians. Judah in the south lasted longer, but was conquered by the Romans. The split has never been healed, but it will be in the Millennium. They will be one nation, Israel. 

Isa 11:14  But they shall fly down upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the west; Together they shall plunder the people of the East; They shall lay their hand on Edom and Moab; And the people of Ammon shall obey them.

Remember, people in the Millennium will not be perfect. These verses portray a kind of SWAT action against any rebellion to the Lord’s rule.

Let me stop here and answer a question you might have. “Who are these people who go inhabit the Millennial Kingdom on Earth in their mortal bodies?” They are survivors of the Time of Jacobs Trouble, the Great Tribulation. 

When Jesus returns in His Second Coming, believers who survive the Time of Jacob’s Trouble are separated from unbelievers to become the first citizens of the Kingdom. They remain mortal. The children they bear, and the children that their children bear, will be sinners in need of salvation. A multitude will reject the Lord. There will be opposition to Jesus during the Millennium and at the very end of the thousand years.   

Isa 11:15  The LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt; With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River, And strike it in the seven streams, And make men cross over dryshod.

Isa 11:16  There will be a highway for the remnant of His people Who will be left from Assyria, As it was for Israel In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.

Jesus will alter the geography of the mouth of the Nile River to make the journey to Jerusalem easier. It is likened to the day that the Jews came up from the land of Egypt. Moses lifted his staff, and the Red Sea parted so that the children of Israel could cross on dry ground. 

Here’s a good check for churches. Do we make it easier, or harder, for a sinner to be saved? Or for a saint to be sanctified?

Are we living in the most idolatrous, immoral times the nations have ever known? We could make a case for “Yes” by factoring in technology. For example, there has always been pornography. But it has never been so close, so easy, so prevalent, as today, with the World Wide Web to blame.

It’s bad, but not as bad as it could be, and will be. Evil is being restrained. 

The apostle Paul wrote, “He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way” (Second Thessalonians 2:7). 

This Restrainer is Someone well-known to the Church whose power is great enough to hold-back the devil. It is, in fact, God the Holy Spirit. He will be “taken out of the way” before antichrist can be revealed. This can only refer to the rapture of the Church. Individually and corporately, the Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. When we are removed, He will be as well. He then ministers powerfully but differently during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. 

Until our removal, we spread righteousness by our presence, empowered by the Holy Spirit. 

#2 – King Jesus Will Savor Your Praises (12:1-6)

This day in the life of King Jesus in the Millennium continues with a concert performance for an audience of One. 

Isa 12:1  And in that day you will say: “O LORD, I will praise You; Though You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.

The Time of Jacob’s Trouble takes Jews through the greatest tribulation the world has ever known, disciplining them, drawing them to salvation. In Zechariah 13:9 we read, “I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’ ”

Fully ⅔ of the Jews on the Tribulation Earth with be killed. The ⅓ will endure to the end and be welcomed into their Kingdom by King Jesus. 

I’ve been referring to the Great Tribulation by the name Jeremiah gave it, the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. I do it deliberately because it reminds us that those incredible seven years are primarily designed as discipline and discipleship for Israel.  

Isa 12:2  Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For YAH, the LORD, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’ ”

Maybe you’ve met someone who meant a lot to you, who inspired you. That’s the thing I see here. 

“Jesus, you saved me, and now I can trust you and never be afraid. You give me strength, not simply to endure, but to enjoy, so I sing to You. Now everyday I am being saved – sanctified – to become more like You.” 

Isa 12:3  Therefore with joy you will draw water From the wells of salvation.

The Lord is living water. His wells are over-abundant to save all who are thirsty, and to keep us satisfied. 

Albert Barnes writes, “Partake abundantly of the mercies of salvation; that it is free, overflowing, and refreshing – like waters to weary pilgrims in the desert; and that their partaking of it would be with joy. It fills the soul with happiness; as the discovery of an abundant fountain, or a well in the desert, fills the thirsty pilgrim with rejoicing.” 

Isa 12:4  And in that day you will say: “Praise the LORD, call upon His name; Declare His deeds among the peoples, Make mention that His name is exalted.

This is both an altar call, and a call to evangelize:

• “Call upon His Name” to save; He is worthy to be praised. 
• Then go “declare His deeds” to the “peoples,” i.e., the Gentile nations. 
• Always portray Him as “exalted,” with no fault, the “name” above all names, the King of kings. 

Isa 12:5  Sing to the LORD, For He has done excellent things; This is known in all the earth.

The word “excellent” is misused by us. We like to complement someone by saying to others, “He does excellent work.” No matter how excellent something may seem, everything in our world is deteriorating, decaying.   

Everything the LORD has done is excellent. His plan of salvation reverses the curse that our original parents’ sin brought with it. Our future and the future Creation will be living, growing, without decay and death.   

Jesus’ ministry during the Millennium will make His excellence “known in all the Earth.” What do you think is His most excellent work? Yes, it will be you and I and all those in glorified human bodies. 

But not just because of our bodies. We will enjoy perfect fellowship wit the GodHead. 

We will have free will, but like God, be unable to sin.

It won’t be a return to the Garden of Eden, in which Adam and Eve were tested and failed.  

Isa 12:6  Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, For great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst!”

As the Little Einsteins might say, “Crescendo.”

This day in the life of King Jesus is how the Church will spend our days in the future Kingdom:

• “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” (First Corinthians 6:2). 
• “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (Revelation 3:21). 

Every day that the Lord does not come back there are opportunities to serve Him that will ready us for the future kingdom. Check your daily schedule.

All Nations Under God, Illuminated, With Liberty And Jesus For All (Isaiah 10:5-34)

The answer is: The British Empire.

The question, “What was the largest empire the world has ever seen?”

In 1821, the Caledonian Mercury wrote of the British Empire, “On her dominions the sun never sets; before his evening rays leave the spires of Quebec, his morning beams have shone three hours on Port Jackson, and while sinking from the waters of Lake Superior, his eye opens upon the mouth of the Ganges.”

You’ll be excited to know that occupying 21^st place on the list of world empires was the Second Portuguese Empire. The Dutch made the top 100, coming in at 71.  

I did a quick Bible concordance check for the words British, Britain, and England.  Nothing.  

There is quite a bit of information in the Bible about other world empires. Most notably, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Why those? They were the nations that most affected the history of Israel. 

The noun, “Israel,” occurs in the Bible over 2500 times. Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum writes, “Anyone who reads the Bible will soon realize that… Israel… is the centerpiece of divine, prophetic activity.”

In the 8th century, Assyria was the world power… But they were not the real power.

God is sovereign over all the nations of Earth. “For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with understanding. God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne” (Psalm 47:7-8). 

The Lord had a work to do at Jerusalem and He chose Assyria to accomplish it. 

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 The Nations You Fear Answer To The LORD, and #2 The Nation God Favors Will Turn To The Lord.   

#1 – The Nations You Fear Answer To The LORD (v5-19)

October 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis. I was 7yrs old. It is the first memory I have of nations against nations in a conflict that could end our species. It didn’t alleviate my fears that every day we were practicing ‘Duck & Cover’ in my classroom. Or that my inventive older brothers were trying to work out the details of a DIY underground fallout shelter.  

Do you ever wonder where nations originated? A long time ago, in a wilderness far, far away, mankind stopped wandering and, in rebellion against God, started to build a tower at which they could worship lesser gods. 

God said, “Let us go down and mix up their language” (Genesis11:7 GNT). God did so, and humanity was separated and scattered. The Babel incident in the eleventh chapter of Genesis explains how and why the nations that were listed in chapter ten came into being.

This is further explored in Deuteronomy, where we read, “When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when He divided mankind, He fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the Sons of God. But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted heritage” (32:8-9). 

The “Sons of God” is a designation for supernatural persons. God put certain supernaturals in charge of nations of the world. When He said, “Let us go down and confound their language,” it may have been a conversation within the Trinity. Or, God may have been talking to these supernaturals who would be over the nations. 

There is an example in the Book of Daniel. 

The angel Gabriel was dispatched to deliver the incredible End Time prophecy of the 70 Weeks to Daniel. On his way, Gabriel was hindered by a supernatural being he called the Prince of Persia. Michael, the archangel, came, so that Gabriel could continue. 

God would begin for Himself a new nation. In the very next chapter of Genesis, chapter twelve, God calls Abraham, who would be the father of this new nation.  Israel had, at least, these two missions:

• In Isaiah 42:6 we read, “I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles.” 
• In Romans 9:5 we read, “from [Israel], according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God.” 

The Savior Who was promised to mankind in the Garden of Eden would come through the nation of Israel to be a light to the Gentile nations.

 

Which brings us to the 8th century and the Assyrian Empire.

Isa 10:5  “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hand is My indignation.

If you practice corporal punishment on your kiddos, you no doubt have a special spanking implement.  How do you spank a nation?  With another nation.  God employed Assyria to discipline His sons and daughters.  

Assyria, however, exceeded the boundaries God had set. So, “Woe to Assyria.”

Isa 10:6  I will send him against an ungodly nation, And against the people of My wrath I will give him charge, To seize the spoil, to take the prey, And to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

This was the spanking God ordered for “ungodly”Israel, the northern kingdom whose capital was Samaria.   

Isa 10:7  Yet he does not mean so, Nor does his heart think so; But it is in his heart to destroy, And cut off not a few nations.

The king of Assyria decided, apart from the LORD, that he would conquer other nations, too.     

The Assyrians knew they were called by God.

The leader of the future siege of Jerusalem would say, “Have I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it’ ” (Second Kings 18:25). 

Isa 10:8  For he says, “Are not my princes altogether kings?

If your princes are kings, what does that make you? It makes you the King of kings.

Isa 10:9  Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

One-by-one these capital cities fell. Humanly speaking, the advance of the Assyrians could not be stopped. 

Isa 10:10  As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, Whose carved images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

Isa 10:11  As I have done to Samaria and her idols, Shall I not do also to Jerusalem and her idols?’ ”

The multiple gods of these pagan nations were no match for Assyria. Israel was monotheistic, and she would fall. Judah worshipped the same LORD, so once they conquered Israel Assyria was emboldened to think Jerusalem would easily fall.    

Isa 10:12  Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks.”

God would stop the Assyrians from conquering Jerusalem. He’d punish the Assyrians. We will see how in a moment. 

Isa 10:13  For he says: “By the strength of my hand I have done it, And by my wisdom, for I am prudent; Also I have removed the boundaries of the people, And have robbed their treasuries; So I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.

Isa 10:14  My hand has found like a nest the riches of the people, And as one gathers eggs that are left, I have gathered all the earth; And there was no one who moved his wing, Nor opened his mouth with even a peep.”

Really? It was all you? God was behind the scenes, orchestrating it. There are stories about Alexander the Great and Constantine that indicate divine intervention. Cyrus, king of Persia, is mentioned more than thirty times in the Bible. His interaction with the Jews is prophesied more than 150 years before his rule.  

Isa 10:15  Shall the ax boast itself against him who chops with it? Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it? As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up, Or as if a staff could lift up, as if it were not wood!

A lot of common expressions can be traced to the Bible. I don’t think this is one of them, but essentially what God says to the Assyrian is, “You’re a tool!” 

God utilizes Gentile nations to push forward His salvation agenda. It doesn’t mean they always do as He wishes. Wait, what? I thought God was sovereign? Of course He is, but we need to define what that means. The Beacon Dictionary of Theology describes God’s sovereignty this way: 

1. First, it may be seen as the divine right to rule totally.
2. Second, it may be extended to include God’s exercise of this right. 

The debate is whether or not there is any room for genuine free will in the way God exercises His sovereignty. 

We believe that in His sovereignty God has granted mankind free will.

It could not be clearer in this passage. The Assyrians exercised free will, exceeding God’s directives, and God dealt with them accordingly. None of that sidebar interrupted God’s plan or thwarted His will. 

J. Alec Motyer wrote, “This passage asserts a philosophy of history, how the historical facts arise from hidden supernatural causes, and how the human actors who are the hinges on which history outwardly turns are themselves personal and responsible agents within a sovereignly ordered and exactly tuned moral system.”

I’ll read verses sixteen through nineteen in the International Standard Version. “Therefore the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies will send a wasting disease among Assyria’s sturdy warriors, and under its glory a conflagration will be kindled, like a blazing bonfire. The light of Israel will become a fire, and its Holy One a flame, and it will burn and consume Assyria’s thorns and briers in a single day. The splendor of its forest and its fruitful land the LORD will destroy – both soul and body – and Assyria will be as when a dying man wastes away. What survives of the trees in his forest will be so few that a child can count them.”

The Assyrians are compared to “thorns and briers,” and “trees” set ablaze to burn “in a single day.” That single day was a single night in 701BC when 185,000 Assyrian soldiers surrounding Jerusalem were killed overnight by the Angel of the Lord.  

What nations do we fear? Perhaps you saw the photo of China’s Xi Jinping shaking hands with Vladimir Putin. The accompanying article said they plan to “stand guard over the world order” under their new “friendship without limits.”

Don’t fear them. There are limits, and our Mighty God sets them. If they exceed them, they will be punished. Could it affect us negatively? Of course. But we see the Big Picture. 

Jesus conquers our fears and we share Him with the unsaved who have real cause to fear. 

If you have never been born again, if you die, there is no hope for you after death. You will be cast alive in the Lake of Fire to endure conscious torment for eternity. The good news is that Jesus came to Earth as God in human flesh. He allowed Himself to be crucified, taking your place. A.W. Tozer explains it like this: “The only sin Jesus ever had was yours, and the only righteousness we can ever have is His.”

#2 – The Nation God Favors Will Turn To The LORD (v20-34)   

History is the progressive development and implementation of God’s plan of redeeming mankind and restoring Creation. God’s preservation of the nation of Israel, and the city of Jerusalem, are the filter through which history must be interpreted. 

Isa 10:20  And it shall come to pass in that day That the remnant of Israel, And such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, Will never again depend on him who defeated them, But will depend on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

Judah signed a treaty with Assyria in an attempt to solve her spiritual problems with politics. What a slap in the face of our Mighty God.

Isa 10:21  The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, To the Mighty God.

Isa 10:22  For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, A remnant of them will return; The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness.

God promised Abraham that his offspring would be as the sand of the sea. No matter how bleak things look for Israel, there will always be a remnant from which this promise will be fulfilled.

Isa 10:23  For the Lord GOD of hosts Will make a determined end In the midst of all the land.

Isa 10:24  Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: “O My people, who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian. He shall strike you with a rod and lift up his staff against you, in the manner of Egypt.

Isa 10:25  For yet a very little while and the indignation will cease, as will My anger in their destruction.”

It was too late to avoid their spanking, but God would rein-in the Assyrians from conquering Judah.    

Isa 10:26  And the LORD of hosts will stir up a scourge for him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; as His rod was on the sea, so will He lift it up in the manner of Egypt.

Gideon killed the two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb, at the rock. And how about that thing at the Red Sea – when the waters flooded back upon the Egyptian army? What God did in the past, He would do in the present. God would “scourge” the Assyrians. They would join the ‘Nations Defeated by YHWH’ club.  

Have you heard the expression, “Why not here? Why not now?” It is a reminder that, just as God revived in the past, He can do it right here, right now. 

Isa 10:27  It shall come to pass in that day That his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, And his yoke from your neck, And the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.

How can a “yoke” “be destroyed because of the “anointing oil?”  

• Jesus said, “My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).
• At the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus read from Isaiah 62, which describes the “anointed” ministry of the Messiah. He told the listeners that He was the Anointed One (Luke 4:16-21). 

Rather than struggle through and butchering the pronunciation, let me just say that a list of 10 outlying cities occupies verses 28 through 31.

Isa 10:28  He has come to Aiath, He has passed Migron; At Michmash he has attended to his equipment.

Isa 10:29  They have gone along the ridge, They have taken up lodging at Geba. Ramah is afraid, Gibeah of Saul has fled.

Isa 10:30  Lift up your voice, O daughter of Gallim! Cause it to be heard as far as Laish – O poor Anathoth!

Isa 10:31  Madmenah has fled, The inhabitants of Gebim seek refuge. 

The listing of cities flows from north to south, describing the course of the Assyrian death march towards Jerusalem. 

Isa 10:32  As yet he will remain at Nob that day; He will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, The hill of Jerusalem.

You can read the taunts and threats that the Assyrians threw at the Jews in chapter thirty-six. 

Isa 10:33  Behold, the Lord, The LORD of hosts, Will lop off the bough with terror; Those of high stature will be hewn down, And the haughty will be humbled.

Isa 10:34  He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.

The Northern Kingdom of Israel ceased to exist following the fall of Samaria. Judah would survive the Assyrian onslaught with the help of the aforementioned Angel of the Lord slaughtering their encamped army. 

There is something else going on in this chapter. Look back to verse twenty-four. It says, “Do not be afraid of the Assyrian.” 

Some scholars consider the king of Assyria a type of the future antichrist, and list it as one of his names, along with Beast, Man of Sin, the Big Mouth, the Little Horn, the Insolent King, the Prince who is to come, the one who makes desolate, the despicable person, the strong-willed king, the worthless shepherd, the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction, and the Son of Perdition.

The expression “in that day” (v20) looks beyond the time of the Assyrian Empire into the prophetic future. 

The Assyrian designated himself, “King of kings.” Jesus is the King of kings, but in the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, the antichrist will claim that title, and he will demand his subjects worship him as God. 

Judah signed a treaty with the Assyrian. So will Israel sign a treaty with the antichrist. It is that antichrist accord that marks the beginning of the seven years of trouble. 

The Assyrian meted out God’s discipline upon the Jews. The antichrist will unleash a persecution against them like the world has never known. Its purpose is to turn their hearts to God.  

A “remnant” survived in the 8^th & 7^th centuries, and a “remnant” will survive the antichrist’s campaign of terror. The Bible indicates that ⅔ of the Jews will die, but ⅓ of them survive and are saved through the Time of Jacob’s Trouble to greet Jesus at His Second Coming.  

Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum writes, 

“As a nation, Israel is indestructible. So what if the Assyrians were coming? So what if there was going to be massive destruction? Nothing will destroy God’s promises and prevent Israel’s survival. Otherwise, there would be no final restoration. On the basis of the promise of a final restoration, the remnant should not be afraid. Israel will survive every invasion sent against her.”

Modern Israel has fought seven wars since being established in the land. The first one was the day after independence from the British. 

All the modern Israeli wars have miraculous stories of her victories.

God separated the people at Babel into nations. Then He began another, special nation – Israel. Do you know that there is another, fairly recent, nation that is special to God?

The apostle Peter said the Church is “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people…” (First Peter 2:9).

We are a “holy nation,” within our nation, the United States. Why? 

“That you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy” (First Peter 2:9-10).

We expect “the nations to rage… The kings of the earth [to] set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed…” (Psalm 2:1). 

What is our nation-within-a-nation mission?

We are to conduct ourselves “as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain[ing] from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having [our] conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against [us] as evildoers, they may, by [our] good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation” (First Peter 2:11-12). 

Isaiah 9:1-10:4 – Talk To The Outstretched Hand

Sam realized Frodo was setting off alone to Mordor.  As Frodo rowed towards the opposite shore, Sam waded out into the River Anduin.  It deepened, and he was quickly in trouble because he couldn’t swim.  Unconscious and sinking, Frodo reached into the water and pulled him into the boat.   

Fast forward to Mordor.  Inside Mount Doom, Frodo went over the cliff.  

He was holding on to a ledge by his fingertips.  Sam reached down with his hand, and pulled him up.  

I’m sure you could recall dozens of scenes in which someone is similarly saved by an outstretched hand.  

Four times we read in our text, “But [God’s] hand is stretched out still” (v12, 17, 21, 10:4).

God’s outstretched hand represents His reaching out to discipline the nations of Israel and Judah.  The hand that metes out discipline would deliver the Jews if they turned to Him.  

Seventh century Israel and Judah refused God’s outstretched hand.  The LORD would, therefore, mete out national discipline.  

I’ll organize my comments around two questions: #1 Are You Firmly In The Grip Of God’s Outstretched Hand?, or #2 Are You Releasing Your Grip In God’s Outstretched Hand?

#1 – Are You Firmly In The Grip Of God’s Outstretched Hand? (9:1-7)

Clint Barton thought he had a firm grip on Natasha Romanoff, but she let go, falling to her heroic death.  

There was nothing heroic about seventh century Judah.  Their hands were slippery-slimey from immorality and idolatry.

Before we go on, let me mention something.  The hand and grip of God in these verses is a metaphor by which we can better comprehend God’s national discipline.  These verses have nothing to do with the perseverance of individual saints, or saints being “snatched” out of God’s hand (John 10:28-29).

Before we see God’s discipline, we are given a glimpse of the future.  Through the eyes of Isaiah, we see Israel in the Millennial Kingdom on Earth.

Isa 9:1  Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, As when at first He lightly esteemed The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, And afterward more heavily oppressed her, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, In Galilee of the Gentiles.

Isa 9:2  The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined.

The first chapter of John’s Gospel describes Jesus coming to Earth as light shining in the darkness.  The light of the world, He means to transfer sinners from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. 

It’s great that we have the New Testament to comment on the Old.  Matthew 4:15-16 quotes Isaiah, applying it, saying, “Jesus… departed to Galilee, And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali…” 

Seven hundred years before Jesus came, Isaiah mapped out His early ministry movements.  It wasn’t in Jerusalem He made His headquarters.  It was in an obscure region.  Many Gentiles were settled there.  Talk about ruining the neighborhood.

His geography tells us a lot about how Jesus would conduct His mission.  He would constantly and consistently humble Himself, making “Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:7-8).  

Humility should mark our serving.  God accomplishes His purposes by unusual methods and through unusual men to assure He gets the glory.  

The recent film, The Jesus Revolution, depicts the role a young man played in igniting revival that began in Southern California in the late 1960s.  The popular actor who portrays Lonnie Frisbee is 48yrs old.  Lonnie Frisbee was 18yrs old when God used him to spark revival what would spread through North America, Europe, and Central America.  The more you learn about him, the more God gets the credit.    

Isa 9:3  You have multiplied the nation And increased its joy; They rejoice before You According to the joy of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

Isaiah saw a regathered and restored, united nation:

• He describes them as “multiplied,” meaning growing and expanding in all good things.  
• The general attitude that prevails is like the joy of a plentiful “harvest,” or a great military victory in which much “spoil” was recovered.  

Imagine being a believer in the time of Isaiah.  Hope was lost for the northern kingdom of Israel.  Things were bleak at best in the south.  Nevertheless, a regathered and restored Israel would rejoice in the future kingdom of Messiah.

We should note in passing that Isaiah’s verbs are in the past tense.  He writes as if it has already happened. That is prophetic language.  As far as he was concerned, if it had been shown to him from God, it was as good as done.  

Isaiah may have anticipated the regathering and restoration in his lifetime.  You remember that Jesus’ disciples kept pressing Him about establishing the Kingdom.  They were still doing so at the ascension.   

The Bible encourages us to anticipate the kingdom:  

• “Thy kingdom come” ought to permeate our praying. 
• The last words in red in the Bible are, “Surely I am coming quickly” (Revelation 22:20). 

Isa 9:4  For You have broken the yoke of his burden And the staff of his shoulder, The rod of his oppressor, As in the day of Midian.

“Yoke,” “staff,” and “rod” illustrate the nation being oppressed by a succession of Gentile nations.  Midian were a people who oppressed the Jews in the time of the Judges.  God raised-up Gideon to defeat them by putting a Bible in every hotel room.  Seriously, Gideon was a goof, but God used him to reveal light in the darkness, literally, thereby scattering an army many times more powerful. 

Isaiah passes over the centuries between the first and second comings of Jesus.   He sees all burdens of oppression fully, finally lifted from Israel. 

Isa 9:5  For every warrior’s sandal from the noisy battle, And garments rolled in blood, Will be used for burning and fuel of fire.

Cortés was a very, very, bad man.  When he arrived in what is today Mexico, his soldiers were upset. To ‘motivate’ them, he burned the ships.

Burning weapons, voluntarily, means there will be ‘war no more.’  It’s mind-boggling since mankind has always been at war.  There are currently more than twenty active global conflicts.  

How will Israel, of all nations the most despised, finally enjoy peace?  “A Child [was] born.”     

Isa 9:6  For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

A “Child is born” who was first a “Son” Who could be “given.”  The Son existed before He was miraculously given to be conceived in a woman’s womb and born.  This can only, uniquely, marvelously, be Jesus. 

He will bear all the weight of human government.  We agree with the exclamation of the seventh-trumpet angel in the Book of the Revelation.  

He shouts, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (11:15). 

Five “names” are given Him.  How difficult must it have been to choose five!  Scholars say there are a minimum of 200 biblical names and titles for Jesus.  

The list starts with “Wonderful.”  It is not a description of the type of Counselor Jesus is.  It is a stand-alone name.  

Look at the names that come after. “Wonderful” and “Counselor.”  “Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,” belong to Jesus uniquely.  There is no other “Mighty God,” “Everlasting Father,” or “Prince of Peace.”

“Wonderful” and “Counselor” are uniquely Jesus as well.

There is no other “Wonderful.”  It almost breaks my mind (in a good way) to think about this.  Whatever happens, I can honestly say in my spirit, “Lord, You are Wonderful.”  I can say that because I know He is working all things together for my good.  What is happening to me may be terrible.  But if I believe God is sovereign, in charge, that He loves me with everlasting love, then He is “Wonderful” in my abounding, or my being abased; in my blessings, or in my buffetings.  Job knew this when he said, “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD” (1:21). 

One of the modern versions translates “Counselor,” “adviser.”  No, no, no.  He isn’t giving advice for you to weigh.  He’s not like Lucy, in her psychiatric booth, charging Charlie Brown a nickel.  Jesus is “Counselor,” not just someone who counsels, whose counsel I might accept or reject.  The Counselor constantly, directly, counsels Christians by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  No one else is capable of that. 

He is “Mighty God.”  Strong’s Concordance says that the word for “God” is a word that can be used of any deity, even an idol.  There are a lot of supernatural persons mentioned in the Bible, and probably more that aren’t.  Some of them are even called ‘gods,’ but with a lower case ‘g.’  None of them is “Mighty God.”  Only the God-Head, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are Mighty God.  The outcome of human history, and of our lives individually, is never in doubt or danger. 

He is “Everlasting Father.”  I thought the Father was the Father?  He is, and we must not confuse the  Persons of the Tri-une God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  

A better translation would be, “Father of Eternity.”  Question: Who is the father of the United States?  That’s right – George Washington.  Jesus is the unique “Father of Eternity” in that sense.  

It never gets old to say there can be no peace without the “Prince of Peace.”  On the Cross, by His substitutionary sacrifice, Jesus made peace with sinful humanity (Colossians 1:19-20).  Believers will enjoy that peace forever. 

Isa 9:7  Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

We talk about political parties having a ‘platform,’ and the ‘planks’ that constitute their platform.  

Jesus doesn’t run for office, and He will never need re-election.  But we can see a sort of platform in verse seven.  

With apologies to Ronald Reagan, Jesus’ government will be Big Government.  He will be over all the nations of Earth.  There will be no so-called separation between the spiritual and the state.  

There will be no religions or philosophies or psychologies or political parties  competing for mankind’s devotion.

Remember the huge move it was to relocate the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem?  It took place, not coincidentally, May 14, 2018, the 70th anniversary of the creation of the modern State of Israel.  Jesus will move the government of Earth to Jerusalem, to King David’s throne.  It will fulfill the Davidic Covenant, which unconditionally promises Israel that a descendant of his will rule from his throne forever. 

A ‘plank,’ maybe the only one needed, will be Righteousness.  Isaiah doesn’t use that word; he uses “judgment” and “justice.”  If you have just judgments every time, that is righteousness.

“Read my lips,” George H. W. Bush famously invited us, then said, “No new taxes.”  As Dana Carvy would say, “Not gonna happen.”  

Jesus’ forever Kingdom will not need taxation.  His own “zeal” will power and prosper His rule. 

 Later in Isaiah we will read, “For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you’ ” (41:13). 

God grips you, Christian, like a parent holding the hand of a toddler crossing a busy street.  

🎶Put your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee🎶

#2 – Are You Releasing Your Grip In God’s Outstretched hand? (9:9-10:4)

Clint Barton thought he had a firm grip on Natasha Romanoff, but she let go, falling to her heroic death.  

There was nothing heroic about seventh century Judah.  They were way beyond letting go.  Their hands were kept busy with immorality and idolatry.

Isaiah presents four cycles of discipline, marked by the repetition of, “For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.”    

Isa 9:8  The Lord sent a word against Jacob, And it has fallen on Israel.

Isa 9:9  All the people will know – Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria – Who say in pride and arrogance of heart:

Isa 9:10  “The bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with hewn stones; The sycamores are cut down, But we will replace them with cedars.”

Isa 9:11  Therefore the LORD shall set up The adversaries of Rezin [Reason] against him, And spur his enemies on,

Isa 9:12  The Syrians before and the Philistines behind; And they shall devour Israel with an open mouth. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.

“Jacob,” “Israel,” and “Ephraim,” were all names for the ten tribes in the north. They had ignored God’s warnings that He would use surrounding nations to humble them.  In pride and arrogance of heart, they wanted no help from the LORD.  

“The bricks have fallen down, But we will rebuild with hewn stones; The sycamores are cut down, But we will replace them with cedars.”  

They said, essentially, that without God, they could & would Build Back Better.

Have you heard that somewhere before?  It first emerged as a summary of the efforts of the United Nations to impose its agenda on the world.  More recently, it was Joe Biden’s campaign slogan.  Other organizations, e.g., the World Economic Forum, and the World Bank, use it.

The Build Back Better adherents have as their modest goal to be planet Earth’s saviors.  I’d say it qualifies as “pride, and arrogance of heart” (v9).

We aren’t going to save Earth.  We are the one’s who need to be saved.  God will restore Creation. 

“For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.”  

Commentators tend to explain the outstretched hand as the promise of further discipline.  I’d say it is the prospect of further discipline, if they do not reach out to God’s hand.  The hand of discipline is the hand of love.  Isn’t that the point of His discipline?  He promised repentance would deliver a nation (Jeremiah 18:7-10).  His “hand” is “stretched out” to deliver you, or to continue your discipline. 

Isa 9:13  For the people do not turn to Him who strikes them, Nor do they seek the LORD of hosts.

Isa 9:14  Therefore the LORD will cut off head and tail from Israel, Palm branch and bulrush in one day.

Isa 9:15  The elder and honorable, he is the head; The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail.

Isa 9:16  For the leaders of this people cause them to err, And those who are led by them are destroyed.

Isa 9:17  Therefore the Lord will have no joy in their young men, Nor have mercy on their fatherless and widows; For everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer, And every mouth speaks folly. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.

J. Alec Motyer says of this passage, “Rejection of the LORD led to reliance on human wisdom for national guidance, but their leaders were ‘misleaders,’ and moral decay spread throughout society.”

Moral decay.  We often define biblical sexual morality.  It is, at its foundation, sex between one biological male, and one biological female, in a monogamous, heterosexual union, having made a covenant of companionship to remain faithful to God and each other for as long as they both shall live.  

How are we doin’?  Not good.  We are being inundated with a cesspool overflow of sexual immorality.  It’s been said that the new morality is the old immorality.  God is, and will continue, to discipline nations because of it.  

Isa 9:18  For wickedness burns as the fire; It shall devour the briers and thorns, And kindle in the thickets of the forest; They shall mount up like rising smoke.

Isa 9:19  Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts The land is burned up, And the people shall be as fuel for the fire; No man shall spare his brother.

Isa 9:20  And he shall snatch on the right hand And be hungry; He shall devour on the left hand And not be satisfied; Every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm.  

Isa 9:21  Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; Together they shall be against Judah. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.

Their wickedness is likened to a raging forrest fire.    They start small, but grow when fueled, consuming everything.  The refusal to repent is kindling for greater sin, until it becomes life-dominating.  

Their lustful cravings are compared to a hunger for meat that is so overpowering they would consume their own flesh.  You don’t need to be a cannibal to consume your own flesh.  Sin will do it for you:

• Drug overdose deaths have reached a historic high, devastating families and communities.  More than 104,000 Americans died due to a drug overdose in the twelve month period ending in September 2021.
• Collectively, smoking, alcohol and illicit drug use kills 11.8 million people each year. This is more than the number of deaths from all cancers.  

Isa 10:1  Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, Who write misfortune, Which they have prescribed

Isa 10:2  To rob the needy of justice, And to take what is right from the poor of My people, That widows may be their prey, And that they may rob the fatherless.

Isa 10:3  What will you do in the day of punishment, And in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory?

Isa 10:4  Without Me they shall bow down among the prisoners, And they shall fall among the slain. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.

These issues would fall under the topic of Social Justice.  You hear that term a lot today.  It’s a hot topic.  Many of the issues being discussed are different than those in seventh century.  Still, social injustice invites God’s discipline upon a nation.

It’s pretty hard to lift someone on to a ledge with one hand grasping theirs.   

In the spiritual realm of salvation or damnation, Jesus is the only Person who can pull you up from the depths of sin into Heaven.

He can because He was the God-man who was lifted up on the Cross, then raised from the dead, to exchange His righteousness for your sin.  

What must you do to be saved? Believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. 

Isaiah 8:1-22 – It’s All Signs And Names Until Somebody Invades

They’re calling it, Headline Stress Disorder.

It is caused by exposure to excessive news coverage.  Symptoms can include stomach aches, headaches, teeth grinding, panic attacks, feeling depressed or sad, feeling overwhelmed, insomnia, lack of energy, anger, and irritability.  Further progression may lead to physical and mental diseases, e.g., anxiety disorders, depression disorders, endocrine disorders, and hypertension. 

From pandemics to politics… From inflation to invasion… From climate to crime… From infrastructure to immigration… From guns to gas… From derailed trains to deadly disease strains… There is plenty to fear. 

Seventh century Judah had Headline Stress.

Any of the following ‘headlines’ could have been above the fold:

• Syrian-Israel Conspiracy Revealed
• Egypt on the Prowl; When will Pharaoh Pounce?
• Assyrian Empire Flexes Military Muscle
• King Ahaz Celebrates Sacrificing Son to Molech
• Government Scores High on Corruption
• Latest Poll Finds No Compassion for Widows & Orphans: ‘Let Them Eat Manna’

The LORD supplied Isaiah with a simple solve for stressful times.  “Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’ Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.  The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread.  He will be as a sanctuary, But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”

We are likewise told to be unaffected.  Jesus promised, “In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 ESV).

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 The Lord Is Your Sanctuary, or #2 The Lord Is Your Stone Of Stumbling. 

#1 – The Lord Is Your Sanctuary (v1-14)

Two competing recent US headlines:

• Sanctuary City Policies are a Threat to Decent People
• Living in Fear: Understanding the Importance of Sanctuary Cities

While we are stressing about sanctuary cities, the LORD says, “He will be as a sanctuary” (v14).  

Herbert Lockyer writes, “How good of God it is to promise Himself as a sanctuary!  In the Old Testament He provided a Temple for His people; in the New Testament He has a redeemed people as His Temple.  But the wonder of wonders is that He also is our Temple.  How consoling it is to know that amid all the turmoil of the street, busy cares of the home, hurry and confusion of our modern life, we have a sanctuary.”

Our God is a strong, unassailable sanctuary, doubling as a mighty fortress:  

• As our sanctuary, we partake of His promises and power. 
• As our fortress, we have quite an arsenal of spiritual weaponry. 

We can be spiritually safe, sound, and secure, no matter the turmoil or trouble in the world. 

Isa 8:1  Moreover the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll, and write on it with a man’s pen concerning Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.

Isa 8:2  And I will take for Myself faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.”

Isa 8:3  Then I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son.  Then the LORD said to me, “Call his name Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz;

Isa 8:4  for before the child shall have knowledge to cry ‘My father’ and ‘My mother,’ the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be taken away before the king of Assyria.”

The name of this unborn son breaks down like this:

• Maher – he is quick
• Shalal – plunder, loot, or spoils
• Hash – he hurries, or swift
• Baz – prey, as in hunting

Quick to the plunder, swift to the prey.  It was meant to serve as a warning of the future invasion of Assyria, which would result in the plundering and spoiling of the northern kingdom of Israel.

Our spiritual adversary, the devil, is swift to the prey. He is likened to a roaring lion, seeking to devour.  

Do you know how to survive a lion attack?  I mean in Africa.  Experts say: Don’t panic… Don’t run… Stand your ground.  

That’s our strategy against the devil – Resist & Stand.

You’ve successfully resisted the devil, and he has fled from you.  His next strategy is to plunder your life.  The terrible thing about this is that he enlists your help to do it.  You let down your guard, just a little, quit being vigilant, spiritually, and before you know it, your life has been plundered.

The Jews in Judah would watch as their fellow Jews in the north were plundered and devoured.  It ought to have served as an object lesson for them. They saw what happened, but they continued to sin as if it could not happen to them.

Isaiah named his son as a prophetic sign to the people of Israel.  No one would choose that name unless commanded by the LORD.  It was also written on a placard and displayed for all to see.  It was written “with a man’s pen,” meaning in big, clear, common letters.  

The placard was witnessed by two respected men, “Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah,” so that no one could deny that his birth was prophesied prior to the events predicted.  

Isaiah’s wife is called a “prophetess.”  

• A handful of ladies were called prophetess in the Old Testament: Miriam, Deborah, Huldah, and Mrs. Isaiah. 
• Between the testaments, we see Anna called a prophetess. 
• In the Book of Acts, Philip’s four daughters “prophesied.”  

At CalvaryHanford, we believe the Church was founded by apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20).  These were offices in the early Church, not gifts.  

• There are no more apostles, if for no other reason than no one can meet the Bible’s qualifications.  In the Book of Acts, the office of an apostle could only be held by a man who had first-hand knowledge of Jesus and His resurrection (Acts 1:21-22).  They are all dead. 
• There are no prophets, holding an office in the Church.  The apostle Paul wrote about a mystery, “which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the Gospel” (Ephesians 3:5-6).  They made that mystery known, and other men took their place to build upon the foundation they laid. 

We are, nevertheless, continuists, not cecessionists, when it comes to the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Men and women in the Church may have the gift of prophecy, or any of the gifts described in the Bible. 

Regarding the ladies, what is called ‘the role of women,’ we are complementarian, not egalitarian.  You can look those up later. 

From the moment Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz was born, Damascus and Samaria were on the doomsday clock.  Before he was old enough to say “Momma” or “Not the Momma,” the king of Assyria would prey and plunder. 

Isa 8:5  The LORD also spoke to me again, saying:

Isa 8:6  “Inasmuch as these people refused The waters of Shiloah that flow softly, And rejoice in Rezin and in Remaliah’s son;

Isa 8:7  Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them The waters of the River, strong and mighty – The king of Assyria and all his glory; He will go up over all his channels And go over all his banks.

Every Jew would instantly comprehend this imagery:  

• “Shiloah” (called Siloam in NT) was the gently flowing water supply of Jerusalem. 
• “The River,” in verse seven, is the mighty Euphrates, associated with Assyria. 

“Rezin” was the last of the kings of Syria who reigned in Damascus.  The son of Remaliah, Pekah, reigned 20 years over Israel in Samaria.  

Because Pekah chose to ally with Syria, and not depend upon the LORD, they would not be protected to live the idyllic life-by-the-stream God promised them.  

Instead, they would be thrown into the geopolitical mess that is human history and be carried away by the raging flood of the Assyrian Empire.  Their help would come from the LORD or not at all. 

Isa 8:8  He will pass through Judah, He will overflow and pass over, He will reach up to the neck; And the stretching out of his wings Will fill the breadth of Your land, O Immanuel.

Judah, meanwhile, formed an alliance with Assyria.  Bad idea; the Assyrians would attempt to engulf them, too. 

The “stretching out of his wings” is a change of metaphor from flood to a bird of prey overshadowing the land.  An Assyrian god was eagle-headed. 

The waters do not cover the head and drown Judah, the bird of prey circles but does not kill.  Assyria would threaten Judah, but God would intervene.  As Captain Picard said of the Borg, “Thus far and no further.”   

Despite the worsening situation, there was hope.  “Immanuel,” God with Us, Jesus.  The promise of the coming of the God-man would be realized.  

The world will be rescued and restored.  Mankind will be redeemed and regenerated. 

Isa 8:9  “Be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Give ear, all you from far countries. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces; Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces. 

Isa 8:10  Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; Speak the word, but it will not stand, For God is with us.”

Former Secretary of State, General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, had no problem expressing his confidence in the American military.  My favorite quote: “We’ve backed off in good faith to try and give you a chance to straighten this problem out.  But I am going to beg with you for a minute.  I’m going to plead with you, do not cross us.  Because if you do, the survivors will write about what we do here for 10,000 years.”

That’s the gist of verses nine and ten.  

Isa 8:11  For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:

Isa 8:12  “Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’ Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.  

The “conspiracy” was the alliance Israel made with Syria, conspiring against Judah.  It seemed insurmountable.  Isaiah was instructed to not be stressed at the headline.   

Have you ever told someone, or been told, that an animal can sense your fear?  That African lion we talked about earlier.  It can sense your fear.  So, hey, don’t be afraid.  

I am afraid of all animals, to some extent.  I have not yet found my don’t-be-afraid switch.  

In the Lord, however – totally different.  What He tells me to do, I can do, if I believe Him and choose to.  

God flat-out commands us, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be troubled.”  

Isa 8:13  The LORD of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread.

“The LORD of hosts,” or, “the Lord of the heavenly armies.”  When I was a kid, and maybe this is still true, if somebody challenged you, or threatened you in some way, you’d ask, “You, and what army?”  

Not only the headlines, but anything and everything that threatens you, troubles you, stresses you – “You and what army” is no match for the Lord of the heavenly armies.  

“Him you shall hallow.”  Consider God’s holiness, that’s what this means.  Isaiah had earlier in this book been granted a rare glimpse of Heaven.  He was immediately undone by its holiness and his sinfulness.  

You and I have not been to Heaven like Isaiah.  But there was the moment when I was shown by the Holy Spirit the holiness of God and the sinfulness of my soul.  It frightened me, but there was grace in its reveal that led me to the Savior. 

“Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread.”  

I have always had a tough time describing the fear of God.  The safe, default, commentary is to say it is to ‘reverence God.’  That often leads to a rebuke at our being too casual with God.  

I’m sorry, but a Christian is a son or a daughter of God.  Jesus calls us His friends.  

I can’t help but think about John-John.  Those of you who are old enough know he was the adorable son of President John F. Kennedy.  There is a wonderful picture of JFK seated at his desk in the Oval Office, while little John-John plays underneath it.  The president in the seat of his power, his son without a care at all about nuclear annihilation. 

I prefer to think of my relationship with God like that – as His son, welcome in His presence, unaffected by the weight of the world.  

Any talk about the fear of God must take that relationship into account.  One aspect of the fear of God is that He knows if I truly want to be with Him, or if my heart is divided.  Ever get caught looking at your watch when talking to someone?  They might say, “Am I boring you?”  That’s the idea. 

“Dread” is even tougher to grasp.  We can turn to C.S. Lewis.  Susan is talking with Mr. Beaver.

“Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion.”  “Ooh,” said Susan.  

“I’d thought he was a man.  Is he quite safe?  I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”  “Safe?” said Mr Beaver.  “Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good.  He’s the King, I tell you.”

Fearing our holy God, we will fear nothing else.  If we don’t fear Him, we need to fear everything else!

A few nights ago, I was cable news Headline Stressing.  The host described the deepening alliance between Russia and China.  It will be a disaster for the US, a total game changer – maybe even Game Over.

God says to us, “Do not say ‘a conspiracy.’ ”  Our nation must ally with the Lord.  Then, “He will be as a sanctuary.” 

“Impractical,” you say; we need more alliances, more armaments, more of everything that makes us powerful.  Maybe.  I would submit modern Israel.  Even in unbelief, the LORD has protected them from every nation in the world.  

#2  – The Lord Is Your Stone Of Stumbling (v14-22)

‘Foot drop’ is a general term for difficulty lifting the front part of the foot.  You can’t always tell you are doing it, but if you come to uneven ground, there is a real danger of tripping and taking a fall. 

Instead of enjoying a walk with the LORD, both Israel and Judah were dragging their feet.  They were headed for a disastrous fall. 

Isa 8:14  He will be… a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense To both the houses of Israel, As a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Isa 8:15  And many among them shall stumble; They shall fall and be broken, Be snared and taken.”

God is often represented in the Bible as a rock, the place of safety, to those who trust in Him.  That same rock a stumbling stone, against which unbelievers fall and are broken. 

The “trap and… snare” were a good description of what trusting in an alliance with Assyria was really going to be like.  

Jesus is a superior Rock & Refuge to anything in the world.  (Possible church name?).  As we repeatedly proclaim, with great joy, God sent the Holy Spirit to live in you.  He empowers you to overcome; He enables you to obey. 

Isa 8:16  Bind up the testimony, Seal the law among my disciples.

Isa 8:17  And I will wait on the LORD, Who hides His face from the house of Jacob; And I will hope in Him.

Isa 8:18  Here am I and the children whom the LORD has given me! We are for signs and wonders in Israel From the LORD of hosts, Who dwells in Mount Zion.

Isaiah had “disciples.”  “Bind up [and] seal” refer to teaching them, especially to know the times. 

  

Isaiah uses the words that causes us so much agitation: “I will wait on the LORD.”  He would wait in “hope” because of his kids:

• Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz described the coming judgements. 
• We met another son of Isaiah’s earlier in the book, Shear-Jashub.  His name means, a remnant shall return.
• Then there was a kid born to someone else who was named Immanuel, God with us.  

They were “signs and wonders” from the God of Israel.  After their national discipline, a remnant would return, and the Jews would bring forth Immanuel, the Messiah of Israel, the Savior of the world – Jesus. 

Isa 8:19  And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?

These were customs that the Jews adopted from their pagan alliances.  The “wizards and mediums” often genuinely contacted evil, malevolent creatures.  Why seek them, deceivers, liars, far less powerful than the LORD?  

So much modern muttering involves contacting your dead relatives.  You can’t.  Read the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, in the Gospel of Luke.  The dead in their sins realize Jesus was their only salvation, but it is too late for them.  What about their loved ones?  They have God’s Word, more powerful than a testimony from beyond the grave.  

Those who claim to speak for the dead always give a false hope.  They aren’t the evangelists that the Rich Man wished he could be.  

Isa 8:20  To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

Measure everything by the Word of God.  

Isa 8:21  They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward.

Isa 8:22  Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.

Lots of SyFy stories give you a look at the horrific future landscape.That’s verses twenty & twenty-one.

Why bother warning if the judgment was certain?  National judgment does not eliminate individuals from being saved.  

Is it too late for the United States?  No one can answer that.  If it is, individuals can still be saved. 

• If you are a believer, tell folks what is coming upon the world.  Let them see you waiting patiently for Jesus to return.  Let them know that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but be given eternal life.  Jesus said that by being lifted-up on the Cross, He would draw all men to Himself.  He is the Savior of all men, provided you believe.  

• If you are not saved, and you remain that way, you may one day wake up to the horrific headline, Millions & Millions Missing.  Jesus promised to come to bring us to Heaven.  He will come in the clouds, raise the dead in Christ, then catch-away living believers.  

Don’t be left behind.

Isaiah 7:1-25 – The King Ahaz Virgin Of The Bible

Would you go to a physician whose failure rate was 70%?

Probably not. But 42mil Americans receive psychotherapy annually. Therapy achieves a success rate of 30% or less, no matter the method.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk to someone.

Patients report, and research bears out, that talking to friends helps more than therapy.^[1]

If a friend is your best source of help, go to your best friend.

Jesus said, “No longer do I call you servants… but I have called you friends” (John 15:15).

Our friend is a “wonderful counselor” (Isaiah 9:6). No matter that He ascended into Heaven. He promised,“Behold, I am always with you, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). He keeps His promise by giving us “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father… [sent] in My name” (John 14:26).

God the Holy Spirit lives in us. He empowers us to obey God’s Word. He communicates with us discerning between our soul and our spirit. No one else can be so intimate.

Nobody knows you the way Jesus does. He formed you in your mother’s womb. All of the hairs of your head are individually numbered. He collects your tears in a bottle.
He is doing a work in you and has promised that He will complete it, with or without your full cooperation.

Nothing formed against you will prosper. You can count on everything working together for the good.

Death and the grave have no power over you. If you resist the devil, he flees from you.

The Lord knows everything you are going through and feeling. He is touched by your infirmities. He prays for you.

The psalmist knew where a believer’s help comes from. “From whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, Who made Heaven and Earth” (Psalm 121:1-2).

King Ahaz of Judah was about to be invaded by Syria and Israel. He was endangered by Assyria. Where would he look for help?

Where am I looking for help? Where are you?

I’ll organize my comments around two points, #1 The Lord Is Out To Help You, and #2 The World Is Out To Harm You.

#1 – The Lord Is Out To Help You (v1-9)

We are introduced to the next, the 12th, king of Judah, Ahaz. He’s a guy that makes you feel like you need a shower after being around him. He was serious about idol worship:

He sacrificed his son to the idol Molech.
He defiled the Temple in Jerusalem by removing the articles used for worship and replacing them with pagan altars.

He never repented. When he died, “he was not placed in the tombs of the kings of Israel” (Second Chronicles 28:27).

Isa 7:1  Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it.

The Assyrian Empire was expanding its territory and exerting pressure on Judah’s neighboring kingdoms. In 735BC, Ahaz learned that Syria and Israel had formed an alliance. They planned to depose Ahaz in order to force Judah to join their coalition.

Isaiah was sent by God to reassure Ahaz that he did not need to fear the invading armies. God would protect Judah.

Ahaz, an apostate idolater, rebuffed the LORD’s help.

Syria and Israel “went up to Jerusalem to make war against it, but could not prevail against it.” Verse one is a short summary of this episode. Beginning in verse two, Isaiah will present the detailed account.

Isa 7:2  And it was told to the house of David, saying, “Syria’s forces are deployed in Ephraim.” So his heart and the heart of his people were moved as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind.

“Ephraim” is another name for the northern kingdom of Israel.

The “house of David” is the Davidic Covenant. It was an unconditional covenant made between God and King David. God promised that He would establish a dynasty of kings from David’s descendants, and that his kingdom would be established forever.

Jesus has made a bunch of unconditional promises to you. Read John 14-17 and note some of them. Always be on the lookout for them, marker in hand, ready to underline.

Ahaz was fearfully focused on troop deployment. He felt caught in a terrible windstorm that would most certainly uproot him.

Isa 7:3  Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the aqueduct from the upper pool, on the highway to the Fuller’s Field,

It was sound strategy to protect the water supply of walled cities. You’d stand no chance in a siege without adequate water. You’d last less than a week if you didn’t surrender.

It must have been a ‘Go to work with dad’ day.

Shear-Jashub is a compound word, meaning a remnant shall return. Whether this was his name, or a nickname, his presence communicated a major theme of his dad’s ministry. God always has a remnant.

A couple of things about Shear-Jashub:

What ‘name’ would people give you, that describes your message from God?
Kids should not be overlooked, but encouraged from a young age to seek and serve the Lord.

Isa 7:4  and say to him: ‘Take heed, and be quiet; do not fear or be fainthearted for these two stubs of smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah.

The Syria-Israel alliance looked like an approaching fire that would consume Judah. Ultimately it was nothing but smoke.

Isa 7:5  Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have plotted evil against you, saying,
Isa 7:6  “Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel” –
Isa 7:7  thus says the Lord GOD: “It shall not stand, Nor shall it come to pass.
Isa 7:8  For the head of Syria is Damascus, And the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken, So that it will not be a people.
Isa 7:9  The head of Ephraim is Samaria, And the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son…” ’ ”

Tiglath-Pileser III was king of Assyria:

He conquered Damascus. Their population was deported and Rezin executed.
He conquered Israel and deported the ten tribes to Assyria.

Isa 7:9  … “If you will not believe, Surely you shall not be established.” ’ ”

The one thing Ahaz was asked to do was “believe.” “Established” is translated a bunch of different ways in different versions of the Bible. The sense of it is that Ahaz and Judah would live in constant fear, instead of standing on the firm foundation of faith.

Ahaz would reject God’s help. Instead, he made an alliance with Tiglath-Pileser III. Assyria’s help seemed more tangible to them than God’s help.

Help from the world, from unbelievers, can seem more tangible than prayer, Bible study, fellowship, etc. It seems even more tangible when it is worldly counsel coming from believers.

If an unbeliever is in a crisis, needing help, the solution is Jesus. The only real counsel we can give an unbeliever, then, is to evangelize them.

If you are a believer, you need to be discipled. God the Holy Spirit lives in you, enabling you to obey God‘s Word.

I’ve always liked what Larry Norman said. “Don’t ask me for the answers, I’ve only got one. A man leaves his darkness when he follows the Son.”

One of the worst things about receiving and following ungodly counsel is that it sometimes ‘works.’ That is, it seems to work, short term.

It’s easy to mistake God’s grace for His favor. God can be gracious and allow you to prosper despite your being allied with the world rather than in an alliance with Him.

God offered help, but Ahaz would rather make a deal with the devil, as it were. He reminds me of Khan, in the original Star Trek. Captain Kirk and his crew defeat Khan and offer the superhumans the ultimatum of facing justice on Earth or accepting a new exile on an abandoned planet. Khan responds, “Have you ever read Milton, Captain?” Kirk replies, “Yes, I understand.” Khan had thus chosen exile. Kirk later explains Khan was alluding to Satan’s famous statement from Paradise Lost, “Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”

It’s not, by the way. When you need help, go to the Helper.

#2 – The World Is Out To Harm You (v10-25)

Our BFF said, “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18). Any methodology, ideology, philosophy, psychology, theology, or any other such ‘ology,’ that is not biblical, with Christian ethics, is an alliance with folks who hate Jesus and will do you harm.

By “harm” I don’t necessarily mean they will physically hurt you. That is an eventuality. Leading up to it, you are harmed because they undermine the character of your God and Savior, Jesus Christ. If He is omniscient and omnipotent and omnipresent, why do we need an ungodly principle or practice from the world? Jeremy Taylor wrote, “It is impossible for that man to despair who remembers that his Helper is omnipotent.”

Isa 7:10  Moreover the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying,
Isa 7:11  “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.”
Isa 7:12  But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!”

Ahaz wasn’t seeking a sign; he was offered one. Not only that, he could choose the sign. He could his imagination run wild. We would emphasize grace on God’s part.

His refusal is universally understood by commentators as false humility, pride, hypocrisy, posturing, etc., etc.

God gave Ahaz a sign anyway.

God’s interactions with Ahaz are like a grace bomb. You’d think He was talking to a good king. The more Ahaz sinned, the more grace abounded.

Isa 7:13  Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also?

It was one thing to say “No” to Isaiah. It was quite another thing to say “No” to God.

God has graciously given “signs” to the human race:

Creation is a sign, revealing the existence and declaring the glory of God. Don Stewart writes, “The Bible testifies that Creation gives clear testimony to God’s existence. Everyone, everywhere, has this testimony.”
Fulfilled Bible prophecy is an irrefutable sign. God’s fulfilled prophecies are detailed and 100% accurate.

Is God wearied by people refusing Him? In the sense He is longsuffering with us, desiring we be saved. One day His longsuffering will end.

Unbelievers say “No” to God, and everything He has revealed, because they prefer their sin and self-sufficiency. This attitude is celebrated. Think of all the literature and films that hinge on the indomitable, unconquerable, human spirit.

Charles Spurgeon said of this next passage, “It is said to be one of the most difficult in all the Word of God. It may be so; I certainly did not think it was until I saw what the commentators had to say about it, and I rose up from reading them perfectly confused.”

It is Isaiah’s famous Christmas prophecy of the virgin birth of Jesus. Two of the difficulties are these:

The far-off virgin birth is somehow a contemporary “sign” to Ahaz.
Isaiah definitely refers to a child born and living during the rule of Ahaz, in addition to the future Messiah.

Isa 7:14  Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
Isa 7:15  Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good.
Isa 7:16  For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.

We know that this verse is about Jesus because Matthew cites it in his Gospel to describe Jesus’ virgin birth. “So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which is translated, “God with us” (1:22-23).

“The virgin birth of Jesus is more accurately the virginal conception of Jesus. It teaches that Jesus Christ was born apart from the normal process of procreation, but was supernaturally conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary by the power of God the Holy Spirit, born of her, without sin.”

Who is the other kid Isaiah describes, who eats “curds and honey,” and is a timestamp as to when Syria and Israel would be defeated?

Any answer starts with the use of the Hebrew word, almah. It was used of virgins, and of married young woman who were not virgins.

That’s because young, unmarried Jewish women were assumed to be virgins. A daughter could be a virgin, almah, get married and have normal relations with her husband, and still be almah.

There was no miraculous virgin birth in Judah. Isaiah described a young woman, probably in the royal household, who married, conceived a son in the normal manner, and unknowingly named him Immanuel. Before he would reach the age of discernment, Syria and Israel would be overthrown.

Immanuel wasn’t a common Jewish name. It wasn’t a name at all, but a title, “God with us.”

If this 7th century birth was not a “virgin” birth, how do we know Mary really was a virgin and not just a young woman who had committed sexual sin? Because, in the Gospel of Matthew, we also read,

Mat 1:20  But while [Joseph, the husband of Mary] thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
Mat 1:21  And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”

In Luke’s Gospel, Mary stated she had not been with a man. The angel explained to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (1:35).

Immanuel – God with us. It has always been God’s desire we enjoy His fellowship, and not that of the world.

Back to the future… In the remaining verses, Isaiah spells out the harm which will ensue if Ahaz doesn’t quit looking beyond the LORD for help.

Isa 7:17  The LORD will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father’s house – days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah.”

A costly civil war between Israel and Judah lasted for several decades.
The war was characterized by frequent battles, alliances with neighboring kingdoms, and betrayals within the two kingdoms.

The war ended with the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in 722BC, leaving only the southern kingdom of Judah to continue as an independent Jewish nation.

Isa 7:18  And it shall come to pass in that day That the LORD will whistle for the fly That is in the farthest part of the rivers of Egypt, And for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
Isa 7:19  They will come, and all of them will rest In the desolate valleys and in the clefts of the rocks, And on all thorns and in all pastures.

Egypt was the “fly,” and Assyria the “bee.” David Guzik points out, “God would pinch Judah between these mighty nations to the north and south.”

Isa 7:20  In the same day the Lord will shave with a hired razor, With those from beyond the River, with the king of Assyria, The head and the hair of the legs, And will also remove the beard.

The mafia identified hit men by saying they “painted houses.” Assyria was God’s “hired razor.” They were sent to “shave,” meaning humiliate. It was a great insult, a disgrace, for Jewish men to have their heads and beards shaved off. Legs, too, it seems.

Isa 7:21  It shall be in that day That a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep;
Isa 7:22  So it shall be, from the abundance of milk they give, That he will eat curds; For curds and honey everyone will eat who is left in the land.
Isa 7:23  It shall happen in that day, That wherever there could be a thousand vines Worth a thousand shekels of silver, It will be for briers and thorns.
Isa 7:24  With arrows and bows men will come there, Because all the land will become briers and thorns.
Isa 7:25  And to any hill which could be dug with the hoe, You will not go there for fear of briers and thorns; But it will become a range for oxen And a place for sheep to roam.”

The abundance of milk was not good. With many animals dying, a farmer’s young cow and two goats would have no young to nurse, and so the milk (and curds from it) would be plentiful. Honey would also be abundant, but only because wild flowers would grow in the desolate fields, and bee swarms would be more plentiful. The farmers would have no crops because of the ruined farmland. The vineyards would be ruined along with the cultivated land, and only briers and thorns would grow. The land would be good only for grazing by cattle and sheep.

The devil is the ruler of this world; he is its god. The world is a corrupt system designed to keep unbelievers lost for eternity, and to persecute believers. There is no alliance with the world that can be made that does not eventually cause you harm.

One of the most sinister and satanic alliances is religion. If it ain’t biblical Christianity, it is man-made. They all promise salvation can be earned by good works. It can’t. They are all the broad highway to Hell.

A.W. Tozer wrote, “An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.”

Christian you are “filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 5:19). You have God dwelling in you, that you may obey, and thereby enjoy, Him.

Check your walk with Jesus for alliances with the world. Rely only upon Him.

Unbeliever: What or who are you relying upon to get into Heaven? Jesus was God in human flesh. Because He was born of a virgin, He did not inherit a sin nature. He could, therefore, take your place, dying in your stead for your sins. On the Cross, He took your sins upon Himself, and offers you His righteousness. It cannot be earned, only given. The provision of the forgiveness of sins is universal, but you must believe Him in order to be saved.

Jesus died; three days later, He rose from the dead. He ascended into Heaven. Any moment He will be back.

Hot Lips (Isaiah 6:1-13)

You’ve heard of the prodigal son, but have you heard of the profligate son?

In the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy, we are introduced to him. “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear” (Deuteronomy 21:18-20).

(If your kids think your discipline is harsh, read ‘em this).

Does “gluttony” carry the death penalty? The word can be translated “profligate.” It means utterly and shamelessly immoral or dissipated; thoroughly dissolute. Some other words for dissipated and dissolute are debauched, decadent, licentious, promiscuous, lecherous, wanton, lustful, libidinous, lewd, unchaste, wild, unrestrained, depraved, degenerate, corrupt… You get the idea. Definitely not talking about obesity.

In our text today, God tells Isaiah to, “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed” (v10).

It should startle us to hear that from God. What happened to “[desiring] all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (First Timothy 2:3-4)?

We saw, in chapters one through five, that Judah utterly and shamelessly immoral and dissipated; thoroughly dissolute. The nation had passed a point of “no repent.”

Isaiah models a prodigal. He confesses his sins, and rededicates to God. If Isaiah thought of himself that way, so ought we.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Seek The Lord As If You Were His Prodigal, and #2 Seek The Lord Before You Become Profligate.

#1 – Seek The Lord As If You Were His Prodigal (v1-8)

The parable of the prodigal son is found in the Gospel of Luke. A younger son asks his father for his inheritance early and then squanders it all in a distant country on riotous living. He comes to his senses and returns to his father’s house. He is welcomed back by his father with open arms.

Is it going too far to think of Isaiah, and therefore ourselves, as prodigal? We may not be drunkards wallowing in a pig pen, but until we see Jesus, we continue to struggle with our unredeemed flesh.

We do not mature as Christians unless we become increasingly sensitive to our sin.

William Beveridge wrote, “I cannot pray, except I sin. I cannot preach, but I sin. My very repentance needs to be repented of, and the tears I shed need washing in the blood of Christ.”

True – but don’t wallow in that truth. Alexander MacLaren wrote, “Embrace in one act the two truths – thine own sin, and God’s infinite mercy in Jesus Christ.”

Isaiah will be brought to woe, seeing his sinfulness. The effect is an eager, bold desire to serve the Lord.

Isa 6:1  In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.

Uzziah reigned 52yrs. He was a good king, until he wasn’t. He decided that he could act as a priest. He tried to light incense in the Temple, which was a priests duty and privilege. Before he could, he was struck with leprosy. The account in Second Chronicles reads, “when he was strong his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, for he transgressed against the LORD” (26:10).

Weakness is your strength. It humbles you to seek the Lord’s help at all times. You might be familiar with the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel all night. Geno is teaching through Genesis on Wednesday nights. He said, “Jacob had incredible vigor. But if he was going to get to Israel, he could have no self-sufficiency. And so the Lord grabbed him.”

When you think you are strong, physically, or spiritually, you are wrestling with God. Tap out yield to the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is only when you know that you are weak that you are strong.

The first five chapters occur after Isaiah was called and commissioned. We needed to see Judah as profligate. Otherwise God’s message for Isaiah seems a harsh over-reaction.

National transfer of power can be a turbulent time. Judah’s throne might be empty, but God was seated on His far greater, more glorious, throne in Heaven.

Nations rage against one another and God. He remains in charge. His mighty providence, without violating man’s free will, keeps His romance of redemption on track to the consummation of the age.

Isaiah was transported to the Temple in Heaven.

No one can see God in His fullness. Nevertheless a lot of Bible characters are said to have seen the Lord. He can accommodate us when necessary.

Isa 6:2  Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
Isa 6:3  And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!”

“Seraphim” are an order of angels. This is their only appearance in the Bible. It’s a doozy. Isaiah’s description makes them sound weird, but like everything in Heaven, they are intensely beautiful. Why they cover their faces and feet, we are not told, so we won’t speculate.

Heaven and the spirit realm are sort of a melting pot of spirit beings, good and evil. The ones we know some things about are Seraphim, Cherubim, Archangels, Angels, Principalities, Powers, Rulers of Darkness, Wicked Spirits, Thrones, Dominions, Spirits in Prison, Demons, and Seducing Spirits.

There is something called a Divine Council. We know, too, that there are horses in Heaven:

There are the Four Horsemen in the Revelation.
Jesus returns on a great white stead.
We accompany Jesus on horses.

And don’t forget – All dogs go to Heaven.

The three-fold repetition of “Holy,” and God using the plural word “Us,” are consistent with the Doctrine of the Trinity. There is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God.

Isa 6:4  And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

Isaiah smelled, saw, heard, and felt these physical phenomena. There were doorposts, a structure, smoke. Heaven is tangible, permanent. Abraham and the other patriarchs lived on Earth looking towards it. We are going to retire there.

Isa 6:5  So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.”

A friend of mine, Pastor Terry Michaels of Calvary Austin, tweeted, “Ministry is the only vocation where feeling qualified becomes a disqualification.”

Embrace your insufficiency to do anything apart from grace. Just don’t morbidly dwell on what a sinner you are. You are a believing sinner, justified by God.

Isa 6:6  Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar.
Isa 6:7  And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.”

The Tabernacle in the wilderness, and later Solomon’s Temple, and later still Zerubbabel’s Second Temple, were modeled after the one in Heaven.

There are two altars where this coal could have come from:

The Golden Altar standing in the Holy Place, called the Altar of Incense.
The Brazen Altar standing at the very entrance of the court and called the altar of the burnt offering.

Whichever one it was, the altar symbolizes the provision which God had made in the Temple and its services for sin. One commentator said, “The live coal expresses the ideas of atonement, propitiation, satisfaction, forgiveness, cleansing, and reconciliation. Isaiah is left in no doubt when the seraph explains: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.’ ”

A substitute was sacrificed on the altar so that God could cleanse Isaiah. God did all the heavy lifting.

Isa 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

John Gill wrote, “This shows the true nature and effect of an application of pardon; it gives a man freedom and boldness in the presence of God, and stimulates to a ready and cheerful obedience to his will, and engages him with the utmost alacrity in his service.”

Isaiah the prodigal. I admit I’ve never thought of him that way. But it would seem he thought of himself that way, confessing his sin, and more than that – identifying with his profligate nation.

Christians are prodigals. We can take for granted our spiritual inheritance. We can leave our first love. We can be asleep in the light. We sometimes don’t control our tongue. We can be hearers of the Word, not doers. We need from time to time to stir-up our gifts.

Get back to where you once belonged.

#2 – Seek The Lord Before You Become Profligate (v9-13)

Profligate is not a deeper state of prodigal.

A prodigal is a son (or daughter), a believing sinner who has been declared righteous.
A profligate is an unbeliever, a sinner not born again into the family of God.

When we say, “Seek the Lord before you become profligate,” we are warning unbelievers that there will come a time when it is too late for you to be saved.

It is always too late after you die.
It can also be too late before you die. It was for Judah.

Isa 6:9  And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
Isa 6:10  “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.”

Despite God’s powerful Word, they remained utterly and shamelessly immoral or dissipated; thoroughly dissolute.

Unrepented sin dulled them until they become completely deaf and blind. John Fish writes, “It is entirely in keeping with the character of God, and it is the repeated teaching of Scripture, that those who are depraved and have continually hardened themselves to the light of God may justly be cut off by God and excluded from further light.”

The apostle Paul warned of this in the first chapter of the New Testament Book of Romans. If unbelievers continue to ignore God’s gracious attempts to save them, God will “give them over” (v24, 26, 28).

J. B. Phillips says, “They gave up God. So God gave them up.”

The Message version is straightforward, “So God said, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.”

Unbeliever, I beg you to listen carefully. Continue to resist God drawing you to Himself and, if you die in your sins, you will be consigned to an eternity of conscious suffering in the Lake of Fire.

There could come a time before you die when you can no longer repent and be saved. Most of Judah were examples to us.

Not everyone in Judah was dull to God. By His providence, God always has a remnant of believers.

Isa 6:11  Then I said, “Lord, how long?”…

Isaiah could only ask this if he knew and believed God would keep His promises to the Jews. It was not a matter of if He would keep His promises, but when.

The word “Israel” can be found over 2500 times in the Bible. It occurs 73 times in the New Testament. In all but three of those occurrences, it refers to national, ethnic Israel.

Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum writes, “The Church is never called, and is not, a ‘spiritual Israel’ or a ‘new Israel.’ The term ‘Israel’ is either used of the nation or the people as a whole, or of the believing remnant within. It is never used of the Church in general or of Gentile believers in particular.”

Christians tend to think of the Lord dealing one-on-one with individuals. He deals with nations as well:

Today Israel as a nation is blinded (Second Corinthians 3:15).
God is still saving individual Jews (Romans 11:1).

Isa 6:11  Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate,
Isa 6:12  The LORD has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

The punishment would last until “the land is utterly desolate.” Notice the emphasis on the land:

The cities and houses upon the land will be abandoned.
The citizens will be “removed… far away” from the land.
Most of the land would be “forsaken.”

This would occur in the sixth century when King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah three times. The third time was bad. He destroyed the Temple, ruined the land, and took captives. What we call the Babylonian Captivity would last 70 years.

Why 70 years?

The Jews were to observe a Sabbath day every seventh day of the week.

They were supposed to observe a Sabbath year every seventh year, not planting crops, letting the land rest.

Every 50th year was Jubilee. Besides not planting their crops, they were to release people from their debts, releasing all indentured servants, and return property to who owned it.  

This wasn’t a brilliant agricultural strategy. It was all about trusting YHWH. It took faith to let your rich farmland lay fallow. You were relying completely on God.

I like to point out how silly people have made Sabbath keeping. I ran across a crazy workaround the rabbi’s came up with.

They devised the heter mechira. It is a sale permit which allows Jews to temporarily “sell” their land to non-Jews for the Sabbath year, so they may ignore it. So-called Sabbath ‘keepers’ always seems to find a way to keep it without keeping it.

God warned Israel if they did not keep that ordinance He would remove them from the land and enforce the Sabbath-rest law (Leviticus 26:34-35, 43).

The duration of the punishment was decided by the years they owed the Lord by not obeying the Sabbath of the land.

God wanted for His nation to enjoy Him and His promises, to rest in Him. He never meant for His Law to be a burden. The leaders made it hard and heavy.

It is God’s desire we enjoy our relationship with Him. One of the early creeds begins, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.” One commentator said, “What could be more liberating, more thrilling, more amazing than that the God who made the universe would come to you, a hopeless sinner, and point you to the death of his Son where sins are paid for, and then say to you, “Your first and greatest obligation is that you enjoy supremely what is supremely enjoyable? Namely, me and my Son in the power of my Spirit.”

Isa 6:13  But yet a tenth will be in it, And will return and be for consuming, As a terebinth tree or as an oak, Whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump.”

A small portion, a 10th – believers – would be spared. Daniel and his three friends, for example. This 10th which survived the exile is compared to a tree. The tree will be cut down so that only the stump remains. From this stump comes the remnant.

God is often criticized for the wholesale slaughter of various nations in the Promised Land. Joshua was instructed to kill everyone, including animals. God had been striving with these various Gentile nations to repent of their wickedness. We know that they had heard the Word of God. The people of Jericho, for example, were terrified when the Israelites arrived.

They were terrified because they knew God was with the Jews.
They were terrified, but they would not repent.

Could they have repented? Rahab, the harlot, did, and she and her household were spared. The city was hardened against God. It was past the point of repentance. They refused the knowledge of God, and brought judgment upon themselves.

F. C. Jennings wrote, “It seems like a strange and sad thing that the prophet Isaiah is sent to a blind, deaf, and hard-hearted people, yet we may safely say at once that God never hardens hearts that would otherwise be soft. He does not blind the eyes of those who would see.”

Was Isaiah’s ministry a failure? Quite the opposite:

A remnant would be saved so that the Savior could be born.
The dull, deaf, and blind response to his message was a witness they were profligates deserving judgment.

Isaiah spoke to them plainly. At one point the Jews say, “He speaks to us as though we were babies” (28:10). They willfully rejected the Word, so God gave them over, as promised.

Is it too late for the United States, as a nation? That will answer itself as time goes on. A case is easily made that our nation deserves God’s judgment. Or to put it another way, it would be no surprise.

Isaiah received a truly awesome commission…But so do we.

Jesus told us to “Go!” with the Gospel, making disciples, until He comes for us. Plain and powerful, the Gospel transforms lives in every nation, people, tribe, and tongue.

Richard Watson explained, “Not only is there the Word, and the ministry of it, but a special influence of the Spirit, as distinct both from one & the other. There is that operation of the Spirit by which men are put into a capacity to repent when they hear the Word.”

He is here, He is here, He is working among us. He is here, He is here and he wants to work a wonder.

I Woe, I Woe, It’s Off To Woe I Go (Isaiah 4:2-5:30)

Chances are you’ve not heard of Knowles Shaw.

He was a 19th century evangelist, baptizing over 20,000. One biographer wrote, “Crowds gathered in breathless expectation to hear the ‘Singing Evangelist.’ In mostly small towns and congregations he would mix sermons, delivered with great fervor, and hymns, led with great skill.”

Shaw wrote around 58 hymns, in several languages, including the classic, Bringing in the Sheaves.

Isaiah was a singing evangelist.

We read, “Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard” (5:1).

Isaiah’s “Beloved” is the LORD.
“The vineyard… is the house of Israel” (5:7).
The men of Judah are His “pleasant plant” (5:7).

The song isn’t joyful; it is woeful, on account of the Jews having turned to idols from God.

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 God Delights In Singing Joyful Songs To You, and #2 God Dislikes Singing Woeful Songs To You.

#1 – God Delights In Singing Joyful Songs To You (4:2-6)

Another prophet, Zephaniah, said, “The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” (3:17).

I think it is safe to say God sings to, and about, all believers, not just Israel.

Before Isaiah sang the woeful song of chapter five, he gave his hearers a glimpse of their nation’s joyful future. He announced characteristics of the Kingdom of God on Earth that we mostly refer to as the Millennium. We call it that because it will last for one thousand years, beginning at Jesus’ Second Coming to end the Great Tribulation, followed by eternity.

A remnant of Jews will be “left” in Jerusalem, the LORD having “washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.”

This has application beyond the Babylonian captivity, to the Great Tribulation. The Jews who live through its blood and burning will be saved.

Isa 4:2  In that day the Branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious; And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing For those of Israel who have escaped.

Meet “the Branch of the LORD.” Isaiah will explain the title more fully, saying, “And there shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of His roots” (11:1).

The Branch is a person who descends from the line of Jesse, the father of David.
In the Revelation Jesus affirms, “I am the Root and the Offspring of David” (22:16).

“The fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing” during His thousand year reign over the nations. The curse inflicted upon the Earth as a result of Adam’s sin will be lifted, at least in part. Isaiah records that the earth will break forth in abundance, and desert places will produce rich vegetation (35:1–2).

Isa 4:3  And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy – everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem.

God always has a remnant of people. In the Tribulation, ⅔ of the Jews on Earth will be killed.
A remnant of ⅓ will be “left.” They will be “holy,” meaning saved.

Isa 4:4  When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning,

This is a reserved, almost poetic, description of the judgments of the Great Tribulation that bring Jews to salvation.

There are a handful of names for the Great Tribulation:

Day of the Lord (Isa 2:12)
Day of the Vengeance of God (Isa 34:8; 63:1-6)
The Seventieth Week of Daniel (Dan 9:24-27)
The Time of the End (Dan 12:9)
The Great Day of His Wrath (Rev 6:17)
The Hour of His Judgment (Rev 14:7)
The End of the World (Mt 13:40,49)
The Indignation (Isa 26:20; 34:2)
The Time of Trouble as never before (Dan 12:1)

One name which ought to be more prominent is often unused by Christians. “For behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah… Alas! For that day is great, So that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, But he shall be saved out of it” (30:3, 7).

The Great Tribulation effects all who dwell on the Earth, but its primary purpose is to convince and convert Israel. It is not to test or purify the church. In fact, as we teach, the church will have been resurrected and raptured prior to the Time of Jacob’s Trouble.

Isa 4:5  then the LORD will create above every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and above her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering.
Isa 4:6  And there will be a tabernacle for shade in the daytime from the heat, for a place of refuge, and for a shelter from storm and rain.

You can’t help but think of the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. Israel was protected and guided on their journey through the wilderness by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. That type in Exodus will become reality in the Millennium. God will dwell among His people, and He will fulfill every promise He made to Abraham’s descendants.

In Seinfeld, Elaine’s date asked her to shut-up because his song came on the radio – Desperado, by the Eagles. Since God sings over you… What song is He singing?

#2 – God Dislikes Singing Woeful Songs To You (5:1-30)

We don’t know how often Isaiah sang. I’d like to think he did it a lot.

Music is a powerful media. Some Christians disdain modern choruses, but many of them are straight outta the Bible, if not inspired by the Bible.
I have a hard time memorizing anything, but I can remember choruses and hymns.

Isa 5:1  Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard On a very fruitful hill.
Isa 5:2  He dug it up and cleared out its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, And also made a winepress in it…

The first time someone described something as “turn key,” I was stumped. It is used of a product or service that is 100% ready-to-go after it is purchased, right out of the box.

God’s vineyard was turn key.

Judah was planted in a 100% ready vineyard. There was nothing for them to do except enjoy the Lord and bear fruit. Fruit is not produced by effort. It comes naturally (or in this case, supernaturally) by abiding in the vine.

Our initial reaction to the vineyard metaphor is to think that it is up to us to procure land, clear it of obstacles, and build a tower. The apostle Paul referred to it as our beginning the Christian life in the Spirit, then trying, in our unredeemed flesh, to be made perfect.

Jesus said, “It is finished!” We are to bear fruit – that’s all.

Do we “Let go & let God?” NO. We day-by-day deliberately yield to the Spirit, by whom we obey the Word. That is hardly “letting go.” Our spiritual passion ought to have us praying without ceasing, running the race without the weight of sin, straining forward to what lies ahead… pressing on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Alan Redpath’s insight on this: “Give up the struggle and the fight; relax in the omnipotence of the Lord Jesus; look up into His lovely face and as you behold Him, He will transform you into His likeness. You do the beholding – He does the transforming. There is no short-cut to holiness.”

Isa 5:2  … So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, But it brought forth wild grapes.

“Wild grapes” is an illustrative summary of verses eight through twenty-three. Those verses will show us the “wild” life in the flesh that the Jews chose over the fruitful life in the Spirit God offered.

Isa 5:3  “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
Isa 5:4  What more could have been done to My vineyard That I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, Did it bring forth wild grapes?

Our text is about Judah, but it has further reach. For example, God gets blamed for the evil in the world. “Why doesn’t God do something?” is an all-too common complaint.

God the Father says, “What more could have been done than I have done?”

It is a statement worth meditating upon. Think of the life of Jesus, from the humiliation of Him becoming man in the virgin birth, all the way through His humbling of Himself on the Cross, and His remaining for eternity the God-man. “What more? indeed.

Isa 5:5  And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
Isa 5:6  I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned or dug, But there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds That they rain no rain on it.”
Isa 5:7  For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.

Judah ought to have modeled and exemplified “justice” and “righteousness” to the surrounding nations. Because he did not, a nation would conquer Judah. That nation would be Babylon, leaving Jerusalem in the condition described.

We mostly think of our one-on-one relationship with Jesus. We must also think of our nation’s relationship to the Lord.

Isaiah was prophecy’s man o’ Woe. He sang (maybe) a series of six “Woes.”

Isa 5:8  Woe to those who join house to house; They add field to field, Till there is no place Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!
Isa 5:9  In my hearing the LORD of hosts said, “Truly, many houses shall be desolate, Great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant.
Isa 5:10  For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, And a homer of seed shall yield one ephah.”
The wealthier, more prosperous, Jews were profiting from the misfortune of others.

Trouble and tragedy can bring out the best in a nation. We saw a little of that after September 11th. It can also bring out the worst.

Isa 5:11  Woe to those who rise early in the morning, That they may follow intoxicating drink; Who continue until night, till wine inflames them!
Isa 5:12  The harp and the strings, The tambourine and flute, And wine are in their feasts…

This could be in almost any secular college or university handbook, and some Christian ones, describing student life on campus. When our kids were getting ready to graduating high school, Cuesta College was the preferred destination for many Kings & Tulare county kids. Several would rent a home off campus. It wasn’t to have a quiet place to study.

As the Joker said in the first Tim Burton Batman, “Commence au festival.” Loosely translated, “Let’s get this party started!”

Isa 5:12 …But they do not regard the work of the LORD, Nor consider the operation of His hands.

I get asked about drinking all the time. You can drink… But there are a lot of ‘buts’ to consider.

For example, drinking alcohol, past a certain point, relaxes moral inhibitions. People say and do things they wouldn’t normally do. Shouldn’t do.

A believer ought to have a heightened morality, be spiritually awake, not the opposite. The apostle Paul said, “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:18-19).

Isa 5:13  Therefore my people have gone into captivity, Because they have no knowledge; Their honorable men are famished, And their multitude dried up with thirst.

Instead of drunken feasting, they would experience hunger and thirst leading up to, and during, their 70 years of captivity in Babylon.

In verse thirteen, in the NKJV, if you eliminate the italicized words added by translators, it reads, “Because no knowledge.” They did not retain the knowledge of God, but instead went their own way.

Any attack in our nation on the Word of God or the preaching of the Gospel is an attempt to not retain the knowledge of God.

Isa 5:14  Therefore Sheol has enlarged itself And opened its mouth beyond measure; Their glory and their multitude and their pomp, And he who is jubilant, shall descend into it.
Isa 5:15  People shall be brought down, Each man shall be humbled, And the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.

“Sheol,” in the Old Testament, is a general reference to the realm of the dead. A lot of Jews would die.

Isa 5:16  But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, And God who is holy shall be hallowed in righteousness.
God would be known for justice and righteousness either by Judah’s repentance or by her being disciplined.

Isa 5:17  Then the lambs shall feed in their pasture, And in the waste places of the fat ones strangers shall eat.

The land would go to pasture for unattended flocks. “Strangers” would pillage the former large estates.

Isa 5:18  Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, And sin as if with a cart rope;
Isa 5:19  That say, “Let Him make speed and hasten His work, That we may see it; And let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, That we may know it.”

The “cords” and “rope” illustrate being attached to their sin, tied to it. It was burdensome – as if they were oxen drawing a cart.

Simultaneously, they wanted YHWH to “speed and hasten His work,” and by that they meant saving them. They expected God to save them, but they would make no effort to repent of their sin.

Isa 5:20  Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Billy Graham said, “We have changed our moral code to fit our behavior instead of changing our behavior to harmonize with our moral code. Nothing is firm today.”

Things no longer need to even make sense.

Recently a Senator asked a Supreme Court nominee to define the word “woman.” Her reply: “I can’t.”

We are legalizing just about everything that is biblical immoral. Hazen G. Werner, who served as a United Methodist bishop in Ohio, Hong Kong and Taiwan, once said: “There is no more startling phenomenon in our day than the respectabilization of evil.”

Isa 5:21  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, And prudent in their own sight!

In upcoming chapters, Judah makes alliances with other nations, trusting them over God.

Do you have alliances with the world? Are you looking for love in all the wrong places? Everything you need for life and godly living is in the Bible, unlocked for you by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Isa 5:22  Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, Woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink,
Isa 5:23  Who justify the wicked for a bribe, And take away justice from the righteous man!

The leaders were “mighty” and “valiant” drunkards. It softened them to accept bribes.

The “Woes” were over; Isaiah brings it home.

Isa 5:24  Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, And the flame consumes the chaff, So their root will be as rottenness, And their blossom will ascend like dust; Because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 5:25  Therefore the anger of the LORD is aroused against His people; He has stretched out His hand against them And stricken them, And the hills trembled. Their carcasses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.

In the 6th century BC, Babylon would ruin Jerusalem.

During the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, Babylon will again target the Jews. Read chapters 17&18 of the Revelation.

Isa 5:26  He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar, And will whistle to them from the end of the earth; Surely they shall come with speed, swiftly.

The Lord would give Babylon, and “other nations” later, Israel’s GPS coordinates, raising a banner, whistling to attack.

Isa 5:27  No one will be weary or stumble among them, No one will slumber or sleep; Nor will the belt on their loins be loosed, Nor the strap of their sandals be broken;
Isa 5:28  Whose arrows are sharp, And all their bows bent; Their horses’ hooves will seem like flint, And their wheels like a whirlwind.
Isa 5:29  Their roaring will be like a lion, They will roar like young lions; Yes, they will roar And lay hold of the prey; They will carry it away safely, And no one will deliver.
Isa 5:30  In that day they will roar against them Like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks to the land, Behold, darkness and sorrow; And the light is darkened by the clouds.

This final dirge has the feel of Boromir’s classic description of Mordor in The Fellowship of the Ring.

With Judah, however, there would be no sixth century happy ending. There will be a holy ending, when the Lord returns at the end of Jacob’s Trouble.

Remember the hit song, Don’t worry, Be happy? It’s gonna be in your mind now; sorry.

We talk about the pursuit of happiness, but as believers we are told to “Pursue… holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). The apostle Peter wrote, “But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY” (First Peter 1:15-16).

“Holy” means to be set apart. When you were saved, Jesus set you apart from the world for Himself. He took you out of darkness and brought you into His light. He gave you the gift of God the Holy Spirit to indwell you. You are enabled to obey Him, empowered to serve Him. By His grace you can hear Him singing with joy.

No woes, Be holy.