The
Isaiah Essay – Part V
Changes
and update of analysis of Isaiah’s 66 chapters
*************** UPDATE:
A synopsis/listing of all Isaiah’s future
prophecy dealing with events far beyond the confines of the prophecies pertaining
to his days regarding the Israelites, chapter by chapter:
Note: Only ‘prophecies within prophecies’ pertaining to Jesus’
first or second advents [there are a few of these] and prophecy covering the
Days of the Lord and future events concerning modern times will be featured
mostly to show that the themes from start to finish in all of Isaiah’s work are
consistent with a single author proclaiming monumental changes are ahead for
mankind. If we understand that Isaiah
was just the messenger [albeit a VIP one] delivering what he was instructed
through the holy spirit and the Saviour he followed in ancient times then what
is foretold and written in Isaiah is profound and profoundly relevant to us
today also --- upon whom these prophecies will no doubt ‘fall’ in our future in
quite dramatic and spectacular ways..
An ‘overview’ of Isaiah, future prophecies, from
Babylonian captivity onwards:
8 categories, i.e. [1st
category] Prior to Babylonian siege and captivity, [2nd category] Babylonian
siege and captivity [3rd category] after Babylonian captivity [categories
4&5]1st and 2nd advents, [categories 6&7] 1st and 2nd Diaspora’s [8th
category] “during the millennium or after”
*categories
designated by a number in brackets throughout also, e.g., Category 1 = [1]
Isaiah
chapter’s 1-39 ‘Future’ prophecies ---chapter by chapter:
Note:
Not all chapters will have future prophecy but a great many do indeed
corroborate middle and end chapters of Isaiah nevertheless.
Chapter 1:
[5] 2nd advent:
known by most as “the second coming” Plus [8]
“During
the millennium or after
[Though
there have in fact been many ‘comings’ i.e. “days of the Lord” or interventions
in world history]
NIV Isaiah 1:24-29
24 Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty, the Mighty One of
25 I
will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and
remove all your impurities.
26 I
will restore your judges as in days of old, your counselors as at the
beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of
27 Zion
will be redeemed with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness.
28 But
rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the LORD will
perish.
Support
prophecies: Malachi 3:3, Zechariah 13:9
Chapter 2: [5] 2nd advent, plus, [8] “During
the millennium or after”
NIV Isaiah 2:1-5
1 This is
what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning
2 In the
last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among
the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream
to it.
3 Many
peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we
may walk in his paths." The law will go out from
4 He
will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They
will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war
anymore.
Supporting prophecies: Micah 4:1-3, Zechariah14:4, 9, 11&17
Additional
support info from Micah:
NIV Micah 4:6-8
6 "In
that day," declares the LORD, "I will gather the lame; I will
assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief.
7 I
will make the lame a remnant, those driven away a strong nation. The LORD
will rule over them in
8 As for
you, O watchtower of the flock, O stronghold
of the Daughter of
Verses
10-21 below
could be a possible
first Diaspora application at the 67-70 AD ‘great’ tribulation but could in
fact be ‘timeless’ for all of God’s ‘day of the Lord’ interventions in history,
however there is definite support for 2nd advent from
the book of Revelation. [see below]
NIV Isaiah 2:10-21
10 Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from dread of the
LORD and the splendor of his majesty!
11 The
eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; the
LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
12 The LORD
Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is
exalted (and they will be humbled),
13 for all
the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of
14 for all
the towering mountains and all the high hills,
15 for
every lofty tower and every fortified wall,
16 for
every trading ship and every stately vessel.
17 The
arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the LORD
alone will be exalted in that day,
18 and the
idols will totally disappear.
19 Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from
dread of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the
earth.
20 In
that day men will throw away to the rodents and bats their idols of silver and
idols of gold, which they made to worship.
21 They
will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from dread of
the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth.
Supporting
prophecy for 2nd advent in Revelation:
KJV Revelation 6:13-17
13 And the
stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely
figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the
heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and
island were moved out of their places.
15 And the
kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief
captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid
themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 And
said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him
that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17 For the
great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
Chapter 3: [2] Babylonian siege and Captivity
[Whole Chapter verses1-26]
A
supporting ‘witness’ from Jeremiah: Lamentations chapters 1&2 specifically
with similar reasons given for destruction as Malachi’s, that of
religious leader’s culpability.
NIV Lamentations 4:10-13
10 With
their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became
their food when my people were destroyed.
11 The
LORD has given full vent to his wrath; he has poured out his fierce anger. He
kindled a fire in
12 The
kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the world's people, that
enemies and foes could enter the gates of
13 But it happened because of the sins of her prophets and
the iniquities of her priests, who shed within her the blood of the righteous.
The evil kings of those days
could be blamed for their fair share of perfidy in turning away from God ---
but they wouldn’t have done it so easily without the support of evil priests
and prophets who condoned those king’s practices without complaint apparently,
except from God’s true prophets who were in many cases murdered by kings and
priests determined to defy God.
Chapter 4:
Note: There
are two possible periods in time this chapter could be referring to
i.e.
the period 70 years after the Babylonian captivity in the times of Ezra,
Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah, however verses 5&6 don’t fit into or
correspond with that period.
Therefore
a split category is ‘tentatively’ chosen for the chapter:
For verses 1-4: [3] After the
Babylonian Captivity [the “disgrace” of
the women may have been taken away under Ezra and Zechariah’s ministries. [see “Author’s notes” below for a possible explanation]
NIV Isaiah 4:1-6
1 In
that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, "We will eat our own
food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take away
our disgrace!"
2 In
that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit
of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in
3 Those who
are left in
4 The
Lord will wash away the filth of the women of
Author’s
note: The caveat here is that while verse 1 may well be referring to Ezra and
Nehemiah’s day - verses 2-4 better fit Zechariah’s 12th the latter half of the 13th
[verses 8-9] and 14th chapters and the aftermath of both battles to
occur at Jesus coming in our future.
So,
in actuality, verses 2 through to 6 may be all prophecy for the time ahead at
Jesus coming with 5&6 definitely occurring during the 1000 year millennial
rule of Christ.
For verses 5&6: [8] “During the millennium or after”
5 Then the
LORD will create over all of
6 It
will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding
place from the storm and rain.
Author’s
note: This is actually a fascinating little prophetic revelation with verses
5&6 very likely adding a measure of support for Ezekiel’s last 8 chapters
especially if ‘Mount Zion’ is the place for Ezekiel’s Temple to be built and
not the Mount of Olives as all prophecy seems to indicate.
Nothing
like verses 5&6 has ever been done or spoken of in the scripture since the days
of the Israelites deliverance from Egypt where God had a pillar of smoke by day
and a column of fire by night in the camp of the Israelites of old to guide
them to the holy land through the wilderness.
The
‘Branch of the Lord’ is a reference to Jesus everywhere else in the OT and,
therefore here as well and it is definitely speaking of a future time as can be
plainly seen, how far into the future is the question, but verses 2, 3&4
could indeed be a reference to the period from Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai
and Zechariah’s times to the period of first advent and up until the 67-70 AD
great tribulation when Jerusalem underwent another fiery trial at that time.
There is Joel 3:21 to consider however, was
the blood ‘cleansed’ completely during the Babylonian captivity? or just the pagan women’s part in the overall situation?
Compare
to Joel 3:21 to Isaiah 4:4 above:
KJV Joel 3:21 For I will cleanse their blood that I
have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.
The
reference to ‘the women’ seems a little obscure at first but so does another
obscure reference elsewhere that doesn’t seem to have an explanation --- but could
this indeed be that explanation?:
22. How long
wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the
Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man. KJV
Jeremiah 31:22
Verse 4 could have been accomplished and
possibly was [fulfilled] as part of the Babylonian captivity and Jerusalem’s
destruction of that time because it was the women who were largely responsible
for corrupting the men of those times and drawing them away from God with their
pagan religions through intermarriage with Hebrew husbands, but that was also a
problem in Ezra and Nehemiah’s days also after the captivity.
Both
men of God decried the intermarriage [presumably with Babylonians or other
pagans present in those days] that had been going on during the years of the
captivity and after. Ezra made a really big thing of it! [Refer to all of Ezra
chapter 10 and Nehemiah 13:23-29]
However God also made a big thing of it before the captivity and
perhaps it was one of the main reasons for the corruption of God’s true
religion by the men who took more notice of their wives than they did of God.
[Refer to Jeremiah 7:18-24, 44:2-28 and note especially verses 15-22]
Chapter 5: Category?
Read on!
In the original Wikipedia
article the secular scholars supposedly noted the Isaiah of the middle chapters
was supposedly a grandiose “poet” of some sort but they failed to notice that
in this early chapter he was apparently a “singer” as well!
What the scholars really failed
to notice is that a lot of Allegory and symbolism is used throughout prophecy
that actually represents “real people and real events.”
The new article at Wikipedia has the scholars
noting there are several “songs” of the “suffering servant” and the really
strange thing is they seem to make no connection whatsoever to the fact that all
those references are to Jesus.
This particular “allegory”
[verses 1-6] of chapter 5 is a forerunner to many of Jesus’ parables in the New
Testament along very similar to almost identical lines.
One of the most consistent
things throughout Old and New Testament prophecy is the recurrent
allegorical/symbolic parable themes, using either flora or fauna to illustrate
biblical or spiritual principles. It is
in fact almost Jesus’ trademark, so to speak, mostly using flora to describe
His Kingdom in the New Testament, characteristic of nearly all His teachings.
Just as Jesus gave the explanations to his
disciples of His many parables the explanation is similarly given here for
Isaiah’s/God’s/Jesus’ song/parable in this instance also:
7 For the
vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his
pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for
righteousness, but behold a cry. KJV
Notice again the fine-line distinction
between Israel as a whole, being ‘the vineyard’ and Judah [the Jews] His
special or ‘pleasant’ plant within that vineyard.
Is this next verse a warning to us today
about cramped living quarters in city suburbs? Could be?
8 Woe
unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no
place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! KJV
Periodic solitude may be more important
than we realize --- after all don’t we jump into our RV’s at the weekends to
get away from the ‘rat-race’ of city life? To go fishing or
whatever? We call it, “getting
away from it all” and many speak of needing ‘personal’ space!
Do these next verses have a familiar ring
to them in sounding a lot like us today?
11 Woe to
those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late
at night till they are inflamed with wine.
12 They have
harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but they
have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his
hands. NIV
We do indeed love ‘to party’ and not take
much notice of God don’t we?
What about these next verses? Sound like
our society and judicial systems of today?
A possible
warning for us?
18 Woe to
those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart
ropes,
19 to
those who say, "Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it.
Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of
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.
21 Woe to
those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
22 Woe to
those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks,
23 who
acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.
24 Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass
sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away
like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the
word of the Holy One of Israel. NIV
Is this following passage of prophecy a
description of what God is going to do to us for ignoring Him? In our day and age?
If this were to be a ‘timeless’ warning for us today our modern nations
would be in serious trouble for ignoring God.
25 Therefore the LORD's anger burns against his people; his hand
is raised and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies
are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.
26 He
lifts up a banner for the distant nations, he whistles for those at the ends of
the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily!
27 Not one
of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps; not a belt is
loosened at the waist, not a sandal thong is broken.
28 Their
arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses' hoofs seem like
flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their
roar is like that of the lion, they roar like young lions; they growl as they
seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue.
30 In
that day they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks
at the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be darkened
by the clouds.
Although we haven’t changed that
much in national character from our ancestors it seems the category of this
chapter is actually that of:
[2] Babylonian siege and
Captivity
Note:
One of the character traits the author of this essay has acquired in regard to
those who denigrate or alternatively, misrepresent the word of God, is a
‘wicked’ sense of humour and this little diversion was to demonstrate the
absurdity of assuming ‘a change of pace’ equates with a change of author.
Is the author of this
essay going to be reckoned to be ‘two’ separate authors now, figuratively, by
modern day scholars --- for posterity? J Presuming our little website is even going
to be noticed. J
Chapter 6: [2] Babylonian siege and Captivity
Isaiah
‘foretells’ both diaspora’s
This
chapter is quite a key chapter in two ways:
[1.] It shows God deliberately lowering the people’s
understanding of spiritual things i.e. they were to kept from salvation for a time in not understanding the
truth anymore:
9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand
not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make
their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear
with their ears, and understand with their heart,
KJV Isaiah 6:9-10
Isaiah then
asks the natural question, “for how long?” And, is given an
answer that encompasses the complete devastation of the holy land and is a
forward projection from Isaiah’s day to the beginning of the Babylonian
captivity showing God completely forsaking His peoples at that time by allowing
them to be utterly destroyed as a nation:
11 Then said I, Lord, how long? and he answered,
Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and
the land be utterly desolate,
12 And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking
in the midst of the land. KJV Isaiah 6:11-12
[2.] What this chapter also shows is the
accuracy of prophetic announcements made by the prophets of God, Isaiah in this
case, in particular:
What the
secular scholars have missed completely is the next ‘one liner’ verse
that is
indeed somewhat a little obscure in the KJV bible but made clearer in the NIV
version:
But yet in it shall be a tenth,
and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose
substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be
the substance thereof. KJV Isaiah
6:13
NIV:[second diaspora]
And though a tenth remains in
the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave
stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the
land."
NIV Isaiah 6:13
So Isaiah was
given more than just an insight into the upcoming Babylonian captivity in the
very earliest opening stages of his prophetic work.
Whether or not
what he was given to record was completely understood by him or not is the only
thing that can be open to speculation because subsequent and following prophets
such as Ezekiel, Jeremiah and even Daniel prove out the reality and fulfilment
of these pronouncements by God for the Jewish nation.
As shown in
part 4 of this essay above Isaiah’s contemporary Hosea was the prophet who
outlined the pronouncements for the rest of Israel and specifically the
ancestors of the British and English speaking people’s
of the world. The Jews were to be the ‘stump’ of the holy peoples that was to
remain in the holy land until Jesus’ day and both secular and prophetic
biblical history prove this to be the case.
Isaiah shows
that the Jews were to be devastated again after that time though and even more
importantly in a later chapter shows that what God set in motion in this
chapter i.e. the lowering of the Jews understanding of the prophetic truth and
indeed the whole world’s understanding would not be
lifted again until Jesus’ return in our future:
And he will destroy in this
mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. KJV Isaiah 25:7
Jesus did
indeed say that His [true] disciples were privileged to understand things that
even many of God’s prophets did not understand even though they desired to
know:
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets
and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not
seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. KJV
Matthew 13:16-17
The one thing
that the secular scholars have completely overlooked and don’t even acknowledge
in any way shape or form is what Ezekiel in addition to Micah shows and the New
Testament shows and that it is it is absolutely necessary for a prophet or
servant of God to have the spirit of God to comprehend the things of God:
And the Spirit of the Lord fell
upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the
Lord; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come
into your mind, every one of them. KJV Ezekiel 11:5
Although
Isaiah deals mostly with the Jews and their fates in his 66 chapters this
little insight from the earlier chapters of Ezekiel highlights not only what
the modern day Jews claim in that they think they are all of Israel, but very
clearly that the rest of the houses of Israel’s fates are tied to the Jews and
that God is intensely interested in all of Israel:
14 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
15 Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren,
the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, are they unto whom
the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the Lord: unto us is
this land given in possession.
16 Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; Although I have cast them far off
among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet
will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.
[speaking of the bulk of Israel that
are not Jews]
17 Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; I will even gather you from the
people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and
I will give you the land of Israel.
18 And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the
detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence.
19 And I will give them one heart, and
I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony
heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
20 That they may walk in my statutes,
and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will
be their God.
21 But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their
detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon
their own heads, saith the Lord God.
KJV Ezekiel 11:14-21
What all the
New Testament shows as do many of the prophets just as verse 21 here in Ezekiel
shows is that God is not dealing with nations in the interim period between the
destruction of Old Israel and the creation of the Kingdom of God at Jesus’
return on a ‘national’ basis but on an ‘individual’ basis according to the
individual’s sins. Just as the previous
chapter 5 of Isaiah shows very clearly as well, this time in the NIV for a
little more clarity:
15 So man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the
arrogant humbled.
16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God
will show himself holy by his righteousness.
17 Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; lambs will feed among
the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness
as with cart ropes,
19 to those who say, "Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we
may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we
may know it."
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.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own
sight.
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing
drinks,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.
24 Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in
the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the
Holy One of Israel. NIV Isaiah 5:15-25
The time for
God to deal with nations as a whole once again is approaching an unknowing and
uncaring world and most probably won’t be all that far into our future as all
prophecy reveals and is cited by all the prophets to be at the time of
Jesus’/the holy one of Israel’s return to earth as revealed in Daniel also:
"In the time of those
kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that
will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush
all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.
NIV Daniel 2:44
In the
meantime in modern times we find modern man often downplaying the prophetic word of God as being written by
multiple author’s and inferring Isaiah’s author’s to be dreamers and poets or
disciples of Isaiah’s and not crediting Isaiah’s work to it’s
real author and this is what God says of
men who do that:
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own
sight.
Of special
note in this 6th chapter are the earlier verses and the way in which
God draws attention to Isaiah’s calling as a prophet. [Isaiah6:1-8]
There are only
three Old Testament prophets that were given such intricate visions and
detailed insights into God’s heavenly throne, and, all three are major players
in the prophetic sphere, with Daniel’s 7th chapter coming close to
being a forerunner to the book of Revelation, John from The New Testament makes
a 4th and very nearly summarizes the final fulfilment of all the other three’s
prophetic work with Zechariah’s prophecies paralleling Revelation so closely
that there can be no doubt that the Author of all their work was and still is
the Son of God, The master prophet and the Holy one of Israel, who declares by
an angel in Revelation that His testimony is “the Spirit of Prophecy”. [Revelation 19:10]
Isaiah was of
course one of those three major prophets, followed by Ezekiel and Daniel in
third but by no means last place. We’ve
left Zechariah out of this assertion because he is considered a minor prophet
but the content of his prophecies concerning the coming kingdom of God would
place him pretty close to
4th
place with the prophecies of John in Revelation making him the 5th
who had phenomenal insights into the kingdom of God that have no equals in any
other periods of biblical or secular history to date.
What the
secular scholars have failed to understand
in declaring Isaiah’s middle chapters written by a poet with lofty notions
of mountains raised and valleys lowered which are indeed pictured as we’ve
shown in the essay itself to occur at Jesus’ return in our future is that all
of the KJV bible was written in lofty prose style poetic language --- it was
simply the style of the times in the year 1611AD but that in no way diminishes
the impact or reality of what God outlines in Isaiah and pronounces for the
future ---our future. So we repeat
verse 21 in Isaiah 5:21:
21 Woe to those who are wise in their
own eyes and clever in their own sight.
A few
university degrees with a bunch of letters after one’s name gives nobody the
right to claim in their starry eyed self importance
that they are experts on the word of God, even those with theology degrees that
are grounded in the traditions of men:
But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. KJV Matthew 15:9
The remainder
of the earlier chapters of Isaiah from chapter 7 up to about chapter 40 [middle
Isaiah] fall under the general category of some local prophecy that occurs just
prior to, during and some post exilic prophecy or what we’ve indeed termed
‘local prophecy’ of those times and much of that to the enemies of the Jews.
So for those chapters
we’ll simply highlight and list prophecies that are far future prophecies
contained in these chapters that align perfectly with middle and third Isaiah
to show the single authorship of Isaiah perfectly clearly. [Chapters45-66]
Chapter
7:
[1] Prior to Babylonian siege
and captivity plus [2] Babylonian siege and
captivity
[4]1st advent
A difficult
chapter to categorize under a single category because it also includes besides
pre–Babylonian siege and captivity elements, also pronouncements for the
Babylonian captivity and a fair amount of local prophecy dealing with the Jews
and the Ephriamites [ancestors to the English
speaking peoples] and in addition has what we call ‘a prophecy within a
prophecy’ and an important one of Jesus’ first advent and a sign that was to be
given of the ‘virgin’ birth of Jesus:
14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and
choose the good.
KJV Isaiah 7:14-15
Isaiah shows
in this chapter that a lot of the prophetic content of his work and indeed most
[but not all] of his prophetic book even in these early chapters is directed
towards the Jews and their future for uncountable centuries to come from
Isaiah’s day:
And he said, Hear ye now, O
house of David; is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my
God also? KJV Isaiah 7:13
For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the
good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. KJV Isaiah 7:16
Chapter 7 is
basically the beginning of pronouncements against the enemies of the Jews by
God for the next lead up chapters to the 40th and strangely enough in spite of
the claim of modern day Jews that they are all of Israel one of those
enemies was Ephraim one of the predominant tribes of the ten tribe house of
Israel!
KJV Isaiah 7:1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the
son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin
the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war
against it, but could not prevail against it.
This one chapter 7 and the following 8th
chapter lay to rest once and for all that notion that the Jews are all Israel
only.
Showing this very clearly we find God’s
pronouncement against this attempt by Israel aided by a Syrian Ally to attack
the Jews at Jerusalem and the destruction of Ephraim as a nation within 65
years into their future:
7 Thus saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall It come to
pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim
be broken, that it be not a people. KJV Isaiah 7:7-8
Any student of prophecy should be able
to see that very clearly but apparently neither Jews nor secular scholars can see
this prophetic truth that the Jews who are a part of Israel only were not
all of Israel and this is an important concept
to keep in mind when studying prophecy.
Some of modern Christianity does understand but they are in an extreme
minority.
[*
refer to our ‘hand of God’ article at our website.]
What we need
to understand at this point is that the ancient Israelites were a much more
powerful influence in the ancient world than historians or scholars, secular or
otherwise would credit under King David and reached their peak of influence
under King Solomon.
The Hebrew
nations didn’t get as much coverage as the more historically well known and other influential nations such as Egypt, the
Assyrians, the Babylonians, Medes, Persian et al of those times and later the
Greek and Roman Empires.
Since the writings of the Hebrew
[Israelite/English] bible is not regarded by anyone as serious history and has
of late had many attempts to relegate it to mere ‘myth’ by those modern authors
such as Michael Baigent our modern world has a naturally distorted view of what
God plans for it in the future.
In fact our modern societies have very little
to no understanding whatsoever of what God plans to bring to fruition through
the writings of His prophets such as Isaiah.
Hence the need for a comprehensive analysis of the prophecies of the
major prophet Isaiah concerning our future and that of the kingdom of God in
this part the Isaiah essay.
As far as the
local content of this prophecy goes concerning these ancestors of the English
people’s combining
with Syria against the House of David [Jews] went, the God of the
Old Testament pronounced that their attempts to conquer the Jews with their ill conceived confederacy would not stand:
Thus saith the Lord God, It
shall not stand, neither shall It come to pass. KJV
Isaiah 7:7
But the
prophecy of Chapter 7 encompassed a lot more than just local prophecy as it spanned the history of the kingdom of
Syria and Israel’s kings showing that 7-8 hundred years into the future neither
of those nations would have kings and that the holy land’s previous productive
lands would be reduced in productivity to a fraction of what it once was
apparently right up to the time of Jesus and the sign given to King Ahaz of
that time [of the virgin birth]could not possibly have been for him [because he
would never see it] but for the house of David[Judah/Jews] and for a distant
time:
16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the
good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
17 The Lord shall bring upon thee, and
upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the
day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for
the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee
that is in the land of Assyria.
19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate
valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all
bushes.
20 In the same day shall the Lord
shave with a rasor that is hired, namely, by them
beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet:
and it shall also consume the beard.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a
young cow, and two sheep;
22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall
give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every
one eat that is left in the land.
23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be,
where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings,
it shall even be for briers and thorns.
24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land
shall become briers and thorns.
25 And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall
not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending
forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle. KJV Isaiah 7:16-25
Verse 16 above
is a reference to Jesus as the previous two verses 14 and 15 attest and is
worthy of repetition here:
14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and
choose the good.
KJV Isaiah 7:14-15
The conditions
depicted here of the state of the Holy land after the Babylonian captivity
right up to Jesus’ day showing the land of Judah was once much more productive
than it is today is an interesting one because of the prophecy of Isaiah
Chapter 5:1-10 --- practically the first thing Jesus is going to do when His
throne is established in Ezekiel’s
third temple is to have rivers of waters flowing through the holy land and the
hills dripping with abundant produce:
9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of
waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble:
for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my
firstborn.
10 Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and
declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will
gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
11 For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of
him that was stronger than he.
12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the
height of Zion, and shall flow together to the
goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young
of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden;
and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old
together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and
make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14 And I will satiate the soul of the
priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
saith the Lord. KJV Jeremiah 31:9-14
This prophecy
of Jeremiah’s above confirms two points raised in this
essay on Isaiah’s work:
[a] Zion and more specifically Mt Zion therefore will most
probably be the site of God’s/Jesus’ throne/Ezekiel’s third temple/sanctuary
and house, not the Mount of Olives or Mount Moriah. [verse
12]
[b] There will
be future priests in that temple. [verse 14]
In exodus the
‘Promised Land’ was described as a large abundant land flowing with milk and
honey so It’s also important we understand how big the promised land was and
what territory it encompassed and this will concern the enemies of God and be
covered in greater detail in the final part 5 of the Isaiah essay:
6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to
look upon God.
7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people
which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters;
for I know their sorrows;
8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land
and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the
Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. KJV Exodus 3:6-8
23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out
before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
24 But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will
give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth
with milk and honey: I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from
other people. KJV Leviticus 20:23-24
Few truly
understand the extent of the holy land that was promised and given to Abraham’s
descendants i.e. the whole 12 tribes of Israel and that it was not just the
lands currently held by the modern nation of Israeli’s.
The true scope
of what lands constituted the ‘promised land’ will be covered in the final
instalment of ‘The Isaiah essay’ and is one of the essential ingredients as to
which nations the judgement or Wrath of God will fall on at Jesus’ return.
There is no
reason to make the assumption that the holy land in Isaiah’s and king Ahaz’s day, when some of these prophecies were given to
Isaiah, wasn’t the abundant land that the scriptures describe.
However the prophecies of Isaiah , especially in chapter 7 show that
with the coming of the Babylonian captivity and the following centuries between
then and the time of Christ, the whole face of the holy land would change and
become less productive with the departure of the Israelites into captivity and
obscurity with the possible exception of the remnant of the Israelites
represented by the Jews that were destined to return and ‘kick start’ the
Jewish society again in the times of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and
Zechariah in preparation for Jesus’ first advent, also heavily prophesied about
in the pages of Isaiah’s prophetic book as our readers are about to see in the
rest of this analysis of Isaiah’s work.
Chapter
8: [1]
Prior to Babylonian siege and captivity [Short range and ‘timeless’ prophecies
given]
In prophetic
symbolic language water and floods often refers to peoples, nations or their
armies and verse 7 is a prime example of that:
7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of
the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he
shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
8 And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he
shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill
the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.
KJV Isaiah 8:7-8
When we begin
to understand that most if not all of prophecy is not just written and recorded
for the generation in which the prophecies are given but for future generations
as well and sometimes for very far distant future generations the many
prophetic books of the bible like Isaiah’s tell a far more far-reaching story
than just an historical one.
The secular scholars and even many modern
theologians and religious leaders have failed to grasp the ‘why’ of prophecy in
the first place.
It’s been shown in other parts of the Isaiah
essay that God clearly instituted animal sacrifices in the first place as part
and parcel of Old Covenant religious observances and yet in this chapter and
other prophet’s books God states outright that He hated the religious
observances and even the holy days that He also introduced to His chosen peoples
i.e. Abraham’s descendants due to how they observed them and we need to
understand exactly why, to make sense of all prophecy and the many dire
punishments that God inflicted, even on His own chosen slave peoples that He
rescued from the Egyptian taskmasters by the many miracles performed to deliver
these peoples to the promised land that is covered in the book of Exodus and
elsewhere throughout scripture.
In this chapter, through His servant Isaiah,
God asks the questions we need the answers to, because the answers have a
bearing on all future prophecies that were written for our modern era and
slightly beyond:
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams,
and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of
lambs, or of he goats.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand,
to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new
moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is
iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth:
they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. KJV Isaiah 1:11-14
Short range prophecy:
God’s Method
of punishment, i.e. using one nation to punish another is pretty self evident throughout prophecy.
It is also clear that God used the Assyrians
at first to sweep away the ten tribes that composed the ‘house of Israel’ but
was also, as this short-range prophecy shows, again using the Assyrians against
the land of Judah and Jerusalem itself, comprising the ‘House of Jacob’
contingent of the Israelites, in the pre-Babylonian captivity era of Isaiah’s
day, as the opening of the previous chapter asserts along with verses 7-8
above:
The vision of Isaiah the son of
Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
KJV Isaiah 1:1
Chapters
7&8 therefore can be taken as a single prophecy because chapter 8 continues
straight on from the 7th in fact.
A short range
prophecy is given showing the influence of Damascus and Samaria [The ones
troubling king Ahaz] would be taken away by the invading Assyrians:
4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my
mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away
before the king of Assyria.
KJV Isaiah 8:4
This one
chapter 8 requires a little more explanation than the following ones from 9 up
to chapter 40 for the simple reason that it is a pivotal one setting up the
world conditions that would prevail from Isaiah’s day up until the time of
Christ and the reasons for future world history following along the lines that
it did in fulfilled prophecy against the various Gentile [Pagan] nations of the
ancient world.
From Chapters
9-40 only ‘highlights’ and the ‘prophecies within prophecies’ of the first
advent need only be given to show the relevance to the middle and later tie in
to the latter chapters involving modern times and prophecies covering the
second advent of Christ, yet to come in our future.
What is very
clear throughout all prophecy is that the tribe of Judah [The sceptre
holders]grown into the Modern nation of Israeli’s and restored to the Holy land
by one of the leading birthright and brother nations
Ephraim [British] in 1948 share a common destiny and the Jews[Judah, Benjamin
and Levi tribes] will play a major role in world affairs and events just prior
to Christ’s return to the Mount of Olives when major geological changes to the
earth’s surface will take place also at that time.
In the
prophecies of Isaiah God outlines very clearly through His servant and major
prophet Isaiah the whole destiny of the Jews from Isaiah’s time until modern
times and even beyond. Coupled to Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah and confirmed in
the Book of Revelation the future of the Jews is assured against overwhelming
odds by the promises contained in ‘middle’ Isaiah and Jeremiah 31 with a great
deal of the outcome of future events portrayed just as clearly in Zechariah and
the so called minor prophets such as Joel, Micah, Hosea, Amos et al.
The future
laid out in prophecy and this chapter sets up the beginnings of God’s dealings
with the enemies of His chosen peoples:
All the
prophets taken together as a whole provide a very clear panoramic view of God’s
plans for mankind and all peoples of the earth.
Isaiah
outlines God’s views about relying on allies instead of the Living God in this
chapter and makes the claim God instructed him personally and very strongly on
this issue of trusting God and not men:
10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and
it shall not stand: for God is with us.
11 For the Lord spake thus to me with
a strong hand, and instructed me that
I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
12 Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say,
A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
13 Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him
be your dread.
KJV Isaiah 8:10-13
Again, showing
that the Israelites were divided into two clearly delineated houses and that
the Jews are not all of Israel but even more importantly, Isaiah begins to show
in this chapter his closeness to his God and the understanding that the God of
the Old Testament was to be the future Saviour and was the Lord of hosts whose
base of operations and abode/home even in those times was from Mount Zion:
13 Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him
be your dread.
14 And he shall be for a sanctuary;
but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of
Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be
snared, and be taken.
16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
17 And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth
his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. KJV Isaiah 8:13-17
This little
insight in the 17th verse is an intriguing one, showing that even
though Isaiah was a man of faith and had very strong convictions concerning his
mission as a prophet in warning the Jews of their failure to believe God
through his prophets –-- he also knew that God was going to hide His face from
the Jews for an extended and indefinite period.
Did Isaiah in
fact know that God was going to hide his face [symbolically speaking] from the
majority of Jews almost right up to the so called second coming or second
advent of Christ?
It’s clear in
modern times that some modern Jews are attempting to restore the old religion
that Jesus ‘updated’ in the New Testament by annulling the Old Testament and
it’s therefore also clear that God has not yet revealed Himself through Jesus
to the majority of modern Jews otherwise they wouldn’t persist in returning to
that which God has done away with in instituting the New Testament and the
fabulous promises contained therein.
So what began
in the 2nd chapter of Isaiah, announcing the coming of the Lord of hosts and
the establishment of Lord’s house and throne in Isaiah’s far distant future and
the clear statement that this Lord is “the God of Jacob” becomes a consistent
theme throughout all of Isaiah binding it together as a whole work from start
to finish i.e. what the secular scholars have erroneously called first, second
and third Isaiah:
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and
Jerusalem.
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top
of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the
hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of
Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk
in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth
the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the
nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
KJV Isaiah 2:1-5
The last verse
5 though not underlined shows the depth of Isaiah’s faith in all that God had revealed
to him in visions and by personal instruction also apparently.
Isaiah was
given special commissions not just to the Jews but to all of Israel as verse 18
below infers and his understanding of his saviour and his understanding of the
future God was laying out for all mankind and especially God’s chosen nations
was second to none and is clearly a single author’s work bound together by all
the ‘prophecies within prophecies’ that appear in Isaiah’s work showing both
first and second advents of the very Saviour he followed:
18 Behold, I and the children whom the
Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from
the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion. KJV Isaiah 8:13-19
When we understand
that God the Father doesn’t come to our earth until after the millennial reign
of Christ as the prophetic book of Revelation confirms in its closing chapters
[Rev. 21:1-7] then all Of Isaiah’s references to the first and second advents
loom that much larger in confirming the profound importance of Isaiah’s
prophecies as a proof of Isaiah’s inspiration of the prophetic visions given
Isaiah under the influence of the holy spirit.
The
irrefutable link to the New Testament of Isaiah’s prophetic work are what
Isaiah prophesied of Jesus and shown throughout the New Testament’s many quotes
of Isaiah’s prophetic words and that of the apostle Peter, Paul and John
showing Peter’s and even the apostle Paul’s understanding of Isaiah confirming
Isaiah’s prophetic statement above in verses 13, 14 & 15 that the Lord of
hosts himself was to become a stumbling block, a rock of offense and a snare to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The apostle
Peter first:
3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is
gracious.
4. To
whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God, and precious,
5. Ye
also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ.
6. Wherefore also it is contained in the
scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief
corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth
on him shall not be confounded.
7. Unto
you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the
corner,
8. And
a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at
the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9. But
ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an
holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
10.
Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God:
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. KJV 1 Peter 2:3-10
The apostle
Paul next:
31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not
attained to the law of righteousness.
32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works
of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in
Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. KJV Romans 9:31-33
Proof positive
of the sole Authorship of the book of Isaiah:
The major link
to the New Testament and proof of the authenticity of Isaiah’s work as a single
unified all encompassing, expansive and prophetic work of the highest order
contained within the 66 chapters of the
book of Isaiah
are the many references to Jesus, His future ministry, His future rulership
over the kingdom of God when it is re-established on earth at Jesus’ return in
the 21st century.
Jesus did indeed become a stumbling block and
rock of offense to the Jews just as Isaiah prophesied that He would [Isaiah
8:13-15 quoted above] and remains so even today among the orthodox Jewry with
the possible exception of small factions like the ‘Jews for Jesus’ who accept
His divinity.
Jesus inferred
that the main reason he spoke to the multitudes of the Jews in His day in
parables was because of what Isaiah prophesied of their inability to perceive
and understand the truth of prophecy regarding Himself
and other spiritual matters:
13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and
hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
14 And in them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye
shall see, and shall not perceive:
15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and
their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any
time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should
understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets
and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not
seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard
them. KJV Matthew 13:13-17
From here on
out it is only necessary to show each and every one of those references to
Jesus among the remaining chapters of Isaiah to show the depth of understanding
Isaiah possessed regarding the future of the Jews and how history would be
played out from Isaiah’s time forward --- even to our day and age.. and beyond
--- but there are also some fascinating side issues regarding exactly how those
incredible changes to our future will come about and how the pages of prophecy
will translate into truly massive changes
to the face of our earth that a great many and, particularly the scholarly
world ... simply have no conception of ....whatsoever.
Note: Chapters
9 through to 31:
All these
chapters come under the general classification of:
[3rd
category] after Babylonian captivity
However,
chapter 9 is the turning point chapter where Isaiah begins to show God’s marked switching from the Babylonian
captivity punishments of the first Diaspora of the Jews to the prophecies concerning
all the enemies of God’s peoples [Israelites/Hebrews] from the
Babylonian captivity forward to Jesus’ day with interweaving of 2nd advent
prophecy and future punishments for those nations that are arrayed against
God’s peoples in our future as well as what punishment was handed out to those
nations used by God to bring about the 1st Diaspora in the post
Babylonian captivity period.
Even in this
overview analysis there are things that really are incredible that are
overlooked by not only scholars who would like to downplay the word of God but
also by a great many Christians who claim prophetic understanding in our modern
era.
Chapter
9: [1] Prior to Babylonian siege and captivity [2] Babylonian siege and
captivity
[3] after Babylonian captivity [4&5]1st and 2nd advents,
1st advent prophecy:
1 Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as
was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun
and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the
way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.
2 The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
upon them hath the light shined.
3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy
before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide
the spoil.
4 For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his
shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments
rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
6 For unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name
shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty
God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Jesus holds title to all of the above in verse 6 even that of
the second last because in effect Jesus was the Father of Adam and eve and the
human creation he so lovingly created with his own two hands out of the raw
clay of the earth by breathing life into the first humans from his own
being. Not to mention that He gave his
life as any loving father would who cares for his children --- only His
sacrifice was the most awesomely excruciating sacrifice ever made.
2nd advent prophecy:
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and
upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with
justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this.
8 The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. KJV Isaiah 9:1-8
Note: These
are promises/prophecies of a physical government over physical nations on this
earth in our future
The remainder
of the chapter covers:
[1] Prior to
Babylonian siege and captivity [verses 9-12]
[2] Babylonian
siege and captivity [verses 13-21] Supported by Jeremiah’s account in
Lamentations showing the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem where parents even
ate their own children.
Chapter10: [1] Prior to Babylonian siege and captivity
[3] after Babylonian captivity
[1] Prior to
Babylonian siege and captivity [verses 1-11]
Short range
prophecy of
‘Assyrians’
used to punish Israel and Jews.
[3] after Babylonian captivity [verses 12-34]
A short range
prophecy of punishment of the Assyrians after they’d been used against God’s
peoples are covered here but also a
longer range prophecy that foretells Daniel’s, Ezra’s, Nehemiah’s,
Haggai’s and Zechariah’s day:
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that
the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no
more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the
Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty
God.
22 For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant
of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with
righteousness.
23 For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined,
in the midst of all the land. KJV Isaiah
10:20-23
Chapter11: [4&5]1st and 2nd advents,
[8] “during the millennium or after”
1st advent prophecy:
1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
Branch shall grow out of his roots:
2 And 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;
3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and
he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the
hearing of his ears: KJV Isaiah 11:1-4
2nd advent prophecy:
4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with
equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of
his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness
the girdle of his reins.
Post 2nd coming/advent prophecy
i.e. [8] during the millennium or after:
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie
down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together:
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the
weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.
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.
10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for
an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be
glorious. KJV Isaiah 11:4-10
·
Verses 11-16 are post 2nd
coming/advent prophecy covering punishment of modern middle eastern nations
[covered in detail in part 5 of the Isaiah essay]
Chapter 12:
[8]
“during the millennium or after”
1 And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though
thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.
2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the
Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. ...showing that the Jews
will eventually acknowledge Jesus [Jehovah/YHWH] as their saviour.
3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name,
declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.
5 Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in
all the earth.
6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. KJV Isaiah 12:1-6 [Jesus will be the only member of the
God family dwelling on earth during the millennium as we’ve shown and so
clearly is also the ‘Holy one’ of Israel.
Note: It can
be clearly seen that chapter 11&12 are really one prophecy because chapter
12 reads straight on from 11 without pause. Although it’s not critical to true
understanding in this case, as we’ve pointed out in our work – the arbitrary
division of the scriptures into chapter and verse for easier reference by
whatever scholar who did so has in other places obscured the truth of prophecy
to a fair degree. Matthew 24to 25 in the New Testament being the most notable
division of a single theme which obscured the truth that Jesus’ answers to his
apostles are covered in both those chapters as a single prophecy also. Very few
understand that Mathew 25 gives a full explanation of Jesus’ delay of nearly
2000 years in instigating the Kingdom of God that He promised to His disciples
and all true believers, with
particular
emphasis on verses 14&31-34 showing this to be the case.
The Old and
New Testaments as originally written in the original languages had no such
divisions into chapter and verse but dealt with prophecy theme by theme and
this is indeed an important factor in understanding true prophecy and subsequently
what God has in store for our world in the near future for us also.
Past prophetic
announcements by God are therefore crucial to our understanding of what the
future holds for us in our modern day and age because those ancient prophecies
didn’t just stop at local prophetic pronouncements by God upon a disobedient
race of peoples[Israelites] that He had chosen for Himself to be his ‘peculiar’
treasure:
3 And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the
mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the
children of Israel;
4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on
eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure
unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
As can be seen
in this following verse and completely confirmed in the book of Revelation God
has never deviated from His original purpose of making the peoples He chose
from among the nations of the world to be a light and example of His government
and future rule of this planet we call home:
6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy
nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of
Israel. KJV Exodus 19:3-6
Book of
Revelation confirmation:
And hath made us kings and
priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and
ever. Amen. KJV Revelation 1:6
Chapter
13: [3] after Babylonian
captivity
Destruction
and fate of Babylon foretold [entire chapter] with a possible insertion of a future[timeless] prophecy for modern times a little into our
future. An explanation and intro follows:
In our modern
day and age we tend to think [if we believe in God] that God is not all that
involved in the fate of modern nations because there doesn’t seem to be any
tangible, direct evidence of that. There doesn’t seem to be any modern day Isaiah’s, in a
personal one on one relationship with their God as in the days of the prophets
of old that have a true handle on what God is going to do in our world.
The bible and what is recorded
there seems remote and out of touch with modern technological reality and
consequently the bible is mostly relegated to the category of myth. [At least
the secular scholars would love to make it so]
The days when God dealt
directly with humanity and pronounced the fate of nations through His prophets
does indeed seem remote and Isaiah’s work is something like 2,700 years or so
ago. Exact dates aren’t important for the point about to be made but it has been another
lengthy period of nearly 2000 years since the last major intervention by
God in world affairs.
Apart from Daniel the prophet’s, Ezra,
Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah’s days when God was once again preparing the
Jews for a major intervention to come approximately 500 years into Daniel’s
future, the last time was indeed what modern Christian religious and secular
scholars termed, the first coming of Jesus Christ, though in reality Jesus has
visited this earth many times in the past, probably in different guises like
that of Melchisedec, the King and High Priest of the
fledgling city state of Salem which later presumably became known as Jerusalem
as time went by.
From the time that Abraham was told to leave
his homeland city of Ur to go to the land of promise, Jerusalem and the lands
God made holy by driving out the Gentile nations located there because of their
extreme idolatrous worship of pagan gods and evil practises of sacrificing
their children to those false deities, have indeed become the focus of God’s
attention as the place of His choosing to set up His future kingdom and Mt Zion
has played a major role symbolizing the place of God’s dwelling both past and
future.
Of all the modern nations of the world, the
nation known as Israel today or more commonly the Israeli’s i.e
also recognized as the Jews of today but originally known as the Judeans or
tribe of Judah of biblical times, have been the closest peoples to understanding
the true God and that have known and kept the preservation of the Oracles
[prophecies] of God intact.
Our Old Testament was preserved by dedicated
Jewish scholars and scribes, otherwise, we would not
have the books of prophecy that are available today. No doubt the various writings and books of
the Old Testament were also gathered together and preserved by dedicated Jewish
scribes and scholars in much the same way that the writings of the New Testament
were preserved by dedicated believers, who later came to be called Christians.
According to the Book of Isaiah itself,
Isaiah had dedicated disciples or students [Isaiah 8:16] who were most probably
indeed the ones who put together the writings of Isaiah, especially the latter
chapters into the form it has in the 66 chapters that are available today.
Also, according to some tradition or legend,
Isaiah supposedly met an untimely death at the hands of one of the Jewish
monarchs and was supposedly sawn in half when he hid in a hollow tree [one
version] to escape the wrath of the king of that time:
Another version of Isaiah’s death, courtesy of Wikipedia under the
article “Isaiah”
The remaining years of Hezekiah's reign were peaceful (2 Chr 32:23-29). Isaiah probably lived to
its close, and possibly into the reign of Manasseh, but the time and manner of
his death are not specified in either the Bible or recorded history. There is a tradition (reported in both the Martyrdom of Isaiah and the Lives of the Prophets) that he suffered martyrdom
by Manasseh due to pagan reaction. Both Jewish and Christian traditions state
that he was killed by being sawed in half with a wooden saw. Some
interpreters believe that this is what is referred to in the New Testament verse Hebrews 11:37, which states that some prophets were "sawn in two".
However Isaiah died and whether
or not Isaiah’s disciples or students may have assembled Isaiah’s prophecies in
the form of the 66 chapters that appear in our modern bibles is entirely
irrelevant to the claim that scholars might make that not all of Isaiah’s work was
his. God either inspired the
preservation of Isaiah’s prophecies by whatever means --- or He didn’t. The prophecies themselves are from God and
not man in any case.
We intend to show the infallibility of those prophecies, however they were assembled and preserved for us
today.
The means of preservation is
not as important as the content –because what is written will impact on all of
modern society in our age because Isaiah’s prophecies were not confined to
ancient times but are all expansive through New Testament times and beyond to
our future and what links the entire work of Isaiah into one unified prophetic
work are precisely the references to Jesus’ 1st and 2nd
advents.
Focal shift:
What
is important for our purposes here of proving Isaiah was of single authorship
is that chapter 13 is basically the turning point of focus from the punishments
of the Israelites for
turning away from their God and that included the Jews, through the use of such
nations as the Assyrian, Babylonian etc of those times
to the destruction of those nations that God used and in fact a great many
other Gentile nations that came into contact with the Israelites.
Nations
that didn’t come into contact with the ancient Israelites like China or Russia
for example seldom get a mention in scripture but those in the immediate area
of the holy land most certainly feature prominently along with those nations
God used to punish the Israelites.
The
Chinese and Russians do get a mention in prophecy and their ancestors may
indeed have come into contact with the ancient Israelites but that’s a whole
different ballgame and story that won’t be covered here but will be covered in
the last instalment of the Isaiah essay under the enemies of God sections.
Author’s
Note: The majority of Isaiah 13 concerns the destruction of Babylon and the
Babylonian empire. There are however some verses that could be ‘timeless’
prophecies but that is not certain because we simply don’t know what
astronomical and geological disturbances went on in past ages that can be
accurately confirmed in the modern era.
Definition of a ‘timeless’
prophecy:
There
are some prophecies that simply can’t be categorized by their very nature as
either belonging to the past or the future specifically. They could in fact be fulfilled
in any age or era because they are non specific as to
the timeframe they may be intended for.
These verses below of Isaiah 13
could be ‘timeless’ in their application because a number of prophecies lift up
to a ‘future time’ in many cases from what was prophesied to happen in the
local sense to many nations at the time the prophecies were given. Sometimes
longer range prophecies are also given with shorter range prophecies to
specific peoples showing what is in store for them even thousands of years into
their futures as well as immediately ahead of the prophet’s times.
It is not always easy to
discern if a prophecy could have occurred in the past when it seems like one
intended for our future and these verses below in the 13th chapter
are a prime example:
KJV Isaiah 13:9-13
9 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce
anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out
of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give
their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall
not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their
iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud
to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the
golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her
place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
To make an assessment as to
what era or timeframe this portion of the entire prophecy of chapter 13 actually fits into, a number of questions for
which we may not have answers still needs to be asked to determine if this and
Isaiah’s later prophecies are covering the same events or two different ones.
A later chapter of Isaiah
definitely features the earth reeling to and fro like a drunkard in a far
distant future setting that can only be at the time of Jesus’ 2nd coming
or very shortly thereafter as the time setting is unmistakeably clear in the 23rd
verse:
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed
like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall
fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the
host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the
earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the
pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be
visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the
Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his
ancients gloriously. KJV Isaiah
24:20-23
Q.1 The first and most obvious question we need to ask
here is has the earth been subjected to being tilted off its axis or displaced
from its orbit in relatively recent times past i.e. more specifically, at the
time of the destruction of the Babylonian empire and its capital Babylon?
In the book of Exodus and elsewhere ‘the
promised land’ is definitely describe as lush and abundantly productive:
And I am come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto
a good land and a large, unto a land
flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the
Hivites, and the Jebusites. KJV Exodus 3:8
The boundaries or borders were
even given as to the area the holy land/promised land, was to encompass i.e.
its geographic location:
18 In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy
seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river,
the river Euphrates:
19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the
Jebusites.
KJV Genesis 15:18-21
*Refer also to
Clay’s timely article at this website titled “Who owns the middle east?”
showing the location more graphically.
The next reasonable and logical
question follows on the heels of the first:
Q.2 If the land area between the Nile
and the Euphrates was described as GOOD, large and flowing with milk and honey
in Abraham’s day and was presumably so also in Moses’ time then how come most
of the land within those described confines is largely dry and arid in modern
times and sparsely populated bordering on desert-like conditions? What happened to it? And more importantly,
When?
Q.3 Another question
that follows logically is did God do what Isaiah sets forth in all the chapters
beginning at 14 through to 39 and lay waste to those lands that Isaiah was to
prophesy against in those chapters? In other words do these words in Isaiah
cover what has seemingly happened to the holy land as a result of Israel’s and
Judah’s sins and all those other
nation’s lands that began to be laid waste beginning with Babylon that were
regarded by God as the “terrible” of nations?:
This prophecy
then clearly becomes prophecy concerning ancient Babylon of 13th
chapter and not for our future:
9 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce
anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners
thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give
their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall
not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the
haughtiness of the terrible.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and
the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of
hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Or put yet another way, has God
done in the past what He is seemingly going to do again in our future at His
return --- like displacing the earth
from its axial tilt to effect rapid climatic change?
Duality? Not at all - but disturbingly similar
prophecy of a previous ‘day of the Lord’ carried out with similar celestial
signs accompanying punishments inflicted on ancient nations for similar
reasons.
Can it then be
seen that this prophecy is not then of the ancient past although similar
heavenly signs are used including axial tilt and displacement of the earth from
its orbit --- but is concerning Jesus’ return in our future? [24th
chapter]:
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the
host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the
earth.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when
the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before
his ancients gloriously.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed
like a cottage; and the transgression thereof
shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
Besides the nations of Israel
and Judah let’s do a quick run-down of other nations that were laid waste
by God in chapters 13 thru to 39 in ancient times:
Isaiah
13: Destruction of Babylon and the surrounding
lands foretold:
5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord,
and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6 Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a
destruction from the Almighty.KJV Isaiah 13:5-6
Isaiah 15 -16: Destruction of previously populous,
productive and fruitful lands --- partly through trampling of armies [vs. 8]
and what else?--- climate change, foretold ?
The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because
in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought
to silence; KJV Isaiah 15:1
For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away,
the grass faileth, there is no green thing. KJV Isaiah 15:6
And gladness is taken away, and
joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there
shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread
out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.
KJV Isaiah 16:10
But now the Lord hath spoken,
saying, Within three years, as the years of an
hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great
multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble. KJV Isaiah
16:14
Another question begins to
emerge from the study of these prophetic scriptures:
Q4. Has God actively altered the earth’s climatic conditions since Isaiah’s day and age
to bring about the destruction of nations that he foretold through his prophets
would be either destroyed or reduced in population and power to insignificant
remnants of their former greatness and influence? This in turn gives rise to another related
question:
What are all these passages of
prophetic scripture dealing with the destruction of ancient civilizations
really showing us in modern times?
The majority of ‘enlightened’
historians and secular scholars would like to say – nothing at all. The bible
like many other religious writings are relegated to just a collection of myths
and superstitious writings of the Jews/Hebrews of antiquity in most post
Darwinian evolutionary thinking of the modern era. There are exceptions to this
anti-God way of thinking among the majority of modern scholars and some
scientists, but by and large, very few exceptions. Majority rules in secular society where our
children are taught in schools to accept a theory that has never been proven as
fact but has most of modern society convinced that ‘evolution’ is true on the
say so of one man [Charles Darwin]and a few of his followers without actual
proof. Very unscientific conclusions were made on sheer theory. And, even
archaeological discoveries that are made are forced to fit into that theory
whether or not they really do so.
Isaiah
17: Destruction of Damascus in ancient
times as an influential city along with Syria foretold, but much more besides ---
the downgrading of many nation’s previously great and influential civilizations
was indeed foretold and Isaiah makes an important observation of his own at the
end of this chapter:
Verses 1-11 covers The Jews and
Israel’s future desolation along with Damascus and Syria but verses 12-13
highlights the extension of that desolation to other nations:
12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which
make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that
make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God
shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the
chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the
whirlwind. KJV Isaiah 17:12-13
While it’s entirely possible
that the last verse 14 and 13 quoted above preceding it could have indeed been
added by Isaiah’s disciples as a sort of general comment, there’s no reason to
assume that it was made by them.
So is this observation by Isaiah that God
would rebuke the other nations that ‘spoiled’ the Jews, whether made by Isaiah
or his disciples a valid one? Let’s see:
Isaiah
18: In the original article featured in
Wikipedia it was stated that the secular scholars felt Middle Isaiah was
written by a poet but in reality much of the 1611KJV bible is written in a
prose/poetic style and the whole of chapter 18 is no exception and runs very
poetic indeed of its description, seemingly, of the African continent:
Woe to the land shadowing with
wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
That sendeth
ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying,
Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible
from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land
the rivers have spoiled!
KJV Isaiah 18:1-2
Isaiah
19-20[taken together]: Destruction of
the long dynastic line of pharaohs and of the Egyptian civilisation foretold:
Again in the early verses
‘vast’ climatic changes are foretold along with internal division and strife
and rulership by a cruel or fierce king to come upon Egypt:
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and
a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
6 And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence
shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
7 The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be
driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle
into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall
languish.
9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall
be confounded.
10 And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make
sluices and ponds for fish.
KJV Isaiah 19:4-11
Egypt was apparently a much
richer and more fertile land in Isaiah’s day also and although Egypt was to be
greatly reduced in stature as a powerful influence from Isaiah’s time till our
day and age a remarkable and quite unique future is foretold for future
generations of Egyptians beyond our times in the 21st century:
2nd advent, [7]
16 In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid
and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shaketh over it.
17 And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that
maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of
the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined against it.
18 In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language
of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts; one shall be called, the city of
destruction.
19 In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the
land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord.
20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in
the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors,
and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.
21 And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the
Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a
vow unto the Lord, and perform it.
22 And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they
shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be intreated
of them, and shall heal them.
[8] “during
the millennium or after”
23 In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the
Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the
Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria,
even a blessing in the midst of the land:
25 Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people,
and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance. KJV Isaiah
19:16-25
Comment: It’s
interesting to note at this time that verse 17 seems to have already had
partial fulfilment in 1948 and again in the infamous 1967 ‘six day war’ and,
are the Jews again to ‘terrorize’ the Egyptians in our future?
Confirmation
in the Book of Zechariah?:
Strangely enough the book of
the prophet Zechariah seems to completely confirm Isaiah in spades as to the
role the Jews of our future are to play out during Jesus’ return in our day and
they may well ‘terrorize’ the surrounding middle eastern nations,possibly
including Egypt should they also come against modern day Israel of the future:
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people
round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against
Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all
people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though
all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
6 In that day will I make the
governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the
wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people
round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be
inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
8 In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David;
and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before
them. KJV Zechariah 12:2-3, 6&8
So this
heavily underlined verse 8 is in effect a promise by God to defend the Jews of
modern Jerusalem against all comers --- even if the entire world’s modern
nations were allied ... against Jerusalem ... though all the people of the earth be gathered together against
it.
Quite a
spectacular promise is it not--- considering modern weapons of mass destruction
that could conceivably be used and arrayed against the Jews ?
Chapter 20:
Comprises short-range
fulfilment of verse 4 of chapter 19 and falls into category [3] being sometime
after the Babylonian captivity but before the 1st advent of Jesus.
Chapter21:
Comprises an amalgam of
prophecies of the fall of Babylon [verse9] and the diminishing of various Arab
nations [verses 13,15-17] from former greatness – but also the rise of the
Medes [verse2] all written and prophesied well in advance of the events and
what is even more astonishing even before the Babylonian captivity had even
come to pass.
Note: The rise
of the Medes and their destruction was also foretold by Jeremiah because the
prophetic scriptures are full of redundancies whereby scripture after scripture
run to parallel prophecies and back-up prophecies of other prophets covering
the same eras or ages that leave no doubt as to the accuracy of any single
prophet.
Jeremiah 25:25
and also 51:10-14 below:
10 The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us
declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.
11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the Lord hath raised up
the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to
destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his
temple.
12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong,
set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the Lord hath both devised
and done that which he spake against the inhabitants
of Babylon.
13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters,
abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.
14 The Lord of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill
thee with men, as with caterpillers; and they shall
lift up a shout against thee. KJV
Jeremiah 51:10-14
The rest of the 64 verses of
prophecy against Babylon are a fascinating read showing that it would occur
over a period of time but the end result would be utter and permanent
desolation and chapter 51 concludes with these words showing the incredible
accuracy of these pronouncements by God through His prophets and confirm it was
written before the eventual overrunning by the Medes down the track and before
Daniel’s day:
59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded
Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the
king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah
was a quiet prince.
60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all
the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written
against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest
to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;
62 Then shalt thou say, O Lord, thou
hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it,
neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.
63 And it shall be, when thou hast
made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast
it into the midst of Euphrates:
64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and
shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. KJV
Jeremiah 51:59-64
How is all this prophecy from
Jeremiah relevant to Isaiah?
Don’t quite see the
connection? Even though it is well known
parts of the ancient city of Babylon now lie beneath the Euphrates river and are inaccessible to archaeologists even today?
How about this scenario of
modern times for comparison:
World wars 1&2 of last
century utterly devastated the landscapes of Europe and even with the vast
array of weaponry involved and all that destruction --- all of those landscapes
have recovered from 2 totally destructive and devastating world wars involving
modern technological warfare.
The conclusion
then is that warfare and especially ancient warfare alone couldn’t have been
responsible for the total devastation that was apparently visited upon these
ancient nations that both Isaiah and Jeremiah confirm were to be utterly
destroyed and in the case of Babylon, never to be rebuilt.
Chapters
22-24:
Carrying on in the same
prophetic themes of nations surrounding the Israelites and/ or Jews being
either destroyed or diminished from their former wealth and power and influence
--- the prophetic scenario broadens to cover nearly all the nations of the then
known ancient middle eastern world.
Chapter24:
Without the prophet Jeremiah’s
detailed input of prophecy[s]fully explaining the aftermath of this exact same
time period or prophetic scenario depicted here in Isaiah this entire chapter
would be enigmatic as to which age or era it is chiefly referring to because it
ends in verse 23 giving a ‘time frame’ which is definitively in our future when
the Lord of hosts “shall” reign in Zion and Jerusalem and clearly even modern
history hasn’t progressed to that point in time yet......
Isaiah speaks of a ‘curse’ that
has overtaken or devoured the ‘earth’:
3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord
hath spoken this word.
4 The earth mourneth and fadeth
away, the world languisheth and fadeth
away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they
have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting
covenant.
6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the
earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore
the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. KJV Isaiah 24:3-6
The earth shall reel to and fro
like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a
cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall
fall, and not rise again.
KJV Isaiah 24:20
Verse 20 gives the impression
that our physical planet was or is going to be damaged beyond repair or even
destroyed according to the wording of Isaiah here in verse 6 above --- however,
this is where we need to be exceptionally circumspect and careful in not
leaping to unwarranted assumptions without first asking all the relevant and
entirely logical questions that arise i.e. who, where, when, why and how.
In asking these relevant questions
we also need to consider the relevant prophetic facts that are freely available
elsewhere in prophecy.
All prophecy shows that the
physical planet is not going to be destroyed any time soon and elsewhere if we
fully believe scripture –-- never will be destroyed, but can be renewed many
times over--- and will continue beyond the 1000 year reign of Christ and after
an approximate 100 year ‘judgment period’ will be fully renewed and restored
[and become like the garden of Eden and will become a paradise with lakes and
rivers but no sea] from whatever damage it may incur as a result of the cosmic
upheavals and earthquake and resultant volcanic activity that are prophesied to
occur in our immediate future in this 21st century.
The Book of Revelation shows
the earth will continue beyond the millennium very clearly in its 21st
chapter. [Rev 21:1&5 specifically]
The very first words in the
first chapter after the first verse in Genesis in fact show the ‘renewing’ of
the face of the earth in preparation for mankind rather than its initial
creation of millions of years ago:
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. [Millions of years ago]
2 And the earth [was] without form, and void; and darkness was upon the
face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. KJV
Genesis 1:1-2
The original languages
apparently rendered ‘was’ bracketed above as ‘became’ according to a religious
leader of last century [H.W. Armstrong] and Clay Willis [co-author]would be
able to confirm this.
It is also clear from
palaeontology and archaeology that dinosaurs and a reptilian age preceded man
but the earth became waste and empty or formless and void as KJV translators
rendered the original language versions of the Pentateuch.
So between verses 1&2 of
Genesis our earth clearly had a rendezvous with a cosmic confrontation with
another heavenly body that destroyed the previous age of the dinosaurs which
resulted in the earth being covered with water and all plant and animal life
previously destroyed therefore.
But with God all things are
possible so the earth can be renewed ad infinitum if God so desires as verse 5
of Revelation 21 attests below:
And I saw a new heaven and a new
earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was
no more sea. KJV Revelation 21:1
And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
KJV Revelation 21:5
We need therefore to look for
another explanation of the earth falling and not rising again [Isaiah24:20]
based on logic built on a solid foundation of known prophecy:
King David adds a little
insight:
25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens
are the work of thy hands.
26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax
old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: KJV Psalms 102:25-26
We know from modern astronomy
that our universe is in a constant state of change with new suns being born
even though solar systems my die or perish as David puts it.
It makes no sense however to
create a world that was meant to be inhabited by a unique creation only to
destroy it at some point and Isaiah agrees with that logical assessment:
For thus saith the Lord that
created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain,
he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else. KJV Isaiah 45:18
According to the same 45th
chapter of Isaiah it is God’s overall purpose to save the earth and its
inhabitants --- not destroy either on a permanent basis:
But Israel shall be saved in the
Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world
without end. KJV Isaiah 45:17
Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is
none else.
KJV
Isaiah 45:22
So with that little background how
are we to understand Isaiah’s enigmatic statement that the earth will fall and
not rise again because of the weight of transgressions against God that have
caused that fall?
And again what was the ‘curse’
that devoured the earth in Isaiah’s day that he spoke of in Isaiah 24:6? Was it indeed the curses of the latter half
of Deuteronomy 28 --- beginning at verse 15 that was to strike the Israelites
for breaking the old Covenant?
Was that curse a ‘punishment’
to come from God that involved climatic change on a vast scale that would
eventually result in all the blessings that were pronounced in Deuteronomy 28
1-13 that were bestowed on Abraham’s descendents
being removed? And would other nations also suffer a similar fate as the
Israelites [Judah and Israel] in the aftermath of their fall?
And, when did that indeed
occur?
Just exactly HOW do you
devastate entire nations one after another and just as importantly WHY?
The 25th chapter of
Jeremiah is absolutely astounding as to ‘fleshing out’ this 24th
chapter of Isaiah to the nth degree as follows below by giving us the WHY of
massive climatic changes coupled to ongoing wars among nations that would in
effect be their punishment in destroying some and diminishing others on a grand
scale and Jeremiah even supplies a list of all the then current and local
middle eastern nations that were to suffer in the aftermath of Israel’s fall
from grace and the withdrawal of supernatural protection of God’s government of
the day from the holy land.
Notice the wording of the curse
or curses that would overtake the Israelites for breaking the old covenant were
the exact reversal of all the blessings of verses 1-13 of Deueronomy 28
and brought about for their ignoring their God, the only true God of Abraham
Isaac and Jacob.
But what is most spectacular is
that everything covered in the latter half of this phenomenal prophecy of Moses
came to pass and was fulfilled in every way! Down to the last detail!
Jeremiah’s writings are the
main ‘witness’ to the curse that would overwhelm the Israelites who formerly
enjoyed those extraordinary blessings from God as set out in in Deuteronomy 28
which did indeed involve blessings of idyllic climate conditions in the case of
the blessings and the removal of them regarding the curses that were to follow
breaking the Old Covenant.
Jeremiah’s book of Lamentations
stands out as the single most graphic fulfilment of Moses prophecy of those
curses’ fulfilments experienced by the prophet firsthand from the siege of Jerusalem
itself and its final days.
Beginning with Judah and the
Babylonian kingdom/empire, a list of an incredible panorama of ancient nation,
after ancient nation, becoming ‘desolate ’or ‘ruined’ follows which shows the
extent of vast changes in the capacity of lands to continue producing abundant
crops etc which could only be brought about by
climate change on an unusual scale coupled to the normal devastation that wars
bring.[entire chapter of 38 extremely informative
verses quoted in NIV for easier reading] :
1 The word came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the
fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year
of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
2 So Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people of Judah and to all
those living in Jerusalem:
3 For twenty-three years--from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon
king of Judah until this very day--the word of the LORD has come to me and I
have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.
4 And though the LORD has sent all his servants
the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any
attention.[Isaiah being the foremost, possibly Micah, also Hosea, Isaiah’s
contemporary and as Jeremiah himself says for his 23 years of prophesying also]
5 They said, "Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your
evil practices, and you can stay in the land the LORD gave to you and your
fathers for ever and ever.
6 Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not provoke me
to anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you."
7 "But you did not listen to me," declares the LORD, "and
you have provoked me with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves."
8 Therefore the LORD Almighty says this: "Because you have not listened
to my words,
9 I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon," declares the LORD, "and I will
bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy
them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting
ruin. [KJV perpetual desolations]
10 I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices
of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp.
11 This whole country will become a
desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve
the king of Babylon seventy years.
12 "But when the seventy years are
fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the
Babylonians, for their
guilt," declares the LORD, "and will make it desolate forever. [Babylonians –-- the first to be made
desolate after Israel]
13 I will bring upon that land all the things I have spoken against it,
all that are written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the
nations.
14 They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings;[the
Medes-Persian empire --- followed by the Greco-Macedonian empire and later,
Roman empire] I will repay them according to their
deeds and the work of their hands."
15 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: "Take from
my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to
whom I send you drink it.
16 When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword [warfare]
I will send among them."
17 So I took the cup from the LORD's hand and made all the nations to
whom he sent me drink it:
18 Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a ruin
and an object of horror and scorn and cursing, as they are today; [at
the time of the Babylonian captivity]
A List of all other nations following on
the heels of the Babylonians into ruin as prophesied:
19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his attendants, his officials and all his people,
20 and all the foreign people there; all the kings of Uz;
all the kings of the Philistines (those of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron,
and the people left at Ashdod);
21 Edom, Moab and Ammon;
22 all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across
the sea;
23 Dedan, Tema, Buz and all who are in distant
places ;
24 all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the foreign people who
live in the desert;
25 all the kings of Zimri, Elam and Media;
26 and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other--all
the kingdoms on the face of the earth. And after all of them, the king of Sheshach will drink it too.
27 "Then tell them, `This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel,
says: Drink, get drunk and vomit, and fall to rise no more because of the sword
I will send among you.'
28 But if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, tell
them, `This is what the LORD Almighty says: You must drink it!
29 See, I am beginning to bring
disaster on the city that bears my Name, and will you indeed go unpunished? You
will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all who live on the
earth, declares the LORD Almighty.'
30 "Now prophesy all these words against them and say to them:
"`The LORD will roar from on high; he will thunder from his holy dwelling
and roar mightily against his land. He will shout like those who tread the
grapes, shout against all who live on the earth.
31 The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth, for the LORD will
bring charges against the nations; he will bring judgment on all mankind and
put the wicked to the sword,'" declares the LORD.
32 This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a mighty storm
is rising from the ends of the earth."
33 At that time those slain by the LORD will be everywhere--from one end
of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned or gathered up or buried,
but will be like refuse lying on the ground.
34 Weep and wail, you shepherds; roll in the dust, you leaders of the
flock. For your time to be slaughtered has come; you will fall and be shattered
like fine pottery.
35 The shepherds will have nowhere to flee, the leaders of the flock no
place to escape.
36 Hear the cry of the shepherds, the wailing of the leaders of the flock,
for the LORD is destroying their pasture.
37 The peaceful meadows will be laid waste because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
38 Like a lion he will leave his lair, and their land will become desolate
because of the sword of the oppressor and
because of the LORD's fierce anger. NIV Jeremiah 25:1-38
In one ‘nutshell’ chapter of
Jeremiah, we have the WHO, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW of the prophetic future of
the ancient nations laid out in no uncertain terms as to what God was going to
do from basically Isaiah’s day forward. Jeremiah was simply recapping in his 25th
chapter what was already prophesied in the books of Isaiah and Micah in
essence, as Hosea
shows the laying waste of the Israelites that was already foretold in those
prophets but God, through Jeremiah’s prohecies
expanded that into the panorama of all the ancient nations surrounding the
Israelites also falling under the wrath of God in those days.
So what is the conclusion to be
drawn from Isaiah 24 and Jeremiah 25 together?
The curse that devoured the
earth at that time was indeed the aftermath of Deuteronomy 28 curses being
played out in full upon the remaining Israelites [Judah] of those times and
other nations were to suffer similar fates following on the heels of the
Israelites fall.
War alone won’t devastate
fertile or pastoral lands on a permanent basis in even a single nation
or where multiple nations are involved
but war coupled to rapid climate change makes it a different kettle of fish
altogether.
Can God bring about what he
says he can and will do? You betchya He can! and will do and has done exactly as is recorded in
prophecy!
For nation after nation to be
devastated to the point that is portrayed in these prophecies requires ‘global’
climatic change on a ‘vast’ scale. We’ll cover this in detail in the last part
of the Isaiah essay but clearly what has happened in the past by way of
punishment of various nations can also be repeated in the future. It’s clear
from the number of ‘Days of the Lord’ that have occurred in the past that God
has been angry with various national families of human beings on this earth ---
quite a few times in past ages.
Clearly then the earth has ‘fallen’
from being the productive lands that in times past has spawned burgeoning
empires and has ‘not risen again’ to previous productive levels and our earth
has been largely devastated in many areas and a quick look on google earth maps shows the lands once described as flowing
with milk and honey and as a large and good land in Moses’ times between
the Nile and the Euphrates is little more than desert in modern times as a
result of rapid climate change --- resembling the face of mars in places.
So it’s very possible an axial
tilt and moving the earth out of its orbit could accomplish sustained
devastation of many ancient nations changing the climate of whole regions
permanently and this seems to be what these prophetic scriptures are telling us
has happened between Isaiah’s day and ours but most probably sometime just
after Daniel’s day but before the first advent.
But, no matter however it was
accomplished --- it shows the degree to which God does indeed control the
weather on our planet.
Many, down through the ages
have indeed associated drastic weather conditions to acts of God. Insurance policies traditionally had clauses
covering so called ‘acts of God’ with regard to floods and storm, forest fire,
earthquake damage, etc but nowadays due to post
Darwinian theory “mother nature” is supposedly to blame for hurricanes and
inclement weather and yet the 40th thru 45th chapters of
Isaiah are a ‘witness’ and a challenge to the sceptics as to who really holds
sway over the ‘elements’ of the earth.
So the possibility exists that
the phraseology written in the sometimes obscure old KJV English could have a
different meaning than at first meets the eye and the earth ‘falling and not
rising again’ has to do with the state of the earth’s climatic condition rather
than its destruction.
It follows then that what God
has done in the past in a previous era in causing rapid climate changes leading
to permanent devastation of certain areas of land unless reversed by a similar
shaking the earth from its orbit one way or another with axial tilt etc --- can be ‘undone’ in the future and a number of
prophecies point indeed to one final ‘shaking up’ of the earth on a grand scale
never heard of until the modern times in which they may very well be repeated
to restore those certain areas of earth
and others to a ‘garden of Eden’ – type
of condition, at some point.
Clearly then, God’s presence
will be felt dramatically in the future as many instances in the past biblical
history indicate that has been the case in what just seems the very dim past to
us in modern times:
7 O God, when thou wentest forth before thy
people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah:
8 The earth shook, the heavens also
dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at
the presence of God, the God of Israel. KJV Psalms 68:7-8
2 You say, "I choose the appointed time; it is I who judge
uprightly.
3 When the earth and all its people
quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm. Selah
4 To the arrogant I say, `Boast no more,' and to the wicked, `Do not
lift up your horns.
5 Do not lift your horns against heaven; do not speak with outstretched
neck.'"
6 No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man.
7 But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.
8 In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with
spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its
very dregs.
9 As for me, I will declare this forever; I will sing praise to the God
of Jacob.
10 I will cut off the horns of all the wicked, but the horns of the
righteous will be lifted up.
NIV Psalms 75:1-10
17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it
buried the company of Abiram.
18 Fire blazed among their followers; a flame consumed the wicked. NIV
Psalms 106:17-18
Continuing now in this overview
of Isaiah showing the connectivity and accuracy of all of Isaiah as one body of
work by one single author and, an outstanding prophet who demonstrated
phenomenal insights within his work of the spiritual understanding given to him
in prophecy:
Chapters
25-35 taken together:
[1] Prior to Babylonian siege and captivity [3] after Babylonian captivity[8] “during the millennium or after”
A small intro is needed for
these chapters because although they fall within the two categories 1 &3
generally because they are clearly written ‘pre-Babylonian captivity’ and also
cover ‘after the Babylonian captivity’ these chapters provide some truly
extraordinary insights and visions showing what would have been in Isaiah’s day
---far distant future.
Which, in turn clearly translates into what
amounts to our near future or at least what conditions will be like during the
21st century and the coming millennial or 1000 year reign of Christ
on this earth shortly after the second
advent [second coming] has occurred and
the number of these insights, with almost at least one in each chapter, leaves
no doubt that Isaiah was a truly incredible servant of God and was given
unsurpassed prophetic understanding to record for future generations in his
work --- because of its sheer broadness
in terms of length of periods, ages or eras his prophetic book’s visions covers
in superb detail.
For these chapters however we
are only going to mostly list all those magnificent insights of the first
advent or glimpses of what amounts to our
future
[second advent and beyond]and recommend our readers read those chapters through
carefully for context but at the same time remind our readers that these are
the ‘lead up’ chapters to the incredible promises from God [which we termed,
‘The Isaiah Promises’ in one of our previous articles] and further outstanding
claims made by God in what the secular scholars basically dubbed, arbitrarily,
‘second Isaiah’ or ‘Deutero Isaiah’ in the original Wikipedia article on
‘Isaiah’ upon which most of this rebuttal of the seculars scholars claims, that
Isaiah was written by multiple authors, was based.
Chapter 25&26:
Verses 1-5 of chapter 25 makes mention of the ‘terrible
nations’ and that they will be brought ‘low’ but we’ll deal with that aspect in
detail in part 5 of this Isaiah essay overview summary, later. *The
final part of this essay will ask and answer the question --- How could the all powerful omniscient and omnipresent God of Israel who
makes the outstanding claims that He elaborates on in Chapters 40 -45 of Isaiah
[middle Isaiah] --- possibly have enemies? And WHO exactly, those enemies might
be?
[8]
“During the millennium or after”
6 And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a
feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of
marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast
over all people, and the vail that is spread over all
nations.
8 He will swallow up death in
victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the
earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.
9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited
for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will
be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
KJV Isaiah 25:6-9
Verses
10-12 revert back to short term prophecy mostly for Isaiah’s immediate future
and after the Babylonian captivity but Isaiah 26:1 carries on from verse 9 of
Isaiah 25 and is one continuing prophecy showing that the time sequence for
verses 6-9 clearly occurs at the time of the first resurrection of the saints
by virtue of verse 19 of chapter 26 quoted below:
1 In that day shall this song be sung in the
land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and
bulwarks.
2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth
may enter in.
19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and
sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth
shall cast out the dead.
KJV Isaiah 26:1-2 &19
The book of Revelation
adds poignant weight to verse 8 of chapter 25 above by virtually expressing
very similar prophecy, almost word for word of what Isaiah sets forth above:
And God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:
for the former things are passed away. KJV Revelation 21:4
These two chapters taken
together then set forth a contrast between two types of peoples on the earth, that
doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with race [ although there’s that
possibility] but has more to do with attitude towards God and fellowman
and chapter 26 emphasizes this aspect of human nature and also encompasses a
prophecy for the time when God’s kingdom will be on the earth and shows the
true depth of Isaiah’s understanding of what his and our future will, one day,
hold for human beings on this planet and will become reality:
9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit
within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in
the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn
righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not
behold the majesty of the Lord.
11 Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall
see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea,
the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.
12 Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our
works in us.
KJV Isaiah 26:9-12
The last 2 verses are enigmatic
and could indeed fall into a separate category as great many similar verses
often do where it’s hard to determine to what age or era they may be referring
because they have application that could be timeless and cover any and all ages
or eras. These verses certainly had an
application to the Babylonian captivity and the destruction God visited on his
chosen peoples as a nation in those days but can also apply to the time of our
future and so for simplicity we have simply called these types of prophetic
pronouncements --- ‘timeless prophecies’ --- because they can’t necessarily be
definitively slotted into any particular category and could apply to any time
frame and not necessarily just that era in which they were given:
20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about
thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
21 For, behold, the Lord cometh out of
his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover
her slain. KJV Isaiah 26:20-21
Did the Lord indeed come out of
his place [Heaven] in times past to personally punish ancient nations? It would
seem so. Will he do so again as many prophetic
scriptures indicate? It would seem so.
Chapter 27:
Chapter27 is a little obscure
in its meaning in places and so we’ll ‘pass’ on trying to give an explanation
for verse 1 because of the KJV old English language used and so we’ll use the NIV to quote from this time
but basically its covering a vast array of time from Isaiah’s day forward to
Daniel’s day and again in true ‘Isaiah
panoramic-like fashion’ interwoven among these verses are glimpses of what
Isaiah had seen in vision coupled to what God had apparently personally told
Isaiah for various ages or periods of human history and a few for our future
besides showing God will nurture His ‘fruitful’ vineyard [ refer to our future
as yet to be written article “Growth of the Kingdom of God’ --- from antiquity
till now...” for details.
The key verses for our future
and the growth of the future Kingdom of God are these:
2 In that day-- "Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
3 I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day
and night so that no one may harm it.
NIV Isaiah 27:2-3
NIV Isaiah 27:6 In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.
verses 7-13
are showing that the old way of life of the then typical ‘fortress’ style ‘city
states’ was to disappear over time and verses 12-13 is an announcement of the
prophet Daniel’s, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah’s days, with the return
of a remnant, to come after:
12 In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites,
will be gathered up one by one.
13 And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in
Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on
the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
NIV Isaiah 27:12-13
So how could Isaiah have known
when these prophecies were given to him that a few hundred years into his
future way of life of the nations of those times would disappear and not only
that but that his people who were only just beginning to fall to the Babylonian
empire would be restored as they were in Daniel, Eza,
Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah’s days? In centuries and generations
to come?
There is really only one
satisfactory answer to that question:
Prophecy of the type clearly
given to Isaiah comes from inspiration of the Holy Spirit and close personal
acquaintance with the one who reveals all prophecy --- shown throughout
Isaiah’s work by his faith in Jesus/YHVH/Jehovah from the previous chapter.
3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth
in thee.
4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in
the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:
5 For he bringeth down them that dwell on
high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to
the dust. KJV Isaiah 26:3-5
While scholars may attempt to
‘forward date’ other prophets like Daniel in trying to discredit the prophetic
credibility and accuracy of prophecy by claiming some of it is written ‘after
the fact’ --- it’s the one thing they cannot do with Isaiah’s or even Jeremiah’s work because of the content.
Even though the attempt is made
by claiming some of Isaiah was possibly written by Isaiah’s disciples and /or
other multiple authors --- those disciples or spurious and clearly fictitious
and nonexistent multiple authors --- couldn’t possibly have known the things
that are written of and foretold in Isaiah in advance of those things that came
to pass centuries down the track.
Jeremiah in fact backs up much
of what Isaiah foretold in the coming destruction of such Empires of the
Babylonians, Assyrians, the Egyptian pharaohs and their dynasties and influence
and the many other ancient nations of those times such as Tyre, Nineveh and
specific prophecies directed at Ashdod and many other capital cities of those
times that were foretold never to be rebuilt etc.
Why were the Egyptians spared
the same fate as the Babylonian’s total extinction as a nation for example?
These things simply can’t be explained away by false claims of multiple
authorship nor can that list in Jeremiah 25 of the specific nations God
targeted for destruction be explained away.
It seems the Egyptians were to
continue to exist as a nation although reduced from ages of past former glory
and power where other empires did not continue to exist at all ---for the
simple reason God has a future planned for them as Isaiah foretells exactly as
Isaiah chapter 19 clearly laid out in detail:
22. And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he shall
smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.
23. In
that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian
shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall
serve with the Assyrians.
24. In
that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with
Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:
25.
Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed
be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine
inheritance. KJV Isaiah 19:22-25
Chapter 28:
A
truly ‘pivotal’ chapter, again, to do with the future growth of the Kingdom of
God in conjunction with the overthrowing of the old way of life in Isaiah’s
future and what God had shown Isaiah of that future, whether by inspiration,
personal word or vision – all are hinted at because Isaiah is here speaking
with the authoritative manner of an inspired servant and prophet of God who
sees and/or saw that future ahead.
This
is the famous or infamous “here a little, there a little” chapter showing that
there is a right way and a wrong way to go about understanding the truth and
that God’s people in ancient times had chosen the wrong way and they and future
generations and would err and stumble because of that.
This chapter can be broken down
into the certain ‘prophetic’ components because there are important lessons in
here for our day also because it can’t be emphasized enough that Isaiah did
indeed ‘see’ into our future...... and these chapters are the precursor
chapters leading to the phenomenal promises beginning about chapter 40 through
to 45 to both houses of Israel for future generations.
While the latter half of this
chapter 28 is clearly directed at the Jews specifically from verse 14 onwards
it opens with a broader reference including the Ephraimites, ancestors to the
modern English speaking peoples and one of the chief tribes of the birthright holder nations of the Israelites who were
clearly not Jews. [Refer to our article ‘Hand of God’ for identity of the birthright nations of Israel or J.H Allen’s work on the
sceptre and birthright nations and peoples of Israel
in “Judah’s sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright”]
This is an important
consideration in our understanding to whom and what and to why fabulous
promises are offered to certain nations above others and when they would be
fulfilled.
Like
Jeremiah, Isaiah was specifically told in no uncertain terms to write his
prophecies in a book for future generations and clearly the generation in which
these prophecies were written were deaf and or blind to the warnings of God’s
prophets – but amazingly, seemingly by choice:
8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that
it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will
not hear the law of the Lord:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto
us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One
of Israel to cease from before us. KJV
Isaiah 30:8-11
Oddly enough a similar
admonition was given to Jeremiah on a couple of occasions:
2 Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words
that I have spoken unto thee in a book.
3 For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the
captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them
to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
4 And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and
concerning Judah.
KJV Jeremiah 30:2-4
2 Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have
spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the
nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto
this day.
3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I
purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that
I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
One of the questions we need to
ask therefore is who was prophecy really written for when clearly the
generation to which they were delivered were never going to listen?
In chapter 28 Isaiah asks a
very similarly related and pertinent question:
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and
drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon
line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: KJV Isaiah 28:9-10
Prophecy is knowledge, i.e. ‘fore-knowledge’
of what God is going to do in the future.
Prophecy is also doctrine or
teachings of God about His kingdom that must be acquired here a little and
there a little apparently to be understood fully but because the Israelites
refused to listen to God as a whole and God’s prophets and prophecy in
particular their knowledge of God was to become a stumbling block to them in
future generations and a prophecy of the first advent is given here in chapter
28:
16 So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See,
I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure
foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.
However the Jews of the pre-
Babylonian captivity were told [by a prophecy] that their knowledge of God [or
lack thereof] would become a stumbling block to them in future generations
because of their refusal to listen to God:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this
people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to
rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept
upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a
little; that they might go, and fall
backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people
which is in Jerusalem. KJV Isaiah
28:11-14
When we understand that the
Jews were the holders of the ‘sceptre promise’ and were intended to be a
‘spiritual light’ to the rest of the ancient world we can clearly see that
Isaiah did indeed have his
finger on the pulse of the ancient Jewish nation figuratively speaking and
fully knew the score and extent of their downfall in that area.
The reminder of that chapter
[vs. 17-29] deals with the sweeping away of the web of lies and deceit the Jews
had built for themselves and that the old way of life was to be ‘ploughed
under’ as a result of their failure and the ‘strange act’ referred to was the final
destruction of a nation that God had called out of the ancient world to be his
own peculiar treasure above all peoples:
5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed,
and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar
treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of
priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel. KJV Exodus 19:5-6
However Isaiah also knew the
full score as to what God was going to build in the future and this is
reflected in the many references in Isaiah’s prophetic work to the 1st and
second advents and the last ‘plowman’ analogy of
Isaiah’s in verses 23-29 is reminiscent of the many parables Jesus used in His
descriptions of the Kingdom of God in the New Testament that involved in many
cases analogies to the plant Kingdom showing the planting of a grain of mustard
seed for example, representing the growth of the kingdom of God from humble
beginnings:
31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The
kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and
sowed in his field:
32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the
greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the
birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
KJV Matthew 13:31-32
So the tearing down of a nation
that was intended to be a light to the world would have indeed seemed a strange
act to even one of God’s own prophets and yet Isaiah also saw the future in
incredibly detailed visions of both 1st and 2nd advents
and records them throughout his work and even a little beyond the second coming
also and this understanding of his makes the next chapter even more profound in
showing the depth of understanding that would be lost to the Jews of the
ancient world but also what would indeed be restored to them or rather, their
distant descendants in the far distant future.
Chapter 29:
A contrast is being shown
here to what was being lost in spiritual understanding in the ancient world to
what will be restored in spiritual understanding in the future and all centring
around the city of David and whether the use of the name Ariel was intended as
allegory or not, it is clearly a reference to Jerusalem. And, the reality was, Jerusalem really was
“visited” by God as verse 6 says and, it should be remembered, that Isaiah was
writing all this before these events unfolded and it is doubtful that even
Isaiah’s disciples lived to see these events unfold as two more prophets,
contemporary to one another but not
Isaiah, followed Isaiah’s era i.e. Ezekiel and Jeremiah, who actually did live
through the unfolding of the Babylonian captivity and Daniel also a very young
child at the time of the Babylonian captivity followed on the heels of Ezekiel
and Jeremiah later on:
Thou shalt be visited of the
Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm
and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. KJV Isaiah 29:6
So then, chapter 29 can be broken
down in the following manner:
Vs 1-6 A
prophecy
and also a description of the coming Babylonian
siege and captivity
Vs 7-8 A possible ‘timeless’
prophecy that had an application regarding the fates of the nations that were
to assault Jerusalem in Isaiah’s immediate future but may well be applied to
the nations also that come against Jerusalem in our future. This is not
duality as some would and do teach but simply similar methods of dealing with
nations both past and present or future. [See part 5 of this essay as that last
line of verse 8 has that timeless quality to it as to being non
specific to the timeframe it is covering and could apply to any and all
ages i.e.
....so shall the multitude of all
the nations be, that fight against mount Zion. KJV Isaiah 29:8
Verses 9-16 are
representative loss of Prophetic and/or spiritual understanding among religious
leaders and scholars.
Vs
17-24 contrasting what was lost to what will be restored at the beginning of
the Millennium of our as yet future ahead in the 21st century:
17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a
fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the
eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
19 The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among
men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
22 Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of
Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
23 But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst
of him, [at
the time of the first resurrection of the saints] they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
and shall fear the God of Israel.
24 They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they
that murmured shall learn doctrine. KJV Isaiah 29:17-19
Chapters 30-35: The “prelude chapters” to what we [the
authors of his essay] termed very early on in our collaborative writing
together “the Isaiah promises” contained within Chapters 40-45.
The modern day secular scholars
that arbitrarily categorized and divided the book of Isaiah into 1st, 2nd and
3rd Isaiah i.e. Proto, Deutero and Trito Isaiah don’t seem to be able to credit
what middle Isaiah reveals [2nd Isaiah] i.e. approximately verses 40
-45 although secular scholars at least albeit unwittingly, do seemingly agree
that the Isaiah promises to God’s chosen peoples begin at Chapter 40 in middle
Isaiah.
The secular scholars did
rightly note a ‘change of pace’ however, that began at the 40th
chapter because it stands out like a sore thumb --- what was not noticed is a
subtler change of pace beginning in the prelude chapters from 30-35 that begins
a shift of focus from the punishments that God was delivering at that time as
chapter 30 points out --- for their total disregard and despising of God’s word
delivered to them through His prophets ----- to the far future promises of ultimate
deliverance and salvation.
Chapter 40 is not just a
change of pace only however, but a challenge to all sceptics and
scholars and indeed any who would deliberately downplay the word of God in all
generations showing that ultimately, accurate and precisely fulfilled prophecy
is the proof of both the existence of God, and His eternal power to actually
bring to pass whatever is prophesied.
The real shift of focus from
prophesied punishment to future salvation actually began in chapter 29 with the
prophecy against Ariel, or the city of David, and it follows that chapter 30 is
also referring to the Jews of Jerusalem although this is not specifically
stated in chapter 30 it is in chapter 29:22 referring to the Jacob contingent
i.e. note the underlined words:
Therefore thus saith the Lord,
who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now
be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. KJV Isaiah 29:22
In chapter 30 Isaiah is told to
go write in a book basically as a ‘future’ witness against these rebellious
Israelites for all future generations: [note the words –for “the time to come”
and the words “for ever and ever”]
8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people,
lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us
right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy
One of Israel to cease from before us.
Here again in
these verses in a nutshell is the reason for the first Diaspora of the Jews:
12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this
word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: KJV
Isaiah 30:8-12
It is clear that God considered
their iniquity [lawlessness] in the next few verses of such major importance as
to completely “shatter” their nation so that little would remain of it:
First Diaspora
foretold:
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling
out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is
broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the
bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth,
or to take water withal out of the pit.
15 For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and
rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:
and ye would not.
16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye
flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be
swift.
17 One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five
shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as
an ensign on an hill. KJV Isaiah 30:15-17
In the making and creation of
the Israelite nation in the first place God promised his peoples that they
would be the ones to make other armies flee with very few opposing those vast
armies and here we see the exact reversal of that which Moses prophesied about
in Deuteronomy 28:1-13 that made the nation of Israel conquerors of the nations
that God drove out before them so that they could take over the holy land from
far superior forces...
When we fully understand that
God is able to influence the minds of enemies and put fear into them as he did
when the Israelites conquered all the lands and the many enemies that were
before them as he did in Moses’ days it’s not too hard to credit what Zechariah
prophesies of the coming battle ahead in our times [Zechariah 12: 2-3,6 & 8-9] when the tiny nation of
modern day Jews will be a stumbling block and a terror to all nations that come
against Jerusalem ....
This day will I begin to put the
dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole
heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish
because of thee. KJV Deuteronomy 2:25
So it’s also reasonable to
conclude therefore that God’s modus operandi in the future will be exactly as
it was in Moses’ days by stiking fear into the hearts
of the enemies of God’s peoples and even more so with accompanying signs and
wonders of cosmic displays of unprecedented and terrifying effect and
proportions never before seen on earth.
We’ve seen in recent times what
devastating Sunami’s and ‘normal’ scale earthquakes
can unleash --- but prophecy reveals massive earthquakes of unheard of
proportions are ahead near the return of Jesus in the book of Revelation, one
of which in concert with extreme volcanic activity is prophesied to completely destroy modern
day Rome:
17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came
a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was
a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an
earthquake, and so great.
19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the
nations fell: and great Babylon came in
remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness
of his wrath. [Refer to our article on the identity
of Revelation’s ‘woman/Babylon’]
20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. KJV
Revelation 16:17-20
While it may be difficult for
the secular scholars to credit much of Isaiah as Isaiah’s unique prophetic
work, the author’s of this essay and analysis of
Isaiah’s prophecies have no such qualms ... all prophecy virtually screams
out massive changes are ahead for planet earth ... changes that mankind
will be powerless to prevent or even understand – even while they are occurring
and fulfilling what Isaiah and God’s other prophets affirm time and time
again... and Isaiah saw all this very clearly apparently in visions given him
and so this verse may have indeed have been the simple statement of faith from
Isaiah himself that it seems:
18 And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may
be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy
upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for
him.
What follows this verse however
is a mixture of incredible far distant
prophecy to Isaiah’s times intermingled with prophecy immediately concerning
the ancient nations of those times and can be a little tricky in discerning one
from the other without the overall understanding of how all prophecy
fits intricately together that secular scholars seemingly simply do not possess
– so we’ll simply divide it as follows;
Beginning of
Millennium prophecy:
19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no
more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall
hear it, he will answer thee.
20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of
affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but
thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way,
walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
KJV Isaiah 30:19-21
Restoration or
climate change for the better during millennium foretold:
23 Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground
withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and
plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.
24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat
clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the
fan.
25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill,
rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers
fall. KJV Isaiah 30:23-25
‘Day of the
Lord’ prophecy
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the
light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke
of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his anger, and
the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue
as a devouring fire:
28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of
the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a
bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
29 Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept;
and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain
of the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel.
30 And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall
shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with
the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. KJV Isaiah 30:27-30
Verses 31-33
of chaper30 are apparently reverting to local prophecy ahead of Isaiah’s times
and carries on over to chapter 31 and verse 31 may actually be the true
beginning of the theme covered in chapter 31 up until verse 4 therefore in
reference to Isaiah’s immediate future.
As mentioned previously,
arbitrary chapter division of scripture in the English versions of the bible
disrupts the flow of prophetic themes making it difficult to discern and
rightly divide prophecy according to timeframe and prophetic themes at times.
Added to this in the case of
the book of Isaiah is the constant seesawing back and forth between prophecies
detailing Isaiah’s immediate future and that of the far distant future.
If Isaiah truly had the full
panorama of the future history of the world laid out before him
from his time to ours and
beyond including the birth of the saviour and some very accurate predictions of
Jesus’ life and mission as it seems he had indeed then a logical question arises
as to how much did Isaiah perceive and understand from all the prophecy that he
was indeed given of what God has in store for our immediate future in the 21st
century?
Since we know from what
actually happened as secular history as we in modern times indeed have the
benefit of hindsight and, are able to look backwards to those times, we also
know that Jerusalem was not spared or preserved during these events portraying
the first diaspora prophecy or indeed the second. But all prophecy dealing with the times ahead
of us in the 21st century show that Jerusalem will be supernaturally
spared from any future destruction, most probably from the moment Jesus sets
foot on the mount of Olives
as the prophet
Zechariah shows us in Zechariah 12:6-9&14:1-4
So it’s logical to assign
verses 4 to 5 definitely to the future and subsequently verses 6 thru 9
‘tentatively’ to future prophecy ahead of our day as well because chapter 32
follows on from there theme- wise and is clearly post second advent, from
verses 1-5 of chapter 32.
From verses 6-14 Isaiah reverts to local
general conditions and local future prophecy of his day up to verse 14, then
again shoots forward in verses 15-20 to a future millennial prophecy:
15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a
fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
16 Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain
in the fruitful field.
17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness
quietness and assurance for ever.
18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure
dwellings, and in quiet resting places;
19 When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be
low in a low place.
20 Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the
feet of the ox and the ass. KJV Isaiah
32:15-20
We need to ask at this point –
why the constant sea-sawing between local conditions and
local future prophecy and far distant future prophecy of the first and second
advents and millennial and beyond prophecy that we find in not just Isaiah’s
prophetical work but also a number of other prophet’s prophecies that seem to
follow a similar pattern --- which indeed makes it difficult for those who
don’t have the holy spirit guiding them in their understanding of the spiritual
things of the word of God to put prophecy into its true perspective.
Strangely enough the answer to
this seeming enigma can be found in the New Testament in a number of places
where even a foremost disciple who made the claim of having received personal
instruction directly from Jesus over and over in his epistles and other
writings:
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy
in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part
shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass,
darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I
know even as also I am known. KJV 1 Corinthians 13:9-12
Clearly, the apostle Paul was
filled with the holy spirit as were all the other
apostles of Jesus but even Paul admitted to not seeing things clearly.
Jesus in fact told his
disciples that many of the old Testament prophets desired to see the things
that His apostles were seeing and beginning to understand in their day through
fulfilled prophecy coming to pass exactly as Isaiah and others foretold and
oddly enough Matthew was quoting Jesus quoting Isaiah when this was written in
speaking of the majority of Jews in Jesus’day:
14 And in them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye
shall see, and shall not perceive:
15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and
their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any
time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should
understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they
see: and your ears, for they hear.
17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous
men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and
to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. KJV Matthew 13:14-17
This understanding then sets us
up for another logical question:
How good was Isaiah’s
perception
of what he was given in prophecy to write about for all future generations to
read as part of scripture? Not only that question but also another related
one:
Apart from local future
prophecy what exactly were the focal points and main themes of all of Isaiah’s
prophecy?
Did Isaiah really see, in
vision, our modern skyscraper buildings come crashing down in a massive future
slaughter of mankind? i.e. World War3? Or alternately
something else that may or may not have been related to WMD’s? [weapons of Mass destruction]
And there shall be upon every
high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and
streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. KJV Isaiah 30:25
The remainder of this analysis
of the 66 chapters of Isaiah and the final part 5 of the “Isaiah Essay” reveals
this and more as we are about to see in clear and not uncertain terms as many
have claimed to represent true prophecy have mistakenly misinterpreted and many
others have tried to relegate to just myth or the writings of mere uninspired
men.
To be continued [work in
progress] *************
8 categories, i.e. [1] Prior to
Babylonian siege and captivity, [2] Babylonian siege and captivity [3] After
Babylonian captivity [4&5]1st and 2nd advents, [6&7] 1st and 2nd
Diaspora’s [8] “During the millennium or after”
A synopsis/listing of all Isaiah’s future
prophecy dealing with events far beyond the confines of the prophecies
pertaining to his days regarding the Israelites, chapter by chapter:
Note: Only ‘prophecies within prophecies’ pertaining to Jesus’
first or second advents [there are a few of these] and prophecy covering the
Days of the Lord and future events concerning modern times will be featured
mostly to show that the themes from start to finish in all of Isaiah’s work are
consistent with a single author proclaiming monumental changes are ahead for
mankind. If we understand that Isaiah
was just the messenger [albeit a VIP one] delivering what he was instructed
through the holy spirit and the Saviour he followed in ancient times then what
is foretold and written in Isaiah is profound and profoundly relevant to us
today also --- upon whom these prophecies will no doubt ‘fall’ in our future in
quite dramatic and spectacular ways..
An ‘overview’ of Isaiah, future prophecies, from
Babylonian captivity onwards:
8 categories, i.e. [1st
category] Prior to Babylonian siege and captivity, [2nd category] Babylonian
siege and captivity [3rd category] after Babylonian captivity [categories
4&5]1st and 2nd advents, [categories 6&7] Ist and 2nd Diaspora’s [8th category] “during the
millennium or after”
*categories
designated by a number in brackets throughout also, e.g., Category 1 = [1]
Isaiah
chapter’s 1-39 ‘Future’ prophecies ---chapter by chapter:
Note:
Not all chapters will have future prophecy but a great many do indeed
corroborate middle and end chapters of Isaiah nevertheless.
Chapter 1:
[5] 2nd advent:
known by most as “the second coming” Plus [8]
“During
the millennium or after
[Though
there have in fact been many ‘comings’ i.e. “days of the Lord” or interventions
in world history]
NIV Isaiah 1:24-29
24 Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty, the Mighty One of
25 I
will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and
remove all your impurities.
26 I
will restore your judges as in days of old, your counselors as at the
beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of
27 Zion
will be redeemed with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness.
28 But
rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the LORD will
perish.
Support
prophecies: Malachi 3:3, Zechariah 13:9
Chapter 2: [5] 2nd advent, plus, [8] “During
the millennium or after”
NIV Isaiah 2:1-5
1 This is
what Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning
2 In the
last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among
the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream
to it.
3 Many
peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the
LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we
may walk in his paths." The law will go out from
4 He
will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They
will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war
anymore.
Supporting prophecies: Micah 4:1-3, Zechariah14:4, 9, 11&17
Additional
support info from Micah:
NIV Micah 4:6-8
6 "In
that day," declares the LORD, "I will gather the lame; I will
assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief.
7 I
will make the lame a remnant, those driven away a strong nation. The LORD
will rule over them in
8 As for
you, O watchtower of the flock, O stronghold
of the Daughter of
Verses
10-21 below
could be a possible
first Diaspora application at the 67-70 AD ‘great’ tribulation but could in
fact be ‘timeless’ for all of God’s ‘day of the Lord’ interventions in history,
however there is definite support for 2nd advent from
the book of Revelation. [see below]
NIV Isaiah 2:10-21
10 Go into the rocks, hide in the ground from dread of the
LORD and the splendor of his majesty!
11 The
eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; the
LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
12 The
LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is
exalted (and they will be humbled),
13 for all
the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of
14 for all
the towering mountains and all the high hills,
15 for
every lofty tower and every fortified wall,
16 for
every trading ship and every stately vessel.
17 The
arrogance of man will be brought low and the pride of men humbled; the LORD
alone will be exalted in that day,
18 and the
idols will totally disappear.
19 Men will flee to caves in the rocks and to holes in the ground from
dread of the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the
earth.
20 In
that day men will throw away to the rodents and bats their idols of silver and
idols of gold, which they made to worship.
21 They
will flee to caverns in the rocks and to the overhanging crags from dread of
the LORD and the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to shake the earth.
Supporting
prophecy for 2nd advent in Revelation:
KJV Revelation 6:13-17
13 And the
stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely
figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the
heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain
and island were moved out of their places.
15 And the
kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief
captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid
themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16 And said
to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that
sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17 For the
great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
Chapter 3: [2] Babylonian siege and Captivity
[Whole Chapter verses1-26]
A
supporting ‘witness’ from Jeremiah: Lamentations chapters 1&2 specifically
with similar reasons given for destruction as Malachi’s, that of
religious leader’s culpability.
NIV Lamentations 4:10-13
10 With
their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became
their food when my people were destroyed.
11 The
LORD has given full vent to his wrath; he has poured out his fierce anger. He
kindled a fire in
12 The
kings of the earth did not believe, nor did any of the world's people, that
enemies and foes could enter the gates of
13 But it happened because of the sins of her prophets and
the iniquities of her priests, who shed within her the blood of the righteous.
The evil kings of those days
could be blamed for their fair share of perfidy in turning away from God ---
but they wouldn’t have done it so easily without the support of evil priests
and prophets who condoned those king’s practices without complaint apparently,
except from God’s true prophets who were in many cases murdered by kings and
priests determined to defy God.
Chapter 4:
Note: There
are two possible periods in time this chapter could be referring to
i.e.
the period 70 years after the Babylonian captivity in the times of Ezra,
Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah, however verses 5&6 don’t fit into or
correspond with that period.
Therefore
a split category is ‘tentatively’ chosen for the chapter:
For verses 1-4: [3] After the
Babylonian Captivity [the “disgrace” of
the women may have been taken away under Ezra and Zechariah’s ministries. [see “Author’s notes” below for a possible explanation]
NIV Isaiah 4:1-6
1 In
that day seven women will take hold of one man and say, "We will eat our
own food and provide our own clothes; only let us be called by your name. Take
away our disgrace!"
2 In
that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit
of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in
3 Those who
are left in
4 The
Lord will wash away the filth of the women of
Author’s
note: The caveat here is that while verse 1 may well be referring to Ezra and
Nehemiah’s day - verses 2-4 better fit Zechariah’s 12th the latter half of the 13th
[verses 8-9] and 14th chapters and the aftermath of both battles to
occur at Jesus coming in our future.
So,
in actuality, verses 2 through to 6 may be all prophecy for the time ahead at
Jesus coming with 5&6 definitely occurring during the 1000 year millennial
rule of Christ.
For verses 5&6: [8] “During the millennium or after”
5 Then the
LORD will create over all of
6 It
will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding
place from the storm and rain.
Author’s
note: This is actually a fascinating little prophetic revelation with verses
5&6 very likely adding a measure of support for Ezekiel’s last 8 chapters
especially if ‘Mount Zion’ is the place for Ezekiel’s Temple to be built and
not the Mount of Olives as all prophecy seems to indicate.
Nothing
like verses 5&6 has ever been done or spoken of in the scripture since the
days of the Israelites deliverance from Egypt where God had a pillar of smoke
by day and a column of fire by night in the camp of the Israelites of old to
guide them to the holy land through the wilderness.
The
‘Branch of the Lord’ is a reference to Jesus everywhere else in the OT and,
therefore here as well and it is definitely speaking of a future time as can be
plainly seen, how far into the future is the question, but verses 2, 3&4
could indeed be a reference to the period from Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai
and Zechariah’s times to the period of first advent and up until the 67-70 AD
great tribulation when Jerusalem underwent another fiery trial at that time.
There is Joel 3:21 to consider however, was
the blood ‘cleansed’ completely during the Babylonian captivity? or just the pagan women’s part in the overall situation?
Compare
to Joel 3:21 to Isaiah 4:4 above:
KJV Joel 3:21 For I will cleanse their blood that I
have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.
The
reference to ‘the women’ seems a little obscure at first but so does another
obscure reference elsewhere that doesn’t seem to have an explanation --- but could
this indeed be that explanation?:
22. How long
wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for
the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.
KJV Jeremiah 31:22
Verse 4 could have been accomplished and
possibly was [fulfilled] as part of the Babylonian captivity and Jerusalem’s
destruction of that time because it was the women who were largely responsible
for corrupting the men of those times and drawing them away from God with their
pagan religions through intermarriage with Hebrew husbands, but that was also a
problem in Ezra and Nehemiah’s days also after the captivity.
Both
men of God decried the intermarriage [presumably with Babylonians or other
pagans present in those days] that had been going on during the years of the
captivity and after. Ezra made a really big thing of it! [Refer to all of Ezra
chapter 10 and Nehemiah 13:23-29]
However God also made a big thing of it before the captivity and
perhaps it was one of the main reasons for the corruption of God’s true
religion by the men who took more notice of their wives than they did of God.
[Refer to Jeremiah 7:18-24, 44:2-28 and note especially verses 15-22]
Chapter 5: Category?
Read on!
In the original Wikipedia
article the secular scholars supposedly noted the Isaiah of the middle chapters
was supposedly a grandiose “poet” of some sort but they failed to notice that
in this early chapter he was apparently a “singer” as well!
What the scholars really failed
to notice is that a lot of Allegory and symbolism is used throughout prophecy
that actually represents “real people and real events.”
The new article at Wikipedia has the scholars
noting there are several “songs” of the “suffering servant” and the really
strange thing is they seem to make no connection whatsoever to the fact that all
those references are to Jesus.
This particular “allegory” [verses
1-6] of chapter 5 is a forerunner to many of Jesus’ parables in the New
Testament along very similar to almost identical lines.
One of the most consistent
things throughout Old and New Testament prophecy is the recurrent
allegorical/symbolic parable themes, using either flora or fauna to illustrate
biblical or spiritual principles. It is
in fact almost Jesus’ trademark, so to speak, mostly using flora to describe
His Kingdom in the New Testament, characteristic of nearly all His teachings.
Just as Jesus gave the explanations to his
disciples of His many parables the explanation is similarly given here for
Isaiah’s/God’s/Jesus’ song/parable in this instance also:
7 For the
vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his
pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for
righteousness, but behold a cry. KJV
Notice again the fine-line distinction
between Israel as a whole, being ‘the vineyard’ and Judah [the Jews] His
special or ‘pleasant’ plant within that vineyard.
Is this next verse a warning to us today
about cramped living quarters in city suburbs? Could be?
8 Woe
unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no
place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! KJV
Periodic solitude may be more important
than we realize --- after all don’t we jump into our RV’s at the weekends to
get away from the ‘rat-race’ of city life? To go fishing or
whatever? We call it, “getting
away from it all” and many speak of needing ‘personal’ space!
Do these next verses have a familiar ring
to them in sounding a lot like us today?
11 Woe to
those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late
at night till they are inflamed with wine.
12 They
have harps and lyres at their banquets, tambourines and flutes and wine, but
they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD, no respect for the work of his
hands. NIV
We do indeed love ‘to party’ and not take
much notice of God don’t we?
What about these next verses? Sound like
our society and judicial systems of today?
A possible
warning for us?
18 Woe to
those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart
ropes,
19 to
those who say, "Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see it.
Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of
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.
21 Woe to
those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.
22 Woe to
those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks,
23 who
acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.
24 Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass
sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away
like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the
word of the Holy One of Israel. NIV
Is this following passage of prophecy a
description of what God is going to do to us for ignoring Him? In our day and age?
If this were to be a ‘timeless’ warning for us today our modern nations
would be in serious trouble for ignoring God.
25 Therefore the LORD's anger burns against his people; his hand
is raised and he strikes them down. The mountains shake, and the dead bodies
are like refuse in the streets. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
his hand is still upraised.
26 He
lifts up a banner for the distant nations, he whistles for those at the ends of
the earth. Here they come, swiftly and speedily!
27 Not one
of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps; not a belt is
loosened at the waist, not a sandal thong is broken.
28 Their arrows
are sharp, all their bows are strung; their horses' hoofs seem like flint,
their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
29 Their
roar is like that of the lion, they roar like young lions; they growl as they
seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue.
30 In
that day they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks
at the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be darkened
by the clouds.
Although we haven’t changed
that much in national character from our ancestors it seems the category of
this chapter is actually that of:
[2] Babylonian siege and
Captivity
Note:
One of the character traits the author of this essay has acquired in regard to
those who denigrate or alternatively, misrepresent the word of God, is a
‘wicked’ sense of humour and this little diversion was to demonstrate the
absurdity of assuming ‘a change of pace’ equates with a change of author.
Is the author of this
essay going to be reckoned to be ‘two’ separate authors now, figuratively, by
modern day scholars --- for posterity? J Presuming our little website is even going
to be noticed. J
Chapter 6: [2] Babylonian siege and Captivity
Isaiah
‘foretells’ both diaspora’s
This
chapter is quite a key chapter in two ways:
[1.] It shows God deliberately lowering the people’s
understanding of spiritual things i.e. they were to kept from salvation for a time in not understanding the
truth anymore:
9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand
not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make
their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear
with their ears, and understand with their heart,
KJV Isaiah 6:9-10
Isaiah then
asks the natural question, “for how long?” And, is given an
answer that encompasses the complete devastation of the holy land and is a
forward projection from Isaiah’s day to the beginning of the Babylonian
captivity showing God completely forsaking His peoples at that time by allowing
them to be utterly destroyed as a nation:
11 Then said I, Lord, how long? and he answered,
Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and
the land be utterly desolate,
12 And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking
in the midst of the land. KJV Isaiah 6:11-12
[2.] What this chapter also shows is the
accuracy of prophetic announcements made by the prophets of God, Isaiah in this
case, in particular:
What the
secular scholars have missed completely is the next ‘one liner’ verse
that is
indeed somewhat a little obscure in the KJV bible but made clearer in the NIV
version:
But yet in it shall be a tenth,
and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose
substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be
the substance thereof. KJV Isaiah
6:13
NIV:[second diaspora]
And though a tenth remains in
the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave
stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the
land."
NIV Isaiah 6:13
So Isaiah was
given more than just an insight into the upcoming Babylonian captivity in the
very earliest opening stages of his prophetic work.
Whether or not
what he was given to record was completely understood by him or not is the only
thing that can be open to speculation because subsequent and following prophets
such as Ezekiel, Jeremiah and even Daniel prove out the reality and fulfilment
of these pronouncements by God for the Jewish nation.
As shown in
part 4 of this essay above Isaiah’s contemporary Hosea was the prophet who
outlined the pronouncements for the rest of Israel and specifically the
ancestors of the British and English speaking people’s
of the world. The Jews were to be the ‘stump’ of the holy peoples that was to
remain in the holy land until Jesus’ day and both secular and prophetic
biblical history prove this to be the case.
Isaiah shows
that the Jews were to be devastated again after that time though and even more
importantly in a later chapter shows that what God set in motion in this
chapter i.e. the lowering of the Jews understanding of the prophetic truth and
indeed the whole world’s understanding would not be lifted
again until Jesus’ return in our future:
And he will destroy in this
mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. KJV Isaiah 25:7
Jesus did
indeed say that His [true] disciples were privileged to understand things that
even many of God’s prophets did not understand even though they desired to
know:
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets
and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not
seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. KJV
Matthew 13:16-17
The one thing
that the secular scholars have completely overlooked and don’t even acknowledge
in any way shape or form is what Ezekiel in addition to Micah shows and the New
Testament shows and that it is it is absolutely necessary for a prophet or
servant of God to have the spirit of God to comprehend the things of God:
And the Spirit of the Lord fell
upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the
Lord; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come
into your mind, every one of them. KJV Ezekiel 11:5
Although Isaiah
deals mostly with the Jews and their fates in his 66 chapters this little
insight from the earlier chapters of Ezekiel highlights not only what the
modern day Jews claim in that they think they are all of Israel, but very
clearly that the rest of the houses of Israel’s fates are tied to the Jews and
that God is intensely interested in all of Israel:
14 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
15 Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren,
the men of thy kindred, and all the house of Israel wholly, are they unto whom
the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, Get you far from the Lord: unto us is
this land given in possession.
16 Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; Although I have cast them far off
among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet
will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.
[speaking of the bulk of Israel that
are not Jews]
17 Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; I will even gather you from the
people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and
I will give you the land of Israel.
18 And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the
detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence.
19 And I will give them one heart, and
I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony
heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
20 That they may walk in my statutes,
and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will
be their God.
21 But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their
detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon
their own heads, saith the Lord God.
KJV Ezekiel 11:14-21
What all the
New Testament shows as do many of the prophets just as verse 21 here in Ezekiel
shows is that God is not dealing with nations in the interim period between the
destruction of Old Israel and the creation of the Kingdom of God at Jesus’
return on a ‘national’ basis but on an ‘individual’ basis according to the
individual’s sins. Just as the previous
chapter 5 of Isaiah shows very clearly as well, this time in the NIV for a
little more clarity:
15 So man will be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the
arrogant humbled.
16 But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God
will show himself holy by his righteousness.
17 Then sheep will graze as in their own pasture; lambs will feed among
the ruins of the rich.
18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness
as with cart ropes,
19 to those who say, "Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we
may see it. Let it approach, let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come, so we
may know it."
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.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own
sight.
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing
drinks,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent.
24 Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in
the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust;
for they have rejected the law of the LORD Almighty and spurned the word of the
Holy One of Israel. NIV Isaiah 5:15-25
The time for
God to deal with nations as a whole once again is approaching an unknowing and uncaring
world and most probably won’t be all that far into our future as all prophecy
reveals and is cited by all the prophets to be at the time of Jesus’/the holy
one of Israel’s return to earth as revealed in Daniel also:
"In the time of those
kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that
will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush
all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.
NIV Daniel 2:44
In the
meantime in modern times we find modern man often downplaying the prophetic word of God as being written by
multiple author’s and inferring Isaiah’s author’s to be dreamers and poets or
disciples of Isaiah’s and not crediting Isaiah’s work to it’s
real author and this is what God says of
men who do that:
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own
sight.
Of special
note in this 6th chapter are the earlier verses and the way in which
God draws attention to Isaiah’s calling as a prophet. [Isaiah6:1-8]
There are only
three Old Testament prophets that were given such intricate visions and
detailed insights into God’s heavenly throne, and, all three are major players
in the prophetic sphere, with Daniel’s 7th chapter coming close to
being a forerunner to the book of Revelation, John from The New Testament makes
a 4th and very nearly summarizes the final fulfilment of all the other three’s
prophetic work with Zechariah’s prophecies paralleling Revelation so closely
that there can be no doubt that the Author of all their work was and still is
the Son of God, The master prophet and the Holy one of Israel, who declares by
an angel in Revelation that His testimony is “the Spirit of Prophecy”. [Revelation 19:10]
Isaiah was of
course one of those three major prophets, followed by Ezekiel and Daniel in
third but by no means last place. We’ve
left Zechariah out of this assertion because he is considered a minor prophet
but the content of his prophecies concerning the coming kingdom of God would
place him pretty close to
4th
place with the prophecies of John in Revelation making him the 5th
who had phenomenal insights into the kingdom of God that have no equals in any
other periods of biblical or secular history to date.
What the
secular scholars have failed to understand
in declaring Isaiah’s middle chapters written by a poet with lofty
notions of mountains raised and valleys lowered which are indeed pictured as
we’ve shown in the essay itself to occur at Jesus’ return in our future is that
all of the KJV bible was written in lofty prose style poetic language --- it
was simply the style of the times in the year 1611AD but that in no way
diminishes the impact or reality of what God outlines in Isaiah and pronounces
for the future ---our future. So we repeat
verse 21 in Isaiah 5:21:
21 Woe to those who are wise in their
own eyes and clever in their own sight.
A few
university degrees with a bunch of letters after one’s name gives nobody the
right to claim in their starry eyed self importance
that they are experts on the word of God, even those with theology degrees that
are grounded in the traditions of men:
But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. KJV Matthew 15:9
The remainder
of the earlier chapters of Isaiah from chapter 7 up to about chapter 40 [middle
Isaiah] fall under the general category of some local prophecy that occurs just
prior to, during and some post exilic prophecy or what we’ve indeed termed
‘local prophecy’ of those times and much of that to the enemies of the Jews.
So for those
chapters we’ll simply highlight and list prophecies that are far future
prophecies contained in these chapters that align perfectly with middle and
third Isaiah to show the single authorship of Isaiah perfectly clearly.
[Chapters45-66]
Chapter
7:
[1] Prior to Babylonian siege
and captivity plus [2] Babylonian siege and
captivity
[4]1st advent
A difficult
chapter to categorize under a single category because it also includes besides pre–Babylonian
siege and captivity elements, also pronouncements for the Babylonian captivity
and a fair amount of local prophecy dealing with the Jews and the Ephriamites [ancestors to the English speaking peoples] and
in addition has what we call ‘a prophecy within a prophecy’ and an important
one of Jesus’ first advent and a sign that was to be given of the ‘virgin’
birth of Jesus:
14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and
choose the good.
KJV Isaiah 7:14-15
Isaiah shows
in this chapter that a lot of the prophetic content of his work and indeed most
[but not all] of his prophetic book even in these early chapters is directed
towards the Jews and their future for uncountable centuries to come from
Isaiah’s day:
And he said, Hear ye now, O
house of David; is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my
God also? KJV Isaiah 7:13
For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the
good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings. KJV Isaiah 7:16
Chapter 7 is basically
the beginning of pronouncements against the enemies of the Jews by God for the
next lead up chapters to the 40th and strangely enough in spite of the claim of
modern day Jews that they are all of Israel one of those enemies was
Ephraim one of the predominant tribes of the ten tribe house of Israel!
KJV Isaiah 7:1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the
son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin
the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war
against it, but could not prevail against it.
This one chapter 7 and the following 8th
chapter lay to rest once and for all that notion that the Jews are all Israel
only.
Showing this very clearly we find God’s
pronouncement against this attempt by Israel aided by a Syrian Ally to attack
the Jews at Jerusalem and the destruction of Ephraim as a nation within 65
years into their future:
7 Thus saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall It come to
pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim
be broken, that it be not a people. KJV Isaiah 7:7-8
Any student of prophecy should be able
to see that very clearly but apparently neither Jews nor secular scholars can
see this prophetic truth that the Jews who are a part of Israel only were not
all of Israel and this is an important concept
to keep in mind when studying prophecy.
Some of modern Christianity does understand but they are in an extreme
minority.
[*
refer to our ‘hand of God’ article at our website.]
What we need
to understand at this point is that the ancient Israelites were a much more
powerful influence in the ancient world than historians or scholars, secular or
otherwise would credit under King David and reached their peak of influence
under King Solomon.
The Hebrew
nations didn’t get as much coverage as the more historically well known and other influential nations such as Egypt, the
Assyrians, the Babylonians, Medes, Persian et al of those times and later the
Greek and Roman Empires.
Since the writings of the Hebrew
[Israelite/English] bible is not regarded by anyone as serious history and has
of late had many attempts to relegate it to mere ‘myth’ by those modern authors
such as Michael Baigent our modern world has a naturally distorted view of what
God plans for it in the future.
In fact our modern societies have very little
to no understanding whatsoever of what God plans to bring to fruition through
the writings of His prophets such as Isaiah.
Hence the need for a comprehensive analysis of the prophecies of the
major prophet Isaiah concerning our future and that of the kingdom of God in
this part the Isaiah essay.
As far as the
local content of this prophecy goes concerning these ancestors of the English
people’s combining
with Syria against the House of David [Jews] went, the God of the
Old Testament pronounced that their attempts to conquer the Jews with their ill conceived confederacy would not stand:
Thus saith the Lord God, It
shall not stand, neither shall It come to pass. KJV
Isaiah 7:7
But the
prophecy of Chapter 7 encompassed a lot more than just local prophecy as it spanned the history of the kingdom of
Syria and Israel’s kings showing that 7-8 hundred years into the future neither
of those nations would have kings and that the holy land’s previous productive
lands would be reduced in productivity to a fraction of what it once was
apparently right up to the time of Jesus and the sign given to King Ahaz of
that time [of the virgin birth]could not possibly have been for him [because he
would never see it] but for the house of David[Judah/Jews] and for a distant
time:
16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the
good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.
17 The Lord shall bring upon thee, and
upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the
day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for
the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee
that is in the land of Assyria.
19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate
valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all
bushes.
20 In the same day shall the Lord
shave with a rasor that is hired, namely, by them
beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet:
and it shall also consume the beard.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a
young cow, and two sheep;
22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall
give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every
one eat that is left in the land.
23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be,
where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings,
it shall even be for briers and thorns.
24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land
shall become briers and thorns.
25 And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall
not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending
forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle. KJV Isaiah 7:16-25
Verse 16 above
is a reference to Jesus as the previous two verses 14 and 15 attest and is
worthy of repetition here:
14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall
conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and
choose the good.
KJV Isaiah 7:14-15
The conditions
depicted here of the state of the Holy land after the Babylonian captivity right
up to Jesus’ day showing the land of Judah was once much more productive than
it is today is an interesting one because of the prophecy of Isaiah Chapter
5:1-10 --- practically the first thing Jesus is going to do when His throne is established in Ezekiel’s third temple is
to have rivers of waters flowing through the holy land and the hills dripping
with abundant produce:
9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of
waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble:
for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my
firstborn.
10 Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and
declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather
him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
11 For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of
him that was stronger than he.
12 Therefore they shall come and sing in the
height of Zion, and shall flow together to the
goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young
of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden;
and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old
together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and
make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14 And I will satiate the soul of the
priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
saith the Lord. KJV Jeremiah 31:9-14
This prophecy
of Jeremiah’s above confirms two points raised in this
essay on Isaiah’s work:
[a] Zion and more specifically Mt Zion therefore will most
probably be the site of God’s/Jesus’ throne/Ezekiel’s third temple/sanctuary
and house, not the Mount of Olives or Mount Moriah. [verse
12]
[b] There will
be future priests in that temple. [verse 14]
In exodus the
‘Promised Land’ was described as a large abundant land flowing with milk and
honey so It’s also important we understand how big the promised land was and
what territory it encompassed and this will concern the enemies of God and be
covered in greater detail in the final part 5 of the Isaiah essay:
6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to
look upon God.
7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people
which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters;
for I know their sorrows;
8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians,
and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land
and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the
Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. KJV Exodus 3:6-8
23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out
before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.
24 But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will
give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth
with milk and honey: I am the Lord your God, which have separated you from
other people. KJV Leviticus 20:23-24
Few truly
understand the extent of the holy land that was promised and given to Abraham’s
descendants i.e. the whole 12 tribes of Israel and that it was not just the
lands currently held by the modern nation of Israeli’s.
The true scope
of what lands constituted the ‘promised land’ will be covered in the final
instalment of ‘The Isaiah essay’ and is one of the essential ingredients as to
which nations the judgement or Wrath of God will fall on at Jesus’ return.
There is no
reason to make the assumption that the holy land in Isaiah’s and king Ahaz’s day, when some of these prophecies were given to
Isaiah, wasn’t the abundant land that the scriptures describe.
However the prophecies of Isaiah , especially in chapter 7 show that
with the coming of the Babylonian captivity and the following centuries between
then and the time of Christ, the whole face of the holy land would change and
become less productive with the departure of the Israelites into captivity and
obscurity with the possible exception of the remnant of the Israelites
represented by the Jews that were destined to return and ‘kick start’ the
Jewish society again in the times of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and
Zechariah in preparation for Jesus’ first advent, also heavily prophesied about
in the pages of Isaiah’s prophetic book as our readers are about to see in the
rest of this analysis of Isaiah’s work.
Chapter
8: [1]
Prior to Babylonian siege and captivity [Short range and ‘timeless’ prophecies
given]
In prophetic
symbolic language water and floods often refers to peoples, nations or their
armies and verse 7 is a prime example of that:
7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of
the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he
shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
8 And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he
shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill
the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.
KJV Isaiah 8:7-8
When we begin
to understand that most if not all of prophecy is not just written and recorded
for the generation in which the prophecies are given but for future generations
as well and sometimes for very far distant future generations the many
prophetic books of the bible like Isaiah’s tell a far more far-reaching story
than just an historical one.
The secular scholars and even many modern
theologians and religious leaders have failed to grasp the ‘why’ of prophecy in
the first place.
It’s been shown in other parts of the Isaiah
essay that God clearly instituted animal sacrifices in the first place as part
and parcel of Old Covenant religious observances and yet in this chapter and
other prophet’s books God states outright that He hated the religious
observances and even the holy days that He also introduced to His chosen
peoples i.e. Abraham’s descendants due to how they observed them and we need to
understand exactly why, to make sense of all prophecy and the many dire punishments
that God inflicted, even on His own chosen slave peoples that He rescued from
the Egyptian taskmasters by the many miracles performed to deliver these
peoples to the promised land that is covered in the book of Exodus and
elsewhere throughout scripture.
In this chapter, through His servant Isaiah,
God asks the questions we need the answers to, because the answers have a
bearing on all future prophecies that were written for our modern era and
slightly beyond:
11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams,
and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of
lambs, or of he goats.
12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand,
to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new
moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is
iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth:
they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. KJV Isaiah 1:11-14
Short range prophecy:
God’s Method
of punishment, i.e. using one nation to punish another is pretty self evident throughout prophecy.
It is also clear that God used the Assyrians
at first to sweep away the ten tribes that composed the ‘house of Israel’ but
was also, as this short-range prophecy shows, again using the Assyrians against
the land of Judah and Jerusalem itself, comprising the ‘House of Jacob’
contingent of the Israelites, in the pre-Babylonian captivity era of Isaiah’s
day, as the opening of the previous chapter asserts along with verses 7-8
above:
The vision of Isaiah the son of
Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
KJV Isaiah 1:1
Chapters
7&8 therefore can be taken as a single prophecy because chapter 8 continues
straight on from the 7th in fact.
A short range
prophecy is given showing the influence of Damascus and Samaria [The ones
troubling king Ahaz] would be taken away by the invading Assyrians:
4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my
mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away
before the king of Assyria.
KJV Isaiah 8:4
This one
chapter 8 requires a little more explanation than the following ones from 9 up
to chapter 40 for the simple reason that it is a pivotal one setting up the
world conditions that would prevail from Isaiah’s day up until the time of
Christ and the reasons for future world history following along the lines that
it did in fulfilled prophecy against the various Gentile [Pagan] nations of the
ancient world.
From Chapters
9-40 only ‘highlights’ and the ‘prophecies within prophecies’ of the first
advent need only be given to show the relevance to the middle and later tie in
to the latter chapters involving modern times and prophecies covering the
second advent of Christ, yet to come in our future.
What is very
clear throughout all prophecy is that the tribe of Judah [The sceptre
holders]grown into the Modern nation of Israeli’s and restored to the Holy land
by one of the leading birthright and brother nations
Ephraim [British] in 1948 share a common destiny and the Jews[Judah, Benjamin
and Levi tribes] will play a major role in world affairs and events just prior
to Christ’s return to the Mount of Olives when major geological changes to the
earth’s surface will take place also at that time.
In the
prophecies of Isaiah God outlines very clearly through His servant and major
prophet Isaiah the whole destiny of the Jews from Isaiah’s time until modern
times and even beyond. Coupled to Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah and confirmed in
the Book of Revelation the future of the Jews is assured against overwhelming
odds by the promises contained in ‘middle’ Isaiah and Jeremiah 31 with a great
deal of the outcome of future events portrayed just as clearly in Zechariah and
the so called minor prophets such as Joel, Micah, Hosea, Amos et al.
The future
laid out in prophecy and this chapter sets up the beginnings of God’s dealings
with the enemies of His chosen peoples:
All the
prophets taken together as a whole provide a very clear panoramic view of God’s
plans for mankind and all peoples of the earth.
Isaiah
outlines God’s views about relying on allies instead of the Living God in this
chapter and makes the claim God instructed him personally and very strongly on
this issue of trusting God and not men:
10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and
it shall not stand: for God is with us.
11 For the Lord spake thus to me with
a strong hand, and instructed me that
I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
12 Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say,
A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
13 Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him
be your dread.
KJV Isaiah 8:10-13
Again, showing
that the Israelites were divided into two clearly delineated houses and that
the Jews are not all of Israel but even more importantly, Isaiah begins to show
in this chapter his closeness to his God and the understanding that the God of
the Old Testament was to be the future Saviour and was the Lord of hosts whose
base of operations and abode/home even in those times was from Mount Zion:
13 Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him
be your dread.
14 And he shall be for a sanctuary;
but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of
Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be
snared, and be taken.
16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
17 And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth
his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. KJV Isaiah 8:13-17
This little
insight in the 17th verse is an intriguing one, showing that even
though Isaiah was a man of faith and had very strong convictions concerning his
mission as a prophet in warning the Jews of their failure to believe God
through his prophets –-- he also knew that God was going to hide His face from
the Jews for an extended and indefinite period.
Did Isaiah in
fact know that God was going to hide his face [symbolically speaking] from the
majority of Jews almost right up to the so called second coming or second
advent of Christ?
It’s clear in
modern times that some modern Jews are attempting to restore the old religion
that Jesus ‘updated’ in the New Testament by annulling the Old Testament and
it’s therefore also clear that God has not yet revealed Himself through Jesus
to the majority of modern Jews otherwise they wouldn’t persist in returning to
that which God has done away with in instituting the New Testament and the
fabulous promises contained therein.
So what began
in the 2nd chapter of Isaiah, announcing the coming of the Lord of hosts and
the establishment of Lord’s house and throne in Isaiah’s far distant future and
the clear statement that this Lord is “the God of Jacob” becomes a consistent
theme throughout all of Isaiah binding it together as a whole work from start
to finish i.e. what the secular scholars have erroneously called first, second
and third Isaiah:
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and
Jerusalem.
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top
of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the
hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of
Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk
in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth
the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the
nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
KJV Isaiah 2:1-5
The last verse
5 though not underlined shows the depth of Isaiah’s faith in all that God had
revealed to him in visions and by personal instruction also apparently.
Isaiah was
given special commissions not just to the Jews but to all of Israel as verse 18
below infers and his understanding of his saviour and his understanding of the
future God was laying out for all mankind and especially God’s chosen nations
was second to none and is clearly a single author’s work bound together by all
the ‘prophecies within prophecies’ that appear in Isaiah’s work showing both
first and second advents of the very Saviour he followed:
18 Behold, I and the children whom the
Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from
the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion. KJV Isaiah 8:13-19
When we
understand that God the Father doesn’t come to our earth until after the
millennial reign of Christ as the prophetic book of Revelation confirms in its
closing chapters [Rev. 21:1-7] then all Of Isaiah’s references to the first and
second advents loom that much larger in confirming the profound importance of
Isaiah’s prophecies as a proof of Isaiah’s inspiration of the prophetic visions
given Isaiah under the influence of the holy spirit.
The
irrefutable link to the New Testament of Isaiah’s prophetic work are what
Isaiah prophesied of Jesus and shown throughout the New Testament’s many quotes
of Isaiah’s prophetic words and that of the apostle Peter, Paul and John
showing Peter’s and even the apostle Paul’s understanding of Isaiah confirming
Isaiah’s prophetic statement above in verses 13, 14 & 15 that the Lord of
hosts himself was to become a stumbling block, a rock of offense and a snare to
the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The apostle
Peter first:
3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is
gracious.
4. To
whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God, and precious,
5. Ye
also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an
holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus
Christ.
6.
Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be
confounded.
7. Unto
you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the
corner,
8. And
a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at
the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9. But
ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an
holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
10.
Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God:
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. KJV 1 Peter 2:3-10
The apostle
Paul next:
31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not
attained to the law of righteousness.
32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works
of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in
Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. KJV Romans 9:31-33
Proof positive
of the sole Authorship of the book of Isaiah:
The major link
to the New Testament and proof of the authenticity of Isaiah’s work as a single
unified all encompassing, expansive and prophetic work of the highest order
contained within the 66 chapters of
the book of Isaiah
are the many references to Jesus, His future ministry, His future rulership
over the kingdom of God when it is re-established on earth at Jesus’ return in
the 21st century.
Jesus did indeed become a stumbling block and
rock of offense to the Jews just as Isaiah prophesied that He would [Isaiah
8:13-15 quoted above] and remains so even today among the orthodox Jewry with
the possible exception of small factions like the ‘Jews for Jesus’ who accept
His divinity.
Jesus inferred
that the main reason he spoke to the multitudes of the Jews in His day in
parables was because of what Isaiah prophesied of their inability to perceive
and understand the truth of prophecy regarding Himself
and other spiritual matters:
13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and
hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
14 And in them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye
shall see, and shall not perceive:
15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and
their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any
time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should
understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets
and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not
seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard
them. KJV Matthew 13:13-17
From here on
out it is only necessary to show each and every one of those references to
Jesus among the remaining chapters of Isaiah to show the depth of understanding
Isaiah possessed regarding the future of the Jews and how history would be
played out from Isaiah’s time forward --- even to our day and age.. and beyond
--- but there are also some fascinating side issues regarding exactly how those
incredible changes to our future will come about and how the pages of prophecy
will translate into truly massive changes
to the face of our earth that a great many and, particularly the scholarly
world ... simply have no conception of ....whatsoever.
Note: Chapters
9 through to 31:
All these
chapters come under the general classification of:
[3rd
category] after Babylonian captivity
However,
chapter 9 is the turning point chapter where Isaiah begins to show God’s marked switching from the Babylonian
captivity punishments of the first Diaspora of the Jews to the prophecies concerning
all the enemies of God’s peoples [Israelites/Hebrews] from the
Babylonian captivity forward to Jesus’ day with interweaving of 2nd
advent prophecy and future punishments for those nations that are arrayed
against God’s peoples in our future as well as what punishment was handed out
to those nations used by God to bring about the 1st Diaspora in the
post Babylonian captivity period.
Even in this
overview analysis there are things that really are incredible that are
overlooked by not only scholars who would like to downplay the word of God but
also by a great many Christians who claim prophetic understanding in our modern
era.
Chapter
9: [1] Prior to Babylonian siege and captivity [2] Babylonian siege and
captivity
[3] after Babylonian captivity [4&5]1st and 2nd advents,
1st advent prophecy:
1 Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as
was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun
and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the
way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.
2 The people that walked in darkness
have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
upon them hath the light shined.
3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy
before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they
divide the spoil.
4 For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his
shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments
rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
6 For unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name
shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty
God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Jesus holds title to all of the above in verse 6 even that of
the second last because in effect Jesus was the Father of Adam and eve and the
human creation he so lovingly created with his own two hands out of the raw
clay of the earth by breathing life into the first humans from his own being. Not to mention that He gave his life as any
loving father would who cares for his children --- only His sacrifice was the
most awesomely excruciating sacrifice ever made.
2nd advent prophecy:
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and
upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with
justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this.
8 The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. KJV Isaiah 9:1-8
Note: These
are promises/prophecies of a physical government over physical nations on this
earth in our future
The remainder
of the chapter covers:
[1] Prior to
Babylonian siege and captivity [verses 9-12]
[2] Babylonian
siege and captivity [verses 13-21] Supported by Jeremiah’s account in
Lamentations showing the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem where parents even
ate their own children.
Chapter10: [1] Prior to Babylonian siege and captivity
[3] after Babylonian captivity
[1] Prior to
Babylonian siege and captivity [verses 1-11]
Short range
prophecy of
‘Assyrians’
used to punish Israel and Jews.
[3] after Babylonian captivity [verses 12-34]
A short range
prophecy of punishment of the Assyrians after they’d been used against God’s
peoples are covered here but also a
longer range prophecy that foretells Daniel’s, Ezra’s, Nehemiah’s,
Haggai’s and Zechariah’s day:
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more
again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One
of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty
God.
22 For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant
of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with
righteousness.
23 For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined,
in the midst of all the land. KJV Isaiah
10:20-23
Chapter11: [4&5]1st and 2nd advents,
[8] “during the millennium or after”
1st advent prophecy:
1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
Branch shall grow out of his roots:
2 And 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;
3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and
he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the
hearing of his ears: KJV Isaiah 11:1-4
2nd advent prophecy:
4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with
equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of
his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness
the girdle of his reins.
Post 2nd coming/advent prophecy
i.e. [8] during the millennium or after:
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie
down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down
together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the
weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.
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.
10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for
an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be
glorious. KJV Isaiah 11:4-10
·
Verses 11-16 are post 2nd
coming/advent prophecy covering punishment of modern middle eastern nations
[covered in detail in part 5 of the Isaiah essay]
Chapter 12:
[8]
“during the millennium or after”
1 And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou
wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst
me.
2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the
Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. ...showing that the Jews
will eventually acknowledge Jesus [Jehovah/YHWH] as their saviour.
3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name,
declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.
5 Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in
all the earth.
6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. KJV Isaiah 12:1-6 [Jesus will be the only member of the
God family dwelling on earth during the millennium as we’ve shown and so
clearly is also the ‘Holy one’ of Israel.
Note: It can
be clearly seen that chapter 11&12 are really one prophecy because chapter
12 reads straight on from 11 without pause. Although it’s not critical to true
understanding in this case, as we’ve pointed out in our work – the arbitrary
division of the scriptures into chapter and verse for easier reference by
whatever scholar who did so has in other places obscured the truth of prophecy
to a fair degree. Matthew 24to 25 in the New Testament being the most notable
division of a single theme which obscured the truth that Jesus’ answers to his
apostles are covered in both those chapters as a single prophecy also. Very few
understand that Mathew 25 gives a full explanation of Jesus’ delay of nearly
2000 years in instigating the Kingdom of God that He promised to His disciples
and all true believers, with
particular
emphasis on verses 14&31-34 showing this to be the case.
The Old and
New Testaments as originally written in the original languages had no such
divisions into chapter and verse but dealt with prophecy theme by theme and
this is indeed an important factor in understanding true prophecy and
subsequently what God has in store for our world in the near future for us
also.
Past prophetic
announcements by God are therefore crucial to our understanding of what the
future holds for us in our modern day and age because those ancient prophecies
didn’t just stop at local prophetic pronouncements by God upon a disobedient
race of peoples[Israelites] that He had chosen for Himself to be his ‘peculiar’
treasure:
3 And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the
mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the
children of Israel;
4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on
eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant,
then ye shall be a peculiar treasure
unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
As can be seen
in this following verse and completely confirmed in the book of Revelation God
has never deviated from His original purpose of making the peoples He chose
from among the nations of the world to be a light and example of His government
and future rule of this planet we call home:
6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy
nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of
Israel. KJV Exodus 19:3-6
Book of
Revelation confirmation:
And hath made us kings and
priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and
ever. Amen. KJV Revelation 1:6
Chapter
13: [3] after Babylonian
captivity
Destruction
and fate of Babylon foretold [entire chapter] with a possible insertion of a future[timeless] prophecy for modern times a little into our
future. An explanation and intro follows:
In our modern
day and age we tend to think [if we believe in God] that God is not all that
involved in the fate of modern nations because there doesn’t seem to be any
tangible, direct evidence of that. There doesn’t seem to be any modern day Isaiah’s, in a
personal one on one relationship with their God as in the days of the prophets
of old that have a true handle on what God is going to do in our world.
The bible and what is recorded
there seems remote and out of touch with modern technological reality and
consequently the bible is mostly relegated to the category of myth. [At least
the secular scholars would love to make it so]
The days when God dealt
directly with humanity and pronounced the fate of nations through His prophets
does indeed seem remote and Isaiah’s work is something like 2,700 years or so
ago. Exact dates aren’t important for the point about to be made but it has been another
lengthy period of nearly 2000 years since the last major intervention by
God in world affairs.
Apart from Daniel the prophet’s, Ezra,
Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah’s days when God was once again preparing the
Jews for a major intervention to come approximately 500 years into Daniel’s
future, the last time was indeed what modern Christian religious and secular
scholars termed, the first coming of Jesus Christ, though in reality Jesus has
visited this earth many times in the past, probably in different guises like
that of Melchisedec, the King and High Priest of the
fledgling city state of Salem which later presumably became known as Jerusalem
as time went by.
From the time that Abraham was told to leave
his homeland city of Ur to go to the land of promise, Jerusalem and the lands
God made holy by driving out the Gentile nations located there because of their
extreme idolatrous worship of pagan gods and evil practises of sacrificing their
children to those false deities, have indeed become the focus of God’s
attention as the place of His choosing to set up His future kingdom and Mt Zion
has played a major role symbolizing the place of God’s dwelling both past and
future.
Of all the modern nations of the world, the
nation known as Israel today or more commonly the Israeli’s i.e
also recognized as the Jews of today but originally known as the Judeans or
tribe of Judah of biblical times, have been the closest peoples to
understanding the true God and that have known and kept the preservation of the
Oracles [prophecies] of God intact.
Our Old Testament was preserved by dedicated
Jewish scholars and scribes, otherwise, we would not
have the books of prophecy that are available today. No doubt the various writings and books of
the Old Testament were also gathered together and preserved by dedicated Jewish
scribes and scholars in much the same way that the writings of the New
Testament were preserved by dedicated believers, who later came to be called
Christians.
According to the Book of Isaiah itself,
Isaiah had dedicated disciples or students [Isaiah 8:16] who were most probably
indeed the ones who put together the writings of Isaiah, especially the latter
chapters into the form it has in the 66 chapters that are available today.
Also, according to some tradition or legend,
Isaiah supposedly met an untimely death at the hands of one of the Jewish
monarchs and was supposedly sawn in half when he hid in a hollow tree [one
version] to escape the wrath of the king of that time:
Another version of Isaiah’s death, courtesy of Wikipedia under the
article “Isaiah”
The remaining years of Hezekiah's reign were peaceful (2 Chr 32:23-29). Isaiah probably lived to
its close, and possibly into the reign of Manasseh, but the time and manner of
his death are not specified in either the Bible or recorded history. There is a tradition (reported in both the Martyrdom of Isaiah and the Lives of the Prophets) that he suffered martyrdom
by Manasseh due to pagan reaction. Both Jewish and Christian traditions state
that he was killed by being sawed in half with a wooden saw. Some
interpreters believe that this is what is referred to in the New Testament verse Hebrews 11:37, which states that some prophets were "sawn in two".
However Isaiah died and whether
or not Isaiah’s disciples or students may have assembled Isaiah’s prophecies in
the form of the 66 chapters that appear in our modern bibles is entirely
irrelevant to the claim that scholars might make that not all of Isaiah’s work
was his. God either inspired the
preservation of Isaiah’s prophecies by whatever means --- or He didn’t. The prophecies themselves are from God and
not man in any case.
We intend to show the infallibility of those prophecies, however they were assembled and preserved for us
today.
The means of preservation is not
as important as the content –because what is written will impact on all of
modern society in our age because Isaiah’s prophecies were not confined to
ancient times but are all expansive through New Testament times and beyond to
our future and what links the entire work of Isaiah into one unified prophetic
work are precisely the references to Jesus’ 1st and 2nd
advents.
Focal shift:
What
is important for our purposes here of proving Isaiah was of single authorship
is that chapter 13 is basically the turning point of focus from the punishments
of the Israelites for
turning away from their God and that included the Jews, through the use of such
nations as the Assyrian, Babylonian etc of those times
to the destruction of those nations that God used and in fact a great many
other Gentile nations that came into contact with the Israelites.
Nations
that didn’t come into contact with the ancient Israelites like China or Russia
for example seldom get a mention in scripture but those in the immediate area
of the holy land most certainly feature prominently along with those nations
God used to punish the Israelites.
The
Chinese and Russians do get a mention in prophecy and their ancestors may
indeed have come into contact with the ancient Israelites but that’s a whole
different ballgame and story that won’t be covered here but will be covered in
the last instalment of the Isaiah essay under the enemies of God sections.
Author’s
Note: The majority of Isaiah 13 concerns the destruction of Babylon and the
Babylonian empire. There are however some verses that could be ‘timeless’
prophecies but that is not certain because we simply don’t know what
astronomical and geological disturbances went on in past ages that can be
accurately confirmed in the modern era.
Definition of a ‘timeless’
prophecy:
There
are some prophecies that simply can’t be categorized by their very nature as
either belonging to the past or the future specifically. They could in fact be
fulfilled in any age or era because they are non specific
as to the timeframe they may be intended for.
These verses below of Isaiah 13
could be ‘timeless’ in their application because a number of prophecies lift up
to a ‘future time’ in many cases from what was prophesied to happen in the
local sense to many nations at the time the prophecies were given. Sometimes
longer range prophecies are also given with shorter range prophecies to
specific peoples showing what is in store for them even thousands of years into
their futures as well as immediately ahead of the prophet’s times.
It is not always easy to
discern if a prophecy could have occurred in the past when it seems like one
intended for our future and these verses below in the 13th chapter
are a prime example:
KJV Isaiah 13:9-13
9 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce
anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out
of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give
their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall
not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their
iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud
to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the
golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her
place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
To make an assessment as to
what era or timeframe this portion of the entire prophecy of chapter 13 actually fits into, a number of questions for
which we may not have answers still needs to be asked to determine if this and
Isaiah’s later prophecies are covering the same events or two different ones.
A later chapter of Isaiah
definitely features the earth reeling to and fro like a drunkard in a far
distant future setting that can only be at the time of Jesus’ 2nd
coming or very shortly thereafter as the time setting is unmistakeably clear in
the 23rd verse:
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed
like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it
shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the
host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the
earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the
pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be
visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the
Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his
ancients gloriously. KJV Isaiah
24:20-23
Q.1 The first and most obvious question we need to ask
here is has the earth been subjected to being tilted off its axis or displaced
from its orbit in relatively recent times past i.e. more specifically, at the
time of the destruction of the Babylonian empire and its capital Babylon?
In the book of Exodus and elsewhere ‘the
promised land’ is definitely describe as lush and abundantly productive:
And I am come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto
a good land and a large, unto a land
flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the
Hivites, and the Jebusites. KJV Exodus 3:8
The boundaries or borders were
even given as to the area the holy land/promised land, was to encompass i.e.
its geographic location:
18 In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy
seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river,
the river Euphrates:
19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the
Jebusites.
KJV Genesis 15:18-21
*Refer also to
Clay’s timely article at this website titled “Who owns the middle east?”
showing the location more graphically.
The next reasonable and logical
question follows on the heels of the first:
Q.2 If the land area between the Nile
and the Euphrates was described as GOOD, large and flowing with milk and honey
in Abraham’s day and was presumably so also in Moses’ time then how come most
of the land within those described confines is largely dry and arid in modern
times and sparsely populated bordering on desert-like conditions? What happened to it? And more importantly,
When?
Q.3 Another question
that follows logically is did God do what Isaiah sets forth in all the chapters
beginning at 14 through to 39 and lay waste to those lands that Isaiah was to
prophesy against in those chapters? In other words do these words in Isaiah
cover what has seemingly happened to the holy land as a result of Israel’s and
Judah’s sins and all those other
nation’s lands that began to be laid waste beginning with Babylon that were
regarded by God as the “terrible” of nations?:
This prophecy
then clearly becomes prophecy concerning ancient Babylon of 13th
chapter and not for our future:
9 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce
anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners
thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give
their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall
not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the
haughtiness of the terrible.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and
the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of
hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Or put yet another way, has God
done in the past what He is seemingly going to do again in our future at His
return --- like displacing the earth
from its axial tilt to effect rapid climatic change?
Duality? Not at all - but disturbingly similar
prophecy of a previous ‘day of the Lord’ carried out with similar celestial
signs accompanying punishments inflicted on ancient nations for similar
reasons.
Can it then be
seen that this prophecy is not then of the ancient past although similar
heavenly signs are used including axial tilt and displacement of the earth from
its orbit --- but is concerning Jesus’ return in our future? [24th
chapter]:
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the
host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the
earth.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when
the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before
his ancients gloriously.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed
like a cottage; and the transgression thereof
shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
Besides the nations of Israel
and Judah let’s do a quick run-down of other nations that were laid waste
by God in chapters 13 thru to 39 in ancient times:
Isaiah
13: Destruction of Babylon and the surrounding
lands foretold:
5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord,
and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6 Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a
destruction from the Almighty.KJV Isaiah 13:5-6
Isaiah 15 -16: Destruction of previously populous, productive
and fruitful lands --- partly through trampling of armies [vs. 8] and what else?--- climate change, foretold ?
The burden of Moab. Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste, and brought to silence; because
in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste, and brought
to silence; KJV Isaiah 15:1
For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate: for the hay is withered away,
the grass faileth, there is no green thing. KJV Isaiah 15:6
And gladness is taken away, and
joy out of the plentiful field; and in the vineyards there
shall be no singing, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders shall tread
out no wine in their presses; I have made their vintage shouting to cease.
KJV Isaiah 16:10
But now the Lord hath spoken,
saying, Within three years, as the years of an
hireling, and the glory of Moab shall be contemned, with all that great
multitude; and the remnant shall be very small and feeble. KJV Isaiah
16:14
Another question begins to
emerge from the study of these prophetic scriptures:
Q4. Has God actively altered the earth’s climatic conditions since Isaiah’s day and age
to bring about the destruction of nations that he foretold through his prophets
would be either destroyed or reduced in population and power to insignificant remnants
of their former greatness and influence?
This in turn gives rise to another related question:
What are all these passages of
prophetic scripture dealing with the destruction of ancient civilizations
really showing us in modern times?
The majority of ‘enlightened’
historians and secular scholars would like to say – nothing at all. The bible
like many other religious writings are relegated to just a collection of myths
and superstitious writings of the Jews/Hebrews of antiquity in most post Darwinian
evolutionary thinking of the modern era. There are exceptions to this anti-God
way of thinking among the majority of modern scholars and some scientists, but
by and large, very few exceptions.
Majority rules in secular society where our children are taught in
schools to accept a theory that has never been proven as fact but has most of
modern society convinced that ‘evolution’ is true on the say so of one man
[Charles Darwin]and a few of his followers without actual proof. Very
unscientific conclusions were made on sheer theory. And, even archaeological
discoveries that are made are forced to fit into that theory whether or not
they really do so.
Isaiah
17: Destruction of Damascus in ancient
times as an influential city along with Syria foretold, but much more besides ---
the downgrading of many nation’s previously great and influential civilizations
was indeed foretold and Isaiah makes an important observation of his own at the
end of this chapter:
Verses 1-11 covers The Jews and
Israel’s future desolation along with Damascus and Syria but verses 12-13
highlights the extension of that desolation to other nations:
12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which
make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that
make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God
shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the
chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the
whirlwind. KJV Isaiah 17:12-13
While it’s entirely possible
that the last verse 14 and 13 quoted above preceding it could have indeed been
added by Isaiah’s disciples as a sort of general comment, there’s no reason to
assume that it was made by them.
So is this observation by Isaiah that God
would rebuke the other nations that ‘spoiled’ the Jews, whether made by Isaiah
or his disciples a valid one? Let’s see:
Isaiah
18: In the original article featured in
Wikipedia it was stated that the secular scholars felt Middle Isaiah was
written by a poet but in reality much of the 1611KJV bible is written in a
prose/poetic style and the whole of chapter 18 is no exception and runs very
poetic indeed of its description, seemingly, of the African continent:
Woe to the land shadowing with
wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia:
That sendeth
ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying,
Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible
from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land
the rivers have spoiled!
KJV Isaiah 18:1-2
Isaiah
19-20[taken together]: Destruction of
the long dynastic line of pharaohs and of the Egyptian civilisation foretold:
Again in the early verses ‘vast’
climatic changes are foretold along with internal division and strife and
rulership by a cruel or fierce king to come upon Egypt:
4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and
a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts.
5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
6 And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence
shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
7 The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be
driven away, and be no more.
8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into
the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall
languish.
9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, shall
be confounded.
10 And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices
and ponds for fish.
KJV Isaiah 19:4-11
Egypt was apparently a much
richer and more fertile land in Isaiah’s day also and although Egypt was to be
greatly reduced in stature as a powerful influence from Isaiah’s time till our
day and age a remarkable and quite unique future is foretold for future
generations of Egyptians beyond our times in the 21st century:
2nd advent, [7]
16 In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid
and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shaketh over it.
17 And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that
maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of
the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined against it.
18 In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language
of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts; one shall be called, the city of
destruction.
19 In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the
land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord.
20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in
the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors,
and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.
21 And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the
Lord in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a
vow unto the Lord, and perform it.
22 And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they
shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be intreated
of them, and shall heal them.
[8] “during
the millennium or after”
23 In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the
Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the
Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria,
even a blessing in the midst of the land:
25 Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people,
and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance. KJV Isaiah
19:16-25
Comment: It’s
interesting to note at this time that verse 17 seems to have already had
partial fulfilment in 1948 and again in the infamous 1967 ‘six day war’ and,
are the Jews again to ‘terrorize’ the Egyptians in our future?
Confirmation
in the Book of Zechariah?:
Strangely enough the book of
the prophet Zechariah seems to completely confirm Isaiah in spades as to the
role the Jews of our future are to play out during Jesus’ return in our day and
they may well ‘terrorize’ the surrounding middle eastern nations,possibly
including Egypt should they also come against modern day Israel of the future:
2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people
round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against
Jerusalem.
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all
people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all
the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
6 In that day will I make the
governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the
wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people
round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be
inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
8 In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David;
and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before
them. KJV Zechariah 12:2-3, 6&8
So this
heavily underlined verse 8 is in effect a promise by God to defend the Jews of
modern Jerusalem against all comers --- even if the entire world’s modern
nations were allied ... against Jerusalem ... though all the people of the earth be gathered together against
it.
Quite a
spectacular promise is it not--- considering modern weapons of mass destruction
that could conceivably be used and arrayed against the Jews ?
Chapter 20:
Comprises short-range
fulfilment of verse 4 of chapter 19 and falls into category [3] being sometime
after the Babylonian captivity but before the 1st advent of Jesus.
Chapter21:
Comprises an amalgam of
prophecies of the fall of Babylon [verse9] and the diminishing of various Arab
nations [verses 13,15-17] from former greatness – but also the rise of the
Medes [verse2] all written and prophesied well in advance of the events and
what is even more astonishing even before the Babylonian captivity had even
come to pass.
Note: The rise
of the Medes and their destruction was also foretold by Jeremiah because the
prophetic scriptures are full of redundancies whereby scripture after scripture
run to parallel prophecies and back-up prophecies of other prophets covering
the same eras or ages that leave no doubt as to the accuracy of any single
prophet.
Jeremiah 25:25
and also 51:10-14 below:
10 The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us
declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.
11 Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the Lord hath raised up
the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to
destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his
temple.
12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong,
set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the Lord hath both devised
and done that which he spake against the inhabitants
of Babylon.
13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters,
abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.
14 The Lord of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill
thee with men, as with caterpillers; and they shall
lift up a shout against thee. KJV
Jeremiah 51:10-14
The rest of the 64 verses of prophecy
against Babylon are a fascinating read showing that it would occur over a
period of time but the end result would be utter and permanent desolation and
chapter 51 concludes with these words showing the incredible accuracy of these
pronouncements by God through His prophets and confirm it was written before
the eventual overrunning by the Medes down the track and before Daniel’s day:
59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded
Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the
king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah
was a quiet prince.
60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all
the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written
against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest
to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words;
62 Then shalt thou say, O Lord, thou
hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it,
neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.
63 And it shall be, when thou hast
made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast
it into the midst of Euphrates:
64 And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and
shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. KJV
Jeremiah 51:59-64
How is all this prophecy from
Jeremiah relevant to Isaiah?
Don’t quite see the connection? Even though it is well known parts of the
ancient city of Babylon now lie beneath the Euphrates river
and are inaccessible to archaeologists even today?
How about this scenario of
modern times for comparison:
World wars 1&2 of last
century utterly devastated the landscapes of Europe and even with the vast
array of weaponry involved and all that destruction --- all of those landscapes
have recovered from 2 totally destructive and devastating world wars involving
modern technological warfare.
The conclusion
then is that warfare and especially ancient warfare alone couldn’t have been
responsible for the total devastation that was apparently visited upon these
ancient nations that both Isaiah and Jeremiah confirm were to be utterly
destroyed and in the case of Babylon, never to be rebuilt.
Chapters
22-24:
Carrying on in the same
prophetic themes of nations surrounding the Israelites and/ or Jews being
either destroyed or diminished from their former wealth and power and influence
--- the prophetic scenario broadens to cover nearly all the nations of the then
known ancient middle eastern world.
Chapter24:
Without the prophet Jeremiah’s
detailed input of prophecy[s]fully explaining the aftermath of this exact same
time period or prophetic scenario depicted here in Isaiah this entire chapter
would be enigmatic as to which age or era it is chiefly referring to because it
ends in verse 23 giving a ‘time frame’ which is definitively in our future when
the Lord of hosts “shall” reign in Zion and Jerusalem and clearly even modern
history hasn’t progressed to that point in time yet......
Isaiah speaks of a ‘curse’ that
has overtaken or devoured the ‘earth’:
3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord
hath spoken this word.
4 The earth mourneth and fadeth
away, the world languisheth and fadeth
away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they
have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting
covenant.
6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the
earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore
the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. KJV Isaiah 24:3-6
The earth shall reel to and fro
like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a
cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall
fall, and not rise again.
KJV Isaiah 24:20
Verse 20 gives the impression
that our physical planet was or is going to be damaged beyond repair or even
destroyed according to the wording of Isaiah here in verse 6 above --- however,
this is where we need to be exceptionally circumspect and careful in not
leaping to unwarranted assumptions without first asking all the relevant and
entirely logical questions that arise i.e. who, where, when, why and how.
In asking these relevant
questions we also need to consider the relevant prophetic facts that are freely
available elsewhere in prophecy.
All prophecy shows that the
physical planet is not going to be destroyed any time soon and elsewhere if we
fully believe scripture –-- never will be destroyed, but can be renewed many
times over--- and will continue beyond the 1000 year reign of Christ and after
an approximate 100 year ‘judgment period’ will be fully renewed and restored
[and become like the garden of Eden and will become a paradise with lakes and
rivers but no sea] from whatever damage it may incur as a result of the cosmic
upheavals and earthquake and resultant volcanic activity that are prophesied to
occur in our immediate future in this 21st century.
The Book of Revelation shows
the earth will continue beyond the millennium very clearly in its 21st
chapter. [Rev 21:1&5 specifically]
The very first words in the
first chapter after the first verse in Genesis in fact show the ‘renewing’ of
the face of the earth in preparation for mankind rather than its initial
creation of millions of years ago:
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. [Millions of years ago]
2 And the earth [was] without form, and void; and darkness was upon the
face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. KJV
Genesis 1:1-2
The original languages
apparently rendered ‘was’ bracketed above as ‘became’ according to a religious
leader of last century [H.W. Armstrong] and Clay Willis [co-author]would be
able to confirm this.
It is also clear from
palaeontology and archaeology that dinosaurs and a reptilian age preceded man
but the earth became waste and empty or formless and void as KJV translators
rendered the original language versions of the Pentateuch.
So between verses 1&2 of
Genesis our earth clearly had a rendezvous with a cosmic confrontation with
another heavenly body that destroyed the previous age of the dinosaurs which
resulted in the earth being covered with water and all plant and animal life
previously destroyed therefore.
But with God all things are
possible so the earth can be renewed ad infinitum if God so desires as verse 5
of Revelation 21 attests below:
And I saw a new heaven and a new
earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was
no more sea. KJV Revelation 21:1
And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
KJV Revelation 21:5
We need therefore to look for
another explanation of the earth falling and not rising again [Isaiah24:20]
based on logic built on a solid foundation of known prophecy:
King David adds a little
insight:
25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens
are the work of thy hands.
26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax
old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: KJV Psalms 102:25-26
We know from modern astronomy
that our universe is in a constant state of change with new suns being born
even though solar systems my die or perish as David puts it.
It makes no sense however to
create a world that was meant to be inhabited by a unique creation only to
destroy it at some point and Isaiah agrees with that logical assessment:
For thus saith the Lord that
created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain,
he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else. KJV Isaiah 45:18
According to the same 45th
chapter of Isaiah it is God’s overall purpose to save the earth and its
inhabitants --- not destroy either on a permanent basis:
But Israel shall be saved in the
Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world
without end. KJV Isaiah 45:17
Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is
none else.
KJV
Isaiah 45:22
So with that little background
how are we to understand Isaiah’s enigmatic statement that the earth will fall
and not rise again because of the weight of transgressions against God that
have caused that fall?
And again what was the ‘curse’
that devoured the earth in Isaiah’s day that he spoke of in Isaiah 24:6? Was it indeed the curses of the latter half
of Deuteronomy 28 --- beginning at verse 15 that was to strike the Israelites
for breaking the old Covenant?
Was that curse a ‘punishment’
to come from God that involved climatic change on a vast scale that would
eventually result in all the blessings that were pronounced in Deuteronomy 28
1-13 that were bestowed on Abraham’s descendents
being removed? And would other nations also suffer a similar fate as the Israelites
[Judah and Israel] in the aftermath of their fall?
And, when did that indeed
occur?
Just exactly HOW do you
devastate entire nations one after another and just as importantly WHY?
The 25th chapter of
Jeremiah is absolutely astounding as to ‘fleshing out’ this 24th
chapter of Isaiah to the nth degree as follows below by giving us the WHY of
massive climatic changes coupled to ongoing wars among nations that would in
effect be their punishment in destroying some and diminishing others on a grand
scale and Jeremiah even supplies a list of all the then current and local
middle eastern nations that were to suffer in the aftermath of Israel’s fall
from grace and the withdrawal of supernatural protection of God’s government of
the day from the holy land.
Notice the wording of the curse
or curses that would overtake the Israelites for breaking the old covenant were
the exact reversal of all the blessings of verses 1-13 of Deueronomy 28
and brought about for their ignoring their God, the only true God of Abraham
Isaac and Jacob.
But what is most spectacular is
that everything covered in the latter half of this phenomenal prophecy of Moses
came to pass and was fulfilled in every way! Down to the last detail!
Jeremiah’s writings are the
main ‘witness’ to the curse that would overwhelm the Israelites who formerly
enjoyed those extraordinary blessings from God as set out in in Deuteronomy 28
which did indeed involve blessings of idyllic climate conditions in the case of
the blessings and the removal of them regarding the curses that were to follow
breaking the Old Covenant.
Jeremiah’s book of Lamentations
stands out as the single most graphic fulfilment of Moses prophecy of those
curses’ fulfilments experienced by the prophet firsthand from the siege of
Jerusalem itself and its final days.
Beginning with Judah and the
Babylonian kingdom/empire, a list of an incredible panorama of ancient nation,
after ancient nation, becoming ‘desolate ’or ‘ruined’ follows which shows the
extent of vast changes in the capacity of lands to continue producing abundant
crops etc which could only be brought about by
climate change on an unusual scale coupled to the normal devastation that wars
bring.[entire chapter of 38 extremely informative
verses quoted in NIV for easier reading] :
1 The word came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the
fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year
of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
2 So Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people of Judah and to all those
living in Jerusalem:
3 For twenty-three years--from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon
king of Judah until this very day--the word of the LORD has come to me and I
have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.
4 And though the LORD has sent all his servants
the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any
attention.[Isaiah being the foremost, possibly Micah, also Hosea, Isaiah’s
contemporary and as Jeremiah himself says for his 23 years of prophesying also]
5 They said, "Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your
evil practices, and you can stay in the land the LORD gave to you and your
fathers for ever and ever.
6 Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not provoke me
to anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you."
7 "But you did not listen to me," declares the LORD, "and
you have provoked me with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves."
8 Therefore the LORD Almighty says this: "Because you have not listened
to my words,
9 I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon," declares the LORD, "and I will
bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy
them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting
ruin. [KJV perpetual desolations]
10 I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices
of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp.
11 This whole country will become a
desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve
the king of Babylon seventy years.
12 "But when the seventy years are
fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the
Babylonians, for their
guilt," declares the LORD, "and will make it desolate forever. [Babylonians –-- the first to be made
desolate after Israel]
13 I will bring upon that land all the things I have spoken against it,
all that are written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the
nations.
14 They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings;[the
Medes-Persian empire --- followed by the Greco-Macedonian empire and later,
Roman empire] I will repay them according to their
deeds and the work of their hands."
15 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: "Take from
my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to
whom I send you drink it.
16 When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword [warfare]
I will send among them."
17 So I took the cup from the LORD's hand and made all the nations to
whom he sent me drink it:
18 Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a
ruin and an object of horror and scorn and cursing, as they are today; [at
the time of the Babylonian captivity]
A List of all other nations following on
the heels of the Babylonians into ruin as prophesied:
19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his attendants, his officials and all his people,
20 and all the foreign people there; all the kings of Uz;
all the kings of the Philistines (those of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron,
and the people left at Ashdod);
21 Edom, Moab and Ammon;
22 all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across
the sea;
23 Dedan, Tema, Buz and all who are in distant
places ;
24 all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the foreign people who
live in the desert;
25 all the kings of Zimri, Elam and Media;
26 and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other--all
the kingdoms on the face of the earth. And after all of them, the king of Sheshach will drink it too.
27 "Then tell them, `This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel,
says: Drink, get drunk and vomit, and fall to rise no more because of the sword
I will send among you.'
28 But if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, tell
them, `This is what the LORD Almighty says: You must drink it!
29 See, I am beginning to bring
disaster on the city that bears my Name, and will you indeed go unpunished? You
will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all who live on the
earth, declares the LORD Almighty.'
30 "Now prophesy all these words against them and say to them:
"`The LORD will roar from on high; he will thunder from his holy dwelling
and roar mightily against his land. He will shout like those who tread the
grapes, shout against all who live on the earth.
31 The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth, for the LORD will
bring charges against the nations; he will bring judgment on all mankind and
put the wicked to the sword,'" declares the LORD.
32 This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a mighty storm
is rising from the ends of the earth."
33 At that time those slain by the LORD will be everywhere--from one end
of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned or gathered up or buried,
but will be like refuse lying on the ground.
34 Weep and wail, you shepherds; roll in the dust, you leaders of the
flock. For your time to be slaughtered has come; you will fall and be shattered
like fine pottery.
35 The shepherds will have nowhere to flee, the leaders of the flock no
place to escape.
36 Hear the cry of the shepherds, the wailing of the leaders of the flock,
for the LORD is destroying their pasture.
37 The peaceful meadows will be laid waste because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
38 Like a lion he will leave his lair, and their land will become desolate
because of the sword of the oppressor and
because of the LORD's fierce anger. NIV Jeremiah 25:1-38
In one ‘nutshell’ chapter of
Jeremiah, we have the WHO, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW of the prophetic future of
the ancient nations laid out in no uncertain terms as to what God was going to
do from basically Isaiah’s day forward. Jeremiah was simply recapping in his 25th
chapter what was already prophesied in the books of Isaiah and Micah in
essence, as Hosea
shows the laying waste of the Israelites that was already foretold in those
prophets but God, through Jeremiah’s prohecies
expanded that into the panorama of all the ancient nations surrounding the
Israelites also falling under the wrath of God in those days.
So what is the conclusion to be
drawn from Isaiah 24 and Jeremiah 25 together?
The curse that devoured the
earth at that time was indeed the aftermath of Deuteronomy 28 curses being
played out in full upon the remaining Israelites [Judah] of those times and
other nations were to suffer similar fates following on the heels of the
Israelites fall.
War alone won’t devastate
fertile or pastoral lands on a permanent basis in even a single nation
or where multiple nations are involved but
war coupled to rapid climate change makes it a different kettle of fish
altogether.
Can God bring about what he
says he can and will do? You betchya He can! and will do and has done exactly as is recorded in
prophecy!
For nation after nation to be
devastated to the point that is portrayed in these prophecies requires ‘global’
climatic change on a ‘vast’ scale. We’ll cover this in detail in the last part
of the Isaiah essay but clearly what has happened in the past by way of
punishment of various nations can also be repeated in the future. It’s clear
from the number of ‘Days of the Lord’ that have occurred in the past that God
has been angry with various national families of human beings on this earth ---
quite a few times in past ages.
Clearly then the earth has
‘fallen’ from being the productive lands that in times past has spawned
burgeoning empires and has ‘not risen again’ to previous productive levels and
our earth has been largely devastated in many areas and a quick look on google earth maps shows the lands once described as flowing
with milk and honey and as a large and good land in Moses’ times between
the Nile and the Euphrates is little more than desert in modern times as a
result of rapid climate change --- resembling the face of mars in places.
So it’s very possible an axial
tilt and moving the earth out of its orbit could accomplish sustained
devastation of many ancient nations changing the climate of whole regions
permanently and this seems to be what these prophetic scriptures are telling us
has happened between Isaiah’s day and ours but most probably sometime just
after Daniel’s day but before the first advent.
But, no matter however it was
accomplished --- it shows the degree to which God does indeed control the
weather on our planet.
Many, down through the ages
have indeed associated drastic weather conditions to acts of God. Insurance policies traditionally had clauses
covering so called ‘acts of God’ with regard to floods and storm, forest fire,
earthquake damage, etc but nowadays due to post
Darwinian theory “mother nature” is supposedly to blame for hurricanes and
inclement weather and yet the 40th thru 45th chapters of
Isaiah are a ‘witness’ and a challenge to the sceptics as to who really holds
sway over the ‘elements’ of the earth.
So the possibility exists that
the phraseology written in the sometimes obscure old KJV English could have a
different meaning than at first meets the eye and the earth ‘falling and not
rising again’ has to do with the state of the earth’s climatic condition rather
than its destruction.
It follows then that what God
has done in the past in a previous era in causing rapid climate changes leading
to permanent devastation of certain areas of land unless reversed by a similar
shaking the earth from its orbit one way or another with axial tilt etc --- can be ‘undone’ in the future and a number of
prophecies point indeed to one final ‘shaking up’ of the earth on a grand scale
never heard of until the modern times in which they may very well be repeated to
restore those certain areas of earth and
others to a ‘garden of Eden’ – type of
condition, at some point.
Clearly then, God’s presence
will be felt dramatically in the future as many instances in the past biblical
history indicate that has been the case in what just seems the very dim past to
us in modern times:
7 O God, when thou wentest forth before thy
people, when thou didst march through the wilderness; Selah:
8 The earth shook, the heavens also
dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at
the presence of God, the God of Israel. KJV Psalms 68:7-8
2 You say, "I choose the appointed time; it is I who judge
uprightly.
3 When the earth and all its people
quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm. Selah
4 To the arrogant I say, `Boast no more,' and to the wicked, `Do not
lift up your horns.
5 Do not lift your horns against heaven; do not speak with outstretched
neck.'"
6 No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man.
7 But it is God who judges: He brings one down, he exalts another.
8 In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with
spices; he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its
very dregs.
9 As for me, I will declare this forever; I will sing praise to the God
of Jacob.
10 I will cut off the horns of all the wicked, but the horns of the
righteous will be lifted up.
NIV Psalms 75:1-10
17 The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it
buried the company of Abiram.
18 Fire blazed among their followers; a flame consumed the wicked. NIV
Psalms 106:17-18
Continuing now in this overview
of Isaiah showing the connectivity and accuracy of all of Isaiah as one body of
work by one single author and, an outstanding prophet who demonstrated phenomenal
insights within his work of the spiritual understanding given to him in
prophecy:
Chapters
25-35 taken together:
[1] Prior to Babylonian siege and captivity [3] after Babylonian captivity[8] “during the millennium or after”
A small intro is needed for
these chapters because although they fall within the two categories 1 &3
generally because they are clearly written ‘pre-Babylonian captivity’ and also
cover ‘after the Babylonian captivity’ these chapters provide some truly
extraordinary insights and visions showing what would have been in Isaiah’s day
---far distant future.
Which, in turn clearly translates into what
amounts to our near future or at least what conditions will be like during the
21st century and the coming millennial or 1000 year reign of Christ
on this earth shortly after the second
advent [second coming] has occurred and
the number of these insights, with almost at least one in each chapter, leaves
no doubt that Isaiah was a truly incredible servant of God and was given unsurpassed
prophetic understanding to record for future generations in his work --- because of its sheer broadness in terms of
length of periods, ages or eras his prophetic book’s visions covers in superb
detail.
For these chapters however we
are only going to mostly list all those magnificent insights of the first
advent or glimpses of what amounts to our
future
[second advent and beyond]and recommend our readers read those chapters through
carefully for context but at the same time remind our readers that these are
the ‘lead up’ chapters to the incredible promises from God [which we termed,
‘The Isaiah Promises’ in one of our previous articles] and further outstanding
claims made by God in what the secular scholars basically dubbed, arbitrarily,
‘second Isaiah’ or ‘Deutero Isaiah’ in the original Wikipedia article on
‘Isaiah’ upon which most of this rebuttal of the seculars scholars claims, that
Isaiah was written by multiple authors, was based.
Chapter 25&26:
Verses 1-5 of chapter 25 makes mention of the ‘terrible
nations’ and that they will be brought ‘low’ but we’ll deal with that aspect in
detail in part 5 of this Isaiah essay overview summary, later. *The
final part of this essay will ask and answer the question --- How could the all powerful omniscient and omnipresent God of Israel who
makes the outstanding claims that He elaborates on in Chapters 40 -45 of Isaiah
[middle Isaiah] --- possibly have enemies? And WHO exactly, those enemies might
be?
[8]
“During the millennium or after”
6 And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a
feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of
marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast
over all people, and the vail that is spread over all
nations.
8 He will swallow up death in
victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the
earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.
9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited
for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will
be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
KJV Isaiah 25:6-9
Verses
10-12 revert back to short term prophecy mostly for Isaiah’s immediate future
and after the Babylonian captivity but Isaiah 26:1 carries on from verse 9 of
Isaiah 25 and is one continuing prophecy showing that the time sequence for
verses 6-9 clearly occurs at the time of the first resurrection of the saints
by virtue of verse 19 of chapter 26 quoted below:
1 In that day shall this song be sung in the
land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and
bulwarks.
2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth
may enter in.
19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and
sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth
shall cast out the dead.
KJV Isaiah 26:1-2 &19
The book of
Revelation adds poignant weight to verse 8 of chapter 25 above by virtually
expressing very similar prophecy, almost word for word of what Isaiah sets
forth above:
And God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:
for the former things are passed away. KJV Revelation 21:4
These two chapters taken
together then set forth a contrast between two types of peoples on the earth, that
doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with race [ although there’s that
possibility] but has more to do with attitude towards God and fellowman
and chapter 26 emphasizes this aspect of human nature and also encompasses a
prophecy for the time when God’s kingdom will be on the earth and shows the
true depth of Isaiah’s understanding of what his and our future will, one day,
hold for human beings on this planet and will become reality:
9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit
within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in
the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn
righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not
behold the majesty of the Lord.
11 Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall
see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea,
the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.
12 Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our
works in us.
KJV Isaiah 26:9-12
The last 2 verses are enigmatic
and could indeed fall into a separate category as great many similar verses often
do where it’s hard to determine to what age or era they may be referring
because they have application that could be timeless and cover any and all ages
or eras. These verses certainly had an
application to the Babylonian captivity and the destruction God visited on his
chosen peoples as a nation in those days but can also apply to the time of our
future and so for simplicity we have simply called these types of prophetic
pronouncements --- ‘timeless prophecies’ --- because they can’t necessarily be definitively
slotted into any particular category and could apply to any time frame and not
necessarily just that era in which they were given:
20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about
thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
21 For, behold, the Lord cometh out of
his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover
her slain. KJV Isaiah 26:20-21
Did the Lord indeed come out of
his place [Heaven] in times past to personally punish ancient nations? It would
seem so. Will he do so again as many prophetic
scriptures indicate? It would seem so.
Chapter 27:
Chapter27 is a little obscure
in its meaning in places and so we’ll ‘pass’ on trying to give an explanation
for verse 1 because of the KJV old English language used and so we’ll use the NIV to quote from this time
but basically its covering a vast array of time from Isaiah’s day forward to
Daniel’s day and again in true ‘Isaiah
panoramic-like fashion’ interwoven among these verses are glimpses of what
Isaiah had seen in vision coupled to what God had apparently personally told
Isaiah for various ages or periods of human history and a few for our future
besides showing God will nurture His ‘fruitful’ vineyard [ refer to our future
as yet to be written article “Growth of the Kingdom of God’ --- from antiquity
till now...” for details.
The key verses for our future
and the growth of the future Kingdom of God are these:
2 In that day-- "Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
3 I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day
and night so that no one may harm it.
NIV Isaiah 27:2-3
NIV Isaiah 27:6 In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.
verses 7-13
are showing that the old way of life of the then typical ‘fortress’ style ‘city
states’ was to disappear over time and verses 12-13 is an announcement of the
prophet Daniel’s, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah’s days, with the return
of a remnant, to come after:
12 In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites,
will be gathered up one by one.
13 And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing
in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on
the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
NIV Isaiah 27:12-13
So how could Isaiah have known when
these prophecies were given to him that a few hundred years into his future way
of life of the nations of those times would disappear and not only that but
that his people who were only just beginning to fall to the Babylonian empire
would be restored as they were in Daniel, Eza,
Nehemiah, Haggai and Zechariah’s days? In centuries and
generations to come?
There is really only one
satisfactory answer to that question:
Prophecy of the type clearly
given to Isaiah comes from inspiration of the Holy Spirit and close personal
acquaintance with the one who reveals all prophecy --- shown throughout
Isaiah’s work by his faith in Jesus/YHVH/Jehovah from the previous chapter.
3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth
in thee.
4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in
the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:
5 For he bringeth down them that dwell on
high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to
the dust. KJV Isaiah 26:3-5
While scholars may attempt to
‘forward date’ other prophets like Daniel in trying to discredit the prophetic
credibility and accuracy of prophecy by claiming some of it is written ‘after
the fact’ --- it’s the one thing they cannot do with Isaiah’s or even Jeremiah’s work because of the
content.
Even though the attempt is made
by claiming some of Isaiah was possibly written by Isaiah’s disciples and /or
other multiple authors --- those disciples or spurious and clearly fictitious
and nonexistent multiple authors --- couldn’t possibly have known the things
that are written of and foretold in Isaiah in advance of those things that came
to pass centuries down the track.
Jeremiah in fact backs up much
of what Isaiah foretold in the coming destruction of such Empires of the
Babylonians, Assyrians, the Egyptian pharaohs and their dynasties and influence
and the many other ancient nations of those times such as Tyre, Nineveh and
specific prophecies directed at Ashdod and many other capital cities of those
times that were foretold never to be rebuilt etc.
Why were the Egyptians spared
the same fate as the Babylonian’s total extinction as a nation for example?
These things simply can’t be explained away by false claims of multiple
authorship nor can that list in Jeremiah 25 of the specific nations God
targeted for destruction be explained away.
It seems the Egyptians were to
continue to exist as a nation although reduced from ages of past former glory
and power where other empires did not continue to exist at all ---for the
simple reason God has a future planned for them as Isaiah foretells exactly as
Isaiah chapter 19 clearly laid out in detail:
22. And the Lord shall smite Egypt: he shall
smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the Lord, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.
23. In
that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian
shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall
serve with the Assyrians.
24. In
that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with
Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:
25.
Whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed
be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine
inheritance. KJV Isaiah 19:22-25
Chapter 28:
A
truly ‘pivotal’ chapter, again, to do with the future growth of the Kingdom of
God in conjunction with the overthrowing of the old way of life in Isaiah’s
future and what God had shown Isaiah of that future, whether by inspiration,
personal word or vision – all are hinted at because Isaiah is here speaking
with the authoritative manner of an inspired servant and prophet of God who
sees and/or saw that future ahead.
This
is the famous or infamous “here a little, there a little” chapter showing that
there is a right way and a wrong way to go about understanding the truth and
that God’s people in ancient times had chosen the wrong way and they and future
generations and would err and stumble because of that.
This chapter can be broken down
into the certain ‘prophetic’ components because there are important lessons in
here for our day also because it can’t be emphasized enough that Isaiah did
indeed ‘see’ into our future...... and these chapters are the precursor
chapters leading to the phenomenal promises beginning about chapter 40 through
to 45 to both houses of Israel for future generations.
While the latter half of this
chapter 28 is clearly directed at the Jews specifically from verse 14 onwards
it opens with a broader reference including the Ephraimites, ancestors to the
modern English speaking peoples and one of the chief tribes of the birthright holder nations of the Israelites who were
clearly not Jews. [Refer to our article ‘Hand of God’ for identity of the birthright nations of Israel or J.H Allen’s work on the
sceptre and birthright nations and peoples of Israel
in “Judah’s sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright”]
This is an important
consideration in our understanding to whom and what and to why fabulous
promises are offered to certain nations above others and when they would be
fulfilled.
Like
Jeremiah, Isaiah was specifically told in no uncertain terms to write his
prophecies in a book for future generations and clearly the generation in which
these prophecies were written were deaf and or blind to the warnings of God’s
prophets – but amazingly, seemingly by choice:
8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that
it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will
not hear the law of the Lord:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto
us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One
of Israel to cease from before us. KJV
Isaiah 30:8-11
Oddly enough a similar
admonition was given to Jeremiah on a couple of occasions:
2 Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words
that I have spoken unto thee in a book.
3 For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the
captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them
to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
4 And these are the words that the Lord spake concerning Israel and
concerning Judah.
KJV Jeremiah 30:2-4
2 Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have
spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the
nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto
this day.
3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I
purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that
I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.
One of the questions we need to
ask therefore is who was prophecy really written for when clearly the
generation to which they were delivered were never going to listen?
In chapter 28 Isaiah asks a
very similarly related and pertinent question:
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and
drawn from the breasts.
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon
line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: KJV Isaiah 28:9-10
Prophecy is knowledge, i.e.
‘fore-knowledge’ of what God is going to do in the future.
Prophecy is also doctrine or
teachings of God about His kingdom that must be acquired here a little and
there a little apparently to be understood fully but because the Israelites
refused to listen to God as a whole and God’s prophets and prophecy in
particular their knowledge of God was to become a stumbling block to them in
future generations and a prophecy of the first advent is given here in chapter
28:
16 So this is what the Sovereign LORD says:
"See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a
sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.
However the Jews of the pre-
Babylonian captivity were told [by a prophecy] that their knowledge of God [or
lack thereof] would become a stumbling block to them in future generations
because of their refusal to listen to God:
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this
people.
12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to
rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept
upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a
little; that they might go, and fall
backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people
which is in Jerusalem. KJV Isaiah
28:11-14
When we understand that the
Jews were the holders of the ‘sceptre promise’ and were intended to be a
‘spiritual light’ to the rest of the ancient world we can clearly see that
Isaiah did indeed have his
finger on the pulse of the ancient Jewish nation figuratively speaking and
fully knew the score and extent of their downfall in that area.
The reminder of that chapter
[vs. 17-29] deals with the sweeping away of the web of lies and deceit the Jews
had built for themselves and that the old way of life was to be ‘ploughed
under’ as a result of their failure and the ‘strange act’ referred to was the
final destruction of a nation that God had called out of the ancient world to
be his own peculiar treasure above all peoples:
5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed,
and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar
treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of
priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel. KJV Exodus 19:5-6
However Isaiah also knew the
full score as to what God was going to build in the future and this is
reflected in the many references in Isaiah’s prophetic work to the 1st and
second advents and the last ‘plowman’ analogy of
Isaiah’s in verses 23-29 is reminiscent of the many parables Jesus used in His
descriptions of the Kingdom of God in the New Testament that involved in many
cases analogies to the plant Kingdom showing the planting of a grain of mustard
seed for example, representing the growth of the kingdom of God from humble
beginnings:
31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The
kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and
sowed in his field:
32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the
greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that
the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
KJV Matthew 13:31-32
So the tearing down of a nation
that was intended to be a light to the world would have indeed seemed a strange
act to even one of God’s own prophets and yet Isaiah also saw the future in
incredibly detailed visions of both 1st and 2nd advents and
records them throughout his work and even a little beyond the second coming
also and this understanding of his makes the next chapter even more profound in
showing the depth of understanding that would be lost to the Jews of the
ancient world but also what would indeed be restored to them or rather, their
distant descendants in the far distant future.
Chapter 29:
A contrast is being shown
here to what was being lost in spiritual understanding in the ancient world to
what will be restored in spiritual understanding in the future and all centring
around the city of David and whether the use of the name Ariel was intended as
allegory or not, it is clearly a reference to Jerusalem. And, the reality was, Jerusalem really was
“visited” by God as verse 6 says and, it should be remembered, that Isaiah was
writing all this before these events unfolded and it is doubtful that even
Isaiah’s disciples lived to see these events unfold as two more prophets,
contemporary to one another but not
Isaiah, followed Isaiah’s era i.e. Ezekiel and Jeremiah, who actually did live
through the unfolding of the Babylonian captivity and Daniel also a very young
child at the time of the Babylonian captivity followed on the heels of Ezekiel
and Jeremiah later on:
Thou shalt be visited of the
Lord of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm
and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. KJV Isaiah 29:6
So then, chapter 29 can be
broken down in the following manner:
Vs 1-6 A
prophecy
and also a description of the coming Babylonian
siege and captivity
Vs 7-8 A possible ‘timeless’
prophecy that had an application regarding the fates of the nations that were
to assault Jerusalem in Isaiah’s immediate future but may well be applied to
the nations also that come against Jerusalem in our future. This is not
duality as some would and do teach but simply similar methods of dealing with
nations both past and present or future. [See part 5 of this essay as that last
line of verse 8 has that timeless quality to it as to being non
specific to the timeframe it is covering and could apply to any and all
ages i.e.
....so shall the multitude of all
the nations be, that fight against mount Zion. KJV Isaiah 29:8
Verses 9-16 are
representative loss of Prophetic and/or spiritual understanding among religious
leaders and scholars.
Vs
17-24 contrasting what was lost to what will be restored at the beginning of
the Millennium of our as yet future ahead in the 21st century:
17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a
fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the
eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.
19 The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among
men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
22 Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of
Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
23 But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst
of him, [at
the time of the first resurrection of the saints] they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
and shall fear the God of Israel.
24 They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they
that murmured shall learn doctrine. KJV Isaiah 29:17-19
Chapters 30-35: The “prelude chapters” to what we [the
authors of his essay] termed very early on in our collaborative writing
together “the Isaiah promises” contained within Chapters 40-45.
The modern day secular scholars
that arbitrarily categorized and divided the book of Isaiah into 1st, 2nd and
3rd Isaiah i.e. Proto, Deutero and Trito Isaiah don’t seem to be able to credit
what middle Isaiah reveals [2nd Isaiah] i.e. approximately verses 40
-45 although secular scholars at least albeit unwittingly, do seemingly agree
that the Isaiah promises to God’s chosen peoples begin at Chapter 40 in middle
Isaiah.
The secular scholars did
rightly note a ‘change of pace’ however, that began at the 40th
chapter because it stands out like a sore thumb --- what was not noticed is a
subtler change of pace beginning in the prelude chapters from 30-35 that begins
a shift of focus from the punishments that God was delivering at that time as
chapter 30 points out --- for their total disregard and despising of God’s word
delivered to them through His prophets ----- to the far future promises of
ultimate deliverance and salvation.
Chapter 40 is not just a
change of pace only however, but a challenge to all sceptics and
scholars and indeed any who would deliberately downplay the word of God in all
generations showing that ultimately, accurate and precisely fulfilled prophecy
is the proof of both the existence of God, and His eternal power to actually
bring to pass whatever is prophesied.
The real shift of focus from
prophesied punishment to future salvation actually began in chapter 29 with the
prophecy against Ariel, or the city of David, and it follows that chapter 30 is
also referring to the Jews of Jerusalem although this is not specifically
stated in chapter 30 it is in chapter 29:22 referring to the Jacob contingent
i.e. note the underlined words:
Therefore thus saith the Lord,
who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now
be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale. KJV Isaiah 29:22
In chapter 30 Isaiah is told to
go write in a book basically as a ‘future’ witness against these rebellious
Israelites for all future generations: [note the words –for “the time to come”
and the words “for ever and ever”]
8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people,
lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord:
10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto
us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
11 Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy
One of Israel to cease from before us.
Here again in
these verses in a nutshell is the reason for the first Diaspora of the Jews:
12 Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this
word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon: KJV
Isaiah 30:8-12
It is clear that God considered
their iniquity [lawlessness] in the next few verses of such major importance as
to completely “shatter” their nation so that little would remain of it:
First Diaspora
foretold:
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling
out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.
14 And he shall break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is
broken in pieces; he shall not spare: so that there shall not be found in the
bursting of it a sherd to take fire from the hearth,
or to take water withal out of the pit.
15 For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and
rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength:
and ye would not.
16 But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses; therefore shall ye
flee: and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be
swift.
17 One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five
shall ye flee: till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as
an ensign on an hill. KJV Isaiah 30:15-17
In the making and creation of
the Israelite nation in the first place God promised his peoples that they
would be the ones to make other armies flee with very few opposing those vast
armies and here we see the exact reversal of that which Moses prophesied about
in Deuteronomy 28:1-13 that made the nation of Israel conquerors of the nations
that God drove out before them so that they could take over the holy land from
far superior forces...
When we fully understand that
God is able to influence the minds of enemies and put fear into them as he did
when the Israelites conquered all the lands and the many enemies that were
before them as he did in Moses’ days it’s not too hard to credit what Zechariah
prophesies of the coming battle ahead in our times [Zechariah 12: 2-3,6 & 8-9] when the tiny nation of
modern day Jews will be a stumbling block and a terror to all nations that come
against Jerusalem ....
This day will I begin to put the
dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole
heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish
because of thee. KJV Deuteronomy 2:25
So it’s also reasonable to
conclude therefore that God’s modus operandi in the future will be exactly as
it was in Moses’ days by stiking fear into the hearts
of the enemies of God’s peoples and even more so with accompanying signs and
wonders of cosmic displays of unprecedented and terrifying effect and
proportions never before seen on earth.
We’ve seen in recent times what
devastating Sunami’s and ‘normal’ scale earthquakes
can unleash --- but prophecy reveals massive earthquakes of unheard of
proportions are ahead near the return of Jesus in the book of Revelation, one
of which in concert with extreme volcanic activity is prophesied to completely destroy modern
day Rome:
17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came
a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was
a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an
earthquake, and so great.
19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the
nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance
before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his
wrath. [Refer
to our article on the identity of Revelation’s ‘woman/Babylon’]
20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. KJV
Revelation 16:17-20
While it may be difficult for
the secular scholars to credit much of Isaiah as Isaiah’s unique prophetic
work, the author’s of this essay and analysis of
Isaiah’s prophecies have no such qualms ... all prophecy virtually screams
out massive changes are ahead for planet earth ... changes that mankind
will be powerless to prevent or even understand – even while they are occurring
and fulfilling what Isaiah and God’s other prophets affirm time and time
again... and Isaiah saw all this very clearly apparently in visions given him
and so this verse may have indeed have been the simple statement of faith from
Isaiah himself that it seems:
18 And therefore will the Lord wait, that he may
be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy
upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for
him.
What follows this verse however
is a mixture of incredible far distant
prophecy to Isaiah’s times intermingled with prophecy immediately concerning
the ancient nations of those times and can be a little tricky in discerning one
from the other without the overall understanding of how all prophecy
fits intricately together that secular scholars seemingly simply do not possess
– so we’ll simply divide it as follows;
Beginning of
Millennium prophecy:
19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no
more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall
hear it, he will answer thee.
20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of
affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but
thine eyes shall see thy teachers:
21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way,
walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
KJV Isaiah 30:19-21
Restoration or
climate change for the better during millennium foretold:
23 Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground
withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and
plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.
24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat
clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the
fan.
25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill,
rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers
fall. KJV Isaiah 30:23-25
‘Day of the
Lord’ prophecy
26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the
light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke
of their wound.
27 Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his anger, and
the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue
as a devouring fire:
28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of
the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle
in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
29 Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept;
and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain
of the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel.
30 And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall
shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with
the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and
hailstones. KJV Isaiah 30:27-30
Verses 31-33
of chaper30 are apparently reverting to local prophecy ahead of Isaiah’s times
and carries on over to chapter 31 and verse 31 may actually be the true
beginning of the theme covered in chapter 31 up until verse 4 therefore in
reference to Isaiah’s immediate future.
As mentioned previously,
arbitrary chapter division of scripture in the English versions of the bible
disrupts the flow of prophetic themes making it difficult to discern and
rightly divide prophecy according to timeframe and prophetic themes at times.
Added to this in the case of
the book of Isaiah is the constant seesawing back and forth between prophecies
detailing Isaiah’s immediate future and that of the far distant future.
If Isaiah truly had the full
panorama of the future history of the world laid out before him
from his time to ours and
beyond including the birth of the saviour and some very accurate predictions of
Jesus’ life and mission as it seems he had indeed then a logical question
arises as to how much did Isaiah perceive and understand from all the prophecy
that he was indeed given of what God has in store for our immediate future in
the 21st century?
Since we know from what
actually happened as secular history as we in modern times indeed have the
benefit of hindsight and, are able to look backwards to those times, we also
know that Jerusalem was not spared or preserved during these events portraying
the first diaspora prophecy or indeed the second. But all prophecy dealing with the times ahead
of us in the 21st century show that Jerusalem will be supernaturally
spared from any future destruction, most probably from the moment Jesus sets
foot on the mount of Olives
as the prophet
Zechariah shows us in Zechariah 12:6-9&14:1-4
So it’s logical to assign
verses 4 to 5 definitely to the future and subsequently verses 6 thru 9
‘tentatively’ to future prophecy ahead of our day as well because chapter 32
follows on from there theme- wise and is clearly post second advent, from
verses 1-5 of chapter 32.
From verses 6-14 Isaiah reverts to local
general conditions and local future prophecy of his day up to verse 14, then
again shoots forward in verses 15-20 to a future millennial prophecy:
15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a
fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
16 Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain
in the fruitful field.
17 And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of
righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.
18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure
dwellings, and in quiet resting places;
19 When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be
low in a low place.
20 Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the
feet of the ox and the ass. KJV Isaiah
32:15-20
We need to ask at this point –
why the constant see-sawing between local conditions and local future prophecy
and far distant future prophecy of the first and second advents and millennial
and beyond prophecy that we find in not just Isaiah’s prophetical work but also
a number of other prophet’s prophecies that seem to follow a similar pattern
--- which indeed makes it difficult for those who don’t have the holy spirit
guiding them in their understanding of the spiritual things of the word of God
to put prophecy into its true perspective.
Strangely enough the answer to
this seeming enigma can be found in the New Testament in a number of places
where even a foremost disciple who made the claim of having received personal
instruction directly from Jesus over and over in his epistles and other
writings:
9 For we know in part, and we
prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall
be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass,
darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I
know even as also I am known. KJV 1 Corinthians 13:9-12
Clearly, the apostle Paul was
filled with the holy spirit as were all the other
apostles of Jesus but even Paul admitted to not seeing things clearly.
Jesus in fact told his
disciples that many of the old Testament prophets desired to see the things
that His apostles were seeing and beginning to understand in their day through
fulfilled prophecy coming to pass exactly as Isaiah and others foretold and
oddly enough Matthew was quoting Jesus quoting Isaiah when this was written in
speaking of the majority of Jews in Jesus’day:
14 And in them is fulfilled the
prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye
shall see, and shall not perceive:
15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and
their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any
time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should
understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they
see: and your ears, for they hear.
17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous
men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and
to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. KJV Matthew 13:14-17
This understanding then sets us
up for another logical question:
How good was Isaiah’s
perception
of what he was given in prophecy to write about for all future generations to
read as part of scripture? Not only that question but also another related
one:
Apart from local future
prophecy what exactly were the focal points and main themes of all of Isaiah’s
prophecy?
Did Isaiah really see, in
vision, our modern skyscraper buildings come crashing down in a massive future
slaughter of mankind? i.e. World War3? Or alternately
something else that may or may not have been related to WMD’s? [weapons of Mass destruction]
And there shall be upon every
high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and
streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. KJV Isaiah 30:25
The remainder of this analysis
of the 66 chapters of Isaiah and the final part 5 of the “Isaiah Essay” reveals
this and more as we are about to see in clear and not uncertain terms as many
have claimed to represent true prophecy have mistakenly misinterpreted and many
others have tried to relegate to just myth or the writings of mere uninspired
men.
To be continued [work in
progress] *************
8 categories, i.e. [1] Prior to
Babylonian siege and captivity, [2] Babylonian siege and captivity [3] After
Babylonian captivity [4&5]1st and 2nd advents, [6&7] 1st and 2nd
Diaspora’s [8] “During the millennium or after”