He's talking to his people, the remnant.
So back to Smyrna. He says, indeed the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life. That's Christianity.
I don't think any Christian says I'd like to sign up for persecution, but I think we all in our minds says, Lord, if I'm ever persecuted, I hope I come through like the morning star that it's just this bright witness to you. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today on Cross-Reference Radio, Pastor Rick will continue teaching in Isaiah chapter 10. Mankind boasting is just setting him up for judgment to God. God owns all the knowledge. He could have withheld, you know, God allowed man to develop a steam engine, for example, to harness electricity.
God allowed those things and he could have withheld them and he has not. So the Assyrians still accountable. Verse 16, therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts will send leanness among his fat ones and under his glory he will kindle a burning like a burning of a fire. Verse 17, so the light of Israel will be for a fire and his Holy One for a flame, it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in one day. Well, the judgment of the Holy One, we get that in Isaiah 37.
We got it in Kings already where God just wiped out 185,000 Assyrian troops and they never came back to the promised land again after that. And that's what's referenced there. We don't have time to read it but the language about the giving them leanness is in that description. Verse 18, and it will consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field both soul and body and they will be as when a sick man wastes away.
So the soul and the body, the internal and the external, it's an utter destruction of the whole army, a whole army demolished. Verse 19, then the rest of the trees of his forest will be so few in number that a child may write them. So that's a little hyperbole in metaphor, the remaining trees of the soldiers and he's saying there are going to be so few of them a kid can count them on his hand. You know, that's hyperbole.
The recipient of these judgments would understand what they meant. He's saying, what are you saying? My army is going to be wiped out. That's exactly what God is promising and that is exactly what's happening. The closest you can come to an Assyrian army today is the Iraqi army and that's it.
And we know what happened to them. Verse 20, and whether they're not strictly Assyrians, other peoples and tribes mix in, but ancient Assyrians in modern-day Iraq's territory. Verse 20, and it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob will never again depend on him who defeated them but will depend on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel and truth. Isaiah, the prophets are always including some ray of hope for the future generations, signaling to the remnant that suffers through these things that God's got this but there's going to be suffering. And that's how, you know, when Paul was called to the ministry, God said, show him how many things he's going to suffer from my name.
The righteous accept this because we see the overall picture and we know what's going on because God has revealed it. In verse 21, let me pause there. I don't think God showed Moses what he was going to face. Moses knew it. And that's again why Moses declined the calling and advised God that he should get somebody else.
It's just an interesting human thing. You know, you can't escape these human things because you want to be pious. But the fact is that righteous man Moses, he was one of the greatest men in all scripture. He understood what the challenge was and he preferred to be left alone. And like Jonah, God influenced him. He didn't force him, but he sure influenced him.
Anyway, takes all types, right? You look at the Bible characters and take you had the beauty queen, you know, you got all these different types that God uses and doesn't rebuke them for a lot of the things that they struggled with. Aren't we happy about that? Because as David said, if God should, you know, count all my iniquity, there'd be nothing left. If you should mark on iniquity, oh Lord, who could survive? Verse 21, the remnant will return the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God.
Now that's a big word, big point that he makes there. Verse 22, for though your your people, oh Israel, and he's talking now, when he uses Israel at this point, he's talking about all the Jewish people, not the northern kingdom, but all Judah and all the tribal members. So he says, oh Israel, verse 22, be as the sand of this, though Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will return, the destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness, verse 23, for the Lord Yahweh of hosts will make a determined end in the midst of all the land. Now Isaiah mentions remnant four times in this one paragraph, verses 20 through 23. His son, he named his eldest son, She'er Jeshob, which is a remnant shall return. The mighty God of verse 21 is the Messiah of Isaiah 9 6.
His name should be called Wonderful Counselor, you know, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father. The same character, this will come out further in chapter 11. So he says, from a remnant, what he's saying here, Israel will revive to righteousness. Well, when's that happened?
It really hasn't happened yet. So Paul in Romans 9, chapter 27, applies verses 22 and 23, as we know them in Isaiah, to the Jews coming out of the great tribulation period. This is a far reach of God's Word. God acts like he's got, you know, as though he's eternal, because he is.
And he shares these, he presents himself that way, and it's up to us to pick it up when he's doing it in school. Okay, he's going eternal now, because we have enough information to come to these conclusions. We're not like, oh, I'm just going to, you know, spiritualize and make allegory out of everything.
No, we have, we have a consistent record. We'll come to that when we talk about the number seven this evening. Verse, I'm doing pretty good. I feel like, for time wise, I'm aiming for chapter 12, I feel like the rabbit are going to take a little nap.
I'm so far ahead, that turtle will never catch me. Therefore, thus says verse 24, the Lord, Yahweh of hosts, all my people, oh wait a minute, yeah, I haven't read that yet, who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian. He shall strike you with a rod and lift up his staff against you in the manner of Egypt. Now pause there.
There's nothing encouraging about that in the short term. If you're living, you say, well, wait a minute, they, they oppressed us in Egypt. What are you saying? When we get to chapter 12, the prophet is going to praise God, just a whole, it's a psalm of Isaiah, because he was surrounded by people who felt they didn't need to praise him. So he has this outburst. Okay, there, I've commented on verse 12, so we're already done with that chapter. Anyway, he continues in verse 25, for yet a very little while, and the indignation will cease as my anger, as will my anger in their destruction. So this recalls the church at Smyrna. The difference is, Smyrna was not chastened by God, but she was persecuted. Israel as a people, because of their rampant idolatry, God had to deal with them, and the righteous just suffered along with them.
And you say, well, where else is that? Well, Daniel, and going into captivity with Azariah, Mishael, and the other one, I know his name, I want to see who you get. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, okay. So they had to suffer, they went as prisoners, they left their families behind, they had to suffer, they were righteous men.
So this is not something we should be shocked by. You know, it rains on the just and the unjust, it's how we behave in these circumstances. Look at Jeremiah, how much he suffered, because he was surrounded by fools in power. We know some of their names, they told Nancy, Chuck, to suffer these fools. And meanwhile, you know, you don't see any of these politicians that are wicked, they're not missing any meals, are they?
They're living high up on the hog. Anyway, Revelation 2, the Lord says to Smyrna, that church, do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. That's irrational for the natural man. The natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him, because that's all he can see, is what's natural. He can't see the prize for the high calling of God. The born again have those kind of eyes. And so here God is saying to his remnant, oh my people who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian, he will strike you with the rod. Well he's talking to his people, the remnant. So back to Smyrna, he says indeed the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days.
Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. That's Christianity. And I don't think any Christian says I'd like to sign up for persecution, but I think we all, in our minds, says Lord, if I'm ever persecuted, I hope I come through like the morning star, that it's just this, you know, bright witness to you. Well, we're going to, if you must, you can read verses 26 to 33 anytime you want, just not out loud right now. But I will comment on those verses, just this, it lists these cities, and these cities are listed in order of moving closer to Jerusalem. These are cities the Assyrians are conquering one by one, and they're coming towards Jerusalem. Of course, the Assyrian army will reach Jerusalem in their final invasion into the promised land, and that's when the angel of the Lord takes them out.
So verse 34, he will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by the mighty one, and that's the same mighty one of verse 21 of Isaiah 9-6, that's the judgment on Assyria, and they were brought to nothing. And now chapter 11, now we meet the hero judge who is in charge of everything that we were talking about in chapter 10. He is still a judge, a judge, his decisions affect the life of those before him. In some way, he has a lot to do with that individual's life. Is that not God?
Is not he? Daniel said, God is my judge. That's what his name, Daniel, means God is my judge. And so now we get an Old Testament portrait of him, again, in this 11th chapter, which is a messianic chapter, and it is the coming, it is a prophecy of the coming kingdom of Messiah we know as the Millennial Kingdom, and this will be long after the days of the Assyrian terror and all the others, the Nazi Germany terror, this will be long after. And so we read, well, parts of it will be because there is the coming of the Messiah himself. Verse 1 of Isaiah 11, there shall come from a rod, from the stem of Jesse, a branch, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. I think some translations do a better job with the Hebrew than the New King James and maybe even the older King James. Again, the translators looking for, you know, to close to the original Hebrew, even though they're idioms sometimes, and so I don't want to try to justify why they chose rod. It should, I think, a closer rendering, looking up the Hebrew, is there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse.
And so you have this tree that's been felled, and yet, being a hardwood evidently, it sprouts up life again. And that's the kingdom of Judah. Judah was this tree that's been chopped down in judgment, and yet there's life still in it, because the source, the root, is still pushing life into the stump. So with the invasions and the deportations of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, the Davidic line was almost wiped out. And God is saying to his people, you can't wipe out the Davidic line. It's not going to happen.
I'm making this promise to you. So the rod, the stump, metaphor for the restoration of the messianic line, which is Christ. And the branch is metaphor for the Messiah himself. Zechariah 3.8 brings that out. And so what we have here in verse 11 is God saying, yeah, the Davidic line was almost destroyed. But there's still life, and just a twig will sprout first. And that twig becomes the branch. And many tie that from the Hebrew into the word Nazarene. I'm not sure I can get back behind that 100%, but I can't dispute it either. So maybe you've heard that before.
I throw that out there. So all that was left of the royal house was this stump because of the degeneration of the descendants of David, the kings Ahaz and Ahab and all the wicked ones. So God chopped it down. Now, he says, and a branch, verse one, shall grow out of his roots.
So there we have. Listen to what Paul says about this. 2 Timothy chapter 2. Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David, that's what he's talking about. He may not have Isaiah 1 in mind because it's elsewhere the fact is taught, but it's a perfect match.
Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. And the tragedy is that the Jews will not recognize Christ as, you know, one generation can raise up the next generation in righteousness according to scripture, or they can dumb them down. And the Jewish people as a whole, sadly, choose to dumb down. They raise their children to believe that Jesus Christ is a false prophet and not to accept him. They actively teach their children what the Christians will say to them and that they're not to believe them, not to engage them.
I remember years ago speaking to a Jewish bookseller in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which used to have the largest, I think, Jewish population outside of Israel. Anyway, he was very much friendly as long as I was talking to him about the Kabbalah. But when I started asking questions about the Messiah, that ended that conversation. He shut me off, wouldn't even just walk away.
We just made it clear, don't follow me. I could have taken him, but, you know, he had that little hat on and I was just so taken by it. Anyway, David, David's such a brilliant man of God and in spite of his sin, who doesn't have sin among us? Had it not been for David, who would know anything about Jesse? You see how powerful, how influenced can be? Jesse gets to have his name associated with the Messiah because not of his other sons, because of this son.
And that would cause one to say, well, what makes him so special? And of course, that's why we study, you know, in the first and second Samuel, for example, to learn about David. Once you read about David dancing before the ark of the Lord with all of his might, how can you ever forget that, that scene? Well, there's other cross-references to make, but time won't allow.
Okay, 613, Isaiah 613, we'll take that one. But yet a tenth will be in it and it will return and be for consuming a terebinth tree or as an oak, whose stump remains when it is cut down, so the holy seed shall be its stump. Now, remember I said that, you know, we don't just make these things up, we tie them in, the revelation is here. The Bible is like a hologram, it's a complete picture. And if you cut that hologram, you just have to look a little harder, but the picture is still there, unlike a regular photo, you cut it in half and it's, you lost the other piece.
But a hologram is complete in itself. And the scripture is like that, it's got what we need to draw sensible conclusions. One of them is, it's a senseless conclusion to disregard the word of God. Verse 2, now speaking about this branch, he says, 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. Attributes of God owned by Christ.
They were all his. He didn't start becoming these things, he's always been. He just came into view. And that coming into view ties him into what the prophets were saying was coming so that we could trust the word of God. The sure word of predictive prophecy. Not only do we have predictive prophecy, we have just the moral prophecies from God, the wisdom behind his laws.
No one else has it and the ones they do have are very basic, you know, the laws that, you know, you don't murder people in your village, for example. It just makes good sense. Anyway, the Athanasian Creed, the father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. He's always been. What about the son? The Athanasian was able to articulate this Trinity in such a way you don't even have to improve it. He says the son is of the father alone, not made nor created, but begotten or emanating, coming from.
Very much God. Your child is human. God's child is divine. The Holy Spirit is of the father and of the son, neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding. It's just fantastic, a fantastic blend of the Trinity. So here in verse two, we have a sevenfold gifts with a threefold application.
I don't really like doing those kind of formulas because math makes my head hurt, but here it is. So seven attributes are mentioned or characteristics. The first wisdom and understanding, well that is for his government to be that hero judge, the judge that we know is going to do right. The counsel and the might is for conflict. He knows how to handle war and struggle and conflict. This is their Messiah. This is our Christ. Christ is a bigger word than Messiah. Messiah limits him to the Jewish people. Christ burst out of that and takes it all humanity. He is the Messiah Christ in any language.
He is for any people that will belong to him and we don't learn that till you get to the New Testament and we find how difficult it was for Paul to communicate these things to a Jewish people that just didn't want to hear it and to not all of them of course and to a Gentile people who didn't want to hear it. Not all of them, but monumental tasks. Well, the other is you have the wisdom, the understanding, the counsel, the might, the knowledge, the fear, and the fear of Yahweh. Well that's for spiritual leadership. All of these are vital characteristics.
If you take any away, you have a defect. So they all belong, these seven, that complete number with the Spirit of the Lord resting upon him. God can't really rest on me because I have sinned. He's always got to work with, but with Christ there's nothing to do because he's every bit the son of the father alone, not made nor created but coming from the only begotten son.
So the Spirit of the Lord resting upon him, that's the first one which all the others are under this umbrella. He's divine. Paul said it this way, after over three decades of preaching God's word, I love it so much still. I'm never bored by it.
I may struggle with familiarity, but it's just amazing. It is still, if I were talking to the me on the day I was born again to the me now, I would say, you just wait and see what's coming. There's so much more a fight ahead to just burn out anything that makes you think it's just, this is a kid's game. This Christianity, when it holds up the cross, it says it's very serious. Death is involved in this. And there are types of death.
There's a death of the old man to sin, physical death. It's very, just a beautiful thing. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new additions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.
