The Assyrians carried them off. That waning glory because of their wandering hearts, idolatry did this to them. It made the Jewish kingdoms underachievers because they had the wrong God. The wrong God matters. You're not allowed to have the wrong God and get away with it. Regardless of how messed up you are, you can still have the right God.
And that would be some of those Christians that are very difficult people, but yet they know who the Lord is. 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. Isaiah chapter 17 is the text Pastor Rick will be teaching from today on this edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Moab's northern border ended Ammon's southern border began. And where the southern border of Moab ended, Edom's northern border began.
So these three are connected geographically on a map regardless of the people. The Edomites are gone, they're not coming back, but their territory that's been permanently stamped onto the map. So when God says Edom's territory or Edom, we know what he's talking about. When the Romans came along, they moved some of the Edomites across to the wilderness of Judah and that's where it can get a little confusing, but that's not how it originally was set up. So David again, when Saul was chasing him, David was hiding in the wilderness, he got his parents to Moab to keep them safe from him. And so all this again explains verse 4, let my outcast dwell with you, O Moab, be a shelter to them from the face of the spoiler or the devastator. That's anti-Christ.
I love how it comes together. And I do get a little annoyed why the commentators don't rush to agree with me. They should be writing. Rick is right.
Anyway. The idea of taking refuge in caves is not unprecedented in modern history. Maybe not in this technological age, but certainly in this modern age. In World War II, Jews hid for almost two years in the caves in the Ukraine, hiding from the Nazis.
I mean, that's a long time. One of the caves, the priest's grotto is said to be 77 miles long. That's a cave.
All it has to be is a hollow underground or in the ground. So it's not, even in our lifetime, they were pulling it off. We have no reason to doubt. Anti-Christ will be pretty busy with a lot of things. He probably is going to say, okay, they're in Jordan, I'll get to them, but he's not going to have the time. He's going to be so busy, preoccupied with other things. He thinks he's going to finish this other business and go get them, wipe out whatever Jews are over there. Christ won't give it to them.
It's very easy to see how this all works out. God is in control of everything. Totally sovereign. And the fact that he has allowed evil to divide the sheep from the goats does not make him evil at all. Every rightist, sovereign creator to create a condition that is fair and available. And when God says he is just, he means he is fair. And so if you have a question about the fairness of God, you better err on the side of him being, as Abraham said, the God of all the earth will do right of the universe. He'll do right.
You never have to worry about that just because you're getting hits in this life, unfairness in this life. Well, we've been warned about all that. Ergo, take up your cross. Verse 6 now.
So I hope, well, let's do a little bit more. Verse 6, we have heard of the pride of Moab. He is very proud of his haughtiness and his pride and his wrath, but his lies shall not be so. Now the prophet returns to his immediate time period. He's now talking about the Moabite people. It's common in scripture to have this sort of a pit stop, this little oasis of prophecy, and then return to the immediate things.
And the context is what saves us, so that it's not a free-for-all. But I do think by faith you've got to commit to certain verses. We do that with Messiah. We say, that's Messiah. When David said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit down at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool, we all look at that and say, he's talking about Messiah. We don't have to guess at that. Well, there are other sections of scripture.
We have to apply the same approach, the same logic. Jeremiah, he talks about their pride, and of course that's what turned an archangel into a devil, pride. That is self-serving pride, the pride that exalts yourself above others, even unto God. We have heard the pride of Moab, so 100 years later they're still at it.
He is exceedingly proud. That's an emphatic insertion, and that's in parentheses in the New King James, which means, again, a parentheses means this is important. It's not, you know, something that, oh, by the way, is a little detail. No, it's important.
That's why it's there. Of his loftiness and arrogance and pride, and of the haughtiness of his heart. Again, in Jeremiah 48, verse 42, and Moab shall be destroyed as a people because he exalted himself against Yahweh. And yet, the land of Moab plays into the refuge of God's people.
So, here's another interesting thing. We understand the pride of Babylon. God understood it, but he wasn't buying it. He said to Nebuchadnezzar, if I hear you one more time. And he did it one more time, and immediately he was driven from men. And Daniel said, told you.
No, he did not. But he warned him. He said, oh, King, you know, Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar had a connection. And Daniel wished it wasn't so, but he said, if you go mouthing off about this again, you're going to be punished.
This is the dream. And he did. Nebuchadnezzar mouthed off, you know, look, this is great Babylon that I built.
At that instant, he was dealt with, but he was restored. Well, you understand the hanging gardens of Babylon, these giant walls there, everything that they did, it is said it would take three days to walk through Babylon. But Moab had nothing to boast. Why is she boasting? Why is she arrogant? This is not hard to believe because we've all met people who have nothing and are arrogant. And they're like, man, what makes you think you're so much better than everybody?
You should jump to the line and we all should bow down to you. Anyhow, the Moab had nothing. Their arrogance kept them from going to Judah for refuge.
It was offered and it led to their defeat. Now, verses 7 and 8, Moab's grief is explained. And then 9 through 12, the grief, the Lord's grief again over Moab. We look at verse 7, therefore Moab shall wail, wail for Moab, everyone shall wail. And then the bottom of verse 9, for battle cries have fallen over your summer fruits and your harvest. Well, the harvest is supposed to be a time of festivities. Summer fruits, these were supposed to be joyful things, but war was in the land and all of its horror came with it. Unlike Judah, Moab will never be restored as a kingdom, though the people remain, they linger for a while after the Assyrians and once the Babylonians are done with the Moabites, they vanish from history.
So as I mentioned, the Arab peoples, the mixture of those Arab peoples form what we call the kingdom of Jordan today. There were reasons to rejoice in Moab's judgments, but yet the prophets still, and as does Yahweh, weep over it or just grieves over this. Ezekiel 33, say to them, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his evil way. And then there's that thrice repeated, turn, turn, twice, not thrice, from your evil ways, for why should you die, O house of Israel?
So there's God appealing to the people to snap out of it. So we move on, verse 10, gladness is taken away and joy from the plentiful field and the vineyards. There will be no singing, nor will there be shouting or treaders will, no treaders will tread out wine in the presses. I have made their shouting cease.
So there's not going to be any fun. Verse 11, therefore my heart shall resound like a heart for Moab and my inner being for her ways, and that's of course the places of Moab. Verse 12, and it shall come to pass when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he will come to his sanctuary to pray, but he will not prevail. And so their religion fails, their faith fails, their festivity, everything is just total breakdown, catastrophic. Imagine if you're living in the days of Isaiah and you're a Moabite hearing this, there are prophecies against Egypt today. Imagine if you're an Egyptian, you've got to reconcile that.
You have to say, am I more Egyptian than I am a believer? You've got to choose sides. You know, there are some people that act like America is beyond judgment. You know, Billy Graham said a long time ago, if God doesn't judge America, it's not meaning, it's just, I guess, idiomatic. If God doesn't judge America, he'll owe Sodom and Gomorrah an apology. At the rate we're going, he was saying, there's going to be judgment. And if you were too patriotic to think that God could dare do that, then you don't know your Bible history.
The Bible history is God is no respect of persons, flat out. You're either with me or you're against me. Oh, I didn't know you were born there. I heard a comedian, a very clean comedian, one that I've never heard use any foul language or even topics, I have to say that. So he said, they're from Nashville, DC. And they were living in New York, I guess when he was establishing himself as a comedian there.
And when his daughter was born, they were sure to have her born in Nashville. He said, I didn't want her growing up thinking she was better than us. Not that. The point is, that's not true with God. There's not like, well, you're born here, you're better than these people.
It's not even true with us. Those may be perceived. I don't know if I told that right. Let me do it again. No mulligans in the pulpit, not many. Anyway, for those of you who don't know, a mulligan is in golf. You say, can I have a do-over shot? Sure, that's a mulligan.
But some guys, they act like they're on the PGA. No, we're playing with you. I'm not playing with you anymore.
Anyhow. Verse 13, this is the word which Yahweh has spoken concerning Moab since that time. But now, verse 14, Yahweh has spoken saying within three years, as the years of a hired man, the glory of Moab will be despised with all that great multitude and the remnant will be very small and feeble.
And again, they were small and feeble. The Babylonians just didn't have a problem absorbing them. It's interesting, he says, within three years, according to a hired man, there's nothing spiritual about this. This is three years as three 360-day cycles. Again, the calendar of the Jew is 360 days, not 365 days. And that's when you calculate years in the scripture you have to use the 360, not the 365.
That's why I take 360 home, Route 360. It's biblical. Back to this, Isaiah 17, now we go. This is now Syria. We've done with Moab.
Whew, that wasn't too bad. Now we deal with Syria. Verse 1, behold, Damascus will cease from being a city and it will be a ruinous heap. Well, Damascus is still there. What do you mean?
Where does this fit? Does this mean that in the end times, Damascus will not survive the Great Tribulation period, which is very likely. Whole cities are going to be, I mean, one nuclear sub can wipe out 24 cities in a few minutes. So nothing's difficult to believe about this. Syria is still at war with, I don't even know who they're fighting anymore.
Anyway, because there's just so many, so much silly stuff. Back to this, does this mean that the boundaries established by Yahweh to Abraham for the descendants of Abraham, which includes Damascus, does it mean that in the millennial reign, that's what was going to happen? Genesis 15, 18. Yahweh made a covenant with Abraham saying, to your descendants, I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.
You know, Ariel Sharon was that Jewish general. He was about to march on Cairo. He was about to extend Israel's borders past the great river of Egypt, the Red Sea, and into Egypt. And of course, the Americans, oh, please, stop, stop.
And they backed out. But that's actually biblical, that their border is not to enter into Egypt's territory. God gave it from the Dead Sea, not the Dead Sea, the Red Sea, because they've got the red, the dead, and the Med.
Mediterranean, the Dead Sea, and the Red Sea. That's how it goes. Anyhow, is this saying Damascus will be, will no longer be a city?
When? Okay, there's two ways to see it. Again, they won't survive the Great Tribulation, and then the Jews will take that, and it will be theirs, and Damascus as a city will never be rebuilt.
Or today. You know, there are many ancient cities that have fallen to ruins and were not rebuilt on that same footprint. Maybe, you know, a few thousand yards or a mile away they rebuilt and kept, retained the name. Jerusalem, however, and others have been rebuilt on the exact same footprint. Jericho has not been, as laid out prophetically.
So you've got two options. You can say, well, the ancient city of Damascus is gone, and there are no archaeologists that can deny that or attest to it. But there are ruins around Damascus that could have been the city in Isaiah's day. That's one.
I like the other one. They both could be true, actually. But I think that in the end times, Damascus will not survive the wars, the catastrophes of the Great Tribulation period, such as the world is not seen. Don't ever forget that part.
What is coming is going to make, you know, global warming look like nothing. The fear, you know, the fear of those who fear. Anyhow, back to this.
It is very tempting to pick on certain people who have views that are really unfounded or misguided, have elements of truth, but let's not do it. Verse two. You could say, what do you mean, Let's? You're the one talking. The cities of Aroar, Aroar, that's I think how it is pronounced. You know, in preparation, I go through all these names for pronunciation.
And then at the end, I said, why don't I just skip it? The cities are forsaken. They will all be for flocks which lie down, and no one will make them afraid. So now he's actually going back to the Syrian-Israel alliance. This is before the Northern Kingdom was taken away. You have to know the history of the Jews to follow this.
That requires a lot of study time. But anyway, he's getting Damascus and Israel joined together to fight Assyria. And then they said to Judah, Join us too.
And Judah said, No, I'm not doing that. Then they said, Well, we're going to come with our armies. We're going to force you to join with us against Assyria. And Judah says, I'm not joining with you. In fact, I'm going to join with Assyria.
And that's what they did. Assyria came down and beat those two into nothing. He went right to work on the Jews, the Philistines, Damascus, Syria.
And in 10 years he finally got to Samaria, which was the capital of the Northern Kingdom, which was a natural fortification. And so verse 3, the fortress also will cease from Ephraim, that's that natural fortification of Samaria, Ephraim a reference to the Northern tribes, the kingdom from Damascus, that alliance, and the remnant of Syria, they will be as the glory of the children of Israel, says Yahweh of hosts. So that glory will be, the Syrians will have a remnant that survives. It's in a positive in verse 3. But when you get to verse 4, now we are there, in that day it shall come to pass that the glory of Jacob will wane and the fatness of his flesh grow lean. And so in verse 3 it was positive the glory was going to be survivors in spite of the judgments. But in verse 4, the glory of Israel has departed.
And they did when the Assyrians carried them off. That waning glory because of their wandering hearts, idolatry did this to them. It made the Jewish kingdoms underachievers because they had the wrong God. The wrong God matters. You're not allowed to have the wrong God and get away with it. Regardless of how messed up you are, you can still have the right God. And that would be some of those Christians that are very difficult people, but yet they know who the Lord is and they're just carnal. Paul did not hurl out anathemists to those who were giving him a hard time because of their carnality. But when they messed with the doctrine, that became a different issue. And that is true even into the book of Revelation when the Lord addresses the churches and he says I'm going to do violence to you because of their doctrine.
Anyway, you can have right doctrine and just, you know, be weak. Verse 5, it shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain and reaps the heads with the arm, it shall be that he who gathers heads of grain in the valley of Rephaim. Well, the kingdoms are going to be stripped bare.
Everything cut down. The people like in a harvest. What you do to a harvest is going to happen to the people. This is a metaphor. Verse 6. So he continues in verse 6. We don't really have to read some of these verses because it's just a more detailed explanation.
Unless you want to hear me pronounce the bow and the branches. Verse 7. And in that day a man will look to his Maker and his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel. Always like the prophets, looking for the solution, searching for the solution.
And it should be that way with us. The hardship of God's judgments would be severe. The rod of correction is to lead to repentance. And the remnant of Israel throughout the ages attest to that. In verse 8 he says he will not look to the altars, the work of his hands.
He will not respect what his fingers have made, nor the wooden images, nor the incense altars. So Isaiah is saying, you know those things you like so much right now, you people of Judah? You know, you've inherited the Canaanite altars, you make your little gods with your little crafty fingers, you think you're so creative and impressing somebody. Well, we're gonna stop doing that one day. One day our people won't do the dumb things you're doing and making God angry with them. And so, you know, here he is, he's not a pundit, he's a prophet. He's speaking against his people and their aberrant behaviors. And the righteous Jews would be applauding, thank you God for Isaiah.
Thank you that there's somebody on our side. And then they would also have Micah at this time. And then to the north they'd have Hosea. And so, the real people struggling with evil in the land. So that's, he will not look to those altars, that day is coming. Now, in verse 9 and 10, this is the interesting thing in verse 10, but you have forgotten the God of your salvation. Is that not what the Lord was saying to the churches in Revelation that were wandering? That Sardis, he said, you have a name, you're alive, but you're dead. But he did say to Sardis, but you've got some folks there, they stick with me.
And he said, thank you, Lord. You can come across a church that, you know, just beneath what you would like them to be, and yet in that church are some solid believers. And you want to say, why don't you come out of that weak church, join a stronger church and make them stronger?
Well, you have no right to do that. God puts people where he needs them because he knows what he's doing. And anyway, it's interesting. They had forgotten the God of their salvation, as did Ephesus, as did Laodicea, Pergamos, and Thyatira, and Sardis. Those churches, too, forgot the God of their salvation, and Jesus gave them a chance to come back.
This reference to the rock, of course, Deuteronomy 32, 4, lets us know that's Yahweh, picks up in the New Testament and is applied to Jesus. Verse 11, in that day you will make your plant to grow and in the morning you will make your seed to flourish, but the harvest will be a heap of ruins in the day of grief and desperate sorrow. So those who have forgotten their God reminds us of Haggai. Haggai the prophet says, listen, you guys are having a good life, but you're not building the house of God. You have no worship in your life.
Why? Because you've been intimidated out of worship. And though you're not intimidated about building your houses, you're living in pretty good houses. You're taking care of your family.
What about the family of God? And so he says, you have sown much and bring in little. You eat, but you do not have enough. You drink, but you are not filled with drink.
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages, earns wages to be put in a bag with holes. He's saying you can't find satisfaction, can you?
You've got all these material things going in your favor, and yet you're miserable. And Haggai says, because you're not building the house of God. And Zechariah comes right along with Haggai. He's the younger prophet and he, you know, gives visions.
And the two were successful. The house of God was rebuilt after 15 years. Verse 12, woe to the multitude of people who make a noise like the roar of the seas into the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters. Now that woe is not the typical woe.
It shows up later. It's more of a word that summons the attention, hey, kind of like, hey, pay attention to what I'm saying. And we come across that in Isaiah 5. Hey, if anyone's thirsty, come to the waters, you know. Verse 13, well, verse 13 is sort of an echo of verse 12 and verse 14, then behold the eventide trouble.
And before the morning, he is no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us and the lot of those who rob us. So in closing, the prophet is saying, God rules the nations. Those who come against us, God will deal with them. But of course, reading between the lines in the right ways, yes, God will deal with those nations. But how much suffering, unnecessary suffering, takes place because of their wrong God approach.
And it's true to this day. How many countries are there that are in a perpetual state of war? There's always combat.
One warlord against another warlord. And it just doesn't stop. Any kind of United Nation relief that's sent to them goes to the warlords, not the people. The people stay suffering because the wrong gods. And it's a very real problem. Isaiah is saying, those nations that trouble the Jewish people, God's going to deal with them.
But he is not at all sweeping under the rug the evil to people commit in Israel against their God. 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 editions 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.
