I accept it because I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ because his Spirit dwells within me, even with all my faults. God still says, I'm not going anywhere. It's pictured when Jesus did a miracle with the fish and Peter fell down at his feet and said, depart from me for I am a sinful man. And Jesus said, in essence, I'm not going anywhere. I'm keeping you with me. Well, that's what Jesus does when you sin. And you say, I'm a little unworthy. And you say, yeah, we know this. This is the problem, but I'm going to work with you.
In fact, I'm going to live with you. You never even see anybody with a harp case. I mean, you need a forklift or a dolly to bring that into the building. But it's incredible.
You see somebody playing a harp. It's like, wow. Anyway.
It's kind of funny. Which would you rather? Play that with your child. What would you rather? Somebody who could play the spoons or somebody who could play a harp?
Somebody who could play a tambourine or somebody who could play a violin? It could be a lot of fun. Anyway. And insulting. Could be insulting.
Got to be careful. Where were we? The new wine languishes. The jubilant ends. The harp ceases. Verse 9. They shall not drink wine with a strong drink as bitter to those who drink it. The city of confusion is broken down.
Every house is shut up so that none may go in. Well, pause here for a minute. Remember, Isaiah, he was part of the upper crust of society. He was in and out of the palaces.
He would have been very conscious of the elite social gatherings, the partying and all the wine and the good foods in the upper crust of society. And I think there's some jibes at that in that section. Not that there's anything wrong with enjoying nice things.
Certainly there's nothing wrong with that. But when you do it at the exclusion of what God wants, it becomes a problem. And that's what he is calling out. As God promised, he blesses people with these things in the land of milk and honey. But they just said, okay, I got the milk and honey. Now, please, Lord, beat it.
That's what pretty much happened. Anyway, verse 11. There is a cry for wine in the streets. All joy is darkened. The mirth of the land is gone. Verse 12.
In the city desolation is left and the gate is stricken with destruction. Verse 13. When it shall be thus in the midst of the land among the people, it shall be like the shaking of an olive tree, like the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is done.
Food will be scarce. That's what verse 13 is saying. The whole thing is tribulation centered. He's gone past just Judah and he's dealing with the earth and he's saying, it's going to be great tribulation such as the world has not seen. And so this is why some of the scholars call this the apocalypse of Isaiah or Isaiah's apocalypse. A mini book of revelation in the sense of the tribulation that is coming.
The city that is mentioned here, it could refer to humanity, the world system, but more likely Babylon and all that that means, because we know it means more than just the ancient city, though the ancient city would never rise again. Jeremiah went out of his way to make that clear and we'll come to that a little later on. Let's move forward now to verse 14. Just remember there's a lot more that can be said about all these verses.
You owe me. Verse 14, they shall lift up their voice. They shall sing for the majesty of the Lord.
They shall cry aloud from the sea. Okay, so now there's a shift here. The scene shifts. Well, let's finish verse 15. Therefore glorify Yahweh in the dawning light, the name of Yahweh God of Israel in the coastlands of the sea. Looking at verse 15 first, the dawning of the light, well that would be to the east and the coastlands, the Mediterranean, that would be to the west and so he's pretty clever, this Isaiah, and how he poetically covers the area that he's addressing from east to west, you could say. And it shifts, but the context tells us why it shifts and what it's about. And this repeated theme of, hey, God's going to make everything right.
He's going to set it all right. Also, the dawning, the east and the west, that's where the trade routes were. That's what he's addressing. The coastlands have to do with the trade routes, the shipping from Tyre, all these products moving around the sea and then they'd find their way onto the trade routes on land and go as far as, you know, the deserts of the world.
Their world was connected, not as sophisticated as today, but it was still connected. Anyway, verse 16, from the ends of the earth we have heard songs, glory to righteous, to the righteous, but I said, I am ruined, ruined, woe to me. The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously, indeed the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. Something's bothering the prophet. In the midst of all this rejoicing, killjoy.
You know, the proverbial killjoy. He brings us, you know, because he sees the awful judgment. When these prophets, when God imparted predictive prophecy to them, they could feel it.
It wasn't like, you know, he just showed them a video and, oh okay, I got it. It was imparted and they were so sure of it. The Lord spoke and this is the way it's going to be. But now the prophet says, but I am troubled because of the much evil that evil men have caused in being evil. He did not just see, oh God judging the bad people, all the horrors that humanity would have to go through because of these power brokers.
Or they're the ones that ultimately bring it out. Somebody's going to be up there doing it at the top of the pyramid causing all the evil to take place. And he saw this and so he mourns over all that is going to happen to his people and people period in this great tribulation period that is to come. His reaction to the immensity of the destruction, the treachery, the global judgment and the next four verses he brings it out. Verse 17, he says, Fear and the pit and the snare are upon you, O habitants of the earth. Verse 18, And it shall be that he who flees from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit, and he who comes up from the midst of the pit shall be caught in the snare, for the windows from on high are opened and the foundations of the earth are shaken. Verse 19, the earth is violently broken, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken exceedingly. And so there you have the language of the flood and the language of Babel, the windows open, Genesis 7-11, On that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. The Hebrew is really not windows, it's just a portal, it could be like a chute and a hopper, anything that opens to let out the judgment is the idea. And the pits are made into inescapable traps, Jeremiah uses the same language, inescapable judgment.
Amos brings it up also, Job has it. But here's an interesting thing, in the Hebrew the repetition of fear, the pit and the snare, all are alliterated in the Hebrew, they start out with the same letter in the Hebrew. And so there's just Isaiah, he's just a sound play in the alliteration. It would be like the trouble, the trap, the terror, all beginning with the letter T to make his point. So you can't say, oh these guys were just ancient, what did they know?
They were superstitious, they were poorly educated and exposed to life. You read the prophecy of Isaiah, this guy is exposed to botany, biology, geography, everything. He's a very intelligent man and he's just laying it out. And he puts in a little alliteration as pastors like to do. Five points and all of them begin with the same letter, but you can never remember it. That's why I don't like to do that. What was that, what was the A for again?
Let's see, the first was A for Apple and you can't remember it and you missed the point. Anyway, verse 21, it shall come to pass in that day that Yahweh will punish on high the host of exalted ones and on the earth, the kings of the earth, and this is global. Verse 22, they will be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit.
They will be shut up in the prison, after many days they will be punished. And we read about this in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and in Revelation 6 through 19. God is going to set this right. Satan and his team will be judged the day of the Lord that he speaks of includes the exalted ones in verse 21, he says, will punish on high the host of exalted ones and on the earth.
So that would include Satan and those who are under his influence. Revelation 12, Revelation 13, Revelation 16, Revelation 19 and Revelation 20, all give us more detail concerning what Isaiah has packed into these two verses. So you have homework, you say, how do you know all these things?
How do we know all these things? That's how we cross reference, we find it so intricately tied together, you can't miss it. Verse 23, then the moon will be disgraced, the sun will be ashamed, the sun is in the sky, not in the family, for, phonetically they're the same, for Yahweh of hosts will reign on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and before his elders gloriously. Well, we know this is after the resurrection and the ascension, the second coming of Christ, that is the time stamp for that. Now, chapter 25, we've got about five minutes left, if you can make it, I know you can, because if you don't, I'm going to tell God in my prayers, Lord. Now, God's going to swallow up death, that's what Isaiah is going to talk about. See, he knew, he says, this can't stay, life can't stay this way, something's got to give, we just can't go this cycle forever, and that's what he's given us. Revelation 20, 14, then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death, good riddance. I wouldn't mind being assigned the lid closer.
I'm sure I wouldn't qualify, but that one angel that grabbed Satan and changed him, I want to see that guy. I don't want to shake his hand, because he might be a little excited, like Joe Jitsu or something. Some of you don't know who Joe Jitsu is, he'd be flipping people and say, so sorry, so sorry, and now you can't say that because it's going to offend somebody. The guy's throwing people around, what's offensive about that?
Anyway, for you young'uns, Google Joe Jitsu. Anyway, verse 1, Yahweh, you are my God, I will exalt you, I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. Sounds like the New Testament. This is Isaiah telling that God, even he's going to judge the world and it's right. God does not have to say, I'm so sorry I got to do this.
He has to do it, he would have to apologize to the righteous, if he let these things continue endlessly. Verse 2, for you have made a city a ruin, a fortified city a ruin, a palace of foreigners to be a city no more, it will never be rebuilt. Verse 3, therefore the strong people will glorify you, the city of the terrible nations will fear you. Remember, Babylon will not be rebuilt and that's in its absolute biblical context. You know, spiritual Babylon, political Babylon, occultic, all of it economic, the rule of wicked people will be gone. That's the idea behind Babylon never being rebuilt when the time comes.
The great cities will offer no protection for people. An interesting thing, where's all the liberalism, where does it thrive? Usually not in the heartland or in the, you know, it's in the cities where they just keep voting these monstrous numbskulls into power. If you look at, you know, the fire trucks in New York, the American flag on it, these guys are going to go vote back into office the very people who hate America. They're not making that connection, not until they leave that city and come out of that fog.
Because when you're living in a big city, you're just trying to get from point A to point B so you can get to the weekend. Out of that mess, you begin to think a little bit about things on a different level. It's my experience and my understanding and as we all know, I'm right. Well, and aren't you comforted by that? Even if it's not true, you can lie about it. Well, anyway, pastor telling people to lie from the pulpit, what is that?
That's the anti-me. The prophet here, he doesn't stipulate which Babylon, but Revelation 19, 3, again they said, Alleluia, her smoke rises up forever and ever. It's talking about Babylon, that system, not the ancient city alone. Jeremiah 51, 37, Babylon shall become a heap, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment and a hissing without an inhabitant. That's true of literal Babylon, but of spiritual Babylon is going to be even more so. Jeremiah 51, 61, and Jeremiah said to Sariah, When you arrive in Babylon and see it and read all these words, then you shall say, O Yahweh, you have spoken against this place to cut it off so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever. He repeats it in verse 64. So he tells, when you go to Babylon, you see that great city, the hanging gardens of Nebuchadnezzar?
You tell those people, it's all going to be gone and never rebuilt. You see how much they believed in the prophecies when God told them? How much more for when we read our New Testament, we walk away saying, Amen.
This is fact. You don't have to accept it for me to accept it. I accept it because I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit dwells within me, even with all my faults. God still says, I'm not going anywhere. It's pictured when Jesus did a miracle with the fish and Peter fell down on his feet and said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. And Jesus said, in essence, I'm not going anywhere. I'm keeping you with me. Well, that's what Jesus does. When you sin and you say, I'm a little unworthy. Yeah, we know this.
This is a problem, but I'm going to work with you. In fact, I'm going to live with you and keep my eye on you. No, he doesn't do that unless you're Roman Catholic. Maybe, but you think it that way. But God is not looking to bash us over the head. He's looking to make us like his son. Verse 4, For you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy, in distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the east, from the blast of the terrible ones. Therefore, the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against a wall. So the Lord brings relief from the elements of the trouble. He lessens the blows of evil.
Look at what it says. He strengthens the poor, but they're poor still. He strengthens the needy, but they're still under stress. They seek refuge, but they're still in the storm. They are shaded, but they're still hot.
They're not as hot. This is, to me, down-to-earth prophecy. God's saying, Paul says it this way, in case you say, I don't like this.
I want, you know. Anyway, 2 Corinthians, We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed. That's pretty intense, hard-pressed.
You're being squashed, perplexed. How many of you have been, what is God doing? Paul, at one point, said, I don't want to live anymore. As a Christian leader, he was saying this.
We despaired even of life in Ephesus. So, this is down-to-earth. That's what I would expect from the God of truth, to tell me like it is, and not sugar-coat things, because we know the outcome of that.
I prefer it this way. This makes me stand up and say, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leads me in the paths of righteous. He restores my soul. And then he goes on with, surely goodness and mercy will follow me, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
That's the conclusion. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Well, that means death is there, if he's casting a shadow, but God is with me. That's why Stephen, he didn't see the stones coming, he saw God in a spiritual sense.
Okay, I've got to finish this up, because we don't want the children's workers rioting. The blast of the terrible one that he mentions here, the blast of the terrible ones is a storm against a wall, a gale trying to blow down your shield, your wall. That wall is shielding you from the storm, but it's being banged on. Matthew 7, therefore, whoever hears these things of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain descended and floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on a rock. Man, they've got to love scripture.
Who could think to connect these things? Anyway, verse 5, we're going to be close, I better hurry up. You will reduce the noise of the aliens as the heat in a dry place, as the heat in the shadow of a cloud, and the song of the terrible ones will be diminished. Verse 6, and in the mountain of Yahweh of hosts, Yahweh of hosts will make for all the people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, and well-refined wines in the lees. I think I'm going to bring my own stuff to eat. I don't want to eat any of that. Man, anyway, I don't want to say it out loud either.
You're kicked out. Anyway, this is a feast, this is a celebration of plenty. That's what the feast in this context means.
For the Jews, it meant the celebration of a day could involve mourning and fasting. But this is the participation in the communion. The Lord's Supper. It anticipates the Christian feast.
The lees were the dregs, and they settled to the bottom as they turned to wine. Verse 7, and he will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations. Verse 8, he will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and rebuke the rebuke of his people. He will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
Well, I've got mixed feelings up here. Here, he speaks of removing the curse that blinds and blankets the earth. It blinds the people under the blanket because the blanket is over them. And he's talking about that veil spread over all nations.
It's global. Paul talks about the removal of death in 1 Corinthians 15. Revelation 24, one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, and the former things have passed away. How much is packed into that?
When he says no more pain, how much is packed into that? You could never itemize that. It's going to be gone. You won't get to heaven and say, hey, remember that time you stole my shoes?
That stuff's not going to come up. You know, it's just not going to happen. How would that work? Could you imagine me in heaven? Oh, there's somebody who used to go to the church.
How would that work? That wouldn't be right. They get up in heaven, oh, there he is again.
I thought when I left the church I wouldn't have to see him anymore. So that would be horrible. None of that stuff's going to be going on. I don't know if I want to sit down and have some of the bone marrow that they were eating in the other verse together, but no, we will.
Anyway, coming back to this out of time. For the Lamb, Revelation 7, 17, who is in the midst of the throne, will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Yeah, man, that's going to happen to the tribulation saints and it's going to happen to us. Verse 9, And it shall be said in that day, behold, this is our God, for we have waited for Him. He will save us. This is Yahweh. We have waited for Him. We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. Isaiah, he's heated up now. He's not back there, you know, woe is me.
He's got the vision. He probably wrote chapter 25 the next day. But anyway, to wait for God, we've got to trust Him no matter His methods. Verse 10, For on this mountain the hand of Yahweh will rest, and Moab shall be trampled down under Him, as straw is trampled down for the refuse. He, verse 11, and He will spread out His hands in the midst as a swimmer reaches out to swim, and He will bring down their pride together with the trickery of their hands. Verse 12, The fortress on the high fort of your walls He will bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground down to the dust.
So back to the arrogant. He's going to deal with them, those who have a form of godliness, but deny the power as Moab represents. And Moab here, incidentally, not only represents those who almost come to salvation because God reached out to them, but also they represent all of those who just refuse to trust the Lord. 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.
