Anytime you preach God's Word, say you're sharing your faith with somebody and you're quoting scripture. That's a form of prophecy. It's not predictive prophecy. It's direct, usually, evangelical. But it is God's Word.
And you are speaking God's Word. Singing songs of worship to the Lord is a form of prophecy. Likely what the daughters of Philip were engaging in. So, prophecy is not limited to prediction in scripture. The Jewish feast, the final of their seven feasts in a year, festival, I'll use that word, because they're not feasts like they sit down to this sumptuous meal. It was a festival, a recognition.
The big one, the feast of tabernacles, was just a seven-day food feast of joy. You know, they pass the Day of Atonement and they, you know, they move past all of the holidays, the Passover celebration, and they get to the feast of feasts. And it speaks of heaven. That when we're just going to be out of here and at the Lord's table, and we're going to do other things, too. You're probably, I don't know, probably draw portraits of me when you get to heaven.
What else are you going to do with your free time? Anyway, the absurd really does help us sometime understand what's not going to happen. Coming back to the, now we come to verse 12, I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die and the son of man who will be made like grass? Now we have the third context, and this one is the son of man. Well, if you're an Ezekiel, most of the time he's talking about Messiah.
And Christ himself takes the title upon himself. But here the context is clear. He's not, he's saying, who are, why are you afraid of people that have come from people? That's a very loose translation. Now verse 13, this is connected to verse 12.
And you forget Yahweh your maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. You have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor when he has prepared to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor? So this is, remember Isaiah, his whole life under the threat of a Syrian invasion.
And I believe that's what he's talking about. But he says here in verse 13, connected to verse 12, fear can cause one to abandon God. He just says it right out, and you forget the Lord your maker. Well, we love 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7.
God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of sound mind. Well, that doesn't always come easily when you're under pressure. You've got to fight for it. The narrow gate that Christ talked about entering in implies squeeze. You're going to have to squeeze through that one. So don't be surprised when things don't come easily as a Christian, things of faith. You've got to fight for it.
It's worth it. The alternatives make it necessary because they're unacceptable. So God gives perspective here. For Moses, it was Pharaoh's Egypt.
For Isaiah and his generation, it was Sennacherib's Syrian kingdom. And then for us, it is the world. And that world includes those who try to get the Nazarite to drink.
The Nazarites were supposed to abstain from drinking, alcohol. And yet people were trying to stumble them. Well, today pornography is everywhere.
Sometimes it's stark, sometimes it's subtle. It's everywhere. The world is against us. It's this weight pushing on faith. Bad enough we've got to deal with our own flesh and Satan, then we've got this gang coming our way. Well, most of us were once part of the world, part of that gang that made life more difficult for those who love the Lord. Verse 14, the captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, that he should not die in the pit, and that his bread should not fail. This guy's trying to survive. Well, he's contrasting the faithful with the faithless. Exiled Jews scrambled to comply in order to survive. Well, wait a minute. Well, before I get to what captives we're talking about, the pits were usually empty water cisterns.
Because cisterns hold water, and when they either crack or leak, they become jails to hold prisoners. You find that in Zechariah 9, verse 11, where he says it right out. Apparently, Isaiah has the northern kingdom, or Judah, in mind under the Assyrian invasions.
The northern kingdom was wiped out in his lifetime. Because we don't know when he penned all of this, or if he's looking back or forward, but we knew it happened in his lifetime. Certainly, the Judah suffering, Jerusalem didn't fall, but all the rest of Judah was invaded by the Assyrians. Well, God's people are not supposed to be exiles.
This is part of the point the prophet is making. We're not supposed to be exiles. We have the promised land, but they became exiles because they departed from the Lord.
Why? Well, we went to that in kings. They were afraid of men, and they sent to Egypt, and they did this, but they wouldn't call on Yahweh. And when Jeremiah comes along over 100 years later, they're going to think he's a traitor for telling them to trust God and stop resisting Nebuchadnezzar. And he gets thrown into a cistern and almost dies there.
So, this is the point that he makes by contrast. Now, I mentioned to you I'm not the only one. I stumbled on it. One thing about Bible study is you come across these things that you can't find anywhere else, and the Lord gave me that. Then you find one guy's got it too.
It's like, man, I thought I was the only one. Well, anyway, so here's Alec Motyer, and I wouldn't recommend Motyer's commentary on Isaiah unless you want to read 500 pages and you have an outlet. You probably, this is a, you know, you would say it's not a derogatory to say it's more like professional material. This is for pastors, those who have the time to study and the outlet. Well, anyway, he writes this about this tendency of good Bible commentators, because most of the really good ones, they all do it, except me and Motyer. Commentators fly in the face of the evidence when they make this verse refer to the Babylonian exile, where we know that life was far from oppressive, Jeremiah 29, 4, and 7. Remember Jeremiah said, build houses for yourself, make gardens, enjoy the life there.
And Motyer goes on. And in fact, became so homelike that in the event, few could uproot themselves to return to Zion. So when we get to Ezra, tells us that Zerubbabel comes back to Jerusalem with the exiles, there's not that many of them.
There's a few thousand. Where are the millions of Jews? They got the good life in Babylon.
And they just, you know, the diaspora, they spread throughout the world eventually, they picked up business in Babylon mainly. And anyway, the point is, every time Isaiah mentions captives, he's not talking about Babylon. You have to use the context, and it's an easy mistake, otherwise very good commentators would not do it. But a lot of times what happens is the commentators read other commentators, and it's like, whew, that saves me a lot of work, I'll go with that one. I try not to do that.
I've never made a mistake, so I don't know what it's like. Of course I'm kidding. Verse 15, but I am Yahweh your God, who divided the sea, whose waves roared, Yahweh of hosts is his name. So Isaiah adds that second part. God's speaking through him, I am Yahweh your God, who divided the sea, whose waves roared, and then Isaiah adds Yahweh, the host is his name. Sort of like when Paul goes, you know, the blessed savior forever, amen, as he does in Romans.
Well, this to the Jew is our Matthew chapter 11, 28. Come to me all you who labor in the heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Now, I've come quite a few times, and I've not been conscious of rest.
Where are you? I said come to you. And yet I'm still standing. So, it works.
You know, if it didn't work, I would have been gone long ago. And that's the true, there are some people that come to Christ, and they're by the shallow conversions. The pressure comes, Jesus talked about that in the parable of the sower, and you know, they're scorched, they have no depth, and they're gone. So, it does work, it just, God has a different perspective on a lot of things, thus my thoughts, not your thoughts. But they can be known, if you can get the flesh out of the way, you can get hold of them. Verse 16, and I have put my words in your mouth, I have covered you with the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, you are my people. Well, I love this, I have put my words in your mouth, because again, you get the people that, well, I don't believe the Bible is written by men. Well, who should it be written by? Alligators?
What's your option? Angels? Well, you'd have a problem with them. It didn't work in Solomon and Gomorrah. God uses people, which makes it more fantastic that anybody gets saved, that he uses people.
We all know about people. Jeremiah chapter 1, then Yahweh put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and Yahweh said to me, behold, I have put my words in your mouth, and he still does this. Anytime you preach God's word, say you're sharing your faith with somebody and you're quoting scripture, that's a form of prophecy. It's not predictive prophecy, it's direct usually, evangelical, but it is God's word, and you are speaking God's word. Singing songs of worship to the Lord is a form of prophecy, likely what the daughters of Philip were engaging in, singing songs of love to the Lord.
So prophecy is not limited to prediction in scripture. Anyway, notice here at the last four words, well, last five. Okay, seven.
Can I get eight? Say to Zion, you are my people. Zion is used here as a term for the people themselves, and so that's what I was talking about. It's not a single definition to Zion. There's an evolution of the word, but without losing any of its additions. It's not like, well, it used to be used this way, but now it's used that way. No, it's used that way still, but it's also used in other ways. Today, when you hear of someone saying a Zionist, they're saying someone who believes the Jews should be in the promised land.
There's one usage of that. There are Jews today that are quite infuriated that the Jews are in Israel, because they have told themselves that only Messiah can do that. Without basis, they just make these things up like rabbinical Judaism, kills the faith. Anyway, verse 17, Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of Yahweh the cup of his fury, you have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling and drained it out. So, this last paragraph, 17 to the end, describes the effects of judgment inflicted on the Jews by God. It's punishment.
That's what punishment is. God is obligated. He's said to the world, these are my people. And He's not going to let them get away with defying Him to His face in front of everybody without addressing it. Again, imagine if the world said, well, who cares?
You do what you want to do. God's not going to do anything. Well, He's going to do something. So, when Jesus says, you know, there is a very real hell, He's not being symbolic.
He's being literal. So, this is the result of their persistent rebellion against God. And we have in this last section, 17 to 23, the call to Jerusalem to wake up and stand up because the end of her suffering is approaching.
Put your eyes on eternity. Then, the next section, He's going to summarize the suffering of the Jews. And then, at the end, He's going to say the suffering of the Jews will be turned to the suffering of their enemies. So, we'll now look at this, awake, awake, stand up, oh Jerusalem, a double imperative, often wasted, just wasted. They don't want to wake up to Scripture. They want to wake up to what the rabbis say or what they like.
You have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury. So, just because the Jewish people are not obedient to their own Scripture does not mean they're our opponents or enemies. We love Israel because God loves them.
His hand is upon them. They are one of the greatest, the existence of Israel is one of the greatest proofs for the veracity of God's Word. For the validity that everything here is true, because you can't explain Israel, because you can't. Well, unless you come to the Scripture. So, here He says, wake up, stand up, oh Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of Yahweh's cup and His fury. You, the pronoun here, is feminine, singular. And it's throughout this section, this last 17 through 23. And the reason why, He is personifying Jerusalem as the mother city of the Jewish people's religion, their belief, their true religion.
This is, one hand is a term of endearment and respect, on the other hand is a rebuke because of what they did with this position. You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling and drained it out. Well, in the Bible, judgment is often pictured as the drinking of a cup of wine, even Christ, you know, to the disciples.
You can't drink this cup, oh yeah we can. Anyway, it's in several places. But without question, Israel has been judged according to the Scriptures and we are witnesses of this. So, God is using her suffering as a chance to reach lost souls, to keep them from going to hell. But Israel will be glorious as a people, they will be glorious.
This is going to pass. Anyway, verse 18, there is no one to guide her among all the sons she has brought forth, nor is there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up. So Jerusalem again depicted as a mother unable to find her way and without assistance, no one to comfort her. A pathetic picture of what has happened to her. No helpers amongst her kings or princes, her children, because they are too busy bad-mouthing their own God. It is also a shameful rebuke on children who will not help parents in need. That's like a side one, a very serious one.
Honor your mom and dad or else you're going to get it. That's just good Bible teaching. Verse 19, these two things have come to you who will be sorry for you.
Desolation and destruction, famine and sword, by whom will I comfort you? So Isaiah sees ancient Jerusalem's not too distant doom. At the time he's ministering, Solomon's temple is still up.
The Jews have not experienced a complete overthrow of their land. But he's saying it's coming. It's going to come twice. Solomon's temple, of course, and then there's Zerubbabel's temple, which was expanded by Herod, the wicked Herod.
They're gone now. And so this prophecy has been fulfilled. The fury of judgment, not limited to the Babylonians coming against Jerusalem and repeated through history.
Even now, they're fighting for survival and they will survive, no doubt about that. We just hope it's thorough enough. We're all saying, please Jerusalem, please Israel, don't listen to anybody. Just do what you got to do. That's what we want to see you do.
And don't be afraid of anybody. God is with you, even if you're not with him, because you're part of the prophetic calendar. Anyway, verse 20.
Let me pause there. When Jesus said, don't come to me saying, didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we cast out demons? And Christ says, get away from me, I never knew you. See, you can be used by God and not be right with him.
You say, well, that scares me. Well, it should, but that's not the whole story because we're supposed to have assurance of our salvation. No Christian should be walking around, I hope I'm saved, I wonder if I'm saved. You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. But if you're playing games with God, using him to rip people off, using religion to merchandise the people, as Peter said, then you're in that category. I hear about people getting saved in loony bin churches, not because of those churches, but because of God's mercy.
And I think he just wants to keep me humble, because it's always about me, is it not? Anyway, we have to filter everything in this life through the scripture, because that's where it is. Man doesn't live by Bredelon, but by the word of God.
And Bredelon is GMO modified anyway, so there you go. Verse 20, your sons have fainted, they lie at the heap of, they lie at the heap of all the streets like an antelope in a net. They are full of fury of the Lord, the rebuke of your God. So God is saying, I'm responsible, they're trapped like a deer, they're powerless because they've been, there's no blessings upon them. And that was that generation.
This last generation right now though, that's not the case. Verse 21, therefore please hear this, you afflicted and drunk, but not with wine. So God's wrath upon the disobedient destabilized them. As he said in Deuteronomy, you're going to be insane, and it's going to be through my hand. These judgments, I'm not playing with you.
All their benefits were to him, or from him, and still they treated him with great disrespect, disdain. Isaiah 63, when he ramps up, he's not going to let this go, because we go through Isaiah. God's keeping this in front of us. He says, I have trodden down the peoples in my anger, made them drunk in my fury, and brought down their strength to the earth. Anyway, verse 22, thus says your Lord, Yahweh and your God. We have three titles, Adonai, Lord, Yahweh, covenant name of God, and then El, which is deity, God. So he says, thus says the Lord, Yahweh your God, who pleads the cause of his people. See, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of my fury, you shall no longer drink it.
Yes, it's coming. It's coming a time when Israel won't have to go through this horrors, the horrors that they've been going through. Jerusalem survives. They survived Babylon, Israel, well, not the Jewish people.
They survived Babylon, Assyria, and they have survived all the attempts to get them off the earth. The Islamic world has been blunt. We want to push Israel into the sea. This is no longer something that is centered in the Islamic world in the Middle East. It is coming out of Oxford.
It is coming out of Harvard and Yale. They are giving these people platforms to push this stuff. It is diabolical, and God is bringing to the surface through the COVID. He's saying, let me show you how Antichrist can lay his fingers on every part of the world. You had people in the jungles wearing masks, and now, well, I don't know if that's exactly true, but it sounds good.
And then, pretty much though, you had people on these remote islands out in the Atlantic Ocean that had no contact with anybody wearing masks. Then you have, I don't know what I was saying. Let's just wrap this up.
Oh, I know what I was saying. So, God has demonstrated the hatred of Satan towards his people. He has demonstrated that Antichrist will be able to globalize the world unlike ever before. Napoleon and the others, it would be envious of the power that Antichrist will have. Verse 23, but I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you.
That cup with the dregs, the bottom, the look of it. Who have said to you, lie down, that we may walk over you. That would be the United Nations. Continuing on, United Nations against Israel.
Incidentally, what kind of sign is right across from the United Nations? And they shall beat their swords into plowshares. This is a big lie. They've got this Jewish scripture right across from the United Nations talking about peace, when they're saying, really, we're going to beat you into submission. It's the way it is. The proof is everywhere and there are those who don't want to see it.
Anyway, where was I? Verse 23, but I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to you, lie down, that we may walk over you. And you have laid your body like the ground and as the street for those who walk over. So, there are those who just want to trample them. And he's going to put an end to this and he's going to make them the enemies.
They're going to be the ones that get trampled in the end. I've read it several times in the last few Wednesdays. I'm going to skip it, but I'll give you the coordinates. Zechariah 12, 2, 3, where it says, All who would heave in a way will surely be cut to pieces, though all the nations of the earth are gathered against it. I'm leaving out much of the verse, but that's the end part. Let's pray. Our Father, we can't miss how important your Word is, how critical it is to serve you with all we have, to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. We thank you for the Word. We appeal to you for your Holy Spirit to be upon us, to fill us and use us.
In Jesus' name, Amen. 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.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-11-18 08:13:06 / 2024-11-18 08:22:30 / 9