The need will be taken care of there by God and the Jewish people.
Again, the earth will be saturated, well not overcrowded, but desert areas will be livable. You know, it's just going to be a different place with a lot of people and a great need for this delegated authority, thus being kings and priests with the Lord. So in this twofold capacity, Israel will have authority, again, delegated to them by the Christ that the present generations tend to reject. The Pledge begins with God and it spreads out into the prophet and into the people and people such as we are, determined to finish the work. We get back to the, let's look at it now at verse six, where it continues. They shall never hold their peace day nor night. You who make mention of Yahweh, do not keep silent. Don't give up.
Do what you're supposed to do. This is a biblical statement on God's resolve and the prophet's like-mindedness, and God will give Isaiah the sermons and the energy to minister the word. And the ministry of the word is far more than just preaching the word. There's a lot more to the ministry of the word than just preaching it.
We get that phrase, the ministry of the word from Ephesians. This is a biblical statement, again, on God's resolve. God will give him what he needs, the prayer, the heart to intercede in prayer. To intercede, to pray on behalf of another, you got to have a heart for them, stirred by God. You might not even be mindful of a person in need until God stirs your heart. A lot of you have been through this many times.
You're going to need conviction. When these prophets wrote their prophecies or thundered them, they were convinced it was going to be just as God said it would be, even though they didn't live even close to many of the prophecies, fulfillments that they uttered. Look how many prophecies Isaiah uttered about the coming of Christ. And it was another, what, 800 years before they, almost 800 years before they came true.
He wasn't around to see them from earth. So prayer, intercession, conviction, exhortation. So here's a list of verses that mean something.
They all mean something, but in the context of what I'm saying. Acts chapter 20 verse 7, Paul said to the church at Ephesus, to the leaders at the church of Ephesus, for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. I will not be silent. I will give no rest to myself.
Samuel, when the people essentially turned on Samuel and God said, Samuel, it's not against you, it's against me, they turned and Samuel said, yeah, that's true, Lord, but it hurts me. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you, but I will teach you the good and the right way. I'm not going to abandon my post. I'm still going to be in the pulpit.
I'm still going to be teaching. I'm going to do what God called me to do, regardless of how it is received. Psalm 93, 96 verse 3, declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples.
Well, this is in accord with what we're reading here. Colossians chapter one. I like to get up some of the verses that we might not think of in this context, but very much apply. Paul writes, for this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That's intercessory prayer. That is resolve for the long haul, night and day. And Paul said, I want you to be filled with knowledge, but the wisdom to work it, not just having Bible information where you can argue with people about Greek words that you don't even know how to pronounce.
Not that you do that, but there are those that do or have. Spiritual understanding, Paul says. It goes back to, you can't just feel your way through Christianity.
And all of Deuteronomy 13 says, stop thinking your feelings are going to please God if that's all you got. You have to have the theology with it. And then, of course, one that we should all be familiar with, Ephesians chapter four, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry. How broad is that? The work of ministry.
Everything from ordering snacks in the cafe to cleaning the bathrooms to sweeping. I mean, how broad is work of ministry? For the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edification of the body of Christ to make the church, the local church, stronger. Because the universal church is really not as strong as the local church. That's where the grunt work takes place. The universal church is philosophical.
It's good, but it would be nothing without the local church. People coming in, rubbing elbows and irritating each other sometime. And if you're not irritating each other, maybe someone's kids are irritating you or you're irritating. Either way, we're all sinners.
And when you pack us in together from time to time, we rub each other the wrong way. But the saints have been doing this for centuries and getting away with it the right way. So Isaiah's Israel, they were determined to not be righteous. And God is telling him to, you keep preaching it.
Much like those, many of those in this country who are determined to rot the nation from within. You're gonna let them stop, make them, we have this thing, the right to bear arms. I have the right to preach. You have the right to carry, I have the right to preach and carry.
In case you don't like the preaching, I'm ready for you. You know, we don't need a constitution. We have the scripture to know how to be Christians. Now, I enjoy the constitution. That is not an anti-constitution statement. But it is a pro-scripture statement.
I have a dual citizenship. I have one here on earth and I have one in heaven. And the one in heaven trumps, that is a good word, the one on earth. Well, in the end, Israel's glorious future will not be in the hands of the majority of apostates that were running the kingdom into the ground in his day. No matter how determined evil is, God is more determined. That's verse 1. Verse 1, God is saying, I am determined too. For Zion's sake, I will not hold my peace. For Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns.
Okay, now we can begin. Verse 2, the Gentiles shall see your righteousness and all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name which the mouth of Yahweh will name.
Well, Isaiah knew Israel's future because God had shown it to him. And it's a global revelation. It's a revelation of not global climate change, but global worship change. And it's not man-made, it will be God-made. You know, 50 billion years ago, evolution was still wrong. Anyway, come back to this.
It's like a commercial. You shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will name. So, name change reflects intention, destiny, and nature. Now, sometimes God eliminated the middle man, like with John the Baptist. He told the parents to name him John.
So, they didn't have to worry about that. And remember, naming a child is the easiest part about having a child. Anyway, and who would object to that?
Even if you don't have children, you were once a child, and you know that I'm right. Anyway, her name will sound forth her new nature and status in the world. And he's going to spend a little time on this, because again, name is nature, ideally. And now, why we put so much emphasis on the names of the Lord. You know, the Lord Shalom, the Lord Tisid Canoe. You know, we zoom in on that and we develop it, because it has meaning.
The nature of God is in these names. Well, distinguishing the righteous nation from the unrighteous ancestors, that's what it's going to do. Well, there wasn't Israel a long time ago.
And they ran it into the ground. But now, look at her now, and then she'll have this new name, and so will Jerusalem, and so will the land of Israel. And so, the name points forward, and it begins to have the past fade.
For example, you might know the answer, but you don't think this way, I don't believe. What was Abraham's name before God changed his name? It was Abram. But we don't, when we think of Abraham, we don't, oh yeah, that's Abram. We say, that's Abraham.
And we have to usually be, it's triggered before we remember what his name was. Well, Israel, same thing, it's going to eclipse. The new name will eclipse the old. This is the case with the church at Progamos, that was also infested with troublemakers, those with poor theology, those who were willfully attracted to false teachings. The Lord said, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, not just this church, to the churches. These are the local churches. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it.
That's pretty intimate. Then, Revelation 3, 12, he who overcomes, I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God. This is the distinction between the new Jerusalem and the Jerusalem that is in the land of Israel. The distinction is clear.
There's going to be two of them. And I will write on him my new name. So again, name is nature.
It's a big deal with God. Identity is connected to the name. The names are not random.
They're God chosen. And so, when a bride marries, she receives a new name. And of course, Israel was married to her.
We covered that in earlier chapters. God says, where's the letter of your divorce? It's still mine. And so, in Israel's case, being metaphorically already married to Yahweh, she will receive a new name upon reconciliation because, of course, there's trouble in this relationship.
Jerusalem will be called the city of righteousness according to Isaiah chapter 1 verse 26. I'll pause there. If you have like a pet or maybe just someone you just like to dote on, you come up with all these little pet names for them.
They don't have one. They have many names that you might call them. And it's just your way of expressing your love at the same time. So maybe, you know, picking out a characteristic about them. Maybe, you know, you call somebody who's bald-headed curly. I'm not bald completely.
Anyway, back to this. So Jerusalem, that's one name, the city of righteousness. Jerusalem is also called the city of Yahweh in Isaiah 60 verse 14.
When we get to Zechariah, she is called the city of truth, the mountain of Yahweh of hosts, and the holy mountain. So you see all these names? You've been on the radar. When you get a nice nickname, you know, something about you has been noticed. And it's an art, nicknames.
We don't have them anymore. I like some of them. You know, when I became a steelworker, there were quite a few old-timers and they still use a lot of nicknames. And, you know, they were terms of endearment. And believe it or not, you know, Crazy Joe, he was actually a loon. He was a nut, but everybody liked him.
He was a harmless nut. Billy Wooden Shoes. He was an Indian, an American Indian. I don't know. I never saw him with wooden shoes. I don't know how he got that name, but I don't even know his real name. But these weren't insults.
They wore them with honor. And it's, again, too bad, you know. Me, I think I would like to be known as the great and the noble Oznapper.
No. Anyway, verse 3. That's one Bible name I would pass on.
Well, there's actually a few of them. But anyway, coming back here, verse 3. You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of Yahweh and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. Well, there's a difference between these two headpieces, and that's why they're distinguished as two different headpieces. The crown speaks of God's royal authority. Civil government. The Hebrew word there for diadem here, because the translators can use it in different ways in different places, but here in the Hebrew, it's the mitre, the hat, the head dressed at the priest's war.
It's a taller hat. And that, of course, speaks of the priestly authority. And so here you have the king and the priest, or you have the civil and the spiritual authority delegated to God's people in Israel, the Jewish people in this case, because the church and those who, you know, have come back with Christ will have other duties, and they won't be centered in Jerusalem. The need will be taken care of there by God and the Jewish people. Again, the earth will be saturated.
Well, not overcrowded, but desert areas will be livable, you know. It's just going to be a different place with a lot of people and a great need for this delegated authority, thus being kings and priests with the Lord. So in this twofold capacity, Israel will have authority, again, delegated to them by the Christ that the present generations tend to reject, and they have this double function over religion and civil life.
And you need government in both areas. Verse 4, you shall no longer be termed forsaken, nor shall your land anymore be termed desolate, but you shall be called hessaba, and your land buleh, for Yahweh delights in you, and your land shall be married. Well, reconciled to Christ, the Messiah, and endeared to the world.
How radical that alone is going to be, because this isn't the case today. The Jews have been victims of everybody almost, except for the born again. Well, you know, even some of them have been pretty confused about the whole thing to some degree, but they'll no longer be estranged from God, nor at odds with the nations. Historically, she was forsaken because of her own doing.
She shot herself in the foot, you could say. Zion said, Yahweh has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. Isaiah 49, 14, and then Isaiah 60, 15, God comes back to that, whereas you have been forsaken and hated, not by God, the hatred part.
So, although their ways were, some of them, the apostate ways, so that no one went through you, I will make you an eternal excellence, a joy for many nations, and so that is still unfulfilled. He says here in verse four, you shall be called hessaba, and your land buleh. When I ministered in New York, there was a hessaba house, and that was a house for women who had been abused, and they were hiding, safety, and anyway, it comes to mind. So two names, two natures, hessaba and buleh, symbolic. The first one, my delight, hessaba, and that's Jerusalem, one of the names that God dotes upon Jerusalem.
King Hezekiah's wife, incidentally, was named that too. But buleh means married, and that is referring to the promised land, and so you put the two together, and you have the delightful wife, the happy marriage, and this imagery, this marriage imagery, of course, foreshadows the New Testament metaphor. It's continued there, the church as the bride.
Paul said, I wanted to present you as a chaste bride. We have it in Revelation, and we have it in Ephesians, our New Testament metaphor. Based on an Old Testament metaphor of God's relationship with Israel, well, the church has really become the remnant of the righteous. We're not ethnically Jewish, but spiritually, we are still connected to Abraham, the same God that Abraham worshiped, the same God we worship. And so we are the righteous remnant.
We factor into this imagery. And there is, again, no uncertainty in the things that Isaiah is saying in his own heart. He's saying it as though it's already happened, and this was characteristic of many of the prophets. Well, moving forward to verse 5, for as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. So again, it's metaphor, and that verse 5 is future.
They will marry in the sense that they will possess the land, the city and the land legally, and they will be in love with God, the Christ, unlike today. They certainly are not in love with the Messiah, the true Messiah. They can't identify him. They don't even have the records, even if he showed up, and he said, I'm your Messiah.
I'm from the tribe of David. We couldn't prove it. The window has closed. It was open when Christ was here, and he used it. Verse 6, I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem, they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord do not keep silent. Well, that would be us, and I think this is present tense. In the days of Isaiah, in our day too, the watchmen are the prophets who ought to serve, and they ought to serve tirelessly, as verse 1 pointed out.
It does include male and female alike. In Revelation 19-10, when I mentioned to you that prophecy belongs to speaking God's word, belonging to Christ, Revelation 19-10, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The whole story of Christ, when we tell it, we are prophesying in that sense, and you don't have to be reserved about that.
You're not saying, you know, in five minutes gasoline is going to go down two cents. I mean, that's predictive prophecy, and if you mess that up one time, you're fired. So, you understand prophecy in the context of scripture, and not just one element of it.
Well, the watchmen are the first to see what's coming, whether it's good or bad. When Christ returns, the whole world will see him return in his glory, and anyway, this is an ever-present encouragement, verse 6 and verse 1. Go together verse 7 now, which is also included with verse 1 and 6. And give him no rest till he establishes, until he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Well, who's give him no rest? It's God. Don't let up. Keep it before him.
I love the language that he chooses. It's very, you know, we can get this. And God is like, yeah, I want you to challenge me in prayer like this.
Maybe not, it's not a hostile arrangement, not at all, but it does require energy. The objective is resolved. If you're going to achieve your objectives, you're going to have, as an objective, within the objective, the need to be determined, because what is the alternative? What if he would have said, for Zion's sake, I'm not saying anything. He doesn't say that. He says, I will not hold my peace.
In other words, I'm going to say a lot. You're going to do it through his people. So Isaiah tells the prophets that they must be vigilant. They must be diligent.
They must work hard. And if the prophets fail, then everybody fails. But they're not going to fail, because they're God sent. And just because they're martyr doesn't mean they failed. I don't remember the prophet's name, and maybe I shouldn't look for it in Jeremiah, but I think it's Uriah. Anyway, he preached just what Jeremiah was preaching, and they killed him.
He ran to Egypt, they hunted him down, and they killed him. But they didn't get to kill Jeremiah. Some of the prophets die.
Some of them are rescued. But they're good with it, because they're servants of the Lord, and it's actually an upgrade when you leave this world and you enter into your next citizenship in heaven. Anyway, if you have ever been encouraged to continue to pray, to continue to serve, well, here's precedence in your own Bible, an encouragement to not let up. Verse 8, the Lord has sworn by his right hand and by the arm of his strength, surely I will no longer give you grain as food for your enemies, and the sons of the foreigner shall not drink your new wine for which you have labored. I don't know why the Bible doesn't talk about milkshakes, all this fuss about wine. What about just a vanilla shake? And I don't mean the kind you get, you have to go north about 100 and 200 miles to find a good milkshake. I know that might offend some of you, but you're not a connoisseur. So, yeah, this stuff they serve here at McDonald's and stuff like that, it's not milkshakes. Anyway, back to this, a Carvel milkshake. Well, we know what I want for Christmas. Anyway, verse 6, the ultimate, the outcome, never again will Israel be pillaged or plundered like Gideon, Gideon hiding in the wine press, threshing wheat. Well, I thought the wine press was for the wine and the higher elevations.
We didn't want to get caught by the Midianites who would come day or night and take his grain. 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.
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