Is 28:20 - 29, 29, 30
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So tonight we pick where we left off last week in . We have been listening to Isaiah back and forth with the spiritual leadership of Judah. Remember they were mocking him for his simple teaching of God’s word, Line upon Line , Precept upon precepts..
Where we are picking up Isaiah is warning them that the things they are trusting in will ultimately lead to their doom.
He continues, v 20 - 22:
For the bed is too short to stretch out on,
And the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it.
21 For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim,
He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon—
That He may do His work, His awesome work,
And bring to pass His act, His unusual act.
22 Now therefore, do not be mockers,
Lest your bonds be made strong;
For I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts,
A destruction determined even upon the whole earth.
Here Isaiah is speaking to there misplaced trust;
For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it.
Here a graphic picture of one trying to cover up on the bed, that is too small, like taking a nap on a baby crib.
V22
He says; For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon; that He may do His work, His awesome work, and bring to pass His act, His unusual act.
Here again we see references to the, the Day of the Lord, the very end, as he mentions, His unusual act. Remember it was at Gibeon where Joshua asked God to extend the day to destroy the Canaanites and God reined down a meteor storm.
Joshua
The New King James Version Chapter 10
11 And it happened, as they fled before Israel and were on the descent of Beth Horon, that the LORD cast down large hailstones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword.
Note- the look toward the end times in vs 22
For I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts,
A destruction determined even upon the whole earth.
Revelation
The New King James Version Chapter 16
21 And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.
Re this I got this from Chuck Missler; the idea of God sending meteors to judge the earth, which is foretold in Revelation (100 -200 lbs hale stones) and was a big part of the victory at Gibeon, just mentioned, is that the judgment for blasphemy is stoning. God does use, as Isaiah here mentions “unusual acts” (strange) in some translations.
Isaiah closes this message with V 23 - 29
Give ear and hear my voice, listen and hear my speech. Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow? Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods? When he has leveled its surface, does he not sow the black cummin and scatter the cummin, plant the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place? For He instructs him in right judgment, his God teaches him. For the black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin; but the black cummin is beaten out with a stick, and the cummin with a rod. Bread flour must be ground; therefore he does not thresh it forever, break it with his cartwheel, or crush it with his horsemen. This also comes from the LORD of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.
The end of is a poem relating the work of God to the work of a farmer. A farmer doesn't only plow; he knows when to stop plowing and when to level the ground, when to plant, and what to plant where. He uses different tools at different times, and works them all together to produce crops. In the same way, God knows what instruments to use in our life, and what time to use them. We don't have to doubt or despair at what God is doing in our lives, because He is an expert farmer, working on us with all His wisdom.
Each of us is different and God knows how to deal with each of us individually.
Let’s move on to Chapter 29. Here we have more judgments coming:
1 “Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt!
Add year to year;
Let feasts come around.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel;
There shall be heaviness and sorrow,
And it shall be to Me as Ariel.
3 I will encamp against you all around,
I will lay siege against you with a mound,
And I will raise siegeworks against you.
4 You shall be brought down,
You shall speak out of the ground;
Your speech shall be low, out of the dust;
Your voice shall be like a medium’s, out of the ground;
And your speech shall whisper out of the dust.
So who or what is Ariel? Ariel is an Idiom for Jerusalem. It means “Lion of God.” So the name Ari, i.e. Ari Fleischer, means “Lion.” This is not to be confused with the lion of the Tribe of Judah, an Idiom of Jesus Christ.
He is saying, it will seem that everything is as it always has been, year after year, with cycle of the feasts, but soon that will all change.
3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
-4
Isaiah says v2 - Yet I will distress Ariel;
There shall be heaviness and sorrow,
What is that heaviness and sorrow? The Assyrian army surrounding the city and laying siege.
V 3 I will encamp against you all around,
I will lay siege against you with a mound,
And I will raise siegeworks against you.
Note - it is God saying He will do this!
Vs 5 - 8
5 “Moreover the multitude of your foes
Shall be like fine dust,
And the multitude of the terrible ones
Like chaff that passes away;
Yes, it shall be in an instant, suddenly.
We will look at this in detail when we get to Chapters 36 & 37.But for now the defeat of this Assyrian army was in an instant 185k in one night.
6 You will be punished by the LORD of hosts
With thunder and earthquake and great noise,
With storm and tempest
And the flame of devouring fire.
7 The multitude of all the nations who fight against Ariel,
Even all who fight against her and her fortress,
And distress her,
Shall be as a dream of a night vision.
8 It shall even be as when a hungry man dreams,
And look—he eats;
But he awakes, and his soul is still empty;
Or as when a thirsty man dreams,
And look—he drinks;
But he awakes, and indeed he is faint,
And his soul still craves:
So the multitude of all the nations shall be,
Who fight against Mount Zion.”
Isaiah is saying it will be like a dream in the end. The destruction of Israel will seem so real to their enemies but it will not come to pass.
Now in vs 9 -14, Isaiah changes course and will be talking to the issue of spiritual blindness.
9 Pause and wonder!
Blind yourselves and be blind!
They are drunk, but not with wine;
They stagger, but not with intoxicating drink.
10 For the LORD has poured out on you
The spirit of deep sleep,
And has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets;
And He has covered your heads, namely, the seers.
11 The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.”
And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”
12 Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.”
And he says, “I am not literate.”
13 Therefore the Lord said:
“Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths
And honor Me with their lips,
But have removed their hearts far from Me,
And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,
Jesus quoted this in, , Mark 7:6
14 Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work
Among this people,
A marvelous work and a wonder;
For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”
And their works are in the dark;
They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”
16 Surely you have things turned around!
Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;
For shall the thing made say of him who made it,
“He did not make me”?
Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?
Jesus said something interesting that pertains to this spiritual blindness;
The New King James Version Chapter 13
13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:
‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.’
Paul on this same subject also gave this insight;
The New King James Version Chapter 11
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
So it is you and I that are at least part of the reason that this blindness has come.
Vs 15 - 16
15 Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the LORD,
And their works are in the dark;
They say, “Who sees us?” and, “Who knows us?”
16 Surely you have things turned around!
Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay;
For shall the thing made say of him who made it,
“He did not make me”?
Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?
This is the very thing that our great minds in academia have done today. We kind of chuckle at the idea of the pagans worshipping idols and images but our generation has gone one step further to insult God. They have said “nothing” has created us. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence they will not acknowledge God.
We continue in verses 17 - 24. Here we look out to the hope of the Millennial reign of Christ
17 Is it not yet a very little while
Till Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest?
18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book,
And the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
19 The humble also shall increase their joy in the LORD,
And the poor among men shall rejoice
In the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the terrible one is brought to nothing,
The scornful one is consumed,
And all who watch for iniquity are cut off—
21 Who make a man an offender by a word,
And lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
And turn aside the just by empty words.
22 Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob:
“Jacob shall not now be ashamed,
Nor shall his face now grow pale;
23 But when he sees his children,
The work of My hands, in his midst,
They will hallow My name,
And hallow the Holy One of Jacob,
And fear the God of Israel.
24 These also who erred in spirit will come to understanding,
And those who complained will learn doctrine.”
Now on to Chapter 30. Here Isaiah is warning Judah and King Hezekiah, to not go to Egypt for help against the Assyrians.
1 “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the LORD,
“Who take counsel, but not of Me,
And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit,
That they may add sin to sin;
2 Who walk to go down to Egypt,
And have not asked My advice,
To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
And to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh
Shall be your shame,
And trust in the shadow of Egypt
Shall be your humiliation.
4 For his princes were at Zoan,
And his ambassadors came to Hanes.
5 They were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them,
Or be help or benefit,
But a shame and also a reproach.”
This is a lesson we all must learn and take to heart. God is our help in times of trouble. David would remind himself in the Psalms over and over.
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”
3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler
And from the perilous pestilence.
4 He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
6 Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
And ten thousand at your right hand;
But it shall not come near you.
8 Only with your eyes shall you look,
And see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place,
10 No evil shall befall you,
Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11 For He shall give His angels charge over you,
To keep you in all your ways.
12 In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13 You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra,
The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
14 “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”
Ps 91
We want to seek our own way, our own devices, but God is crying out to us, trust in Me! Run to me first.
It really is a matter of trust isn’t it.
Isaiah says your faith in Pharaoh will end up being your shame. So why is it so hard to trust in God. Maybe you haven’t put Him to the test?!
Verse 6 - 7
6 The burden against the beasts of the South.
Through a land of trouble and anguish,
From which came the lioness and lion,
The viper and fiery flying serpent,
They will carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys,
And their treasures on the humps of camels,
To a people who shall not profit;
7 For the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose.
Therefore I have called her
Rahab-Hem-Shebeth.
Meaning Rahab (an idiom for Egypt) sits idle. Egypt is symbolic of the world and the world system.
a. The burden against the beasts of the South: Isaiah proclaims a burden against the pack animals of Judah, which will carry the riches of Judah down to Egypt, through the wilderness, in a foolish attempt to purchase protection against the Assyrians.
b. It will be wasted money, because the Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose. No wonder Isaiah feels sorry for the donkeys that will carry the treasure of Judah down to Egypt! Despite the riches that the pack animals bring across the desert, Egypt will not help Judah at all, so one could call Egypt Rahab-Hem-Shebeth, which means "Rahab Sits Idle" of "Rahab the Do-Nothing." Rahab is a name, but it is also the Hebrew word for pride, and is sometimes used as a title for Egypt (). Egypt will sit idly by as the Assyrians trouble Judah.
Now vs 8 - 11
8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet,
And note it on a scroll,
That it may be for time to come,
Forever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people,
Lying children,
Children who will not hear the law of the LORD;
10 Who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things;
Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.
11 Get out of the way,
Turn aside from the path,
Cause the Holy One of Israel
To cease from before us.”
God wants Isaiah to carefully record these prophesies so that when they are fulfilled they can see that God told them ahead of time and so they would learn to trust Him.
Did you realize that prophesy is one of the best ways to show that God is real.
Isaiah and Amos
The New King James Version Chapter 42
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
And new things I declare;
Before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
The New King James Version Chapter 3
7 Surely the Lord GOD does nothing,
Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.
The people are saying, just like today, "Do not prophesy to us right things; speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us."
Paul describes the same kind of heart in : For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
Verse 12
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
“Because you despise this word,
And trust in oppression and perversity,
And rely on them,
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you
Like a breach ready to fall,
A bulge in a high wall,
Whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.
14 And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel,
Which is broken in pieces;
He shall not spare.
So there shall not be found among its fragments
A shard to take fire from the hearth,
Or to take water from the cistern.”
It’s a play on words here as we are all basically clay pots. God is saying soon you will be a bunch of cracked pots when the hammer falls. The devastation will be so bad that there wouldn't be a fragment left big enough to draw water.
Verse 15 - 17 God’s counsel to these escaping to Egypt.
15 For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel:
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
But you would not,
16 And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”—
Therefore you shall flee!
And, “We will ride on swift horses”—
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift!
17 One thousand shall flee at the threat of one,
At the threat of five you shall flee,
Till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain
And as a banner on a hill.
Here God is telling them that the safe place, no matter how it looks, is to wait on the Lord and resting in Him. “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
Isaiah wrote:
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
The New King James Version Chapter 40
31 But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
We move on Vs 18 - 26 here he outlines the benefits of waiting on the Lord and look again at the Millennial reign.
18 Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
In a sense God is waiting for His people to wait on Him
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him.
Blessed means happy. If you want to be happy wait on the Lord!
19 For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem;
You shall weep no more.
He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry;
When He hears it, He will answer you.
20 And though the Lord gives you
The bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore,
But your eyes shall see your teachers.
21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.
22 You will also defile the covering of your images of silver,
And the ornament of your molded images of gold.
You will throw them away as an unclean thing;
You will say to them, “Get away!”
23 Then He will give the rain for your seed
With which you sow the ground,
And bread of the increase of the earth;
It will be fat and plentiful.
In that day your cattle will feed
In large pastures.
24 Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground
Will eat cured fodder,
Which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.
25 There will be on every high mountain
And on every high hill
Rivers and streams of waters,
In the day of the great slaughter,
When the towers fall.
26 Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
And the light of the sun will be sevenfold,
As the light of seven days,
In the day that the LORD binds up the bruise of His people
And heals the stroke of their wound.
Verse 26 is a mystery. To some it sounds like a supernova or perhaps the Forth Bowl judgment of
The New King James Version Chapter 16
8 Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. 9 And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory.
Now Isaiah will pronounce judgment on Assyria in the near and Armageddon in the far, v 27 - 33
Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar,
Burning with His anger,
And His burden is heavy;
His lips are full of indignation,
And His tongue like a devouring fire.
28 His breath is like an overflowing stream,
Which reaches up to the neck,
To sift the nations with the sieve of futility;
And there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people,
Causing them to err.
29 You shall have a song
As in the night when a holy festival is kept,
And gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute,
To come into the mountain of the LORD,
To the Mighty One of Israel.
30 The LORD will cause His glorious voice to be heard,
And show the descent of His arm,
With the indignation of His anger
And the flame of a devouring fire,
With scattering, tempest, and hailstones.
31 For through the voice of the LORD
Assyria will be beaten down,
As He strikes with the rod.
Assyria is also an idiom for the Antichrist.
32 And in every place where the staff of punishment passes,
Which the LORD lays on him,
It will be with tambourines and harps;
And in battles of brandishing He will fight with it.
33 For Tophet was established of old,
Yes, for the king it is prepared.
He has made it deep and large;
Its pyre is fire with much wood;
The breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone,
Kindles it.
Tophet. This opens up the topic of hell. We often have misunderstandings of what hell is according to scripture regarding what happens to unbelievers.
First, hell or hades, was the place here all souls went in OT time. It is the unseen place of the dead or the grave. After the Resurrection Jesus release those believers in AB but the unbelieving remained there. But this is just a holding place.
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Idea of Tophet in verse 33 is the equivalent to what we call Gehenna or the Lake of Fire. The place of everlasting punishment and separation from God.
For Tophet was established of old, yes for the king it is prepared: Tophet was a place in the Valley of Hinnom, just outside of Jerusalem's walls (). The Valley of Hinnom served as Jerusalem's garbage dump, and the combination of disgusting rubbish and smoldering fires made it a picture of hell. The Hebrew word for hell (gehenna) comes from the word for the Valley of Hinnom. Therefore, God says He has a special place in hell for the Assyrian king!