During Eziah, Tiglath Pileser was a gardener and he assassinated the king and then took this name and under him, Assyria became prominent again. To stop the onslaught of Assyrians, Eziah became the leader of a coalition of nations, and he was constantly trying to frustrate Assyrian advance.

Jotham was a regent for 10 years. He tried to assume the priestly office but he was from the tribe of Judah, so he could not fulfill priestly functions. Therefore, he was struck with leprosy. Maybe this was his father?

Ahaz came on the scene when there was a new king in Damascus, Razine (Syria) and Peka (Samaria) and they formed a coalition against Judah. They conquered a lot and destroyed many cities in Jerusalem. It was Isaiah who stood in the gap here.

Then Hezekiah came to the throne 2Kings 18 and as Isaiah had prophesied, Samaria fell and with that was the end of the northern Kingdom. Merodoc Balidan, who wanted an alliance to stop the Assyrians (he was the Babylonian ruler).

Uraurtu sometimes called Ararat, recently discovered in archeology, but known in the Bible for a long time. There were a bunch a nations that Madordoc Balidan was trying to assemble. Meanwhile, the Assyrians were moving in all directions and conquering. In the midst of all of these countries moving about, Isaiah ministered. 150,000 Jews killed by one coalition. One crisis after another and each king wanted to seek help from some foreign power.

He learned that the believer’s happiness is not dependent upon outer circumstances but upon one’s relationship with God

Tradition has it that Isaiah came from a noble family, and this seems to be reflected in his writing.

Isa. 1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

This is the era of the divided kingdom, the Northern Kingdom called Samaria or Ephraim. The 10 tribes would be taken into captivity, and scattered throughout the Assyrian kingdom.

God has a complain against Judah. Angels are watching the human race, and they are called upon to listen. Many passages given here. God has been gracious to Judah, and yet they continue to move into the direction of apostasy. 1Cor. 4:9 6:3 11L10 Eph. 3:10 1Tim. 5:21 1Peter 5:12

The infiltration of religion is the greatest destroyer of any nation. Religion can take many forms. One great system of religious internationalism is Romanism, then there is Communism, the UN; these are all religious organizations.

God calls upon the earth to be a witness as well. There needs to be 2 or 3 witnesses under Jewish law. Two categories of witnesses. Jesus Christ is the Judge and the Prosecuting Attorney.

The indictment is given: “I have nourished and brought up children—the kingdome of Judah” These are believers and unbelievers.

Isa. 1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the LORD has spoken: "Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.

The indictment of the ox and the ass. The children are the defendants who have rebelled against God. Judah is caught between the Arabian tribes and the Syrians. The Syrians and the Aramæans had a great conflict at this time. How can such a nation survive? All around are conflicts, and Judah sits in the middle of them. Under Marodoc Balidan, there are the Chaldeans who want to take Judah. The Samaritans will attack; the Ammonites will attack, the Egyptians, Philistines, and Edomites will attack. Yet, through the entire ministry of Isaiah, Jerusalem stands. His ministry is located in Jerusalem and, as far as we know, he never left Jerusalem. He saw the armies of all these and none of these armies every broke through, because people listened to Isaiah’s sermons. He presented the gospel and then the promises of God. Many times, people wanted to give up, for over 50 years, the kingdom of Judah will survive, because of the ministry of the Word of God. Iasah came in and he had to clean house. He had to change everything up. There was so much corruption that he had to cleanse them with the word. Without this sermon in Isa. 1, he will deliver the city. The country will never be destroyed, even though it was besieged many times.

In the midst of all the pressures around him, Isaiah remained faithful to the Word of God. No matter how hopeless the situation is, if a nation seeks God, if a nation comes to God, that nation will survive. One of the great tragedies is the fact that, if the US as a nation, if we sought the Word of God with the same zeal that we give away money to other powers, we would be safe for the next 150 years. If we just depended upon the Lord and His Word.

There are two analogies in v. 3, the analogy of the ox and the analogy of the ass. The ox is the unbeliever and the believer is the ass. This simplifies the entire indictment.

The ox indictment. He knows his owner; he knows where to go for his food. As stupid as the ox is, he still knows where to go for his food. You Jews do not even know where to go for salvation. Isaiah calls a spade a spade in this sermon. The ox knows who his owner is; he understands who his owner is.

Isa. 1:3 The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand."

v. 4 goes back to the ox indictment. The first 3 phrases are indictments of the ox. They were still lost in their sin; they would not believe in Jesus Christ.

When we go to children, we have the indictment of the ass. Corrupters means that we are dealing with those who have corrupted.

Isa. 1:4 Ah, sinful nation, a people laden [under a heavy weight and breaking down] with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.

Believers are stricken; in their frontal lobe, they have human viewpoint. They are unable to use their spiritual life in order to cope with their problems.

Lev. 26 gives us the laws which apply to many nations: Lev. 26:1–13: "You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the LORD your God. You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the LORD. "If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. This is described in terms of a farm economy. When things are good, God provides a great deal for His people.

The first of 5 cycles of discipline. Lev 26:14–17: "But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down before your enemies. Those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when none pursues you. Loss of health, reduction of food, invasion and slavery.

2^nd and 3^rd and 4^th cycles: Lev 26:18–26: And if in spite of this you will not listen to me, then I will discipline you again sevenfold for your sins, and I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit. "Then if you walk contrary to me and will not listen to me, I will continue striking you, sevenfold for your sins. And I will let loose the wild beasts against you, which shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock and make you few in number, so that your roads shall be deserted. "And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.

The 5^th cycle of discipline: Lev 26:27–33: "But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. They will go so far as to eat the flesh of their own children. They are heavily involved in religion.

There is a cycle of 5 different disciplines; each one is to warn the people, and if they people do not listen, then the next cycle goes into action. These cycles are about to begin, and Isaiah is warning them. Each time, it will get up to 3 or 4, and then Isaiah will be able to bring them back, and they will exercise positive volition toward Bible doctrine. The purpose here is to warn the people of what is about to happen.

Isa. 1:5 Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

The entire body is subject to loss of health. A bruise here is a deeper cut, which refers to the 2^nd cycle of discipline. Putrefying sores is a fresh, deep wound, deadly if not attended to; and this is the 3^rd cycle of discipline. When Isaiah began his ministry, the Jews in Judah were at the 3^rd Cycle of Discipline.

We get in v. 6 a bit of understanding of the treatment of wounds. There are several things which are done for wounds: to bandage them, to clean them out, and to be sewn up. Isaiah is simply saying that the first 3 cycles of discipline are ongoing. These Jews had neglected the Word of God so they did not even know where they were. The Word of God orients us historically to the situations which are around us.

The ass can figure out where to go for its food but the Jews cannot figure out where to go for their spiritual food.

Isa. 1:6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil.

V. 7 warns about what can happen (which will happen). There are no verbs in this verse, to give it great emphasis. If they continue and ignore these warnings, this is what will happen to them.

Isa. 1:7 Your country lies desolate; your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by foreigners.

3 analogies. A cottage in a vineyard sounds nice, but this is a workman’s tool shed in a vineyard, and this is like desolation. It is deserted except at certain times of the year. The idea is God’s desertion. A lodge in a melon patch, and it is a workman’s toolshed again. The 3^rd is more obvious: a besieged city.

Isa. 1:8 And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city.

Had there not been a few believers left, they would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah. These believers are the ones who deliver their nation, their states and their cities. The greatest thing that we can do for our country is to be faithful to the Word of God.

We do not survive because of our pathetic foreign policy or our armies scattered all over the earth. Which cycle of discipline are we in now? Bob is not ready to answer that. We are the reason that this country survives; and we will brush by dozens of people who will never realize that we are alive for this reason.

Isaiah’s ministry will pull these people out of the third cycle of discipline.

Isa. 1:9 If the LORD of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.

Isa. 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

Bob gives us an overview of the next few verses down to the end of this chapter.

His name means God brings salvation. These are Isaiah’s prophecies, his messages. He was here under many conditions of the land. Jotham was mediocre, Manasseh one of the worst, Hezekiah was good, etc.

In v. 2, there was a courtroom scene, the heavens and the earth. Both angels and mankind were witnesses. The indictment: “I have nourished and brought up children and they have revolted against Me.”

Vv. 3–9: divine discipline against a nation. Indictment of the ox and the ass. The ox is an appeal to the unbeliever in Judah. The ox is a stupid animal, but he knows his master. However, many Jews in Isaiah’s time did not know the Lord. The believer is worse than the ass. He does not know that he should go to the Word for his spiritual sustenance.

Sinful nation are those who reject Christ, not those who sin. Rejection of Christ is the unpardonable sin. Once a person believes in Jesus Christ, then they have the Word. V.4v–5 the ass indictment. The believers are out of fellowship and they have failed to take in the Word of God.

Vv. 6–9: discipline as a reslt of this condition and we examined Lev. 26 in conjunction with this. 3 stages of discipline represented with cuts, bruises and deadly wounds from war. Putrefying sore. The next few steps of discipline have not yet been accomplished at this stage when Isaiah begins his ministry.

Vv. 7–9 is national discipline, which is an invasion by foreign powers. Razine, King of Aram, and Peka of the Northern Kingdom, Sennacherib of Assyria and then Nebuchadnezzar for the last stage of their discipline. As a result, the land would be desolate. Judah is like a worker’s cottage after the growing season is all over. It is bare and deserted. All that will be left is a small remnant of believers in the land which protect the land itself.

3 causes for judgment in vv. 10–15. First problem is the neglect of the Word of God, which is found in v. 10: The leadership of a country needs the Word of God. They need divine guidance and the principles for good government are all specified in God’s Word. Any form of socialism is anti-Biblical. Even unbelieving rulers can learn divine establishment from the Word of God.

“Listen to the Law of our God.” 2/3^rds of the canon had been completed by this time. These people are called the people of Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah persisted until God had to just take them out. Once they reach a place a great degeneracy, God has to remove that nation from the world of nations.

We are in lent at this time, and it is a great period of hypocrisy. This is a week of great ritual. Magazines often have one or two articles. This year we had some statistics that there were some downturns in the economy and some can be related directly to lent.

Isa. 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

The hypocrisy of all this comes next. All true ritual is based upon doctrine. You must first have doctrine. Ritual was merely a way of teaching doctrine. Ritual in itself is meaningless unless it is backed by doctrine. In the Old Testament, when most people did not read and the Bible was not readily available, God revealed the truth through rituals. The sacrifices, the Levitical priesthood. The articles of furniture had great significance as well. Burnt offerings spoke of propitiation with emphasis upon the work of Christ. The meal offering was propitiation with the emphasis on the person of Christ. Peace offering (peace between God and man), rebound offering (for known and unknown sins), and trespass offering (emphasis on known sins).

Isa. 1:11 "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

Who makes you come to church (in this case, come to the Temple). A very small minority of churches present anything to do with the Word of God. Unless a person is entertained, he is going to vibrate, think about the tv program he is missing, the golf course where he is not. An unbeliever has only one reason to be in church and that is to hear the gospel; but evangelism is primarily for outside of church.

Bob speaks about spotting some unbelievers and teaching the gospel in order for them to get it. We are always ot take the gospel with us. If these people have no fellowship with God, they have no reason to be in church or at the Tabernacle. The reason the church teaches the gospel is because believers do not teach the gospel outside of the church.

There are churches which teach nothing but the gospel. That will starve the believers to death. You have to give them more.

Isa. 1:12 "When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts?

The first day of each month was a new moon, and there would be the blowing of the silver trumpets and the animal sacrifices. The Sabbath’s would be observed. Sabbath refers to God’s rest. The Sabbath was a memorial to grace, but it has lost the significance through legalism.

Isa. 1:13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations-- I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

The divine attitude is God hates these things. Neglect of the Word of God. In the midst of ritual, they throw in a few prayers. Bob gets calls to pray over everything; a new building, a banquet; they will ask Bob to travel 15 or 20 miles to say a few words. Bob’s time is much more valuable than this.

In a football game, the idea is to go out there and beat the hell out of the opposing team. Those who pray at football games have never played football.

Isa. 1:14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.

There was a way that they moved their hands when they prayed; it just looked holy and cool. God says, “Your hands are filled with guilt.” God does not hear the prayers of those who have iniquity in their heart. All of their prayers are just a lot of words.

Bob was talking to someone about his relationship to the Lord, and he said, “I pray every day” and, as far as he was concerned, this entitled him to a one-way ticket to heaven. It does not cut any ice with God.

When we study this, it sounds like the United States of America, even though Isaiah began his ministry around 758 b.c., 2600 years ago.

Isa. 1:15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.

Vv. `16–20 is the solution. Vv. 16–17 is the solution to the ass indictment. Listen to the Word of God, do not go in for empty ritual, and use effective prayer.

Isa. 1:16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,

Spirituality and production. There was a system in Isaiah’s day. Someone would get a widow into debt and then they would have to sell themselves into slavery.

Isa. 1:17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.

The ox indictment. There is a barrier between man and God; this dispute can only be settled by believing in Jesus Christ. When it is settled, this is how it looks. Let’s clear up accounts. The only solution to the indictment of the ox is to believe in Jesus Christ.

Isa. 1:18 "Come now, let us reason together [let us settle this dispute], says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

If these solutions are ignored, then the alternative is discipline, and that is stated in vv. 19–20.

Isa. 1:20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Where is the source of all this trouble? The problem is in Jerusalem; Jerusalem is specifically indicted. Often, indictments are related directly to religion. Jerusalem was once a faithful city and it has become a whore.

Most of the famous colleges of the east were colleges which trained people to become missionaries and to go out and to teach the gospel to the Indians. These colleges were founded to be helpful and they have been twisted around; most of the protestant churches were founded on good Biblical principles, and now they have lost it and they are involved in socialism and all kinds of anti-Biblical activities. In the past, there was justice and righteousness there. However, now it has changed and has become a city which is a whore. They have become a very religious city, which rebels against God. This city has become a city of professional killers.

Wherever you find a heavy concentration of religion, you will find a heavy crime. The Sanhedrin were closely involved with the bandit gangs in the Negev during the time of our Lord. The Dark Ages is another time where crime is associated closely with religion.

Isa. 1:21 How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

Social anarchy in v. 22. There has been a devaluation of the value of this money. The more inflation there is, the more hucksters there are. In the previous verse, there is religion and gangsters correlated.

It is almost impossible now for a person with a Christian point of view to hold office in the land. The rest sounds likes Washington: Everyone loves bribes and pursue a rake off; they do not render justice to the orphans or the widows. Jerusalem and Washington have a great deal in common.

Isa. 1:23 Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them.

The next stage of discipline here. They sold children into slavery and widows into prostitution. The destruction of the transgressors and the sinners will be together.

Isa. 1:24 Therefore the Lord declares, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: "Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes.

Isa. 1:25 I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.

Isa. 1:26 And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city."

Isa. 1:27 Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.

Isa. 1:28 But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed.

Isa. 1:29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired; and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen.

Isa. 1:30 For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water.

The strong refers to the idols set up in the gardens and oak forests. The idols will be the whole fuse which blows up everything. Religion is the fuse which blows up a country. Those who make these idols are making our destruction. Every time they do this, they are manufacturing our destruction. The maker and the idol will burn together.

Isa. 1:31 And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them.

Matt. 23 tells us that it is never too late. Matt. 23:13–39: "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. [Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation.] Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.' You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.' You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin [they tithe the most inconsequential things, and miss the big thing, which is the Messiah right in front of them], and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers [you are going to kill Me]. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings [Jesus is ready to forgive His people], and you would not! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

Isa. 2–4 is all about the Millennium. The people of Israel and Judah had turned to religion and apostasy. As a result, there was spiritual declension and it led to degeneration. We begin the prophecy of the coming Millennium. Isa. 2:1–5 Isa. 2:6–3:26 is discipline for religion. His message will have a near fulfillment in his own time. A far fulfilment which is the Tribulation and the 2^nd advent. There is a tremendous application to the United States today. The 3^rd part of the chapter is the coming of the king, Isa. 4:1–6

Even though the nation Israel is to be judged, the remnant of Jews will be taken into captivity; God keeps His Word and Israel will survive. In other words, Israel has a future.

Bob is also going to make application to present day events. Israel is often a picture of the individual believer’s soul. We may get out of line and out of fellowship, God remains faithful to us.

Isa. 2:1–5: interpretation should come before application. The subject of the next few chapters is clearly laid out. There is nothing about the church or the patriarchs; this is all about the church. These are conditions which existed in the city of Jerusalem, and capital of Judah. 6something to 698 b.c.

The word refers to sermons or messages given by Isaiah. Very few missionaries were going out, and this is another reason for their judgment. Only one missionary went out that we are aware of and that is Jonah who got in a ship to sail in the opposite direction of Nineveh in Assyria. When he did get there, judgment was postponed for a century. But Jonah was mad and he pouted when the Assyrians turned toward God. No matter how you slice it, Jonah was not the ideal missionary. God used Jonah in spite of Jonah. The Ninevites and Assyrians turned to Jesus Christ and that irritated him.

The missionaries going out today are bringing civilization to various natives; but not the gospel. Civilization is just a veneer.

We have a similar condition in Isaiah’s day. Often, passages like this seem to be very meaningless to us. However, we will get some details on what women wore 700 years before Christ. The far fulfillment is the establishment of a millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

Isa. 2:1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

The mountain here refers to government, as it does in Revelation, which will also mentioned mountains, which are all governments.

Isaiah is quoting from Scripture already in existence and he will quote Micah 4:1–4. What follows in Isaiah is very discouraging.

If you have nothing nice to say about them, then just brace them, but you need to hold out something positive for the future. A little later on, Isaiah will say a few complementary things. At this time, Israel is at an all-time low, but Israel does have a future. However, they can only get into the plan of God by faith in Christ.

Isa. 2:2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,

Isa. 2:3 and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

Jesus Christ will be a judge in those day. When Christ rules the world, national entities retain their national boundaries. Rebuking many peoples will occur during the Tribulation? Before the Church Age, there was the cross, the great judgement. The 2^nd judgment is rebound; the 3^rd judgment is that of the believer’s works. Then there are judgments 4 & 5 over Gentiles and then living Jews. Judgment of fallen angels and finally the judgment of unbelievers.

In the last days here along with this verse means that we are talking about the Millennium after the Tribulation.

Off in the east are the Assyrians and various Arabs and Canaanites and Hittites. They are different races and nationalities; but they all have one thing in common—religion and idolatry.

Israel as a nation is judged because they have become saturated with religion. These religions all had idols and false gods; and they all had exactly the same system, but different names. They all had a father god; they all had a female god, goddess of earth, love, sex, etc.

Bob doesn’t know why they can send Heroditus through the mail; it is pornography; worse than Playboy (“although I have not read Playboy, but I assume...”).

Isa. 2:4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

Why should this little nation of Judah survive. North of them is Aram, with a fantastically strong army. The Phœnicians. Over here are a rising group of Arabs. Soon to rise up are the Chaldeans. There are the Assyrians, the strongest nation. There are Egyptians and Philistines. Altogether, there are 9 super strong armies surrounding Judah. There was not one reason from an historical standpoint why Judah should survive. But Judah was destroyed for lack of knowledge. All nations which are great in any way all go down because of what happens from within.

They make alliances with foreign countries, as if alliances would save them. They kept trying to save themselves by getting help from someone else. Isaiah will warn them about leaning on the staff of Egypt. Many of these messages in Isaiah come right out of this phrase. What Judah needs is Bible doctrine; they need Jesus Christ.

They make these alliances by giving money; they try to buy favor from others. Isaiah today would not have to change his message; he would just change the names.

Isa. 2:6 For you have rejected your people, the house of Jacob, because they are full of things from the east and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.

First of all, these Jews are rich; they are wealthy; they have horses and silver and gold. They even have a large army (chariots).

Isa. 2:7 Their land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots.

However, behind all of this is idols. This is calling a person stupid. You make something with your own hands and then your worship it. That is exactly what they did.

Isa. 2:8 Their land is filled with idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their own fingers have made.

Religion is condemned. You cannot soft-pedal the Word of God. You can only teach what it says and let the chips fall where they may. Matt. 23 when Jesus condemned religion.

There is a judgment coming. Get ready to get into your boob shelters. Isaiah was one of the greatest teachers of his day, and he was quite sarcastic about it.

Isa. 2:10 Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty.

Isa. 2:11 The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

Isa. 2:12 For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up--and it shall be brought low;

Isa. 2:13 against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up; and against all the oaks of Bashan;

The kings of Tyre were great shipbuilders and they built many ships for Israel. Archeology is recently discovering that there were these ships which went all over the Mediterranean Sea. They had mines in Sardinia. The Jews were great manufacturers in those days. They sailed all the way around to Tarshish where they mined and shipped their stuff back (this is the coast of Spain). All of these things will be lost by the Jews.

The Lord gave Israel great prosperity and Israel focused in on the things which they had been given rather than upon the giver. They became suckers for religion. It is easy to go from material things to worshiping things.

Isa. 2:16 against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft.

All of this leads to pride; God would be exalted and not man. When Christ returns, He will destroy idolatry.

Isa. 2:17 And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.

Rev. 6:15–17 is where this is predicted once again. The people hide in caves and rocks, etc.

Isa. 2:19 And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.

When they run to the caves to hide, they take what is valuable to them, which is, in this case, are idols. So these things are useless to them. This adds up to the fallacy of religion. Religion will not sustain in a crisis of divine judgment.

Isa. 2:20 In that day mankind will cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, to the moles and to the bats,

Isa. 2:21 to enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.

Isa. 2:22 Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?

Water and bread are the most basic items for survival. They are depending up the foot that they eat rather than upon the Bread of Life. This all adds up to details. These are details from the Provider. The issue is not food and water but the faithfulness of God. When we get our eyes on the food and water rather than upon God, we go astray.

Isa. 3:1 For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, all support of bread, and all support of water;

You need leadership in any national entity. We need judges, prophets and teachers. A prudent man is a wise man. Prudent is someone who makes wise and correct decisions. When a nation becomes corrupt, they will lose these men.

Isa. 3:2 the mighty man and the soldier, the judge and the prophet, the diviner and the elder,

Isa. 3:3 the captain of fifty and the man of rank, the counselor and the skillful magician and the expert in charms.

God will make babe and children rule over them; morons and imbeciles. People who have no idea. People fall into slavery. They even decide how much you can charge for a pound of butter or a 1000 lbs of steel.

Isa. 3:5 And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable.

They will elect people based upon how they dress. “You are well-dressed; you take responsibility for this mess!”

Isa. 3:6 For a man will take hold of his brother in the house of his father, saying: "You have a cloak; you shall be our leader, and this heap of ruins shall be under your rule";

Isa. 3:7 in that day he will speak out, saying: "I will not be a healer; in my house there is neither bread nor cloak; you shall not make me leader of the people."

Judah falls under the Chaldean invasion. The sins of the tongue are put before overt sins. Their tongue is against the Lord. You can sin by what you say. The tongue is glib and the tongue is eloquent.

Isa. 3:8 For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.

The look on their face is a witness against them. Sodom was prosperous and Sodom was judged. They rewarded themselves with evil. You would think that this was written yesterday.

Isa. 3:9 For the look on their faces bears witness against them; they proclaim their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.

Tell the righteous that God will take care of them. They will eat the fruit of their divine production.

Isa. 3:10 Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.

Isa. 3:11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.

Nothing lower than this; women rule over them. Women are an institution which are here to stay. One of the sings of a country going down is rulership by women. When women start to run a country, there is something wrong with the men in the country, meaning there is something wrong with the country.

Isa. 3:12 My people--infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.

Isa. 3:14 The LORD will enter into judgment with the elders and princes of his people: "It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

Isa. 3:15 What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor?" declares the Lord GOD of hosts.

They walk with short, sexy steps. There is an emphasis upon sex. God will discover their secret parts. There is a great emphasis on exterior beauty, to the exclusion of internal beauty.

Isa. 3:16 The LORD said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet,

Isa. 3:17 therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts.

God will take some of these things away. They wore headbands, anklets and necklaces, I think.

Isa. 3:18 In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents;

Isa. 3:20 the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets;

Possibly a compact with a mirror. This is one of the most detailed description of what females wore in the ancient world. Times have not changed.

Here is what will change: instead of a sweet smell, there will be stink, which is the smell of a corpse. Instead of an ornate belt, there will be a rope. They will be bald instead of having their hair styles. Instead of a beautiful evening cloak, there is sackcloth. There will be burning or an odor or a branding instead of their beauty.

Isa. 3:24 Instead of perfume there will be rottenness; and instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty.

Isa. 3:26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground.

There is an emphasis upon the exterior to the exclusion of the Lord and to the exclusion of the inner life. When women get into this situation and these things are worshiped or given priority; and they are asking for no men to see all of this beauty. Their men will be killed in battle and it will be 1 man for every 7 men. These women ask to have their reproach taken away and want marriage.

Isa. 4:1 And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach."

The Branch is Jesus Christ. And this is Jesus Christ returning to the earth and to fulfill the Davidic Covenant.

Isa. 4:2 In that day the Branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.

Isa. 4:3 And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem,

Isa. 4:4 when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.

Isa. 4:5 Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy.

Isa. 4:6 There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

Why do we have preachers? Conditions in Judah which led to great apostasy. Judah is a small kingdom in Palestine and the last stand of those who love the Word of God. Syria is coming up at this time. Then there are these Arabic tribes which are beginning to perk up; then a very strong Philistine group. The Egyptians were using Greek warriors. There was quite a Hittite empire at this time as well.

The first 7 verses are a song, and we will return to prose after that. The beloved here is Jesus Christ. If Bob’s eyes were on people, he would have been gone long ago. God’s Word says cursed is the man who trusts in man. Anytime we are disappointed in people, we have it coming to us. Application to us: we are all in the ministry today. We can have great fellowship with people, but we must never put people before the Lord. If we do, we are in trouble.

He begins by singing a song. The subject is my Beloved, which refers to Jesus Christ. God’s grace in rasing up Judah.

Isa. 5:1 Let me sing for my beloved [Jesus Christ] my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved [Jesus Christ] had a vineyard [Israel] on a very fertile hill.

You cannot have a nation designed to serve God without knowing doctrine. That is a prerequisite to production. The choicest vine is doctrine. We are protected by the grace of God. It is not our military or the far-sightedness of our state department. There is a tower in the midst of everything. God has given doctrine, protection and provision; and that means He expects production.

God expected good production, but it brought forth stinking production, which is what apostasy and religiosity does.

Isa. 5:2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

God is going to bring out the 7 woes, the indictment which God has against Israel.

Isa. 5:3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.

Isa. 5:4 What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?

There was a hedge which protected them, and God is going to remove that. The Assyrians, the Syrians, the Hittites, the Philistines, the Egyptians, etc. will all pour into the land and destroy it. Judah is a very wealthy land. Because we are a prosperous nation, other nations desire to plunder us and to take away our wealth. Judah was a very prosperous nation and the nations from all around all wanted to plunder Judah. Because of the ministry of one man, Isaiah, this judgment will be postponed for about 100 years.

The 2^nd phrase of Israel being trodden down looks forward to the times of the Gentiles. Nebuchadnezzar first removed the people from the land, but that will be continued.

After Alexander, there were the Egyptians in the South and the Syrians in the north who fought over this land. There were others and then the Romans took over the land. Finally, under Titus, the legions of Rome broke into Jerusalem and scattered the people. So the Romans controlled this land and then the Muhammadans. There is no bonafide Jewish kingdom in the land which fulfills Scripture today.

Isa. 5:5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

Isa. 5:6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

Isa. 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!

6 woes beginning with v. 8, which tells us about the land God is about to judge this land, but He will withhold His judgment because of Isaiah. When Jonah went to Nineveh and preached for 3 days, that postponed the destruction of Assyrian for 100 years. 1/10^th of the people responded to the gospel. The result was, judah was spared for another 100 years.

There is nothing wrong with business; it is a legitimate activity within a national entity. Lassai faire is the order of the day. Business must have some responsibility to its own national entity.

Isa. 5:8 Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.

Judah has apparently gone into some very big business. These same houses which are built with great prosperity will be empty.

Isa. 5:9 The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing: "Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.

Bath = 7.5 gallons. There are two ways in which business will be judged. The people will be judged, such as, the labor unions. Bob must admit that we asked for it because big business did not take responsibility for its own workers. This means the federal government stepping in, and they know nothing about business and nothing about profit.

There may have been some rebellion among the workers and socialism broke out. Every time you do this, there is problem. You cannot compete on world markets without large, well-organized business empires. Small businesses won’t cut it.

The government should never be in business and should never interfere with business. One acre of land will yield only 7.5 gallons, which is what government does.

West Germany is having a terrific boom. They advertise for workers in foreign papers in order to get workers. They are operating on laissez faire principles.

Isa. 5:10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer [8 bushels of seeds] of seed shall yield but an ephah [3 pecks]."

Now we deal with social life. People drank too much the night before and they get up early in order to drink some more. An alcoholic needs a drink to wake him up the next morning. What is at fault? Religion. Religion is socialistic and everyone needs to have a cut and down with big business. They keep drinking all day long.

Isa. 5:11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!

You always need a combo to go with the drinking. Too much drinking results in no interest in spiritual things. Few executives, according to people Bob has talked to, cannot stay on the straight and narrow, and they drink too much to go up the ladder.

Isa. 5:12 They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD, or see the work of his hands.

Their honorable men are hungry for something, but they don’t know what it is—it’s doctrine. And they are thirsty as well. If a preacher teaches the Word of God, he fulfills the greatest need of that nation.

Isa. 5:13 Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst.

Because there is no doctrine, these people who depend upon human prosperity are swallowed up by the grave.

Isa. 5:14 Therefore Sheol [the grave] has enlarged its appetite and opened its mouth beyond measure, and the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude will go down, her revelers and he who exults in her.

The successful man is brought down. God will be exhausted. The land will be so desolate, it can only be used by sheep. It is not fit for human beings anymore.

Isa. 5:15 Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.

Isa. 5:16 But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.

Isa. 5:17 Then shall the lambs graze as in their pasture, and nomads shall eat among the ruins of the rich.

3^rd woe: this woe is against religion. We have a picture of the automobile as the oxen pulling the cart. International religion later on. The ones who draw the carts are the religious teachers.

Isa. 5:18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes,

the religious people are saying 3 things: let God come and quickly do things (judge us now!). Then they challenge God to do something which they can see and admire. Let Jesus Christ come, so that we can meet Him. These things are said in derision. Religion always mocks and always attacks. Religion attacks the person and the work of the Lord.

Isa. 5:19 who say: "Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!"

The Communists always discredit those who oppose them the most. The intellectuals and the religious types. Some woman told Bob that she heard that Berachah Church was a hq for a Jewish movement.

Isa. 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

When a nation begins to rationalize itself, then it is on its way down. Ego-centricity and egomania. They become proud.

Isa. 5:21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!

Military leaders are drinking wine. Political leaders are drinking strong drink. Bob was told more alcohol sold in Washington DC than anywhere else in the world. No idea how true that is.

Isa. 5:22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink,

they are good for something else. They justify the wicked or take bribes from them. They let people off for bribes. The distortion and perversion of bribery and so on.

Isa. 5:23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!

Judgment is repeated. Song, summary of judgment; woes and then a summary of judgment. The stubble and chaff are used for unbelievers. Most nations are destroyed from within. When they become rotten from within, they fall to outside pressures. Judah destroyed itself.

Bob talked to these guys who are politicking; one is up for 48 hours politicking it. The job is only done by the Word and not by the parties of people. Nations are not kept intact by groups of people but by God.

In queen Victoria’s day, there was the maximum use of the Word of God with great preachers coming out of English; they sent missionaries out all over the world. Gladstone was born again, the Prime Minister of England, and he went to hospitals on his day off and worked there.

Indonesians are trying to take half of New Englishman’s Hebrew Concordance of the Old Testament Guinea away from the Dutch. The have-nots rail against colonialism and then try to take tracks of land. A great nation is not made by the movement of people, politics and so on. There must be something to hold it together. That is the Word of God.

Preachers help the survival of national entities. If the root is rotten, the tree won’t stand. The rottenness of the root is casting away the Word of God.

Isa. 5:24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

They ignore the Word of God, and that is why they were going down. The plan of God is outlined and explained in the Word of God. In the very book that we hold is the ansewr to the problems of our nation and of men individually.

People are hungry for the Word of God. Those at the Kelley Air Force base wanted it. All we have to do is take a little bit of the word and teach it. Until this country sits up and listens to the Word of God, there is no answer.

Isa. 5:25 Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

There were terrible conditions during the days of Isaiah. Isa. 1–4. Israel is the vineyard and we have the parable of the vineyard Isa. 5:1–7. Israel was the first missionary base.

Man in innocence could only face good versus good. He was forbidden to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Then we have the time of conscience. A 3^rd dispensation of nations or human government, which came to a screeching halt when the people built a UN building. Up until this point, man spoke but one language. With the judgment of the tower of Babel, there is a remarkable change—there are many languages. Up to this point, for the first 2000 years, one language ande no missionaries. Every believer was a witness. This was a time when there was witnessing only. A missionary is a believer who witnesses in a foreign language which he must learn (or can speak based on the gift of tongues). Israel is the first base of operations for missionary activity, so Israel is identified as a vineyard.

During the Church Age, the church is the base for missionary activity. When you own a vineyard, you expect it to produce grapes, and then wine. The church has an individual responsibility and a collective responsibility. The test whether a person is a missionary or not depends upon whether he can learn a language and then go out and evangelize.

Israel has 7 years left to fulfill its missionary activity, which will kick into high gear at the end of the Church Age. Rev. 7 is the great story of missionary activity during the Tribulation. 144,000 Jews scattered throughout the earth, teaching the gospel. Two types of evangelization: individual witnessing and the missionary work of these 144,000. All of this will be conducted by born-again Jews.

The preacher in the Old Testament was called a prophet. Israel needed someone in the Old Testament to challenge them as to their missionary activity and responsibility. Israel was corrupted from within and from enemies from without. Their only hope was in Jesus Christ and in the canon of Scripture as it then existed.

6 woes: vv. 5:8–23 vv. 1–7: stirring up the base to send out missionaries. 2^nd reason is because of the internal conditions of Israel (vv. 8–23). There was prosperity, but cheating in business. 2^nd woe against social life. 3^rd woe in vv. 18–19 was against religion. 4^th woe in v. 20 against the rationalization of sin. V. 21 against egocentricity. 6^th woe against leadership and leadership responsibility.

Need for prophets and preachers the terrible internal conditions of the land. Apostate conditions of every type. God will judge Israel. The responsibility for witnessing belongs to every believer in Jesus Christ. It belongs collectively to the local church where apostasy does not exist.

Isa. 5:26–30 Isarel’s 3^rd dispersion began in 70 a.d. and continues to this day. Even though Israel will be judged, Israel still has a future.

The regathering of Israel at the 2^nd advent. Man was innocent. When Satan appealed to the woman, he said, “You will be like God; you will know good and evil.” In order to understand good and evil, you need a sin nature.

Abraham evangelized in a language other than Chaldean. Israel failed in missionary activity, among other things. When the church is removed, then there will be 7 more years to go.

Abrahamic covenant where God promises Abraham would have a nation come out of his loins. Covenants to David, Israel, etc. All of these are unconditional covenants. None have been fulfilled yet. All of these covenants were postponed when the church came in. Israel must complete their missionary activity and then these promises will be fulfilled.

God will never again permit the Jews to be in one spot until He returns to this earth to fulfill these covenants. Whenever you see a Jew not in Palestine, you know the Bible is the Word of God. The fact that they are scattered throughout the earth tells you the God is true.

Racial Israel, religious Israel and regenerate Israel. In the midst of all these judgments of Israel, there is this gem of a passage. This is how Jesus will personally regather Israel. This outlaws any attempt of the Jews to gather themselves together.

This standard of v. 26 will not be raised until Jesus Christ returns at the 2^nd advent. Only Jesus Christ can bring back the Jews from the ends of the earth.

Isa. 5:26 He will raise a signal for nations far away, and whistle for them from the ends of the earth; and behold, quickly, speedily they come!

None of them will be weary or discouraged. There are many Jews today who are discouraged. Some are trying to bring in the Millennium and it cannot be done. They do not loose their waistband, meaning they do not stop. They are wroth

Isa. 5:27 None is weary, none stumbles, none slumbers or sleeps, not a waistband is loose, not a sandal strap broken;

Isa. 5:28 their arrows are sharp, all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs seem like flint, and their wheels like the whirlwind.

Isa. 5:29 Their roaring is like a lion, like young lions they roar; they growl and seize their prey; they carry it off, and none can rescue.

Isa. 5:30 They will growl over it on that day, like the growling of the sea. And if one looks to the land, behold, darkness and distress; and the light is darkened by its clouds.

Vv. 1–13 is the call of the preacher. Every call is not unusual like this, but not unusual when you recall the doctrine of the progression of revelation or the doctrine of the canon of Scripture.

Many kings had a Jewish name and a Chaldean name because of the conquering of the Chaldeans.

All the way through, Uzziah had been disciplined. He was removed from the throne and Isaiah came in. V. 1 is the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. If one does not have his focus on the Word of God, he has his eyes on people and is disappointed, or he has his eyes on things or he has his eyes on himself. No minister can afford to do any of these things. Occupation with Christ is the cure.

John 1:18 6:46 1Tim. 6:16 Jesus Christ is the only manifest member of the Trinity Who is seen by man. No man can be a prophet or a preacher unless he is born-again and occupation with Christ.

Isa. 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah [= Azariah] died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Jesus Christ is sitting on a throne. Revelation tells us that there are 4 angels in the throne room. Lucifer was the original in the throne room a cherub and a seraph. When he fell through negative volition and tried to create a counter kingdom, there were 4 angels which took his place. They are called the 4 beasts or the 4 living creatures. Seraphim is plural. Seraph means to burn. The resultant meaning is angels who are filled with light. This is about as good as we get with a description of an angel. The word angel simply means messenger. There are many different types and the Seraph is one type and they are beautiful, translucent, and the light shines through him. Angels have transparent bodies filled with light. That is what Seraph means. Nature has bodies filled with light. Many stars are a gauze of gas around light. Stars are often used to describe angels. Sometimes they can mean meteor and others passages refer to angels.

Num. 21:6 seraph is used of fiery serpents. Rev. 4 with Ezek. 1 and also Ezek. 10:15.

Isa. 6:2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

They spoke and Isaiah could hear and understand them. This is the devil’s world; so what does it mean that the whole earth is filled with the glory of God. The very life of God is now reduced to writing. This is a reference here to the Word of God, which falls into two parts: the Living Word, Jesus Christ; and the written word, the portion which was written at that time.

The word is given out as the gospel and as doctrine. The whole earth is filled with His glory is a reference to the Word of God. No man can be a preacher or a prophet or serve the Lord without the grace of God.

Holy, holy, holy may be taken for the Trinity. There will be the plural pronoun us, which refers to it. Bob believes this to refer to one Person of the Trinity.

Isa. 6:3 And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"

the voice of the one who cried refers to the cherub. The doorposts are solidly in place and they are inanimate objects, and they shake at the very name and glory of Jesus. The Jews have disintegrated because of religion. There have been injustices as in the first 4 chapters. When the Seraph speak of God’s holiness, these inanimate objects shake. The Jews are very prosperous at this time. God is about to pull the rug out from under them.

This is God’s way of declaring the antipathy of Israel. Israel is low down and the Lord is high up. Even doorposts fixed in place rattle. Any believer who becomes a ministry, evangelist or a missionary, has missed the point unless they understand the glory, grace majesty and salvation which Jesus Christ has provided. What is Isaiah getting in his call to the ministry? He is beginning to see the need in his own country. The doorposts rattle and shake when He is called holy, and yet those in Israel are unmoved by this. However, they will rattle like the doorposts of heaven.

Isa. 6:4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

This is Isaiah’s first message to the people. When he gets the picture, then the people start to get it. Now Isaiah begins to get it. He has never seen Jesus in His full majesty before.

Isaiah says, “Woe is me” because he is a Jew in Judah and he is quite shaken by it all. Isaiah is a man of unclean lips and he has not been declaring Him. Isaiah lives among a people of unclean lips because there is judging, maligning, and a variety of the sins of the tongue. The tongue is the revealer of what goes on in the mind. What goes on in your thinking is what you say. Isaiah knows what these people are thinking by what they say.

Vision today is limited to the grace of God and found in the Word of God. Isaiah has just confessed his sin.

Isa. 6:5 And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

we know that Isaiah is forgiven because of v. 6. The altar speaks of the cross. The tongs from the altar speak of the cross. The thing which he confessed was that sin of the tongue. Fire speaks of judgment; our cleansing is done by fire, because of what Christ did on the cross.

Isa. 6:6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

When Isaiah is touched on the tongue, he is cleansed. Rebound is a means of serving God.

Isa. 6:7 And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."

“Who will go for Us?” And this is the first time that Isaiah is ready to go. He has had a vision of the Lord and the need of people. He has been cleansed and now he is ready. No one can yield to the will of God until they are in fellowship. Yieldedness is not a means of cleansing for the result. 1John 1:9 is the means of yieldedness.

Isaiah can say, now that he is cleansed, send me. No prophet and no preacher can tell the people until he is in fellowship.

Isa. 6:8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."

Only 1/10^th of the people will listen to Isaiah. Isaiah was a great preacher, and they did not listen to him.

Isa. 6:9 And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'

Isa. 6:10 Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."

How long will I spend on these people? God tells Isaiah until the Chaldeans and Assyrians attack and massacre. There will be 3 great invasions in the land and Isaiah will go right on preaching. Isaiah’s ministry is one of salvation with eternal results.

Isa. 6:11 Then I said, "How long, O Lord?" And he said: "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste,

Isa. 6:12 and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

There will be some who respond. A tenth will respond to him. Isaiah was not to be discouraged over this. This is the tenth who will return to the land. Those who are saved will inherit the land. These will make up the holy stump; the tenth who remain.

Isa. 6:13 And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump.

There is a struggle between Assyria and Egypt, with nations scattered about. Syria comes into power and Syria combines with Ephraim in order to destroy Judah. We found the need for the ministry. When Isaiah enters into the ministry of prophecy, he finds this occurring. Assyria versus Egypt and Syria and Ephraim combining their forces to attack Judah, and Jerusalem sits in the middle of all of this.

The alliance between Syria and Ephraim is the main background here. King Ahaz is on the throne. He can listen to God or he can use necromancers in order to follow Satan’s advice. This is the great issue he will face. As a result, Ahaz will come in for some judgment.

Isa. 7–12 is the Syro-Ephraimite war. There are many characters mentioned. Syria, called Aram; capital is Damascus. King is Rezin. Rezin, Damascus or Syria are the ways Syria will be named.

Judah had the two southern tribes plus many believers from the 10 northern tribes who went down there. Isaiah approaches him with a message.

Rezin and Pekah are setting up an alliance. 2Kings 15 gives us some background: 2Kings 15:37–38: In those days the LORD began to send Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah. Jotham slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father, and Ahaz his son reigned in his place. It is the Lord who sends these two men. The Syro-Ephraim alliance are sent by God and there are many reasons why they are being sent. 2Kings 16:1–3: In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had done, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. He burned his own son. 2Kings 16:4–7: And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him. At that time Rezin the king of Syria recovered Elath for Syria and drove the men of Judah from Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, where they dwell to this day. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me." The king of Syria hated all Jews and he did not like Remaliah any more than his father.

Instead of trusting God, Ahaz takes money out of the Tabernacle treasury. 2Kings 16:8–11: Ahaz also took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasures of the king's house and sent a present to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria listened to him. The king of Assyria marched up against Damascus and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir, and he killed Rezin. When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar, and its pattern, exact in all its details. And Uriah the priest built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so Uriah the priest made it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. Ahaz steals gold out of the treasury. The king of Assyria listens to him.

You must know about the 2 struggles and how they intertwine and become one struggle. The result is detrimental to everyone involved.

2 of Isaiah’s sons will come into the picture. Shayaryashub = a remnant will return. Mahermaheroshbosh = run quickly to the spoils? Pretty soon, everyone becomes interested in Judah. All of these nations lack what Judah has a lot of. Judah is a wealthy nation. Assyria needs money for its great empire and conquests. Egypt is hiring men as soldiers from Greece and from the Islands; and they all needed a lot of pay to keep them. Assyria needs money; Egypt needs money. Ephraim needs money and Syria is starting to make a breakthrough with their own power, so they want to challenge Assyria.

Assyria had the strongest army; and wherever they found Syrians, they took their stuff wherever they found them, and then killed off traders. They want money and they begin to look around and where is the money? In Jerusalem. They all have it in for Judah, and Judah is the nice fat pie and they all want a slice.

this is Isaiah’s ordination sermon. In Isa. 1–5 we find out why preachers?

Ahaz is an apostate who does not operate like David. Syria and Ephraim tried to besiege the city of Jerusalem and fight to a deadlock.

Isa. 7:1 In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah the king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it.

They realize that Syria and Ephraim are apostate. The heart of Ahaz and Ephraim are all upset. They are all upset over this thing. They are not very doctrinal; not very rational.

Isa. 7:2 When the house of David was told, "Syria is in league with Ephraim," the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

You do not just get up and start talking. You need to prepared. If the people in Jerusalem can survive the siege, they need lots of water, and there are underground tunnels from cutting through the limestone. Ahaz was told this fresh water was already crowded;

Isaiah was to take his son and go out to meet Ahaz. All of the laundromats were located here because this is where the water was.

Isa. 7:3 And the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field.

Here is the sermon to the VIP’s of Israel. “Stop talking, start believing in the Word. Start to faith-rest it. Start claiming the promises of God.” Fear and faith cannot coexist. Do you use faith rest with regards to your business? If you are afraid about your business, then you are a flop. What about the rise of Romanism? What about the rise of Communism? What about all of these things on the international scene or on the national scene? Do you think if you fall apart and scream, Kennedy will be taken out of office? You are just kidding yourself if you worry about these things. They are bad, but even the bad things pass away.

Maybe you are just concerned about boy meets girl? The longer you can hold off past 20, the better off you will be.

Ahaz is so worried about the water supply, is he is hustling down their with the corp of engineers to get that water running.

Faint-hearted means ruled by your emotions. Bob had a great emotional experience the other night, watching his son pitch a perfect game. Someone who called Bob and filled with emotion and she was 100% emotion and 0% emotion. Bob used to catch her yawning in class.

Here, Bob teaches the faith rest technique quarterly, and some still do not get it and they do not live it.

Two smoking butts are what we are looking at here. These are the two armies and the two leaders of Syria and Ephraim. These are a great crisis to Ahaz, but it is nothing to God. God sees them as some fag ends. Human viewpoint sees them as great armies.

Now, Ahaz can listen to the Word of God, or he can develop some human viewpoint scheme, which is going to result in a great problem. Once in history, the great armies bypassed Judah, and went through the lands of the Philistines and tore them up; but this time, Ahaz is going to get the king of Assyria to help him out and the end result will be he will come through Judah and cause them all kinds of problems.

Christianity is not a more but a mental attitude. It is what you think that counts. That is the issue with Ahaz, what goes on in his mind.

Isa. 7:4 And say to him, 'Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.

Isa. 7:5 Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has devised evil against you, saying,

Isa. 7:6 "Let us go up against Judah and terrify it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of it,"

God promises, “It will not come to pass.” Ahaz can believe the promise or he can go to operation energy of the flesh.

Faith is a bonafide system of perception, and everyone has faith. However, it is the object of faith which is meritorious. The object of faith is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ here gives something specific to believe.

Isa. 7:7 thus says the Lord GOD: "'It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.

Vv. 8–9 the head paragraph. The capital of Syria is Damascus; and the ruler of Damascus is Rezin. These things are all pertinent to Isa. 7. Within 65 years, Ephraim will be destroyed as a national entity, and this will take place at the hands of the Assyrians.

Tiglath-pileser invaded and destroyed the power of Aram. 2 other things. Ahaz needs to believe these things in order to have stability. You must first know God’s Word, and then you believe it. The Word of God must be transferred to the front lobe and then applied to experience. No matter how dark the situation or how desperate the situation, believe the Word of God. Peter concludes in his dying message, if he sees something with his eyes which is contrary to the Word of God, then he believes the Word of God instead.

Isa. 7:8 For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.

Isa. 7:9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.'"

vv. 10–16 is the 3^rd paragraph. It is very important to get the mind of Christ.

God is speaking through Isaiah. He is telling Ahaz what to do and how to think. He tells Ahaz, ask for a sign. God is willing to give Ahaz a crutch here. A sign is always a crutch. God is gracious in giving crutches, but the person who needs crutches has to always limp through the Christian life. Any person who uses the fleece in prayer is using a crutch, as per Gideon. The tongues crowd must have crutches. The second blessing crowd; those who go up to the camp crowd. No matter what you want, God will perform this sign.

Isa. 7:11 "Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven."

Now Ahaz lets out his hypocritical facade. “I will not tempt the Lord.” That is a phoney front. Ahaz has indulged in a religion contrary to the Lord. You must eat a lot of good food, drink a lot of wine and chase women around the groves to be saved in the religion of Ahaz. So he wants nothing to do with the faith of Isaiah. He did not want God to do anything, because that will destroy his little religion package.

Isa. 7:12 But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test."

Isaiah’s reply. “You do not mind wearying men; but you also want to weary God?” He is trying the patience of God.

Isa. 7:13 And he said, "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?

Since he would not ask for a sign, Isaiah gives him the greatest sign of all—the virgin birth. This was not just pertinent to this situation, but was pertinent throughout all human history. For centuries, Israel will be hamstrung by religion and this sign will stand. When religion rejected Christ, it had reached its peak. This sign would persist to the coming of the Messiah in the fullness of time.

We are born spiritually dead; we are born into the slave market of sin. The only Person Who can free us is a free man; someone born without a sin nature. Our Lord committed no acts of personal sin and had no sin nature. All of this begins with the virgin birth. No virgin birth, no salvation. Jesus is immutable. Eternal life is never subject to death. The virgin birth makes Jesus true humanity and fully God. He must be free of the sin nature and live a life without sin.

God has a future for Israel. Israel will see the fulfillment of her promises, Isa. 11–12.

The sign is a extra natural or supernatural event. This verse is quoted in Matt. 1:25 and the word used there means virgin; here, it can mean either (except for the fact that this is a sign). God the Holy Spirit makes certain that these things are recorded as He wants and the sign is, the Messiah will be born from a virgin.

He will be called God with us. Christ is unique; He is different from man, in that He is God; different from God, in that He is man. He bore the sins of all mankind.

Isa. 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign [supernatural event, miraculous event]. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel [= God with us].

Curds and honey are food given to children after they had been weened. They could eat butter and honey, which is children’s food. Our Lord would be sustained in His childhood, which takes Him to the cross.

Isa. 7:15 He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

He would know to refuse good and evil. He would have human volution and His free will would always choose good rather than evil. He will be impeccable and He will not sin once along the way.

Isa. 7:16 For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.

Now we go back to Isaiah’s son. The kings of the northern and southern tribes will both die before his son is grown. God always offers grace before judgment. The virgin birth is grace before judgment. The alternative is always the same. These two men will be judged by God and removed from this life before Isaiah’s son reaches maturity. They have both rejected the grace of God.

Isa. 7:17 The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah--the king of Assyria."

The Syro-Ephraimite war; their alliance against the kingdom of Judah. The reason for people like Isaiah.

The sermon by the aqueduct. Judah is besieged by Syrian and Ephraim. Vv. 4–7 smoking firebrand, the two extinguished torches. Vv. 10–16 virgin birth paragraph.

Unless you depend upon the Lord, you are involved in human expediency. Tiglath-pileser. In the norther is Syria, the dominant empire; Egypt in the south, going down somewhat. Syria+Ephraim allied against Judah.

Isa. 7:17 The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah--the king of Assyria."

The fly is Egypt. God will call by whistling for the fly, which is Egypt. That is the Pharaoh of Egypt, who is Neco, 2Kings 23 who will kill Josiah (?). The bee and the fly will both attack Judah.

Isa. 7:18 In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is at the end of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

They are going to hang out throughout the entire land. They will saturate the land with their presence. The land will be filled with the armies of Assyria and Egypt. At this point, they are not in the land. The threat at this time is coming from Syria and Ephraim. Will Ahaz trust the Lord or not? If he does not, then the fly and the bee will come in and be much worse.

Isa. 7:19 And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures.

In this same day, Jehovah will sahve with a razor. Assyria is called the razor which is hired. King Ahaz will be shaved? Judah is the beard; the beard is shaved last. Bob used to play a game called beaver, when you shout beaver every time you see a beard. Alexander the Great changed all of the thinking bout beards. He made his generals shave their beards, which was easy to grab in battle and cut the throat of an enemy. Head is Syria and the feet refers to Ephraim and the beard refers to Judah. You hire someone to protect you, but they take you over. They hire someone to shave him, and he shaves everything.

Ahaz hires Tiglath Pileser to do the shaving, and he comes in a shaves everything.

Isa. 7:20 In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired beyond the River--with the king of Assyria--the head and the hair of the feet, and it will sweep away the beard also.

What is this man nourishing a cow and two sheep for? This is a description of the desolation left behind when the beard is shaved. One man can sustain 1 cow and 2 sheep because everyone is poor.

Isa. 7:22 and because of the abundance of milk that they give, he will eat curds, for everyone who is left in the land will eat curds and honey.

Isa. 7:23 In that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns.

Isa. 7:24 With bow and arrows a man will come there, for all the land will be briers and thorns.

Isa. 7:25 And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

Isa. 8:1 Then the LORD said to me, "Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters, 'Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz.'

Isa. 8:2 And I will get reliable witnesses, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to attest for me."

Isa. 8:3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son. Then the LORD said to me, "Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz;

A child learns mom and dad to begin with. Before this, they will learn the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria. The razor shaving the head and the feet.

Isa. 8:4 for before the boy knows how to cry 'My father' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria."

Shiloah refers to peace. The attitude of the man citizens of Judah is what we have here. Armies are all around Judah. The people on the inside are very shaky about this deal, and they are saying, “Let’s give in to them; let’s open the gates and give in to them.” Most of the people are in favor of surrendering to Samaria and Syria. Isaiah must take up the slack here. Do you depend upon human expediency or upon God? Do we as a nation, depend upon God or upon human expediency. The United States is trying to buy friends with giving away all of this money.

People try to buy friends with all kinds of methods: money, flattery, etc. On a collective basis, we cannot buy friends. Kennedy is trying to buy friends here and abroad.

Isa. 55:1 the waters here are the waters of salvation. Basically, the problem in the land of Judah is that they have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ. Why does Isaiah call the Lord the waters of Shiloah? There is this conduit blocked up with some brush and the water supply is low. Their problem is not water but the water supply. Everyone who thirsts, come to the water. They want water and they are worried about water, and that is why they are gathered around the conduit.

These waters are said to flow gently. No one can force coerce or twist the arm of someone else to accept Christ. You cannot put human pressure upon people to receive Jesus Christ. Only the Holy Spirit can place any pressure upon them. The gospel only works when clearly declared. No pressure except bonafide spiritual revelation. You cannot force someone to accept Christ just as you cannot force someone to drink water. You cannot force a sheep to drink water which has been stirred up. You cannot drink from rapids. The water must flow gently in order for you to drink it. This gently flowing water is available to all. “Whoever will, let him come to the waters of life and drink.”

they have rejected the Savior and have put their confidence in the man Remaliah.

Isa. 8:6 "Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,

rapid, flood, destructive water. This is water that rises up over all its channels and destroys. The people have refused the gentle waters, the water of Christ. They now trust the king of Samaria. Assyria is going to be the floor. Once you let the flood in, the waters will not stop at Samaria and Syria, they will flow into Judah. There is no end to what can happen here. They depend upon people; powerful people.

Isa. 8:7 therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks,

The United States depended upon Russia to take Germany off its back and now Russia is seeking to destroy the United States.

Immanuel is Jesus Christ, and why this vocative? This is a cry for help. The only one who can help Judah is Immanuel. Isaiah himself cries for help. Only the Lord can deliver us. Isaiah is telling us that, while he is a prophet of doom and gloom, he reminds us at the same time that there is always hope in the Lord.

Isa. 8:8 and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel."

Isa. 8:9 Be broken, you peoples, and be shattered; give ear, all you far countries; strap on your armor and be shattered; strap on your armor and be shattered.

You who want to depend upon the Assyrians to come and help you. 3 time Isaiah says, “You depend upon man and you will never make it. You sit down and try to figure this out.” What answers will be used? Surrender to the Samaritans and the Syrians. 2^nd answer: hire the Assyrians and get them to come in and get these others off our back.

What they need to do is to trust in the Lord. Instead of hustling around, wait on the Lord.

People need to be taught just as you teach children. You have to repeat it many times. We all learn by repetition.

Isa. 8:10 Take counsel together, but it will come to nothing; speak a word, but it will not stand, for God is with us.

God warned Isaiah not to do the things which these people want to do. God’s servant is often going to buck popular opinion. No one agrees with Isaiah. He is standing by himself. He must depend upon God for his protection. As he takes the divine viewpoint, he stands alone. He is not going to follow the people; he is going to lead these people.

A lot of people lead by popularity. They find out what most people like and they lead people in that way. This is not leadership. People interviewing leaders often look for people who can get along and who are able to even ditch their own convictions.

If there was any leadership, we would not have gone into Vietnam but into Hungary, where the issue is clear.

Isa. 8:11 For the LORD spoke thus to me with his strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying:

the people are talking about making an alliance. Let us ally with someone. God tells Isaiah not to say this. Isaiah is not to talk up their alliances. God warns Isaiah not to be afraid. Judah is afraid of the armies outside their gates. Do not fear the people inside the gates or outside the gates. Isaiah cannot exercise spiritual leadership with fear. What time I am afraid, I will trust in You.

Isa. 8:12 "Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.

Keep Christ first; set the Lord apart. Let God be your fear; dread Him. He will be your sanctuary. Everywhere you go Isaiah, God is there taking care of you. God does not tell Isaiah to build a bomb shelter or to run someplace and hide until it is all over. Isaiah carries his own bomb shelter and his own ranch with him.

Bob hears of people wanting to buy a ranch in New Mexico or Arizona or in Mexico. You can live anywhere in the world. The Lord is our protection. God is our protection.

Isa. 8:13 But the LORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

For the believer, Jesus is a sanctuary, and for anyone who does not trust Him, a stone of offense. Those who reject Christ, human viewpoint is a snare or a trap. The person who rejects Christ springs this trap and the whole thing falls on him. The gin trap is the food under the box and you pull away the stick and the box falls down. You do not depend upon a cave or a ranch or a hole in the ground; God may provide those things, but you do not depend upon these things; you depend upon the Lord.

If one man built it, another man can crack it. You cannot depend upon something unless God build it.

Isa. 8:14 And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Isa. 8:15 And many shall stumble on it. They shall fall and be broken; they shall be snared and taken."

Here, wait is a word for faith. There is a fine thread which can be easily broken; but you take this thread and you add it to hundreds of threads until you have a rope which cannot be broken. Life hangs by a very fine thread, which can be broken at any moment. Our faith puts the thread of our life right there. This word essentially means faith.

God is judging Jacob, but Isaiah keeps his eyes on God and trusts God in all of this.

Isa. 8:17 I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

Isaiah and his two sons, from Isa. 7–8; and these children are for signs and wonders in Israel. They are to be the basis of his message at this crisis, his older and younger sons. The first son is in Isa. 7. Until this crisis is over, Isaiah’s message will be around these 2 sons. He will be faithful in declaring the message of his two sons.

Isa. 8:18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

Ob is the familiar spirits found here, and this is a hollow sound. It refers to a demon who indwells a person. He has an ob on the inside. A medium throws his voice from out of the ground, a ventriloquists demon. A hollow sound. Who gives whom advice? Satan is giving the advice. The Mosaic Law is very strong in forbidding necromancy. Deu.t 18:9–12 Lev. 19:31 26 20:27 Saul died by practicing necromancy.

These tell Isaiah, maybe you need to talk to these wizards and necromancy types.

Isa. 8:19 And when they say to you, "Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter," should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?

Isa. 8:20 To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

They become despondent because they do not trust God. You look to other people and think they have it so good. But everyone has problems. Some take their problems to the Lord and some don’t let it show.

Isa. 8:21 They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward.

Isa. 8:22 And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.

Inside of Jerusalem was a great pool at the end of laundry avenue. Up in the north is Syria and in the south is Egypt. An attempt to get information from necromancers by one of the kings. Money will be paid to the Assyrians to get rid of the Syrians, which is going to result in the Assyrians causing them greater problems.

Isaiah had two sons. There is a 3^rd Son, and that is the Son of God, Who is brought in, and we will find Him in Isa. 9:6ff.

The smoking firebrand; the two kings are fag-ends; extinguished or dying torches. Vv. 10–16 the virgin birth. Ahaz and his hypocritical and phoney choice not to test God.

The fly is Egypt, the bee is Syria; and the razor is Assyria? Losing one’s beard then was effeminate, like long hair today. The razor will move into Judah because Judah depended upon man. The importance of not depending upon human expediency.

Isa. 8 is specifically about Isaiah’s 2^nd son. Isa. 8:19 Ahaz is told to go talk with a ventriloquist demon (ob). Peepers are those with the high voices, like the women; and mutterers are those with the low voice, as if they are coming out of the ground.

Since Ahaz did not depend upon the Lord, the razor comes in and shaves everything.

Vv. 1–7 the message of God’s Son. God’s judgment at the time, but what is added is the promise of the Son of God to come. Prophecies had things which allied to the people right then. They were specific to the instances and circumstances in which the people lived. All of these things were based upon circumstances which were going on at this time, while Isaiah was down at laundry avenue where they are trying to clear out the pipes.

We may go into some very dark days in the United States. As long as we remain behind, God has a purpose for us; and sometimes the greatest times for evangelization are times of great misery and testing. People often turn away from God in prosperity, but will turn to Him when under pressure.

About 430 years before the Jews went into bondage, there was this situation. All that these Jews had while being in bondage was, they would not stay in bondage forever and that they would be delivered. This was their encouragement, the Abrahamic Covenant.

Gen 15:13–16: Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace [Abraham is not involved in this promise]; you shall be buried in a good old age. And they shall come back here in the fourth generation [it would take 430 years for everything to come together], for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete."

Gen 15:17–21: When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites." “You will be in bondage, but there is light on the other side.”

Believers in times of great stress need encouragement from the Word of God. Ahaz finds out that there will always be troops in the land, so time after time, a new army marches through. For us, you get rid of the Assyrians or you get rid of the Ephraimites, and just watch to see who else God brings through. That is the principle. Why fool around with people who are disagreeable? Life is too short. Now if you look to get back at them or to eliminate them, then you put yourself into Ahaz’s shoes. He hired the razor to shave them, and the razor shaved him as well. Syria first, then Ephraim, and then Judah.

We try to buy friendships, and these people use our money to figure out ways to get the rest of it. We have the philosophical concept that the way to peace is to buy it.

Gen. 50:24–26: And Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here." So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. God would visit them and then God would take them out of this land. God always keeps His Word. If He does not keep it in one place, then how can we know He will stand by His Word at any time?

Joseph was put in a sarcophagus, but he was not buried. He did not want to be buried; he wanted his bones to be taken into the Land of Promise. This sarcophagus was the Bible for these Jews. The father would take his son to this tomb and say, “In here are the bones of Joseph, and they will not be buried because God will return for us and take us into the land; and these bones will go with us.”

The Jews lived in slavery and died in slavery, and yet they lived like they were free. They began with 72 and ended up with 2 million. They were strong and they trusted God.

The message of the Millennium, the message of the 1^st and 2^nd advents will be what will give the Jews of this time encouragement. They managed to have peace and blessings and carry on even under the most difficult of circumstances.

Heb. 11:22: By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. Through a series of great difficulties, Joseph became the prime minister of Egypt. He had a great impact during his day. When he started, he managed to keep everyone alive through the famine. Joseph opened his mouth and gave instructions and a message, and this became the Word of God to the people for 400 years.

The Assyrian soldiers were famous for their cruelty. Pharaoh Neco will travel through and kill many people in Jerusalem. All this time, there is hunger, violence, war; and what will keep the people going is the messages of these prophets; and they oriented the people to their time and place.

Only time to study Assyriology 11:30 to 1:30. There is a pattern all the way through and the pattern is related to the bones of Joseph. We are entering into a time like this, and what is the solution? The Word of God. Everything hinges on keeping the country together, and sometimes you look at this objectively and you wonder, why should this country be kept together? You look at all the Satanic things gelling in this country today, and what keeps us together are a few believers and Jews don’t have their heads cut off. We do not yet have anti-Semitism in this country, although some Jews may be kept out of a country club or two.

Prophecy tells us where we are going. We know that things will get worse before they get better. Man cannot even enjoy perfect environment. Many different organizations promise perfect environment, and we know that they cannot do this and we know that even man will revolt against perfect environment. When you understand prophecy and its background, you get a feel for what they went through and what we will go through.

Patmos is the rock in the water and it is miserable; Catalina is a paradise by comparison. But he went to church every Sunday, and Jesus Christ taught him the Word of God. This message of Revelation give John the whole picture of what was to come.

Behind all prophecy is the fact that Christ is the solution to all problems, and you never go very far into prophecy without running into Jesus Christ.

We have just had 2 chapters of bad news. Now, there is a dark situation. There have been a lot of dark things in the first 8 chapters of Isaiah.

Her vexation has not taken place yet. It is the razor who has lightly touched Zebulun and Naphtali. The person who does this is Tiglath Pileser, and he will eliminate Syria, but then he will go into Judah. There will be waves of invasions and finally Esar-Hadden will taken many into slavery, moving them out of the northern kingdom. Assyria took out all of the nations in that area.

Isa. 9:1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

Always when there is pressure, there is also divine grace. Suppose you have everything that you think will make you happy, and it may make you happy for a short time; maybe for a year or two. Now let’s say this is removed. If you have depended upon these things, then you might give ear to the gospel, or, if a believer, give ear to Bible doctrine.

Here, the people will lose everything that they have, but if this wakes them up, then cursing will be turned to blessing. Always behind this judgment is God’s purpose to blessing. It takes darkness to see light.

It needs to be dark in order to see the light. There can be light during the daytime, but you may not be able to see it easily.

God never brings judgment without grace before, grace during and grace after. These people can see the great light of the gospel because they are in great darkness. There are many people who would not be believers if the Communists had not come. There are people who will spend eternity in heaven because the Communists came in and took their land.

China is like this land of deep darkness. The gospel is still being declared in China. Missionaries are out there; there are believers in China. The message is going out there.

Isa. 9:2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.

Multiplying the nation means what? There are two lo’s; one means not and the other means unto it. The nation which is multiplied is Judah. How do you increase the joy of a nation? First presenting Christ as Savior increases the joy. So the gospel has been increased and believers have been multiplied in Judah, despite of the fact that there is nothing around them to make them joyful. Receiving Christ as Savior is their joy. The Assyrians are rejoicing when they take the spoil, which is the stuff which belongs to Judah; but Judah, under great discipline, trusts in Jesus Christ. The Assyrians think that all of this stuff is going to make them happy, but it is not working for them; and they need a little darkness so that they can see the light as well. There is the joy of salvation and the joy of getting gain. As the Assyrians take the spoil, they are enjoying a little happiness; but the Jews are losing everything, and they are increasing their joy.

Where is the booty of the Assyrians today? They took this stuff back to Nineveh, which became one of the greatest treasury storehouses in the world. So the Chaldeans and the Medes combined together, saw all of this stuff, and they attacked Assyria and took all of their stuff.

Cyrus eventually took a lot of this stuff from then. A little later, Alexander the Great took this stuff, and then their generals divided it up. And where are the people who were so happy with this money? They are in torments. And those who lost it all are in the presence of Jesus Christ. There are two kinds of joy here.

Isa. 9:3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy to it; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.

Isa. 9:4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.

Isa. 9:5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.

Here is the great blessing; a child is born and a Son is given. The child and the son refer to the humanity and the Deity of Jesus Christ.

Ahaz will go to a wizard and ignore what Jesus Christ will tell him. Ahaz ought to trust the Wonderful Counselor rather than the demon that he goes to.

Isa. 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father [the Father of Eternity 1John 5:11–12], Prince of Peace [Jesus is our peace, Eph.].

Men are dividing the spoil, on the one hand, but there are others who lose their things; and they are believing in Jesus Christ.

It has been 2500 years since Isaiah ministered to Israel and there have been many crises since then. Best time to see the light of Jesus Christ is when things are dark and difficult.

We now have confusion without actual warfare in this country. In times of confusion, we realize that God is not the Author of confusion. There will be a solution in v. 6. If you are familiar with such things, then you do not fall apart; however, if you are not used to these things, then you fall apart. There is nothing like violence and the confusion of violence to shake people up. This same violence allow for those with the same assets.

All of this confusion will come to Israel. The light we will see will be the Son of God.

Unto us is retroactive and includes the generation of Isaiah. We know that this is prophetic from Isa. 7;14. The only case of a virgin birth in the history of the world is Jesus Christ. The child is born, humanity; the Son is given, deity.

The Philistines will be mentioned in context and they be a threat. If you leave a pocket of the Greek alive, they will come back. These are tall and blonde and roast eating Achaians (not the same as the olive colored Greeks today).

The government would be upon His shoulders. Ahab went to demons instead of to the God.

The Millennial reign. This is a reference to the Davidic Covenant. No one can bring order out of the chaos of Israel apart from Jesus Christ. Zionism today is Satanic. The Jews will stay scattered until God regathers them. Jesus Christ is the only one who can personally establish order out of the chaos.

Human government fails because of the Tower of Babel. The Age of Israel comes next. Jacob stands for the patriarchs. Starting with the destruction of the first UN building and the confusion of languages, there came the need for missionary activity. Israel was the first base of missionary activity and the church came next. The church is attacked within by the social gospel, etc.

Isa. 9:7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Isa. 9:9 and all the people will know, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart:

There will be a lot of destruction by the Assyrians. The Germans said this, “Our buildings were knocked down; we will build better ones.” They will build these out of better wood. When judgment comes upon us, then we need to be ready to rebuild from there.

Isa. 9:10 "The bricks have fallen, but we will build with dressed stones; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place."

because they depend upon the Assyrians, God will set up a series of invading enemies. The adversaries of Rezin are the Assyrians. This takes us back to the razor of v. 7.

Isa. 9:11 But the LORD raises the adversaries of Rezin against him, and stirs up his enemies.

The Syrians and the Philistines will devour Israel. The Philistines are pretty beaten down at this time, but Israel will be so devastated that the Philistines can come in.

Isa. 9:12 The Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west devour Israel with open mouth. For all this His anger has not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still.

Isa. 9:13 The people did not turn to him who struck them, nor inquire of the LORD of hosts.

The next two verses tell us what is the head, the tail, the palm branch and the reed.

Isa. 9:14 So the LORD cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed in one day--

The head refers to the elders and the honorable men; those in places of leadership. They will be cut off in one day.

Isa. 9:15 the elder and honored man is the head, and the prophet who teaches lies is the tail;

Isa. 9:16 for those who guide this people have been leading them astray, and those who are guided by them are swallowed up.

God will not have mercy on even the fatherless and widows; as everyone is godless and evil. Religion leads a country down the drain. Religion confuses people. Minsters praise the UN. They praise socialism. They look to take away our freedom.

Hypocrisy is used in connection with religion. Jesus called the religious leader hypocrites. Hypocrisy is connected with religion. Religion is essentially evil. If the majority of religious types had their way, they would have disarmed our country. Mothers marching against atomic weapons. The idea that you can take a member of the human race and put him into a socialistic incubator.

Isa. 9:17 Therefore the Lord does not rejoice over their young men, and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is godless and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

Bob is going to run on the platform of getting rid of the cactus. All of the wood burns down; the cactus and the forest. People often advocate solutions which destroy and burn down a nation. You think you can burn out the thorns and save the rest of it, but you cannot. Socialism destroys a nation. Universalism destroys a nation.

Socialism and communism are wickedness, and when they begin to burn, everything burns.

Isa. 9:18 For wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns; it kindles the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.

The land is darkened. What is the solution? The people that walk in darkness have seen a great light. God will bring the country to its knees so that they see that the Word of God is their answer. The darker a situation gets in a country, the brighter will be the solution which stands out. Even that hopeless situation is turned to blessing when the people turn to Christ.

Isa. 9:19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land is scorched, and the people are like fuel for the fire; no one spares another.

People will eat the flesh of their own arms. Everyone is hungry because there is no food. This is extreme suffering. Whatever they can snatch or grab they eat. There is no longer the food stores, the gardens, the trading and the eating dinners at a table.

Isa. 9:20 They slice meat on the right, but are still hungry, and they devour on the left, but are not satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own arm,

even though Isaiah taught them all of this, they still hired Assyria. Manasseh devours Ephraim and Ephraim devours Manasseh.

Joseph has two sons and he comes to Jacob his father for the last time. He brings his kids to Jacob, but when Jacob blesses them, he switches his hands. The son of the right hand is supposed to get all of the money and the son of the left hand is supposed to get a pep talk (get out there and make some money). Jacob is almost blind at this time. Joseph says, “No dad, you have got them mixed up.” Jacob knew what he was doing. Ephraim became the large tribe and Manasseh became somewhat of a failure.

When it is human viewpoint, it is Manasseh and the Ephraim; but divine viewpoint is Ephraim and then Manasseh.

Isa. 9:21 Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim devours Manasseh; together they are against Judah. For all this His anger has not turned away, and His hand is stretched out still.

The proper climax of this chapter is Isa. 10:1. Writing here is making up laws in order to suit their programs. They make their laws conform.

Isa. 10:1 Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees, and the writers who keep writing oppression,

Isa. 10:2 to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

If you got all of this money and did not take care of the helpless, where will you hide it when the Assyrians come in the destroy your country?

Isa. 10:3 What will you do on the day of punishment, in the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your wealth?

Without Christ, they will go into slavery. They persist in their own activities and in rejecting Jesus Christ.

Isa. 10:4 Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

The corps of engineers are still trying to unclog the system so that water can flow into the city. Isaiah turns toward the wall and talks about the Assyrians whom they are bribing; but the Assyrians will turn against them.

Isa. 10:5 Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!

Tiglath Pileser conquers one nation and likes it; then they conquer another nation and they like it.

Isa. 10:6 Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Isa. 10:7 But he does not so intend, and his heart does not so think; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few;

The Bible tells us what Tiglath is thinking. He makes kings out of each of his cronies.

Isa. 10:9 Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?

Isa. 10:10 As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,

Should I not destroy Jerusalem as I did to these other nations? Everywhere he went, he found idols who the people depended upon; and Tiglath Pileser destroyed them. He did not realize that Jesus Christ is not an idol.

Isa. 10:11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images?"

the king of Assyria (Tiglath Pileser) is stubborn and prideful. God uses the ax. The ax is chopping down the tree.

Isa. 10:12 When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.

Now we look at what Tiglath Pileser will say (or think). He thinks that he did this. He does not realize what God has done. God was using him. I took down their boundaries and stole all of their wealth.

Anything which has been performed which is positive is what the Lord has provided. Believers make the mistake of thinking just how great they are.

Isa. 10:13 For he says: "By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding; I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures; like a bull I bring down those who sit on thrones.

Isa. 10:14 My hand has found like a nest the wealth of the peoples; and as one gathers eggs that have been forsaken, so I have gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved a wing or opened the mouth or chirped."

Should the ax boast as if it is better than the one who is using it? 4 illustrations here. Ax, the saw, the rod and the staff. The ax is Tiglath Pileser, Esar Hadden—4 different Assyrian king-warriors.

Isa. 10:15 Shall the axe boast over him who hews with it, or the saw magnify itself against him who wields it? As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood!

To the wealthy ones, Jesus will send sickness and waste. One fire destroys and another fire blesses.

Isa. 10:16 Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts will send wasting sickness among his stout warriors, and under his glory a burning will be kindled, like the burning of fire.

Isa. 10:17 The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.

Isa. 10:18 The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the LORD will destroy, both soul and body, and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.

Isa. 10:19 The remnant of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child can write them down.

Those who are born again from the north and the south. They leaned on a staff and the staff fell.

Isa. 10:20 In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

This series began in Isa. 7 and we are nearing the end of it. In the south and a little to the west is Egypt, which used to be a great power, but is not in decline. The northern kingdom of Ephraim and the southern kingdom of Judah, 2 tribes.

The cause of Judah’s discipline is Ahaz depending upon human expediency and the lack of spiritual growth or regeneration. Isa. 7:14 Isa. 9:6 a panorama of the Messiah in relation to Israel. Wonderful Counselor is two nouns put together.

Bob was told you cannot discuss religion in college; however it is discussed today. But religion is still antagonistic to Christianity. The worst thing which has ever happened to this world is religion.

Isa. 10:20 In that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

The remnant is those who are born again. The remnant refers to the regenerate in Israel. “Haste, you; haste you to the spoil.” This is what the Assyrians will say. The Jews are leaning on Assyria and the crutch will suddenly jump up and take their gold from them. There will be problems because King Ahaz leans upon a man and trusts in a man. Cursed is the man who trusts in man.

The house of Jacob is the northern kingdom? Some will head south. Many who are born-again, a remnant, will escape to the south. Stephen was stoned because he said, the one the Sanhedrin crucified was the Lord of Glory.

You do not learn about who God is without knowing the Word of God. You must know the thinking of a person in order to know that person; and the Bible is the mind of Christ.

There were many hundreds of thousands of Jews living at this time. But there would be a great slaughter of Jews. Only a few of them are born-again; and they will be delivered.

Isa. 10:22 For though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

We constantly need to ask the question, why are we here? What is our purpose for being here? It is God Who keeps us alive on this earth. There is no power on this earth which can removed us from this earth. As long as we are alive, God has a purpose for our lives. We are left behind as His ambassadors.

In time of great adversity, we often think that we are just to kill the enemy; but there are times we are to snatch brands from the fire.

Too often, we place all of our hope on this or that politician. We expend our efforts on getting someone elected. When Jesus Christ reigns on the earth during the Millennium, the nations will do this or that; so we remain as national entities.

The salt which preserves a nation is the born-again believer. There is no substitute for a verse-by-verse study of the Word of God.

Isa. 10:23 For the Lord GOD of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.

“Don’t be afraid of the Assyrians,” Jesus tells them. Isaiah is really speaking to the believers.

Isa. 10:24 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: "O my people, who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians when they strike with the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.

When God destroys the Assyrians, then the Jews will no longer be under discipline.

Isa. 10:25 For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.

There were 4 Assyrian invasions: Tiglath Pileser, Shalnmanezer, Sennacherib, Esar Hadden. There are tremendous conquests by various people like Ghengis Kahn. The Roman Empire at the height of its glory. Charles V almost united all of Europe, although England was a continual problem for him. Then Martin Luther began to teach then the 100 years war and then there was no more united Europe.

Isa. 10:26 And the LORD of hosts will wield against them a whip, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. And his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.

Isa. 10:27 And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat."

Isa. 10:28 He has come to Aiath; he has passed through Migron; at Michmash he stores his baggage;

Isa. 10:29 they have crossed over the pass; at Geba they lodge for the night; Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul has fled.

Isa. 10:30 Cry aloud, O daughter of Gallim! Give attention, O Laishah! O poor Anathoth!

Isa. 10:32 This very day he will halt at Nob; he will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is hacked down to a stump. Isaiah launches into his final appeal for these people to receive Christ as Savior. It is his final evangelistic push.

Isa. 10:33 Behold, the Lord GOD of hosts will lop the boughs with terrifying power; the great in height will be hewn down, and the lofty will be brought low.

V. 34 ought to be the beginning of Chapter 11. The mighty one below is Sennacherib (I think). 2Kings 19:35 Ezek. 31 describes this.

Isa. 10:34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon will fall by the Majestic One.

We will skip on down to the Tribulation, and the Jews will be a stump. At some point, a root-shoot will come out of the stump, and this root-shoot is Jesus Christ.

Isa. 11 35 60 62 65 are the millennial chapters in Isaiah, which we will study tonight. Millennium simply means 1000 years. Age of Israel from Abraham to the cross; Church Age from the day of Pentecost to the Tribulation. After the Tribulation is the Millennium.

Post-millennialism—in the Church Age, the world will be converted, and when the world is converted, Christ will return. This is heresy. It lost a lot of its fire in WWI and declined even more at WWII.

Amillennialism—there is no Millennium at all. It is very convenient to be an amillennialist because it does not require any study or thinking. This is also anti-Biblical.

Pre-Millennialism, which means that Jesus Christ will return to the earth before the Millennium begins. There is a lot at stake here; amillennialism has the believer living under the Law during the Church Age.

The kingdom is presented in 7 ways

1. Promised in the Old Testament as the Davidic Covenant as 2Sam. 7:8–17 2Chron. 21:7

2. The kingdom is prophesied in Isa. 2:11, 35, 62, 65 (all chapters?).

3. Presented in the 4 gospels, with an emphasis on the gospel of Matthew. The King presented His platform. Bob read a cartoon in the New Yorker. The only way the meek and the weak to inherit the earth is for Christ to reign. The sermon on the mount has nothing to do with the Church Age; it is the platform of the king for the Millennium.

4. When the king was postponed, the kingdom was postponed, then that takes us to the epistles.

5. The Tribulation where Satan attempts to rule the world.

6. The kingdom is proclaimed in Rev. 10 11

7. The kingdom is perfected in the Millennium.

The personal kingdom: Isa. 1:25–31: I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy. And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city." Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness. But rebels and sinners shall be broken together, and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired; and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen. For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water. And the strong shall become tinder, and his work a spark, and both of them shall burn together, with none to quench them. Imputation of divine righteousness. Isa. 2:1–4: The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. When will there be disarmament? When Christ reigns. Why are we free today? People died on battlefields. We are not free because someone disarmed. We have a nation of the softest, weakest, muddleheaded people.

Isa. 11:1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. A branch will grow out of the roots; and this is Messianic all the way. The reigning house of Israel and Israel itself will be a stump.

God does not need any help when it comes to regathering the Jews. Zionism is just an attempt to regather the Jews apart from the personal reign of Jesus Christ.

The Jews is a great evidence of Scripture. Satan has been trying to kill them and to gather them together. Many things will be tried, and Jews will remained scattered throughout the earth.

Isa. 11:2 And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

Isa. 11:3 And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear,

Isa. 11:4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

Isa. 11:5 Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

Isa. 11:6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.

Isa. 11:7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

A small child will keep on leading them. The baby who is still weaning will play with the adder’s den. When children begin to play with cobras, then you can beat your weapons into plowshares.

Isa. 11:8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.

Isa. 11:9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

Jesse was not a great believer. Jesse looked at things from human viewpoint. The ensign here is Jesus Christ. People will look to Him.

Isa. 11:10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples--of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

Shinar is Babylonia. The islands of the sea refer to the rest of the world. They were occupied by 3 great peoples expanding all over the world. The Carthaginians, the Greeks and the Etruscans.

Isa. 11:11 In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea.

By 1970, the Jews will have been scattered for 1900 years. One of the greatest Satanic attacks in the Middle Ages was the crusades, supported by religion. Cursing was turned to blessing and some good things came out of the crusades.

Isa. 11:12 He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Ephraim was always jealous of Judah. Reuben was the firstborn, and elligible for 3 things: the priest of the family, the ruler of the family and the double-portion of the family. When Reuben sinned, they lost all 3. Rulership went to Judah, the priesthood to Levi, and the double-portion to Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh). Ephraim was jealous of Manasseh. They felt that they should rule all of the time.

Sour grapes will be reduced in the Millennium. That is another characteristic of the Millennium. There will not longer be the jealousy of the tribes.

Isa. 11:13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart, and those who harass Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.

The Jews have never completely conquered the land. Joshua 1:2–5: "Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. This is more than even David and Solomon ruled.

The Philistines were Greek sea raiders. They have a big fight with Ramses and left, but they left and became strong enough to resist Egypt. Edom and Moab.

Isa. 11:14 But they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west, and together they shall plunder the people of the east. They shall put out their hand against Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites shall obey them.

The tongue of Egypt is the Red Sea. God will dry it up. The river here is the Euphrates. There will be seven roadways? Or the Euphrates will be broken down tin 7 streams?

Isa. 11:15 And the LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and will wave his hand over the River with his scorching breath, and strike it into seven channels, and he will lead people across in sandals.

Isa. 11:16 And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that remains of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

Isa. 12 and 26 are songs which will be sung in the Millennium. We will go to Isa. 35:

Isa. 35:1–4: The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, "Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you."

Isa. 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

Isa. 35:6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;

There are no dragons here but jackals. They live in deserts, but there will be grass where there was once sand.

Isa. 35:7 the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

The man walking down the highway, even if he is a fool, will not get lost. This will help the Jews return to the land.

Isa. 35:8 And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.

There are signs in South Africa about the lions. This was probably a problem in Israel during this time. The highways have to allow the Jews to return.

Isa. 35:9 No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.

Joy will be in their minds and head; this is everlasting joy. Christ will reign forever.

Isa. 35:10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isa. 60:1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.

Isa. 60:2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.

Isa. 60:3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Isa. 60:4 Lift up your eyes all around, and see; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be carried on the hip.

Isa. 60:5 Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult, because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

Isa. 60:6 A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the LORD.

Ezek. 40–48 reference to animal sacrifices to remember the cross in retrospect.

Isa. 60:7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered to you; the rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you; they shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will beautify my beautiful house.

City of Jerusalem will have walls in the Millennium. Rev. 21:10–following which refers to Jerusalem with gates. The eternal Jerusalem will be without walls.

There are 9 Biblical distinctions between the eternal Jerusalem and Jerusalem in the Millennium.

Isa. 60:9 For the coastlands shall hope for me, the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your children from afar, their silver and gold with them, for the name of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has made you beautiful.

Isa. 60:10 Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you.

Isa. 60:11 Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut, that people may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession.

Isa. 60:12 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish; those nations shall be utterly laid waste.

Isa. 60:13 The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious.

Isa. 60:14 The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you, and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet; they shall call you the City of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

Anti-Semitism in the Millennium. Only born-again Jews will be found to begin the Millennium.

Isa. 60:15 Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you majestic forever, a joy from age to age.

Isa. 60:16 You shall suck the milk of nations; you shall nurse at the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

Isa. 60:17 Instead of bronze I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver; instead of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron. I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness.

Isa. 60:18 Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.

Isa. 60:19 The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.

Isa. 60:20 Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.

Isa. 60:21 Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.

Isa. 60:22 The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the LORD; in its time I will hasten it.

Isa. 65:1 I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, "Here am I, here am I," to a nation that was not called by my name.

Isa. 65:2 I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices;

Isa. 65:3 a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks;

Isa. 65:4 who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig's flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;

Isa. 65:5 who say, "Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you." These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.

Isa. 65:6 Behold, it is written before me: "I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will indeed repay into their bosom

Isa. 65:7 both your iniquities and your fathers' iniquities together, says the LORD; because they made offerings on the mountains and insulted me on the hills, I will measure into their bosom payment for their former deeds."

Isa. 65:8 Thus says the LORD: "As the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say, 'Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,' so I will do for my servants' sake, and not destroy them all.

Isa. 65:9 I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah possessors of my mountains; my chosen shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there.

Isa. 65:10 Sharon shall become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for my people who have sought me.

Isa. 65:11 But you who forsake the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who set a table for Fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,

Isa. 65:12 I will destine you to the sword, and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter, because, when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in."

Isa. 65:13 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; behold, my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; behold, my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame;

Isa. 65:14 behold, my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and shall wail for breaking of spirit.

Isa. 65:15 You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord GOD will put you to death, but his servants he will call by another name.

Isa. 65:16 So that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes.

Isa. 65:17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

Isa. 65:18 But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness.

Isa. 65:19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.

Isa. 65:20 No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

Isa. 65:21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

A tree is sustained with water and sun; and the people of Israel will be sustained by the Lord.

Isa. 65:22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

Isa. 65:23 They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them.

Isa. 65:24 Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.

Isa. 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain," says the LORD.

No one every gets away with depending on man. Isa. 7–11 the sermon by the pool. Ahaz got involved in necromancy. 2Kings 18 is the historical passage: 2Kiings 18:1–3: In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He began as a great believer. 2Kings 18:4–6: He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan). He trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. For he held fast to the LORD. He did not depart from following him, but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses. And the LORD was with him; wherever he went out, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. The brass serpent had a wonderful original connotation, but people began to worship it. They began to burn incense to it. He was occupied with the person of Jesus Christ. He trusted in Jesus Christ and he was a believer in time.

2Kings 18:8–15: He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city. In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it, and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed. In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong; withdraw from me. Whatever you impose on me I will bear." And the king of Assyria required of Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king's house.

Hezekiah realized what he was doing was wrong, so he separated himself from the king of Assyria. So he finds himself in the same situation that his father was in.

Isa. 30, we begin with woe to the rebellious children, and Isa. 31, it is woe to those who go down to Egypt for help. At some time as a believer, the elephant will charge. But God prepared us for the charge of the elephant. As we face the charge of the mosquito, that prepares us for the charge of the elephant. Various faith rest passages given. Jer. 17:5: Thus says the LORD: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. God is tapping His foot, waiting to bless Hezekiah. Psalm 118:8–9 give the same idea: Psalm 118:8–9: It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.

These people do not go to the Word for advice; they take counsel, but not of God. They make an alliance, but not with My Spirit. The greatest sins in the lives of various believers is mental attitude. The mental attitude is almost ignored and excluded. Bring every thought into captivity for Christ. Mental attitude is the great key to the Christian life. Most people thing that they just need to observe a few taboos or have a nice outwardly life in terms of morality are in pretty good shape.

One of the most dangerous moments in the life of any believer is when he has a great spiritual victory. The devil is great at a counter attack. David defeated Goliath, and not long after, he was running from Saul.

It is the mental attitude which is important; it is looking at life from the divine viewpoint. It is putting everything into the hands of the Lord.

Shortly an army will be sent out of Assyria, and now he knows that he must trust in God; but then he makes the mistake of sending ambassadors down into Egypt. The Egyptians have a great mobile force of chariots and calvary.

Abraham at first guessed that, when God told him someone from his own loins, that it must be Lot, his nephew. So God removed that prop. And one of Abram’s most passionate prayers was, “Oh that Ishmael might live before You.” And God said, no. But Abraham went to a hopeless situation, where neither he nor Sarah could have children; and then he believed God, and God came through.

Isa. 30:1 "Ah, stubborn children," declares the LORD, "who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;

They went down to Egypt, but without checking with God. People who get their eyes on people are always confused.

Isa. 30:2 who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking for my direction, to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!

Isa. 30:3 Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame, and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.

Isa. 30:5 everyone comes to shame through a people that cannot profit them, that brings neither help nor profit, but shame and disgrace."

“You have put your dependence upon the armies of Egypt and they will let you down.” There was tremendous material prosperity in Judah.

Isa. 30:6 An oracle on the beasts of the Negeb. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from where come the lioness and the lion, the adder and the flying fiery serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that cannot profit them.

The Egyptians cannot help them. “I have called her, their strength who sits still.”

Isa. 30:7 Egypt's help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her "Rahab [their strength?] who sits still."

Isa. 30:8 And now, go, write it before them on a tablet and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come as a witness forever.

Lying ministers like those who say, we need to get behind the UN. Such ministers are stupid. You do not get to abolish weapons until Jesus Christ rules.

They will listen to the schemes of others, but they will not listen to the Word of God.

Isa. 30:9 For they are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD;

A seer is a prophet or a preacher. The people tell them, tell us nice things.

Isa. 30:10 who say to the seers, "Do not see," and to the prophets, "Do not prophesy to us what is right; speak to us smooth things, prophesy illusions,

They did not want to hear about Jesus Christ. They wanted their egos stimulated.

Isa. 30:11 leave the way, turn aside from the path, let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel."

Isa. 30:12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, "Because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them,

Isa. 30:13 therefore this iniquity shall be to you like a breach in a high wall, bulging out, and about to collapse, whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant;

a shard is a piece of pottery which is still used, but was broken from a jar or some such.

Isa. 30:14 and its breaking is like that of a potter's vessel that is smashed so ruthlessly that among its fragments not a shard is found with which to take fire from the hearth, or to dip up water out of the cistern."

They need to return to God and to return to Him. They need to depend upon Him for forgiveness. God would give them strength and have taken care of them, but they were unwilling.

Isa. 30:15 For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, "In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength." But you were unwilling,

Isa. 30:16 and you said, "No! We will flee upon horses"; therefore you shall flee away; and, "We will ride upon swift steeds"; therefore your pursuers shall be swift.

Isa. 30:17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill.

God will just wait until there are believers to bless. Every once and awhile someone opens up the grace pipe and God blesses. Therefore, Jehovah will will to be gracious to you... When God pours out grace, He is exalted.

Isa. 30:18 Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

Isa. 30:19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you.

Isa. 30:20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.

People will get back to the Bible after this great Assyrian crisis. There will be a tremendous response again to the Word of God.

Isa. 30:21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

Isa. 30:22 Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, "Be gone!"

There will be great blessing and great prosperity when people come back to the Lord.

Isa. 30:23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures,

There will be a recovery, and that is only because people go back to the Word of God.

Isa. 30:24 and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.

3 predictions in this context. Sennacherib will come to make an assault on the city of Jerusalem; and a few hundred thousand of his men will die, and then he will retreat. When God moves in to help, He clobbers the enemy.

Isa. 30:25 And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

Isa. 30:26 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 when the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.

Isa. 30:27 Behold, the name of the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and in thick rising smoke; his lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire;

Isa. 30:28 his breath is like an overflowing stream that reaches up to the neck; to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and to place on the jaws of the peoples a bridle that leads astray.

Isa. 30:29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.

Isa. 30:30 And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones.

Isa. 30:31 The Assyrians will be terror-stricken at the voice of the LORD, when he strikes with his rod.

Tophet is the drum which was beat so that it would drown out the screams of those being sacrificed.

Isa. 30:32 And every stroke of the appointed staff that the LORD lays on them will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres. Battling with brandished arm, he will fight with them.

Isa. 30:33 For a burning place has long been prepared; indeed, for the king it is made ready, its pyre made deep and wide, with fire and wood in abundance; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of sulfur, kindles it.

Isa. 31:1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD!

Isa. 31:2 And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity.

Isa. 31:3 The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together.

Isa. 31:4 For thus the LORD said to me, "As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him he is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the LORD of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill.

Isa. 31:5 Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it."

Isa. 31:6 Turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel.

They made these things with their own hands and now they worship them. The idol is not as strong as they are. These same hands which made the idols will toss the idols out.

Isa. 31:7 For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.

Sennacherib will not die by means of a mighty warrior; but by the sword of God. He was assassinated in his home temple by one of his sons. His castle is in Nineveh.

Isa. 31:8 "And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor.

Isa. 31:9 His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic," declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

Ahaz, the father, failed. He was an unbeliever. He never recovered. Hezekiah failed, but he recovered. God had to wait in order to bless Hezekiah. God is patiently waiting to bless us. God is always faithful.

Hezekiah honored the Lord and honored the Word; and then fell apart under a crisis.

Sennacherib had not yet completely broken down the exterior of out defenses. Sennacherib was a genius and had several things going on at once. While he was at Lachish, he sends people to Jerusalem (I think?). He sends men to just check Jerusalem for its outer perimeter of defenses. One of the great propaganda war machines

Isa. 36:1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

Rabshakeh is one of 3 great people used by Sennacherib to get Jerusalem to give up without firing a shot. 2Kings 18:17 tells us that he is 1 of 3 people. And the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rab-saris, and the Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway to the Washer's Field.

You must have 3 factors in psychological warfare: an army. The Russians are very successful at this because they have a standing army. Tratan. Then there is the head of the state department ,kown as the chief. Tar is a word for general officer. These are all titles of nobility.

The US population are suckers for brainwashing we cannot stand up against wrong wjen he wae.

Bob is particular about acoustics. When it gets fouled up, Bob blows his cork. The objective in speaking is being heard; if it is not heard, it is no good.

The Rabshakeh wants to sland in such a place where he can be heard. Bob knows people with geat messages who never think about great

the great army is the emeans of intimidation. They do not have ot use the army. However, this amry do ews

When you gecome frightened, you cannot operate; you cannot make a large army work. That is what the Rabshakeh wants to do.

Isa. 36:2 And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field.

Now we have a meeting right under the walls of Jerusalem. People always want to know what is going on. The walls are lined with hundreds of people listening. The rabbit ears crowd is on the wall just waiting to be propagandized.

3 people from the Eypgtians. And we have Jews and 4 from the Jewish army. A summit conference.

Rabshakeh is speaking in Hebrew and not Assyrian. He is at least bilingual. He will converse with these 3 frightened counterparts with the people all around listening intently.

Isa. 36:3 And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.

Then vv. 4–8: your faith sill get you nowhere. Then the Rabshakeh will show them that they cannot have faith in anything, and that one after another will not work.

On what or in whom are you trusting? So, do you thin k that all of these meetings will help you when it comes to war? They had excellent intelligence at this point.

Isa. 36:4 And the Rabshakeh said to them, "Say to Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours?

Do you think that you can hold meetings and come up with an answer? Can you trust in mere words?

Isa. 36:5 Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?

Now, this guy speaks outside of the city walls and he knows everything that they have discussed, he already knows about. The Assyrians had a tremendous G2 system.

You want to lean upon Egypt; Egypt is like a broken reed. You will lean on it and it will go right through your hand. You will not find a crutch; you will be pierced through but this sharp reed. They already sent to Egypt for help.

Isa. 36:6 Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him.

Okay, let’s say you think, “We will trust in the Lord to deliver us.” He is talking loud enough so that everyone can hear him speak.

Propaganda needs an element of truth and some lies as well. There is always a measure of truth in what the Communists tell us.

Isa. 36:7 But if you say to me, "We trust in the LORD our God," is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, "You shall worship before this altar"?

Look, I will give you horses, and I bet there are not enough men to ride these horses. Show me that you have 2000 riders, and I will give you 2000 riders. This shows how pitiful the Jews are because they do not have 2000 riders; and it shows how great the Assyrian army is because they can spare this many horses.

Isa. 36:8 Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

Assyria is invincible because the Lord is on their side. That is his argument. They are rulers of the world, so that proves it. This is an appeal to experience. Never prove anything by experience. The only proof in life is the accurate interpretation of the Word.

People hear others speak in tongues, and they say, “I heard it.” But the Bible says, “Tongues will cease.” Which is correct? They think they observe someone being healed.

Here is the flaw. His king did not conquer the entire world, because here he is in front of Jerusalem wanting to conquer them; but he has not done so yet.

Isa. 36:9 How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master's servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

How can I come up here against you except by the Lord. God told me to come up here and to destroy your land. So far, he is getting away with this because there are people here with big rabbit ears but no doctrine.

These people are stupid because they do not know the Word of God. “Let\s just surrender to him; it is the Lord’s will.”

Bob heard that the Communists invented these psychological techniques, but they did not; they were used thousands of hears ago.

Isa. 36:10 Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.'"

The group of Jews who go to speak with them say, “Hey, don’t talk to us in the Jewish language. They were worried about those on the wall.

Isa. 36:11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall."

Weren’t we sent here to speak to your men and not to you? So they will eat their own dung and drink their own piss. He pretends to be interested in the welfare of the people. These people can avoid sharing your fate. They can avoid this. This will happen to all of you, but we are interested in the people and we will put them in a place where they can be happy. We will help them out.

He pretends to have the welfare of the people in mind, which he does not. He speaks in Hebrew so that they know he has their best interests at heart.

Isa. 36:12 But the Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?"

Now, listen to the words of the king of Assyria. Rabshakey is an intelligent, well-educated, bilingual, imposing personality. The walls are crowded with listening citizens now.

Isa. 36:13 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!

Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. So this is bulletin #5. Hezekiah cannot deliver you. No one can deliver you. But the Lord can deliver them.

Isa. 36:14 Thus says the king: 'Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.

Hezekiah is going to make them trust in the Lord. Rabshakeh knows what Hezekiah is going to say and he disparages what he has to say.

Pernicious propaganda bulletin #7. Discredit the man who stands for the truth. He tells them, do not listen to Hezekiah; he is out to deceive you.

Isa. 36:15 Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, "The LORD will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."

Bulletin #8: you just go back and enjoy life and we will move you when time comes. The promise of a welfare state. The promise of perfect environment. Why use army and force when propaganda works better?

Isa. 36:16 Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern,

He does tell them that he is going to deport them. Rabshekeh confuses them to make them think that they will get greater blessing outside of the land.

Isa. 36:17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

Did any of the other gods deliver these other nations? The Assyrians clobbered Hammath.

Isa. 36:18 Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, "The LORD will deliver us." Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?

People of the 10 tribes were put into Sepharvaim. This is called the device of false parallelism. They try to make them think they are in a parallel situation when they are not. 4 national entities fell, and they all trusted in gods of wood and stone and metal.

Tradition has it that Noah buried the records from bfore the flood in Sepharvaim.

Isa. 36:19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

Isa. 36:20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'"

we are going to look at fear versus faith. The king told them, “Do not answer back” and they did not, which meant that they were still obeying the king and they were trusting. Frightened leadership and brave people.

The fall of Norway was like this. Brave people are neutralized by a frightened leadership.

Isa. 36:21 But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king's command was, "Do not answer him."

the 3 frightened leaders and the only thing which could stop it is God’s Word. It is the Word of God which saves the nation and stops the whole thing.

Isa. 36:22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.

He had invaded from Assyria and this was a great crisis in the land. He captures 46 cities and 200,000 soldiers. The 3 frightened men reported to Hezekiah.

Hezekiah sent to Egypt for help, which is his first mistake. When Sennacherib was up in Phœnicia, he sent him money, as the 2^nd mistake. He is failing to trust in God; he is not claiming the promises of God. He has something to rebound about. The sackcloth indicates his rebound and going into the house of the Lord indicates that he is back in fellowship. You cannot worship God unless you are in fellowship. Worship is not a physical posture; it is not ritual.

Today, the only rituals are baptism and the Lord’s supper. Worship must be receiving some from God. All of these other things are not connected directly to worship. Even singing doctrinally sound hymns are not worship.

He will offer prayer; he will speak to God. He will be occupied by Jesus Christ and have a mental attitude called praise.

Isa. 37:1 As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD.

A person who stands for the Word of God, who is faithful in applying the Word of God, when the crisis comes, people will come to you for help.

Isa. 37:2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz.

Hezekiah recognizes that the crisis is here. Isaiah does not get stirred up every time a crisis hits. People who can help others in a crisis cannot help others in a crisis.

He makes an analogy to childbirth, and there is no strength to deliver the child. This is maximum pain with no way of being deliver from the pain.

Sometimes, we have ot be taken to a completely hopeless situation in order for us to believe in God. God helps the helpless; He does not help those who help themselves.

Isa. 37:3 They said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah, 'This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.

Hezekiah still has a lot of doctrine to learn. Jesus Christ heard these words billions of years before Adam lived. Since Hezekiah does not know much doctrine, he is going to say some dumb things now and again. What God will do is deal with those who are born-again in the kingdom of Judah.

In the US, we have had a series of blunders, which blunders would normally destroy any nation. However, because of the remnant, we are treated with great grace. We do not survive because of any great policy.

MacArthur asked for Bibles and missionaries and did not get these things. We have men who are believers and we have a believing remnant in this land. God will allow them to continue their spiritual activity.

Bob’s father was one of the strongest men in politics and had his head screwed on right, but we have less freedom today than we had during his time.

Isa. 37:4 It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"

the person who is fixed on the Lord is the one who has it under control. During a crisis, you must be able to think. You cannot live in emotion. You must be able to deal with pressure.

If you live by emotion when there is not pressure, then you will live by emotion when under pressure.

God’s faithfulness does not depend upon who and what we are; it depends upon Who and What He is.

Isa. 37:6 Isaiah said to them, "Say to your master, 'Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me.

The blast is the supernatural destruction of Sennacherib’s army. 2Kings 19:35–37 historians all note that Sennacherib, in the midst of his war against Israel, left suddenly and returned home and died. But the Bible tells us what happened. In one night, Jesus Christ destroyed his army.

There is an Assyrian army along the coast and another in Assyria. Sennacherib will leave 180,000 men in Lachish. He hears a rumor that the Egyptians will attack, and moves in that direction, leaving the men there.

There are a series of pharaoh’s who are Ethiopian. They are Cushites. A tremendous army led against Sennacherib out of Egypt made up of Egyptians and Ethiopians. They Assyrians were outnumbered and they beat down the Egyptians. God is telling Hezekiah and the Jews, do not depend upon human expediency.

Then 180,000 troops will all die in one night and Sennacherib will hot foot it for home. God makes a point of pulling out the props upon which we depend. We must constantly be aware that we do not need props but Jesus Christ.

He is moving on exterior lines and the Jews are moving on interior lines. In order to keep the Jews bottled up in Jerusalem, he stops them with a bluff message.

Isa. 37:7 Behold, I will put a spirit [a blast] in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.'"

Turhoka, king of Egypt (not called a pharaoh); and the pharaoh is Shibiku or something.

Sennacherib sent a bluff message to Hezekiah; and then he sent troops to 700 b.c. the Egyptian army.

Isa. 37:8 The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.

Isa. 37:9 Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, "He has set out to fight against you." And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

Isa. 37:10 "Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

Isa. 37:11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered?

Isa. 37:12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?

Isa. 37:13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?'"

Isa. 37:14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.

vv. 16–20 for the content of this prayer. Hezekiah knows that he is addressing the true God. He is speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ. By Christ, all things were created. Jesus Christ is the creator of the universe.

Isa. 37:16 "O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.

Isa. 37:17 Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.

Isa. 37:18 Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands,

the God of the Jews was able. Hezekiah can tell the difference between the God of Israel and those made with hands.

Isa. 37:19 and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.

Isa. 37:20 So now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD."

Isaiah sends a second message, which goes to the end of the chapter, and broken down into 3 parts.

Isa. 37:21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,

the virgin, the daughter of zion, is a believer. She refuses some suitor who desires marriage.

Isa. 37:22 this is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him: "'She despises you, she scorns you-- the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you-- the daughter of Jerusalem.

Isa. 37:23 "'Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against the Holy One of Israel!

God is still on His throne. He is still sovereign. Doctrine existed among the heathen nations.

Isa. 37:24 By your servants you have mocked the Lord, and you have said, With my many chariots I have gone up the heights of the mountains, to the far recesses of Lebanon, to cut down its tallest cedars, its choicest cypresses, to come to its remotest height, its most fruitful forest.

Isa. 37:25 I dug wells and drank waters, to dry up with the sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.

Isa. 37:26 "'Have you not heard that I determined it long ago? I planned from days of old what now I bring to pass, that you should make fortified cities crash into heaps of ruins,

Isa. 37:27 while their inhabitants, shorn of strength, are dismayed and confounded, and have become like plants of the field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops, blighted before it is grown.

Sennacherib did a lot of conquering. This is God speaking to him, warning him that He would control him.

Isa. 37:28 "'I know your sitting down and your going out and coming in, and your raging against me.

Isa. 37:29 Because you have raged against me and your complacency has come to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will turn you back on the way by which you came.'

There is an idiom for deliverance. The soldiers will go out and plant again. There will be prosperity and free from hostile forces.

Isa. 37:30 "And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.

Isa. 37:31 And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

Isa. 37:32 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

The picture here is how a city was seiged. A sand hill was built up and it was built up to the size of the wall so they could climb up the wall.

Isa. 37:33 "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it.

Isa. 37:34 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD.

Isa. 37:35 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David."

When they arose, they were dead. The people inside Laqish woke up and looked over the walls, and there was no sign of movement. All of the Assyrian soldiers were dead.

Isa. 37:36 And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.

Isa. 37:37 Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh.

Some historians said there was no Nisroch but this is a way of describing Asher, the god of war of the Assyrians.

historians have a tough time explaining Sennacherib’s end. He mysteriously left Judah; and they are unable to explain it away in human terms. Historians are humanists.

Isa. 37:38 And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

2Chron. 32:20–22 2Kings 19:36–37 are the other passages which deal with this situation.

We examined the deliverance of Judah from Sennacherib. Hezekiah did not get on the apneic button in Isa. 37 and apparently, it has been a long time since we’ve been in Isaiah?

Isa. 38 took place a short time before isa. 37. The victory is given first and then the reasons behind that victory are given next.

Believers who commit suicide go to heaven. Some of you don’t like that because you are confused about the grace of God. You may have led a sheltered life and this sort of thing shocks you.

You can kill yourself slowly by what you eat and how you live. There are many ways in which you can die, but Hezekiah was not dead yet. Hezekiah wants to live. He is dying because he is under extreme discipline. 1John 5;16. The big question in your mind ought to be the sin unto death. It is not one specific sin. 1Chron. 10:15 committed the sin unto death, which was disobedience to the Word of God. A Corinthian was guilty of persistent incest. Annanias and his wife died from lying to the Holy Spirit. It is habitual and continual activity in some field of sin over a long period of time without rebound or committing a sin which introduces a false issue.

First thereis a crisis; Sennacherib invades. Hezekiah bribes Egypt. Then, there is a failure and a discipline, and Hezekiah is to die for his sins. Finally, there is victory.

Isa. 38:1 In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD: Set your house in order, for you shall die, you shall not recover."

Your business is not to be concerned about the sins and failures of others. We are to be concerned about our own life. We do not need to know the lurid details of Hezekiah’s sin. We jut need to know that he did.

V. 16–17 record his confession, more or less? And vv. 30–31 come elsewhere as well.

Hezekiah reviews the general tenor of his relationship with God. There were long periods of time when he walked in fellowship in truth with God. You cannot have fellowship with the Lord in your emotion. You do not have fellowship with God because you emote or because you are ecstatic. Perfect heart means that Hezekiah had divine righteousness imputed to him at the moment that he believed in Jesus Christ.

And at this point, Hezekiah breaks down and begins to cry. He wept to the extreme. Great sobs. Josephus actually talks about this crying. He is in the direct line of David and he has no children. He has reigned for 14 years and he is 40 years old and he has no child. Why cry because you don’t have children? Hezekiah is in the line of David and he knows about the Davidic covenant. Knowing that this is an unconditional covenant, Hezekiah ought to know that it will be fulfilled and it would be a time for faith and not for crying. He should believe the Word of God instead of crying about it. The world is filled with people who are crybabies. He needs faith and not tears. There are times when crying is okay, but here, it is wrong. Instead of crying about the Davidic covenant, he ought to be believing it. He can’t die until the covenant is fulfilled.

Manasseh will be the worst king of Judah, and he is apparently a son of Hezekiah’s? He will talk about passing something on to his children by way of spiritual heritage. One wonders why Manasseh turned out so bad when Hezekiah was one of the greatest kings? Manasseh did not have a control and the discipline that he needed of rthe job he was in. There are a lot of people brought up by a mother, or an aunt and uncle, who do not have the disciplinary guide of parents and it messes them up.

Isa. 38:3 and said, "Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

God gives Hezekiah another 15 years. He is out from under the sin unto death because he rebounded.

Isa. 38:5 "Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

V. 21 comes next. The bruised figs are a picture of Jesus Christ, being crushed for our sins. Hezekiah’s cancer is a picture of our sin and how it has eaten him up. There therapy is not in the figs; the therapy is in the hand of God.

Isa. 38:21 Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover."

What will the sign be that I will go up to the house of the Lord? How will I know I am really cured?

Isa. 38:22 Hezekiah also had said, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?"

Isa. 38:6 I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and will defend this city.

The master bedroom looked out onto the courtyard and there was a great big needle out which could be seen from the bedroom window. There were steps. It was built so that it faced the direction of the rotation of the sun. When the sun was overhead. There was no shadow, except on the top step.

Isa. 38:7 "This shall be the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has promised:

there were 24 steps and each step was to represent a half hour? When the shadow covered 2 steps, it was 1 o’clock, etc. this was good for anytime from noon on. There is a debate whether there was an am side on the other side.

There were 10 steps in the shadow, so it is 5 pm. He could look out the window from the master bedroom and see these 10 steps. This clock was operating on the position of the sun, and the question is, how did God perform this miracle? He either removed the shadow or He could move the sun back. Perhaps the moon could be so bright as to overshadow the sun? Is that a possibility? Could this have been a burning meteorite or asteroid? That might be a bit much.

Notice that Hezekiah did not agonize. He did not put on sackcloth and ashes and crawl through the town.

Grace is always Who and What God is; never what we are. The difference in the outlook is based upon grace.

Isa. 38:8 Behold, I will make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the dial of Ahaz turn back ten steps." So the sun turned back on the dial the ten steps by which it had declined.

Vv. 9–20 is an addendum to this chapter. These are the meditations of a face turned toward the wall. This is the diary of a man with his face to the wall. He wrote this afterward.

Isa. 38:9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:

Isa. 38:10 I said, In the middle of my days I must depart; I am consigned to the gates of Sheol for the rest of my years.

Isa. 38:11 I said, I shall not see the LORD, the LORD in the land of the living; I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

Isa. 38:12 My dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd's tent; like a weaver I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom; from day to night you bring me to an end;

he woke up and thought maybe he would live longer, but he felt as though his bones were all broken.

Isa. 38:13 I calmed myself until morning; like a lion he breaks all my bones; from day to night you bring me to an end.

A crane or swallow do not scream when hurt; they just offer up broken sounds of pain. He mouned like a dove.

Isa. 38:14 Like a swallow or a crane I chirp; I moan like a dove. My eyes are weary with looking upward. O Lord, I am oppressed; be my pledge of safety!

Isa. 38:15 What shall I say? For he has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

Men live by rebound and the provision of grace; and doctrine in his human spirit.

Isa. 38:16 O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. Oh restore me to health and make me live!

All of his sins were cast behind him. He was delivered from the pit. Maybe this was written after the fact?

Isa. 38:17 Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.

Isa. 38:18 For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness.

He rejoices in the fact that He will continue to live. He will have a son in 3 years, and he vows to teach him.

Isa. 38:19 The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness.

Isa. 38:20 The LORD will save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives, at the house of the LORD.

Isa. 38:21 Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover."

Isa. 38:22 Hezekiah also had said, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?"

He was healed from the cancer, he offered up the effective prayer of Isa. 37:14–20. Hezekiah took this letter and put it before God, this letter which threatened him and all Israel. Bob reads these verses.

Bob is going to review a few things from the last lesson. 4 causes for the believer’s death: to glorify God, suicide, sin unto death, his work is over.

Isa.. 38 took place before the siege on Jerusalem in Isa. 37. Hezekiah came down with cancer and was dying. His great prayer came after the sundial incident. Hezekiah rebounded, was cleansed and forgiven; and Judah was delivered.

He declared in his prayer that his sins were forgiven. Figs were used for his healing.

Hezekiah and his rebound testimony. 3 results of his rebound: instead of dying, he lived for 15 more years. He had an effective prayer life (Isa. 37:14–20). Pray with the consistency of a hacking cough; and you thank God for all which is in your life.

You begin thanking God for everything that happens when it happens, and you will better appreciate your life.

3^rd thing: Sennacherib suddenly up and left because his army was decimated. There were gifts sent to Hezekiah from all over the world, because of what they knew. This is the subject for this subject.

When people have unusual experiences, then you can count on there being attacks against them. Some believers cannot stand prosperity and some cannot stand adversity. Hezekiah went from extreme adversity to extreme prosperity.

2Chron. 32:20–21: Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven. And the LORD sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he came into the house of his god, some of his own sons struck him down there with the sword. Sennacherib had sent armies into several major cities. But the Philistines were beginning to regain their power. Assyria had conquered Syria, many of the Arabic tribes. Sennacherib, when he returned, was praying in the temple of his own god, and his sons came and killed him.

2Ch 32:22–24 So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from the hand of all his enemies, and he provided for them on every side. And many brought gifts to the LORD to Jerusalem and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from that time onward. In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death, and he prayed to the LORD, and he answered him and gave him a sign. Hezekiah was very well-known. All of the great cities were completely devastated except for Jerusalem. Believers can become very vulnerable to defeat after a great victory. All these people began to bring presents to him and he is in danger of straying from fellowship.

2Ch 32:25–: But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem. But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah. Hezekiah learned this time. He humbled himself before God. Hezekiah became proud again, but he rebounded. Pride is listed as the worst of all sins. Pride excludes the grace of God. If you ever think that you have arrived because of who and what you are, then you are guilty of arrogance. Any sort of spiritual king of the mountain means you are filled with pride. We can really lose out if we enjoy a victory. We can fall right out of fellowship. Satan is a great counter-attacker; he is a great counter-puncher. Like after the Goliath victory. Very shortly after that, the hit tune, David got fatheaded and he was running away and hiding out in Goliath’s home town. A hero and then a few months later, he is pretending to be mad and acting like a baby. The King of Gath, with a sense of humor, heard of this, and said, “I have enough madmen on my counsel; I do not need another.” Elijah on Mount Carmel; and the next day, he is hotfooting it through the land. Joseph in jail and he interprets a dream correctly, and then he depends on a man.

Merodach-baladan = Merodach is a very unusual word; Nimrod is the root of this word. They both have the root MRD. They pronounced vowels in the ancient world, but they did not write them out. So what is this root? It means to rebel. Nimrod was a rebel against God, and he hunted men. Merodach was also a rebel against God. He has a second name: baladan. Bal is the god of the Babylonians. The god of the Babylonians is my lord. He is a religious man following the relgion of Baal.

Historically, who was he? He was king of the Chaldeans, which we know as the Babylonians. He lived under the shadow of the Assyrian empire. He was defeated in the field by the Assyrians, but they could never capture him. When things got too hot, he went back into Arab land. This was the one man Sennacherib could never really conquer; he was Satan’s man. He was the thorn in the flesh to Sargon as well as to Sennacherib.

Both of his names are connected to heathen deities. His worship of Satan and the deification of man (which is always a part of Satanic strategy). Satan wanted to appeal to pride.

Satan takes spiritual experiences today and changes them into something else. Like the tongues movement. Satan uses pride and often converts it. Hezekiah had the experience of dying from cancer, the experience of rebound, the experience of forgiveness and curing; and then the experience of victory.

Isa. 39:1 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered.

Satan will get Hezekiah’s eyes off God. There are gifts from all over, but Isaiah simply refers to Merodach-baladan.

Hezekiah showed these ambassadors of his treasure house. When you become preoccupied with success, then you want to show all of these things to other people. This is different than being enthusiastic about God.

Hezekiah had to build a special area to keep all of these things. Instead of talking about Jesus Christ, Hezekiah is just talking bout all of these wonderful things which he has.

Isa. 39:2 And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them.

Isaiah has 2 sessions with him. Isaiah came to brace him. Hezekiah tries to impress Isaiah. These men came from a far country. They came all the way from Babylon.

Isa. 39:3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, "What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?" Hezekiah said, "They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon."

Isa. 39:4 He said, "What have they seen in your house?" Hezekiah answered, "They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them."

then Isaiah prophesies. All of this stuff will be carried away to Babylon. Nothing will be left except the Lord. These Babylonians will write down all that they have seen, and Nebuchadnezzar will return and he will take everything.

From Solomon to Hezekiah, there was a great deal of wealth which was accumulated, and every bit of it would be taken to Babylonia.

Isa. 39:6 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD.

Even your sons will be taken away. They will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. We know that those who went with Daniel were sons of the king.

Daniel 1:3–7:: Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility, youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king's palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.

Isa. 39:7 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."

After Hezekiah rebounded. This was his final testimony. These eunuchs could have been the immediate sons of Hezekiah. However, his rebound kept him out of this. We all fail many times.

Had Hezekiah received what he deserved, Merodach-Baladan would be returned and destroyed Judah. But God deals with us in grace. We get what we do not deserve.

Peace in his time meant that no one would attack Hezekiah during his lifetime. But truth would also be a hallmark of his kingship as well. There is no substitute for doctrine in the frontal lobe.

Isa. 39:8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good [gracious]." For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my days."

When someone says Israel has no future, it is tantamount to saying that the Bible is not the Word of God.

Bob went to some conference where they were teaching that following the Ten Commandments was the Christian way of life.

Covenant theology: 3 covenants which are superimposed on all of human history. Man, in a state of innocence, would be saved by works. Then the covenant of redemption; after man sinned, Christ agreed to go to the cross and die for our sins. Almost all denominations are founded on the idea that there is no difference between Israel and the church. There are taboos and the Ten Commandments which are to be followed, and there is not much to the Christian way of life besides this.

Dispensational theology—one nation was made the custodians of the Word of God. The cross cut this nation off 7 years short of the fulfillment of their destiny. In the dispensation of Israel, the Babylonian activity is the key point. The distinctions between Israel and the church have been taught many times. One nation made up of those who are born-again.

Jesus Christ returns to the earth before the Millennium. The entire Bible and the character of God all depends upon 4 unconditional covenants which God made to Israel, and not to the church. God must keep these covenants or God is a liar. Sloppy thinking and lazy ministers make the Christian way of life to be the Ten Commandments and a series of taboos. You cannot orient to the Christian life without distinguishing between the church and Israel.

The sin nature cannot stand grace. The first 11 verses deal with the future evangelism which will be done by Israel. The Jews are dispersed throughout the earth.

Some set up the clergy in some super-duper hierarchy, and those in the pews are different sorts of peons, which is absolutely false. Hundreds of young people running around the mountain side trying to yield. It was ghastly.

The 4 Covenants

1. God promised Abraham that he would have a seed forever. Gen. 22:15–16

2. The Palestinian covenant. The Euphrates River is one of the boundaries. This will Joshua 1:3–4 Gen. 15:18 Zionism is not God’s plan. His blood be upon us and our children, which is what the Jews said about Barabbas. This curse is lifted from those who believe in Jesus Christ. There are a lot of reports going around which are anti-Semitism. There is a paper which comes out of Florida; a little bit of truth with a great deal of heresy. Bob put straight an entire denomination in Arizona, but there was quite a bit of reaction at first. Satan hates grace almost as much as the name Jesus Christ.

3. Davidic Covenant. David was one of the greatest believers who ever lived; and he was one of the more spectacular sinners as well. David did not become a colorful sinner until after he was saved. When he went out of fellowship, he went out seriously. 2Sam. 7:8–16: Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.'" Ever since 70 a.d., Satan has been trying to get the Jews gathered into the land. Jews will remain scattered. It is only in this scattering that the Jew will remain blessed. God says that He will plant the Jews. Psalm 89:20–37: I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him, so that my hand shall be established with him; my arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not outwit him; the wicked shall not humble him. I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him. My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. He shall cry to me, 'You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.' And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens. If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.” David’s line would reign forever, which would be fulfilled in the 2^nd Advent of Jesus Christ. This is why the genealogies in the Bible are important. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of these covenants.

4. The New Covenant in Jer. 31 and Heb. 8:18

Israel has a future. Only the Jew in the Church Age is a part of the church and not a part of the unconditional covenants.

The voice of Isaiah. The Hebrew stem. Hiphil means to cause to comfort. This is to be the modus operandi of Isaiah. He is to comfort the people of God—those who are born-again. If Isaiah is going to comfort the born-again of his day, he would do this by the Word of God. Bob made the decision a long time ago that just sympathizing with people is not helpful. He gives people the Word.

Isa. 40:1 Comfort, comfort My people [cause My people to be comforted], says your God.

Ministers must have their emotions under control. They are not to get up in front of people and weep. Only Jeremiah was allowed to weep when he preached.

Jerusalem was the area of Isaiah’s ministry. Babylonian and some other discipline.

Isa. 40:2 Speak to Jerusalem, and proclaim [with courage and conviction] to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.

John the Baptizer was a voice. Hundreds of thousands of people left the beautiful Temple and went out into the desert to hear a man clothed in camel’s hair. This is roughly the same as levis. He was not out there wearing the latest fashions. People when out there to hear a voice.

He did not go through the desert crying; he went through their preaching. We know little about the man John the Baptist, except for his clothes and diet. Rough food and rough clothing, but people went out there; not to see some scintillating personality?

Prepare a way for the King; prepare the best room. Clear the path so that the King may come.

Isa. 40:3 A voice proclaims: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

This is all fulfilled at the 2^nd advent of Jesus Christ. Israel has a future. All of the unconditional covenants are fulfilled to them.

Our future is in Christ and the Jew has a future tied to the covenants which Jesus made to them.

Isa. 40:4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.

Isa. 40:5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

this is what you should proclaim: “All flesh is as grass and all beauty is like the flower of the field.

Isa. 40:6 A voice says, "Proclaim aloud!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.

Grass is temporary. It grows and is green, but it dries up. All good things which man does is like grass. It is transitory. It will be gone. All of the good deeds of the unbeliever are like grass; they dry up and wither. People can live by the golden rule; they can give money away to good causes; and they can join organizations which proclaim brotherhood. None of these things will last. They will not provide salvation and they will be burned up.

The breath of the Lord means they are hit with the heat, and there it goes. This is an anthropopathism. God can rip the glamour and facade of good works away at any time.

Man is analogous to grass. There are lovely unbelievers and whose company Bob can enjoy; they are just like a beautiful flower; but, puff, it is gone. Any activity of the unbeliever is negative with God and will not last. Only that which is permanent will last, which is the work of Christ and the function of the believer when filled with the Holy Spirit.

Ghengis Kahn was a terrible time in history for those in Asia and Asia minor. People did good deeds during this time period; can you name any of them? During the Dark Ages, there were people who did some good deeds; can you name any of them? These pass away as a flower fade.

You may keep a flower which represents something, and keep it in a book; and it will fade, but there is a memory associated with it.

We are not condemned because of our personal sins. We got a sin nature from being born with one. Sin is just the expression of the nature. God placing us under death is not based upon our sins but upon our sin nature.

Isa. 40:7 The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass.

We are connected to a permanent plan. The Word of God stands forever. We are constantly challenged by Satan to depend upon the Word of God. Some people depend upon their emotions. How you feel has nothing to do with anything. You either believe the Word of God or you believe what Satan wants us to believe. If there is a conflict between what we see with our eyes and what the Word of God says, what we see is wrong.

Unbelievers have big public relation systems; they want to know the personality of the person which they hire. People are too involved with human dynamics and human dynamics have been substituted of divine dynamics.

Isa. 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

The final voice is the voice of the remnant. Two sets of voices. Those who fled in the middle of the Tribulation (when the abomination of desolation is set up).

Edom, Moab and Ammon are the hills where people are to run to and not to come out when some cry out that the Lord has come.

The 2^nd part of the remnant are those locked up in the city of Jerusalem. Those who fight the great invader of the north.

Isa. 40:9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"

Christ returns to deliver them. Jesus provides the basis of deliverance through His death on the cross and he comes to reward those who are faithful.

Isa. 40:10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

Isa. 40:11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

A Jewish remnant would evangelize in v. 9. Matt. 24:15–22 they are also mentioned. Zech. 14:1–4. They go to Edom, Moab and Ammon, those who make the escape. Siege of Jerusalem, which takes place at the end of the Tribulation.

Christ first came as a meek one, but when He returns, it will be as a Mighty One. The first 1000 years of His rules will simply demonstrate that man under perfect environment cannot solve his problems. When He returns, His reward is with Him, for believers only. His work of judgment is found in v. 10. The work before Him is to separate believer from unbeliever.

Matt. 24:36–46: "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

Several times, in the US, people were living normal lives, and the stock market crashes, and it catches people off balance. The more you know about the Bible, the less people surprise you. They may shock others, but we are not shocked.

In the time of Noah, there had never been rain. He was not caught be surprise, but those around him were. If you know the word, you are not surprised.

You know what is going on by reading the Word, but not by reading your newspapers.

Bob was recently asked about the John Birch Society; and this is because they want to identify all conservatives with this society, and thus marginalize them. They have not necessarily discredited the John Birch Society, but they think that they have.

Bob has turned down a half a dozen television offers for a friendly discussion; but there is no friendly discussion; they just want to sink their claws into him.

Isa. 40:10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

The shepherd must handle the situation themselves. When the lambs will not feed.

Isa. 40:11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.

Christ is the creator of the universe. Heb. 1;10. Omnipotence is the idea of this verse. All of the great universe and the galaxies upon galaxies were done with His little finger (that is what span means).

Laws of nature are an expression of the Lord Jesus Christ chemical reactions means that Jesus Christ allows for a consistency in chemical reactions.

Russians went out and dug up some intellectuals who had retired. You cannot have power without knowledge. Their destruction of the intelligencia meant there could be no good generals.

Isa. 40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?

Isa. 40:13 Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel?

Isa. 40:14 Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?

God recognizes the principle of nationalism. God has periodically made changes in nationalities. Ruling the nations is a drop in the bucket for God.

Isa. 40:15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.

If you could cut down all of the wood in Lebanon, you could not cut down enough to burn enough offerings to express how wonderful God is.

Isa. 40:16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

There is no power or organization to compare to the Lord. All of the nations in the world and all of their activities; all of this together, they cannot compare to the Lord. He tried to make a comparison, and attempted to do this several times; but he could not.

Isa. 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

There is no image that you could compare God to. If man is involved 1%, then God is not glorified. Needs to be 100% the work of God; at any point, the salvation must be 100% God.

Once the idol comes out of its mold, then the goldsmith overlays it with gold. Then there are silver chains. They were not great engineers, so the idols would fall over; so the chains keep the idol upright. This chained them to the wall. This is an expensive idol.

Isa. 40:19 An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.

V. 20 gives us a cheap idol. He tries to find a good hardwood that will not rot. He cannot afford the silver chains and the expensive idol. You have to be a little cunning here. You need a wide base so that it does not fall over.

Isa. 40:20 He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.

There is heathenism in every country in the world. What about those who have never heard? They have never heard the gospel; how can they know any better? The answer to v. 21, the answer is yes. Jesus Christ died for everyone; and it is not God’s will that any should perish, but that all should come to a changing of the mind. Anyone who desires a relationship with Jesus Christ will be given the opportunity to hear the gospel. Every normal person reaches God consciousness somewhere between 3 or 4 and 20 and 30.

Rom. 1:18–32: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth [they are negative at God consciousness, and turn against Him from the beginning]. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made [man can look at the things which have been made and recognize God]. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things [they recognize that God exists, but choose to worship what they fashion with their own hands]. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Isa. 40:21 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

Isa. 40:22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

Isa. 40:23 who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

He will destroy their economy because of these images and destroy the images as well.

Isa. 40:24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

Isa. 40:25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

God brings out the stars by number, calling them all by name. Not one of them is missing. All of the stars are there. They all move within their orbits. They move in perfect traffic patterns.

Isa. 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.

Israel’s rationalization. How can you say, “My way is hidden from the Lord?” Jacob crowd are the unbelievers in Israel. They think that God does not see these idols.

It is the stupidest distortion and colossal gall to make their own bad decisions, and then to blame them on God. Things have not changed much. Man has not improved one bit.

Isa. 40:27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"?

God reveals Himself. When we are faithless and even blame God for our own problems, God still abides faithful. Perfect righteousness cannot make trouble. Jesus Christ cannot change. That is ridiculous. People change their attitudes all the time.

Jesus Christ does not get tired. We get tired and we change, but He does not change. There is no examination or judging his omniscience. You cannot look at other people and understand God’s attitude toward us. The attitude is to fight back. The person who fights back gets in a rat race and lowers himself to the place of the petty people.

Jesus Christ cannot be faithless. You can deny Jesus Christ 100 times a day, and do this to your death bed; but He will not deny us, because He is faithful. What we have from Him is grace; we have never earned it. Jesus Christ does not get tired. He is faithful. Make a list of all the worst sins, and commit them from now till you die; and He remains faithful. Our salvation never depends upon whether we are good or bad. We are blessed on the basis of Who and What Christ is.

Isa. 40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

We get weak all of the time; but Jesus Christ does not. God helps the helpless; He helps the weak. 2Cor. 12:7–11: So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing. God’s grace is always sufficient. God’s grace is sufficient for us and perfected in our weakness.

We are not blessed because we tithe or because we make prayer meeting for every week for a year or because we go out and hustle and witness. We are blessed based upon Who Christ is. You can do something to get spanked; you can do nothing to get blessed.

Isa. 40:29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.

These are soldiers who have gone through a very difficult training course. Men with great power and strength and training fall flat. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you will never be a casualty and you will not fall, if you grow in grace and knowledge.

Isa. 40:30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;

The word wait is one of the 5 Hebrew words for faith.

1. Amen means that one uses God as a prop; you lean upon God.

2. Batak one wrestler slams another wrestler to the ground, and the concept is to pick up and thrown your troubles and cares upon God.

3. Hasah this is a bunny being chased by a fox and the bunny finds a hole in the rock where he fits, but the fox does not. You are facing something larger amd greater than you are, and you find a crack which you can squeeze into to be protected. God is the rock. It means to use God as the rock.

4. Yakal means to be in extreme pain and to find relief in this pain.

5. Qavah this is for a small strand which can be easily broken; but you wrap this strand with many other threads, and weave it into a great rope, and now the thread cannot be broken. We exchange human strength and ability for divine power and ability.

Isa. 40:31 but they who wait for 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.

There are no accidents in history. Israel was disciplined many times for a number of failures.

The gospel was declared in one language and every believer was responsible for declaring the gospel. After the destruction of the first UN building by God, there were many languages.

With many languages, missionary work began. Abraham was an early evangelist. There were at least 3 converts: Mamre and 2 others. He was called an Hebrew, which means one who crosses over the river. When Israel became a nation, the canon of Scripture began. Moses was the writer of the first 5 books. First 3000 years of history covered in 11 chapters in Genesis.

Evangelism was to be done then by Israel. Israel was not to be an empire or the largest empire ever. They were to be a protected nation.

The Babylonian captivity is in view, which is a period of 70 years. They will then be given 490 years to be missionaries, but then this is halted at 483 years. The Old Testament was given to Israel, the missionary base; and the New Testament was given to the church, the missionary base.

The Jews had failed: maximum number of unbelievers, did not give heed to the Word of God (like the Sabbatical Year), and they were not going out and evangelizing as they were supposed to have done.

Instead of the Jews bringing the gospel to the Gentiles, the gentiles brought idolatry to the Jews and the Jews bought into it.

Isa. 41:1 Listen to me in silence, O coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength; let them approach, then let them speak; let us together draw near for judgment.

This is a reference to Cyrus the Great, the first king of the Persians. An army from the north of Assyria. There were a wild people called the Medes who attacked Nineveh. The Medes took over. There were several empires getting organized.

Cyrus became the leader of the Persians, and they conquered the Medes. He wanted to go out and see the world and conquer it. He conquered the Midians and the Chaldeans. His son conquered Egypt.

Always watch the Jews because they will give you the whole picture of God. If ever a race did not deserve anything, it is the Jews; and if ever a people were treated in grace, it was the Jews. It became Satan’s objective to destroy the Jews and God’s objective to preserve them.

God’s conditional covenants are found in the Mosaic Law. He lays down a certain principle of economics. The blesses freedom when a nation recognizes the importance of human freedom.

The forever clause is for those who believe in Him. Religious, racial and regenerate Jews. All of the covenants had a forever clause, so only the regenerate Jews could enjoy that clause.

Either God keeps His Word or He doesn’t. If He doesn’t, then Satan wins. Satan has been trying for centuries to frustrate God. Satan tried to get the Medes to destroy the Jews, but their cousins the Persians conquered them, and Cyrus became a believers as well.

This was all prophesied by Isaiah, although it did not come to pass in Isaiah’s day.

It is the objective of the Kennedy’s objective to do 1001 things for each American. Once that happens, you are a vegetable. You have no freedom and no individuality. No chance to address even the gospel. Christ is the answer; and you cannot force people to do this. You cannot get emotional about it or rational about it. No one can be forced into the plan of God.

Bob is dealing with people who were pressured to walk down an aisle, to raise their hand, or to do some other thing, and they did, but they are not saved. Just because someone gets emotional about this or that does not mean anything; and it does not make someone saved. Our responsibility is to lay it on the line. The rest is on God’s hands. People respond to the gospel, but not to the gimmicks.

Cyrus laid down the rule that the Jews would return to their land. He was a nationalist, and he put people back where they belonged. It is just like if we had a president who said, “Let’s go back to state’s rights and federal controls are removed, and we will eliminate all of these things, and it is up to every individual state.” It is the same thing. Cyrus understood the rights of individual states.

Cyrus is called a righteous man in this verse. Persia is from the east. The bow here is a Persian bow. Babylonia and Palestine.

Cyrus was called into God’s service. His story is amazing. The Medes and the Persians lived on the Iranian plateau. Queen was a Persian and the King was a Mede. The king died, and others tried to kill this child. He was hidden among shepherds, and finally, his true identify became known. The Queen’s brothers died and Cyrus’ origin became known.

Creasis, the wealthiest man in the world, looked like he would conquer the world. There was a fight between Creasis and Cyrus, and it was indecisive; and the armies were sent home for the winter, and Cyrus kept moving and taking land. Cyrus deciding to use his army in the winter was a thing unheard of before.

Isa. 41:2 Who stirred up one [righteous man?] from the east whom victory meets at every step? He gives up nations before him, so that he tramples kings underfoot; he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow.

This was several hundred years before this occurred. Cyrus is advancing in the winter with his army. On his flank is a great Chaldean army, the Babylonians. The Chaldeans went into winter quarters. They could have crushed him, but they just went into their winter quarters and they did not do that.

He went in a way that he had never gone before. Vv. 1–3 is Cyrus; vv. 4–24 is a great parenthesis; and then we will go back to Cyrus.

Isa. 41:3 He pursues them and passes on safely, by paths his feet have not trod.

Here is the beginning of the great parenthesis. Noah’s 3 sons became 3 groups which became a number of nations.

Bob has heard a lot of propaganda about how the UN will bring about peace; but they will cause the next war. Internationalism destroys the balance of power. Being separated into autonomous entities is how nations ought to be.

I am I am = Jehovah. I am is a reference to God’s sovereignty. God is eternal life; His plan is permanent. He has the ability to move history forward. He cannot change. He cannot go back on His Word.

The Jews have gone to idolatry, even though the idol is nothing; it has no character and no essence.

Isa. 41:4 Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.

The gentiles see the rise of Cyrus the Great. They can see there is a great conqueror on the horizon. Creasis consulted idols, and he got 50 people together and put them in groups of 2 and sent them to 25 oracles and asked what would happen with Creasis in 30 days. The oracle of Delphi: Halles river is between Persia and Mede. If you cross the Halles River, you will destroy a great nation, and so he did, and he was destroyed (Lydia?).

Solon gave the 3 aspects of happiness. 3 stories. Man dies after seeing his children, and grandchildren successful. Cyrus had a way of handling kings which he captured. He built this stack of wood like for a bonfire. Put the throne on top and tied the king to his throne, and he would light the fire. Creasis talked about Solon and then Cyrus let him off that throne alive and even pensioned him.

Isa. 41:5 The coastlands have seen and are afraid; the ends of the earth tremble; they have drawn near and come.

Isa. 41:6 Everyone helps [encouraged] his neighbor and says to his brother, "Be strong!"

they almost manufactured idols, thinking this would have a good result. They nailed them so that they would not fall down. They would work all night on this idol to save themselves from Cyrus, and once it was completed, if they stood it up, it would fall down while they were worshiping them. So they nailed them up to keep them standing and then pray, “Save us from the Persians.” We do something in a similar way by giving away money, and hoping that this will save us. These idols cannot deliver.

Isa. 41:7 The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good"; and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.

Vv. 8–16 God’s deliverance of Israel. The Jews in captivity, many were born-again, and many of these types were those who went back into the Word of God. All of the concepts of socialism will not save our country, but destroy it.

Jacob means chiseler, and that was his original name. He then was renamed Israel, which means prince of God. Jacob received Christ as Savior, and this is what distinguished him from Esau.

Isa. 41:8 But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;

the Israelites are scattered all over the earth. Long before these tribes were scattered, God talks about regathering them from all the ends of the earth.

When Spain and Britain were slugging it out, Britain was victorious because of the Inquisition in Spain, which was designed to destroy hundreds of thousands of Jews in Spain to take their wealth. As Spain went down, England went up.

The British people are not the 10 lost tribes. That is British Israelis, which is wrong. These 10 tribes were never lost. Wherever Cyrus conquered and found Jews, he liberated them.

As long as you are alive and breathing, God still has a plan for your life. You stay right where you are, and God will work with you. Not everyone needs to be a missionary. People are put into all walks of life so that they can witness to this and that person. Bob has never led a preacher to the Lord, so he hopes we are doing better at this.

“I have not cast you away.” There are Jews in Persia, Media, and all over the world; and yet, God has not cast them away. When we die, then God is through with us. Zionism is Satanic. That is just telling the Jews, “Come back into the land.” The Jews are scattered today and they were scattered when Isaiah writes this.

As long as God spanks you when you are out of line, you learn by this. Bob learned to jump when his dad said jump, because he was spanked. God spanked us to get us back into line and this means he can still use us. God is much better at solving our problems than we are.

Isa. 41:9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, "You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off";

God will give us power or strength; He will provide provision for us. We need power, provision and stability.

Isa. 41:10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Bob says he’s a chapter and a half behind. So, apparently, he had a schedule at one time.

Israel is going into captivity, but God does not let go of them. There is the raising up of Cyrus the Great. The Jews will go back into the land and rebuild the Temple and build up the walls again.

The Jews fell into idolatry. Many nations tried to get idols to protect them. In a time of crisis, they would worship the idols and beg them to deliver them, which they did not do.

God can handle Israel and He does not require any help in dealing with them. Assyria fell because of anti-Semitism. Cyrus of the Persians was pro-Semitic, as was Alexander the Great, and both enjoyed great growth.

Isa. 41:11 Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.

These great empires of the past, one day they are here, and the next day they are gone. Those who war against Israel will be as nothing. Anti-Semitism will be judged. Satan is always trying to get rid of the Jew. The objective of Satan is the discredit the character of God.

Jews, individually, are judged just like any Gentile. So, they can step out of line and God will deal with them. Karl Marx and Engles were both Jews, but there were Gentiles involved there as well.

Isa. 41:12 You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all.

Isa. 41:13 For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, "Fear not, I am the one who helps you."

Jacob is a worm and God still takes care of him. We are often worms and God still takes care of us. Israel has a future. God protects the Jew, despite all of the forces mustered against him.

Isa. 41:14 Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I am the one who helps you, declares the LORD; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

Isa. 41:15 Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff;

Isa. 41:16 you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the LORD; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

Isa. 41:17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the LORD will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

Isa. 41:18 I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

The acacia tree speaks of the humanity of Christ. The olive tree, used to represent the Holy Spirit.

Isa. 41:19 I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive. I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together,

the purpose of blessing Israel in the Millennium is not because Israel is any better than anyone else. There will be great evangelism in the Millennium. There will be many unbelievers and believers in the Millennium. People will look to Israel for salvation.

Israel is not blessed because Israel is better than anyone else, but because they are blessed of God and chosen of God.

Isa. 41:20 that they may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.

Idolatry will be judged. God calls for them to come forth and give their reasons. If Israel has any complaint about this, come and and defend yourself on the basis of the Word.

Isa. 41:21 Set forth your case, says the LORD; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.

Tell us what is going ot happen in the future. Tell me what idols have done in the past. Did idols bring Abraham into the land? Did idols lead the Jews across the Jordan and into the land.

Isa. 41:22 Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come.

Isa. 41:23 Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified.

Isa. 41:24 Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you.

Isa. 41:25 I stirred up one from the north, and he has come, from the rising of the sun, and he shall call upon my name; he shall trample on rulers as on mortar, as the potter treads clay.

There have been these wonderful promises from God, but none of these kings have received any of them.

Isa. 41:26 Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know, and beforehand, that we might say, "He is right"? There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words.

Isa. 41:27 I was the first to say to Zion, "Behold, here they are!" and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news.

Isa. 41:28 But when I look, there is no one; among these there is no counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer.

Isa. 41:29 Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.

Vv. 1–17 the first of the two servants. This is the successful one, Jesus Christ. Israel and the church are both called the elect; but this is Jesus Christ.

God the Father put the Holy Spirit upon Jesus Christ during His 1^st Advent. He depende dupon the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ

1. The Holy Spirit was agent of conception in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

2. The Holy Spirit was given to Jesus Christ without measure. John 3:34.

3. Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit and guided by the Holy Spirit. Matt. 4:1

4. Christ performed His miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit. Matt. 12:28 Acts 10;38

5. The Holy Spirit raised the humanity of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1Peter. 3:18 the deity of Jesus Christ needed no sustaining. But His humanity did. His deity was kept in restraint and He depended upon the Spirit from Hsi humanity.

V. 1 is a summary of the ministry of Jesus Christ. This is His 1^st and 2^nd advents.

Isa. 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, My chosen [My elect], in whom My soul delights; I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations [the Gentiles].

Jesus did not raise His voice until 12 noon, when our sins were poured upon Him.

Isa. 42:2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street;

there was tremendous pressure put upon Him. They all but killed Jesus Christ, but He had to get to the cross. He is portrayed as a faintly burning wick. Just a little life left in Him. He will bring forth justice unto truth. He provides a way for the human race to face the justice of God. The only reason anyone will stand as the last judgment is for the rejection of Christ.

Jesus Christ is immutable; the same yesterday, today and forever. He will not fail or be discouraged. He will not be rejected or discouraged by things in the way. He was not discouraged, even though many rejected Him.

Human beings get discouraged. We smarten up after awhile, and if we are repulsed and rejected enough, we move on. We get discouraged and move on with some other person or group of people. Even though Jesus Christ is rejected and others will have nothing to do with Him, He stays on the cross.

Isa. 42:3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.

The gentiles will wait on His law. Many Jews will reject Christ, but many gentiles will believe in Him and be saved.

Isa. 42:4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for His law.

This Servant is unique. Elohim Jehovah. He is God, in person and in essence. Christ the Creator is called the God and the Jehovah. He also stretched them out.

He gives breath to the people and He gives spirit to those who walk in the earth. Spirit refers to regeneration. He is Creator and Regenerator. The unbeliever is the soulish man; and the regenerate man is body, soul and spirit.

Isa. 42:5 Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:

His role as Servant. God the Father called Christ in righteousness. He is the only one with a perfect plan. It is impossible for man to have anything to do with this plan in terms of energy of the flesh. Phase III is grace through hope.

Christ fulfills the 4 unconditional covenants. He is the light to the Gentiles. Luke 1:78–79.

Isa. 42:6 "I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations,

this is deliverance from a hopeless situation. The situation is hopeless and Jesus Christ is the One Who provides.

Isa. 42:7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

God’s plan never includes idols or idolatry. God never gives His praise to images manufactured by man.

Isa. 42:8 I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.

God reveals His plan through prophecy. God keeps His Word and He declares His plan to man ahead of time. The Jews have a future, and it is connected to regeneration.

Isa. 42:9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them."

a response of praise. Singing is a legitimate means of worship and praise of God. Bob has been utterly shocked to read some of the junk in his hymnal; filled with such junk. He can only read a few hymns at a time because they are so terrible. If it does not jive with the Bible, it does not praise God. “Hear our prayer, O Lord” is ridiculous. You either are in fellowship or not. There is a lot of subtle and a lot of obvious errors.

There were established areas of worship. One of them was the Valley of Berachah. What about those who go down to sea? They sail on ships and sail away. You cannot use this passage and say, “I can go to the sea and worship; I don’t need to go to Berachah Church.”

Isa. 42:10 Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants.

Kedar is an Arabian desert. Many born-again Jews will be hiding out in the various mountains. The islands idiomatically speak of the gentiles on the periphery.

Isa. 42:11 Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the habitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the top of the mountains.

Isa. 42:12 Let them give glory to the LORD, and declare his praise in the coastlands.

When Jesus Christ returns, He will be a mighty warrior. He will stir up furry as a man of war. He will shout aloud against His enemies. Armageddon campaign.

Isa. 42:13 The LORD goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his zeal; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes.

Jesus Christ is holding back today. That long eared Ingersoll put a watch on the table and asked for God to strike him down. Once God starts sending out bolts of lightning, it is unclear where He would draw the line.

I will shout like a woman in labor and breathe and gasp. When a warrior is fighting, he will shout at one moment and hold his breath at another. He will move and act like a warrior. There is an army at His back, but He will do all the slaying.

Isa. 42:14 For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant.

Isa. 42:15 I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools.

Israel’s deliverance at the 2^nd advent. Christ will not bring the Jews back to the land. People who are blind and deaf are not good at housecleaning. Bob disparages Bobby’s housecleaning abilities. Blind and deaf persons make poor servants. There are those who do not hear because that is their choice.

Isa. 42:16 And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.

Isa. 42:17 They are turned back and utterly put to shame, who trust in carved idols, who say to metal images, "You are our gods."

Isa. 42:19 Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the LORD?

They see, but they observe not; they listen but they hear not. You cannot serve the Lord apart from knowing the Word of God.

Isa. 42:20 He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear.

God is pleased to magnify His law and to make it glorious. “You have magnified Your Word above Your name.” The only way to be a part of the plan of God is to know His Word. If Jesus Christ had not gone to the cross, the New Testament would not be written. Had He not come virgin birth and lived a life sinless, and had died and paid for our sins, and arose from the dead, the New Testament would not have been written and the Old Testament would not have stood as the Word of God. There is no canon of Scripture; there is no Word of God, unless Jesus Christ is a good servant. He had to go to the cross. The greater bulk of the Old Testament Scripture. All the Old Testament is the history of the Jew or doctrine pertaining the Jesus Christ. God honors His Word, and He keeps His Word. Jesus Christ wil magnify the Word, His Law; and make it glorious.

Isa. 42:21 The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify His law and make it glorious.

On the other hand, His people Israel are plundered and looted. They are disciplined. When we do not get the Word of God in our frontal lobes, we are disqualified for service and qualified for discipline only. There are several people who show up night after night, and they listen, but they do not take it in. Do not ever assume that when someone goes to Berachah Church that they have any clue. These are the ones who get on the panic button when things go wrong in their lives. There is none to rescue them and none to restore them.

Isa. 42:22 But this is a people plundered and looted; they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say, "Restore!"

Isa. 42:23 Who among you will give ear to this, will attend and listen for the time to come?

Ignoring the Word of God and idolatry are the sins involved here. They would not walk in His ways. They were defeated in battle by the Chaldeans. Even when the Jews were going down in the dust of defeat, the never took it to heart. 3 groups taken out, and finally, after all were removed, and they thought about it.

Isa. 42:24 Who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey?

Isa. 42:25 So he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.

Gentiles is what coastlines or isles refer to. When Gentiles heard the Word of God, they responded to it. Rom. 9:30–33 covers this: What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." Christ was the stumbling stone for the Jews because they were trying to be saved by works. Gentiles who did not seek salvation by works were saved if they believed in Him. Many Gentiles were saved in the Old Testament.

Usually, Jehovah refers to Jesus Christ. Gen. 3:15: I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." All members of the human race through physical birth and physical procreation are born inside the slave market of sin. Eph. 2:1 tells us the human race is dead in tresspasses and sin, so that no one can be saved by another slave. Only the virgin birth can bring the Savior into the world. Such a one must come into the world apart from a sin nature. This is the first title of Jesus Christ. Whoever redeems home sapiens must be born outside the slave market of sin. Jesus Christ was the only person qualified to go to the cross and die for our sins.

Jesus Christ is sovereign, absolute justice, love, omniscience, immutability, eternal life. He cannot change His deity into humanity. Jesus Christ cannot change and make himself. Honor code cannot change His sovereignty and be subservient to anyone. So He must become the God-man.

Heb. 2:14–15 Jesus will be victorious over Satan. Isa. 7:14: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Although the Hebrew word could go either way, the Greek word means virgin only. Heb. 10:5–10: Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired [animal sacrifices did not provide salvation; they looked forward to the cross], but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'" [the Old Testament text] When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law), then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Only His humanity is subject to death; only His humanity can be raised from the dead and only His humanity can ascend into heaven. His deity is as omnipresent as God the Father.

The background for this passage: Christ the successful servant; Israel the failing servant and Isaiah the failing servant. Jehovah has called Jesus from the womb.

There are two general Hebrew words for God; Elohim and Jehovah. The first refers generally to the Godhead and the second to a particular member of the Trinity.

Bob answers a question, saying you can always determine which member of the Trinity is found by the context.

Israel is the failing servant. God promises to judge the Jews in several ways: the Babylonia captivity, by bypassing the Jews and going directly to the Gentiles; and by having the Jews evangelized with Gentile tongues. God bypasses His servants when they do not His bidding.

Isa. 49:1 Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called Me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.

The servant is qualified. The mouth refers to the message of Jesus Christ. Jesus was protected by God the Father from His youth. An arrow is no good unless it is absolutely straight. Jesus Christ never wavered from perfection; He did ot sin, making Him qualified to go to the cross.

Isa. 49:2 He made My mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand He hid Me; He made Me a polished arrow; in His quiver He hid Me away.

Israel is another servant, but one who has failed completely. We have already studied Israel’s failure. Amazingly enough, God would be glorified by Israel. No matter how we fail the Lord, the Father is glorified. We do nothing for our salvation. All of the working is accomplished by God.

When we fail God, He is still glorified. He will turn cursing into blessing. However, only grace turns cursing into blessing.

Isa. 49:3 And He said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified."

Isaiah is very discouraged. He is not getting much response. People seem to divide ministers into two groups: successful ministers with a large congregation; and unsuccessful ones with a small congregation. But how can you judge someone like that? Noah preached for 120 years and only had a total flock of 8.

Bob is against 2 ministers meeting. A pastor’s conference is a dull place to be.

Isaiah is discouraged at this point. He feels as if no one is listening to him. Some ministers have a nervous breakdown because they try to give people time out of their life and counsel them. Any ministers who sympathizes with these types has made his first mistake. When a person merely comes for sympathy or to pour out a sad tale, it is something else. Isaiah possibly spent much of his ministry just listening to trouble.

One lady called Bob and insisted that she come to the hospital and prayer over her. Bob did not go. This woman understands the issues, faith-rest, etc; and she can handle it herself. Isaiah gives way to a little bitterness. “I have spend my strength for nothing.” There are phoney types, and this often goes on with believers who ought to know doctrine. And it is easy to get bitter about people.

There is emphasis that Isaiah’s ministry with its lack of results in the hands of the Lord. It is not up to us to evaluate our own ministries. It is only up to

Isa. 49:4 But I said, "I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God."

Jehovah the Father speaks here. He formed Isaiah. He is called to bring Israel back to God. When we find the name of Jacob, it reminds us that Jacob was somewhat of a loser believer. He had a twin, Esau. Long before they were born, Jacob I have love and Esau I have hated.

We have two words which sound similarly; lo which means not and another is to him. Proof of which one is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Isa. 49:5 And now the LORD says, He who formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob back to Him; and that Israel might be gathered to him-- for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength--

God will also gather up the Gentiles. Dispensation of the Gentiles, dispensation of the Jew, the Church Age; and the Millennium. The Bible does not say there are 7 dispensations, but merely that there are dispensations. Bob is going with a 4 dispensational teaching.

Isa. 49:6 he says: "It is too light [too little] a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

Now Jehovah again, and here is it Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of Israel. This is the only One Who can be called the Redeemer. When Jesus came the first time, He was despised of men; and abhorred by Israel.

In spite of all efforts to regather Israel and to put them into Palestine, they still remain scattered throughout the earth. They are still scattered and will remain scattered. This does not give the believer the right to persecute a Jew simply because he is a Jew.

Beware of anti-Semitism, which is just as false as Zionism. Some people are children when it comes to the cause of ills in the world; when they try to pin down all the evils in the world onto one group or one people—like the Jews or Communism. But the UN is just as dangerous and evil as Communism. Religious internationalism is evil as well.

Socialism is 100% evil and it never does any good. Whenever a federal agency decides to do your thinking for you and to limit your actions, it is evil.

If a person wants to become a bum, he should be allowed. The government should not step in and send him money.

Bob runs into people who are clear-thinking in one field, but then think that destroying the Jews will solve the evils of the world.

There is no end to evil. We might get rid of these two brothers (the Kennedy’s?), but there will be more still to take their place.

Putting all charities into one, like the United Way, is also evil. Some charities here are going to give to charities which are evil.

Isa. 49:7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."

3 servants, Christ, the successful servant; Israel, the failed servant; and Isaiah, the discouraged servant. V. 4 the discouraged servant. Vv. 5–6 we go back to the servant. The believer can go through many difficulties in life, but these difficulties are never designed to make the believer unhappy. He can have perfect peace and perfect happiness no matter what the problems in life. Isaiah got his eyes upon himself, as have many servants in the past; and he again gets the divine perspective.

Israel will have 70 years of discouragement. Isaiah ministered before this great discipline took place. He is teaching the people things to remember later on. The people would think that Israel is through. This passage is designed to help these Jews who will be scattered and discouraged; and this will help them know that they do have a future, even though that Israel has failed.

What is true of the Jews in the Babylonian captivity, so it will be for the Jews in the Tribulation. They will need to be occupied with Christ and use the faith rest technique.

No matter how difficult things get, God has provided for all of these difficulties. God has a purpose for the life of each believer.

Two restorations of Israel Vv. 7–17 restoration after the Tribulation. Vv. 18ff will deal with the restoration under Cyrus. We will now move into a maze of details. These details must be correlated properly with the overall topic.

Israel fails, but when it comes out of discipline, it will be better for it and become a better servant. Terrible persecution will come to Israel.

When we have the name Redeemer, then we are dealing with God the Son. Primarily, Jehovah is used with God the Son in the Old Testament.

Gentiles despised Him (the Roman rulers). Kings will see Him and rise up, which is as a matter of respect.

God will choose Israel. God will keep His Word to Israel. The first dispensation is the dispensation to the Gentiles. It is the period of the 4 divine institutions, which Satan attacks. Evangelism can only work when these 4 divine institutions exist.

Languages came into being at the Tower of Babel in order to maintain nationalism. God took a small nation, weak and helpless, and used it as His missionary base. No Scripture written until the time of the Jews. God also gave them 4 unconditional covenants. There are no string attached. As a nation, Israel was always terrible. They did not earn or deserve this.

To be a Jew is not enough; you must have eternal life, because the covenants all have eternal life clauses.

IF Israel is 70–80% unbelievers, then they cannot do very much by way of missionary activity.

When God is through with using us, then He will remove us, post-haste. The Jews have a right to be discouraged today because they have been scattered throughout the world. Satan is trying to get rid of all Jews on the earth.

Amillenialists are confused about the Jews. Anti-Semitism is Satan’s great scheme to remove the Jews from this earth.

Bob never knows when there are Jews around and not. What about these Jews who are being disciplined by God? Their only hope is to believe in Jesus Christ. If anyone ought to be persuaded, it ought to be a Jew. Every Jew is in a squeeze; divine discipline on one side and Satanic attacks on the other side. Jews are ignorant of the Old Testament as well. They might know something about when the Old Testament touches on something in their contemporary culture.

Once a person believes in Jesus Christ, he is no longer a Jew or a Gentile, but is in Christ. The middle wall of partition is broken down.

There is a strong anti-Semitism movement in this country right now; and, unfortunately, this is found in the conservative side. Sometimes we look for a pat solution, and some think this is getting rid of the Jews. There is no sense in trying to get rid of all the Jews because then Christ cannot return and fulfill the covenants to the Jews. The answer is always, “You must be born-again.” There is only one place in life where there is a simple solution, and that is salvation. Whenever man has to do something to solve something, the solution is not simple.

Isa. 49:7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and His [God the Father] Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."

in the acceptable time below, this is the Tribulation. This will be the cry of the Jew in the Tribulation. In the day of salvation or deliverance, Jesus Christ will help them. The 2^nd advent is the day of deliverance. The earth will never be stabilized without war until Christ fulfills the 4 unconditional covenants to Israel.

The lion lies down with the lamb and the weapons are beaten into plowshares when the Millennium comes.

Bob heard a Jewish missionary saying, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” It is impossible. This is to say, “We will skip the rapture; we will omit all that the Bible has to say about the Tribulation; and we will just skip along over to the Millennium. Let’s just skip all of this prophecy.” Let’s just bring in peace by putting all the Jews back into the land.

You do not pray to be filled with the Spirit nor do you pray for your sins to be forgiven. Those things are given to you in a different way. Do not go in for any organization which wants to bring all the Jews back to the land.

Isa. 49:8 Thus says the LORD: "In a time of favor I have answered you; in a day of salvation I have helped you; I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages,

God will provide them with out of the way places; those kinds of places still exist. We have gotten further and further way from the horse; and there are not many who can walk 20 miles a day as they could before.

Isa. 49:9 saying to the prisoners, 'Come out,' to those who are in darkness, 'Appear.' They shall feed along the ways; on all bare heights shall be their pasture;

Isa. 49:10 they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them.

Isa. 49:11 And I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be raised up.

The Jews will be scattered; the greater portion of them will be scattered. Bob has always been interested in Syene, which refers to China. This shows the great distance from which Jews will return from Palestine.

Isa. 49:12 Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Syene."

Jesus Christ now keeps His Word. He will fulfill His covenant to them. In the heavens, there will be the angels and the church; although they will return with the angels. Earth refers to believers on the earth.

Comforted means the God will restore. There is restoration to favor here. There is only one way that any Jew is restored to divine favor. In the Tribulation, this can only occur by faith in Jesus Christ.

Isa. 49:13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.

Isaiah is discouraged. Zion is a mountain which represents Israel. Israel is a photograph of the individual believer’s soul. How many times have you thought, the Lord has forsaken me? There is a trend of human nature. Those who say this are believers who have their eyes on self and have made their own trouble. The more we make our own trouble, the more that we blame it on others. We prefer to blame this on others.

In answer to this, there are two analogies. Is it possible for a woman for forget her child or can a tattoo be erased?

Isa. 49:15 "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

Isa. 49:16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

Isa. 49:17 Your builders make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.

Israel will not return shattered and beaten in the way that they left, but like a bride. The Jews left in rags and they will return adorn like a bride.

Isa. 49:18 Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you. As I live, declares the LORD, you shall put them all on as an ornament; you shall bind them on as a bride does.

The city is no longer in ruins; it will look beautiful. Their land of destruction—Nebuchadnezzar destroyed it. They will have a tremendous population in Israel. With prosperity is a tremendous increase in birthrate.

Isa. 49:19 "Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land-- surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.

Isa. 49:20 The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: 'The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.'

they lost everything. As captives, they were dragged all over the ancient world.

Isa. 49:21 Then you will say in your heart: 'Who has borne me these? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and put away, but who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; from where have these come?'"

God will command for the Jews to be let go. This is why Zionism is evil; God will do this for them. Zionism is to Israel what legalism to grace.

Isa. 49:22 Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.

The word to wait means to trust. The smae group which brought them out will bring them back. Cursing is turned to blessing.

Isa. 49:23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame."

Isa. 49:24 Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?

Isa. 49:25 For thus says the LORD: "Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.

Sweet wine is wine which is newly fermented and it is easy to become drunk with it. A little of it goes a very long way.

Disassociation with reality; overtaxing citizens; you kill the goose which lays the golden egg.

Isa. 49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

God is the Father, Israel is the mother and the Jews are the children. The Babylonian captivity is the divorce. Israel was the unfaithful wife who was sent away. Israel was faithless, even though God was faithful, even throughout the Babylonian captivity. The Jews do not possess a bill of divorcement because God has not and cannot desert them.

After the Babylonian captivity, the canon of Scripture will continue to be written. Discipline from God does not remove the purpose for which we believers continue to live on this earth. The believer’s purpose is terminated when he dies, and not before.

Often in the ancient world, a parent would sell one or more children into slavery (forbidden in Ex. 24? Neh. 5:5 2Kings ). God has not done this (it would violate His principles), but they have put themselves in the place themselves. They find themselves there because of their own iniquities.

People are always trying to blame someone else for their troubles. Often domestic problems begin by making one’s own partner the blame for your own problems. Each one blames the other. If you cannot blame your opposite number, you can blame someone in your vicinity. However, in captivity, these Jews have become upset and they blame God for being in captivity.

Learn to take responsibility for your own situation and for what you have done. The Jews had Moses as a patsy for 40 years. He received more criticism in 40 years than most leaders over 100 years. Moses is probably the #1 patsy in history. This is like a football coach; if the team loses, it is the coach’s fault; but if they win, then the team is good.

Isa. 50:1 Thus says the LORD: "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.

V. 2 will tell us why the Jews went into captivity. God made an appointment with them and they stood God up. God called many assemblies of worship; but they were all out there practicing idolatry. They should have been at the Tabernacle learning about Him; but they were off assembled to worship Baal. They stood God up. They did not respond to the gospel. The gospel was taught to Israel in every generation, but they did not respond to this call. They could not fulfill missionary activity until they had believed in Jesus Christ. No one can serve God before they are a believer.

The hands are often associated with God and His creation. The hands of Christ are associated with salvation, and with the cross (He showed His hands to Thomas Psalm 37:24). His hands are also shown in eternal security. The hands do things; they are active; they move; they are associated with production. Is My hand shortened that I cannot deliver? He provided salvation and eternal security for any who would believe in Him. The second question is whether Jesus has the power to deliver.

God made the river a desert; he dried up the Red Sea so the Jews could walk over dry-shod. Locator cards were not kept on the Jews when they were scattered. But God has kept track.

The fish stink because there is no water. Ex. 7:18, 21 is where this comes from.

Isa. 50:2 Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer? Is My hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.

God also has power in nature and He has the power to deliver them. Ex. 10:21–23 God is not lacking in power to deliver them spiritually or physically. It is most important to be delivered spiritually rather than physically.

The jailer, in the greatest crisis of his life, the earthquake and then the loss of prisoners, and this meant he would be first tortured and then killed. When he asks, “What can I do to be delivered?” He had picked up his sword to kill himself. It is easier to die quickly than to die slowly with torture. He was going to end it all. He was very upset. Paul and Silas told him to drop his sword. He was thinking about physical deliverance; but Paul answered him with spiritual salvation. And this salvation is not just for you but for your whole family. They should believe as well.

Spiritual deliverance is the most important. Bob is unconcerned about the situation at that time. People are buying food, or in a tizzy or think that they will die in war; or people have quit their jobs and have hauled their family elsewhere. How does it feel to have a gun righ there cocked and loaded. Cuba could launch a missile or 30 of them and take out 30 cities. There is nothing to be concerned about. The big thing in life is spiritual salvation.

This jailer probably believed and when he took Paul and Silas home, he was out of all of his jams. We could have Russian battalions and paratroopers dropping in on us.

If we went into captivity, then that might clarify our mission. We are to share that which is eternal; not that which is temporal.

There is no comparison when it comes to having a few missile bases destroyed compared, say, to eternal salvation or eternal damnation.

Since physical deliverance is far less important as spiritual deliverance, healing is not in the atonement. We do not get physically healed when we believe in Jesus Christ.

Isa. 50:3 I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering."

Isaiah has shown that God can deliver the Jews. What good is it to deliver the Jews if they just return as unbelievers and go back into their own idolatrous ways? The Jews were supposed to disseminate the gospel; but if they are unable to, due to unbelief, what good are they? If the Jews return unsaved, then nothing is accomplished.

Jehovah Elohim here refers to God the Father. The tongue of the learned is a powerfully intelligent message. Christ knew the importance His message. During His 1^st advent, He should be able to speak to the one who is weary and discouraged. Weary is not smply worried but disoriented. Jesus Christ dying on the cross is the only solution for the weary.

People always think that socialists mean what they say and the Communist will bring in a wonderful new world.

The National Counsel of churches has been telling us for years to get rid of our weapons.

Apparently the president gave a speech. He left several holes to walk out. He said that he would quarantine Cuba (meaning a blockade). This must have been Kennedy.

There are planes flying right toward Russia right this second; at every moment, someone is flying toward Russia with bombs, and when they get the message, they turn around. This is Strategic Air Command. When this man leaves his house in the morning, he cannot tell his wife where he is going or when he will be back; and some woman cannot get that.

The Word must be put forth first. The social gospel is always in the realm of physical deliverance. It is always the Calvary gospel which is what is important.

He awakens morning by morning. Jesus Christ in His incarnation, during His incarnation; He lived one day at a time. This is the only way for the believer to live. Look at the lillies in the field; one day at a time. If you live one day at a time, then you focus in on that day. Use this day. If God sees fit to give us another day, then fine, use that day. We should awaken with the Word. Start by reading the Word. Leland Wong, no Bible no breakfast. Spiritual food comes first.

Isa. 50:4 The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

The second view of Jesus Christ is the Man of Obedience. Jesus Christ listened to the instruction of the Father. God the Father had instructions each day. Philip. 2:8: He became obedient even to His death on the cross.

“Hey partner, stand up, you. Move right across the aisle.” Christ speaking from His humanity, “I was not rebellious.” He obeyed the Father’s will. “I did not turn around and run away from the cross.” Coming into contact with sin. The worst thing which cuold happen to Him was the cross, and still He faced it.

Isa. 50:5 The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward.

This means that He was a man of suffering. “I gave My back to those who strike me and my cheeks to those who pulled out My beard.” He did not withhold His face from disgrace and sptting. He was covered with their saliva. Luke 18

Isa. 50:6 I gave My back to those who strike, and My cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

He is a man of determination. Jesus Christ will help Me. He was not ashamed; He was not turned back. The flint here is an arrowhead. The target is the cross. I have set Myself toward the cross. He anticipates the crucifixion. But He also anticipates the resurrection, which will redeem Him from shame. When He is risen, He will have no shame.

Isa. 50:7 But the Lord GOD helps Me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

Jesus Christ is the one to vindicate. God the Father will vindicate Jesus Christ through His resurrection. Who can stand up in a courtroom and say, “Jews, I have sold you into slavery.” Jews will blame everything on God the Son. They will blame it on Jesus Christ. You cannot stand up with Him in a courtroom and say, “You deserted me.” Jesus Christ did not every desert His people. His death on the cross is the more horrible thing anyone could endure. If He did the most for us, obviously, he can do the less.

Jesus Christ died for those who whipped Him, for those who slugged Him with their fists; He died for those who nailed Him to the cross. Who can say, “You have deserted me”? No one in the Lake of Fire can ever say, “It is unfair. I did not have a chance.”

Bob knows how people will complain. When people come to him with a ferruled brow, he knows how they will complain. If you would like to face me in court, then let us stand together. None of the Jews during the Babylonian captivity or during the time of Christ could stand up against Him in court. Those who abused Jesus before the cross and on the cross, He died for.

Isa. 50:8 He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with Me? Let us stand up together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near to Me.

He is the One of the resurrection and judgment. Jehovah Elohim helps Him, means that He is resurrected. They will die and be tossed into the Lake of Fire. The moth and garment worn out all refer to time, and their time is up.

Isa. 50:9 Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

Two attitudes toward the Savior. The attitude of the believer is v. 10 and the attitude of the unbeliever in v. 11. Fearing in v. 10 refers to a reverential trust.

People tonite are afraid of a war. Bob looks forward to a war. He has seen them come and go. We have a war; so what? Many wonderful things come out of wars. People think there are deaths; and a few hundred thousand die; and a few million are born. In WW2 we now have a bulge going through the school system and the colleges.

Bob says that this earth is getting too crowded. People tend ot face reality in a time of war. People begin to wake up and realize. It brings people back to reality. Fear is one of the strongest expressions of reality. Here, however, it is spiritual faith. Lean upon God; use God as a prop. That is the attitude of the believer. The habitual use of the faith rest life.

Isa. 50:10 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.

In the ancient world, there were fire arrows. The Greeks and Persians used fire arrows. You first have to build a fire. There is pitch on the arrow, you dip the pitch portion into the fire, and then you shoot it. There is always the chance that you might get your fingers burned by the fire that you have build. Be careful where you build a fire because you may get burned by your own fire.

After Nebuchadnezzar’s death, they attempted to kill the Jews. They build the fire for Shadrack, Abendego, etc. But they got burned. They tried to destroy the Jews and they were the ones who got burned.

Isa. 50:11 Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches [you arm yourselves with burning arrows]! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled [the sparks will pop out and burn you]! This you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment [you will fall down in terrible pain].

A few points of introduction. There are 4 general dispensations. Bob covers dispensations. Man under innocence, man with a conscience and man under nationalism. All that we are dealing with is the Age of Israel. The cross catches Israel 7 years short of completing their dispensation.

The 3 kinds of Israel: racial, religious and regenerate. A racial Jew is any Jew with the genes of Abraham. There is no such thing as a pure Jew. A racial Jew is anyone with the smallest portion of Abraham’s genes. Regenerate Israel are those Jews who are born again.

We are the people of God today. There will be application to us in the midst of this doctrinal discourse. Israel has been dispersed since 70 a.d. and will continue to be dispersed until Christ returns. Only He can bring the Jews back into the land.

in interpreting this passage, we are looking at the Age of Israel. Isaiah’s message will provide comfort for the Jew. His message were a great source of encouragement. They knew that they would be delivered. Bob will skip from Isaiah’s day to a future day in the Tribulation. The application is apropos for tonite. Many of us are discouraged by the economic situation or by business conditions. There are many things which discourage believers today. The principle is just as true today; no matter how difficult things are, there is always the faithfulness of God. He turns cursing into blessing. If we do not have that comfort and peace, we are not applying doctrine or we do not know how to get it.

Hearken is apparently the cut off for these sections in vv. 1, 4, and 7. There is also the phrase awake, awake. 3 times we are told to listen and 3 times we are told to wake up.

Vv. 1–3 encouragement of the Jewish race. When God starts something, He will finish it. This should encourage the Jews. Application: if God begins a good work in us, then He will follow through with it. He will provide for us forever. He started something with us.

Right now, although we are set up for eternity, We find ourselves in time, and God will deal with us in time. He has provide the basis or comfort and encouragement.

We begin with the command to listen. The Hebrew verbs are much different from the Greek’s. the Qal stem is a basic declarative, active voice. Niphal is a declarative passive voice. Hithpael is a declarative reflexive. Then we have intensive stems: Piel is an intensive active voice; Pual is intensive passive voice. Hiphil is causative active voice and Hophal which is causative passive voice.

Intensive listening if it was Piel; Pual stem would be that you are speaking and others are listening intently to you. Hiphil means that you caused someone to come and listen in Bible class.

This is a command to believe in Jews and not to be discouraged. Rom. 9 tell us that most Jews did not pursue the right kind of righteousness. What should we say then? That the Gentiles which did not pursue righteousness of the Law, have attained righteousness; yet the Jews who pursued the righteousness of the Law did not attain righteousness.

The Jews here pursued righteousness based upon faith. To pursue righteousness means to pursue Christ and to believe in Him. There comes a time in the life of every normal person, when he reaches God consciousness, which is equivalent to the age of accountability. At this point, he either throws up negative signals, which means God does not have to speak to him; and if he throws up positive signals, then God must reach him with the gospel.

Isa. 51:1 "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.

The Jews were cut out from a rock, which is out of Abraham. Abraham had no possible way by which to start the Jewish race. Sarah was barren. When God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, he had to leave his father and his father’s house; and he should have separated himself completely.