Destination: Isaiah 1-39 | Skip Heitzig

[Music] these are the Golan Heights of northern Israel over my shoulder is the nation of Syria and we are just under 40 miles from the capital city of Damascus this brings to mind the road then a man named saul of tarsus once walked on during a mission to persecute believers but our plan on the Bible from 30,000 feet brings us to another major personality of the Bible now let's look over part of one of our flights in the Book of Isaiah [Music] the Book of Isaiah contains 66 chapters that parallel the whole Bible Isaiah uses the term salvation 26 times a word found here more than in any other prophetic book I'd like you to turn in your Bibles tonight to the Book of Isaiah and I want to begin with a little story that is somehow a bit humorous and a little bit convicting there was a preacher years ago named Harry Ironside and some of you've heard of him and read some of his commentaries well he was meeting with the group of pastors one morning and they were discussing what they did for their devotions that day and so one pastor said I read Psalm whatever it was another one said I read proverbs whatever it was and they came to Ironside and they said what did you read for your devotions this morning he said Isaiah and they said great Isaiah chapter what he goes know Isaiah the whole book I read all 66 chapters to begin my day okay well like you beat us all now you're like the most spiritual ever but that's I mean it's quite a chunk even to do it from the Bible from 30,000 feet is a daunting task and we're only going to cover a portion of the book tonight the first 39 chapters and 40 through 66 next week we've finished the historical books of the Bible we have finished the poetical books of the Bible now we are into the prophets and we come to thee Shakespeare of all prophets the prophet Isaiah and this is a fascinating book and because it's so vast and I do hope that you have taken the time to at least read some of the key chapters if not the whole book in a week I know that even seems like a lot for a week but we're just gonna skim and cover some of the highlights so that you get the flow of the book and how it fits in the rest of the Bible but back in 1971 there was a mission to the moon called the Apollo 14 mission it was the third time they landed on the moon and one of the astronauts brought a Bible the first time ever a Bible was brought to space it was a King James miniature Bible on microfilm 2 inches by 2 inches square it had been reduced 62,000 times its original size but all 66 books of the Bible were placed in this tiny little package and brought to the moon some people believe that Isaiah is the literary version of that little analogy that I just gave you that is the whole Bible can be seen in one book The Book of Isaiah there are 66 books in the Bible how many chapters are there in Isaiah 66 chapters the Old Testament is 39 books the New Testament has 27 books that's interesting because Isaiah naturally breaks exactly the same way the first 39 chapters have an emphasis the last 27 chapters have an entirely different emphasis so much so that some people believe two different authors wrote them we'll get more into that later the first 39 chapters which we want to cover tonight the main focus is condemnation and then the last part of the book the last 27 chapters is about consolation so from condemnation to consolation so once again the first 39 chapters are all D'Annunzio Torrey the last twenty-seven are all conciliatory the first 39 chapters the emphasis is on government and law this should start ringing some bells and the last 27 the emphasis is upon love and upon grace also here's another interesting fact in line with that illustration Isaiah chapter 40 which is what we would say is the New Testament portion of the Book of Isaiah opens up with the description that is given to John the Baptist as you the Gospels comfort yes comfort my people the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the ways of the Lord's very many interesting parallels as we go through now the book of Isaiah the prophet Isaiah is the most often quoted prophet of anyone else that is quoted in the New Testament 21 different times Isaiah the prophet is mentioned and quoted in the New Testament Jesus himself begins his ministry in Nazareth with a quote out of the book of Isaiah chapter 61 the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor that's how he starts his ministry by quoting the prophet Isaiah Isaiah is called the messianic prophet because there is so much emphasis on the Messiah on Jesus because of chapters like chapter 7 of Isaiah the Emmanuel prophecy chapter 9 which speaks about the birth of Christ chapter 53 the atonement etc he's called the messianic prophet because so much of his prophecy centers around Jesus by the way the name Isaiah means God's salvation or salvation of God his Hebrew pronunciation would be a Chou so you can say that when you go home tonight we studied the book of Esau and that's the book of Isaiah by the way salvation will be mentioned 31 times in this book this is the only book in the Bible to give Satan the name Lucifer or bright one light bearer Lucifer and it's one of two books in the Old Testament that described the actual fall of Satan from times past now I did mention that some people say that there are two authors let me just give you the rundown on this there's a theory and I bring it to your attention because some of you've heard of it and you've questioned it called the deutero Isaiah theory that not one but two authors wrote the book that chapters one through 39 is one guy and then a whole different guy around 540 BC after the captivity wrote chapters 40 through 66 that's one theory there's even another theory that called the tree toe Isiah theory that there are three different authors because of stylistic differences in the book so chapters 1 through 39 is Isaiah one by one guy Isaiah 2 or deutero Isaiah is chapter 40 through 55 and then 56 from 66 is 3 Isaiah by 3 different people and yes there are even more theories than that of several different authors adding to it so who really did write this book of Isaiah glad you asked the question that's a question I aim to answer next week as we finish out this book we see got to bring you back somehow Isaiah the prophet ministered for 50 years he had a good long season of ministry through five kings of Judah all which are mentioned in verse 1 of chapter one a little bit of tradition we don't know if it's true but according to the best tradition the last King Manasseh that he was ministering during his reign tradition says that Manasseh took Isaiah the prophet and pushed him into a hollow log and had the log sawn into and that's how he died as a martyr sawn in two while he was alive until dead he bled out in that log because Isaiah dared to point the finger at this idolatrous wicked King and indict him and the nation with idolatry now if that's the case no doubt this is what the writer of Hebrews had in mind when he writes in Hebrews 11 verse 37 they were stoned they were sawn in two they were tempted and they were slain with the sword last night I was reading through a book it was the Dead Sea Scrolls it's a translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and I thought you know I want to go through these again it's been a while and in studying about them and in reading some of the literature that comes from the Dead Sea Scrolls it dawned on me that the greatest discovery perhaps was the 24 foot long scroll of Isaiah the prophet that can be seen today in the shrine of the book in Jerusalem and is taken out to different parts of the world on display in some museums 24 foot long one solid long scroll of Isaiah now why was this fine so important here's why get this up until 1947 when the scrolls were discovered the earliest manuscript we had of Isaiah in the Old Testament dated from 895 a.d a.d but suddenly in 1947 this little bedouin kid throws a rock in a cave here's a breaking jar goes up finds scrolls it happens to be the Book of Isaiah that had been written around 200 BC so suddenly we have a book of the Bible that's eleven hundred years older than the oldest manuscript that we have the Ben Asher codex from Cairo Egypt we have a book it's eleven hundred years older than the oldest manuscript that we base our Old Testament on the Masoretic text but here's what is the best part of it the Dead Sea Scrolls the best part isn't what they found it's what they didn't find and what they didn't find is they compared this eleven hundred year earlier manuscript with our up to that date earliest manuscript they didn't find errors they found no errors they found eleven hundred years of perfect scholarship and copying eleven hundred years removed in fact only nine letters in the entire Book of Isaiah were different from one manuscript to another now you could say well that testifies to the brilliance and the scholastic abilities and the determination and commitment of the scribe certainly it does but also to the hand of God upon them year after year after year after year as those documents were copied down well tonight we have time to only look at the first 39 chapters which is a chunk and we're gonna fly over a lot of it but after all we're a 30,000 feet so we want to look at condemnation I'm gonna give you a brief outline you can write it down here's how this first part chapters 1 through 39 breaks down number 1 the condemnation of Judah that's the southern kingdom the condemnation of Judah that's chapters 1 through 12 number 2 the condemnation of the other nations that's chapters 13 through 23 number 3 the condemnation of Judah and Israel together woes and warnings and that's chapters 28 through 35 and number 4 the condemnation of Sennacherib you're going please don't make me write that word down okay right Assyria then Assyria that's the nation that that King was in charge of the condemnation of Assyria or its King Sennacherib and that's chapters 36 through 39 now if you just listen carefully to the outline I gave you you're going wait a minute you left some chapters out you left out chapters 24 25 26 and 27 and you would have caught that if you were really listening well and writing that down you can see that now in your notes so you're saying what what happened there here's what happened there's this little parenthesis that we call here it is Isaiah's little apocalypse Isaiah's little apocalypse where he takes a break and he speaks about a way future series of judgments and glory that we have not yet seen but that is coming that's his little apocalypse so that's a brief outline of we're going tonight oh by the way you should know this and we'll see it in the next several weeks there's a noticeable feature about prophecy I don't want you to miss it otherwise it'll be very confusing prophets when they look to the future often saw things that would happen very shortly let's call that the immediate fulfillment to the prophecy and they could see that what they're saying is going to happen very soon but what they see is a template or a model or a grid that they could put up to the distant future because what happens here is going to happen again they're in a greater scale so you have a prediction of the abomination of desolation and that's in the Book of Daniel and they can see that that's going to happen in the future but that's going to be a template for a greater abomination of desolation that Jesus talks about that hasn't happened historically but that will happen in the future so prophets were like guys with bifocals you know when you have bifocals how many have bifocals how many be honest I do I have a contact that goes there and one that goes here and if you if I take them out and I have to wear these graduated lenses I can focus on something up close and then as I look up the lenses adjust in the top of the glass so I can see in the distance prophesy sort of works like spiritual bifocals you'll see something up close but as you take what you're seeing and move it up into the horizon it's a template for some greater fulfillment in the future so let's look at chapter 1 of Isaiah and chapters 1 through 12 remember it's the condemnation on the nation of Judah verse 1 the vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of uzziah jotham ahaz Hezekiah kings of Judah thus begins a series of sermons by Isiah denouncing condemning Judah for its sins now this prophet Isaiah did not just foretell the future he was very socially active this prophet he was a reformer we would call him a social reformer so when he writes it's not all foretelling the future it's sometimes a fourth telling of the failure of the people of Judah saying things like wait a minute who are you guys trusting anyway why are you making foreign alliances with Assyria or Syria or Egypt you need to trust God instead of some army the arm of the flesh and a lot of his prophecy is about not trusting men but trusting in the Lord okay Isaiah's primary ministry as stated in verse one is to the south is to Judah is to Jerusalem he's living in Jerusalem he's walking the streets of Jerusalem he's giving his messages to the Jerusalemites and the people of Judah however he will include Israel and he will include other nations around the world and eventually he'll include the earth primary the South Judah I'm gonna refresh your memory most of you are now biblically astute and aware and you know this because we've covered it by the time he writes the nation is divided the nation is divided there's not one United Kingdom there's not twelve tribes that love each other and then one solid government it's split in two Jeroboam and Rehoboam years earlier after Solomon split the kingdom now there's ten northern tribes we call the nation of Israel two southern tribes under the nation of Judah yeah Judah and Benjamin that's the south in and around the environment of Jerusalem okay here's the background very important 150 years before Isiah was born the kingdom of Assyria was already gaining strength and taking over the world slowly and the northern kingdom 150 years before Isaiah was born was already trying to work deals with Assyria to pay them off so that they wouldn't attack Israel the ten northern tribes it didn't work it backfired by the time Isaiah the prophet had been born it was a young man Assyria had already attacked the ten northern tribes and taken some of them captive by the time Isaiah the prophet entered the ministry and became a prophet the ten northern tribes had already fallen to Assyria in 722 BC and by the time he's ministering in Jerusalem in the full swing of the Book of Isaiah the Assyrians are sweeping down into Judah conquering 46 of their cities and marching against Jerusalem that's the background of the book that happens during these five kings and their reign so Assyria is this huge threat and it's very important especially in the first thirty nine chapters verse two you saying you're gonna cover thirty nine chapters boy no way watch here oh heavens and give ear o earth for the Lord has spoken I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me the Ox knows its owner the donkey its master's crib but Israel does not know my people do not consider alas sinful nation a people laden with iniquity a brood of evildoers children who are corrupters they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel they have turned away backward notice here's a guy who doesn't mind calling sin sin not a mistake not a product of your environment not on this half it's sin it can be dealt with you have a God who hates sin but who loves you and there's a remedy verse 12 when you come to appear before me who has required this from your hand to trample my courts bring no more futile sacrifices incense is an abomination the new moons the Sabbath's the calling of assemblies I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting your new moons your appointed feasts my soul hates they are a trouble to me I am weary of bearing them now you might think wait a minute God you're the very one who instituted these festivals feasts prayers etc was your idea it was your revelation yeah but you know what here's the principle god never separates the worship that you bring from the worshiper who brings it he looks at the life not just the act of worship not just the smooth golden tongued prayer or preaching or feast or festival but he looks at the heart and he notices there is a discrepancy verse 15 when you spread out your hands I will hide my eyes from you even though you make many prayers I will not hear your hands are full of blood so here they are merrily going to church we would say in a New Testament context going to worship in the Old Testament context going through the ritual of the feast and the sacrifice is in the blood that is sacrificed in the prayers with the hands lifted up oh we love you Lord all the while all they're doing is rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic that's all they're doing every week in their worship they're just rearranging the decks on the deck of the chairs on the Titanic it's going down there nation is going down eventually we'll be taken into Babylonia not a Syrian captivity and so he denounces them but look at verse 18 come now and let us reason together says the Lord though your sins are as scarlet they shall be white as snow they though they are red like crimson they shall be as wool so the next several chapters are a series of these kinds of sermons now I don't know if you've noticed this so if you haven't I want I want you to notice it if you have a modern translation NIV new King James new American Standard you notice that the structure so far of the Book of Isaiah is poetic it's poetic it's it's written in Hebrew parallelism stanzas okay like the poetical books the Prophet writes and speaks in a very poetic fashion now that's important keep that in mind because when we get to a historical interlude later on it goes from poetry to prose because he's telling a story its historic not prophetic and then when he switches back to the prophetic it's the same kind of rendition on the page of your Bible it's set out and stanzas in Hebrew parallelism so there's a series of these sermons in the first 12 chapters where God denounces the sins of the leaders the sins of the people and I want you to look now at chapter 5 in one of these sermons one of the most famous and it's one of the sermons on the fruitless vineyard verse 1 now let me sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard my well beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful Hill that must be Mount Zion in Jerusalem and God gave every opportunity for the nation to bear fruit he dug it up and cleared out at stones and planted it with the choicest vine he built a tower in its midst he made a winepress in it he expected it to bring good fruit or good grapes but it brought forth wild grapes and now all inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judged pleased between me and my vineyard and the rest of the chapter chapter 5 the sins are listed that he's asking them to judge look judge for yourselves any less immorality drunkenness materialism etc just to paint a black picture until we get to chapter 6 here comes the change because God is sending Isaiah at this time a young man has the profit to make a difference this is his calling now when God calls him he gives them a vision and people that they need a real vision of God through the Word of God why are we studying the Bible to get nothing less than a pure wholly true vision of God because nothing will prepare us for service than seeing who God really is verse 1 in the year that King Uzziah died at 739 BC by the way after 52 good years of reign as a king in the year King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up and the Train of his robe filled the temple above it stood Seraphim each one at six wings so this is very interesting there's no King on the throne the people are panicking Isaiah's really bummed out because you saya was great and he brought spiritual reform and he was the spiritual catalyst and so he must be thinking there's no king on the throne we're doomed and God wants Isaiah to know that there might not be a king on the throne but it really doesn't matter who's in office politically let me tell you who's on the throne ultimately and that is God and that's good to remember in an election here because some of you are going to vote and I hope all of you vote but some of you are gonna vote and after after the election you're gonna be bummed out some of you will because not all of you are probably going to vote the same and I'm not going to tell you exactly who to vote for but what I want you to know is no matter who gets elected God is on the throne so if you're tempted to think oh no we're doomed my candidate didn't get in boy are you needing this vision you need the big picture it's not all about us it's not all about America in fact one of the most disturbing things to me is the absence of America in prophetic literature that's another Bible study above it stood Seraphim each one had six wings with two he covered his face so he wouldn't look directly god those two he covered his feet to acknowledge his loneliness with two he flew that service and one cried to another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory theologians call this the tri Hege on the thrice holy God could it imply the Trinity perhaps it certainly emphasizes the character that God is holy and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out so if you think our PA system is loud you you wouldn't like heaven in this vision because it was it shook the posts the house was filled with smoke so God had his own smoke machine that was quite a show so I said I said woe is me for I am undone because I'm a man of unclean lips I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king the Lord of hosts then one of the Seraphim means burning ones this angelic being flew to me having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar the altar is where sacrifices were made where sin was dealt with and he touched my mouth with it ouch no fun I didn't Bank on this in my worship service I come to worship and I get a coal in my mouth it's burning why because he said woe is me I'm a man of unclean lips so God deals with the very area where Isaiah needs to be worked on cleanse repented of behold this has touched your lips your iniquity is taken away your sin is purged special cleansing is needed before special service can begin also I heard the voice of the Lord saying whom shall I send and who will go for us interesting to unravel that then I said Here I am send him no no that's what some of us say today who will go Lord I'm right over here and I'm praying for that guy and and he's gonna go and I'm gonna support that guy it's another thing to go I'll be the guy Here I am Lord send me so he begins his ministry now chapter 7 and chapter 9 are some of the most beautiful prophecies of the coming Messiah Emmanuel a son is born a son is given they predict Messiah's birth and reign and know that these prophecies though they speak about the Messiah are couched in local predictions that Isaiah was dealing with in his time chapter 7 verse 14 the Lord Himself will give you a sign behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son that's such a familiar prophecy we'll skip over that because we've dealt with it on a number of occasions in chapter 8 is the birth of Isaiah's second son and I'm bringing it up because it's it's the longest name of anybody in the Bible the name of Isaiah's second son is Mahesh a lotta hush Bozz so once again parents if you're looking for unusual Bible names for your children this would be your ticket my hair shall all hajj baz was his name and it meant to hasten the spoil speed up the booty or the taking of the spoil of war that would happen - in other words judgment is coming soon and they're gonna wipe you guys out chapter 9 verse 6 is that famous unto us a child is born unto us a son is given the government will be upon his shoulder etc etc again we've covered that now I'm selecting a few of these examples and I want to sum it up by this statement listen to it it's by John Phillips one moment Isaiah's book is black with thunder and darkness of the storm and the next the rainbow shines through and he sweeps readers on to the Golden Age that lies ahead I think he does a beautiful job explaining what seems like mr. Toad's Wild Ride in the Book of Isaiah Messiah is going to be born I'm gonna have a son with a weird name then Jesus is gonna come and then in a just goes all over the place and he's giving you that variety chapter 11 verse 1 is another beautiful prediction in the midst of all of the summons of judgment and sin that is given in these 12 chapters there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots ooh how picturesque the tree of David almost totally chopped off the kings of Judah will come to an end with the captivity God promises the bloodline is even cursed some of you will remember and just when it looks like that tree will never spring back a little bud will pop up out of that trunk out of that chopped off stump a root and that is Christ the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him personal pronoun the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord again Isaiah's name means salvation of God and Isaiah likes to point to God's salvation all throughout this book chapters 13 through 23 is the second condemnation and this is the condemnation of the nations that are around Israel nine nations are mentioned and I have covered these chapters in depth it took me weeks and months to do so but all of them know this all of these nations are somehow connected with Israel and usually they are condemned because of how they treated Israel if they treated Israel poorly you're gonna get punished you treat it as real well you'll be blessed that's a scriptural principle so chapter 13 verse 1 the burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw did you know that next to the City of Jerusalem the city of Babylon is mentioned more in the Bible than any other city first mentioned Jerusalem highest number of hits second babblin second highest number of hits chapter 14 judgment against Assyria and Philistia where the Philistines lived on the coast of Israel chapter 16 to the east Moab chapter 17 to the north Damascus chapter 18 way to the south and to the east or west Ethiopia chapter 19 prophecy or burden against Egypt chapter 21 Babylon again is highlighted to be doomed along with Edom chapter 23 tyre the city of tyre up in Lebanon you know Solomon did say there's nothing new Under the Sun right all these nations around Israel that hassle them guess what that they're still doing it you know I read about Lebanon here tyre and and all these judgments because of the way they treated Israel just two years ago they lob missile after missile after missile after missile over the border to provoke his rule to war there's nothing new Under the Sun so here's a question why does God allow Isaiah to write all of these chapters against the enemies of Israel you think what's the point because you and I when we start reading we go I'm tired I'm done I get it because if you were Jewish especially if you were in captivity and you thought it's over you would read these chapters and they would give you assurance that your God is in charge and your God is a plan for your nation that he established that'd be very important to you to read these kind of denunciations Zechariah minor prophet he writes whoever touches Israel touches the apple of God's eye now I want to bring something up because if you're an astute reader especially if you have a penchant for fairness you're gonna ask a very natural question you're gonna go hold on now why would God judge these nations when God predicts himself that God will use these nations to spank his people Israel Israel sinned God said I'm going to bring these nation against you then as soon as they come they go old man you shouldn't have come against em now I'm gonna get you you go uhh I don't get that part well let me give you example let's say I break into your house don't worry it's not in me I won't do it but let's say I break into your house ok you see me breaking into your house you call the police to arrest me and to protect you while the police are there protecting you by arresting me they notice that you're growing marijuana in your backyard and you happen to have the Mona Lisa above your fireplace in your living room that you stole from the Louvre well what's going to happen now you're under under arrest now you're in trouble because though what I did what is wrong what you did is also wrong and there's a level of justice that will be meted out to both parties that's sort of how all this is working out if you'll forgive the sort of lame illustration I hope it helps verse a chapter 23 would you go to chapter 23 verse 1 the burden against tyre now again tires a little coastal city that at that time was quite large in modern-day Lebanon wael you ships of tarshish that's out in the western Mediterranean and Portugal the Phoenicians would go back and forth to tyre for it is laid waste so that there is no house no harbour from the land of Cyprus it is revealed to them be still you inhabitants of the coast land you merchants of Sidon whom those who cross the sea have filled chapter 23 goes on to predict the fall of Tyre ok guess what what happened to tyre ok it was predicted that it was it would fall right guess what happened to tyre yet it fell it fell not once it fell not twice it fell five times after this was predicted but it's that fifth time that I just want to tickle your historical imagination with because here at Purdue it's going to fall the prophet Ezekiel also predicts it will fall but listen to this listen to this this is Ezekiel chapter 26 verse 4 God says I will also scrape her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock ok so Isaiah says tyre you're going down God says not only are you going down to Ezekiel the Prophet I'm gonna scrape you like the dust so you have a like like the clean making the type of a rock clean ok the 5th time it was taken it was taken by a very aggressive ruler named Alexander the Great Alexander the Great's dad was Philip of Macedon Philip of Macedon had a son that he was worried about named Alexander because you know he thought he's not gonna really become much he didn't look like he has much promise so Philip of Macedon hired a personal tutor by the name of Aristotle to train young Alexander Alexander was a bookworm a visionary not a fighter until his dad was murdered by the Medes and the Persians this did something and he snapped inside and he decided after that I'm gonna take up my father's cause he moves with an army westward very rapidly toward medo-persia to avenge his father's death on the way he stops a tyre he attacks the city of Tyre he attacks them because he wants supplies from them to continue his journey they won't give him the supplies Alexander the Great knows that he can't attack them with a navy because the people who are inhabiting the city of Tyre were Phoenicians and they were known for their military conquests at sea ok I mentioned it was taken five times right I'm dealing with the fifth time right Alexander the Great go back in time just a moment ok keep this follow me go back in time when the Babylonians years before conquered the city of Tyre on the Seacoast the people of Tyre after the conquest decided to rebuild their city not on the coast but move their entire city to a little island that was there one half a mile out to sea so now they're living on a little island with walls around it protected by their ships by their fleets Alexander the Great comes seas where the city used to be seas where the people are now living decides I'm not gonna attack them on this island with ships so what he does is he takes all of the previously laid ruins and basically literally scrapes the city for landfill material and builds a causeway a jetty a half a mile out to sea so he can walk with his army after scraping the old ruins clean for landfill and marches out and takes the city that's how literally that was filled now I'm bringing that up because when you start dealing with prophecy this is why it's good this is why it encourages us because if if anybody with half a brain reads it they go you know what if God said something was going to happen and it's been fulfilled that accurately that many times with the odds stacked like that against it if that happened so accurately then all of the things God said would yet happen in the future I don't need to worry about them I don't need to think well maybe that won't come true maybe it's not literal no maybe you can just like rest and relax and hang out and trust the gods really in charge and what he said is going to come to pass but know this God himself used his prophecy as his calling card to separate himself between all the other gods of the world and himself the unique and only true God Isaiah 46 reveals this beautiful prophecy or word from the Lord I am God and there is no other I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done now this takes us to chapters 24 through 27 which if you remember when I gave you the outline I said was parenthetical and we call it Isaiah's little apocalypse Isaiah now does this he's been riding kind of like this okay very local and then sort of widening out the scope of his prophecies to other nations now he goes like this he was way way out and he predicts something on a global scale and he speaks about global destruction the earth all of the earth being involved and then after a period of judgment on the earth a great Kingdom Age in chapters that follow chapter 25 26 etc so this fits I believe in my theology in my eschatology it fits right in there in the book of Revelation chapters 6 through 20 the day of the Lord the Tribulation Period followed by the Millennial Kingdom chapter 24 verse 1 behold the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste distorts its surface and scatters abroad its inhabitants the earth mourns and fades away the world languages and fades away the haughty people of the earth languish I hope I don't offend anybody about what I'm about to say but for a while now the last several years environmentalists have chosen to speak very definitely about the planet Earth by words like mother earth mother nature failing to thank God who's the creator remember what Paul says in Romans they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed for evermore there is a type of environmental atheism that says God is in everything and God is everything and don't hurt Mother Earth because it's really where we're all from and it's it's this it's an alternate worship system there's even Earth Day where people convene all over the earth to worship their God the earth their mother the progenitor of their life well know this in the tribulation period in the Tribulation Period God will destroy their God all of that to say this if you think we've trashed the earth and I'll admit I think we have not been great caretakers of it but if you think we've ruined it way do you see what God does with it well you read the Tribulation Period how God utterly trashes and decimates the earth he made and very drastic and it causes people to wail and moan because their only hope is taken away and we start understanding the whole reason for that kind of judgment verse 19 chapter 24 the earth is utterly broken down the earth is split open the earth is moved exceedingly the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard and be removed like a cottage the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and it shall fall and not rise again one of the things we have learned over the last century is that our solar system is not a peaceful place it's very violent you look at the surface of the Moon the lunar surface is is as pegged in and and and and it's beat up because of the meteorite activity upon it and you can't if you go say if you look at the moon you can't because it's a waning crescent tonight but when it gets to bigger it gets to be like a waxing gibbous in a couple weeks and you can look through a high-powered telescope or a pair of binoculars and you can see those huge craters and you don't have to even go to the moon you can just go west out to the Barringer crater in Arizona and it shows a violent past on the earth how that a relatively small meteorite hit planet Earth and created this large hole one mile wide 570 feet deep what happens when in the Tribulation Period God starts pelting the earth what that will be like in Revelation that says great hail front fell from heaven it fell upon men in each hail stone weighed one Talent 125 pound blocks of ice that's a hailstorm they're gone too an old ice house remember there's 25 pound block size imagine if one fell on you now imagine 125 pounds falling the kind of devastation he said why would God stone the world you know your Bibles what's the punishment that God gave for blasphemy in the Old Testament stoning these worshippers these hardened people who worshipped false gods God himself in the tribulation period is highlighted here just highlighted only by Isaiah will be destroyed chapter 25 to 27 is o is a welcome shift it's the kingdom age its songs of praise that I believe fit perfectly after the Tribulation Period chapter 6 verse 20 I'm just gonna highlight a couple verses come my people enter your chambers and shut your doors behind you hide yourself as it were for a little moment until the indignation is passed for behold the Lord comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity the earth will also disclose her blood and will no more cover her slain go down to verse 2 chapter 27 verse 6 those who come I believe this is going to be the kingdom age those who come he shall cause to take root in Jacob that's the Land of Israel Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit now today Israel amazingly is doing this in part but just in part they have taken since 1948 four hundred and eight thousand cultivatable acres and now there's over 1 million acres that are productive it's the 4th largest producer in the world for citrus fruit that little tiny speck called the nation of Israel in the Millennium it will be fruitful and perhaps he's speaking about the fruit of righteousness and peace or it could be literal as well now third chapters 28 through 35 is the condemnation remember that's the theme of the first thirty nine chapters a condemnation on both Judah and Israel north and south woes and warnings are given and there are six specific woes that are given to these two nations now whenever you read whoa well if you're on a horse what does whoa mean mean stop and that's the way I like to look whenever I read whoa in the Bible I go whoa stop consider this and Israel is going down a path and God says whoa wo e but it should be like whoa stop don't go down that path turn around stop because if you don't whoa and you keep going down it'll be really whoa and in the in the Hebrew by the way whoa is o so God sees what they're doing goes i verse 1 of chapter 28 whoa Oy to the crown of pride the drunkards of Ephraim that's that's an eat euphemism for the ten northern tribes all under that large tribe Ephraim whose glorious beauty is a fading flower which is at the head of the verdant valleys to those who are overcome with wine now he warns them not to go down to Egypt to make an alliance with them and the next several chapters he goes look don't go down and make a an alliance with with Egypt thinking that well me and Egypt will be best buds because when the Assyrians come me and Egypt will beat him up God says not smart why would you trust them and not just trust me so chapter 30 verse 1 woe to the rebellious children says the Lord who take counsel but not of me who devise plans but not of my spirit that they may add sin to sin who walk to go down to Egypt and have not asked my advice to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt okay here's the short story Isaiah warns Judah not to mess with Egypt don't make an alliance with them they go okay we're gonna listen to Isaiah they stop doing it they repent they trust the Lord the northern tribes of Israel don't listen to Isaiah's woes against them they make an alliance with Egypt they are taken captive 722 BC by Assyria Judah is left alone for a period of time until their sins stack up and in 586 BC the Babylonians will take them captive verse 15 of chapter 34 that says the Lord the Lord God the Holy One of Israel in returning and rest you shall be saved in quietness and confidence shall be your strength but you would not he says to the ten northern tribes in other words look your real hope is in a frenzied move and making an alliance with Egypt that's not your answer the real answer is to trust and wait on the Lord for his strength and I love that verse I love that verse because as soon as you hear bad news you're tempted to get really busy really frenzied really reactive and sometimes God would say to you stop stop don't think that I make for phone calls I'll solve the problem just wait wait trust and quietness and confidence shall be your strength and maybe tonight that's what you need to hear coming to me Jesus said all you who labor and are heavy-laden I'll give you rest trust in him chapter 31 verse 1 here it is again oi 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 who do not look to the Holy One of Israel nor seek the Lord so you get the picture here the warnings and the woes to the and the south okay I want to sort of connect two dots what Israel did in the past they will again do in the future unfortunately though this is looking at something they're doing now and immediate predictions will come to pass because they'll go into captivity in the future and in the future from now Jesus predicted something very interesting he said to the Jews I have come in my father's name and you did not receive me another will come in his own name him you will receive and the Bible predicts that there will come a person named we call him ill affectionately the Antichrist or the man of sin who will make a covenant with the Jews and then break it and they will trust in this man of sin who will come in his own name and exalt himself above all that is called God Paul tells us in second Thessalonians but what they did in the past unfortunately they will do in the future chapter 35 is the kingdom age and most conservative scholars will tell you that this isn't just a skip idea or a Calvary Chapel idea conservative scholars Dallas seminary John MacArthur all say that these are changes that will take place in the millennium chapter 35 verse 1 the wilderness in the wasteland shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom like a rose just think for a minute looking out here in the great desert Southwest and seeing flowers in greenery you know when you land just imagine just rolling hills of thick green verdant water driven areas sounds pretty good it's gonna happen now you if you think if you think it's desolate here you go to Jordan Saudi Arabia Iraq that's the desert around Isaiah at the time it makes it makes the moon look lush over there I mean one time I took a taxi cab ride from Amman Jordan to Baghdad it was 25 our one-way trip 25 our back taxi ride the guy the taxi driver was a chain smoker and played Madonna tapes the whole trip okay so imagine me in a taxi with an Arab driver smoking listening to Madonna 25 hours going through this daesil there's nothing to look at the only thing that kept me sane on that trip was thinking of the future of that desert desolate region one day this is gonna blossom like a robe a raw rose there won't be chain smokers there won't be Madonna tapes there's gonna be the kingdom age verse five let's move quickly the eyes of the blind shall be opened the ears of the Deaf shall be unstopped the lame shall leap like a deer the tongue of the dumb shall sing the water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert Jesus Christ came for three and a half years and healed people they were blind they were deaf some were dead they were resurrected when Jesus three and a half years Ministry of Jesus on earth we call it the trailer to the movie it was the preview of coming attractions who won't just take place in Galilee for three and a half years it will take place worldwide during a kingdom age there's coming a day there's gonna be no broken homes no broken hearts no diseases no hospitals no wheelchairs no funerals no sadness and no hell it'll all be eradicated and the kingdom age will be that on earth and now in the minute-and-a-half we have remaining we take the fourth leg of this 39 chapter block and that is the condemnation on what's his name Sennacherib or you wrote Assyria or you could write Aram ARA M that's another ancient name for Assyria Aram sénèque Arab was the big boy on the block who flexed his muscles and took over the world at that time now you'll notice something in chapter 36 through 39 just look at your pages just look at the difference between the Hebrew parallelism in the first 35 chapters and the way it's written in chapter 36 37 written just like a regular prose didn't it not poetry it's prose because we're dealing with history now and really briefly look at verse 1 of chapter 36 it came to pass in the fourteenth year the King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them okay so Sennacherib comes since his field general called the robbed shaka who comes with a letter and big mouths and an army to jerusalem and basically says this don't trust God your God won't save you all these other 46 cities that we've overcome they trusted their gods we wiped him out don't think your yahweh is gonna help you at all give up chapter 37 verse 1 so it was when King has a hot guy hurt if he tore his clothes I would too covered himself with sackcloth I would too went into the house of the Lord good move and the first person he calls for Paul in the Reverend call in Isaiah verse 2 he sent aliekum who was over his household she even described the elders of the priest covered with sackcloth to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amos and Isaiah said to them thus you shall say to your master thus says the Lord God do not be afraid of the words which you have heard with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blaspheme me surely I will send a spirit upon them they will hear a rumor and return to his own land and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land that will be fulfilled literally he will turn back he will be killed but the army remains in Jerusalem verse 36 then the angel of the Lord went out this is one angel out don't mess with angels and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 and when the people arose early in the morning there were corpses all dead so picture it that threat comes against them Isaiah says don't worry about it they messed with God God will get him an angel comes destroys 185,000 dingdong the witch is dead you know this they look out the walls of Jerusalem there's a hundred and eighty-five thousand dead so that brings a little more color into the words of Jesus when he said to Peter Peter in the garden of sin when he put away your sword don't you know I could call for 12 legions of angels Wow twelve legions if one can pull this off twelve legions like Wow okay you've heard of the show touched by an angel this is punched by an angel that's what I would call this but they were prideful they were prideful and pride goes before destruction a haughty spirit before a fall okay chapter 38 Hezekiah gets sick he recovers chapter 39 he's dumb that's how we end he's dumb did you skip I know we're done now but could you explain what you just said by he's dumb yeah here's what he does King Hezekiah there's some guys from Babylon coming just to visit and so he brings them in says hey let me show you how blessed we are and he shows them all of the Treasuries of the temple all of the Treasuries of the kings of Judah all of the Treasuries of Jerusalem which makes them go back and in a few years when they get power they will be back destroy the city and take all of those Treasuries to Babylon so condemnation of Judah condemnation of Judah and Israel of other nations around them of Assyria and interlude with prophecy and eschatology in it and now next week Isiah will go from condemnation to consolation from D'Annunzio Torrey literature to conciliatory literature from Old Testament to New Testament

Channel: Skip Heitzig

Views: 7,300

Keywords: How to study the Bible, How to read the Bible, Jesus, Skip, Skip Heitzig, How to know God, Isaiah, Prophets, Old Testament, prophecies, New Testament, Prophet, condemnation, comfort

Id: z_X0eJ5zdfI

Length: 62min 38sec (3758 seconds)

Published: Mon May 13 2019