Isaiah (Session 11) Chapters 31-35

well we are studying the prophet of Isaiah the Book of Isaiah and we're in the session 11 of the first twelve we're calling the first twelve sessions unit 1 I'll explain it as we go and tonight we're going to take a survey of chapters 31 through 35 and we should understand that in the earlier chapters Isaiah referred to forthcoming judgments in broad terms and he's going to summarize that again here the main implication of these chapters that we've been going through is that God does not permit the wickedness of those who have set themselves against the Lord and against his anointed and those who oppose his people to go on Pelley unpunished and so God takes himself seriously and so we're going to complete both in this session and the following session next Monday we're going to complete the remainder of unit 1 and in the previous session we had looked at chapters 28 through 31 and as as Jerusalem is under threat from Assyria and we're looking to Egypt for protection if you will but God taking the position that he's going to pretend I'm not not Egypt so tonight we're going to look through the warnings and promises in chapters 32 and 33 we then will focus a little broader we're gonna see Isaiah broaden his focal length if you will to embrace Armageddon the day of the Lord the end times and and the regather of Israel so the the scope of his purview here will broaden in this session and so we're going to take a look at these 31 through 35 these five chapters and that leaves then for us in this unit a historical parenthesis that will close the session in the next session we do next Monday and that will finish unit 1 I'll talk more about that when we get through here now Isaiah of course is a prophet in the court of Hezekiah in other words he was the official prophet for the king and a very eloquent guy the most eloquent writer probably in the Old Testament now they clearly were fearful of the Assyrians which have been conquering the country and they felt a threat from that juda-as it's headquartered in Jerusalem then turned to Egypt for help and God frowned upon that as you'll see as we get into this here now you should also understand Egypt is also typically viewed idiomatically by commentators as an idiom for the world if you will and the Pharaoh being the ruler of that world is sometimes looked at as a a an illusion if you will to Satan himself as the ruler of the world so we'll see that used idiomatically here and is there as is our style we're going to take a look at the text from the International Standard Version Bible primarily because dr. Peter Flint who's acknowledged as the expert on the great scroll that is the Dead Sea Scrolls of Isaiah has provided us a proprietary translation from the paleo Hebrew and English that is a property of the International Standard Version Bible so we can't resist using that and we're finding as we compare the ISV with our familiar King James is that clearly a is V gives us a perhaps a better feeling for the eloquence and the flow of Isaiah's presentation so we'll take a look at chapter 31 starting in verse 1 and this little parsing is where only the Lord can help is the flavor of it starting at verse 1 how terrible it be for those who go down to Egypt for help who rely on horses who trust in chariots because there are so many and in charioteers because they are so strong but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek the Lord so you can understand God's attitude about this continuing yeah he is also wise and can bring disaster he does not take back his words he will but he will rise up against the house of those who practice evil and against anyone who assists people who work iniquity and continuing the Egyptians are men not God and their horses are physical not spirits when the Lord stretches out his hand anyone who assists will stumble and the one who has helped will fall and they will all perish together that's a rather pessimistic look for them isn't it well let's take a look at the King James you get a flavor of what be more familiar to our years here as a starting chapter 31 verse 1 woe woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay on horses and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong and they look not unto the Holy One of Israel neither seek the Lord and of course chariots if by the way Pharaoh had at least 600 we understand and there were 1200 the days of Shishak actually and so but that we've also noticed here that we have what these woes put before us here and this is number 5 of 6 we've noticed we'll have one more after this but there's a series of woes the IFV doesn't present it that way but the King James clearly does they parse it by those 6 no 6 votes goodnight verse 2 yet he also as wise who will bring he in will bring evil and will not call back his words but will arise against the house of the evildoers against the help of them that work iniquity and so now the Egyptians and our men not God and their horses flesh and the spirit when the Lord shall stretch out his hand both he that help with shall fall and he that his hope and she'll fall down and they all shall fall together so the King James is pretty pretty pair of the is V and I think it's pretty straightforward so let's move on the next parsing is emphasizing the Lord will defend Jerusalem and so picking up verse 4 for this is what the Lord told me this is just as a lion or a young lion growls over his objects of prey even when a whole band of Shepherds is called out against it it is not alarmed at their shouting or disturbed by their clamor so the lord of the heavenly armies will come down to do battle on mount zion in on its hill like birds hovering overhead so the lord of the heavenly armies will protect jerusalem he will shield and deliver it and he will pass over and bring it to safety turn back to him yes on to him whom your people have so greatly betrayed you people of Israel for at that time everyone will throw away their idols of silver and their idols of gold that your hands have sinfully made for yourselves then Assyria will fall by a sword that is not from human beings only a sword not wielded by mortal beings will devour them they will flee from the sword and their young men will be but two forced labor their stronghold will vanish by reason of terror and their commanders will be filled with alarm because of the battle standard declares the Lord whose fire is in Zion and whose furnaces in Jerusalem so you see what God is saying is be I think it's clear were very focused here that God's saying I'll handle it don't turn - don't turn - to Egypt if you will the King James this has a sense I think essentially the same thing it seems a little clearer to me in the is V but let's take a look at the King James and picking up in verse 4 for thus hath the Lord spoken unto me like as the lion a young lion roaring on his prey when he multitude of Shepherds called forth against him he will not be afraid of their voice nor abase himself for the noise of them so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion and for the hill thereof and as birds fly in fact it's really a concept is hovering rather than flying as birds flying so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem defending also he will deliver it and passing over he will preserve it a small point here by the way in Genesis chapter 1 when the Holy Spirit is moving on the face of the waters in the second verse of Genesis the moving there's like brooding and hovering and that's the same word that's being used here you when you say birds flying it sounds flutter you know this that's really that the Holy Spirit is hovering over to defend him so forth moving on terney unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted and in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold which your own hands have made unto you for a sin and so that main point here God is saying that it's a sure thing that the Assyrians will not take Jerusalem everybody's terrified the Assyrians are threatening them and so they're turning to Egypt they shouldn't do that but God through Isaiah is declaring that the Assyrians will not succeed here and we'll see how dramatically that unfolds here and so moving on here then show the Assyrian fall with the sword not of a mighty man and the sword not of a mean man shall devour him and he shall flee from the sword and his young men shall be discomforted and he took Passover a stronghold for fear and the princess shall be afraid of the instant saith the Lord whose fire is in Zion has furnace in jerusalem and of course what's going to happen here as you will learn and we're gonna have to see emphasized especially in next week's reading assignment the sort of the angel is going to interfere here and slaughter a hundred and eighty five thousand of the assyrian army so god is going to deal with it very forcibly very if we're gonna discover in next week's reading assignment there'll be three major miracles laid out for Hezekiah in that passage eventually Assyrian fall with a sword not of a mighty man and the sword and out of the mean man in other words it's an angel that deals with us not the cut the Egyptian pharaohs or whatever now this next segment in chapter 32 starting the first verse is a bright note if you will between the fifth and sixth woes we've had we just had the fifth whoa we're going to have the sixth of all coming if there's a little bright spot here a little ray of light to God's people in the dark place in that day so let's just take a little glimpse here of these four verses the government of Justice as I says look a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule rule with justice this is obviously future that we don't see any sign of that it currently do we each one will be like a shelter from the wind in a hiding place from storms like streams of water in the desert in the shadow of a great rock in an exhausted land then the eyes of those who can see won't turn away and the ears of those who can hear will listen the hearts of reckless people will understand sound judgment and the tongues of those who stammer will be ready to speak clearly people who know people will no longer call a few a fool noble or nor will a bad person be declared honorable for fools utter contempt and their minds plot wrong things practicing ungodliness spreading lies about the Lord's leaving the pangs of hungry people unsatisfied and depriving thirsty people of drinking furthermore the crimes of bad people are evil and they devise wicked schemes destroying the poor with lying words even when the needy people play the just cause but those who are decent planned noble things and by noble deeds and so that's the answer it reads pretty straightforward actually let's take a look at it in the King James it has a couple of surprises coming I think here but in the King James has behold a king shall reign in righteousness and and Prince's ruling judgment and man shall be as a hiding place from the wind and and a covert from the from a tempest as rivers of water in a dry place as a shadow of the great rock in a weary land and this is obviously though a future reminder of the kingdom the kingdom age which is yet future and the eyes of them at sea shall not be dim and the years of them shall that here shall hearken and the heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge and the tongue of the stammerer shall be ready to speak plainly and I love this verse this one's my favorite the vile person shall no more be called liberal nor chiral said to be bountiful and his essentially up there in in in verse 3 we reminded of course first Corinthians 13 verse 12 for now we see through a glass darkly then face to face and that's sort of the flavor of verse 3 up there but I like this the vile person shall no more no more feet called a liberal and the cob viously vile they mean the foolish person and liberal actually that words means generous or noble if you will but the way this is expressed I think City it's amazing to me how we are victims of deliberately misguiding vocabulary and we call that we call the liberals liberals when the real word liberals aren't liberal they have a an agenda to separate it from our heritage that's called subversive not liberal and then we have a gays who are you can't escape the fact that that's a form of perversion and but when it goes so we we deal with that and the vile person shall no more be called liberal I like that for the vile person will speak villainy and his heart will work iniquity to practice hypocrisy and to utter error against the Lord to make empty the soul of the hungry and he will cause the drink the thirsty to fail you how tragic it is how tragic it is in their culture people starving for the Word of God denied that by the culture denied that by all kinds of barriers we have to overcome to get the Word of God to the people who are so desperately hungry for it but moving on the instruments also of the churl or evil he would devise his work of the devices to destroy the poor with lying words even when the needy speaks right but the liberal devises the liberal things and by liberal things shall he stand and okay so let's move on to verse 9 we're gonna now he has the IV calls his next parsing a rebuke for complacent women I didn't say that this here in the ICU so don't give me that glare girls here we go verse 9 Isaiah continues as for you ladies of leisure get up and listen to my voice you daughters who feel so complacent hear what I have to say in little more than a year you complacent women will shudder for the grape harvest will fail and the fruit harvest will not come so tremble you ladies of leisure shudder you daughters who feel so complacent strip down and make yourselves naked down to the waist and wrap yourself in sackcloth and beat your breasts for people will be beating their breasts in mourning over the pleasant fields over the fruitful vines and over the land of my people overgrown with thorns and briars yes over all the houses of merriment over the city of revelry for the palace will be abandoned the noisy city deserted the citadel Watchtower will become barren waste forever the delight of wild donkeys in they pasture for flocks until a spirit from on high is poured upon us and the desert becomes a fertile field and the fertile field seems like a forest Wow ok let's take a look at in the King James somehow the ISV flows a little too smoothly but let's see what it says here in Isaiah 30 to rise up ye women that are at ease hear my voice you careless daughters give ear to my unto my per speech many days and years shall ye be troubled you careless when for vintage for the vintage shall fail the cabining shall not come tremble ye women there ezbee troubled the careless one strip you and make you bare and gird sackcloth upon your loins and so the word careless ones the same there is is that is the word Batoche by the way means overconfident it's the same word that we see in the Ezekiel in Ezekiel 39 in the in the prophesy thing this carry the word careless is a lumen it's in false confidence is the flavour they're moving on they shall lament for the teats for the pleasant fields and for the fruitful vine upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers yea upon all the houses of joy and the joyous city because the palaces shall be Forsaken and the most do of the city will be left the forts and towers shall be for dens forever a joy of wild asses they passed your flocks until the Spirit be poured bought us from on high and the wilderness be a fruitful field and the fruitful field be counted it for any forest and obviously verse 15 hears talking about the Spirit is the same thing that Joel talks about in Joel chapter 2 we deal with that so heavily when Peter explains it in Acts chapter 2 a bit moving on the spirit there of course is the Holy Spirit well let's move on to verse 16 again continuing in the is V because it's good dealing here with the restoration of God's reign then justice will live in wilderness and righteousness shall dwell in the fertile field the effective righteous shall be peace and the result of righteousness shall be quietness and confidence forever my people will live in peaceful dwellings in secure homes and in undisturbed resting places but it will hail when the forest comes down and the wood will be leveled completely and how happy you will be sowing your seed beside every stream letting your cattle and your donkeys arrange freely let's see how the King James deals with it the judgment shall dwell in the wilderness the righteous to remain in the fruitful field and the work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever and my people shall dwell in a peaceful habitation in the shirt dwellings and in quiet resting places and when it shall hail coming down on the forest and the city show below in a low place blessed are ye that's so beside all that send forth whether the feet of an ox and the ass and now we go to chapter 33 continuing all this I says how terrible be for you destroyer you who have not been destroyed yourself and how terrible it'll be for you traitor one whom people have not betrayed when you have sunk so low and destroying others you will be destroyed and when you have finished betraying they will be treated you know in the King James again we have that we now have the sixth of the sixth was the way the King James renders it woe to thee that's boy list and thou that thou was not spoiled and deal is treacherously and they have dealt not treacherously with thee when thou shalt cease to spoil the house shalt be spoiled and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously they shall deal treacherously with thee and so all this of course the spoiler here in the local census of course is Sennacherib the head of the Assyrian army and who came against to Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah and we'll read that in detail in the next in the reading section uh next week but the main thrust here is a question of keeping promises and this alludes to the covenant that Hezekiah made with Assyria to be left alone which of course is going to get violated but God will still deal with it is the idea so so this is role number 6 of 6 and it's the same list that we looked at before so here we now and all of this we have a prayer for grace and let's see it in the and this will also apply to the final spoiler by there's a spoiler that Sennacherib is in the local sense but the the flavor here extends to the very the the well the guy that we call the Antichrist the the the coming world leader but let's move on when he says here Lord be gracious unto us we long for you and be our strength every morning our salvation in times of trouble and at the Thunder of your voice the peoples flee at your silence the nation's scatter your plunder is gathered as when grasshoppers gathered just like locusts pounce people have pounced on it the Lord is exalted for he lives on high he has filled Zion with justice and righteousness he will be a sure foundation for your time's abundance and salvation wisdom and knowledge the fear of the Lord is Zions treasure so that's the prayer that's inserted here in the first six verses and the King James is pretty straightforward Oh Lord be gracious unto us we've waited for thee be thou there aim every morning our salvation also in a time of trouble at the noise of the tumult the people fled at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered and your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar and as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them strange idioms actually the Lord is exalted for he dwelt on high he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness and wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of our times of thy times and the strength of salvation and the fear of the Lord is his treasure pretty straightforward let's get to chapter 33 verse 7 listen their brave men cry out in the streets the envoys of peace weep bitterly the highways are deserted the travelers have quit the road the enemy has broken treaties he despises their witnesses he respects no one the land mourns and wastes away Lebanon feels ashamed and Withers Sharon is like a desert Bashan and caramel shake off their leaves and in the King James it's pretty straightforward behold their valiant one shall cry without the messages of peace shall weep bitterly the highways lie waste of the wafer and man ceases he hath broken the Covenant he hath despised the cities he regard if no man Sennacherib violates the Covenant that Hezekiah thought he had so it speaks in a local sense but it also echos if you will Daniel 9 verse 27 the final covenant that's violated by the world leader that leads to it leads of course to the Great Tribulation and Armageddon and we would talk more about that he hath broken the Covenant the a in other words this has has two application sénèque ribbon the local sense but in the broader sense that refers to the guy that we tend to call the Antichrist what I like to call the coming world leader and so we'll move on here and so okay the earth mourneth and language this Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down Charon it's like a wilderness bhishan and caramel shake off their fruits now we're at Lebanon by the way Lebanon meets white you see so it's a it's the northern mountains about hundred twenty miles of snow-covered Cedars and verse that's that's Lebanon that's the flavor of it Sharon is at the foot of Mount Carmel and it's known for flowers and forests so these are idioms that speak and in broader terms in just the local application and Carmel divides Sharon from s : it's a rocky hills and so forth and Bashan the area that we think of the Golan Heights Bashan is portion of what we think of today as Transjordan as upland from Hermon to Gilead and it's known for forests of oak and also wild cattle so this is idiomatically describing desolation that's to come that's what it's really saying and the most beautiful regions in effect will be withered away as the flavor of the language here in the King James well God is exalted as this is now all raised up the Lord has said now I'll exalt myself now I'll be lifted up you conceive dried grass you give birth to stubble your breath is a fire that will consume you and the peoples will be burned as if to ashes like cut thorn bushes they will be set ablaze those who are far away have heard what I have done and those who are near have acknowledged my power the sinners in Zion are terrified trembling grips the godless who among us can live with a consuming fire who among us can live with the everlasting flames the one who walks righteously has spoken sincere words who rejects gain from extortion and waves his hand rejecting bribes who blocks his ears from hearing plots of murder and shuts his eyes against seeing evil this is the one who will live on the heights his refuge will be a mountain fortress his food will be supplied in his water be guaranteed you know this flavor may confuse you because on the one hand Israel is not deserving of protection on the other hand God is going to step in end even though they're gonna be judged he will step in and deal with their persecutors there's a real parallel of this in Ezekiel 36 and 37 38 as God deals with Israel there in chapter 36 especially he points out I do this not because you deserve it but because my name is on the deal and if you studied Ezekiel 36 37 38 you know what I'm the same flavors here that God does step in and protect Zion but it's not because they deserve it he's doing it because he's committed to doing that well can we continue going here verse 17 your eyes will see the king and his elegance and will view a land that stretches afar your mind will ponder at the time of Terror where is the king's accountant where is the one who weighed the revenue where's the officer who supervises the towers no longer will you see those arrogant people those people with their obscure speech you cannot comprehend stammering in the language that you cannot understand look at Zion city of your festivals your eyes will see Jerusalem and undisturbed abode and a movable tent it stakes will never be pulled up nor will any of its ropes be broken but there the Lord in majesty will be for us our source of broad rivers and streams where no galley with oars can go where no stately ship can sail for the Lord is our judge and the Lord is our lawgiver and the Lord is our King and he it is who will save us verse 22 is a very important verse I'll come back to that when you get to the King James here but moving on here your rigging hangs loose it cannot reliably hold the mast in its place the sail cannot spread out then an abundance of spoils will be divided even the lame will carry off plunder and no one living there will say I'm ill the people living there will have their sins forgiven so that's the promise that lurks behind all this here let's look at it the King James picking up at verse 10 33 verse 10 now will I rise at the Lord now will I be exalted now will I lift up myself ye shall conceive chaff and he shall bring forth stubble your breath is fire shall devour you and the people shall be as burnings of lime as thorns cut up they shall be burned in the fire here either a far-off what I have done Annie that are near acknowledged my might the sinners in Zion are afraid fearlessness have surprised the hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings now in the devouring for that's actually afraid strange enough right out of Deuteronomy for but we'll keep moving here for a number of reasons he that walketh righteous as he and speakers uprightly he that despises the gain of oppressions that shaken his hands from the holding of bribes that stoppeth his ears from the hearing of blood and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil he shall dwell on high his place of Defence shall be a munitions of rocks Brent shall be given him and his water shall be sure here this is one of those places where even the King James is flows well I think but moving on here 9 I shall see the king in his beauty they shall behold the land that is very far off thine heart shall men immediate meditate the terror where is the scribe where is the receiver where is he that counters the towers and these are quotes read out of Psalm 15 by the way but we move on here thou shalt not see a fierce people are people of deeper speech than thou conceived of a stammering tongue that thou canst not understand now look on Zion the city of our solemnities thine eye shall see Jerusalem and quite habitation a tabernacle that shall not be taken down not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken strains passage because on the one hand he's going to bat for them at the same time he's also promising them that they won't be destroyed they'll be protected that's really what is saying here and but the but there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams we're in the shall go no galley with horrors neither shall a gallant ship pass thereby let me confuse you by the way because we think of Jerusalem one of the things that makes Jerusalem so unique on the planet Earth it's obviously the most controversial city on the planet Earth and when you study that it makes no sense because here's a city that has no natural resources doesn't it's not on a caravan routes it has no harbour there's no water access there's no reason for Jerusalem to be significant on the face of it in worldly terms and yet the entire world trembles today wondering what to do about Jerusalem and that's what secretory you know that it's become a cup of trembling to all the nations whoever addresses Jerusalem will get our global hernias what the King James actually says and then it's like right twelve so but you see what you and I overlook is what Zechariah 4 talks about because it's going to be a gigantic earthquake and it's going to be a source of water there's good when the Lord comes back there's gonna be huge huge topographical changes and we don't think of it that way understandably but having said all that I want to call your attention to verse 22 because most people have no grasp of the significance of verse 22 let's look at it very carefully for the Lord is our judge the Lord is our lawgiver the Lord is our king he will save us by tackling Tsar loose they could not dwell strengthen their mass they could not spread the sail there then is the prey of the great spoil divided the lame take the prey the inhabitant shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity that's the promise okay let's move on to chapter 34 and you can probably tell that I'm very excited about getting to a conclusion than what I call unit 1 in Isaiah because we've had a lot of judgment judgment judgment judgment but bear with me as we go on here sea judgment it's been the theme all the way through this entire section and we've looked at 6 woes and they call it a progression all the way through this prophecy we saw a local situation in which Isaiah spoke and then watched watch we watched him move into a broader area as you look down through the centuries to see the time of judgment that we call the Great Tribulation coming so we saw both of these in place let's look at a little sort of a summer here in verse in chapter 34 come near you nations to listen and pay attention you peoples let the earth hear and all that fills it the world and all that comes out of it for the Lord is angry against all the nations and by the way I understand Biblical vocabulary Israel is not one of the nations there's Israel and the nations and we need to be sensitive to that god it's always Israel as God's chosen that doesn't mean they do things right they're judge - but the point is God uses them as the benchmark in the nations for the gloried is angry against all the nations and furious against all their armies he has doomed them to destruction and given them up to be slaughtered that's quite a verse chapter you know there's no wiggle room here it's pretty straightforward their slain will be thrown out and as for their dead bodies their stench will ascend the mountains will be soaked with their blood this is probably a stronger language as you'll find in the Bible and what's God talking about the nation's he's not singing all the nations that's the way he feels about it let's understand that the valleys will be split there and all the stars in the heavens will fall down really and the skies will be rolled up like a scroll all their starry hosts will fade away like leaves withering on the vine or fruit withering on a fig tree it's interesting one thing is he seems to captures the eloquence of Isaiah we sometimes well I like the King James we we said we lose the flow here and then I really like that the IV's done here and so for my sword will be seen in the heavens look at look he sends in judgment on Edom on the people I have doomed to destruction the Lord has a sword bathed in blood it's covered with fat and the blood of lambs and goats and with fat from the kidneys of Rams now the is be strangely here by the way stops halfway through verse six it leaves half of it in this parsing and will pick up the other half in the next parsing and they've chosen to do it that way for whatever and we'll take a look at that let's see how this looks in the King James come near you Nations to hear and hearken you people let the earth hear and all that is there in the world and all things that come forth of it no partitioning going on the world at large here for the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations and his fury upon all their armies he have utterly destroyed them he has delivered them to the slaughter and that's probably the the strongest possible expressions that could be used the judgment is universal and it's severe the Lord spoke of this as a time of suffering that will be unparalleled Jesus himself described this time as a time of unparalleled suffering in the history of mankind that's what's coming and so this shift obviously the shift of emphasis here to all the nations not just through some is really separate here and it's and by the way it's not focusing on their specific enemies it's smoking on the world in general and that's where you really get the flavor when you study the book of Revelation from chapters 6 through 19 is a broad broad broad judgment coming on the planet Earth their slain shall also be cast out their stink shall come up out of their carcasses the mountains shall be melted with their blood and all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved Wow hosts of heaven that use that term for stars planets whatever shall be dissolved and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll boy how interesting it is we think of it space is empty and yet that's because we're not paying attention to science we know that space has properties it has dimensionalities we know it's four-dimensional not three because it can be rolled as the scroll the description said that all along and all their hosts shall fall down as the leaf fall off from the vine and as a falling fig from the fig tree and so this is probably the most terrible and and repulsive in the Bible here and in there's three and four and the same language here that you're seeing in verse four is in revelation 6 verse 13 and 14 and if you want more background on that we have some of our materials on the boundaries of reality when you really understand what science has taught us about the uniqueness this this subset of reality that we think of reality it's a subset of a larger reality when you understand that all this is astonishingly contemporary language for what we now understand all the hosts of heaven shall be dissolved Wow for my sword shall be bathed in heaven behold it shall come down upon it EMEA and upon the people of my curse to judgment now idiom eya is the greek term for Edom if you're an Edomite you live in India now that it can God has a specific judgment against eat them on the one hand it is also used idiomatically for the traditional enemies of Israel so you can see it in in two ways here in a denotative or in a connotative sense depending on your looking here the word idiom eya but let's look at the next verse the sword of the Lord is filled with blood it has made fat with fatness fat with fatness and with the blood of lambs and goats and with a fat of kidneys of rams and this is where a strange thing occurs because this is where the ISV decides to parse it the next the last part of this into the next parsing here for the Lord hath his sacrifice in basra and a great slaughter in the land of EMEA so the ISV has chosen to split it there so for whatever it's worth we're just going here you need you need as you study your Bible you need to understand the history of Edom and Moses in his days Moses was denied passage you may recall in numbers 20 they wanted to get through that region and the would not let them go through David later subdues them in 2nd Samuel 19 there's a revolt under Jeroboam and 2nd chronicles 21 they smoke Judah under Ahaz and they were always ready to shed blood we know from Ezekiel 35 but they will be cut off according to Obadiah which is the whole book of Obadiah is on the judgment that's coming on Edom and so he saw when it said when you say Edom is that region Esau is the inhabitant he's that he was the twin of Jacob Jacob and Esau fought in the womb before they even born and Obadiah three attributes the sin of pride to eat him that's the focus and Jeremiah 49 deals with that Esau is disturbed Jacob and the prophesies of Genesis 25 and 27 you may recall when Nebuchadnezzar is taking Judah in captivity the were on the periphery cheering their enemies on and thing take the children and smashed their brains against the rocks is what the were telling the telling that Nebuchadnezzar soldiers to do they were cheering the plight of Judah and that still echoes in the Psalms by the way and now here will be a possession for Judah court numbers 24 but they are cursed in Amos and Malachi and so forth in fact one I don't want to get into a derail a whole study of Edom here but I'm encourage you to understand where they come from don't fall for the narrowness that there there's south east of the Dead Sea that's what your math showing your Bibles no no because they're driven westward by the Nabataeans and they create a country called IDEO Maya Heffron is their capital on the west side of the Dead Sea and even if you look at the Roman maps in the first century they still show a country called edu maiya but they are the enemies of Israel and what I want to point the reason I want you to spend some time to understand that because they have a contemporary role that you won't understand unless you understand the history of the mites which I won't try to recap here but the judgment against Edom is mentioned in more Old Testament books than it is against any other foreign nation you'll discover very quickly that Edom is singled out for for God's indignation for a lot of different reasons all driven by pride and what-have-you but still so I want you to just make that I take it for those who that are diligent I encourage you to just make you give yourself a assignment to dig into the background of Edom and we'll move on here for now now in the and in when the King James takes up this parsing it starts with the last half of verse 6 for the Lord has a sacrifice in brazo in Basra and a great slaughter in the land of it EMEA now that's where that's where the for some reason the IASB has chose to break it now Basra or Petra refers to the word sheepfold and depending what you're talking about Hebrew or Greek if you will buzzers the Hebrew Petra is the Greek but both terms mean a sheepfold which means an area that you have a controlled entrance into and the the area there in Basra Petra is dramatic in this very very narrow entrance that lets you into this huge huge sanctuary or a place where you can you could you could hide many of the people there if you wanted to and so so but Basra Petra you can check that out in your scripture as we go on here it may be using that term literally the denotative Lee it also could be using it connotative Lee to speak to meet them in a broader sense we're going to discuss that in more detail when we get to Isaiah 63 because many people don't realize that when the Lord comes back on a second coming he comes back to Basra first to fight for the remnant that is hidden there and we'll talk about all of that in Isaiah 63 when we get there but we'll move on no let's move on to chapter 34 starting in the middle of verse 6 for the Lord holds the sacrifice in Bazar at a great slaughter in the land of Edom wild oxen will fall together with them so young steers and mighty Bulls their land will be drenched with blood and their soil will be strong with that for the Lord has a day of vengeance a year of recompense for Zions cause Edom streams will be turned into burning sulfur and it's dust into sulfur its land will become pitch it will burn night and day it will never be just extinguished wow it's smoke will rise from generation to generation and it will lie desolate for ever and ever and no one will pass through it but hawks and hedgehogs will possess it owls and ravens will nest in it God will stretch out over a measuring line and chaos and plumb lines and of emptiness and its nobles they will name it no Kingdom there in all its princes will come to nothing wow it's not finished it was on thorns will grow over its palaces nettles and brambles its fortresses it will become a haunt for jackals a home for ostriches and desert creatures will meet with hyenas and goat demons will call out to each other they're also Lilith's will settle and find for themselves a resting place owls will nest there lay eggs hatch them and care for the young under the shadow of their wings yes indeed vultures will gather there each one with its mate well let's take a look at this in the King James I want to point out something about the vocabulary here for the Lord has sacrifice in basra and great slaughter in the land of edom and the unicorns that's a strange term for us to hear to our ears and the speculation is that may referring to rhinos by some of the commentators but anyway she'll come down with him and the Bullock's with Bulls in their land shall be soaked with blood and their dust shall be made fat with fatness for it is the day of the Lord's vengeance and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion and streams there ever will be turned to into pitch and the dust thereof into brimstone and the land shall thereof become burning pitch it shall not be quenched night or day the smoke thereof shall go up forever from generation to generation shall I waste none shall pass through it forever and ever and by the way Malachi 300 years later says essentially the same thing and is opening in this chapter at first chapter of his writings and the he says in the way the Malachi thing reads I hated Esau in the latest mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness and it goes on that way but the point I want to make here as we go on here that the vocabulary of these of these animals may be sénèque the keys they may be expressed connotative ly there's a lot of debate among the expositors as to what are these specifically but the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it and he so stretch out upon it a line of confusion in the stones of emptiness and they shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom but none shall be there and there and all her princes shall be nothing now are these really a pelican or a porcupine there's all kinds of speculation by some of the expositors as what the hebrew really refers to it in this last verse the nobles in harem Edom took the land from the Hall right so there's there's there is a justification for viewing the vocabulary here as in an idiomatic of demons not the animals that we tend to visualize and in the flavor of the whole passage it wouldn't surprise me what this may be just a way of refer just just as in both Revelation and elsewhere locusts are often used as an idiom for demons not just literal okis because you know literal locusts have no king and the cape the locusts in Revelation have a king and from that you can come to some interesting experts expository conclusions but clearly what's going on here may be far spookier than just the fact that we have a desolate piece of geography and the thorns will come up in their places nettles and brambles and the fortresses there of it it shall be an habitation of dragons and a court for owls or ostriches or whatever the word for jackals is actually the howling ones and the word for owls me is the daughters of screaming so these may be idioms with a broader purview than we normally would ascribe to them the wild beasts of the deserts also meet with a wild beast of the island and the satyr shall cry to his fellow and the screech owl shall rest there and find for herself a placed place of rest have no idea what you're thinking but it wouldn't surprise me at all that these terms are more spooky than we generally would ascribe to them and not not I don't think you'd find the description of these in a biological textbook in other words dragons and a court for owls or whatever that really means and there should be a great owl maker a nest and lay a hatch and gather under her shadow and there shall be vultures be gathered everyone with her mate the word for great owl in Hebrew might be a arrow snake or might be an owl who knows that the next positives argue and they're not sure of themselves let's move on then to the certainty of God's deliverance sorry we're so if you study and read from the book of the Lord and not one will be missing each will not long for its matin for eat is the mouth of the Lord that has issued the order and is the spirit who has gathered them it is he who has a lot of their portions and his hand has divided it for them with a measuring line forever they will possess it forever generation to generation they will live in it and in the King James seeking out the Book of the Lord and read no one of these so fail none shall want her mate for my mouth and have commanded and his spirit it hath gathered them and he have cast a lot for them his hand has divided unto them by lying they shall possess it for ever from generation to generation shall they dwell therein so let's wrap it up in the last chapter here of chapter 35 what this session anyway the future of Israel's land the desert and the dry land will rejoice the desert will celebrate in blossom like crocuses it will burst into bloom and rejoice with gladness and shouts of joy the glory of Lebanon will be given to it the splendor of Carmel and Sharon see these are being restored then they will see the glory of the Lord the splendor of our God strengthen the feeble hands and support the stumbling knees and it's interesting how there's a sort of poetic justice here because in this chapter concludes this section on judgment by dealing with a positive note here going on say to those with anxious hearts be strong do not be afraid he is your God He will bring vengeance he will bring divine retribution and he will save you then the eyes of the line will be opened down there I years of the death unblocked for the lame shall leap like deer and the tongues of the speechless people will sing for joy yes waters will gush forth in the wilderness and the streams will run through the desert and the burning sands will become a pool and the thirsty ground fountains of water in the haunts of jackals there will be a verdant resting place with reeds and rushes pretty straight forward in the King James it pretty much carries them the wilderness a solitary place shall be glad for them the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with the joy and singing the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it the excellency of Carmen sure and they shall see the glory of the Lord and the extra garden so this is an echoing the inverse of what we read earlier strengthen either weak hands to confirm the feeble knees say unto them that are of a fearful heart be strong fear not behold your God will come with vengeance even God with the recompense he will come and save you then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the dish shall be unstopped and that may sound familiar to your ears because in Matthew 11 you may recall John the Baptist sent his disciples to check out to make sure that for them to check out that Jesus really was the thing and that's exactly what said go tell them the eyes of the blind shall be opened if he uses those as as his credentials if you will the eyes of blinds will be opened and the ears of the Deaf will be unstopped avenge of the lame man leap as a heart and the tongue of the dumb sing and the in the loader shell waters break out streams and desert and parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land Springs of water and the habitation of dragons where each lay shall be grass with reeds and rushes see even the King James is pretty straightforward and so let's get diverse highways you'll be there yes there the people will call it the holy way it's interesting at the in the New Testament the Christian walk was called the way you may recall that was their first identity of it the people will call it the holy way as for unclean people they will not journey on it but it will be for whomever is traveling on the way not even fools will get lost no Lions will be there no nor will any ferocious beasts be upon it and they will not be found there but the redeemed will walk there and the Lord's ransomed ones will return and enter Zion with singing everlasting joy will rest upon their heads gladness and joy will overtake them and sorrow and mourning will flee away well the King James the high will be there and and a way and it should be called the way of holiness the unclean shall not pass over so and it shall be for those the wayfaring men the fools will not air therein no line will be there nor any ravenous beasts shall we go up there thereon and it shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there and again we got the highway the way of God the way of holiness and they that walk in the way if you will and the ransom the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away praise His Holy Name so we've wrapped up this the heavy part of what of what some people call the first Isaiah if you will and so we've we've just finished the a since the final session of unit 1 except the within the in these in these five chapters we have one session left Wintec which we're going to include in unit 1 and that's a strange historical parenthesis of these chapters for chapters chapters 36 through 39 up till now the whole style of Isaiah has been poetic if you will and if you look at the the IFV especially they parsed it like poetry if you will but in chapters 36 through 39 its prose its history and it's gonna wrap up this session if you will so for your next session to prepare for that what I want you to do is read 2nd Kings 18 through 20 18 19 and 20 if you will the same passage is also summarized in second chronicles chapter 29 and 30 they are they're both pretty much the same if you will but if it gonna be thorough read one or both of those historical narratives as background and then I want you to study carefully the four chapters we'll deal with next time chapters 36 which is all about Hezekiah problem his trouble he's got the cloud of the Assyrian invasion threat and hanging over him chapter 37 is his prayer he prays to God in chapter 37 in chapter 38 he gets ill and God extends his life interestingly enough and then chapter 39 is he makes a fool of himself so we have four chapters Hezekiah has trouble his prayer his illness and his folly it's a historical interlude before we get into what I consider the dessert of Isaiah chapter 40 on and that's I will call that unit 2 but unit 1 is a package now there are three significant miracles that you'll encounter in the next session the death angel is going to slay a hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians so God makes good his commitment to them and he and we'll see that in chapter 37 we also have this very peculiar event occur in chat in Isaiah 38 where the Sun retreats 10 degrees on the sundial and we'll talk about that next time and then of course God heals Hezekiah and extends his life 15 years and we'll we'll take a look at that BRF now what's so strange about this historical parenthesis is it appears in the Bible three times it appears in the second Kings passage I mentioned it shows up in the second Chronicles passage I mentioned and it's also given four chapters in the Book of Isaiah so God must have some very very crucial significance to these four chapters that we're going to look at next time and when we do that that will finish what we call unit 1 now if you're like me you can't resist looking ahead a little bit so that's enough of reading assignment but let give me a little glimpse here when we go on after next time we're going to go into what we call unit 2 we're dividing our whole study of Isaiah into two parts you know one that we've just finished but we will have finished next week and then we have unit 2 which is chapters 40 through 66 and when you read from chapter 40 on you will understand why so many people felt that this was a separate Isaiah it's going to sound so different that you can understand why many scholars say this is a different guy different got the same name that's not true by the way don't fall into that trap because in John 12 we know from the New Testament that it's the same Isaiah both as a I wanted this is the same guy the scripture makes that very clear but you can understand when you get into chapters 40 and following Y that you will experience the eloquence and the exhilaration of the messages are so different than we've been plotting through and that's you probably noticed and we're sort of dragging through all these judgments judgment so against all the nations and you know I'm ready I'm ready for chapter forty are like I'm gonna be frankly I can hardly wait because there are surprises on every page and it's going to be a fun time now if you're like me you probably can't resist the impulse to read on ahead of next week's assignment and my suggestions go ahead feast your souls okay but with that lets you and I bow our hearts for a closing word prayer

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Length: 57min 53sec (3473 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 29 2020