Book
of Isaiah
Isaiah 5
Isaiah 5:1-17, God’s
vineyard yields bad grapes. What God will do about it. vs. 18-20, “Woe to
those who call evil good and good evil.” [that’s
happening right now all across our western Judeo-Christian democracies, isn’t
it?] As Halley points out, this had a historic fulfillment in Judah. , but verses
20-30 are a most definite “Day of the Lord description” that cross-references
to Joel 2:1-11.
Isaiah 5:1-17, “I will sing for the one I love a song about
his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted
it with the choicest vines. He built
a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. [drinking wine and
alcohol in extreme moderation is not wrong folks, it’s just the overconsumption
of it that is wrong or sin] Then he looked
for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.
‘Now you dwellers
in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between
me and my vineyard. What more could have
been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield
only bad? Now I will tell you what I
am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor
cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.’
The vineyard of
the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are the garden of his delight. And he
looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of
distress.
Woe to you who
add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live
alone in the land. [A
severe warning to all you money-hungry land developers who do this and yet live
out in the wide open country on acres of land. I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.]
The Lord Almighty
has declared in my hearing:
‘Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions
left without occupants. A ten-acre vineyard
will produce only a bath [6 gallons or 22 liters] of wine, a homer [6 bushels]
of seed only an ephah [3/5 bushel] of grain.’
Woe to those who
rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who
stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. They have harps and lyres at their banquets,
tambourines and flutes and wine, but they have no regard for the deeds of the
Lord, no respect for the work of his hands.
Therefore my people will go into exile for lack of understanding; their
men of rank will die of hunger and their masses will be parched with thirst.
Therefore the grave [Hebrew Sheol] enlarges its appetite and opens
its mouth without limit; into it will descend their nobles and masses with all
their brawlers and revelers. So man will
be brought low and mankind humbled, the eyes of the arrogant humbled. But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his
justice, and the holy God will show himself holy
by his righteousness. Then sheep will
graze in their own pasture; lambs will feed among the ruins of the rich.”
Verses 18-19, “Woe
to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart
ropes, to those who say, ‘Let God hurry, let him hasten his work so we may see
it. Let it approach, let the plan of
the Holy One of Israel
come, so we may know it’…” [That is a scary prophecy. It
shows this teaching about the coming literal
Kingdom of God being physically established on this earth by Jesus—this
teaching going out to the world, and those unbelievers and fair-weather Christians
reading about it, and then saying this, not realizing what precedes it—a ghastly
World War III where only 10 percent of the worlds population survive!]
Verses 20-30“…Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and
clever in their own sight.
Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and
champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice
to the innocent. Therefore as tongues
of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in flames, so their roots
will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the
law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Therefore the Lord’s anger burns against his people; his hand
is raised and he strikes them down. The
mountains shake, and the dead bodies are like refuse in the streets. [From here on this seems to be a cross-reference to Joel 2:1-11.]
[Verses 25b-30] Yet for this, his anger
is not turned away, his hand is still upraised. He lifts up a banner for the distant nations,
he whistles for those at the ends of the earth.
Here they come, swiftly and speedily!
Not one of them grows tired or stumbles, not one slumbers or sleeps;
not a belt is loosened at the waist, not a sandal thong is broken. Their arrows are sharp, all their bows are strung;
their horses’ hoofs seem like flint, their chariot wheels like a whirlwind.
Their roar is like that of a lion, they roar like young lions; they growl
as they seize their prey and carry it off with no one to rescue.
In that day they will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. And if one looks at the land, he will see darkness
and distress; even the light will be darkened by the clouds.” [If that isn’t a cf. to Joel 2, I don’t
know what is.]
Isaiah 6
In Isaiah
6:1-5, Isaiah sees the Lord in vision on his throne in the temple.
Verses. 6-9 give the assignment that was given
to Isaiah by the Lord. Verses. 9-10 show
the people of both Israel
and Judah
have been blinded so they can’t see spiritually. Halley says, “As to whether this vision [of
his call] antecedes the visions of the first five chapters there is difference
of opinion. Dates mentioned in the book
are in chronological sequence…This indicates that the book follows a general
chronological order, but not necessarily in all particulars. Isaiah, in later life, probably rearranged visions
which he had written in various periods of his long ministry, being guided in
part by sequence of thought [and the Holy Spirit], so that some chapters may
antedate preceding chapters…opinion varies as to whether this was Isaiah’s original
call, or a summons to a special mission. The statement in 1:1 that some of his ministry
was in the days of Uzziah, and that this call was in the year of Uzziah’s death,
may imply that he had already done some earlier preaching, and that this call
was God’s authorization for his utterances. The particular task to which he was called seems,
on its face, to have been to bring about the final hardening of the nation [both
Houses, northern 10 tribes of Israel, and southern House of Judah]
so as to insure its destruction (vs. 9-10). But of course, God’s purpose was not to harden
the nation, but rather to bring it to repentance in order to save it from destruction.
Isaiah’s whole ministry, with its marvelous visions, climaxed with one
of the most stupendous miracles of the ages, was, if we speak, as if God were
frantically waving a red flag to halt the nation in its mad sweep toward the
whirlpool [which our Judeo-Christian English speaking western nations are now
swirling around, just before the captivities Isaiah prophecied just prior to
and in context with 2nd coming of the Messiah passages throughout
the book of Isaiah. Halley fails to mention this, and that there
is a duality to these earlier captivities. The
ten tribed House of Israel, wherever they are living now, and the House of Judah,
the Israelis, will yet go through another captivity just prior to the Messiah’s
2nd coming, and this is found in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
We will cover each book, one at a time, so you will have a chance to
see this theme unfold before your very eyes.].
But when a nation [in its mad sweep toward that whirlpool] sets itself
against God, even his wondrous mercies [and miracles] only result in further
hardening. “How long?” (vs.
11): that is [for them leading up to these historic series of captivities] shall
this hardening process go on? Answer:
till the land be desolate, and the people gone (vs.
11-12). “Tenth” (vs. 13): “a remnant
shall be left [a tenth], which in turn, shall be destroyed.”
This was uttered in 735 B.C. Within
a year North Israel [the House of Israel, ten
tribes] was carried away by the Assyrians. Within
14 years all the rest of the Northern Kingdom had fallen (721 B.C.), and Judah (roughly, a “tenth,” one tribe
out of twelve) alone was left. Another
100 years, and Judah
was destroyed.” Halley pretty well explains
Isaiah’s whole ministry, except for missing the second series of captivities
which will only occur either 7 or 3 ½ years from Jesus’ 2nd coming.
This will become clearer as we read through the whole book.
But see how Halley’s explanation to this chapter —in addition to my point
about the second series of soon-coming captivities--unlocks the whole book.
Isaiah
6:1-13, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne,
high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs [seraphim], each with
six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their
feet, and with two they were flying. And
they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the
whole earth is full of his glory!’
At the sound of their voices the doorposts
and the thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined!
For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean
lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with
a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See,
this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom
shall I send? And who will go for us?’
And I said ‘Here am I. Send me!’ He
said, ‘Go and tell this people:
‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make
their ears dull and close their eyes. [Hebrew; Septuagint
‘You will be ever hearing, but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Vs.
10 ‘This people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed eyes.’ The
Hebrew here would indicate this condition had already been reached back then,
as it has apparently been reached in our western “Christian” nations now. Scary? You bet. Let’s
read on.] Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear
with their ears, understand with their hearts, and
turn and be healed…” Comment: In
Matthew 25, Jesus made the analogy that the Christian church, all of it, was like ten bridesmaids.
Five of them had taken time to properly fill their lamps with oil (i.e.
the Holy Spirit), five hadn’t. Point is, all of
them were asleep right up to the announcement that the Lord was coming. I.e. they were all spiritually sleeping! Isn’t it time to wake up? Let’s continue. “Then
I said, ‘For how long, O Lord?’ And he answered: ‘Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined
and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly
forsaken. And though a tenth remains
in the land [i.e. the House of Judah,
in the south]it will again be laid waste [i.e. 100
years later, Nebuchadnezzar took Judah
captive to Babylon,
entirely]. But the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the
land.’”
As
Halley so well explained all this had a prior fulfillment.
It will yet have a future fulfillment as well.
This makes the book of Isaiah very interesting and sobering as well. When the Lord returns, as it says, he will bring
his reward with him. Revelation 2-3 and
5:10 shows us that this reward is made up of positions of rulership side-by-side
with Jesus in that glorious Kingdom of God he is coming to physically established
on earth at his coming, as he has already established it in our hearts and minds
by his indwelling Holy Spirit and our sanctification.
Isaiah 7
Isaiah 7, vs. 1-10, starts out under the times of Isaiah
when Judah and Jerusalem are under the
threat of Assyrian attack. God says to
Ahaz, “Don’t worry.” Vs. 13-14 gives
the famous Messianic prophecy of Yeshua’s virgin birth. Vs. 17-25, Halley says, “Judah to be Desolated
by Assyria (17-25); this same Assyria who was now helping Judah against Israel
and Syria. It came to pass within Isaiah’s lifetime, Jerusalem alone remaining.”
This is a historic chapter.
Isaiah 7:1-25, “When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah,
was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel
marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.
Now the house of David was told, ‘Aram has allied
itself with Ephraim’; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the
trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
Then the Lord said to Isaiah, ‘Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub
[Shear-Jashub means a remnant will return], to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of
the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field. Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t
be afraid. Do not lose heart because
of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin
and Aram
and of the son of Remaliah. Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your
ruin, saying, ‘Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide
it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.’ Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘It
will not take place, it will not happen, for the head of Aram is Damascus,
and the head of Damascus
is only Rezin. Within sixty-five years
Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.
The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the
head of Samaria
is only Remaliah’s son. If you do not
stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’…” Here we
find Ephraim, lead tribe of the ten northern tribes of Israel, called
the House of Israel, planning an attack against Judah, the Jews. These ten northern tribes, the House of Israel,
had not yet been conquered and deported to the Caspian Sea region by Assyria when Isaiah penned this for the Lord. King Ahaz was king of Judah at this point, the
House of Judah. Assyria’s invasion of
Samaria and
deportation of the ten northern tribes wouldn’t happen, as the Lord says, for
sixty-five more years, during the reign of Ahaz’s son, Hezekiah. This must be around 786BC, 65 years before 721BC.
The final siege and deportation of Samaria,
the House of Israel took place from 721BC to 718BC.
Isaiah was the prophet of God living in Jerusalem near king
Hezekiah when this invasion and deportation took place. Verses
10-12, “Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether
in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.’ But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask; I will not put
the Lord to the test.’…In the following verses, the sign the Lord does give
Ahaz are the prophecy for the Lord’s first coming, as the promised Messiah.
In verse 16, I believe the King James has it more correctly, “For before the child shall know to refuse
the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorest shall be forsaken
of both her kings.” I.e. This means,
the land of Samaria
and Judah
would not have their proper line of kings dwelling in the land when the Messiah,
Yeshua, Jesus was born. This is an amazing
prophecy. King Herod was not a real Jewish
king, or of the line of David, he was a Roman puppet under the authority of
Rome. I’ll give the NIV for the whole passage, and
then the King James again for verse 16 so you can see how you have to be careful
of the NIV when it comes to key passages, and know your various Bible translations
so you can see what agrees and what differs. The King James is still the most reliable for
accuracy, while the NIV is the most readable, in modern English. Verses
13-16, “…Then Isaiah said, ‘Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men?
Will you try the patience of my God also?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with
child and will give birth to a son, and [he] will call him Immanuel [Hebrew:
God with us].
He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong
and choose the right. But before the boy knows enough to reject the
wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid
waste.” King James Version, verses 15-16,
“Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose
the good. For before the child shall
know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorest
shall be forsaken of both her kings.” This fits the actual history, and the condition
of the land of Samaria and Judah at the arrival of Yeshua, Jesus,
far better than the NIV translation. See
how comparing a fulfilled prophecy with history can yield which translation
is far more accurate. Verses 17-25, “‘The Lord will bring on you
and on your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he
will bring the king of Assyria.’
In that day
the Lord will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. They will all come and settle in the steep ravines
and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water
holes. In that day the Lord will use
a razor hired from beyond the River [that is the Euphrates]—the king of Assyria—to
shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to take off your beards also.
In that day, a man will keep alive a young cow and two goats.
And because of the abundance of the milk they give, he will have curds
to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and
honey. In that day, in every place where
there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels [about 25 lbs. of
silver], there will be only briers and thorns.
Men will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with
briers and thorns. As for all the hills
once cultivated by the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of the briers
and thorns; they will become places where cattle are turned loose and where
sheep run.”
Isaiah 8
Isaiah 8:1-14, the prophecies of Assyrian invasion of the
10 northern tribed House of Israel. Isaiah did live through this invasion period
of 721-718 BC, but he was safe in Judah
and Jerusalem. He was martyred, murdered by Hezekiah’s evil
son Manasseh in 680BC. Vs. 14 God prophecies
through Isaiah “both houses of Israel”
[meaning the ten tribed House of Israel
and the southern House of Judah]
are going down into captivity. [This
happened for the House of Israel
in 721BC and the House of Judah
(and Jerusalem) by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 605-585BC.
Isaiah wasn’t alive to see the captivity of the House of Judah. The House of Judah
returned to the land of Judah and Jerusalem 70
years after their captivity, but the House of Israel never returned.] vs. 19-22, a warning
not to consult or use spiritists, mediums or those who consult the dead, “To
the law and to the testimony! If they
do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.”
Isaiah 8:1-22, “The Lord said to me, ‘Take a large scroll
and write on it with an ordinary pen: Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz [Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz means quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil]. And I will call in Uriah the priest and Zechariah
son of Jeberekiah as reliable witnesses for me.’
Then I went
to the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me, ‘Name him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.
Before the boy knows how to say, ‘My father’ or ‘My mother,’ the wealth
of Damascus will be carried off by the king of
Assyria.’ The Lord spoke to me again: ‘Because this people
has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoices over Rezin and
the son of Remaliah, therefore the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty
floodwaters of the River [Euphrates]—the king of Assyria with all his pomp.
It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks and sweep on
into Judah, swirling over it, passing through
it and reaching up to the neck. Its outspread
wings will cover the breadth of your land, O Immanuel [Immanuel, Hebrew: God with us]!
Raise the war
cry, [or do your worst] you nations,
and be shattered! Listen,
all you distant lands. Prepare
for battle, and be shattered! Devise
your strategy, but it will be thwarted; propose your plan, but it will not stand,
for God is with us.
The Lord spoke
to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this
people. He said: ‘Do not call conspiracy
everything that these people call conspiracy [Or Do not call for a treaty every time these people
call for a treaty]; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.
The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one
you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel
[i.e. Judah and Israel] he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a
rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare. Many of them will stumble; they will fall and
be broken, they will be snared and captured.’
Here am I, and
the children the Lord has given me. We
are signs and symbols in Israel
from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.
When men tell
you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a
people inquire of their God? Why consult
the dead on behalf of the living? [verse 20] To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word,
they have no light of dawn. Distressed
and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will
curse their king and their God. Then
they will look toward earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom,
and they will be thrust into utter darkness.” Halley says, “In
connection with the Syro-Israel invasion of Judah, three children are mentioned:
one in the family of David, “Immanuel” (7:13-14); and two in Isaiah’s family,
“ Shear-jashub” (7:3), and “Maher-shalal-hash-baz”
(8:1-4)…[this name] means “The spoil speeds, the prey hastens,” that is, Syria
and Israel shall be speedily despoiled. Thus naming his child for
the idea of swift deliverance…Isaiah’s way of emphasizing [how about “the Lord’s
way of emphasizing”? Who was talking
to Isaiah anyway?—telling him what to write?] what
he had already predicted [i.e. what the Lord had told him to write down as a
prediction, prophecy of the Lord] in 7:4, 7, 16. It promptly occurred. The victorious Assyrians swept into Judah (8), and
were stopped by direct intervention of God (37:36). Thus the names of Isaiah’s sons embodied ideas
of his daily preaching: Present Deliverance, Coming Captivity, Future Glory.” The
Distress and Gloom of Captivity is described in verses 9-22, and refers to perhaps
both the Assyrian captivity of Israel,
which occurred in Isaiah’s lifetime, and the future captivity of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar
and the Babylonians.
Continue
to Page 3