Book of Isaiah

Isaiah 61

 

Initially fulfilled at Yeshua’s 1st coming, but to be more fully fulfilled at his 2nd coming, when taken in context with verses 3-11

 

Verses 1-11, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners [Hebrew the blind], to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and to provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of a spirit of despair.  They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. 

        They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.  Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.  [For those who think this is Israel now, restored, think again.  Are aliens and foreigners working their fields?  Read on, this is for the future, in the Millennial Kingdom of God!]  And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God.  You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.  Instead of shame my people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance; an so they will inherit a double portion in their land, and everlasting joy will be theirs.”  [In one verse God promises a “double portion” to his people.  That’s emphasis.] 

        “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting  covenant with them.  Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples.  All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.

        I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.  For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.  For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.”

 

Isaiah 62

 

New name for Jerusalem and the land of Israel

 

Verses 1-12, “For Zion ’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem ’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.  The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.  You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.  No longer will they call you Deserted, or your land Desolate.  But you will be called Hephzibah [my delight is in her], and your land Beulah [married]; for the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married.  As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.

        I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem ; they will never be silent day or night.  You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth. 

        The Lord has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: ‘Never again will I give your grain as food for your enemies, and never again will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled; but those who harvest it will eat it and praise the Lord, and those who gather it in the courts of my sanctuary.’

        Pass through, pass through the gates!  Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway!  Remove the stones.  Raise the banner for the nations.  The Lord has made proclamation to the ends of the earth: ‘Say to the Daughter of Zion , See, your Savior comes!  See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.’ [That reward is for us, the saints of the Most High God!]  They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord; and you will be called Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted.”

 

Isaiah 63

 

Verses 1-6 cross references to Revelation 14:9-10 and Revelation 19:15-16.  In verse 17 “Why O Lord do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you?”  That is a very sincere prayer and question many Jews have asked and prayed during their long history, and especially during the holocaust.

 

 

Verses 1-19, “Who is coming from Edom , from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson?  Who is this, robed in splendor, striding forward in the greatness of his strength?  ‘It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.’  Why are your garments red, like those of one treading the winepress?  ‘I have trodden the winepress alone; from the nations no one was with me.  I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath; their blood spattered my garments, and I stained all my clothing.  For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redemption has come.  I looked, but there was no one to help, I was appalled that no one gave support; so my own arm worked salvation for me [looking back to Yeshua’s sacrifice], and my own wrath sustained me.  I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured out their blood on the ground.’

       

Verses 7-19, A bit of history from the Lord’s perspective

 

“I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the Lord has done for us—yes, the many good things he has done for the House of Israel , according to his compassion and many kindnesses.  He said, ‘Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me’; and so he became their Savior.  In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them.  In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.  Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.  So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them.  Then his people recalled the days of old, the days of Moses and his people—where is he who brought them through the sea, with the shepherd of his flock?  Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them, who sent his glorious arm of power to be at Moses’ right hand, who divided the waters before them, to gain for himself everlasting renown, who led them through the depths?  Like a horse in open country, they did not stumble; like cattle that go down to the plain, they were given rest by the Spirit of the Lord.  This is how you guided your people to make for yourself a glorious name. 

        Look down from heaven and see from your lofty throne, holy and glorious.  Where are your zeal and your might?  Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us.  But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. [verse 17] Why, O Lord, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you?  Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance.  For a little while your people possessed your holy place, but now our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary.  We are yours from old; but you have not ruled over them, they have not been called by your name [Margin: We are like those you have never ruled, like those never called by your name.]”  I think the marginal rendering is the correct one, fits the context. 

 

Isaiah 64

 

Verses 1-3, call for God, Yahweh, to come down to earth.  Verses 5-7, cf. to Romans 1.  Verse 8, God our potter, we the clay.  Verses 9-12, call for God to return…

 

Verses 1-3, “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!  As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!”

Verses 4-7, “For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you [i.e. at Sinai].  Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.  You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.  But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry.  How then can we be saved?  All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.  No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.”

        “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father.  We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.  Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord; do not remember our sins forever.  Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people.  Your sacred cities have become a desert; even Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a desolation.  Our holy and glorious temple, where our fathers praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins.  [When Isaiah penned this, Solomon’s temple still stood.  Less than 100 years later, but after Isaiah had died, Nebuchadnezzar burned the temple to the ground, destroyed it—and the Romans burned and demolished the second  or Herod’s temple.]  After all this, O Lord, will you hold yourself back?  Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?” 

 

Isaiah 65

 

Verses 1-5, this could be a type of the whole Church age, where God, Jesus reach out to his people and the whole world with the gospel—but most don’t listen.

Verses 1-5, “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me.  To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’  All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good pursuing their own imaginations—people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick; who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil;  who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat; who say, ‘Keep away; don’t come near me, for I am too sacred for you!’  Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day.”

 

Verses 6-7, God’s recompense to sinners who don’t respond.

 

Verses 6-7, “‘See, it stands written before me: I will not keep silent but will pay back in full; I will pay it back into their laps—both your sins and the sins of your fathers,’ says the Lord.  ‘Because they burned sacrifices on the mountains and defied me on the hills, I will measure into their laps the full payment for their former deeds.”

 

Verses 8-9, God promises to save a remnant on behalf of “my servants”—it’s because of us, believers, that a remnant is saved alive—so be holy, sanctify yourselves!  A remnant of the whole 12 tribes of Israel .  Jacob = Israel, including the 10 Lost Tribes.  Judah = the Jews (Judah & Levi), verses 8-10.

 

“This is what the Lord says: ‘As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes and men say, ‘Don’t destroy it, there is yet some good in it.’  so will I do in behalf of my servants; I will not destroy them all.  I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah those who will possess my mountains [cf. Ezekiel 36]; my chosen people will inherit them, and there will my servants live.  Sharon will become a pasture for flocks, and the Valley of Achor a resting place for herds, for my people who seek me.”

 

Verses 11-16, Warning to those who do not respond to the gospel going out to the world just before the end (Yahweh makes a difference between those who do respond and those who do not respond).

 

“But as for you who forsake the Lord and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny, I will destine you for the sword, and you will all bend down for the slaughter; for I called but you did not listen.  You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.’  Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘My servants will eat, but you will go hungry; my servants will drink, but you will go thirsty; my servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame.  My servants will sing out of the joy of their hearts, but you will cry out from anguish of heart and wail in brokenness of spirit.  You will leave your name to my chosen ones as a curse; the Sovereign Lord will put you to death, but to his servants he will give another name [cf. Revelation 2:17].  Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the God of truth; he who takes an oath in the land will swear by the God of truth.  For the past troubles  will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.”

 

Verse 17, looking forward to the very end of God’s plan of salvation for man, cf. Revelation 21:1. Verses 18-25, Millennial Kingdom of God prophecy for Jerusalem and Israel .

 

“Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth.  The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.  But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.  I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.  Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach [the sinner who reaches] a hundred will be considered accursed.  They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.   No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat.  For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands.  They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them.  Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear…”—WHEN WILL THIS OCCURR???—“…The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent’s food.  They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain.”  That directly cross references to Isaiah 11, as I think you’ll recognize. 

 

Isaiah 66

 

Verses 1-4, another warning for all those who refuse God’s call through the gospel.

 

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.  Where is the house you will build me?  Where will my resting place be?  Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?’ declares the Lord.  This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.  But whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a man, and whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood, and whoever burns memorial incense, like one who worships an idol.  [This could be referring to people in Israel who are making offerings at the temple which is set up just before the 2nd coming, the temple the “man of sin”, ruler of the beast empire, will enter and proclaim himself to be “God” in.  Time setting fits.]  They have chosen their own ways, and their souls delight in their abominations; so I also will choose harsh treatment for them and will bring upon them what they dread.  For when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened.  They did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.’” 

 

Verses 5-6, 2nd coming of the Messiah, Yeshua.

 

“Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word: ‘Your brothers who hate you, and exclude you because of my name [my name, Jesus, Yeshua], have said, ‘Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy!’  Yet they will be put to shame.  Hear that uproar from the city, hear that noise from the temple!  It is the sound of the Lord repaying his enemies all they deserve.”

 

Verses 7-13 can have two possible meanings, maybe both apply.  1) God’s holy saints born as a holy nation, resurrected and/or changed to immortality at the 7th trumpet, cf. 1 Corinthians 15:49-56,--“in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…” or 2) Israel born as a nation again, all 12 tribes, at the 2nd coming—the 10 Lost Tribes along with all of Judah now regathered to the land of Israel.  (meaning #2 will obviously take a little longer than one day, so I opt for meaning #1.)

 

Verses 7-13, “Before she goes into labor, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son.   Who has ever heard of such a thing?  Who has ever seen such things?  Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment?  Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.  Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?’ says the Lord.  ‘Do I close up the womb when I bring delivery?’ says your God.  ‘Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her.  For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts; you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance.’

        For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees.  As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem .’”

 

Verses 14-18 continue description of 2nd coming events.

 

“When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like the grass; the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes.  See, the Lord is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.  For with fire and his sword the Lord will execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain by the Lord.

        Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following the one in the midst of those who eat the flesh of pigs and rats and other abominable things—they will meet their end together.’—declares the Lord.  ‘And I, because of their actions and their imaginations, am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory [cf. Zechariah 14]”

 

Verses 19-21, some of the enemies who survive sent back to the nations to gather the survivors of Judah, “your brothers” back to Jerusalem .

 

Verses 19-21, “I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations—to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal [ Russia ] and Greece , and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory.  They will proclaim my glory among the nations.  And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,’ says the Lord.  ‘They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the Lord in ceremonially clean vessels.  And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,’ says the Lord.”

 

Verses 22-23, The Lord declares, at this time when he’s back on earth, that the whole world will worship him on the Sabbath.  I.e. the Sabbath (and by extension, all the Holy Days of Leviticus 23, cf. Zechariah 14:16-19, will be the new “days of worship” for all mankind).  The 7th day Sabbath is now re-established as God’s official day of worship.  It is the first “Holy Day” mentioned in Leviticus 23, and the Feast of Tabernacles is the last set of Holy Days commanded in Leviticus 23, which is also re-instituted at the 2nd coming in Zechariah 14:16-19, so all the Holy Days are re-instituted at Yeshua’s 2nd coming!  Isn’t that a shocker for the average Gentile Christian?  Better get used to the idea, it didn’t come from me.  So the Church during the Millennial Kingdom of God will use the Sabbath and Holy Days of Leviticus 23 during the Millennial rule of Jesus and the saints.

Verses 22-23, 24, “As the new heavens and the new earth that I will make will endure before me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so your name and descendants endure.  From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,’ says the Lord.  And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”  I.e. Mankind takes a last gruesome look upon the battlefield of the Lord, with all the bodies on it.  This finishes this unofficial copy of Isaiah with commentary added,  some comments taken directly from Halley’s Commentary.  All these prophecies taken in the pre-millennial view of prophecy.

 

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