Book of Isaiah

Isaiah 34

 

Isaiah 34:1-17, most definitely a Day of the Lord prophecy. Vs. 1-4 cross references nicely with Zechariah 14:1-16. Vs. 4, stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll…vs. 5, My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed.

 

Isaiah 34:1-4, “Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples!  Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it!  The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies.  He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter.  Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood.  All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.”  [direct cf. to Revelation 6:12-15]

 

Vs 5-10, “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see, it descends in judgment on Edom , the people I have totally destroyed.  The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat—the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams.  For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom .  And the wild oxen will fall with them, the bull calves and the great bulls.  Their land will be drenched with blood, and the dust will be soaked with fat.  For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion ’s cause.  Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch!  It will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise forever.  From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again…  This whole prophecy from verse 5 onward is against Edom .  Some historians believe Edom to by modern Turkey .  It is thought by some that the curse is so strong against Edom because it is Edom who stands in the way of the tribes of Israel as they are coming out of captivity from the north (Europe), and attempting to travel to the land of Israel .  If true, this would explain God’s extreme anger against Edom .  Even Halley thinks Isaiah 34 is a “vision for the End-Time.”

Ha

 

ISAIAH 35

 

This whole chapter, all ten verses, gives a vivid description of the Millennial Kingdom of God, and what it will be like—just after Yeshua returns.  It is a physical picture that complements Isaiah 11:6-9, "The wolf will live with the lamb…eyes of the blind will be opened…ears of the deaf unstopped.”  This had a prior fulfillment at Yeshua’s 1st coming with all the healing he did, but this really points to his 2nd coming, when taken in context with the other verses.

 

Isaiah 35:1-10, “The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.  Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.  The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon ; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.

        Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.’  Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.  Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.  Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.  The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs.  In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness.  The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in the Way; wicked fools will not go about on it [Or, “the simple will not stray from it”]  No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there.  But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return.  They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

 

Isaiah 36-37

 

Isaiah 36-37 are historic, fulfilled right in front of Hezekiah and Isaiah.  In the words of Halley, it is a record of the overthrow of the (ancient) Assyrian Army.  Halley states, “This is recorded three times (here, II Kings 18, 19 and II Chronicles 32): one of the most astounding miracles of the Old Testament; in one night the Assyrian army is destroyed by a direct stroke from heaven (37:36).  The grand climax of which Isaiah had given repeated assurance…These passages seem to be a blended account of two invasions.  Sennacharib, as leader of his father Sargon’s armies, invaded Judah (713BC), and took many cities.  Hezekiah bought him off (II Kings 18:14-16).  He came again (701BC); at which time the Angel smote him.  (See II Kings 17).”  In reality, 185,000 Assyrian soldiers and officers were slain by one angel of the Lord in one night.  History records that Sennacharib went in shame back to Assyria , his army missing.  A few years later two of his sons slew him in the temple of his god, and his third son became ruler of Assyria (Esarhaddon, 680-669BC).

 

 

Isaiah 37:33-38, “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria : ‘He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here.  He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.  By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city,’ declares the Lord.  ‘I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!’

        Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp.  When the people got up the next morning—there were all dead bodies!  So Sennacharib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew.  He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.  One day, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat .  And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.”

 

Isaiah 38-39

 

Isaiah 38-39.  Hezekiah’s Sickness.  Babylon ’s Ambassadors.  In words of Halley again, “Hezekiah’s sickness was 15 years before his death (38:5), that is, 712BC.  Deliverance from Assyria was still future (Isaiah 38:6 places Isaiah 37 as not yet having occurred in time sequence).  Hezekiah’s miraculous recovery had excited interest in Babylon (II Chronicles 32:31; Isaiah 38:7-8).  Babylon ’s embassy to Jerusalem , no doubt, looked suspicious to Sennacharib, and may have hastened his second invasion [which ended in disaster for him, i.e. the loss of nearly his whole army in one night].”

 

Isaiah 40

 

Isaiah 40:1-12 has a dual fulfillment in both the 1st and 2nd comings of Yeshua--It is Messianic in both instances.  Vs. 3 “A voice of one calling (first fulfillment by John the

Baptist): In the desert prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God…”  This verse was first fulfilled by John the Baptist at Yeshua’s first coming.  But the next verse cross-references to Zechariah 14, also placing these verses in context with the 2nd coming.  

 

Isaiah 40:1-5, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem , and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed [applies to both the Babylonian captivity and the one yet to come in WWIII], that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. 

        A voice of one calling: ‘In the desert prepare the way for the Lord [Or “a voice of one calling in the desert”]; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.  Every mountain and hill will be made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places plain [this will occur during the massive earthquake at the instant of the Lord’s return on top of the Mount of Olives, cf. Zechariah 14].  And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.  For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’” 

 

Verse 6-8, “A voice says, ‘Cry out.’  And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’  ‘All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.  The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them.  Surely the people are grass.  The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.’” 

        (Verses 9-11) “You who bring good tidings to Zion , go up on a high mountain.  You who  bring good tidings to Jerusalem , lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah , ‘Here is your God!’  See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him.  See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. 

        He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”

 

Who is God?  God describes his awesome attributes and accomplishments in a first-person account in verses 12-31 of Isaiah 40

 

Isaiah 40:12-31, “‘Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?  Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?  Who has understood the Spirit of the Lord [KJV: “Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord”], or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way?  Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?

        Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.  Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.  Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing. 

        To whom, then, will you compare God?  What image will you compare him to?  As for an idol, a craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it.  A man too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot.  He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple.

        Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  Has it not been told to you from the beginning?  Have you not understood since the earth was founded?  He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers.  [2500 years ago, God through Isaiah essentially said the earth had an orbit around the sun!  The Bible may not be a scientific text, but it does not disagree with provable scientific fact.]  He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.  [The majestic heavens, a tent to live in.  Meditate on that thought.  God’s born-again children, made immortal at the resurrection to immortality (cf. 1 Cor. 15:49-54), going camping in the tent of the heavens, the tent of the Lord God Almighty.  Do you realize, the distances in the known universe are so great that humans traveling even at the speed of light could never get out of our own Milky Way Galaxy, let alone make it back to earth to tell about it?  The number of known galaxies is now up over 50 billion, catalogued by the Hubble Space Telescope.  Estimates are that there could be 100 billion or more galaxies out there besides our local Milky Way that we reside in, on an outer arm.] 

He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.  No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

        To whom will you compare me?  Or who is my equal?’ says the Holy One.  ‘Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?  He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name.  [God has named each star in each and every one of the 50-to-100 billion galaxies out there!]  Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. 

 

The Lord encourages his servants who hope “in the Lord”, those who think “my cause is disregarded by my God” vs 27-31.  “They will soar on wings of eagles…”

 

        Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel , ‘My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God’?  Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

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