Month: July 2018

Foreword to Isaiah 6.

FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 6
(by John David)
Chronologically this chapter describes what occurred before the book was written by the prophet. He had responded to God’s directions to write this encounter and his prophecies to Judah in a book. Thus we have the glorious record by the evangelist of the Old Testament.

Isaiah describes in detail his first encounter with the Holy Spirit. He was probably already a god-fearing, or even a godly man faithful to the religion of Jehovah, but filled with his own self righteousness. God the Father suddenly arrested Isaiah in his tracks and showed him his sinful nature that universally bedevilled God’s chosen people: Israel. The endemic and unbridled sin of Adam (with its curse) had been the undoing of Israel since Jacob’s name was changed at Peniel. This had been particularly true since the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt until Isaiah’s time.

Sinful Isaiah was suddenly convicted of his own unworthiness and abhorrent self conceit before God’s very holy presence. The apostle Paul depicts what happens at conversion of any religious worshipper into a ‘son’ or ‘daughter’ of God.

“And (I) will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:18

The Lord Jesus had earlier described the change in the gospels.
“And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” (John 16:8-11)

After Isaiah had been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light he was ready to serve his master and could have fully reiterated the apostle Paul’s words: “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” (Colossians 1:13)

Isaiah’s ensuing response to God the Father adopting him was typical of any new creature in Christ: ‘here am I Lord, send me’. But he was sent to the tribe of Judah, with whom the Messianic promise had been irrevocably covenanted. Jesus was born of the virgin Mary whom, with Joseph (the step father), belonged to the tribe of Judah. Both had been descendants of David the king as listed in the genealogical record early in the gospels.

Yet Isaiah would not be received well and though he lived through the reign of four kings, he was sawed in half by the fifth king: Manasseh. “He came unto his own and they received him not.”

Preaching to a rebellious people, (the most stiff-necked) was nevertheless his commission in this seraphic encounter. Only a tenth, or a remnant, would be at all responsive. But the preservation and continued restoration of that remnant is echoed by the preservation and perseverance of the saints in the New Testament era.

Only a small fraction of Jerusalem’s (& Judah’s) citizenry will finally remain after its wars with Egypt, Syria, Assyria, Samaria, Ammon, Edom, and finally Babylonian Chaldea. To understand this central theme is to grasp the essence of the most difficult, but the most glorious book of the three Major Prophets.

We do not know whether this visionary encounter occurred after he had been nominated as prophet or if it was the cause of his appointment before the people of Judah. In the temple he was reminded of Uzziah’s blasphemous offering of false fire, comparable to Nadab & Abihu, whose lives were suddenly slain by God for their false fire, despite being the priestly sons of Aaron and Kohathites. The three chose to act as a High Priest. Uzziah, though not slain, was smitten with leprosy as he remonstrated with the priesthood in the temple.

While it is best not to concentrate upon the hyperbole and dramatic imagery of the vision presented in poetic lucidity, the encounter is nonetheless very real though many readers will not accept his account as credible. This is not mystical imagination of Isaiah’s mind, but a dramatic spiritual meeting with God’s angel. However, natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

ISAIAH 6
KJV Bible:
Public Domain:

Isaiah’s encounter with God, his conversion and call as a prophet.
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

Isaiah is convicted, repents, and answers God’s call.
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

God warns Isaiah he will be a rejected prophet of doom.
9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
12 And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

FOOTNOTE by John David
Isaiah 6:13.
‘It shall be a tenth, and it shall return’. The godly remnant still faithful to Jehovah and his prophets will be preserved. Though only a small percentage, its members (saints) will alone be receptive and responsive to Isaiah’s prophetic preaching. This theme of the preserved remnant who in the end will return to Jerusalem is intermittently constant in the Book of Isaiah.

‘As a teil tree, and as an oak,’ are similes typical of Isaiah’s rather obtuse style in the book for his analogies. To many readers they can be a distraction from understanding the essence of Isaiah’s overall message.
Credits: KJV from biblegateway.com

Foreword to Isaiah 6.

WHO IS READY? WHO IS ASLEEP? WHO RELIES ON WILL POWER FOR GRACE?

WHO IS READY? WHO IS ASLEEP? WHO RELIES ON WILL POWER FOR GRACE?
Only by His grace, not our free will, are we kept. ‘For His seed remaineth in him. Every man who hath this hope purifies himself. It is not by our good behaviour, our worship, our prayers, or our works, but alone through His mercy when we are reliant upon it, not our efforts and devotion. Thisx is to understand both our unworthiness and His grace. For we are saved by grace not by our deeds, good behaviour, or our service for God.
John David
KJV Bible Public Domain (biblegateway.com)
1 John 3:3
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Romans 8:24
For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope:
Hebrews 2:1
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 [
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away…
Matthew 26:41
Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Mark 13:33
Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.;
Luke 12:40
Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.
Mark 13:33
Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.;
1 John 3:9
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Brother John

WHO IS READY? WHO IS ASLEEP? WHO RELIES ON WILL POWER FOR GRACE?

FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 5.

FOREWORD by John David
Isaiah accurately describes sieges and raids on Jerusalem by foreign powers. Both Jesus and Isaiah used the vineyard in allegorical form. Isaiah enumerates consequences of Jerusalem’s continued rebellion: “Of a truth many houses shall be desolate.” The imminent wrath of God against idolatrous Judah remembers mercy in the hope of its repentance and return. Because of his promise to David the remnant will never be forgotten. Of his promise to Solomon Jerusalem will enjoy the same preservation over time, despite destruction.

Isaiah says: “my people are gone into captivity,” speaking of past and future abductions. The Samaritan king of Israel takes 200,000 away to the north on one occasion. God always uses foreign people and powers to discipline the righteous land become godless. This is so, either for God’s people (the Jews) or for Christian nations of the West become apostate. “The Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment”.

The reason is adequately expressed: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil,”… “Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people; “…“their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord”. Thus God will make an example of Jerusalem, gone stray,: “An ensign to the nations from far.” God reluctantly chastens his children but it is always tinged with loving-kindness. Examples are Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, and King David, brought to repentance and restored (Psalm 51). Nevertheless, the agony of both divine and human grief from His judgment is aptly described by Isaiah: “If one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened.”
Foreword by John David.

KJV Bible (Public domain: biblegateway.com) Isaiah 5:1-30 below.

Isaiah 5
Isaiah lists Jerusalem’s resistance to God’s entreaties. .
1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

Jerusalem’s desolation from foreign attacks & abductions.
8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
9 In mine ears said the Lord of hosts; Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.
10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.
11 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!
12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands.
13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
15 And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:
16 But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
17 Then shall the lambs feed after their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.

The deteriorating morals of beleaguered Jerusalem.
18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope:
19 That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!
20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
22 Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!
24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:
27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:
29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.
30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.

KJV Bible (Public domain: biblegateway.com)

_________________________
FOOTNOTES. by John David
Isaiah 5:1. The use of analogy and allegory increases throughout a mixture of verse and prose in Isaiah’s sixty six chapters, sometimes increasing the readers difficulty rather than simplifying the text. This was to confuse his enemy critics in high places.
Isaiah 5:7. ‘Judah his pleasant plant,’ is the object of Isaiah’s mission and later in the book Judah is synonymous with Jacob, and Israel.
Isaiah 5:9. This allegory of the unproductive vineyard was used also by Jesus in the New Testament, as same example of the Lord’s rejected care of Israel in the past. ‘He came unto his own and they received him not.’
Isaiah 5:13. ‘my people are gone into captivity’ speaks of thousands of Jerusalem citizens abducted by foreign invading powers, including the northern kingdom of rebel Israel’s ten tribes that seceded from Solomon’s Kingdom.
Isaiah 5:26 The historical ensign to the future is: ‘to whom much is given, much shall be required.’ Thus God’s people spurning his laws and love must suffer the loving chastisement of divine vengeance from outside nations’ aggression.
Isaiah 5:30. ‘And in that day’ gives the hint of Jerusalem and Judah’s imminent destruction under the later reign of Zedekiah, the last king, a few decades after Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh’s evil reign.

FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 5.

PUTIN COPIES HITLER’S PEACE WITH UK PM EDEN

US PRESIDENT EMULATES PM EDEN IN 1939 WITH HITLER.
It may seem we are buying time by turning a blind eye to Putin’s transgressions, but we are only emboldening this Soviet autocrat in his plans to destabilize Finland, Belarus, Latvia, and Lithuania. Already ignoring his annexation of Crimea and his continuing hostilities in East Ukraine the US President is giving him tacit approval to go ahead.

The world may pay a huge price for this serious misjudgement in Helsinki. Eden was quick to resign, as was the French leader when they discovered to their embarrassment that pretentious platitudes and unctuous flattery was a failure. Will Mr. Trump pay the same price? We think not! His absolute gall in overestimating his mastery of men will make him go on blundering in one faux pas after another. He has forgotten that he is the elected president of a democracy not a pariah state.

His further exposing the Baltic nations to the evil subterfuge of Putin is not only unforgivable, but will in the end may cost millions of lives. Putin is a modern day Stalin and ‘playing’ with Mr. Trump to his own advantage.

It is time for the home electorate to express its own distaste for such arrogant behaviour when it goes to the polls throughout the various states and take away the Republican control of the House and the Senate. The better alternative is for the Republican leaders to remove him before it is too late. What happened this week in Finland borders on insanity by the leader of the free world. He can be rightLy, and constitutionally removed for such treasonous insane behaviour. Otherwise those same leaders of both houses of Congress may well look at the bleak prospect of Democratic control for the next 20 years.
US PRESIDENT EMULATES PM EDEN IN 1939 WITH HITLER.
It may seem we are buying time by turning a blind eye to Putin’s transgressions, but we are only emboldening this Soviet autocrat in his plans to destabilize Finland, Belarus, Latvia, and Lithuania. Already ignoring his annexation of Crimea and his continuing hostilities in East Ukraine the US President is giving him tacit approval to go ahead. The world may pay a huge price for this serious misjudgement in Helsinki. Eden was quick to resign, as was the French leader when they discovered to their embarrassment that pretentious platitudes and unctuous flattery was a failure. Will Mr. Trump pay the same price? We think not! His absolute gall in overestimating his mastery of men will make him go on blundering in one faux pas after another. He has forgotten that he is the elected president of a democracy not a pariah state. His further exposing the Baltic nations to the evil subterfuge of Putin is not only unforgiveable, but will in the end may cost millions of lives. Putin is a modern day Stalin and ‘playing’ with Mr. Trump to his own advantage. It is time for the home electorate to express its own distaste for such arrogant behaviour when it goes to the polls throughout the various states and take away the Republican control of the House and the Senate. The better alternative is for the Republican leaders to remove him before it is too late. What happened this week in Finland borders on insanity by the leader of the free world. He can be righty, and constitutionally removed for such treasonous insane behaviour. Otherwise those same leaders of both houses of Congress may well look at the bleak prospect of Democratic control for the next 20 years.
US PRESIDENT EMULATES PM EDEN IN 1939 WITH HITLER.
It may seem we are buying time by turning a blind eye to Putin’s transgressions, but we are only emboldening this Soviet autocrat in his plans to destabilize Finland, Belarus, Latvia, and Lithuania. Already ignoring his annexation of Crimea and his continuing hostilities in East Ukraine the US President is giving him tacit approval to go ahead. The world may pay a huge price for this serious misjudgement in Helsinki. Eden was quick to resign, as was the French leader when they discovered to their embarrassment that pretentious platitudes and unctuous flattery was a failure. Will Mr. Trump pay the same price? We think not! His absolute gall in overestimating his mastery of men will make him go on blundering in one faux pas after another. He has forgotten that he is the elected president of a democracy not a pariah state. His further exposing the Baltic nations to the evil subterfuge of Putin is not only unforgiveable, but will in the end may cost millions of lives. Putin is a modern day Stalin and ‘playing’ with Mr. Trump to his own advantage. It is time for the home electorate to express its own distaste for such arrogant behaviour when it goes to the polls throughout the various states and take away the Republican control of the House and the Senate. The better alternative is for the Republican leaders to remove him before it is too late. What happened this week in Finland borders on insanity by the leader of the free world. He can be righty, and constitutionally removed for such treasonous insane behaviour. Otherwise those same leaders of both houses of Congress may well look at the bleak prospect of Democratic control for the next 20 years.

US PRESIDENT EMULATES PM EDEN IN 1939 WITH HITLER.
It may seem we are buying time by turning a blind eye to Putin’s transgressions, but we are only emboldening this Soviet autocrat in his plans to destabilize Finland, Belarus, Latvia, and Lithuania. Already ignoring his annexation of Crimea and his continuing hostilities in East Ukraine the US President is giving him tacit approval to go ahead. The world may pay a huge price for this serious misjudgement in Helsinki. Eden was quick to resign, as was the French leader when they discovered to their embarrassment that pretentious platitudes and unctuous flattery was a failure. Will Mr. Trump pay the same price? We think not! His absolute gall in overestimating his mastery of men will make him go on blundering in one faux pas after another. He has forgotten that he is the elected president of a democracy not a pariah state. His further exposing the Baltic nations to the evil subterfuge of Putin is not only unforgiveable, but will in the end may cost millions of lives. Putin is a modern day Stalin and ‘playing’ with Mr. Trump to his own advantage. It is time for the home electorate to express its own distaste for such arrogant behaviour when it goes to the polls throughout the various states and take away the Republican control of the House and the Senate. The better alternative is for the Republican leaders to remove him before it is too late. What happened this week in Finland borders on insanity by the leader of the free world. He can be righty, and constitutionally removed for such treasonous insane behaviour. Otherwise those same leaders of both houses of Congress may well look at the bleak prospect of Democratic control for the next 20 years.

PUTIN COPIES HITLER’S PEACE WITH UK PM EDEN

Isaiah 2: Foreword.

ISAIAH’S FUTURE HOPE: THE 1ST & 2ND COMING OF CHRIST
Having described Jerusalem’s decadence and its self-inflicted woes, God’s voice through Isaiah his mouthpiece, calls Jerusalem a wayward woman. Albeit, the prophet sees Jerusalem through the eyes of the distant future. He encompasses both the First Advent and the Second Coming of Christ (the Second Advent) to planet Earth. Prior to the second advent he foresees the apocalyptic judgment of Earth by a wrathful God acting in vengeance for its endemic wickedness and rejection of his entreaties offering merciful forgiveness to genuine penitents. Whether from prophets, apostles, evangelists or saints the resistance was impenetrable.

Immanuel, Christ would first come as a Lamb, and then return at the end of the age as King of Kings to rule and reign with a rod of iron from Zion. The millennial reign of Jesus Christ would be from Jerusalem where he is due to return on the Mount of Olives, from which he ascended not Galilee as the 4th C amended Matthew 26; 28; Mark 14; & 16 purport. As Luke, John, and Acts declare: His passion, resurrection, and ascension was not from Galilee’s unnamed mountain, but Jerusalem near Bethany on the Mt. Olivet. The major prophets and the minor prophets agree with John and Luke that the second advent return of Immanuel will be to Jerusalem. Importantly and precisely Zechariah 14 correlates with Luke where (in Acts 1) before the apostles the angel heralds the eventual returning descent of Christ to the very same Mount of Olives. This made the apostles of Christ beholden to proclaim that same message as harbingers of the Second Coming.
by John David

Isaiah 2 (KJV Public Domain: biblegateway.com)
1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
6 Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.
7 Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:
8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:
9 And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
10 Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.
11 The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
12 For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
13 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
15 And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,
16 And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
17 And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
18 And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
21 To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
22 Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of ?

see alsohttp://bonitabiblemission.worthyofpraise.org/2nd-coming-of-christ-isaiah-2/

Isaiah 2: Foreword.

ISAIAH: Prologue.

A PROLOGUE:TO THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
The book of the prophet Isaiah is a problem to the first reader without some prefatory comments to orient the reader not used to its unusual style. The difficulties of language and parlance are explained hereunder.
Isaiah’s call to the ministry seems to have been precipitated by his vision in an encounter with God in chapter six when he is anointed with fire and appointed to be the prophet of God in Jerusalem.
Sinful Isaiah is purged, anointed and commissioned to be His spokesman to a rebellious populace, whose ears would be shut to his entreaties. The Lord’s seraphic messenger forewarns him that in the final days of Jerusalem only a tenth of the people would remain after successive attacks invasions, sieges, and wars by Samaria (Israel) ; Egypt; Syria; Assyria, Ammon; Edom (Esau’s descendants); and Babylon.
Isaiah, however, can use ‘Ephraim’ to denote the tribe, territory, or area given by Joshua to the 12 tribes of Israel after crossing Jordan River to first settle the Promised Land of Canaan. It is important for the reader to make these distinctions which the text, syntax, scene and history of the two kingdoms: Israel and Judah, and the events occurring during his lifetime help determine.

DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE MODERN READER.
1. The imagery and oblique allusions to the main historical actors of the time;
2. The combined influence of the Hebrew language and the later Septuagint’s Greek manuscripts consulted;
3. The metaphors, metonyms, and pseudonyms without the reader’s historical knowledge from the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles can be puzzling or even an enigma;

4. The allegories and similes can, at times, be off-putting, because they are based upon the historical scenario of Israel’s surrounding environs;

Considering the above factors the reader may find the text abstract and without much further thought miss the treasures of the prophecies, the promises, their later fulfilment, and glorious description of the end times which are corroborate with other major and minor prophetical books of Scripture end times’ predictions on the second coming of Christ, called the Second Advent.
The book’s historical sequence in prophecy, promise and narration is consistent and cohesive. However, it can be difficult to discern between Isaiah’s own convictions and his direct revelations from God.
Seven centuries before Christ’s birth Jehovah was about to remove the ten rebel idolatrous tribes from the north alluded to under the pseudonyms of Israel, Samaria, or Ephraim. The two apostate but opposing segments of Solomon’s kingdom of David were Judah (& Benjamin) in the south, and the ten confederate rebel tribes of Israel in the north. Despite faithful prophets over multiple decades who had warned them they were both ripe for destruction and captivity by Syria, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, the Medo-Persian usurping empire and the sufferings of increasing civil war between each other.
Isaiah the prophet of Judah, was born at the end of King Uzziah’s reign. He was to serve the Lord as His main spokesman through the last days of Uzziah and the ensuing reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah before his rumoured martyrdom by Manasseh, righteous Hezekiah’s wicked son, whose idolatrous evil acts exceeded Ahaz, his grandfather.

ISAIAH: Prologue.

ISAIAH 1: Explanatory Foreword.

FOREWORD TO ISAIAH ONE.
The prophet’s vision and prophecies encompass all that Jehovah, or JAH’S view of the fallen, but divided State of Israel. More importantly he focuses on the southern kingdom of Judah ( with Benjamin) and its hallowed capital of Jerusalem. God speaks through the mouth and pen of Isaiah to apostate Judah fallen into idolatry, and wicked perversion. Nauseated over the impenitent descendants of Jacob and David he expresses his frustrated fury over the depraved degradation of its citizenry. Particularly is he indignant over the hypocritical false piety and the worship of worship.

However, he in wrath remembers mercy because of his everlasting merciful kindness and restrains his full retribution. Why? Because of the faithful remnant who adamantly refuse to worship the cult of Baal and faithfully adhere to the true God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. References: Isaiah 1:9; 18; 25-27; 6:10.

The latter’s name was changed by the angel to Israel and his son Joseph preserved his descendants in Egypt, and 430 years to the day Moses led them in them away to the Promised Land they now occupy. The general description of Judah’s abject immorality is interlaced with the hope of mercy and redemption under the condition of their repentance. The darkness of Jerusalem’s doom hovers like Damocles’ Sword held by a hair’s breadth and it seems that the rank impenitence of the stiff-necked people will bring inevitable judgment. Seeing no hope of that happening the tone of mercy becomes an intermittent, spasmodic recurring theme. . Thus three future events are foreshadowed:

1. the Return of the remnant from seventy years Babylonian captivity led by Ezra and Nehemiah;
2. the arrival of Christ, the prophesied Immanuel, or First Advent’s efficacious blood covenant, (v 18); and
3. the Second Coming of Christ, the Messiah, to reign in Jerusalem: a post apocalyptic event of the end days.

Isaiah 1:
Isaiah’s visionary insight into the corruption of Judah & Jerusalem.
1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

7 Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

9 Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.

15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

20 But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

22 Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water:

23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

24 Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:

25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

27 Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.

28 And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed.

29 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen.

30 For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.

31 And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.

*[Extract of Holy Scripture KJV from biblegateway.com Public Domain]

FOOTNOTES:
Samaria: describes the region occupied by ten of the twelve tribes of Israel. Confusing to the reader can be the three names used to describe them: Israel, Ephraim, and Samaria. Samaria is the region (between Judea and Galilee), occupied by the rebel ten tribes that had ceded from the kingdom of Israel after Solomon’s death leaving a split kingdom of Israel in the north and Judah in the south with neighbouring Benjamin. The two books of Kings and the other two books of Chronicles describe the constant conflicts and incessant civil wars between the north and the south. Samaria is also the name of the city.

Foreword, Chapter Heading, Chapter Sub-Headings, and Footnotes by John David.
Bible Chapter is from the King James Version (Public Domain, ex biblegateway.com)

ISAIAH 1: Explanatory Foreword.

ISAIAH 4: Explanatory Foreword.

FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 4.
Verses 1-4 speak of the judgment that came particularly under Ahaz and then Manasseh, who passed the point of no return. But the rest of the chapter envisions the post apocalypse period when, with the Second Coming of Christ he will reign in Zion. This is an intermittent theme throughout the book in which the reader continually gets six glimpses of Jerusalem, one in present real time of Isaiah’s writing, and six time periods of the future.

Isaiah’s divine insight into the future often sees both the godly remnant and God’s wrathful purge of past nations which have opposed the Semite descendants of Jacob over the centuries. E.g.: he envisions the remnant that would remain with Jeremiah after the final siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian king. (Cp. 2 Chronicles 36:17-21) In wrath upon the dissolute city of Zion Yahweh preserves some of the faithful as he did in the time of Noah and the Flood. Zion, its city and temple were shallow shells without the righteous. Thus, even during his vengeance against the wicked he preserves a tenth of Judah maintaining the Messianic BRANCH by his promise to David.

Six glimpses of Jerusalem describing Judah’s capital are not necessarily in any chronological sequence and there can be more than one time frame in a given chapter. This together with the array of unknown geographical references can be quite distracting from the main theme of each segment.

The six glimpses of Jerusalem given by Isaiah in the sixty six chapters of his book are:-

1. The present at the time of writing under one of the four kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Josephus thinks Isaiah was martyred in King Manasseh’s reign, the fifth but most evil of all Judah’s monarchs.
2. Immediately after the city’s sacking by Babylon.
3. Seventy years later when Cyrus allows the return of the captives to the city.
4. Jerusalem hundreds of years later with the First Advent: Christ’s birth.
5. Jerusalem in the modern day ingathering of the Diaspora in 19th-20th C
6. Jerusalem after the apocalyptic judgment of the nations at the Second Coming of Christ.

(KJV: Public Domain https://www.biblegateway.com/)

Isaiah 4
Isaiah predicts high war casualties will deplete the male generation.

1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.
2 In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:
4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
5 And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.
6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.
__________________________________________________
FOOTNOTE
Isaiah 4:1. Under King Ahaz and then Hezekiah’s son Manasseh their evils led to a significant imbalance of the two genders. Abductions by foreign powers, including the raids of the northern Kingdom on Jerusalem, and massive casualties in battle were responsible for the inevitable reduction of the male population. Thus ‘seven women shall take hold of one man’, reflects Jerusalem’s dilemma envisioned by the prophet, if not witnessed in real time.

ISAIAH 4: Explanatory Foreword.

ISAIAH 3: Explanatory Foreword

FOREWORD TO ISAIAH THREE (by John David) –
Isaiah predicts the imminent destruction of Jerusalem & Judah.
Isaiah describes in his discerning vision a Jerusalem abandoned to wickedness and corruption with Judah’s governors acting with the folly of a child’s behavior. Law and order is imploding with immorality. Abject women rule in pomp and pride, consumed with the vanities of fashion.

Men have willingly abandoned their male lechery lusting instead for one another. Sodomy is prolific and the other gender have painted themselves like Jezebel in the vanity of attracting their own kind. On the other hand, the remnant of remaining god-fearing disciples of Yahweh are oppressed and persecuted for their peculiar faith by the apostate descendants of David.

Healthy heterogeneity has been exchanged for homogeneous iniquity pervading the city and its environs. The righteous remnant are seen as a threat because of their peculiarities. One wonders what Isaiah would say to any modern day city in his preaching if he were alive today.

Isaiah 3 https://www.biblegateway.com/ public domain.
CHAPTER THREE.
1 For, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water.
2 The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
3 The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.

4 And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
5 And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.
6 When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand:

7 In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.
8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

10 Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
11 Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
12 As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

13 The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people.
14 The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.
15 What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord God of hosts.

16 Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:
17 Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will discover their secret parts.
18 In that day the Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet, and their cauls, and their round tires like the moon,

19 The chains, and the bracelets, and the mufflers,
20 The bonnets, and the ornaments of the legs, and the headbands, and the tablets, and the earrings,
21 The rings, and nose jewels,

22 The changeable suits of apparel, and the mantles, and the wimples, and the crisping pins,
23 The glasses, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the vails.
24 And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.

25 Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war.
26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.

KJV – Public Domain:https://www.biblegateway.com/

ISAIAH 3: Explanatory Foreword

ISAIAH: Explanatory Preface.

PREFACE: by John David
The book of the prophet Isaiah is a problem to the first reader without some prefatory comments to orient the reader not used to its unusual style. The difficulties of language and parlance are explained hereunder:

1. The imagery, and oblique allusions to the main historical actors of the time;
2. The combined influence of the Hebrew language and the later Septuagint’s Greek manuscripts consulted;
3. The metaphors, metonyms, and pseudonyms without the reader’s historical knowledge from the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles can be puzzling or even an enigma;

4. The allegories and similes can, at times, be off-putting, because they are based upon the historical scenario of Israel’s surrounding environs;

Considering the above factors the reader may find the text abstract and without much further thought miss the treasures of the prophecies, the promises, their later fulfilment, and glorious description of the end times which are corroborate with other major and minor prophetical books of Scripture end times’ predictions on the second coming of Christ, called the Second Advent.

The book’s historical sequence in prophecy, promise and narration is consistent and cohesive. However, it can be difficult to discern between Isaiah’s own convictions and his direct revelations from God.

Seven centuries before Christ’s birth Jehovah was about to remove the ten rebel idolatrous tribes from the north alluded to under the pseudonyms of Israel, Samaria, or Ephraim. The two apostate but opposing segments of Solomon’s kingdom of David were Judah (& Benjamin) in the south, and the ten confederate rebel tribes of Israel in the north. Despite faithful prophets over multiple decades who had warned them they were both ripe for destruction and captivity by Syria, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, the Medo-Persian usurping empire and the sufferings of increasing civil war between each other.
John David

ISAIAH: Explanatory Preface to the Book