FOREWORD: ISAIAH 12.
Isaiah’s joyous psalm envisioning David’s kingdom renewed.
Despite he dire wickedness of the kingdom of Judah, Isaiah is jubilant that:
1. by grace he thirsted for the water of eternal life,
2. he was drawn by the Father and came to the Immanuel the Saviour and for that which money could not buy and drank of the new wine of the Spirit and the priceless milk of the Word, which he now considered more necessary than his daily food.
3. Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16
4. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Job 23:12
5. David had known the anguish of opposition and the despondency that Isaiah and Jeremiah suffered. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spoke I with my tongue. Psalm 39:3
6. Like David, Isaiah possessed joy unspeakable and full of glory because of the new spirit God had placed within him. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. (Psalm 40:3)
7. The indwelling Holy Spirit was the difference between Moses followers and the godly pair: Joshua and Caleb. (Numbers 14:24; Numbers 27:18)
8. Even when Isaiah was downcast he remembered Moses, crying: “Where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?” (Isaiah 63:11)
9.
10. His conversion when the Lord opened his heart by grace to repent and believe
11. God’s mercy in first drawing him to come and reason together, then assuring him that though his sins be as scarlet, and be red like crimson they would become as white as wooly snow. (Isa.1:18)
12. Isaiah’s source of joy and peace that passes understanding was his faith in Immanuel, the coming incarnate Son of God, even Melchizedek of old whom Abram met ( not yet embodied in human form as the promised Virgin’s babe. , He had heard the call of God to repent and be converted, that his sins could be blotted out (Acts 3:19)
13. Psalm 51:1Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
14. Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
15. Hebrews 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
16. I, even I, am he that blotted out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. (Isaiah 43:25)
17. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. (Isaiah 44:22)
18. His vision and calling of God to serve Judah
Amid Isaiah’s intermittent disconsolate times of becoming downcast and exasperated with the impenitent unresponsiveness Isaiah rejoices. He joys in his salvation by grace and the holy remnant who cling to Jehovah refusing to worship Baal.
Foreword, heading, sub-headings, and footnotes by John David.
The chapter quoted is from the King James Version (Public Domain)
Isaiah 12
Isaiah’s joyous psalm on his vision of Judaic renewal.
1 And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.
2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.
5 Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.
6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.
FOOTNOTE.
Isaiah 12:1.‘And in that day’ frequently occurs in his writing. The words represent his singular glimpse of a particular time period in future history, ranging from the near to the distant future even down to our present day and beyond.
Category: POETRY
FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 11.
EXPLAINING THE BOOK OF ISAIAH
Analytical Notes hereunder are on the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, which covers epochs totalling several thousand years
Isaiah 11:1
‘rod out of the stem of Jesse…Branch shall grow out of his roots’: God’s unbreakable Messianic promise to Jesse’s son King David would be the root in Judah’s dry ground that would grow from its stem and would bear the Branch. Jesus would be born from the descendants of Jesse’s son David in the tribe of Judah 700 years later.
Isaiah 11:4-10.
Isaiah predicts the final post apocalyptic millennial reign of Christ from Jerusalem’s Mt. Olivet. (Cp. Zechariah 14)
Isaiah 11:7. The ‘lion shall eat straw’ in the millennium of peace after the Second Coming shows the return of the lion and other carnivores to be subject unto the human race and void of aggression. It seems they may become herbivores.
Isaiah 11:10.
Christ Jesus came from that root in the dry ground of Judah’s wicked apostasy. He was born of the lineage from the ‘root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign to Jew and Gentile. God’s unbreakable Messianic promise to Jesse’s son King David would be the root in Judah’s dry ground that would grow the stem that would bear the Branch: Jesus would be born from the descendants of Jesse’s son David in the tribe of Judah 700 years later. Cp. 5:24; 11:1; 27:6; 37:31; & 53:2.
Isaiah 11:12.
The first return was led by Ezra and Nehemiah when Cyrus destroyed Babylonia’s power and released the captive Jews. The second return of the Diaspora was during the benevolent reign of the Greek Empire’s Alexander the Great. The third return began in the early 19th C through to 1944. This began with a trickle and slowly grew to a stream after December 1917 when General Allenby conquered Jerusalem and captured it from Turkey (Islam). From 1917 to 1944 under a British UN Protectorate’s benevolence the British Parliament and Armed Forces aided Palestine’s redevelopment. Albeit, in 1945 the new Labour Government of Westminster turned hostile to resettling Jewish war refugees and the idea of Israeli independence.
The fourth return was after Israel’s war of Independence. Thus from 1948 onward the fourth and largest return of the Diaspora occurred via the agency of the USA which became its saviour. Concomitant with migration back to the Promise Land was also the movement of Jewish refugees from anti-Semitic countries to North America. In New York State, over five million live there freely today.
Isaiah and the other prophets predicted that the fifth and final return of the Diaspora will ensue after Christ Himself returns to Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives, from which he ascended (Zechariah 14).
Isaiah glimpses all five returns of God’s people to the Promised Land in amazing detail, and subsequent history affirms the very fulfilment of those prophecies about the return of God’s people, the Jews to the land of Palestine.
During the reign of Alexander the Great he appointed 72 scholars to recover the lost Hebrew Old Testament and translate it into Koine Greek Septuagint (LXX) for the Jewish people.
Isaiah 11:13.
Ephraim is another name for the northern ten rebel tribes, also called Israel, in contrast with the southern kingdom of Judah after Solomon’s death. There was often civil war between the two kingdoms headed at first by Rehoboam and Jeroboam.
Isaiah 11:14-16. Figurative language describing future Israeli victories over attacks from surrounding hostile nations, so far fulfilled in 1948, 1967, & 1973. The subordination of Israel’s enemies, particularly hostile Muslim Arabs was clearly predicted by Isaiah and accurately fulfilled after 12/ 1917 & since 1948 to the present hour.
Isaiah 11
Prophecy of Immanuel the son of David and the Diaspora return.
1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
2 And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;
3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
Diaspora’s return: via Persians; Greeks; 20thC; & 2nd Advent.
4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den.
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah predicts the future birth of Christ.
10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
Prophesied return of Diaspora to modern Israel.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
A separate glimpse of modern Israel’s military feats.
14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
15 And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.
16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
* * *
Foreword, Heading, & Sub Headings by John David.
*King James Version Bible is Public Domain (ex biblegateway.com).
FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 10
It is evident from Jeremiah’s prophecies in this chapter that the fierce monster from the North: Assyria will be the tool of God’s wrath against Egypt, Syria, Samaria, and Galilee. God’s tool of affliction, but present ally of Judah, would later turn against Jerusalem as punishment for its impenitent idolatry.
Assyria had just come to the aid of Judah to protect Jerusalem and Judah’s borders against the confederated forces of Syria’s King Rezin and Samaria’s King Pekah.
Assyria’s presence was in response to the Ahaz’s distrust of Jehovah, (vs.12) and her military might would first vanquish Egypt, Syria, Samaria, and Galilee before marching on its one-time ally Judah.
However, the Chaldeans from Mesopotamia’s Babylonia (vss.13-16) would sack Nineveh and the Assyrian empire would be hamstrung and crippled. The doom of Nineveh was predicted by the prophet Nahum some 150 years after Jonah brought it to repentance.
Chapter ten’s two difficult passages (Jeremiah 10:17-19; & 10:28-34) were written to confuse Isaiah’s enemies, including those in the royal court. They should not deter the reader comprehending the unique accuracy, manifest in the annals of ancient history. Then too, the glorious prophesied promises of the return of the captives from Babylon, and the gathering of the Diaspora, first under the Greek Alexander the Great, and then in the modern era their 19th and 20th century global migration to Palestine.
1. The power of Babylon that will break the kingdom of Assyria: vs. 23-27;
2. The return of the scattered Diaspora back to Palestine
a. Under Cyrus the Persian within two decades of Nebuchadnezzar’s decease;
b. Under Alexander the Great, the empire that superseded the Chaldean empire of Babylon;
c. In the modern era Jewry would:
i. return to the Land in the early 19th C (1817-1917);
ii. increasingly flow into Palestine after UK General Allenby retook Jerusalem from Islamic Turk control (1917-1944);
iii. migrate in even greater numbers after Israel’s 1948 Independence by sea and air from Eastern and Western Europe;
iv. in the largest Jewish air migration of Jews in history, return to Israel by a U.S. air armada which had gathered exiles, outcasts and endangered Jewish refugees from anti-Semitic territories of the globe.
BRIEF HISTORICAL SUMMATION.
1. ABRAHAM. Call of Abram from Ur of the Chaldees.
2. JACOB. (Israel) The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (renames the latter grandson into ‘Israel’) preserves Abram’s seed by sending Jacob’s son Joseph to Egypt.
3. THE EXODUS. 430 years later the Exodus of the Hebrews occurs.
4. JOSHUA ENTERS PALESTINE. 40 years later Israel’s people enter Palestine.
5. POST SOLOMON PERIOD Israel splits into two kingdoms. 1380 years after Joshua crossed Jordan Israel and its two kingdoms end in captivity.
6. THE PERSIANS TAKE BABYLON. After Cyrus the Persian frees the captives a remnant return to Palestine under Ezra & Nehemiah to rebuild.
7. GREEK EMPIRE supersedes Persia. Alexander the Great preserved the almost destroyed Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures by translating them into the Koine Greek Septuagint (LXX). Thus the kind Persian and Greek empires superseded Babylonia, but preceded the antagonistic Roman Empire.
7 a. ROMAN EMPIRE. For 450 years it persecuted the Jews so intensely that it became a burnt earth policy. The burning of the world renowned Alexandria Manuscript Library by Julius Caesar was an example. Under Roman Palestine 15,000 were commonly crucified each year.
8. ROMAN EMPEROR CONSTANTINE. Early in the 4thC AD the new emperor Constantine arranged with Rome an Edict of Toleration towards the Jews and Christians. But the new Church of Rome was no friend to the Jew or the regenerated believer in Christ born again of His Spirit.
9. THE DARK AGES: 300-800 AD. The dark ages that followed the sacking of Rome by Goths and Huns showed little more tolerance to the Jews than to the Romans.
10. THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE: 800-1800. Thus in 800 AD Pope Leo ordained Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor for the new Franco-German Holy Roman Empire. It lasted a thousand years, until 1800, though it was weakened by the Reformation of 1517.
This Germanic reign of Roman religious power from Europe discriminated against Jews throughout its vast global empire. Jewish historians attest to the continued, but devastating disenfranchisement, quarantine, ghettos, and mass deportation of the whole Jewish populace from cities and their region or country.
11. DIASPORA RETURN STARTS. (1817 to 1917) At the end of a thousand year blot on the annals of history a few Jews of Europe began to migrate from Europe to Palestine, despite its Muslim rulers. This was concurrent with USA’s ‘Golden Age of Evangelism’. From 1817 to 1917 the first trickle had steadily increased to a stream. God sparked a flame among the scattered Jews that grew into a bright light 150 years later, with the creation of the State of Israel. This fulfilled the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the minor prophets of the Old Testament.
12. UK ARMY CAPTURE JERUSALEM. 1917-1944. British General Allenby freed Jerusalem from the Islamic rule of the Turks in December 1917 and in the ensuing twenty seven years the stream broadened to a steady flow of returning Jews to Palestine.
13. BRITISH BETRAYAL. (1945-1948) Despite the new British (Labour) Government’s betrayal of post war Jewry from sudden new anti-Semitic hostility in Westminster the Jews of Palestine turned to fight for their Land, not only with Arab Muslim saboteurs, but also with British hostile troops. Their onetime ally and saviour became an enemy. But to fulfil God’s prophetic predictions the Jews survived hostilities and achieved national independence against all odds.
In spite of Britain abstaining in New York and an intransigent Washington, President Truman worked behind the scenes to outsmart the U.S. State Department and the United Kingdom by working directly with Jerusalem and the United Nations. By God’s grace Truman worked a modern miracle and Palestine became the prophesied State of Israel.
In May 1948 the UN voted to accept the new State of Israel into its fraternity as a valid, fully fledged, sovereign Nation State.
DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN ISAIAH 10.
These are purposely interwoven by the prophet to confuse his godless enemies within the palace and the priesthood. The indirect vagueness is typical of the prophet’s writings early in the book.
1. Isaiah 10:17-19 in which the simile of trees is likened to the coming Assyrian conquering princes.
2. Isaiah 10:28-34 filled with a poetic topographical complexity.
3. Isaiah 10:20-22 describes the godly remnant inclosing the Diaspora return from Babylon etc. as described above.
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* Foreword, Footnotes, Chapter Heading and Sub Headings by John David.
Isaiah 10. King James Version of the Bible (Public Domain).
Isaiah predicts Jerusalem’s destruction & survival of a holy remnant.
1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
4 Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.
8 For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?
9 Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
10 As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
11 Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.
13 For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man:
14 And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.
15 Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.
16 Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.
17 And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;
18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth.
19 And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.
22 For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.
23 For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land.
24 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall smite thee with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against thee, after the manner of Egypt.
25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction.
26 And the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb: and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt.
27 And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.
28 He is come to Aiath, he is passed to Migron; at Michmash he hath laid up his carriages:
29 They are gone over the passage: they have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid; Gibeah of Saul is fled.
30 Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim: cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth.
31 Madmenah is removed; the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee.
32 As yet shall he remain at Nob that day: he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled.
34 And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one.
FOOTNOTES.
Isaiah 10:5. Assyria is the ‘rod of God’s anger and indignation’ against all twelve apostate tribes, (ten in the North & two in the South) including Levi, the 13th tribe, not given a territory, but dispersed among the cities. Only a remnant of Jewry, called the tenth, will turn to God in repentance and faith after the Babylonian captivity. They will abandon idolatry; return to temple worship and restore Sabbath observance.
FOREWORD to Isaiah 9
Isaiah sees the present darkness of Judah and Israel to the north which gives him no hope. He also sees seven hundred years into the future: where hope and light is suddenly birthed by a young man (Immanuel) in Galilee. The present vexation of Judah by Samaria and her allies is a dark day indeed living under the ‘shadow of death’. In Joel’s words, ‘Joy had withered away’ from the people of Judah. By faith he sees the threatening yoke of Syria broken.
He saw hope when there was no hope: the attribute of faith by endowed grace (Hebrews 11:1). Paul’s ensuing verse shows the natural man void of faith by hope, no matter how he musters up his bravado of positive freewill. Only God could give embattled Isaiah hope against hope. Indeed the New Testament says that we are saved by hope.
However, this Prince of Peace, though he would be raised in Galilee, would reign from Jerusalem in the end days after the great apocalypse when he returns as prophesied to Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14). This Wonderful Counsellor, the embodiment of the divine heavenly Father; this mighty God in human flesh, would centre most of his focus upon Jerusalem of Judea with his ‘great light’ during his last three years.
While Tiglath-Pileser is ravaging neighbouring Syria, Samaria, and Galilee among other regions of Palestine, Jerusalem is shaking in fear, even though the Assyrian has come at Ahaz’s request to defend it. How could hope ever arise in Galilee?
*Foreword; heading; sub headings; and footnotes by John David.
Holy Scripture from the King James Version (1611) Public Domain ex biblegateway.com
ISAIAH 9
Amid prevailing darkness Isaiah forecasts Christ the Light..
1 Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.
2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
4 For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
Birth of Immanuel predicted.
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
The advance of the Assyria into Syria and Samaria.
8 The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.
9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,
10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars.
11 Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him, and join his enemies together;
12 The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
13 For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts.
14 Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day.
15 The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.
17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
18 For wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke.
19 Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.
20 And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
21 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
(King James Version of the Bible 1611: Public domain-biblegateway.com)
FOOTNOTES
Isaiah 9:1-2.
Matthew 4:15-16 records Matthew’s quote of Isaiah’s prophecy. There are more quotes from Isaiah in the New Testament than all the other prophets combined.
Isaiah 9:4.
This is a remarkably accurate description of Jesus, the babe of Bethlehem, who would first come to earth in peace, and then after they had killed him he would return to rule and judge the nations at the end of the age in which we live. The prophets, the Psalms, the apostles, the Gospel writers, and Christ Himself all confirmed this description of Isaiah.
Isaiah 9:8.
“The Lord sent a word into Jacob.” This was the message of God’s retribution and wrath upon the ten rebel tribes of Israel lapsed and lost in horrific and beastly idolatry. The messenger of wrath would be the Assyrian Tiglath-Pileser invading Samaria, Galilee, and Philistia.
Isaiah 9:12. The merciful loving Father had to mete dire judgment upon his people before his extended hand of atoning mercy would be received. John 1:11-12. My God is holy, just and merciful, but his entreaties through preaching prophets to wayward sinners have a time limit. Cp.vs 9:21; 10:4.
Isaiah 9:21. This alliance of Israel (Ephraim) and Joseph’s descendants with Syria against Judah would fail.
FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 8.
UNDERSTANDING THE COMPLEX BOOK OF ISAIAH by John David
FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 8.
To confuse his enemies, Isaiah sends a message in code to the faithful godly remnant of Judah and their descendants. Using indirectness; transposition of pronouns; in additioned metonyms to disguise and protect that which he writes in his book, even this Book of Isaiah in holy writ.
The reader needs first to understand that Isaiah’s wife was the nameless prophetess who bore his two sons: Shearjashub and Mahershalalhashbaz, the latter being a portentous sign. But this sign was nowhere near as significant as the sign of a virgin birth of a Saviour: Immanuel. This was fulfilled over 700 years later at the birth of Christ Jesus, the son of David, and the Son of God. The Gospels describe it in St. Matthew and St. Luke. Isaiah’s second born son would signify the disappearance of Pekah in Samaria (Israeli rebel tribes)and Rezin in Syria. The power of their kingdoms would never recover and Tiglath-Pileser would abduct and deport captives from Samaria, Syria and the Trans-Jordan Jews, but he would be unsuccessful in routing Jerusalem at that time as Isaiah predicted. Before the toddler Mahershalalhashbaz would begin to talk Assyria would sack the Syrian capital Damascus and vanquish Samaria. (Isa. 8:4)
Isaiah places both signs together, and almost merges the two together. However, second sign would come to pass in the immediate future, but the first more than 700 years later. The Assyrian empire would be superseded by the Chaldean one of Babylonia. In 612 BC the Assyrian capital of Nineveh was sacked by Babylon. Later at the end of Judah’s kingdom the Jerusalem captives would be taken by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon (50 miles south of modern Baghdad) leaving a ruined city, to a small Jewish remnant and the prophet Jeremiah: Isaiah’s successor.
REVIEW:
Samaria allied with Syria besieged Jerusalem only to be turned away by a miracle. Both kingdoms would be overpowered by Assyria shortly afterwards. Ahaz had called for help from Assyrian might to help resist Pekah and Rezin. But God intervened through the prayers of Isaiah and outside help was not needed. The city was filled with fear and many wanted a confederacy to survive the multiple attacks from different neighbouring nations. Isaiah had exhorted them to trust in God rather than a military alliance.
Foreword, footnotes, headings and subheadings are by John David.
ISAIAH 8.
King James Version of the Bible. Public Domain ex biblegateway.com
ISAIAH CALMS BESIEGED JERUSALEM.
1 Moreover the Lord said unto me, Take the a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz.
2 And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.
3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the Lord to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.
4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.
ISAIAH URGES AHAZ TO TRUST GOD NOT ASSYRIAN ARMIES.
5 The Lord spake also unto me again, saying,
6 Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son;
7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:
ISAIAH WARNS ASSYRIAN AFFILIATION WILL DESTROY THEM.
8 And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.
9 Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
10 Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.
11 For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
12 Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
13 Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.
16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
17 And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
18 Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.
ISAIAH WARNS JERUSALEM: IDOLS WILL NOT HELP
19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?
20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.
FOOTNOTES.
Isaiah 8: 6.
“the waters of Shiloah’ allude to the pool of Siloam (John 8:7) a reservoir within Jerusalem’s wall. Shiloah may have been a pun on Shiloh a once godly centre of the priests and prophets in the early days of settlement in Palestine which the faithful remnant always supported even in apostate times. Rezin was the Syrian king whom with king Pekah (Remaliah’s son) was crushed by the Assyrian who in a later campaign besieged and invaded Jerusalem. This attack up the river bed and under the city wall is described in Isaiah 8:8-9.
Isaiah 8: 8.
The prophet ends his brief description of the coming Assyrian attack upon Jerusalem, addressing his words to God, whom he calls the Saviour: “thy land, O Immanuel”. I.e. God is my witness.
Isaiah 8:18.
One sign was Isaiah’s firstborn child, who marked the moment of Assyria’s sacking of Damascus. The second born was a time marker for the capture of Israel (Ephraim) in the north. The prophet was instructed to record both on his manuscript journal for posterity. But a far greater sign was that of the prophecy of Immanuel’s birth coinciding therewith. Judah would also be imminently waylaid by Assyria. (Isaiah 8:8)
Isaiah 8:21.
The prophet describes the absolute fear of Judah’s citizenry as it awaits Tiglath-Pileser’s attack, having already destroyed Damascus and captured Samaria.