Category: THE SCRIPTURES

EZEKIEL CH. 26 & 27 notes

FOOTNOTE Ezekiel 26:2.
Tyrus is the name of Tyre, a Phoenician kingdom of antiquity an island off the south western coast of Lebanon from which Hiram had sent his fleet of ships for David and Solomon. In later times it had resisted Nineveh, gained autonomy, and for a time repulsed the Chaldean armies of Babylon. Later it became a dependent state of Babylonia. Its Persian successors to power then used Tyre’s naval strength to aid its conquest of the east.

Finally, when Tyre repelled Alexander the Great’s empire, his Greek forces built a causeway by which he was able to eventually storm the city and break its power, so aptly described by Ezekiel in following chapters. The contempt of Tyrus for Jerusalem’s demise and imminent predicament would bring upon it the vengeance of God for gloating over the fate of Judah.

FOOTNOTE. Ezekiel 27: 13-23.
The names mentioned show the immense influence of this pivotal sea port on the Mediterranean dating back to primeval period of history. Tyre’s opulence and magnificent seafaring vessels together with its key location made it a very rich trading city. And the envy of many a nation.

*NOTES on the King James Version of the Bible (1611).
KJV is public domain (ex biblegateway.com).
Notes, headings and sub headings, & footnotes by John David.

The King James Version was the last of the six Puritan printed Bibles of the Reformation in the 16th & 17th century based on the Greek Text of Erasmus and published in Britain, France, Germany, and Geneva when translators and publishers had to flee for their lives.

Due to the Enlightenment of the 18th Century and its damning effects all subsequent modern English versions since the 19th C, translators have rejected the work of Erasmus and used instead the sub-standard 19th C Greek text of Westcott & Hort. Thus subtle Roman scholarship effectively muted the authoritative voice of the Puritan Reformation and Protestantism itself.

EZEKIEL CH. 26 & 27 notes

EZEKIEL EXPLAINED: 23rd Ch.

Foreword to Ezekiel 23.
Two promiscuous women are the allegory in this chapter. In an analogy of Jerusalem (the kingdom of Judah), and Samaria (the rebel breakaway ten tribes of Israel), Aholah represents Jerusalem, and Aholibah Israel. They are either called whores, or prostitutes, because both the southern and northern kingdoms had fallen prey to the idolatry and devil worship of the cult of Baal. Instead of vanquishing all the Canaanites, in the original conquest by Joshua, those allowed to remain became a snare to both Jerusalem and Samaria.

In God’s eyes such idolatry was equated with the actions of an unfaithful wife. Thus Ezekiel’s prophecy uses the terms whore, and whoredom to describe how they had prostituted themselves to alien gods. Both kingdoms paid a terrible price for their infidelity: God provoked the nations of Egypt, Syria, Assyria and Chaldea to lay siege to Jerusalem and Samaria with disastrous consequences, ending finally in the destruction of both cities of Samaria first, and Jerusalem 120 years later. The Lord regarded the Jews as his own people and calls them his wife, and himself as husband many times in both Old and New Testaments.

When Isaiah uses the word RETURN he speaks of the future regathering of the scattered Jews (Diaspora) throughout the nations. It is clear that God has judged both the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah for their grievous apostasy in adopting the pagan worship of other nations. Despite God’s merciful pleas through His prophets to repent they resorted to the worship of sun, moon, stars and idols of the cult of Baal. Under the reign of King Manasseh Judah had passed the point of no return, that Samaria had reached four generations earlier.

The despicable decadence of God’s chosen people: the Jews infuriated the Lord. Though his judgments were harsh he promised never to totally abandon the Jews even in their respective bondage and captivity. Jerusalem would be destroyed, the cities would become ghost towns, and the once fruitful Land would become barren and unproductive, yet in His afflicting chastisement He would not and could not forget His covenant with David, (the perpetuity of the Kingdom of David), or Solomon (the eternal preservation of Jerusalem).

The King James Version was the last of the six Puritan printed Bibles of the Reformation in the 16th & 17th century based on the Greek Text of Erasmus and published in Britain, France, Germany, and Geneva when translators and publishers had to flee for their lives. Due to the Enlightenment of the 18th Century and its damning effects all subsequent modernizing translators have rejected the work of Erasmus and used instead the sub-standard 19th C Greek text of Westcott & Hort. Thus subtle Roman scholarship effectively muted the authoritative voice of the Puritan Reformation and Protestantism itself.

Bible Reference: King James Version 1611- Public Domain (ex biblegateway.com)
Foreword by John David.

EZEKIEL EXPLAINED: 23rd Ch.

FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 14.

This chapter covers three areas of prophecy. Despite the Latinized English syntax, and Isaiah’s poetic and geographic allusions this chapter is crucial to understand the sequence of consecutive empires in the Middle East and Far East of Isaiah’s past, present, and future nations hostile to the Jews of the land under the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah in Isaiah’s ministry. Extra biblical history declares he died a martyr at the hands of Manasseh, the successor to Hezekiah. Living under four different kings the enemy activity against Jerusalem was both constant and varied in its source. This background may assist the readers difficulty in fathoming a difficult book.

Though sometimes obscure and puzzling the three areas in his prophecies covered are:

1. The Diaspora’s promised return to the ‘Land of Israel.
2. Isaiah predicts Cyrus the Great releasing Babylon’s captives.
3. Isaiah’s proverb of future judgment and God’s coming vengeance against the new future king of Babylon after Nineveh was sacked and the Assyrian puppet king of Babylon fell to the Chaldeans.

When Isaiah uses the word ‘return’ he speaks of the future regathering of the Jews scattered through the nations. This would occur on five historic occasions:

1. When Cyrus the Great took away control of Babylon by defeating the Chaldeans released the captive Jews, after 70 years of bondage;

2. When Alexander the Great of the Greek empire defeated the Persians, and totally destroyed Babylon, never again to be inhabited as prophesied by Isaiah in the previous chapter. This was accompanied by the benevolence of the Greek ruler Ptolemy II, who translated the Old Testament into Greek;

3. When in modern times at the beginning of the 19th C he Diaspora of Europe slowly began to return to Palestine, then occupied by the Turks for Islam;

4. When in 1917 the WW1 British General Allenby took Jerusalem away from the Turks and made it a UN Protectorate of Great Britain, increasing the Jewish flow of the Diaspora from a trickle to a stream that increased until 1944, and from 1948 to the present;

5. When finally in the future at the end of the age, following the apocalypse and the Battle of Armageddon, Christ’s Second Coming to Jerusalem will occur.

It is clear that God had already judged both the kingdom of Israel and Judah for their grievous apostasy in their adopting the pagan religions from other nations. Despite God’s merciful pleas through his prophets to repent, they had resorted to the worship of sun, moon, stars and idols of the cult of Baal. The despicable decadence of Jews infuriated the Lord.

Though his judgments were harsh he promised never to totally abandon the Jews even in their respective bondage and captivity. Jerusalem would be destroyed, the cities would become ghost towns, and the once fruitful land would become barren and unproductive. The captivity of Judah’s populace was progressive. Not all were taken to Babylon. Assyria had taken Manasseh and others to Babylon before he repented and was released. Hundreds of other captives were abducted by several surrounding enemies of the Jews. However, the bulk of those deported went to the city of Babylon and the final purge of Jerusalem’s population came under Nebuchadnezzar, whose forces completely destroyed the city.

Yet, in God’s afflicting chastisement he would not, and could not, forget either his covenant with David over the kingdom of Judah, or his irrevocable promise to Solomon over Jerusalem. There are many difficulties for the reader herein. What do we think of when we hear the term Babylon? Though this city is the subject of the prophet’s diatribe of doom a historical perspective may prevent puzzlement or misunderstanding.

The rulers of the city and its territory of Babylonia reach back into antiquity. Babel was mentioned early in the book of Genesis and archaeologists and the literati propound that Babel and its tower was an early part of the Babylon to which Isaiah refers. Over the millennia the city was destroyed and rebuilt many times as invaders and new empires extended their reach into Mesopotamia, where it was located at the time of Isaiah, the rejected prophet of Judah.

It had long been under Assyrian control as a vassal state that played tribute to Nineveh. The Assyrian kings had sacked the city on two separate occasions: 689 BC, and 651 BC. Amazingly, over time on each occasion it was razed to the ground it was rebuilt more splendidly than before. Eventually, by the time of the Chaldean Regime, under Nebuchadnezzar, it became the jewel of the East with its wondrous hanging gardens, built for the King of the Medes’ daughter, Nebuchadnezzar’s wife.

The prophet was making his predictions and prophecies under the reign of Ahaz, the second most evil King of Judah, except Manasseh, the son of Josiah, the last good king of the kingdom’s existence. The fact that Isaiah was cut in half by Manasseh’s saw has been substantiated by extra-biblical documents.

The main problem understanding this and other chapters of the book is the time gap between Isaiah’s adjacent visions of the future. They often follow one another so quickly that the sequencing is a mystery, to say the least. Imminent future, near future; distant future; the First Advent of Immanuel; the last days of the present modern era; the final apocalyptic judgment of the anti-Semitic nations’ armies surrounding Jerusalem; and, finally the Second Coming of Christ to the Mount of Olives to rule and reign from Jerusalem.

Amid the vast time panoply covered by Isaiah, the reader is given glimpses of the historical present on the one hand, and concomitantly, if not simultaneously, intermittent glimpses of near and future time slots that seem to be unrelated.

God used foreign powers to end the northern kingdom of Israel 120 years before the final ruin of Jerusalem. Afterwards, in his wrath and vengeance against Judah he would judge and destroy each hostile invader, with no exception. This may give further insight into the books of the three Major Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, each repeating these themes.

HOLY WRIT OF SCRIPTURE.
Isaiah: Chapter 14.
1 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

2 And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

3 And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,

4 That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

5 The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
6 He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.

7 The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.

8 Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

9 Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

10 All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.

20 Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.

21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

22 For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the Lord.

23 I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts.

24 The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

25 That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.

26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

27 For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.

29 Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.

31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.

32 What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.

FOOTNOTES.
Isaiah 14:12 In this proverb against Babylon personifies it as Satan incarnate. ‘O Lucifer, son of the morning! ‘ To say otherwise is to be blind to the text and commit popular bibliolatry for doctrines of extra-biblical demonology. The future Babylonian king will: ‘weaken the nations’, exalt himself into a deity to ‘ascend into heaven’. He will ‘exalt (his) throne’..’above the stars of God’, and before Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego try to be ‘ like the most High’. (Cp. Book of the Prophet Daniel.)
Isaiah 14:25 Babylon in central Mesopotamia 50 miles south of modern Baghdad was controlled by successive powers of Assyria, and Persia. The Babylonian empire under Persian rule would be one of the seven great empires of the time. Babylon had attacked and pillaged Assyrian, Syrian, Israeli, and Egyptian cities. It was almost thought to be omnipotent. This may explain the vague poetic reference: ‘I will break the Assyrian’. God, on the one hand used foreign powers to discipline Judah (& Israel), but on the other hand Jehovah later punished such hostile anti-Semitic nations.

(King James Version 1611-Public Domain)

FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 14.

FOREWORD: Isaiah 13

Foreword to Isaiah 13
The prophet envisions in the future the inevitable destruction of Judah and Jerusalem under the Chaldean armies of Babylonia and the citizens taken away captive into Babylon for seventy years. Then after the heathen Chaldees would accomplish God’s purpose against idolatrous Judah God would in turn dispense with the Babylonian empire by sending the might of Cyrus the Great (the Persian) with the Medes to capture Babylon and break its power. Isaiah also glimpses the final destruction of the city itself under ensuing Greek emperor, Alexander the Great. Though Cyrus would take Babylon without a fight the city remained habitable until Alexander routed and destroyed its buildings. Today it remains an uninhabited heap of rubble fifty miles away from Baghdad for all to see the fulfilment of God’s prophecies and promises.
Isaiah 13
Persia to capture Babylon and Greece to finally destroy it.
1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
2 Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.
4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
5 They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
6 Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:
8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

The Vision of Jacob’s Trouble and the apocalyptic judgment in the end days.
9 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

A separate glimpse of Babylon’s destruction by the Greek empire of Alexander.
14 And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land.
15 Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.
16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.
17 Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.
18 Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eyes shall not spare children.
19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
20 It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
21 But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.
22 And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

FOREWORD: Isaiah 13

FOREWORD: ISAIAH 12

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.

FOREWORD: ISAIAH 12

WHO ARE THE LORD’S WITNESSES?

YE ARE EVEN MY WITNESSES
The saint is compelled to bear testimony of Christ in some small way, or spiritual boredom and drought will set in because the Spirit is grieved.
Each of us ‘brush shoulders’ with scores of lost souls each week unless confined at home because of illness. The saint, no matter how dejected, will carry something in the pocket or handbag with the gift of life: e.g. a small tract, or a pocket Gospel, that can be handed to ‘other sheep’ not yet in the fold of the kingdom, but whom the Father is drawing to His Son.

This does not mean everybody encountered, nor does it mean the witness should nail the recipient with verbal diatribe trying to win his soul.
However, it does mean being ready for a natural positive opportunity (interactional chemistry permitting) when it arises.
Every decent, warm conversation in personal encounter, though only short is the Lord opening the heart to the Word by readying the person to receive it. Seeds must be sown for germination and it needs a sower willing to drop a seed.

If the witness refuses to carry the Word of Life, there is no chance of a seed being deposited. This does not mean confronting every person and forcibly arresting him, as some unwise zealots do. Evidence cannot be measured by response and that must be left to eternity, for often in most cases there will never be another meeting. Ye are my witnesses, and besides I have no other.

Neutral ground of approach is today the best, maybe the only way to witness with 2,800 separate churches soliciting their uniqueness within Christendom. Try to avoid literature advertising their own congregation, but if the identity endorsement has to be embossed make sure it points to the Word of God and not a METHOD to gain grace, or receive the Holy Spirit.

Let HIM do HIS own work without crowding HIM as though salvation of a lost person depends on someone else. Remember that Jesus in John 17 refused to pray for the world and the worldling, only for ‘other sheep’ which the Spirit was preparing. This is not predestination or limited atonement, but giving the Spirit the prerogative to do His own work His own way without meddling humans discrediting His ability to do the work.

Ideally, tracts should be without denominational tag or wording soliciting itself on the back page. Popular humanistic right wing evangelism thinks otherwise as it uses various cunning devices to catch a person in their network. The Christian believer often sees such zealotry and stops witnessing because he wants to disassociate himself from such.

BIBLE REFERENCES. (ex King James Version-Public Domain)
Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any…But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
(Isaiah 44:8; 2 Corinthians 4:3)

WHO ARE THE LORD’S WITNESSES?

THE PILGRIM’S DOWNCAST PERIOD

THE PILGRIM’S DOWNCAST PERIOD OF DESPAIR
who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us…… a merciful and faithful high priest…to make reconciliation for the sins of (His sheep) the people(saints)… Wherefore, holy brethren…consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus… a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God…an high priest … touched with the feeling of our infirmities…in all points tempted like as (us)we…Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest… became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners… he did once, when he offered up himself…an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens… which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh… an high priest over the house of God…Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith… sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed…without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)…
Romans 8:34Hebrews 3:1; (Hebrews 4:14); Hebrews 4:15;
Hebrews 5:1; Hebrews 5:5; Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews 7:26; Hebrews 7:27; Hebrews 8:1; Hebrews 10:19-23;
kjv bible excerpts are Public Domain

THE PILGRIM’S DOWNCAST PERIOD

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 11.

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.
.

* 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 10

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 9