Category: THE SCRIPTURES

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 The Assyrian empire would be superseded by the Chaldean one of Babylonia.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.

FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 8.

ISAIAH 7 FOOTNOTES’ ERRATA .

ERRATA TO JOHN DAVID’S FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 7.
FOREWORD and FOOTNOTES to Isaiah 7 have been duly added to John David’s post of August 6.
There should be no confusion between Syria and Assyria despite Ahaz calling for Assyrian assistance to resist the confederate force of Syria and Samaria. Assyria would still attack Jerusalem in the end.

Apologies herewith to readers involved.

ISAIAH 7 FOOTNOTES’ ERRATA .

FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 7.

Explaining the Book of Isaiah.
FOREWORD by John David.
Isaiah the poetic prophet begins the historical narrative of Judah’s descent into its wayward ways of idolatry and immorality. It is not always easy to discern between Isaiah’s own voice (viewpoint) and God’s direct voice to Judah through Isaiah’s prophecies. Isaiah the historian is not the same voice as Isaiah the poet whose verse embellishes much of what he says.

Then too, the poetic literary devices using simile, metaphor, metonym, and allegory make the text puzzling. This is because of the continuous flow of geographic references unfamiliar to all but scholars and those of the literati. Thus nearly half of its sixty six chapters seem so crowded they are obtuse. However, if the reader can persist in the slow digestion of this unusual book, and focus on the glorious main themes of Isaiah he will be amply rewarded for his perseverance. These themes are:-

1. Restoration;
2. return to Palestine;
3. preservation of the godly remnant;
4. the pleas of the Lord for repentance;
5. the overtures of an atoning Saviour to wholehearted seekers;
6. the irrevocability of the Messianic promise to David’s descendants;
7. the endearing place of Judah in the heart of God;
8. that painful suffering of divine chastisement has a merciful purpose;
9. that sins even in worst case scenarios can be forgiven at repentance;
10. that sin always has consequences;
11. that the sinner can pass the point of no return in his impenitence;
12. that the stubbornness was typical of God’s people called Israel;
13. that God uses godless nations to discipline the wayward godly;
14. that God shows vengeance towards enemies of God’s people;
15. that God is sovereign in the hearts of kings to accomplish His will.

Only under the evil reign of Ahaz (worse than all others except Manasseh) does he commence his anecdotal style weighed down with a multitude of varying literary devices and geographic place names. The metonym ‘Ephraim’ represents the rebel ten tribes in Samaria to the north, otherwise called Israel. What is confusing, however, is that Isaiah later uses ‘Israel’ to solely mean the southern kingdom of Judah (and Benjamin) with its capital Jerusalem. The alternating use of real name at one moment and the pseudonym the next moment is perhaps the prophet’s purposeful indirectness to confuse his hostile opponents. Thus it was a security measure to preserve his freedom and the continuance of his prophetic ministry. Jesus used parables in like manner.

In the midst of desolation and retribution for Judah’s idolatrous ways, Isaiah predicts the Saviour, God’s own beloved Son: Immanuel.

Compare Isaiah 7: 14-16, to 9:6-7.
Always bear in mind that the promises and offers of merciful loving-kindness that appear so unexpectedly in the sixty six chapters are based upon his avowed promise to David and his descendants of Judah on the one hand. On the other hand undeserved mercy is based on His promise to Solomon over Jerusalem. This is essential to fathom the Book of Isaiah and Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews.

Hereunder is: *KJV Bible Public Domain ex biblegateway.com
Chapter heading, sub headings, and footnotes by John David.

ISAIAH 7
Under evil Ahaz the Messianic hope is foreshadowed.
1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it.
2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.
3 Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field;
4 And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.
5 Because Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah, have taken evil counsel against thee, saying,
6 Let us go up against Judah, and vex it, and let us make a breach therein for us, and set a king in the midst of it, even the son of Tabeal:
7 Thus saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass.
8 For the head of Syria is Damascus and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.
9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah’s son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.
10 Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying,
11 Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.
12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.

The sign of Immanuel, the Son of David, the Messiah..
13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?
14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

Unprecedented Assyrian attacks upon region predicted.
17 The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father’s house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19 And they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes.
20 In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;
22 And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.
23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.
24 With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.
25 And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.

*KJV Bible is Public Domain ex biblegateway.com Sub headings of text by John David.

FOOTNOTES by John David.

Isaiah 7:5.
Ephraim, one of the twelve tribes, is also used as metonym for all ten rebel Israeli tribes in Samaria. It would ally itself with Rezin of Syria to attack Jerusalem. Though this was the plan, Isaiah predicted it would be unsuccessful.

Isaiah 7:8.
Within 65 years Ephraim (Israel in Samaria) would not be a people. This obscure prophecy meant that the ten rebel tribes in Samaria, called Israel, would disappear within sixty five years. This was fulfilled within the time span predicted. Assyria, which would sack Damascus the capital of Syria, would also invade Samaria and deport the mass bulk of the population into exile. In their place Syrians would repopulate the region, similar to what occurred under Stalin using mass forced migration to accomplish his Soviet Union’s atheistic revolution. Millions of Russians were, for example, sent to repopulate Kazakhstan in central East Asia. .

Isaiah 7:9.
Remaliah’s son was King Pekah of the Israeli rebel tribes in the north.

Isaiah 7:11. Though the disbelieving Ahaz refused to even ask for a sign that the prophecy was true, two signs were indicated in this chapter: the messianic sign in vs.14, and the sign of Isaiah’s son being conceived. This alluded to Mahershalalhashbaz (Cp: 7.16; 8:4).
The purposeful indirectness of the prophet makes for difficult differentiation. The Son in 7:14 was not the same as the son in 7:16. The first would be seven centuries in the distant future: Immanuel, the Son of David, born to Mary the young virgin. The son in 7:16 was Mahershalalhashbaz to be born by Isaiah’s wife, the Prophetess.

Isaiah 7:14.
The sign of a renewed kingdom of David lay in the birth of Christ. The child would be given the name of Immanuel about 700 years later in Bethlehem, Judea born of the Virgin Mary. Cp. Isaiah 7:14-16; 8:13-15; 9:2; 9: 6-7. Though the angel Gabriel told Mary and Joseph to name the child Jesus, the gospel writer calls him Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:16.
‘The land that thou abhorrest,’ is an allusion to Samaria. Both the thrones of Samaria and Syria will be broken. The power of the confederate two kingdoms: Israel in Samaria and Damascus in Syria would cease to exist while the boy Mahershalalhashbaz is still only a young minor. Ephraim (poetic name) or Israel was at continual enmity with the southern kingdom of Judah.

Isaiah 7:17. ‘The land’, is an allusion to ‘The Promised Land of Israel’, once united under King David and Solomon. Both kingdoms would cease to exist when the boy is still only a minor, before the age of reason. Ephraim the poetic name of Israel was at continual enmity with the southern kingdom of Judah.

Isaiah 7:24. Because of enemy hostilities by Ephraim and Assyria farming would be neglected and the land arid.

FOREWORD TO ISAIAH 7.

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.

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.
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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.