God NEVER forsakes His people! (He may chastise them in measure, but never abandons them in full!)

And Isaiah 31:1-5 proves that point.

“Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD! Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together. For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof. As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it. ” That’s right, only five verses! (Again, and it is the nature of Isaiah the Prophet … you must read this whole Paragraph a time or two, or risk missing the whole “point” of today’s Lesson.)

Wow!

In summary … Sin in Judah (and its resulting judgment) … yet through God’s inexplicable Mercy … comes eventual Salvation! (Deliverance and Protection, at God’s Hand!)

Judah is trusting Egypt instead of God, to protect her from arch-enemy Assyria. She will not even “look” to God for help, not even a quick prayer! This is unfaithfulness! Because Judah, by promise (vow), has pledged to obey God and all His commands! (“Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!” Verse 1, a warning!)

So God has decided to bring “evil” (catastrophe) upon the “evildoers” (citizens of Judah) and those who have assisted her (Egypt) in her distrust, rebellion, toward God. (“Yet he – the Lord – also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity.” Verse 2)

Then in his Sermon Isaiah gives us a little comparison, analogy … “Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.” Verse 3, where God can bring “down” both the erring sinner, Judah, and the one who abets him, Egypt, in his wrongdoing! Besides, Egypt is merely human, fighting with horses and chariots … GOD IS SUPERNATURAL, ALMIGHTY, FIGHTING WITH HOSTS OF ANGELS!)

Then comes an illustration … God as Judge! “For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.” Verse 4, God like an attacking Lion! One Who will not “back off” his “target, prey,” even if numerous shepherds try to distract Him! God as persistent Warrior!

But then suddenly … the atmosphere changes! (Often in the literary world, this is called “Reversal.”) God becomes (presumably when Judah has learned her lesson, has repented) a Defender of His people! (“As birds flying, so will the Lord of Hosts DEFEND Jerusalem; defending also He will DELIVER it, and PASSING OVER He will PRESERVE it.” Verse 5, Wow, what a beautiful “string” of verbs! Yes, our Lord is the great “PASSOVER” God! )

More about that “repentance” idea Monday, the Lord willing. As we continue into our chapter, into Isaiah 31.)

Today’s Text begins (obviously) the 5th “Woe” Sermon from Isaiah’s pen (lips) … an Oracle/Oration that continues to the end of chapter 32. More about that later, too.

Meanwhile today … let’s just enjoy seeing God “chasten” in order to produce “godliness” in the lives of His people! (Hebrews 12:11 comes to mind: “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of RIGHTEOUSNESS unto them which are exercised thereby.”)

Amazing!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

.

I’ve had an “enjoyable” time this morning … perusing (maybe even admiring) Isaiah chapter 30!

It is (yesterday’s Lesson) one of the (six) distinct “Woe” Sermons of the Prophet, clearly so. Directed to Judah, God’s “darling” people. The very “apple of God’s Eye,” Deuteronomy 32:10, Lamentations 2:18 and Zechariah 2:8, three times!

The charge (indictment) is stated early in the chapter, verse 1. “Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit ….”

God’s advice, direction, “counsel,” no longer important! They now “lean to their own understanding!”

“To cover with a covering” may imply some form of idol worship! “Nasak” in Hebrew means “to pour out,” as when “casting metal!” Building a little (false) god! But this worship practice has NOT the blessing of God’s Holy Spirit. Of course!

Wow!

So God will “punish” wayward Judah.

With two enemies … one mentioned in verse 2 (the beginning of the Text) and the other in verse 31 (the ending of the chapter)! It is again an example of “inclusio.” Both “Egypt” and “Assyria” are named!

Then as well, the chapter is filled with beautiful little “phrases” and “clauses.” What writing!

Like verse 6 … as Judah trusts Egypt for protection and sustenance … a land from which comes “trouble and anguish, from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent.” Bad choice, Judah! (With friends like that, who needs enemies?)

Verse 8 introduces us to Isaiah’s “journal!” God commanded: “Now go, write it before them in a table (tablet), and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD.” Really, verses 8 and 9.

In verse 12 they have sinned so much, the little Nation came to the place of “despising God’s Word!” Think how much the Psalmist who gave us the 119th of those beautiful Poems loved God’s Word!

Verse 15 … a spurned invitation! (No irrestible Grace here!) “For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: AND YE WOULD NOT.” Wow!

But in Israel’s future (as of mid-February 2019) there is coming a time of renunciation of all false gods! (The age old Prophetic Theme of “Reversal!”)Separation … “Ye shall defile (make unclean) also the covering of thy graven images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold: thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence.” National Revival, Salvation, verse 22. (Idols can also be non-corporal; money or fame or sensuality!)

Wow!

And what a glimmer of Grace, near chapter’s end, verse 26 … “In the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.” Bright days ahead! When Jesus comes again! The Divine Physician!

Last of all, in verses 29 and 30 … “Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe (musical instrument) to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel. And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard ….” the result of true Salvation, joy! Hearing (and obeying) God’s Voice!

Yes, as I said earlier … an “enjoyable” chapter.

Thank you, Isaiah.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

.

Isaiah’s massive Prophecy is organized a lot “tighter” than I ever realized. Much more orderly. (Yes, I realized that the first 39 chapters were “different” than the last 27 chapters! As in “Law” preceding “Grace,” the Old Testament laying the foundation for the New.)

But (for example) … I never knew about the six “Woes” between chapters 28 and 35! I have preached Isaiah’s “six woes” encapsulated in his magisterial fifth chapter, what a Biblical Sermon! But I was ignorant of the additional “six woes” scattered (placed) mid-Book.

Let me show you what I mean. Then tomorrow, the Lord willing, we will pursue the specific “Woe” of chapter 30.

These lead up to Isaiah chapters 36-37, where (Assyrian) King Sennacherib’s army is defeated as they siege Jerusalem. The miracle of the slaying of 185,00 enemy combatants in a single night … by the Angel of the Lord!

Isaiah’s Six Woes …

Isaiah 28:1 … “WOE to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!” Directed toward Israel, the Northern Kingdom, drenched in sin!

Isaiah 29:1 … “WOE to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.” Now Jerusalem is warned! And her sins specified.

Isaiah 29:15 … “WOE unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?” Deliberately self-deceived hypocrites! Hiding from God?

Isaiah 30:1-2 … “WOE to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!” God is jealous, and rightly so! Trusting Egypt! Spurning the God Who loves them so deeply! “Adding sin to sin!”

Isaiah 31:1 … “WOE to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!” When God says something twice, in quick succession, we’d better pay close attention! (God demands our loyalty!)

Isaiah 33:1 … “WOE to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.” Reversal! “Reaping what one has sown!” Reserved for a Day yet ahead!

Serious preaching!

Unlike the Prophets of Zephaniah’s time … who were “light and treacherous persons!” (Zephaniah 3:4, “frothy, filled with levity, comedians!”)

Yes, as I stated earlier … there is much (and lovely ) order in Isaiah’s Compendium! Holy Spirit inspired, too!

More tomorrow, the Lord willing.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

.

The Bible Paragraph which we are about to study reminds me of my country, the United States of America. Not completely, for we still do have “pockets” (or maybe better said, a “remnant”) of Bible Believing people, and dedicated Men of God to feed them … but we are progressively drifting toward a national state of slumber.

Isaiah to an erring Nation, Judah. “Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. 10 For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. 11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: 12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned. 13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: 14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.” Isaiah 29:9-14 (If you do not read Scripture this several times, you will “miss” the whole point of today’s Lesson.)

Yes, the Lord has sent them “deep sleep!” But not without reason! (God is not the Initiator here!) The Jews first departed from God! And He is righteously responding!  Verse 13 proves such: “This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” They say the right things! But they do not live the right way! (They “talk the talk” but do not “walk the walk!”)

They have sinned and sinned and sinned!

And for this reason God has judged them with “stupor” and “instability” and “lethargy!” Even their leaders are made “dumb!” (Think of much of Congress!)

God can (and here does) “seal” His Book of Truth! There has come a “famine” of hearing the Words of Scripture! (Amos 8:11-12 is being fulfilled before our very eyes! “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: and they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.” Wow!)

Spiritually illiterate, ignorant!

Is there much true wisdom left in America? Other than in a few (very few) places?

And if things continue (as they did in Judah) God is planning something “marvelous, wondrous!” And this is not “good,” it is rather “judgment!” God is about (as per Isaiah 28) about to perform His “Strange Act,” His fierce Chastisement of His wayward people!

Apart from the bright future the Lord has planned for His people … everything would be dark, bleak, nearly hopeless in the world today!

Oh, have you heard? “Some golden Daybreak, Jesus will come!”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

.

The first eight verses of chapter 29 are prophetic, to the core! (At the time of their composition, these predictions remained yet future.) And yet, soon afterward, they were at least partially fulfilled … during the lifetime of Isaiah himself. (A final and even more complete fulfillment awaits, at the end of the Tribulation!)

They (this octad) provide “living proof” of the accuracy of Bible prophecy, these eight verses.

I have divided them in half, for study purposes. (Actually, the Holy Spirit did that, long ago! When He dictated these words to Isaiah.)

First of all … bad times for Israel, for Judah precisely …

“Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel. And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee. And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.” Verses 1-4, of Isaiah 29. God is The Speaker!

“Ariel” (as the context shows) is none other than Jerusalem, the City. Backslidden Jerusalem! They go from “year to year,” merely practicing (empty) sacrificial worship! One group of scholars believes “Ariel” actually means “altar hearth.” They may be right, too! Look at the word’s contextual location, something about “killing sacrifices!”If this etymology is accurate, God may be illustrating the “fire” that is about to fall on this lovely City! The fire of Judgment!

Three “I will” Statements now issue from the Mouth of God.

“I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.” Fiery judgment, a hearth of blazing heat! For purging purposes!

Then … “I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount,” these divine words clearly describing an advancing enemy army, a powerful (well-equipped) one! (Assyria, for sure!) God using heathen King Sennacherib! Yet that deadly force … “in God’s Hands, under God’s Control!”

Then … “I will raise forts against thee. And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust.” Wow, Isaiah 29:3-4

Jerusalem … “Ariel” … experiencing God’s “fiery” judgment!

The final words of verse four … “and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust,” still spoken by Almighty God, are an enigma to me! Some Hebrew scholars equate the words “familiar spirit” with “ghost,” as in a “dead man talking!” Jerusalem being brought that low! “Nearly extinct,” it looks like, but the key word here is “nearly!”

(Thank God, for Israel’s sake, for Jeremiah 46:28 … “Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: BUT I WILL NOT MAKE A FULL END OF THEE, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.” Amen!)

But now, after four verses … our Text “turns,” gloriously so!

And God attacks/destroys the vicious (Assyrian) army that has nearly decimated Jerusalem! (This is called a “Reversal!”) “Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly. Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision. It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.” Isaiah 29:5-8, where “strangers” and “terrible ones” are the aggressors, that whole army!

They will suddenly (at God’s behest) be made like “small dust!” As “chaff” driven away by the wind! A vicious “visitation” from God!

God will even use His creation (“thunder, earthquake, storm, tempest”) to fight against the enemy! THEY will ultimately experience the “altar fire” (“Ariel”) of God’s fierce Wrath!

Then one more illustration … this defeat of Assyria … will be like a “bad dream” to her, a “nightmare” I’d say! “It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty.” He dreamed that he ate a meal … but when he awoke, his stomach was still empty!

Then the “bottom line” … “So shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion,” God vows, promises!

The destruction of the Assyrian army!

Wow!

And it happened within just a few years, during Isaiah’s tenure as Prophet! An event we sill study relatively soon … when we reach Isaiah chapters 36 and 37. Suffice it now to say … “185,00 dead Assyrian soldiers” in one night, all slain by the Angel of the Lord!

Bible Prophecy … fulfilled right in front of Isaiah’s eyes! King Hezekiah’s too!

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

.