It’s 4:00 in the morning, but that’s Central Time.
I intend to write today’s Bible Study Lesson (from some very sweet verses) as we drive back toward Atlanta (about six hours this morning). Then, after Joel quickly unloads his suitcase, I will point the car northward toward Tunnel Hill.
And tomorrow I leave again. This time for Lexington, South Carolina, to preach three nights. I am excited at the opportunity.
Pray for us, please.
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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Isaiah 27:7-11, the whole Paragraph, teaches us about God’s “controlled (or restrained) judgment” against (regarding) His Own people. Here, regarding the Jews.
And agreed, while the Passage is hard to understand, especially on its first reading … one clause sufficiently explains the whole Pericope. “He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.” Isaiah 27:8b
Again, this is NOT God judging the lost world. They (unbelievers) will be consigned to Hell, eternally so.
This is God dealing with His Own children.
“He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.” Where the verb “stayeth” translates “hagah” in Hebrew, meaning “to remove,” to take away.” (A word only used 3 times in all the Old Testament!)
The adjective “rough” is “qasheth,” meaning “hard, cruel, heavy, grievous!” This kind of wind would be comparable to a “tornado” or “hurricane,” for example.
And then the “east wind” in the Bible always represents “hard times,” even exasperating times. Uncomfortable times! (Remember the “east wind” that blew upon Jonah, causing him to faint with fatigue? Jonah 4:7)
Here’s the point of today’s Lesson. One in which we can rejoice! GOD NEVER OVER-JUDGES ONE OF HIS CHILDREN. YES, HE “WHIPS” US … TO HELP US MATURE. BUT HE NEVER BRUTALIZES US, NEVER ABUSES US!
When He chastens with His “east wind” … He first causes His “rough wind” to calm, to dissipate. So as to not “blow you away.” In other words … “He chastens with love!”
(If you are a twenty-pound Christian, so to speak, He will never hit you with a fifty pound whipping!)
Wow!
Our Text again: “He stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.”
Psalm 78:38 may capture part of this Divine Principle. “But he (the Lord), being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.” He did NOT stir up ALL His Wrath!
Divine Restraint!
Next time the Lord is rebuking, correcting you … THANK HIM that He knows just how much pressure we can take!
If the east wind is blowing … the rough wind is calmed! By His Almighty Hand!
Praise the Name of our All-Wise Heavenly Father!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
I actually had studied another Text from Isaiah 27 this morning. But when I touched the keyboard, sat down to type, the Lord clearly directed me to this rough wind/east wind Sentence! I am sure … for a reason!
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Our verse today can be summarized in one word … “VICTORY!”
Isaiah 27:1 … “In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.” Poetic, but theologically accurate.
We here have a “serpent,” also called a “dragon,” both legitimate Biblical names for the devil, for Satan. He was “serpent” in Genesis 3:1, and “dragon” in Revelation 20:2. How’s that for cover to cover Bible exposure?
The wicked one in our Text today is both “punished” and “slain.” With “paqad” meaning “to visit in judgment.” All his wicked deeds … added up, tallied! And “harag” meaning “to kill” or (twice) “to murder.” Strong verbs indeed!
But what about “Leviathan?”
Our verse today, Isaiah 27:2, uses the word twice. Then God Himself used it back in Job 41:1. (“Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?” The beginning of a whole long Paragraph about that “monster!”)
Then Psalm 74:14 and Psalm 104:26 employ the term. In the first instance God is again conquering this beast. In the second, God is its Creator, allowing it some room “to play!”
I really believe Isaiah is trying to comfort the Jewish Nation. “Better (Millennial) Days are ahead!” The “enemy” will be totally annihilated! (Sounds like Armageddon to me!)
And just how will God do this? “With His great and strong Sword!” That’s the Plan! (I find this “string of words” five different times in the Old Testament … “Sword of the Lord!”)
Not including its association with Jesus when He comes again from Heaven to earth, riding that white horse of Revelation 19 … “And the remnant were slain with the SWORD of him that sat upon the horse, which SWORD proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.” Verse 21, King James Version.
What a glorious, summary Verse today!
Let me give it to you, reproduce it … one more time. (One can worship over this exhilarating truth!) “In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.”
Amen!
“Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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The last three verses of our chapter are astounding. I have read in two places (earlier this morning) that this Text supplies the “clearest” presentation of resurrection in the entire Old Testament!
Isaiah 26:19-21, read it all, do not skip these verses … “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”
Wow!
There it is!
The Prophet himself promising (of necessity on behalf of God, as the Lord’s spokesman) Israel … “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise..” (Even if Isaiah himself is dead when “resurrection” occurs … He too will be brought back from the grave!)
Wow again!
And what is the people’s (proper) response to this, a commanded behavior? “Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. “
Silence is gone, from the cemetery! Singing instead will be heard!
The dusty dryness of the corpse will be a thing of the past. It’s as if the Dew of Heaven has fallen, copiously!
These may be the Jewish Believers who have been slain during the Tribulation.
A people (the Jews as a Group, a Nation, a “chosen” Nation, God’s Nation) who have not been annihilated during that awful time! (Though that was the goal of Antichrist and his hordes, minions.)
A line or two from Psalm 83 comes to mind. “They (the enemies of Israel) have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.”
Mercy!
But God promises the Jews, right here in our Text, verse 20: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.”
(This chapter begins with “open doors/gates”back in verse 2 … and now ends with “shut doors/gates” in verse 20! The Holy Spirit, What an Amazing Writer/Author He is!)
As God shut Noah into the Ark, and as the Jews put freshly-slain blood on closed doors Passover night, and as God can shut a door that “no man can open” … so God’s Remnant in those last terrible days will be safe and secure! Inside another set of “closed doors” … they will not cease to exist as a people, as a Nation!
Then verse 21 of Isaiah 26 … “For, behold, the LORD cometh!”
Glory!
This is Jesus’ literal Second Coming to earth, riding that white horse … as per Revelation 19 … to avenge His people, His persecuted people!
To judge the whole earth for her careless bloodshed (abortionists, beware) … to right all the wrongs of history!
“For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”
Amen, Isaiah.
What a panorama!
Yes, this Prophet is a theologian, of the first order.
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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But either later today or early in the morning!
Because I am driving to Mississippi for the upcoming Revival. The City of Lucedale, Calvary Baptist Church there with Pastor Jascob Bogard and his people.
Pry for me please.
Deb is at home this week getting some essential things done at the house.
The Lesson, as I said above, will be written and posted in a few hours, the Lord willing.
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
It’s a little over six hours to the motel.
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