Isaiah 66:5 is phenomenal!
That verse has taught me (earlier this morning as I studied) that those who hate Israel, persecute her so relentlessly, often do so with a religious motive!
Here is our King James Text … “Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.” Again, this is Isaiah 66:5.
God is addressing the faithful, the really born-again, in Israel. Bible loving people. “Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word.” This much is abundantly clear.
The next line is what “arrested” me. God reminds Israel that she is not (by any means) a “unified” nation. She is hated by some of her very brethren, other Jews. Here’s Isaiah, speaking for the Lord … “Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out.” This is a Statement of historically verifiable fact!
The verb “cast out” is “nadah” in Hebrew. It means “to drive away, to thrust aside.” And it is written in the Piel stem, a Hebrew indication that this action is vigorous, aggressive, very intense.
(If you recall, the man born blind in John chapter 9, the man whom Jesus miraculously healed … was so outspoken about our Lord’s Power and Glory and Deity … that the Pharisees “cast him out” of the Synagogue! An apt illustration of Isaiah’s Sermon here.)
But now notice WHY they so mistreat Israel, true Israel. “Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out FOR MY NAME’S SAKE …!”
They actually believe they have tortured, imprisoned, killed those Israelites … for the sake of the Lord God himself! They cloak their sin in some sort of religious acceptance!
They say, as they light the fire (to burn the Jews to death, to ignite some holocaust) “Let the LORD be glorified.” Unimaginable, but true! (The Catholics did this during the Inquisition. And the Germans under Hitler! Just two examples.)
But, our verse promises, the day will come when all those hateful people … “shall be ashamed.” (Confounded, confused, delayed, disappointed!)
And when will THAT glorious day occur?
And here only the King James Version tells me this: When “He shall appear to your joy.” And I believe this “He” is none other than the returning Saviour, the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to this earth!
In other words, God will make it “right” some day!
Let’s reassemble the Text for this morning: “Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.”
Some day anti-Semitism will come to an eternal end.
So … this millennia long persecution of the Jews IS spiritually sourced! But it is not coming from God’s Holy Spirit … I say it is coming from the Devil, from Satan, from Lucifer, and from all the wicked who have chosen to follow that pernicious path.
“God bless Israel!”
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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