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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I am comparing two verses in our chapter. Nearly in sequence, at least in the same paragraph. And as the Lesson title suggests, they focus on different Cities.
Watch …
“In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong CITY; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.” Isaiah 26:1
“For he (the Lord) bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty CITY, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.” Isaiah 26:5
A strong City!
And then a lofty (proud) City!
One will be saved, enjoy God’s Salvation perennially.
The other, destroyed!
The first City … humble and trusting God for protection, for all her needs apparently.
The second … self-sufficient and atheistic (at least in practice) … slated for a downfall!
The first City … clearly Jerusalem.
The second City … unnamed. For a reason, too. It can represent any city on earth … who forgets God Almighty! Who trusts herself instead of the Hand of Omnipotence!
We all know God judges individuals.
But groups? Even Cities?
Yes!
Think of Babylon, Sodom, Nineveh, and many others.
Could … some day … Washington, New York and Atlanta be added to the list?
Nahum 3:1 thunders: “Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not.”
Wow!
The “point” of all this today?
Pray for your City!
Ask God to leave in it “fifty” righteous men!
Or at least enough “salt” and “light” to retard the growth of sinful putrification and darkness!
Abraham prayed (intensely) for a City.
So should we.
And then, we who are saved, shall one day live in a “Holy City!”
Praise the Lord!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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I suppose that is an unusual title for any Bible Study Lesson! But I grew up in a home where Isaiah 26:3 was carefully displayed on the wall of my bedroom, right at the foot of my little twin bed! (My Wife has the verse on the wall of our bedroom, even as I write these words.)
“In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.” Isaiah 26:1-4, with that third verse italicized for emphasis.
What elsewhere has been called a “bloody city” and a “city not desired” and a “besieged city” and a “sinful city” … is now called a “STRONG CITY!” Jerusalem, I mean.
No longer a grieving city either, but now a joyful (“singing”) City!
WHY?
All this change?
Because of something God has done!
“Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.” The Saviour has come! Tribulation is over. The Kingdom Rule of Jesus has begun!
What an invitation … “Open the gates!” In our vernacular, “Come in!” Paul the Apostle probably would have added, “Whosoever will!”
Faith and trust in the Lord now prevail, now pervade in Israel. She has been born-again!
It is under those ideal circumstances that Isaiah 26:3 is set … “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”
Addressed to God, obviously, these word nearly constitute a prayer! Both a statement and a longing!
If I do something (“keep my mind on the Lord”) … He will do something (“keep me in perfect peace”). It is often called a “cause-and-effect” Statement.
Incidentally, in Hebrew the phrase “perfect peace” is translated “Shalom, Shalom!” Peace in amplitude! Waves of peace after waves of peace!
The verb “will keep” means “to guard!”
And the noun “mind” (only translated this way once in all the Bible) elsewhere means “imagination” (5 times in the King James Version). All our thoughts! All our ponderings, meditations, even “daydreams” I think.
Then the verb “stayed” translates “samak,” meaning “to lean” upon the Lord! Once, “lieth hard!” He, the Lord, being my Mainstay!
Yet there is a “because” in our verse, too. “BECAUSE he trusteth in thee,” the very foundation of this peace that “passeth all understanding!” (Alluding to Paul in Philippians 4:7.) By the way, “trusteth” here means “to believe someone so much that you do not have a worry in the world that they would ever let you down!”
Wow!
What a verse!
Memorize it today, including its reference please.
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
Yes, it (verse 3 and its promise) will “work” during the Millennium, but also today in your life. Ideal circumstances or not!
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I originally intended to write sort of a summary Lesson for each of Isaiah’s 66 chapters … about 2 1/2 months of studies here on the Website. But soon I realized that could not be done … and still come anywhere near helping us better understand this great Bible Prophet.
That’s when I came up with the idea of writing a subsequent Lesson (“Things I didn’t say”) for each chapter! And as you know by now, even that two-lesson Plan has not worked on a few chapters of Isaiah.
This Book of Scripture is that vast! As says Psalm 119:96 … “I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment (God’s Word) is exceeding broad.” Literally, “very wide!” The Psalmist here praying/communing with God!
And, in keeping with that program, Isaiah 25 certainly demands more attention. Particularly verses 7-9 … “And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
God is the Subject of the first verse, removing some sort of veil! “And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.” Interpretive ideas about this Line are varied.
Some believe this “vail” can be blindness to spiritual truth, because of sin. As in 2 Corinthians 3:14 … “But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.” Paul talking about his own people, Israel.
Others, equally as fundamental, believe the vail is the death shroud, a cloth covering often placed over the head of a dead corpse, preparing it for burial. A practice followed years later, when Lazarus died. John 11:44 … “And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.” “Napkin” here just meaning “cloth, handkerchief.”
Both these ideas excite me!
God removed a vail the day I was saved! “Once I was blind, now I can see!” 2 Corinthians 4:4 states/teaches … “The god of this world (Satan, the devil) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” Now, because of Calvary, my “blindfold” (“vail”) is gone!
But equally so, because of the Shed Blood of Jesus (when applied to our hearts by faith), I no longer am a “dead man.” (No longer wearing putrid grave clothes!) I have been born-again. Jesus’ Resurrection became my resurrection! The death clothes have been “destroyed,” to use the word God did … in our Text today. Death died the day Jesus died on the Cross! A death that demanded subsequent (3 days later) Resurrection!
Praise the Lord!
But Isaiah 25 gets even more specific. “He (still our Lord) will swallow up death in victory.” The verb “swallow up” (in Hebrew “bala”) means “to devour!” (“To eat alive!”) To bring to an end!
Paul later (in the New Testament), quoting this Isaiah Passage and Hosea 13:14 (“I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction”) applies this whole transaction to Jesus’ Death, Burial and Resurrection!
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 … “Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Wow!
And in a world with (potentially) “no more death” … it can be accurately said that “the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.” Isaiah 25:8
Tears of sorrow, clearly because of death! All wiped away, because of the saving Grace of God! A glorious idea repeated in Revelation 21:4 … “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death.”
Some day, saved ISRAEL (born again via the Blood of Jesus) will say … “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” Isaiah 25:9
Death destroyed!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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I am amazed … at the book of Isaiah. Every morning as I write these Lessons, new (and exciting) glimmers (no, flashes) of truth flood my soul! And today is no exception. In fact, today is exhilarating! (That’s why I have titled today’s Study “Isaiah 25, what a JEWEL!”
First I must “survey” the chapter, present it in “outline” form anyway. I want you to see its “beauty!” (It is about the Millennium, no doubt. My favorite study Bible (the King James Version with notes by Dr. Cyrus I. Scofield) labels the chapter “Triumphs of the Kingdom Age.”
Here’s is one of Isaiah’s “Masterpieces” in microcosm …
Isaiah 25:1 … praise to God for His Wise Master Plan, and for His Power to execute that Plan! Read this … “O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.” (Both what God has done … and what God has said!) A pretty good start to any chapter anywhere, exalting our Lord! Note the personal attribution: “My God,” with converted Israel speaking.
Wow!
Then Isaiah 25:2-5, praise to God for subduing the earth’s violent, rebellious heathen Nations! Again, read it. Do not skip it! “For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built. Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee. For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall. Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.” In other words … the “strong people,” then the “terrible nations” … all tamed, conquered! And the “poor” and “needy” (the persecuted Jews) … now safe and secure! What a “reversal!” The Old Testament Prophets love this writing scheme, evil overcome by good!
Wow!
Next Isaiah 25:6-9, almost too THRILLING to group with these other verses! God defeating Death! “And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” We may revisit this Text tomorrow. There’s a lot that needs to be said here! Especially where God “swallows up death!”
Then Isaiah 25:10-12 (yes a short chapter, only a dozen verses) says: “For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill. And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands. And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.” Recalcitrant, irrevocably stubborn Nations decimated! Yes, any rebellion during the Millennium will be immediately squelched! Even an example is given … the “Moabites.” The kind of people called later by Paul the Apostle “reprobates.”
Wow!
What a chapter of victory!
And the Lord willing, more about it tomorrow.
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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