I already knew late yesterday what I wanted to emphasize in this Lesson. In which I am trying to explain an expression I have heard all my Christian life. That phrase being “the lost tribes of Israel!” 

I realize this is a reference to the “10 Tribes” of the (after Solomon’s Kingdom was severed) North. That is … all Israel except the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin! Nationally she (those 10 Tribes) is called by different names in the Bible, even in Isaiah’s Prophecy alone. (“Israel, Ephraim, Samaria,” typically, though other names were used as well … even “Sodom” a few times, due to her egregious sinning!)

As a general rule … the Northern Kingdom far outpaced the little South Kingdom (“Judah, Jerusalem”) in their iniquity. In fact, that nation (the North) did not have a single godly King in all her history. (From Jeroboam I all the way through to Hoshea!)

For her blatant rebellion and sinfulness … God allowed Assyria to decimate those backslidden people! The fierce Assyrian armies attacked and conquered and deported the Ten Tribes! The infamous date generally assigned to this Tragedy, 721 BC. (Isaiah was still preaching when it happened!)

Assyria furthermore brought numerous heathen groups (clans of polytheistic people) into the land of Israel, Samaria, resulting in further degradation, in every way, but particularly spiritually. Virtually changing the land’s ethnic composition! (Hence the “hatred/animosity” between the “Jews” ands the “Samaritans, so evident tin New Testament days!)

So now … where are the “10 Tribes?”

Well, secular history says indeed that they are “lost,” forever!

Assimilated into the “world community” of citizens!

“Globalism” at work, I imagine some would aver!

And it is accurate to say that the rest of Old Testament history (mostly) deals with little Judah! With Judah and Jerusalem … the north not mentioned a lot at all.

(Now it is true that Judah was also taken into Captivity, due to her sins as well. In 586 BC, by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. But she was allowed to return to her Land, roughly 70 years later! When Babylon fell to the Persians. So, the two Tribes were never said to be “lost.” Not by reputable Bible historians!)

It’s just Israel, Ephraim … “lost!”

But what a minute!

Isaiah chapter 10 (still our Text today) promises some good news in this regard!

God to Israel, the Land of Ephraim …

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God. For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.” Isaiah 10:20-22

“Remnant” … the “residue, remainder,” essentially “what’s left.”

God has saved, spared, preserved a “few!”

A “handful” who have “stayed” (leaned and trusted) upon the Lord!

God shall allow them to “return” to the Land, some day!

Their “disaster” (“consumption” truly meaning “destruction” even “cessation”) will be turned into revival! Their end will be … righteousness!

God will work on their behalf!

Yes, friends, the Jew will ALWAYS exist!

Folks, those Tribes are NOT lost, not to the Lord anyway! 

Read this amazing Paragraph … “Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: if those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then THE SEED OF ISRAEL also shall cease from being a NATION before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the SEED OF ISRAEL for all that they have done, saith the LORD.” Jeremiah 31:35-37, as long as the sun rises, that little Nation will continue!

Wow!

Israel forever!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

A quick “aside” … in Revelation chapter 7 … God knows where they are, all the Tribes of Israel. One more proof … they are not lost! An angel is told … “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of ALL THE TRIBES OF THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.” And so on … 

I rest my case!

 

(This morning at 8:30, the Lord willing, I will undergo cataract surgery on my right eye. Your prayers will be appreciated. God has certainly blessed the previous surgery, on the left eye. Glory to His Name!)

From early American history, specifically the Revolutionary War, one line comes to mind this morning: “The British are coming! The British are coming!” Alluding to that famous Poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” by Longfellow. But … the British were ultimately defeated! (Overcome by the providential Hand of God, many Christian historians believe.)

But much earlier (well over 2,000 years earlier) than the American Revolution, Isaiah the Prophet declared: “The Assyrians are coming! The Assyrians are coming!” Alluding to Isaiah 10:5, King James Version. But … the Assyrians were ultimately defeated as well! (No doubt by the omnipotent Hand of our great God!)

Wow!

Yes, the Assyrian Empire under the leadership of their wicked King Sennacherib, had set its sights set on Israel … then later, on her little sister nation Judah!

We will meet this same aggressive army (and their insolent General named Rabshakeh) later in the Prophecy (Book) of Isaiah, specifically in chapters 36 and 37. What thrilling Bible Texts await us there!

And what “big mouths” these godless people had! (“Godless” is not the best adjective here! They worshipped many “gods,” but not the True God of Israel!)

Here’s an example of their hubris, part of today’s Text: “For he (the Assyrian King) saith, Are not my princes altogether kings? (He boasts that his ‘princes’ were better than anybody else’s ‘Kings.’) Is not Calno as Carchemish? Is not Hamath as Arpad? Is not Samaria as Damascus? (Major cities/nations he has already conquered, or is about to conquer!) As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols (I defeated all their gods!), and whose graven images (idols) DID EXCEL them of Jerusalem and of Samaria (I have whipped far stronger gods than theirs, he thinks!); shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria (the Northern Kingdom) and her idols, so do to Jerusalem (the ‘Apple of God’s Eye,’ the Capital of Judah) and her idols?” Isaiah 10:8-11, sounding like an excerpt from the royal archives!

Pride personified!

Satanic in tone!

King Sennacherib likely did not know the difference between Jehovah God and the hundreds of false idols of the heathen world! He just knew (intoxicated on his own power) he could defeat them all! (Unless, of course, idolatry had become so rampant, even in Judah, that she was by then renown for such open disobedience to the Ten Commandments!)

And … The Assyrians came! The Assyrians came! 

But … God defeated them!

Now read with me Isaiah 10:12 please, the rest of today’s Text. Isaiah is speaking, then God is speaking: “Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work (that is, disciplining/chastening/judging Judah for her stubborn sins) upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I (the Lord Himself) will PUNISH the fruit of the STOUT (proud, ‘great’ in his own eyes) HEART of the KING of ASSYRIA, and the glory of his HIGH LOOKS.”

Wow!

Here is God controlling the nations of the world!

Here is Proverbs 21:1 in action: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”

Amen!

Let me stop writing now and worship a while!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

I am currently preaching (one recorded CD Sermon per month) through the Book of Hosea. And I have been forcefully impressed with his usage of geography in his preaching. The man was a scholar when it comes to Bible History! I mean not only what happened years ago … but WHERE it happened as well!

Then, upon further reflection, I am remembering how many of the Old Testament Prophets had this skill, this knowledge. (I do realize that the Holy Spirit is the True Author all ALL Scripture. But again I too believe that the Spirit used men and their personalities to deliver their specific Messages.)

Now these two (foregoing) introductory short paragraphs lead to today’s Subject, today’s Text, from (again) Isaiah chapter 9. Pure history indeed!

Let me show you an example or two of Isaiah the geographer in action!

Let’s just notice the first verse there … “Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.” Look at the specific locations!

“Zebulun, Naphtali,” two of the northern Tribes of Israel, of Ephraim, of Samaria.

Next the little phrase “by the way of the sea” is used, meaning a major highway of Isaiah’s day, the equivalent of today’s Interstate system! Again, pure geography! And probably the reason the north (Israel) drifted from God so much more quickly than he south (Judah) did! So much constant foreign (heathen) influx and influence! This is the Mediterranean Sea, by the way.

Then “Jordan,” the River.

And “Galilee of the nations?” That’s to the northeast … into the area known in Jesus’ time as “Decapolis,” meaning “ten cities.” (Where our Lord cast all those demons out of “Legion!”) Mentioned twice by Matthew and once by Mark … “Decapolis.” 

Wow!

In a single verse Isaiah has referenced points north, south, east and west! 

Geography!

And look at verse 4, still in Isaiah 9 … “For thou (Lord) hast broken the yoke of his (the enemy) burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.” Midian, the nation Gideon defeated with his “faithful few!” Another case of history/geography! Midian, down south in the Arabian desert!

Then verses 8 and 9 … “The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel. And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart ….” Ephraim and Samaria, just renaming the Ten Tribes of Israel! Ephraim being at that time the most dominant of the group. And Samaria being her (wicked) capital City!

Geography!

Verse 12 … “The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” Essentially from front to back, from every direction! (Syria and Philistia, two of Israel’s national enemies!)

Even chapter 9’s last verse … “Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against JUDAH. For all this his (God’s) anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out (in fury) still.” Now, civil war! But Isaiah could not have decried this pitiful situation had he not possessed a grasp of the locations of these armies, both geographically and theologically!

(And I have only alluded to one single chapter in Isaiah today, our current chapter. Through tomorrow we shall journey into chapter 10, the Lord willing.)

The whole Book (basically all of Isaiah’s 66 chapters, though some more than others) is full of such specific geographical inferences! 

Look, leaving chapter 9, and without further comment from me … “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 ….” (Isaiah 6:3) Really, to have found this exact place … Isaiah certainly had to know the City, didn’t he, Jerusalem? “Upper pool, conduit, fuller’s field!” 

Wow!

No wonder a great Bible Study tool to have at hand is … an ATLAS of the Ancient Near East (often abbreviated ANE by the scholars). Study those maps of Bible happenings! You will be handsomely rewarded for doing so. 

Geography!

God sure had an interest in the Land, didn’t He?

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

The question (in reference to the previous Isaiah Paragraph, yesterday’s Lesson) is “How?”

How is God going to bring “Light” to His dark Land?

How is God going to break the “Yoke” of the oppressor, the enemy of Israel?

How, in fact,  is God going to bring “Salvation” (or at least offer it) to the whole world?

(If need be, re-read Isaiah 9:1-5 please.)

Today’s Text gives the answer to those questions!

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.” Isaiah 9:6-7

A beautiful Passage, perfectly balanced!

And, in my heart, all about Jesus!

The Messiah, described so fully … but at least seven centuries before His Coming to earth, before the Incarnation, before the Virgin Birth.

Let me explain …

The “child” is “born,” a clause emphasizing the humanity of Jesus!

The “Son” is “given,” now emphasizing His Deity, His being God! (Jesus as the eternal “Son” of God could have never been “born,” due to His Divinity.)

But Jesus as “child,” can (and was) so born! “That Holy Thing” (Luke 1:35) … a little Baby Boy!

Note the phrase “unto us,” twice given in verse six! Isaiah is including himself! Really, I think he is including you and me as well!

But this child is said to some day be “governor!” A very capable one, carrying the administrative weight of the world on one “shoulder!”

(Yet in Luke chapter 15 … we little “lost” lambs have been found by the good Shepherd and are being taken to Heaven … resting on His “shoulders!” Plural! Twice the strength and care expended on us … as on the governing the entire planet! Luke 15:5 … “And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.”)

Wow!

Next Jesus is succinctly labeled with what I suspect are four Couplets!

“Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

That is, if “Wonderful Counsellor” can be considered as a unit. Which, grammatically it can. The Hebrew here suggests that Jesus will be able to solve the “hard” issues of life! As in: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

“Mighty God” infers He is a Champion! Both physically strong and spiritually Divine, as well as omnipotent! (These majestically combine Power and weakness … again, Deity and humanity.) Just as well say He is “Almighty God ,” reverently.

“Everlasting Father,” the hardest to comprehend, maybe. (Jesus, the Son of God, as Father?) But the Hebrew word for Father is “ab,” which seems to me to elicit thoughts of Romans 8:15, where the Holy Spirit teaches us to call God “ABBA FATHER!”)

And do remember Jesus’ Words to Philip, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Or even John 10:30, “I and my Father are one.” (In this sense, He is the Father! Besides, we cannot split or subdivide the Godhead! Our God is ONE, but displays Himself triunely.) Plus, Jesus is our perpetual Saviour, eternal.

Then “Prince of Peace,” maybe the culmination of the first three Offices! (Not “King” here, but the youthful “Prince!” And perhaps so called because most of the “Kings” of Isaiah’s day were radically corrupt! But not Jesus, the Righteous One!) Psalm 110:3 prophesying of Jesus, “Thou hast the dew of thy youth.”) Everlastingly a “Prince!”

Then “Peace,” in Hebrew “shalom!” Not a Prince of war or frustration or disharmony. No, but finally … peace will have come to earth. 

Remember the Nativity angels? “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth PEACE, good will toward men.” Luke 2:13-14

I must close.

But verse 7 is shouting, include me! “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”

“No end!”

We often (and correctly) say “a thousand years,” (the Millennium) … but in truth Jesus will reign forevermore! (New Heavens, New Earth, New Jerusalem! “And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” Revelation 21:5)

“Judgment” and “Justice,” another balanced duo. The first showing integrity vertically, the second exercising integrity horizontally! 

Jesus is after all, the Greater Son of David! (Matthew 1:1 … “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”)

It is only right that our Lord occupy the Throne of that man (David) who loved Him so dearly. Who was such an example of God’s marvelous Grace! To whom God promised … “And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.” 2 Samuel 7:16)

Amen!

Then lastly … God’s “zeal” (in Hebrew “qinah”) is God’s Holy Jealousy to see that all His Promises are fulfilled! THESE JESUS THINGS WILL HAPPEN, GOD HAS SO RESOLVED! FERVENTLY … (ZEALOUSLY) FOR HIS NAME’S SAKE! 

What a Text this morning!

All about Jesus!

And this near Christmas, too!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Written Tuesday Moring, December 18, 2018

 

There are “hints” in Isaiah 9:1-5 of a coming, brighter age for Israel. Even though, at the time Isaiah was writing, that nation had rebelled against God! And was facing Assyrian aggression, captivity!

A Nation often called “extinct” by many a commentator … is to be revived and blessed by God!

Hard reading, in a  way, so get ready …

“Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.” Isaiah 9:1-5

Read “dimness” (a Hebrew word used only here in all the Bible, thus called a “hapax legomenon”) as a synonym for “darkness.” Spiritually so indeed!

Oh, how far the Northern Kingdom (meaning Israel, the 10 Tribes, but also called Samaria or Ephraim) had drifted from God!

God had chastened her too, sending her “vexation” and “affliction.” Words used in our Passage above.

Isaiah here singles out two geographical identities, for illustration purposes I think. As egregious examples of the Land’s sinning against God … “Zebulun” and “Naphtali.”

Territories way up north in Israel.

Cities and towns lying along the Highway that led from Syria (and points north) down to Egypt (and points south) … a major ancient Eastern trade route, saturated with evil influence from non-Jewish nations!

But … even to these two wayward peoples … God is some day going to do something absolutely great, something restorative!

Our Text today continues: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great LIGHT: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the LIGHT shined.” All I know to tell you about this Line is that it sure is “good news!” 

This Verse is framed in what looks like the “past tense,” but it is actually predicting “future” events! (In this sense, these future happenings are so definite … that Isaiah describes them as “having already occurred!” Something like we would call a “done deal!” Or a “sure thing!”)

Light!

Light is coming!

As in John 8:12 … “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the LIGHT of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the LIGHT of life.”

Wow!

Or again, John 12:46 … “I (Jesus) am come a LIGHT into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.”

Amen!

But there is yet more (good news) in our Text! “Thou (God) hast multiplied the nation (Israel), and not increased the joy: (then later) they joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.” Verse 3 of Isaiah chapter 9, giving the “before” and after” situation! (Joy not increased at first, when Israel was still under judgment … then joy greatly increased, after God’s Blessings fall!) Like the exuberant joy farmers experience when record-setting (“bumper”) crops are being harvested!

God will so bless Israel! 

Look at verse 4 … where God will defeat all Israel’s enemies, particularly some “chief” enemy! “For Thou (Lord) hast broken the yoke of his (Israel’s) burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.” As in the day of Gideon’s great victory over the Midianites!

Here’s a pretty good stab at describing “total defeat” for those aggressors, attackers of Israel … “For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.” 

God sends those vicious Jew-hating armies “confusion!”

And massive bloodshed … their own blood!

With both soldier and equipment ultimately being burned with fire!

Wow!

An event yet to occur, I suspect at the Battle of Armageddon … when Jesus comes again to establish the Kingdom of God here on this earth!

First … sin.

Then … clearly after repentance … growth and  joy and LIGHT and victory promised to God’s people. To the little Nation of Israel!

Tomorrow, the Lord willing, we shall look at the Specific MEANS of this victory!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Our Text today is not necessarily a PRIME MILLENNIAL TEXT, not yet. But Isaiah is rapidly getting there! I’ll show you later this week, Lord willing.