America is rife today with so-called “politicians” and “educators” and “social engineers” who believe in (and have become proponents, evangelists for) “globalism,” but in a bad sense!

They want the United States to virtually cease to exist (a situation that may not be as unrealistic as we once thought) … and merely become a “player” in the world community of “people!”

Down with U.S. sovereignty, hegemony … let some “world court” and international “police confederacy” rule the earth!

Is this why our beloved Country can hardly be found (even if it can be found at all) in Bible Prophecy?

Back to my word … “globalism!”

Maybe that’s why that liberal crowd wants unlimited immigration and open borders … in a not-so-veiled attempt to dilute “America” into a non-entity! A “melting pot” in which no Judeo-Christian values survive!

Incidentally, this scenario will lead to a (temporary) one-world leader some day, a charismatic dictator the Bible labels “anti-Christ!”

Now to my Text today, Isaiah 14:1-2, concerning the future Millennium, of course.

“For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.” A set of conditions that have never (thus far) been realized!

No wonder we call Israel God’s “chosen nation!” But note this is a collective term here, not speaking of individual election. Deuteronomy 14:2 teaches … “For thou (ISRAEL) art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the Lord HATH CHOSEN thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the NATIONS that are upon the earth.”

Isaiah then adds that some day God “will set” (a verb meaning “to cause to rest, to be pacified,” obviously implying “no more war”) Jacob (another name for Israel, the Jews) “in their own land,” the “Holy Land” some of us still call it. This became a possibility (and reality) in the year 1948, during my lifetime! But folks, “their own land” includes a whole lot more real estate than they now occupy! Israel is now just a “sliver” of what she will be during the Millennium!

Then Isaiah 14 has “strangers” being joined to Israel, meaning foreigners, non-Jews! Willingly joined to Israel! That verb “cleaving” means “to bond, attach,” even to “abide.” I hear no more anti-Semitism in this Clause. “Global Peace!”

Verse 2 almost sounds like the “nations” (the noun “people” here is indeed plural, “peoples” from different ethnic backgrounds) will become “servants” to Israel! “They (Israel) shall take them (former enemies) captives, whose captives they were; and they (Israel) shall RULE OVER their oppressors.” Yes, not historical, but future … Millennial!

Just as the Church is the Bride of our Lord Jesus Christ … I would not be one iota surprised to find that Israel is the Bride of God the Father! Isaiah 54:5, Jehovah speaking to Israel … “For thy Maker is thine HUSBAND; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.” Then no wonder Old Testament “idolatry” is often called (by the Prophets) “spiritual adultery,” despicable “whoredoms!”

What a future awaits Israel, redeemed Israel!

Us too, for once the Rapture occurs (at least 7 years prior to Jesus returning to earth to rule those thousand years) … we shall “ever be WITH the Lord!” Right by His Side during every second of that golden Span of time! (1 Thessalonians 4:17)

Truly a “new world order” is rapidly approaching, when Jesus rides that white horse out of Glory! (Revelation 19:11)

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

This is why a “Judgment of the Nations” will occur at the beginning of the Millennium, at the end of the Tribulation. Matthew 25 style!

Yes, one world Ruler all right … JESUS! Now that’s called “globalism,” in a very good sense!

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The Nation of Israel is a miracle! With a current population of about 6,500,000 Jews (not counting other nationalities), not a small number! And she is still growing, too. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, just as many Jews live elsewhere across the globe as do in that special little Nation, in Israel per se!

The United States alone is believed to have over 7,000,000 Jews! Not counting Europe, South America and the rest of the earth!

But, when the Millennium begins … for sure, Jewish immigration to the “land flowing with milk and honey” will accelerate! Those dear people are “going back home” to Israel! En masse!

And this “people movement” will be coordinated by the Lord Himself! Isaiah chapter 11 (our Text this morning) addresses this issue: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.” Isaiah 11:11, God’s “recovery” operation! Interesting, the Hebrew verb translated “recover” here also means “to buy, purchase, or possess!”

Zechariah 10:8 is even more graphic! “I (the Lord) will hiss (whistle) for them (the Jews), and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.”

Wow!

God the Father “shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” A clear promise, Isaiah 11:12.

When it comes to “immigration” to Israel … this phenomenon is just beginning! Jesus is coming again … to rule and reign over His people, with His Throne being stationed in Israel! In Jerusalem!

And His “people” will come to Him (the prince of Peace, the Redeemer of Israel) in grand obeisance!

Plus this added bonus … all animosity between the Jews themselves will dissolve, during the Millennium! Back to Isaiah 11 … “The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.” Verse 13 of the chapter.

Tranquility, serenity … both domestically and internationally!

So many returnees to Israel that … “There shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.” Another “exodus,” from the nations of humanity heading (again) toward the Promised Land! (“Assyria” here just may be a “codeword” for the gentile nations of earth.)

Isaiah the Prophet chimes in here, with God speaking … “Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.” Yes, the “regathering” in powerful display, Isaiah 43:5-6.

Jeremiah, did the Lord reveal any such to you? “Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” I’d say He did, Jeremiah 32:37-38.

Incidentally, this is one reason Israel needs more land. The additional masses of precious people who will immigrate to her shores. More Land God has promised her, in fact! (But another Lesson is needed for this thought to be developed!)

God is then a divine and gracious “Gatherer!”

He’s going to “gather” the Church one day, in an event called the Rapture!

And now we have seen He too is going to “gather” Israel, the Jews!

What a mighty God is He!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Isaiah 11, another whole chapter in his Prophecy that focuses solely on the Millennium, includes this glorious verse: “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:9

Let me advance the thought that this has never before happened! “The earth filled with the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” Never!

That word “earth” (in Hebrew “eretzs”) means the whole planet! My Lexicon says, “the whole earth as opposed to only part of it!”

Yes, in the Garden of Eden everyone knew of the Lord God Almighty! But that knowledge did not envelop the whole earth! Just the “Garden” area!

The same condition prevailed as Noah and his family (eight souls) disembarked from the Ark. Everyone alive possessed the “knowledge of the Lord,” but only on Mount Ararat and vicinity!

Soon, due to mankind’s “drift into sin” … ignorance of God (albeit willingly oft-times) seeped into the human fabric.

And certainly today … ignorance prevails, no knowledge of our dear Lord, not universally!

In fact, Nations exist in our day where it is illegal to teach the Truth of God’s Holy Word! I am told that North Korea, for example, immediately imprisons (and perhaps even executes) anyone found carrying a Bible!

Oh, but some day … when Jesus returns to this earth, His Return when “every eye shall see Him” (Revelation 1:7) our Text, Isaiah 11:9, will come to full realization!

“The earth SHALL BE full of the knowledge of the Lord.”

And to what extent? “As the waters cover the sea,” pretty deep! Over seven miles deep in some places!

Yes!

Let me point you (a verse we may study later in detail) to Jeremiah 31:34 now … “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, KNOW THE LORD: for they shall ALL know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Knowledge leading to salvation!

Not yet … but during the Millennium!

Then it gets even better! Based on Habakkuk 2:14 anyway! “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the GLORY of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” Knowledge has now become “Glory!”

Knowledge of Jesus, if pure, always turns into Glory!

What a Day (a thousand year day) that will be!

The Millennium!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Isaiah the Prophet says more about the Millennium than anyone else in the Bible. (I realize that sounds like a mere opinion, but I guarantee you it’s a fact.)

Whole chapters of Isaiah’s Corpus … the “Millennium” from one end to the other! Including today’s Text, Isaiah chapter 4.

Do recall that the Millennium begins when Jesus next returns to earth, literally standing on the Mount of Olives. It is then that He interrupts the Battle of Armageddon, saves the Jews (what’s left of the little Nation of Israel), and defeats the Anti-Christ and his cohorts. Next comes the Judgment of the Nations (looks like partly based on how they’ve treated Israel during those last horrible few years), then Jesus assumes the Throne of David, to reign a thousand years as “Prince of Peace!”

It is in light of the deadly Tribulation period that Isaiah 4:1 begins: “And in that day SEVEN women shall take hold of ONE man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach. “

Wow!

So many Jewish men dead, both from Armageddon and at the murderous, anti-Semitic hands of Anti-Christ … that the Jewish population ratio is reduced to 1 man for every 7 women! And these ladies all wish to be married to some young Jewish gentleman! (Jewish girls through the centuries have had this godly longing.) But don’t worry … a thousand years of peace and prosperity lie ahead … the men will rebound! Yes, children will be born during that golden Kingdom Age.

Verse 2 adds to the picture: “In that day shall the BRANCH of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.”

“Branch,” one of Jesus’ wonderful Old Testament Names, Titles! Then two adjectives framing Jesus: “beautiful and glorious,” nearly self-defining. The “fruit?” Yes, the produce of earth, vegetables and sweets (milk and honey?) and nutrients of all kinds! Maybe even “righteousness!” (In the sense of Isaiah 62:11 … “For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to SPRING FORTH before all the nations.”)

But who will enjoy this bliss? “Them that are escaped of Israel,” clearly those (relatively few) who have survived the Tribulation! Who have endured to the end!

Isaiah 4, verse 3 still carries that theme of survival … “And it shall come to pass, that HE THAT IS LEFT in Zion, and HE THAT REMAINETH in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem.”

(Remember Jesus Himself said that if those days had not been shortened, no flesh would have been spared, Matthew 24:22.)

Preacher Bagwell, are you sure Israel will be saved? Well, Paul promised so in Romans 11: 26. But Isaiah “nails” it here, for sure: “When (the Millennium) the Lord shall have WASHED AWAY the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have PURGED the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.”

Excuse me, WOW again!

Now watch how the chapter ends, verses 5 and 6: “And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a CLOUD and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.”

This will be a “new” truth to many of us, I suspect. God may be going to distribute the very Shekinah Glory Cloud upon the “assemblies” of Israel, maybe every home, every single dwelling!

Sounds so secure!

What wonderful says ahead … for those of us who are saved by the Grace of God!

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus … no wonder they call us Christians! HE is the Center of all our being! Like Paul correctly (and ideally) testified, “For us to live is Christ!”

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Goodness, have I enjoyed writing this Lesson!

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Read with me (a longer Bible Text than usual) something Isaiah said over seven centuries ago. Then try to tell me this prophecy has already come to pass! No way, not if you’re a Bible literalist!

“The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be ESTABLISHED in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and ALL NATIONS shall flow unto it. 3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, NEITHER SHALL THEY LEARN WAR ANY MORE. 5 O house of JACOB (ISRAEL), come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.” Isaiah 2:1-5, very early in his mammoth Book of Truth!

When was the “Lord’s House” (the Temple) “established” in any permanent sense? The Tabernacle was constantly moving! Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians! Zerubbabel’s Temple was decimated by the Babylonians! And no Temple exists on that holy mount today!

It’s never happened, not yet! But it shall, during the coming, glorious Millennium!

When did “all nations” go to any Jewish Temple to learn and to worship?

I can answer that. Never before! But some day they surely will, in the Millennium!

And when has this world enjoyed universal “peace?”

Again, never, not for more than a few days!

But there is coming a day, according to Isaiah, when “He (Jesus, the LORD) shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” Verse 4 above! Elongated peace, instituted by the “Prince of Peace!”

When?

During the Millennium.

And what about Israel, the “apple of God’s Eye?”

Verse 5 promises … “O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.”

Salvation … as a result of that little Nation seeing her returning Redeemer! Yes, she will be saved!

If you take Isaiah at his word (as we do any gentleman or lady of high repute) there you must believe in a coming Day of Millennium Blessing! Jesus on the throne of David … for a thousand literal years!

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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