If you seek to interpret the Bible literally, as I have been taught to do, these Millennium Verses are so exhilarating!

For example today’s Text, Isaiah 40:1-2 … “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.”

Something has happened in Jerusalem!

Instead of constant readiness for war, constant hatred and scorn flowing from all her neighbors, constant existential threats surfacing daily … “Comfort,” yes double “Comfort!”

What a change, what a “reversal” … due totally (I believe) to Jesus’ Second Coming to earth!

And not only does our Text suggest a cessation of hostilities … but a forgiveness of sin! With both results being miraculous, just the second a greater one than the first!

“Comfort” (in Hebrew “nacham”) is a powerfully emotional verb here. The Lord is quite excited, putting all His Strength behind the imperative. And, if you recall, when the Hebrew language doubles a word or phrase … its emphasis is increased exponentially!

And just (here) who are God’s people? The next Line answers, the inhabitants of “Jerusalem!”

Salvation has come! Jesus has come! Faith and belief in Him have come! The city that recently was a “cup of trembling unto all people” (Zechariah 12:2) is now “the joy of the whole earth!!!” (Psalm 42:8)

Because “her iniquity is pardoned.” Her “sins” (specifically “perversions,” the noun “avon” in Hebrew) have been “forgiven.” Yet a strange thing here, the verb for “pardoned” is literally “ratzsah,” normally translated “to be pleased with, to accept!”

I figure God has so washed away Israel’s putrid sins … that once where there was abomination and stench (in God’s Nostrils) there is now “delight and favor!”

Wow!

Remember the last time Jesus spoke to this Capital City? “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” Matthew 23:37-38

That’s NOT speaking comfortably!

But once she has repented, the people of that metropolis will again enjoy the gracious blessing of the Lord Jesus, His Presence too!

In fact, Jesus’ very next Words to Jerusalem in Matthew 23 … “Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”

Amen!

Israel has been punished for her spiritual failures, sins … punished to a 200% extent, according to Isaiah! Maybe God’s math here is calculating … double sins/double punishments/but now DOUBLE BLESSINGS!

However, looks like to me … “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Romans 5:20, Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

I don’t even live in Jerusalem and my heart is comforted this morning, just studying this golden Millennial Promise!

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Need some good news?

The last verse of Isaiah chapter 35 sure provides it, with inerrant accuracy!

It’s a Promise from God as well.

“And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Isaiah 35:10

Some future day the world’s newspapers will headline this event, in bold and huge type.

Yes, during the coming Rule of Jesus Christ upon earth, this earth, planet earth! The 1,000 year Span of time often called the Millennium!

Multitudes … returning to Zion, meaning Jerusalem (the Holy City in those coming days) … the little area of Land (which will greatly be expanded by then) known as Israel!

But, who are they?

According to the Prophet, the “ransomed!”

This verb, “padah” in Hebrew, means “redeemed, rescued, delivered!” These are likely survivors of the Tribulation, Jews mostly I suppose and some gentiles too, who have been scattered throughout the world … fleeing the murderous clutches of the anti-Christ! The recently deceased anti-Christ I might add! (Yes, Armageddon is past, Jesus has returned and Israel has believed!)

These people have been ransomed both physically and spiritually! Spared from certain bodily death by Jesus’ Victory at Armageddon and saved eternally by the marvelous Grace of God, spiritually … born again!

But why do they want to go to “Zion?” (A word literally meaning a “dry, parched place” … but now blossoming “like a rose!”) To the Holy Land?

Because Jesus is there, the short answer!

But do note they return “with songs (translated ‘triumph’ once in the King James Version) and everlasting joy” upon their heads, and “in their hearts” I suppose! Yes, the Millennium will be a delightful time. (The earth, far as I can discern, has NEVER experienced a thousand years of unbroken peace! And will not … until the “Price of Peace” comes back! That’s our Lord according to Isaiah 9:6,a glorious text indeed.)

“They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away,” requoting today’s Text, its last two clauses.

“Obtain” carries the idea of “finally reaching” a goal … “overtaking” a lifelong aspiration. This is positive!

And “flee away” most often means “to escape” some dreaded situation, according to my Lexicon anyway. This is negative!

No more “sorrow!” (Worded as “grief” twice in our Bibles.)

No more “sighing!” (Also written as “groanings” four times elsewhere in Scripture.)

What a day, what an era, what an Administrator Jesus will be! After all, HE IS LORD!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Our world is “falling apart,” in many ways. And the worst (the Tribulation) is yet to come. But some day …

Hallelujah!

Ever heard the old hymn … “Some Golden Daybreak, Jesus will come?” I’d like to go on record this Monday morning … I believe this!

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Look at what Isaiah has written about that coming glorious “thousand year” stretch of time, when Jesus rules the earth. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.” Isaiah 35:5-6

Yes, that would be Jesus, all right! The Messiah will have returned! He has already been on earth for a Season, when He died for our sins … but will yet come again in the same miracle-working Power!

He was loving and compassionate the first Time, and so will be again the second Time.

Blind men seeing!

Deaf men hearing!

Lame men leaping!

Mute men singing!

A duplication (or intensification) of Jesus’ Ministry, but for such a longer time! (Three years, maybe a little over … in comparison to a thousand years!)

We can’t count our Lord’s total healing episodes, not definitely, because of summary verses like these: “And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And ALL THE CITY was gathered together at the door. And he healed MANY that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils.” Mark 1:32-34

These miracles thus become “signs” (in the Gospel of John Jesus’ miracles are almost always referred to as just that, “signs”) as to the identity of our Lord.

An imprisoned John the Baptist one day (for unexplained reasons) sent a delegation to ask Jesus if He was really the Messiah! “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?”

Then immediately … “Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” Matthew 11:4-5, at least an allusion to Isaiah’s great promises above.

Someone will now say to me, “Where are such miracles today?” To which question I will answer: “Jesus is coming again!”

And when He does, not only will humanity again meet the “Divine Physician,” even the planet (the earth) will be revitalized! Like this, the rest of our Text this morning, Isaiah 35:6 … “In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.” Jesus blessing the whole earth, the very Presence of God being here again. That noun “wilderness” too literally means “desert!”

But, don’t let me be misunderstood. Jesus is still working miracles today. The greatest of which is … the “salvation of a lost soul!”

A man or woman being “born again!”

Becoming a “new creature!”

The costliest miracle of all … the Price being Jesus’ incorruptible Blood shed on the old rugged Cross.

Hallelujah!

Are you saved?

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Jesus words: “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME A SINNER. I tell you, this man went down to his house JUSTIFIED.” And He surely knew how to describe salvation!

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Since my son died just over a week ago, I have deeply grieved and sorrowed and hurt. Yet many people, near and far, have offered me words of sympathy, support and love.

Lots of precious Scripture verses too have been shared with this sad Preacher. A good one-word goal of all their efforts … “encouragement,” my brothers and sisters in Christ wanted to uplift my heart!

And I say “Thank You.”

Then this morning, as we continue our study of the Second Coming of Jesus, specifically our perusal of the Millennium, I discover (or re-discover) this short Text:

“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.” Isaiah 35:3-4

Now I know this is written to a suffering little nation called Israel. (We must view the Bible “in context.”) Yet I also have learned that the Bible (any Passage) has one interpretation, but (Hallelujah) can also have many applications!

“Strengthening weak hands and confirming feeble knees,” poetry from a Prophet’s inspired pen … are self-explanatory clauses. God is going to imbue confidence and fortitude to His people. Who have been tortured for years under the reign of a devil called anti-Christ. During the last half of the Tribulation, specifically.

“Fear not” … that too needs little elucidation, commentary.

God is able to remove fears! (I just looked and there are 63 different times the Bible blends the words “FEAR NOT!”)

The our Text includes a heartening promise … “Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence.”

Wow, that’s speaking of the demise of all those armies (Zechariah 14:2) who have attacked Israel at the Battle of Armageddon! Antisemitism finally dies that day!

Then the “icing” on the cake … God says: “I will come and SAVE you.” Salvation, eternally so at that! (Paul also predicted this is Romans 11:26.)

A little bit out of context, I know, this verse. But I just can’t leave it out. Jesus speaking of Himself: “For the Son of man is come TO SEEK and TO SAVE that which was lost.” Luke 19:10, or is it out of place at all?

Point being this morning … I’ve quickly shared with you the interpretation (from a premillennial perspective) of our two verse Passage.

Now an application … to me personally, to me hurting, still grieving. (I hope I am not being selfish. And things are getting a little “better.”)

God can strengthen and confirm me?

Remove my fears (worries and apprehensions)?

Handle anyone opposing my goals of serving Jesus? Including the devil and his cohorts?

Come and save (deliver) me?

Yes, yes, yes!

“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.” Blessed application indeed!

Romans 15:4 mentions “the comfort of the Scriptures.” I think I know what that means, one more time!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

“For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

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Isaiah 35 is a magnificent chapter.

Best I can tell, millennial from its first Line till its last!

It’s first two verses seem nearly poetic, word picturesque! “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.” Isaiah 35:1-2, King James Version.

The noun “wilderness” is “midbar” in Hebrew, translated “desert” 13 times in our Old Testament. And it is immediately “matched” (an example of literary “parallelism”) with the term “solitary place,” rendered as “dry” or “dry land” 9 times in Scripture. You immediately get the idea, the Holy Spirit being such a grand Author.

Seldom does the Bible associate “gladness” with “solitude or aridness. But here it clearly does! “Sus” in Hebrew does indicate a spirit of “rejoicing” (21 times) … but it is also the word for a “horse!” I suspect because horses “prance” and “dance” and “paw” often, being that exuberant for the race or battle or ride!

Why all this “gladness?”

The Lord has come!

Jesus, back to earth!

Deserts are not known for a lot of lush vegetation! (Ever heard of an “oasis?”) Very little rainfall too! But now …!

This hints at the fact that when Jesus rules on earth … even weather patterns will be “rectified, changed, healed!”

The dry “south” (“midbar” is translated “south” a few times, since that’s the general direction of the barren desert in relation to Israel) will trade its so-so reputation for that of glorious Lebanon (in Bible days) and the vibrancy of Carmel and Sharon!

This will be called a dramatic “reversal!”

And this once parched land will see “the Glory of our Lord!” Then another “parallelism,” will see “the excellency of our God!”

That’s Jesus, folks! (“Glorious, Excellent,” and a whole lot more!)

Just like when on earth the first time, everywhere He went dead people came to life … His second time on earth, everywhere He goes dead acreage begins to thrive!

Oh, the sheer Power of our Creator/Redeemer!

Paul was right, “By Him (Jesus) all things consist.” (Colossians 1:17) Literally meaning “all things hold together, exist, prosper, function rightly!” In Greek “sunistao.”

Wow!

When Jesus returns to earth …

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

So much in the Bible about the Millennium, yet I still imagine “the half has not yet been told!” (As an overwhelmed Queen of Sheba once said to King Solomon.)

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