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Aug. 17, 2021
Isaiah's Vision of Restoration (Walk Thru the Bible Week 29)
The prophet Isaiah saw into the future and described the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross in astounding detail. He also foresaw a day when God would restore His people to their land with the blessing and assistance of the gentiles. Isaiah’s book ends with a powerful declaration that Israel’s future is as sure as the new heaven and new earth that God would create.
This episode complements the daily readings from our Walk Thru the Bible reading plan for August 16-22, covering Isaiah 49-66; Nahum; 2 Chronicles 33:10-17.
Show Links:
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Transcript
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Welcome to Walk Through the Bible, Susan Michael's 12-month journey through the most exciting
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book on the planet.
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It will transform your life one page at a time.
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Be sure to subscribe for future episodes that will ignite your faith and bring your Bible
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to life.
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Now, let's join our host, Susan Michael.
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Well, hey there and welcome back.
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This is Walk Through the Bible Week 29.
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And this week we are reading in the Daily Bible pages 898 to 933 or what are the dates
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of July 16th through the 22nd in the Daily Bible.
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So quick review.
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Last week we talked about Hezekiah and how he passed the reigns on to Manasseh who was
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a rather evil king, therefore the remaining southern kingdom of Judah.
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And it's really sad because Hezekiah just did not train up his son and prepare him to
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lead in a godly way, whereas Hezekiah had been a very godly king and he just somehow
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didn't prepare his son for that even though he knew his son was going to be taking over
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after him, they actually co-reigned the last few years of Hezekiah's life.
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But he was totally unprepared, went deep into paganism and it was a very, very bloody time,
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a history for Judah, very bad.
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Now during this time we have Isaiah continuing his ministry of prophecy.
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And so I want to talk a bit more about the greatest prophet of Israel, the prophet Isaiah.
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Do you know that there's only one story in the New Testament of Jesus opening the scriptures
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and reading from a certain passage?
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Now we know Jesus knew the whole thing by memory.
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We know that he studied it all, he referred to it in all of his teachings, but there's
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only one story of Jesus opening up the scroll and reading from a passage.
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And where was that passage found?
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But beloved Isaiah.
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So Jesus was quoting from Isaiah 61, the first two verses, we all know the verse where it
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says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach
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good tidings to the poor, He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty
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to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable
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year of the Lord.
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And after reading these words it says that he sat down and then he said that these words
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have been fulfilled in your hearing.
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So he is the fulfillment of this verse out of Isaiah.
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One other thing about Isaiah is that then we have another story in Acts chapter 2 where
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the Ethiopian eunuch was in his chariot reading from the book of Isaiah and the Lord tells
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Philip, Go catch up with him.
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And so Philip runs ahead, catches up with the eunuch, and he sees that the eunuch is reading
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from Isaiah 53.
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And this is what he's reading.
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He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before it sheer is silent.
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So he opened not his mouth.
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In his humiliation his justice was taken away and who will declare his generation for his
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life is taken from the earth?
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And Acts chapter 2 says that the eunuch then asked Philip about whom is the prophet, saying
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this, is it about himself or some other man?
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And that is the perfect introduction to this week's readings.
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This week in Isaiah we are reading from Isaiah 49 to the end of the book, chapter 66.
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In there there are several really key chapters that I want to talk about.
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In the first, the most important one and the most well known is Isaiah chapter 53 which
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is about the suffering servant.
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And this is what the eunuch was reading about and he said, who is this about?
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And so Philip was able to then tell him about Jesus and lead him to the Lord.
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Because when we read Isaiah 53 we see Jesus.
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I mean what a perfect description of Jesus' death for us on the cross.
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So let me just read a few verses from it for you.
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Starting with verse 3.
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He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and
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we hid, as it were, our faces from him.
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He was despised and we did not esteem him.
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Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken,
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smitten by God and afflicted.
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But he was wounded for our transgressions.
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He was bruised for our iniquities.
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The chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed.
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And you know, when we read this we see Jesus.
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The whole chapter, I'm not going to read the whole chapter now, but in verse 12 it says,
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He was numbered with the transgressors and He bore the sin of many and made intercession
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for the transgressors.
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This is the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross for us.
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He bore our sins and our iniquities, our transgressions.
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It even says our sicknesses, our diseases.
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He bore it.
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The effects of sin, He bore it on the tree for us.
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This chapter describes it so perfectly.
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But you need to know that a couple of chapters before 53 and leading into 53, the wording
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that the prophet uses and the way his oracles are put together, it's hard to tell because
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in some verses he begins talking about the nation of Israel.
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And then before you know it, it's like he's talking about a person, an individual person.
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And so the rabbis look at this and many of them will say that this is talking about the
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nation of Israel and their suffering because of the call on their life.
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And it is true, you know, even throughout history, we the church looked at the suffering
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of the Jewish people and to quote the verse that I just read said, you know, we consider
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them smitten by God.
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We thought God was punishing them because they had rejected Jesus.
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This was the teaching of the church for generations.
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Without looking at this, though, if we want to apply this to Jesus, it was that the Jewish
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people saw him as smitten by God because of his blasphemy.
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So they saw that God was punishing him for the wrong that he had done.
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But of course this goes on to say, but clearly he was carrying our transgressions.
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So when you read this, the question is, is it Jesus or is it the nation of Israel?
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And I say definitely it is Jesus.
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But yes, there is also a substitutionary, there is a suffering of the Jewish people
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because of the call on their lives and on them that has taken place that does kind of
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parallel this.
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But this is the beauty of it.
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This is why I keep saying that in these prophecies and in the scriptures and the whole story
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of Israel, there is the immediate meaning of the story and of what God is doing and what
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he is saying.
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But then we can see layers on it because Israel was acting out in real time and real place
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certain spiritual principles that are eternal.
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And so Jesus comes and he steps into that and he is living out these same spiritual
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principles that Israel had been walking out and the call of God on the people of Israel
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became focused through the life of Jesus and he fulfilled the calling to, I think, its
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epic.
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So he became that light to the Gentiles that they were called to be.
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And he became that substitutionary death.
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So it is all kind of wrapped up together, but absolutely for sure.
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Isaiah 53 is describing the suffering servant that Jesus was and he came and he fulfilled
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these verses to the team.
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Now another chapter that we read this week is Isaiah 60.
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It is one of my favorite.
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And this is talking about how that another time, we are going to transition here from
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the time of Jesus and the death and resurrection of Jesus, but to a time when God is going
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to regather his people to the land and he is going to raise up the Gentiles to bless
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them and to help them.
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And I love this chapter because I think it speaks so much to the days in which we live.
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So famous verse it starts out with, A rise shine for your light has come and the glory
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of the Lord has risen upon you for behold the darkness shall cover the earth and deep
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darkness the people, but the Lord will arise over you and his glory will be seen upon you.
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The Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.
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Lift up your eyes all around and see they all gather together.
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They come to you, your sons shall come from afar and your daughters shall be nursed at
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your side.
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What is this describing?
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It is describing a time of such darkness on the earth.
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Yet God is going to shine his light upon his people and his glory is going to be seen
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upon them and he is going to gather their sons and their daughters back to their land
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and the Gentiles, the nations are going to be drawn to the light of what God is going
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to be doing through his people, Israel.
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Now that is the context of this scripture.
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This is what it is really saying.
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I believe of course we as believers we can tap into the spiritual principle here that
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even in a time of darkness that we can tap into the light of his glory and his light
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will shine on us through the Holy Spirit.
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And there is so much in this verse for us, so much encouragement.
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But always remember that original context, God's promises, this is to the people of
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Israel.
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And the chapter goes on to say that and the wealth of the Gentiles would come up to them.
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Verse 6, it says, Who are these who fly like a cloud and like doves to their roost?
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Surely the coastlands will wait for me and the ships of Tarshish will come first to bring
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your sons from afar.
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This is describing first ships will come to bring the sons from afar, the people of Israel.
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And then it says, But then who are these that are flying like a cloud or like a dove?
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And it's very possible that this is seeing today's airplanes because now the sons and
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daughters of Israel are coming home by airplane and by flight.
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And in verse 10 it says, The sons of foreigners will build up your walls and their kings shall
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minister to you.
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Coming down to verse 11, Therefore your gates shall be open continually.
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They shall not be shut day or night that men may bring to you the wealth of the Gentiles
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and their kings in procession.
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So this is a time when foreigners are helping to build up Zion, when the foreigners are
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bringing the wealth from the nations and from the Gentiles up to Jerusalem and to Israel.
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And it says in verse 12, For the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you shall
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perish and those nations shall be utterly ruined.
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Now my friends, I didn't write that.
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The Lord declared it through the prophet Isaiah, but there is a time where the nations are
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called to account for whether they appreciate what God is doing in Israel and stand with
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them or if they're going to stand against it and perish.
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It's clear in his word and you'll see this theme over and over in Isaiah that the nations
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are nothing and it says, And those that contended with you are as not.
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They've disappeared.
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They will disappear.
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And now I want to jump on to another chapter in Isaiah.
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I love Isaiah 60.
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Oh, let me before I leave Isaiah 60, verse 21.
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It says, Your people shall be for righteous and they shall inherit the land forever.
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So when God does this, this final return, there's no more exile.
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God is going to make them His righteous people.
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He's going to redeem them.
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And then it says, They will inherit the land forever.
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No more sin, no more exile.
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That is a day we look forward to.
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So you and I are called here to, number one, assist in the return of the sons and the daughters
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back home, the ships of Tarshish.
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These are Gentiles ships and it says that, You know, your sons and your daughters will
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be carried on our shoulders.
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And so this is what the ministry of the International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem, is doing today.
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We are assisting in bringing home the Jewish people to their homeland.
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We are collecting donations all over the world from Christian churches and Christian individuals
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and blessing the people of Israel with practical assistance and helping them.
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We're helping to build the walls of Zion and we are telling our nations to stand with
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Israel at this time.
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And this is the calling that I see for the body of Christ based on Isaiah 60.
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But then it goes on, just two chapters later, chapter 62.
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It says that, For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent.
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I will not hold my peace.
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And for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness
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and her salvation as a lamp that burns.
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The Gentiles shall see your righteousness and all kings your glory.
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You see, we need to be taking up the cause of Zion and to not be silent and to not be
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at rest until we see her righteousness rising, until we see that day of salvation and redemption
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that brings about righteousness and therefore no more exile.
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We're not there yet, but until then, we're to be taking up the cause of Zion.
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And then in verses 6 and 7, the Lord speaking here through Isaiah says, I have set watchmen
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on your walls of Jerusalem, and they shall never hold their peace day or night.
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You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent and give him no rest until he establishes,
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though he makes Jerusalem a praise in all the earth.
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What's very clear from these verses is that it is God who's going to do it.
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He is going to establish Jerusalem, and he's going to make her a righteous beacon, a praise
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in all the earth.
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And until then, you and I are called to be watchmen on the walls, interceding for them
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and praying for them.
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God wants us to be a part of this and to be a part of this holy work with him, but it
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is his work.
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It is his doing.
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And then the great book of Isaiah ends with chapter 66, and he starts out here with a magnificent
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verse.
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God says, heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool.
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This is how great our God is.
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Earth is just his footstool.
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And in verse 7 says, before she was in labor, she gave birth.
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Before her pain came, she delivered a male child.
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Now who has heard such a thing?
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Who has seen such a thing?
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Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day, or shall a nation be born at once?
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For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.
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Many see in this verse the prophetic utterance about the nation of Israel being born in our
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day, born in a day.
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Yes, it was years and years of preparation for that day.
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But when labor came, she was born like that.
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For thus says the Lord, behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of
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the Gentiles like a flowing stream.
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Then you shall feed on her sides, shall you be carried and be dandled on her knees, as
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one whom his mother comforts.
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So I will comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
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When you see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like grass.
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The hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants and his indignation to his enemies.
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For as the new heavens and the new earth which I make shall remain before me, says the Lord,
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so shall your descendants and your name remain.
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I remember the day I read that for the first time.
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I always thought the concept of a new heaven and a new earth was a New Testament concept.
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We read about it in the book of Revelation.
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John sees the new Jerusalem coming down and the new heaven and the new earth.
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And here Isaiah saw it.
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How many thousands of years ago, twenty-five hundred years ago, Isaiah saw.
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And God says, for as the new heaven and the new earth that I make shall remain before
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me, that's for eternity my friends, so shall your descendants and your name remain.
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Descendants how sure and how true his promises are to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and
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Jacob, to the house of David.
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His promises are yea and amen and they are eternal.
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That is how the great book of Isaiah ends.
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Now I want to go back to our story about Manasseh, I'm sorry to go from such low to
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such heights and now back to such lows.
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But only after we finish the book can you appreciate that Manasseh was so evil that
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there is a legend.
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It's not in the Bible.
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There's no proof of this, but there is a legend that he had Isaiah killed.
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And the way he had him killed was he was put inside a log and the log was sewn in half,
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meaning Isaiah was also cut in half.
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Now it's a terrible death, but it's very interesting that in the book of Hebrews where
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we have the great chapter of the Hall of Fame or the Hall of Faith, it says in verse 37
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that some were even known to have been cut in half.
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So it seems here that the writer of Hebrews was given some credence to this legend about
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Isaiah.
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But Isaiah had rolled up his oracles and his scrolls and he had given them to his disciples.
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And his disciples later had compiled them and that's how we have the book of Isaiah.
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Now back to Manasseh, he was actually taken off, he was taken captive by the Assyrians
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and he was taken to Babylon.
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We don't know exactly why Babylon, but it could be that it was at a time when Babylon
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was in rebellion against Assyria and maybe Assyria had squashed the rebellion and they
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may have gathered then any of the other kings that may have been talking to Babylon, forming
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an alliance with Babylon.
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They may have taken them there and said, look, see what we did to Babylon, you think we
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can't do this to you.
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Because Manasseh was then repented while he was in Babylon, he turned to the Lord and
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so the Lord allowed him to return to Jerusalem and he then reformed Judah and got rid of
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paganism and he ended his years with worshiping the true God.
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So his story does end at a good place.
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He's worshiping the God of Israel and we say, yea to that, but his life certainly was a
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rollercoaster ride very, very, very deep into the valley of sin and up to the heights now
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here of worshiping the Lord.
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This week we are also going to read the book of Nehum, a smaller prophet called one of
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the minor prophets because his book is very short.
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Nehum prophesies the fall of Assyria.
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Now it's interesting, Nehum is 125 years later than the prophet Jonah and if you remember
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Jonah went to Nineveh and preached and they actually repented and turned to the Lord.
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But 125 years later, Nehum here pronounces their judgment.
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They're going to fall and it's all going to be over and sure enough in the year 610
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Assyria falls to the Babylonians and at that time what remains is still Jerusalem.
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Judah is still there but now she's going to have to contend with Babylon.
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But all that is for next week.
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So that does it for this week.
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I hope you enjoy your reading of Isaiah.
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Take it in.
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It is such a magnificent, magnificent book, such an amazing prophet, Israel's greatest
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prophet.
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He wasn't received and he may have died a martyr's death but such a great prophet.
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So enjoy his writings, we'll see you back here next week and until then, God bless.
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Welcome to Walk Through the Bible, Susan Michael's 12-month journey through the most exciting
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book on the planet.
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It will transform your life one page at a time.
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Be sure to subscribe for future episodes that will ignite your faith and bring your Bible
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to life.
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Now, let's join our host, Susan Michael.
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Well, hey there and welcome back.
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This is Walk Through the Bible Week 29.
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And this week we are reading in the Daily Bible pages 898 to 933 or what are the dates
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of July 16th through the 22nd in the Daily Bible.
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So quick review.
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Last week we talked about Hezekiah and how he passed the reigns on to Manasseh who was
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a rather evil king, therefore the remaining southern kingdom of Judah.
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And it's really sad because Hezekiah just did not train up his son and prepare him to
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lead in a godly way, whereas Hezekiah had been a very godly king and he just somehow
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didn't prepare his son for that even though he knew his son was going to be taking over
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after him, they actually co-reigned the last few years of Hezekiah's life.
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But he was totally unprepared, went deep into paganism and it was a very, very bloody time,
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a history for Judah, very bad.
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Now during this time we have Isaiah continuing his ministry of prophecy.
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And so I want to talk a bit more about the greatest prophet of Israel, the prophet Isaiah.
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Do you know that there's only one story in the New Testament of Jesus opening the scriptures
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and reading from a certain passage?
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Now we know Jesus knew the whole thing by memory.
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We know that he studied it all, he referred to it in all of his teachings, but there's
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only one story of Jesus opening up the scroll and reading from a passage.
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And where was that passage found?
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But beloved Isaiah.
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So Jesus was quoting from Isaiah 61, the first two verses, we all know the verse where it
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says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach
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good tidings to the poor, He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty
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to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable
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year of the Lord.
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And after reading these words it says that he sat down and then he said that these words
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have been fulfilled in your hearing.
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So he is the fulfillment of this verse out of Isaiah.
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One other thing about Isaiah is that then we have another story in Acts chapter 2 where
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the Ethiopian eunuch was in his chariot reading from the book of Isaiah and the Lord tells
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Philip, Go catch up with him.
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And so Philip runs ahead, catches up with the eunuch, and he sees that the eunuch is reading
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from Isaiah 53.
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And this is what he's reading.
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He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before it sheer is silent.
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So he opened not his mouth.
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In his humiliation his justice was taken away and who will declare his generation for his
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life is taken from the earth?
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And Acts chapter 2 says that the eunuch then asked Philip about whom is the prophet, saying
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this, is it about himself or some other man?
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And that is the perfect introduction to this week's readings.
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This week in Isaiah we are reading from Isaiah 49 to the end of the book, chapter 66.
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In there there are several really key chapters that I want to talk about.
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In the first, the most important one and the most well known is Isaiah chapter 53 which
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is about the suffering servant.
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And this is what the eunuch was reading about and he said, who is this about?
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And so Philip was able to then tell him about Jesus and lead him to the Lord.
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Because when we read Isaiah 53 we see Jesus.
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I mean what a perfect description of Jesus' death for us on the cross.
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So let me just read a few verses from it for you.
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Starting with verse 3.
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He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and
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we hid, as it were, our faces from him.
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He was despised and we did not esteem him.
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Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken,
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smitten by God and afflicted.
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But he was wounded for our transgressions.
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He was bruised for our iniquities.
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The chastisement for our peace was upon him and by his stripes we are healed.
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And you know, when we read this we see Jesus.
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The whole chapter, I'm not going to read the whole chapter now, but in verse 12 it says,
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He was numbered with the transgressors and He bore the sin of many and made intercession
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for the transgressors.
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This is the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross for us.
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He bore our sins and our iniquities, our transgressions.
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It even says our sicknesses, our diseases.
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He bore it.
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The effects of sin, He bore it on the tree for us.
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This chapter describes it so perfectly.
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But you need to know that a couple of chapters before 53 and leading into 53, the wording
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that the prophet uses and the way his oracles are put together, it's hard to tell because
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in some verses he begins talking about the nation of Israel.
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And then before you know it, it's like he's talking about a person, an individual person.
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And so the rabbis look at this and many of them will say that this is talking about the
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nation of Israel and their suffering because of the call on their life.
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And it is true, you know, even throughout history, we the church looked at the suffering
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of the Jewish people and to quote the verse that I just read said, you know, we consider
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them smitten by God.
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We thought God was punishing them because they had rejected Jesus.
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This was the teaching of the church for generations.
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Without looking at this, though, if we want to apply this to Jesus, it was that the Jewish
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people saw him as smitten by God because of his blasphemy.
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So they saw that God was punishing him for the wrong that he had done.
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But of course this goes on to say, but clearly he was carrying our transgressions.
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So when you read this, the question is, is it Jesus or is it the nation of Israel?
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And I say definitely it is Jesus.
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But yes, there is also a substitutionary, there is a suffering of the Jewish people
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because of the call on their lives and on them that has taken place that does kind of
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parallel this.
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But this is the beauty of it.
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This is why I keep saying that in these prophecies and in the scriptures and the whole story
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of Israel, there is the immediate meaning of the story and of what God is doing and what
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he is saying.
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But then we can see layers on it because Israel was acting out in real time and real place
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certain spiritual principles that are eternal.
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And so Jesus comes and he steps into that and he is living out these same spiritual
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principles that Israel had been walking out and the call of God on the people of Israel
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became focused through the life of Jesus and he fulfilled the calling to, I think, its
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epic.
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So he became that light to the Gentiles that they were called to be.
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And he became that substitutionary death.
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So it is all kind of wrapped up together, but absolutely for sure.
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Isaiah 53 is describing the suffering servant that Jesus was and he came and he fulfilled
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these verses to the team.
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Now another chapter that we read this week is Isaiah 60.
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It is one of my favorite.
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And this is talking about how that another time, we are going to transition here from
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the time of Jesus and the death and resurrection of Jesus, but to a time when God is going
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to regather his people to the land and he is going to raise up the Gentiles to bless
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them and to help them.
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And I love this chapter because I think it speaks so much to the days in which we live.
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So famous verse it starts out with, A rise shine for your light has come and the glory
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of the Lord has risen upon you for behold the darkness shall cover the earth and deep
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darkness the people, but the Lord will arise over you and his glory will be seen upon you.
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The Gentiles shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.
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Lift up your eyes all around and see they all gather together.
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They come to you, your sons shall come from afar and your daughters shall be nursed at
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your side.
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What is this describing?
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It is describing a time of such darkness on the earth.
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Yet God is going to shine his light upon his people and his glory is going to be seen
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upon them and he is going to gather their sons and their daughters back to their land
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and the Gentiles, the nations are going to be drawn to the light of what God is going
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to be doing through his people, Israel.
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Now that is the context of this scripture.
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This is what it is really saying.
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I believe of course we as believers we can tap into the spiritual principle here that
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even in a time of darkness that we can tap into the light of his glory and his light
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will shine on us through the Holy Spirit.
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And there is so much in this verse for us, so much encouragement.
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But always remember that original context, God's promises, this is to the people of
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Israel.
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And the chapter goes on to say that and the wealth of the Gentiles would come up to them.
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Verse 6, it says, Who are these who fly like a cloud and like doves to their roost?
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Surely the coastlands will wait for me and the ships of Tarshish will come first to bring
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your sons from afar.
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This is describing first ships will come to bring the sons from afar, the people of Israel.
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And then it says, But then who are these that are flying like a cloud or like a dove?
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And it's very possible that this is seeing today's airplanes because now the sons and
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daughters of Israel are coming home by airplane and by flight.
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And in verse 10 it says, The sons of foreigners will build up your walls and their kings shall
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minister to you.
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Coming down to verse 11, Therefore your gates shall be open continually.
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They shall not be shut day or night that men may bring to you the wealth of the Gentiles
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and their kings in procession.
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So this is a time when foreigners are helping to build up Zion, when the foreigners are
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bringing the wealth from the nations and from the Gentiles up to Jerusalem and to Israel.
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And it says in verse 12, For the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you shall
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perish and those nations shall be utterly ruined.
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Now my friends, I didn't write that.
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The Lord declared it through the prophet Isaiah, but there is a time where the nations are
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called to account for whether they appreciate what God is doing in Israel and stand with
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them or if they're going to stand against it and perish.
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It's clear in his word and you'll see this theme over and over in Isaiah that the nations
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are nothing and it says, And those that contended with you are as not.
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They've disappeared.
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They will disappear.
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And now I want to jump on to another chapter in Isaiah.
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I love Isaiah 60.
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Oh, let me before I leave Isaiah 60, verse 21.
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It says, Your people shall be for righteous and they shall inherit the land forever.
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So when God does this, this final return, there's no more exile.
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God is going to make them His righteous people.
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He's going to redeem them.
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And then it says, They will inherit the land forever.
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No more sin, no more exile.
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That is a day we look forward to.
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So you and I are called here to, number one, assist in the return of the sons and the daughters
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back home, the ships of Tarshish.
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These are Gentiles ships and it says that, You know, your sons and your daughters will
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be carried on our shoulders.
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And so this is what the ministry of the International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem, is doing today.
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We are assisting in bringing home the Jewish people to their homeland.
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We are collecting donations all over the world from Christian churches and Christian individuals
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and blessing the people of Israel with practical assistance and helping them.
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We're helping to build the walls of Zion and we are telling our nations to stand with
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Israel at this time.
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And this is the calling that I see for the body of Christ based on Isaiah 60.
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But then it goes on, just two chapters later, chapter 62.
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It says that, For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent.
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I will not hold my peace.
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And for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness
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and her salvation as a lamp that burns.
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The Gentiles shall see your righteousness and all kings your glory.
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You see, we need to be taking up the cause of Zion and to not be silent and to not be
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at rest until we see her righteousness rising, until we see that day of salvation and redemption
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that brings about righteousness and therefore no more exile.
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We're not there yet, but until then, we're to be taking up the cause of Zion.
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And then in verses 6 and 7, the Lord speaking here through Isaiah says, I have set watchmen
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on your walls of Jerusalem, and they shall never hold their peace day or night.
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You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent and give him no rest until he establishes,
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though he makes Jerusalem a praise in all the earth.
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What's very clear from these verses is that it is God who's going to do it.
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He is going to establish Jerusalem, and he's going to make her a righteous beacon, a praise
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in all the earth.
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And until then, you and I are called to be watchmen on the walls, interceding for them
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and praying for them.
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God wants us to be a part of this and to be a part of this holy work with him, but it
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is his work.
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It is his doing.
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And then the great book of Isaiah ends with chapter 66, and he starts out here with a magnificent
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verse.
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God says, heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool.
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This is how great our God is.
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Earth is just his footstool.
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And in verse 7 says, before she was in labor, she gave birth.
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Before her pain came, she delivered a male child.
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Now who has heard such a thing?
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Who has seen such a thing?
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Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day, or shall a nation be born at once?
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For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.
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Many see in this verse the prophetic utterance about the nation of Israel being born in our
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day, born in a day.
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Yes, it was years and years of preparation for that day.
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But when labor came, she was born like that.
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For thus says the Lord, behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of
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the Gentiles like a flowing stream.
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Then you shall feed on her sides, shall you be carried and be dandled on her knees, as
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one whom his mother comforts.
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So I will comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
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When you see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like grass.
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The hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants and his indignation to his enemies.
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For as the new heavens and the new earth which I make shall remain before me, says the Lord,
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so shall your descendants and your name remain.
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I remember the day I read that for the first time.
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I always thought the concept of a new heaven and a new earth was a New Testament concept.
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We read about it in the book of Revelation.
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John sees the new Jerusalem coming down and the new heaven and the new earth.
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And here Isaiah saw it.
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How many thousands of years ago, twenty-five hundred years ago, Isaiah saw.
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And God says, for as the new heaven and the new earth that I make shall remain before
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me, that's for eternity my friends, so shall your descendants and your name remain.
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Descendants how sure and how true his promises are to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and
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Jacob, to the house of David.
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His promises are yea and amen and they are eternal.
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That is how the great book of Isaiah ends.
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Now I want to go back to our story about Manasseh, I'm sorry to go from such low to
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such heights and now back to such lows.
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But only after we finish the book can you appreciate that Manasseh was so evil that
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there is a legend.
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It's not in the Bible.
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There's no proof of this, but there is a legend that he had Isaiah killed.
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And the way he had him killed was he was put inside a log and the log was sewn in half,
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meaning Isaiah was also cut in half.
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Now it's a terrible death, but it's very interesting that in the book of Hebrews where
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we have the great chapter of the Hall of Fame or the Hall of Faith, it says in verse 37
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that some were even known to have been cut in half.
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So it seems here that the writer of Hebrews was given some credence to this legend about
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Isaiah.
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But Isaiah had rolled up his oracles and his scrolls and he had given them to his disciples.
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And his disciples later had compiled them and that's how we have the book of Isaiah.
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Now back to Manasseh, he was actually taken off, he was taken captive by the Assyrians
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and he was taken to Babylon.
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We don't know exactly why Babylon, but it could be that it was at a time when Babylon
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was in rebellion against Assyria and maybe Assyria had squashed the rebellion and they
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may have gathered then any of the other kings that may have been talking to Babylon, forming
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an alliance with Babylon.
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They may have taken them there and said, look, see what we did to Babylon, you think we
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can't do this to you.
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Because Manasseh was then repented while he was in Babylon, he turned to the Lord and
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so the Lord allowed him to return to Jerusalem and he then reformed Judah and got rid of
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paganism and he ended his years with worshiping the true God.
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So his story does end at a good place.
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He's worshiping the God of Israel and we say, yea to that, but his life certainly was a
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rollercoaster ride very, very, very deep into the valley of sin and up to the heights now
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here of worshiping the Lord.
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This week we are also going to read the book of Nehum, a smaller prophet called one of
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the minor prophets because his book is very short.
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Nehum prophesies the fall of Assyria.
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Now it's interesting, Nehum is 125 years later than the prophet Jonah and if you remember
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Jonah went to Nineveh and preached and they actually repented and turned to the Lord.
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But 125 years later, Nehum here pronounces their judgment.
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They're going to fall and it's all going to be over and sure enough in the year 610
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Assyria falls to the Babylonians and at that time what remains is still Jerusalem.
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Judah is still there but now she's going to have to contend with Babylon.
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But all that is for next week.
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So that does it for this week.
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I hope you enjoy your reading of Isaiah.
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Take it in.
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It is such a magnificent, magnificent book, such an amazing prophet, Israel's greatest
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prophet.
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He wasn't received and he may have died a martyr's death but such a great prophet.
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So enjoy his writings, we'll see you back here next week and until then, God bless.
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