Thursday
Evening Bible Study
January
23, 2020
Introduction
The book of Isaiah is the first book in the section of the Old Testament
that we call the “prophets”.
It is the Old Testament book that has the clearest picture of the coming
Messiah.
The New Testament quotes from Isaiah more than from any other prophet.
John, the forerunner of Christ, began his ministry with a quote from Isaiah
(Mat. 3:3).
Jesus preached His first sermon in Nazareth from Isaiah (Luke 4:17-21).
Old Bible critics will say that the book of Isaiah is actually two books
written by different authors, with chapters 1-39 as the first book, and
chapters 40-66 as the second.
The two sections are indeed distinct, but they serve different purposes. The
first half is a book of judgment, the second half is one of comfort.
Better, recent scholarship, including the contribution of the Dead Sea
Scrolls affirms that it is a single book written by a single author.
This is not a book that was written all at once, in a single sitting. There
are various sections of the book, and it is the compiling of the writings of a
man over sixty years.
There will be times that the prophetic message is aimed close to Isaiah’s
time.
There will be times when the prophetic message is aimed far in the future.
There will be times when the message has a double effect with both a near and
far prophecy.
Isaiah has contemporaries.
His ministry overlaps the prophets Hosea and Micah.
His ministry lies roughly between 740-700 BC.
He prophesies during the reigns of the Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah –
all kings of the southern kingdom of Judah.
Keep in mind that in Isaiah’s lifetime, Israel has been split into two
different nations.
The northern ten tribes were called “Israel”, or “Ephraim”.
The southern two tribes were called “Judah”
Isaiah lived in the southern nation, and they are the main focus of his
prophecies.
Two concepts to keep in mind as we study prophecy:
We have seen that some prophecies have “double fulfillments” – they may be
fulfilled inside Isaiah’s day, and then again far in the future (like Is. 7:14
– the virgin). When you say “what does that mean?” you may need to think of
more than one thing.
We are also seeing that when it comes to prophecy, sometimes the prophecy
can skip hundreds or thousands of years between one phrase and the next. This
is called “prophetic telescoping”.
We are now in a section that has been flipping around the latter days
timeline
There will be things that will be time-specific to the latter days, but
also things that apply to each of us today as well.
Listen for God to speak to you this evening.
Isaiah 62
read v.1-5
:1 For Zion's sake I will not hold
my peace…
There’s a ministry dear to us that has roots in Jerusalem and
Switzerland. Bradley Antolovich has been
ministering to the Jews in Israel for quite some time now. He named his ministry from this verse.
Zion = Jerusalem
This is God the Father is speaking here. God is saying that He isn’t going
to rest until Jerusalem is safe and restored.
Lesson
God isn’t finished
Sometimes I have a hard time finishing something once I’ve started it.
If you looked at my office at home you will see little piles of things made
up of projects that I’ve started that I have yet to finish.
God isn’t like that. He plans on
finishing the work He’s done in you.
(Philippians
1:6 NKJV) being confident of this very thing, that He who
has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus
Christ;
Illustration
My wife and I are getting so good at watching crime/detective shows that we
can pretty much predict whether or not they are actually going to find that bad
guy.
We cheat by looking at the time left on the show and that
helps us guess.
If there’s still ten minutes left, you know they could
still fix the problem.
If there’s only two minutes left, you know you will be
faced with those dreaded words across your screen…
“To Be Continued”.
Don’t be too discouraged if your life seems incomplete, or if things
haven’t always worked out the way you expected.
God may be waiting until next week’s episode to finish the story.
Yet whether it’s a week or ten years, God isn’t finished with you.
Illustration
Elena Bonner, wife of Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, says that as he
wrote his memoirs she typed, edited, and nursed the work, doing everything she
could to make sure it survived seizure by the government. Sakharov worked on his memoirs in Gorky,
rewriting sections because they kept vanishing.
Then one day he met Elena at the train station and with trembling lips
told her, “They stole it.” She says he looked like a man who had just learned
of the death of a close friend. But
after a few days, Sakharov returned to his work. According to his wife, each
time he re-wrote his memoirs there was something new—something better.
Something new, something better.
That’s a perfect description of what Jesus does in our lives. He will continue to “rewrite” the story of
our lives. And the rewrite keeps getting
better and better.
:2 You shall be called by a new name
A person’s name in the Bible is often linked to their nature or character.
This could be speaking about a change in the people.
It also could be referring to what we’ll see in verse 4…
:4 Forsaken … Desolate
I am curious why the translators of the NKJV translated the words “forsaken
… desolate”, yet they did not translate the words “Hephzibah” and “Beulah”
(some translations do). In the latter
they used the Hebrew word, in the former they translated the word. Curious.
The Hebrew word for “Forsaken” is Azubah
It’s the word David used to describe Jesus’ prophetic cry on the cross:
(Psalm 22:1 NKJV) My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You
so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?
The Hebrew word for “Desolate is Shemamah
It’s the word Joshua used to describe what happened to the Canaanite city
Ai:
(Joshua 8:28 NKJV) So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, a desolation
to this day.
:4 Hephzibah … Beulah
So here are the “new names” that God promised in verse 2.
Beulah (ba‘al, here it’s
form is b@oolah) – the word means “married”
There’s an old gospel tune called “Beulah Land”
In these ancient days, it was not a good thing for a woman to not be
married – economically, socially.
Hephzibah (Chephtsiy bahh) –
“my delight is in her”
There was a gal in Isaiah’s day named this.
She was married to King Hezekiah.
(2 Kings
21:1 NKJV) Manasseh was twelve years old when he
became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was
Hephzibah.
Manasseh by the way was the most wicked of the rulers of
Judah.
Gill: it is a tradition of the Jews that she was the daughter of Isaiah,
whose name, they say, is not mentioned in other places, because so wicked a
king was unworthy of such a grandfather.
This makes Isaiah the father-in-law of Hezekiah.
To me, this is one of the most beautiful names in the Bible.
Can you imagine the prophet Isaiah holding his little baby
girl and telling her that “his delight is in her”?
I think every father ought to be telling that to his
daughter.
I wonder if Manasseh held his wife and told her, “my
delight is in you”.
I think every husband ought to be telling his wife this.
I think that this can go beyond Jerusalem.
I think this is God’s heart towards all of us.
Lesson
He delights in us
We all know what it’s like to have someone be REALLY disappointed in
you. Have you ever received a
Performance Review like this?
Illustration
QUOTES TAKEN FROM “ACTUAL” EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION PAPERS
“Since my last report, this employee has reached rock bottom and has
started to dig.”
“Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a
trap.”
“He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle.”
“This employee should go far, and the sooner he starts, the better.”
“Got a full 6-pack, but lacks the plastic thing to hold it all together.”
“He would argue with a sign post.”
“When his IQ reaches 50, he should sell.”
“If you gave him a penny for his thoughts, you’d receive change.”
“The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.”
Though you may FEEL like God thinks about you like this, the truth is that
you are His delight!!!
How could it be that God could take someone “forsaken” like me, and make me
His delight?
It happened at the cross, where Jesus took all the bad things in my life
and cleared them away by dying in my place.
(Isaiah 53:5 NLT) But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was
beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
:5 So shall your sons marry you
There’s a messy mixed metaphor here.
Jerusalem is the “mom”, but she’s also the “bride” of those who trace their
roots to her…
:5 bridegroom rejoices
I’ve done quite a few weddings and have seen quite a few bridegrooms as
their bride appears and walks down the aisle.
I often give the bridegroom a whisper and say, “Get ready, don’t be
surprised if she takes your breath away!”
Lesson
You ARE God’s delight
Isaiah’s picture is of the joy of newlyweds.
When a person turns to the Lord, God has great joy.
(Luke 15:4–7 NLT) —4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will
he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search
for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he
has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors,
saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner
who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous
and haven’t strayed away!
Do you consider yourself a person that God delights in? Can you say to yourself, “God delights in me”?
If you are a sinner who has turned to
Jesus, it’s the truth. Not because I
told you, but because God’s Word has told you.
read v. 6-9
:6 watchmen on your walls
The watchmen had a job of watching for the invading enemy army. They would sound an alarm to summon the
troops if an enemy came against a city. But
these watchmen don’t sound trumpets.
They pray.
(Isaiah 62:6 NLT) O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray
day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord.
Lesson
Be a watchman
(1 Timothy 2:1–4
NLT) —1 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help
them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. 2 Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can
live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants
everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.
Our country needs watchmen on the walls praying for our nation.
Our church needs watchmen.
We all need watchmen.
In the next few months I’m going to be working to recruit more folks for
the Prayer Ministry during the Sunday Service.
If you’d like to be a part of this, I’d love to have you talk to me.
:7 give Him no rest till He establishes
The idea here is that these watchmen would give God no rest until He
finishes His work in Jerusalem.
They will pray until God does something.
Lesson
Persistent prayer
(Luke 11:5–10 NLT)
—5 Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose
you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of
bread. You say to him, 6 ‘A friend of mine has just arrived
for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ 7 And suppose
he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the
night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ 8 But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if
you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need
because of your shameless persistence. 9 “And so I
tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on
seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to
you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to
everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
God is not like that friend at midnight who is grumpy. He wants you to pray. He’s looking forward to your prayers.
Jesus’ whole point was not that God is reluctant, but that we need to be persistent
in our prayers.
:8 I will no longer give your grain …
In the 1998 movie “A Bugs Life”, the poor little ants are being persecuted
by the big, ugly, mean grasshoppers who always steal their food.
I’ve always thought that there was an uncanny parallel between that kids’
movie and the story of Gideon.
Gideon wasn’t being oppressed by giant grasshoppers, but by Midianites.
(Judges 6:5 NKJV) For they would come up with their livestock and their tents, coming
in as numerous as locusts; both they and their camels were without number; and
they would enter the land to destroy it.
Every year the Israelites would grow their crops and
harvest them, and every year the Midianites would swoop in and steal the food.
In Gideon’s day, this all happened because the Israelites had walked away
from God.
This was God’s way of getting their attention and turning them back to Him.
Sometimes, there’s no clear sin involved as a reason, it’s just the
principle that “Life is sometimes unfair”.
We tried to reinforce this with our boys every once in a while.
We generally tried hard to spend equal amounts on the boys
for Christmas, because we wanted to be ultra “fair”.
Yet sometimes something wonderful would happen to one
child that didn’t for the others, and then you have to teach the lesson,
“Things aren’t always fair”.
Lesson
All will be fair
There will be a day when all that’s “unfair” will be corrected.
Those who work hard will be rewarded.
But that time is not now.
read v.10-12
:10 prepare the way
The Jews are all coming back to Jerusalem.
There might also be a hint at getting ready for the Messiah’s return.
:11 your salvation is coming
We modern, American, New Testament focused Christians tend to look at salvation
in a one-dimensional way. We tend to
think of our eternity in heaven.
In the Old Testament, salvation also had very much to do with being saved
from attacking enemies.
There may be a specific idea in mind here.
When we look at Isaiah 63 next week, we will see the Messiah on His way.
:12 The Holy People
In Hebrew, the word for “holy” is qodesh
In Greek, the word is “hagios”
In Latin the word is “sanctus”
All these translations carry the same idea, as being “different”, as being
“set apart for a specific use”
Our “holiness” is us being separate from sin, and set apart for God’s
specific use.
Sometimes I substitute the word “purity” in my head.
It’s the Latin where we get the word for “saint”.
Lesson
We are saints
The Catholic Church has done a great disservice to the world by giving us
the idea that a saint is someone who lives in a stained-glass window and has a
yellow ring around their head.
It’s someone who is so good that they float above the ground and probably
never eat food and never have to use the restroom.
This is wrong.
Illustration
I recall a story where a mobster named Freddie died. He was famous all around town as a
gangster. Freddie’s brother, Gino, went
to a local church and asked the pastor if he would perform Freddie’s
funeral. He said to the pastor, “Pastor,
I will donate a million dollars to the building fund if you perform my brother’s
funeral. I only have one request, that
during the funeral you tell everyone what a saint my brother was.” The pastor didn’t know what to do. He knew the church could sure use the money
for their building fund, but he also knew that the whole town knew what a crook
Freddie was. On the day of the funeral,
there was Gino sitting in the front row of pews, holding a large briefcase full
of money. The pastor struggled, but got
up and began to preach about the consequences of sin and the need to
repent. He went on to tell about what a
crook Freddie was, and that he was the perfect example of a wretched
sinner. Gino was beginning to get very
upset. The pastor went on, “We all know
what a horrible person Freddie was. He
was drunk all the time, he cheated on his wife, he stole from his friends, but
compared to his brother, Freddie was a saint!”
We aren’t saints because we’re “better” than Gino. We are saints because of what Jesus has done
for us.
He’s saved us and set us apart to serve Him.
He now considers us “holy”.
The Bible says that all believers are “saints”. In the New Testament, the word “saint” is
used 62 times. It’s simply used for those who are a part of the church.
When we come to trust in Jesus, He sets us “apart” from the rest of the
world and makes us “holy”.
Lesson
We are becoming saints
Though we already are called “holy” by the Lord, because of what He did for
us on the cross, we are also on a journey to becoming more and more “holy”.
(1 Thessalonians 4:3–5
NLT) —3 God’s will is for you to be holy, so stay away from all
sexual sin. 4 Then each of you will control his
own body and live in holiness and honor—5 not in
lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways.
This is not something that happens automatically. It is something we learn as a discipline and
in leaning on the “Holy Spirit”.
John Newton would be known as a great man of God, but he wasn’t always that
way. His life was a journey of
“sanctification”.
Illustration
John Newton (1725-1807)
John Newton was nurtured by a devoted Christian mother who dreamed that her
only son would become a preacher. But she died when John was a child, and he
followed his sea-captain father to a sailor’s life. John didn’t care for the
discipline of the Royal Navy: he deserted ship, was flogged, and eventually was
discharged.
He then headed for regions where he could “sin freely,” and ended up on the
western coast of Africa, working for a slave trader who mistreated him. Newton’s
life during that period bore the appearance of a Prodigal Son’s: “a wretched
looking man toiling in a plantation of lemon trees in the Island of
Plaintains—clothes had become rags, no shelter and begging for unhealthy roots
to feed his hunger.” After more than a year of such treatment, he managed to
escape from the island, in 1747.
The following year his ship was battered by a severe storm. Newton had read
The Imitation of Christ, and during the life-threatening voyage he
became a Christian. Ironically, Newton then served as captain of a slave ship
for six years. He gradually came to abhor slavery and later crusaded against
it.
Newton became greatly influenced by George Whitefield and the Wesleys. He
married his long-time sweetheart and began studying for the ministry and
preaching in whatever vacant building he could procure. Known as the “old
converted sea captain,” he attracted large audiences. He was ordained within
the Anglican Church, and in 1764 he took a church in Olney.
Newton felt dissatisfied with the hymns of the traditional song books. He
began writing his own, many autobiographical in nature, including “Amazing
Grace!”
In his old age, it was suggested that Newton retire because of bad health
and failing memory. He replied, “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two
things: That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior!”
-- "The Golden
Age of Hymns," Christian History, no. 31.
Lesson
We will be saints
Illustration
An older couple had a son, who was still living with them. The parents were
a little worried, as the son was still unable to decide about his future
career. So they decided to do a small test.
They put a note on the front hall table saying that they had gone out.
Next to the note they put a ten-dollar bill, a Bible, and a bottle of
whiskey. Then they hid, pretending they were not at home. The father told his
wife, “If our son takes the money, he will be a businessman, if he takes the
Bible, he will be a pastor, but if he takes the bottle of whiskey, I’m afraid
our son will be a no-good drunkard.”
The parents hid in the nearby closet and waited nervously. Peeping through
the keyhole they saw their son arrive. The son read the note that they had
left. Then he took the ten-dollar bill, looked at it against the light, and
slid it in his pocket. After that, he took the Bible, flipped through it, and
put it under his arm. Finally, he grabbed the bottle, opened it, and took an
appreciative whiff to be assured of the quality. Then he left for his room,
carrying all three items.
The father slapped his forehead and said: “This is worse than I could ever
have imagined!” “What?!” asked the wife. “Our son is going to be a politician!”
So do you ever wonder what you will be one day?
The Bible says that one day we will be “Holy”.
There will be a day in which all this struggle against sin will be over.
There will be a day when we will be complete in Christ.
We will be saints.
(1 John 3:2 NKJV) Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been
revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.