Thursday
Evening Bible Study
January
30, 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.
We are in a section that has been dancing all around the various aspects of
what we think about as the Second Coming.
Chapter 62 ended with a plea from the people of Jerusalem for the
Messiah to come back.
We’ve been looking at some descriptions of the return of Jesus Christ with
the Jews whom He has rescued. Isaiah 62 ended with a kind of plea to the city
of Jerusalem to get ready for her King to come back.
(Isaiah 62:10–11
NLT) —10 Go out through the gates! Prepare the highway for my people to
return! Smooth out the road; pull out the boulders; raise a flag for all the
nations to see. 11 The Lord has sent this message to every land: “Tell the people of
Israel, ‘Look, your Savior is coming. See, he brings his reward with him as he
comes.’ ”
Before we get into tonight’s section, I want to look briefly at another
description of the same events we’ll look at in Isaiah 63, the return of Jesus
Christ.
(Revelation
19:11–16 NKJV) —11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold,
a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and
in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were
like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name
written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was
clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of
God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean,
followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp
sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them
with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath
of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on
His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS
When Jesus returns, He’ll have on a robe that is stained with blood. Whose
blood is it? How did it get stained? Those questions are answered in Isaiah 63.
When I was much younger, I was under the impression that when Jesus returned,
He’d return in the air, straight to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, where He
had ascended into heaven.
(Acts 1:9–11 NKJV)
—9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was
taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And while
they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by
them in white apparel, 11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why
do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up
from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into
heaven.”
If you pay attention though, the angels only said it was the “manner” in
which He’d return, not the location.
Tonight’s passage helped me appreciate a new aspect of the Second Coming.
Isaiah 63
read v. 1-2
:1 Who is this who comes from Edom, With dyed garments from Bozrah,
Edom – ‘Edom = “red”; the
land that Esau settled in, in southern Jordan.
Bozrah – Botsrah
= “sheepfold” or “fortress”
It’s related to a word that can be translated “grape gatherer” (batsar, #01219)
It is the modern Jordanian city of Buseirah.
There’s a couple of play-on-words in this phrase tying it to the rest of
the passage, with “red” and “grape gatherers”.
The wording reminds me of another verse from the Song of Solomon.
It’s not uncommon for Bible teachers to look at Solomon’s poetry as not
only a poem of marital love, but also as an allegory of Christ and the Church. Solomon’s
bride is a picture of the church, and Solomon is a picture of Christ.
In the song, there’s a line about Solomon’s coming:
(Song of
Solomon 3:6 NKJV) Who is this coming out of the
wilderness Like pillars
of smoke, Perfumed
with myrrh and frankincense, With all the merchant’s fragrant powders?
Our passage isn’t talking about Solomon, but about the Messiah.
This is Christ’s Second Coming, just as we read in Revelation 19.
He will return first to Bozrah, rescue the Jews,
and then on to Jerusalem.
Video: Bozrah and Petra
Isaiah has Jesus coming from Bozrah, one of the
ancient capitals of the Edomites.
Bozrah is about 30 miles north of Petra, that
ancient rock city in Jordan.
It’s from Bozrah that Jesus will march to
Jerusalem.
Some of you have been to Petra.
We saw in Isaiah 16 that Petra may be one of those places that the Jews
will be hiding when they flee from the antichrist.
If we were to look at an overall view of the last days that are right
around the corner, I’d put things in this order (and I may be wrong):
Gog and Magog war (Russia, Iran vs. Israel)
The Rapture
The Seven Year Tribulation
Jewish persecution
Abomination of Desolation (Mat. 24:15-16)
(Antichrist revealed after 3 ½ years)
Jews flee to wilderness (Rev. 12:6, 13-16; Is. 16:1-2)
(southern Judea and Jordan)
Jesus returns 3 ½ years after the Abomination of Desolation.
When Jesus returns, He returns in the air (Acts 1:10-12) but He returns to
Jordan to rescue the Jews in hiding.
Then, He marches to Jerusalem where the Mount of Olives, the mountain
splits (Zech. 14:1-4)
Jesus sets up His 1,000 year kingdom
:1 “I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”
This is God responding to Isaiah’s question, “Who is this?”
:2 Why is Your apparel red … …in the winepress?
red – ‘adom
– red. Same word is used for “Edom” (v.1)
The ancient winepress was often carved out of a large rock. The grapes were
put into the hollowed out portion and the people would
crush them with their feet.
In some parts of Italy, the treading of grapes is done in large barrels.
So as Jesus returns, His garments have red stains
on them, just as if He had been treading grapes in a winepress.
read v.3-6
:3 I have trodden the winepress alone
The idea is that no nation in the world will want to help Israel as the
Jews flee from antichrist. Jesus alone will come and rescue them.
Right now, there are a few nations that might come to the help of the Jews,
including the U.S. But at this point in the Tribulation, no one is willing to
help.
This week President Trump introduced his “peace plan” for the middle east.
The Palestinians immediately rejected it because it is weighted to help
Israel.
It is interesting that so far several Arab nations
have stepped up to support it as well, including Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.
I’m not sure the plan will pass, but if it does, it would create the
environment for the Gog/Magog war. Ezekiel says that Russia (Gog) will have
this in mind:
(Ezekiel
38:11 NKJV) You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled
villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them
dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’—
:3 I have trodden them in My anger
Lesson
God’s anger isn’t like ours
I think we make a big mistake in confusing God’s anger with the things that
make us angry.
When God gets angry, it’s ALWAYS for the right reasons.
(Romans 1:18–19 NLT)
—18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked
people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know
the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.
Though we tend to “sin” when we’re angry, it is possible to have anger and
not sin.
(Ephesians
4:26 NKJV) “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let
the sun go down on your wrath,
But the problem we have is that often our “wrath” is mixed with things that
are not right, and so we are told to put anger away from us.
(Ephesians
4:31 NKJV) Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and
evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.
Notice all the other things that get mixed into our
“wrath”.
Our anger tends to go a little too far in how it is expressed. Simeon and
Levi received a curse from their father Jacob because their anger went too far.
When their sister Dinah was raped (Gen. 34), they killed all the men of an
entire city in revenge.
(Genesis 49:5–7
NLT) —5 “Simeon and Levi are two of a kind; their weapons are instruments
of violence. 6 May I never join in their meetings;
may I never be a party to their plans. For in their anger they murdered men,
and they crippled oxen just for sport. 7 A curse on
their anger, for it is fierce; a curse on their wrath, for it is cruel. I will
scatter them among the descendants of Jacob; I will disperse them throughout
Israel.
James tells us that man’s kind of anger does not produce things that are
pleasing to God.
(James 1:19–20 NLT)
—19 Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be
quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. 20 Human anger
does not produce the righteousness God desires.
Sometimes our anger just makes us look foolish.
Illustration
During the final days at Denver’s old
Stapleton airport, a crowded United flight was cancelled. A single agent was
rebooking a long line of inconvenienced travelers. Suddenly an angry passenger
pushed his way to the desk. He slapped his ticket down on the counter and said,
“I HAVE to be on this flight and it has to be first class.” The agent replied,
“I’m sorry, sir. I’ll be happy to try to help you, but I’ve got to help these
folks first, and I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out.” The passenger
was unimpressed. He asked loudly, so that the passengers behind him could hear,
“Do you have any idea who I am?” Without hesitating, the gate agent smiled and
grabbed her public address microphone. “May I have your attention please?” she began,
her voice bellowing throughout the terminal. “We have a passenger here at the
gate WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHO HE IS. If anyone can help him find his identity,
please come to the gate.” With the folks behind him in line laughing
hysterically, the man glared at the United agent, gritted his teeth and
retreated as the people in the terminal applauded loudly. Although the flight
was cancelled and people were late, they were no longer angry at United
Airlines.
(Proverbs 14:29 NLT) People
with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness.
Lesson
God’s wrath is coming
Unlike our anger, God’s wrath is never misplaced, mistaken, or goes too
far.
If He’s angry with you, He’ll be angry for the right reasons. And you’ll be in trouble.
God’s wrath is frightening. It will
ultimately result in a person spending eternity in hell.
(Luke
13:27–28 NLT) —27 And he will reply, ‘I tell you, I don’t know you or where you come from. Get away from
me, all you who do evil.’ 28 “There will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth, for you will see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the
Kingdom of God, but you will be thrown out.
The good news is there’s a way to avoid God’s anger. The secret is to take away His reason for
being angry with you. That means you have to do something about your sin. That can only happen through Jesus.
(Romans 5:8–9 NIV)
—8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were
still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we
have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from
God’s wrath through him!
When we come to receive Jesus’ death for our sins, we move from the place
of being enemies of God, to being friends with God, so we can claim with Paul,
(1
Thessalonians 5:9 NKJV) For God did not appoint us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Instead of just dwelling on the wrath of God, Isaiah moves to talk about
God’s mercy, goodness, and lovingkindness.
Sometimes we focus too much on the wrath, and not the mercy of God.
I believe Isaiah is going to think back to the times of the Exodus.
read v.7-10
:9 In all their affliction He was afflicted
Lesson
He understands
(Isaiah 63:9 NLT) In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued
them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He
lifted them up and carried them through all the years.
When God called Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt, He said,
(Exodus 3:7 NLT) … “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I
have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I
am aware of their suffering.
This is so much like Jesus.
Jesus sees your pain.
When Jesus met Saul on the road to Damascus…
(Acts
9:3–4 NKJV) —3 As he journeyed
he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul,
Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
How was Saul persecuting Jesus? By persecuting Jesus’ people.
He knows what you’re going through.
The writer to Hebrews states,
(Hebrews
4:15–16 NKJV) —15 For we do not have a High Priest who
cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we
are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Peter wrote,
(1 Peter 5:7 NKJV) casting all your care upon Him, for
He cares for you.
:9 the Angel of His Presence saved them
Isaiah is writing about Jesus. He
was known in the Old Testament as the “Angel of the LORD”, or the “Messenger of
Yahweh”.
:10 But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit
During that wilderness journey, there were many times with Israel rebelled
against God’s leading.
The writer of Hebrews talks about this wilderness rebellion, quoting from
Psalm 95 which also talks about this rebellion, and says…
(Hebrews 3:12–13
NKJV) —12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort
one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
We too want to watch our hearts lest they become deceived by sin. We need to be encouraging one another day by
day.
read v.11-14
:11 he remembered the days of old
This is speaking about Israel remembering the days of old.
It’s possible that these thoughts of verses 11-14 are going to happen when
the Jews are being persecuted by the antichrist. They will look back to the days of Moses and
wonder if God will rescue them again.
Those days of old were not just about having hard hearts, they were also
times when God did incredible miracles to deliver his people.
:11 brought them up out of the sea
The parting of the Red Sea.
:11 With the shepherd of His flock?
Moses
:11 put His Holy Spirit within them
In the wilderness there was a time when the Holy Spirit came upon the
elders of the twelve tribes. (Num. 11:25)
(Numbers
11:25 NKJV) Then the Lord
came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was
upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened,
when the Spirit rested upon them, that they prophesied, although they never did
so again.
:14 So You lead Your people
Again, this makes a lot of sense if this is the prayer of those being
persecuted by the antichrist in the end times.
read v.15-19
:18 Our adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary
This seems to be a prayer from a people who have been conquered and whose
Temple has been destroyed or desecrated
This is not in Isaiah’s day.
Perhaps a cry from the Babylonian captivity
Perhaps a cry after Rome tore down the temple.
I think it’s definitely a cry from the Jews after
the antichrist has desecrated the Temple.
:15 Look down from heaven
This is the cry of a people who are longing for Jesus’ return.
:16 Doubtless You are our Father
Even if Abraham and Israel (Jacob) were to disown them, God is still their
Father.
David wrote,
(Psalm 27:10 NKJV) When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me.
Lesson
He’s not walking away.
Sometimes we get to thinking that God has abandoned us.
We think that He no longer cares about us and doesn’t hear our prayers.
Not true.
Paul wrote,
(Romans 8:38–39
NKJV) —38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor
principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I want to show you a clip from the movie “The Shack”. I know that it has a lot of theological
problems, and I’m not defending the movie or recommending it at all. But when reading the book, I saw quite a lot
of good, healthy theological ideas in the book, perhaps just poorly expressed.
The idea of the book is one man’s struggle to understand why his young
daughter was kidnapped and died a horrible death.
He meets God and asks questions.
A lot of people struggle that the author presents God the Father as a black
woman, but don’t get sidetracked by that, listen to the words.
In this clip, the main character is claiming that he’s been forsaken by
God, and that even Jesus was forsaken…
I’m not saying that the Father has literal nail scars, but
He too was affected by what happened on the cross.
He has no intention of leaving you.
He has paid everything for you.
:17 You made us stray
Lesson
Not His fault
One more clip from “The Shack”.
I love that line.
“When all you see is your pain, you lose sight of Me.”
We may feel like God is leading us down the wrong path, but the truth is,
He doesn’t do that.
(James 1:13–15 NLT)
—13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is
tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone
else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us
away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.
We are the ones to blame for our “hard hearts”. We are the ones who harden our hearts.
The Bible says that God “hardened Pharaoh’s heart”.
Yet if you pay attention, Pharaoh hardened his own heart
ten times before God stepped in and hardened it.
This prayer will continue into chapter 64…
If time…
:11 he remembered the days of old … Where is He…
The question comes from the vantage point of when Israel is looking back at
the days of Moses and wondering where God was now.
This is what leads the people into praying for Jesus’ return.
Lesson
Look back to step forward
The people had known God’s love and kindness but had turned their back on
Him. Then they began to know some tough
times as they found themselves fighting with God.
The first step back to being close to God is “remember”, to look back.
Think back to when things were better between you and Jesus.
The church at Ephesus had a great start.
Their church got off the ground as the apostle Paul spent three years
there. It was his longest time staying
in any one place. God used Ephesus as a
base of operations to reach all of Asian Minor.
(Acts 19:10 NKJV) …so that all who dwelt in Asia heard
the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
But after thirty years, some of their passion for the Lord had begun to die
down. Jesus wrote a letter to Ephesus
through the apostle John:
(Revelation
2:4–5 NLT) —4 “But I have this complaint against
you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far
you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent,
I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.
The NKJV says, “Remember therefore from where you have
fallen.
The church had done great things at one time. But they had stopped doing things out of a
love for Jesus.
Jesus said the road home started with “remember”, look
back to the past.
Was there a time in your life when you were more in love
with Jesus than you are now? If so, you
are backslidden.
The Christian life doesn’t peak when you got saved. It’s
supposed to be a continuous uphill climb, closer and closer to Jesus.
Perhaps you need to “repent”
Perhaps there are things in your life that have taken you
away from Jesus. Do you need to turn
around?
Are there things in your life that you’ve stopped
doing? Like reading your Bible? Like
praying? Like loving and worshipping the
Lord? Like talking to your friends about
Jesus? Do the
first works.