Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....April 30, 2018
I have, recently, been listening to what my wife, Terry, who has been reading and watching programs regarding the end times. I know she is a student of this subject so when she tells me that it is getting closer and closer, I tend to listen....carefully.
I began to look at and listen for signs of why the end is near and have come up with....
10 Signs That Jesus Is Coming Back Soon
"When you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near."
- Luke 21:31
No one can tell us with certainty what tomorrow’s weather will be except the one who causes it – God – but by listening to the weather report or looking at the sky, people use their eyes and their brains to at least
make an educated guess about tomorrow’s weather. Likewise, no one can tell us with certainly when the exact timing of Jesus’ return will be except the one who will cause it to happen – God the Father (Mt. 12:36) – but by listening to the right world news sources, people can use their eyes and their brains to at least make an educated guess about how close we are to the return of Jesus Christ. Jesus said that when you see certain things begin to happen, "look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near," and "when you see them happen the kingdom of God is near" (Luke 21:28,31).
Jesus and Paul both taught that the proper way to wait for His return is to therefore be watchful, ready and sober (Matthew 24:42-44,25:13; 1 Th. 5:6).
The apostle John wrote that when Jesus appears we who believe in Him shall become like him, and everyone having this hope in Him purifies himself (1 John 3:2,3). He also wrote that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). So two benefits of studying Bible prophecy and comparing it to world events are personal purification and a better understanding of Jesus. Besides, in 1 Th. 4:18 Christians are commanded to encourage each other with words about the return of Christ. Hebrews 10:24,25 says that as we should regularly meet to encourage one another, especially as we see the Day of Jesus’ return approaching.
Although we cannot say with certainty how today’s events are related to Bible prophecy, it is unwise to ignore them. Following are 10 for your consideration:
1. Wars and rumors of wars
“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.”
(Matthew 24:6,7a)
Since World War II, many countries have been building up massive arsenals of conventional and nuclear weapons. The potential for war grows day by day. In addition to potential nuclear war, we have war on
terror, water wars, weather wars, Albert Pike's Three World Wars, angel wars, and transhuman wars.
2. Famines, Pestilence, Earthquakes
“And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various
places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.” (Matthew 24:7b,8). Due to flooding and droughts, world food supplies are running very low. Many people are expecting a global food shortage and famines in many places.
In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a warning that infectious diseases are emerging more quickly and spreading faster around the globe than ever before, and they are becoming increasingly difficult
to treat. The UN said in its 2007 annual world health report that an outbreak or epidemic in one part of the world can easily threaten billions of people in other parts due to large numbers of modern day air travelers.
Regarding earthquakes, scientific data does show that we have been seeing a large increase in seismic activity. According to a number of scientists, another star or large planet is affecting the sun's magnetic field, which is also affecting the earth's magnetic field - both the core and the ionosphere. The north pole is shifting at an accelerated pace, and the earth seems to be expanding. Thus, we should see a continual increase in earthquakes and volcanic activity in coming years. Stan Deyo follows earth changes very closely. He's a scientist and has written a lot on the subject. His web site covers numerous topics related to changes in the world today.
3. Deceivers who claim to follow Jesus
And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name saying that I am the Christ and will deceive many.” Mt. 24:4,5
At the end of the Church Age many people will be claiming that Jesus is the Christ, yet their teaching will deceive many. They will teach ideas that are contrary to the Bible. Perhaps the majority of professing Christian teachers in the world today fall into this camp, as most have fallen away from sound Biblical teachings and instead place traditions of men and/or the goal of increasing church attendance figures above the authority of the Bible. Some are subtle, and some are blatant. Sincere followers of Jesus should come out of these wayward institutional churches and seek to fellowship with people who follow and teach what Jesus and His apostles did. If you are unsure about your current church or fellowship,
see Should I stay in my church or leave?
4. People of Israel return to their land
“Thus says the Lord GOD: 'Surely I will take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they have gone, and will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel.’ ” (Ezekiel 37:21,22).
During the last 126 years Jews from 108 nations have migrated to the land of Israel. In 1882 the first wave of modern immigration to Israel started as Jews fled persecution, or followed the Socialist Zionist ideas of Moses Hess.
From 1882 to 1919 around 75,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine, mostly from Russia. They bought land from Ottoman and individual Arab landholders and established agricultural settlements. During this period the Hebrews language was revived, newspapers and literature were published in Hebrew and political parties and workers organizations were established.
In 1917 during World War I, the British government in its Balfour Declaration supported plans for a ‘national home’ for the Jews in their promised land. Later, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) lost control of the Middle East. This made it possible for hundreds of thousands more immigrants to arrive from Europe. Anti-Semitism drove most there. Many more would have come had it not been for Arab protest and resulting
British restrictions on immigration.
During World War II, the Nazis killed around 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, so it became clear to the Jews that they needed a homeland. Many Holocaust survivors immigrated illegally to Palestine. When the
British pulled out of Palestine in May 1948, the state of Israel formally declared its independence. It was immediately recognized by the USA, followed by Guatemala, Nicaragua & Uruguay. A few days later, the
Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and South Africa did the same. No Arab states have ever recognized Israel, but several have attacked them. However, Israel has successfully defended itself against
numerous Arab attacks. As a result, Jews throughout the Middle East have also been forced to immigrate to Israel, and the nation has grown strong. It has turned a desert into an agricultural success, and it’s technology industry exports cutting edge innovations.
Today, Israel's population is over 7 million, including around 267,000 who live in Judea and Samaria (sometimes called the West Bank) and 180,000 in East Jerusalem. In 2008, Israel celebrated it’s 60
anniversary in the face of Arabs who hate it and want to ‘wipe it off the map’. It is still mostly a secular state, but it has a growing percentage of Orthodox Jews.· Today, the Aliyah immigration movement continues to embrace Jewish newcomers, help them become a part of communities and help them learn Hebrew.
5. Increased wickedness & loss of love
“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12) Today, more and more people are living primarily for themselves and their own happiness. The idea of denying themselves, taking up their crosses daily and following Jesus (Luke 9:23) is a foreign concept. What TV and movies show as 'normal' has affected the values of those who indulge in them. At the same time, couples are divorcing, and children are growing up with deep unmet needs as a result. Many couples are not even marrying but living together in fornication (any form of sex not sanctioned by God). The result has been the blood sacrifice (murder) of hundreds of millions of innocent, helpless children through abortion and the birthing of even more children who lack a healthy home where they can receive love and training from their own father and mother.
6. Return of the Fallen Angels and Hybrid Heroes
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. The were the heroes of old, men of renown. Genesis 6:4
The Nephilim are most likely a group of fallen angels who came to earth to corrupt mankind, since the Hebrew word for Nephilim in Genesis 6:4 is nephiyl, which comes from the word naphal, which means 'to fall'. Some have mated with human women to produce hybrid offspring, and they were giants who had the ability to lead millions of people away from the true God. Heroes of old comes from the Hebrew word gibbowr, which means a 'mighty man'. These were giants or rephaim (rapha in Hebrew), and archaeological evidence shows that they were sometimes up to 30 feet tall.
Before the flood, angels and their hybrid offspring corrupted the whole earth. After the flood, they were perhaps not as large, but still powerful and evil in their influence. That is why God commanded Israel to totally wipe out all the nations of Canaan. The Bible mentions some of their tribal names: the Emim, the Anakim, the Horim, and Zamsummim. (See Num 13:33; Deuteronomy 3:11, 12:10-12; Joshua 4:15, 13:12, 1 Samuel 17:4-7; 2 Samuel 17:16-22.) Ancient texts and pictures from Egyptian, Greek and other cultures also talk of giants or men who were offspring of supernatural beings.
Jesus said, "as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man" (Luke 17:26). Thus, we can also expect the Nephilim as well as hybrid mighty beings to here before Jesus' return. In
fact, they are already here, but they are not publicly disclosed through most official channels. However, a number of Christians have researched them, and eyewitnesses have testified of seeing them. The various types of sighted aliens are actually materialized fallen angels, and some men and women with great physical and/or persuasive powers are hybrid offspring.
7. Strong delusion
And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie. (2 Th. 2:11 NKJV)
The primary focus of the deception is use of the media by the Prince of the Power of the Air. TV, radio, Internet, cell phones, PDAs, etc. keep people completely preoccupied and oblivious to the fate that awaits
unbelievers. The goal is also to prevent people from hearing the Gospel of Jesus, and if they do hear it to forget about it and be entertained constantly. Most people in developed countries are now in a fog due to
the impact of these mediums that lull them into a false sense of security and into a false sense of right and wrong. This delusion can be seen in three areas:
Spiritually, the Emerging Church has become so pervasive that most churches in developed countries will tolerate abortion (murder), fornication (premarital sex, adultery, homosexuality) and almost any other violation of God's law. Just think: how many churches will excommunicate a person for involvement in these sins?
Financially, many people are unaware that government / banking cartel partnership is stealing their wealth and using the funds to control the world. The stealing is done through the printing of fiat money (money not based on gold or silver but on debt), through interest on money that does not exist (due to fractional reserve banking laws) and through the saw tooth effect of markets that draws people into bad investments over a long period of time and then makes them lose large portions of their life savings when the markets drop.
Politically, most people are also unaware that the international banking cartel has taken over all governments and is quietly re-organizing borders and power centers throughout the world. Evidence of this can be seen in the 911 deception. Most Americans and those sympathetic to the US government think that airplanes caused three steel-frame buildings to fall down into their footprints at almost freefall speed, when this has never happened in all of known history. People who study the facts realize it was a very successful psyop, since jet fuel is not hot enough to do the job. It had to be done by controlled demolitions. This was
probably part of a plan to cause a second Pearl Harbor and justify the US military getting a foothold in the Middle East and justify the US government in taking away many constitutional rights of the US people.
8. One world government
"And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, inasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything: and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others." (Daniel 2:40 NKJV) See also Revelation 13 and the following links:
Possible false flag alien invasion at time of chaos to motivate acceptance of NWO (April 9, 2012)
Illuminati Behind Global Government (Feb. 7, 2012)
VAN ROMPUY New EU president confirms Global Governance Began in 2009 with G20
Ron Paul: They're Working On A One World Government! (Glen Beck Show,YouTube Feb. 26, 2009)
Sarkozy, Merkel, Blair call for "New World Order" (January 8, 2009)
Brown says time to build global society (Reuters, Nov. 10, 2008)
9. One world ruler and an assistant emerge
I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon [Satan, or the devil] gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” (Revelation 13:1-4)
It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:7,8)
Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or
that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:3,4,9-12)
Most religions expect a savior or a man who will bring world peace, justice and unity. Here are three examples:
Muslims are waiting for the Mahdi or the 12th Imam. Iran's former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated that his mandate was to pave the way for the coming of this Islamic messiah. A new Islamic film is out about this: The Coming Is Upon Us. An interview with Ken Timmerman about this in April 2011 reveals the current hope.
Buddhists are waiting for the Buddha of compassion, Maitreya, or a world teacher and unifier, the 5th and coming Buddha of the present era.
Hindus are waiting for their completer and savior, Kalki, the name of Vishnu in his tenth and last avatar. According to the Usborne Encyclopedia of World Religions, "The tenth and last avatar has not yet
appeared. It is said that at the end of the present age, Vishnu will come to Earth as Kalki, riding a white horse, to destroy the wicked and re-establish order." Have you seen the cartoon about the last avatar
called Avatar: The Last Airbender? In this show, a boy named Aang shows how he is good and "can save the world."
A false prophet emerges to assist the world ruler and savior. “Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.” (Revelation 13:11-15)
Muslims are waiting for Isa Bin Jesus to appear with the Mahdi, praying behind him …Jews are still waiting for their Messiah, Emmanuel.
Christians are waiting for the second coming of Jesus, but most no longer believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible, so many will be deceived.
10. Technology to control the world
“He [the second beast] causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.” (Revelation 13:16-18)
Today, smart cards are popular, but they can be lost or stolen. It is likely that the eventual solution will be an implantable RFID chip or some form of high tech tattoo on the right hand or forehead. Already, 99% of
commercial transactions in many countries are done without cash. Most paper money is not even backed by gold or silver anymore, so it’s value is purely psychological. When the current monetary system crashes, technology is available to redefine currency and commerce in a seamless way that people will want as a solution to their need for quick spending. Family, I urge you to be on the watch. We do not know when He is coming back. Do not get left behind. Be watchful and be aware.
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
There was a very wealthy man who was bothered by severe eye pain. He consulted many physicians and was being treated by several. He did not stop consulting a galaxy of medical experts; he consumed heavy loads of drugs and underwent hundreds of injections. But the ache persisted with more vigor than before.
At last, a monk who was supposed to be an expert in treating such patients was called for by the suffering man. The monk understood his problem and said that for sometime he should concentrate only on green colors and not to let his eyes fall on any other colors. It was a strange prescription, but he was desperate and decided to try it.
The millionaire got together a group of painters and purchased barrels of green paint and directed that every object his eye was likely to fall to be painted green just as the monk had directed. When the monk came to visit him after few days, the millionaire's servants ran with buckets of green paint and poured it on him since he was in red dress, lest their master see any other color and his eye ache would come back.
Hearing this, the monk laughed and said "If only you had purchased a pair of green spectacles, worth just a few dollars, you could have saved these walls and trees and pots and all other articles and also could have saved a large share of his fortune. You cannot paint the world green."
Let us change our vision and the world will appear accordingly. It is foolish to shape the world, let us shape ourselves first.
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
2. LIGHT BEYOND THE DARKNESS: THE COMING KING (6–12)
Isaiah has now established the backdrop against which he worked as a prophet. The people to whom he was sent were the heirs of great promises but appear to have forfeited them. By the end of his prefatory chapters, darkness has closed in upon them. Grace has been exhausted; nothing but judgment lies ahead.
As we shall see, this is the position which Isaiah sketches in a very dramatic way in 6:1, but by the end of this section, darkness (6:1) has been replaced by singing (12:2, 5) and salvation (12:2–3), and the Lord in all his holiness (6:1–3) is dwelling in Zion in the midst of his people (12:6). Darkness and judgment, then, do not, after all, have the last word. Far from it, for the very promises that appeared to have been forfeited—the David-promises of 1:25–27 and the Zion-promises of 4:2–6—are the very things that come to pass (9:1–7; 11:1–9; 12:1–6). The exhausting of grace (5:4) has been superseded by the triumph of grace.
How then does Isaiah present this surprising hope, the dawning of the great light beyond the darkness, the coming King? The section falls into three parts. It opens with Isaiah’s account of his experience of the forgiveness of sins at the hands of the holy God (6:1–7), his call to be a prophet (6:8), and the strange commission the Lord gave him (6:9–13). This opening is matched by the song (12:1–6) in which individual (12:1–2) and community (12:3) enter into salvation through the turning away of divine anger (12:1), are commissioned to worldwide prophecy (12:4–5), and have the Holy God dwelling among them (12:6). This is a very full inclusio, with sin, salvation, commissioning and divine holiness bracketing the whole section.
Within these brackets, Isaiah first addresses the situation in Judah (7:1–9:7), when King Ahaz faces the crisis of fresh invasions from the north (see Introduction, pp. 22–23) and decisively rejects the word of God calling him to faith (9:7). In parallel with this, Isaiah turns to the northern kingdom of Israel (9:8) where the same tragedy has occurred: the word of God was sent but was rejected. Isaiah’s addresses to Judah and Israel follow parallel courses dealing with judgment on disobedience (7:18–8:8; 10:5–15), divine preservation of a believing remnant (8:9–22; 10:16–34) and the hope of a coming King (9:1–7). Between the brackets of chapters 6 and 12, the internal chapters 7–11 have their own inclusio: 7:1–17, the king who failed and destroyed the dynasty of David; 11:1–16 the true Davidic King who will rule over the whole perfected creation.
In this section we find a principle and a problem. The principle is the place Isaiah accords to hope in the life of the people of God. He always sees hope for divine action against all the odds of human merit and deserving (cf. 1:25–27; 4:2–6). The bright future is not brought about by a gradual improvement or by clever human planning: it is a work of God; it comes as the outworking of the logic of his faithfulness; it dawns because he is as true to himself in mercy as he is in judgment. We have seen in the brief outline above that Isaiah presents two topics in sequence: the preservation of a believing remnant of the people, and the bursting-in of the great hope. This is a deliberate juxtaposition because, on the one hand, the remnant is caught up, inevitably, in the darkness that comes upon the disobedient people—faith is never a certificate of immunity—but, on the other hand, in the darkness they have the cordial of hope, the durability to hold on because of the light which God’s promise holds before them (cf. 2 Cor. 3:12; Col. 1:5; 1 Thess. 1:3; 5:8; 2 Thess. 2:15–16). It is for this reason that Isaiah presents the great hope as if it were about to dawn immediately beyond the Assyrian darkness (e.g. 8:21–9:2; 10:28–11:3)—in order that they might be buoyed up in hope just as Christians are by the scriptural truth of the imminence of the return of the Lord Jesus.
The problem raised by chapters 6–12 is that the message which the people actually needed to hear is not brought to them. The whole upshot of the preface (chs. 1–5) is that through sin they are not what they ought to have been (ch. 1), nor what they were meant to be (chs. 2–4), nor what they might have been (ch. 5). It is precisely the answer to this problem that Isaiah discovers in the Lord’s dealings with him personally (6:1–8). Furthermore, the inclusio provided by 12:1–6 focuses on this very truth—people who have found comfort in place of divine anger and rejoice in a God of salvation. So why are chapters 7–11 lacking any message about atonement and forgiveness? The answer is that Isaiah met people where they were and brought them a message that they could see as relevant. They were not yet ready to face their sinfulness and hear a gospel of pardon, but in the circumstances of the time (see on 7:1ff.) they could not fail to see the inadequacies of existing royal leadership and their need for a different, perfect son of David. True prophet that he was, Isaiah plunged pragmatically into the situation that faced him and provided both an exact diagnosis of the present and a confident vision of the future. Yet, returning as he did in chapter 12 to the ‘salvation’ theme of chapter 6, he implies that somehow, within the promise of the royal Messiah, there lurks the Lord’s answer to the problem of sin and judgment. In this way Isaiah lays the foundation on which he will presently build the theology and prediction of atonement which we find in chapters 40–55, centred on the Servant (52:13) who is also David (55:3).
a. The individual, atonement and commission (6:1–13)
The topic of this chapter is the call of Isaiah, and for this reason alone it would be a fitting ‘chapter 1’ following the ‘author’s preface’. But like all the prophets who recorded their experience of a call (cf. Paul, Gal. 1–2), personal facts are told not for their own sake but because they illustrate a vital theme. We come nearer to the heart of this chapter by noting that it is pervaded by the thought of death: the dying king (1), the prophet under sentence of death (5), the sacrificial animal dead on the altar (6) and the felled tree (13). Twice over, death seems to spell the end but is found not to be so.
The king lies dead (1) but it turns out to be only the felling of a tree, and life remains in the root (13); the prophet lies dead, struck down by sin under divine holiness (5) but when the seraph approaches, apparently bearing the fire of judgment, it is to apply the efficacy of a sacrifice for sin and to speak the word ‘atoned’ (7). Death does not have the last word.
1a. Uzziah reigned for fifty-two prosperous and secure years (2 Kgs 15:1–7; 2 Chr. 26). By the end of his reign, however, clouds were gathering: Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria, who acceded in 745 BC, was an imperialist, and already the small Palestinian states were feeling the threat. It is tempting to think of Isaiah, pondering the old king’s death, anxious for the future, being comforted by the vision of a King who cannot die (cf. the King, 5). But if he was thus reassured by his vision he does not say so. According to 1:1 Isaiah began his prophetic career ‘during the reign of’ (lit. ‘in the days of’) Uzziah, i.e. before Uzziah died. Why, then, does he not date his call, as would be customary, ‘in the fifty-second year of the reign of Uzziah’? Why does he date the event by a death? Uzziah had committed a dreadful sin of trespass (2 Kgs 15:5; 2 Chr. 26:16–21), intruding into the house of the Lord where, as a layman, he had no right to go. For this he fell under divine judgment and for the rest of his reign was alienated from the worshiping community, under divine displeasure. When death came, this situation was unresolved. The king died as he had lived, estranged and unclean. Following on the darkness with which chapter 5 ended, can we doubt that Isaiah saw the king as a symbol of the nation? It too had overstepped the bounds of grace (5:4) and was moving towards its demise under divine displeasure (5:13–17) and at the hands of an invincible foe (5:24–30). So has the Lord really come to the end as far as his people are concerned? In this way chapter 6 takes up the story where chapter 5 left off.
In verses 1b–13a, the symbolism of the dying king (1a) leads into a tripartite vision of God. First, the Lord’s holiness with its consequence in Isaiah’s (and his people’s) doom (1b–5); secondly (6–8), the Lord’s atonement, bringing Isaiah’s cleansing and restoration; and thirdly, the Lord’s program (9–13) and Isaiah’s ministry within it.
1b. I saw: John 1:18 correctly observes that ‘No-one has ever seen God’, for God is spirit (31:3; John 4:24). Yet, in condescension, he sometimes clothes himself with visibility for the good of his people, showing now this side and now that side of his character (e.g. Josh. 5:13–15). For Isaiah the Lord became visible in exalted kingliness, with a throne, robes and attendants, all speaking of sovereign majesty and dominion. High and exalted: see 52:13; 57:15, where the same words refer respectively to the Lord’s Servant and the Lord. The reference here also is best taken as (not to the throne but) to the Lord, high in his own nature, and exalted or ‘lifted up’ by the acknowledgment of his supremacy. Train … temple: the flowing robes point to the place where the transcendent Lord touches the earth; the Lord is present in all his majesty at the center of his people’s life. The temple is no ‘mere’ symbol. It is where the Lord is (1 Kgs 8:10–13), the indwelling God (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19; Eph. 2:19–22). (Cf. the ‘footstool’ motif, 1 Chr. 28:2; Ps. 132:7; Lam. 2:1; Isa. 60:13.)
2. Above him: the position of a servant waiting ‘upon’ a master. The same preposition, ‘over, upon’, occurs in Genesis 18:8 (NIV ‘near’). Seraphs, literally ‘Burning Ones’, are mentioned only here. Fire is the chief symbol of the holiness of God (Exod. 3:2–5; 19:18). Suitably, therefore, in this context Isaiah gives the heavenly attendants a title that matches their situation: with their down-folded and up-stretched wings they look like huge flames surrounding the throne of the Holy One. Covered … covered, like were flying, are verbs of continuous action. The wings covered their eyes (for even they must not pry into the divine, cf. Exod. 19:21) but not their ears (for their role is to wait for the divine word and obey it, Ps. 103:20). The feet are the organs of activity, of directing life towards goals (Ps. 18:33; Prov. 1:15–16; 4:27). It is impossible to be sure, but perhaps they covered their feet to disavow choosing their own path.
3. The continuous song had a single theme: the Lord’s holiness, concerning which we learn two truths. First, Hebrew uses repetition to express either a superlative, as when ‘pure gold’ in 2 Kings 25:15 translates ‘gold gold’, or a totality, as when ‘full of tar pits’ in Genesis 14:10 translates ‘pits pits’. But here for the only time in the Hebrew Bible a quality is ‘raised to the power of three’, as if to say that the divine holiness is so far beyond anything the human mind can grasp that a ‘super-superlative’ has to be invented to express it and, furthermore, that this transcendent holiness is the total truth about God. The holiness word-group (√qādaš) may mean ‘brightness’, the unapproachable God (1 Tim. 6:16; Ps. 104:2) or ‘separatedness’, i.e. the quality which marks off the divine nature, setting God apart from all else, making him the Being that he is. His holiness is, therefore, his unapproachable and unique moral majesty before which sinful humankind instinctively quakes (Judg. 6:22; 13:22). Secondly, just as holiness is the ‘whole truth’ about God himself, so it is the ‘whole truth’ about his immanence in creation: the whole earth is full of his glory. Holiness is the Lord’s hidden glory; glory is the Lord’s omnipresent holiness.
4–5. Shook: the customary reaction of the created order to the presence of the divine (e.g. Exod. 19:18; Ps. 18:7–9). Doorposts … thresholds … smoke: the mere declaration of the Lord’s holiness is enough to bar entrance and to forbid sight. Isaiah finds himself totally excluded and recognizes its consequence (I am ruined) and its cause (unclean lips). Ruined: from √dāmâ, ‘to be silent’, used of the silence brought about by loss (Jer. 47:5) or death (Ps. 49:12). To translate ‘silenced’ would be telling in this context: excluded from the heavenly choir—even from the possibility of participating in praise from afar. This judgment came about through the linking of what some might think of as the ‘merest’ sin (unclean lips) with the remotest contact (eyes have seen), but the mixture is fatal. People of unclean lips: why does Isaiah extend the admission of sin in this way? Possibly it is a further confession on his part: he so failed to recognize the seriousness of sins of speech that he failed to separate himself (live among) from such a society; but possibly he is laying down a marker for the future: if my sin can be forgiven, so can theirs. Maybe, in retrospect, in his own experience of atonement (6–7) he already saw the solution to the national darkness of 5:30 and the dawning of the light of 53:11. The King, the LORD Almighty: literally ‘of hosts’. It was not a novel revelation of God that proved Isaiah’s undoing, just a realization of what had always been true, a holy King, an omnipotent Yahweh, ‘the Holy One of Israel’, to use Isaiah’s special title for him (see 1:4).
6–7. The Lord has taken the initiative throughout: revealing (2–3), excluding (4–5). Now one of the seraphs, who flew only by divine command, is sent as the messenger of salvation. Though all else is shrouded from gaze by the excluding cloud, the means of salvation is left on view—the fire and the altar. Live coal … tongs … altar, the use of tongs shows that this was no ‘pretend’ fire but the real thing. In the Old Testament, however, fire is not a cleansing agent but the expression of the active, even hostile, holiness of God (Gen. 3:24; Num. 11:1–3; Deut. 4:12, 33, 36). This, however, was fire from the altar, the place where holiness accepted, and was satisfied by, the death of a substitutionary sacrifice (Lev. 17:11). The live coal thus encapsulates the ideas of atonement, propitiation, satisfaction, forgiveness, cleansing and reconciliation, and of these spiritual realities Isaiah, the erstwhile doomed sinner, is left in no doubt when the seraph explains: ‘Behold, as soon as this touched your lips your iniquity went, and, as for your sin—paid by ransom!’ The Lord ministers to us at the point of felt need (lips); the effect is instantaneous (the verbs touched … taken are co-ordinate perfect tenses); he deals not just with sin as we are aware of it, but as he sees it in us: guilt or ‘iniquity’ (1:4; 5:18), the inner corruption, sin (1:4, 18; 3:9), the specific wrong; the basis of atonement is a ‘covering price’. Atoned (kippēr): ‘to cover’. Cf. the literal sense in Genesis 6:14 (‘coat it’); the developed meaning of the verb used in atonement theology (kippēr) has retained this basic idea, but in the sense that we speak of the correct sum of money ‘covering’ a debt, i.e. cancelling by a satisfactory payment (Exod. 21:30; 30:12–16; Num. 5:8; 31:50).
8. The immediate effect of atonement is reconciliation. Isaiah first saw the Lord afar off (1), but now he is near enough to overhear the divine musing; he had once been ‘silenced’ by sin (5) but as the redeemed sinner he is free to speak. The God who shut him out (4) has brought him home. But he finds that being joined to God means joining a missionary society: he has been brought in in order to be sent out. Us: a plural of consultation (1 Kgs 22:19–23), but the New Testament relates these verses to both the Lord Jesus (John 12:41) and the Holy Spirit (Acts 28:25), thus finding here what will yet accommodate the full revelation of the Holy Trinity.
Verses 9–13a contain the message Isaiah is to convey (9), the task given him to do (10) and the program in which he is now involved (11–13a).
9–10. The use of these verses in the New Testament (Matt. 13:14–15; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10; John 12:39–41; Acts 28:26–27) makes them especially important to understand, but at first sight what an odd commission they are: to tell people not to understand (9), yet to make sure that they will not (10)! This is its plain meaning. It specifies (9) the ‘outer’ (hearing, seeing) and the ‘inner’ faculties (understanding, i.e. ‘discerning’, and perceiving, i.e. ‘knowing’) and arranges them (10) into a rounded structure (heart … ears … eyes … eyes … ears … heart) thus emphasizing total inability to comprehend. The most helpful approach is to ask how, in the light of his subsequent ministry, Isaiah understood what he was commanded. The answer lies in 28:9–10, where we learn that Isaiah presented the truth with such simplicity that the ‘men of the world’ of his day would pack him off to teach kindergarten!
And the whole Isaianic literature bears the same mark of a plain, systematic, reasoned approach. In other words, verses 9–10 are a very stark statement of the preacher’s dilemma: those who resist the truth can be changed only by telling them the truth, but to do this exposes them to the danger of rejecting the truth yet once again—and maybe this further rejection will push them beyond the point of no return and they will become irretrievably hardened in mind and heart (Heb. 6:4–8). The human eye cannot see this ‘point of no return’ in advance—nor necessarily recognize it when it is past, but the all-sovereign God both knows it and indeed appoints it as he presides, with perfect righteousness and justice, over the human psychological processes which he created. It was at just such a time that Isaiah was called to the prophetic-preaching office and understood what his terms of commission meant: he was to bring God’s word with fresh, even unparalleled clarity—for only the truth could win and change them; but in their negative response his hearers would pass the point of no return. The opportunity which could spell their salvation would spell their judgment.
11–13a. The envisaged program is one of mounting tragedy: destruction of cities … houses … fields (11), deportation (12) and yet further loss (13a). Assyria is the power threatening the nation at present, but Isaiah will soon learn that Assyria is not to be the agent of complete loss. Nevertheless, his prediction was ‘at home’ in its own times. Assyria introduced a policy of deportation (2 Kgs 17) and Babylon continued it (2 Kgs 24–25). In this way the verses are a prospectus for Isaiah’s book: how the Assyrian threat will come and go (chs. 7–37) and how, beyond that, a darker threat, Babylon, will arise from a profounder cause (chs. 38–48).
13b. Will divine judgment, then, have the last word for the people with whom Isaiah identified himself (5)? In Isaiah’s case the ‘Burning One’ approached carrying fire (6) and it must have seemed to Isaiah that his end had come; but the voice said ‘atoned’ (7). So here the tree lies cut down; but the divine voice says ‘the holy seed’ (lit. ‘the seed of holiness its stump’). Noting how this half-verse forms an inclusio with 1a (the dying king … the fallen tree), the implication is that the people who carry the promise of the Messiah carry thereby the guarantee of continuing until he comes. This is the plainest understanding of the words, but Isaiah does use ‘seed’ of the people who will yet enjoy the promises (41:8; 43:5; 45:25; 53:10; 59:21; 65:9, 23; 66:22), and the ‘holy seed’ could therefore be the remnant, called holy and ‘written unto life’ (4:3) in the Zion that was yet to be (cf. Heb. 12:22).
Motyer, J. A. (1999). Isaiah: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 20, pp. 76–85). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
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