Week 30
Isaiah 44-47
God challenges all false gods to step up and declare themselves before Him,
but there are none. The Lord describes the foolishness of the man who cuts
down a tree and burns one part to stay warm, another part to cook his meal, and
then forms another part into an image that he will worship. The hearts of such
people are blinded to how ridiculous this is.
About 150 years before Cyrus is king in Persia, the Lord calls him by name,
and declares that he will be anointed, and he will serve the Lord’s purpose in
releasing the Babylonian exiles, and also funding the rebuilding of Jerusalem. All
of this happened following the Persian invasion of Babylon, which is described in
Daniel 5. Babylon was considered to be unconquerable, and Belshazzar partied
in the face of the Medes and Persian armies outside the gates of the city. The
Persian general in charge of the siege managed to divert the Euphrates River,
and their army walked into Babylon under the walls of the city, and overthrew
them without a fight, just as Daniel predicted.
Tradition has it that Daniel met with Cyrus after this, and showed him the
prophecy of Isaiah from 150 years earlier, and he was so amazed that he set
about the process of releasing the Israelites in exile, and he provided all of the
money necessary for the people to return to Jerusalem, and to start rebuilding.
In Isaiah 46 we get a brief contrast between the One True God and false
gods, who can actually do nothing.
In chapter 47 the Lord foretells of the judgement He will bring upon Babylon
for the way they treated His people in exile. This was written about 100 years
before the Babylonian captivity first started, and long before Babylon was a major
world power.
Isaiah 48-51
The Lord continues in telling Judah what lies ahead, and how He tells them
the future so that they cannot deny Who He is when everything happens just as
He foretold. Israel and Judah are kept in the Lord’s hands for His own Name’s
sake, and not for their sake, as He will not go back on the things He promised to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In the first 7 verses of chapter 49 we have another promise of the coming of
Jesus Christ, Who it is said will bring the Lord’s salvation to the ends of the earth.
He goes on to say that Jacob will not be utterly forsaken, just like a mother
cannot normally forget her nursing child, and He will restore them from among all
the nations of the world in the latter days.
Chapter 50 is an incredible description of the humiliation that Jesus will
endure, and the faithfulness of the Lord in guiding and helping Him.
In chapter 51 the Lord declares His faithful protection over the children of
Israel, even though they have not been faithful to Him.
Isaiah 52-57
The Lord will fight for Israel. The Lord will bring Salvation to Jerusalem. At
the end of chapter 52 we see the beginning description of Jesus, the Lord’s
servant, Who is disfigured more than any other man, and will sprinkle the nations
with His blood. Chapter 53 is the most vivid of Messianic prophecies, picturing
Jesus as the suffering Messiah, Who was slain like a sheep going to slaughter,
and by Whose stripes we are saved.
54 - Even though the Lord has been angry with Israel for a while, He will
restore her as His bride, and will never keep His Mercy from her again.
55 - The ways of the Lord are infinitely higher than the ways of man, and
everything He does accomplishes His purposes.
56 - Blessed are all who love the Lord and His justice, and who seek to walk
uprightly before Him. All people in the world are welcomed by Him, when they
come to Him on His terms.
57 - Merciful men and women enter into the Lord’s peace, but the wicked
persist in their evil ways in defiance of the Lord.
Isaiah 58-62
The people in Israel were trying to find ways of appeasing God, and they
thought that fasting and self-denial were ways to please Him. Yet the Lord tells
them that He will be far more pleased with their fasts if they show mercy upon
those who need help, provide food for the hungry, and share with those who
have less. The fast of the Lord is to break oppressions.
59 - The Lord will turn a deaf ear to the prayers of the wicked, and those who
persist in harboring sin in their hearts towards other people. The Lord saw that
there was no righteousness in the earth, and He therefore put on righteousness
for men in Jesus Christ.
60 - This chapter describes the glorious reign of the Messiah in Israel, and
how the whole world will bless Him and Israel in that day. We know from
Revelation 21 that this prophecy will be fulfilled after the judgement of God upon
satan, yet in the days of Jesus everyone was looking for Him to fulfill it in their
day.
61 - In Luke 4:18-19 Jesus quotes the first verse, and half of the second verse
of this chapter, telling those in the synagogue in Nazareth that they were
witnessing the fulfillment of this prophecy. He did not quote the second half and
beyond, which tells of the Day of the Lord, when He will judge the earth, and
bring restoration to Zion.
62 - There is a future glory coming in Israel, when all things will be restored.
God says in verses 6-7 that He has placed His watchmen to pray day and night,
who will not be silent before Him until all He has planned is accomplished.
Isaiah 63-66
63 - However, before all is restored, Jesus alone will execute the judgement
of God upon the earth, against satan and all who hate Him.
64 - This chapter is a prayer of Isaiah for God to rise up and show Himself
powerful against the enemies of God, just like He did in the days of Moses, and
He will answer this prayer in due time.
65 - The Lord will judge all who persist in rebelling against Him, and then He
will change everything. He will create a new heaven and earth, and all of the
things that happened before will be forgotten, and the world will live in peace and
be blessed of God.
66 - Contrary to what some people teach, God will judge the wicked, and they
will not only be killed in God’s wrath, but they will live forever under His
judgement, who all the righteous will see and be repulsed by - last verse.
2 King 21:19-26 and 2 Chronicles 33:21-34:7 and Zephaniah
Amon, the son of Manasseh, reigns for two years in Judah, his father’s place,
but he is wicked, and was murdered by his own servants. Amon’s son Josiah
becomes king in Judah at the age of 8 years old, and reigns for 31 years. Josiah
will be a godly king in Judah.
During the reign of Josiah, both Zephaniah and Jeremiah were prophets of
the Lord. Zephaniah foretells the devastation of the land, which will occur when
Nebuchadnezzar comes and destroys Jerusalem and the temple, and takes
away the people as slaves to Babylon. However, there is a shift in focus in
Zephaniah’s prophecy, where he is telling of the future Day of The Lord, when
Jesus will come and fight against the enemies of God in the last days, and then
restore peace and prosperity in Israel.
Jeremiah 1-3
Jeremiah was a priest of God, from the Levitical family of Kohath, and He was
called by God as a young man to be a prophet to Judah in the 13 th year of
Josiah’s reign. He remained a prophet in for a long time, seeing the remainder of
the kings in Judah (Josiah’s sons) until Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem, and
the people were taken as slaves into Babylon for 70 years (which Jeremiah
predicted by the Word of the Lord). He served as prophet of God in the declining
days of Judah, and he has been appropriately called the weeping prophet
because no one ever responded to his warnings with repentance towards God
during his entire ministry.
The book of Jeremiah is not sequential or linear in time. The chapters and
passages jump around between different times of the kings of Judah.
Through the prophet, the Lord laments the treacheries of Israel and Judah,
who have persisted in running after false gods, just like a shameless harlot who
runs after her many lovers. The Lord calls for Judah to repent and return to Him,
and expresses amazement at her hard heart, which had not changed even after
Israel was taken into captivity by the Assyrians for all of their sins against Him.
Throughout the prophecies of Jeremiah, we will see many times where the
focus of time is shifted from the present day (he started prophesying around 640
BC) to the future. We see this clearly in chapter 3, verses 14-18, when the Lord
will restore Israel in the last days, and He will be their God.