Readings 2 Samuel 14; John 8

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

In the verses today God is clearly frustrated with Israel.  He is crying out to them to listen, learn and obey.  The message still goes forth today, the truth of it rings clear and resounds through every aspect of our society.  This chapter is Messianic, it clearly looks forward to the coming Messiah.

Isaiah 49:1

Listen to Me, O islands,

And pay attention, you peoples from afar.

The Lord called Me from the womb;

From the body of My mother He named Me.

The coming Messiah will come from a woman, and He will be named while He is still in the womb.  Jesus was named before He was born, Mt 1:21-25, Luke 1:31.  It is interesting that He refers to Israel as islands; they certainly had isolated themselves from God by refusing to follow Him.  Another point of interest is that God calls out to the "people from afar" to pay attention.  This could be referring to the Gentiles, or it could be referring to Israel as they had walked far away from God.  Generally speaking this phrase is speaking of the gentiles according to the commentaries.  Islands could also refer to the Gentiles since it is looking at countries that are beyond the sea.  Either way you look at it it seems clear that the coming Messiah will reach out to His people, the Jews, and the Gentiles.

Isaiah 49:2

And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword;

In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me,

And He has also made Me a select arrow;

He has hidden Me in His quiver.

God the Father had concealed Jesus to protect Him in His youth here on earth.  He removed Him from the land of Israel while Herod killed all the babies in the land in an attempt to kill the Messiah.  It is also interesting that Jesus is spoken of as being a concealed weapon, being stored in a quiver.  On the other hand, if you see an arrow in a quiver, it is clear that it is meant for business.  God was waiting to draw out the sword or the arrow and put them into action.  There are many references to this verse throughout the Bible, Isaiah 51:6, speaking of the sword, Isaiah 11:4; Revelation 19:15; Heb 4:12; Isaiah 50:4; Jn 12:48 and of the arrow, Psalm 45:5; Hab 3:11.

Isaiah 49:3

And He said to Me, "You are My Servant, Israel,

In Whom I will show My glory."

Jesus is Israel, just as in the New Testament where Paul refers to Christ as the head of the body, the head of the church.  Remember, in the New Testament times, the church was predominately made up of Jews, the gentiles were in a great minority, Eph 4:15; 5:23; Col 1:18; 1 Cor 11:3.  Jesus is the head of the Israel; He represents Israel to the Father.  In His death on the cross, He redeemed Israel by shedding His blood to pay for their sin.  Praise God, we as Gentiles were allowed the grace to be a part of salvation. 

The phrase "In Whom I will show My glory" could also be translated "In Whom I will glorify Myself" according to the NASB footnotes.  Jesus made it clear while He was here on earth that He was here to glorify the Father, John 14:13; 17:1-5.

Isaiah 49:4

But I said, "I have toiled in vain,

I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity;

Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord,

And My reward with My God."

God is frustrated with Israel, after all the attempts that He made to draw them back to Himself, it seems to have been in vain.  The ones who He called by name refused to listen to Him, Isa 53:1-3; Luke 19:14; Jn 1:11; 7:5.  The Justice that was due to the earth was satisfied through Jesus, He was broken in order to fulfill the righteousness of God, Isaiah 53:10-12; 1 Pet 2:23.  It is a little hard for us to understand it since everything that we do is from a selfish perspective, but Jesus received His reward by unselfishly paying the debt for man.  Considering the few that follow Him, and the great many that are going to hell without knowing Him, it seems to have been for nothing.  Even after He finished His work on earth, and had spoken to literally thousands of people, discipling many, there were only 120 people gathered in the upper room waiting as He had commanded them, Acts 1:15.  Look at the statement that Jesus made after His resurrection, Luke 24:25-26.

Isaiah 49:5-6

And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

To bring Jacob back to Him, in order that Israel might be gathered to Him

(For I am honored in the sight of the Lord,

And My God is My strength),

6He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant

To raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;

I will also make You a light of the nations

So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

Jesus came to reach out to the lost sheep of Israel, in an effort to gather them back to Himself by reaching out to them, Mt 15:24; 23:37; Acts 3:26.  Verse 6 is interesting in that He will restore the remnant of Israel, but He will also reach out to the nations.  He came as a light to His people and to the nations, John 1:1-13; 1 John 1:5-10.  Jesus made salvation available to everyone, His light is shining through the entire earth to all people, everyone who turns to the light will be saved, Isaiah 42:6-7; 60:3.  

Isaiah 49:7

Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and its Holy One,

To the despised One,

To the One abhorred by the nation,

To the Servant of rulers, "Kings shall see and arise,

Princes shall also bow down;

Because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You."

Tremendous verse!  It is loaded with truths that we could spend pages discussing, but I will make it short, time is starting to catch up to me.  Jesus was despised and abhorred by His people, Israel, Psalm 22:6-8; Isa 53:3; Mt 26:67; 27:38-44; Jn 15:25; Lk 4:27-30.

Jesus inspires and leads the Kings of the earth; they will bow down and worship Him.  Just as we have been studying in Isaiah about how that Cyrus was following Him, and following the ways that he was led, the kings of the earth will follow Jesus.  He will guide them regardless their opinion of Him, just as He did with Cyrus in redeeming Israel, and with Assyria when He sent them into captivity to cause them to throw off their idols, and with Babylon for the same purpose.  These are just a few of the examples where God had led the kings of the earth, one day the kings will recognize who Jesus is and give Him proper honor, Isaiah 52:15; 60:3, 10, 16; Mt 2:1-2, 11.  That was only scratching the surface of this subject.

Isaiah 49:8-9

Thus says the Lord, "In a favorable time I have answered You,

And in a day of salvation I have helped You;

And I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people,

To restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages;

9Saying to those who are bound, 'Go forth,'

To those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.'

Along the roads they will feed,

And their pasture will be on all bare heights.

The focus shifts intently upon the restoration of Israel.  It looks forward to both the restoration of the nation, and to the great Millennium.  God will restore His nation; the immediate fulfillment of this was obviously with Cyrus and the restoration of Israel from Babylonian captivity.  We are seeing the future fulfillment develop before our eyes in the land of Israel.  Jesus released the captives.

Isaiah 49:10-13

"They will not hunger or thirst,

Neither will the scorching heat or sun strike them down;

For He who has compassion on them will lead them,

And will guide them to springs of water.

11"And I will make all My mountains a road,

And My highways will be raised up.

12"Behold, these shall come from afar;

And lo, these will come from the north and from the west,

And these from the land of Sinim."

13Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth!

Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains!

For the Lord has comforted His people,

And will have compassion on His afflicted.

The beeper just got me, so I have to wrap up quickly.  The restoration of Israel will be complete; He will completely take care of their needs.  They will rejoice in His provision for them.  This was fulfilled immediately with the deliverance of Cyrus. 

One thing I have been unsure of in this passage is whether Isaiah had in mind Cyrus in his description of the Messiah, or if he knew that he was describing the Messiah so well.  It is obvious from the passage that God had guided his hand in writing the passage so that it reflected the Messiah and the restoration of Israel.  But how did Cyrus fit into the picture?  On that thought, I believe that Cyrus fulfilled a lot of these prophecies in the immediate future by delivering them from Babylon, and assisting them in rebuilding their nation, then re-building the temple.  You can be sure that as they experienced the deliverance that God provided through Cyrus, they were praising the Lord and shouting for joy.  Moving from the comfort of captivity in Babylon to freedom was a hard transition, but you can be sure that they enjoyed freedom more.

Father, as we study Your word this morning, enlighten each of us as to how to be released from our bondages, and how to be restored into Your will.  I ask that you will speak to each one of our hearts leading and guiding us, making us willing to listen and conform our hearts and desires into Your will.

In Him,

Joe Turner.

Note: All scriptures are from the New American Standard Bible.

Readings 2 Samuel 15; John 9

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

Isaiah 49:14

But Zion said, "The Lord has forsaken me,

And the Lord has forgotten me."

The call of Israel went out to God as if He had forgotten them, when in reality it was they who had forgotten God.  How often do we do this, considering that God has forgotten us when we have walked away, Psalm 7:9?  In the Hebrew, the words would be a great exclamation that Yahweh has certainly forgotten them, and the Lord has certainly forgotten them.  It is a situation where hopelessness is the attitude.

Isaiah 49:15-16

"Can a woman forget her nursing child,

And have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

16"Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;

Your walls are continually before Me.

The illustration of a woman not being able to forget her child that she had nursed rings true to all of humanity.  Have you ever written on your hand to remember something?  God uses this illustration for us to understand, from the human perspective just how much He is concerned for us.  "The son of her womb" could also be translated "or not have compassion on the child in her womb."  It gives a different take on this passage. 

The phrase written on the palms in the Hebrew is a little more specific than our English translation.  It speaks of the name being literally cut into the palms of the hands.  It brings to mind the idea of the nail prints in Jesus’ hands.  Jesus literally had the name of the Hebrews and the Christians etched into His hands permanently, and the scars still exist today.  Otherwise how would Thomas have been invited to put his fingers into the nail prints, John 20:24-29?

Isaiah 49:17-18

"Your builders hurry;

Your destroyers and devastators

Will depart from you.

18"Lift up your eyes and look around;

All of them gather together, they come to you.

As I live," declares the Lord, "You shall surely put on all of them as jewels, and bind them on as a bride.

God ordained destroyers to destroy, devastators to demolish the land, then through Cyrus; builders to re-build the land.  In the Hebrew language, this is a little different, verse 17 could be translated as "your builders a move faster than your destroyers".  (I have included the text below this paragraph so that you can see a literal translation of what this entire passage says; I think it helps understand it.)   Isaiah looked forward to the gathering of the people of Israel.  One interesting point is that all the persecutions that Israel had suffered would be as jewels to them.  Through the persecutions and captivities, they learned many hard lessons about God and about His character.  These are the jewels that are spoken of.  The jewels were given to them through hardship, yet they will not be fully appreciated until Christ comes to claim His bride at the final gathering of His people in the Millennium.

Zion

Yahweh has forsaken me!

My Lord has forgotten me!      2+2+2

Yahweh: (to Zion)

      ¹⁵      Can a woman forget her nursing child?

Or not have compassion ^a on the child in her womb?      3+2

           Even if ^b these could forget, ^c

I myself will certainly not forget you!      3+3

      ¹⁶      See! I have engraved you on the palms (of my hands).

Your walls (are) before me constantly.      3+3

      ¹⁷      Your builders a move faster than your destroyers ^b

or your devastators ^c who have now departed from

you.      3+3

      ¹⁸      Lift up your eyes all around and see!

All of them are gathered! They have cooe to you!      4+3

           As I live, oracle of Yahweh, I swear:

You will put them on like a fine dress, ^a

like a bride’s ^b trousseau.

^[i]

A note to everyone, on Sundays, these studies are typically shorter than any other day of the week.  I hope and pray that by making them shorter, it leaves an opportunity for everyone to go to their local churches and worship God.  The purpose of continuing these studies even on a Sunday is an attempt to study the Word on a daily basis.  In keeping in the Word daily, it sharpens us spiritually and prepares us for future warfare.  In the last few days I have had the opportunity to speak to a staunch Jew, who was a little confused by the words of Isaiah.  He was prepared to defend his rejection of the Messiah from the New Testament, but from Isaiah, he was a little stumped as to how to defend his position.  Another situation is where I have shared with a Christian brother who is in a religion that I believe loads people down with unnecessary burdens, again, the daily study proved valuable beyond comparison.  These situations are not to put a feather in my cap, but to encourage you to spend time daily in the Word, whether you are working, or off, seven days per week.  Keep in the faith, and then as was stated in verses 17-18, the troubles and trials that we face on a daily basis will prove to be jewels that we can draw from in witnessing for Jesus.

Father as all of us study Your word today, I ask that You will keep all of us faithful to study, and to conforming into Your image.

In Him,

Joe Turner.

Note:  All Scriptures are from the New American Standard Bible.

Isaiah 49:19-26

Readings: 2 Samuel 23; John 18

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

Isaiah 49:19-21

"For your waste and desolate places, and your destroyed land--

Surely now you will be too cramped for the inhabitants,

And those who swallowed you will be far away.

20"The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears, 'The place is too cramped for me;

Make room for me that I may live here.'

21"Then you will say in your heart, 'Who has begotten these for me,

Since I have been bereaved of my children,

And am barren, an exile and a wanderer?

And who has reared these?

Behold, I was left alone;

From where did these come?' "

  Isaiah continues the lament of the Jews, yet when you read through these verses, the lament turns to wonder as the bride is puzzled over where the attitudes of the children come from.  The return of the Jews from Babylon was small in relation to the number that were taken into captivity.  But if you look at these verses as if they are looking forward to the great millennium, it makes more sense.  The number of Jews called out of the nations is very small in comparison to the millions of Jews that have existed in the world to date.  Another point on this is that Israel has expanded its borders several times since they have been declared a nation, one of the few nations in the world that has been allowed to do that.  The little nation was not big enough, so they conquered more land through war, and were allowed to keep it.  If the USA were to conquer surrounding nations, we would be expected to release them back to their own governments.  This has not been the case with the Jews.  Where have the Jews came from that have filtered into Israel from all over the world?  It seems as if the prophet is puzzled over the way that the nation has once again been restored.  It was restored by Cyrus, who was a type of Christ, and today it is being restored by the real Christ, the Messiah of Israel, Isaiah 66:20.

Isaiah 49:22-23

Thus says the Lord God, "Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations,

And set up My standard to the peoples;

And they will bring your sons in their bosom,

And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.

23"And kings will be your guardians,

And their princesses your nurses.

They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth,

And lick the dust of your feet;

And you will know that I am the Lord;

Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame.

 Think for a moment of the way that the United States has catered to Israel.  We have supplied her with arms, and billions of dollars in other support.  Not only that, our President has made every effort to carry them through the crisis' that they have encountered to insure that it will be a successful nation.  Across the US, there has been millions of dollars raised in support of Israel, as well as a tourist industry that is envied throughout the world.  The nations of the world have made every effort to make sure that Israel is a success.  We are not the only ones who have offered support to Israel, but possibly, we may be their biggest supporter. 

In a literal sense, when Israel was redeemed by Cyrus, the kings and nobles of the land were taken into captivity, many of which were pressed into slavery where they were forced to serve the Jews in the same manner that the Jews were forced to serve them. 

Notice also the word "hopefully" in verse 23.  Not all the Jews will recognize that the Lord is the one who is responsible for the restoration of Israel.  Those who do have faith in the Lord will not be disappointed, Zechariah 12:10.

Isaiah 49:24-26

"Can the prey be taken from the mighty man,

Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?"

25Surely, thus says the Lord, "Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away,

And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued;

For I will contend with the one who contends with you,

And I will save your sons.

26"And I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh,

And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine;

And all flesh will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior,

And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

The answer to the question in 24 is clear, as long as the mighty man is mighty, his prey and his captives are in safe keeping.  Yet with Cyrus, God had anointed a gentile conqueror to overpower the mighty man, freeing his people, Jeremiah 50:33-34.  In New Testament times, Jesus overpowered the devil on the cross by shedding innocent blood to cover the cost of sin.  In recent times, God has overpowered the nations causing them to release the Jews so that they can rebuild their nation.  Everyone who has stood in the way of the Jews has suffered consequences.  Those who support the Jews will receive blessings, those who oppose them will be cursed, Zechariah 14:3.

Jesus referred to this illustration in Matthew 12:29 using the parable of the strong man.  He applied it to his divine purpose here on earth, in that He was here to restore men to Himself, to pay the penalty of sin that we cannot pay, Isaiah 53:12; Psalm 68:18; Col 2:15.

Isaiah is not speaking of cannibalism in verse 26, but rather internal strife that will rise up within an organization.  Any nation that chooses to go against Israel will experience great political unrest within its country, Isaiah 9:20.  Cannibalism was not new to the Old Testament times, it happened in the times of a siege, and stood as a stark reminder of the truth behind Isaiah's words, Deut. 28:53–57 ; 2 Kin. 6:24–31 ; Lam. 4:10 ; Zech. 11:9 .

In the end, all nations will know that Jehovah is God.  In the case of Cyrus in the Old Testament, there was little doubt as you studied the history of the Jews.  Then once God moved in favor of them, they could not rule out God's divine intervention.  The early people knew that the God of Israel was real and very powerful.

As we consider the Christmas celebration that we have coming up in a few days, consider this chapter.  God had promised to redeem Israel and had used Cyrus as an example of how that He was going to pay the ransom for Israel in an unconventional way.  Cyrus was a gentile who was commissioned by God to redeem the Jews.  When Jesus came to earth, He did not come in the expected way, coming from the priestly line, or from a line of Pharisees.  He came in an unconventional way, born of a poor carpenter, and raised as his child.  He also spent His years on earth in poverty, never owning a home, and living day to day in receiving food.  Jesus was not born the son of a earthly king, was not trained in war craft or taught to wield a weapon.  He came as a pauper, preaching the Gospel, healing and raising the dead in order to validate His position. 

He made it possible for the world to be redeemed to Him, thus the names listed in verse 26, "the LORD", "Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty one of Jacob."  The world may deny who the Christ is today, but eventually their mistake will be revealed and they will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is Lord.

Father, as we study Your word today, I ask that You will impress on each one of us the importance of following You completely, all the time.  Show us how to lead others to meet You, and how to support the Jews that live around us.  Give each one of us the opportunity to be an encouragement to our family and friends through the Christmas Holiday.

In Him,

Joe Turner.