We always appreciate when folks write and tell us they feel like they’re sitting right there on the back row and it reminds them of a college classroom. Well, that’s just exactly the way we want you to feel. We’re just here to teach the Word, and the only way you can teach is use the Textbook! And, of course, that’s another thing we always appreciate that all of you folks come in with your own Bible.

We’re not here to preach at anybody, but we do teach salvation by faith and faith alone as taught by the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 15:1-4, by believing in your heart that Jesus died for your sins, was buried and rose again plus nothing else added to that.

Okay, we’re going to jump right in where we left off in our last taping. We’re spending a little time in the book of Isaiah. We’re not going to take all sixty-six chapters verse by verse like we did Romans and some of the others, but we’re going to hit some of the highlights and remember the background, as I’m always stressing – whenever you read a portion of Scripture always determine who’s writing; to whom is he writing; when was it written; what are the circumstances?

Bear with me as I keep reminding you that this is all back at about 700 BC, that Isaiah is writing, and the nation of Israel has been split between the two kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom with ten tribes and the Southern Kingdom with the two tribes of Benjamin and Judah. The Temple is still operating; so when we look at all their idolatry; don’t think for a minute that the Temple isn’t still there. They go into idolatry in spite of it.

But then we’re going to find, as I’ve put on the timeline on the board, that all the way back in 606 BC, six hundred years before Christ, when Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians came and besieged Jerusalem and finally broke through, they destroyed the city and destroyed the Temple. They took, for the most part, the whole nation of Israel to Babylon for 70 years.

Then, as we’re going to see in one of our further programs this afternoon, the next empire that comes on the scene is the Medes and the Persians who defeat the Babylonians. The king of the Medes and the Persians will then be what God calls "His servant" who will give the decree to Ezra to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple first, and then about a hundred years later Nehemiah goes back and starts rebuilding the city walls.

Now, it’s interesting and I think this bears repeating, in fact let’s look at it in Scripture. Come back with me to Leviticus 26. This is an appropriate time to use this verse. God is speaking while they’re still there in Egypt. This is even before they’ve come out of Egypt, and yet the prophecy stands looking forward to when the nation will go into captivity. Of course, the first time is this seventy-year captivity in Babylon, and then the second time, as we’ve shown on the board, is in 70 AD.

From history now we know that in 606 BC God permitted the Babylonians to come in and destroy the Temple and the city and take the children of Israel back to Babylon. This left the land empty. Then in 70 AD we have Titus destroying the Temple and sending Israel again into the dispersion so that the land was emptied. Now, this is the amazing thing, anytime the land is emptied of the Jew, Leviticus 26 tells us what’s going to happen, and let’s look at it.

Leviticus 26:32 and remember the timing now. This is during the time of Moses, he’s writing, but look what it says. God is speaking to the nation of Israel, and He says:

"I will bring the land (that is the Promised Land) into desolation: your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. (That is the desolation. In God’s own time, He says) 33. I will scatter you among the heathen, (that is the non-Jewish world, what we call Gentiles) and I will draw out a sword after you: (They’re going to suffer persecution.) and your land shall be desolate, your cities waste. 34. Then shall the land (that is the Promised Land) enjoy her sabbaths,..." Now, this is a direct reference to the 70-year captivity. The sabbatical year was when every seventh year the ground was to be left fallow; given a rest, and they never did it. So, over a period of 490 years neglecting the sabbatical year, they owed God 70 years. So, God is going to get those years back.

"Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth (what?) desolate, and you be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. 35. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when you dwelt upon it." In other words, they kept it in production.

All right, now, I think while you’re in Leviticus, we might as well use another verse that I use so often, Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 1. Remember, this is always apropos when God removes Israel from the Promised Land, whether it’s 606 BC or whether it’s 70 AD, it’s still going to pretty much be under the same process. The only difference is on the third one that we’ve been talking about in Isaiah. This is when the judgment of the Tribulation comes and goes and Christ returns, then, of course, Israel will never again be scattered out of her land.

But the first two times they were. The first one, as we’re looking at now in this lesson today, is the Babylonian captivity and they were gone only 70 years. In the second one, when Titus overran the city and destroyed the Temple, they were dispersed for 1900 and some years, until they came back in 1948. All right, but here’s the process, if I may call it that:

"It shall come to pass, when all these things have come upon you, the blessings and the curse, which I have set before you, and thou shalt call them to mind (or you’re going to be remembering them) when you are among all the nations. (all the nations not just, some of them) where the LORD thy God hath driven thee." Now, of course, you have to know history. At the time of the Babylonian captivity, the then known world was still pretty small.

The only known part of the planet was the area around the Mediterranean and on out to the Far East. They knew nothing of the New World. They knew nothing of the Western Hemisphere. So, the "all nations" in 606 BC were a lot fewer in number than the "all nations" of 70 AD, when they would finally end up around the whole planet. But now, at either time, whether it was 606 BC or whether it was at the end of the next one, which was like I said, in1948, this is what’s going to happen.

"And shalt return…" Now, that’s plain language isn’t it? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that after they have been scattered by God’s Sovereign design, when He is ready, He will bring them back.

He did when Cyrus the Mede-Persian Emperor made a decree that they were to go back and rebuild the city and the city gate. All right, in 1900 AD thereabouts, the Jews finally started putting things in order that they could get ready to come back to the Holy Land again. Then we saw the Nation suddenly appear and become a Nation in 1948.

All right, so here’s the promise that they would be scattered and that while they’re scattered, while they are out of the land of Israel, however you want to put it, the land of Israel will become desolate.

Now, isn’t it amazing? You would think that as soon as the Jew was gone, the Arab world would have come in and taken advantage of the production of those vineyards and those orchards and those wheat and barley fields. But did they? No. Don’t you ever believe it when people try to tell you they did. They never lifted a finger to put the land back into production when Israel was taken out. It remained desolate – both times! During the seventy years while they were in Babylon, oh sure, there were a few Bedouins and a few Arabs in the area but not enough to bring it into production. In fact, I can just prove that. I didn’t intend to do any of this. I don’t know why this came up.

Turn to Nehemiah chapter 2, with me so you can see what I’m talking about. Now, this is when Cyrus gave the decree. Cyrus was a "servant of Jehovah" the Bible tells us. He was, by design, brought into a place of power where he would have the authority and the sovereignty to send Nehemiah and his company of Jews back to Jerusalem. He could give them whatever they needed from the forests for their lumber. They had full authority. But, now look at the setting after 70 years. In fact, by the time Nehemiah comes, it’s more like a hundred and seventy years, because he comes back much later than Ezra, who would come back after the 70 years. So, Nehemiah is really writing almost a hundred years - I’m going to be on the safe side – 150 years after the fact. So, here’s the setting by the time Nehemiah comes back.

Now, you would have thought that when the native people are gone, the neighbors around would have just come in and taken advantage of them. What do you think the world would do if all of a sudden all of us Americans were relocated out of our country? What would the rest of the world do? Why, they’d come in like a flood and take over everything that we’ve got. They would put everything into production. They would enjoy our homes. But, see, the Arabs didn’t do that when the Jews left. They left as well, for the most part.

"Then I said unto them, you see the distress that we are in, (that is, he and his fellow Jews) how Jerusalem lieth (what?) waste,…" They hadn’t cleaned it up after the Babylonians besieged it. They hadn’t gotten back into populating it. No, it was still laying waste a hundred fifty or a hundred sixty years after.

"…and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more reproach." Then there’s another one. I’ll think – where is it? In chapter 4, where it speaks of the rubbish and the trash they had to clean up? So the Arabs didn’t take over that land while Israel was out of it, because it was desolate. Well, anyway, you can come over to chapter 4 and see the same opposition; I can make that point if nothing else, that they have today. Nothing has changed. Because, you see, all during the time of 70 AD, until the Jews came back after the turn of the century, the Arab world didn’t come in and occupy it. Now, Arafat would like to make us think so, but it’s not true. It was desolation.

I’ve read the comment of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) who traveled back in the middle 1800’s. You’ve heard me read it over and over, and he said, "The place is a total desolation, not even the weeds of the desert grow here. The wild animals of the desert are gone." They never saw a soul driving all day. They finally got to Jerusalem and he said, "There were a few people there, of course, but it was a desolate place, and I would never want to live there."

So, where do these people get the idea that when the Jews were gone those 1900 years the Arab world made it verdant – that’s the word they like to use – v-e-r-d-a-n-t. That it was in great production. No, it wasn’t. It was desolate, just like God promised it would be. So, read here in Nehemiah chapter 4 when they come back and try to rebuild the walls; let’s bring you down to verse 15.

"And it came to pass, when our enemies (Nehemiah 2:19 the Arabians) heard and it was known unto us, and God had brought their counsel to nothing, that we returned all of us to the wall, everyone to his work." That is the city wall, not the Wailing Wall, but the outer wall of the city, which was the number one line of defense.

"And it came to pass from that time forth, that half of my servants wrought in the work, the other half of them held the spears and the shields, and the bows, and the habergeons: and the rulers were behind all the house of Judah. 17. They who build on the wall, and they that bear the burden, with those that laid it..." In other words, carrying the mortar and the bricks and the whatever, "Every one." Now, watch this. Just like today.

"…every one with one of his hands worked in the work and with the other hand he held (what?) a weapon." The Arabs were constantly trying to thwart the work of rebuilding the city wall and the gates and so forth.

So, it’s no different then than it is today. But, on the other hand, I want to make the point that when God emptied the Jew out of the land it became desolate. It was non-productive. Earthquakes kept anybody from building. Diseases such as malaria kept anybody from enjoying a healthy lifestyle. The water was in short supply. The rains stopped. So, with all those things, God made sure that when the children of Israel were out of the land it was desolate. Never forget that. That’s one of the points I want to make today.

All right, back to Isaiah 42. Now, we can take off where we intended to start in the first place. That as Israel comes under the chastisement of Jehovah and God takes them out of the land, their neighbors don’t come in and enjoy it but instead it becomes desolate and that has happened over and over but especially in 606 BC and again in 70 AD.

All right, Isaiah 42 and we’re going to drop in at verse 8. Remember, in our last program, we were talking about how Israel was being groomed and prepared to be the missionaries and the evangelists to the Gentile world. That’s their whole purpose. God is getting them ready for the coming of their King, their Messiah and their Redeemer. Then, if they could have the King and His Kingdom they could evangelize those pagan Gentiles. All right, but now in verse 8, we’re going to be aware that Israel’s number one problem leading up to the Babylonian captivity was idolatry. Idolatry.

Now, that just seems almost impossible to comprehend. This was a nation of people that had experienced the miraculous power of their God uniquely to them; holding back their enemies and blessing them like no other nation on earth; bringing them through the Red Sea. Forty years later He brought them through the River Jordan at flood time. He was watching over them constantly, giving them promise after promise after promise and yet they went "whole hog" for idolatry. It’s just utterly hard to believe. This is what we’re building up for; that they are going to have to be dealt with because of their idolatry.

"I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory I will not give to another, (In other words, He’s not going to share it with an idolatrous god.) neither my praise to graven images." See what God is talking about? I am not going to let you take praise and worship away from Me and give it to some dumb idol. But, that’s what they were doing.

"Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them." What’s He talking about? His foreknowledge. God knows what’s going to happen. He knows what’s going to happen tomorrow. He knows what’s going to happen a hundred years from now. There is nothing that He is not aware of. All right, so now then, verse 10 He comes back and gives an instruction:

"Sing to the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. 11. Let the wilderness (the desert) and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains." That’s what God expects.

"Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands." Or, within the borders. Now, verse 13, we’re going to see the other side of God. He’s the God of blessing. He’s the God of joy. He’s the God of happiness. But He’s also the God of wrath and discipline. So, now we see that other side.

"The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: (He’s going to come in and He’s going to be ruthless with them.) he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies." Not Israel’s especially but God’s.

"I have long time holden my peace. I have been still, (God’s gracious, remember? It takes a long time to get God to a place of meting out judgment) and refrained myself: now I will cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. 15. I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up their herbs; I will make their rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools. 16. And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight, These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them."

Now, this is one thing I have to constantly remind you. No matter how far Israel goes down; whether it’s unbelief, like at Kadesh-Barnea or whether it’s idolatry, like we’re dealing with here, God had made them a very special promise.

Now, I’ve got to bring you back to II Samuel chapter 7, and all the way through the book of Isaiah I want you to be reminded of this constant promise. II Samuel chapter 7. Now, He’s talking to David and He’s setting things in order to go down the eons of time coming to the birth of Christ and it’s going to be through the lineage of King David, so this is who He’s talking to. God tells David concerning, not just Solomon, but this whole lineage of the House of David that will be coming down the pike, God says:

"I will be his father, he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, (See, there it comes. God knows that he will. He’s also talking about the nation of Israel in total.) I will chasten him with the rod of men, (I will bring in enemy armies. I’ll bring in enemy empires that will tax you. They’ll overlord you.) and with the stripes of the children of men. 15. But

(the flipside, even though God will chasten and He will discipline) my mercy shall not depart away from him,…" Now, that’s the constant promise that God holds before the nation of Israel; that even though He will bless them and He will bring chastisement, yet His mercy will never depart.

Now, here we are 4000 years after the Nation made its appearance. They’ve been through the throes of persecution. There has been a constant satanic effort to destroy them. They have never gained any great numbers of people but then neither have they disappeared. Of course, that’s the miracle of the nation of Israel today, as I’ve said over and over in seminars and in our classes in Oklahoma. Most of you have heard me say it over and over. They should have disappeared 1900 years ago. They should have lost their identity through inter-marriage, through persecution, through martyrdom, whatever. But here they are in the news every day! How can anybody not see that this little nation of people that should have disappeared, have anything but disappeared. They’re in the news like no other little nation on earth. It’s just unbelievable; except it’s what the Word of God has declared.

All right, so now then, coming back to Isaiah chapter 42 for just a second, our time is just about gone. We come on down to verse 17:

"They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, you are our gods." Can you image? Well, who’s he talking about? Israel! Not the pagan world. That’s a given that they were idolaters. Even Terah, you remember, the father of Abraham was an idolater, but Israel?

They have now come hundreds and hundreds of years since becoming a Nation; they’ve had the prophets; they’ve had the five books of Torah. They’ve had Moses. Yet, the Nation, with the exception of a remnant, we’ll look at that maybe in the next program or two, but for the most part, the Nation has fallen in total rejection of the God of Abraham. They are falling into idolatry. They are following the gods of the pagans around them. Why, when God has been so good to them? It’s just one of the things of human nature. You want to remember a Jew is just as human as the rest of us.

Again, we always like to explain to our television audience, because every day we get new listeners, that we’re just an informal Bible study. I’m not some highfaluting scholar. I’m not going to be throwing a lot of Greek and Hebrew at you, but hopefully we can just sort the Scriptures out and compare Scripture with Scripture. And bring folks to the place where they can understand what the Bible really says. You know, a lot of these denominations have been so steeped in tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation that it’s come to the point they’ve forgotten what the Book says and all they really know is what the denomination says.

Well, I’ll tell you right up front, when you come before the Lord, whether it’s the Bema Seat for the believer or the Great White Throne for an unbeliever, blaming your denomination for leading you astray is not going to cut anything with God, because you have the Word of God.

You have it in your own hands, and you study to show yourself approved, and just see what the Word says and not what someone else says. I don’t want to even have someone say, "Well this is what Les Feldick says." No! You have to determine what the Word of God says. This is our whole premise. Take the doctrine of salvation, for example, and Paul gives us in this Age of Grace our instructions for salvation "You must believe in your heart that Jesus died for your sins, was buried, and rose again," plus nothing else! I Corinthians 15:1-4 and Romans 10:9-10. If your denomination is teaching you some other way to heaven than that, then you’d better examine yourself again!

All right, we’re going to pick right up where we left off in the last program. We are still in Isaiah chapter 42 and remember in the last three or four words of verse 17 Israel, nationally now, is speaking to their idols saying:

"…Ye are our gods. (plural) (But God comes back and says:) 18. Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, if you may see. 19. Who is blind, but my servant?..." Well, now, who’s the servant? Israel.

"…or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’s servant? 20. Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he who heareth not. 21. The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honorable." Now, here again, you’ve got to be reminded this is long after the Mosaic Law has been given. They’ve got the Torah. They’ve got the Ten Commandments. They’ve got the temple. They’ve got the priesthood. Yet, in spite of all that they are going deeper and deeper into idolatry. It’s just mind-boggling.

"But this is a people robbed and soiled; they are all of them snared in holes. And they are hid in prison houses; they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore. 23. Who among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come? 24. Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and who gave Israel to the robbers? Did not the LORD, (Who did? The Lord did in chastisement. Just read on.) he against whom we have sinned? (That is the Nation.) for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient to his law. 25. Therefore…" Now, this is plain English. Because of their rebellion, because of their idolatry:

"Therefore he hath poured upon him (that is the nation of Israel, now. We’re referring to it as Jacob or Israel.) the fury of his anger, the strength of battle and it has set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart." Now, you’ve got to stop and think. Come back up with me to Romans, chapter 11. I think maybe this is the easiest way to do this. Here Paul is referring back to Elijah.

Now, I thought it would be easier to find Romans than it would I Kings, because I Kings is where you have the Old Testament account of Elijah on Mount Carmel confronting the prophets of Baal. Now, remember Elijah lived 200 years before Isaiah. So, you see, time has been going by ever so slowly. Now, get your timeframe, again, that at 2000 BC you’ve got the call of Abraham, you’ve got the beginning of the nation of Israel. For 490 years, they first sojourned up and down the land of Canaan. Then the second half of that 490 they’re down in Egypt. That takes us up to about 1500 BC. We’ve lost about 500 years now from Abraham to Moses. They come out of Egypt and they are now the nation of Israel.

All right, another 500 years go by under the judges and so forth until they have King David. King David rules about 1000 BC, halfway between Abraham and the cross. All right, David and Solomon both rule 40 years each. So, from 1000 BC until we get Elijah it’s only a hundred years, and look how far they’ve already gone done the pipe in that little while they have been a nation.

All right, look how Paul refers to it, then, in Romans chapter 11. Let’s just jump down to verse 2. Romans 11 verse 2, where Paul says:

"God has not cast away his people, whom he foreknew…." In other words, God knows what they’re going to do hundreds of years before they do it. God hasn’t cast them away.

"…know you not what the scripture saith of Elijah? How he maketh intercession to God against Israel, (against the nation) saying, 3. Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down (or they’ve torn down) thine altars; and I am left alone, (I’m the only one left!) and they seek my life. (Now, verse 4, but Paul reminds us:) 4. But what saith the answer of God unto him? (That is to Elijah. God tells Elijah) I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal." Well, what was Baal? A pagan idol. So, already, a hundred years after King David, the Nation has gotten to the place where Isaiah thinks he’s the only one left that hasn’t fallen to idolatry.

But, God says, "No, I’ve got a remnant." That’s the way it’s always been. God has always kept that small percentage of Israelites, or Jews, however you want to refer to them, who remain true to Jehovah. But, for the most part, the Nation went down. Now, I know the average Jew probably would tell you that they’re going to be in eternity with us because they’re the children of Abraham. Well, I beg to differ, because there’s only a small remnant of Jews that were ever true believers. All right, now then Paul brings it on up to his own day and time. Back here in about the 58-59 AD, verse 5:

Romans 11:5

"Even so then at this present time (while Paul is writing) there is also a (what?) remnant according to the election of grace." There is always that little remnant. So, there was a remnant in Paul’s day. All right, now drop down to verse 7.

"What then? Israel (the Nation) has not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election (the true believer, they) obtained it, and the rest were (what?) blinded." They were blinded. So, for the last 1900 and some years, that’s been the lot of the rank and file Jew. They are blind to the things of God. Even their Old Testament, they’ve got it all fouled up, because God has sovereignly blinded them.

But, all right, now when you come back to Isaiah, you’ve got to constantly be reminded that even though God chastises the Nation as a whole, He has always had that remnant that remained true to Him. I think I can safely say this: because of the remnant they would finally come back to the place of blessing. Then, they would be blessed nationally for a period of time, and then it wouldn’t be long until, again, they would just sink down, for the most part, into a national point of unbelief. All right, now, let’s just move on into chapter 43. Again, God is going to constantly remind the Nation of Who He is.

Now, you know, even today I often have to wonder just how many rank and file church members, and I’m not going to even consider the non-churched world, but church people, how many of them really know who God is? Do they really have an understanding of His power? His might? His Sovereignty? His Omniscience? His Omnipotence? I’m afraid most don’t. God is just sort of a passing thought. Oh, He’s up there someplace. Yeah, He’s in control. But they really don’t know His power and His majesty. Well, Israel was no different. They were just blasé about it. So, God comes back and He is showing them who He really is.

"But now…" Now, that reminds me, I’ve said, you know, that I’m probably going to put together some programs someday using the "But now’s" in Scripture. But the "But now’s" are really ‘the flipside.’ Here we’ve seen Israel steeped in idolatry. "But now" we’re going to see the real God, not the god of wood and stone, but the God of Creation.

"But now, thus saith the LORD who created thee, O, Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have (what?) redeemed thee,…" Now, there comes that whole concept of redemption, that lost people, whether it’s Jew or Gentile, no matter what the person’s station in life, they’re in need of a spiritual redemption.

So, this word is just throughout the fabric of the Old Testament that Israel was to be looking for their Redeemer. All right, we’ll come to it again when we get to chapter 59, if not today, at a later time. All right, so "I have redeemed thee." I have bought you back.

Now, stop and think again, because after all, to get knowledge of Scripture you’ve got to constantly go back to your building blocks. That’s what Paul meant when he says in Romans 15:4 "all these things written beforehand were written for our (what?) learning." What does it rest on? What’s the foundation of all this? Well, let’s go back and just reconstruct.

Here we have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve sons. Now, that’s the beginning of the nation of Israel. Now, believe it or not, I’ve had people who have taught Sunday School for twenty years come up after one of my classes and ask me, "Where does the Jew come from?" Can you imagine that? I’ll be flabbergasted, but it’s happened more than once. Even though I’m flabbergasted, I get my cool back and I say; "Well, now the nation of Israel came with Abraham at 2000 BC, pulled off of the main stream of the Adamic race."

All right, now here we’ve got Jacob and the twelve sons, but one of them, they think, is kind of a braggart. He kind of thinks he’s better than the other eleven. Who was it? Joseph. Finally, Joseph irritated them to such an extent, what did they do? They sold him into slavery. Now, even way back then who were the slave traders? Ishmaelites. Well, who are Ishmaelites? Arabs. And the world can’t get their eyes opened. They have always been the master slave traders, even today, the Muslim world practices slavery more than the rest of the world put together. Why can’t the world wake up? They are adamant in their slave trading. All right, so Joseph gets sold into slavery and he ends up down in Egypt.

All right, now a lot of people can’t comprehend this. When the eleven brothers – now, of course, little Benjamin wasn’t intricately involved, but over all it was still a family deal – when the family sold Joseph down into slavery in Egypt, what happened between them and their God? Well, everything was broken. God lost them. Now, when God loses something like He lost the human race when Adam sinned, what does God have to do to get them back? Redeem them! That’s where the whole idea of redemption comes in.

All right, now you’re back there in Egypt and God has lost the nation, but they’re still increasing in population. God is going to be watching over them, don’t think He won’t. Finally, when the right time comes, He’s going to set up a plan of what? Redemption. That’s what the book of Exodus is all about. The exodus out of Egypt is a redemption story.

Now, how is He going to redeem the nation of Israel? The Passover Lamb, the blood. When you’ve heard me teach Exodus, I always made the point that it has never changed, God’s plan of redemption has three things: it takes the blood, it takes an individual, and it takes the power of God.

Now, they placed the blood on the doorpost on the night of the Passover. Moses was the deliverer, but when they get to the Red Sea and the sea opens up, who delivers the power to do it? God does. All right, now that’s the beautiful picture of redemption, no matter how you look at it. Whether it’s yours or mine or Israel’s it’s the same thing, it took the blood. The blood has the price of redemption. Jesus Christ was the person that God saw fit to be the deliverer and then at Resurrection morning it was the power of God that delivered it and brought the whole plan of Redemption to its completion.

So, whenever you see this term redeemed, that’s what we’re talking about, how God paid the price of redemption to bring whoever it was that He lost back to himself. All right, so for Israel then, God redeemed them when He brought them out of Egypt. You would have thought that from that point on those Jews would have been loyal believers to the "nth" degree. But they weren’t. Only a small percentage, just like it is today. All right, now then let’s go back to Chapter 43:1.

"…Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by my name, thou art mine. 2. When thou passest through the waters, (I’m sure that’s a reference to the Red Sea.) I will be with thee, and through the rivers, (I think that’s a reference to the Jordan at flood time, when they came in under Joshua.) they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, (Well, who walked through the fire? The three Hebrews in Daniel) thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. (Why?) 3. For I am the LORD thy God, I am the Holy One of Israel, thy (what?) Saviour: (See how the language all fits?) I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Sheba for thee, 4. Since thou wast precious in my sight…" Now, this is God speaking with regard to His beloved, chosen people.

You know that makes me stop and think. I read an article the other day, again by one of these scoffers. If God was such a God of love why did he permit His chosen people to suffer and suffer and suffer? Well, I’ll grant that’s a good, logical question, but the reason He allowed them to suffer is because of their wickedness and their unbelief that precipitated it. He never stopped loving them, yet He would bring in the chastisement.

"Fear not:… Sound familiar? It’s exactly what Paul writes in Hebrews. "Fear not: I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."

"Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; 6. I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back:…" Sound familiar? Well, that’s exactly what has happened since 1900. Same thing. The Jews have been coming back from the four corners of the earth, back to the homeland, Providentially. I think I said it in the last program, if you really stop to analyze it, what a miracle! They’ve been scattered into the nations of the world. They’re few in number. Yet God is bringing them back against all odds.

All right, now He didn’t do it just once. He’s already done it twice, and now of course, the next time they’re going to be there to stay. All right, reading on in verse 7.

Isaiah 43:7a

"Every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory," He’s not talking about the pagan Gentiles. He’s not talking about you and me. He’s talking about Israel. All right, verse 8.

"Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears." A contradiction? No. Physically they’ve got ears. Physically they’ve got eyes. But spiritually what are they? Deaf and blind. It’s no different today. It’s not one bit different today. People have got ears to hear. They’ve got eyes to see. But will they?

Oh, I hear it constantly like I shared with you in the studio before we started today, once they see this. Now, this gentleman, I’m not going to put it out publicly, but this gentleman I talked to you about in the studio, I can guarantee you that when he goes back to his own people with these things that he has now seen so clearly, they’re going to think he’s lost it! They’re going to think he’s out of his cage. I’ve got people here who already know what I’m talking about. Why? People do not want to see what the Word says; they’re satisfied with tradition. They want to stay in their semi-darkness rather than see the light. We hear it all the time.

"Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this and show us former things?..." Who among the Children of Israel has the knowledge that their God has? Not a one.

You know even Job had to find that out, didn’t he? You know, I’m careful when I say this, but when you think of Job, I think the guy was proud. I think Job thought he had it made, but when he was confronted with the Omnipotent God, what did Job have to realize? He was nothing! When he got to that realization, what did he have to do? Repent in dust and ashes.

All right, now Israel is the same way. They were proud of the fact that they were God’s chosen people, and yet they didn’t take that into consideration when they started following idols. All right, read on, verse 10, oh, I’d better finish verse 9.

"Let all the nations be gathered together, let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them bring forth their (what?) witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is (what?) truth." That’s what counts. Truth. What’s truth? The Word of God. Everything else becomes just so much vapor, it just disappears, but the Word of God is truth.

"You are my witnesses, (God says to Israel. They alone had a knowledge of the One True God) saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen:…" What is the term again? Servant. What’s the role of a servant? He is to carry out the bidding of the master.

"…that you may know and believe me, (that’s faith, remember) and understand that I am he: (That is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.) before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 11. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour." Sound familiar?

How did Peter put it in the book of Acts? "There is no other name given among men under heaven whereby we must be saved." How does Paul put it? "There is no other name, but at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow." All of Scripture declares that – Old and New. All right, reading on, verse 12.

"I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore you are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God." That was Israel’s role. That’s why God spent so much time with them and delivered them out of Egypt, gave them the priesthood, and gave them the tabernacle worship, so they could be a testimony to the pagan world around them.

"Yea, before the day was I am he; (I am your God) and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it? (or permit it?) 14. Thus saith the LORD, your redeemer, (See, there it is again, the One who has bought you back.) the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships. 15. I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your (what?) King." Remember what Isaiah said a couple of programs back?

"I saw the Lord of Glory, I saw the (What? You remember?) King." Oh, indeed He’s Israel’s King. Oh, He’s not active yet but He will be. That’s all future. But one day, He’s going to be Israel’s King and you see that in Revelation when it says what at the Second Coming? "And on His thigh is written King of Kings and Lord of Lords." He’s never accomplished that role before. But, He’s coming and Israel is to be a witness of all that. All right, verse 16 and our time is running out.

"Thus saith the LORD, who maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters; 17. Who bringeth forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the power;" In other words, when the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, come marching in against Jerusalem, who is bringing it about? The God of Glory! Israel’s God as a chastisement for their idolatry.

Again, we welcome you to an informal Bible study. For those of you that are brand new, you’ve probably just caught us in the last week or two, we have gone all the way from Genesis up through the Old Testament and New Testament and pretty much hit all the highlights. Now, we’re coming back and picking up some of the things we skimmed over. The book of Isaiah is one of them, and we’ll probably do a few others like this. Now, let’s pick up at the beginning of chapter 44.

"Yet now hear, O Jacob (This is the Lord speaking, and again He refers to them as:) my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:" Now, you’ve got to remember God uses those two terms interchangeably and sometimes together. We have to be careful that we don’t lose sight of the fact that the Ten Tribes to the north were called Israel and the Two Tribes to the south were called Judah. But, nevertheless, we use the terms Jacob and Israel pretty much in unison.

"Thus said the LORD that made thee, (Well, what does that make Him? The Creator!) and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun (That’s just another title for Israel – the upright ones.) whom I have chosen." Now, you want to remember (I won’t take you back and show you the verses) that the Lord said to Israel, "I have not chosen you because you are the greatest." He didn’t choose them because they were the most powerful nation on earth. He didn’t choose them for any reason whatsoever "but by His grace." By His Grace He chose them and set them aside to be the chosen or the covenant people. All right, reading on, verse 5:

"One shall say, I am the LORD’s and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel. (See how synonymous they are?) 6. Thus saith the LORD the (What again?) King of Israel,…" Now, I want you to see these things, this constant reference to the Lord, Jehovah, God the Son as Israel’s King. Oh, He’s not ruling over them, yet, but this is future that one day He’s going to be their King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

"…and his redeemer (See how the two go hand in hand?) the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last;…" What does that remind you of? Revelation, "I am the Alpha and the Omega," the first letter of the alphabet and the last letter of the alphabet. I am the beginning and the end, all through Scripture.

"…and beside me there is no God. 7. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? And the things that are coming, and shall come, let them show unto them." He is the God of the future!

"Fear not, neither be afraid: have I not told you from that time and declared it? You are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God, I know not any." All right, I was reminded of the name Ingersoll, the great famous agnostic, or atheist? This is sort of, I’m paraphrasing, I can’t quote it exactly, but this is what the man said, "The God of the Bible is proud and arrogant. Who does He think He is?" Isn’t that something? Well, nobody but an atheist could say something like that.

God has every right to be anything He wants to be. He can be arrogant if He wants to be. He can be totally absolute because He is the God over everything. He’s Sovereign. He can do whatever He wants to do. It’s His universe. If He wants to wipe it out tomorrow – that’s His prerogative. The only reason He won’t is because He’s promised a better future than that for the believer, but He could if He wanted to. He’s Sovereign. I’ve been stressing that in all the years I’ve been on television, the God of this Bible is Sovereign. Nobody can argue with Him. Nobody can debate Him. He can do whatever He wants. All right, verse 9, now we come back to the idolatry again.

"They that make a graven image are all vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not,…" In other words, Israel with the background that they had and their history and with their Scriptures should have known better. How could they fall into the worship of wood and stone and metal, as we’re going to see here in just a minute?

"…nor know; that they may be ashamed." My, they should have been embarrassed to tears to have their neighbors step in the door and see that idol up on the mantle. That’s what they should have been, but they weren’t. Now verse 10.

"Who hath formed a god, (small ‘g’, so it’s an idol) or molten a graven image that is profitable for (How much?) nothing? (Those idols can’t accomplish anything.) 11. Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed: and the workmen, they are of men: let them be gathered together, let them stand up; yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together." Who? These makers of idols.

Now, here they come, and remember this is 700 BC. Every time I read this, I’m immediately taken back to my days when I was in high school and shortly after in the ‘40’s’ and so forth, and you’d go to the village blacksmith and what did every blacksmith have? He had a forge. Come on, you older people know that. What was the forge? Well, it was that place where they had the pile of coals and something to blow the air up from underneath them, whether it was hand run bellows or, later on, an electric motor. They would blow that wind up through that coal until it would get what? White hot. They would lay that metal in there. I remember watching that old blacksmith more than once lay that piece of steel in there until it got white-hot. Then what would he do? He’d take his tongs and carry it over to the anvil and start beating on it with his hammer. It’s right out of the Book! Now, look at it.

"The smith (the blacksmith) with the tongs (with which he picked up the hot steel) both worketh in the coals, (They’re not just ordinary coals. They are forged coals with the air blowing through it to make them hotter.) and he fashioned it with (what?) hammers,…" Oh, I love this! They weren’t cavemen. My, they had all kinds of expertise. They were experts at it. They could mold this metal and with it they would make what? Idols. That’s what they’re doing. They’re using their expertise to make idols.

"…fashioneth it with hammers, worketh it with the strength of his arms;…" You know, have you ever seen a caricature of a blacksmith? What has he got? He’s got biceps like most pro-football players would dream of because he was using his arms constantly to either lift the heavy steel or to beat it with the hammer. All right, reading on:

"…and with it the strength of his arms; yea, he is hungry, his strength faileth: he drinketh no water, and is faint." Why? Because that idol couldn’t do him any good. Now, let’s go to the other guy. He doesn’t work in steel; he’s going to work with wood.

"The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; (same thing that they do today) he fitteth it with planes, (Now, you all know what a plane is. You plane your wood and get it smooth.) he marketh it out with a compass, (if he’s going to draw a circle) and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house." As an (what?) idol. Unbelievable! This is Israel! This is Israel, not Babylon, not Egypt. God’s chosen people!

"He heweth him down cedars and taketh the cypress and the oak, (He goes out into the forest and picks out a beautiful tree.) which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, (for whatever use he’s going to need) and the rain doth nourish it." Who gives the rain? God does.

"Then shall it be for a man to burn: (Now, you want to remember that fire was intrinsic for cooking, or warmth, or forging the metal. It had its uses.) for he will take thereof, and warm himself; (by the fire, in the fireplace or wherever) yea, he kindleth it, baketh his bread; yea, he maketh a god,…" All out of what? The same tree! You get the picture? He goes out and he cuts down this beautiful tree, and he’s going to use part of it for firewood. But, he’s going to use most of it to make an idol. Unbelievable! All right, so he makes a god.

Isaiah 44:15b

"…and worships it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto." I can’t comprehend it, and I don’t think you can either that these are Israelites, the chosen people, with the Temple there in Jerusalem, with the sacrifices going on every day. The priests, the prophets, preaching up and down the land and yet the rank and file of Israel are steeped in idolatry.

So, does it make any difference to have a church on every corner? Not really. That doesn’t make the difference, but it’s what happens in the heart. We were just talking at break time, now we can’t judge because we can’t look on the heart, God is the final judge, but my goodness, we can be fruit inspectors. What kind of a life do they live when they’re not sitting in their pew? Do they have any love for the Word of God? Do they spend time in prayer every day? Do they share the Word with others when they have the chance? Now, I’m not one that feels you must make a fool of yourself and constantly preach at people at work or wherever else. But, be ready. The Scripture says that when you have an opportunity to share the Gospel, you do.

But see, Israel was steeped in their religion. They didn’t miss a feast day. But in their every day life, what were they? Idolaters. Depending on idols. Okay, read on, our time’s going fast. Verse 16, and we’re still going back to the tree that he cut down in the forest.

"He burneth part thereof in the fire; (for his wood, for his baking, his cooking) and with part thereof he eateth flesh; (cooking. He’s roasting.) he roasteth a roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and says, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire." Then, he turns right around and with the rest of the tree he does what? Makes a god! It’s laughable if it wasn’t so pitiful.

"And the residue thereof he maketh a god:… 18. They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; (that is spiritually) and their hearts, that they cannot understand." All right, I’m going to take you up to show you how Paul puts it. Leave Isaiah a minute, come up to I Corinthians, because whether it’s 700 BC or whether it’s 60 AD, when Paul probably wrote Corinthians, or whether it’s 2004 AD, it doesn’t make any difference. Not a bit. The human race has not changed one iota.

Oh, we may wear a little different clothes. We may have cell phones, and we may have all the other good things of life besides the basic everyday things of life, but, no, the human race hasn’t changed. You know, I’ve always made the analogy, I think I used it Saturday in our all-day seminar. Up until 1860 you could have taken a family from almost any place on earth, uprooted them and set them down someplace else. They could have kept right on living in the community because everybody still carried their water. They still cooked with fire and there were no modern conveniences. They still homespun their clothes.

But then, all of a sudden, in about the middle 1800’s things started changing. Of course, getting the world ready for the end time. But, you see, for thousands of years they lived no differently. Now, a lot of you are old enough to remember when at least your parents or your grandparents lived this kind of a lifestyle. They cooked with fireplaces. Our pioneers, you all know they cooked over open fire. They had to carry their water. They had to homespun their clothes. So the human race hasn’t changed.

All right, now the same way when it comes to spiritual things. I didn’t give you the verse yet did I? I Corinthians chapter 2 and I’m going to start all the way up at verse 9. But, the point I want to make is that the unbelieving world is just as ignorant today as Israel was back in Isaiah’s time. It hasn’t changed one whit. Here Paul writes to these Gentiles at Corinth and to us today:

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Now, what class of people are we talking about? The believers. We’re talking about the believer.

"But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: (that in-dwelling Holy Spirit that is part and parcel of the believer’s life) yea, the deep things of God. 11. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? (In other words, we’re human. We’re just like anybody else) even so the things of God knoweth no man, but by the Spirit of God." Only the believer. The unbeliever can’t have this.

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God." Now, are you getting the picture? Who alone can know this? The believer. The unbelieving world can’t put this together. They haven’t got a clue, is the word that I hear over and over. They haven’t got a clue, but we, the believer, do.

"Which things also (Paul says) we speak,…" He is revealing to us the things of the Spirit of God, which the unbelieving world can’t get a hold on. All right and it’s going to come to us.

"…not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches (How does the Holy Spirit teach?) comparing spiritual things with spiritual." That’s exactly why I like to use various references to compare what the Word says here with what it says over there. I think it’s God’s way of enlightening us. All right, so "we compare spiritual things with spiritual things" and we can comprehend it. We can learn from it. But, now read the next verse.

"But, the natural man (the unbeliever, the person who has never come into a salvation relationship) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: they are (what?) foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." God doesn’t expect him to understand. Why? "Because they are spiritually discerned." Who gives us the discernment? The indwelling Holy Spirit, Who the unbeliever doesn’t have. So, he’s out in the dark, but that’s not his fault. He doesn’t have to stay there. What does John’s Gospel tell them? "Come in out of the dark, come to the Light." But they don’t want to. As Jesus said it, John said it, "they love their darkness better than light."

All right, back to Isaiah and coming back to where we left off in chapter 44. Verse 18 again, that’s where I got the idea of going to I Corinthians. It’s never been any different.

"They have not known nor understood: (Now, of course, we’re talking about Israel.) for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand." It was a providential judgment call because they were rebellious. How does Romans put it? "God gave them up." It was a judicial thing.

"And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; (Now, we come back to that tree again. Don’t lose that tree.) yea, I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; (I’ve used it to heat the ovens.) I have roasted flesh, (I have cooked my meal with it.) and eaten it; and I shall make the residue thereof an abomination? (Yes, because what’s he going to do?) shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?" Well what’s he referring to? The idol that he made out of it.

Now, get the picture? He uses part of the tree for his household needs, the fire to cook, to bake, but he’s going to use the rest of the log for making an idol. Then, when he’s got it made, what’s he going to do? Fall down and worship it.

Isn’t that ridiculous? Oh, the absurdity of it. But, listen, people are just as absurd today. Don’t blame the Israelites, they’re no different. My, when you see the stuff that people send me; what people are falling for today, it’s unbelievable. You wonder, how can intelligent people fall for something that is so false? But, it’s human nature.

"He feedeth on ashes; a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?" (God comes back and speaks again to the Nation.) 21. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: (God hasn’t given up on them. Anybody else would have, but the God of Grace doesn’t. He continues pleading with them and dealing with them.) I have formed thee; thou are my servant: Oh Israel, thou shall not be forgotten of me. 22. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions,…" What does that tell you? Oh, now come back with me to Exodus. I’ve got time, and I think it’s chapter 33. Let’s drop down to verse 19, the last half of the verse. Remember that this is just shortly after they worshipped the golden calf at the base of Mount Sinai while Moses was up in the mountain. You know the story. In spite of all that, look what God reminds Moses in the last half of verse 19.

"…I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; (and I’m going to put the pronoun in) and I will be gracious, to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." What is that? That’s the Sovereign God. Even though Israel deserved judgment and chastisement, He’s not going to give up on them. And it’s no different today.

You know the most rebellious sinner, how does Paul put it? Oh, I’ve got time here, let’s jump again all the way up to Romans. God hasn’t changed. I think I want chapter 5, I want you to see God hasn’t changed. Really, the human race hasn’t changed. So, we’re under the same set of circumstances and that’s why we can proclaim these things from the pen of Paul that are just as valid for us today as what Isaiah was telling Israel. The same God. Oh, we’re under a whole different economy, but look what God says now through the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 5, let’s start at verse 19. This is before Israel. This is Adam.

"For as by one man’s disobedience many (all, really) were made sinners, so that by the obedience of one (Jesus the Christ and the work of the cross) shall many be made righteous." Remember that we’re now made righteous by believing in our hearts that Jesus died for your sins and mine, and rose from the dead, plus nothing else." We find that in I Corinthians 15:1-4 and Romans 10:9-10 and many other places in Paul’s writings.

"Moreover the law entered, (Now, you want to remember the Law came in 2500 years after Adam.) that the offence might abound. (That sin might be seen for what it is, and so the Law shows man’s sin. But now, here’s the part I wanted.) But where sin abounded; grace did much more abound:" Why? Because the Sovereign God says, "I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious." So, the whole concept is that there is no sin so great but that the Grace of God can lift them out of it. What a message - What a God!

You in the studio audience have had your coffee at the break. For those of you joining us out there on television, I know a lot of you do as we do here. You grab your cup of coffee and then you go sit down and watch the program. We hear that over and over and over. But, the main thing is that you get what the Book has to say. If the coffee helps, so be it.

We’ve had many tell us that while studying with us they suddenly realize they had not previously believed in their heart that Jesus died for their sins, was buried, and rose from the dead, as Paul tells us to believe for salvation in I Corinthians 15:1-4. As a result of studying with us they have become true believers. So, praise the Lord for that.

Again, I want to thank our television folks. My, I just can’t put it into words how that without ever using any gimmicks, without ever begging or pleading for money for the ministry, it just keeps coming in and always covers what we need. We don’t have any great big bank balance, but the Lord just supplies it as we need it, so thank you from the bottom of our heart.

Okay, back into Isaiah chapter 44 where we were in the last lesson. I’m going to jump down to verse 24. We’ll skip a couple of verses here. But, remember now, that God is still pleading with Israel that He’s not going to give up on them. He’ll chastise them if He has to but He will never give up on them.

"Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb,…" In other words, Israel came about by God’s judicial decree when He called Abram out of the Ur of the Chaldees and gave him the Abrahamic Covenant. When He said in Genesis 12:1-3 "that I will make of thee a great (what?) nation." That was God’s idea. It didn’t just happen by accident. They were by design brought out of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the Twelve Tribes.

"…he formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; (He’s the Creator of everything.) that stretchest forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;" He didn’t need any help! He speaks the Word and it accomplishes.

"That frustrateth the tokens of the liars and maketh diviners mad;…" (In other words, God can just totally foul up the works of Satan and his followers.) that turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolish;" My! Whenever I think of wise men made foolish, I have to think of the Apostle Paul when he confronted the intellectuals on Mars Hill and what’d they call him? The Babbler.

But, you know, as I’ve said over and over, whenever you go to Mars Hill and I hope it’s still there, (it was when Iris and I were there years back) there was a plaque to only one great famous figure who spoke on Mars Hill. It wasn’t Archimedes; it wasn’t Galileo or any of the other great Greek intellectuals. Who was it? It was Saul of Tarsus, the Apostle Paul. So, the babbler was the only one that history really made an account of. But see, here it is again, God can frustrate the work of the so-called intellectual community, because He is God.

"That confirmeth the word of his servant, (that is Israel) and performeth the counsel of his messengers;…" Now, there I have to think, what’s he referring to? The Word of God. This whole book comes from the pen of what people? Jews. Every one of them a Jew! Don’t ever buy the gimmick that Luke was a Gentile. He couldn’t have been. He had to be a Jew to be a writer of Scripture because it’s "God’s servant" that wrote the Word, as we see in Romans 3:1.

"…that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited;…" Now, here’s a reference to when He has emptied them out for those seventy years of captivity and Jerusalem is a shambles, it’s empty, it’s lying waste. He’s going to bring Israel back.

"…Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, (after they come back) and I will raise up the decayed places thereof. 27. (I am the God. I’m putting that in now only for clarification.) That saith to the deep, be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers: " If God wants the Euphrates to be dry, He’ll dry it up.

" (I am the God) That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure;…" Now, let’s stop a minute. From history, who was Cyrus? Well, he was the emperor of the Mede and Persian Empire that defeated the Babylonians. So, it was the Mede and Persian Empire that ruled the then known world, including Jerusalem. So, after the 70 years of captivity had run their course, the Medes and Persians was now the empire, it was no longer Babylon. God had decreed through one of the Jewish prophets over a hundred years before that this man Cyrus would be raised up to open the way for the Jew to come back.

You know, I think I made mention of this. I had someone call one time and say, "Why are you so adamant that the Bible is the only true Word of God?" Because the Bible is the only Word that proves itself. I used this analogy right here. I said, "There’s not another religious book on this planet, not a one, that can name people 150 years before they’re born. King Josiah was named 300 years before he was born. Here we have Cyrus named 150 years before he was born. No other book can do that. No other book can decree that the Jew would be scattered into every nation under heaven and then one day come back. No other book can give three hundred and some distinct prophecies concerning Christ’s first coming and all be fulfilled. Not a one." So, we always have to be adamant and I am. There is no other Book besides this Book! It is the only Word of God. Everything else is counterfeit.

Everything else is by Satan’s design, not God’s. They can counterfeit it, but they can’t take its place. So, I love this reference to Cyrus and I’m going to use it to the hilt because here is a king, an emperor by God’s design, in the right place at the right time because the seventy years of the captivity have run their course. Israel has now been out of the land for 70 years. It’s time for the Jews to go back and rebuild the city and the Temple and get everything in place for the coming of the Messiah, some five hundred years later? By the time the Temple is rebuilt we’re down to 400 BC. And 400 years later, Messiah comes. All right, so let’s just look at this a minute. Verse 28:

"(I am the God) That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd,…" Now, this is unusual. No other Gentile is referred to as one of God’s shepherds. That’s amazing. But this man is. He is there by God’s design.

Some commentaries will actually depict Cyrus as a "type" of Christ because Christ is the true Shepherd and Cyrus is merely a "type." Well, I can see where they’re coming from because, you see, what’s Cyrus going to do? Cyrus is going to set up the decree and make everything ready for the return of Israel to Jerusalem. Cyrus is going to be almost a Messiah of "type" because he’s making the way ready for Israel to return.

All right, let’s go back and pick this man Cyrus up in Ezra chapter 1. Now, while you’re doing that I can go to my timeline. Here we come to 606 BC. Nebuchadnezzar overruns Jerusalem and destroys the city and the Temple. Israel is taken out to Babylon for 70 years. The nation is completely out of the land. There may be a few stragglers left, but for the most part the land has been empty. All right, now, we’re at the end of the 70 years, which takes us down to 546 BC or something like that. Under Ezra a small contingent of Jews, 44,000 really, just a small tiny percentage are going to come back, and they’re going to be rebuilding the Temple.

Now, they have started rebuilding the Temple in about 546 BC. A hundred years later, about 446 BC or thereabouts, comes Nehemiah and Nehemiah’s instruction is under yet another Emperor called Artaxerxes the King, and we may look at that if we have time, who follows Cyrus, but he’s still an Emperor of the Medes and Persians. So, Ezra comes back to rebuild the Temple which takes almost 50-60 years and they dedicate it just shortly before Nehemiah comes back to rebuild the wall and the gates and so forth. All right, so by the time we get to 400 BC everything is now getting ready for the nation of Israel to be repopulated. The Temple is operating. The priesthood is in place for the coming of the Messiah. Everything has to be rebuilt and ready.

Now, we know that King Herod, in order to gain favor with the Jews, thought he could remodel and embellish the Temple that Ezra made because, after all, Ezra and his poor guys coming back from Babylon didn’t have a lot of expertise. So, it probably was not all that beautiful. So, King Herod thought, "Well, I’ll do a favor to the Jews," and Herod was a builder. There’s nothing that Herod was known for more than being a fantastic builder. So, King Herod decided that the Temple Mount wasn’t big enough for the Temple complex he wanted to build so what did he do? He enlarged it. All right, now when King Herod decided to enlarge the Temple mount, even today if you’re going to enlarge a hillside what are you going to do to hold the dirt in place? Well, you’re going to build a retaining wall. That’s what Herod did. Herod built that huge retaining wall so that he could fill it with dirt and so forth and have more room for the Temple Complex. Now, that retaining wall is what you see in the news every so often – It’s now called the Wailing Wall. That’s not part of the Temple itself. It’s simply Herod’s retaining wall to hold the fill dirt. Got it?

Now then, with the Temple Mount enlarged, Herod could build a more beautiful, larger Temple Complex. That was the Temple that was in place when Jesus began His earthly ministry. That’s why the disciples were even proud of that beautiful Temple. They were almost braggadocio about it. Then, that’s why the Lord told them in Matthew 24, "See all these things, every stone will be thrown down one on top of the other," which, of course, the Romans did forty years later, in 70 AD. But, all right, Ezra chapter 1 verse 1, they’ve been gone now for 70 years and everything is a shambles.

"Now in the first year of Cyrus the King of Persia, (same guy.) that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD, (Now, always remember that LORD is Jehovah, it’s God the Son.) stirred up the spirit of Cyrus the King of Persia, (Now, remember, who was Persia in biblical times? Present day Iran. Same country. Same people) that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it in writing, saying, 2. Thus saith Cyrus the King of Persia, the LORD God of heaven..." From a pagan king! See? But, I think Cyrus may have been a believer. I don’t think I’m being too far a field by saying that. He may have been an exceptional Gentile who became a believer.

"…The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; (the then-known world. Why did he succeed in every battle? Because God saw to it that he did.) and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. (Now, verse 3, so King Cyrus puts out the news to the whole Jewish community.) Who is there among you of all his people?..." Now, that’s Israel. He’s not asking the Persians, he’s asking Jews.

"Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD, the God of Israel, he is the God which is in Jerusalem. 4. And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of this place help him with silver, gold, goods, beasts beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem." In other words, then, like now, if you’re going to go into a building project, what did it take? Money. It took money. It took goods. It took wherewithal. Things haven’t changed. It’s always been this way.

"Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all of them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem." Now, here they prepare to go.

And all they that were about them strengthened their hand with vessels of silver, and gold and goods and beast, precious things, besides that which was willingly offered. 7. Also Cyrus (this Gentile king) the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem, and had put them in the house of his gods." You see why Nebuchadnezzar fell? He desecrated the Temple. He took all of the Godly things back to Babylon when he took Jerusalem and incorporated them into the pagan worship of the gods of Babylon. But Cyrus, you see, a servant of Jehovah, does just the opposite. He brings all of those things that were stolen from Jerusalem and takes them back to the building of the new Temple. Then, you get into chapter 2 and you have the number of people that will finally come forward and agree to go back to Jerusalem and start rebuilding the Temple.

All right, now then let me, while we’re here, just go on through Ezra. Go on to Nehemiah a minute where we were in our first program and stop in Nehemiah chapter 2. Now, this is many years later after the Temple has now been pretty much built, almost a hundred years, and now Nehemiah is a servant of the next king of the Medes and the Persians. It’s no longer Cyrus, who has already died and passed off the scene. So, here we are almost 100 years later in chapter 2 of Nehemiah, verse 1:

"And it came to pass in the month Nisan, (that is in April) in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king,…" Now, we’ve got a different king. Still the same empire, but this is probably a grandson or something of Cyrus.

"…that wine was before him: (he was serving wine before him) and I took up the wine, and gave it to the king. 2. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is your countenance sad, seeing you are not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was sore afraid. 3. And I said to the king, Let the king live forever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, (Now, we’re not talking about the Temple, we’re talking about the city, the houses, the buildings, the wall for defense.) the place of my fathers sepulchers lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?" A hundred and seventy years! Why didn’t the Arab world go in there and fix it all up and have it going like everything and claim it themselves. Have you ever thought of that? They could have. No, they couldn’t have. God wouldn’t have let them!

But, nevertheless, when you hear the propaganda today that the Jews have no right to the land, that it’s the Arab’s homeland, it has always been their land, it’s always been a land of production, ignore it. No, it hasn’t! It was desolate! There was nobody building it up. The trash and the rubble the Babylonians had left 170 years earlier were still laying there. Amongst the trash they built the Temple up there on the mount, but the city itself is still in rubble. Now, reading on in verse 4.

"Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven." Now, he didn’t run to his closet. He didn’t run to someplace to get in private. Right before the king he prayed. Do you think he so much as moved his lips? Nope. How did he pray? Silently. He just prayed in thought. That’s what I always try to tell people. You don’t have to be in some special place to pray. You can pray anywhere. You don’t have to pray out loud. God reads your prayers.

"And I said to the king, If it please the king,…" And so on and so forth. Well, the same thing happens to Nehemiah as happened to Ezra. The king gives him letters to give him safe travel and to give him permission to use whatever he needed from the king’s forest to start rebuilding the city. All right, then you come down to verse 10, and here again we want you to understand that instead of the Arabs having rebuilt everything, instead of everything all nice and ready for the Jews like the Canaanites had done hundreds of years earlier, they haven’t lifted a stone! They haven’t picked up a piece of wood. It’s rubble everywhere.

"So when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, (now what are those? Those are Arabs) heard of it, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel." Has anything changed? Nothing.

"So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days." All right, now for sake of time, I’m going to jump you all up to verse 17. Now, Nehemiah says:

"Then I said unto them, (that is to the Jews who are going to help build the city and the wall) You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth (what?) waste…" , I’m going to make the point if nothing else by repetition, repetition, repetition. How many years has it been laying waste? A hundred and seventy or more! Now, look, read on, the language.

"…and the gates are burned with fire: (They’re not closable. There were no walls to protect even the builders of the Temple. So, Nehemiah says) come let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach." Now, I made the point somewhere when I was teaching that back in antiquity what was the first real line of defense for a city? The wall. That was the only thing they had. They didn’t have the technology that we’ve got today. The wall was their first line of defense. If you were a city without a wall, you were almost a reproach. So, that’s what Nehemiah has said, "We can’t be a reproach in the midst of these people. We have to get the wall built." So, they begin. Now, verse 18.

"Then I told them of the hand of my God (See His Sovereignty? Everything is accomplished because of the Sovereignty of Israel’s God.) who was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work." But, verse 19, here comes opposition from the Arabs again.

"But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah his servant the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, when they heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us and they said, What is this thing that you do? Will you rebel against the king?" They didn’t know that the king was the one that brought it about.

"Then I answered and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but you have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem."

I think most of our listeners know that we tape four of these programs in order when we do our taping, and in between we have a coffee break so we’re informal. I’m not associated with any one group. There’s no one underwriting us. We just depend on the Lord to supply our every need. It’s miraculous how He keeps doing it month after month. We get our bills paid and the bank account is just about down to zero but then here it keeps coming. So, we just thank every one of you for your help and especially for your prayers.

All right, we’re going to get right back into the book of Isaiah and we’re going to jump in at chapter 51 today. As I’ve done before, I like to spend at least a moment or so at the beginning of every taping session explaining the background of this particular portion of Scripture. Isaiah, remember, is a prophet writing in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, but he addresses the whole nation of Israel. He’s writing 700 years before Christ. He’s writing 100 years before the invasion by Nebuchadnezzar. That tells us that God’s wheels grind slowly. Even though Isaiah is prophesying some of these things as though they are going to happen next week or next month, yet it doesn’t become a reality for a hundred years.

You know, I’m reminded of the same thing today. My, as fast as things are pointing toward the end-time and we almost feel that the Lord could come next week, and He may, but, with God time doesn’t mean that much. It could go still go on for a good while, yet. To us it doesn’t seem possible, but it could. So, we don’t want to just get careless and say, "Well, the Lord won’t come yet for another hundred years." On the other hand we have to realize that we can’t get over sensationalized and say, "Well, the Rapture will take place next week or next month or next fall or whatever."

All right, so the book of Isaiah then is a book of prophecy. In it you will find no salvation for Gentiles. It is strictly a book that is detailing the things that are going to come to pass in the life and time of the nation of Israel. Now, this chapter again happens to come back on a high note. In the previous chapters we’ve seen how God is foretelling judgment to come and chastisement because of their rebelliousness and their unbelief. But, now, this chapter is a high note, again. Here we’re dealing with some of the good things that are in Israel’s future. All right, come in with me at Isaiah chapter 51 verse 1:

"Hearken (listen) to me, you that follow after righteousness,…" Now, what does that mean? Now he’s addressing the believing element. Again, I always have to emphasize, that a lot of Jews today think that every Jew is going to end up in Paradise or Heaven or whatever they think of, simply because they’re members of the family of Abraham. Well, I beg to differ because even the Lord Jesus Himself warned them constantly, "you are yet in your sin." He spoke graphically of those who would be sent to the Lake of Fire because of their unbelief. So, there’s nothing to indicate that all Jews will be saved simply because they’re members of the nation of Israel. There’s always been the believing element, a small percentage, a remnant, and the rest have been doomed.

"Hearken to me, you that follow after righteousness, you who seek the LORD:…" Now, that brings up another thought. So many times we’ll get a letter in the mail or a phone call, "Well, how can I know that I’m saved?"

Well, this is our first response. "Where are your priorities? Would you rather be with God’s people or the people of the world? Would you rather be in a Bible study or would you rather be in a filthy movie? Do you have a hunger for the Word of God? Or do you never open its covers? Do you have a time of prayer? Do you talk to Him? What about your life style? Are we a believer or aren’t we?" Now, you cannot practice these things in the flesh very long. Now, anybody can do some of these things for a while, but you cannot just go on consistently living the agenda of a Christian unless you are truly a child of God. So, here again, it was to those who knew that they were believers that Isaiah is writing and he says:

"…look unto the rock whence you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence you are digged." I think he’s going all the way back to the onset of the Nation with the Abrahamic Covenant. Then, verse 2 makes that certain.

"Look unto Abraham your father, (the beginning of the Jewish race) and unto Sarah who bear you: (Not Hagar, but Sarah.) for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him." Here, again, is what so many church people do not understand. That the nation of Israel came about because of God’s Sovereign decision to call one man, pull him out of the mainstream of the Adamic race and out of him bring about the nation of Israel.

It was supernatural because both Abraham and his wife Sarah were beyond the age of normal childbearing. So, everything about it was a supernatural phenomenon. Then out of that line of Abraham came Isaac and then Jacob and then the twelve sons and the Twelve Tribes. So, here is the progression of this little nation of Israel, never great in number, usually around six, seven, eight million, which is nothing. They have never been great in number and never been great in square miles, but they’ve been the least of the nations. Yet, this is the nation through whom God has chosen to give us the Word of God. It was this nation through whom Christ came. It’s this nation around which all of prophecy revolves.

If you take Israel off the planet there’s nothing left for prophecy. Nothing. This is why when these people claim that the Jews have disappeared they have to throw away prophecy, because there is no prophecy if there is no Israel. We just got through emphasizing that on our last two weeks of teaching up north, how everything rests on God’s dealing with the nation of Israel. All right, so it’s to these believing Jews, now, that the prophet, as the spokesman for their eternal God, is speaking.

"For the LORD, (Jehovah) will comfort Zion: (Remember, Zion is a hill in Jerusalem.) he will comfort all her waste places; he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD;…" Now, we’ve got to stop. Why is there that kind of language in an upbeat chapter? Because, you see, whenever Israel is out of the land it becomes desolate. It becomes totally unproductive, uninhabited, it becomes a barren desert.

While we were up north last week somebody gave me some more out of Mark Twain’s book The Innocents Abroad. I’ve read parts of it over the years, but this was even more graphic. When Mark Twain was traveling in the area of present day Israel, or what was then called Palestine, way back in the middle 1800’s, this was his description. "The land is totally barren, it’s desolate. The weeds of the desert don’t even grow here. The wild animals of the desert are unknown because it’s totally desolate." All right, so this is what the Lord is showing them after they’ve been out of the land. They’re going to be captured in 600 BC (we’ve still got the timeline on the board from our last taping). Nebuchadnezzar came and took the whole nation of Israel captive out to Baghdad and Babylon. But, what happened to the land of Israel? It became desolate. For seventy years it was desolate.

We showed in our last taping that when they came back to Jerusalem, the Arabs hadn’t come in and made it productive. They hadn’t cleaned up all the residue of Nebuchadnezzar’s siege and destruction. It was all still there. Then, a hundred years after that Nehemiah comes back and what does he say? "Everything was rubbish." Well, why hadn’t the Arab’s gone in and made it livable? Well, God won’t let them. It’s always been that way. Every time Israel is removed from the land, nobody comes in and makes it their homeland. It remains desolate.

But, we’re dealing, now, with the first time, the 70-year captivity. It will be a wilderness, it’ll be desert, but when Israel comes into the place of blessing it will suddenly become productive again. It’ll be "like the garden of the LORD." Now, verse 3, reading on:

"…joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." In other words it will be normal life, especially for the believers.

"Hearken unto me, O, my people;…" Now, "my people" in the Old Testament is Israel. Nobody else. Now, granted, you and I can come back here and make some applications, but by and large this is written strictly to the nation of Israel.

"…and give ear unto me, O, my nation: (See, that’s not us. That’s Israel.) for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment (or my rule, or my government) to rest for a light of the people. 5. My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, mine arms shall judge the people; the isles (or the borders of all this) shall wait upon me, and on mine arm they shall trust. 6. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath:" Now, this is leaping clear out now, clear to the end of the millennium even. That’s what I told you earlier in this book of Isaiah. You’ve got three periods of time that are distinctly referred to, and you have to almost go to the text to find out which one it is.

The first one was the near-term Babylonian invasion, 606 BC. The next one would be the destruction by the Romans in 70 AD, but then the final one, leading to the end of everything as we know it and ushering in eternity, is at the end of the millennium. So, this is looking all the way to the end of the millennium when it says :

"…the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, the earth (the planet as we know it) shall wax old like a garment,…" Now, what do you do with an old garment? Well, you pitch it. However you’re going to get rid of it, whether you burn it or whatever. You just cast it aside; it’s gotten rid of.

"…and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. " In other words, after this old planet has run its course, eternity kicks in and we go into eternal things. Now, it’s amazing how many times Scripture refers to this very fact. Back up, if you will, to chapter 50, and verse 9.

Now, back up for another portion of Scripture, which is in Psalms 102, verse 25, and we’ve got the same kind of language.

"Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth; the heavens are the work of thy hands. 26. (Now look what’s going to happen.) They (the earth and the heavens, I think the whole universe) shall perish, but thou (the believer) shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:" In other words, all the things that God has created. All right, now, let’s jump all the way up to the New Testament and we’ll see how we have the same language repeated even in the New. Come with me to Hebrews chapter 1, and let’s jump in at verse 10.

"And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth (Now, that goes back to creation of Genesis 1:1.) and the heavens (The universe and everything that God’s created.) are the works of thy hands: 11. They shall perish; (It’s not going to last forever.) but thou (the Creator) remainest; and they (back to creation) all shall wax old as doth a garment; 12. And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: (In other words, it’s all going to cast aside someday.) but, (the Eternal God) thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail." All right, let’s go ahead a few pages to II Peter chapter 3. Here we have almost the same thoughts but in different wording. All right, II Peter, chapter 3, verse 10, it wonderful how all of Scripture fits when you get on a certain theme.

"But the day of the Lord (Now, that starts with Christ’s first advent and goes all the way past the millennium.) will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements (The very things that make up matter.) shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 11. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, (see just like working in a chemistry laboratory) what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy manner of living and godliness."

"Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, (in other words when all of these things will supernaturally start taking place) wherein the heavens being on fire shall be (what?) dissolved, (melted down.) and the elements (that which makes up matter again) shall melt with fervent heat? (But, is that the end? No, next verse:) 13. Nevertheless we, (we who trust the Word of God) according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth (no wickedness, no curse but what?) righteousness." That’s the hope for the believer.

All right, let’s go all the way to the last chapter of your Bible, or next to the last anyway. Revelation chapter 21 and how glorious it is to see that all of the writers of Scripture, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, talked the same language.

"And I saw a (what?) new heaven and new earth: (why?) for the first heaven and the first earth were (what?) passed away;…" They’ve disappeared. They’ve burned up. They’ve melted down, or however you want to put it. Then he sees in verse 2:

"And I John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Now, we know from another portion of Revelation that this glorious city is going to be how big? Fifteen hundred miles cubed. Some think it’s a pyramid, I think it’s a cube but that’s irrelevant. But now look, would a city of that size rest on this little planet? Why, it would be cantilevered clear over on every direction. So, what does that tell us? This new earth, I think, is going to be so huge it’ll make Jupiter look like a model. It’ll be of such dimension that that 1500-mile city can come down and won’t stick out over the edge one bit. This is the prospect, and we know that God is in total control. All right, that’s the beauty of Scripture. Now, back to Isaiah 51 again, reading on:

"… and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: (In other words, the unbelievers are going to be removed along with that earth that’s been under the curse for all these thousands of years.) but my salvation shall be (how long?) forever,…" That’s the hope of the believer. Nothing comes to an end for the believer. Even this old universe can be burned up and totally destroyed and a new one come in its place, and we’ll still be ready to enjoy it.

"Hearken unto me, (That’s a second time now that Israel is told to listen.) ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings." Now, isn’t it amazing? It’s God’s people who maintain order and blessing and yet the rest of the community reviled them. It’s always been that way. It’s never been any different.

It’s the same way today. You know, as I’ve mentioned before in this program, one of the editorial writers of Time magazine has made the statement that he hates, he detests Christianity. He thinks it’s the worst thing that has ever happened to America. Well, he’s free to express his thoughts. But, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He may be a highly profiled editorial writer but he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Christianity is what made this nation; it’s not what has destroyed it. But, nevertheless, it’s always been that way. The believer has been reviled by the unbelievers, even in Israel.

"For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, (You know what moths can do to a wool garment.) and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation." The unbeliever is only here for a little smatter of time and he goes to his doom. But, the believer is going right on into eternity to come.

"Awake,…" The first of three times this is said in the next series of verses going on into chapter 52. Well, what does that tell you? Well, just like we say today – wake up!

You know, we’re seeing evidence of this even in America today. Wake up and realize there are forces out there that want to destroy us. But, people have got their head in the sand. My, we had evidence of it again the other day in Minneapolis, how people are so ready to embrace all of these elements that want to destroy us. How can they embrace something like that? They’re asleep! They’re ignorant, and how sad. But, see, Israel was no different, so even the believers are told, come out of your lethargy – wake up!

"…put on strength, (He’s not talking to the unbelieving element, he’s talking to the righteous, awake, put on strength.) O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, and the generations of old, Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?" Now, that sounds like something hard to comprehend, but the Rahab here is an indication of Egypt when Israel was under their bondage, and the dragon is a reference to Pharaoh and how he misused them and enslaved them. All right, verse 10, speaking of the God of Israel:

"Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, (See how this is all evidence of Israel coming out of Egypt.) the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over." Well, who were the ransomed? Israel. The believing element.

"Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return,..." Now, what does that word "return" indicate? They’re going to be gone. You can’t return if you haven’t left. Now, this is all prophesied as if it’s already happened. That’s the beauty of prophecy. So, Isaiah is speaking of this first initial out casting from the land, which was the Babylonian captivity, only 70 years in length. But, in that 70 years, the land would become desolate and Israel would return. All right, he’s speaking as if it’s already happened.

Isaiah 51:11-12

"Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. 12. I (the Lord says) even I, am he that comforteth you: who are you that thou shouldest be afraid of a man who shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;" In other words, he will go into the grave.

"And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, (Here we come back again to God’s power of creation, His Sovereignty.) and laid the foundation of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor?" Now, you want to remember the oppressor in view here is Babylon. He’s going to be coming in less than a hundred years, and he’s going to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple and take the nation of Israel captive. All right, verse 14:

"The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. 15. But (Take heart, Israel!) I am the LORD thy God who divided the sea, whose waves roared: (Referring back again to the Red Sea.) the LORD of hosts is his name. 16. And I have put my words in thy mouth, I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, (What’s the promise?) Thou art my people." That’s God speaking to Israel. What an assurance! Yet, in unbelief, the vast majority of them constantly reject it.

All right, now here’s the second wake up call. There’s going to be a third one in chapter 52, but here’s the second wake up call:

"Awake, awake, stand up, oh Jerusalem, which hath drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury;…" In other words, they’re going to come through chastisement and judgment before they can receive the blessings of the God of Israel. So, it’s always been, and so it will be even in the future.

All right, we pretty much finished Isaiah 51 and now we’re going to just jump into chapter 52 verse 1. Now I trust you all know your Bible well enough that Isaiah 53 is that great explanation of salvation for the Old Testament believers. But, it was in such veiled language that nobody really knew what it was talking about until we get to our New Testament revelations and then we can look back and see how graphically correct Isaiah 53 is. But before we get to 53 we want to take a run through 52, which is really leading up to that great chapter. All right, Isaiah 52 verse 1, here is now our third double "Awake."

"Awake, awake; (Israel wake up!) put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcised and the unclean." Now what is that a reference to? Oh, the Kingdom of course is in reference here, when Christ will rule and reign and Jerusalem will be the capital of it all. But you see until that time, it is constantly under the heavy boot of the Gentile world.

Come back with me, I think its Luke 21. I hadn’t really planned to do this in this program but it just comes to me and is such an appropriate verse for comparison sake. Now here the Lord is speaking through the prophet Isaiah that Jerusalem will not have any Gentiles trodden their streets. It’s going to be the capital of Israel. Let’s begin with verse 24. Now this is a prophecy concerning the Titus invasion and destruction of Jerusalem and then what would follow after 70 AD.

"And they shall fall by the edge of the sword (now if you have a red-lettered edition, this is Jesus speaking in His earthly ministry and He’s speaking of prophetic things out ahead of His day and time. And speaking of the invasion by Titus in 70 AD) and shall be led away captive into all nations:…" Which of course we know they were, they were dispersed into every nation under heaven after 70 AD. But now look what’s going to happen to Jerusalem compared to Isaiah.

"…and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of (whom?) the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Which of course will be by the time the Tribulation ends. So Jerusalem, you want to remember from time immemorial, has been trodden underfoot by the Gentile armies, or as the Bible refers to them as the uncircumcised. One after the other, and even since Titus destroyed Jerusalem they’ve come under all of the various empires, the last one of which was Great Britain whose empire on which the sun never set. So Jerusalem has been under constant Gentile dominion.

And even today, even though Israel is relatively a sovereign state, yet we know that without the Gentile powers Jerusalem wouldn’t survive. But now come back with me to Isaiah 52, the Jerusalem of the Kingdom Age, when Christ will rule and reign from Jerusalem then this becomes as if it’s already in place.

"…for henceforth there shall no more come unto thee the uncircumcised (that’s the Gentile) and the unclean. 2. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and set down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. 3. For thus saith the LORD, you have sold yourselves for nothing; and you shall be redeemed without money." In other words, it’s going to be the blood of Christ that will redeem them.

"For thus saith the LORD God, My people went down aforetime into Egypt (see how we keep going back to that slavery in Egypt) to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause," Now I didn’t know until I was getting ready for this and I did some studying. Who do you suppose is referenced here as the Assyrian? Pharaoh! Pharaoh was Assyrian. And evidently archaeology has proven that. So, this is the reference that while they were in Egypt, the Pharaoh was basically Assyrian.

"Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people (see how He’s constantly referring to Israel) is taken away for nothing? They that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed." (now, that evidently is a reference to Israel’s enemies) 6. Therefore my people (Israel) shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I." (now here is another description of the God of Israel) 7. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,…" Now of all the times I’ve heard that verse referenced I’ve never heard it referred to as Christ. But that’s who it is. "It’s Christ who is the one with the beautiful feet that brings tidings".

"…that brings tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; (that can’t be anybody but Christ) that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth." Indeed He will, someday when we come to the 1000 year beautiful earthly kingdom. Verse 8.

"Thy watchman shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion." Now look at verse 9. Once Christ returns and establishes the Kingdom and He’s got His throne room there in Jerusalem, look at the euphoria of the Nation.

"Break forth into (what?) joy, sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD hath comforted his people, He (the Lord) hath redeemed Jerusalem. (see all the prospect of His Second Coming?) The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." Why? Because He’s going to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords! He’s going to rule the earth from Jerusalem.

"Depart ye, depart ye, go out from thence, touch no unclean things; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD. 12. For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight; for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward." Now you know what I’m thinking; it’s a reference back to the flight out of Egypt and by a comparison. What a difference! This time they will go in and out of Jerusalem with complete joy and safety and blessing. All right now the Scripture jumps all the way up to a graphic description of the suffering Messiah, the Servant.

"Behold, my servant…" Now again, I didn’t realize it until I started preparing for this, in every other portion where God says, "behold my servant" the fellow is named. "Behold my servant Moses." Behold my servant so and so. So here the