Bible Study: August 10, 2022

Okay, so tonight we'll be proceeding in chapter 8 of Isaiah. It's difficult to understand Isaiah 8 if you weren't with us for Isaiah 7 last week. So let me just recap a little bit about Isaiah 7 because in that, that's also another chapter.

In chapter 7, we begin a series of four or five chapters where God was going to be giving a lot of prophecies. And in chapter 8, we're going to see more of those prophecies. Now you might think, well, why, you know, why all this detail? Why, why, why did God record all this through Isaiah for us to, for us to know?

And one of the reasons is because when you see these fulfilled prophecies, it's just another proof of the Bible, another proof that God is in complete control. Throughout the book of Isaiah, we're going to see prophecies that have been fulfilled. In many cases, and we're going to see it tonight, there's kind of a dual prophecy. It happened once, and then it's going to happen again in the future.

And as we go through the book of Isaiah, God is teaching us to this major prophet, you can trust in me. If I say it's going to happen, it's going to happen. And of course, you know, he says that clearly in Isaiah 46 and Isaiah 55 that we'll turn to, turn to later on. But in Isaiah 7, you'll remember of the four kings that Isaiah lived through the reigns of, King Ahaz was the wicked one. He had, he wanted nothing to do with God. His grandfather followed God, but then turned from him when he got rich and later in his life. His father, Jotham, remained loyal to God throughout his life.

But Ahaz never did, never did trust in God. He did everything he could to turn from him. And you'll remember in chapter seven, as you read through it, God gave him every opportunity. He said, just tell me what you want. Back there in verse 10 of chapter seven, I'll give you any sign you want, Ahaz. Just tell me what you want so you can see that I am God and that I'm going to be by your side, that I want to provide what you need.

But Ahaz gave some, you know, just little caustic, almost sarcastic answers, thinking that he could fool God and just turn more away from God and then went to Assyria to seek an alliance there. And so God was angered. And then we read through the prophecies of what would happen down there, even at the end of the time, because it says in that day, God is showing what would happen to Judah as a result of this disobedience of Ahaz.

And when we turn away from God, you'll remember also that God gave the ultimate sign that wasn't going to happen during Ahaz's life. He said, to show you, there will be a Messiah come. The Messiah will come and he will be born and he will deliver the people from destruction. So with all that, we go into chapter eight, and it's still continuing this story. God is still there with Ahaz, installed as king, and he's still there talking about Ahaz looking to Assyria to help him against Assyria.

You remember Assyria, whose king was Rezen, R-E-Z-I-N, and Israel, called Ephraim here in these scriptures, whose king was Pica at that time, the son of Ramaliah. And so in chapter eight and verse one, continuing with this, God does something else that he uses Isaiah for. And it's not the only time in the Bible that we read this with this prophecy, but let's look at verse one here.

Says, Moreover, the Lord said to me, of course, as Isaiah, writing, God gives him the word, the Lord said to me, Take a large scroll and write on it with a man's pen concerning mayor shall I'll hashpads. So quite a name there, if you will. I mean, I wouldn't want to write that every time I had to sign my name on a document or anything. But God said, Take a large scroll. And, of course, it's not like, you know, us today, we pick up a piece of paper and a pen and write, this is something that took a lot of time on papyrus or wood or whatever it was that they used.

It was a it was a thing. It was going to be a permanent record. Take a large scroll, write on it with a pass pen concerning this this man's name, this may her shall I'll hashpads. And the literal meaning of that literal meaning of that name has some significance to the prophecies that God is about to look out about to give here to Judah and Ahaz. I think in your Bible, it probably says down there in your in your margin, that means speed the spoil or hasten the booty.

It means, you know, you're going to be invaded, you're going to have someone invade you. And here, you know, when you look in other commentaries and the actual strong, it says hasten spoil, hasten spoil. It's two ways of saying the same thing. It's almost like God is repeating, almost like He's repeating it. Hasten the spoil, hurry up, we're going to hasten this this prophecy that is going to come on you concerning Syria and Israel.

So keep that in mind. Now, here, well, we'll get to I'll ask some question, we'll get down to verse two, or verse three. It says, I will take for myself faithful witnesses to record Uriah the priest and Zachariah the son, Egeber, Jibarakiah. Now, you know, you might ask why is God doing this, right? Because, and what He wants to do is this is this is a prophecy. He wants it recorded.

He wants it he wants it envelopably inscribed on some permanent record what He is telling Isaiah to do, and this name that He's given him. Write it on a scroll, and the writing continues until we get up to about verse 16 or 17 of this chapter.

Write it on a scroll, preserve it, and to make sure no one comes back and says, ah, you just wrote that scroll after after this this this boy occurred or was born. You just wrote it afterwards. No, no, there will be two witnesses, two witnesses that see it. God is making sure that no one can come back and say and accuse anyone about about trying to write a scroll and make a prophecy after it's occurred.

So He gets Uriah. He says Uriah the priest and Zachariah. Now we don't know much about Zachariah. I don't think it's the same. It's not the same Zachariah that you know that was a prophet later on. The commentaries say there's really that they don't have any record of him.

Maybe one of you have been able to find that if you've been looking at it. But Uriah, Uriah is an interesting person for God to say I want him to be one of the two witnesses to what you're writing here, Isaiah. We find him back in 2 Kings. So let's go back to 2 Kings and look at Uriah because he is a priest under King Ahaz.

Now last week, remember we read 2 Chronicles, I think it was 1 chapter 28, where we just saw how wicked Ahaz was. How no matter what happens, he just kept turning further and further away from God. He eventually got rid of everything that smacked of God in Judah.

He closed the doors on the Sabbath. He went into the Treasuries, gave it all to Assyria. Assyria didn't back him anyway. He just kind of wasted everything as he was trusting. But here in 2 Kings, we find this king or this Uriah. In verse 10 we'll look at here. Again, this is the other account of King Ahaz. It says, now King Ahaz in verse 10 went to Damascus.

Now you remember Damascus is the capital of Syria. King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser, the king of Assyria. He wanted to be an ally of Assyria. He went there to meet the king of Assyria and saw an altar that was at Damascus.

And King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the design of the altar and its pattern according to all its workmanship. Then Uriah the priest built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. So the priest made it before King Ahaz came back from Damascus. So here he is. Ahaz is in Damascus. Let's have this altar. Who needs the altar that God has had? Let's build our own. The priest actually does it. He does it really quickly. Like, oh, that'll please King Ahaz. And when the king came back from Damascus, the king saw the altar and the king approached the altar and made offerings on it.

So he burnt his burnt offering and his grain offering, and he poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood and the peace offerings on the altar. He also brought the bronze altar, which was before the eternal, from the front of the temple, from between the new altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of the altar. Anyway, and then he commands that on the new altar, the one that was built after the pattern of Damascus, all the daily sacrifices should be burned.

So you have throughout the account of Ahaz in 2 Chronicles and in 2 Kings, this man is just 100% against God. He is looking to anything. He is just thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly anti-God, if you will.

So this Uriah the priest, who is there with Ahaz, it appears, and he isn't standing up for God either. He's not a priest that's saying, hey, Ahaz, we really should be turning to God. We have this serious situation. We keep turning further and further from God. He's there with him.

So why would God, why would God, if indeed this Uriah is the same Uriah that God wanted as a witness, why would God choose him and say, I want him to be one of the two witnesses of this prophecy that will occur in your lifetime? Anyone have any thoughts on that or why God would want that?

Well, it might be. Remember, throughout chapter 7, God was just continually trying to get Ahaz to convince him that he is God. He gave him every single opportunity. Just give me, just tell me whatever you want, I will do it. I will let you know that I am God. Ask me for a sign and I will prove it to you. Ahaz wouldn't do it. So here's Uriah or Uriah, whatever, however you pronounce it. He's there and he's building pagan altars in the temple, putting aside God's altars, replacing it. They're doing the sacrifices on a pagan altar.

And here he's going to be one of the witnesses. Isaiah's going to take this scroll, he's going to take it to Uriah and say, here, you look at it. You're one of the witnesses. Look what's written on here. And somehow that would be recorded. So Uriah, when these prophecies came to pass, he would also have a witness like, whoa, it happened exactly the way God said, right down to the detail of it. Because God is not just letting anything happen by chance in this prophecy. He's going to give detail, including this extremely unusual name, it was probably the only one, the only one in Judah that was going to have this Meher shalel, hashbaz name, even down to the detail of that. We're going to see other places in other places in Isaiah where God is specific on the prophecies that you can go back and you can see how they were fulfilled exactly the way God said they would. So you see the setting that we have here, what God is doing, what he's setting up, and he's going to show Ahaz, show Judah, show the priest there in in Judah, so the king and the priest have this witness of God. And so Isaiah, of course, does what God says. He's obedient. God says, do it, he does it. And then in verse 3, we don't know how long this is, but he went to the prophetess and she conceived and bore a son.

Now the commentaries will say his wife, you know, whether this is another wife, because remember in chapter 7 Isaiah had another son. We can pop back there for just a second. In chapter 7 and verse 3, he says, you go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shere, Jehoshuv, J-A-S-H-U-B, and seven three. So we know Isaiah had two sons. Both of them had unusual names. That's going to come into this prophecy. And into chapter 8, a little longer, we have Shere, Jehoshuv, your son. That means a remnant shall return. And you remember we read about the remnant. God said Judah would never be completely destroyed. There will be a remnant, and that remnant will return to that land that day, not only Judah, but Israel as well. So he's got one son named Shere, Jehoshuv, meaning the remnant shall return. Then he's now having this other son at God's command. I went to the prophetess. Apparently his wife, maybe she was a prophetess, or maybe they just used it. She was Miss Isaiah the prophet. I went to the prophetess, and she conceived before a son, and the Lord said to me, Call his name, Mayor Shalel Hashbaz.

Wow! So whether Isaiah knew when he was writing down in verse 1 who this Mayor Shalel Hashbaz was, we don't know. But when a son is conceived and born, God says, Here's his name. Here's his name, this redundant name. Speed the spoil. Meaning something's going to happen relatively quickly here with these adversaries and all these players that are involved with Judah. Now God gives these two sons of Isaiah some very interesting names. Can anyone think of another prophet that God used that he used when he had children? He said, Name of this, name of that. And it was prophecies about what was going to happen to Israel. Anyone remember who that prophet was? Jose, exactly. Right? Just look at that. Because you know, it's interesting how God works. He doesn't work the same way the entire time, but he uses names sometimes to record the prophecy. He did here in Hosea. If we look in Hosea 1, Hosea comes right after the book of Daniel.

And Hosea 1, verse 2, God begins to speak to Hosea and he said, Go take yourself a wife of Harlotry and children of Harlotry, for the land has committed great Harlotry by departing from God. So you can kind of see the symbolism here of what God is doing. So he went and he took the book of Gomor, and the Lord said to him on fourth floor, Call his name Jezreel. For in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu. Verse 6, And she conceived again, and bore a daughter, and God said to Hosea, Call her name Lo Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away, yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah. So it's very interesting when you see how God works and the names mean something and they're part of the prophecy. And that's the case here in Isaiah 8. We have two sons, a remnant shall return, and now we have Me'her shall El Hashab, born to Isaiah. He's a brand new baby and here we have this repetition, speed the spoil, speed the spoil, you know, hasten the booty, you know, something's going to happen very quickly. So God says how quickly something's going to happen in verse 4. For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, my father and my mother, well we know how long it takes for a child to talk. Some of the commentaries say this was typically three years back there, others will say two, I think it's, you know, one or two years and are, you know, typically for a child here, but quickly, right, quickly in the scheme of things here, the son is born, before the child shall have knowledge to cry, my father and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be taken away before the king of Assyria. Your enemies, Syria, that God said will never overtake you, Ephraim, right, capital of Samaria of Israel, they will never overtake you. They will threaten, they will invade, they will do their best to do it, but they will never overtake you. And God said, we talked about it last week, they would be destroyed. So here he has said these two enemies of yours that have driven you to go to Assyria, the cruelest of all nations, to seek an alliance with them to stand against these two enemies that are determined to overcome you and take you and install their own king over you. Before that child that was just born, they're no longer going to exist. Assyria will overtake them. Now we could go back into secular history, I suppose, if we were so determined to do that, but the Bible shows that that's what happened. You know, back in Second Kings again, we see that that indeed Assyria fell and indeed Ephraim fell as well. So Second Kings, we'll go back to chapter 16. 16 and verse 9. You see in verse 8, we read that last week where Ahaz was taking all the riches out of the house of God, giving it to Assyria, hoping or expecting that Assyria would be his ally, but, you know, Assyria double-crossed him. He didn't get what he wanted out of him. But in verse 9, it says, So the king of Assyria, he, for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it.

Means he conquered Syria, carried his people, captained to Kher, and killed Rezin. Oh, there he is. He's done. Syria's done. That threat is over. So Syria is gone. And then in chapter 17, we see that happens during the reign of Ahaz. So he sees what's going on during the time that Uriah is praised and Ahaz is king. This occurs. Then we go over to chapter 17, and we see what happens to Israel. We'll just read the first, I think, first six verses here of chapter 17. It says, In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, remember he reigned for sixteen years in Judah. In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, Moshe the son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him. Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up against him, and Hosea became his vassal and paid him tribute money. So he became his slave, his servant, if you will. And the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy by Hosea. Now that word conspiracy, we're going to see that word show up again later in Isaiah 8, a confederacy. It's not, it's a conspiracy, and today we have the word conspiracy, we think of conspiracy theories, but this was Hosea looking to ally himself behind the back of Assyria. You know, okay, I don't trust, I don't trust Assyria, so I'm going behind his back and try to line up some people and develop a confederacy here, or a conspiracy. Anyway, the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy, we'll say it like. He found out what he was doing. Not a good thing, not a good thing if you're the king of Israel and the king of Assyria, who's so cruel, finds out about it. For he had sent messengers to sow, king of Egypt, and brought no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore, the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. Now the king of Assyria went throughout all the land and went up to Samaria and besieged him for three years. In the ninth year of Hosea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria and placed them in Hala and by the harbor, the river of Gozan, and the cities of the Medes. So that's what happened there.

That's what happened there. So Israel loses its kingdom. Of course, Israel never did have a righteous king after the, you know, David was over Israel and Judah. Then there was Solomon, and then after Rehoboam, it split into the house of Israel and the house of Judah, as we all know.

But Israel never had a righteous king. Now, when you look at the timing, when you look at the timing, we know that Israel fell in 722-723 BC. I always pull it up, and I forget I need to share with you first. So let me pull this up, just so we have a picture here of the kings of Israel and Judah, and see the time frame we're looking at. Here's the, that's not United Kingdom that we know today, is United Kingdom as in Israel, Israel and Judah together before they split.

And you can see, oh yeah, yeah, this one doesn't have it, but I will, oh here we go, yeah. So the kings of Judah, after Solomon there, they, these are the kings of Judah from 925-586 BC. Now, you can go online and you can see, you know, here we have a list of them, and you know, we can see the ones who are evil, green is the ones who were, God said, you know, they did right in His eyes. We come down to, we come down to Uzziah. Here's where we are right now, right? So here, Uzziah was the first king. He did right, but at the end of his life, he became full of himself and thought everything was about him, and so he kind of fell apart like Solomon did at the end of his life, and it wasn't faithful to God to the end. We have Joseph, his son, who remained loyal to God right through his life, and then here we have Ahaz. This is where we are right now. Now, those four kings that Isaiah's been writing about, when you go back and look in history, it happened. They all, it was between 800 BC and about 700 BC that they all were in, that they all, that they reigned. So when the Bible says during the king of Ahaz, Israel fell, he was in, he was indeed a king of Israel around that time. So the time frame is exactly right. When you look at when did, when did Israel fall? These kings, these four kings were not that one. Okay. Okay. That'll work. Yes. Perfect. Thank you.

Mr. Shabir.

Okay, I hear someone talking, but I can't understand them.

Mr. Shabir. Yeah, Sherry. Can we get a copy of that? Um, yeah, I can. Yeah, if anyone wants to. I'll send you an email. Okay, do that. You can find it online too. Just go in and put.

I can't hear you. I can't hear you. How are you trading for that card?

You say how much more.

Before they say something. When you go up the road, he's talking about.

He's not talking to us, right?

Okay.

Graphic that you posted, is that a PDF or something? It's a PDF. Yeah. I got it. If you email it to me, I can upload it to the Bible study and everybody can download it from the website. Okay.

You're gonna do it that way. And then I'll be available for the money.

That'll work. Actually, we could probably do that with some of those things, couldn't we? I never think of how it's going to go up. Okay, yeah, I'll send it to you and you'll have it. I might try to find one, a second one that has the dates on it too, so you can kind of see they were in that hundred-year period. We're talking about when Israel fell, so.

Okay, now was there a question that I, that, or that was just something else that was going on? Okay. Okay, well then let's, we were in second King. So we've seen now that Meir Shallal Hashpaz has been born.

And here we have both the King of Syria killed and the King of Israel. And Israel falls during that day, no longer threats to Judah exactly the way God had said would happen.

And he's got two witnesses and has written down that when this baby is born, before he can talk and before he can say, mom and dad, that these things would be, these things would be, these things would happen. So indeed, that's what we see it fulfilled there in 1 Kings, right in the time that Ahaz was alive.

So Ahaz sees what happens. We see that Uriah sees what happens.

You would think that a prophecy like that fulfilled with an unusual name that kind of spells what is going to happen. Speed the booty, speed the spoil, speed the spoil. That might make you think, right? To think, whoa, God really is God. He really does know what is going on and what he says happens.

Now, let's turn forward in Isaiah, because here later in the book, we're going to see many things where God prophesies. Some of them have not yet occurred, but he makes the proof in Isaiah that what he says will happen through all these fulfilled prophecies that are throughout the Bible. It's one of the proofs of the Bible.

If anyone can ever find a prophecy that wasn't fulfilled, let us know. Let us know, because, you know, every prophecy we say that is in the Bible has been fulfilled, will be fulfilled, the ones that should have been fulfilled already. So Isaiah 46, God makes quite a statement. I think everyone here has heard this statement before, Isaiah 46 and verse 8.

It says, remember this, show yourselves men, recall to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.

Verse 11, he kind of accentuates it. Last time we read at the end of chapter 7, where it's like God said, he'll whistle, he'll whistle and the kings will come when he's using another nation to punish a nation that's departed from him.

He says that in verse 11, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes my counsel from afar country. Indeed, I've spoken it. I will bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will do it. Exactly what he did. Assyria, Cain, Babylon. Judah was warned for 40 years by Jeremiah. Babylon will come. Babylon did come. Babylon did conquer Judah, exactly as God said. And the Jews were able to return to Jerusalem in 70 years, exactly the way God said it would happen. Over and over and over the prophecies are fulfilled. Oh, I was going to turn to Isaiah 55 as well.

And often God says the same thing twice for effect, so that we... it's there. It's like we didn't misunderstand it. We read a few chapters later, and then in Isaiah 55 and verse 10, we read something very similar.

Through Isaiah, he says, for as the rain comes... Isaiah 55 10, for as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. Bread to the eater? Yeah, bread to the eater. Okay.

So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me, boy, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

If God says it, you can take it to the bank. Later on in this chapter, he's going to reinforce that. Ahaz, Uriah, this is Acheriah, who's these two witnesses, Isaiah, who's also being encouraged and developing more and more faith in God as he sees that everything God says happens exactly the way God says. And so let's go back to chapter 8 then. Chapter 8 then, verse 5 of Isaiah.

So that prophecy, that prophecy happens, and it says in verse 5, the eternal also spoke to me, Isaiah, again. Okay, that one's done. He spoke to me again, saying, inasmuch as these people refuse the waters of Shiloh that flow softly, and rejoice in resin and Remeliah's son. That's that they rejoice in Syria and Israel. That that's where they're looking. They're kind of dealing with that. So you have this analogy here of the waters of Shiloh that flow softly.

Now that's something that would just kind of go right by us, I think. Later on in verse 7, he talks about this greater river, the Euphrates, that is going to overtake Jerusalem. But here they have these waters that flow softly through them. And again, when you look at them through the commentaries, and I won't take the time because there's an awfully lot of detail. If you look at Barnes notes, and if you look at Adam Clark, especially, they will talk about these waters and these pools and these streams in Jerusalem that just flow softly through the city there.

There's reservoirs there. People would bathe in them. People would die. I don't know what all they would do in it, but it's a very soft river. And of course, we know in millennial times, with the millennial temple, you have these peaceful waters going out from the temple in Jerusalem. So God says, I have these peaceful rivers. And I notice in my Bible, it references John 9 verse 7 here as we talk about those rivers of Shiloh.

And I think it's the Barnes note that we'll talk about this Shiloh and Siloamph. We turn back to John 9 verse 7. He's referring to the probably the same thing. And apparently, the translators here thought so as well, since they referenced John 9. And we see those rivers and those waters of Jerusalem. We see healing. We see God working with it. They're calm. They're gentle waters. So he's drawing an analogy for the people here who would know exactly what those waters were like.

In Jerusalem, it's just peaceful, these peaceful streams. So in chapter 9, we find Jesus coming across this man who was born blind. And so when the disciples see him, they say, well, you know, who sinned? Did he sin or did his parents sin? Or why was he born blind? And in verse 3, Christ answers, He says, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

That's interesting, isn't it? So sometimes people, you know, it's there that when Christ would be there, He could work a miracle that no, that just didn't happen, right? He healed whoppers, He flamed walked, blind could see. But that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of him who sent me while it's day. The night is coming when no one can work. As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. But when He had said these things, He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. He could have simply said, receive your sight, and it could have happened.

But He did the physical thing. He made the clay. He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and then He told him to go do something, go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is translated, sent. Now the man, you know, the man followed the command of Christ. He had said, he had said, nah, you know, I don't know if he could see or wasn't going to be able to see until he washed in the pool of Siloam, but our Siloam or Avi say that, which is translated, sent.

So the man went. He obeyed what Christ said. And sometimes, well, not sometimes, all the time when God tells us to do something, we do it. Sometimes things happen immediately. Other times, there's things that we realize we've got to do. And when we do it, you know, God blesses. And so the man went, and he came back seeing. So they reference those those waters, those healing waters of Siloam, those friendly, gentle waters that are in Jerusalem, those healing, gentle waters of God that can heal, that could make us whole and everything.

And God says in here in Isaiah 8 verse 6, Judah, Judah, you you're just refusing that. You refuse me. Everything I try to do, you refuse me.

Again, he's indicating, okay, Meher, Shel El, Hashazz has been born. The prophecy came through exactly as I said, you've got your own, your own unbelieving priest who is a witness of it.

So, but here you are, you just keep refusing me, you just keep pushing me away. And instead, you go, and you you you know, you want to be like Damascus, you want to be like Caesarea, you want to be like, well, not like Israel, but you want to rejoice in those. That's where you're putting all your attention rather than turning to Me. So he goes on in verse 7 of Isaiah 8 and says, Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them the waters of the river. And you know, that's the Euphrates River, the river, waters of the river, it says, strong and mighty, the King of Assyria, and all is glory. So we can see what the analogy is. Assyria, Assyria is like a raging wild river that is going to absolutely overwhelm you. You have God who wants to be gentle, kind, forgiving, healing, and you are rejecting Him and you're trying to make alliances with all these other things. And here in Assyria, what they're going to do, they're like a rushing mighty water and they're going to just come up and overtake you and overflow you and seek to have you completely destroyed. The ruler is strong and mighty, the King of Assyria and all is glory. He will go up over all his channels and go over all his banks. He will do everything. He will just be overflowing in his force against you. He'll pass through Judah. He will overflow and pass over. He will reach up to the neck. Now, commentary says that's right up to the head, right? He would be able, Assyria would come there, but he wouldn't be able to completely overwhelm Judah. It wasn't for Assyria to conquer Judah and cut off the head. Jerusalem was there. He could come up to the neck. People would be suffering. People would be scared to death. People standing against that power, but it wasn't going to be Assyria that overcame Jerusalem. It would be Babylon later. Assyria would take care of Israel, but not Jerusalem and Judah. He will pass through Judah. He will overflow and pass over. He will reach up to the neck, and the stretching out of his wings will fill the breath of your land. He'll be overwhelming to you. He's going to come, and he's going to take. He's going to sack you. He's going to take the spoil. He's going to do some things to you. You may think he's going to overcome you, but God says he will not. That in itself is like a prophecy. There's, you know, Assyria, when you were, if you were on the world scene back in the 700s BC, Assyria was a mighty force. No one wanted Assyria against them. That's why they asked trying to make friends with them, because if Assyria came, they were fierce. Like I said many times, they're cruel. You read even, you see stories on TV about them on the History Channel, and they were just a cruel, cruel people. No one wanted to ever come across Assyria.

And it sure would look like they would overcome Judah, but God says, no, they're not going to be the ones. They'll come up. You'll suffer, but they won't. They won't overtake you, and indeed, they didn't. They did overtake Israel, but not Judah. And he will kill the brother. Yes, yes, sir.

Yes, excuse me. Thank you. Yeah, Noah. Was it for King David's sake? God said he wouldn't deal with Judah as quickly as with Israel. Yep. And that throne would exist, right? So.

And it did go on. But God, you know, he kept trying to warn Judah. Remember, Judah did have some good kings. When you look down that list of kings, they didn't go all the way down to the list. They did have some good kings, and so they would turn to God. But then you'd have the wicked kings, but then as you got near the end of Judah, their independence, if you will, it was wicked king after wicked king after wicked king after wicked king. And God said, that's enough. That's enough.

You're going in. You're going to go into captivity. So then it says, you know, here in verse 8, it says, well, fill the breath of your land. Oh, Emmanuel. But here he, you know, again brings up God with us. The same thing that he mentioned back in chapter 7 when he's talking about the coming Messiah in verse 14 there, that the sign I'm going to give you is the virgin will conceive, she'll have a son, and his name will be called Emmanuel. That is God with us. So that's a prophecy that we absolutely know that has happened. Didn't happen during Agath's time. But here in this prophecy again, he says, you're going to be overcome, not completely overcome. You're going to be scared. He's going to be up to your neck. And he'll fill your land, oh Emmanuel. And the commentaries, I think, probably have this right. Why does God give this name and talk about Christ coming again? They say, and again, we see it down at the end of verse 10 as well, that it's an assurance. It's an assurance. This is a sure prophecy. Jesus Christ, the people will not completely be destroyed. God said, you Judah, you Israel, you will never be completely destroyed. There will be a remnant that remains, and I will bring you back to the land that I gave you.

And so that was the overall promise that he gave. This is the sign that I will give you. A virgin will conceive, she will have a son, his name will be Emmanuel. And here is God saying, Syria is there, but you have this assurance. Oh Emmanuel, it's his land. It's the land that he has given you. It's the land that he, they even go on to talk about the land that he will be living in. The land that he will be alive in when he's on earth. Of course, the people at that time didn't know how that was all going to be, but that was going to be where he would be during that time. So when you see this, oh Emmanuel, I think we can, you know, perhaps look at it and say, what God is telling them is, remember the name of God. Remember my name. Remember that I am assuring you that I am there. Same thing that you and I do as we look at the world around us, as we look at things as they go ahead, as the world gets rougher and rougher and rougher and more and more determined to you know, wipe us out. Remember that God is there. He never leaves. He's there all the time.

Just as the same assurance he's giving to Ahaz here in the kingdom of Judah, he gives to us. He will be there right by our side. It may be tough, but as we'll see later on, he says, wait, wait for him. So he goes on and he says in verse 9, he tells him, you're gonna, it's gonna be some up-to-ice. Be shattered. Be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces. Wow. You know, we read in Jeremiah about the time of Jacob's trouble and the things that are going on. Be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces. Give ear all you from far countries. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces. And he repeats it. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces.

Does he do it? Does he do it to just accentuate what he's saying? Yes. Does God say things twice in a row like that because it has one prophecy for now and another one to be filled later?

Yeah. Yeah, sometimes we say that in the book of Isaiah. In the book of Isaiah, we see that another place where God will repeat something twice. Do you remember, anyone remember what that one is?

I know someone knows as soon as I say it. Babylon, the Great, is fallen, is fallen, right?

He says that in Isaiah 21, Isaiah 21 verse 9, you might look at the time there, I won't read, you could read Isaiah 21, pick up the verses in 6, 7, 8, but in verse 9, he talks to these watchmen, and we're watching, he says, and look, here comes the chariot of men with a pair of forcemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is falling, and all the carved images of her gods, he is broken to the ground. And indeed, Babylon, Bible shows, falls twice. Babylon does fall. At the end of the book of Daniel there, it falls, the kingdom is gone, and all their carved images of all their gons are broken to the ground when the Medes and Persians come in and overtake them, and that kingdom is gone.

But Babylon, if you remember in the book of Daniel, says, the stump remains. Babylon, and the things that happened in Babylon, the false religion, the mixture of truth and error, and this mysterious religion that occurred during that time, continues to live on, continues to live in, and at the end of the Bible, and at the end of man's time on earth, God says the same thing again back in Revelation 18.

Revelation 18, at the end of all the trumpets, plagues, and of all the trumpets and the plagues, Revelation 18, the system on earth at that time, a system of religion, a system, you know, as it tells us in Daniel 11, a king who is unlike any other king who wants people worshiping him, he fashions his own religion, he worships a god that none of his forefathers knew, it's a completely different world than we live in today, or anything like it when this beast power arises. In Revelation 18 verse 1, God is ready to destroy that kingdom that he clearly shows, describes its power and influence from Satan. Verse 1 of Revelation 18, after these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory, and he cried mildly with a loud voice, saying, Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. Now we say the same things, they're the idols of Babylon that will be extant on the earth at the time of Christ's return, they will all be destroyed, Babylon will be once and finally, or not once, the second time, this time completely, completely destroyed. Physical Babylon, back at the first time, spiritual Babylon, as well as the physical Babylon that's existing on the earth at that time, fallen. So we see Babylon is fallen, is fallen, it has a prophecy now, it happens, you know, it happens back in ancient times, it will happen again. So when God says back-to-back things, and we'll see a few more of those, and a few more of those things, there's even one I'm not sure it's Isaiah or Jeremiah that's even three times, three times that something happens. And so, you know, he says, gird your weapons. If we go back to Isaiah 8, gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces. Hey, Judah, get yourself ready.

Get yourself ready, don't be broken in pieces. They were, they were, they were shattered. They were again in 70 AD. They, the nations will be again shattered at the end of the time. Gird yourselves, get ready, it's happening. You keep moving further and further away from God. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces. And in verse 10, he's, you know, he looks, well, you've all heard yourselves broken in pieces. Yeah, you know, that could also be, as I'm reading it now, that could also be to the people that are going to invade the land, right? Because in verse 10, he talks about, they'll take counsel together, but it's going to come to nothing. So he could be saying to the, get yourself ready, those who are going to invade, but you're going to be broken in, you're going to be broken in pieces too, as these nations, these nations were. Something's going to happen twice. Happened once, going to happen again in the end time. In verse 10, take counsel together, but it will come to nothing. Men's, the plans of man do not come to pass. Man can out, outsmart God, or out with God, or out, L.I. God. No weapon, it says later on, Isaiah, I don't remember where, Isaiah 54, 55, and there, no weapon formed against you will prosper. Nothing, no one's going to maybe overcome God or his people unless, unless he allows that to happen. That mankind cannot overcome. We see that certainly in Revelation 19, when Christ returns to earth, and mankind, with all of the stuff. I mean, you know, even as we look at the world, if you listen to the news, every once in a while you hear, China is developing this hypersonic thing, Russia is developing this hypersonic thing, and it's going to be able to defend against anything we could throw at Russia or China. Do we have anything like that? Well, I don't know. I don't know what we're doing, or if these other nations are passing us by. But he's reading about all these fantastic weapons that, that can do amazing things, and they'll throw them all at Jesus Christ when he returns. Satan will gather everyone there at Armageddon. They'll have all the weapons, they'll have all the nuclear things, they'll have everything imaginable to man that is extremely powerful, and yet Christ will wipe them out in a second. And that's what he is saying here, you know, go ahead, make all your plans. You're not going to stand against me. No weapon formed against you will prosper, you know, God says. Take counsel together. It'll come to nothing. Speak the word, but it won't stand. Why won't it stand? For God is with us. Mankind cannot overtake, overcome someone who God is watching over. Do all you want. God is with us. There's the assurance again. Remember, he's saying, God is with you. Hey, A-Haz, Syria and Israel should have taken, taken you over. They should have conquered you, killed you, taken all your spoil, put their own king in there. I am the one who didn't let it happen. You can't out-dual God.

God is with you. For the Lord spoke thus to me, verse 11, with a strong hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people. Isaiah, they may be very convincing. They may say, do this, do that. It can look like really, it can look zim. It can look hopeless. It can look terrible. And they may say, Isaiah, come on, you need to just join with us. Work with us. Get this alliance. Do this alliance. Run here, run there. If we don't, we're all going to fail. We're all going to die. We're all going to do anything. And God warns Isaiah the same thing that he would warn us. Don't give in to that power. Don't give in to what's going on. What does he tell us in Revelation 13? Don't yield to that power. They will have power. They will threaten. They will do everything. And they will even put some to death. Don't give in to them. Take the assurance that God and be with him. The Lord spoke this to me with a strong hand. Do not walk in the way of this people who are saying, don't walk in with people saying, don't say a confederacy or a conspiracy. Here's that word again, conspiracy. Don't say, hey, yeah, let's develop this alliance. Let's ally with this. And he's talking about war here because this is physical war, right? But we got to remember when we read these things, we're at our own little wars, you know? All these little trials that come our way and things that come our way. We say, you know what? Well, I can do this. The world will help me in this way. I can look here and I can look there and I can look for salvation here and I can look for a financial restitution here and I can look for healing here and I can look for this there and I can look for protection here and I can trust in this and I can trust in that and have all these great things on earth that can protect me in every way, shape, and form that we could want.

God says, don't do that. Don't ally with the world. Don't look to them. Look to me. Don't say a confederacy. Don't say an alliance. Don't say, I have to partake with them. I've got to protect myself and I've got to use what the world has. Don't say that concerning all that this people call a conspiracy or a confederacy. Don't be afraid of their threats. Don't be troubled. How many times does the Bible say don't be afraid? No, commentaries say I haven't counted them up, but over they said Jesus Christ more times said do not be afraid or a phrase meaning the same thing more than any other phrase or command he said. And here we have it in Isaiah and certainly throughout the Old Testament as well. Don't be afraid of their threats. Don't be troubled. The Lord of hosts. Him you shall hallow. That means respect Him. Put Him first. Go to Him first when you're when you're troubled, frightened, and you're looking for assurance. Go to Him. The Lord you shall hallow. Honor Him. Let Him be your fear. Let Him be your dread. I mean, they dreaded. They dreaded Syria. They dreaded Israel and that confederacy that was against Judah. God said, dread me. I can do far worse for you, right? Jesus Christ said don't fear Him who can take your physical life. Fear Him who can take your eternal life from you. Fear Him. Remember what you're doing and remember what God can give us and what He can take away if we show that we're not faithful and that we're not trusting in Him. Verse 14, he, God, will be as a sanctuary.

That's our safe place, right? Our sanctuary. The place that we go. You know, there's places that it talks about in Revelation, other places in the Bible. He'll be our sanctuary. That's where we go. Psalm 91-93 talks about how He, you know, go rest under His wings. He watches over us like a bird watches over her young ones and puts her wings and spreads her wings out to protect them. He will be a sanctuary. And then very interesting and prophetic verses in the rest of verse 14 that take us right to the New Testament. He'll be a sanctuary. He's our assurance. He's our Savior.

He'll come to earth. He'll be that great sign that promises salvation, but He'll be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel. Here's their Messiah, the Savior that He's saying, but He'll be a stumbling block to both the houses of Israel as a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Well, let's go back because Peter talks about this very same thing when he talks about how Jesus Christ is a stumbling block. Now, we know from our time in Acts when we were looking at the time when Paul and the apostles in Jerusalem were talking about Jesus Christ, the ire that they faced because people just didn't want to hear it. They hated Jesus Christ. They put Him to death. They just didn't want anything to do with Him.

So, He was a stumbling block. Here they were hating and putting people to death because they didn't like Jesus Christ. He was a stumbling block. They didn't want to believe that He was the Messiah.

1 Peter 2 and verse 6 says, Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture. Now, this is where He's talking about us.

God's building a spiritual house. You and I are living stones in that house. He's using us to build up the temple that Jesus Christ will return to. Therefore, it is also contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame. God says, it's Christ. Believe Him. Do the things He says. That's your assurance. Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious. But to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. They rejected Him. They wanted nothing to do with Him. They put Him to death. And He has become, verse 8, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They stumble, being disobedient to the Word to which they also were appointed. They. They did. And then comes verse 9. You and me. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who hadn't obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

So here in Isaiah 8, Peter references that very same thing, because now in New Testament times, they saw exactly what God was talking about. Here's another prophecy, the Messiah. How would you ever think the Messiah would come and He would be an offense to both the houses of Israel? They've been waiting for Him. How could they turn against the Messiah and how could that trip them up spiritually? And yet it did exactly as God said it would. And Peter is drawing attention to that. So if we go back to chapter 8 again, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense to both of us as Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and many, no not just a few, many, most, he could have said, many, many among them shall stumble.

They shall fall and be broken. They shall be snared like birds and taken. And I also was going to turn to Luke 2 here while on that thing about Jesus Christ, because back when He was born, you remember that Mary and Joseph took Him up to have all the rights done to Him in Jerusalem, and they encountered the man Simeon there. And Simeon has some interesting words that he said, as Jesus Christ was brought to him. Merz, you remember that Mary, as she heard, she just kind of took them in. They just kind of sat with her, like, what is he talking about? But she knew the words were something, and sometimes we'll hear words, we don't know where they are. But later on, it's like, oh, oh, that's what that meant. So in Luke 2, verse 34, they bring Christ, they bring Christ, you know, Simeon says these words in verses 28 through 32 over him. Verse 33, Joseph and his mother marveled at the things that were spoken of him. God, of course, was inspiring them, inspiring those words to be spoken. And then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against. He's destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel.

He was repeating exactly, or God inspired him to say exactly the same thing, that God was prophesying about the Messiah, the ultimate sign of salvation that would, you know, that would come here in Jerusalem. Many shall stumble, they'll be fallen, broken, they'll be snared and taken.

So all these things apparently are written as we go up to verse 16.

To go up to verse 16, all these things are written in that scroll, apparently, because in verse 16, God says, find up the testimony. Go ahead, you know, all the scroll, go ahead and bind it up. You remember how they did those things? You've seen pictures of it. They would roll up the scroll or do whatever they needed to do. Put a seal on it, he says. Seal the law among my disciples. He, of course, gives us a picture of Revelation where that scroll is there, it's like with the seven seals. Who's worthy to unloose these seals? And, well, Christ is, right? That's how they did things back then. So find up the testimony. Write these things down. Take them to Uriah. Take them to Zechariah. Get a witness. This is what's going to happen. Of course, all those things that did immediately happen were there, and that scroll is still there recorded for us today, these words. And we know that Jesus Christ fulfilled those. Find up the testimony. Seal the law among my disciples. And notice what Isaiah said. I will wait on God. Boy, those are words that we just need to absolutely inscribe and have branded in our minds. I will wait on God. How many times do we take matters into our own hands? We get scared. We get weak. We run and do things, and we don't wait for God to do what he says he can do. We don't take the opportunity to build that faith in him. Isaiah said, it's all coming. Gird yourselves. You'll be broken in pieces. You'll be shattered. All these things are only to happen, but I'm going to wait on God. Now, he says, who hides his face from the house of Jacob. Mary's like, you know, both Israel and Judah. Israel went into captivity. Judah, ultimately, at 586 BC went into captivity. Why?

They turned from God. They turned from God over and over. Tells us why. Why does God hide his face from anyone? Because iniquity separates us from God. I said Isaiah 2, right? Isaiah 59.

I'm saying there's so much in Isaiah. I think it's Isaiah 50. 92. I mean, yeah, Isaiah 59. 2. Your iniquities have separated you from your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you. So these things that Isaiah tells us early on, we find later on in the book. Because your iniquities of your iniquities, God hides his face from us. I will wait on the Lord who hides his face. I'm back in verse 17 of chapter 8. From the house of Jacob, I will hope in him. I'm not going to hope in resin. I'm not going to hope in pica. I'm not going to hope in Siglith-Pileser. I'm not going to hope in anything of the world or anything of that house of the earth. Man, I will hope on God because his word is absolutely sure. He's my assurance. Here I am.

Here I am, Isaiah says, and here are the children who the Lord has given me. Who are those children?

Isaiah 7.3. So, Sheer, what was it? I forgot his name now. Sheer, Sheer, Sheer, Sheer-Jeshu. A remnant will remain. A remnant will remain. A promise from God and the other son.

May her shall hail Hash-Maz. Oh, it happened exactly. That child was born. That was the name given to him before he could say, my father, my mother, resin and cereal were gone. Israel and Pika were gone and Israel went into captivity. Here I am. Those children's names. God used those names that used me to give the message to them. Here I am and the children whom the Lord has given me. We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of Hosts who dwells in Mount Zion. His life. His life. Remember the calling in Isaiah 6? God said, who's going to go out and tell the people? Isaiah said, I'll go. I'll go. He did live his life telling the message that God wanted him to do. A very long time that he preached that message.

Verse 19. Here we have this tremendous thing from God at that time, but written for us today. Trust in Him. Look at these prophecies that have been fulfilled. Every little thing is exactly the way God said. And when they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards who whisper and mutter. Remember Saul did that. He departed from God. What did he do? He never turned to God. He never repented. He went out and found the witch of Endor. When they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards who whisper and mutter. Shouldn't the people seek their God? Shouldn't you be seeking God instead? What are you going to these people for? You already have the example of how that worked for Saul. It was disastrous. Shouldn't the people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? No. When the dead are dead, they're simply asleep. They're not there anyway. Only God can provide the direction. No, he says instead, verse 20, kind of reminds me here with that exclamation point of Paul when he would say, therefore, should I sit against the law? Certainly not. Certainly not. And God says, don't go to these mediums. Don't go to someone else seeking solace. Don't go to someone else. Go to the law and to the testimony. Go back to the Bible. Go back to the story that God gives you. Go back to His words. That's where assurance is. That's where certainty is. That's where deliverance is. That's where salvation is. Go back there and trust me, God says. I said, no matter every word that I say, it's going to come true. It's going to happen exactly the way I say, but you need to wait you need to wait you need to trust and it'll happen. Go to the law. Go to the testimony. If these other people that you're seeking, if these other people you're going to, if they don't speak according to this word, that's the Bible, if they don't speak according to this word, it's because there's no light in them. Now, you know, there's a New Testament word, right? Jesus Christ came to bring light into the world, to bring light into darkness. It's because there's no light in them. There's no truth in them. God isn't working through them. They will pass through it hard pressed and hungry. You know, you kind of get the picture of these people. They're looking for answers everywhere.

Where do I go? And they'll pass through this time of trouble. They'll pass through this time of tribulation, pestilence, whatever it is, they'll pass through it hard pressed and hungry. They'll go from door to door. Well, we'll try this. We'll try that. We'll run to Saudi Arabia and get oil here. We'll go to Venezuela and get oil here. We'll do all these things to try to fix our problems and whatever. We'll do everything. They'll pass through it hard pressed and hungry, and it shall happen when they are hungry. And they will be hungry. They will be hungry when the world gets darker and darker and darker and less and less and less a pleasant place to live. But they'll be enraged. They'll be really mad. They'll curse their king. You know, the one who rules over them, they'll blame him. You led us into this mess. How did you get us into this mess? This was a nice place to live. We had all these things. Now we got nothing. Who do we have to blame for that? They'll curse their king. They'll also curse their god. They'll look up at the heavens and say, forget him. How did you let this happen? They'll blame him, even those that brought it upon themselves. Kind of reminds us where I'm on time. Kind of reminds you of Revelation 9 at the end time when all those flakes are coming on and the redback's not too long ago. Revelation 6, where the people know it's God because the heavenly signs are not anything they could predict and nothing like that has happened in mankind's recorded history. But in chapter 9, you know, when these...

Chapter 9, when the angels, the trumpets, are sounding and these players are coming upon the earth and mankind is suffering greatly, verse 20 of Revelation 9, it says, but the rest of mankind, who weren't killed by these plagues, they didn't repent of the works of their hands.

I mean, they... right? I mean, you'd think, well, okay, you know what? I need to yield to God. I need to get on my knees and say, oh, God, I am sorry. I don't know what I do. They didn't repent of the work of their hands that they shouldn't worship demons, the idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. They didn't repent of their murders or their sorceries. Remember what that word, sorceries, is bar micaiah, is what it is in the Greek. They didn't repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

They just got mad at God. Forget Him. I'm not turning to Him. We got nothing with this, but why would I ever turn to God? Their mind is just completely dead set against God. And so we have that very picture there in verse 21. You know, get mad at the king, get mad at whoever let us into this mess, get mad at God too. It's His fault we're in this mess. We never realize it's us who puts ourselves in this mess. And they will look, verse 22 and back in Isaiah 8, they will look to the earth. They'll see trouble and darkness, bloom of anguish, darker and darker and darker.

All the freedoms, all the blessings, all the advantages, all the comforts, all the luxuries, all the liberties disappear one by one by one by one by one. They see trouble, they see darkness, they see gloom of anguish, and they will be driven. They don't know how to get themselves into it. They just get further and further into complete darkness. And if Christ didn't come to return, come and return to bring that light and save mankind from Himself, it would be completely dark, which is exactly what Satan's will is. That won't happen because we have a Savior who won't let that happen. So that's the end of chapter 8. Some pretty interesting things that are there in chapter 8. Again, the prophecies. Prophecy, you know, those little prophecies that are fulfilled, build our trust in God, and prophecy, you know, should build our faith in God. That's why prophecy is there and God lets us know that we, you know, we build our faith in Him. Okay, I will open it up to anything that anyone wants to talk about or any comments, observations, anything you want to add or question. The floor is your part. Savior. Alluja, if I said that correctly, he was trying to get on before it was solid. Okay, okay. Do you want to, you have a comment? Mr. Shaby, thanks for the Bible study. I'm happy to be in your midst this evening. I'm happy to be here. It's really interesting, the kind of world we live in now. These are times when people find themselves, they get into trouble, and instead of calling on God for help, they try to blame their troubles.

People don't look to God. Instead of seeking God, people tend to look other ways, look to other means for help instead of calling on God. And you know, even in the midst of troubles, people still find it hard to trust God. They don't see that it is actually God's love trying to bring them to Himself. That reminds me the story of, there's this funny story of an atheist who was traveling through a forest, and as he was going through the forest, he suddenly saw a bear. A bear wanted to kill him, and as the bear raised its paw to strike the atheist, the atheist cried out, oh my God! And suddenly the bear froze, the bear stood still, and then it was shown on the atheist. And this, from the light came a voice, God spoke. It was a story, a funny story. God spoke through the light, from the 80s and then, and for all these years, you have denied my existence, and you have taught others to disrespect or disregard my laws. And now you want me to save you from this bear? And the atheist said, it will be hypocritical of me to believe you now. I don't want to be a Christian. I want you to make the bear a Christian to prove to me that you are God. I know what God did. God turned the bear to a Christian, and then the bear just closed its hands and said, God, I thank you for this meal provided for me. And that was how the death of the 80s. So what I'm trying to say is that when we get into trouble, it's important that we recognize that it is the love of God that is trying to bring us closer to himself. But people tend to look away, look for help in other ways instead of turning to God. It's so unfortunate.

Brother Shaby, you're muted.

Maybe Alus, you're going to be muted. Yeah, I muted myself because I kept hearing some things that I thought I wonder if that's me doing that. No, I think that's very good. Very Alus again. Okay, Xavier, go ahead.

Just through the whole study, what that reminded me was what is written in Romans chapter 3, where it says in verse 3, what if someone does not believe, shall their unbelief nullify the faithfulness of God, meaning everything God says will be exactly as he says to the fullest.

And then it says, may it never be.

Rather, let God be true in every man and liar as exactly as it is written.

So if we're not on God's side, because nobody else has followed our own, if we are told the truth, and but if we are on God's side, he will be faithful, whether it be to save us or to put us in the grave and wake us up later on.

But either way, God is faithful.

Very good. Very good. Amen. Absolutely. Yep.

I'm not sure. Do other people hear that little buzzing noise or whatever? Yes. It's coming from Alus again's mic. That's all it is.

Oh, is that what it is? Yeah, okay. Now, Alus again, you might want to just mute. Yeah, that may be it. Okay. I don't know how you do that.

Okay. Yeah, Sherri, did you have something?

No. No. Okay. Just saying thank you for such a good Bible study. Oh. Hey, it's good. How's everything going?