Bible Study: December 21, 2022

Okay, so tonight we're going to look at chapter 20. It's a very short chapter in Isaiah as we continue through and get partway, I think, in chapter 21. As we've been going through these chapters recently in Isaiah, we've seen some amazing prophecies. We talked about Egypt, we talked about Egypt and the highway between Egypt and Assyria. Last week, before that, we talked about Ethiopia and Damascus. We talked about the possibility of what the gift that Ethiopia will bring to Jerusalem when Christ returns. We've talked about Petra and the prophecies against Moab and Edom and Ammon in that area of the world. Tonight, when we get into chapter 21, especially, we will look at another prophecy that's been fulfilled in part but also has the dual aspect to it that it's yet to be fulfilled. So as we go through these things, remember they all emanate back from the king Ahaz when God first, when Ahaz just simply refused, simply refused to acknowledge God, listen to God, even ask God for a sign to show that God would be with him, and then God gave them the prophecy of the Messiah, and then the continuing prophecies, some of which were fulfilled in Ahaz's time. He didn't bother turning back to God, and the ones we're reading now were prophesied during the time of Hezekiah. And you remember in Hezekiah, about Hezekiah, he was a good king, and as he looked at his father, likely learned that, boy, when you turn from God, not good things, not good things happen. And he watched his father, Ahaz, just, you know, waste his life away in rebellion and resistance to God. So when Hezekiah became king, he turned fully and totally, totally back to God, and these prophecies came to him. So with that, let's look at chapter 20 here in Isaiah, and it starts off, verse 1 there in chapter 20, really has a lot in it. It draws us back into some history, if you will. Chapter 20, verse 1, it says, In the year the tartan came to Ashtod. Now we can just stop right there, because, you know, tartan, we see his name show up in another part of the Bible. Don't know if it's a person. Many commentaries say it's a title like king or like a bimolek in the time of Abraham and Isaac, a title that was there. But in the year the tartan came to Ashtod. And it's talking about Syria, because we're talking, as we look at the name Sargon there, some commentaries say that was Sennacherib's father. Some say it was his son. Some say it was Sennacherib himself, but it is a Syria whoever Sargon was. Seems more likely that it was the father, but we don't know that for sure. But let's turn back and look at a couple places that we've already seen, well, not we've already seen in our Bible studies, but where it is in the Bible before. So let's go back to 2 Kings.

And as we've talked about these four kings that Isaiah prophesied under, you know, we're in this area of 2 Kings 18, 19, and 20. So 2 Kings 18, we read about tartan.

2 Kings 18 and verse 17.

Yeah, we read, you know, we're reading about this the whole time here, so well, Sennacherib invades Judah. And verse 7 says, then the king of Assyria sent the tartan, the Rabsaries, and the Rabsheka from Leish with the great army against Jerusalem to King Hezekiah. And they went up and came to Jerusalem, and when they had come up, they went and stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, which was on the highway to the Fuller's field. For those of you who have just joined, we're in 2 Kings 18. We just started Isaiah 20 and verse 1. And we're talking about tartan who's there in Isaiah 20 verse 1. But you see the tartan there and these other positions that were there. Well, this is the time Assyria comes in, and you remember Assyria was just cruel, and they were the dominant force in the world at that time. And they just used their power, and they just went in, and they just threatened people, and their reputation preceded them. So people would just fall in fear when they heard that Assyria was on their borders because of the reputation they had, which was just awful. And so here it is. You have Sennacherib, Sargon, whoever is here. We've had them here at the time of Hezekiah threatening Hezekiah and threatening Judah. And you remember King Ahaz, he was just really afraid of Assyria. He tried to even enter into an alliance with Assyria that backfired on him in a way. But God, and we'll look at this in a little bit, God did say you know Ahaz and Judah, Assyria will never conquer you. They did conquer Israel, but they never did conquer Judah. They came very close to Jerusalem, but they never did invade it. So here we have the king of Assyria, or the the tartan of these people coming to Hezekiah. And this is a very... if you have the time later on, go ahead and read through 2 Kings 18 and 19, because you see Hezekiah's faith in God. It's a very inspirational chapter. There is no way. There is no way Judah can match the forces against Assyria. They just can't do it.

Without God, they were done. They were going to be defeated, and Hezekiah knew that. And so throughout this, you see Assyria just flexing their muscles and saying, no one has ever been able to stand against us. No God has ever been able to stand against us.

What are you doing? And even though Hezekiah was trying to tell the people, be calm, be calm, trust in God, Assyria is saying, don't trust in God. There's no God we can stand against. And so you come over and you read through the chapters, and you see this beautiful prayer of Hezekiah in 2 Kings 19. He's heard everything. Assyria has been there, and He sends a letter. He sends a letter to Hezekiah. Hezekiah looks at it, and he does what we should do. Well, we realize that we are just hopeless. We don't have the answers.

We don't have the strength, the might to stand against these things that come against us. Hezekiah does a beautiful thing in verse 14 here. Verse 14 in 2 Kings 19, it says, Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. He read it and thought, you know, there's no way we can be to them. And he just took it before God, laid that letter down.

And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim, you are God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, you've made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear.

Open your eyes and see, and hear the words of Sinachara, which he has sent to reproach the living God. And he acknowledges, look what the Assyrians have done, that they have what they've done. They are a might. They are a power on earth. Verse 19, Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord God, you alone. And so, you know, then Isaiah sent to Hezekiah saying, because you prayed to God against an acrob, I've heard. And as you go through chapter 19, at the end of it, in verse 35, you see that God is the one, God is the one who delivered them.

It came to pass on a verse 35, on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians, 185,000. And when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses all dead. So Sinachara departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. And then his sons, the sons actually assassinated him. So it was God, it was God who saved them.

So, you know, when we read in Isaiah about tartan and the, again, the fierceness of Assyria, how they dominated the world at that time. And we learned some tremendous lessons from that. And as we, you know, we look ahead, and we have to just kind of face reality that in the future there will be a beast power and revelation that dominates the world, that will dominate the people, that will threaten lives, and that will threaten existence, and threaten whatever they can, just for the mission of having God's people bow to them. You know, we have to remember and develop the faith now so that we learn that only by God's might, only He can deliver us.

So if we go back to chapter 20 in Isaiah, and we have tartan that comes here. It says, in the year of the tartan or Assyria, you can just, you know, say that Assyria comes to Ashdod. And Ashdod was in the area of the Philistines. Now Ashdod, you may remember, is a city that you would have read in the Bible about in times past, when Israel was delivered from Egypt, and they began to go and conquer the land that God was giving them.

Ashdod is there. So if we go back to Joshua 13, we see it's one of the cities that are the Philistines. Joshua 13 that had not yet been delivered to Israel at the time that Joshua was about to die. In chapter 13 of Joshua 13 verse 1, says, Joshua was old, advanced in years, and the Lord said to him, You're old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed. This is the land that yet remains, all the territory of the Philistines, and all that of the Geshurites from Sihor, which is east of Egypt, as far as the border of Ekwin northward, the five lords of the Philistines, the Gazites, the Ashdodites, the Ashdolanites, Gittites, and Echronites, and the Avites.

So the city of Ashdod was yet to be delivered to Israel. This is the land, guys, said this is yet to be delivered to you. And in chapter 15, just a couple chapters over, in verse 47, as the verse 21 says, the city's at the limits of the tribe. He's naming all these cities in verse 47. It specifically mentions Ashdod. 46 says, From Ekron to the sea, all that lay near Ashdod with their villages, Ashdod with its towns and villages, etc., etc., etc.

So we know where Ashdod is. It's a city by the sea. I didn't put this... I have a map here. I think you remember the map of Israel, Israel up north, Judah, and then right below Judah is the land of the Philistines. It borders the Mediterranean Sea there before you get to Egypt, and that's the area that's there.

So it was a city right there among the Philistines. It's notable maybe for something more that you remember, though, in 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel, Ashdod has something in it that causes them some problems. The Ark of the Covenant has been captured by the Philistines, and because that Ark doesn't belong there, God sent several plagues, several destructions, disturbances into the Philistines so they knew, just get this Ark of the Covenant out of here.

Get it back to Israel. I thought it was a notable thing that they had it, but God, it wasn't meant to be in Philistine territory. In 1 Samuel 5, and let me see my notes here.

Well, we just begin in verse 1. So the Philistines take the Ark from... are they removing the Ark from their Atlantis? As the Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod, and when the Philistines took the Ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, a pagan god, and set it by Dagon. So they got this, you know, wow, we look at the treasure we've got, we've got this thing, we're going to bring it into our city, and they know here's just this trophy that we have. Set it next to their god, Dagon, and when the people of Ashdod rose early in the morning, there was Dagon, falling on his face to the earth before the Ark of the Eternal. So they took Dagon and set it in his place again. When they rose early the next morning, there was Dagon, falling on his face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were broken off on the threshold. Only Dagon's torso was left. So one time, maybe it was an accident that Dagon fell over the second, like, okay, something's going on at this time. His head is broken off, his arms are, his palms are gone as well. Therefore, neither the priests of Dagon nor any who came into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day. The hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and he ravaged them and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod and his territory. I want to finally dawn on the men of Ashdod. What was going on? They said, the Ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is harsh toward us and Dagon our God. And so they sent and they gathered themselves and got the Ark and said, we've got to get it out of here. We have to deliver it back to, we have to deliver it back to Israel. You go down through, you can take the read the ensuing verses there, but in verse 12 it says, and the men who didn't die as they were delivering this back were stricken with tumors, and the pride of the city went up to heaven. And so we have, you know, we have Ashdod who has learned a tremendous lesson, you know, take the things of God and put it in a foreign place. You respect God, that Ark was there. And so we have this very same city of Ashdod that has history in it. It's a city that was to be delivered to Israel. The Philistines have power of it. The Ark of God is there, and this notable witness, if you will, to Ashdod comes about. It should have been remembered in their history. Here, look at the God of Israel. Look how powerful that he is. He showed that our God was nothing, nothing compared. Nothing compared. Dagon was nothing compared to the God of Israel. So we, in chapter 20 of Isaiah here, in the very first few words, we have two enemies of Israel. Here's a picture here. We've got Assyria. We've got Assyria under this commander-in-chief or whatever he was in the Assyrian army. He comes into the city of Ashdod. Now the commentaries will say that this is likely, this was on the way as Assyria was marching toward Judah. And there is some reason to think that that may be the case, because if you remember from our past Bible studies, Assyria just kept getting closer and closer and closer to Judah. And there was concern that they were going to come and conquer Judah. That's when God said, it's not going to happen. They're simply not going to, they're not going to overcome you. And they will not. In fact, we go back, I think I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but let's, as I'm talking about it, let's go back to Isaiah 8 for a moment.

And if you remember when we were through chapter 8, you know, and we were looking at verses 7 through 9 here, actually 7 through 10, God is talking about Assyria. And he gives these verses here that show Assyria is going to come right up, come right up to your neck, right up to Jerusalem, but they're not going to conquer you. And he specifically says that in 1 Corinthians, or not Corinthians, Kings, or 2 Kings 18, we'll get to that in a little bit. Verse 7 though of Isaiah 8, 7 says, Therefore, behold, the Lord brings up over them the waters of the river, strong and mighty, the king of Assyria, and all his glory. He will go up over all his channels, he will go over all his banks, he will pass through Judah, he will overflow and pass over, he will reach up to the neck, we talked about that being Jerusalem. He would get into Judah, but he would not conquer Jerusalem.

He will reach up to the neck, and the stretching out of his wings will fill the breath of your land, O Emmanuel. And here, there, he's referring again to Christ. Remember, Emmanuel means God with us. And from chapter 7 on through chapter 12, remember, we see Christ with us. He's watching. He is there. He's there with Israel. He's engaging Emmanuel here. He won't let.

He won't let Assyria conquer Jerusalem. Be shattered, O you peoples! Be broken in pieces! Give ear all you from far countries! Verse 10, take counsel together, but it will come to nothing. Speak the word, but it will not stand, for God is with us. He simply wasn't going to be able to do that. We saw that actually in 2 Kings 19.

He was there, and Hezekiah prayed, and and He never did enter into Jerusalem. So, we have a timing here. I don't know what year this was, and if we go back to Isaiah 20, but God is setting the time here for the prophecy. It says, In the year the tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and he fought against Ashdod and took it, verse 2, at the same time, at that very time, that Ashdod that Assyria was on the march to Jerusalem, had conquered Ashdod, and it was on his way toward Jerusalem.

God sent to Isaiah, and He asked Isaiah to do something that we would find maybe difficult to do if God asked us to do it today. He sent us to Isaiah in verse 2, and He says, Go and remove the sackcloth from your body. Now, you know, you can mark down Zechariah 13, verse 4 there.

It talks about how the prophets of God would often wear sackcloth. People would wear sackcloth when they were in mourning, but often the prophets wore sackcloth or clothes of hair, if you will. So God was saying, Take off your uniform, if you will. And they didn't march around prophets in fancy clothes and suits and ties and everything. They were very common, humble people who were servants of God. So God is saying, Isaiah, take the sackcloth from off your body, take your sandals off your feet, and Isaiah simply did it. And he did so walking naked and barefoot. Now, it's interesting when you read the commentaries. When you look at the Hebrew words, it, you know, naked means nude.

Nude, and it says it's either either completely or totally nude or partially nude. And the commentators, you can kind of see, you almost chuckle as you go through them because they say, Well, God didn't really mean that. You know, he just had to take off, he just had to take off that, that clothes, you know, that sackcloth thing, but he had things underneath it, and he had, you know, whatever they wore underneath the sackcloth.

And others will say, and it wasn't for three years, right? He says, it says, I'll go to verse three, and the Lord said, Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia. So God had him do that because God often had the prophets of old, you remember Jeremiah, too. He would just make them act out what was, what was going to happen, you know? And so God said, Okay, Isaiah, I want you to walk around for three years. Some commentators will say it was no more for than for three days. It would, some would say it's no more for just a moment, that he just did that to, just did that to show this is what God is going to do, picturing what was going to happen, that Assyria was going to do to Egypt and Ethiopia.

And there was a reason that God was witnessing that to Israel. Whether God had Isaiah walk around completely nude for three years or not, who knows, right? It's only, only God, the thing is Isaiah was willing to do it. Now, the one clue that it might be that he did, even if it was only for three days to get the message, because many of the commentators, and again, we just, we just look at historically of them, you know, they said it didn't take three years to get the message is to, to Judah.

It would have been very, three days would have been more than enough for them to get the message. Okay, Isaiah, we got it, we got it. This is a sign of what God is going to do to Egypt and, and Ethiopia.

And it's because, it's because God was, Israel was at that, or Judah was at that time, would always be looking to Egypt. We'll, we'll trust in all these other nations around us. That had been their history under Ahaz. We'll look at Egypt, they'll save us. We'll look at Ethiopia, they'll save us. We'll look at Assyria, they'll save us. And so God was showing, God was showing by Isaiah taking off the sackcloth, taking off his shoes and walking along the naked, you're not, you're not going to rely on any of these because this is, this is what's going to happen to Egypt and Ethiopia.

They're going to be captive to Assyria. They're going to lose their freedom, and that's exactly what happened. So for three years, and I think it really was three years, that the sign was because of of Syria with Egypt and Ethiopia. However long it was for Isaiah, you know, God records this, and in verse four he gives a, he gives a clue, you know, of what naked, what God, what God means when he says naked.

Then in verse three it says, do this Isaiah for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia. This is a prophecy against them. This is what's going to happen to them. And so in verse four it says, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered to the shame of Egypt.

So God kind of adds this little, you know, descriptive phrase of what he means by naked because when the Egyptians and the Ethiopians were carried away, you've seen some of the pictures that are depicted on caves that when one nation would conquer another, you can kind of see the people. I mean, they're there, I mean, they're in some cases naked, shirtless, maybe just a cloth around them, hands chained together, being led off into captivity. And that's exactly what happened to Egypt and Ethiopia. All those pictures you've seen in history books and, you know, that they find inscribed on key caves, that means they, in those days, they found the prisoners and they put them to shame. To be naked and led away was a sign of shame. And for Egypt, which was a proud nation, certainly a difficult thing for them to be led away. You know, with hair disheveled, naked, hands changed, being led off by someone to another country, would have been a disgrace and a humiliation for them, and for Ethiopia as well. But they were carried away as captives, and that happened. Let me...

That happened. We read Isaiah. Oh yeah, we already read 2 Kings 19.32, but that had to do with Assyria being conquered. So we have this picture. We have God displaying and acting out what's going to happen to Egypt. It might remind you, too, of Ezekiel, where God told him to lay on his side for 390 days. And that was going to picture what happened to Israel. God would have the prophets of old act out some of these things as witnesses to the people. Verse 5, then, as we go on in chapter 20, says, Then they shall be afraid. You've got to stop a moment and think who they are.

And it's obvious that Isaiah is prophesying to Judah at this point. So it should be clear that the they is Judah. Then they shall be afraid. It's talking about, you know, Judah would be afraid, whoa, we were going to rely on Egypt. We were looking to Egypt to kind of protect us and to ally with us against Assyria. But now they've been taken away captive. And we see them being marched away naked exactly as Isaiah has shown.

Right? And it's in the three-year period that was there for whether it took Assyria three years to conquer them or whatever that three-year period is. Now we see them gone. Now we see Ethiopia gone. So Judah would become increasingly afraid as they saw this march of Assyria toward them and all their allies and all the things that they were counting on in the world to protect them and provide some kind of security as they watched that disappear as God removed those gods and those that trust they had and other nations and other things, removed them from Judah one by one to the point when Hezekiah said there's no one else, only you, God.

And again, God will remove our gods as well one by one because what He wants from us is to trust Him completely. And sometimes our gods have to be removed. If we don't take the opportunity to be to trust more and more in God and take those opportunities we have to develop that trust, He'll remove those gods. He'll remove those gods and reveal to us who the true God is, just as He did to Judah here. Let me finish verse 5. I'm going to give you an example of why you have to be aware of the translation because it's obvious from the Bible here that He's talking about Judah.

This is a prophecy to Judah. Then they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia, their expectation. When they saw this happen to Ethiopia, Judah thought, you know, whoa, this is what's going to happen to us. Other translations of the Bible help make that English clear. If you go to even the New International version, they'll talk about, you know, Judah was looking at that saying, whoa, if that happened to Ethiopia, that's what could happen to us.

We could be led away naked and captive with our hands bound to another place and carried off to Assyria. That was their expectation, right? And Egypt, their glory. Wow, our glory. Egypt, Egypt, this would be fell Egypt, the same thing could happen to us. So you could see what Judah was thinking there. Now, and if you go to other translations, they have it right, talking about the people of God and Judah. But the New Living Translation, which is usually quite reliable, is reliable oftentimes, they mistranslate this verse. When they say that the they refers to the Philistines, the people of Ashdod. And that makes no sense at all from the Bible.

So sometimes when you're using these other translations, you have to watch. You have to watch what's going on, go back to the King James or New King James, go back and, you know, if there's words and look at the concordances so that you get the meaning, the true meaning of what God is conveying here. Here is what he's doing in chapter 20 is showing is Judah. The only one you can trust in is me. And one by one, taking away their gods. That's what this very short chapter is all about.

And so in verse I have 2 Kings 18 21 circled in my Bible there. Let's go back and see what 2 Kings 18 21 says. Must have circled that for a reason. Ah yeah, 2 Kings 18 21 to show exactly what verse 5 is talking about there. 2 Kings 18 21 says, Now look, you're trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it'll go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who trust in him.

So he's showing, don't trust in Egypt. And they were trusting in Egypt. In verse 5, when they see Egypt going into captivity, whoa, you know, whoa, what has happened. Okay, so verse 6, very short chapter of chapter 20. But a very meaningful chapter because God keeps reminding us, trust in me, and he keeps reminding Judah the same thing that he gave to Ahaz. Trust in me. I'm with you. God with us. I will be your Savior. I will deliver you.

Just trust in me. As a kind, you know, learn to do. And we saw so eloquently in that prayer that he offered up. And in chapter 6 is the wrap up of this little chapter. It says, In the inhabitants of this territory will say, In that day, surely such is our expectation.

This is what's going to happen to us. Certainly, this is what's going to happen to us. What happened to Ethiopia? What happened to Egypt? What happened to these other nations that we relied on?

Surely, this is our expectation. Wherever we plead for help to be delivered from the King of Assyria, and how shall we escape? They came to the realization there just simply is no escape.

You know, if you have to rely on God, there is nowhere to turn. In the face of Assyria, in that day, there was just nowhere to turn. It was simply God and only God who could deliver them. And such will be the case for us, you know, in a time ahead. We will always be able to rely on God, and He will provide. Even if it isn't exactly what we want, it is His will, and He has our best interest at heart. So, let's look at just a couple of verses that, again, as we wrap up that very short chapter, in light of the prophecies we've seen before, you know, with the trust in God, you know, the trust in God we must have. And Proverbs 29, and verse 25 kind of wraps up chapter 20 when you look at it. It says, The fear of man brings a snare, and that's what Judah was doing. They were fearing Assyria. They were scared to death of Assyria, and from a physical perspective, they had every right to do that because Assyria was of a nation to be feared physically. You know, the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the eternal shall be safe. And that's the story of Judah. That's the story of chapter 20 in that one little verse. Something, you know, for us to remember Christ, how many times? It says that more times in the Bible than any other command is don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Put your trust in God. And that's what chapter 20 there of Isaiah is saying.

If we go forward in the Bible to the last book of the old, no, not the last book. That's Malachi, Micah, a little book after Jonah. And Micah. Now we have Joel, Amos, Jonah, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, verse, and chapter 7. Remember that Micah is a contemporary of Isaiah. He was a prophet that was alive and prophesying at the same time that Isaiah does, so he has common themes in the book of Micah that Isaiah did. And chapter 7, and I'm going to pick it up in verse 8. But you will note as you're looking at chapter 7 that in verse 5 is a verse that you know you've heard many times. Don't trust in a friend. Don't put your confidence in a companion. Guard the doors of your mouth. Let's go down to verse 8 because here he's talking about fear. In verse 8 it says, don't rejoice over me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be alight to me. So Micah is saying, you may be lauding how great you are. You may be singing victory march over me, but don't rejoice over me. God is with me. I may be down for a moment, but I will rise again because God is with me. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be alight to me.

You know, we see that in examples in the Bible. You know, we go back to our study in the book of Acts and Peter in prison and Paul in prison and others who found themselves in dire places. Jeremiah later, a later prophet when people thought they had him, throw him into a pit, all these things. The Lord will be alight to me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he pleads my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me forth to the light. I will see his righteousness. Then she, I don't know why the she is in there, then she who is in my enemy will see and shame will cover her who said to me, well, where is the Lord your God?

My eyes will see her and she will be trampled down like mud in the street. And that's kind of what's the nacre of an Assyria. Well, where is your where's your God? Your God can't match our God, they would say. Always remember that God is greater than any God, weapon, might, anything, any anything on earth. And so we have this little short chapter in Isaiah that has a powerful message. Let me just pause there before we begin in before we get to Isaiah 21, which is another prophecy this time against Babylon. We'll see here in a moment. Any questions or any comments or anything before we move on? Yeah, Raymond. You're muted, Raymond. You gotta unmute yourself down in the lower, I guess, lower left hand. Yeah, okay. Now I think I'm muted. Can you hear me now? Yeah, we can hear you. Okay, good. I'm learning about this process, about this, this, this zoom. Anyway, the word she, it makes me think of like a weaker power. It's like it's not as effective. God is more powerful. So it's like, okay, I'm going to denigrate this, this, and call it she. So that's what I think. Yeah, that could be. I mean, it is an italics, it's an added word. But why the translator has decided to add she instead of he or whatever. Yeah, maybe that's what they had in mind. So yeah, okay. Mr. Fabi? Yes, yeah, sure. Mr. She. Um, Proverbs 29, what was the verse? I didn't catch it. Verse 25. Thank you.

Okay, then let's go to, let's go on to chapter 21. Chapter 21 is very interesting too. This is, this is, again, it's going to take us into another prophecy and another thing. Again, remember that God, when prophecies, it's not just one prophet most of the time, there's other prophecies that say the same thing. Chapter 21, we're going to see a dual prophecy against Babylon. Now, we had talked about Babylon before back in chapter 14. And you'll remember that, as we talked about Babylon, in verse 22 of chapter 14, it talked about that, you know, it was going to be a desolate place.

But we also talked about Satan during that time and how Satan's influence, Satan's spirit would be in the kings of the earth, as God would go through those verses and talk about how the kings of the earth are, and then talk about Lucifer. Same thing in Ezekiel 28. But in chapter 21, it's actually, we're going to be talking about the city or the empire of Babylon. And again, there's some, you know, there's some things in some history that help us understand a little bit about how Babylon formed.

And that comes about in that first verse again of chapter 21, when it says verse 1 of chapter 21, the burden against the wilderness of the sea. Now, the wilderness, you know, better translated desert. Of course, a desert is a wilderness, but it says the burden against the desert of the sea. Now, if we go down to verse 9, you know, we see we're talking about Babylon, and we'll see that we're going to see that as we go through this as well.

But there in verse 9, it says Babylon is fallen is fallen. We turn to that verse before because this is a dual prophecy. Babylon, the ancient empire, first world ruling empire would be defeated. And then there's a future Babylon that talks about in the book of Revelation 18. It will be brought low, too. The burden against the wilderness of the sea. And wilderness is a deserted area.

Now, it's always interesting to have a little bit of history that we find in about Babylon. And I'll have to say, I didn't realize that, but looking through, again, some of the commentaries, more for the historical information of why would God call Babylon a desert?

Why would He call it a desert and talk about it that way? And here in the commentaries, and they all agree on this, and they have it pretty well documented in here. I think this is either from Adam Clarke or from Barnes. I didn't put the reference in there, but it's one of those two. Do you see that on the screen? I'll just read it. It says, desert or wilderness, may here be applied to Babylon either historically as having once been an unclaimed desert, or by anticipation as descriptive of what it would be after it would be destroyed by Cyrus.

Now, that's the name we're going to look at later. Cyrus will come in. He will, from Persia, he will be, his army will conquer the Medes and Persians, Babylon. After it should be destroyed by Cyrus, or possibly both these ideas may have been combined, that Babylon was once a desert before it was reclaimed by Semiramis. Remember who Semiramis was? I mean, right? She was this ancient lady, if I'm correct. I didn't look this up, the wife of Nimrod, and all the paganism that emanates from that whole marriage and that period of time back then.

That Babylon was once a desert before it was reclaimed by Semiramis is the testimony of all history. That it is now, that's like today, this is in the 1800s, I'm sure this was written now, a vast waste is the united testimony of all travelers. There is every reason to think that a large part of the country about Babylon was formerly overflowed with water before it was reclaimed by dikes. And as it was naturally a waste, when the artificial dikes and dams would be removed, it would begin to be a desert.

So we have Semiramis, who hum how, had all these who cleared the land. Babylon was built there, and then when Cyrus, you know, later on, the land was covered in water again when those dikes were removed. And if you know something of the history of how he conquered Babylon, you know, that office together. Now he gives some of his references here. Avad-Nedis and Eusebius says, respecting the building of Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, that it is reported that all this was covered with water and was called a sea. He quotes the thing, actually. And it says, Cyrus then removed these dikes, reopened the canals, and the waters were suffered to remain, and again, converted the whole country into a vast marsh.

So it was there for a while, and it was destroyed. So in chapter 21, when God says, here's this prophecy against the wilderness of the sea, the desert of the sea, here's this Babylon that, you know, had it within it, one of the seven wonders of the world, the Hanging Gardens, but in itself was a wonder of the world for that time. It had been reclaimed, it appears, from a wasteland.

This tremendous city was built in it that had all these wonderful things in it. It became the first world-ruling empire, and it survived for a while. It was actually Babylon that conquered Assyria. I think, if I remember correctly, 539? I probably shouldn't quote the dates, I didn't write it down, but they were the ones who conquered Assyria. They became the world-ruling empire, and you'll remember that Daniel and the young men that were with him brought over from Judah into captivity were there, and the vision of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had, and Daniel revealed, here's the four world-ruling kingdoms, Nebuchadnezzar was that head of gold.

Now, Babylon was that first world-ruling kingdom, which would be replaced and conquered by the Medes and Persians, and in this chapter 21, we're going to see that prophesied here 100-some years before it actually happened. So we have in chapter 21, that's the setting that we're in, and then the rest of verse 1 here says, as whirlwinds in the south pass through, so it comes from the desert from a terrible land. And those are a couple of very interesting verses to to have there, and I'll show you why in a minute.

Let me put a map up here now, so again we can see the area of the world we're looking at. You can see in the kind of pinkish color there, Babylon, Babylon, the area. You see Babylon there in the center of the map. You see over to the right of that, Medea, as we hear about the Medes and Persians, that's them.

And then you see down south, on the other side of the Persian Gulf there, you see Persia. So Medea, Elam, and Persia are there. It would be the Medes and Persians that eventually conquer Babylon. You can see that Persia, where this King Cyrus, and we'll see his name specifically prophesied as one who would conquer Babylon, you can see that he comes from the south.

So as we look at, as whirlwinds in the south pass through, so it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. So you have that map up there, but let's look at two other places that this same kind of language is used about whirlwinds and the south and something that is going to be conquered. One of those places is in Job. In Job 37, I mentioned in a sermon a couple weeks ago that the book of Job is an awfully good book to be reading through.

There is so much in the book of Job, more than just the story. We all know the story of Job, but there's so much in the book that if you just take it chapter by chapter and look at it, there's so much truth that God has put there in the book of Job. But here in Job 37, verse 9, we find very similar verbiage to what God has in Isaiah 21.

Verse 9, Job 37 says, From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds of the north.

And then I think it was when I was talking about winter, the wintertime and what it's good for. I read verse 10 a few weeks ago. So we have that, and we're going to see that.

The commentaries in agreement when it talks about whirlwinds, that it's talking about armies, right? There are winds that would come up from the south, and they would be for the springtime. And then later we'd have a later time. But the whirlwinds in the south pass through, so it comes from the desert, from a terrible land. That means a land more powerful, someone who's going to bring terror upon you. And then the other place that it's this same type of thing is mentioned is in Zechariah.

So let's go to Zechariah 9. Zechariah, the second book from the end of the Old Testament.

Zechariah 9.

Yeah, Zechariah 9 and verse 14. Now this is a prophecy for the future. It's talking, if you read through chapter 9, about Jesus Christ returning to earth. And verse 14, it says, Then the Lord will be seen over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord God will blow the trumpet. Well, you know what the trumpet is associated with. The Lord God will blow the trumpet and go with the whirlwinds from the south. The Lord of hosts will defend them. They shall devour and subdue with sling stones. They shall drink and roars up with wine.

The Lord their God will save them. Verse 16. In that day as the flock of his people. So we have two references in the Bible that are the same of the same verbiage that we read in Isaiah 21. I think that we're going to see that those represent two separate times. One that is indicative of what the first Babylon, the ancient empire of Babylon, how it's going to fall.

That would be represented in Job 37.9. And then the future Babylon. The Babylon that's extant on the earth at the time of Jesus Christ returns when he returns and he conquers Babylon and ends it at that time. In both cases Babylon is done and uninhabited forever. So let's go back to Isaiah 21 and keep those two verses Job 37.9 and Zechariah 9.14 in your mind as we come down through. We're not going to get through all of chapter 21 tonight. There's an awfully lot in here and I don't want to overload our thinking here too much. So in verse 2, as we proceed, we've got God giving this image. We've seen in the Bible what those things can mean. We've got these whirlwinds, these armies from the south. You've got a map up there that shows where these cities, Elam and Media, are a distressing vision is declared to me. Distressing vision. This is a time of terror, if you will. This is a time peace, you know, war. Not peace, a time where peace disappears, a time of war, a time of distress. Distressing vision is declared to me. The treacherous dealer deals treacherously. This is talking when you look at some other translations and it says in the Plunderer Plunders. You have these people who come in and they do the thing, but what they reap or what they sow, they reap. And the commentaries indicate that in the language—let me stop to share here so I can see who we need to let in—when you look at the commentaries, it talks about sowing and reaping. You know, we saw how Assyria would reap terror on the earth and they would conquer everyone. And God said, you know, you lorded it over these people, you took glee in what you did and how miserable you made them. And then God rendered unto them exactly what they did to others. And we see that over and over in the Bible in the end time the same way. Israel will be conquered, but then Israel will be the conqueror in there. And so we have, you know, the treacherous dealer deals treacherously. If we look at Isaiah 33, 33 verse 1, the word plunder shows up there again. Isaiah 33 verse 1 says, "'Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered, and you who deal treacherously.'" So again, we have the same verbiage that's here in chapter 1, repeated in chapter 33 of the same chapter. "'Woe to you who plunder, though you haven't been plundered, and you who deal treacherously, though they have not dwelt treacherously with you. When you cease plundering, you will be plundered. When you make an end of dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you. What you reap, you sow.'" You know, Galatians 7, Galatians 6, verses 7 and 8, I have written down there. Also, you know, Habakkuk, you know, as we're hearing it, it's helpful to see some of these minor prophets that go the same type thing that God talks about throughout these prophecies. In the little book of Habakkuk, that's here, varied among the minor prophets.

I don't know about the flip of page. We were in the book of Micah before, and Micah is.

It's Micah, Nahum, and then Habakkuk. If you remember where Hamikah was, two books forward from Micah is Habakkuk. And in Habakkuk 2, in verse 8, again, we have this idea of, you know, people that plunder, like these nations were doing to Judah and come in and conquer others. In verse 8 of Habakkuk 2, it says, Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnants of the people shall plunder you.

What you do to others will be done to you. You know, Christ said the same thing, As you sow, so shall you reap. As you do, it will be done unto you. Because you plundered many nations, all the remnants of the people shall plunder you, because of men's blood and the violence of the land and the city, and all who dwell in it. So as we read about plundering and treachery in Isaiah 21, that's what it's talking about. Here's what's going to happen. It will be all dealt treacherously, and what was going to happen to Babylon was an interesting way for them to fall. There wasn't a mighty army that marched in, because Babylon was a well-fortified city, you know, but they took too much care in their luxury. We're going to see here in a little bit.

So if we go back to Isaiah 21, we see about this distressing vision, the treacherous dealer, the plunderer who plunders, and it says, go up, go up, O Elam. Go up, Elam, go up to Babylon, besiege O Media, right there to the south and to the east of Babylon. Go up, Elam, besiege O Media, all its siding, all its sign I have made to cease. And the sign that God is referring to there is all the misery that Babylon has brought on other people, that's going to cease, because now they're going to fall. They've conquered, but now they're going to fall, and the sign and the misery that they brought on other people will be brought on them, but the sign that Babylon has brought on people would cease when they are conquered. And so in verse 3, then, we see Isaiah. This prophecy is given to Isaiah, and he is conveying the feeling that it would be to be in Babylon when all this is happening, right? He's empathizing. He's voicing what it's going to be like in Babylon when this burden against them comes to pass. Therefore, he says, my loins are filled with pain. Pains have taken hold of me, like the pains of a woman in labor. We might remember Jeremiah 30 when it talks about Jacob's trouble, and it asks in Jeremiah 30 verses 4 through 7, 8, 9 there, why do I see all the men with the color drained out of their faces? Why are they bent over in pain like a woman in labor? Because the distress and the terror and the pain of it all is just more than they have ever experienced before. And that's what Isaiah is conveying, what it's going to be like in Babylon when they realize they're being conquered. They've always been the conqueror, but now they're going to find what it's like and what the pain is, and especially in the way that Babylon fell. Therefore, my loins are filled with pain. Pains have taken hold of me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I was distressed when I heard it. I was dismayed when I saw it. When Isaiah sees, has the vision of what's going to happen, he's dismayed. And it is an amazing story of how how Babylon fell. My heart wavered. Fearfulness frightened me. The night for which I longed, he turned into fear for me. Now what Isaiah is talking about there, we see this prophecy of how Babylon is going to fall. Verse 5, you know, is the verse, I'm going to put, well, do I have that on here? Verse 5 is the one that Barnes-Nose says may be the most amazing verse in all of Isaiah, because it is so prophetic and so exact as to what would happen in the fall of Babylon that was still, you know, in 539 BC. Remember that Isaiah was written in the 700s BC. Israel itself fell to Assyrian 720 BC, and Ahaz was still alive at that time. But if you look at verse 5, we'll read that, and then I'm going to read what what what the Barnes-Nose says about this. In verse 5, it says, prepare the table, set a watchman in the tower, eat and drink, arise, you princes, anoint the shield.

It is like a it's a like a cliff's note of what happened to Babylon when they fell. You know, we're going to look a little bit at Daniel 5. I'm not going to read the whole chapter, but when you see what's in that verse, that's exactly the outline of what happened when Babylon fell, when Babylon fell. And so here we have this amazing prophecy, and that's why, you know, Barnes says what he says here. It says, you know, prepare the table. That first line in verse 5 says, this verse is one of the most striking and remarkable that occurs in this prophecy, or indeed in any part of Isaiah. In its language, it is language supposed to be spoken in Babylon. The first direction, perhaps supposed to be that of the king, is to prepare the table for the feast, then follows a direction to set a watch, to make the city safe, so that they might revel without fear, then a command to eat and drink, and then a sudden order, as if alarmed at an unexpected attack, to arise and anoint the shield, and to prepare for a defense. The table here refers to a feast. That impious feast mentioned in Daniel 5 in the night in which Babylon was taken, and Belshazzar slain. Herodotus and Daniel, and Daniel 5 all agree in the account that Babylon was taken in the night in which the king and his nobles were engaged in feasting and revel. You remember the story, but we'll go there for just briefly in just a minute here. The words of Xenophon are, but Cyrus, he's the conqueror, when he heard that there was to be such a feast in Babylon, which all the Babylonians would drink and revel through the whole night. On that night, as soon as it began to grow dark, taking many people, he opened the dams into the river. That is, he opened the dikes, which had been made by Semiramis and her successors to confine the waters of the Euphrates to one channel. He suffered the waters of the Euphrates to flow over the country so that he could enter Babylon beneath his wall in the channel of the river. What he did was the river was there, and in order to get under the wall, while Babylon was all feasting and all the things where they were just thinking they were inconquerable, that they had this fortress, he had all these areas that channeled to take the water away so they could march into the city. They had no idea what was happening until Cyrus and Darius and the Medes and Persians were there, and it was just too late. There was no way. That's why you see the terror in the Babylonians. Like, what do we do? We're in the middle of a feast, and we've got the enemy right here among us. There's no way that we can be saved, and so they know they're doomed. So Cyrus says, let's go against them. Many of them are asleep. Many of them are intoxicated. All of them are unfit for battle. Babylon was thus taken.

With that outline in verse 5, let's go forward to Daniel. I remember Daniel was something that was a hundred-some years later, 150 years later, that this prophecy came to pass in Daniel 5. Isaiah was 150 years before Daniel, and in Daniel 5 we see that very same outline occur. Daniel 5 and verse 1. And you see where what they do is they defile the instruments of God. We talked about the —Laremi, I'll finish this thought, then I'll get to you. You remember that earlier on in Ashtad, when we were talking about Ashtad, and they had the Ark of God there. That Ark, that Ark belonged to God, and he didn't take it lightly that it was in foreign hands. Same thing with Babylon. They had all the instruments and all the cups and all the things of the temple there with them, and then Belshazzar misuses them. We'll see that here in a minute. Yeah, Laramie, did you have a comment? Yes, hopefully I sound clear. Do we know what time of year that —or what month— that Babylon fell? Was it like right around the winter solstice? I just have this. You know, I don't know. Maybe someone else knows. I don't know offhand.

Okay, Raymond, I saw the light going. Okay, let's look at Daniel 5 for a moment then, here. Daniel 5 says, Belshazzar made a great feast —prepared the table, right? Made a great feast for a thousand of his lords. It was a time where the whole city was partying and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels, which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple, which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. So they're going to treat the things of God in a very common manner. And God uses that time then to bring, you know, destruction upon Babylon. They brought the gold and vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God, which had been in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, wives, and concubines drank from them. They drank wine. They praised the gods of gold and silver. So they didn't recognize God, but they're gods for the bounty that they had. Praise the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone, and then you have the there that, you know, had to be just kind of an astounding thing that happened that night. In the same hour, the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote opposite the lamb stand on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Can imagine what that would be like. Here you are in this party. You brought all these things out. Everyone's feasting. You see the hand writing on the wall, and the king's countenance changed. Something isn't right. This is not a normal thing.

And his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his hips were loosened and his knees knocked against each other. I mean, he was really troubled. This is what fear is, is describing he knew something was up. Yes, Xavier? Oh, Brother Shady. Yeah. Two points. One about them, they were partying, and Christ said so shall it be in the day of the son of man when he begins his return.

And the next one in regards to the sister's question, they say it was in the fall October of 539. Okay. And during that time, October, because during the time of having my children prompted from all of that. So the first fall of Avalon was right around the first same time as the second fall of Avalon. Excellent. I should have guessed that, but I'm glad you verified it for us. So that's, yeah, God works in patterns. Xavier, did you say in the fall? Yes. Over to fall 539 BC. I had October. I wanted to compare. Yep. Thank you. They're very good, very good. So you have this, and of course, you know, King, he sends to all of his astrologers, every all his wise men. What does this mean? They don't have any idea what it means. Someone says, you remember, there's this guy Daniel over here. He was able to interpret these dreams. Daniel comes in, he was able to interpret what it is. Don is here at the at the end of chapter five. You know, verse 26, Daniel says, this is the interpretation. This is the interpretation of each word, meaning God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. Teacal, you've been weighed in the balances and found wanting. There is your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians. So, Bell, you know, Bell Shouser knows my time is up. This is the time that that we're done. Bell Shouser gave the command and they clothed Daniel with purple and put a chain and that very nice for that very night. Verse 30, Bell Shouser king of the Chaldeans was slain and Darius the Medes received the kingdom being about 62 years old. So, you know, there was panic. There was all these things going on. Exactly the way that Babylon fell is the way it's pictured there in Isaiah 20, Isaiah 21.

Now, even more amazing than that, if it can be, to see that prophecy. Again, when you see prophecy fulfilled like that, that is verified by history, then you see that God is in control. Prophecy is a proof of the Bible. It's also something that makes us love God more, trusts God more, and also that we have to obey Him more knowing He is in the charge and His word, you know, His word is absolutely true. Now, the history books will tell you that it's Cyrus. Cyrus was the Persian who came in. It mentions Darius there in Daniel 5, but it was Cyrus the Persian who the history books say are the ones who masterminded that fall of Babylon.

And amazingly, in the book of Isaiah, we find Cyrus named by name, you know, 150 years before he was ever alive. As God says, this is what's going to happen. If we move forward in the book of Isaiah, chapter 44, the commentaries don't have any explanation. They almost just kind of like ignore this because I think it's too hard for them to comprehend that God, you know, that God says that God named the person in, you know, who this would be. Again, it's a proof, a proof, the prophecy. I'm with you, Israel. I'm with you, Judah. I'm with you, people of God. What I say will happen. So in chapter 44 and verse 28, just reading through the verses leading up to that, you know, let's pick it up in verse 2026 there, chapter 44. Again, Jerusalem, Judah did fall to Babylon, okay? Well, you remember that in 586 BC, Jerusalem, Judah fell to Babylon. Babylon conquered Judah. They were carried away captive. We've read those verses, but God makes a remarkable prophecy. You know, when Israel was conquered, they never returned to the Promised Land, but God said that Judah would. Judah would. So in chapter 44 of Isaiah, verse 26, it says, who, speaking of God, confirms the word of his servant and performs the counsel of his messengers, who says to Jerusalem, you shall be inhabited. To the cities of Judah, you shall be built, and I will raise up her waste places. Who says to the deep, be dry, and I will dry up your rivers. Now remember the history of how Babylon fell. Who says to the deep, be dry, and I will dry up your rivers. Who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he shall perform all my pleasure, saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built, and to the temple your foundation shall be laid. When Babylon conquered Jerusalem, the temple was destroyed, and God says, you know, they will come back and they will rebuild again. I'll pause there for a moment. Agardo, you had a comment?

Yeah, one of the things that Bible commentators say about this passage is that they try to argue that the book of Isaiah was written by more than one person over different periods of time, and they say, well, of course, this was written after that. That's the only way he could have had that in the book. So, we just want the way they go around trying to explain prophecies that are going to be explained any other way, at least for them.

Yeah, they don't get that. They don't get the duality. When it talks about in that day, it's talking about they just don't get it. And that's understandable. It's by God's Spirit that we understand these things. So, here in verse 28, Jerusalem, you're going to be built again. Cyrus is going to conquer Babylon, and you will be able to go back. In chapter 45, it goes on, Thus says the Lord to his anointed to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double door, so that the gates will not be shut. I will go before you and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob, my servant's sake, and Israel, my elect, I have even called you by your name. So, again, another prophecy. Look, Israel, I'm with you. When I say something, it will happen. You even have the name of the man who is going to be able, who's going to conquer Babylon and going to, you know, be able, you're going to be able to go back. I have named you going on in verse 4. I have named you, though you have not known me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. There is no God besides me. I will guard you, you know, down through those. It's finally that, you know, God says, my word will stand. It will never come back to me void. And so, you have this tremendous prophecy that's there, that's documented in history. Well-known. You even have the name of the king, Cyrus, who conquered, who masterminded that, you know, that overthrow of Babylon. And it's all prophesied there in the book of chapter 21 of Isaiah. You cannot, you know, you cannot really deny it. I mean, you know, as, as, um, Agardo said, the commentators will try to argue everywhere around it. There's no way Isaiah could have known it. You can know everything when God reveals it. Um, well, I'm looking at the time. Let's just, let's just, let's just stop there, you know, we'll start with chapter, with verse six next week. Um, because that, you know, because again, we get into the duality here in verse nine of Babylon is fallen is fallen. Now, remember Job 37 verse nine, the armies come from the south, right, in that in verse, in verse one there, you have one, we have one fall of Babylon, one of the two falls in verse nine. Babylon is fallen, is fallen. Job 37 verse nine. The next fall of Babylon, the end time Babylon, um, that the, that God, civilization, society, you know, that God talks about in Babylon at the end time is going to fall again. That's where Zechariah 914 will come into place. But let's just, let's just end there in verse, uh, in verse five. You know, you might take the time to just read through Daniel five and appreciate what God has, has put in this prophecy here as well as we, as we go through it. So let's just end there if there's any questions, comments. You're shaking. Uh, yes, yeah, guard.

Yeah, regarding that, that verse nine about Babylon is falling, is falling, since, like you mentioned, it's also on the book of Revelation. Would it be plausible that, um, the first fallen refers to a physical type, and then the second to like, or like a spiritual or, or a not a nation, but an anti-type, it's a system of things. Yep. Yeah, the first one is, is certainly physical Babylon, right? Second one is, that's a whole civilization to Babylon and Revelation, right? Because if you can apply, it's a whole world type thing. Obviously a city, because they talk about the whole system of commerce in Revelation 18, you know, all the risk, all the low, all the wailing that goes on, because all the merchants have lost all their power, but there's a system there that's, that's, that's evil as well that God will conquer. But first one is clearly the physical Babylon. Mr. Shabi, this is Reggie. Hey, Reggie. I was wondering, you know, when we go back to Genesis 10, we were talking about Semiramis and Nimrath, the Tower of Babel. Yes. Anyway, God confused the languages and everything. They were building the Tower of Babel, right? And He confused the languages, and that interrupted the Babylon as far as progressing with that. And, you know, we talked last, I will study about Kush and also Ethiopia. Right. They were in Africa, things like that. But anyway, Babylon was interrupted at that time also. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's all I had. Okay, yeah. Hey, Bill.

Yeah, very interesting thing you talked about Cyrus being pre-named, that man of God that came up out of Judah and made that prophecy. Then there was an old prophet there. You probably know the story. So the old prophet called him as he was going back to Judah, said, come back with me and eat. And the angel told me that he used to do that and says he lied to him. And he went to all that trouble. He got him back there, and the man of God ended up being killed by the lion. I guess most of you know that story. And you always wonder why did that old prophet do all that? And it was because he did want his bones burned, and he said, told his sons, now bury me right next to that man of God. Then if you go look when Cyrus comes, and he's digging up the bones and burning them, and he says, who's that? And he said, well, that's a man of God, and that's a man of God.

Prophet next to him, he said, leave them alone. So that guy went to all that trouble.

He had that, but had the true prophet killed, went to all that trouble just so he wouldn't get his bones burned.

Amazing. Yep, now it is. It is. And the true prophet should have obeyed God instead of obeying that false prophet. God told me to come back and eat. It's always a lesson. Obey God, right?

Obey God rather than man. Yeah. Bud, did you have a comment? Yes, Mr. Shaby. Isaiah chapter 20 on verse 3, the eternal thread, just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and a wonder against Egypt and Ethiopia, so shall the king of the serially to weigh the Egyptians and prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot with their buttocks uncovered. There seems to be a distinction between the nakedness of Isaiah and the nakedness of the captives, and I get that I would, and I don't think God likes his people to walk around naked showing the private part, so I think it's a distinction there that supports that Isaiah was wearing a loin cloth. Loin cloth?

I don't doubt that. I don't doubt that. At least, I hope so. Sometimes you put yourself in that position and think, well, that would be tough. That would be tough. But I agree with you. God wouldn't do that. It was the shame to the prisoners, but just to take off his sackcloth, right? Just take off that garment and show that you're walking around without that would be a statement to Judah as well. That's the way I see it. Good point. Okay, anything else anyone?

Okay, so we will go ahead. Sorry, go ahead. Quick question about that. Did the people, I mean, I know they knew he was a prophet, but a lot of people didn't believe him. So if he's doing that, are there people then who are going to think he's just this crazy man? Like he's lost his mind? Yeah. Was he viewed that way? I'm sure he was. That's exactly what they would think, right? Look at silly Isaiah. What's he up to now? You know, but you would hope that later on when they saw what happened to Egypt, like, oh, that's exactly what he was portraying. Exactly what he was showing and saying is exactly what happened that they would begin to believe, right? So same thing with Jeremiah. He preached there for 40 years, and all they wanted to do was kill him, make fun of him, isolate him, ostracize him.

And it wasn't until they were taken captive that they realized, wow, he was doing the work of God and saying the words of God all that time. And somewhere down the line, I have a feeling that we're going to be made fun of, too, that we trust in the Bible and we hold on to these ancient morals that the world has passed by. And we don't, you know, we don't subscribe to the morals of the world, and people will make fun of us as well and try to shame us out of the beliefs that we have. We just have to stand strong and rely on God.

I agree. There's the verse I wish I knew right where it was, but blessed is he who, oh, I can't think of it right now, is made fun of for my sake. I don't know where it's at, but it's in here.

Yeah, well, and Noah, right? They jared at Noah. He was building this ark in the middle of nowhere. So what did they do? Make fun of him to try to do it, but he just kept building the ark, and they had their witness when the reigns came. So, yeah, Savior.

Oh, I was just thinking of recalling Ezekiel also was commanded to bake his food over a human tongue.

Noah got commanded, and he had to plead with God to give him food on his dead.

But if he didn't plead, he would have done it.

All these interesting things, exactly, that God had his prophets do. So, Mr. Shavey. Yes, sir.

I'd like to make one more comment about, during this time of year, when people are going about doing their shopping and things like that, during the time of Abraham, after the flood, Abraham and Terah were with his father.

And they were in Urdu counties, which was Babylon.

Right.

God told him, well, not at that time, Terah actually took the family and went up to Syria and to Iran.

And they got out of that system, like we are in minus by God now, to come out of this world in this way. Yep. Same pattern, right? God is nothing new unto the sun. It's the same pattern that God has as people go through, and we see it happen over and over.

Right.

Shavey? Yes. Yeah, deal.

Yeah, hi. I got a verse, Becky, mentioning there about enduring persecution. You've got to stand fast with truth.

And she was wondering which verse. It might be this one.

James 1, verse 12. Excuse me, James 1, verse 12. Blessed is the man that endures temptation. When he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him.

Thank you, Salem. The verse, Dale, thank you very much. You're welcome. Yeah, I was I was looking. I was in Matthew 5.11. You know, blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. And I was like, no, that's not it. So thank you very much for that. You're welcome. Very good.

Okay, everyone. Anything else?

Okay, then I'm gonna I guess we will sign off for tonight.

If any of you are coming to Winter Family Weekend, we'll see you this weekend in Cincinnati.

If not, have a very good rest of the week, Sabbath, and we will see you next Wednesday. And God willing, we'll be coming to you from Florida next Wednesday night. So seeing you there. We can actually get from Cincinnati to Florida in one without weather. Okay, well, we have a good day warm.

Good night.