Bible Study: February 8, 2023

Okay, so tonight, actually last week, what we did, remember, we went over the review questions for Isaiah 13 to 24. And as Evelyn mentioned, you know, we've had all these prophecies that we've been talking about, and they're kind of harrowing prophecies when you look at them. God, He talks about the devastation that's going to come upon all the nations of the earth, even in Jerusalem.

He talks about the remnant that He will say, but in a lot of those other Middle Eastern countries over there, He talks about complete, complete desolation, people that, you know, they just won't live over into the millennium and things like that. Of course, we know that God has a second resurrection in mind that those people will be resurrected into, but it's a very harrowing picture of the future when you look and see what is coming all because of pride and because of sin and people rejecting God. And, you know, they bring it upon themselves, but then what God has in chapter 25, we begin to see it in chapter 24, is just this very hopeful, this very hopeful chapter, a series of chapters here that just shows how good He is and how merciful He is, and when we turn to Him, how good life will be for everyone in the kingdom.

So He's given man, we know, 6,000 years to be on earth to follow His own way. It turns into heartache, misery, strife, unhappiness, men killing each other, you name it. But when God's way is on earth, there will be the peace, the harmony, the joy, everything that people have been searching for but just don't know how to get it because they have to overcome their human nature first.

So as we begin chapter 5, and last week I read the first five verses of chapter 25. I almost wish I hadn't done that because when I went back to it again this week, there is a lot in chapter 25 that we need to look at more closely and see how it fits in with the rest of the Bible. Because again, when God gives prophecies, they most of the time don't occur in just one place. You know, there's other places, and in the New Testament, the prophecies of the future that are there as well that match the prophecies of the Old Testament. So we'll go back to chapter 25 and verse 1 here and look at this. And you can see as God is leading Isaiah and having him record these prophecies and these thoughts, that as God comes out of all the judgments on the earth, that there is this time of glorifying God. And we see that in the first verse of chapter 25.

It says, O Lord, O Lord, you are my God. I will exalt you. I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things. And you see wonderful things, and you might think, well, I mean, devastation isn't a wonderful thing, but when you know what God is doing, what his plan is, it does turn out wonderfully for mankind. When you know that God created mankind for a reason, and that it wasn't just to live in misery and to die 70, 80, 90, or 100 years or more, and just have nothing there, but there's a purpose to everything, you do praise God's name. And you and I, as we know God's plan, we do. We do praise Him, and we do glorify Him. You have done wonderful things. Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. You know, one of the things that, you know, we've been working on the new website homepage, and truth is front and center on that homepage, God's truth. And as you read through chapter 25, there's a few times that God comes back to truth, and His Word is truth. And so when we read these prophecies and fulfilled prophecies just show us His Word is truth, even when you look at cities like Babylon and cities like Tyre and the unlikely fulfillment of those prophecies, God's Word is sure. We always know. And so we know His counsels of old are faithful. He is faithful to fulfill what He said He would do, and they are truth. You know, as long as we're in Isaiah, let's go forward a few chapters, but over to Isaiah 45.

And just read a few verses from there, because throughout the book of Isaiah, we come back to God's Word is true. God's Word, He is faithful. What He says will happen, will happen. Let's begin in verse 18 of Isaiah 45. We read this last week, if you remember the Hebrew word tohu, confusion, chaos, in vain. But I'll begin there, and then we'll read down to the rest of the chapter. It says, For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who didn't create it in tohu, who did not create it in chaos and confusion, who formed it to be inhabited, I am the Lord, and there is no other. I haven't spoken in secret, in a dark place on the earth. I didn't say to the seed of Jacob, Seek me in vain, I the Lord speak righteousness. I declare things that are right. Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge, who carry the wood of their carved image, and pray to a God that cannot save. Tell and bring forth your case. Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Haven't I, the Lord, and there is no other God besides me, a just God, and a Savior? There is none besides me.

Look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath. He shall say, surely in the eternal I have righteousness and strength. To him men shall come, and all shall be ashamed, who are incensed against him. In the Lord all the descendants of Israel shall be justified, and shall glory. So you read words like that in the Bible, and where it says things like, my word will not return to me void. We can see that. And the prophecies that God recorded for Isaiah that many of the people that lived during that time, they never saw those prophecies fulfilled. We live on the other side of history, the time of the end before Jesus Christ returns, and we have the opportunity to see all these things. How much more should our faith be in God when we see that the word that he sent out millennia ago happened exactly the way that he said. And so, you know, in chapter 25 here, when it says, your councils of old, our faithfulness, and truth, if we go back to chapter 25, God then, in the next few verses, talks about that. You have made, verse 2, you have made a city a ruin, a fortified city a ruin. You know, we've read about Babylon, we read about Tyre. The ancient Israelites would have remembered Jericho and all those cities when they came into the Promised Land that they were all fortified. They all looked impenetrable. They looked like there was no way you could conquer them. And the only way those cities were conquered is because God had the walls fall in Jericho's case, and all these other prophecies fulfilled. You, not mankind, not the wisdom of the Israelites, none of us, not man, you have made a city a ruin, a fortified city a ruin, a palace of foreigners to be a city no more. Now, Babylon, it was like the crown jewel of the earth. I mean, one of the seven wonders of the world was there in Babylon. Today, it's nothing. God brought it to nothing. Tyre, one of the wonders of the world with the way that that whole city was set up. And then, then just became a ruin, that old city of Tyre. God says in verse 2, it will never be rebuilt. Now, he said that of Babylon, and today still Babylon has not been rebuilt. When God says it, people may try. And I've read where Sodom Hussein really, really wanted to rebuild Babylon there in Iraq. He just never could do it. So, in verse 3, again, this is building on everything we've read. We've read about Assyrians, we've read about Babylonians, we've read about Medes and Persians, and all these strong people of the earth, you know, who sometimes Judah just feared. King Ahaz, he was afraid of Israel, he was afraid of Syria, they were all afraid of Assyria. And in verse 3, he talks about those strong people. And God, as we read through these prophecies, he brought them all low. He just destroyed them. I mean, they were prideful, they stood up against God. We remember the king of Assyria, Sennacherib, how he would just taunt Jerusalem, and God brought them all down. So, in the future, it says, therefore, the strong people will glorify you.

We recognize you as God. They got defeated by God. They thought that they were the most powerful on earth, patted themselves on the back, sung their own praises, but the strong people will glorify you. And we even have Uzziah, when we look at one of the kings that Isaiah prophesied under, you know, read last week in Cincinnati. You know, Isaiah, he was humble, he sought God. Everything went well with him until he became strong, strong in his own eyes, and thought he had all the might, and it was all about him. Therefore, the strong people will glorify you. They'll have to be brought down, God said, because we have to be humble to approach God. The strong will glorify you. The city of the terrible nations will fear you.

And that fear is a good thing. That fear is a good thing. You know, we're told in Proverbs that the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. Every day here in Cincinnati, when I walk into the office, there's a stone right there with that plaque on it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. You know, there's another proverb that says, wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. We have to recognize God. The first commandment is, there is no other gods, you know, before me. So, the fear of God is one thing. It's not fears and terrified, timid. It's the proper respect and awe of God. If we go back to Exodus 20 for a second, in Exodus 20, we, you know, have quite the profound word of God when the Israelites are gathering at the base of Mount Sinai, and they hear God.

You know, they hear the thunder. They hear all the noise, and when they came in the presence of God, it just made them fear. They recognized God's how powerful and how awesome He is. And so, they wanted, just like, remember, they said, Moses, don't even talk to us. Let God talk to you, and you talk to us. We can't even stand at His presence. You know, you read about people like Daniel. When they're visited by an angel, they just fall. They just fall because of the presence of even an angel that may come to them. And so, we see that. But in Exodus 20, in verse 20, God thunders out the Ten Commandments. In verse 19 of Exodus 20, Israel is saying to Moses exactly what I just said. They say, You speak with us, and we will hear. But let not God speak with us. Lest we die. They recognized how powerful He was. And Moses said to the people, Don't fear. Like, don't be afraid of God in that way. Fear Him, yes, but don't be afraid of Him. He's your friend. He loves you. He has a purpose in mind for you. He wants what's good for you. Don't fear for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you so that you may not sin. If you recognize God, if you are in awe of Him, if you accept Him as your Savior, we recognize His power, we recognize His sovereignty. But let that fear be among us that we won't sin against God. I read that, and I'm reminded of Joseph when he was in Egypt. And Potiphar's wife was throwing herself at him. Now, remember what he said? I mean, here's a young man who could have gotten away with it. No one would have thought anything about it back then. But Joseph said, no, I won't do it. I won't sin against God. He had the fear of God, and that fear of God kept him from sinning and going against God. You and I have that fear of God. If we have that respect, if we have that awe, if we recognize what He's offered to us, if we will just obey Him and live our lives in the way that He wants us to live, the way of life that will be lived in the kingdom of God for eternity, He's only got our good in mind and by our obedience and sacrifice of our own will and desire as we show God that we love Him. The city of the terrible nations, then, back there in Isaiah 25, that city of the terrible nations, the ones who ran around scaring people, trying to put fear in them, those nations will fear you, God. They will fear you. They see and recognize your power, and they have become humble before you to do the things that you want them to do.

And they'll recognize the benefits of that way of life, the same way you and I do as we practice them in our lives now. Okay, verse 4, Isaiah 25. You have been a strength to the poor.

Well, yeah, God is our strength, right? In 1 Corinthians 1, somewhere around verse 26, it says, God hasn't called the mighty ones of the earth. He hasn't called the powerful ones of the earth, not the wealthy, wealthy people of the earth. He's called the foolish and base things, the poor people that everyone would look and think, you know, who are you? You're just another common man. You're just a common person. What is it about you? And yet God said, we know that whatever strength we have, whatever things we do in life, it's because God inspires us. God's spirit in us gives us the abilities, the stamina, and his mind to do the things that he wants us to do. You have been a strength to the poor. You know, we should look at a few verses on that, and I've got a few written in my Bible here. Let's go back to Psalm 27. You know, as you go through Isaiah, you do see a lot of things that David recorded a lot into Psalms. David is a man after God's own heart, we know. God says that. And David talked a lot about wisdom. He talked a lot about the fear of God. He talked about the strength, the strength that God gives us here in Psalm 27 and verse 1.

The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? If God is on our sides, if we're living our way, if we're living our lives the way God said, if we believe everything he has promised to us and everything he has told us, then what do we have to fear? Whom shall I fear? David says. The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? And that's, you know, how we have to develop and how we need to become as we go through life. But we'll just do things that God, the way God wants us to do them. Who am I going to be afraid of? Am I going to fear man more, or am I going to fear God more? If we fear God more, then we will always do what God says, and we will not worry or fret about what man can do to us. That's what Jesus Christ said. There are easier words to say than do, but that's what this life is about, so that we can learn and practice those things. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? If we go one chapter over to chapter 28, Psalm 28. Among the many times when David says this, in verse 8, it says, the Lord, or the Eternal, is their strength. That's you and me, right? The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving refuge of his anointed. He's the one who will save us. It won't be us. It won't be our smarts or our ingenuity. As we go through life, the powers of this world could destroy us, torture us, do whatever they want to us. Only God could save us. None of us, individually or collectively, would be able to stand against the forces of the world, but God can. It reminds me of a verse in Isaiah 2. I just don't recall where it is. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. There's some verse like that. I think that's in Isaiah. We'll come to it later on in a Bible study. Just have faith. Just have faith in God. Let's go back to Isaiah 25. I'm going to come to another couple verses here as we go through the rest of verse 4. Verse 4, you have been a strength to the poor. Now, the other thing we might think of when we read the word poor is when Jesus Christ in the Beatitudes says, blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the poor. It doesn't mean poor, as in we have no money. It means poor in spirit, the humble. Many times in the Old Testament, when you see poor in a verse like this, it could easily have been translated humble. But blessed are the poor in spirit is what it's talking about here. You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress. There's a verse that says also in the Psalms, it says, I haven't seen the righteous begging for food. God provides. He's our strength to the needy. If we have times where our substance is meager and we might wonder where's the next meal coming from, God is there. God is there. You've been a strength to the needy in his distress.

When times come and things, famines come and pestilences come and whatever, there may be not plenty in the bounty that we have today, but God will be there to provide and strengthen us. He'll be a refuge, a refuge from the storm, it says. When all those storm clouds and that heat, as it says in the next verse, a shade from the heat, the blast of the terrible ones come, when everything comes against not just us, but the whole world is in the chaos and the mess that it's in and all these things are raging and the storms are going back and forth. There's only one who can calm the storm. Jesus Christ showed that back when he was alive on earth and when he spoke, he calmed the storm. He's our refuge. He's our refuge. Now we should go back to Psalm 91 and tie that into there because, again, the Bible reminds us in many cases of how we relate to God, how we remember in times of stress to call on him and to just trust in him and to ask him to guide us and protect us.

Psalm 91. Let's read a few verses in here. These are very inspiring verses as well that we talk about a refuge from the storm. Psalm 91 verse 1. It says, He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High. That's a beautiful thing and it's a beautiful sentence in itself. Isn't he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High? God watches us. We're in His place when we live His way of life. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, He's my refuge and my fortress, my God. In Him I will trust. And then he says, Surely, surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, the ones who would trap you, catch you, and from the perilous pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge.

Years ago when I was in Orlando and I did my Friday morning letters, one of my favorite ones I ever did was talking about these verses in there. I have a picture of a bird. It was a tropical bird. I see someone from Costa Rica on with us, probably down from that area of the world. The bird was just sitting there with its wings there. The two or three baby birds were just sheltered under the wings. It was a beautiful picture of what God is saying here. He shall cover you with His feathers. I'll keep you safe. Under His wings you shall take refuge. His truth. There we have the truth again.

The truth that God tells us to learn to love, to live by, to make it part of us, His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Only with your eyes shall you look.

The wicked may be the reward. God can pick us out of 10,000 people, and everyone around us falls to whatever it is. Does He have the power to keep us alive? Does He have the power to shield us from that pestilence? Yes, He does if we trust in Him. Jesus Christ, with some of His healings there, would say, it's your faith that has made you whole.

And our faith in God will see us through.

Verse 9, because you've made the eternal, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place. If you dwell in His house, and remember God says, if we keep His law, if we live our lives according to the example that Jesus Christ set and the word of truth that we're looking in tonight, the Bible, He'll dwell with us. Because you've made the Lord your dwelling place, no evil will befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra. Can you imagine? If you shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent, you shall trample under foot.

Those are those are verses, and those are things that God says in His word. We just spend our lives learning to trust Him and believe what He has to say.

You know, so there, and as long as we're in Psalms, we were in Psalm 91. Let's go back to Psalm 37. You can put a marker. I'm going to come back with Psalm 37 here in a few verses of Isaiah, but in Psalm 37, verse 39, you know, again we have David, the salvation of the righteous is from the eternal. He is their strength in the time of trouble, and the Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the wicked and save them. Why? Because they trust in Him.

Because they trust in Him. And that's what He's repeating here in Isaiah 25. And those verses, I'll protect you. Trust me. Believe in me. Don't do like Ahaz and some of these other kings who as soon as little trouble came, I ran to this ally, and I ran to that ally, and I tried to do all these things all by my own. And you know, just in case I couldn't rely on you, you know, rely, rely on God. We see some of those kings, right? Even even Uzziah early on, God gave him weapons. Israel, they went to work, and they had chariots, and they were held in high reputes.

But it wasn't when Isaiah began to trust in those, and trust in the strength that God gave him physically, or gave the nation physically in terms of those weapons. When he trusted in those, he forgot God. And the same danger can help, can, can work on us if we don't keep our trust and faith in God first. Okay, Isaiah 25. Okay, so verse 5, verse 5 too. Again, God is again saying what He's going to do. You will reduce the noise of aliens, you know, the foreigners. You will reduce the noise of aliens. You know, we, I've got 2 Chronicles 32 written down here, 16 to 22. You can, you can put that in your, in your notes, but you know, we talked about that. Remember when Sennacherib, when he was coming against Hezekiah, and you know, God, God had said a serial will never enter the I'll get to you in just a minute. A serial will never enter into Jerusalem. And, and they didn't. But Sennacherib was there. And remember, he would just, he would come out and he was loud, and he was boisterous, and the people of Jerusalem could all hear. And he would talk about, don't listen to Hezekiah. No one can stand against me. There's been no God of any nation that can, can conquer me, etc, etc, etc. And Hezekiah had prepped the people before that saying, you're going to hear it.

You're going to hear all these voices, right? So however loud Sennacherib was, it kind of reminds me today, had he megaphones that he was just blasting this out to all of Jerusalem. But the people listened to Hezekiah. But he was loud, and he was boisterous. And God, you know, eventually, you know, he never allowed him to come into Jerusalem. And Sennacherib, if you remember, you know, God took care of him, if you will. And so there may be very loud voices, loud voices that tell you, if you don't do this, if you don't do that, you know, this is what's going to happen to you. People saying and mocking, you know, God's truth. What kind of crazy people would believe this stuff? That's from a book that was written thousands of years ago. Don't listen to them. Listen to God. You know, and the church will be telling you at that time, don't listen to the voices of the world. Listen. When the website goes up, like here in a few days, there's an article on the homepage now about listening to the voice, listening to the voice, you know, and being in tune to that voice that we're going to need even more and more as the time of the end draws near. Yeah, Sherry. I just wanted to get the second chronicles. Oh yeah, okay. It's second chronicles 36, I think it is. No, 32. Second chronicles 32 verse 9 and then verses, well, I'll just say verses 9 through 22. Okay, thank you.

Okay, so that's what he says, you know, there in verse 5. I'll take care of the noise. Just don't worry about it. You know, as heat in the dry place, as heat in the shadow of a cloud. You know, guy goes back when Israel was wandering through the desert, what did he do? He was a cloud by day. He sheltered him from the heat that would have that would have harmed them. He provides the shade.

The song of the terrible ones will be diminished. Just wait, God says. Just trust in me. It may last a little while, but they will be humbled, as maybe your margin like mine says, diminished probably should have been translated as humbled. It'll just verse 6. Then, you know, we go into, we move into a time where God is picturing the millennial reign of Christ, right? And in this mountain, you know, we harken back. We said that the Bible interprets the Bible. You don't have to kind of guess at these things. When the Bible talks about a mountain, it's talking about a kingdom. Back in Isaiah 2, I don't think we need to turn there. Everything's to tabernacles. We read it.

The mountain of the Lord. Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. Let's go up, you know, to God's kingdom. Let's hear what he has to say. And in this mountain, in this kingdom, in his kingdom, when Christ returns, and that's where he dwells, and the people dwell living his way in that time, in this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all people. You know, not just Israel, not just a few, but in that day, when Christ returns, you know, everyone, everyone, you know, will understand or get to know God. Everyone, well, we'll get to a verse on that, we're here in verse seven, and we'll talk about that in a minute. But in that day, everyone will know God. They will be living by God's way of life. The Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces.

You know, here's a banquet that he's talking about, a time that people, you know, rejoice, time of plenty when you have a feast. And he's not talking, it's not the Hebrew word for, you know, the holy days, as in appointed times, the Mo'ed, this is a different, this is a feast, an actual banquet type. Or there's plenty, plenty of food, a feast of choice pieces, the best things of earth. You will be able, you will be able to eat, he says. You know, yeah, in this, in this mountain, he will make a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, a fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees. So he's talking about all these fine foods, everything that, you know, in that day and age, we may not know what wine on the lee is, but, you know, we have wines, fine wines that people drink today, their favorite drinks that are more expensive than others, the choice meats that we may not eat often, but, you know, when, like when we go to the feast of Tabernacles and God has us save up that 10% to go to the feast, and he says, you know, buy whatever your heart desires. He doesn't mean gadgets and all these other things, he means whatever your heart desires is to buy those choice pieces of meat. Buy the, buy those drinks that you don't, that you can't have. I want you to enjoy a feast of choice pieces, like he says here in verse 6.

Now, if we turn back, you know, you may think of a feast, you think of wedding suppers, and in the New Testament, Christ invites people to a wedding supper. Some of them have excuses and they don't come, but back in, back in Proverbs, we read about a feast as well that's, that would, that would describe this feast that God is talking about. If we go to Proverbs 9, Proverbs 9, we come back to wisdom. We talked about wisdom before. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. Verse 1 of chapter 9 of Proverbs, it says, Wisdom has built her house. She has hewn out her seven pillars. She's slaughtered her meat. She's mixed her wine. She's furnished her table.

She sent out her maidens. She cries out from the highest places of the city. Whoever is simple, let him turn in here. You kind of see the picture. When you, when you dwell in wisdom, when you dwell in the fear of the Lord, when you live his way of life, look what he offers. Look what, what wisdom, when wisdom builds the house, you know, you know, it reminds me of Psalm 127, unless the Lord shall build the house, the weary builder toils in vain. Let wisdom, let God's word build your house. She's got this, this meal that's here. It's got the meat ready, the wine ready, the tables there. And God says, whoever's simple, so we can base things to the earth, the ones who aren't the high and mighty, who think they have everything and they know all the answers and whatever, whoever's simple, let him turn in here. This is for the humble. This is for the meek. Those are those who seek God. As for him who lacks understanding, she says to him, come eat of my bread. Life is tough. Come, come listen to what the Bible says. Come and, come and read this, this word. These are the words of life. These are the words of, of truth that Jesus Christ said. Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I've mixed.

For sake, foolishness, and live and go in the way of understanding. And so, you know, you see this picture where God uses the analogy again of a feast. Come and feast on the things that I give you. You want the good things of life. God wants us to have the good things of life.

He's not, He doesn't call us to be poor and miserable. He created all things to be enjoyed.

But they come as blessings to those who obey God and follow Him with their heart. And don't do it just, just to receive something, but because they love God with all their heart, mind, and soul.

So we, you know, we see this, and here in Isaiah, we go back to chapter 25, and in verse 6, we see God painting the picture. This is what my kingdom will be like when everyone is serving me and understanding me and living by my way. And in verse 7, He says how that's going to come about. Because we know today people don't, they, we know they don't all understand God's way. Jesus Christ said, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me, Christ said, calls Him. And so we know that we can only understand God's word if He has actually called us and opened our minds. Otherwise, it seems confusing, ancient. We reject it, and whatever. We don't have the Spirit of God in us, as it says in 1 Corinthians 2 there. But here it says in verse 7, and He, God, will destroy on this mountain, in this kingdom, right? His kingdom, He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. The veil that's spread over all nations. That veil that prevents people from understanding the truth. Some just can't understand it. And it's frustrating when we talk to someone, you know, that we love, and we say, no, this is what God said. This is the day you should keep. This is the way you would handle this situation. This is what God says about this, and that. If you would just follow that, how good life will be, but they can't get it. They don't understand it, but it's because there's this veil He says here. But in that day, in His kingdom, that veil will be lifted. Now, Paul talks about that veil as well. He was well aware of the book of Isaiah. He, you know, quoted from it several times. Let's go to 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 3.

And we see him talking about this veil that's going to be lifted from the nations. 2 Corinthians, right? Brother Shabir Corinthians, right? What did I say? What did I say? 2 Chronicles. 2 Corinthians. Yeah, 2 Corinthians. Yeah, I'm sorry. 2 Corinthians 3. Yep. 2 Corinthians 3.

Let's begin in verse 12.

Verse 12. 2 Corinthians 3.

12. Therefore, Paul writes, under inspiration from God, therefore, since we have such a hope, we use great boldness of speech. We're not afraid to say what the truth is. We have no doubt that what God says is true, so we shouldn't be ashamed of what we believe. We shouldn't say it timidly. We shouldn't say it boldly. This is what's going to happen. This is what God has given. We use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. Remember when he came down from the mountain the second time? His face was so shown because he had been in the presence of God, there had to be a veil put over his face, right? So it says, but their minds were blinded. For until this day, this is New Testament times, remember, for until this day, the same veil remains unlisted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ, his sacrifice, when he died, when that curtain was ripped into the temple, and now we had access to the throne of God. Now the Holy Spirit could come to people all that God would call. Acts 2, the Holy Spirit was poured out on people, poured out on us. When God opens our minds, we come before him, repent, recognize our old way of life was not of God. That's not the way to eternal life. That's not the way to please God, but now that we know, we turn to him with our heart, mind, and soul, and we need his Holy Spirit, that strength that we don't have in ourselves innately in order to resist self, resist the world, resist temptations. But that spirit that gives us understanding, remember in John 14? The spirit will lead us into truth. It will lead us into understanding. That's what Paul is saying here. The veil is taken away in Christ when we find him. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. So he was talking about the Jews of that day. They didn't get Christ. So when they read, a veil lays on their heart. I'll be with you in just a minute, Xavier. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, that's repent, right? When one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image as God. Remember Genesis 1.27? Formed in the image of God. And that was physically, now spiritually, into the image of God, and being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. Xavier?

Yeah, it's interesting, because it shows us that the veil is that he didn't put the veil on because he wanted to. It was because they were afraid of what they were seeing.

And unless God graciously call us first, not be afraid to come to them in truth, the veil remains on our hearts, because we are the ones who have the problem. And what you said there struck this, and they didn't want to see it, just like the world doesn't want to see God's way. Our nature is we don't want to see it. It's when God opens our minds, and we realize this is the truth. Very good. So we have this veil. Let me look at my notes here and see if I wrote something else down here. Yeah, let's go back to Revelation 20.

You know, the Bible, God wrote the Bible, he inspired the Bible, he's preserved the Bible, so that we have it. Some people say, do we have the complete Bible? Yes, we have the complete Bible.

God wasn't fooled. Someone didn't take something out of the Bible, should have been there. We have the Word of God that wants us to. And that's part of faith. If he can do all these other things, he certainly can preserve his Word, which he has for us. Revelation 20.

Speaks of the end time. Jesus Christ has returned. At the beginning of chapter 20, we have Satan that is put away for a thousand years. Then the resurrections are talked about. In verses 4 and the first resurrection, those who die in Christ, as in 1 Corinthians 15, who Christ was the first resurrected. And then those who are Christ, that is, who have his Holy Spirit at his coming, they are resurrected.

In verse 5, we have the second resurrection because God's plan of salvation includes every man, woman, and child, not just those who are called in this age, but everyone has an opportunity to have the veil lifted from their face so they can understand the truth of God, understand what his purpose was, and choose him.

In verse 12, as we come down there, we see this great white throne judgment period after the second resurrection when people are there. It says, I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. These are the masses, the billions and billions who are resurrected who have lived who didn't have an opportunity to choose Jesus Christ, who never heard the name Jesus Christ, who lived in areas of the world that were against Christianity, or maybe through their lives they just completely rejected God and wanted nothing to do with them, or were born thousands and thousands of years ago, right?

So I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And then you see then there's another book, the Book of Life, that's there, but these books are separate. They're not the same as the Book of Life, and it's the Greek word biblia. They're biblion, b-i-b-l-i-o-n, same word that we get the same Greek word we get the word Bible from. And so when it says the books were opened, it is talking about the truth of God will be revealed to those people at that time. They will understand what you and I understand when they read the Bible, and they see what the truth of it is.

It'll be like the veil has been lifted, like why didn't we know this before, right? But it's because that veil was on there. Remember, it was Adam and Eve who choose to reject God, and then God decided he predestined some to be called in this lifetime, but all mankind has the opportunity. So those books will be open. People will understand, and then they will have the chance to repent and follow God and choose Him.

They will have even more of the history of mankind to look at than you and I do. Some of them have gone through the Great Tribulation and what's going to come on this earth. They will see the history of what goes on here through the time of Jesus Christ's return.

They'll see how life was during the time of the millennium when God resurrects them, and they see what the history was. You have to wonder, why would anyone not choose God? Except that, we know that some don't because in verse 7 and 8 before that, God releases Satan for a little while, and for some reason, some people will still follow Satan. It's just a sad commentary on mankind, but we hope the vast maturity would choose God. But it does say that many, many will not. So this thing that Isaiah's talking about here is the veil being uncovered. I know that we've read Joel 2, 28 in the past that in that day, the Spirit of God will be poured out on all flesh.

You and I, God has poured His Spirit out on us, the Spirit of understanding. So we can understand these things. My next-door neighbor, if he was sitting here in the chair next to me, he probably would have already gotten up and walked out and thought, what's all this about? But that's not his fault. But it's that he can't understand today. God hasn't opened His mind today.

He has opened our minds, and He will do that with the rest of mankind because He wants everyone to have the opportunity to have eternal life, to have their sins forgiven, to choose Him because we have to choose Him. And He knows we choose Him, that we choose Him in our heart by the way we live our lives. And this veil will be cast, this veil will be cast aside.

Okay, let's go back to Isaiah 25. In verse 8, we've got more of the millennial verse.

We were just in Revelation. I should have told you to keep your finger in Revelation because we're going to go right back there again to the same set of scriptures that we were just in.

Clearly, He's talking about the millennial time. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. I mean, you don't go Revelation. If your mind doesn't go to Revelation 21 at that time, or Revelation 22, let's go back there again.

Revelation 20. Yeah, 21. Okay, looking in 20. 21. Verse 4, God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Now, this is right after the books we just read in chapter 20. All the dead have been resurrected. Books were opened. The Book of Life was opened. Now, you see how new heaven and new earth, death has passed away. Go back to 1 Corinthians 15. We won't take the time to be there, but 1 Corinthians 15 is the resurrection chapter. If you look down in, oh, verses 51 through the end of the chapter there, it talks about being resurrected in incorruptible bodies. It talks about, you know, it says, oh, death, where is your sting? Christ has the victory over death. God will be the one who gives us the victory over death, not the first death, because remember when we were back in the Book of Hebrews, we talked about, you know, Hebrews 9, 27, it is appointed to all men to die once, the physical death.

But there is the second death that we don't ever want to be part of. The second death is a permanent death. Everyone will be resurrected, but then there is eternal life for those who are just, Jesus Christ said in John 5. Some will be resurrected to everlasting life. The second death will have no power over them. Some will be resurrected to condemnation, and there they will suffer eternal death if they, by their lives, show they reject God and have no intention of following Him. But there will be no more death. And as Isaiah, you know, how many thousands of years before God inspired the Apostle John with the Book of Revelation, did Isaiah write those very same things, right? He will swallow up, or say, Isaiah 25. He will swallow up death forever, and God will wipe away tears from all faces. Going on in verse 8, he says, The rebuke of his people he will take away from all the earth. You know, Israel, Israel was rebuked by so many, Israel and Judah. Even today, the Jews. And it's kind of interesting when you look at the world around us, and there's all this talk about equality and anti-racism, but you keep hearing these things about anti-Semitism, right? Or people who are just against the Jews. And so we see that rising in the midst of all of this rhetoric that's out there. But God's people have been rebuked down through the time. Many, because they turned from God so many times, but he says, The rebuke of his people he will take away from the earth, for the Lord has spoken. You know, in the end time, you know, we read in Jeremiah 30 about the time of Jacob's trouble, and the time ahead of America when she loses everything because of her disobedience and moving further and further away from God. But God said, I will restore Israel, right? In Isaiah 6, he said, I won't completely destroy Israel. Some of these others I will, but there will be a remnant of Israel, and they will live on, and they will be held in high regard in the millennium as all people who are living by God's way of life. You know, verse 9 is another one of those chapters that then remind me of David, because, you know, here we have God giving us a principle. Again, we need to remember, trust in him, you know, the truth. We got to have the truth, you know, and hold on to the truth. But it says in verse 9, and it will be said in that day—remember when we see in that day—and it will be said, in that day, behold, this is our God. You know, what a beautiful time that will be when people say, well, this is our God. The God of the Bible is the one who we worship. He's the one who we're going to follow. We get it. We get it. We finally get it. And it will be said in that day, behold, this is our God. We've waited for him, and he will save us.

This is the Eternal. We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Trust in God. Have faith in God. Wait for God. Right? Wait for God. And I mentioned this past Sabbath that David succeeded Saul, and he learned from some of Saul's mistakes. As we should learn as we read the examples of the kings and others in the Bible, we learned from others' mistakes that we wouldn't let those same mistakes. One of the lessons that David probably learned from Saul was, wait. When God says, you know, when Samuel said, wait for me seven days, and then I'll be there to show you what to do. And Saul couldn't wait. It was like, my army is fleeing, the enemy is pursuing us, or about to attack us, and he took matters into his own hands. He didn't wait. And at that moment when Samuel came, he said, now God has rejected you. He's taken the kingdom.

He's taken the kingdom for you, and you won't continue in it. How important is wait? And so, over and over in the Psalms, you see God saying through David, wait for me. Wait for me. Don't lose faith. So let's go back to Psalm 37. Psalm 37, we were there not too long ago, and read a few more verses in there. We read about God as our strength and salvation in Psalm 37, but earlier in the Psalm, I'm thinking, oh, I'm in the wrong chapter of Psalm 37, and verse 7. Psalm 37, verse 7. Rest in the Lord. Rest in the Lord. The end of 1 Corinthians 15 says, let your soul be established in God. The end of, I think it's 1 Peter says the same thing. May God just establish you and steady you. Right? Rest in the Lord. Just have faith in Him. Don't fret. Don't worry. Don't be anxious. Watch. Beware. Be cautious. Do what you're supposed to be doing, but rest in Him and wait patiently for Him. Don't fret because of Him who prospers in His way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger. For sake, wrath. Don't fret. It only causes harm. For evildoers will be cut off, God says, but those who wait on the Lord, they will inherit the earth. Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more, indeed you will look carefully for His place, but it shall be no more. The meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

And somewhere in that chapter, it says, wait, I say, wait on the Lord. And nope, that's actually probably Psalm 27 I have written down. Here's Psalm 27 and verse 14. Oh, I get my...I'm in the wrong chapter, so I was going to say that. It doesn't talk about it.

Okay, now Psalm 27 verse 14. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He will strengthen your heart.

Wait, I say, on the Lord. God is quite clear. Wait for me. You know, wait for me. I'm there. I haven't forgotten you. I haven't been answering too many emails or other phone calls. I know exactly what's going on. I know exactly what you need, but I will give you this time to develop faith, to learn to wait on me, because as we patiently wait for God, we need that. It increases our trust in Him. In Isaiah 40, let's go back. Let's go forward a little bit in Isaiah 40.

Isaiah 40, now verse 31.

Isaiah 40 and verse 31. Those who wait on the Lord, and again, we'll see these recurring themes in Isaiah, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They'll run and not be weary. They'll walk and not faint. You know, God can give us what we need. Wait on Him. When it's time, we learn. Wait on Him.

We can find the same concept in the New Testament. I wrote down Titus 2, verses 11-13 here.

It just talks about having faith in God. Waiting and having faith in Him and trusting Him go hand in hand. It doesn't usually actually use the word wait in those verses, but it certainly does indicate the waiting that we must do for God. Let me get back.

So I'd say a 25.

Okay, then I thought we were going to get into verse 20 or chapter 26. We're not going to, I guess. Okay, so verse 10, Isaiah 25. You can see all the concepts that are in here, all the things that we need to bark down to kind of teach us. What does it mean to be developing with God? Isaiah 25, verse 10. It says, For on this mountain, again, the kingdom, on this mountain, the hand of the Lord will rest, and Moab will be trampled down under him.

You know, Moab, remember Moab is modern-day Jordan, Ammon, Edom, and Moab. That's where this Petra is, this place of God's outcast that we talked about back in chapter 15-16.

Just as an aside on that, it was interesting. It says back in Isaiah 16, God's outcast. When I was looking through Jeremiah reading through there today, or not today, this week, it was Jeremiah 30-17, specifically talks about God says they called you. They called you an outcast. So, you know, again, you see these words that pop up in the Bible, and they tie our minds to other things that we've read. And what's the picture that God is painting for us? But here in verse 10, you know, we know where Moab is. We've seen the maps before. And Moab shall be trampled down under him. Remember God in Daniel 11 says, These escape the hand of the king of the north, when he comes through the king of the south territory, that area south of the Mediterranean. These will escape Edom, Adam, Ammon, and Moab. That's that area of Jordan. And then we read there about how, well, is this what God has in mind during that time that his outcasts are going to be in that area of Jordan, where the rocks are and those verses that we read. But then we read after this time, that after that time where whatever God is doing and keeping that area open for his outcasts, whoever they are, and you know, and if we said that, we would be speculating, but there are keys in the Bible and clues in the Bible. Edom was going to be completely destroyed in Moab. And that's what he's talking about here. Moab shall be trampled down under him. When the time is done, when God is done with using them for whatever purpose he has in mind, Moab's destroyed. Moab shall be trampled down. And we read that Moab is pride. They're prideful, and so God destroys that. He will be trampled down and straw is trampled down for the Refusy. And he will spread out his hands in their midst. And you can kind of picture, you know, he will spread out his hands in their midst as a swimmer reaches out to swim. His hands cover that area. We've read about this area in the preceding 11 and 12 chapters. His hands are over that area. As a swimmer reaches out to swim, and he will bring down their pride. You know, we, I don't think we read the entire little one-chapter book of Obadiah, but you can go back and read Obadiah, and you can see that that's what God says. This area. Everyone's going to learn to be humble and to fear God, right? And he will bring down their pride. And then an interesting verse there in verse 11, the last line, together with the trickery of their hands. Now, you know, when you see that word trickery, God is not about trickery, right? I mean, God is straightforward. God says it the way it is. He says the truth. He says this is the way it's going to happen. He doesn't trick us into obeying him or anything like that. He just tells it what it is. But on the other hand, Satan is very much cunning. You read that back in Genesis 1, 2, and 3 when 1, well, Genesis 2, and well, I guess Genesis 3, when Satan or the serpent appears there, he's cunning. He's got a way to trick you into thinking the way that he thinks. And so God uses this word. So what is Moab going to do? And God specifically calls him out and says, I will trample Moab because of the trickery of their hands. What are they doing? If you go back and look at Isaiah 16 again, you see they're doing something. They're doing something, and God cautions them. Don't do it. Don't do it. Let my outcast be there, but they've got something up their sleeves always. You know, if we go to Ephesians 4, in the New Testament, we see this word that God cautions us.

God cautions us about it in Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4, he's talking about the church, the people that he puts in the church. He's talking about the spirit, the truth, the way the church operates, the body that we're in. Verse 13, then he says, till we all come to the unity, right? We learn God's way. We bond together as one. We all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man. That's the goal. To a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, no become like him, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. So God says, you know, don't fall prey to the trickery. Don't fall prey to every wind of doctrine. Don't fall prey to the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

Know the truth. Stick to the truth. Go back and prove the word of truth, and don't let it slip away. Cling to it, right? Hold fast, the Bible says. When you've found truth, hold on to it. Don't let anyone snatch it away from you. And that's what he's talking about here. So Boab does something. Somehow, trickery is involved in what they're doing. God specifically names them out, but you know what? There's a lot of trickery in the world today, too. You can go on to any website. You can listen to any other people who will try to move your mind from this to a weather and whatever, and God says, beware. Stick to the word of truth. Cling to the truth. Stick to the trunk of the tree. You know, Mr. Armstrong used to say, understand the Bible. And then 2 Thessalonians, it tells us, is that if we don't love the truth, we'll fall for the lie. We'll believe the lie. And that would be the worst thing that could happen to any of us. So trickery, right? It's just really interesting that God has that there. It's in the New Testament and the spiritual side for us, but some physical trickery goes on here with Moab that God will punish them for. In verse 12, you know, if we go back to Isaiah 25, we'll finish here in verse 12. The fortress of the high fourth of your walls, he will bring down, lay low, and bring down, and bring to the ground down to the dust. You know, the world and the ancient cities, they would trust in their high walls, right? The walls of Jericho. No one could scale the walls of Jericho. Those walls could never fall. And yet they fell. And all these cities that thought they had all these fortresses and these great walls, they trusted in those walls. They all fell when God wanted to. You know, we'll talk about walls next week because it's there in verse 1 of 26 again. But you know, there's a time after the... there's a time where in Ezekiel that talks about a people coming to a city of an unwalled city at the time the Christ is there and walls are no longer in a place. We'll get to that. We'll get to that next week. I see what time we've got here. But anyway, let's just stop there. In verse 12, we'll pick it up. It won't be next week. We've got a council meetings next week, so I'm booked every night next week, Monday through Thursday. So it'll be two weeks, but we'll begin in chapter 26, two weeks, two weeks from tonight. Okay, any comments, questions, anything?

Yeah, hello. Yeah, I just think of God's mercy. I think of God's mercy.

People are in unbelief. It just shows that God has allowed man to learn the hard way through, you know, being humbled and things mistakes. And so God just shows me how merciful God is. And mercy endures forever, you know. And it's hard to prevail. I'm sorry, go ahead.

And it's a hard thing, but sometimes God will humble us, right? And it's a hard thing to be humbled. But when we stop and think, we should thank God that He is doing that, because we need the humility to ever go forward with Him. So that's true.

Yep, Savior. Yeah, Savior.

Brother Shavi, can I... I'm getting an echo.

There we go. Maybe I'll read from this translation Ephesians 4 verse 14. It says something very interesting, and it says, so that we no longer be children, passed and carried about with every win of doctrine by the slight of men, or trickery, in cunning craftiness. And here's the part, with a view to the systematizing of the era. So they have systematized how to do it.

Isn't that just, I'm just going to do it. They have come up with a pattern.

A plan. Under the inspiration of Satan, yeah. A plan of attack. You're right, under the direction of Satan. And a very clever, clever plan, right? And too many people fall prey to it, yeah. That's a good... what translation is that?

It's Brother Fritz, A. Thaybooburgen. Okay, okay, very good. Sherry?

I just wanted to say, I feel like a grade school kid here. I just got, actually really got 91, Psalm 91. Oh, wow. I didn't get it that way before. It just hit me really hard.

Well, well, good. I get it now.

That's one of those... that's why we go to different places in the Bible, and we learn things about it as it all ties together. I'm glad to hear that.

Thank you.

Dave?

Yes. In Isaiah 25 verse 10, when you're just talking about Moab shall be trampled down under him, and it made me think about Balak, you know, and Moab, how he's the king of Moab, and how, you know, he hired Balaam to put a stumbling block in front of Israel. And so it kind of is like to me that Moab can also represent here all those who put stumbling blocks before God's people as well. So it'll trample them down under, you know, underfoot as well.

Yeah. Yeah, that's very interesting, right? I mean, you see these traits among people. Syria just cruel and whatever. And here we got, yeah, we got people who are just there, they're the tricksters. They're the tricksters of the world, but they attack in different ways, not just the same way all the time. Kind of see that in the world around us today, right? It's not just warfare, but if you, now we got cyber warfare, we've got, you know, this Chinese balloon that's been flying over, it's just interesting to watch how different nations operate. And yeah, all designed to overcome the other. So. Hi, Dolly. I have an expedition Bible. Oh, okay. It's an archaeologist. His name is Joel Kramer, and he believes in the Bible, but he's an archaeologist. He has a real good YouTube, it's like six, eight minutes on Babylon, and he actually went there, and he has shows where the walls are. He has it marked to show that it has not been ever inhabited, and that there's wild animals there that live there. So it shows you that much more than what God's Word says. It's true, you know, so it's just an interesting video on it, but he has some others, too, but expedition Bible is the one that has the one on Babylon specifically. He mentions, you know, King Hussein and how he built the palace there, and that too, in that area.

But all the in hap- there's a city that's near there, but it's all outside of those walls.

You know, that's interesting, because, you know, we talk about, we see the other end of the Bible prophecy, right? But we live in an age where these expeditions are there, and that's actually proving them. And so we can see that, so that when God says they have no excuse, and Romans 1, I mean, we really have no excuse, because all the group is there. So, yeah. Sherry? Yeah, what was that man's name? Something Cranston? No, Kramer. I don't know. Yeah, Jill Kramer. They are A-M-E-R. Thank you.

Uh-huh.

See Wilma? Wilma? I think that- no, that's not Wilma. That's who, Betty Rubble down there. Okay.

The Betty Rubble has almost got their picture on there, but anyway, look down, I thought. It's a cartoon character. Okay, very good. Anything else, anyone? Okay, well then we will sign off for tonight then, and we all have a very good rest of the week, and I wish we could be with you next Wednesday, but we would be with you two weeks from today, okay?

Okay. Thank you! Bye! Good night!