Bible Study: June 21, 2023

Okay, so tonight we'll be looking at chapter 41 in Isaiah. You will remember that last week we began a new section in Isaiah, chapter 40, begins a series of chapters that really have a lot to do with comfort and hope and looking forward to the kingdom. Through it all, God reminds us of the problems that modern-day Israel is going to encounter between now and the time when everything becomes new under Jesus Christ and the restoration of all things. Last week we looked at chapter 40, and you remember that chapter began with comfort. So it was like a prophecy of comfort. God will comfort His people. He will take care of them. And that was the theme in the chapter last week. Tonight, I think the theme is more hope, as God shows us and gives us a vision of the kingdom, but He also talks to His people and assures them of what is going to be and works with them as we are going to see. I've learned some things in here. There are some phrases that we begin to see in chapter 41 that we're going to continue to see in succeeding chapters. One of those is coastlands, which is right there in verse 1 of chapter 41. We'll talk a little bit about the coastlands and what that could mean and what it appears to mean when you look at it in the succeeding chapters as well. So let's go ahead and get started in chapter 41. These are prophetic chapters. They're talking about the time when Christ has returned. God is restoring Israel to its promised land. And He continues to work with them to show that He is God. There is none like Him and to discredit any idols that they have ever followed. That would include those idols made of wood and stone and silver and gold, but also the idols that we have in the world around us today that people rely on and trust in because He will bring those all low. And as He says so often, the world will know that He is God. So chapter 41 in verse 1, it says, Keep silence before me, O coastlands. And I'm going to stop right there. Well, let me just keep going. Keep silence before me, O coastlands, and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near. Let them speak. And let us come near together for judgment. So here in verse 1, the continuation, of course, of chapter 40 that we read last week and the very last verse of chapter 40, you see, is, Those who wait on the Lord, one of the things that we learned to do, just wait on God. What He says will happen, will happen, have patience in Him. Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.

So they may be beaten down for a while. They may have lost some of their strength somewhere along the line. But God says, If you wait on me, they'll renew their strength. And so here in verse 40 or chapter 41, He says, Keep silence before me, O coastlands, and let the people renew their strength. These are people who waited on the Lord. These are the ones who God delivered, the one who Jesus Christ came to deliver from the slavery, from the captivity, from the misery that they were in.

Now, when we see the word coastlands there, it could mean it. I'm going to say could because I cannot prove this. But I have always heard and always kind of when I look at that word coastlands and these chapters in Isaiah, it refers possibly to where the nations, the modern day nations of Israel are. When you think of modern day Israel, and we think of countries like the United States and Canada and England and Australia and New Zealand, the English speaking people of the world, the ones who have spilled over from Ephraim, right, and went out to the corners of the world.

There is something common and unique about those nations that sets them apart. They all have a lot of coastlands, right? America, the coastlands have always been a tremendous border. Is someone trying to say something in line with the right? Let me go back here to see if I've seen a hand. Okay. America has coastlands. For decades, well, for centuries, that has been a very good protectorate for America to have be surrounded by water. Canada has the same thing, separated from other countries by water. You look at Australia, it's an island in the sea.

New Zealand, an island in the sea. England, an island separate from Europe. And those things have always been tremendous, tremendous advantages and assets to the people. And it's, as God talks about coastlands, we'll see in chapter 42, 43, 44, he talks about those lands, the coastlands, differently than the rest of the earth.

So here it says, keep silence. Keep silence before me, oh coastlands, as he's addressing this people, not the masses throughout all of Europe where all the land masses just go on where so many nations have no coasts whatsoever. Keep silence before me and let the people renew their strength. Following right after the verse in chapter 31, that they will renew their strength. Let them come near, God says. I want to talk to them. Let them come near to me and let them speak. I want to hear what they have to say. I want to talk to them as a God to his people, as a father to his children.

Let them come near and then let them speak. Let us come near together for judgment. Let's look at what has gone on. What is the truth here? What has happened in the world? Where is the truth? Let's sit down. Let's turn back to Isaiah 1 verse 18 for a minute. You see the same trait of God, the same desire to sit down with his people. Isaiah 1 verse 18 says, Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Come on, let's just sit down. Let's talk about this. Let's look at things in the correct way. Let's come together here.

We see in chapter 41 verse 1 this very hopeful thing. Let's sit down and talk about these things. Then he asks these series of questions. Remember last week God asked a series of questions, like he did of Job, when he was sitting down with Job and setting Job in the right course. He said, who was it, Job? Where were you when this happened? Can you explain this? Can you talk about what the measure of the world is? The same questions that he asked in chapter 40 as we were going through it last night, as he is showing the people and proving to them who he is and that he is God.

He asked in verse 2 these questions that mankind can't answer, but God can answer because only he has the answer. As he is sitting together, telling people, come there together, let's talk. Who raised one up from the east? We can talk about that. God is saying, who raised one up from the east? We can think about the east a little bit. Later on, in chapter 41, he will talk about one from the north. He brought one from the north. We have someone from the east and then someone from the north who God has raised up or called.

There are a few places in the Bible where it shows where it talks about the east. Let's go back to Matthew 24. Remember, this is after the return of Jesus Christ. The world has been subdued. Jesus Christ is King of Kings. The millennium is being established. Christ's rule is being established. In Matthew 24 and verse 27, Christ, in his own words, is talking about his return to the earth. He says, As the lightning comes from the east to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Christ talks about this circle around the earth that he makes with his armies in tow. As he comes from the east, God says, who raised him up? Who raised up one from the east? Who in righteousness called him to his feet? Jesus Christ sits at God's right hand. Who gave the nations before him and made him rule over kings?

Who gave him the kingdom? Who installed him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Who is this person? Who is this Jesus Christ who has come to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Who gave them as the dust to his sword? He was able to come and be able to smite the nations, assembled with all of their armaments, assembled with all those people. Literally, as you read in Revelation 19, they are just as dust before him.

They are just simply decimated, destroyed before him in an instant. All the power of mankind, we've talked about this before, all the power, all the strategy, all the brains, all the weaponry, just as dust. Who gave them as the dust to his sword and driven stubble to his bow? Who did that? Who gave him the power? How could he just so easily come to earth and rule over the nations?

Who pursued them and passed safely by the way that he had not gone with his feet? Who has performed and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? Because this was predicted before it happened here. We are in Isaiah, written in the 700s, 6 and 700s, before Christ was ever born. Who has performed and done it, calling the generations from the beginning?

I, God says, I the Eternal am the first, and with the last, I am he. I'm the one who said this would happen, and it has happened exactly as it was prophesied before the foundation of the earth, as in these prophecies that you have had with you for thousands of years that you have read, it happened exactly the way that I said.

So as God sits down and reasons with these people from the coastland, then talks to them, he lays out the facts for them. How did this happen? Who am I? Do you understand who I am? Because he says now they will, over and over, now they will know that I am God. Just like you and I, through events in our life and seeing God involved in events and incidents in our life and seeing him at work in the world, we know he is God.

What he says he will do, he will do. If we go forward, we're just five chapters here to Isaiah 46. We see God repeat this, and it's not the only two times in Isaiah he repeats, he's God. He says what will happen, and he makes it happen. In Isaiah 46 and verse 9, he says, let's read verse 8 too.

When I say will happen, will happen. We know about it years before it's going to happen. Isaiah was told it thousands of years before it happened. It was planned before the foundation of the earth. It was seen in Isaiah that we're already fulfilled, unlikely prophecies. If it was just left to man in the natural course of events, we're fulfilled exactly as God said. We have the proof that the preacher prophecies will be as well. In chapter 41, he says, I'm the first and I'm the last. That's exactly what Christ says after his return and the end of the purpose of the physical earth in chapter 22 of Revelation. Chapter 2 of Revelation, verse 13, he says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. The same thing, the same type of purpose that he's using here in chapter 41. I'm the beginning and the end. I am the first and with the last, I am he. You're still there in Revelation 22. The next verse, blessed are those who do, not just those who know or just not those who hear, but blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. Doing what God asks us to do, being led by his spirit, letting him mold us into who he wants us to become, that we can serve him and whoever he puts under our care in the future in exactly the way that he wants us to serve and be. Okay, so chapter back in Isaiah 41. Verse 5, here we have the coastlands again. And we see a difference in verse 5 between the coastlands, what their reaction to God's words are, versus the ends of the earth, all the rest of the people. Again, we have kind of two groups of people set up, coastlands and the ends of the earth. The coastlands saw it and feared. Now the word feared there in verse 5 is exactly the same word fear that is used when it talks about the fear of God, the reverence and the awe.

It still has to it a little bit of dread because when we fear God and we understand his power, like the Israelites of old when they were standing at the base of Mount Sinai, we see how powerful God is and that we are absolutely nothing compared to him. This doesn't even register on the scale. The coastlands saw it and feared, but they were in awe and they were in the right type of fear, as in the fear of God, a different word that's used for the other, the ends of the earth. The ends of the earth were afraid. One feared, wow, this is God.

Look at the power he has that from time immemorial, he predicted this would happen. It happened exactly as he said. And Christ came from the east. He just melted the nations before him and now he is king of kings. But the rest, the ends of the earth, they were afraid.

Now the Hebrew word used there literally means shutters with terror. It's not the same fear that the coastlands had. The other people were afraid. They shuttered with terror. They knew they were up against a more powerful being, but they didn't have that awe that is like the fear of God. And they did something that's natural to the, if I can use the term, Gentile mind. They drew near and they came.

And then in verse 6, you see what they did in response to God, where the coastlands feared, the ends of the earth shuttered with terror. They drew near and came. And then verse 6, everyone helped his neighbor. They bonded together. What is this? What have we got to do here? Everyone helped his neighbor and said to his brother, be of good courage. Let's stand up. That sounds like words of God, right?

Be strong, be of good courage. He told that to Joshua. He tells us that. He tells his people that always. And they said to his brother, be of good courage. But look what they were doing in verse 7. The craftsman encouraged the goldsmith. He who smooths with the hammer inspired him who strikes the anvil, saying, it's ready for the soldering.

Then he fastened it with pegs that it might not totter. What did they do? When they were, when they were shuttering with terror, when they were afraid, they went out and created an idol. They fell back into their own things. Let's go back and worship the idol and stand up against this person. This is, or this being, I should say, not person. Be of good courage. Let's do this.

Let's put together this idol and hammer it together and fasten it with pegs that it might not, that it might not move. That's what they did. Coastlands feared. The ends of the earth were afraid. They, they created this idol. And in verse 8 then, we find the difference of Israel. You, Israel, are my servant. You are my servant. Jacob, whom I have chosen. The descendants of Abraham, my friend. Those are very kind and loving words. Words by a God who loves his people, or the people that he said would always be his people because of what Abraham had done, because Abraham had faith in God, because Abraham did whatever God told him to do.

He, he followed him wherever God asked him to go. Everything God commanded him, he did. He had his faults like you and I do, but in his heart was faith. Complete trust in God. And so God says, okay, Israel, you're my servant. Jacob, whom I have chosen. The descendants of Abraham, my friend. I love you. How many times does God say, you know, he gets frustrated with Israel? He gets irritated with Israel? He allowed them to go into captivity? He allowed them to lose their lands?

He'll allow the modern day nations of Israel to lose all the blessings that you'll take away. All the blessings he's given them because they turn further and further away from him. Always so that they will come back to him and know him and understand that blessings, joy, happiness, well-being, peace, everything good in life only comes when we submit to God, when we do his will. So God says, you know, here, Israel, you're my servant, you, verse 9, whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest regions.

Remember, we've talked about this several times in Isaiah, that God says when Christ returns, the nations that have been scattered, his people, he will bring them back. He will bring them back to the land he promised them millennia ago. And we talked about the highway. They're the highway of holiness. They will walk across that, and they will come back to the land as God gathers his people together and puts them in that land. And they will be an example to the nations. You whom I have taken, verse 9, from the ends of the earth and called from his farthest regions, and I said to you, you're my servant. I have chosen you and have not cast you away. It might look like I completely forgot about you. It might look when you went into captivity and lost everything. It might look that I just kind of completely abandoned you, but I never did. You needed it to learn your lesson so that there could be the oneness and the coming back to God and knowing that the Lord is God. It had to happen, and sometimes we as human, thick-headed human beings have to suffer before we realize what truth is and what right is and to come back to God. I've chosen you and have not cast you away. You know, this is the physical people of Israel that God is talking about here. Of course, there's spiritual Israel, who is the church today, that you and I are part of that Israel. If we go back to Deuteronomy 7, we see where God is talking about Israel and back when he took them out of Egypt and they wandered in the desert or in the wilderness for 40 years. As Moses was giving his last words to Israel before he was going to die, God would have Joshua be in place of Moses as the leader of Israel at that time. In Deuteronomy 7, verse 6, God says some really very loving words to Israel. You are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. I'll just read the 7 and 8 too.

I will keep my eye on you. I love you. I will bring you to where you need to be. Now, God also says that to his chosen people in the end days. The church, the first fruits that God is calling, in 1 Peter 2 and verse 9.

There's a special people of the New Testament as well, the spiritual Israel, if I can use that term. In 1 Peter 2 verse 9, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's what God has done for all of us. Out of darkness into his marvelous light.

We were not the people like the descendants of Abraham were. We are from various backgrounds, ethnicities, countries, nations, you name it. Who were once not a people, but now are the people of God who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Two different groups of people. God loves them both.

Here in Isaiah 41, though, we have the physical nations apparently, and likely dwelling in those coastlands coming back to the Promised Land. Let me show you one more thing, and I won't make a whole lot of comment on it, but you notice in verse 9 there, chapter 41, it says, Israel, you are my servant. Revelation 7, Revelation 7, verse 3, we see here the seals as they are being on the crisis, loosing the seals as they go, as they come about here in Revelation. Verse 3, there's this angel, and it says, He cried with the loud voice of the four angels, to whom it was granted to harm the earth, and the saying, Do not harm, verse 3, the earth, the sea, or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. Israel, you are my servant. Don't harm the earth, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel. And then he names the twelve tribes except for Dan, and talks about 12,000 from each of those. And later on in Revelation, it talks about the servants of God. So we see these elements of prophecy tying back to Revelation in the words that God uses when he is speaking to his people. So let's go back to chapter 41.

And we just completed verse 9. Notice that God never fails in his promise. It might look like he's failed, but I have chosen you and I have not cast you away. Yes, Mr. Glasgow.

I was jumping the gun on verse 10. I thought you were going to... Okay. Okay.

Just a quick comment. This used to be on the side. I'm an old EMT. This was on the side of all of the ambulances for the Washington County, Virginia Emergency Services. Really? Is it where Isaiah 4110 was? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Wow. Wow. Yes, sir. That's a nice thought.

So Isaiah 41 verse 10. A very hopeful verse. A very reassuring verse. A very comforting verse. And one that tells us we can rely on God. Verse 10. Fear not. I am with you. Don't be dismayed. How many times? I mean, we read. The commentaries tell us. Probably none of us have added it all up. But more times in the Bible and more times in Christ say, fear not than any other thing. Fear not. I am with you. Don't be dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Verse 11. Behold all those who were incensed against you. That would be the enemies, right? That would be the Assyrians of the world. The Assyrians in the old days. The future Assyrians that will ravage Israel. The future Babylonians. The enemies. Behold all those who were incensed against you shall be ashamed and disgraced. They shall be as nothing. And those who strive with you shall perish. God is saying, you will suffer for a while. But I will deliver you. Those who are your enemies, your enemies will be, you will be delivered from your enemies. They will perish, he says. Verse 12. You will seek them and not find them. Those who contended with you. Those who war against you. They will be as nothing as a non-existent thing. Now, is that a tremendous promise from God? Or what? Those I will deliver you. Now, go back to the last verse of chapter 40. Wait on God. He will deliver. Build the faith in him that when times come that are tough and that we need the assurance we think. God said he's there. He's never left our sides. He's always knows what's going on. And he will be there. We just need to continue to have faith in him and always look to the future of what he's called us for. Because it's not just this life that God sees us in. He doesn't call us children in just this physical life. He sees us as beings with him and with Christ forever. Verse 13. I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, fear not. And that's the same word, fear, that we saw back at the coastlands in verse 5. The very same Hebrew word. The coastlands saw it in feared in verse 5. It's the same fear here in verse 13.

For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, fear not. I will help you.

Just hold on. Have faith in me. Don't be like the ends of the earth in verses 6 and 7. Don't go out and looking for deliverance from the world. Don't go back and look at idols and think that they're going to deliver you. Only God, only God can deliver.

Then in verse 14, he makes a statement about Jacob that can be taken a few ways. We're going to examine this a little bit. In verse 14 it says, fear not. Same fear again. Don't fear Jacob. Don't fear Israel. Don't fear descendants of Abraham, my friend. You men of Israel. Well, fear not. You worm Jacob. You men of Israel. I will help you, says the eternal and your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. We're reminding us of who he is and how he redeems us. But he calls Jacob a worm. And, you know, in one sense, you know, worms are just these very, we would say, insignificant creatures, if you will. They, you know, they do have many properties in the soil that we kind of take for granted. But a worm, when we think of a worm, it's a lowly thing, a lowly thing. And that may be what God is speaking of here. But when you look at the word worm in verse 14, it's different. It's a different word than the typical word worm that's used for just like the earthworms that we might see every day or those type things.

And it's the Hebrew word, let's see if I've come down to this right, tawaf, T-O-W-A-T-H. It is, see if I didn't write down the number of it, but you can look it up in your concordance there. Fear not, you worm, Jacob. And it's an interesting thing when you see what this tawaf is. So let me share a screen with you here.

I'll spend a few minutes on this because it's an interesting thing. Let me pull this up. Can you see that? Yeah, I think you can. It says stop share.

See if I can figure out how to go to the top of the screen. Okay, so there is, okay, the common, I'm just going to read. I took this, I looked it up on the internet, so I copied down what this Hebrew word is, right? The common Hebrew word for worm is this R-I-M-M-A-H. It's defined as a maggot or a worm. However, in Isaiah 41.14, the word for worm is tola, T-O-L-A-A-T-H. It's a different word.

It means crimson worm. It's an interesting story about what this crimson worm is. God has built so many things into nature. When we learn about these things, like this worm, it's kind of like amazing. You sometimes think, God took the time to actually create this worm that does what we're going to read about here and put it in the worm. It has quite a story and significance to it, what happened in there. Yet today, it's so hidden. We don't know about it unless we look up what the Hebrew word is here and then read the history. I'm just going to read through this here because they do a better job of explaining it than me. When the female crimson worm, this tola, is ready to lay her eggs, which happens only once in her life, she climbs up a tree or fence and attaches herself to it. With her body attached to the wooden tree, a hard crimson, that's red, shell forms. It is a shell so hard and so secure to the wood that it can only be removed by tearing apart the body, which would kill the worm. The female worm lays her eggs under her body, under the protective shell. With a larva hatch, they remain under the mother's protective shell so the baby worms can feed on the living body of the mother worm for three days. After three days, the mother worm dies, and her body excretes a crimson or scarlet die that stains the wood to which she is attached and her baby arms. So they talk about this dark red color that is like blood. When you see dried blood, it's the same color as blood when it has stained and or been laid there. The baby worm remains crimson colored for their entire lives, thereby they are identified as crimson worms.

If I remember correctly, these worms don't occur naturally in America. They do occur over Israel and the Middle East. On day four, the tail of the mother worm pulls up into her head. On day four, she dies after the baby's feet on her for three days. On day four, the tail of the mother worm pulls up into her head, forming a heart-shaped body that is no longer crimson but has turned into a snow-white wax that looks like a patch of wool on the tree or fence.

It then begins to flake off and drop to the ground, looking like snow. So it's quite a fascinating little thing here that goes on. The worm dies. She leaves this blood colored behind.

She dies after three days. She and then it turns to white wax. Now, what they refer back to here is Isaiah 1.18, which we had read a little bit earlier. Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, and here they put in, it comes from the Hebrew word, which is a root word of tola, tolaa, though your sins be as scarlet, crimson, they shall be white as snow. Kind of like that thing that the mother worm turns into. Though they be, let's see if we can pull this up here, though they be red like crimson, the tolaa, they will be as wool. So it's really captivating when you look into what some of these words are, the translation in English, we might just say, oh, worm means lowly. But when you look and see what the Hebrew word means, and then what is this tolaa, what is this worm that they're describing here? It has quite a fascinating, fascinating story. And some of the commentaries refer right back to Isaiah 1.18. Our sins are like scarlet, God says, but they will be white as snow. They will be white as snow. And it's just an interesting thing when you read that. And you've got to contemplate it, and I'm still contemplating what all of that means, what God has built into this verse. Fear not, if you look at Isaiah 1.14, fear not, you worm, Jacob, you tolaa, Jacob, you men of Israel. I will help you. And when you see what all that means and what God is, what is God calling Jacob there?

Could be that he's just talking about his insignificant weak and lowly. But using that word tolaa, he's got a meaning in it. It's his offspring, if you will, offspring of Christ. Okay. Okay. I'll let you contemplate that. Yes, sir. Someone's got a comment. He used the same word tola in Psalm 22, referring to Jesus. Yep, you are absolutely right. Thank you. I would have had that in my note, but I would have forgotten to turn back there. Yeah, let's go back to Psalm 22, verse 6. Here we have a Psalm that is—yeah, thank you, Rupert. Yeah, we have a Psalm that is clearly talking about Jesus Christ.

And here in verse 6, right? I mean, we know it's Christ. It's what he said on the cross or on the stake, whatever you want to call it, as he's dying. But in verse 6, he says, I am a worm. It's that same tolaa. I am a worm and no man. Are we approaching of man and despised by the people? Yeah, so you have a direct tie back to that verse and to Christ.

Yeah. So anyway, interesting. Interesting and food for thought. And always interesting when we dig a little deeper into the Bible and see what these Hebrew and the New Testament Greek words mean. They give us some meaning that one day when you and I understand Hebrew and Greek, we will be, I think, astounded at what the Bible says when we understand all those words that God originally wrote down.

So, OK, let's go back to Isaiah 41. So verse 14, he talks about Jacob, right? You worm, Jacob. I'll help you. I'm your Redeemer. I'm the one who brought you out. I'm the one who's bringing you back to put you into your Promised Land. I'm redeeming you from all of your enemies. They will no longer be your enemies. In verse 15, he talks about a new strong Israel. An Israel that has renewed their strength. As we read in 41 verse 1 and chapter 40 verse 31, Behold, I will make you, God who provides the strength, not us, right?

He says, I will make you. We always have to remember whatever we are, whatever we think we are, God makes us who we are. He gives us the talents. He gives us everything. We owe everything to Him. Behold, I will make you into a new Threshing Sledge with sharp teeth. You will no longer be the lowly Israel. You will be in control. You will be the one. Your enemies chased you before, but now you will be over them.

I will make you into a new Threshing Sledge with sharp teeth. You shall thresh the mountains and beat them small. We know that mountains can represent kingdoms, hills can represent little kingdoms. You shall thresh the mountains and beat them small. You will no longer be the Assyrios of the world, the mighty feared ones. God will be the mighty feared ones. You shall thresh the mountains and beat them small. You will make the hills like chaff.

Chaff is not harvest wheat anymore, but God references that in verse 16. He talks about the winnowing fan. When you are separating the wheat from the chaff, I guess what they did in old days, when I read about these ancient processes, they would throw the wheat into the air. The chaff would blow away. The good wheat would fall to the ground. That is how they separated the wheat from the chaff. He says, you will make the hills like chaff, and you will winnow them. The wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them. You shall rejoice in the eternal and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

They won't be beating their chests and saying, look what I did, or patting themselves on the back. They will glory in God, saying, thank you. Thank you for providing us the deliverance. Thank you for providing us the strength. Thank you for rescuing us and providing us what we need. Then in verse 17, he, it appears that what God is saying, he's going to bring them back to Israel. The next four verses here are a very millennial type setting.

Here is the hope again. This is what the world will be under Jesus Christ. The world will become when the world starts living his way. The poor and needy seek water, but there's none, he says. Their tongues fail for thirst. And this may reference, as they're coming back or where they are, they're deprived people. They're thirsty. They don't have the things. Kind of like the people in ancient Israel when they came out of Egypt. When they came out of Egypt, they said, where are we going to get water in this wilderness?

We're thirsty. And God showed them water out of a rock, who would think, right? The poor and needy seek water, their tongues fail for thirst. But God says, I, the eternal, will hear them. I will not forsake them. I'm going to be with them. They may suffer an inconvenience here and there, but I'm with them. I will open rivers in desolate heights and fountains in the midst of the valleys.

I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water. They'll have water. I'll provide everything they need. This can be looked at physically as well as spiritually. I will provide everything they need to grow, to be healthy, physically, spiritually. Every physical need will be met. Every spiritual need will be met. Verse 19, I will plant in the wilderness the cedar and the acacia tree, the myrtle and the oil tree. I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine and the box tree together. Now, just a few weeks ago, we read Isaiah 35, and you remember Isaiah 35 about the desert blossoming and everything looking new again and being just a vibrant, vibrant land where before it was a wasteland.

We see the same thing that God is promising again. I will do all these things. I'll be with you in a minute, Reggie. Why? God says that they may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the eternal has done this and the Holy One of Israel has created it. They will see and they will know it's me. It's not by happenstance.

It's not by coincidence. It's because God made it happen. Okay, Reggie? Okay, Mr. Shaggy, can you hear me? Yes. Back in verse 17, I'm talking about Fanna. Yep. My reference for that is Jeremiah 51.2. Okay. My Bible. Let's look at Jeremiah 51.2. Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, Jeremiah 51.2. I will send winter words to Babylon who will win over and empty her land for the day of doom.

They shall be against her all around. Yeah. Yes, you got these. The prophecies more than one prophet. You know, God is inspired to say the same thing.

Very good. Okay. Xavier. Brother Shaggy, there's Jim and Lisa. Wellhausen? Wellhausen, they're trying to lock back in, but I think you have to accept them back in. They lost their connections.

Ah, you know what? Somehow when I... Yep, I see. Two people trying to get back in. Thank you. I don't know how you knew that, but I'm glad you told me. Okay, they're joining. They'll be with us in a minute. Okay, very good. Let's go back to 41, chapter 41. Okay, so God has those incests. They're going to know that God did this. There is no explanation apart from God. Everyone will know, right? It tells us in these prophecies, even in Isaiah and Jeremiah, it is equal. And they will know that I am the Eternal.

So, in verse 21, we come back to God comparing Himself and what He has done to the other gods of the nations who they have relied on. God has said, look what I've done. I've made the desert new. I've provided.

I've delivered you from your enemies. God sent Christ back. He just melted as He returned. There were no contests for Him at all. So, in verse 21, then God says to a group of people, present your case. Present your case, says the Eternal. Bring forth your strong reasons, says the King of Jacob. Okay, come forward. Tell me what you know. Do you know that I am God?

Do you understand that this is the true God, the Creator of all universe, the one and only God? Bring forth your strong reasons, or your strong argument, whatever it is that God says, and let them bring forth and show us. Okay, let them bring forth and show us what will happen. Okay, I've told you what will happen from before the time. I've told you here in the 700s BC, what's going to happen.

You're going to see it when Christ returns, and all those words that were written were true. Let them bring forth and show us what will happen. Let them show the former things, what they were, that we may consider them and know the latter end of them, or declare to us things to come.

Okay, I've told you what's going to come. It happened exactly as it said, as I said it would, as my prophets told you that it would be. I was recorded in the Bible that you have had for thousands of years at your disposal to read. But you come forth and you tell me what your God is, what you trusted in. Show us what they predicted. Show us what they said was going to happen. Let us consider what they said, and let us know what the latter end of them is.

Because in Isaiah we have prophecies that have been fulfilled, and yet we have latter prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled, all of which will be fulfilled. Or, you know, at the time Christ returns, and in that time we'll see all the fulfillment of these prophecies and know the latter end of them, or declare to us things to come.

So, you tell us then, you tell us what's going to come. He's talking about, okay, if your gods and who you follow can prophecy, let's see if they're through prophets. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. If your gods, little g, notice, not big G, that we may know that you're gods. I've shown you who I am. I've shown you that you may know.

You can't argue with anything I say. Show us what's going to come, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good or do evil. Do something, God is saying, that we may be dismayed and see it together. Well, they can't. It's kind of Elijah with the prophets of Baal, where, you know, they danced around for hours and hours and hours waiting for their God to bring rain to consume that sacrifice, and it came to nothing.

In verse 24, then it says, indeed, you are nothing. Your work is nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination. Why would you ever choose anything but God when you know who it is? Yes, Edgardo or Rosalinda?

I was going to say that verse 22, I think it also speaks of the duality of prophecy, that things have a former fulfillment, and then you study that fulfillment and you're able to, if you study enough, then have an application at the latter end of things.

So something that I heard preached before, that it's a reference to the potential duality of prophecy. I agree with you, because he's talking about things that have been fulfilled and things you have to come. Tell us, give us one or the others, even saying they can't do either. So, very good. It's interesting how he puts it there. I mean, he pleads his case. He lets people know, and if anyone would choose these other gods, they're an abomination, right? Not fit to live and affront to God. So, okay. Verse 25, I have raised up one from the north. Okay, we talked about, you know, he, in verse 1, it was, in verse 2, it was who raised up one from the east. Look at Matthew 24, verse 27. And here in 25, it says, I've raised up one from the north, and he shall come. So, we can go back into Isaiah 14, and we can see about where God dwells. Isaiah 14, if you remember, is the chapter that talks about Lucifer, who became Satan.

And in verse 13 of Isaiah 14, God is, you know, talking to the one who became Satan, who, you know, full of pride, full of arrogance, who thought he was as good or better than God. Verse 13, he says, For you, you, Lucifer, have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. And so, by doing that, what Satan wanted, he wanted to be sitting on the throne of God. So, why would he want to sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north? That's where God is. Where does Jesus Christ come from when God sends him? He sends him from his throne to come to earth to take the kingdom, to take the kingdoms of the world and make them his kingdom. So, back in verse 25, I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come from the rising of the sun. That's the east, right? From the rising of the sun, he shall call on my name, and he shall come against princes as though mortar, as the potter treads clay. So again, you're saying the one I send, all the loyalty of earth, all the big names of the earth, all the billionaires of the earth, all the great generals of the earth, all the great leaders of the earth, no match. He shall come against princes as though mortar. He will come as the potter treads clay. Who has declared from the beginning that we may know? Again, he has these questions reminding who has declared from the beginning that we may know, and former times that we may say, he is righteous. Surely there is no one who shows. Surely there is no one who declares. Surely there is no one who hears your words. So God is, again, making his case. The first time this verse is a little confusing, but it's going to take us back by the reference in my Bible to a verse we read last week. Notice, I said, in italics, it's not in the original Hebrew. The first time, to Zion, look, there they are. And I will give to Jerusalem one who brings good tidings.

And so, we have that interesting verse, but if we go back to chapter 40, we talked about it last week, and there's this verse that is very hopeful, and where God says, lift up your voice and praise God. And then chapter 40 verse 9 says, Praise him loudly, praise him boldly, praise his name. So he says that there, in that one little inset verse, but he says, because God will come with a strong arm, and his arm will rule. So here at the, what we call the, near the end of chapter 41, it looks like it refers back to the end, to that again. The first time to Zion, look, there they are. You know, I didn't look up to see if they was an accurate translation, or if maybe that was singular.

And no one had an answer. God says it's a sad thing, you know. That's all he had to. He had to send Christ. Indeed, they are all worthless. Their works are nothing. Mankind has no, mankind has no answers. There is no hope in mankind. Last week I gave a sermon. It's like, there's only hope. And people have to come to realize that, and you and I, to our core. There is no hope apart from God. There is nothing on this world to rely on because it will all fail. Only God will prevail. Only God will, can deliver us. The world can't. No politician. No nation. No government. Only God. Indeed, they are all worthless. God says their works are nothing. Their molded images are wind and confusion. And that word confusion there is that Hebrew word tohu, you know, that appears back in Genesis 1 verse 2, tohu and bo' to, void and confused, empty, futile, chaos. That's Satan, right? That's what Satan is. Where there's confusion, there's Satan. Where there's order, where there's peace, where there's direction and a vision. That's where God is. And you look at the world around us today with the idols that are there that are all worthless, all nothing. Everything is just confusion. And we live today in a society that in our lifetimes has never been more confused or astray than ever before. It's the mark of Satan, where the mark of God is order, peace, and harmony. So what time do we have here? Okay, let's just end there in chapter 41, and we'll pick up chapter 42 next week. But let me open it up for any questions or comments or anything that anyone wants to talk about. Shabib? Yes. At least one translation, when he talks about the reference to the coastlands, also called them the lands beyond the sea. So when the Bible talks about prophecy, I have heard that when I talk about the directions and cardinal points and things like that, if it's a prophetic context, it probably should be looked at from the vantage point of Jerusalem. When it talks to the king of the north, the king of the south, the kings of the east, that kind of thing.

Yep, we'll see. We'll see the coastlands show up again in 42 and 43 and throughout the next several chapters here. Yeah, because all those tribes are basically beyond where Israel is now. Most of them are basically across the Atlantic Ocean and other oceans around the world. So they're really the lands beyond the sea, too. Yep. Hey, Betsy. Hi! I'm Brett on the baby. Thanks. Thanks. I just wanted to make a comment regarding your sermon that you gave last Sabbath and speaking of hope. But I have sent that message to so many other brethren in the church, and I thought you did such an awesome job of articulating what our culture is in these days and how evil it has become. And I fear so many brethren have no idea what's going on. And I think it's so important to hear what you had to say about all that. So thank you for giving that. It is important. It is important to see where we are. Right. And like you, I think some some are just in denial of what is really going on. And we need to have our eyes wide open as to what is happening because it is it is a completely different world than you and I knew even three and four years ago. So. Hey, Sherry. Hey, I remember after your sermon, this last Sabbath was listening to Gary Beam, and he had said in a sermon that he said he asked, I don't remember if it was you or if it was somebody else's. But it's like, what should we tell them? And he said, whoever it was, he spoke to said, we tell them the truth. And that's what I got from your sermon, Last Sabbath. Yeah, it was strong, and I really appreciated it. Well, we need to we need to be very clear in what we're saying and leave absolutely no doubt as to what is going on. That that is what God has called us to. And we have we just have to do that. So hey, Paul. Yeah, I'd like to ask about the written written beam. Do you have any updates on it? Did they get the test back on this?

I agree. Is Angela, I don't know if Angela's on tonight or not. But what I heard is, I don't know about his tests, but the surgery went well. It took about half the time to do the surgery than they they thought. And what I what I've heard from someone who just talked to him either earlier today or yesterday, he's doing okay. I mean, he's recovering from surgery, but the fact that they were able to find, you know, do the surgery and have them the clear margins is a very good sign. So I believe he's going he's got a he's got a recovery time, but I trust he's going to be he's going to be okay. So I keep him in your prayers. Keep him in your prayers and Angela too, because Angela's had some ongoing health problems for years as well. So.

Hey, nope, where am I? Did I see another light go on somewhere? Okay.

Yes, that was me. I read from Canada. And I just echo what was said. Hi, about the sermon.

I just thought that we really need to hear this morning and wake up call. I also send it to a few people and I actually was thinking that I would like to see it played in services and all the conversations I just think it's something we really need to hear.

We will take that under advisement.

Okay, I was second her command that that something a lot of your sermons should be heard in congregations. I think this you really, you really do have a way of getting through people.

Check, check. Check, check.

God's the one who delivers the message, right? So.

Okay.

Okay.

Hello. Hello. Yeah. Oh, hi.

Yes, yes. Good. Good. Thanks. Sorry. I was logging in and out. I just got a new computer and today I was trying to get the sound to work. So I tried this and that. But anyway, I'm glad to be able to speak on the Zoom again.

Yeah, thanks for the message. I really agree. You know, I wonder if I wonder if the church maybe has been a little more wary of speaking about what were the events too much because maybe in times past, you know, it was too much tidying with prophecy or, or, you know, how much time is left before, you know, Christ returns. But I guess we do need to balance, right? We do have to talk about what's going on, what's wrong in the world. It might, it might give us a little more sense of urgency to in our own spiritual lives as well. And we and as you say, I appreciate your sermon too. You said we have to really have to know what's going on out there. You know, be aware of what's going on out there. We have to be aware of it for sure. I guess we balance that with our own spiritual lives, of course, we have to examine ourselves every day as well, of course. Yeah. Well, if the church has been not forthcoming from here on out, the church is going to be bolder in what we say and what we proclaim, sticking to the truth and not making any predictions or whatever, just what the Bible says, but also making a crystal clear what's going on in the world and what the Bible says. We have to do that or we're not doing what God has called us to do. Yeah, that's pretty true. It is part of our calling in the Old Testament. I say in Ezekiel and so on, they certainly talk about that, about speaking out about the nation's sin, right? Yeah, for example. Yeah, cry aloud, spare not. And believe me, the sins have never been more flagrant than they are today in Israel or in America. Right. Thanks for all you do. Rebecca, is your hand up? Is another comment or your hand is up from before? I'm sorry, I don't know how to operate this very well. That's okay. That's okay. I just didn't want to think I was ignoring you. Okay, anyone else? Anything at all? Okay, well, I don't know if we have anyone with us. Sometimes we do from the Seattle area. I'm going to be out in Tacoma for the Sabbath this week. They're at their retreat. So, I'm going to Florida, looking forward to those of you in Jacksonville on July 1st and in Orlando on July 8th. So, we'll look forward to seeing you next Wednesday on Bible study. Okay, have a good rest of the week and good Sabbath, everyone. Bye, guys.