Bible Study: November 9, 2022

If the recording started, so you've got that. Okay, so tonight we're going to finish up Isaiah 14. If you'll recall, last week we went through Isaiah 14, and chapters 13 and 14 were pretty much prophecies against Babylon. Of course, as we began last week, we went back into the history of Babylon so we could understand what their history was with the people of and as we saw God talk about the kings and the evil that was in them, we talked about Satan and the traits that led from him becoming one of the angels that cover to becoming Satan, God's adversary. So we talked about that, and in the presence of the kings, that God talks about the kings of Tyre, the king of Babylon. Remember we talked about those kings, and many of them knew who God was, but they always rejected God. Pride overcame them just like it did Satan, and they always presented those before God as an adversary. It was the spirit of Satan that was living in them, and we just have to guard against that pride that would live in us as well. So we got through chapter 14 and verse 27. So we're going to pick it up in verse 29 of Isaiah 14. As we look at 14 and then chapters 15 and 16, some of the things that we read in Isaiah are pretty difficult to understand. You have to go back into the Bible. You have to kind of remember what is being said there. Look back and get the history of the Bible, because if all you do is read the verses you would read through these last verses of chapter 14, 15, and 16, the prophecies against Moab, and just kind of scratch your head and think, I know it's true, what God is saying there is true. But as we look back, and as we did last week, look at the history of Babylon and relate that to the prophecies that we looked at last week. Realize some of them were fulfilled against Babylon, but these prophecies are also dual in nature so that we know there's a future of Babylon we talked about at the end time, that system that's there that has the prophecy against it and the ultimate complete demise of Babylon. So here in chapter 14 at the end of it, we come to the death of King Ahaz. King Ahaz, as you recall, one of those kings we don't talk about much, but as God talked about King Ahaz in chapter 7, if we go back several weeks when we talked about that, we see because of King Ahaz's resistance, there's a lot of things that we learned in that time. We learned that God works with us as he worked with Ahaz. He wanted to provide him whatever sign Ahaz wanted that Ahaz was. Look at God, trust in him, and know that he is with him, but Ahaz simply would not do it. And God gave him sign after sign, prophecy after prophecy, to show, I'm with you, I'm God, you can trust me. Even the prophecy of the Messiah came at the time as God is responding to Ahaz.

And as we looked at chapters 8 to 12, we see the prophecies of the Messiah extant there. Then, of course, the prophecies against Babylon, one of the foes of Jerusalem during that time, Babylon eventually conquered Judah. And in verse 28, we come down to the year the king Ahaz died. It says, this is the burden which came in the year the king Ahaz died.

And as we read through the verses there, we're going to have to look at some of Phylicia and go back to some of the kings that Isaiah talked about in Isaiah 1.1. It says, don't rejoice, I saw you of Phylicia because the rod that struck you is broken. So when Ahaz died, they may have looked at it for various reasons that, aha, now down through history, Phylicia and Israel were always at odds with each other. There was always war between them, war between them and Judah. But as Ahaz has died, they may have had reason to think, ah, Ahaz is dead. We may, some of the yoke and some of the victories that Israel has had over us are going to come to an end. So let's take a little bit of time and go back and look at the history of Phylicia again.

Right here, we have to go back to 2 Chronicles and see some of the history here of Phylicia and Judah. If we go back to 2 Chronicles 26, 2 Chronicles 26 and in verse 4. Now this is talking about the first king that Isaiah mentions. Remember, back in chapter 1, Isaiah prophesied during the days of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. And Uzziah, as you recall, he was a king who worshiped God, but as the years went by, he began to rely on self, took things upon himself, and he did not die an honorable death. In chapter 26 of 2 Chronicles in verse 4, we see Uzziah, he's a young king at this point, and it says in verse 4 that he did in those early days what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah had done.

He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding of the visions of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper. One of my favorite verses in the Bible, and it's that in that verse we learn a lot. As long as we seek God, He will cause our lives to be good, and that's seeking with our whole heart. As long as Uzziah did that, God made him prosper. In verse 6 it says, he went out, he made war, hold on just a minute, he went out, he made war against the Philistines, broke down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabna, the wall of Ashdod, and he built cities around Ashdod and among the Philistines.

God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabians, who lived in Gerbal and Agirvael and against the Mennonites. So we have this, you know, we see here with God's help, Uzziah defeated the Philistines. They were in subjection to him. That lasted through the rest of King Uzziah's time. Joth and his son also became mighty. You remember that we read about him.

And then along came Ahaz. So let's go a couple chapters forward here in chapter 28. Verse 1 reminds us of Ahaz. He was 20 years old when he became king. He reigned 16 years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord as his father David had done.

Now if we drop down to verse 18 in chapter 28, you can see that the Philistines, they decided they were going to, you know, invade the low land as well under Ahaz. They may have thought of him as a weak king of this land because you will remember that Ahaz was always seeking alliances. He was seeking alliances with Assyria. Anyone who would fight against him, the one person with whom he would never enter into an alliance was God.

He was always looking to the world to help deliver him. So it says, the Philistines invaded the cities of the low land and of the south of Judah had taken these cities that are listed there and they dwelt there. So they began to have some success against Ahaz. So as they were watching this, they may have thought when Ahaz died, aha, now we've got a new king coming in Hezekiah in chapter 29.

We see, you know, he's coming in now. He is 25 years old when he begins to take reign and the Philistines likely thought we're making some inroads. The time of our servitude to Judah is over under Hezekiah. We will be able to go ahead and take the kingdom back. They may have thought that. But if we go back to 2 Kings, 2 Kings 18, we see that a different fate awaited them.

Now maybe I should have reminded us about King Hezekiah, but I think you're very familiar with King Hezekiah. He was a good king. He did what was right in God's eyes. You'll remember as he came in, he undid everything his father Ahaz had done. He cut down the high places, got rid of the altars. They read in the book of the law about Passover. You remember the whole preparation that they did for Passover because they wanted to do things that God wanted them to do.

In fact, there's some very notable verses when you read about King Hezekiah about how they prepared their heart to serve the Lord. At that time, it was too late for them to go through all the ceremonial things so that the priests were ready for Passover in the first month. So they kept it in the second month. Hezekiah prayed, and God honored his prayer because even though everyone wasn't ready, he knew their heart. They were doing what they could to please God. It was a very, very warming thing when you read of Hezekiah and the joy that the people had as they kept the Passover the days of Unleavened Bread and then wanted to keep it another day.

So here we have the Philistines, though, always at war with Israel and Judah. Here they have some successes with King Ahaz. They thought, okay, now it's done. Ahaz instead Hezekiah will be weaker than him, but that's not the case. In 2 Kings 18—and let me see.

Verse 7, of case you see there about King Hezekiah becoming king.

Let's begin in verse 5. 2 Kings 18, he trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. For he held fast to the eternal. He didn't depart from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. God was with him. He prospered wherever he went, and he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. He subdued the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city. So that's about the last time that we read about the Philistines. It's kind of done. Hezekiah defeated them. Now, they do come up later, and some of the commentaries will suggest that it's finally Assyria who ends the Philistines altogether.

But there is no Bible verse that indicates that. If we go back to Isaiah 14—let me pull up a map here just so you can kind of see where you can see where the Philistine city-states are down there in the red and the bottom left-hand corner—you've got the kingdom of Judah right next door. So you have this continuing controversy between the two. Later on in chapter 15—I'll bring this map out to Ged at that time—there's the kingdom of Moab. It's right on the other side of the Dead Sea from the kingdom of Judah. So when we get into Moab, you can see what's right there. You've got these three city-states, nation-states, which everyone would call it right next to each other. They're continually in conflict. So if we go back to Isaiah 14, and we see this prophecy, if you will, this burden against Phyllistia, if you will. We go back and read that again. It says, don't rejoice. So Philistines, good. Ahaz is dead. The rod that struck us is broken.

But God says, don't rejoice. Don't rejoice too much, Phyllistia. Hezekiah did defeat them, and it looks like he drove them completely out of all their areas.

But then there's some interesting verses here that I'll have to say we don't know exactly what they mean. It says, for out of the serpent's roots will come forth of viper. And here God uses this analogy of snakes. We know the analogy of snakes and serpents in the Bible. They don't have a good connotation, right? You have the serpent in the Garden of Eden. We know who that is. We have the dragon. We have the snake at the end of the at the end of Revelation. It refers to Satan, refers to evil. Now the commentaries often refer to the serpent's roots as Uzziah. And they talk about that.

Pardon?

We're back in Isaiah 14 verse 29.

Okay, out of the serpent's roots will come forth of viper, and its offsprings will be a fiery flying serpent. Now if you go back and look at the Hebrew words for there, you have a venomous snake, but then you have kind of the ultimate venomous snake when you come down to this fiery flying serpent.

So you have someone that's venomous to the Philistines. And so the commentaries will suggest that Uzziah was that venomous snake who held them in, who was able to conquer them. They think they're coming out of it, but then you have Hezekiah, who they say is the ultimate fiery serpent who was the one who put an end to Philistia. Yeah, Philistia, if you will. I guess when you look at the Bible, that might be what it is.

You know, if you look at our Bible commentary, though, we don't have verses, but we have some history that indicates that, you know, the snake is really Assyria that God is talking about here. And Assyria is the ultimate snake that puts an end to the Philistines. Now, we don't have Bible verses to talk about, and either one may be, well, I'm not going to take the time to go through all the history that's in the UCG Bible commentary.

You could look up chapter 14 and see what he has there. He has many references to much. I think Assyria fits the bill a little bit better because God refers to Assyria as a snake. We know it's an evil empire. We know that the king was evil. We even, as we talked, we're coming right out of chapter 14 here, where God compares the kings of this world to Satan, you know? And so, I mean, it would fit the bill more that you have a king who is filled with venom, if you will, not of God that would do that.

But it's one thing that we just need to, you know, it's one of those things that, anyway, Philistia, their ultimate demise is coming, is what these verses mean. So, okay, Edgardo, you got a comment? Yes, I think I read or heard somewhere, I don't know if it's probably within the church, maybe a church or a sermon sometime, that there's a possibility that the Philistinians are the modern-day descendants of the Philistines, and the Palestinians are the modern-day descendants of the Philistines.

And since the other sections of this chapter that talk about Assyria and Babylon and so forth, they have like basically a dual application for to that time and maybe to the time of the end. Maybe this section also could, you know, when properly understood, maybe partly refer to a modern-day or end-time fulfillment of what's going to happen with that people. Yeah, totally agree. As we go back down, as we go further into verses 31 and 32 there, you kind of see an end-time fulfillment there.

It talks about the ultimate, the ultimate, ultimate demise of Philistia, which you're right, many people will say they are the forerunners of the modern-day Palestinians. So, probably there's a duality and prophecy here, too, as we've been seeing run through the chapters of Isaiah here so far. So, we have this and we know the Philistia, you know, in verse 29, we know that they were conquered. They were conquered. We don't see them anymore in the Bible. And then we go into verse 30 and 31, and it talks about the firstborn of the poor will feed, the needy will lie down in safety. And we have these visions of what God will do, how He will bring.

He's going to take care of the poor. The needy will lie down in safety. You know, when Christ returns, you have the safety, you have this peace, you have Him coming in and soothing, comforting all those who mourn in Zion, if you will. So, we have these millennial feelings that are there in verse 30. The firstborn of the poor will feed, you know, of the poor, you know, when Christ says, blessed are the poor. You have the needy, they will lie down in safety.

I will kill your roots, right? Again, that's going back to Phylicia. I will kill your roots with famine. They will just dry up. They'll be gone. They were just going to disappear. He's talking about the ultimate end of Phylicia, who has always brought some kind of adversity, and always been an adversary of Israel, you know, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, we'll just call it Israel, all 12 tribes. The firstborn will feed, the needy will lie down in safety.

I will kill, okay? There's a finality. That spirit is gone. I will kill your roots with famine, your power is gone, and there will be no more, and I will slay, and it will slay your remnant. Let me look at my notes here because I wrote down something on verse 30 here. Yeah, I will slay your remnant. Now, you know, there's other chapters of the prophets that will talk about the ultimate demise.

We've looked at some of those last week as we talked about Babylon. There's more that talk about the ultimate demise of the Philistines as well. One I wrote down is in the book of Zephaniah, but there are others. Jeremiah 48, I believe. Nope, Jeremiah 47. I just happened to turn to it.

We'll talk about it's a burden. It's a prophecy against the Philistines.

And if we go over to Zephaniah, Zephaniah is the fourth book from the end of the Old Testament.

We were there last week when we were talking about Babylon. Today we will look at verses 4 through 7 in Zephaniah 2. Zephaniah 2 verse 4, it says, Gaza will be forsaken.

Ashkelon will be desolate. They will drive out Ashdod at Noonday, and Echron will be uprooted. Woe to the inhabitants of the sea coast, the nation of the charathites. The word of the eternal is against you, O Canaan. The word of the eternal is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines. I will destroy you so there shall be no inhabitant. You get this finality. You know, last week we, I know someone brought up about Edom and the finality of Edom, this is in Obadiah. As you go through these prophecies, you see an ultimate end of those nations that were always adversarial against God.

Here we have the Philistines. Zephaniah is a prophecy for the future. This is an end time, right? In verse 30 here, if we go back to Isaiah 14, we see, I will kill your roots with famine. It will slay your remnant. So even though the Philistines may not be as numerous as they were today, there's a remnant somewhere. When we talk about remnants, we often talk about end time, the end times here. And God says, your remnant, it will be slain.

We see that in Zephaniah, you see it in Jeremiah 47. I should have written down all the verses that pertain to that. But I think if you look in the commentary, you'll see some of those verses there as well. So in verse 31 then, we've got God giving his burden, not a favorable prophecy for Philistia of their end, just like Babylon. Verse 31, whale, O gate, cry, O city, all you of Philistia are dissolved.

Smoke will come from the north, and no one will be alone in his appointed times. When it's time for his destruction, there won't be anyone. The smoke will come from the north, usually means that's going to come from the north, whoever the Philistines are. Let's pull that map up again. I just had a thought on something here. Yeah, okay. So the Philistine city states are down there in the south. You see the Assyrian Empire up here.

You see the Assyrian Empire up there in the north. Smoke will come from the north, and no one will be alone in his appointed times. So we've talked about, you know, where in time Assyria may be, as we trace through some of the migration of peoples from Assyria up into Europe and the king of the north and things like that. So we have the Philistines. They are the modern-day Palestinians still sitting down there in that area where modern-day Israel is today.

Smoke will come from the north, and no one alone in his appointed times. Going back to verse 32, what will they answer the messengers of the nation? What will God's final word on this be? The Lord has founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall take refuge in it. Again, it's another end-time thing as we just divided these prophecies, as we also have talked about at the recent Feast of Tabernacles when God or when Christ returns.

Now, let me get rid of the share here. As we've spoken of the Feast of Tabernacles, God will bring Israel back to their land. That's what we see happening when when Christ returns. Now, your Bible, like mine, references Psalm 87. So let's go back to Psalm 87 and read that. Not all the references that the Bible will make will tie directly to what God is saying when you understand duality of prophecy. I'll say most of the commentaries, not the UCG commentary, don't understand the duality of prophecy.

So when you read that, they always are going to just give you the modern-day things, all these various things that has happened, but they don't understand the duality of prophecy because they don't understand the end times, they don't understand revelation. We'll just read Psalm 87 here. Just a very short psalm and kind of look at what God is saying here. His foundation, it says, is in the holy mountains. God loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God. We know that God loves Jerusalem. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know me. Behold, O Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia, the one who was born there.

Now, again, that map, you can see where the Philistines were and what God is saying here. All these people laid claim to these areas that were part of the land of the Canaan. I said God promised to Abraham. So they'll say, oh, we're here. We're there. Rahab was there. Babylon was there. Phylicia was there. Tyre was there. Ethiopia, the one who was born here. Verse 5, in a Zion it will be said, this one and that one were born in her.

A little confusing wording, but of the commentaries you look at, and the Most High himself shall establish her. The Lord will record when he registers the people, this one was born there. The ultimate thing is to be born and to be part of that area, the land of Canaan, the land that God blessed that he gave to ultimate Israel. So Psalm 87 is saying many people might claim that they were there. It's a blessing to have been there. You might say you were a Phylicia.

You might say Tyre. All those disappear, right? All those pass. The ultimate thing is to be in the land of Canaan where God put his name and where he will lead his people back. They will inhabit that land for the rest of the time, but there's a physical earth.

That is the burden for the prophecy against the Philistines. Let me just pause there for a moment and see if there's any comments, questions. You've got to let some of this ruminate in your mind. Some of these verses are tough. Yeah, Bill? Bill, did you have a comment?

Yes, what we just read there is awesome. Psalm 87, verse 5, of Zion, it should be said, this and that man was born in her. The number of people, the percentage of people of the whole time that they're going to be in the first resurrection is going to be like a tiny. And it seems to be talking about those that are going to be in the first resurrection. And verse 6, the Lord shall count when he rides up to the people this man was born there. And if we look at Isaiah 66, 7, if you don't mind, it's pretty awesome. Isaiah 66, 7, it must be talking about the church. It seems to fit in with that.

Isaiah 67, before she prevailed, she brought forth. Before her pain came, she was delivered as a man child. And of course, that reminds the revelation. Verse 8, who has heard such a thing, who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day?

Shall a nation be born at once? As soon as Zion prevailed, she brought forth her children.

Wow! That appears to be the first resurrection to me. And it's all made to step in. It's going to be on an eternity.

Very, very tiny number of people that are in that first resurrection.

And in verse 7, verse 6, the Lord shall count when he likes up the people.

This one was born in her. It's like people are going to say, do we inherit the galaxies? And the first one coming into our galaxy is going to be like, hey, this one is coming!

This one was born in Zion! It's an honor to be there.

Let's just leave it where we are on that one, on what we had there. Let's go ahead, unless there's some other comments on that. Agyarou, did you have something to say?

Just a quick comment. This is basically speculation, but on verse 31 of Isaiah 14 that we were reading, I was thinking that that reference to the north could be also an end-time reference to the king of the north, the armies of the beast that come down as they prophesied. And maybe they attack whatever is left of the Philistia, whatever it's Philistia now. Yeah, actually at the end of this, we're going to talk about Moab, but yeah, we'll talk about that. Because remember Assyria, when we traced the Assyrians up into the north of Germanic peoples and whatever, it could well be that king of the north that's going to come down, that's going to wipe out the king of the south, right, to all the nations that are down there. Except Moab, which we're going to talk about here in chapter 15. So as we begin chapter 15, we have this burden or this prophecy against Moab.

And again, when it says against, it's not a good prophecy about Moab. But in order to understand this prophecy, we need to go back and we need to think about who Moab is in the Bible. So we have an idea of what it's talking about here, because if you have no way, if you don't have a background in Moab, these verses are not meaningful. Muriel, did you have a comment?

Yes, I did, Mr. Shaby. I read somewhere, I don't remember where, it was a commentary that said that the Philistines were actually Europeans who tried to get into Egypt and were turned away. And so they ended up in that area, in Canaan. I don't know if that's true, but I just read it and I've wondered if you had a comment on it. I haven't heard that. I haven't heard that yet. Someone else heard that?

Yes, I've heard of it, actually. That they're like, they came from Europe, they're like seamen or something like that.

Okay, they were adversaries against Israel, so you know, Europe and Israel. Okay, that makes sense. They would have been foreigners in that area, so okay. Very good. Becky? I have a separate question. Actually, I think she might be thinking of the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians were the ones who were the seamen. That may be. Muriel, maybe that is what you're thinking about. The Phoenicians were seafaring people and they explored all over, so that might be it. I don't know for sure.

No, they were talking about the fact that the Hebrew people and the Canaanites were all immediately against each other. The Philistines were immediately enemies and that this was partially because the Philistines felt the area was there because they'd landed there from when they were turned away from Europe. Okay. I'll have to do some research. Right there on the sea, so that makes sense, too. They came there and then, yeah. Okay.

Thank you.

Becky?

Yes, sorry. I missed some of the other comments. I believe this is a separate question. You mentioned Edom and I was just reading about Edom in Isaiah chapter 34, and I wondered if you could tell me quickly what that is a reference to as far as end time.

Isaiah 34?

Yeah, just where it talks about Edom there. I'm not sure if I know or not.

You mean who modern-day Edom is?

Yes. Who that would be a reference to as far as the area at that time. Yeah, it would be the area. Edom is red, so let me see if I can... I think that's the area around Turkey, if I remember right. If someone else remembers that clearly, correct me if you want to.

Is that okay? Becky? Yes. Do that area around here, so okay. That's helpful. Thank you very much. Okay.

Okay, let's look at Moab for a little bit, right? Because Moab is prominent in the Bible as well. Let's go back and see where Moab started. Spend a few minutes on that, just so we have that history, just like we did with Babylon. So we go all the way back to Genesis 19, and we see where Moab has its beginning. It has its beginning with Lot. Everyone remembers who Lot is.

He is the nephew of Abraham. They dwelled together in the land there. Lot ended up in Sodom and Gomorrah. God had to rescue him and his wife and daughters from Sodom and Gomorrah when he was going to destroy those cities. So we see this in chapter 19. As you recall, God has to literally take Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrah. Has to lead them out. And in verse 36 of Genesis 19, let's go back a little bit here. Oh, you know what? I'm going to refer to the land of Zohar, the cities. Let's go ahead and just save us some time. I'm going to look at verse 20 here, but I want you to remember because we're going to come to the city of Zohar later in chapter 15, and you will see that as a city that's very close to Sodom and Gomorrah. So let's look at verse 20. Lot is urging Lot and his wife and daughters to leave.

Take me to a city. Okay, verse 20. Now let's look at verse 18. Lot said to them, Please know in my lords, indeed now your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy which you have shown me by saving my life. But I can't escape to the mountains lest some evil overtake me and I die. See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it's the little one. Please let me escape there. Isn't it just a little one? And my soul shall live. And he said to him, See, I have favor you concerning this thing also, and that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for a guy cannot do anything until you arrive there. Therefore, the name of that city was called Zohar.

And so let's drop down to verse 36. So Lot goes there in the midst of things.

His wife looks back. She's turned to a pillar of salt, and it's Lot and the two daughters. Lot and the two daughters devise a plan that they have to keep the lineage going, so they're going to have children by their father. Verse 36.

Now let's read verse 34 so we can have the 33 and 34 so we have the whole story. So the daughters made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he didn't know when she lay down or when she arose. It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, Indeed, I lay with my father last night. Let's make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him that we may preserve the lineage of our father. Then they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him, and he didn't know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He's the father of the Moabites to this day. And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Benami. He's the father of the people of Ammon to this day. So we have this situation, again, where we have Moab born. Moab born in Benami, and as you look at that map again, we've had up a couple times. You see the kingdom of Moab, just north of the kingdom of Moab is Ammon. So we have the descendants of these two children who came from the daughters of Lot who bore them to their father, who are there right there in the same area as the kingdom of Judah and Israel. So that's the beginning. We got the recipe. We got the recipe for something not so great, if you will, the beginning of it. Let's go forward and let's trace Edom through some of the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 29. We have Israel, who God has now brought out of Egypt.

Moses has been leading the people for 40 years, and as we come to the end of Deuteronomy, he's about to die. You remember in Deuteronomy, he's encouraging the people to follow God. In Deuteronomy 29 verse 1, it says, These are the words of the covenant which the eternal command in Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. So we've got Israel now in the land of Moab. We just saw that on the map. And here's Moses. He's giving final words to them. In Deuteronomy 34, we find Moses' death. Deuteronomy 34.

34 verses 1 through 6. Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo. We'll see Nebo mentioned later on in chapter 15 of Isaiah. Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to the top of Hisko, which is a cross from Jericho. And God showed him all the land of Gilead as far as Dan. All of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim, Manasseh, Judah, as far as the western sea. He showed him all the south, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zor. We just saw Zor.

And God said to him, This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your descendants. I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there. So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. God buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-Pior, but no one knows his grave to this day. So in the land of Moab, we have Moses, servant of God, who dies. God buried him in an unknown place in the land of Moab. For whatever reason, God had, that was what he chose to do. Now in Judges 11, I've gone back to Isaiah, let me get back to Judges. Judges 11. Judges 11.

In verse 10, we have the story of Jephthah. I don't think we need to read everything about Jephthah. If you don't remember Jephthah, remember when Israel was under...

Well, as you look at verse 8 there, you see they're in conflict with Ammon. We know who Ammon is, who that was Moab's brother. And if we drop down to verse 12, Jephthah became a leader there of Gilead, if you will, against Ammon. It says, Jephthah sent messengers to the kingdom of the people of Ammon, right there north of Moab, saying, What do you have against me that you've come to fight against me in my land? And the people of the King of the people of Ammon answered the messengers of Jephthah, because Israel took away my land when they came up out of Egypt from the Arnon, not so river that Moab's borders on there, when they came up out of Egypt from the Arnon as far as the Jabbah into the Jordan. Now therefore restore those lands peaceably. So they're saying, you know what, you took our land, so we want it back. Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the people of Ammon and said to them or said to him, Thus says Jephthah, Israel did not take away the land of Moab nor the land of the people of Ammon. For when Israel came up from Egypt, they walked through the wilderness as far as the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom saying, Please let me pass through your land. But the king of Edom would not heed, and in like manner they sent to the king of Moab, but he wouldn't consent. So Israel remained in Kadesh, and they went along the wilderness, bypassed the land of Edom and the land of Moab, came to the east side of the land of Moab, and he camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the border of Moab, where the Arnon was the border of Moab. So we have again Moab in there, give us our land back. Jephthah gives them the history of what it was. Down in verse 24, we find something about Moab, who their god was. Okay? So it says, yeah, verse 24, whatever Kadesh, your god, gives you to possess. So whatever the Lord our god takes possession of before us, we will possess. So we learned something about Moab. Here we have their god, and he's known for child sacrifice. Xavier, I know you got a comment. Sorry, sorry to interrupt you. That's okay. It reminds me, this account reminds me of modern day media, and the facts that we have almost recorded, where we can show what people said. Here he is, reciting to him the history, biblically and historically, and he is just steamed on the ears. He can't refute.

All he can do is throw a tantrum and fight and lose it. Yep. He's taking the fake news, and he's giving him the facts. This is what it is. This is what happened. He's trying to fool me with your rhetoric. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's beautiful. So we see, you know, this Moab. There's not this intense, this intense, you know, hostility between Moab and Israel that we saw with the Philistines. If we come to the book of Ruth, I know that you're all familiar with Ruth, right? I mean, Ruth was there. She was a Moabite. Naomi and her family came over from Bethlehem. They lived in Moab. Naomi's wife and sons died, and you have Ruth the Moabitis who goes back with Ruth. So there seems to be some kind of like, at least friendliness between the nations. They can move back and forth at that time. And of course, Ruth becomes, you know, an ancestor of David. So you've got Moabite, you know, Moabite blood in David, who's a man after God's own heart. So we see this relationship there. And in 1 Samuel, we even find David making reference to Moab and some solace he finds as he's been exiled, if you will, running from Saul who's trying to kill him. I'm going over to 1 Samuel 22. And he's over there taking some solace or refuge in the land of Moab. 1 Samuel 22 and verse 3. It says, David went from there to Mispa of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, Please let my father and mother come here with you till I know what God will do for me.

He brought them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. So we see Moab and Israel kind of there in some kind of relationship. But in 2 Kings, when we go forward, we find Israel actually defeating Moab. In 2 Kings 3, and I'm turning to this one because there's going to be something that we're going to see later on in Isaiah 15 that will draw our attention back to something that happens here in 2 Kings 3 as God delivers the victory to Israel. 2 Kings 3 and verse 16. 2 Kings 3, 16. Yeah, here's Elisha. I'm going to just read what God has. Let's pick it up in Jehoshaphat, another king who relied on God.

And so Elisha or Jehoshaphat gets with Elisha a prophet in verse 13. Elisha said to the king of Israel, What do I do with you? Go to the prophet. Okay, verse 14. Elisha said, As the Lord of hosts lives before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, I wouldn't even look at you nor see you, but now bring me a musician. And it happened when the musician played that the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said, Thus says the Eternal, Make this valley full of ditches. For thus God says, You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain. Yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you, your cattle and your animals, may drink. And this is a simple matter in the sight of the Lord. He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand. Also you shall attack every fortified city, every choice city. You shall cut down every good tree, stop up every spring of water, and ruin every good piece of land with stones.

And it happened in the morning. So here they're setting up a miracle, right, in the conquering of Moab. It happened in the morning when the grain offering was offered that suddenly water came by way of Edom, and the land was filled with water. And when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able to bear arms and older were gathered, and they stood at the border. And they rose up early in the morning, and the sun was shining on the water, and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood. And they said, this is blood. The kings over there have surely struck swords and have killed one another, now therefore Moab to the spoil. So you can see what's going on here. They believe they're walking into an easy victory, and so when they came to the camp of Israel, Israel rose up and attacked the Moabites so that they fled before them, and they entered their land, killing the Moabites. So they destroyed the cities, you know, so on and so on. So we have this miracle that God performed that delivered Moab into the Israelites' hands at that time. So remember, you know, remember that miracle when we come to Isaiah 15. Xavier? Yeah, he had a comment. Yeah, it's ironic how God took care of lots of two sons there.

The grand-son, yeah, sons, yes. Because at first when he brought Israel into the land, he told them not to harass them, buy water, buy food, go on the King's Highway, and they denied, and they even tried to curse them, and God had to intervene, and that just sowed the relationship because of their stubbornness. It's just sad when you do stuff like that. I mean, everything could have went properly. They could have a good relationship, but they just kept antagonizing Israel for no good Yep. A lot of lessons we can learn from what those kings did back then, isn't it? That we can kind of avoid ourselves if we get into similar situations.

Okay, so we've got Moab. We know who Moab is. I'm going to give you Ezekiel 25, 8 through 11, that you can look at. It's going to talk about Moab. I'll give you Amos 2, 1 through 3, but let's go back to the little book of Zephaniah that we were in before and see God's prophecy for Moab, because this will lead us into Isaiah 15 then, as we see Moab mentioned here in an end-time context and what their eventual what their eventual demise is. Zephaniah 2, we were in 4 through 5 before. Right now we're going to be in verse 8. Zephaniah 2 and verse 8.

I've heard the reproach of Moab and the insults of the people of Ammon. You know where those two nations are? With which they have reproached my people and they made arrogant threats against their borders. Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God of hosts to the God of Israel, surely Moab shall be like Sodom. Now we know what the end of Sodom was like. Nothing left of that.

That didn't happen in Old Testament times, so we know what this prophecy is yet to occur. Surely Moab shall be like Sodom and the people of Ammon like Gomorrah overrun with weeds and salt pits and a perpetual desolation. Hasn't happened. Moab, you know where Moab is today? Modern day Jordan, Ammon, Ammon, just like the capital of Jordan today, Ammon, in that area of the world where it's there, they're still there. It hasn't been overrun. He hasn't become like Sodom and Gomorrah overrun with weeds and salt pits and a perpetual desolation. The residue of my people shall plunder them and the remnant of my people shall possess them. Verse 10. This they shall have for their pride because they have reproached and made arrogant threats against the people of the Lord of hosts. The Lord will be awesome to them for he will reduce to nothing all the gods of the earth. People will worship God, each one from his place, indeed all the shores of the nations.

So, you know, all these nations, remember Kamosh, child worship, all the evil that the pagan gods worship, God will bring to nothing all of these gods of the earth that are there. And God and God alone will be the God in those in that day. Over and over you read, they will know that I am the Lord. They will know that I am God. So if we go to Isaiah 15 with what is seems to be the ultimate end of Moab that we read in Zephaniah, we're going to read in the nine verses of chapter 15. We can get through pretty quickly. It's a prelude to really chapter 16 where we have the rest of the prophecy of Moab that we'll get to next week. But let's go through chapter 15 with all this in mind.

And in here we have a lot of the cities of Moab that are named. So you've seen one map from me. Let me put another map up here. Here's another map that people put this together of Moab back in the time of Isaiah 15. As we see some of these words that come up here, you'll see some of those cities listed there in this map of Moab there. It says, because in the night R of Moab is laid waste, you can see R down there. I saw it yesterday. Let me see where it is. Yep, down there at the bottom way of the south. Because in the night R of Moab is laid waste and destroyed, okay, because in the night R of Moab is laid waste and destroyed.

And he's listing these cities. Talking about one by one the cities of Moab are going to be destroyed. Because in the night R is laid waste and destroyed, he's gone up to the temple. Moab, what did people do when they're in danger? They would go up. Now if you've been to the Middle East, you see that whenever they built their temples, they built them up on high places. You know, if you've been over there, you see the very high places. That was where the temple was. You would go up to the temple. So as Moab sees this destruction occurring, where do they go? Do they go to their god? He has gone up to the temple and dive on. You see dive on there and a lower third of the map there. He has gone up to the temple and dive on to the high places.

There are places of worship. What is he doing there? To weep. There's misery. There's destruction on the land. It's a time of woe. It's a time of misery. It's a time where they're being defeated. You see ours has been laid waste. Kerr has been laid waste. They go up to the temple, to the high places to weep. Moab will wail over Nebo. You saw Nebo, where Moses went up to look over all the land that God was going to give Israel as their place that they would possess. Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medivah. It's there near the north there of the map that you have. On all their heads will be baldness. Now, again, when you read about baldness among those ancient nations there and their beards cut off, it's a time of grief, extreme grief. In fact, when you read some of the commentaries and talk about, well, what happened at that time, even in the era of Warirol today, when you look at the Middle East over there, you see people with the beards, right? So it's almost a time of shame for them that their beards are cut off. In fact, they say some of the beards will just hide themselves until their beards grow out again because they kind of look at it as a time of shame. They've been humbled. They've been afflicted. And so here, God says, on all their heads will be baldness. There will be a time of grief. They are being afflicted. They are being humbled. Every beard will be cut off. In their streets, they will clothe themselves with sackcloth. We know from the Bible what sackcloth represents. It's time of grief, affliction. In their streets, they will clothe themselves with sackcloth. On the tops of their houses and in their streets, everyone will wail, weeping bitterly. A time of extreme misery on Moab.

The time of the end, we read over and over again, as the world comes to its rightful end, under the vengeance of God and the suffering and misery they bring upon themselves with wars and all the strife that people inflict on each other. Just a time of misery. Just a time of misery. Clearly talking of the end time here. Heshban, another city, Elayilah will cry out. Their voice will be heard as far as Jehads. Therefore, the armed soldiers of Moab will cry out. His life will be burdensome to him. Well, we know how that is. We live in times of sickness. Most of us haven't lived through a time of war where we have been under any kind of duress like that at all. But life would be burdensome, as it will be in Moab in that day. And then in verse 5, you have Isaiah, who's writing this. And we see the heart of Isaiah, and it's kind of a warming thing when you, the way Isaiah writes this, is that my heart will cry out for Moab. You know, it's a beautiful thing that God says there in that. And here's Isaiah, right? He sees what's going on in Moab. He knows this is of God, and yet he's got compassion on those people. You know, God doesn't enjoy the suffering of people either. He doesn't take joy when he has to put people through the suffering that they must endure. He does it for a reason, so that we will be humble. We will turn to him so that we can have ultimate joy. So, you know, I read that, and you know, it just makes your heart warm for Isaiah. Look what kind of a man he was. Look what kind of a people that God wants us to be. You know, when things are going on around us, and we may see nations being punished or whatever, he's not looking for people that are going to be rejoicing and high-fiving each other and say, good, their day has come. No, that's what those Gentile nations like Assyria did that we read back. And Isaiah God says, you know, don't take joy. Don't take joy over the demise of someone else. Be compassionate. Have mercy on them. And Isaiah has that, and you and I need to develop that compassion, too, that we don't want to see people suffer. But when it's, you know, God will bring everyone to repentance, to repentance who is willing to repent. My heart, he says, will cry out for Moab. His fugitives will flee to Zohar. Isn't that interesting? We know that Zohar is right there in that area of the world where Sodom and Gomorrah was. His fugitives will flee to Zohar like a three-year-old heifer.

Now there's an interesting thing, right? Like a three-year-old heifer. Let me pull up something here that comes from a commentary. That's Nimram. We'll come to Nimram here in a minute. Let me go up here to three-year-old heifer. This comes from the Barnes commentary. You know, it turns out that likely, the three-year-old heifer is kind of a saying, right? Jacinias, he's one of the ancient historians, I guess, suggest that the common explanation when it refers to a heifer of the age of three years may be defended. In the third year, he says, the heifer was most vigorous and hence was used for an offering in Genesis 15.9. In fact, if you go back to Genesis 15.9, it's the time of Abram and the smoking oven, and God says, a part of the covenant was a heifer of three years.

So he's saying, okay, the third year, the heifer is most vigorous. It's lively. The first two years not, but it's in the prime, if you will, in its third year. Until that age, she was accustomed to go unbroken and for no yoke. If this refers to Moab, Barnes says, therefore it may mean that hitherto Moab was vigorous, unsubdued, and active. But now, like the heifer, it was to be broken and brought under the yoke by chastisement. So that seems to fit the narrative here, because all the verses before indicate the affliction and the humbling of Moab and God chastising them. So that's the part in verse five here. They do say, though, that the expression is a difficult one. It's impossible to determine what is the true sense. So there's other things, you know, you see probably down in the margin of your Bible, this third egg laugh. I'm not going to take the time to do that, because this one seems to fit the context of what we're talking about here. But you know, we'll know for sure when Christ returns or when He opens this prophecy and what this meeting is to us in full.

But going on in verse five, then, this is for by the ascent of Luhith. Remember, people would always climb. They climb toward their temples when they were in times of misery, go up to their temples. For by the ascent of Luhith, wherever Luhith is, they will go up with weeping. For in the way of Foraneum, they will rise up a cry of destruction. For the waters of Nimrim, okay, so we have this continual thing as we lean into chapter 16, the destruction of Moab, the destruction of Moab, they're afflicted. For the waters of Nimrim will be desolate. And then, going on in that verse, it talks about, you know, the green grass will wither, the grass fails, there is nothing green. You have this desolation. I should have left that up there since we were there. Let me go back and pull that up. I'll show you what the commentaries say about Nimrim, just so we have some context with that as well. Nimrim, this again is from Barnes.

Yeah, Barnes, Barnes. It was, he says, doubtless, a city celebrated for its pure fountains and springs of water. And he references, you know, some chart there. The shows of brook flowings, the Jordan called Narr, Nimrim, or Wadi Sho'ib. On the east of the Jordan, well, you know, on the east of the Jordan, over against Jericho, there is now a stream called Nimlim, which he says, doubtless, the ancient Nimrim. It flows into the Jordan as it flows along, gives fertility to that part of the country of Moab. So again, you know, we look at some of that stuff. We could say, okay, here's a river, kind of like the Nile in Egypt provides fertility to the plains of Egypt. Nimrim gives fertility and makes the ground around that area of Moab a fertile place to be. But God says, in that day, the streams of Nimrim are going to be, are going to be, you know, desolate. They're going to dry up. They're no longer going to be there.

The grass will wither, the grass fails. There's nothing green. And in verse 7, you know, verse 7, you see the people beginning to flee. They're going someplace in verse 7. Therefore, the abundance they've gained, right? They have stores. They have stores that they have maintained for themselves, just like you and I might have, you know, pantries and whatever. And when their food is scarce, it's like, oh, this is what we're going to rely on. They're leaving. The land is desolate. All these things have occurred. Therefore, the abundance they have gained, what they have laid up, they will carry away to the brook of the willows. Now, it's a fleeing. They're going someplace, right? The book of the willows. Now, down in verse 1 of chapter 16, some of the commentaries tie the book of the willows to chapter 16, where it references the land of Cela. Send the lamb to the ruler of the land from Cela to the wilderness. It appears that this is where they're fleeing. Now, Cela, we'll talk more about this next week. Cela is in an area of Jordan that is called ancient Petraia. A very mountainous region. Places where you can hide.

Difficult for people to find you. And so, it appears that that's where these people, as this destruction is coming to city after city, that their water is desolate. It's gone away. Let's take what we have and run to this mountainous area and seek refuge there. Okay? That's what the commentaries will do, but they are clearly going somewhere. They will carry this away to the brook of the willows, for the grime has gone all around the borders of Moab. It's wailing in Igliam. It's wailing in Barelim, which translated means well of the princess. From the waters of diamond, which relates back to Daibon we saw before, for the waters of diamond will be full of blood.

Now, this is, you know, future times, but here we have this waters of dim-red blood.

You know, it refers back, remember, to 2 Kings 3 when the miracle occurred, when Israel conquered Moab, they thought that water was full of blood, and they marched into it. And here we have a similar thing happening here in this prophecy in verse 9. The waters of Daibon will be full of blood because I will bring more upon diamond, lions upon him who escapes from Moab. So what God is saying, they may think they're going to escape. They may think they're going to hide in all these rocks and all these fortified places that no one's going to find them. But lions upon him who escapes from Moab and on the remnant of the land. They won't be safe in those mountains. Kind of reminds you of the verses in Amos 8 where it says, you can go down to the center of the earth, you can go as high as you want, you can't run, you can't hide from God. When the time comes and He is looking for you, we can run, but we can't flee and we can't hide. The people of Moab find this. So lions upon him who escapes from Moab goes to this place that they're going and on the remnant of the land in chapter 16. We're going to end here and then begin on chapter 16 with Selah. We'll find some interesting things as we go through chapter 16 next week. We'll just find some interesting things. I want to end in Daniel tonight because we read much of the destruction of Moab. God will seek out the remnant of them, etc., etc. But in Daniel 11, we find an interesting prophecy of Moab.

I've talked about this over the years when we talk about the King of the North and the news from the east at the end time, clearly at the end time, and the King of the South and the King of the North marches through the King of the South and destroys everything there. Then he hears news from the east. We have northern powers north of the Mediterranean, the King of the North. We have the King of the South down below. We have news from the east, which as we look at what may be happening with Russia, China, North Korea, and those nations over there. But again, no news from the west, nothing from the west, which indicates all the western powers are gone. All the powers at the end time are north, south, and east. If we look at Daniel 11, the last few verses here, pick it up in verse 40 of Daniel 11. It says at the time of the end, so we don't have to guess if this is the time of the end, God tells us, at the time of the end, the King of the South shall attack him. We're talking about the King of the North. And the King of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships. And he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. He shall also enter the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown. But these shall escape from his hand. Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon.

So at that time, when the King of the South is being destroyed, Moab escapes. Edom escapes the prominent people of Ammon. You saw those maps where we all are. We're in the prophecies against Moab. So Moab, that area has a purpose at the end time before its ultimate demise comes.

And verse 42, it says, you shall stretch out of sand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But those other three will. So let's leave that for tonight. And we'll pick it up in chapter 16 next week and go through that chapter as we come through the rest of the prophecy against Moab. So okay, let me open it up for any questions, comments.

We said a lot about the children of Lot. It's very interesting.

In the New Testament, it says, righteous lot. And I go, I ran across a sermon online and they said, why was he called righteous lot after what we've seen? It's really amazing. Anyway, we know that he's going to be in the kingdom and it calls him righteous lot. And then another quick thing I wanted to say is there's a harmony of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. It's in paperback and you can get it online. The harmony of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, because as you know, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles jumped all around. But the harmony has it in order. So you can go through Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles three times fast by happening at Harmony.

I encourage everybody, if you want to really get into the Kings there and that, like we went through with to get the harmony of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Well worth a few bucks. Yep, I had not heard of that. That's interesting. Did you get that on Amazon? Yes, I did. And what's really interesting is also after the divided kingdom, it'll tell you what's going on in Judah and what's going on in Israel at the same time. So that really helps because Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles are jumping all over the place.

It's really cool. It's just like the harmony of the gospel. It's really cool. Very good. Very good.

Ricardo? Just thinking a little bit more about Moab and Ammon and all that, when we're showing your map, that's basically the region where Jordan is right now.

And Jordan and Israel have had kind of a love-hate relationship because even back in 67 and before, Jordan was one of the nations that declared war in Israel to Israel with the other Arab nations.

But then lately, it's one of the Arab nations that had, I guess, relatively better relations with Israel now. And it also happens that in that region, it's where the city of Petra is.

And this reference to the prominent people of Ammon and Danieleven, I mean, could refer to the royal lineage of Jordan, the king of Jordan and the people of the royalty there. Yeah, it's an interesting area. An interesting area to talk about. Chapter 16 is an interesting chapter as we get into it. I know, I know.

Elosigah, did you have a comment? Yeah, Mr. Shaby, I do have a comment. And I just want to thank you for putting together this Bible study because to me, personally, it has been a blessing.

Now I understand the Book of Isaiah better than before. Before, when I read the Book of Isaiah, I used to get confused about some of those towns and countries mentioned. But now, with the explanation I'm getting on this Bible study, I can say that I understand better. And when I read other chapters, I get more understanding, more insights when I study the Book of Isaiah. So I want to say thank you, despite your busy schedule, for still finding time to put this together. I want to say thank you. Thank you. More than welcome. I'm learning a lot as we go through the Book of Isaiah as well because I've read it before and I would get confused and think, okay, I know everything God says is true. But as we take it bit by bit, right, and go back and look at the Bible and the history and put some of it together, it becomes clear. There's a lot we don't know yet, but we will know. So let me stop the recording here for a moment.