Bible Study: September 21, 2022

We have the review questions over the first 12 chapters of Isaiah. A lot of times I just like to let everyone just talk tonight, but I know a few people have requested, if maybe we could have people raise hands so people can fully understand what the answers are to some of the questions. There's less multiple choice tonight by design than there have typically been in the past, and part of that is so that it would generate some discussion around what these verses mean and maybe help solidify it all in our minds a little bit more. So why don't we try that? I'm not opposed if someone wants to yell out an answer. That's fine, but we will try to make it clear so that people, if there's any confusion on any of the answers, we'll make sure that we go back to the Bible and identify those. So with that, again at the beginning here, we have a prophet Isaiah, one of the major prophets of the Bible, and what was he? Well, I pretty much answered the question. What was Isaiah called by God to do? Anyone. You can answer this one just by saying it. To be a prophet? To be a prophet, yep. If we use the exact words out of Isaiah 6.5 there, or where is it? 6.9. God says, go and tell this people. Go and tell this people, you know. And so Isaiah's job is to go and tell this people. That's what prophets do. God gives them the messages, and they go out and speak. So when Isaiah was called, anyone recall what his calling was like? How did he react when he realized he was in vision in God's throne? He said he would go right away.

Well, that isn't the first thing he did, remember? He had an initial reaction.

He was what?

Head guardo, yes. I see a hand up of head guardo.

He was particularly in awe and even afraid for his life because he has him the throne of God. As he was in the throne of God. Yeah, Neneh, what did you say?

Yeah, he was very afraid. He was very afraid. Yes, he was.

He seemed like he felt unworthy. He felt unworthy. Yeah. Frank, what were you going to say? I'm looking at verse five and he said, woe is me, my lips, unclean lips.

Yeah, he felt like a sinner. I think that sells us, you know, when we come to the presence of God, we would feel very, very dirty, filthy, unworthy sinners, right? And the presence of God, you would feel all that sin that still is with us. And that's what Isaiah, that was his like almost immediate reaction. A man of unclean lips is what he said. And so we would have that same reaction.

When we come before God's throne, you know, when we recognize and realize who we're speaking of, we should feel that way and feel like we want to continually be cleansed by God and live a life of repentance. So, okay. Number three, what did God do before Isaiah could fulfill his commission? You're muted, Dale.

Yeah, good evening. Yeah, my notes here set up.

They're from later live Cole on Isaiah's mouth, his neck, who he's taking away and his sin, his purvey. Yep. God took his sin away. I mean, he recognized, he kind of repented before God.

It's, you know, as we come up on the day of atonement, remember in the Old Testament times, before atonement could be offered, the priest had to have sacrifices for himself, too. He had, before he could fulfill what God's mission for him that day was, he had to be purified in a way and have his sins covered. And so the same thing for us as we go about God's will and doing his will, you know, we need to be, we need to be cleansed. We need to be forgiven. We need to repent in the same way that Isaiah did the same way in the Old Testament times, where they weren't going through repentance, but they were going through that atonement process. It's the same thing for us. To serve God, we have to, we have to, we have to be clean people. We have to be clean people and live our lives that way and recognize our sins and repent of our sins so he can, he can use us going. Follow them up. Yes, someone.

Okay. Number, number four. How long? How long did God say Isaiah's words would be spoken?

And in the cities, I just told the people are excited.

Yep, you're, you're muted. Mr. Shaby? Uh, yes. Yeah, can you hear this? This is Ted Rudd. Yeah, I have just a question that comes to my mind. What was the relationship between Isaiah and Jeremiah? They were both preaching towards Israel, prophesying towards Israel, correct? Yeah, but they lived, they lived in different times. They, they weren't contemporaries. Isaiah was with contemporaries with, who was it, Hosea, Micah, and people like that, but Jeremiah, remember, he was prophesying to Judah at the time that Judah fell, which was hundreds of years later than Israel fell. And Isaiah was prophesying while Israel fell. They're both major prophets, right? Isaiah was warning. Judah didn't listen. Jeremiah prophesied. Judah didn't listen, and they went into captivity as well. One of the people popped on the stuff, stereo. Pardon? Well, it's the answer to number four. Okay, that's what we're waiting for. Tim was going to give us the answer to number four.

I have until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant and the land is utterly destroyed. Yeah, has that happened yet? No, that hasn't happened yet, right? We talked about that, that not in Israel's time, where is their land ever laid waste? And Dessaliah talks about that in Ezekiel as well. So Isaiah's words are still to be spoken. Isaiah's words are still alive for us today. Those prophecies still stand, and God expects them to be preached until that happens in the return of Jesus Christ. So, okay. And if there's any questions on any of this along the way, feel free to ask, or if you want more discussion on it, if you want to go back and read it in the Bible, we can do that as well. We will find that Isaiah, chapter upon chapter, builds upon each other. But we go back to some of the concepts here in the first 12 chapters later on in the book as well. So this is foundational to Isaiah as the prophecy builds and as we go through it, all the way through the Holy Days as we get toward the end of the book. Okay, what four kings of Judah did Isaiah prophesy under? You can look that up in the Bible if you want. Yeah, yeah. We go back to Isaiah 1, right? Yes, Isaiah 1. And, um, hey, Mr. Shaby, what was the question? The question is, what four kings of Judah did Isaiah prophesy under or live during that time? Well, one A has.

One of them was A has. Tell me something as well. As long as we've got A has on our mind, what was A has like? What kind of king? Good, bad, horrible. Horrible, yes. Completely resistant to God. Wouldn't even let God give him a sign, right? Just completely resistant to God. What's another one?

Yeah, we have four different types of kings there, right? Isaiah started off very strong, very loyal to God, but as he as his kingdom prospered, and as he went on with life, he became too enamored with himself and kind of thought he did everything and he turned against God. His son Jotham, I don't know if I didn't even mention Jotham. Yeah, I was trying to. Did you mention him? Yeah, Jotham was a good king too, but he didn't fall prey to the same problems that his father did. He stayed loyal to God all the way to the end. A has was bad, and then Hezekiah, what we know Hezekiah. He was loyal to God, but in the end, he also feared the treasures of Israel.

Hezekiah was the fourth, yes.

I think we answered this. I think we answered number six already, but let's do it again. As a result of which of those kings' response to God are most of the words of the first 12 chapters of Isaiah written. A has. A has. Yeah, you know, it's as interesting as you go through Isaiah, if there was a multiple choice quiz that was given about kings of Judah, and there was only one that was right, I'm not sure I would have picked up on, I don't sure I would have picked up on A has. I don't remember his name, but going through the book of Isaiah so far, we see we see God did some in response to A has' resistance to God and really rebellion to God. We see God providing a lot of foundational prophecies for the church as he shows him that there that he is with us there, right? So, okay, number seven. What was the ultimate sign God would give that he is with his people and wants them, ultimately everyone, to survive and receive eternal life. So, those are the three things there. It is promise of the Messiah, and did that occur during A has' lifetime? No. No, the people of Judah would have heard that prophecy. They had to have faith that there was the promise of the Messiah that would come. A has would have looked for military victory over his enemies, Syria, Assyria, Syria, and Assyria.

I don't know that he would have wanted the nations of Israel and Judah to reunite, but yeah, the promise of the Messiah. And in these chapters of Isaiah, we're going to see a lot of the prophecies of the birth of the Messiah, and a lot of the prophecies that are pertaining to his Second Coming as well as we go through the book. So, okay, as we go through Isaiah, I mean, he compares the people of Israel to some things that are pretty visual in our eyes. Can anyone name a couple of the things that God compares his people to? A vineyard. Yeah, a vineyard's one of them, right? What is it? Well, yeah, yeah. Well, not Israel then. I guess you guys should say compares them in not a good way, right? Vineyard is one, because remember that whole story? It's like I've done everything perfect for my vineyard, yet it didn't bring forth the good grapes, it brought forth wild grapes. So the problem was with the people, certainly not with God. In the first chapter of Isaiah, though, he as the prophecy begins, he compares Israel to something there, too, in the first few verses. And adulterous? And adulterous? Yeah, we go to that in other places. But yeah, 121. 121? Yeah. Okay, yeah. Yeah, that's good. That's the one I was thinking of, but that's yeah, he does. He compares Israel to adulterous. They always are looking to be unfaithful to God, and she is doing something another way than he asks. I think so, though. A sick body? Sit at a garden? And that one? Verse 3. A sick body. Yeah, he compares them to the oxes, right? So even something like the ox, the ox knows its owner, the donkey, its master's crib, but Israel doesn't know, my people don't consider. So God says, even in the animal kingdom, they know who provides for them. They know who looks out for them, but here, God provided everything for Israel, and they just don't even pay attention to it. So when you read those verses and you put yourself in God's place because we, most of us online here, have children, and they are ungrateful or don't do the things that we would want them to do, we think, you know, it kind of hurts when they treat us that way, but we can always compare how we've made God feel in our lives, how we've disappointed Him in so many times as well, and certainly the nations of Israel and Judah back then, God blessed, but they just disregarded Him and didn't pay much attention to Him. We just don't want to be guilty of doing the same thing. Okay. Okay, also in that first chapter there, the next question is, does God say He's pleased with His people just because they keep the Sabbath, new moons, and the calling of assemblies?

Does He say just just by doing it, He's pleased?

Paul says He's not.

Yeah, he doesn't. Why not? Why does God, why is He not happy? Because our hands are full of blood. I get very much right to see righteousness. Yeah, their heart, their heart wasn't really in it, right? That's kind of like they do it just because it's a physical thing to do, and they think that's what it's enough, but what God is really looking for is that our heart is in it. We are delighting in that those Sabbath days and those assemblies and the opportunities to come before Him and learn of Him, and if we do it just to please someone else or to check off a box, that's kind of what He is saying there in chapter one, and this isn't the only book He says that in. The book of Amos is pretty, the book of Amos, who's also a contemporary of Isaiah, you know, talks about that as well, but God is not pleased with the way they have, the way they keep their, even though they're keeping technically the physical, physically the Sabbath, they're not doing it the way He wants. In verse 12 there's this, Oh, Mr. Shavey? Yes. They weren't doing it with love. They weren't doing it, that's a good way to put it. They weren't doing it with love of God. They were doing it simply out of a sense of duty, right? So, and there's nothing wrong with a sense of duty, but it never became part of their heart. And that's what God's looking at that way. I see a hand up there. Mr. or Mrs. Motorola?

That's James. That's James, okay. Yeah, okay. I got a question. I noticed you said New Moon. Were they observing some type of festival or something with the New Moon, or were they just observing it for the Holy Days? No, back in the Old Testament times, they did something. It wasn't a Holy Day, the New Moons, but there was a way they marked time, right? So every time a New Moon came, they knew a New Month began. So they might have had, if you remember back at the time of Saul and David, remember when Saul was looking to kill David and Jonathan and David talked and David said, Your father wants to kill me, Jonathan. No, he doesn't. David said, In a couple days is the New Moon supper. I'm going to not be there and watch his attitude. So they kind of knew where the new Moon was, but they got together and it wasn't a celebration. It wasn't a Holy Day, but they got together and they acknowledged it somehow. It's not what we do today, although I do try anymore when I see the full Moon kind of draw people's attention to it because it is the way we measure God's time. So the next time we have a full Moon, all of us will be at the Feast of Tabernacles.

It will begin. Exactly. Okay, thank you.

Okay, did we answer the question then? No, I forgot. Oh, no, yeah. So it's a matter of heart. God wants us. We do it because we love God because it pleases Him when we give up our time, give up our substance, give up our even food to do the things that He wants. We honor God with our time, with our tithes, with the food that we eat as we follow His food laws and things like that. It's all a matter of doing it because we love God and love His way. Now, so Jeremy hit that one right on the head. Mr. Shaby? Yes. Mrs. Ted, once again. I've gone over about the New Moon and I've had read several different places, put it that way, where a lot of people compare the New Moon to our keeping Thanksgiving. There's nothing in the Bible that tells people to observe Thanksgiving. It's not really a holy day or anything like that, but many people still keep it, even within the church, still keep it as a special day to give thanks to God. I remember to give a special thanks to God. So New Moon, I've had to say, was a lot like Thanksgiving. It was a day they set aside for special reasons. It's not mentioned in the Bible and not commanded in the Bible whatsoever, but I've read where people said, well, it's a lot like Thanksgiving. Yeah, I don't know that I would compare it to Thanksgiving. The New Moon comes every month and it was God's way. You know, when He put the lights in the sky, the sun and the moon, as it says in Genesis 1, it was to them, He's marking His time. That's the way they were able to identify the appointed times before Him. Thanksgiving is kind of a national celebration of thanks. The New Moons were recognizing what God is doing and the passing of time so that we keep track of what His calendar is so we come before Him at His appointed time. Yeah, Xavier? Also, when you look at the command in our numbers, it's the priest that does something very special on it, in the sense of the offering. At the beginning of the month, they had to do an offering just like on a saboteur. By the end of the day, at the beginning of the day, it's to mark something, but it's not a holy time and it's not a tradition to keep like me, like David, and Saul, and David. Yeah, David said, I must go to make a sacrifice. Maybe he steals to get away, right? Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what it's used to do.

Yeah, because he didn't have to be there, but it was their tradition to do it.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. The priest is responsible for doing this.

Okay, okay, number 10. True or false, the book of Isaiah is a prophecy for only of Israel and Judah of Isaiah's day. True or false? False. Yeah, it's a prophecy for us, just as much as it was for the people of that time. In fact, maybe even more so for us, you know, as the ends of the ages have come, because we have the proof of God's prophecies for them being fulfilled. So we absolutely know and believe that believe what God does, everything he says will happen, does happen. In fact, twice in Isaiah 45, he uses those exact words. Nothing that he said will come back to him void. Whatever he says will happen exactly the way he said it would happen.

Okay, look at Isaiah talk. Go ahead. Did someone have a...

Yeah.

Many of them are dual prophecies, you're right. Exactly what happened to Isaiah, we're going to kind of see fulfilled in our day as Israel in modern-day Judah go do exactly and follow the exact same path of our ancestors, if you will. So that's called what, right? If a prophecy was fulfilled once, but it's for another latter day, this gets going to a question later on. What is that called? If it's a prophecy for more than one day? Dual prophecy. Exactly. Okay.

Let me see where we are now. We are in, okay. Chapter two of what time are the first four verses of Isaiah to talking about? Is it the millennium? The later days. Yep, the latter days, but it is the time of the millennium. In fact, wherever you go to the peace this year, you will hear those words spoken. You know, the people will go up to the mountain of the Lord, and back you'll probably hear a sermon that talks about going up to the mountain of the Lord, and we liken, you know, going to the Feast of Tabernacles where we go where God wants us to, and we're taught there for that time as all people will be taught during the millennium. Okay, number 12 is a little bit more involved here. Why does God forsake his people? The house of Jacob. Of course, Jacob being all 12 all 12 tribes of Israel. And then I asked, say, you know, list just seven of the sins that God specifically states in any of those three chapters. So if you want someone just wants to list some of them off. Some of them are there in chapter two, and some of them in chapter five, chapter three, and other places. I don't worship. I don't worship. Yep, that's one of them.

Yep, pride. Very good. I heard oppressing the people. Rebellion. Rebellion. Exciting and hiding them. One girl over four. Yeah. Yeah, I can't see. Using the four, did I hear that? Yes. Materialism. Materialism. Yep. Drunkenness. Do what? I'm sorry. Drunkenness. Yeah, I mean, in chapter five, he pretty much lays out some of the modern-day things, right? Drunkenness, the materialism that someone said, yeah, he's pretty graphic in some of those stuff. I'm free. Go ahead. I'm free. Yep. In verse six, he mentions Eastern ways. In chapter two and verse six, they are filled with Eastern ways. Those are kind of like pagan ways. Whatever they did in the East then. I know today, even when you look to the East, you know, the East where China is and China the Orient, there's a lot of things that go on out there. And still some people, I don't mean in the Church, but a lot of people will look to Eastern ways and Buddha and Mother Earth and worshiping the Earth instead of God and things like that. So you mentioned something else there in verse six. Bradbury and injustice. Yep, that's injustice is certainly a sin. Sorry. The last acknowledge is gone. They've lost the knowledge of God, they depart from him. Yep. Excessive pleasure speaking, like wine, song, things like that. Indeed. So same. Soothsaying. Must. And what is knowing to their trenches. Yep. What is this? I would say. Yep. What is what is soothsaying? The... It's like a person that's able to see spirits. Yeah. The medium is spiritist. Yeah. We went out to dinner the other night and when I looked out the restaurant window, there was a fortune teller. Sign up. We won't be coming to that restaurant anymore. I can't even enjoy my meal knowing that's right next door building. I think who would think that was going on in Ohio, but it does. So anyway, soothsayers. Yeah, there's I mean, there's a whole when you go through here, I mean, you talked about pleased with children of foreigners. That was one of the sins that Israel did back then. Right. Whenever they came to a foreign country or encountered someone, they just wanted to adopt their ways. And we we can be the same. Right. We are if we don't come out of the world and learn to just do things God's way and leave those foreign things to God apart from us. But, OK, I think we said someone said oppressing. I know he specifically says in chapter three here, I've got crushing his people, which is a very vivid way of describing how people can treat each other. Right. He says, why do you what do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor? So God looks very closely as to how we treat each other and that we're not respecters of persons, but that we are looking out for the needs of each other, regardless of what we what we may think our station is like or someone else's station in life is that we treat each other equally and with the same love that he has the same love for them that he has for us. OK, any other. We also have lost. Has lost. Yeah, yeah. Very good. Lack of thankfulness. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. In gratitude. Yeah, I mean, we talked about that with the way the with the vineyard and the way those they responded to God. Why is in their own eyes? One more time. Why is in their own eyes? Why is in their own eyes? Yeah. Yeah. And those those in Chapter six, right? Or the Chapter five or those who call evil good and good evil and they just kind of they just kind of define their own law as opposed to following what God says. OK, let's go on to number 13.

Let's go on to number 13. Number 13. At least two sets of scriptures. We've talked about one of them already. Two sets of scriptures in the first 12 chapters that pertains to the millennial reign of Christ. As we go through the same nine and I say 11. Yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry.

Talk about the right of way of millennial reign of Christ. When we read those scriptures, we know it's talking about when Christ is on earth. Chapter two verses two or four. Yeah, that would be one. Let's go to the mountain Lord. Another one is quite vivid. Or verse two or seven. Two.

One, two, three. OK, yeah, I'm thinking of descriptive verses that when we go to the piece, it's like this is the way the world will be like when Christ is reigning. 11, six through nine. That's the picture of peace that doesn't happen in the world today. The wolf will go out with the lamb, the leopard will die and will die down with the young goat. We see those verses. We can see Isaiah. He's talking about the millennium. Later on, we'll see something of the last great day or the eighth day, whatever you want to call it. Great Shavey! Yes, sir. I actually see the lion lamb and the kid on your shelf back there. Yes, you do. Good eyes. Someone in the church gave me that back several years ago. One of the things I treasure and keep there, it's a good reminder of where we're headed. Isaiah 9, 6 to 9. Isaiah 9, 6 to 9. They're talking about Christ's birth. That's talking about his birth, right? That's not the millennium. Although, verse 7, The increase of this government, there will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom. Yep. Yep. So that would point to the future as well. Okay. But just bear in mind as we go through Isaiah, we will see. We will see scriptures that pertain to peace, the trumpets, day of atonement, all the holy days, all the days of the holy days of God. And we see that here in the first few chapters of Isaiah. So we know this is a prophecy that extends far beyond Isaiah's day all the way through. You know, all the way through, really the end of the purpose of the earth. Snow-freezing. Yeah. People back then didn't know what Isaiah was saying. Today we do know fully what these prophecies mean. Okay. Number 13. Number 13? Number 14. Are there any scriptures in these first 12 chapters that pertain to the time of the trumpet blasts? Here we are just a few days from the peace of trumpets. Any scriptures that might make us think of anything we read about back in Revelation when we're reading all those trumpets? Isaiah 5.26 through 30? Isaiah 5.26 through 30? Let me get there. Yeah. Yeah. That would be that would be that talks of the time of like Joel 2, where it talks about the armies that are advancing very quickly. And they come down to punish a nation that has turned from God. That happened in that happened in Isaiah's day too in Judah's. So that's good.

There are a few places in Isaiah that make us think exactly of words that that are appearing. And that that one in Isaiah 5 is good that make us think that we talked about, you know, as we went through them of comparing it to Revelation 6, actually, verses 15 to 17. And I'll give you give you that. And you might think of some scriptures that look just like that and in Isaiah in the early chapters here.

Okay, so let's look back at chapter two. Chapter two in Isaiah. And we'll look at a couple of those and we'll go back to Revelation again. Here, you know, in the first four verses here, first few verses of chapter two, he's talking about the millennial reign of Christ.

Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. And verse six, then he goes back and he says, you know, but Jacob, House of Jacob, you have forgotten God, you've done all these sins. And there's punishment that's going to be coming. And he says in verse 10, Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty.

The lofty looks of man shall be humbled. The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Remember, whenever we see that phrase in that day, we're talking about a future time. We doped down to verse 19 of chapter two. It says, They shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth from the terror of the Lord.

So when is the time that we think of terror from the Lord? The day of the peace of trumpets, right? When God punishes the world for its rejection of Him from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty.

When He arises to shake the earth mightily. So we go back to Revelation six. I mean, as you look at those verses, you see those those are what we're going to be talking about on on the face of trumpets. And back in Revelation six, it uses almost those exact words when it begins to talk about the fifth and the sixth seals being opened up, right? Right before chapter seven here, it talks about the fifth seal, the Great Tribulation, the sixth seal, the heavenly signs.

Verse 14 talks about those signs that are dramatic, that no astronomer can predict never happened before in the history of the earth. The sky receded as a scroll when it's rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man did what? They hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, Follow and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, where the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand.

So here, again, in the very first few chapters of Isaiah, you see the sins of Israel, you see the Feast of Tabernacles, you see the Day of Trumpets that we're going to talk about here in a few days that we're going to be observing. Again, Isaiah is a prophecy for the rest of mankind's history, not just the time of Israel and Judah.

It pertains as much to us today as it did to them back then. And as I say, even more so because, you know, what happened to them, God says in 1 Corinthians 10, are examples for those of us upon whom the ends of the earth have come, that we don't make the same mistakes that ancient Israel did or ancient Judah. And of course, our nation, there's no turning around for that, but it pertains to us too, that we don't allow ourselves to become enamored with the ways of the world or turn back to them and forget, you know, the admonition to draw closer and closer and closer to God.

And even more so as we see the day approaching, Paul says. Okay. Number 15. Brother Shaby. Yes, yeah, Savior. Number 15. Reading that verse right there in verse 16, when we glean from that, that those at this time, these men, know more than we would give them credit for knowing? Meaning the powerful... In Revelation 6? You know, when I read that? Yeah, it looks to me like they know. They know. They know more than they are just rejecting God.

They simply, they are so resistant to God that even though they know this isn't a natural thing, they're just going to not yield to Him. So, because that's a consistent theme through Revelation 2, through the trumpets. That says that later on in Revelation 9, I think. Even though they are in pain and scared to death and miserable, they will not turn to God. They have hardened their hearts against Him. Kind of like how the Pharisees and the other Jews knew that Jesus was the Messiah and instead of obeying Him, they killed Him.

Yeah. They hardened their hearts against Him, too. All the signs were there of the Messiah, of who He was, but they simply would not accept Him. It shows how hard our hearts can be if we allow that to happen. Yeah, the same thing happened to Pharaoh. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. He knew. He knew. One never yielded.

So, okay. I say the spelled word in 15, but why did Jerusalem stumble and Judah fall? One, B. Because their tongue and their doodlings were against God. Pretty much a general thing. They just talked against God. They didn't talk about the way of God, and they didn't do the way of God. Now, we have to do. It tells us that we can't just talk about it. We have to do it. We have to walk the walk and talk the talk. Right? You have to be of the heart.

Okay, 16. Who will be to blame for the problems that befall Judah and Israel? And if you were able to find, there's at least a couple places in chapter 3 that God specifically lays the blame, not on their enemies, but directly on Judah and Israel.

The leaders, the one who guides them, the misheal of them. Chapter 3. Just read it. Go ahead.

I see that I've got one written down wrong here. Verse 9. It says, "...to look on their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as sounds." So, you know, sometimes God says, and you may even notice that sometimes you can just look at someone. I'm talking more about on news media, right? When you see pictures of criminals, sometimes you just look at the person. You think, wow, if that person was walking toward me on the street, I would cross the street. They just have a look about them that looks not right. "...to look on their countenance witnesses against them, and they declare their sin as sound. They don't hide it, woe to their soul, for they have brought evil upon themselves." And you know, as you go through the Bible, you see that what God does is let He lets people. He gives us the chance to repent, but He also lets us reap what we sow. So, if we live a wrong lifestyle, if we continue in sin, we're going to pay the price for that. And then, we'll learn the lesson that nothing good ever comes from sin. Destruction, death, misery comes from sin. Joy, peace, and blessings come from obedience to God. It seems like an easy lesson to learn, but it isn't easy to say, but it's not so hard and not so easy to live. And then I have verse 11 here. Oh yeah, verse 11. Woe to the wicked. It shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him. So what do you reap? What do you sow? And so, people do it to themselves, just like Israel and Judah in ancient times. They're the ones who defeated themselves. They're the ones who turned from God, didn't heed any of the warnings that he gave them, and they fell and lost all their possessions that went into captivity. Same thing for us. If we don't heed God, we would lose the opportunity to eternal life if we turn against him. So, the repentance and the humility to recognize God's supremacy and living his way is huge. And as we move closer and closer, just looking at the stages of the world that we're in now, and where even with the Queen's death, these things that we're passing through, it seems like every month or two that are major shifts in the way the world is going to operate going forward. And the Queen's death, while things are pretty calm right now, and a few months go by, we have no idea what direction the world goes from here on out. We know what some of King Charles's, where his leanings were before. He's given speeches that indicate where his heart is. Today he says he's going to follow in the same vein of his mother, but he has ties to people who have a different view of the world and where the world should be headed than his mother did. And we'll just see where it is. But as these things happen in life, and I think it's notable that her death came right before these fall Holy Days, to keep us in focus of what it is and what the type of the time that we're moving into in this world that we live in now. It's a time unlike any other, and unique event after unique event after rare event keeps happening, all pointing in the same direction, and not a turn back to God or not to turn back to the way things were even three and four years ago, but always further and further and further away.

The latest development, I guess, is Putin's threat to actually use nuclear weapons. Yeah, I saw something about that. I saw a little headline pop through. Did he just say that today or something? Yeah, just a speech I think last night or earlier today. Oh, wow. Okay.

I also forced a draft of 300,000 Russians or something, too. I thought that was kind of terrifying.

What did he say again? I didn't hear that. Where's the draft? It's on the news. A draft of 300,000? Is that what you said, Thomas? No, no, before that. Oh, about Putin? He's not the threat to use nuclear weapons. Oh, yeah, his threat to use nuclear weapons. He's done that before. Who knows? One of these days he may do that. He keeps on doing that throughout the war and before the war. Yeah, this time he said that he's not bluffing. So he made the comment that he's not bluffing. And the fact that actually they're losing territory in Ukraine. So they may actually use tactical nuclear weapons. It all depends on when he gets sick of the war, right? Whatever purpose he has for that war is different than one would think. I was talking to someone who has ties over that area and they said, Americans just don't understand how people of that world, at that end of the world, they're not interested in gaining advantage of a country just for the resources that they have. They just want control. And that's what drives them. Control and power. And they don't care what shape it is. As long as they control, that's kind of the mindset over there, which is foreign to us. Foreign to us, right? Because we've grown up in a land that was never colonizing or never had that as part of our national mentality.

But apparently over there, it's just like the Middle East, right? We don't understand how those people think either that they can raise their children to think that they'll be blessed if they kill people and their enemies, namely the Jews and things like that. But it's a different world. And that's part of the problem we have is we don't think and we don't want to think like them. Although we may we'll need to understand some of that mentality as we move into the... Mr. Shaby? Yes, sir. I don't think we have to worry about nuclear weapons until the tribulation, because if one nuclear weapon went off, then a lot more would go off and then that would be World War III and World War III as a tribulation, correct? Right. Yeah. Yeah. You know, yeah. Although when people say I'm not bluffing, it puts them in a position, right? I mean, he might do something... He might take care of Ukraine just to show his power and strength that would put everyone on notice. But I do want to... Well, people are saying instead he might use like dirty bombs. He's got...

Yeah, he's got power he could use that he hasn't used yet. So that may be what he steps in. I've been frankly surprised he hasn't done that, but there's reasons. Mr. Shaby? Yes. Yeah, I said he's going to wrap up production too of other types of armaments, you know, when you get the factories working. More so, yeah, than before. Yeah, I don't watch the news as much up here as I did down there. I'm going to have to pay more attention to some of the details, not just the headlines on some of the stuff, I think. So to see what's going on. So...

Okay. Number 17. True or false? June fell to Assyria in 722 BC during Isaiah's lifetime. False. Not false. Now why is that false? It was the northern kingdom that fell to Assyria. It was Israel that fell in 722 BC, and that was during Isaiah's lifetime, and during the reign of King Agassus, apparently, as well. So...

Go ahead. Again, even remember, God gave that prophecy during that time of Isaiah, and said Assyria would fall. That Assyria would not conquer Judah. Whoops.

I don't think... I think... Yeah. That Judah wouldn't fall to Assyria, but Israel would. And then during Agassus' lifetime, Assyria did conquer Israel, but it didn't appease Agassus. He just kept on his resistance to God. So... When they tried to attack Judah, they got wiped out, actually. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, they marched through the cities, but Jerusalem... Jerusalem never fell. Right.

Okay. Number 18. Well, can we learn from God's depiction of Israel?

Shouldn't say garden there. Should say vineyard. As a vineyard that he planted and tended.

Or just... I mean, just a minute. One thing... Oh, go ahead. One thing would be that we need to grow God's way, not our own way. Yep. Yep. Good. Breakfast to growing. Good. Good lesson.

I think that toiling over something doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get the result that you expected. You could use your whole life's work and end up ruining the end in part. So, think I got to tie back to the race that we hear a lot. You know, don't lose it at the end. You may have this beautiful vineyard, then it's gone and you've lost it in just a couple days' time or a couple months' time.

So... Yep. In fact, that's one of the punishments, right? God says you'll plant the vineyard and someone else will reap the benefits of it and whatever, but... Yeah. But there's something about the vineyard. Remember, there was a graphic I put up and it showed a picture of everyone working together in the vineyard and everything and how... How that... How everyone worked together to have a successful vineyard and no matter what you're... Bare fruit. Go ahead, Fred. Bare fruit. Bare fruit. Yeah. Vineyards, bare fruit. And there's... Did you liken it? Mm-hmm. Go ahead. Did you liken it to Ephesians? Oh, sorry.

Go ahead, Ephesians. Oh, just about each member supplying what the body needs and doing its part. That's exactly right. Ephesians 4.16, a vineyard. But you gave me the hint. Yeah. And your kind of picture is that everyone works together, people aren't worried about, you know, who's the watchman, who's picking the grapes, who's in the wine press, who's doing tending the vines or whatever, and the owner is pleased because everyone works together to bring about a successful product. And so it's kind of a picture of God's people, you and me, just like the temple he's building, everyone has their part in the work of God and the temple that he's building.

And we don't look at each other and say, your job is less important. We all have the jobs God wants us to be in or the roles he wants us to play. And we do it well. We learn to work together. And as we please him, the temple gets built or the vineyard produces the fruit that it is the owner is very pleased with. Also, Brother Shaby, the question that God asks shows us that based on what he requires from his vineyard, he always gives his hundred percent.

He always does. Because he asks, what else could I have done? Because he didn't ask them to produce fruit until we turn our life. Yeah. He commands us to do that. He didn't command them to do that. So, but he says, what else could he have done? So, God always gives his hundred in whatever they do. There's no variable on them. The variables are on us. Very good. Very good. He gives us all the tools we need. It's up to us to use them, right?

Very good. Yeah, there's a lot of them. He puts down the features for his people and he wants them to obey him. Yes. He's the mind-dresser or husbandman as we were going through that. And we're here to please them. I mean, there's John 15 is a very good illustration of a vineyard and how God works with us. We learn a lot through those breaks and those analogies that, you know, that God gives us. Okay. Number 19. Number 19 talks about the woes that are there in chapter 5. Chapter 5 is a very interesting chapter because as you get past the first part, then he talks about the vineyard, then he'll talk about these curses, if you will, that men have.

And how many woes are there in chapter 5? Seven. Seven? Yeah. I wrote that in six. Let me take one, two, three, four... I thought I counted six. Five, six. Yeah, I see six unless I missed in circle one. Yeah, six. I have six. Yeah. Yeah, there's six, which is very ironic.

Yeah. The way of man, right? Yeah, the way of man, not the way of man. The first eight. Yeah. So when God says woe to, it means that there's a, you know, if you look up the Hebrew word, I've got the word curse written in my Bible there, that it means a curse on Israel because they do these things. And remember, as we went through these woes in chapter 5, we likened them to the world that we live in today. You know, people are apart from the land, right? Today, they'll join out of the house.

You got house after house after house, condominiums, apartments and everything. And Satan's way, we keep people separate from the land because when we work with the land, when we work the land, we get closer to God. I mean, even the mental health professionals are realizing for people to have peace and feel, well, they need to spend time in nature. They need to go out and they need to connect with the earth.

You talk about intoxication, you talk about, you know, all these things. We don't have to go through all those again. But as you think of chapter 5, you go back and you look at those things that we see so evident in the world around us. Right. I think that you mentioned, what are those who are wise in their own eyes?

What are those who call evil good and good evil? We certainly live in a time like now. Mr. Shavey? Yes. There's actually eight woes. If you look at Matthew, there's only six in Luke, however. Okay. I'm talking about an Isaiah 5. No, you're talking about those woes? Yeah. In Isaiah 5, the woes that are listed there. Oh, I thought you talked about the woes, about the criticisms by Jesus against scribes and Pharisees.

Oh, no, no, no. We're in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 5. Alright. Yep. There's seven. Alright. I think there are seven woes as well. Okay. There's actually two, Matthew and verse 22. 22? Let's see. Yeah, you have one verse 8, another verse 11, and another verse 18, 20, 21, and two and 22. Yeah. The two and 22 refer to the same thing about drinking. Yeah, you're right. Technically, there are seven woes, Matthew.

In 22, there's only one. They have one in italics. Oh, do they? Yes. Yeah, 22, there's only one. So, I don't want them to drink, and men of strength to mingle strong drinks. So, it's speaking of the same thing, but two parts of the same thing. Yeah, okay. Okay. So, anyway, remember chapter five, because there's some notable things in there about our, you know, the life we live today.

You can go back and look at life in America, Brittany, the English-speaking countries, and you can see those things in chapter five that are alive and well in our society today as they were back in Israel back then. So, the same thing that would befall Israel then would befall us now. So, there are curses about Israel then, and woes on modern-day Israel now. Okay, what nation was the most feared during Isaiah's time?

Syria. Syria, yeah. Yeah, Syria. They were a cruel nation. No one wanted to say anything, you know, didn't want to see them anywhere near them. And then, remember, we talked about modern-day Assyria as well. I don't have any questions on that, but, again, as ancient Israel fell to Assyria, we do see prophecies that in that day Israel will fall to Assyria again.

Remember, we talked about who modern-day Assyria may be. We don't know exactly and couldn't say it, you know, for absolutely sure. We threw up map, then we threw up some secular ideas of where the Assyrian people of old migrated out of their original area into some of the northern European, northern Mediterranean areas as well. So modern-day Assyria, modern-day Assyria, you know, would be the one who would punish an evil Israel again. Okay, number 21. What three-word phrase does God use in Isaiah to let us know if Isaiah is prophesying about a time yet ahead of us?

In that day? Yeah, what we see in that day, stop and think. Oh, this is talking about a time ahead of us, okay? Almost everywhere in the Bible you do that, you'll see. This is something that's talking almost all the time about a time ahead of us in the end times. A dual prophecy, we talked about...

where are we on time? Let me speed up here a little bit. What is a dual prophecy? We talked about that a little bit. What's the one thing? Yep. Prophecy that's been fulfilled in one case in ancient times, but it's also for us today as we go through the same... modern-day Israel makes the same mistakes that ancient Israel did, right? Mr. Shaby? Yeah, this is Ted Rudd again. I was just reading in Isaiah where he's talking about in there where... starting in verse 19 of verse 5 says, people are going to say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work that we may see it, and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it.

And this is pretty much what Peter states in 2 Peter chapter 3, in which he prophesies... people start asking, Where's the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continuously were from the beginnings of creation. And this is again, this is a lot like I think the biggest problem going on in the United States today. The United States has survived one trial after another and had problems.

And so people today think that if you speak to them, I tell you that regardless of how bad things get, we'll survive it and we'll go on. And when you talk to them, you need to consider God. And people will tell you, Well, we don't know about God. We've gotten away with what we've gotten away with so far. And there hasn't been any real judgment or any real problems that goes with it.

So people look at and mentions that they asked the question, Where is the promise of his coming? Yeah, exactly. The same things they were saying back then, people are saying today. And there's a lot of people that when they hear about the second coming of Christ, that's exactly the attitude they have. Prove it to me, right? We've been hearing about that forever.

Okay, where were we? Number 23. Was the birth of the Messiah and the second coming of the Messiah both prophesied in these opening chapters of Isaiah? The answer is yes. I say it nine. Someone pointed out verse seven, which talks about the second coming of Christ also. And also in chapter 11, right? The chapter 11 talks about that as well. Chapter 11, the first few verses talk about the spirit that is on Christ. And verses four and five, it talks about the righteousness. He will strike the earth with the rot of his mouth, with the breath of his lips, he shall slay the wicked.

His righteousness shall be the belt of his loins, and faithfulness the belt of his waist. He speaks of the returning Jesus Christ. So yes, they didn't understand that back in Isaiah's time. On this side of Jesus Christ, we understand these prophecies more than the people back then did because the prophecies of Christ of his birth have already been fulfilled. Briefly, anyone remember about there was a prophecy in Isaiah that talked about Christ being born in Galilee?

Why was it notable that he was going to be born in Galilee? And why would that be? Why would God have specifically mentioned that and that Christ was born in that region of Galilee? So, should we say he was born in Galilee or that he resided in Galilee? Because we know he was born in Bethlehem. Born in Bethlehem. Well, it came from Galilee, right? Yes. It wasn't a notable area. Yeah. It was kind of a... Yeah. It wasn't the type of thing that you would expect the king to come from, right?

So, when the Pharisees and all the people were thinking about the king being born, like, remember Nathan Nathaniel, when Christ was calling him to be an apostle, said, what good comes out of Nazareth, right? So, that was kind of like... So, here we have, you know, a light shining in Galilee. So, that's one of the prophecies of the Maya of Siah that are there in Isaiah that was fulfilled, exactly as God said.

Number 25, the hook of Isaiah prophesies the Messiah's... Isaiah prophesies the Messiah's lineage? True or false? True. Okay. Anyone have a chapter and verse on that? I say Isaiah 11, verse 1. We love it. Verse 1. Exactly. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, where he was coming. He would be through David's lineage. Yes. Okay. Well, God completely... Number 26, would God completely destroy his people for their sins and for turning from not them, from him? No. You'll have a remnant. You will be the remnant. How much is the remnant? What chapter do we read that in? 613. Yep. Isaiah 613. Very good. Okay.

And this is too... I gave a sermon on this last week. You can listen to that more. Isaiah 9, we talked about those more warnings. In Isaiah 9, where God says, all these things happen, and yet his hand is stretched out still. And there's a warning. There's him removing blessings. He is laying waste of the land. People turning against each other. And he talks about these unrighteous decrees that people will give. Again, when you look at what's going on, which in chapter 9, it's a picture of what has happening in our world today. You can go through it piece by piece. If you have the time, listen to that.

And we talk about some of those things where we see chapter 9 in our face today as we head toward the time of trouble and the time leading up to the Feast of Trumpets. But let me go through that. Yeah. Yes. Did they get that sermon put up yet?

Because every time I checked, it wasn't up yet. It's up now. In fact, we've got a new not a yeah, it's at the UCG website. There's also a website. What is it? YouTube.com slash UCG sermons that it's on now, too. So we've what's that again? Called YouTube.com slash UCG sermons.

And we've kind of resurrected that it's been laying dormant there for a year. So they're going to start posting some things there as well. So oh, good.

OK, number. OK, what is God's ultimate goal? He punishes Israel and Judah. What is his ultimate goal? What does he want from Israel and Judah or for you and from you and me as we would give us trials and tests? Repent and turn. Yeah, right. Repent and turn to him. That's always what God is. Well, as he just wants everyone turned back to him. He wants to bless. He wants to provide. But we have to give our hearts to him and do the things that he would have us do. In Chapter 11, I'm trying to rush. I get you off of here by 830. I don't want to keep anyone overtime. In Chapter 11, we see some of the elements of the Holy Spirit, right? The Spirit that was on Jesus Christ, the same spirit that he gives you and me. Some of those things are listed. Anyone want to just call out a few of those that are there? Wisdom and understanding. Correct. Counsel and might. Knowledge and fear of the Lord. Yeah, that's a big one, right? Fear of the Lord. Wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord and the fear of the Lord will help keep us from sin if we have that proper fear of the Lord.

Righteousness is mentioned there. Justice is mentioned there as well. So all those things, God gives us his Spirit. His Spirit leads us when we use it and we allow it to become part of us. It will direct our thinking. We will be more and more like Christ and less and less like we used to.

We have to practice it, though. We have to use the self-control that God gives us the power to do to stop thinking or stop doing the things we used to do and start doing them God's way. You will begin to see your self-thinking the way God thinks and Jesus Christ thinks.

Number 31. True or false, the Bible does not show that God uses Gentiles to punish his people. He in fact does. He used Syria to punish Israel. The inferences, when we look at the dual prophecies, Syria will punish Israel again as they turn from God. In chapter 11, when Christ comes down in verse 10, it starts, and in that day there shall be a root of Jesse. Bring back up to Christ in chapter 1. Three things are mentioned in that chapter, the returning Jesus Christ, that will happen as a result of him returning. Anyone remember the first one? It's there in verse 10. Righteous judgment? No. Well, I mean, yes, righteous judgment is one. But it first, yeah, you look at verse 10, right, it says, The Gentiles shall seek him. He will be a God of the Gentiles of all peoples, not just Israel. He died for all of mankind, but the Gentiles will seek him that time. So when you read those verses, those millennial verses in Isaiah 2, about, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, it's not just Israel or Judah. It's all nations, right? All the Gentiles will seek him in that day. Satan will be bound, the influence, his influence gone, and people will be free to worship God and seek his will. And as they live it, they will experience what you and I should be experiencing, joy, peace, and a commitment to it because we don't want to turn back to the way we lived before. We want, we want, can't even imagine turning back and looking to anything else but the way of God's way of life as we live it. So the other thing that they'll look for is, you know, he will bring back his people Israel to the Promised Land. They will have been scattered, they will have been scattered, and they will have been taken captive as they lose their lands, as they're conquered. And he says he'll bring them all back to Israel. And it also says down there in verses 15 and 16 that, and 17, that Israel then will be able to plunder, plunder the people who took them captive. It draws the analogy of how it was at the time of Egypt. You know, Egypt oppressed them for years, and then Egypt, when they were, or Israel, when they were set free, plundered the Egyptians. And God took them to the Promised Land. This time, too, when God brings them back to the Promised Land, they will plunder, plunder their captors and their oppressors as well. I also had animals and matures. I'm sorry. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. Yeah. Back there, too. Animals, matures will be changed. Yes.

Yeah. There will be nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. Right? And that includes the animals, which is a beautiful thing. So, okay. Has ancient Israel, defeated by Assyria and carried away captive, ever returned to the Promised Land? Israel, no. Israel, no. So, why then did God say the second time in Isaiah 11, 11, I will recover the remnant of his people who are left, set his hand against the Second Kingdom? First Kingdom. Yeah. The first one was, the first return to the Promised Land was, or to their kingdom was who? Judah, right? Judah. Seventy years after that captivity, God allowed them to go back to rebuild the temple. Yeah, they came from Babylon. Yep. Okay. Telling verses, and actually quite inspiring verses and puts it all right where it needs to be. In Isaiah 10, well, verse 34, in the coming time of doom and all the things that are going to go on in the world, where will you be able to turn for salvation? For removal, but there's a word. Yeah, only to God, right? In Isaiah 10, verse 3, it puts it beautifully. As he goes through these judgments, if you will, on Israel, and Judah, and it says, his hand is stretched out still. They just don't listen. No matter if you've got all the warnings, and all these things are happening, and they're just not paying attention. In a verse 3 of chapter 10, he says, What will you do in the day of punishment and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Now, where will you leave your glory? There's nowhere to turn. When all these things are happening, you're not going to... You know, everything in the world is going to disappear. Everything in the world is going to be brought down. It's going to be nothing. Everything that we trust in today, every single God that we have, God will diminish until there's no one left except him for us to turn to. So he says it very poignantly in chapter 10, verses 3 and 8. Where will you turn? There's only one place, and that's to God for salvation. He is the only way to salvation, as the Bible clearly says. And we would do well to heed that and be looking to him and developing that absolute trust and that absolute faith in him today, as we march toward the time of the end, when there really will be no choice. Because today, we still are not completely... none of us completely 100% have faith in God. But we will get there as we let God do that.

Okay. Why study prophecy? What is prophecy? You know what God has planned. Yeah, yeah. Fulfilled prophecy shows us... To build faith to make us stronger. Yes, the faith, because we see the fulfilled prophecy, we know everything in the Bible that has... that should have been fulfilled is there.

And the church used to say, and we'll say it again today, right? If there's any case where you ever find that a prophecy hasn't been fulfilled, that that should have been fulfilled, or wasn't fulfilled the way the Bible said, let us know. Because prophecy is one of the proofs of the Bible, and that this is God's Word of truth. And because of that, we have faith in God. We trust in the promises and the prophecies that he has put there for the end times and the return of Jesus Christ.

Prophecy should also inspire us, right? We know who God is. We know that he is our God, and we follow him. And that his Son and too, he will provide and lead us to where he wants us to be. True or false, the people of Judah saw some of the prophecies God gave Isaiah fulfilled in their day. True or false? Yes, they... He would have given us some of the prophecies. True. Yes, they did see some of the prophecies. Israel did fall to Assyria during that time of Isaiah and King Ahaz. Remember, there was a birth of a son, one of the sons of Ahaz, of Isaiah. And he had the name, and then the baby was born, and that was his name. And his name he had a prophecy, and that they will spoil and spoil again. And the name of that child was a prophecy, so they saw that as well. And then the rest of the prophecies in Isaiah, the first four tractors, those that were not fulfilled before Isaiah's death, have not yet been fulfilled. Aren't fulfilled before Isaiah's death? Have any been fulfilled since then? I have a trick question, but think about it. It's false, because there were the prophecies of the Messiah's birth, right? And every single one of those prophecies came true. Every single one of the, as the scholars who study these things, they have the 300-some prophecies of the Messiah. Every single one of them came true exactly as the Bible says. So the answer to that. And just this is a theory, no one knows for absolute sure. Anyone remember how Isaiah died? He was cutting half. Can you imagine that? Remember what king it says the theory says did that? Vanassa. And evil king Vanassa. But it wasn't the hollow of a tree, and then as he stood there in that tree, bound, they'd take a chainsaw. That would have been more merciful than they did, but sawing that tree in two is what the legend or theory says. So he gave his life, he gave his life for God. If indeed that is true, but in Hebrews 11, it does talk about people sawing in two, and that's what they believe it was Isaiah who that happened to. He went back in Hebrews 11, didn't he? I know. If that was the question, I missed it.

Okay. I know we went through some of that pretty quickly. Any questions or any further discussion on any of that or anything that anyone wants to talk about? Don't you think God, I'd like to think you would have protected Isaiah from that pain, the pain that he, in some way, that he shielded him if he indeed died that way? No. Instead of love and mercy.

Yeah, I hear what you're saying. I would like to think that too. But Isaiah, you know, he didn't waver, he didn't in waver. He's stood right through it all. But we know as Stephen, he did. He saw Christ stand up, Stephen. So if there was more things that went on that were not recorded. Yep. And that gave Stephen, when he knew that he was doing God's will, now it was God's will for that to happen, it gave him the strength to go on, right? Just like Christ said, for the joy set before him, he was willing to endure the pain. You know, he suffered. He felt all that. God didn't spare him the pain and suffering. But with his eyes on God and his eyes on the future of where he was going and what God had in store, he was able to see that through. And so will we. If we hone that vision in our hearts and our minds now. I don't know if he lessened the pain of people, because with Paul, he was constantly stoned. And at one point, he had stoned so hard that he just collapsed and was on the ground and almost basically dead. And then they said, are you okay? Or something like that. And then he woke up. So that sounds like pain to me. I don't think I'm in consolation rather than... These are good points. I'm sorry, Xavier. Mr. Shave... Oh, sorry. Now let's go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Talk to someone. Xavier, go ahead. Oh, sure. Sure. I was saying, instead of a pain killer, it's more like he gave them consolation, even though they felt all that pain. They were comforted in the fact that they knew that God is faithful and true and that he is not forsaken. And he will bring them to the first resurrection. Consolation rather than opiate. Remember, there's diversity. That's a great way of putting it. Thank you.

Remember in Hebrews 10, it says Christ was made perfect through his suffering. So there is a benefit to suffering and being able to endure it and keeping your eyes on God and not yielding to the pain. Also, they're trying to give Jesus the pain medication to soothe himself and he didn't take it. He wanted to suffer. He wanted to feel. Yeah. Can I say something, Mr. Satan? Yeah, is that Florida? Yeah. Yeah. You know how Jesus says, if they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you. And the same with Abraham. He was obedient to death. He was going to almost kill his son, but God stopped him. And we all have suffered losses. So, you know, the suffering is the tribulation is going to be to all of us. Maybe people think we're going to be spared, but we have to go through until we completely repent of everything that we have done. I agree. Too many people think that God is going to, and he may, right? We don't know exactly when, but too many people think that God will keep us from all pain and suffering. And that you don't really see that in the Bible when you look at it. And there is, you know, there is faith that is built through. Right. We build character when we suffer. Yeah. I just put other things. Yeah. Is that is that Stephanie or is that Mr. Bissessar? This is Mr. Bissessar. Okay, very good. Okay. I'm thinking about Isaiah 43, where it says, When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned. So we know in the past, some Christians were burned at the stake, and who knows God could have removed the pain from them while they were burning. Yeah. And then you have the examples of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, right? They walked through the water. They didn't even get singed a little. Right. Yes. But they had faith. They had faith, and God spared them in that way. Okay. Anything else, anyone? Okay. Well, I get to say something tonight that I haven't been able to say for a long time. So we will see those of you in Jacksonville, this habit, we are looking forward to. I think Sabbath services are at 11 o'clock. And then in Orlando, we'll be with you on Trumpets in Orlando. We'll be there all day in Orlando, but I think we're doing the YouTube.com or the Orlando YouTube channel for Sabbath and Trumpets' Afternoons. So we are looking forward to seeing everyone down there. Okay. You're in Jacksonville? We'll be in Jacksonville on Sabbath in Orlando on Trumpets. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I think with with Atonement, not Atonement, Trumpets being Monday, I think we will not have a Bible study next week. I've got I've got several sermons that have to be prepared and some other things that have to be done next week. So I think we won't. This is a good stopping place for Isaiah 12. But I don't I don't want you guys to forget about the Bible study because the next week is Trumpets and the next week we're going to be at at Tabernacles. So it may it'll be like a month before we're back together again. But don't forget the Bible study. Okay, we'll get together and we'll do Isaiah 13 after the Feast of Tabernacles, if that's okay. Is that okay with everyone? Yeah, that's good to me. I can catch up on the two studies I missed. And if you missed any of them, you want to listen to them. They're all there at Orlando.ucg.org. If you if you just sign up and all you have to do is put your username and password in there and then you can get into it. So, okay. Thank you. Okay, everyone. Take care. Thank you. We'll look forward to seeing you someday here over the weekend. The rest of you have a wonderful day. Thanks, everyone. Yeah, wonderful days, wonderful everything, and we'll see you in a few weeks. Thank you. Bye. Farewell, everybody. Bye. Bye. Bye. Did you see me popping the side off?