Bible Study: September 6, 2023

So tonight—get myself back to Isaiah 50 here—we'll see how far through chapter 51 we get.

As we look into chapter 50, there are some interesting things at the beginning of chapter 50 that I have a feeling we'll spend a little bit of time discussing, and we'll let God bring us to the understanding we have. But one thing is we've been going through these chapters. It seems like every week I refer us back to Isaiah 40, this whole section of Isaiah that we're in, and how God is talking.

It's like Jesus Christ has returned to earth, and he is working with the people to prove he is God. We've talked many times about how he comes back to that they will know I am God. And he says, you know, no more idols. We talked about how then we moved a chapter or two ago into him talking about his name and not taking his name in vain. But as we're in this Holy Day season, as I've been thinking about these chapters, Jesus Christ returns at the seventh trump.

And then you have this period of time after Jesus Christ returns between then and the day of atonement when Satan is bound, and then the Feast of Tabernacles that pictures the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. And as we're going through these chapters, it kind of occurs to me that we have this group of people who lives over into the kingdom.

They come from all nations, tongues, and backgrounds and beliefs. And it's like Jesus Christ is talking to them at that time. There will be that period where he will tell the people who live over into the kingdom and prove to them he is the Savior. He is God. There is no other God, no God that they ever worshiped, whether it be an idol carved out of wood or stone or silver or gold or any idol that may be in the world, but that he will be proving to them that he is God.

That will be perhaps the first step. And as we're reading through these chapters, as we're in this period of time before the Feast of Trumpets, we can look at that and think, yes, God is proving. Later on, of course, in the millennium everyone will know he is God. But we may be in that period of time because we will come to the point later. For instance, in chapter 55, he talks about all those who thirst come. And oftentimes in the Feast of Tabernacles when we get to the seventh day, the last day, and we talk about John 7, 37, we'll refer back to Isaiah 55.

So we may be in the period where we're looking at the Holy Days and how things will progress as we go through the rest of the book of Isaiah. So as we come to chapter 50 here tonight, we've been through many chapters where over and over Christ says, I'm God, their salvation is only through me and through no other.

Your idols mean nothing. Follow me, trust in me. The only answer in life is to trust God and completely yield ourselves to Him. And then as we begin in chapter 50, I guess the other thing I would say too, as I've gone back and just kind of read through the chapters and forgotten about the chapter breaks, it's very, it lends a different, I guess, feel to it.

When you go back and maybe, you know, as we come on these chapters, read chapter 48 and 49 before we get to chapter 50 and into 51 because this is all one, this is all one prophecy or whatever we want to call it that God has given Isaiah.

He just wrote it all down. He didn't have the chapter breaks. Man has put these chapter breaks in so that we can find these verses. But as we continue in from the thoughts that we had last week, we come into chapter 50. And again, God begins chapter 50 with talking about Israel. Oops, let me get some people in here. Comes talking about some people, the people of Israel, and he opens chapter 50 that we're in where he says, where is the certificate of your mother's divorce whom I have put away?

And he begins this, you know, this certificate of divorce. You know, we hear Christ talk about certificate of divorce when he's on earth and he talks about how Moses allowed you to have certificates of divorce because of your hard hearts. And there was the provision, and he's referring back to Deuteronomy 24. So since Peter and Isaiah, and he's talking about a certificate of the divorce, let's just go back and see what he's referring to here from the Bible in Deuteronomy 24. And then verse 1, some light on my Bible here, 24 verse 1 says, when a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house. When she has departed from his house and goes and becomes another man's wife, so you see, when he writes her a certificate of divorce, she can go and she's free to marry again. If he says, I'm not pleased for you, and it doesn't define what reason, we can surmise, you know, one of the reasons that it would be, but if he finds some uncleanness in her, he can write her a certificate of divorce, she can go out, and God doesn't say she can't, it says when she has departed from his house and goes and becomes another man's wife, if the latter husband detests her, if he too writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if he dies, then he says in verse 4, then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled. For this is an abomination before the eternal, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. So it's an interesting set of scriptures there when God lays out what this certificate of divorce is and what it is. The woman was free to marry again if the husband found some uncleanness in her. And there's that certificate of divorce. So when God, when we're in chapter 50, and as God, one who is Jesus Christ, is speaking to Israel here in this verse, he says, where is the certificate of your mother's divorce whom I have put away? Where is it? Do you have that certificate of divorce? Did I divorce her? Now there's some other places we can look at because here God's giving the analogy he married Israel. He is their husband. So let's go forward to Jeremiah and just kind of put some of these things together that run through these prophecies and through the Old Testament.

In Jeremiah 3 and verse 1. I don't know if I'm going to read all the way down to verse 16, but I'm going to get down to verse 16. Verse 1, it says, they say, if a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's, may he return to her again? Wouldn't that land be greatly polluted? That's just what we read in Deuteronomy 24. But you, God says, have played the harlot with many lovers, yet returned to me. So he's comparing the unfaithful physical wife to Israel. Remember that Israel made a covenant with God. God made a covenant with him that he would be their God and they would be his people if they would do everything he commanded at Mount Sinai when they felt the power of God and when they were in awe of him and told Moses, you speak, they said, everything you tell us, everything you command, we will do. They made that covenant with him, but then what did they do? They broke that covenant over and over and over again. So God did find uncleanness in Israel. He could have given them a certificate of divorce. That's what he's asking in chapter 50. In verse 2, he goes on and kind of lays out the case of while Israel has been, lift up your eyes to the desolate heights and see where have you not lain with men by the road you have set for them like an Arabian in the wilderness and you have polluted the land with your harlot trees and your wickedness. Therefore, he says, the showers have been withheld and there has been no latter rain. You have had a heartless forehead. You refuse to be ashamed. Will you not from this time cry to me, my father, you are the guide of my youth? You remain angry forever. Will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done evil things as you were able. So, you know, God lays out the case. You cheated on me, you know, if we put in the modern vernacular. We see that same thing in Revelation as we talked about Babylon, the mystery religion, the mother of harlots, the mother of abominations, and how people depart from God and how they have other lovers that they defile themselves with. So, then God talks to Josiah, the king baron, he says in verse 6, have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? They were given into captivity. They fell to the Assyrian powers that be, and they never have been brought back to their promised land. They were just scattered, and they have been scattered all over the earth, those northern ten tribes of Israel. So, the Lord, the Eternal said to Josiah, have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She's gone up in every high mountain under every green tree, and there played the harlot. She's worshipped all these gods of the nations around her. If there was a god out there, she fell prey to it, and she bowed herself to it. And I said after she had done all these things, okay, come back to me. Come back to me. Just go ahead. I see what you've done, but come back to me. But she didn't return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. So, we know about the split in the house of Israel, the northern ten tribes. Israel went into captivity. Judah didn't. They eventually fell to Babylon. Remember, God did provide a way for them to come back after 70 years. That's a whole other study we could do. Anyway, so Judah, remember, Israel fell 100, 725, 140 years before Judah did. They should have learned their lesson. Israel departed from God, went into captivity, but Judah just did the same thing. I saw that in verse 8, for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce.

Oh, God gave Israel that those northern ten tribes, I gave her a certificate of divorce.

She hasn't come back. God did not give her—he divorced himself from her because of the way she behaved. I gave her a certificate of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah didn't fear, but she went and played the harlot also. It came to pass through her casual harlotry that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees, those idols that they would bow down to. And yet for all this, her treacherous sister Judah hasn't turned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense, only in pretense, God says. Maybe their words were there, but their heart wasn't with him. The same thing that we can do. We can talk to God and give him all the wonderful words, but he's really looking to see how we turn to him with our whole heart.

Judah may have given them the words, but it was just pretending. God can see through what our real motives are. So in verse 12, he says, you know, acknowledge your iniquity, come back to me. Verse 14, he says, return, O backsliding children, for I am married to you. Now he's saying this to Judah, I'm married to you. I will take you, one from the city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. And I will give you, and he does that right, I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. And it will come to pass when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days, that they will say no more, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore. It's an important verse because Israel looked to the Ark of the Covenant as that was the presence of the Lord. But in that day when God brings them back, He's still married to them, they won't be looking at the Ark, God's presence will be with them, just as God's presence is with us today. Well, we have His Spirit and we understand here in New Testament times of what He does. So we have in this chapter 3 here, the whole certificate of divorce.

He says He divorced Israel, but He didn't divorce Judah. After they went into captivity, after 70 years, they were allowed to come back. Of course, God said there will always be a remnant of Israel. He wouldn't completely destroy them. If we go back to Jeremiah 31, we see this marriage in verse 31.

It says, Behold, the days are coming, says the eternal, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them. He completely kept his part of the covenant, though I was a husband to them. But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days. I will put my law in their minds, write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Then it says, No more shall they, every man, teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me. This is clearly millennial. The whole world will be covered with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.

They will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. So, you know, we see this concept of marriage, how God looks at it, and marriage today, the covenant that we make with each other when we marry is, you know, we're told in Ephesians 5, it's a picture of the relationship with Christ in the church. We make a covenant with him, he makes a covenant with us. We are here to honor that covenant, and marriage, and the way we honor that covenant with our spouse is a picture of that.

We learn to grow, and we should learn in marriage, we learn how to become one, just like we learn how to become one with Jesus Christ. We work through the problems, we work through the issues that may come up in there with God's Holy Spirit, you know, he leads us to unity, and we have to remember that. God is always about unity, and we have to become peacemakers, as Jesus Christ said, to bring that unity about, and not allow the things of life.

If we're led by God's Holy Spirit, that's what we will desire. Let's turn back to Isaiah 54, because in Isaiah 54, just three chapters ahead of where we are today, God talks about this marriage situation. Again, chapter 54, verse 1, I'm going to read, and then I will drop down to verse 5. 54 verse 1, Sing, O barren, you who have not born, break forth into singing, and cry aloud, You who have not labored with child, for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman.

Dropping down to verse 5, God, again, speaking to Israel, remember what these chapters that were in, Jesus Christ, speaking to the people that live over into the millennium as he's teaching them who he is and what they trusted him before that has no meaning, your maker is your husband. The Lord of hosts is his name, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

He is called the God of the whole earth, for the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken, someone who's been put away, someone who's been left alone, for the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a youthful wife when you were refused.

And, you know, it was, you know, while God goes on, and it says, in verse 7, it says, So what God is saying is, I always, I always loved you. I always loved you. You turned from me. You're the one who commits harlotries. I am always faithful to you, and I may turn my face from you for a while so that you learn, you learn who I am, that I love you, and then I will take you back. And so, you know, as we as we put all of those things together that we've just read about marriage and divorce and how God is and what happened to Israel and Judah, and how he's dealing with physical Israel here as Jesus Christ is now back on earth, has returned, and he starts as, again, he's teaching them, continually teaching them who he is.

He's their Savior. He loves them. He rescued them. Their future is bright, but they have to learn, you know, who God is, and his spirit will be poured out on them. So I'm going back to chapter 15 and verse 1. It says, where is the certificate of your mother's divorce whom I have put away? And then he said, then he asks another question, or which of my creditors is it to whom I've sold you?

Well, you know, I could have sold you, he said, and that's another one of those principles from the Old Testament. Just spend a minute on that. I think the best example of it, we could go back to Leviticus, where it's talked about, but in 2 Kings, there's a pretty good example of that, what Jesus Christ is talking about here. In 2 Kings 4 and verse 1, we have Elisha's story here about a widow and the miraculous, you know, oil that God gave her.

But in verse 4 and verse 1, it references this law that God, through Isaiah, is recording for us here. Or, yeah, 2 Kings 4 verse 1, He's got the right to do it. I owe him, I owe him, and so my sons are going to have to go into slavery. And what she's telling Elisha is, my husband did fear God. He did do what's right. What am I going to do? And then, of course, the oil that never runs out. So that's what God is saying here.

I know, did I sell you into slavery? And he answers the question. He answers the question. He says, going on in that very same verse, back in chapter 50 of Isaiah, verse 1, Was it me? He says. No, it was you. For your iniquities, you have sold yourselves. You did it to yourselves. You brought upon yourself all the things that you suffered. And for your transgressions, your mother has been put away. For all your transgressions, your mother has been put away.

So that begs the question, who is your mother? And that's an interesting, interesting question.

I had to ponder that one myself, and I looked into many commentaries. And actually, our UCG Bible commentary says this. Again, remember, we're talking about physical Israel here, and not spiritual Israel. This is dealing with physical Israel, who God is talking to, Christ is talking to, as he comes to earth. This is says, I'll just read what our commentary says. That makes the most sense and takes it directly from the Bible. He says, your mother refers to Jerusalem, more specifically, the inhabitants of the preceding generation that had gone into exile. So he's saying, you know, you came it. Your generation before you that went into exile, it's Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the key word there. This is important, it says, to recognize. While God had divorced the northern kingdom of Israel, he maintains his covenant with the mother of all Israel. That is Zion, or Jerusalem, the center of his true worship, and the faithful remnant it represented. So that it's an interesting thing to ponder, and you have to ponder it, if you haven't already. So, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the mother to what is being referred to here.

Now, this is physical Israel, and you may be thinking, well, there's verses in the New Testament that talk about the mother of us all as well. And indeed, there are. So let's just visit that for a moment, keeping in mind—and I'm going to keep up on the screen there—what the Bible commentary says.

And if we go back to Galatians 4—I should say forward to Galatians 4—we find this statement, Galatians 4, and we'll pick it up. Let's pick it up in verse 22 to get the whole context here.

Galatians 4 verse 22 says, For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman, that's Ishmael, the other by a free woman, that's Sarah. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh. We've talked about that. Ishmael was the firstborn of Abraham, but he was not the child of promise that God is talking about. It was Isaac who was the child of promise. He was of the bondwoman, was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman through promise. Now, we've talked about that. The children of promise, Isaac, and then Jacob, and and then Joseph. He of the free woman through promise. Which things are symbolic? Verse 24. For these are the two covenants, the one from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free. The Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. Jerusalem above, which is free, which is the mother of us all. And that's, you know, that's something you, I'm not sure I fully understand it, but God tells us who the mother of us is. The Jerusalem above us is free. And sometimes I hear, I think in the in the past, the church is taught, the church is the the church is the mother of us all. You don't see that. Jerusalem above, you know, if we go back to Hebrews 12, you know, we know that our citizenship is in heaven. And Hebrews 12, you know, talks about heaven above and Mount Zion, and we know we know that in the millennium time, millennial time, Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be the center of the earth. The people will look to Jerusalem. The law will go forth from Jerusalem. That's where that's where the whole world will look. In verse 22, it says here in Hebrews 12, you have come to Mount Zion to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels. And then it says to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven to God, the judge of all to the spirits of just men made perfect.

To Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. So we have some of these scriptures. Of course, we know that God loves Jerusalem. In Revelation, Jerusalem is a fixture. We, you know, it's a city under turmoil through all of it, but at the end of the book of Revelation, we have the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven where God will dwell with his people. So Jerusalem is prominent. Now we have the old Jerusalem of the Old Testament that is the mother that God is talking about. In the New Testament, we have Jerusalem above the mother of us all. And I think it's just something for us to contemplate.

I think just contemplate what that means. There are some things we may not fully understand, and I can't say I fully understand that now, but it has made me think a lot about it as we go through these chapters in Isaiah and tie it to what's going on in the future. What does God mean by that? And maybe someone on here, you know, has something that they want to mention about that or anything I'll pull down this sharing screen. But it is an interesting thing in chapter 50 that as we talk about the millennial time or the time when Jesus Christ is there, he draws this analogy, the certificate of divorce. You did it to yourselves, and for your transgressions, your mother has been put away. And then what does that mean in New Testament times?

So, okay, we'll leave it at that. Something for us to contemplate and ask God. When he's ready, we will fully understand what that means in everything and everything that it is. I know over the years and actually recently within the last couple weeks, I got an email from someone who listened to a sermon online, and they wrote me and they said, the minister said that the church is the mother of us all, and that is incorrect. And that's, you know, and but they didn't say anymore, but I knew what they were talking about because the Bible says Jerusalem above is the mother of us all. So anyway, just for us to contemplate. Let's go on with... Probably shaving. Yes, please. Xavier. Going back to the first, the first was a Deuteronomy 24, and then we'll go forward again.

In Deuteronomy 24, verse 1, Christina looked at the Hebrew, and it tells us what kind of uncleanness it is, because it has to do with the pudentah nerve in the anatomy of a woman.

So we'll leave that at that. Everybody hears an adult, but it has to do with the pudentah part of the body. Okay, so we know it's an uncleanness of that sort.

Jumping forward now to Jerusalem above, which is, as it says, is the mother of us all, and is it collagions or Ephesians? Ephesians, where Paul was inspired to say that our father before him, he bows his knees, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.

And then you just read in Hebrews where it says, where the just are registered.

Okay, we know certain nations. We'll use the example of the one that is always persecuted for trying to be natural. Russia. All their countrymen and women are registered here, and they call Russia what? Their mother. So in the example we have from the scripture, and what we see men trying to imitate is, we are registered in the city of our father.

It's his city, so we are the children of that city per se, not that it's a real mother, but we are registered there. Everyone who's on our father's side and Christ's side are registered there. This is exactly what it says in Hebrews 12, and that's where our citizenship is. Yes.

Now the next thing may be a little bit, not controversial, but in Romans chapter 7, Paul says, when our Lord died, he ended the marriage covenant with Israel, meaning all of Israel.

Because when someone dies, what happens? The covenant ends.

So in chapter 50, some people say, he's axing it in a rhetorical question. Like, you know I divorced you, right? But I haven't forsaken you, but I did give you a bill of divorce.

I mean, he's axing it, and they're like, oh, but he's like, yeah, I did. Because then in chapter 7 of Romans... Yeah, he does say that in Romans 7, you're right. But look at verse 16. Well, where is the certificate of your mother's divorce, whom I put away?

Yeah, I know. It's as if he's axing them a question, and they don't know really how to answer it.

We know that we have a covenant with him now, exactly. Yes, yes. And we are in a marriage relationship with him right now. That's what we are betrothed to. So, yes. Yeah, because, you know, otherwise he would still be married to somebody else and going to marry somebody again.

But he died and ended once, so he can... one where he can bring everybody in. Yep. Yeah, very good. It just takes a while to just process through all that, and what God is putting the whole Bible verses together. But the key is, it's Jerusalem above, and that is where our citizenship is, and where we belong today, and that's who we identify with. Dave Pramar. Yes, I was just going to say, to add on with what he was just saying, you know, I'd heard that before as well, that he gave Israel the certificate of divorce. Then he died. When he died, that freed him up from that marriage to Judah. So then that made it so that he was able to then marry his bride, the church, at his return. That marriage covenant was completely ended with Israel and with Judah. Very good. Very good. Those are very, very good thoughts helping us put it all together. So, very good.

Want to go on to verse 2? It's been a long time on verse 1. Well, we can go on to verse 2 then, if anything else. And certainly, think about it. Next week, we come back together. Other thoughts on that? You know, it's just an interesting thing as we look at how these things from Old to New Covenant play out. So, in verse 2 of Isaiah 50, then, God asks more questions. Why, when I came, was there no man?

Why, when I called, was there none to answer? How come no one stood up? You know, how come no one is set up? Where was everyone? You know, in Ezekiel 22, 30, it's like, where is the person who will stand in the gap? Who stands up for me? Everyone has just departed from me. No one is there to answer. God is asking that type question.

Why, when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened that I can't redeem? Did you think that I wasn't there? Did you think I wasn't capable? Did you think that I couldn't redeem you? Or that I wouldn't take you back? That I couldn't deliver you? Have I no power to deliver? Indeed, with my rebuke, I dry up the sea. So then he's showing his power again, like he did with Job, right?

Where were you when all these things happened, Job? Indeed, with my rebuke, I dry up the sea. I make the rivers of wilderness. Their fish stink because there's no water and they die of thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness and I make sackcloth they're covering. God is saying, I can do it all. Someone, no one stood up for me. No one said, trust in God. Rely on him. Turn back to him.

He's the answer to everything. Everyone just went the way of the wayward wife and the wayward, um, you know, the well, the wayward wife that he's talking about here. And then in verse 4, now there's a disparity here. In my Bible, you know, my Bible, whenever they, whenever it's talking about Jesus Christ, they have little stars by it, right? So in verses 5, 6, and 7 of my Bible, it's got little stars. And I've looked at it, I've looked at it, but I'm not, it may well be Jesus Christ he's talking about here, but I'm not so sure it's not Isaiah.

Remember, God is giving Isaiah this. And back in chapter, was it 30? You know, he says, write it down, write it down in his scroll for times to come. And so Isaiah is writing all this. God is giving him the words. And remember in Isaiah 6, when God calls Isaiah, he says, God says, I will, I will anoint your lips. Your lips will be there.

You take the message out. Isaiah says, well, how long? God says until, until the cities are desolate and all these things that we know the gospel, the message is there until the end of time. So then in verse 4, we got the word me in there, right? It says, the Lord of God has given me the tongue of the disciple. Now, it could mean Jesus Christ. My Bible has a capital M there.

The Lord God has given me the tongue of the disciple. We know Jesus Christ did say, the words I speak are not my words, they're God's words. God did give him disciples of Christ, as we talked about in our leadership. You know, they, they learn the Savior, they learn the truth, they learn, they emulate God, they yield to him. The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned.

The disciple could be Isaiah 2, right? That I should know how to speak. A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning. He awakens my ear to hear as the disciple. And that learned there really should be called disciple. You know, learning is great. Disciples is another step above that. You study the Master and how he is as well as the words that he says. So he says, you know, he awakens me every morning to hear as the disciple.

The Lord God, verse 5, has opened my ear and I wasn't rebellious and I didn't turn away. I listened to what he had to say to me. I mean, it's many times in the New Testament, Christ will just say, will you just listen? Will you just open your ears and hear what I have to say? The Lord God has opened my ear. Well, Jesus Christ was born with his Spirit. Again, my Bible is indicating this is Jesus Christ. It could well be. The Lord God has opened my ear and I wasn't rebellious. I didn't resist his word.

I did what he said. I listened to what he had to say, nor did I turn away. I gave my back to those who struck me. Certainly Christ did that, but Isaiah went through a lot of torture as well. You know, the legend has it that he was the one who was sawn in two when you read through Hebrews 11.

I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard. I didn't hide my face from shame and spitting. I preached the Word of God. I gave the words that God gave me. I didn't care what they did to me. Did all those things happen to Jesus Christ? Yes.

Did the prophets? Yes. Could he be talking about both? You know, there are just words to us. Isaiah did stand in the gap. Isaiah and the prophets, like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, they did do exactly what God asked them to do, and they just did what God did regardless of the effect it had on them. Verse 7 says, The Lord God will help me, therefore I won't be disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. And there, you know, that is exactly what God tells Ezekiel. Let's turn to Ezekiel 3.

Ezekiel 3, as God is calling Ezekiel in chapter 1, he gives them a vision of the throne. He sets that vision in Ezekiel, just like he gives us a vision that should inspire us and move us forward and know that it's God who's calling us and working us in Ezekiel 3 and verse 8.

As God is instructing Israel and telling him he will be with them, he says this. He goes, Behold, Ezekiel, I have made your face strong against their... Well, let me read verse 7. But the house of Israel, he says, will not listen to you. They're not going to listen to you, Ezekiel, because they will not listen to me. For all the house of Israel are imputent and hard-hearted. Now, remember at the time of Ezekiel, the house of Israel has already been in exile for 140 years. So it's clear this is a prophecy for end-time Israel, future Israel. All the house of Israel are imputent and hard-hearted. Behold, Ezekiel, I have made your face strong against their faces and your forehead strong against their foreheads. Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead. Don't be afraid of them.

Don't be dismayed at their looks, though they are, though they are, a rebellious house. So very similar words there in Ezekiel 3.8 that God says speaks here in chapter 50.

You know, I'll have set my face, or the writer here says, therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I won't be ashamed. I know that word, ashamed, shows up a lot.

I don't think any of us are ashamed of the truth that God has called us into, but as the world moves further and further away from God, and Pesos is outdated, antiquated, people of low width because we believe in the Bible rather than the modern-day theories and all the stuff that is espoused, there is going to be a time where we could feel ashamed of what we believe. Not that we would deny it, but that we might find ourselves feeling ashamed. In Luke 9, Christ addresses that. It's not the only time he uses the word, but in Luke 9 and verse 26, he talks about it in this passage here. We must deny ourselves and follow him.

We have to be willing to lose our lives, give up our past life to follow him. In verse 26, he says this, "...for whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory and in his Father's and of the holy angels." So if we're ashamed of him, he'll be ashamed of us. If we ever find ourselves being a little ashamed of what we believe, we want to sharpen our senses. We want to ask God for the spirit and the strength and to set our faces like flint, that we're not daunted and overcome and negatively affected by the world.

In Romans, Paul addresses this as well. In Romans 1, Romans 1 and verse 16.

Verse 15, he says, "...as much as in me," Romans 1, 15, "...I am ready to preach the gospel to you to you who are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek." I'm not ashamed. Don't ever be ashamed of God's word. If you feel that way, ask God. Ask God to not let you feel that way. Don't let society, friends, family, co-workers ever make you feel ashamed of what God has given us, the truth that he has given us. So, in verse, if we go back to Isaiah 50, then, we see some things here that Jesus Christ will be teaching the people that are gathered there together, just like he teaches us today. And we learn in verse 8, he goes on, goes on, and he says, "...he who is near," or, "...he is near," you know, speaking of God, "...he is near who justifies me." Well, God is near. He always, he never leaves us or forsakes us. He may not, he, we may not steal his, well, we should always feel his presence. He is near. He is near who justifies me. Always believe and know he's near and what we're, what we are enduring or what we're going through, he knows. It's for our benefit that we become stronger and more like him. He is near who justifies me. You can write down Psalm 145, verse 18, and Psalm 73, 27, and 28, if you want to go back and see where the Psalms talks about that as well. And he says, "...who will contend with me?" You know, who can stand against me? God is on my side. You know, Psalm 27, really the whole Psalm, I guess is verses 1 through 6 is what I have written down here. I won't take the time to read there. You can go that, but you know what those Psalms say. Who will contend with me? Let's stand together. Who is my adversary? God is there.

Who can stand against us if God is with us? Something for us always to remember. God is always there. We don't have to fear. Verse 9, surely the Lord God will help me.

Who is he who will condemn me? Who's going to do that? Do we yield to them? Or do we remember God is there and we stand up? Stand up for the truth when God gives us the opportunity. Who is he who will condemn me? And then he says, indeed, they will all grow old like a garment. They'll pass away.

They'll disappear. The moth will eat them up, just like moths eat up garments. So just stand, endure, have faith in God. Don't cave, but keep your eyes on him no matter what comes your way. Salvation is only in him. It never is in yielding to man or the threats or the fear that they will impose upon us in whatever manner that fear may come. And then in verse 10, he asks, who among you fears the Lord? The fear of the Lord, right? The fear of God. That is something that has to be at the foundation of all of us. We can't really please God if we don't have the fear of the Lord before our eyes. Even Jesus Christ in Isaiah 11 and verses 1 and 2, when you see the Spirit that God put in him, at the end is the spirit of the fear of the Lord.

Fear of the Lord is there because it has to be at the foundation. Without the fear of the Lord, there isn't wisdom. Without the fear of the Lord, it's the beginning of knowledge, the beginning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord helps keep us from sin when we have that reverent fear of God and we follow him and learn to follow him with all of our heart. Who among you fears the Lord? This is God speaking to you and me as well as the people then. Who obeys the voice of his servant? Who obeys Christ? Those who have his Holy Spirit will obey him wherever he goes. They follow whatever he says they will do. Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord.

Always look to God. Let him trust in the name of the Eternal and rely upon his God. That's always where to look. Always trust in him even when our natural mind might say, don't. Always trust in him and train ourselves to do that. Then in verse 11 he talks to the other people who don't look to God. They are looking to themselves, the sparks that they ignite. Not the sparks that God ignites, not the zeal of God that should be in our hearts. Look all you who kindle a fire, who encircle yourselves with sparks. Walk in the light of your fire. You can circle the word your, not God's fire, not what he gives us. But walk in the light of your fire and the sparks you have kindled.

Might make us think of Proverbs 14 and 12 that says, there is a way that seems right to a man. You kind of look to yourself and this is what I think I need to do. I'm going to look to my, I've got the answers here rather than relying on God and waiting for him and trusting in him and enduring. Walk in the light of your fire and the sparks you have kindled and this you will have from my hand. You shall lie down in torment. When you trust in yourself, when you take it upon yourselves, when you use your ideas rather than following God, this is the answer that it will be.

Learn to trust in God. So quite a short chapter there in chapter 50, but a very interesting, you know, chapter when you when you look at it, there's a lot in it, a lot to make us think. And some of God's plan is revealed in there, reminds us who we are, where our citizenship is, things that the people of Israel back in this time when Isaiah was writing this wouldn't really have understood what he was saying about it, but today we, you know, we know much more. Well, let me just pause there for a moment. We'll get into chapter 51. We won't get too far into it, but chapter 51 flows very nicely from chapter 50. You can kind of just almost read the chapter. When you have prefaced it with chapter 50, it goes right into it. You'll see in chapter 51, there's three times that God says, listen to me, listen to me. That means hear this. And we'll talk about this. After the three listens, listen to me's, there's three awake, awake, wake up, wake up, notice this. There's two of them in chapter 51, and then chapter 52 has an awake, awake as well. So we'll get into that, but are there any questions or comments or anything on chapter 50 before we move into 51? Mr. Shaby. Yes, hi Frank. One of the things that I've realized for a while, the Jews killed their own house. They killed their own Messiah, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, in their marriage to them, they killed their own husband. Oh, oh, husband. Yeah, you paid it out there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, is there anything specific in the Bible that goes into that?

I can't, I can't think of anything right off hand. So, but they killed it. More importantly, they killed the Messiah that they were waiting for, right? This is that they were waiting for him, and then they killed him. So yeah. Yeah. Okay, well, let's move into chapter 51 then.

There's the Listen to Me. When God says, Listen to Me, Jesus Christ would say, Listen to Me, and they didn't, we should. Listen to Me. Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness. That should be you and me, right? You who follow after righteousness, you who seek the eternal.

Look to the rock from which you were whom? What is that rock? We know upon which rock the church was built. 2 Corinthians 10, 4 says, That rock is Jesus Christ. You know, or look to the rock from which you were whom? Continue to look to Him. Salvation is in no other name except Jesus Christ. Righteousness, of course, is defined as you do what God says. You do the commandments, and you have them in your heart as well. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. God rescued us from death. He took us right out of the grave and gave us life when He called us and when we repented and turned to Him, and followed Him with our heart, mind, and soul led by His Spirit. Look to Abraham, your father. Right? He had complete faith. Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who bore you. For I called him alone and blessed him and increased him.

You know, we've talked about this before, but in Genesis 12, Abraham did whatever God said from nothing. You know, no son. God gave him Isaac, the child of promise, and nations came from him.

In Genesis 49, we have all those prophecies of the last days of the sons of Jacob, and how Ephraim was so fruitful, they just spilled over from earth, you know, all around the world, that God did that, from one man who obeyed God. Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who bore you. God is saying, remember what I've done. Know who I am as He reminds us so many times for I called him alone and blessed him and increased him. For the Lord will comfort Zion.

They're going to go through some tough times, but when we began this section, Isaiah 40, verse 1, you remember it said, comfort, comfort Zion, comfort Zion. We talked about that, the hope of comfort that comes from God. The Lord will comfort Zion. He will comfort all of her waste places.

You know, 2 Corinthians 1 and verses 1 through 3 there tells us that God is the God of all comfort.

When we need comforting, He's there. Going on to verse 3, He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in it. Thanksgiving and the voice of melody. We've read those millennial verses. We've read Isaiah 35. We read other chapters that talk about how wonderful it will be in the kingdom when everyone is living in unity and harmony and peace will be in the land. And the deserts will bloom. All those things, it'll be like a bear to the garden of Eden when people are living God's way and God blesses them for living His way just like He will bless us when we live His way today. So He says, Listen, that's the first listen to me. This is what I'm doing. You know it. This is what's going to happen. In verse 4, we see the second listen to me. Listen to me, my people. Give ear to me, O my nation, for law proceeds or will proceed from me, and I will make my justice rest as a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone forth in my arms. And when we read about my arms, we're going to see that here in a little bit as well. We're talking about God's arm. We're talking about His strength, the thing we rely on, the things that He does. The law goes forth from me. I will make my justice rest as a light to the peoples. Jesus Christ is the light to the world. My righteousness is near. His return is near. My salvation has gone forth. It's certain He is the salvation, and my arms will judge the peoples. The coastlands, we talked about the coastlands, the people with all that coastal territory among them, the Englands, the Americas, the New Zealand, the Australians. Where God talks about coastlands, it's usually about His people where they've been scattered. The coastlands will wait. They'll wait for me. And that's, if you remember a sermon from back, but I talked about hope or expectation, question mark, and and Hebrew number 6960, that's expecting. The coastlands are expecting me. They're waiting for me. They know it's certain.

It's certain that I'm going to come. The coastlands will wait upon me, and on my arm they will trust. They look to God. They're not looking to their own strength. They're not looking to their military.

It's in God. It's in God they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath. For the heavens, and here we have a here we have a post-millennial, right? After the millennial time, and we get into the eighth day, lift up your eyes to the heavens. Look on the earth beneath, for the heavens will vanish away like smoke. The earth will grow old like a garment, and those who dwell in it will die in like manner. Peter in 2 Peter 3 talks about the earth will melt away. God in Revelation 21-22, a new heaven, a new earth, come down to replace the physical earth when the purpose for it is gone, and it's complete, and the purpose for a physical man. All the mankind who will receive eternal life, it has been determined, and then the rest of eternity begins. My salvation, but my salvation will be forever. This is a physical planet, but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will not be abolished. It will last forever, and ever, and ever, ever, and ever, and ever. God is reminding us, telling them, you know, telling as it talks about him talking, then we have in verse 7 the next, listen to me.

Listen to me. You know, believe these things he's saying. Listen to me, you who know righteousness. You people in whose heart is my law. Don't fear the reproach of men. How many times did Jesus Christ say when he was on earth? The scholars who studied these things say he said that more often than any other thing. Not an exactly do not fear, but don't be afraid, don't be dismayed, and those type things.

You people in whose heart is my law don't fear the reproach of men. Don't be afraid of their insults. Have a face like flint. Stand up for God. Know who you believe in. Receive the love of the truth, and do those things, for the moth will eat them up like a garment. They'll die. They'll fade away, but you have in you eternal life if you will continue to obey God. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool. We just read that in Isaiah 50, but he repeats it here. But my righteousness, what you're living for, what you are putting in you, what you are making, when you put his truth, and it becomes you, my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation. So he gives us these very encouraging, remember this, listen to me, make it part of your being, make it part of your mind, put it in your heart, so that when times come, it's always there. It will see you through that faith and that trust and that reliance on God that we build now, that we learn not to doubt. And when even little things come our way, we don't get ashamed or we ask God, whoa, strengthen me in that area. I can't let that feeling be me. I have to be what you want me to be. And then, beginning in verse 9, we have the first of two in chapter 51. These awake, awake, these awake, awake things, the third one being in chapter 52 here, but in chapter 51. Verse 9, awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord.

God, look after us. Do what's doing. Awake, awake, God, awake, awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are you not the arm that cut Rahab apart? And that Rahab there is really Egypt. But just for the sake of time, I'm going to give you Isaiah 30 verse 7, where it talks about Egypt as Rahab, a Rahab sitting idle or something like that. So Isaiah interprets that, and you also can see that in... Wow, I wrote it in my Bible and I can't read it. It looks like Psalm 89... yeah, Psalm 89 10.

So that Rahab there is Egypt. So God... so He's... don't you remember? I delivered you from Egypt, aren't you the arm that cut Egypt apart and wounded the serpent? Didn't Christ come and... and... well, you know, the serpent He overcame Satan? Are you not the one who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep that made the depths of the sea a road for the redeemed to cross over? Didn't you do that? Didn't you deliver Israel through the Red Sea that they crossed over on dry land? Your might, your power, you can do all of these things. So the ransom to the eternal shall return and they will come to Zion with singing with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sign shall flee away. They will return from captivity that they were in in the end times when Christ returns back to the land that He promised them. And they will return with everlasting joy, not temporary, but everlasting joy forever and ever. They will obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and seeing will flee away just like it says in Revelation 21. Those days are passed. When people live by God's law, when people live by God's law, there is the joy that's there. There's the joy and the sorrow and the sign shall flee away. Verse 12. Let me look at my time here. Yeah, we started at like 705. Okay. I, even I, am He who comforts you, God says, who are afraid? Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die?

You don't have to turn to Luke 12. Let me read it though. Versus, you know, Luke 12 verses 4 and 5. Christ's words, He says, and I say to you, my friends, I say to you, my friends, don't be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear. Fear Him, who after He has killed has power to cast into hell. Yes, I say to you, fear Him. Fear Him. And that's what He's saying here in verse 12 of Isaiah 51. Are you, will you, are you going to be afraid of a man who will die? Are you going to throw away salvation? Are you going to throw away eternal life for a man who will die? Or will you trust in God and know that if you remain loyal to Him and true to Him, and even though you lose this life, the very next second of your consciousness, you will be born into the kingdom of God? You've got to have that eternity in your mind. Let me read verse 12 again. I am, I even I, am who comforts you. Will you be, who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die? And of the Son of a man who will be made like grass? Remember, we read those back in the Isaiah 40 somewhere. A man is like a fading flower. He's like the grass that fades away. And he uses that same analogy here. Are you going to be afraid of this man and forget the Lord your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? You have feared continually every day because you have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor when he has prepared to destroy. So he's saying, but you've been afraid of people, you've been afraid of mortal man, you haven't feared me. God says you don't, you're not keeping in mind what I, who I am, what I can do, the power I have to give life and to give it everlasting if you follow me and yield yourself to me. You've feared continually because of the fury of the oppressor when he is prepared to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, that he should not die in the pit. When he sees freedom coming, it's like, I'm out of here. I'm out of here when I have the chance to escape, that he should not die in the pit and that his bread should not fail. So this is, I'm here to deliver you, but I am the Lord your God, who divided the sea, whose waves roared. The Lord of hosts is his name, and I have put my words in your mouth. I have put my words in your mouth, right? God gave us his word. He gave Israel his word. We have his word. We're studying it right now. I have put my words in your mouth. I have covered you with the shadow of my hand. I've been there to protect, to lead, to guide you. I know what's going on every step of the way. I have covered you with the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, you are my people.

So let me pause there. We'll do the next two awakes. We'll do the next two awakes next week.

And again, as God is progressing, if you take the time before the next Bible, so read over Isaiah 50 and 51 again as we go into 52. And then we'll no doubt get into chapter 53. And near chapter 53, this is the chapter we read a lot of at Passover, where Jesus Christ the prophecy of how he will die and what he will suffer. And again, remember, this is being said to people who are learning about God, trust in him. I'm the true God. There are no other gods besides me. No graven images.

Everything you trusted in before has been destroyed. Zephaniah 2.11, I will bring the gods of earth to nothing. And God will do that and show he's God. And then we go into chapter 53, where the prophecy of the Messiah, look what he did for you. Look what he suffered. Look how, look at the salvation that came about by him. So let me stop there. We'll start with verse 17, next week. And I'll open up for any questions, comments, discussion on anything that anyone wants to talk about. So get my light straightened out here again. So okay.

I just wanted to say hello. Hey, Bobby. How are you doing?

Yeah, there's another Bobby online, too. So I'm going to say hi to the other Bobby. Good to see you online, too. So yeah, there's two of us. Yeah.

Yes. Oh, hey, bud. How are you doing?

There should mean stand in awesome respect. We shouldn't walk around, you know, and I think we all understand this, but I like it to be repeated at time. We should have a deep healthy respect of who and what God is, and his awesome power, and what he expects of us to be part of him, what he is. He is a God of principles and order. I like to put fear that way.

Sometimes I've heard young people say, yeah, you walk around in fear. Well, it's not fear. It's a healthy respect. You're exactly right. It is a very healthy respect and an awe of what God is, who he is, how merciful he's been for us, but also realizing life is in his hands, right? Then he shows us the way to life. So yeah, yeah, that's something we can never forget or just take for granted. We just need to always have the fear of God before our eyes. Hey, hey, Elusigan.

Yeah, Mr. Shaby, thank you very much. From Isaiah chapter 50, I would like us to glean a lesson on forgiveness from that chapter. We are God's children. We are God's people, and we should have the character of God, despite the fact that God said he gave the nation of Israel the certificate of divorce, yet he told them to return unto himself. He did not cast them. So we should have the character of God. I think we should take that lesson away from there. Yeah, you cut out a little bit there, but I hear what you're saying. Yes, you're exactly right. Okay, thank you.

Okay, good to see you, Elusigan. Hey, Reggie. Mr. Shaby, it's interesting, you know, and we just got to study Revelation 19, the Sabbath of the fourth month. And it's interesting that when Christ returned, He took about a feast of confidence, and He comes, and He takes His servants, all those that are dead, that have been resurrected, and those that are alive, so they're joined Christ in the earth.

And then there's going to be a wedding feast, a marriage of Christ to the church. So the church, today in the New Testament, it was spiritual or envy. And back in the Old Testament, it was mostly physical. Whenever Christ comes back and marries His church, there will be His bride, and then they will forever be with Him here on the earth to rule the nations.

Yep. We need to take some time, like I could tell you you've done, to just contemplate and put it all together and let God show us what the vision is, what's going on, and what we'll be part of. When we do that, you can't help but be in awe of God's plan and see the perfection of it, so kind of the beauty of it, and the love in it.

Hey, it's Becky. Hey, Becky. Hey, what did you say the Hebrew word for uncleanness meant?

Um, that was Xavier. Sorry.

Let me go back into the wife's phone.

I appreciate you doing that. I missed it. Thank you.

The word is Ervan, and it means, the number is 6172, and it means forgiveness, nudity, shame, and it's a medical term for a part of the anatomy of a woman.

Thank you.

Yeah, you're right. Okay, anything, um, anyone else?

Okay. Going once, 20 times.

Okay, okay, I'll let you go. It's uh, it's actually gotten dark here, so my room is dark, and outside my window is dark, so um, hey, great to be with you all tonight. I always, always enjoy being with everyone here, and uh, you know, we'll see some of you, the ones from Cincinnati this week, the rest of you, have a wonderful rest of the week in Sabbath, and we'll look forward to seeing you next Wednesday, okay? Thank you. Bye. Bye, anyway, kids.

Good night. Take care.