Bible Study: September 7, 2022

Okay, so last week we got through Isaiah 10 verse 23. As you recall, we've been to this series of first 12 chapters of Isaiah, are pretty much a prophecy on Israel and Judah, pertaining to ancient Israel and Judah. And as we're seeing here in these latter chapters we've been into, the prophecies are dual. And certainly tonight as we begin in the latter part of chapter 10, we're going to see that those prophecies are certainly talking about in the future. They haven't been fulfilled yet. But as we've gone through, we know that the primary players here in this is this King Ahaz, who was one of the ancient kings of Judah. Just a reminder of who he was. He was 100% against God. He didn't want to listen to God. God offered him any sign that Ahaz would want to have. He refused all of them. And so God in chapter 7 said, here's what's going to happen. You're going to be plagued by Syria, by the Kingdom, the House of Israel, by us, Syria, who's going to tempt you, and your people are going to be afraid. You're going to shrink back in terror. But the ultimate salvation of Judah would be the coming of the Messiah. And so in chapter 7, 8, 9, and we're going to see in chapter 11, the Messiah is mentioned. God talks about Assyria. Assyria, if you recall, is just a terrible nation. No one wanted to encounter Assyria on their borders. They were terrorists in the worst possible sense of the word, and everyone feared them. And so they did conquer Israel in 720 BC during the reign of King Ahaz. They threatened Judah, but they never did capture Jerusalem. And so as we were talking last week in chapter 10, as God goes through these punishments that are going to come upon Judah, because they will not yield to him and they'll not listen to him, you know, we see Assyria as the rod of God's anger. He talks about, you know, I'm the one who whistled for Assyria to come, and they are going to torment you. They're going to conquer Israel, which they did. And so God uses other nations to punish his people when they turn from him and don't pay attention to him. We saw that clearly, but then we saw Assyria do what nations of the world do, and maybe all of us would do because we're human nature. They become very prideful. So we saw Assyria being boasting about what they did and how they did it, how they conquered this city and that city. And there are no gods of any city around that could stand up against Assyria. So God is going to punish Assyria because of the pride they have. That's where we pretty much left it off last week as we came to verse 23. And then we pick it up in verse 24, continuing again with this prophecy of Assyria. In the beginning of verse 24, we're going to see the prophecy take us into the future. But let me read verse 23 again, because in it God reminds us whatever he says is going to happen. When he says a word, it is going to happen the way he says it. His word will not come back to him void.

Verse 23 says, for the Lord God of hosts, and I'm in chapter 10, for the Lord God of hosts will make a determined end in the midst of all the land. But look at verse 21 before that, it talks about the remnant. The remnant of Israel, the remnant of Judah that we talked about that was prophesied back in Isaiah 6 as well. The same remnant that is for the end time where God will not allow his people to be completely destroyed. But as the prophecy says, 10% will remain alive. The rest will die by famine, pestilence, and the sword. So in verse 24, God through Isaiah is speaking to the people, then it says, therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel, O my people who dwell in Zion, don't be afraid of the Assyrian. Even though wherever Assyria went, they conquered, God said they will not conquer Jerusalem. O my people who dwell in Zion, don't be afraid of the Assyrian. He shall strike you with a rod and lift up his staff against you in the manner of Egypt. So we know what the manner of Egypt was. I mean, the people did go into captivity. In Egypt, they did become slaves for hundreds of years.

And he says, Assyria is going to threaten you. You are going to be captive to them. He is talking about a future time because in the future time, it does talk about Israel and Judah being conquered, and they are being led off into captivity. We'll get to that in a little bit. Verse 25 says, For yet a very little while, and the indignation will cease, as will my anger in their destruction. So God says, Be patient, wait for me. I am telling you that I will deliver you from Assyria, a remnant will survive, but it is going to be complete. They will know that they have angered God. They will know that they have done evil in God's sight. The punishment will be complete, and then God will withdraw the Assyrians or punish them and withdraw them from the punishment they are inflicting on Israel. And the Lord of hosts will stir up a scourge for him, like the slaughter of Midian, at the rock of Ored, as his ride was on the sea, so he will be lifted up in the manner of Egypt. So I think we talked about Midian before. Do you remember the story of Midian? Who was the central figure when Israel conquered Midian? Anyone remember?

He said, Good evening. That would be Gideon. That would be Gideon, right. Yeah. And you remember how Gideon, if you go back and look in the book of Judges, it was God, completely God, winning that victory.

He came down to just an army of 300 people against the Midianite army, with the lanterns and the horns. The Midianite army pretty much turned on each other in panic, and again, killed each other, and Israel won the victory. So God says, you know, here's how it's going to happen with the Assyrians, as the Lord of hosts will stir up a scourge for him, like the slaughter of Midian. You know, God works in one way, and we read about it in the Bible, and sometimes you look at what God is doing and prophesies in the future, and you wonder, is he going to show, you know, for all those who doubted the Bible, this is what happens, this is what it is, people, I can do what I, the Bible was true. Here's the proof of what's going on. All those things you read about parting of the Red Sea, armies turning against each other, armies fleeing when there's no one pursuing them, Israel not having to lift a hand to do that, God delivering them, all those things that we read about that many in the world would just scoff at and say, you know, that's a nice story. Maybe we wonder how it happened, but perhaps we too will see, you know, exactly what the hand of God is and how he can deliver in ways that we can't even imagine. So the Lord of hosts will stir up a scourge for him, like the slaughter of Midian, at the rock of Orib, as his rod was on the sea, so he will lift it up in the manner of Egypt. Now, there's a few places that we can turn to here. Let us go to Isaiah 37.

Now we're going to find through the book of Isaiah that we come back to the king of Assyria.

We're going to see just how important and what a threat to God's people Assyria was as we go through the book of Assyria. He keeps coming back to Assyria, and that's how dreaded Assyria was back in that time. We're going to see in the prophecies that are dual, where we're looking ahead as we're going to here in a few verses in Isaiah 10, that God again talks about Assyria. As Assyria was a menace to Judah and Israel, Assyria will be a menace to Israel and Judah, you know, nations that bring us God, you know, in the future in the future as well. So in Isaiah 37 and in verse 36, get over there.

Oh yeah, we read this a couple of weeks again. Again, here's where God is saying, I will deliver you, you know, the angel of the Lord. You'll remember this from two weeks ago. The angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. And when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses all dead. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went away. He returned home. He remained at Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and it came to pass, you know, that as he went back there, his sons struck him, pretty much assassinated him, and then as they're heading, his son reigned in his place. So God did strike Assyria. And over and over, he says, the reason he struck Assyria is because of their pride. Whenever we see pride involved with people, God always says he will humble. And he means that for you and me too. As we look at ourselves, and sometimes we can get, we can get puffed up about things that we've done or think that we've done. You know, as God said about Assyria, everything Assyria thought they did, God allowed them to do. It was God who gave them the thought to invade Israel. It was God who gave them the means to be able to conquer Israel, and yet, and yet, their pride got away and they thought about them. Yeah, Xavier? Hi, Brother Shaby. From reading last week, and you just mentioned, we're reading here again, it's surprising, or I was trying to find the correct word, but either way, he mocked God shamefully, and then he went home and worshiped a false God after his defeat, and his son's murdering while he's worshiping that false God. Yeah, it's kind of our mind. And he mentioned all those false gods comparing him to God. Yep. And then he goes home and he dies in front of his. Again, and you have to wonder, was that lost on him as he was being? Whatever. The irony of it all, I guess when he's resurrected, maybe he'll realize. Look what I did and how foolish I was.

Okay, well, let's go on then in verse 20. Hold on just a minute.

Let me, I've got written down there Judges 7 verse 25. I'm sure that's talking about Midian and Gideon and the Rock of Oracoboreb. So if you want to mark that down in your Bible, you can look at that later. But let's go into verse 27 here. Again, we see that phrase in that day in verse 27, and then we're going to see it again a little bit later here. It shall come to pass in that day. Almost always when we hear, see the phrase in that day, it's talking about events that have not yet happened. It's talking about events right before the return of Jesus Christ or at the return of Jesus Christ. It was interesting to me as I was reading some of the commentaries, they will even acknowledge that. This prophecy has not yet occurred. It never occurred in the history of Israel or Judah and later on in chapter 11 as well. It shall come to pass in that day that His burden will be taken away from your shoulder. Now later on, in chapter 11, keep that word shoulder in your mind because we're going to come across that word shoulder again, I believe. Make sure it's not happening right here.

Okay, yeah. It'll come to pass in that day that His burden will be taken away from your shoulder and His yoke from your neck and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil. Now that's an interesting thing. Why? You know, who? Here's Assyria. They were a burden. I mean, we've talked about that. We can't underscore enough. They were a burden and it says, and His yoke from your neck and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil. What does the anointing oil have to do with anything? Anyone have an idea what that might be talking about there? You look and see what the Greek word for that's translated anointing oil, the new King James there, is.

Well, what it's talking about? What it's talking about actually is Jesus Christ because a better translation of anointing oil is the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointed. Who's the anointed one? It's Jesus Christ, the returning Jesus Christ. He will be the one to break the yoke off of Israel and Judah, the people, the physical peoples of God who have gone into captivity, have lost their lands, have lost everything because of their disobedience to God. As modern day Assyria, whoever that is, right, we talked about that a little bit last week, and talk about a little bit here again as we look at some maps and think about modern day Assyria conquering Israel again as God uses them again to punish a nation that goes further and further and further away from him. It will be Jesus Christ who breaks that yoke. Now we can look back in John 12 verse 3 and see what it's referring there. This is one of those fulfilled prophecies of the coming Messiah.

Through this series of chapters in Isaiah, we see some prophecies that are yet to occur, but we also see some prophecies of the coming Messiah that did occur during Jesus Christ's first coming. One of these is there in John 12. If I can get the John 12 here, it just keeps talking and not looking at what I'm doing. In John 12, we find one of the stories, and you find as you go through the Bible, when God has these incidents in the Bible, they're there for a reason. You can see things being tied together from one testament to another, or the Bible interpreting itself and seeing how prophecies are fulfilled. We look at John 12, we're going through the first few verses here, and a very familiar incident here, but it ties right back to what we're talking about here in Isaiah 10. It says, verse 1, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, who had been dead, whom he had raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him. And Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. So you have this incident there that is recorded in the Bible where Mary is anointing Jesus Christ with this very costly oil. But one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray Christ, said, Why was this fragrant oil not sold for 300 nenarii and given to the poor? This he said not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. He had the money box, and he used to take what was put in it. So it's like, she should have just put the money in the money box, and it was going to be for him.

Christ said these words, right? But Jesus said, Let her alone. She has kept this for the day of my burial. For the poor you have with me always, but me you do not have always. So she was there anointing Christ, and she may not have known what she was doing as God led her to do that. But Christ was willing to let her do that. He was being anointed as the king of Israel. And so when it talks about him being anointed there, it ties right back to verse 27 in John 10 here. When Jesus Christ returns the second time as king of kings and king and lord of lords, he will break the oak off of Israel and Judah of Assyria and the chapters. Remember Ezekiel 6, I believe it is? We should probably go back there and forward to Ezekiel 6 and just see what the Bible says about the future of Israel when they're conquered, much like it was in the just like it was in the other days. Ezekiel 6 and verse 6.

Yeah, I'm reading verse 6 because this is something that never happened in ancient Israel. So it's clearly a prophecy for the future. He says, In all your dwelling places the cities will be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate. Your idols may be broken and made to cease, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. The slain will fall in your midst, and you will know that I am the Lord. Meaning, because of what's going on, it'll be clear to people this is a punishment from God. Yet I will leave a remnant, the same remnant we're talking about in Isaiah 10, the same remnant that's identified in Isaiah 6 when Isaiah is being called. Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escaped the sword among the nations when you are scattered throughout the countries. So we have this captivity that's there. Hard for us to imagine, but in the ancient world, when a nation was conquered, they took the people out of their nation. They took them to another land. They didn't want them to have the land. Being in the land was of a power to them, and they were afraid that they would rise up and take the land back. So they took them out of their land, put them in an outland that they were unfamiliar with. The Bible indicates this is going to happen again with modern-day Israel and Judah. I will leave a remnant. The rest will be when I bring them back.

Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you have some who escaped the sword among the nations when you're being scattered throughout the countries. Then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart, which has departed from me, and by their eyes which they play the harlot after their idols.

They will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed and all their abominations, and they will know that I am the Eternal. I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them. Now, it's a terrible calamity to think about losing your land, to think about, you know, 90 percent of your people dying, that a remnant, God's going to leave a remnant alive, but they're going to be captive during that time. It's a horrible thing to think about, but it is just reward for what, for what, for what, how the nations have repaid God as He has blessed us so richly. So, when we're back here in Isaiah 10, and they talk about this yoke being broke off of Israel in the end time, after Israel goes into captivity and all these things happen to them, Jesus Christ, when He returns, will break that yoke. The Bible talks about Israel being back from the countries, from the nations through which they've been scattered, back to their land.

So, when it talks about the anointing oil here, it's again talking about Jesus Christ. This, He will be the one to deliver the people. Now, in verse 28, if we go back to Isaiah 10, we have kind of an ominous march, an ominous march that goes on here. It may well be exactly the path that the king of Assyria took as he approached Jerusalem. And again, remembering that Assyria was a dreaded enemy and that people would have been scared speechless, right, to have him coming in as Jerusalem would look and see this advance of the armies. I'm going to put a slide up here if I can find the right one. I've got a number of them here tonight. Yeah, as we read through these verses here, in verses 28 down through 32, you can see the cities that are named there that are there. So, you can see Assyria. Here they are. They come through Aath and down through it. So, if you're sitting in Jerusalem and you dread Assyria, which Judah did, and you see this um... hold on, let me omit some people here. I'll do that in a minute when I figure out how to do it. Okay. Okay, so here's the march. It says he has come to Aath. You see that on your screen there.

He has passed Migron. At Mikmosh, he has attended to his equipment. They have gone along the ridge.

They've taken up, and they're talking about Assyria here, they have taken up lodging at Geba.

Rama is afraid. Gibeah of Saul has fled. Kind of reminds you of Joel, too, when it talks about those advancing armies that all color drains from their faces. People flee before them because they're in such dread of this advancing army. Lift up your voice, O daughter of Gollum, because it caused it to be heard as far as Laish. O poor Anatos, Medmanah has fled. The inhabitants of Gebum seek refuge, as yet he, Assyria, will remain at Nob that day. He will shake his fist at the Mount of the Daughter of Zion, the Hill of Jerusalem. So, you know, the map shows that Nob is not that far. In those days, you would be able to see this in army, encamped at Nob, and waving their fist at Jerusalem. Like, we're coming here to get you. So the people in Jerusalem would have been absolutely terrified. That's what God is telling them. Trust in me. They're not going to come. They're not going to conquer you, Jerusalem. Don't be afraid of them. Trust in me. I've said it, and it will happen. Of course, Jerusalem didn't believe God. They were terrified, but God showed Assyria never did conquer them. So you see this dread that goes out as the city, or as this army, just marches closer and closer and closer to where most of the people live there in Jerusalem. And you can imagine the terror all over the land as Assyria marches through, and the people outside of Jerusalem probably suffered quite an awful fate in the process of the advance of the Assyria. And so we have this picture. Now, this could well be a dual prophecy. What's going to happen at the end time? The cities will be laid waste. The Bible talks about people plundering the land and people coming into modern-day Israel and Judah and taking the inhabitants and everything away. So we don't know if this might have actually happened to Jerusalem, but this is also a prophecy of how the armies will advance in the end time as well as they come upon a conquered, terrified people. We do have Joel 2, which clearly is a prophetic book. And as you see that, you see the very same fear and dread in that as well.

Oh, yes, let me get out of here and let some people in here.

Whoops. Okay.

Okay, so we have this. Now, we're still here in Isaiah 10.

Okay, Isaiah 10.

So we have advancing Assyria, but then we have God again talking about Assyria, how he will conquer Assyria. Behold the Lord, the Lord of hosts will lop off the bow with terror. Now, as God talks about Assyria, if you recall back in chapter 10, and we probably need to go back to chapter 10.

Yeah, it's right across my page here. Chapter 10 and verse 18.

It talks about this Assyrian army, and God describes it in quite an interesting way. In verse 18 back in chapter 10, he says, and it, speaking of Assyria, will consume the glory of his forest. It will consume the glory of his forest. The glory of his forest is talking about Assyria and his fruitful field, both soul and body, and they will be as when a sick man wastes away. So he describes the Assyrian army. We're going to see this in chapter 11 as well as a forest, as a fruitful vow, as something, it's a well-trained army. They, you know, in the face of what the world would look at, they say, you know, this is something that is so well orchestrated. They are so powerful in the terms of man that God calls them a bough, a forest. They are there, and in the world's sight, it recognizes this power, if you will, that they have or the strength that they have.

So he says, you know, I'm going to be the one in verse 33. I will lock off the bough with terror.

I will be the one to be beginning to destroy this army that can't be matched by any other army on earth. I will take care of it. I will destroy it. I will be the one to begin to dissemble it. I will lock off its bough with terror. Those of high stature will be hewn down, and the haughty will be humbled. We talked last week about the haughty and how God over and over in the Bible says, you know, the proud will be humbled, and that pertains to you and me too. We always have to maintain a humble attitude. If we get out of hand, God will humble us because He loves us, right? It can be an embarrassing thing, maybe, happen, a painful thing that happens to us, but because He loves us, He will humble us. But it's incumbent on us to continue to be humble and develop that humility ourselves, not trust in ourselves. The more we learn to trust and rely on God, the happier we'll be. The more joyful we'll be. The closer we'll be. The more we'll be at peace with everything that goes on in our lives because we were just handed over to God, knowing He's our God, He's our rock, He's our fortress. He promises that He will see us through, and we come to trust Him that through the mess that this world is going to make of itself, that He will bring us through to His Kingdom. In verse 34, then, it says, He will cut down the thickets of the forest. There's that reference to the Assyrian army again. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by the mighty one. So let me pause there, and let's talk again about modern-day Assyria because we know where Assyria was.

Hold on just a minute. Looking at a map here. Yeah. Last week, you'll remember this map of Assyria, and I have another map here. I didn't get a map that overlaid where modern-day Assyria or where ancient Assyria is among the nations today, but I'm going to put up a map of the Middle East, where the ancient kingdom of Assyria was back then physically, is where the nation of Iraq and southeastern Turkey is today.

So physically, we have a people that are right there. In fact, up until a century or two ago, it was still called Assyria, maybe a little more than a few centuries ago, still called Assyria. Now it's called Iraq. Now it's called part of Turkey. Off to the east there, you have Iran on the other side of where that green is. So that's where Assyria was. It wasn't a world-ruling empire. Babylon was the first ruling empire that the Bible talks about in Daniel 2, and then the fourth, three, so three that came over after that. Now here's a map of modern-day Middle East.

So you can see where Iraq is. You can see as Iraq borders Turkey up there in the green, that's where Assyria was. You can see today Iran off to the east. You can see Egypt off to the west, and the countries that we should be familiar with.

But this lays it out pretty well. Nations that will figure prominently in the future will be hearing their names. We've heard of Yemen. We've heard of Oman. There's an ongoing war in Yemen that's been going on for quite a while. If you look at where Jordan is, the pink country down there under Syria, then you have Israel, which is there in the modern-day Israel, and a little blue there. I'm going to put up a map a little bit later that as you look at Egypt, there's kind of a between the blue and the gold of Egypt.

There's what the Bible describes as a shoulder. We talked about a shoulder, and later on in chapter 11 it's going to be Israel when God allows them to go. They're going to come down on their enemies and talks about the shoulder. It talks about the Philistines, which is today modern Palestine. We know where physical Assyria is today in the same country or in the same region there.

Last week we talked about where the descendants of Assyria were dispersed after they were conquered. Let me put that back up and just read through that again so that we're all on the same page. We see when we talk about modern-day Assyria, who we could be talking about. Here in this one, this comes from the UCG Bible commentary, and it says, we might ask who are the Assyrians today? The ancient Israelites were taken into Assyrian captivity, eventually migrated into northwestern Europe. Likewise, the Assyrians, after their empire fell in 612 BC, migrated into Europe behind them.

The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder located the Assyrians north of the Black Sea in his day, which was the first century AD. A few hundred years later, Jerome, one of the post-Nicene Catholic Fathers, applied Psalm 83.8 to the Germanic tribes invading western Europe along the Rhine, saying, for the Assyrian, also is joined with them. And other Germanic peoples, Miss Classical Dictionary states, there can be no doubt that they migrated into Europe from the Caucasus and the countries around the Black and Caspian Seas.

Indeed, a significant portion of the Germanic people of central Europe today appear to be descended from the Assyrians of old. So, you know, we have this history because, again, what happened when one nation was conquered by another is the people of that land were taken out of that land and transported someplace else.

Just like when Israel was conquered, they were taken out of their land. They were taken to Assyria. When Assyria was conquered, you know, the history of Israel, they fled into the Caucasus area. The Black Sea eventually migrated across Europe. And we can track the tribes of Israel across Europe and over into Britain and eventually over to the United States and around to the English-speaking nations as well. So, when the Bible talks about Assyrians, you know, it's the people, you know.

So, the church has at times said, we know where the Assyrians are today. History, not church history, but secular history tells us where the Assyrians migrated to. We also know where a modern Assyria is today, and we see that that region of the world always, you know, that has always been populated by people who hate, just hate Israel.

And so, you see even in the Middle East today, this intense hatred of the little nation of Israel, which is really Judah over there, this intense hatred of America, this intense hatred of Britain, this intense hatred that they've always had toward the people of Israel. So, we have two places that could be Assyria, you know, could be from Europe, maybe possibly, maybe, maybe someplace else. As we go through chapter 11, we're going to leave it at that because God knows exactly what it is, but we're going to look and see what the Bible says and what might happen so that we're prepared as we go through this.

But we're at the end of chapter 10, and then we move into chapter 11, which is a very hopeful chapter because here we have what is pictured the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to rescue the world from itself. But before we go into chapter 11, are there any questions, anything anyone wants to discuss before we move into chapter 11?

I mean, we've covered a lot and we've talked a lot. You know, it's Assyria, and they are used as the rod of God's anger. And the Bible strongly indicates they will be used as that in the future as well.

Yeah, Mr. Shaby? Yeah, Dale. Yeah, hi. Yeah, I'm wondering the difference between Syria and Assyria. Are they kind of the same or are they sometimes a little bit different? They're different. They're different if you remember, even with King Ahaz, it was Syria and the House of Israel that were against them. Assyrias is a totally different kingdom.

Right. Okay, thank you.

Okay, let's move into chapter 11 then. Familiar verses talking about Jesus Christ, it says, There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse. Now, remember, there are no chapter breaks back then, right? So God, in verse 33 of chapter 10, He says, Okay, Assyria is strong, but I'm going to be the one to undo them. I will lap off their bow, I will cut down the thickest of the forest, and there will come forth, verse 1, a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. There's the Messianic prophecy there. The Messiah will come from the line of Jesse.

And as we go and look at the genealogy in Matthew, now where's the other one? Is the other one in Luke?

You know, we see both Mary, his mother, descended from David, and Joseph, his stepfather, descended from David. So out of that house and out of that lineage, the Messiah would come. Exactly what God predicted here back in Isaiah 11 is exactly what happened. There will come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse. And when you look at the word stem that's translated stem there, it's kind of like there's this stump that's there. You know, the Bible uses this analogy of a stump, and it's that the house of David isn't really as powerful now as it was when it was at David. David was a man after God's heart. But when you look at Mary, you know, who's a descendant of David, when you look at her husband Joseph, who's a descendant of David, they're poor, they're common people. The house of David, you know, well, there's still a throne that's there, but they're not in power, does not wield the power that it is that it still has. God knows exactly where that throne is, he knows exactly where that lineage is, but out of common people, you know, Jesus Christ is going to be born. And so that's what it's saying here. There's this stump of the house that's here, but out of that stump that hasn't been wiped out, it still exists, the Messiah will be born. So he will come forth, the branch will grow out of his roots, and then it talks about the Spirit of God that will rest on Jesus Christ. Now as we look at the Spirit of God that's mentioned here, it's the same Spirit that God gives you and me. So the Spirit that he gave Jesus Christ will give to us. So we can look at this and see what God provides for us as well if we just use it and make use of it and use it as the tool that God gives it to overcome. It says, the Spirit of the Eternal will rest upon him. The Spirit of Wisdom, God says, remember, we read back in the book of James, if you desire wisdom, ask him for it. It's the Spirit that imparts wisdom that helps us to understand the things of the Bible.

Seek it, God says, and he'll give it to you. The Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Understanding. Psalm 111 verse 10 says, those who keep my commandments have a good understanding. You understand God's way. You see the beauty of it. You see the wisdom in it. You see that if everyone lived that way in a world that is going to be taught God's law and be adhering to God's law, a world that has God's Spirit poured out on them, it's going to be a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place to live. As you see human nature transformed into what God always wanted us to be, but the adversarial and the resistant and the rebellious nature that in us has kept us from that. I'm reminded I didn't write down the verse it is, but remember David would meditate. It's probably in Psalm 119 where it says he would meditate on God's law day and night. As he would meditate on it, he would think about how wonderful life would be if everyone would just do it. How wonderful his life would be if he would just obey God's law perfectly. That's something we can meditate on as well because if we would feel that, let God's Holy Spirit show us what the beauty would be if everyone would be living God's way of life. The beauty that you and I can have in our lives because God's given us his Spirit when we repent and are baptized, have hands laid upon us. We have that opportunity for the rest of the world. It'll be when they're called. We have that opportunity today to experience that joy. Meditate on it sometimes when you're laying awake at night, and then purpose in your heart and use the tool of God's Spirit and self-control that comes from it to choose that way and make choices along the day to always do his will. Anyway, it talks about the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of counsel.

I mean, there is no greater counselor in the world than God, right? God will give us the wisdom, too, as we can take our cares and pour them on him. He'll help us through those. He gives us the spirit of a sound mind. So if we really were working with him, if we really were relying on God, if we were really pouring our hearts out on him, his Holy Spirit would lead to healing.

It doesn't only lead to physical healing. It'll lead to emotional healing. He'll help us understand the things that, you know, counselors, you can pay him thousands of dollars, and they'll draw out, you know, parts of your life that help you deal with some of the issues that you confronted when you were young that maybe held you back from something or that have caused you ongoing problems or anxieties or whatever. God can do the same thing if we ask him, you know, what is it?

I want to be the way you want me to be. Let me have the personality that I need to be able to be a blessing to other people, to become the person you want me to become, so that I can serve you, so I can serve others now, that I can serve you always, that I can be a good servant to you. God will work with us, and you'll be surprised if you rely on him and really take it to him, when he can open your mind to understand. His is the Spirit of counsel, his is the Spirit of light.

You know, 2 Timothy 1 7 says he hasn't given us the Spirit of fear, but he's given us the Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. The Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge, you know, as we go through these Bible studies, you know, it's God who's opening our minds to understand these things. The world will look at the book of Isaiah and say, we have no idea what it means. They look at the book of Revelation and say, I have no idea what it means.

That's a gift that God has given us through the Holy Spirit to understand these things so that we know what's ahead of us, and to know what is ahead of us, and to know that it's God and that it will happen as he says, does provide comfort that I think we discount sometimes. But he gives us the Spirit of knowledge and a very important one, the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. You know, one, never discount the fear of the Lord.

I know in Orlando a few weeks ago, you had a Spirit on the fear of the Lord. I've given sermons on the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. I would guess everyone on this webcast has had a sermon on the Spirit, or the fear of the Lord.

Never discount it. Remember when God was working with ancient Israel, and they were assembled there at the base of Mount Sinai, and they heard the thunderings, and they heard the lightnings, and they ran in terror and said, Moses, don't let God speak to us. Let him speak to you, and you tell us God wanted them to have that fear in them. And he says the reason they had that fear is so that they would obey him always.

If we had the true fear of God, we would hesitate. We would stop, and we would not be doing the things that we may habitually do, because we would understand how powerful God is. We would understand the gift that he's given us, the blessings and the promises he's given us, and we would understand that he holds our future in our hands. We would not do the things we did if we truly feared God in the way that he wants us to fear him. And that's what a complete love, the agape love, and a complete reverence of him, and a complete commitment to him.

So don't discount the fear of the Lord. If you haven't heard the sermon in Orlando a couple weeks ago, go back and listen to it, or look for one on the one on ucg.org or our YouTube channel. It'll be there somewhere. So here it says, here's Christ, here's the Spirit of God that's in him, the same Spirit that was in him when he was a human being that allowed him, that gave him the strength to live his life, a sinless life, that gave him the strength to go through the trials and the pain that he did to complete the mission that he was born for or came to earth for, the same Spirit that God will give us that will allow us and then enable us to be able to complete what he has called us for, what Jesus Christ started in us.

He'll finish the author and finisher of our faith, right? Okay, verse three. Hold on, let me...

Okay, verse three, 11-3. His delight, his delight, okay. You know, some of the translations are saying he was filled with his delight. It was a pleasant thing to him, right? His delight is in the fear of the Lord. When something is a delight to us, we want to fill ourselves with it, right? So to Christ, his delight is the fear of the Lord. So the fear of God, you know, doing his will, doing what he wants done, needs to become our delight is what he's saying there. His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and he, Christ, you know, will not judge by the sight of his eyes. What we have, what we have here in the next few verses is a picture of the righteous judgment that Jesus Christ has. He's not like you and me. He won't judge by the sight of his eyes. All too many times, if we see something, see someone do something, we make a judgment on them. We don't ask the question, what were you doing? What's the story behind that? It's like we saw him do it, therefore guilty, right? He won't decide by the hearing of his ears. Oh, so-and-so told me that someone so said this or did that. No, he's not going to do it by the hearing of his ears, right? He's not by the sight of his eyes, not by the hearing of his words, but with righteousness, with righteousness, he will judge the poor. Now, you know, we know that Jesus Christ, and God is a discerner of our hearts. He knows our motives. He knows what's in our minds. He knows what's in our hearts when we do things. He's just not listening to our words. He's just not watching, you know, he's just not listening to what people say about us. He sees what's in our hearts, and so conversion is a matter of our heart being turned over to God. And as the Holy Spirit leads and guides us and convicts us, we yield ourselves more and more to God so that even when we err along the way, even when we have a faulty attitude, whatever it is, you know, he is there, and he sees that our hearts are willing. Our hearts did it. You know, what we do is repent, and we determine our minds. We won't go forward with it. But God and Jesus Christ are a righteous judge, not like the judges that we have in the world today. When people are judged when Jesus Christ is King of the Earth, it'll be righteous judgment, not, you know, not the way it always has been, and certainly not the, through the political, you know, maneuverings that we begin to see in our world around us today when decisions are made based on this and that, whatever. With Christ, it will be righteous judgment. We will know, you know, we'll learn many things with Jesus, with Jesus Christ when he returns. Judgment, righteous judgment, there'll be one of them that is going to be a tremendous blessing in the millennium, and you and I may be faced somewhere down the road with unrighteous judgment, and we'll see what a blessing it is. What a blessing it is to have judges who decide rightly, and if we're, if we're guilty, we'll know we're guilty, and not just because of some other circumstance or whatever. With righteousness, he will judge the poor, and he will decide with equity.

That, again, that's equity, no partiality. He will decide with equity for the meek of the earth.

I could, I could talk five minutes about the meek of the earth. I think we remember being meek is, is, that's the fruit of the Holy Spirit. When we see the word meek, it's not weak, it's power under the control of the master, right? Power under the control of the master. In the, in the New Testament, it's the Greek kraus. You see all the apostles, you see the disciples of Jesus Christ, they have power, but they're under the control of the master. It's a beautiful thing. In Greek literature, they liken it to the wild stallion that is beautiful, graceful, powerful, wild, but when they're broken and domesticated, it becomes such a useful, useful tool in the hands of their master. God likens us to that when we yield to Him and allow Him to allow, allow Him to control our lives. Verse four going on, He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips, He will slay the wicked. And then it says, righteousness will be the belt of His loins, and faithfulness the belt of His waist. Kind of reminds us of the the weapons of our warfare back in Ephesians. Let's go back to Hebrews 4 for a moment because there's the verse back in Hebrews 4.12 that we talked about that perfectly describes what we just talked about here in verses 4 and 5.

Remember that Jesus Christ, you know, is the Word of God in Revelation. Does His name is the Word of God before? Yeah, Savior, go ahead if you had a comment.

Oh, your hand is up. Oh yes, yes, I'm yeah, I was saying on our way there, there's a verse in in Hebrews chapter 5 that speaks of Christ fulfilling that exactly where it says, because of His fear towards God when He said He offered up strong prayers and so forth.

And that word is godly fear. It doesn't mean phobia, really, but it's reverence, deep reverence.

Poorly caution. Yep, yep, yep.

Okay, so Hebrews 5.7, sorry. Hebrews 5.7, okay. Mark that down. Yeah.

Yeah, because of His godly fear, verse 7. Very good. Okay, Hebrews 4.12. Speaking of, remember, Jesus Christ's name is Word before He was born. Flesh and blood, He was the Logos, the spokesman. Verse 12, for the Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That's the God we have. What He wants is for us to yield to Him, and when we find that yield in this and that surrender that we continue to do, it does bring joy. It does bring things that we can't even imagine to us. But that's God, the discerner of the thoughts and the thoughts, piercing even the division of soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow, the discern of the thoughts and intents of the heart. There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him, to whom we must give account. When we read in Isaiah 10, that's the same sentiment, the same thing that they're talking about in verses 4 and 5. They're describing how Jesus Christ will judge. It's a righteous judgment. Let's go back to Isaiah 11, because here we have a picture of how life will be in the millennial rule of Jesus Christ and forever. When He returns to earth to break the yoke of Syria and the captors of His people, He will rule righteously. Then it talks about in verses 6-9, I'm going to read through it, but we don't even need to really talk about it, because the verses are so beautiful. It's talking about a world where the violence and all the animosity has disappeared, even among the animal kingdom. It's beautiful to see the animals and have them around, but sometimes we marvel at it with a violence in that, even the animal kingdom. In Christ's world, when He rules, all that hostility will be taken away. Verse 6, the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

They don't do that today. Today they eat whatever gazelle is readily available. The nursing child will play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den.

So God is showing. There will be peace, the violence will end, man will learn to love man, and there will be those teachers that are there, right? You and me, if we continue in God's way, if we learn his way, and he knows that in our hearts we are completely committed to him through our commitment, through our practice of his way of life. He sees that we know, and that we are going to be good teachers and leaders in that kingdom of his, that when we see someone moving off in the wrong direction, there's that tap on the shoulder, as it says in Isaiah 30, that we'll get to in 20 weeks. In 20 weeks, you know, this is the way. Walk you in it. Calm down. This is the way to handle this situation, and there will be that continuing education that goes on. Verse 9, they will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. The violence will be gone. The animosity, the hostility will be gone. People will live in peace. Christ is called the king of peace. Remember, we read that back in Isaiah 9. They won't hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. A verse, a sentiment that he repeats in Habakkuk 2 verse 14, we read that a week or two ago.

They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. Why? For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the eternal as the waters cover the sea. They will be living by my word. The same thing that would happen if we were all living by God's word today. So what does that say about, you know, those of us who were in God's church who were baptized? How should we be living if we are continuing to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ? We should be at peace. God-based should be growing. We should be at one with one another. When we do have little problems or whatever, we go to each other. As it says in Matthew 18, we talk about it and we come to accord and we reconcile. All those things that God says to do that take time, sometimes take humility to admit that we're wrong, humility to go back to someone and say, I think that probably hurt you or offended you, or vice versa, to go to someone and say, you did offend me when you said that. None of us should get offended. None of us should run away. None of us should get mad. We should be thankful for the opportunity to learn and have the opportunity to be makers and to learn how to reconcile with one another. Everything that happens in life is an opportunity for us to learn some of these things. Someone had a comment?

Dixie, do you have a comment? We have to unmute.

Okay. Where'd she go? Okay. Well, Dixie, yeah, if you want to say something, you can just unmute and start talking and we'll stop and listen, but we'll go ahead.

Wait a minute, Mr. Shabe. Yes, go ahead. Today I was reading this morning or earlier this week, I was reading in Ezekiel 39.

I believe it's verse 4, where it talks about Gog and Magog and the birds of the air and the beasts of the field will prey upon them. Isn't that after the millennium? And will God change?

Yes. Will God change the animals back again?

They will be. Instead of being. No, He won't change it back again. Remember that at the end of the millennium, Satan has to be loose for a little while. Remember that? Yes.

So when that spirit, when that spirit comes back into the world again, you see, you see Gog and Magog, what do they want to do? We're going to go and attack Israel. That ancient hatred is still there. They're going to go against the unwalled city, it says. God's not going to let them, the God's not going to let them happen. That's what it talks about. Those weapons, those weapons are going to be burned up. It's going to be firewood for all these years and whatever. And the people will be destroyed. And that's what the birds feed on. I guess at that point, God does allow them to eat the flesh. Birds seem to do that quite a bit in the Bible. But yeah, that is a millennial, post-millennial event there in Ezekiel 39.

And it shows what happens, how powerful Satan is, that even after a thousand years of peace and safety and everything perfect, when Satan is loosed, some will let his influence back in their minds and let him lead them to do those type things. Thank you.

Shaby, I believe I read the U.C.G. commentary. It could also happen as well at the beginning of the millennium, shortly after Christ returns. Yep, exactly. It happens after and before, because the description and revelation is different than the Ezekiel 39. Yeah, so I agree.

Okay, what time do we have here? Okay, well, we won't get you through after 11, but that'll be okay. We will get through chapter 12 next week, and then we'll do some review questions the following week. Okay, verse 10. Let me get through.

Okay, let's at least talk about the next two verses to set the stage for next week. Again, we have this in that day, right? In verse 10. In that day, there will be a road of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people. Now, again, it's talking about Jesus Christ, right? He will stand as a banner to the people. And as we begin, okay, who shall stand as a banner to the people? For the Gentiles will seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious.

What we see—maybe I should stop there—because we do have a series of three things that Jesus Christ will do that lead us to the end of the chapter. 10 and 11. I'll give you one, and then we'll cover the next two next week. There's three things that it talks about Him being a banner, the type three things that He will do in that day. In that day, there will be a road of Jesse, who will stand as a banner to the people. It's a sign, an ensign, or whatever.

He shall stand as a banner to the people, for the Gentiles will seek Him, and His resting place shall be glorious. It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left from Assyria and Egypt. Okay. I don't want to take you too late here.

Let me just talk about verse 10 here for just a second. He will be a banner for the people. He will be a God and a Savior to the Gentiles as well. In the Old Testament, we see God working with His people, Israel, and the New Testament, we see Jesus Christ died for all mankind.

And as we go into the New Testament, we see that salvation is open to all of mankind. Jew, Gentile, every ethnicity, background, race, you name it, everything. God calls everyone, and ultimately salvation is open to every man, woman, and child who ever lived. When it talks about that in verse 10, there by Isaiah 11, we can go back to Romans 15 where it specifically quotes that as Paul talks about it. Again, we see these prophecies that are there, and we see them play out as God, you know, in New Testament times begins to work with the people, and Gentiles are called.

And Paul and the other apostles, they back to these verses as God gives them, oh, this is exactly what God intended. We had no idea what that meant back in Isaiah 11 verse 10 when it was written to us, but now we see what God is doing. Much like you and I, when we look at some of the events going on in the world today, we think, oh, that's how that prophecy could be fulfilled.

20 years ago, we might not have understood how a nation that has a constitution that seemed like it was ironclad and all of its protections could just have those things taken away because no one stands for or more. Someone just stands up and does this and does that. No one stands in his way or protects it, you know? So we can kind of see what's going on in Matthew 24 and how the return of Jesus Christ will come and the fall of the nations. Same thing with them as they saw Gentiles come in. So in Romans, not in Acts 15, but in Romans 15.

Romans 15 verse 12. Now let's pick it up in verse 8. Romans 15 verse 8. I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision, that would be the Jewish people, right? Has become a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written.

For this reason, I will confess to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. And again, he says, rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. And again, verse 11, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, laud him all you age, all you peoples. Verse 12, he quotes Isaiah 11, um 10. Again, Isaiah says, there will be a word of Jesse, and he who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope. So they see the fulfillment of these Old Testament prophecies as the Gentiles are beginning to be called and accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior, returning from their ways, just the same way that you and I must turn from our ways.

So one of the things that this roto juice Jesse will do in that day is that he will obey a banner to the people, to all people, and the Gentiles will seek him, right? And they will, you know, in Isaiah 2 verses 2 through 4, we read, all nations will go up to the mountain of the Lord.

All will be seeking the teaching that comes forth from Jerusalem. So that will be all the world following God's law. Now that's one thing, and then the rest of chapter 11 talks about two other things that, you know, talks about a banner in verse 12, and then another thing that will happen here as God brings his people back. But we'll get to that next week as we complete chapter 11, and hopefully, chapter 12, yeah, we should just be able to finish chapter 11 and 12 next week. Okay, Xavier.

Brother Shaby, in Romans 15 verse 12, the Greek shows that before the word root is the definite article, the, and it shows that though when he came in the flesh, he came out of a stump that came out of him per se, being the one who made man and kept dealing with all the Israelites from Father Abram going on to the Israelites. Yeah, the different article is there. There will be the root of Jesse. Okay, so it says, it says, uh, A-ruth, right? It's probably what it says there at 15 now.

In some translations, some says D, but the Greek says D. Yep, and the new King James says A. So, yeah, it would be clearly the right. Okay, any other comments, questions? Again, you might.

He's a root and offspring of David, too, it says in Revelation, I believe. Yep, yeah, we could, actually, probably had Revelation written down here someplace and didn't go there, so that'll actually be next week. Okay.

Okay, anything, anyone else? Any other questions, comments? You know, you might go back, you know, just to get an understanding of the first time you read through some of these chapters, it can be confusing to keep, you know, who God's talking about in those, these chapters. So, we go through some of these things. You might, you might go back and read it, and when you find you read through the second or third time, you'll see it making, you'll see it making more sense to you each time, and it's immense, it up here in your mind as well. So, you, you know, you'll be able to explain this to someone else down the road when they ask you, what's it talking about there in Isaiah 10? What is all this talk about Assyria and God and forests and all these other things? You'll be able to explain that and know what's going on here, because Isaiah is a major, one of the major prophets, obviously, and a lot of, a lot of prophecy already fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled in there.

I'm Mr. Shaby. Hey, Fred. How are you? Very good. How can I tell you this?

I don't think you're aware that the United States was attacked by a foreign power, but it wasn't really a foreign power. It was Canada attacked and burnt the White House down in 1812, I think. You guys did that to America? Okay, no, I didn't know that. You didn't know that.

No, the reason I thought you didn't know it, because I was on Facebook and I tuned into this American that was talking about Canada, and he didn't know that, and he said that it's not taught in schools. Yeah, I don't remember ever hearing that. Yeah, well, it's true, but it was really a family squabble. Yeah, you were fighting on behalf of the British at that time, so Canada was.

Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, you're right. One of those family squabbles, exactly. Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, very good. Yeah, so we learned things that we never knew. So, yeah. Very good. Okay, okay. Mr. Shaby? Yeah, yes, totally. Yes, sir. I wanted to ask a question. I thought this was interesting. In Genesis 28, 12 through 13, it's talking about Jacob's ladder, and what's the thought on Jacob's ladder exactly what that means? Because in John 151, it talks about the angels descending on Christ.

So, I was just wondering, is Jacob's ladder maybe referring to Christ being resurrected? Because it says that the Lord is standing above the ladder. He ascended to the Father. In John 151, it talks about the angels ascending and descending. Christ said, hereafter you will see the angels descending on the Son of Man. So, I was wondering, what is the thought on Jacob's ladder, and do you think that that might be referring to Jacob's ladder? Anyways, I thought it was interesting.

Yeah, now that is interesting. I had not thought of that before or heard that question before, but I mean in verse 12, it says that they're the angels of God. We're ascending and descending on it. It's the very same words used in John 151. So, 151. And in the Gospels, there's like three different accounts of different angels, right? There's one that's like the lightning rolled back to stone. One is sitting at his head and feet. I can't recall the other example, but I'm just wondering, because I don't know what your thought is on Jacob's ladder.

Because I, anyways, I thought it was interesting. It is, and you know what I want to do? I want to defer. I want to defer for a week. Let me look at that in the context of Luke 151, because that is a very interesting correlation, and I've never seen it before or heard it discussed. But let me look at that and I'll knock it down for next week. That's okay. I saw that last year at Passover when I was reading it. I said, hmm, does that have correlation with that? Anyways, I'm just wondering if anybody else might have it. I don't know. Anyone else heard anything about that? Surprisingly, this past week, I was looking at it because when I was looking at it, though, the understand God gracious gave me is that when you see on the top of that platform, it can be staircase or ladder. They translated ladder. But on that platform was Christ standing. When he comes in the flesh, there's Christ on the floor, and these same angels are still subjected to him, even though he was here manifested in sinful flesh. So it just shows the correlation that here he is, because in first Corinthians it says the Lord who is from heaven, speaking of Christ. And then we see him here in John, he's on the earth as flesh and blood like we have. And as it says earlier, when he was first born, he said, let the angels of God worship him. So they were still serving him, but we don't know how often these kind of things happened. Because John said if everything was written, there wouldn't be enough books to tell us of all the things that happened. There wouldn't be enough books in the world. Can I ask where Christ says, hereafter you will see? Does that mean after?

After that occasion, yes. Yes, no, after that occasion. After that occasion, okay.

Like, he was talking to here. Nathaniel was in Nathaniel, he was talking to here.

So they saw many things. Angels appeared, talked to him, go back up, come up, but everything isn't recorded for our convenience.

Okay, that's a great question.

Okay, very good. Anyone else have any questions on anything?

How do you like your new house? Do what?

How do you like your new house? Oh, we like it. We like it. We feel quite at home. So it's actually feeling... it's actually a little warm here in Cincinnati right now. As I'm sitting here, I'm thinking I needed to turn my fan on before I started talking. So it's kind of like Florida still, but that'll change soon, I'm sure. Okay, everyone, well let me let you go. Thank you for joining in. Next week, we'll see you next week at seven o'clock. God willing, right? Okay, so have a good week, everyone.