The Purpose of Prophecy, Part 2

I know I told you last week, as I went into a sermon that regarded some of the prophecies that we find in the Old Testament and how it is that we can benefit from those prophecies.

And I mentioned to you that I wanted to cover here in the next few weeks the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. And I have to thank what in the world was I thinking?

That's only about a third of the Old Testament. I don't believe that that's going to happen, although I am going to make an attempt. I'm going to make an attempt to give you what I feel I can give you regarding those three major prophets. I mean, they're identified as the major prophets in the Old Testament. Of course, they're not the only ones. And we have a dozen or so of the minor prophets and clearly information that is in each one of those books that they are writing not only to the people at that time, but in many ways to us today. And specifically, what we find in studying the prophets is that God is in charge of writing down what needs to be written down. Because centuries before, and even in some cases millennia before, these things actually come to pass. God has told us He is writing these things down through these individuals that He's working through. And so, I want to begin to cover today, I'll try to do today and next time, dealing with the book of Isaiah. And again, I would think Isaiah is probably one of the more familiar books to us because of so many of the verses that we often read regarding Jesus Christ.

We have Isaiah 52 and 53 that we commonly are going to read around the time of the Passover every year. These clearly written hundreds of years before Jesus would ever come to the earth and detail what He was going to go through, what it was that was predicted that Jesus Christ would go through. And of course, and there are many other places where you find different things about Him as our deliverer. But I'll also mention, and the reason why Isaiah is called the Messianic prophet.

He writes so much about Jesus and His coming the first time. He has a number of different statements regarding that. But in essence, He also has even more statements regarding what He's going to do when He comes the second time. What He's going to do is He comes as not just our Lord and Savior and Redeemer, but as our King and the leader of the Kingdom of God. And that clearly is written in the book of Isaiah. As I mentioned last time, we're familiar with Isaiah 2, with Isaiah 11, with Isaiah 35, with Isaiah 32. Many of these verses, actually, there are others that I can name, we're familiar with those because they reveal, in essence, details about the changes that will take place when the Kingdom of God is set up on earth. But see, where do we see anywhere in the book of Isaiah about a thousand-year period of time?

He doesn't say that in Isaiah. Now, where does it say that? Where are we when we study the Bible, where would we know about a thousand-year period of time? Well, actually, that's all the way in the back. That's actually in the last few chapters. You have to get to Revelation 20, which was in the end of the vision that Jesus was giving John for him to write down what is going to happen prior to his return, and then several chapters in the very end of the book of Revelation that talk about what's going to happen beyond that. And that's where all of us can read Revelation 20. You see a thousand-year period of time designated. You see Satan put away for that time, and actually, him only then released for a short time after that, and then God will continue with his plan. But see, apart from that, you don't see a lot of great detail about what the world tomorrow, as we call it or as we name it, you don't find a lot of additional information there in Revelation.

But where do you find that? Well, you find much of it in the book of Isaiah. Much of it in the chapters that I just mentioned to you that detail the millennium and the time when such a transition will take place. So, as I said, Isaiah is far too large to cover in one or two sermons, but I'll try to give you what I can. I want to break this down. Today, I'd like to try to go through some of the background, some of the setting, some of the way that the text is put together here in the book of Isaiah. And then next week or next time, whenever I'm speaking next, I hope to cover a number of actually the quotes from Isaiah that you find throughout the New Testament, because Isaiah is the most quoted prophet in the New Testament. Many times you see references to different things that others of the prophets wrote, but you find more than any other Isaiah quoted, either in the Gospels or particularly in Paul's writings and a little by Peter. And I think that would be good for us to see as well, because that clearly ties it together. See, it wasn't just the men, Isaiah, or even any of the writers of the New Testament, any of the Gospel writers, or the Apostle Paul, or Peter, or John, or James. God was the one who was the author. He's the author of the Bible. He's the author of these major books of prophecy. So I hope to be able to break this down in these two settings and then perhaps can go on from there. Regarding Isaiah, and we'll start here in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 1, because it does give a little bit of the setting, because in verse 1, the very first verse of Isaiah says, the vision of Isaiah, the son of Ammon, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of the kings of Judah, Usya, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

Now again, that's easy enough to read, but if we, and I know I have often read that type of thing, and if I don't get a frame of reference of some type, then I'm not understanding exactly what kind of setting was Isaiah preaching in. What setting was he in? And actually, you see a listing here of four different kings who were sequentially kings who ruled in the nation of Judah and who ruled in Jerusalem. So that's where they were. Now to go back and just rehearse very briefly, and I know many of you are very familiar with this, and yet it often helps me to get it in mind again. You know, the nation of Israel, it was all together during the time of Saul and David and then Solomon. That was about 120 year period of time the nation of Israel was together.

And of course, David's reign would be considered to be one of the highest pinnacles of that time.

Solomon certainly also had a great deal of abundance, a great deal of wealth, a great deal of favor, but he didn't turn out to be such a great king. Certainly not in comparison to his father David. But after Solomon, you have the division of the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah. And the nation of Israel was more to the north, and I believe at least at times their capital was in some area. I think there were other locations where it was kind of said to be a capital.

But always in the south part of what we think of as Israel today, the nation of Judah, the house of Judah with the city of Jerusalem as the capital, you know, that has always been identified in that location. So you do have the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah after the time of Solomon, which was in about 950 or so. That's a pretty round number. But David was around 1000 BC. And so 50 years later, around the time of Solomon, and then at the end of his reign, there was a division, and the house of Israel and the house of Judah existed. And whenever you read through the latter parts of Samuel and 1 Kings and 2 Kings, you find an entire history, at least a history of the people of God in Israel and in Judah. And you find the lines of the kings of Israel and the lines of the kings of Judah. And so that's where you would go.

If you wanted to study that part of the Bible, which again is a history of the people of God, the people that descended from Abraham, the people that came through as you go back after Abraham, but prior to David, you know, the people who were drawn out of the land of Egypt, the people who lived in the Promised Land and who were given a great deal of blessing from God. And yet, whenever we get to the time of Uzziah, Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah, this was actually down several hundred years later. And the dating, I have some dating here I'll give you, and you can look this up. I don't know if this is... it's probably not going to vary a lot, but it might vary a little bit, depending on what source you're looking at. But Uzziah was actually the longest ruling king in Israel. He ruled for 52 years. That's longer than David, longer than Solomon, longer than any of the other kings. And yet, Uzziah reigned from 807 to 756. You know, that was a period of over 50 years.

He, you know, had a relatively successful reign, although I don't know that you can say any of the kings of Israel or Judah would really be considered to be marvelous kings. You often find that the king was not very good. He did not lead the people toward God. He did not lead the people to obey God. And only do you, whenever there's some kind of reformation, some type of a revival occurs, do you see that the king and then the people were in a sense kind of drawn back to God. And you actually see that. I think Uzziah did some good things during that period of time.

You later see Josiah doing a pretty good job. And actually Hezekiah, we're going to talk about Hezekiah a little more. Hezekiah did. He would be considered a good king as the way, you know, you read it here in this history. But what I want to say about this is that between 807 and 724, so that's a span of, what, 75, 80 years, during that time is when Isaiah was called by God to be a prophet to the king of Israel, or excuse me, the king of Judah primarily, because he only dealt with Israel in a very faint way. He did it as, you know, as he might need to, but primarily his message was about Judah, and it was directed to the kings and the people of Judah. But during the time when he is giving these pronouncements or these messages or warnings to the kings of Judah, what's happening in Israel? See, again, the kingdom of Judah is to the south. It's where Jerusalem is, and then quite a bit to the south of that in the nation of Israel today. The nation of Israel was to the north of that. But what was going on while Isaiah was talking to the kings of Judah? Well, actually what was happening is that Israel was continuing to decline. They were continuing to further and further go further and further from God. They ultimately were going to be sent into captivity. They would be sent into captivity to the Assyrian army that would come and overthrow them. I believe the time frame of that would be 721 to 718 or so. Actually, some of that occurred even prior to that time because there were several deportations where Assyria would come down and take a grouping of Israelites away and then later fully overthrow them.

In 721 to 718. But during the time when Israel was taken captive by Assyria, Isaiah was speaking to these kings in Judah. He was telling them, you need to heed my warning. And actually, you find that Judah was spared because at times the kings would listen to what Isaiah had to say. Hezekiah certainly listened to what Isaiah had to say. I'd like for us to take a look at chapter 6. I know I'm going to be jumping around here in the book of Isaiah today, and I'll apologize to begin with for that. But I don't see another way of trying to cover this, at least in a short period of time. But in Isaiah chapter 6, you actually find, even though there is an introduction here of the first five chapters, which in many ways outline what Isaiah's message was, you see it a little more directly here in Isaiah chapter 6.

And so I want us to take a look at that to begin with here. In Isaiah chapter 6, you see an account of his calling, his vision of the throne of God, and certainly it clearly appears to be somewhat like the apostle John would later have a revelation of that throne. Here in chapter 6 verse 1, it says, in the year that King Uzziah died.

So clearly this was at a time, so it was barely into Uzziah's reign that Isaiah was starting his prophetic work. He says, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lofty, and the hem of his robe filled the entire temple.

And seraphim were in attendance around him. Each one had six wings, and with two wings they covered their face, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one call to another, and said, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. You know, this is a vision that Isaiah had. See, now God did not directly send these visions to the kings. He sent them, in this case, through this prophet. And as I mentioned, or I should have mentioned, Hosea was also a prophet pretty much around this same time, same time frame you see is written for Hosea. But what Isaiah is writing down, a recording here, is what he saw. See, he was given a vision of the throne of God. And we see that even more clearly described in Revelation chapter 1 and in Revelation chapter 4. See, those are really graphic descriptions of what John saw, because it was a little more elaborate. And, you know, there was a sea of glass and a crystalline sea around, and, you know, a green emerald rainbow. And you find numerous other creatures mentioned there, the living creatures, and the 24 elders, and the angelic hosts who were continually praising God. This was, in essence, the same vision that Isaiah was given. And it says, as he realized, you know, it says, the smoke filled the room or the house. And verse 5, he said, Woe is me! I am lost, for I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, yet my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. See, this is what Isaiah was thinking. This is what he was realizing, that as this vision opened up to him, and as God would begin to work with him and to cause him to actually do a mission that God was calling him to, he says, well, look, you know, I'm a sinner.

I'm not the type of pure individual that you might need for any type of work. And here in verse 6, it says, And one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. And he touched my mouth with it, and he said, Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed, and your sin has blotted out. And so again, somewhat of an unusual activity, I would guess we would say, you know, and yet what was it signifying? What was that to portray?

Well, it wasn't that Isaiah was, you know, therefore never sin again. It was simply that God was pointing to him, well, you know, I use human beings. I'm able to forgive their sin. I'm able to blot those out. And I certainly am wanting to work with you, Isaiah. And so in verse 8, when I heard the voice of the Lord saying, or then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, well, who should I sin? Who will go for us? And in verse 8, Isaiah somewhat reluctantly says, well, here I am, sinned me. Somebody's red truck, Mr. Brannon, has the, he thought we'd be able to get out of church at 3.30. And he set the alarm to go off at 3.30. Anyway, you know, for those of us who were already asleep, now, put away. Oh, it's even, he's bringing it toward us so that all of us, my wife had an incident the other day. She doesn't go very far usually in the car, and often not with without me, but at times she does. And she called me frantically the other, how do I stop this stupid buzzer? And I told her, I don't really know. I hope you can start punching the other buttons. And eventually somebody helped her get it turned off. But, you know, sometimes those are quite cagey outfits that they put on these cars. And it's hard to, I mean, unless I'm looking at mine, which I, you know, commonly would look at, I can't even tell you what to do. And you don't know. But thank you very much. We all appreciate your efforts to bring peace and to our setting. We just thought we were having peace. That wasn't like the missile defense system over in Israel that's going off all the time. You know, that could be a reminder. Let's see, where were we?

In verse 8, you know, God says, well, who am I going to send? And Isaiah said, well, look, I'm standing here. You've just told me, you know, I've been, my sins are bonded out.

I guess I'll go. I mean, it doesn't seem like he's the most, you know, receptive observance.

But at least, you know, he was realizing, and he's recording this, of course, I'm sure later, that that's what happened. I was somewhat volunteered by God approaching me in this way. And of course, what else was I going to say? But in verse 9, and on down here through the remainder of this chapter here of chapter 6, you see some very revealing things about what God was going to send Isaiah to tell the people of Judah and the King of Judah. He said, go and say to the people, keep listening, but do not comprehend. Keep looking, but do not understand. Make the mind of this people dull and stop their ears and shut their eyes so that they may not look with their eyes and listen with their ears and comprehend with their minds and turn and be healed.

Now, that sounds like a very unusual statement to make to Isaiah. And yet, in essence, what God was doing, maybe even far more than what needed to be done right then, he was setting things up for what hundreds of years later would become much more clearly written about whenever Jesus came to the earth and the disciples would ask him, well, you know, how come, you know, we can understand some of what you're saying and the others don't seem to be understanding. Their ears and eyes seem to be stopped. And of course, Jesus would tell them about the blessing, the blessing of God's calling and of opening eyes and ears and enabling comprehension and enabling conversion.

This was in a sense a predecessor to that. And of course, the people there in Judah, they didn't hear, they didn't comprehend, they didn't fully understand the messages, even that Isaiah would bring. But what God told him is that I'm going to send you and they're not going to listen to you. That doesn't seem like a very easy way to give a message, that you know that they're not going to want to hear what you have to say. And so he says in verse 11, well, how long do I need to do that? And he said, well, until cities lie waste without inhabitant in houses, without people, and the land is utterly desolate, until the Lord sends everyone away, and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land. He says, actually, there's going to come a time here in Judah. You, as a servant and prophet in the nation of Judah, you're watching what's happening in Israel. See, Israel was close enough to where they knew a lot about what was going on. Of course, they were a brotherly nation, and they certainly had other relatives who even lived in this nation of Israel. But this nation of Israel was sometimes even at war with the nation of Judah. And so there was conflict, and there was, I'm sure as Mr. Parks covered, there was jealousy, there was envy, there was strife. And yet other nations were also the enemy as well.

And right now, the house of Israel was in essence being overtaken. And what God was telling Isaiah, well, you're going to give a message. They're not going to really understand it. And ultimately, and of course, this was going to happen in another hundred or 125 years, you too are going to be in captivity, because that's what this is describing in verse 11 and verse 12. You're going to go into captivity, just like Israel has now or is now going into captivity. So I think it's good for us to be able to see. I want us to back up then, because in the first five chapters here, you see somewhat of a summary of an overview of the messages that Isaiah was able to give. And as we've said, he's given this over a number of years and with a number of kings. And in some ways, he's giving the same message. And at times, he is to give specific information. But all of that information was not only for them there at that time, but it's for the descendants. Whenever you see Jerusalem mentioned, you're often that statement about Jerusalem or the people of Jerusalem is often referring to the people of Israel in general. And of course, there are people of Israel scattered around the world today and primarily in what we know of as the United States or the British Commonwealth of the past or the English-speaking peoples around the world.

That's where Israel has ultimately ended up. And yet, they also need to heed this kind of message. And clearly, for the house of God today, for the church of God, for the Israel of God, which would be those of us who wish to be in that category as God has drawn us to be a part of His church, these messages are clearly applicable to us personally. And of course, we're also going to be projecting on into the nations as we see the end of the age coming.

So I want to look here in Isaiah chapter 1, you have information that is very revealing because you find, in a sense, somewhat of a pattern in what Isaiah states. He often is pointing out why people are in the mess they're in. And of course, it's because of sin, because of not obeying God. The way he describes that, you can see a description of the world we live in today.

And of course, he also tells them what to do about it and then how they can be delivered. I want to point that out because deliverance is a primary theme of the book of Isaiah.

Even though it's about, you know, you should turn from your sins, you should obey God, you should repent, you should look for the mercy from God, you should look for the deliverer, and you can look forward into the world to come. That's what Isaiah is going to be able to project.

And we need to keep in mind that deliverance is a central aspect of what? Because, you know, there are many, many chapters in the book of Isaiah that are very uplifting, very positive, very hopeful, very exciting because it is such a far-ranging book. And again, this is not just simply what Isaiah happened to come up with, but what God inspired him to speak or to say at different times, what he allowed him to see, and clearly what he wrote down, that whether it was covered then or whether it was yet to be covered, because he uses the terminology, and these are phrases that you see indicate a future fulfillment of some of the same things that are described when he uses the terms in days to come. In that day, on that day, the day of the Lord is near. All of those phrases are indicating something yet in the future, indicating even for us, we read the same type of thing in Joel and in other of the minor prophets as well, in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. But here in chapter 1, verse 4, he's describing the wickedness that he's seeing there in the people of Judah. He says, O sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, offspring who do evil children, who deal corruptly, who have forsaken the Lord, who have despised the Holy One of Israel, who are utterly estranged, why do you seek further beating? Why do you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints from the soul of the foot, even to the head. There is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds. They have not been drained or bound up or softened with oil. See, this is his description and somewhat of a graphic description of the the effect of sin on the society there at that time of the people of Judah.

And as we think about it today, of the people of Israel today, we drop on down. Let's see. You see, actually, you see a description in, let me see if I can find where I can best pick this up.

He says in verse 12, when you come, okay, he's telling them, you know, your sins or what is a response, is responsible for your not receiving God's direction and blessing. It says in verse 12, when you come to appear before me, who asks this from your hand? Trample my court no more. Bringing offerings is futile. Incense is an abomination to me. New moons and Sabbaths and calling of convocation, I cannot endure the solemn assemblies with iniquity. See, he was telling them that, well, you may be saying that you are trying to follow God or you're trying to honor the Sabbath, trying to worship God, but if you're doing that with iniquity, he says in verse 14, your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates. Now, that's not God saying that the new moons or don't need to be understood and that the Sabbaths don't need to be observed. He says, the way that you're observing it, the way you're doing it is abominable. He goes on to say in verse 14, you have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you even though you have made prayers. I won't listen. Your hands are full of blood. See, this is an appeal that he was telling them that, look, you're the people of God. You should respond to God's direction and to his words. And yet, when you don't do that, you know, it's just horrible. But he does tell them, though, what to do. He tells them what to do as it starts in verse 18. He says, what you need to do is repent. Wash yourselves in verse 18. Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your doing from before your eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Seek justice and rescue the oppressed and defend the orphan and plead for the wicked or the widow.

Come now, let us argue a reason that out says, the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow. Although they are red with crimson, they shall be called or become like wool. See, he was saying, as you repent, as you acknowledge your part in sin, well, then God would be very merciful and God would actually forgive.

And actually, when you look on down into the latter part of the chapter, he's talking in verse 24, therefore says, the sovereign, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel. And he uses that kind of terminology, the holy one or the mighty one of Israel, because God is the one that needs to be respected. He's the one who was their God, and they should understand that. But he says, I'm going to restore in verse 26 your judges and your counselors, and afterwards you shall be called a city of righteousness, a faithful city.

Zion shall be redeemed by justice and those in her who repent by righteousness. But he says, rebels and sinners shall be deserted or destroyed together for those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed. That's in verse 28. See, he's actually, in a sense, summarizing much of what he's going to elaborate on, more so throughout the remainder of this, the entirety of this book.

So as he points out, sin's a problem. You need to repent. You need to turn from that sin. You need to recognize it and yield to God. And you actually need to see who the deliverer is. He mentions there would be restoration, and yet ultimately the deliverer is written about, of course more so throughout the rest of the book. In chapter 52 and 53, again, not verses that I plan to go over, but those are verses we've gone over a great deal, and they describe the deliverer, the deliverer Jesus Christ, who would come the first time as a suffering servant.

But they also describe the deliverer who will come not only as a sacrifice and a suffering servant, but will come as the ruling king to set up the kingdom of God. All of this is a part of what Isaiah is writing down, and of course, for the people who were going into captivity. This was not going to be recognized by them. It's going to be down the line. It's going to be down the generations into our day-to-day, where we will see these things ultimately come to pass, and yet long ago God predicted that they would occur.

And as I mentioned in Isaiah 2 or 11 or 35, all of those chapters, beyond the destruction, beyond the captivity that Israel and Judah were going to go into, there was a bright hope, and that hope was the kingdom of God being set up. I think it's exciting to see, and this is toward the latter part of the book of Isaiah. Actually, I guess I could also mention there is some dispute over the book of Isaiah, because some want to say that Isaiah couldn't have written that.

But of course, we believe, and I certainly do believe, that Isaiah was under God's inspiration to be able to write what was going to happen several centuries after he would say it or after he would write it down. And yet, there are kind of sections that you see here in Isaiah, and there are some who say, well, it looks like somebody else wrote some of this information.

And yet, in answer to that, I would tell you that information from each one of the sections, there are three sections that you can read about if you read the studied book of Isaiah and the criticism that is made of the book, you can see that there are three sections, and yet, all three of those sections are quoted in the New Testament, and they are all in the New Testament attributed to the prophet Isaiah. And so, I would tend to rely on what the New Testament says, rather than what the critics might want to conjecture.

And yet, that, of course, I think, gives us even more insight into understanding how God put this together. But in the very last section, as last section in Isaiah is from chapter 40 on to the end of the book, you see some amazing descriptions of not only the deliverer, because that's where chapter 52 and 53 are, and 54 and 5 as well, because they're describing a covenant of peace that Christ is going to also come, or he's going to bring him, but you also find some graphic descriptions of how powerful God is.

In essence, Isaiah was telling the people of Judah, you're not relying on God, but you need to know how powerful He is, and how that He is working out a plan. Let's look at Isaiah 45. Go over a couple of pages here. Isaiah 45. There are actually some remarkably wonderful segments that we can read in these chapters here around 45 and 46, 55, even to the very end here in 61, that point out how God is ruling over the kingdoms of men, how that He had drawn Israel together.

He was the one who had started to work with Abraham. He did that by calling him, by choosing him, by giving him, in essence, an opportunity to follow God. And, of course, that's where the house of Israel came from. But here in Isaiah 45, you see many statements that Isaiah is writing and actually making a prediction or a pronouncement about God, about how powerful He is, about how He is able to deliver, about how He is able to comfort.

Here in Isaiah 45 verse 5, He says, I am the Lord, and there is no other. Besides Me, there is no God.

In verse 6, so that they may know from the rising of the sun and from the east, there is no one beside Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. See, this is, in a sense, a statement, a proclamation of God's great power, His influence, His creation of the earth, His creation of man, His design of putting men on earth for a reason, and, of course, that He can deal with and work with men as He chooses. Let's drop down to verse 11. Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, the Maker, will you question Me about My children, or will you command Me concerning the work of My hands? Do any of you, any of us today, or any of those back in Judah, we have any business trying to tell God what to do? He says in verse 12, I made the earth. I created the earth. I created mankind upon it.

It was My hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all of their hosts.

We drop down to verse 18. Thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, He is God, who formed the earth, and who made it and established it. He did not create it in chaos, but He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other. There are actually remarkable statements that you can read that Isaiah was inspired to write down just regarding how God rules over His own plan.

And of course, you can go to the end of chapter 46, where it says in verse 9, I am God, and there is no other. I am God. There is no one like Me. I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are yet done, saying, My purpose shall stand, and I will fulfill My intention. And in the latter part of verse 11, I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass. I have planned, and I will do it. See, whenever we read chapters that, you know, you wonder, well, how could that be applicable to the people then and to us today? Well, of course, it's telling us how grand God is, how glorious His planning, His purpose, His reason for the earth, His reason for men being created in this clay model that we live in with the hope and the destiny that we have of ultimately being able to have eternal life. Ultimately be able. See, we don't have an immortal soul today, but God is offering us one. He's offering us immortality. He's offering us to be a part of His divine kingdom and His family forever. And that's what we find revealed in these different chapters here in this latter part of the book of Isaiah. Let's go over to chapter 51.

Chapter 51, verse 1, it says, Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, or to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who bore you. For he was the one that I when I called him, but I blessed him and I made him many. For the Lord will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places. He will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord. For joy and gladness will be found in her thanksgiving and the voice of psalm.

Even though God was saying through Isaiah that unless you turn, you're going to go into captivity. And of course, ultimately, they did. They went into captivity, but He says, I'll bring you out. I'll restore you. And certainly some of these verses appear to be dealing with what we even know is going to happen after Christ returns here in chapter 55. Chapter 55 verse 3 says, incline your ear and come to me. Listen so that you may live. I'm going to make with you an everlasting covenant. My steadfast, sure love for David. See, I have made him a witness to the people let me drop on down to verse 5. See, you who call the nations that you don't know and nations that you don't know shall run to you because the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, has glorified you.

Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake their way in the righteous, unrighteous, their thoughts. Let them return to the Lord that He may have mercy on them and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your way, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

See, He's laying out for them in a sense kind of an unachievable goal. And yet, as we read this, we can see, well, yes, men's ways, men's sins cut us off from God, but we can seek to have the thoughts of God. We can seek to have the mind of God. And of course, how we're going to do that is also revealed. If we turn on over to chapter 66 in verse 1, He says, As us says the Lord, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What is the house that you could build for me? What is my resting place? All these things my hand has made.

And so all these things are mine, says the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look.

And again, many of these are verses that we might have focused on or memorized, or at least known, or in the book of Isaiah. But we need to see them for what God is wanting us, how He wants us to respond to Him. He says, This is the one to whom I will look, to the humble, to the contrite in spirit, to the individual who trembles at my word.

He says, That's the type of individual that I am able to use. And if we back up to chapter 61, I kind of jumped over that, but I did want to read that.

I think we'll find that this section here in chapter 61 is one that we're familiar with, because it's quoted by Jesus. He actually was reading out of the book of Isaiah when he was in the synagogue. And He was saying some of these same words. Church chapter 61 verse 1 says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because the Lord has anointed me, He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord to display His glory. Now that's a statement that Jesus only read part of. He read the very first part of that where He initially came as the Deliverer in verse 1 and down in the very first part of verse 2, is all that He read because He had come to do a job. He had come to reach out to people to announce the Kingdom, but then He was going to show them that He was the author of mercy and love and caring and that He would ultimately later. He didn't explain that, but He also does explain here in Isaiah the day of vengeance of our God. That, of course, was talking about a time that was much later than when Jesus came 2,000 years ago, but one that we anticipate coming here in the very near future. A time when He's going to be restoring and taking away the mourning that is in Zion.

And you see a continuing description of this in verse 5. It says, Strangers, chapter 61 verse 5, shall stand and feed your flocks foreigners, shall till your land, but you will be called a priest of the Lord, and you shall be named ministers of our God.

You shall enjoy the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory.

See, He's talking of a predictive time. A time, yet in the future, a time that's described as the millennium, you know, where we are to be preparing for those days through our service, through our growing and overcoming and changing here and now. So, I think you can see from the verses that we've read, and then there are many others if you read through here, how that He points out there is coming a time of comfort. There is coming a time of hope.

And so it all is not doom and gloom, as I'm sure Judah received some of this information. If they received all of this information, you know, they didn't see the hope. And certainly even today, I don't know with the house of Judah, because primarily in the nation of Israel you have a Jewish people. Now, it's not for all of the Jewish people are, because they're scattered around the globe, but you do see, you know, many Jewish people who are there and have kind of come to journey to the nation of Israel. I don't know that they see the hope.

I'm sure, you know, they only see the distress. And yet, you know, what Isaiah is predicting is very hopeful. And yet, that hope is coming with the return of Jesus Christ.

I want to back up here a little bit, because you don't have a lot of information here in the book of Isaiah about him interacting with the kings. Much of it seems to be written kind of in a general way. But in Isaiah 7, you have been talking to Ahaz, and I'm not going to go into that one, because it's a, in a sense, Ahaz is just refusing to obey. He's refusing to acknowledge Isaiah's message. But I want to go to Isaiah 36. Isaiah 36 and 37 and 38 and 39 are illustrations that any of us can pretty easily read, and we can follow, because it's written in such a way, and actually, you find it also recorded in 2 Kings, chapter 18 and 19 and 20. You, in many ways, find a very similar account, some of it almost verbatim, because, of course, you know, God was the author of this, and he wrote it not only in the history, but he wrote it here in the book of Isaiah. And in chapter 36, you know, this again is dealing with King Hezekiah, the last of the kings that Isaiah would deal with. And it says in the 14th year of King Hezekiah, the king of Assyria, Sennacherib, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah.

He came and captured them. And if you read through this account, you'll find that, you know, he brings his army down, and he threatens the nation of Judah. He threatens Hezekiah, and he tells him, and he tells him when you read this, it wasn't just that he told the king, he told everybody who could hear. He not only wanted to terrorize them, he wanted to scare them to death. And of course, that's what Hezekiah realized whenever he had gotten this information.

And in verse 1 of chapter 37, King Hezekiah heard about this. He heard about the threats that were being made by, in this case, the king of Assyria. And I mentioned to you that Israel had fallen to Assyria, but Judah did not, at this time, and they did not even later fall to Assyria. It was going to be another 120 years before they would fall to Babylon. There was going to be a different ruler that they would fall to. But here in this case, you see Hezekiah consulting Isaiah. Verse 3, they said to him, thus says Hezekiah, this day is a day of distress, a day of rebuke, a day of disgrace. Children have come to the birth. There's no strength to bring them forth. It may be that our Lord, the Lord your God, will hear the words of Rabshakkah, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to mock the living God, and he will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, lift up your prayer for the remnant that's left. See, Hezekiah was doing the right thing. He was telling the people, we need to seek God's help. We've got a massive army here. It's going to turn out to be 185,000 soldiers, and they are threatening to overthrow us right now. In verse 5, when the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them in verse 6, Say to your master, thus says the Lord, Do not be afraid, because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. I myself will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land. I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. So here directly, as Hezekiah did seek Isaiah's help, and as Isaiah was asking God to tell them what should they do, you find that God was giving them an answer that, you know, well, we can't have this Assyrian king coming down and mocking the God of Israel. So in verse 8, you know, you see more of an exchange between the two. Actually, I guess you find, you know, more of a discussion here. But in verse 14 is what I want to also focus on, because this can be, I think, a helpful thing for us. Because we see a couple of different things here about Hezekiah and his interaction with Isaiah. As I told you, when he talked to King Ahaz, he didn't pay attention, he didn't obey, he didn't respond, he didn't want to have anything to do with Isaiah, and hence, you know, he ran into all kind of problems. Here in verse 14, King Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And then he went up to the house of the Lord, and he spread it before the Lord, and he prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who are enthroned above the carobim, you are God, and you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth incline your ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see, hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. And truly, O God, King of Assyria, truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all of the nations and lands, and have hurled their gods into the fire. Though they were no gods, but the work of human hands would and stone, and so they were destroyed. He was saying, Look, we know this huge army has been able to overtake other countries, and now they're threatening us. And so now, in verse 20, O Lord, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth shall know that you alone are the Lord.

In Isaiah 21, gave a reply from God. Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the Lord of God of Israel, because you have prayed to me concerning King Sennacherib of Assyria. This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him. She despises you, she scorns you, virgin daughter of Zion. She tosses her head behind her back, daughter Jerusalem. Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice? And so he goes ahead and he continues to say, Well, why should Assyria be so assertive? Why should they be so threatening? Why? Who gives them the right to come against the people of God? And of course, we're going to find in the conclusion of this, we drop down to verse 36, it says, In the angel of the Lord, set out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians, and when morning dawned, they were all dead. Sennacherib was trying to overthrow the God of Israel. He was trying to overthrow Hezekiah and Isaiah. And yet, when they appeal to God, when they turn to God for help, when they ask for assistance, you see that God intervened. And it's an amazing account that I think is really exciting. And also, it follows up on what Isaiah had earlier said in verse 37. King Sennacherib of Assyria left and went home. He went back where he lived in Nineveh, as he was worshipping in the house of his God, Nisrock, his sons, two different sons there, killed him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And see, this was what God had predicted, that Sennacherib would fall once he went back to his home. I don't know if I read that part of it, but that was also a part of the prediction that, well, I'm going to save Judah. I'm going to rescue them because of Hezekiah's diligence, and I'm going to encourage them with this rescue. So even though the nation of Israel had fallen, the nation of Judah, because they sought God, because they asked for help, because they appealed for mercy, and God intervened and restored them. In chapter 38, you also have an account of Hezekiah becoming sick. It says, in those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And the prophet Isaiah came to him and said, thus says, the Lord set your house in order that you shall die, you're not going to recover. Now, this is very bad news. You know, just because he had just seen God carry out what he had said and predicted would happen, as Hezekiah now was sick, he certainly didn't want to hear from Isaiah, a servant of God and a prophet of God, that he wasn't going to recover.

But in verse 2 it says, Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and he prayed to the Lord. And he said, verse 3, Remember now, O Lord, I implore you how I have walked before you in faithfulness with a whole heart, and I have done what is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

So here, in this case, we see a couple of examples that I say are recorded here in Isaiah, chapter 36 through 39 in this section. They're also recorded back in 2 Kings, chapter 18 through 20. Again, almost very identical accounts. And yet here you see verse 3, an appeal to God, an imploring of God to be merciful. And Hezekiah actually was a very good king. I mean, he did a lot of things that were upright and he led the people in a proper way.

And yet you also see that he had flaws. He was human and he didn't always follow God, as he said he really was trying to do. And perhaps that was intention.

But after he appealed to God here in verse 3 and verse 4, it says, When the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, he said, Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, I have heard your prayers, I have seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. And so you see God responding to Hezekiah's appeal, not only to save the nation from the great army, but in this case, from sickness. And he did again live for the next fifteen years before he would die.

And you actually see a little more of the follow up of this story there in chapter 39, because envoys from Babylon, this was of course a little bit later, they had come to visit Judah. And to see, actually see how it became somewhat of a famous healing, that they were aware that Hezekiah had been healed and restored and was continuing to rule his king. And Hezekiah made some errors here in that he showed them everything that he had, he showed them what the temple was like, he showed them what was there. God was not pleased with that. But you find that ultimately, let's see, here in verse 5 of chapter 39, hear the word, the Lord of Hosts, days are coming when all that is in your house and all that which your ancestors have stored up until this day are going to be carried to Babylon and nothing is going to be left.

So even though Isaiah wrote a lot about warning, he wrote a lot about repentance, he wrote and gave information that should be, I think, stirring to us today. He also told the people of Judah that you would fall not to Assyria, because he had saved them from Assyria, but to Babylon. And it was going to take a little more time. But again, that was a part of the prophetic statements that Isaiah, and you see this account, you don't see a lot of these type of chapters in Isaiah, and perhaps it is for us to read how it was that Hezekiah responded, what it was that he did, how it was he pleaded with God, how it was he sought God's help and God's intervention.

And then, as I mentioned earlier, go from chapter 40 on to the end. You see many, many chapters that deal with deliverance and with comfort. You actually see chapters that appear to be a judgment against different nations, many of the nations that were around the people of Judah at that time. And so, you know, I'm not going to try to go through all of those, but I will try next time to cover some of the information that we see recorded in the New Testament that actually quote what this prophet Isaiah had to say, because it is, I think, very uplifting, very inspiring to see how God was putting all of that together. But it is amazing to see how that the Word of God is used regarding the fulfillment of Jesus Christ coming as the Messiah. That's one of the things that you see very clearly. The second thing that I could mention is we read in chapter 6 that blindness was affecting Israel at the time. They didn't want to hear from God. They didn't like what God had to say, and that's certainly the way that many people are today. They're so involved, they may not even have any idea whether they're Israelite, whether they're non-Israelite, they may be completely unaware. And yet, it mentions that in the book of Isaiah. And last of all, ultimately, God is going to provide deliverance and comfort for not only Israel, not only the people of Israel and Judah, but for many, many and perhaps all of the nations. That's part of what we will see next time. Now, whenever He brings to pass what His divine plan and purpose is for the world, because He's projecting that into the world to come, He's projecting that into what we see described as the millennium and the world tomorrow.

So, if you are inclined to be reading through the book of Isaiah, I would hope that it would be beneficial to have some of this background information. And again, as I've mentioned, it is a book of warning, but in other ways, it's a book of comfort. It's a book of hope, because as we look at the world today, you don't see a lot of hope. And yet, it does have a great deal of hope in it. And we'll cover some of those things in the New Testament here next time.