Messianic Prophecies in Isaiah

Isaiah 7 and the Virgin Birth as a Sign to Ahaz

If you'll turn your Bibles with me, please, to Isaiah chapter 7, the book of Isaiah chapter 7. Before we look to the Word of God, let us ask one more time for the ministry of the Holy Spirit amongst us.

Our dear Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this opportunity that we have, the freedom that we have to possess your Word, to study your Word. And now we ask that you would help us to be obedient to your Word, that you'd help us to understand, that you would help us to hear its message and rejoice in what it teaches us.

We can only do this if your Spirit gathers with us, if your Spirit prepares hearts and minds. So be with us now to your honor and glory. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. Just given the way that the calendar worked this year, this Sunday falls right after Thanksgiving.

And that means the next time I have the opportunity to minister behind the pulpit will be right after Christmas as well. So my plan today is to look forward and look backward. Look forward this morning because I will not have opportunity to speak on the subject of the coming of the Lord until after at least what's supposed to be the beginning of a season of celebration and recollection.

Unfortunately, here in the West, it's a single day and that's it. You just get it all taken care of in one shot. We have other things we need to do, evidently. That's how our society works. But I have the opportunity to address that subject this morning somewhat in an anticipatory sense.

And then this evening look back upon the issue of giving of thanks. I don't know personally. It looks to me, as in our society, that Thanksgiving is simply being done away with. Stores are opening on Thanksgiving Day now.

You've got to rush to get to Black Friday on Thursday now. And let's be honest, how does a secular society give thanks anyway? Giving thanks requires an object. Giving thanks to nature or myself just isn't all that much of a reason for celebration anyway.

So it's not overly surprising that that's taking place. It makes me wonder if we shouldn't just sort of all ball it up together and have just a nice long season of Thanksgiving going directly into the giving of the sun.

I think that would be a good way of doing things. But something tells me most of the retailers are not going to be overly concerned about what I have to say. I wear bow ties, so it's sort of irrelevant to them.

But this morning what I would like to do, I think at some time in the past, maybe on a Wednesday evening, maybe even a Sunday evening, we've looked at some of this material. But I remain absolutely fascinated, especially being reminded of it at this time of year, of the supernatural character of the celebration of the coming of the Son of God.

What do I mean by that? I'm not saying that the day or something has been established by God. But the event was prophesied. And there's no question about this. I mean, the most radical skeptic, all they can do in light of the historical and biblical evidence, is to question the reality of the events of Jesus' life, because it's just too painfully obvious that there were words written minimally hundreds of years before the birth of Christ that the Gospels record as being perfectly fulfilled in the birth, ministry, death, resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And so what the radical skeptics do is they say, well, none of that actually happened. What happened is the Gospel writers looked at these ancient texts. They looked at Isaiah, and they looked at Zechariah, and they looked at Jeremiah, and they found these texts, and they cobbled them all together, and then they wrote a story to match what was in these ancient texts.

So they have to deny the reality of history. They have to turn history on its head, in essence, to get around the simple reality that even taking the most late dates for the writings of Isaiah, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that these words existed centuries before the time of Christ.

Even if they don't accept 700 years before Christ, which seems to be the best date for Isaiah, even if they want to make it 400 years, whatever, it's still centuries before the fulfillment of these words.

And so the anti-supernaturalist, the secularist, the materialist, who only believes that what you can measure and put on a scale or see under a microscope or through a telescope actually exists, has to come up with some way of dealing with the reality of the prophetic testimony of the Scriptures.

And you and I live so much amongst the materialists and the secularists that whether you like it or not, whether you like it or not, you have been influenced by that way of thinking to where every one of us has a tinge of embarrassment, a tinge of hesitation in making statements about the supernatural.

Part of it's because we're so embarrassed by some of the loons that inhabit the Internet and YouTube and quote-unquote Christian television networks who embarrass themselves and everyone else by their constant reference to the supernatural, even about things that are not supernatural at all.

I mean, when you've got people who are preaching out of Psalm 69 saying you need to send in $69, we end up having a bit of embarrassment that there are people like that, and we don't want to be seen like people like that.

And then those of you who work, for example, in engineering and the sciences and teach at universities, wherever else it might be, you know that there is a pressure upon you to not only not say anything about a belief in the supernatural realm or actually confess you believe in such thing as prophecy, that someone actually said what was going to happen in the future, but you know that there's a real pressure to not even believe that.

Even if you don't say it, there's even a pressure to, you know, if you believe that, maybe you're not really in the right area of work or something along those lines. And so I think it is good for us to be reminded of the fact that the New Testament writers leave us absolutely no escape from recognizing that what happened in the coming of Jesus Christ was exactly according to the eternal plan of God.

In fact, isn't it interesting, we just read in Acts chapter 15, and remember what James says, known to God are His works from eternity past. I mean, it's not like God is going, oh, well, you know, I've tried this and that's not worked out very well, and then I tried plan B, I'm down to about plan D, let's see if we can make this one work, I'm going to try another way.

No, that's not the God of the Bible. Just as in Acts 15, what James was saying was, hey, God has always said He's going to do this. Here it is prophesied in the scriptures, and God's going to bring in the Gentiles, and He's going to bless the Gentiles, and it's right there, it's been there the whole time, not sure how we didn't see it very clearly, but it's right there, and in light of what God's done, now we see it.

Well, I always remember what happens in Luke chapter 24. Remember when Jesus is walking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and He explains to them, and then He does it for the disciples themselves later on, explains from Moses all the way through the prophets the testimony of the scriptures concerning Him, that it was necessary that He die and be buried and rise again, and we get just a little bit of a glimpse, if we look carefully at Paul's writings, if we look carefully at Peter, if we look carefully at the book of Acts, especially in the sermons, we get an idea of what that intense biblical training was all about.

What texts did Jesus bring to the mind of the apostles? Well, you know, He certainly did Psalm 110, I mean, that's the one they quote most often. But there are all these others that we find scattered, sometimes in strange places, as we're going to see this morning, scattered through the text, and yet here we have an indication of the threads that were woven through the tapestry of the Old Testament revelation that Jesus pointed out, that in light of the resurrection, in light of the resurrection, that resurrection light provided the means to be able to truly see those woven fibers of truth.

That light had not been there before to be able to see with the clarity of looking back. You may have experienced something like this. I'm not doing as much right now, because it's cold in the morning all of a sudden, but especially during the winter season, the summer season, I'll get up very, very early, and I've taken up running, and so I'll go running along the canal near my house, and it's really interesting.

If I'm running away from the sun, then the light that I carry, it's pretty necessary to have, where I'm going to be stepping on rocks and turning my ankles or hitting cracks in the asphalt and things like that, and even though I'll turn away from the sun, I'll be running along, and then all of a sudden I get to the end where I'm going to come back the other direction, and I turn, and all of a sudden it's so much brighter, and my light just isn't really useful anymore, but sometimes I'll get down to the other side, and I turn back around again, and I need it again.

The light changes so radically during that period of time, from that early dawn where things are sort of blue, and it's sort of hard to tell where something is, your sense of depth is really off, but then as the light changes, all of a sudden you start to be able to see things you couldn't see before, and in the same way, the Old Testament prophets, they wove these fibers, these beautiful fibers of truth, but it's not until the light comes from another direction, it comes from a direction that they did not have, that you can actually see how they come together to form such a beautiful tapestry.

Isaiah 8 and the Stone of Stumbling

Now, how do I prove this to you? Well, I want to look at a text all the way from Isaiah 7 to 12, and I want to show you how the New Testament writers grabbed hold of these texts and used them in a fascinating array of ways.

Turn with me to Isaiah 7, you know the first one, chapter 7, verse 14. Verses 14 and 15, now this is in the middle of, and what's beautiful about this, all these texts are right in the middle of God dealing with his people in the days of Isaiah.

They had meaning. For example, the discussion of the child Emmanuel, go back to verse 10. Then Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign for yourself from Yahweh your God. Make it deep as Sheol, or high as heaven.

But Ahaz says, I will not ask, nor will I test Yahweh. Then he said, Listen now, house of David, is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men that you will try the patience of my God as well?

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Emmanuel. Emmanuel, as you know, means God is with us. God is with us. He will eat curds and honey.

At the time he knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken. So there is a historical context.

There is something going on with Ahaz and with the nations around, and God is saying, there is going to be a child born, and by the time that child is old enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

So there was an immediate application. We all need to recognize that. Sometimes when we make reference to prophecies of the coming of Christ, if we don't recognize what the background was, if we don't recognize it had a meaning at that time, sometimes a skeptic will come along, or an enemy of the faith will come along and say, you're ignoring that it had a meaning at that time.

No, we're not ignoring that it had a meaning. It had a meaning at that time. Every single thing we're going to look at in Isaiah had a meaning at the specific time it was said. That doesn't change the fact that we are able to trace those threads through these differing historical situations that God ordained, known to Him are His works from eternity past, that God ordained, and yet, together, they then produce something greater than any one of them did as a singular event or singular prophecy.

And so here in this situation, there would be one, and you'll hear everybody say, well, it doesn't necessarily, the Hebrew term doesn't necessarily mean virgin. It could just mean a young maiden or something like that.

And you know what? The Hebrew can be taken that way. However, when the Greek Septuagint was translated, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Greek translators chose a much stronger word. They chose a specific word, Parthenos, which can only mean a virgin.

And that is what is quoted by Matthew in the New Testament. And when the application is made, that's what the focus is. And so when you hear somebody say, well, it doesn't necessarily mean virgin, that's not relevant to the point.

The point is that you had a historical fulfillment at that time, and yet there's something greater once you see how all of these texts are connected together. Now, I'd love to spend more time on it, but we're actually going to sort of look at a number of texts and see how this section of Isaiah especially is extremely rich.

And unfortunately, most of the time when we study these things, we only look at one text and we go on to something else, instead of seeing the flow of thought and the connectedness that exists between these.

So, there's your first one in chapter 7. Then in chapter 8, we have another situation that takes place. Looking at beginning of verse 5. Again, Yahweh spoke to me further, saying, Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloh, and rejoice in Rezan and the son of Ramaliah, now, therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory, and it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks.

So here comes Assyria. We know that Assyria comes down from the north, and here's a prophecy of what's going on. But then notice, verse 8, Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, it will reach even to the neck, and the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land.

And then what do you have at the last? O Emmanuel. O Emmanuel? Wait a minute, we just had Emmanuel, back in chapter 7, and we know the phrase means God is with us, and now we have this prophecy, and Assyria is coming, it's going to sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, it will reach even to the neck, and the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, and who is your land?

Well, the one with whom God is with, O Emmanuel, the people of Israel. Okay, so we've got Emmanuel again, that's interesting. Continues on, Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered. Give ear, all remote places of the earth.

Gird yourselves, yet be shattered. Gird yourselves, yet be shattered. Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted. State a proposal, but it will not stand. For, now I'm not sure why all translations aren't consistent here, but the Hebrew is the same.

In the New American Standard it says, God is with us, but it's the Hebrew phrase, Emmanuel. O Emmanuel. For thus Yahweh spoke to me with mighty power, and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, You are not to say it is a conspiracy, in regard to all this people call a conspiracy.

For you are not to fear what they fear, or be in dread of it. It is Yahweh of hosts whom you should regard as holy, and he shall be your fear, he shall be your dread. Then he shall become a sanctuary, but to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike, and a rock to stumble over, and a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Many will stumble over them, then they will fall and be broken, they will even be snared and caught. Now, if you are a person familiar with the echoes of the Old Testament prophecies, the New Testament fulfillments, you're going, there's a bunch in there.

Because you probably, notice verse 13, it is Yahweh of hosts whom you should regard as holy. Where have you heard that before? First Peter chapter 3, verse 15. But you shall treat Christ as Lord, as holy in your hearts, always being ready to give an answer, for the hope that's within you, if anyone asks you.

It's that text about being ready to give an answer, and Peter's drawing directly from this text. Well, this text was something about what's happening in Israel. Yeah, it was. But the point is, he is able to pull from this text, and to say that we as Christians are to treat the Messiah as Yahweh, and sanctify Him in our hearts, and he quotes directly from here.

And then what's the very next two lines? Is it not what Paul utilizes when he talks about a stone of stumbling? That's a scandal on. But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over, a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, many will stumble over them, then they will fall and be broken, they will even be snared and caught.

This is the reference to the fact that, for example, Paul says the Corinthians, that the preaching of the message is a scandal on. It's something they trip over. It's something they fall over. Elsewhere it talks about the rock that crushes.

This is what God's intention was to crush, because only in that crushing can there come healing. So here you've got two different apostles, Peter and Paul, drawing from the same text, making New Testament application, in their day, within this same concept, of not only Emmanuel, but what we're going to start seeing, is we're going to start seeing this remnant.

The remnant that God is going to draw back. And here we start reading the same thing, about, well, God is with us, but God is going to be gathering together people. And then look just down, two more verses of verse 18.

Three more verses. Behold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me, are for signs and wonders in Israel, from Yahweh of hosts who dwells on Mount Isaiah. Where have we heard that one before? That's from Hebrews chapter 2.

There the writer applies, behold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me, is in reference to Jesus, and the fact that He is our elder brother, in the sense that He has entered into flesh, and He is not ashamed to call us His brothers, because He has truly entered into flesh, and He has brought about the salvation of God's people.

And so, whoever wrote Hebrews, if it was, as I theorize, a sermon from Paul, written down by Luke, or someone else, the point is, they saw this text, as having rich messianic meaning, and yet it had meaning to the people of their day as well.

But only in that brighter light, that unique light that comes from the incarnation, and the ministry of Christ, and especially the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, are you able to see how these things relate to one another.

So, without a question, we see that this section of Isaiah, and especially this chapter here, drawn from, repeatedly, by New Testament writers, in what seem to us to be very different contexts, an application made specifically to whom?

To Jesus. Behold, I am the children whom Yahweh has given me. This is in reference in Hebrews 2 to Jesus. Well, let's... Is this just... Well, maybe it might work out that way. Well, you already know it's not just fortuitous, because if that's chapter 8, you already know what chapter 9 is, right?

Pretty easy to remember. Chapter 9, verse 2. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. Where do we hear that? Both Matthew and Luke.

Quote that text in regards to what? To the coming of Jesus. The angelic visitation. The announcement of the birth of the Messiah. The fulfillment of the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah. This great light that has shined in the darkness.

And so here you have it in chapter 9, and it doesn't stop there, because as you know, it goes on to say in verse 6,. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness. From then on and forevermore, the zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.

One of the greatest messianic texts in the Old Testament. I mean, it literally challenges our mind to recognize the depth of the theology that is present in the titles that are given to this one. This child will be born to us.

That's the standard word for child. The standard word for a child being born. And yet a son will be Nathan. Nathan means to give. Will be given to us. Seems in the high context of Isaiah that you have a picture here anyways of the true humanity of Christ.

A child will be born. Standard terminology of any other child that's ever been born. And yet a son is given. The son given to us. Father, Son and Spirit all involved with that, by the way. And the prophecy of the fact that he will have a kingdom.

He will be called Wonderful Counselor. He will be called El Gabor, Mighty God. He will be called Eternal Father. Never let yourself, as we've said many times before, get tripped up by that. Father, Son and Spirit are New Testament revelations.

Father in the Old Testament normally refers to the one who makes, creates, orders. And so, have we not all one Father? Meaning, have we not all one Creator? And so, when the Son is identified as Eternal Father, that's not a confusion of the persons of the Trinity.

Instead, I see that as a fulfillment of Colossians 1. For by Him were all things made, whether in heaven or on earth, visible or invisible, principalities, powers, dominions or authorities, all things created by Him, for Him.

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. That's the description of Jesus, and that's a very apt application of this Hebrew phrase, Avi Ad, the very Father of Eternity. He is called the Prince of Peace.

How is true shalom provided to us, except in the work of Jesus Christ? And justified by faith we have peace with God. And there will be no end to the increase of His government. And God is going to fulfill this.

The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish these things. And He will establish justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. These are incredible descriptions of the work of the Messiah. And yet, they're found right here in chapter 9, and within just a few verses of the description of the coming of the Messiah in His birth.

And so it's impossible for us to not recognize the connection. Child born, Son given, light has dawned. Here we clearly have 700 years before the birth of Christ. The prophecy of not only His birth, but of His character and what He would accomplish.

Now, do I need to even mention that all of this requires us to have a fundamental recognition of God's sovereignty over human affairs and over time itself. I mean, none of what I'm saying here would make any sense to an open theist.

Remember what an open theist is. An open theist is a person who believes that God only knows what He's going to do in the future, but He doesn't know what we are going to do in the future. So when God created...

I always see people chuckle when I say that, but if some of the people I've debated, including open theists, they would just probably weep a tear if they saw you laughing at them. But that's what they believe.

But they couldn't see that coming, by the way. Because honestly, they honestly believe that when God created the heavens and the earth, He did not know you would exist. He did not know you would exist.

He couldn't have known you would exist. Because what are you? You are the end result of free choice, free decisions by free creatures over generation, after generation, after generation, after generation.

And that's the one thing they can't say God could know. Because if God knows what free creatures are going to do, then they're not really free, from their perspective. And so He could not know that you would ever exist, because you might not have.

And so the cross is something that God designed as a remedial device only after trying numerous other things. God's doing His best, you might say. But an open theist can't even begin to enter into our conversation, our discussion.

Can't even go there. You might say, well, why would they want to? They're not Christians, right? Oh, no, there are many people who call themselves Christians who present open theism. In fact, just, I don't know how many, what, a decade or so ago, a little over a decade or so, the Evangelical Theological Society tried to kick all the open theists out.

Most of them had resigned already, but they tried to kick them all out and failed. They weren't able to do it, by vote. So, yeah, they're still out there, and unfortunately they're teaching in a lot of seminaries.

But they really can't enter into this. They don't have a basis, because unless God has a sovereign decree that He's accomplishing in this world, everything we're talking about here, there's no basis for prophecy.

Or at the very least, you have to say, wow, God was really lucky to make this all work, because He could have messed up over and over and over again. But the fact that He didn't mess up means that there is a divine decree, and that is what is being referred to in verse 7, the zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.

So, chapter 7, Emmanuel. Chapter 8, Emmanuel. Chapter 9, the mighty God, the eternal creator, the Prince of Peace. Alright, so we have all of these, and chapter 9 continues with further relevant prophetic words about what was happening in the days of Isaiah, or coming after the days of Isaiah.

It had meaning at that time, and then you know what happens in chapter 10. Chapter 10 is that incredible section about God bringing Assyria against Israel, and then judging Assyria. Tremendous text on what's called compatibilism, the appropriateness of God's sovereign decree, and man's responsibility.

And we've preached on that one a number of times before, but then notice what happens after that section, beginning in verse 20. Now, in that day, Isaiah chapter 10, verse 20, Now, in that day, the remnant of Israel and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.

A remnant will return. The remnant of Jacob to the mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant within them will return. A destruction is determined overflowing with righteousness.

Now, again, there is an immediate fulfillment of this in history. We know about the taking of the people into captivity, and the 70 years, and Nebuchadnezzar, and all the rest of that stuff, and then what happens when they come back.

We just went through Nehemiah recently. We know all about that. We know about the historical fulfillment. But there is much more to that. Because notice it says, they will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.

How is there a true faith in Yahweh? What is the fulfillment of that? Well, that phrase, a remnant will return. That's the exact terminology that the Apostle Paul uses in Romans 9 and Romans 11 to describe the elect of God.

That remnant people, that specific people that are the object of His grace, His mercy, this is the very terminology that is used. And, of course, we know that the teaching is that in that revelation, in the coming of the Holy Spirit, in what we've seen in the incarnation of the Son of God, you have something special taking place.

And we come to know our God in a special way because He has revealed Himself in and through Jesus Christ. And so here in chapter 10, we continue to have these texts provided to us that use this terminology.

And then, chapter 11, verse 1. Remember, all the chapter and verse divisions came much, much later. There weren't any chapter and verse divisions in the days of Jesus or the Apostles. So we're just seeing these threads through this whole section.

Chapter 11. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of Yahweh.

He will delight in the fear of Yahweh, and He will not judge by what His eyes see nor make a decision by what His ears hear. But with righteousness He will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth.

And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also the righteous will be the belt about His loins. Righteousness will be the belt about His loins, and faithfulness the belt about His waist.

Who is this? Well, we're going to continue on in Isaiah later on and see this particular thread of truth become extremely clear in the instructions about the servant of Yahweh. So much so that you end up with the servant where?

Beginning chapter 52 into Isaiah chapter 53 and those explicit, explicit prophecies about crucifixion that we see over in Psalm 22. But in Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah chapter 52, this servant. And so we have righteousness and we have He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth.

Who is the one who rules the nations with an iron rod in the book of Revelation? It's Jesus Christ Himself. And we have Him as the judge of all people. And He is the source of righteousness. Righteousness will be the belt about His loins.

Faithfulness the belt about His waist. Where do we even have divine saving faith? It comes from the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so He is the shoot that springs from the stem of Jesse.

And the Jewish people in the intertestamental period, the period between the Old and New Testaments, they looked at Isaiah chapter 11 and they were looking for the Messiah here. They saw this as messianic.

There is a special one that the spirit of Yahweh will rest upon Him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength. Was He not called Wonderful Counselor in the only two chapters earlier in chapter 9?

You see how these threads, they are woven together. These terms, remnant, faith, righteousness, stem of Jesse. This one who is going to come who is going to be Mighty God. And I just realized that I skipped something.

I forgot. I was going to mention it to you. But let me just mention back in chapter 10 verse 21. I just want you to see this connection. It said a remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.

Where have we seen Mighty God before? That is the exact same Hebrew term, El Gabor, that is used prophetically of Jesus in Isaiah chapter 9. Why do I say that? Well, if you should happen to have a conversation at a bus stop or on the train or you are walking into your favorite grocery store and there are those folks and they are passing out their watchtowers and awake magazines.

And maybe they bring up Isaiah 9. I don't know. They might say to you, well, El Gabor doesn't really... It could mean Mighty Warrior. Well, I suppose you could stretch it that far if you wanted to. There is just one little problem.

Right here in chapter 10, which is only one chapter later, it says they will truly rely on Yahweh. Yahweh, and in their translation, the New World Translation, it will specifically say Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, a remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.

Who is the Mighty God? Yahweh. So within one chapter, you have the exact same phrase. And it is not about some Mighty Warrior. It is about Yahweh Himself. And of course, as we are tracing this through, and it is not like you necessarily have the time at a bus stop to start back in chapter 7 and start tracing these things through, but you never know.

You would be able to build a very strong case by saying, do you see what is happening here? Do you see the consistency of the terms that are being used here? And who knows? That may be exactly what that Jehovah's Witness needs to hear.

Then back in chapter 11, verse 10, that in that day the nations will resort to whom? The root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious. Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover, the second time in His hand, the remnant of His people, who will remain from Assyria, Egypt, Pathos, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

And He will lift up a stand over the nations, and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Now, again, when we keep seeing, even at the end of the chapter, verse 16, and there will be a highway from Assyria for the who? Remnant of His people, who will be left, just as there was for Israel, in the day they came up out of the land of Egypt.

Again, historical fulfillments, historical promises, but they clearly point to something much greater, because you see the consistency of the author tying together these themes. God is with us, Emmanuel, the root of Jesse, the one who will come, who will be wonderful counselor, mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace, the gathering of the remnant from all over the world, the fact that there is going to be righteousness established, true peace established.

Is it any wonder that the modern skeptic has to do everything he can to try to drive the biggest wedge possible between what we know. I am so thankful that we have the Dead Sea Scrolls. Have you ever thought, have you ever thanked God for the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Somebody did, good, so have I. You know why I'm thankful for the Dead Sea Scrolls? Because up until their discovery, the most ancient Hebrew text we had were about 900 years after Christ. Now, what if we didn't have the Dead Sea Scrolls?