Isaiah Lesson 13

Welcome to lesson 13. Can you believe this is already the 13th week and we're just entering the 7th chapter? So if someone do the math they're 66 chapters.

By the time President Trump gets reelected in 2024, we should be done. Yeah. There you go.

True. Not over yet. That's right John. Would you open us in a word of prayer?

Father God there is a amazing promise that's given That the Messiah will come and as we are able to look at the prophecies of the virgin birth and Realize that you are not only sovereign, but you're true to your word.

I Pray father that your Holy Spirit would speak through Jeff and that our hearts would be opened to grow in it. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

The Prophecy of Bethlehem and the Reliability of Scripture

Amen, when I was in college, I took a class on.

The Bible.

Sounds good, right? Trouble is I was at Eckerd College, which was a liberal arts school and it was in their religious studies program and so this professor who is actually very winsome and everybody loved him was influential in my life and It got to the point where I was about ready to abandon not the faith.

But the doctrine of inerrancy my whole faith was was on shaky ground so one night I just Went to the Lord instead of this professor and I prayed and I said Lord if this word is true Show me and I just let the Bible fall open and it fell open to Micah 5 2 which is the prophecy of Jesus being born in Bethlehem and I knew at that time No, this word is true because only God can tell the future and it confirmed my faith and then I became basically a warrior For the truth for the rest of my college years and ended up having to.

I was a quote-unquote student ministry coordinator on Campus and I resigned that because the same professor was doing interfaith Thanksgiving. Which was Muslims Christians and Jews all coming together to do a joint Service as if it was all the same God and the Lord opened my eyes that this this guy was a deceiver.

But he did that through the word. So the word can be a protection to us this morning, well, it's almost afternoon this afternoon now just after 12 We are looking at a different passage Isaiah chapter 7, but the 14th verse has a similar prophecy not The birthplace but that Jesus would be born to a virgin.

The virgin birth is in Isaiah 7 14. So exciting things. It's something that can be confirming to our faith that God has spoken this prophecy so many years before bringing it into Fulfillment, so let's let's get into Isaiah Chapter 7 here.

We have the prophecy of the virgin birth, but really before we get to the 14th verse there is so much interesting Interaction and material of things that are going on. So raise your hand if you do not want me to call on you.

No, you do not want to be a reader. Okay. I see a couple non-reader one was at the dentist so I can understand. That's not gonna go well. Yeah, we won't do that to you.

Yeah.

All right. So the first reader just the first two verses and we'll go kind of verse by verse. Isaiah 7 1 2. Sandy. Okay, so here we have a threat of war. To understand what the threat is and what the attack is.

We need to understand who these players are. All right, so you have basically three kingdoms and Two are allying themselves against the other the southern kingdom. This is the kingdom of Judah. Okay, Ahaz is the king at this point and we will say definitively.

He is a wicked Wicked man. In fact as I was studying him again and reminded of the things that he did I would say he's just as bad as Ahab and Jezebel. He is the worst of the worst. So in 2nd Chronicles 28 5 we learn about his idolatry.

Some of the things that he would do he would set up idols Under every green tree and on every high place. He also made idols to Baal and all of that idolatry. Even worse still he made his sons to pass through the fire.

What does that mean to make your sons pass through the fire? Yes, and not only making them dedicated to him by killing them Literally sacrificing them to to Baal. He killed his own children. That's how Demonic and demented he was in the worship of these these gods.

It was a stronghold over him. So this Ahaz is a wicked wicked player and he is the king of the good guys in the story. Okay, so the northern kingdom now is Led by the king Pekka. Probably not worse in terms of what he he stood for but he was now allying himself Pekka with a kingdom that is just north what what Sandy read from from what version you reading is that King James?

NAS yeah, it says Aram, which is a good translation, but Aaron core Aram corresponds to you're welcome Here I'm corresponds to Syria. So now you have Syria. Don't mistake that with us Syria that'll come into play later, but Syria is just north of the northern kingdom and there's an alliance formed between those two northern places and A has the king of the south.

All right, so a has again is a wicked king. He'll rule for 16 years prior to him. Jotham Was on the throne. Do you suppose? Jotham by the way was a good and righteous King who walked in the ways of David.

Do you suppose things prospered in Israel? Or do you think things were in Judah or were things bad under Jotham good under Jotham? Well, why is there a correlation between how wicked the king is or good the king is and the The people and the way things go.

Yes.

That is exactly right and that is Deuteronomy 30 28 through 30 and at the end of Leviticus as well. This is the arrangement part of the covenant that you have blessings and curses associated with obedience or disobedience.

So under Jotham things are going pretty well now, can we just make a one-to-one correspondence with America in that way?

No.

No, you cannot the the covenant that we have is not one-to-one with the covenant of Israel. Okay, that's important to understand. You can have a wicked king and That doesn't mean that the country is going to economically fail that we're gonna have all kinds of terrible disasters coming on it.

But the covenant that God made with Israel he made with Israel. Very important distinction, but here in this time you see that that is the case now. There are some there is some general equity if we do wicked things in the end.

Do we prosper or do we?

Fail.

Right wickedness will be judged, but it's very often a punishment in the next life and you'll see delay of God's judgment. You'll see just like in Habakkuk even in this country the wicked will prosper and Sometimes God will overlook that and judge in the end.

Okay, so you can't make the one-to-one comparison, but it's important to recognize here. You have a wicked king. So you're going to see Judgment. The nations will come and conquer unless mercy is granted.

So this is where we are in verses 1 2 you have an alliance a coalition. Coming against the southern kingdom. Verse 3. Kimberly. Isaiah is told to take his son Cherja shoot. Anybody know what that name means.

You probably have a note in your Bible. Do you know anybody have it. A Remnant will return. I like the way that Matthew Henry Describes Cherja shoot. He says he carried a sermon in his name. He carried a sermon in his name.

Cherja shoot means a remnant shall return now. The particular sermon is related to the context here because if we had time to read 2nd Chronicles 28 Which you can do later you would learn a few things about the sons of Ahaz.

First of all a has his sons. Were put to the fire right Luis. Which means he's lost his sons by killing them. Now his oldest son the one he would look to to be kind of his successor Was dead as well because in the judgment of God Israel and Syria have already sent waves of persecution and in one of those they killed his oldest son.

So what effect would this have on a has if Isaiah shows up to him? Now he's at the at this particular Fountainhead of this aqueduct the conduit from the upper pool to the washerman's field. Why do you think he's there?

The king is there to inspect the water source in case they're they're overrun. He's he's proud. That's a logical place to find him. So Isaiah goes and finds the king and He brings his son. His son has a sermon in his name.

A remnant shall return. What a beautiful picture of God's mercy here's why in the 28th chapter of 2nd Chronicles We learn that in the first raiding effort they did kill hunt over a hundred thousand of the Jewish people.

They also took 200 ,000 women and children mostly captive.

But.

When they were bringing them back to the north they were met by a prophet because even though the north was wicked and apostate there was still a remnant there and This prophet his name is Oded. Oded came out to meet them and he said you will not subjugate this people to slavery and.

Other righteous men in the north stood up and said you cannot do this. Who are you to take them as slaves when you're as wicked as them. Send them back. We're not bringing them here. And by the grace of God they prevailed and.

The.

200 ,000 captives a remnant.

Shall.

Return a sermon in the name this is the 200 ,000 people who would then be brought down to Jericho the city of palms and Return to the southern kingdom. So here comes Isaiah with a remnant shall return and it's not a message of judgment per se.

It's a message. God will be merciful to that remnant. The women and children this 200 ,000 think how many people that is. What a mass migration. Remember when Germany received all those hundreds of thousands of immigrants during the Arab Spring and all of that.

It's hard to receive that many people. Jericho is swamped with 200 ,000 people but then back into the land. God is merciful towards them here. So that's what sheer just shoo means a Remnant shall return.

I find it interesting that there is Isaiah with his son and There's a has with his.

Dead sons.

The difference I think would would there had to have been some kind of jealousy in A has his heart some sense of I need to listen to Isaiah because where did this get me sacrificing my sons to the fire?

Versus trusting God a remnant shall return. All right verses 4 to 6. Bob will forgive you. Yeah, this is quite amazing. A has wicked King or righteous King Wicked as the day is long. He is thoroughly wicked bad to the bone and.

Yet.

God in his mercy sends a prophet to say Do not fear a remnant shall return. He says be quiet. Do not fear. Do not let your heart be faint. There will still be a stay of judgment. There will still be some mercy in God's wrath.

He will remember mercy and withhold his judgment for a time at least from these two countries. All right, and this is one of the major Themes of the book of Isaiah. In fact when I was thinking about teaching Isaiah I almost preached it on Sunday mornings but we decided to do this and said the reason Isaiah was so much in my mind is because I thought about the eighth chapter and We'll see this next week in the eighth chapter God reprimands the people because they put their fear in the wrong place and In our country right now.

People are very anxious very afraid this there's never been a time in our nation's history at least since 1977 or since I've had memory That I've seen people so afraid there is just a spirit of panic in this nation but it's not a fear of the Lord and That's the problem in the eighth chapter.

He says do not call conspiracy everything that this people calls conspiracy and he says do not dread what they dread, but your fear shall be of me and That's what this nation lacks. That's what maybe us as Christians often laugh because we tremble at the wrong thing now.

There are reasons to be afraid of things. But our ultimate fear should be God and really not even afraid we can we can be wise to the things of the search. I'm coming to you, but our ultimate fear needs to be of the Lord rich.

Wow, yeah yes, if you're the one who can cast body and soul into hell and then in Isaiah 41 10 one of my Bible verses that I memorized as a kid. Maybe you did too fear not for I am with you be not afraid for I am your God.

I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you in my righteous right hand. This is one of the big themes of Isaiah. And so we're seeing it here. What what's the problem in verse 4? A has is trembling be careful.

Be quiet. Do not fear and do not let your heart be faint. This is a very prominent theme.

Syria and.

Afrain. Why do you think they would just conquer Judah? Most of the commentaries I read have said that it was probably because Judah was relying on a Syria and There in Aram and and some of the other countries there was developing an alliance That would stand up to a Syria.

And because Judah wasn't joining that they thought let's throw him out. Let's throw this king out and put in our guy. The son of Tabeel will learn is who it is. That would be with us to the son of Tabeel as king in the midst of you, so.

They would they would want somebody who could join there with their kind of resistance to the greatest Syrian Assyrian Empire in any case. This king a has is not trusting in God. But God is gonna be merciful anyway.

Verses 7 to 9.

Carol oh.

The NLT I actually do like the New Livings translation because it doesn't pretend to be word-for-word. It's a tool of kind of thought-for-thought Translation which can be a useful Useful tool whereas some other ones.

I always have to give a commenter. NASB is great. The problem with the NIV is it masquerades as more of like a loose translation, but it's it's not really.

Faithful yeah.

The needs improvement version. The NLT is helpful though. It's a good good tool good. Okay, wonderful, and it's a good pair for again. That's not a word-for-word translation and one of the points that you'll pick up here in the Hebrew.

You don't have Pekka. You don't have his name. He's just called the son of Ramallah and that's part of the point we learn at the beginning of the chapter who he is. This is Pekka. Which is the son of Ramallah and then time and again, he's just referred to as the son of Ramallah.

He's just that guy. You know just the son of Ramallah. It's not even using his first name. Because the point is he's just a man. This is the big idea. He's just a man not even called. He's merely a man and your faith and your fear needs to be placed in God.

The big idea here at the end of verse 9 if you are not firm in faith. You will not be firm at all meaning you will not be established. Faith is what establishes you before God. That's a secure place the firm place.

When you're walking by faith, you're standing and you're strong. But in fear you're trembling notice the the imagery back in verse 2. When the house of David was told Syria is in league with the frame the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people.

Shook as.

The trees of the forest shake before the wind. There's no firmness there. There's a shakiness. Well to be firm is a is a picture of faith to be firm in trusting God now interesting. Why the 65 years? We'll say that this prophecy happens around 735 in one commentary or 734 in another right about there in.

722 a.

Syria is going to wipe out the northern kingdom. But that's only 12 or 13 years to come. So why 65 years. Look at verse?

8.

The head of Syria is Damascus the head of Damascus is resin and within 65 years a Frame will be shattered from being a people. I found the answer to this in the Bible knowledge commentary, which is Dallas seminary is a great one.

And his name is John Martin who wrote this particular book. I have a quote for you in your notes. When a Syria conquered Israel in 722 Many Israelites were deported to other lands by a Syria. Okay, but see again.

That's only 12 or 13 years later. It's not 65 years later and when foreigners were brought into Samaria and Foreigners were brought in Samaria. However in.

669.

Many more foreigners were transferred to Samaria by Asher Bannipal king of Assyria. This quote-unquote shattered Israel making it impossible for her to unite as a nation or a people. Very interesting.

See if a vast majority of the people were carried off into captivity or killed. What was left in the land a remnant and a remnant can return? Out of a stump can grow a shoot Isaiah 11. So the destruction in 722 was not the final undoing of the northern kingdom.

Isn't that interesting? So what was the final undoing? Because the north will never regather as a people. As such they'll come back out of captivity from the south and then repopulate the whole land. But the north is kind of a lost tribe on ten lost tribes from this point in time.

Their undoing.

Was when they accepted and intermarried and became not a people you see that. Isn't that interesting? What's that? They became the Samaritans. Yeah, that's right. So according to John Martin, I think he's right.

It's it's this wave of people coming into the land. That intermarry with them and become a different people. That's what ultimately this prophecy is about. Isn't it amazing how precise our Bible is. Because there was this wave it said here that it was Ezra 410 where this this is noted.

So I didn't get a chance to look up that reference, but we can do that later. I think this is the idea here of people coming in and that's what what ruins it. Okay, Kristen in the back, would you mind reading 10 through 12?

Okay, Ahaz the wicked southern king king, right? He sounds pious here. He just quoted from Deuteronomy. Do not put the Lord your God to the test. But it is a feigned piety. Feigned it's not really piety.

This is a wicked wicked man, so wicked that he can quote the Word of God in his rebellion and to justify his rebellion because what are you to do when Isaiah a prophet of the Most High God who is commissioned by God by seeing God in the throne room and Chosen by God who am I who will go for me?

Here I am send me remember the commissioning of Isaiah from last week. What are you to do if he commands you to do something obey? Just do it. See look at this. This is not a suggestion again. The Lord spoke to Ahaz who spoke.

Yahweh Yahweh spoke.

So when Isaiah is speaking, this is Yahweh speaking and he doesn't ask him a question. What does he do? He issues a command verse 11 ask a sign of the Lord your God. Let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.

This is like Gideon. When Gideon asked the Lord and the Lord granted said yeah, I'll give you a sign throw down your fleece and It came back as a sign to him that God was with him. This was God's mercy to him, but all through this story Ahaz is nothing but wicked.

God is going to bless in compassion and mercy despite the wickedness of the king. Despite that he's a twister of God's Word. Remember the devil in Genesis 3? Very often what we're facing in our culture is False teachers who feign to be godly.

No one who who raises the black lives matter flag. Says I'm opposing righteousness and justice. They raise it in the name of social justice. But is it really justice? When the founders of a Patricia Cullors says she contacts demons to give her the power to do what she's doing.

She contacts demons. Saying their name means calling up the dead to give them the power. But it's masqueraded as righteousness. And it's not it's a it's a feigned piety and they even use the term justice, right?

Social justice. But it's a modification of biblical justice. Social justice is not justice at all. It's redistribution of wealth. It's Marxism. It's that the confiscating of property to redistribute to somebody else, but they use the biblical word justice.

Let justice roll down like a river. They will put that Bible verse on their foreheads. While they oppose the justice of God's Word. This is Ahaz. Quoting scripture to a prophet to tell him no it's it's complete defiance and.

Yet look at what comes next one of the most beautiful prophecies in the Bible. The prophecy of the virgin birth who gets the privilege to read this rich you up brother. And then go back and read all the way 13 to 16.

Because because the prophets gonna say all right, the Lord will give you a sign. You're not even you won't do it. Well, he's still gonna do it. Yeah. 13 to 16. All right, there are different paths through this passage different interpretations and I'm gonna take the third one.

I'll tell you to begin with the first one is the idea of this only.

Being.

Fulfilled in the near term. This would be kind of the Jewish interpretation those who reject that Jesus is the virgin-born Messiah. They would say well, there's there's near-term fulfillments here it has to it has to apply to Israel and Assyria and the boy and the king and Overthrowing and all of the the promises that are in context here.

Another interpretation the second one is that this only refers to Jesus because it refers to a virgin birth and he's the only one that was ever born of a virgin and The third interpretation the one that I take is that there is a near term and a far term fulfillment and It's fulfilled in slightly different ways.

The Hebrew word for virgin can mean young woman. Yes, Amma is the word. Yeah correct. Yes, okay, and there's a trend the reason for that in the Greek Septuagint, which was translated After I mean before the time of Christ, but after the writing of this.

The word for virgin that the Greek uses in the Septuagint can only mean virgin Whereas this original Hebrew word could mean young woman or virgin as we understand in English the word virgin. Okay, so that's where you get some of the the misunderstanding.

But it was actually God's providence that did that. In fact, have you guys heard about how the the Septuagint came about? Interestingly the the view and this isn't written in scripture, so we don't know for sure 70 Hebrew scholars from Alexandria were set out to translate it independently and they all came back with the same exact translation that's the historical belief of the Jews so that this the Septuagint was fully trustworthy because it had the Consistency of all those scholars coming back with exactly the same wording into the Greek.

I'm not gonna say that's impossible. I think that's very possible that God would do that miracle and here's the corroborating evidence for that whenever the New Testament quotes.

I.

Won't say whenever there could be exceptions. But the vast vast majority of the use of the Old Testament by the new is from the Septuagint so the New Testament authors Utilize the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation in their quoting.

So it makes me think that God has put a stamp of approval on that translation so that he would also bring bring the Greek New Testament in Koine Greek, so. But even if even if that particular historical thing is not true.

The word can.

Go beyond the original language. In other words when we read NASV or NIV or ESV or KJV God has protected that word that we could have it in our own language so It can go beyond the original language that it was written in in any case I think it's clear from the text that there has to be a near fulfillment otherwise.

You've you lose the contextual meaning of the passage. It has to mean something to say that Assyria will overthrow The north and Syria. That has to mean something in the context right and it does. But it also can go beyond that meaning to something bigger and fuller and greater and that's the hope of the world.

The virgin birth of the Messiah, so I see it as the third option that there's a near fulfillment. What would that be? Well in chapter 8, let's just flip over there real quick. Verses 1 to 4. The Lord said to me take a large tablet and write on it in common characters belonging to Maher Shalal Hashbaz.

And I will get reliable witnesses Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jebarekiah to attest for me and I went to the prophetess and she conceived and bore a son. Then the Lord said to me call his name Maher Shalal Hashbaz for before the boy knows how to cry my mother or my father my father my mother the wealth of Damascus and The spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.

Flipping back to chapter 7. It's the same issue. It says verse 16. Before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. The land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come.

Since the day that a frame departed from Judah the king of Assyria. You have a similar. You have a correspondence there. I think that's the boy that's being referred to now. There's some that doubt that as well.

That this is the same son it could be. I even read one commentator that said Isaiah might have had different wives. Meaning the first wife gave birth to Shear Jashub. She would have died now. He's married a virgin who in fact is a virgin and that's how the next son will be born.

There's a lot of different interpretations, but I think what we can clearly see is that there's some near fulfillment.

Right and.

What is the fulfillment that the fear that they have of the northern kingdom and Syria is a misplaced fear because? Before this little child grows up Can even eat the Kurds or the honey or say mother or father?

Even before a few years that whole Threat is going to be eliminated and in fact this I think is corroborating evidence again. 2nd Kings 14 9 and 2nd Kings 15 30 place within three years. This is in your notes both resin and Pekka are killed.

Within three years.

Now.

The part that we love. There is also a far fulfillment. So John, would you want to read for us? Okay. Okay Bob. I'll come back to you. Can you jump over to? Matthew 1 22 and 23 now that is powerful. Because in the near fulfillment.

You could see that God was still with them. This threat from the north would be eliminated. God will still have mercy on them, but in the birth of the one named Jesus The Messiah you have literally God with us.

See the the far fulfillment which points to Jesus is far greater and even more literal actually God with us. This is God in human flesh. The hypostatic Union that God would add humanity to his deity in one person one hypostasis.

This is who Jesus is the literal fulfillment. And whereas a young woman. Which is sometimes used of that phrase. It's even more literally true. Because the word virgin if you follow that the use in the Old Testament it more often did refer to virgins.

You see back in Genesis. You see the use of it. It's it's in my notes here I can give you a couple quotes. Genesis 24 43. Exodus 2 8 Psalm 28. I mean 68 25 these uses of this word. I'm not generally referred to a virgin as we understand.

So the most literal fulfillment is in Jesus Christ. The only one ever in the history of the world born to a virgin. He's unique. What do we learn about Jesus? Because he is born to a virgin. Why is that important to the Christian faith the virgin birth, you know liberal scholars like ah, they scoff at that.

You don't need the virgin birth. You can have Christianity without it. No transmission of Adam's sin. Inherited sin from Adam the federal headship of Adam. Meant that sin would pass.

Through the mail.

To the descendants. But Jesus is not Descended from Adam in that way. He's the seat of the woman. Genesis 3 15. The seat of the woman. The proto-evangelium the first the only woman to give birth without the seat of a man.

This is why it's so important. This prophecy contains all of that a literal virgin virgin did give birth to the Son of God. Amazing amazing. Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. It's not only a sign to to a has it's to his house and it becomes a sign to all the world.

There's many people who worship and follow different ideas and movements and people and leaders. But we follow one who was born to a virgin let that be a sign to anybody listening to this video. That the one that we follow is in fact God unique none other like him and God said it before he did it 700 plus years before he did it.

He wrote it. That we would know and believe that Jesus is the Christ He know yet and in Isaiah in the 40s in the trial of false gods We'll see that this is his criteria to recognize his truthfulness. He's the only one that can tell the end from the beginning.

Tell things before they come to pass. All right, and so we'll move quickly through the last parts. This doesn't.

Absolve.

Judah of their guilt this does not absolve a has of his guilt. This is God's mercy interposing into a wicked situation. But there's still judgment coming. So Bob would you mind reading? We're gonna take just 17.

Well, we already read 17. So 18 through 25. You got a lot to read. Oh I'm going this way. I'm going to this Bob. Yeah. Okay, the big idea here is that a Syria and Egypt will be overrunning the South. They would try to lean on Egypt for help but find that they're only a reed that breaks you can't lean on Egypt.

They had been trusting in a Syria. But you can't trust in a Syria because they'll turn around and wipe you out. So this is the problem for a has he has always relied on other nations rather than relying on God.

His trust is not in God this whole idea of the Eating the curds and the honey when I was a kid we had this thing that we did in our house where we would get white bread and then we take a scoop of butter and Pour honey on top of that and mix it up and it was like this paste That you'd put on top of the bread and it was my favorite snacky dessert.

I loved it. I just remembered that the other day because I haven't done that in a long time butter with honey. This is a similar thing actually to what they would do back at that time. They would mix curds was like a was like a churned product of milk and what what was happening here is the young of the cattle were wiped out and So all you have is these cows that can produce.

But you don't have any young cows to eat it. They have plenty of of Curds and they had honey. Why would they have honey? Because without the cultivated Fields you have just wildflowers popping up and so you have abundance of bees and honey.

This is how one commentator described it in other words it's a desolate kind of picture where they have just curds and honey is sort of what they're eating and Again before the child can eat the curds or the honey.

This will all happen. So that was a sign to them when you see this land that's just flowing with milk and honey Back to kind of its pristine conditions and That's all you have left. This is a sign of being desolated.

It's kind of the idea bees everywhere in The wildflowers making honey. I think that's what what it's getting at in any case. As soon as the child is able to eat on his own. He's been weaned. So within definitely less than three years before that, you know that the prophecy has been fulfilled and what happens a Assyria wipes out the north first the king is killed and then Assyria finally comes in 722 and Get it.

We'll find out here at the next King. It'll get right up to the neck of Jerusalem itself, but Assyria won't be the one that conquers Jerusalem so you have this final picture of judgment because remember is Ahaz ever a good and righteous King.

No.

God is giving this sign as his mercy and blessing by grace. By grace that was Ahab Ahab Mary Jezebel, but this is a has. But both wicked. Yeah. So in closing the application is that we need to trust the Word of the Lord and not fear the threats of the world.