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SM1157: On-Line
Teaching Notes
READ THE BOOK!
ISAIAH 34:16-17
Today, many people are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to prophecy. They either stay clear of it because it is too controversial, too difficult to understand, too divisive or they are setting dates for the end of the world every year. In fact, that kind of thinking has been picked up by a tabloid that had this interesting statement: "The world is definitely coming to an end on Wednesday, December 11 at noon! Full report in Friday's edition."
I truly believe that in all that confusion that is out there, there must be a balance. You see, 25% of the Scriptures is prophetic. No other religious book contains prophecy or if it does, it does not go into the detail that the Scriptures do, nor is 1/4 of the book prophetic. Why is that? Simple. If you can't tell the future with 100% accuracy, then you are not god and not to be believed.
But prophecy is very important to us, or at least it should be. Randall Price put it this way in his book "Jerusalem in prophecy". He said: "Prophecy answers the great questions of life: Where are we going? What will happen to us when we get there? And, how will we know when we have started the journey? In addition, prophecy tells us where we are at this juncture in history...Prophecy tells us where we are now and where God will take us and His world tomorrow. He alone knows the end from the beginning, and through prophecy has given us the last chapter (the book of Revelation) to allay our first fears. Until we understand God's overall plan, how can we relate our current activities to His ultimate realities? With this knowledge wecan live wisely and responsibly, redeeming the time to reach out to an age whose time has almost run out..."
Here in the book of Isaiah we see God chasten the Southern Kingdom of Judah for trusting in the world rather than trusting in the Lord. He then speaks of bringing judgment upon those nations, specifically Assyria and Babylon, who have come against Jerusalem, God's holy city. And it also looks into the future when the nations of the world gather together against Jerusalem and the Lord, and how God will judge them for their wickedness.
Then, as we move into chapter 34 we see God pour out His judgment upon the Edomites. Now the near fulfillment is seen in God destroying the Edomites. The future fulfillment of this prophecy is God destroying those who have rejected Him, rebelled against Him, making the Edomites a type of all those who are unsaved and refuse to turn to the Lord. You see, Edom became the perpetual enemy of Israel and is thus an appropriate example of what the Lord will do to all nations that fight against His people, and thus, ultimately fight against Him. And so this is ultimately looking at the tribulation period where God's wrath is poured out upon a Christ rejecting world.
Then, as we get into verse 16, we see some very interesting words of encouragement, of hope in the middle of this devastating judgment. As things look black, as things look hopeless, as judgment is all around, this is what God says starting in verse 16 of Isaiah chapter 34.
ISAIAH 34:16-17
"Search from the book of the LORD, and read: Not one of these shall fail; Not one shall lack her mate. For My mouth has commanded it, and His Spirit has gathered them. He has cast the lot for them, And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever; From generation to generation they shall dwell in it."
It is a terrible thing to lose all hope. In fact, with that mentality you can easily and quickly develop a fatalistic view of life. But Isaiah is saying not to lose hope, these things are going to come to pass, God's Word will not fail. And just as God's people needed encouragement back then, we too need it today. And this is also words of encouragement for those who enter into the tribulation period and then accept Christ, they will need hope during this devastating time.
It is as Hershel Hobbs said: "The dawn of a better tomorrow kept first-century people on their feet, just as it does twentieth-century people. Is not this the part played by the 'blessed hope' in the lives of Christians of every age? Without it how quickly the early Christians would have been overwhelmed in the maelstrom of persecution, hardships and tribulation. How would we go another step if suddenly that hope should dim?"
The truth of the matter is it would be very hard, very difficult to continue on with any hope, with any assurance of the future. But the light of God's Word tells us that the days are going to grow more and more wicked before His return. Now as much as we don't want to see that, and as much as some think positive thoughts about the world we are living in , denying this fact, and saying "Every day in every way I am getting better and better", but the problem with that kind of faith, or that kind of belief, is that it is not based in reality, and thus, it is just plain empty and meaningless, and it will ultimately lead to despair.
You see, the reality of the situation in regards to the days we are living in, is seen in what Paul told Timothy. He said in II Timothy 3:1-5, "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!"
Notice, we aren't getting better, but worse. We are becoming more and more consumed with satisfying self which is reflected in the way we treat others. And if we as Christians are struggling in this area, imagine what is going on with the unsaved? Now many will say that they are religious but their hearts are more interested in satisfying self than serving the Lord. They have a form of godliness, looking good outwardly by their own standards, but their hearts are far from God, denying His life changing power in their lives.
But, again, when it comes to prophecy many feel it is not worth the bother. It is too difficult to understand. But think about it, 25% if God's Word is prophetic, don't you think He wants us to understand it? You better believe He does! Now for many the concept of absolute truth is a difficult one to grasp. There was a debate recently at Boston College University on journalism, and the debate was wether journalist could be trusted or not. And one girl in the audience stood up and shared what she has observed.
She told them that on her way to this meeting she read two articles dealing with the increase in television shows that deal with witchcraft. Both magazines had the same information that they gathered, saw the same shows, but came up with completely different conclusions to what they saw. One was applauding the coming out of the closet for witches while the other saw it as a big problem and was against this. And her point was this, and I will paraphrase what she said. She said: "There can be 5 billion people that read the same story and come up with 5 billion different conclusions to what they read. None are wrong, all is right if that is how you perceive it to be!" And what she is saying is you create your own reality of what is truth, there is nothing that is wrong! I have to disagree, that is wrong! Sorry!
God has told us what is right and what is wrong. What is truth and what is error. We can reject that if we want, but it doesn't change the reality of what God said. And the same is true of prophecy. Listen to what Peter said regarding the prophetic word. In II Peter 1:19-21 we read, "And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."
Peter just got done speaking of what he saw, what he experienced on the mount of transfiguration. And now he is saying that God's prophetic word is more sure than what he saw with his own eyes. Why? Because these were not the words of men, nor the ideas of men, but the Holy Spirit spoke to these men to pen these words - and thus, they will come to pass!
When we look at fulfilled prophecy in regards to the first coming of Jesus Christ, I don't think we truly understand how beyond any mathematical probability these predictions being fulfilled were. There are some 333 prophecies regarding Christ's first coming. And these were not vague or veiled words that were difficult to understand, but very clear.
Peter Stoner in his book Science Speaks, showed that mere coincidence of these prophecies being fulfilled are ruled out by the science of probability. Stoner looked at just 8 prophecies related to Christ's first coming to see if it were possible. These are the ones he looked at:
1. BIRTH IN BETHLEHEM - MICAH 5:2 / MATTHEW 2:1
2. PRECEDED BY A MESSENGER - ISAIAH 40:3, MALACHI 3:1 / MATTHEW 3:1-2
3. ENTERED JERUSALEM ON A DONKEY - ZECHARIAH 9:9 / LUKE 19:35-37a
4. BETRAYED BY A FRIEND - PSALM 55:12-14, 41:9 / MATTHEW 10:4
5. SOLD FOR 30 PIECES OF SILVER - ZECHARIAH 11:12 / MATTHEW 26:15
6. MONEY TO BE THROWN IN THE HOUSE OF GOD - ZECHARIAH 11:13b / MATTHEW 27:7
PRICE GIVEN FOR POTTER'S FIELD - ZECHARIAH 11:13b / MATTHEW 27:7
7. DUMB BEFORE HIS ACCUSERS - ISAIAH 53:7 / MATTHEW 27:12
8. HANDS AND FEET PIERCED - PSALM 22:16, ZECHARIAH 12:10 / LUKE 23:33
CRUCIFIED WITH THIEVES - ISAIAH 53:12 / MATTHEW 27:38
In looking at these 8 prophecies being fulfilled, Stoner said "...we find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all eight prophecies is 1 in 1017."
Now that may be a difficult concept to understand using a number like that, so Stoner illustrates that for us by supposing "we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote them in their own wisdom."
Now that is only 8 of the 333 prophecies of Christ's first coming. What if we considered just 48 of them? Stoner said of this that "...we find the chance that any one man fulfilled all 48 prophecies to be 1 in 10157."
He goes on to say "This is really a large number and it represents an extremely small chance. Let us try to visualize it. The silver dollar, which we have been using, is entirely too large. We must select a smaller object. The electron is about as small an object as we know of. It is so small that it will take 2.5 times 1015 of them laid side by side to make a line, single file, one inch long. If we were going to count the electrons in this line one inch long, and counted 250 each minute, and if we counted day and night, it would take us 19,000,000 years to count just the one-inch line of electrons. If we had a cubic inch of these electrons and we tried to count them it would take us, counting steadily 250 each minute, 19,000,000 times 19,000,000 times 19,000,000 years or 6.9 times 1021 years."
"With this introduction, let us go back to our chance of 1 in 10157. Let us suppose that we are taking this number of electrons, marking one, and thoroughly stirring it into the whole mass, then blindfolding a man a letting him try to find the right one. What chance has he of finding the right one?...Such is the chance of any one man fulfilling 48 prophecies."
Now what God has spoken of in His first coming, with 100% accuracy, He also has given us over 500 prophecies of His second coming. Thus, if we can see how accurate God was, why in the world would we cast that aside and deny or ignore what He has said regarding His second coming? In fact, Isaiah said "Search from the book of the LORD, and read: Not one of these shall fail..." Isaiah 35:16.
Randall Price, on one of his trips to Lynchburg, Virginia for a speaking engagement, saw a billboard that caught his attention. On this billboard, put up by a prominent real estate chain, was a picture of a row of houses in a nice neighborhood. And on the front lawn of each of these homes was the trademark sold sign with the name of that particular real estate agency. The headline on the billboard read: "How do you tell the greatest name in real estate?...The signs are everywhere!"
Let me ask you this, "How do we know that the Lord is going to return soon?" "THE SIGNS ARE EVERYWHERE!"
Dr. John F. Walvoord, the chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary and a famous prophetic scholar, said in his book, "Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis...": "Never before in history have all the factors been present for the fulfillment of prophecy relating to end-time religious trends and events. Only in our generation have the combined revival of Israel, the formation of a world church, the increasing power of Muslim religion, the rise of the occult, and the world wide spread of atheistic philosophy been present as a dramatic setting for the final fulfillment of prophecy. As far as world religion is concerned, the road to Armageddon is already well prepared, and those who will travel to their doom may well be members of our present generation."
Lets take a few minutes just to see how far we have come and how close we are in regards to what God has said regarding His second coming.
1. THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL
In Ezekiel chapter 37 Ezekiel is given a vision of dry bones and the Lord asks him if these bones can live. And Ezekiel says "...'O Lord GOD, You know.'" Ezekiel 37:3. And Ezekiel watched these bones come to life, with muscles and tendons and skin and God breathing life into them. Now some may argue that this is not speaking of Israel because Israel forfeited the promises of God by rejecting the Messiah, and thus, this is referring to the church. That is not only foolish, but there is an arrogance to that kind of belief, thinking that we are any better. The other, and more important issue is the Scriptures speak contrary to this being the church in a spiritual sense.
Listen carefully to what is said in Ezekiel 37:11-12. We read, "...'Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, 'Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!' Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.'" God says that He is speaking to the whole nation of Israel, the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, that they will be one and that God will bring them back into the land. And we have seen this fulfilled in just the past 50 years!
In 1948 the Jews returned to the land of Israel for the first time in almost 2,000 years. Then on June 7, 1967, the city of Jerusalem was captured by the Jews in a war they didn't start, and the flag of David was flying once again as Jerusalem became the capitol of the nation. And at the western wall or the wailing wall, the troops gathered on that glorious day and a prayer was said by Rabbi Shlomo Goren who declared: "We have taken the city of God. We are entering the Messianic era for Jewish people, and I promise...That what we are responsible for we will take care of." He of course was speaking of the city of Jerusalem, that it will be in their control, never to be let go again!
Why is it so important that the Jews are back in the land? Because the Scriptures tell us that the temple will be rebuilt again. And today the plans have been drawn, the priest are going to school to learn the sacrificial system, and most of the temple implements have been completed for use. They are just waiting for the day they can rebuild, for the temple mount area is also considered sacred to the Muslims who will not let the Jews rebuild their temple. But in the tribulation period we are told that the antichrist makes a covenant with the Jews to rebuild the temple and then at the 3 1/2 year mark of the tribulation period the antichrist desecrates the temple and demands to be worshipped as God. At this point some of the Jews flee to Petra for safety from this man who is trying to destroy them. Yes, if you want to know what time it is on God's prophetic time clock, look to the nation of Israel and see what is going on!
2. GOG IN THE LAND OF MAGOG
Also in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 we see that after the Jews are back in the land, a confederacy of nations will come against them to destroy them, with Russia being its leader and it will align itself with many Muslim nations such as Libya, Turkey, Iran, Ethiopia and-so-on. And that is exactly what Russia has done and is doing as God prepares to put hooks in this bears jaw and draw them into a battle that they are not necessarily ready for, probably started by one of the Muslim nations who hate Israel and because of the alliances Russia has made with these nations, they will be drawn into the conflict. And Russia and these nations will fall and not be victorious against Israel. If you think this is way off just listen to what Russia has to say regarding Israel and the alliances it is making with these Muslim nations.
3. WORLD GOVERNMENT
We see especially in the book of Revelation and in Daniel that there is coming a day when the governments of the world will be as one. The world will be divided into 10 kingdoms and ultimately controlled by the antichrist. Now you may think that is far-fetched, that I am off my rocker on this one, but think again. If you look at the free-trade agreements, what is happening in Europe, they fit the picture of how the world is going to be divided up.
Back on September 17, 1973 the Club of Rome, who had its beginnings in 1968, divided the world in ten political/economic regions, which it refers to as "kingdoms". Aurelio Peccei, the Club's founder, states: "Their world model, based on new developments of the multilevel hierarchical systems theory, divides the world into ten interdependent and mutually interacting regions of political, economic or environmental coherrence...it will be recognized of course that these are still prototype models...the full implementation of their work will take many years."
That was back in 1973, and we have come a long way since that time. In fact Pragati Pascale, a U.N. official tells us how far we have come. He said: "Everything is in place for the world government. The U.S. is the only country left holding everything up. The U.S. government is for it...What's wrong with the people!?!"
4. WORLD RELIGION
We are seeing an increasing push to accept what everyone believes, not to push our beliefs on others, but just come together in unity. This is setting the stage for a one world religion that will be lead by the false prophet, spoken of in the book of Revelation.
How far have we come? "Christianity Today's senior editor Kenneth S. Kantzer calls upon Evangelicals 'to close ranks with our Catholic neighbors. And with Mormons, conservative Jews, and secularists who share our values...[for] the good of society..."
It is a religion that moves away from what Jesus said: "...'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'" so that it can embrace core values of good instead of truth, and thus accepting what anyone believes to promote goodness instead of godliness! And that can not be done or it will not succeed because of mans heart!
When you search God's Book, the Holy Scriptures, you see God's wrath being poured out not upon those who love Him, but upon a Christ rejecting world. It is out of that judgment that the kingdom age is born. Interestingly enough, as Isaiah concludes in chapter 34 with his thoughts of judgment, it is out of this that chapter 35 opens with the glorious kingdom age. Our hope must be in the coming of our Lord, for we truly can't want the wickedness we see to continue on forever. And for those that enter in the tribulation period and come to the Lord during that time, there is hope for them, knowing that as dark as this judgment is, the light of the kingdom is getting ready to shine forth!
Now we can spend months and months looking how things are coming together, how God's Word is coming to pass regarding the return of the Lord. But what is the bottom line of all this?
Some of you may remember the public service announcement that aired on the Television back in the 1970's. It said: "It's ten o'clock. Do you know where your children are?" Now if we were to update that public service announcement to the 1980's, it might go like this: "It's ten o'clock. Do you know where your parents are?" And then in the 1990's, you might hear: "It's ten o'clock. Do you know where you are?"
If you don't know the Lord, then the path for you will be that of destruction as God pours out His wrath upon a Christ rejecting world. If you turn to Him, you enter into His kingdom and not His wrath.
For those that know the Lord, understand the days we are living in. It is not time to go and wait upon some mountain for the Lord. It is not time to ignore the signs of His coming. It is time to continue to do the work He has called you to do, and as Paul told Titus, "looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." Titus 2:13.
Prophecy is very important, it shows us that God is in control and what He has said will come to pass. I like the way that Charles H. Dyer sums things up. He said: "God gave prophecy to change our hearts, not to fill our heads with knowledge. God never predicted future events just to satisfy our curiosity about the future. Every time God announces events that are still future, He includes with His predictions practical applications to life."
Let God's prophetic Word, that is what God is forthtelling and foretelling, change your heart to His heart. Don't let it puff you up but let it transform you into His image. Let God's Word encourage you, give you direction, give you rest, peace, assurance of where you are going and-so-on. As Paul said in Romans 15:4, may we apply to our lives. He said: "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."