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ISAIAH

Please turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 59, as we continue our study through the Word of God. If you remember from our last study, God is inditing His people, specifically the Southern Kingdom of Judah for their sin. They were spiraling out of control into spiritual adulatory, running far away from God by their actions. And yet they remained a very religious people. They went to temple, offered sacrifices, and even fasted. But they were living a life of sin, immorality and they couldn’t understand why God wasn’t hearing them, acknowledging them, responding to them.

Man is no different today. Many live like the devil all week and then go to church on Sunday thinking everything is now balanced out. Down in New Orleans they have just had what they call "Fat Tuesday" the day before the start of Lent, or ash Wednesday. And what they do on Fat Tuesday is party like the devil, doing all kinds of sinful activities, kind of get it out of there system for as Lent begins, they need to be holy before God and they can’t indulge in this kind of sin during that period of time. You have to abstain from sin. How foolish! If that is the desire of your heart, you might as well party like the devil every day, even during Lent, because God is not going to accept that kind of hypocrisy!

And as we get into Isaiah 59, what is spoken by the Lord is born out of what His people said in Isaiah 58:3. We read "‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’..." The Lord is now going to answer their question.

ISAIAH 59

VERSE 1

1. God can hear, He can respond, He can save. You see, the problem is not with God, but with man. And the problem that man has is found in verse 2.

VERSE 2

1. It doesn’t matter how little you think your sin is, it always has one major effect upon our life -separation. In fact, in the Hebrew it speaks of an ongoing action, that our sins have been separating us from God. Now don’t get the idea that God has selective hearing. He hears all, but He doesn’t respond to all He hears. But that separation can be restored through Christ and all the blessings of God can flow into our lives. Paul said in I Timothy 2:5, "For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." Once you are saved, sin can still break that fellowship with God. We can’t lose our salvation though. The cure for that broken fellowship is found in I John 1:9 which says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Bring it all before the Lord that He may hear and respond to your hearts cry. Don’t let sin separate you from God!

2. Remember when Joshua lead the children of Israel into the promise land. Their first battle was against Jericho, a mighty fortress. And God told them that the first fruits of battle belong to Him, they were not to take any of the spoils of this victory. And Achan didn’t think it was a big deal, no one would miss what he was going to take, and he disobeyed God in this great victory that God had given them.

Their next encounter was a small, insignificant town called Ai. And the men of Israel reported back to Joshua that this was an easy victory, they would only need a few thousand men to take this town. But the people of Ai rose up, killed 36 men of Israel, and sent the rest fleeing in defeat. And Joshua was upset with the Lord. He said in Joshua 7:6-9, "Then Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening, both he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, ‘Alas, Lord GOD, why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all-- to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content, and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it, and surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will You do for Your great name?’" In other words, it was God’s fault for their defeat!

But notice what God says to Joshua beginning in verse 10, "So the LORD said to Joshua: ‘Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you. Get up, sanctify the people, and say, ‘Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the LORD God of Israel: "There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you."

Sin had separated them from God and they could not stand against the smallest of their enemies until that accursed thing, that sin was removed. Once it was done away with God gave them the victory. The same is true in our own lives. You won’t have victory until you get rid of the accursed thing, the sin in your life. Hiding it will only cause failure and defeat in your life!

VERSES 3-4

1. They saw themselves as righteous, but God sees them with blood on their hands, lies on their lips, perversity in their mouths. They weren’t interested in justice, they didn’t want the truth. What they did was evil before God, and obviously God did not accept their works.

VERSE 5

1. Their actions were deadly towards peoples lives. They poisoned people and crushed them through their actions.

VERSES 6-7

1. Because they had no fear of God, they did as they pleased, they went running after evil. But God is saying that their works will not last. They will not prosper, and they leave a path of destruction wherever they go! If God was inditing Israel back then for their evil ways, then America is no different in her actions. If you aren’t sure what God hates, if you think America is okay, then listen to what Solomon tells us in Proverbs 6:16-19. We read "These six things the LORD hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, A false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren."

VERSE 8

1. We have been told that these people leave destruction behind them, for they have not entered by the straight and narrow gate, but are going through life being blown by the winds of evil, and they can find no true peace in that lifestyle. In Isaiah 57:19-21 we read "I create the fruit of the lips: peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near," says the LORD, "And I will heal him." But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. "There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked." True peace is only found in Christ. Once you have made peace with God, then and only then can you experience the peace of God in your life. Otherwise your life will be tossed back and forth, churning and kicking up all kinds of dirt, and you will have no rest, no lasting peace!

VERSE 9

1. People who are living in sin are not going to see the light, but darkness only. They can’t see where they are going and walk aimlessly through life. In speaking of being dead in trespasses and sins, Paul tells us that we "...once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." Ephesians 2:2-3.

VERSES 10-11

1. When you read these verses you can see a picture of discontent emerge. They were growling, and moaning, and complaining over the situations they found themselves in, but the reality of it all is they had brought this upon themselves. They had no one to blame but themselves!

VERSE 12

1. God has placed in our hearts, our conscious what is right and what is wrong. Now we can short circuit the system and ignore what God has said, but it doesn’t change the fact that you are guilty before Him if you transgress His commands. Paul put it this way when he said "Having their conscience seared with a hot iron." I Timothy 4:2. In other words, they new the truth, but ignored it, suppressed it, rejected it. And the more you do that the more you will become insensitive to sin! It is like repeatedly touching your hand to a hot iron and eventually you will destroy the nerve endings in that part of your hand so that you will not feel the pain. Yes it is a dangerous thing and foolish thing to do, but so is ignoring sin in our lives!

VERSES 13-14

1. Isaiah, identifying himself with the nation, speaks of how far they had departed from the Lord. There was no justice, they had moved away from righteousness, truth was not seen any longer and they treated each other unfairly. You see, because their relationship with God was off, so too was their relationship with man and it was manifested in the things they said and the things they did! And it was out of all that deception, all those lies, that their judicial system was falling apart. Sound familiar!

VERSE 15a

1. Those that had turned to God, those that were standing up for righteousness, desiring to see justice executed, those who spoke the truth, were being put down by the unrighteous. They became targets for the wicked to attack. We see this happening even today, when someone stands up for God, stands up for what is right, stands up for morality, they are ridiculed, put down, and the media and world try character assassinations to destroy them. You don’t need to worry about what they can do. You live a life that will be pleasing to God and He will defend your character, no matter what man has to say!

VERSES 15b-16a

1. As God looked upon all that was happening in the Southern Kingdom of Judah, it displeased Him or He saw the evil that they were indulging in. And you would think that was bad enough, that someone would see the evil they were in and do something about it, but God rebukes them again because there was no one willing to stand in the gap for the nation and intercede for them. The nation was going down the toilet and no one seemed to care!

VERSE 16b-c

1. God was looking for someone to stand in the gap for the nation, and He found none. So He stepped in and interceded for them. Interestingly enough, prior to the final assault on the Southern Kingdom of Judah, we read in Ezekiel 22:29-31, "‘The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger. So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,’ says the Lord GOD."

God was also looking for someone to stand in the gap for the nation and He again found no one, and this time He poured out His judgment on the people. Why did He choose to act and save in one instance and not in another? Because He is sovereign and He does as He pleases! We may not always understand why, but we can take this away from these passages, in both instances God was looking for someone to intercede for the nation, for the people, and He found none. May that not be the case in America!

VERSE 17

1. We may not think of the Lord like this, but Exodus 15:3 tells us "The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is His name." When we think of God we picture Him as this benevolent person, who is longsuffering, merciful, loving, which He is. But we negate the whole picture of who God is, what He is all about. We don’t want to deal with this truth. That God is going to deal with sin, either it will be covered by the blood of Christ, that debt paid in full, or it will be upon your own head. We also read in Numbers 21:14 that there is a Book of the Wars of the Lord, or those battles that God fought for His people. And lastly, as Jesus returns to set up His kingdom here on earth, we see His garments stained with blood, as in a wine press, as His wrath is poured out upon a Christ rejecting world, a world that has not received atonement for their sins by the blood of Christ!

VERSE 18

1. His adversaries were apostate Israel, and His enemies were the gentile nations that surrounded them. And it is as Peter tells us, "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?" I Peter 4:17. Judgment always begins in the house of God because His people should know better!

VERSE 19

1. God will deal with His enemies, and it seems here that Isaiah is now looking towards the tribulation period, as the earth dwellers come together to fight against the Lord and His people, and God will defeat them by a standard He has set, by His Word! We are told in Revelation chapter 19 that as the Lord returns He will strike the nations with a sharp or two-edged sword that precedes from His mouth, and the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. By their rebellion against God and His Word they will be found guilty before God and judged accordingly!

2. Now verses 20 & 21 seem to fit better with chapter 60, for after the tribulation period comes the kingdom age, which Isaiah is now going to talk about.

VERSES 20-21

1. After God puts down the wicked, He will set up His kingdom here on earth and rule and reign for 1,000 years from Jerusalem. And we will make a yearly pilgrimage to Mount Zion to worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Now just prior to His return the Jews as a nation will welcome Jesus as their Messiah, and Hebrews 8:10-11 tells us of this time. We read "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them."

ISAIAH 60

VERSES 1-3

1. This darkness that permeates the land is the tribulation period. And as I have said, during this 7 year period God’s wrath is being poured out on a Christ rejecting world. And as that saying goes, "It is always darkest before the dawn" so too is it during this time. But the light of dawn will pierce the darkness as the Lord returns to set-up His kingdom as He separates the sheep from the goats. The sheep will enter into the kingdom age, the goats will be cast out. And when the Lord returns, we are told in Matthew 24:27-30 "For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."

2. Also, in the kingdom age, Israel will be blessed. No longer will we see the anti-Semitism like we do today, for in the kingdom age the gentiles will honor the Jews.

VERSE 4

1. I believe God is speaking of the Jews from around the world being drawn back to Israel after the tribulation period. Again in Matthew chapter 24 we read "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."

VERSES 5-7

1. It seems that in the kingdom age Jerusalem will be the commercial center of the world. And all these nations, all these people, the gentiles, will bring gifts to Jerusalem. Also, interestingly enough, there will be sacrifices made to the Lord during the kingdom age. The temple will be rebuilt, not the temple during the tribulation period, but the millennial temple, which Ezekiel chapters 40 to 43 speaks on. Now why would God have anymore sacrifices in the millennial temple if the work is completed, our sins have been atoned for by His blood? A very difficult question and I will share with you what I believe is going on. I think it is a reminder of where we have come from, what it cost for our sins to be covered, that the sacrifice of an innocent animal needed to be shed for our sins. It is a solemn reminder of what sin has done, and what God has done to set us completely free from that bondage! It is as Peter tells us, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit." I Peter 3:18.

VERSES 8-9

1. The gentile nations will come with gifts for the Lord, and also for the Jewish people. There will be a tremendous love for them in the kingdom age.

VERSES 10-12

1. The gates of the city would be closed at night so the enemy could not enter the city. But in the kingdom age the gates will be open at all times, for righteousness will fill the land, and if anyone gets out of line, the Lord will deal with that person immediately with His rod of iron. In fact, if any nation comes against the Jews in the kingdom age they too will be dealt with very quickly, God will not let unrighteousness continue in His kingdom!

VERSES 13-14

1. Again, today we see anti-Semitism on the rise throughout the world. But in the kingdom age that will all be changed and the gentile people will have a tremendous love for the Jews.

VERSES 15-16

1. It is when the Jewish people awaken out of their spiritual sleep, when their blinders are removed from their eyes and they recognize Jesus as their God, their Savior, their Redeemer, that the Lord will return and set up His kingdom and the Jewish people will be blessed beyond measure, as the gentile nations supply their needs freely.

VERSES 17

1. When we studied the life of Solomon and his kingdom, I was amazed at the wealth of his kingdom. In fact silver was so common it was thought of as nothing. He used gold for everything, even his ivory throne was overlaid with gold. And the temple itself was spectacular and yet, when compared to the millennial kingdom, it will look like a shack. The kingdom of God will be far more glorious than Solomon’s!

2. Now who is going to guard this city? Peace and righteousness will, as they flow from the King Himself!

VERSE 18

1. The city of Jerusalem has been destroyed some 18 times and rebuilt 19. And God is saying that will no longer be the case, for as He sets up His kingdom and rules and reigns from Jerusalem, it will not be destroyed again!

VERSE 19

1. Now Isaiah is moving from the kingdom age to the eternal state, when God creates a new heavens and a new earth, and the new Jerusalem will descend out of heaven. In Revelation 21 we read "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.’" Revelation 21:1-3. And we read in Revelation 22:5 of this time, "There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever." If there is no light, no sun, what will light the land? The glory of the Lord shall light the land brighter than any sun could ever light it.

VERSE 20

1. Again, in the new Jerusalem, the eternal state, there will be no more tears, sorrow, pain, death, and the curse will be finally done away with, it will be removed. We read in Revelation 21:4, "And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." And in Revelation 22:3 we read "And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him." What a glorious day that will be!

VERSES 21-22

1. Here is the difficulty many times for us as we see unrighteousness fill the land. As violence is growing. As drug abuse and all kinds of perversion seems to be multiplying. In God’s TIME He will restore the land, the people, not in our time! Remember what David said in Psalm 37:7-22. We read "Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret-- it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for He sees that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to slay those who are of upright conduct. Their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous. The LORD knows the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. But the wicked shall perish; and the enemies of the LORD, like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away. The wicked borrows and does not repay, but the righteous shows mercy and gives. For those blessed by Him shall inherit the earth, but those cursed by Him shall be cut off." May we be able to say as John said in Revelation "...Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"