PM Oct 6th Isa 26

October 6^th                    Isaiah,  26         The Lords people – victorious

1: In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. 2: Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. 3: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. 4: Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength: 5: For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust. 6: The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy. 7: The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just. 8: Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. 9: With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 10: Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD. 11: LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them. 12: LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. 13: O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. 14: They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish. 15: Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. 16: LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. 17: Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD. 18: We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. 19: Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. 20: Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. 21: For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

Isaiah,  27         Israel is delivered

1: In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. 2: In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. 3: I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. 4: Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. 5: Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. 6: He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. 7: Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? 8: In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. 9: By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. 10: Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof. 11: When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour. 12: And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. 13: And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

Isaiah,  28         Israel the northern kingdom

1: Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine! 2: Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. 3: The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet: 4: And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up. 5: In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people, 6: And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.

False Prophets

7: But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. 8: For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. 9: Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. 10: For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: 11: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. 12: To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. 13: But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

A cornerstone in Zion

14: Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. 15: Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: 16: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. 17: Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. 18: And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. 19: From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. 20: For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. 21: For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. 22: Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth. 23: Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. 24: Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? 25: When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and rie in their place? 26: For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. 27: For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. 28: Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. 29: This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

Today we are reading Isaiah 26, 27 & 28. This section began in Ch 25v1 and continues to Ch 27v13 and it describes the Mercy of God to Israel. Chapter 26 begins with a song in Judah v1-21. Isaiah brings to us a remarkable prophecy in fact he brings to us a song which will be sung in The Day of the LORD. The song is all about the salvation of God which is found within the city of Jerusalem. They will sing that the gates of the city will open to the righteous nation which keeps the truth. Then we have the famous phrase, you will keep them in perfect peace whose minds are resting on the LORD. This will be because they are trusting in him. The song is Trust you in the LORD for ever, because in the LORD JEHOVAH is the only source of everlasting strength. Then in v5-6 we read of the wicked who will be humbled by the Lord. The poor will tread on the mighty. Then Isaiah switches back to the righteous v7-9. He says their way is uprightness and their way is weighed by the Lord. The righteous will seek the Lord early and all the earth will learn righteousness. Then he switches back to the wicked v10-11 He says that they will refuse to learn righteousness nor look on the majesty of the LORD. The Lord will oppose them and destroy them by fire. Then he goes back to the righteous v12-13. The Lord will command peace on them and they will be set free the dominion of their enemies. Then he speaks of the Rephaim saying that they are the dead. They will not be raised from death and even the memory of them is going to perish v14. Then he speaks of the righteous nation saying that they will increase. They cried to the Lord when they were disciplined in trouble v15-19. Then going back to the Rephaim he says again they will not rise again. Then he says of the righteous nation that they will be preserved v20 They are to shut themselves in until this terrible time will be overpast. In v21 he says of the wicked that they will be destroyed. In Isaiah 27 he brings a prophecy that the LORD will bring a massive judgment on three sea monsters which are probably three great enemies of Israel (Babylon, Assyria and Egypt). Some of what the Lord says here is very obscure for us today. It will probably become very plain in the Day of the LORD. What is clear is that Jacob will take root and Israel will blossom and bud and the whole earth will be full of her fruit. Then in the rest of the passage Isaiah speaks of the Enemies and Israel twice. In v7 He speaks of the judgment of God. Then he says that the sins of Jacob will be purged v8-9. In v10-11 He speaks of the enemies of Israel. Their cities will be made desolate and their homes forsaken. Cattle will live in their homes. Then he speaks of Israel again saying that the river of Egypt will be diverted and the people (The children of Israel) will be gathered one by one and on that day a great trumpet will be born and they will be gathered from Assyria and from Egypt and they will worship the LORD in the holy mountain in Jerusalem. In Chapter 28 Isaiah begins a new section going through to ch 35v10 in which he declares a series of woes interspersed with descriptions of Jehovah’s glories. Chapter 28 is in two parts v1-22 is the condemnation of Ephraim (Samaria and Israel). The chief sin of Ephraim is pride. They are drunkards and they have a fading beauty. The Lord will instruct them v1-6. Then from v7-8 Judah is characterised by alcohol in excess. The very best of men, the priests and prophets, who should always be sober, are overcome with wine. The Lord will teach knowledge to the babes in arms v9. The Lord will teach them line on line and he will use men with a speak impediment and in a strange language. Yet for all this they will not hear v12. This is the NT gift of languages but it is in the day of the LORD. (The gift of languages may have ceased for now but it will reappear in the day of the LORD. The teaching they receive by the gift of languages will be a sign of judgment, as the gift always was v14-15. The Jews religious leaders who hear it will laugh at it. They will be unable to repent because they have committed themselves to lies and falsehood. Then Isaiah brings this famous verse v16 The LORD says he will lay a foundation stone in Zion, He says that it is a tried stone, a precious stone a sure foundation. Christ himself is this stone. All others are laid in relation to him v16-17. Next Isaiah speaks of Judah and those who scorn at the LORD. v18-22. The Lord brings judgment of the men of Judah is his fierce wrath. From v23-29 Isaiah speaks of the Lord the instructor. He says listen to me. The Lord teaches the farmer how to sow and when to sow.