Isa 28:18-29 I Have Heard From The Lord God of Hosts a Consumption... - Discussion

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Isa 28:18-29 - I Have Heard From The Lord God of Hosts a Consumption, Even Determined Upon The Whole Earth

Isa 28:18  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.
Isa 28:19  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. 
Isa 28:20  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. 
Isa 28:21  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. 
Isa 28:22  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. 
Isa 28:23  Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
Isa 28:24  Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? 
Isa 28:25  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 the rie in their place? 
Isa 28:26  For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. 
Isa 28:27  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. 
Isa 28:28  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. 
Isa 28:29  This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. 

I am including the 18th verse to give us the context of these last ten verses of chapter 28. Verse 18 told us:

Isa 28:18  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.

Just as a reminder, we have established that every word of the Old Testament is just as much the words of God as are the words of the New Testament:

Psa 119:160  The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.
Psa 119:161  Shin. Princes have persecuted me without a cause; But my heart standeth in awe of thy words.
Psa 119:162  I rejoice at thy word, As one that findeth great spoil.

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

"I will make my word in your mouth fire" is a spiritual statement which is repeated for us in Revelation 11 where we are told "fire proceeds out of [the] mouths" of the two witnesses:

Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

Before we proceed with our next verses here in Isaiah 28, let's consider carefully the very next few 'fiery' verses proceeding out of the mouth of God through the prophet Jeremiah:

Jer 5:15  Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.
Jer 5:16  Their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men.
Jer 5:17  And they shall eat up thy harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat; they shall eat up thy flocks and thy herds; they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig-trees; they shall beat down thy fortified cities, wherein thou trustest, with the sword.
Jer 5:18  But even in those days, saith Jehovah, I will not make a full end with you.

This is exactly what we read here earlier is this 28th chapter of Isaiah:

Isa 28:11  For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.

In the "proof texting" manner  of the writers of the New Testament, Paul applies this verse to the events which took place on the day of Pentecost:

1Co 14:21  In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.

The tongues of Isaiah 28, Acts 2 and 1 Corinthians 14 were literal languages given as a sign of the authenticity of the events of that day.

We will continue our study here in Isaiah 28, and I want you to notice that Isaiah has the same fiery tone as Jeremiah when speaking of the Lord's judgments upon His own people, His own children and His own elect. I am repeating verse 18 to remind us that God's judgments come upon us because He made us to err from His ways (Isa 63:17), thus giving Himself the occasion He always seeks to judge our sins and to burn them out of us (Jdg 14:4):

Isa 28:18  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.
Isa 28:19  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.
Isa 28:20  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.
Isa 28:21  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.

Christ is not telling  us that we are aware we have made a covenant with death. He is simply stating as a fact that while deceived by the false doctrines of Babylon we are in a covenant with death. In fact Christ actually tells us that at that point in our experience we 'cannot hear His word':

Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

If it is true that we "cannot [at first] hear [His] word", and yet His 'judgment is now on the house of God' (1Pe 4:17), and if "It is not I that do it, but sin that dwells in me" (Rom 7:17-20), it is manifested that Christ is judging and burning out of us the sin and the lies which are the very foundation of the kingdom of our old man.

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

It is our judgment which is described as 'taking [us]... from the time it goes forth'. It is our own judgment which is coming on us "morning by morning, passing over [us], by day and by night." It is such a sore judgment that "it shall be a vexation only to understand the report", because it is the report of the loss which is being suffered by our old man. The story of Job chronicles the loss of all of his physical possessions, including all his ten children, and then the loss of any physical comfort, being replaced with painful boils from his feet to the crown of his head. Job's story is the image of our own story, and it is an admonition to us of what must take place within the kingdom of our old man. We must lose everything we ever held dear both physically and spiritually, because Babylon is a whore with whom we have been in bed for many sinful and lascivious years, and it is painful when we break that relationship and "come out of her..."

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Paul tells us this about the experience of Job and all the the people of the Old Testament:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
1Co 10:14  Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
1Co 10:15  I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say.
1Co 10:16  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

Christ Himself confirms what Paul tells us here when He tells us who we are:

Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Act 22:7  And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 22:8  And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

Paul tells us the experiences of the people mentioned in the Old Testament "are... for our admonition". He tells us those experiences are all "common to man", and he tells us the Lord provides a way for us to "be able to bear it". But notice how it is all summed up. The holy spirit, through the apostle Paul, connects the experiences of the people of the Old Testament to what we experience.  Those trials are all to be considered as a "cup of blessing... [which] is... the communion of the blood of Christ, [and] the bread we break, is... the communion of the body of Christ." Paul is telling us that we, with Christ, must be sharing each other's sufferings and each other's joys:

Rom 12:15  Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

2Co 1:6  And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

The message of these scriptures is that we, too, are saviors, and as such we must be willing and must count it a blessing to "suffer with Christ... for his body's sake which is the church":

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:

It is "the goodness of God" to be counted as a great blessing to be weak with Him and to suffer with Him, and such thoughts simply do not register, compute or add up in the mind of our old man:

2Co 13:4  For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2Co 12:10  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

There it is. The weak and despised and rejected of this world are the strongest "by the power of God toward you". This is all true only through His judgments upon the kingdom of our old man within each of us.

When Isaiah says, "it shall be a vexation only to understand the report", this 'report' is "the beginning of sorrows" mentioned by Christ in Matthew 24, which will begin to open our blinded eyes and and will begin to give hearing to our deaf ears as we begin to be dragged out of all the lies upon which "Babylon the great" has built. Nothing is going right in our lives at this point. "The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on  it: and the covering narrower than... he can wrap himself in it." The Truths we are beginning to hear are that "report", which shall be a vexation [to our old man] only to understand the report."

Isa 28:19  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.

Mat 24:6  And ye shall hear [the report] of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Mat 24:7  For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom ["every man's hand against his neighbor"]: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places [as we "keep the things which are written..." (Rev 1:3)].
Mat 24:8  All these are the beginning of sorrows.

This is how this same event is described in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ within us. It is all part and parcel of the judgment of the kingdom of our old man within us:

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit [Greek: abbusos, the kingdom of our old man]; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Rev 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Rev 9:5  And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.
Rev 9:6  And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
Rev 9:7  And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
Rev 9:8  And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
Rev 9:9  And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
Rev 9:10  And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
Rev 9:11  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

The bed is too short, and the blankets are too small, and our life is nothing but torment for five months, the number of God's chastening grace and His faith:

Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

When we are told "The Lord shall rise up..." we are being told the Lord is rising up in judgment of the lies and sins of the kingdom of our old man. We are told, He will "rise up... and be wroth... as in mount Perazim." This analogy refers to the defeat the Lord dealt the Philistines  at Mount Perazim, a mountain near the valley of Gibeon.

2Sa 5:18  The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.
2Sa 5:19  And David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the LORD said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand.
2Sa 5:20  And David came to Baalperazim, and David smote them there, and said, The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baalperazim.
2Sa 5:21  And there they left their images, and David and his men burned them.

King David typifies Christ within us. When He is living within us we begin to burn up all the lies and false doctrines which once had us blinded to the Truths of the Lord's words. The Philistines typify those who are in the promised land, the kingdom of God within us, and they are there without the benefit of spiritual circumcision. The Philistines typify all the idolatry and false doctrines which bear rule over the Lord's people for so many long, oppressive years until they are slain by the Truth, "and there they left their images, and David and his men burned them."

In other words:

1Co 3:13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

"Any man" and "every man's work shall be made manifest", and what is clearly manifested is that "there is none good, no not one", and we will all therefore "suffer loss" before we are"saved, yet so as by fire."

Rom 3:12  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Rom 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

No man of himself is good:

Isa 28:22  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.
Isa 28:23  Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.

"There is none that do good, no not one... for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God", [and therefore] "[our] bands are made strong, [and we do] mock [our Lord]." For that reason, "I have heard from the Lord of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth." These words are written especially to those who are granted in this age to "give ear, and hear [the Lord's] voice, [and] listen, and hear [His] speech." Very few are given ears that hear, and very few have been given eyes to see that these are all the things which Christ has revealed only to His elect (Mat 13:9-15) at this time. It is the Lord's elect who must be the first to live by "every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Mat 4:4). Very few are granted to understand that "a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth" are words which have proceeded out of the mouth of God and are to be lived by all of mankind, "the whole earth".

Yet this message is repeated over and over again as a theme of the prophets. Here is a sampling of the many verses which speak of this "consumption determined upon the whole earth" upon all men "beginning at the house of God" (1Pe 4:17):

Isa 3:4  And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
Isa 3:5  And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.
Isa 3:6  When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand:
Isa 3:7  In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.
Isa 3:8  For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
Isa 3:9  The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

This self-destructive principle mentioned here in Isaiah 3 is repeated in Isa 19, Ezekiel 38 and in Zechariah chapters 8, 11 and 14:

Isa 19:2  And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom. (Mat 24:6-8).

Eze 38:21  And I will call for a sword against him [all nations] throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.

Zec 8:10  For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction: for I set all men every one against his neighbour.

Zec 11:6  For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour's hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.

Zec 14:13  And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

Only those who have lived these words know that Christ, through the holy spirit, comes to take our peace with this world out of our lives, and to replace it with the peace that excels and surpasses all carnal understanding, even as we are being hated and persecuted by our own families, our own children and our own neighbors.

All these verses speaking of outward turmoil, are experienced spiritually and inwardly as internal turmoil. All who come to know God and His Son, will know the suffering and the rejection that Christ experienced. As Christ came face to face with just how much His own people had rejected Him, He made this statement:

Mat 26:38  Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

Luk 22:44  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

However, as that inward turmoil and that great earthquake are taking place within us, there is always inevitably an outward manifestation. Christ warned us to expect that outward manifestation in Matthew 10:

Mat 10:17  But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
Mat 10:18  And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
Mat 10:19  But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
Mat 10:20  For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Our judgment takes place during "the day of the Lord", which comes at "the end of the world [Greek: age]" within each of us "in [our] own order".

This is how the holy spirit describes this time in our lives:

Isa 13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. ["... with the brightness of His coming", 2Th 2:8]:
Isa 13:10  For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
Isa 13:11  And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. [This is not someone else]
Isa 13:12  I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. [the death of our old man]
Isa 13:13  Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth that he [the man of sin (vs 8) sitting on the throne of God within our hearts and minds] might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [Greek: restrains] will let [restrain], until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

This judgment and destruction of our carnal-minded man of sin, who sits in the temple of God, is not accomplished by a ten-second prayer. This is a long drawn-out process that begins even before we are "hated of all men for [Christ's] sake". We all must first endure a great "trial of affliction" within (2Co 8:2) as all of the kingdoms of this world within us are being destroyed with 'the brightness of the coming of the truth of the words of Christ'.

But our heavenly Father is aware of our frame. He knows just how much pain and rejection we can endure at any given time. God always seems to know that we are capable of bearing more than we think we can, so He tells us:

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

And that is the comfort of the scriptures with which the Lord concludes the admonitions of this 28th chapter of Isaiah:

Isa 28:24  Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
Isa 28:25  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 the rie in their place?

It is Christ who is working at breaking up the ground within us. Through Him we are His husbandmen, and any and all fruits we may produce are because of the work of His chastening grace working within us:

1Co 15:10  But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [Greek: paideuo, chastening] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

When we are given to bring forth fruit in our own lives or in the lives of others, that, too, is all His work within us. When Christ teaches us, then we are taught to deal with the weak and with the strong as is appropriate for each:

Isa 28:26  For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
Isa 28:27  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.
Isa 28:28  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.

Fitches are threshed in their own unique way, cummin is threshed with its own unique threshing instrument, and wheat is threshed in an entirely different way because a different way of threshing is required. So we are told:

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
Rom 14:2  For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
Rom 14:3  Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.

A teacher who is instructed of God is willing to receive those who are weak in the faith, but he never allows that weak brother to argue over already settled doctrine. Christ Himself taught his disciples only "as they could receive it:

Mar 4:33  And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it.
Mar 4:34  But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.

Paul had the mind of Christ and exercised the same patience with those who were less mature and in need of the patience and guidance of the more mature.

1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

The strong are instructed to bear the infirmities of the weak, and if we truly are spiritually strong, we are grateful to be able to show patience and love toward our spiritually weak and less mature brothers and sisters:

Rom 15:1  We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
Rom 15:2  Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
Rom 15:3  For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.
Rom 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

We "receive... him that is weak in the faith" with this as the goal of doing so:

Rom 15:1  We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

Rom 15:5  Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
Rom 15:6  That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When and if we are granted to be so kind to our weak brothers, this is the source of any good which the Lord may do through us:

Isa 28:29  This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

That is our study for today. These are our verses for our next study in the judgment of our old man in chapter 29:

Isa 29:1  Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.
Isa 29:2  Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.
Isa 29:3  And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.
Isa 29:4  And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.
Isa 29:5  Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.
Isa 29:6  Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.
Isa 29:7  And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.
Isa 29:8  It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.