The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 46 Discussion

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Isa 10:1-4  What Will You Do... In The Desolation Which Shall Come From Far?

Isa 10:1  Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
Isa 10:2  To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
Isa 10:3  And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
Isa 10:4  Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Before we can appreciate the Lord's message in these four verses we must remember the truth we learned from our last study:

Isa 9:19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

We just naturally believe that it is our sins which have blinded us and have darkened our understanding and have caused us to believe all the lies of the churches which confirm that formula. But Isa 9:19 does not say 'Through our sins the land is darkened', rather we are clearly told that our darkened and deceived state is the result of God's wrath, and as we also saw last week, that state of being under God's wrath is a matter of being "shapen in iniquity and [being] conceived in sin":

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

There are two verses of scripture which reveal that we are all born under the wrath of God. They do so by revealing that God knew before He ever created Adam and Eve that they would disobey His commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Here are those two verses:

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

Obviously, if indeed we were "given... grace... in Christ before the world began", God knew in advance that Adam would disobey His commandment not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He knew Adam would sin against Him "before the world began" and that Adam and his seed would need a savior to redeem them from their sinful condition.

How could God be so certain that Adam would choose to do exactly what he was forbidden from doing? You and I know that God knew Adam and Eve would disobey Him because He had placed within their  flesh, from the moment of their creation, "the law of sin and death" which guaranteed their disobedience and their iniquity:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Did Adam and Eve deliberately choose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Of course they did! Have any of us ever deliberately chosen to sin against our brother of our Creator? Yes, of course we all have. We are even told:

Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Jer 5:25  Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.

Are not those two verses basically telling us, to paraphrase Isa 9:19, 'Through [your sins against] the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother'?

The answer is, yes, our iniquities have separated us from God, and Isa 59:2 and Jer 5:25 tell us that we have sinned against God, but, as we have learned, our sins are not really our sins which separate us from God. Rather it is really, as Joseph explained to His brothers concerning their sins against Him after twice telling them that they had chosen to sell him into Egyptian slavery, why they had chosen to do that to him:

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

That is the exact same message which Paul gives us when he twice informs us:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

So why did Adam and Eve disobey their Creator and eat of the fruit of the tree they were told, "You shall not eat of it"? Was there any way they could possibly have chosen to do otherwise? No, the Truth is that there was no way they could have possibly chosen to do otherwise because "it was not [Adam and Eve who of their own accord ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] but [it was] sin that dwelt in [them]", because "in [their] flesh dwelt no good thing." No doubt they wanted to please God, but they simply could not do so​, because the truth is that "there [was] no good thing [dwelling] in [them]. Instead, what was dwelling there within them, and in the flesh of all their children, was a "law of sin... in [their] members" which is part and parcel of being "made of clay", made "shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin". You and I are "in Adam", and we are all subject to and are "captive to the law of sin which is in [our] members".

Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

We are all born as a "vessel of clay... marred in the hand of The Potter" with a carnal mind which just naturally "was shapen in iniquity", "marred in the hand of the Potter", "enmity against God..." captive to the law of sin, which is in our members:

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

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

So it is with "the carnal mind [which] is enmity against God" that we are 'shaped' by the Potter from our mother's womb, and as His enemy from birth, this is where we stand in relation to our Creator:

Psa 21:8  Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies: thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.
Psa 21:9  Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.
Psa 21:10  Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.
Psa 21:11  For they intended evil against thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.

As clay vessels we are carnally minded, and we simply do not believe on Christ from birth. So we are born under His wrath and must be judged and brought to repentance:

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

The point being made in all these inspired statements is that our deception and darkness is not a matter of our choice to sin against our Creator. Rather our choice to sin is through His wrath which is of necessity against our carnal mind which is enmity against God.

Isa 9:19  Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

Newborns are not mature believers and certainly never will, just naturally, become mature believers in a calling which requires of us to die daily and to be daily "crucified with Christ (1Co 15:31 and Gal 2:20). Because our marred composition of being made carnally minded with natural "enmity against God" (Rom 8:7), we produce our own doctrines to replace those of Christ. His doctrine, which teaches that we are to love our enemies (Mat 5:44), is changed to say 'unless your enemy means you bodily harm, in which case you must blow him away to the glory of God'. Christ taught that all who are faithful to His doctrine "...shall be hated of all men for my name's sake" (Mat 10:22). This also is replaced with our own doctrine which twists His words into teaching that if you tithe faithfully, then you most certainly do not need not "die daily... be crucified with Christ [nor be] hated of all men". Instead we are taught that if we serve God according to the doctrines of Babylon, we will be blessed in this age with physical blessings beyond our ability to receive it.

Which brings us to the first verse of our study today:

Isa 10:1  Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;

All such 'prosperity evangelism' is deception which denies, or at the very least, omits and never mentions the fact that grace chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live Godly lives in this present age" (Tit 2:11-12). In the place of "the sum of God's Word" (Psa 119:165), the beast and his father, the great red dragon, quote 'some of God's Words' and twist His Words to make them appeal to our natural mind and our deceitful hearts (Jer 17:7). All such prophets have been given by God to "deceive the whole world" with these lies and half truths, which are nothing less than the doctrines of the great harlot and all of her harlot daughters who "decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;"

At first we all come to the Lord's Words and those who teach His Words, with our minds already made up. In the World Wide Church of God, where I met my wife, we shielded ourselves from having to listen to anyone who came to us with anything which contradicted our doctrine by simply saying that if they were not keeping the weekly Sabbath and the Jewish feasts, then there was no way that anything else a person said could possibly be true. That is a perfect example of what the Lord calls 'putting the stumbling block of our iniquity before us and then coming to Him and His Word and His prophets' with our minds already made up. This is what our Lord has to say concerning all the unfaithful, harlotry of the false doctrines of Babylon and all of her harlot daughters:

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

An "idol in [our] heart" is a false doctrine into which we are fully invested before we even pick up a Bible. A few popular examples are the false doctrines of the immortality of the soul, its accompanying false doctrine of a triune God, the false doctrine of eternal torment and the false doctrine of God giving all men a will that is free from any influence from God Himself. With all such falsehoods replacing the Truth that God is working all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11), we then come to the Word of God and to those who know His Word, and when we do so, this is what we must accept as a work which the Lord is doing "after the counsel of His own will".

Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

At this point in our "experience of evil" (Ecc 1:13) the Lord actually answers our prayers "according to the idols of [our]... heart." If we think He has not invested anything in our lives and that He is a hard man, then that is exactly how He will manifest Himself to us:

Mat 25:24  Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
Mat 25:25  And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
Mat 25:26  His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
Mat 25:27  Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
Mat 25:28  Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
Mat 25:29  For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
Mat 25:30  And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

"I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed"??? What a self-righteous, contending, condemning slap in the face to a man who has just invested an undeserved "talent" upon us. This is a perfect example of "decreeing unrighteous decrees... writing and prescribing grievousness".

Isa 10:1  Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;

What is the fruit of such a spirit which is willing to condemn God and to maintain its own righteousness? This is the fruit of that spirit:

Isa 10:2  To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!

We see the outward fulfillment of these words as we witness multi-millionaire ministers talking widows out of their rent and grocery money with the promise of great material blessings in return for their gullible naivety. Then they condemn that same gullible lamb for not having enough faith when the rent comes due.

However we simply cannot see ourselves as being needy, poor, fatherless widows in need of judgment. The reason we cannot see these things is that we were born under the wrath of the Lord and blind from our mother's womb:

Joh 9:1  And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
Joh 9:2  And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Joh 9:3  Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

This man was born blind "for [our] sakes" (2Co 4:15), "that the works of God should be manifest in him", for your and for my spiritual benefit. As the end of this chapter will demonstrate, we also are blind from birth, but we are totally unaware of our own blindness:

Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

That is "the works of God [which] should be manifest in" that blind man's life. It was all done "for [our] sakes". But until the day that has been ordained in advance for our healing of our spiritually blinded condition into which we are all born, we continue to think we already 'see', we actually believe that the darkness we live in is the light, and "therefore [our] sin remains", and our judgment still lies ahead of us.

Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

So the Lord poses for us this question:

Isa 10:3  And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

Let's not fail to see that "the day of visitation [is] the desolation which shall come from far". Being "from far" in its inward application is not to be taken literally. The fact is that God is near every one of us:

Act 17:27  That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
Act 17:28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

We are bluntly informed that our desolation "comes from [us being spiritually so] far" from our God and His ways:

Psa 119:155  Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes.

Isa 59:1  Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
Isa 59:3  For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.

That is the occasion and the opportunity which the Lord has given Himself. That is the "far" from which our desolation proceeds into our lives to destroy the kingdom of our old man, the kingdom of the Philistines within us, as revealed to us in the story of why God had Samson to marry a Philistine woman of Timnath:

Jdg 14:1  And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
Jdg 14:2  And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.
Jdg 14:3  Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.
Jdg 14:4  But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

As we are seeing in this study, the Lord has given Himself "an occasion against" our old man by making him "marred in the hand of the Potter" (Jer 18:4) for the very purpose of pouring out His wrath upon the kingdom of our old man, who He has given "dominion over [us]" by placing the law of sin and death within our members. Therefore the proper order of events is:

Isa 9:19  Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

I repeat, that is what the spirit tells us through the words of John the baptist:

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Yes, there is no denying that our sins place great distance between our Creator and us, but in the final analysis of scripture, our sins are nothing more than the "occasion", the opportunity the Lord has given Himself to pour out His wrath upon the kingdom of our old man.

Let's look once more at:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

There is a law in our members which gives God the right and the opportunity "before the world began" to pour out His wrath upon the fleshly, carnal, rebellious kingdom of our old man (2Ti 1:9 and Tit 1:2). These verses of Romans 7:17-20 are words which our proud flesh just naturally despises, simply because it robs our flesh of even the ability to claim dominion over our sins and rebellions against our Lord. Our sins are not really our sins at all. Rather, they are the product of a law which God Himself placed in the flesh of all men from the very beginning.

This Truth provokes Paul to inform us:

Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

We have no free choice in this matter. Where is "free moral agency" in those verses? All of our sins were predestined by Him who is "working all things after the counsel of His own will", not our will (Eph 1:11). All who are granted to see and to know this great Truth will cry out to our heavenly Father along with the apostle Paul:

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

So the Truth is that it is:

Rev 16:10  And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat [Greek: thronos -  throne] of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Rev 16:11  And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

Again, what is the true reason we are in such deep darkness?

Isa 9:19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

It is in our "darkness" that the pain and sores of our torment come upon us. Spiritual 'darkness' is not simply a matter of being deprived of a flashlight or a torch. Spiritual darkness entails believing lies which produce spiritual pain and torment, which "turn [us] aside from judgment" and cause us to blaspheme and condemn our own Lord and to bring us to our wits' end before we are given to see what the Lord Himself is working in our lives:

Psa 119:67  Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now [only after being afflicted] have I kept thy word.

...Which is just the Old Testament way of saying this:

Rev 15:7  And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Remember this verse:

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Revelation 15:7-8 demonstrate that the wrath of God simply must precede believing on the Son. It is not as if we can "believe on the Son" and circumvent the wrath of God because the Truth still remains that "...no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled."

This all accords with the last verse of our study today:

Isa 10:4  Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

This is the fifth and final time in this prophecy that we see this phrase "For all this His anger is not turned away..."

Isa 5:25  Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Isa 9:12  The Syrians before, and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Isa 9:17  Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Isa 9:21  Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Isa 10:4  Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Five is the number of grace through faith: [See the study on numbers here for a full explanation of the meaning of the number five] so while we will not see this phrase again, the details of our judgment and the work of grace which produces that judgment will continue to be revealed to us throughout this prophecy.

We all come into this world, "without me", without the mind of Christ. Instead we are given a carnal mind which is enmity against God and is therefore, by nature, abiding under the wrath of God (Joh 3:36).

If indeed we are the Lord's elect, then we must be the first to endure the fire of His wrath to become "the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb".

Rev 14:4  These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

The fact that we are "the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb" demonstrates there is a later harvest of souls. And it is through the unbelief of the great innumerable multitude of Revelation 7 that the 144,000 firstfruits are numbered and then used as the Lord's saviors who will redeem the rest of all those who are "in Adam" (1Co 15:22-28).

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
1Co 15:27  For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Next week, Lord willing, we will discover that God uses Babylon, also known as Assyria, as the rod of His anger against His own hypocritical people, against you and against me:

Isa 10:5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
Isa 10:6  I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
Isa 10:7  Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.
Isa 10:8  For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?
Isa 10:9  Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
Isa 10:10  As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;
Isa 10:11  Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

[Questions or comments can be directed to the author at vinsmike@gmail.com]