The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 62 Discussion

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Isa 14:24-27 I Will Break The Assyrian In My Land,​ ​and Upon My Mountains Tread Him Under Foot

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Isa 14:24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
Isa 14:25 That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
Isa 14:26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
Isa 14:27 For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

This second part of the study of these verses of Isaiah is necessary because we need to understand who these nations symbolize -​​ ​e​specially the nation of Israel. If we miss that message, then these words are nothing more than a history lesson, whereas they are meant to be lived by each of us because:

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

As we learned earlier in this prophecy, the Assyrians and the Babylonians are the same very religious Chaldean peoples. The Assyrians were the earlier of the two empires with their capital of Nineveh.

Isa 23:13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.

Isa 47:1 Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.

It was the king of Assyria who​m​ the Lord used to punish the northern​ nation of His people which the Lord had given to an evil servant of King Solomon, a man named Jereboam,​​ ​the son of Nebat.

Isa 8:1 Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz. [Hasting to the booty, swift to the prey]
Isa 8:2 And I took unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.
Isa 8:3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.
Isa 8:4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

Later the king of Assyria also conquered the southern kingdom of Judah and took its king, Manasseh, captive to Assyria:

2Ch 33:11 Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
2Ch 33:12 And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,

It is because of the part the Assyrians played in Israel's punishment that we have these words at the beginning of this 14th chapter:

Isa 14:1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
Isa 14:2 And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

This entire chapter is meant to be understood in its spiritual sense because it is the Word of God,​ and "the Word [of God] is spirit":

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Christ would not have bothered to inform us, "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit..." if He had intended for us to take them literally. The words "kingdom of God" themselves were to be taken primarily in their inward, spiritual application, and not as an outward physical kingdom.

Luk 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

The day will come when those who at this time have the kingdom of God within them will "judge the world" (1Co 6:2; Rev 11:15), but until that day God's kingdom is a spiritual kingdom within us.

In like manner Assyria and Babylon are not meant to be taken literally. Both typify the entire religious world standing in opposition to the Israel of God, and those religious kingdoms are also within us and are being used by God to judge and punish His people, Israel. But Israel is not meant to be taken literally either, and it is important to know that "the Israel of God" (Gal 6:15) is not outward Isra​e​l, but is simply all those who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear, and the faith to endure the hatred of Assyria and Babylon until the end of this life.

Who is the author of "replacement theology"?

For those who are given to receive it, this is the "Israel" whom​ the Lord will "yet choose [and upon whom] He will have mercy":

Gal 6:15 Certainly, it doesn't matter whether a person is circumcised or not. Rather, what matters is being a new creation.
Gal 6:16 Peace and mercy will come to rest on all those who conform to this principle. They are the Israel of God. (GWV)

This was not the first time Paul had preached this doctrine. The first time he wrote about the replacement of physical Jews and physical circumcision with spiritual Jews and spiritual circumcision was:

Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Contrary to what some theologians teach,​ Paul uses the words 'Jew' and 'Israelite' interchangeably, as these verses demonstrate:

Act 21:39 But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.

Act 22:3 I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.

Rom 11:1 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

Yet it is this same apostle who explained who it is that lives under the influence of the capital city, Jerusalem, with this same 'replacement theology' mindset in these words:

Gal 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

"For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children" I submit to you is the very definition of replacement theology. Hagar's descendants in these verses are replacing Sarah's descendants as "Jerusalem above, [and as] the son of the freewoman", and this 'replacement theology' is one of, if not the most, hated doctrines of New Testament theology!

These Galatians are physical Gentiles, and here we have the most prolific writer of the New Testament, under the inspiration of the holy spirit, replacing "Jerusalem that now is" with "Jerusalem above... which is the mother of us all", and replacing the descend​ants of the physical son of the freewoman with the descendants of the son of the physical bondwoman, Hagar. Lest we miss his point​,​ he goes so far in making clear His "replacement theology" to tell us that the bondwoman wife of Abraham, 'Agar' or 'Hagar',​ "answers to Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage with her children".

God has simply blinded the eyes of all the ministers of "Babylon the Great", from Messianic Jews to Protestants and Catholics, to Muslims, from seeing this "mystery of the kingdom of God... within us" (Luk 17:20-21 and Mat 13:9-15).

The Original Replacement Theologian

But where did Paul get this doctrine? Here is the original "replacement theologian":

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15 For this people's heart [the heart of His own people "according to the flesh", Rom 9:3] is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Who are those to whom Christ was speaking parables? It was His own physical, "according to the flesh", Jews and Israelites. It was the multitudes of physical Jews who came to hear his parables, and to eat of His loaves and fishes. Christ plainly tells us that He spoke in parable for two stated purposes, 1) "Because to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to them it is not given", and 2) "lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart, and should be converted and I should heal them."

Christ proclaimed His "replacement theology" in the very first recorded sermon of His ministry in His home-town synagogue in Nazareth, and it came close to getting Him killed, just as it does to this very day:

Luk 4:25 "I can guarantee this truth: There were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time. It had not rained for three-and-a-half years, and the famine was severe everywhere in the country.
Luk 4:26 But God didn't send Elijah to anyone except a widow at Zarephath in the territory of Sidon.
Luk 4:27 There were also many people with skin diseases in Israel in the prophet Elisha's time. But God cured no one except Naaman from Syria.
Luk 4:28 Everyone in the synagogue became furious when they heard this.
Luk 4:29 Their city was built on a hill with a cliff. So they got up, forced Jesus out of the city, and led him to the cliff. They intended to throw him off of it. (GWV)

Here we have Christ Himself using the fact that God sent Elijah to a Gentile woman for her deliverance instead of sending him to any of Elijah's many fellow Israelite widows. He had Elisha to heal a Syrian leper instead of any of the many lepers in Israel, as proof that He intended to replace physical Israel with "inward Jews" who were "circumcized of heart in the spirit and not in the flesh" (Rom 2:28-29).

Christ is the original replacement theologian,​ and He was the first to proclaim His "replacement theology" doctrine to the lowly Samaritans​,​ who were considered to be one step below a common Gentile​,​ when He spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well in Samaria.

The Samaritan woman said:

Joh 4:20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
Joh 4:21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Joh 4:22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the [spiritual] Jews. [who know that "he is a Jew which is one inwardly"]
Joh 4:23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
Joh 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

And this is the "Truth" to which Christ refers:

Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

The kings of Babylon and Assyria spiritually typify our own flesh which places our own attachments to the false doctrines which extol physical Israel and physical circumcision over "Jerusalem which is above" and over "he is a Jew which is one inwardly". Those are the kings of Babylon, Assyria and Edumea which the Lord has "sworn... thought and purposed to break and remove as a burden "from off the shoulders ​"​ of His spiritual 'Israel' and His spiritual 'Jew'.

During the days of the king of Assyria,​​ ​Babylon was​ ​just one of the cities of the Assyrian empire. When the king of Assyria conquered Syria and the northern kingdom of Israel, he sent King Manasseh, and many of Manasseh's subjects, as slaves and as exiles to Babylon, and at the same time he also sent many men from Babylon to occupy the cities of Israel because Babylon, at that time,​​ ​was subject to the king of Assyria. It was for this reason that the Samaritans were so despised as half​-​breed heretics in the days of Christ:

2Ki 17:24 And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria​ instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.

But after God had used Assyria to punish His own people, He then used the Babylonians to destroy the king of Assyria and to usurp rulership over all the cities of the Chaldeans:

Isa 10:12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

These words, too, are spiritual, and we all live them within as we are carried away with the false doctrines of spiritual Babylon. It is this verse of Isa 10:12 to which our study today refers:

Isa 14:24 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
Isa 14:25 That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.

What Christ and His Father had "sworn... [and] thought... and [had] purposed", and what they have sworn, thought and purpose to do until this very day is to "punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks" within every man who has ever lived. This 'king of Assyria, is but an earlier symbol of the king of Babylon, who is but an earlier manifestation of the second beast of Revelation 13. The second beast of Revelation 13 comes up out of the earth, and since the "earth" symbolizes God's called out people who cannot hear His Words, this second beast is the symbol of all of the world's religions in rebellion against our Lord, since their rebellion against Him at the tower of Babel.

Here is the symbolism of the King of Assyria in the book of Revelation:

Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Rev 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

This beast is lionized and glorified and worshipped at the behest of the religious leaders of this world who tell us that we have been given a will that is free from God's will and that we are the captains of our own fate. That is the function of the religions of this world, known as "Babylon the great, the mother of harlots [and also known as] another beast coming up out of the earth [with] two horns like a lamb, [but] speaking as a dragon":

Rev 13:11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.

"Two horns like a lamb" tells those with eyes to see that this beast is masquerading as a great religious leader who, in reality​,​ is speaking for and "as a dragon".

The kings of Assyria and the king of Babylon are both very religious men, but they defy their own Creator. Let's look at what each of these men has said in their hearts in defiance of their Creator:

Here is the boasting of the king of Assyria:

2Ki 18:31 Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern:
2Ki 18:32​ ​Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, The LORD will deliver us.
2Ki 18:33 Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
2Ki 18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah? have they delivered Samaria out of mine hand?
2Ki 18:35 Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand?

Here is the boasting of the king of Babylon:

Dan 4:30 The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?

As we saw earlier​,​ this is the what the beast within every man, everyone of us, does:

Rev 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
Rev 13:6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.
Rev 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

This is what the kings of Assyria and Babylon did and what they still do within our lives. Just as the king of Assyria is followed ​by ​the king of Babylon here in Isaiah's prophecy, so here in their final scriptural manifestation we again have two appearances of the same 'Chaldean' beast within all men. Instead of being called 'the king of Assyria [and] the king of Babylon', here in his final manifestation he is called "a beast coming up out of the sea, [and] another beast coming up out of the earth".

This study demonstrates the single​-​mindedness of our old man and his kingdom when it comes to "the Lord and His Christ". He is also called "a great harlot", and that 'harlot', we are told​,​ has many daughter harlots who argue with each other as the Pharisees argued with the Sadducees:

Act 23:6 But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.
Act 23:7 And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: and the multitude was divided.
Act 23:8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.

The one thing which united the Pharisees and the Sadducees was the desire to destroy Christ and His doctrine:

Mat 16:1 The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.

Act 4:26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

The Lord mentions the king of Assyria here, along with this "parable against the king of Babylon", to demonstrate to us that these two kings are a single manifestation of the "man of sin" within us, and this "man of sin" is in all flesh of all men:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me ["All in Adam" 1Co 15:22].
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh [Adamic flesh of all men],) 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.

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

"That man of sin" is just another name for the king of Babylon who thinks "that he is God".

​However, he has to come to see that he is not God​,​ and in coming to that point, he and his kingdom are destroyed by the coming of that knowledge as we are told in:

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked ["man of sin" within each of us] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

​"Every man, in his ow​n order" (1Co 15:23) will be brought to know that he is not a free moral agent, he is not the captain of his own fate, and that "It is not of him that wills" (Rom 9:16), rather "it is God that works in [us] both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Php 2:13), and that it is He "[who is] working all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph 1:11).

Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Php 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

And that is the message of the last two verses of our study today:

Isa 14:26 This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
Isa 14:27 For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

God is working all things after the counsel of His own will. Who shall disannul His will or turn it back? No one will change God's mind or change what He has purposed. But there is something in verse 26 which we must not overlook. What we tend to miss is that we are told that God's purpose, the destruction of the kings of Assyria and Babylon within us, is "purposed upon the whole earth: and [that] His hand is stretched out... upon all the nations".

This judgment of "the whole earth" is true of the spiritual battle which is taking place within every man who comes to Christ on either side of the grave, and it is also true outwardly on both sides of the millennium. "There was no more sea" out of which all flesh "rises up", tells us this Truth (Rev 13:1 and Rev 21:1).

We are Christ's Christ, but we live in bodies of flesh and bone, and if the days of being brought to our wits​'​ end were not shortened we would not be saved in this age. But we are promised that the Lord would not lay more on us than we can bear:

Psa 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.

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.

The Judgment ​o​f Babylon Will Encompass The Whole World

Overcoming the temptations of the beast within is the spiritual application of God's purpose to destroy the kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon, but Assyria and Babylon are also the outward religions of this world, and they have and do control "the whole earth: and... all the nations". Our Lord has also purposed that this outward earth and all the outward nations will be brought to their wits​'​ end, before being given "a way to escape", and that "way to escape" is the thousand-​year reign​ of the Lord's elect. It is for their sake that the nations will not be utterly destroyed until after the saints of God have been given to rule the kingdoms of this world, this kosmos, for a symbolic one thousand years. Those are the words of our Lord Himself:

Mat 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Mat 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Mar 13:20 And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.

Speaking of this very same inward and outward event​,​ Luke puts it in these words:

Luk 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
Luk 21:26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
Luk 21:27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Luk 21:28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

Our hearts fail us when we are brought to our wits​'​ end because of what we see coming upon our lives. That is when the powers of our own heavens are shaken and we are "crushed to powder", and we are humbled before our Creator. Only then can our judgment begin at the house of God, but we then begin to know what is taking place and even better we come to know who it is who is working it all for our good:

Isa 26:8 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.
Isa 26:9 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.

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

"In the night" is just another way of saying "the sun shall be darkened and the moon turned into blood..." If we are "the called according to His purpose" in this age, we are the "blessed and holy... few... chosen" to be used of Christ to rule the nations for a thousand years and then to bring all men to "learn righteousness" through the "lake of fire".

​In our coming studies we will see more clearly how thorough the work of the fire of the Lord's word is ​within us as well as how thorough is His work in the outward nations of this world. The faults and passions and sins of our flesh, our nearest enemy must also be subdued and punished and destroyed. That enemy which lives closest to us is symbolized by the Philistines with whom Samson committed fornication, and who were a thorn in Israel's side throughout the history of those two nations.

So we are told these words​,​ which will be our study for next week:

Isa 14:28 In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
Isa 14:29 Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
Isa 14:30 And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.
Isa 14:31 Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.
Isa 14:32 What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.