Isa 47:8-15 You Are Wearied in The Multitude of Your Counselors - Discussion

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Isa 47:8-15 You Are Wearied in The Multitude of Your Counselors

Isa 47:8 Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:
Isa 47:9 But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.
Isa 47:10 For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.
Isa 47:11 Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.
Isa 47:12 Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.
Isa 47:13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.
Isa 47:14 Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.
Isa 47:15 Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.

Isaiah 63 tells us the Lord makes us to err from His ways and hardens our hearts from His fear:

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

The last verse of our previous study tells us what is in our self-righteous hearts while living out that part of our lives during which the Lord has “made us to err from His ways and hardened our hearts from His fear”:

Isa 47:7 And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.

While we are in Babylon none of us is aware of where we are spiritually. We do not attend church services every week telling ourselves that we are an integral part of the whore who rules over all the kings of the earth. Quite to the contrary we actually come to the rebellious, self-centered, self-righteous point of acting as if we will live forever even as we continue to return to our vomit and wallow in the mire of our sins. Somehow, we are capable of completely forgetting all the severe judgments which we know have preceded our own sins. On the other hand, if we feel guilty and fear we will lose our salvation, we are still worshiping ourselves in the sense that we place all the responsibility for our condition on ourselves, robbing God, in our minds, of His sovereignty. That is the meaning of “I shall be a lady for ever”. We think we can do as we please and still enjoy the Lord’s favor and protection.

Rebellious, self-righteous Israel demonstrated this spirit when they called for the priests to bring the ark of the Lord into the battle against the Philistines thinking they could continue in their sins and still have God’s supernatural protection. It did not work:

1Sa 4:3 And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.
1Sa 4:4 So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
1Sa 4:5 And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again.
1Sa 4:6 And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the LORD was come into the camp.
1Sa 4:7 And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore.
1Sa 4:8 Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? these are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.
1Sa 4:9 Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.
1Sa 4:10 And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen.
1Sa 4:11 And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.

This sets the stage for the beginning of our study today.

Isa 47:8 Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:

It is because we ‘dwell carelessly, that [we] say in our heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children’ that we are demonstrating we believe that our own heart’s idols, our own false doctrines, will save us from having to experience the wrath of God being poured out upon our sins (Rev 15:7-8).

Driven by the nature of a beast (Ecc 3:18) “the pleasures of sin for a season” are in charge of our actions far more than “seeking… the kingdom of God and His righteousness”.

If we are the Lord’s elect who are known to Him before the world began (2Ti 1:9 and Tit 1:2), we will be dragged by God out of this spiritual Egypt and Babylon. Moses choosing to identify with the Lord’s people instead of the people of Egypt is a type of this experience:

Heb 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;
Heb 11:25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Heb 11:26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

Notice that “affliction with the people of God” in these verses typifies “the reproach of Christ”.

“The recompence” with which Moses, in type, is being rewarded and for which he had such great respect that he gave up the rulership of all of Egypt, was not to simply receive a day’s wages, neither was it to simply receive life from the dead, which is common to all men. Moses was not giving up Egypt to be like everyone else simply seeking life as a subject within a kingdom that was to be ruled over by others. He gave up all that Egypt had to offer to be the first to get paid. Being the first to be paid means having a part in the first resurrection, and that payment is to be a king and a priest in the Lord’s kingdom which will rule the kingdoms of this world a thousand years. After that those same kings and priests will be used by God to give life to those who had “borne the heat of the day” but were not given to be the first to be paid.

No, Moses did not realize his actions typified the seeking of a spiritual kingdom, nevertheless “respect unto the recompence of the reward” here in Hebrews 11 is referring specifically to something far superior to simply being saved from death along with all the rest of mankind. ‘Respect for the recompence of the reward’ refers to being the first to die to the passion and pulls of our old man, and being the first to be paid for that struggle by being blessed to “have part in the first resurrection” and to be spared having to endure for a second time “groaning and travailing in pain” as an impure and defiled spirit the suffering of the lake of fire, which is the second death.

“Line upon line, and precept upon precept” is what constitutes “the recompence of the reward”.

Let’s read it again:

Heb 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;
Heb 11:25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
Heb 11:26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

Moses had no understanding of “the reproach of Christ". He had no idea that Christ was to be born of a virgin and die for the sins of the whole world. We are told his actions typified “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt", which is just another way of saying that Moses esteemed the blessing of being in the first resurrection greater than being in the resurrection which follows the thousand-year reign of Christ and His Christ. There are those who do not esteem the reproaches of Christ in this age to be any different than those of any other age.

For all who do “esteem the reproaches of Christ” in this age, and being judged in this age to be far superior to being judged in “the resurrection of judgment” along with all those who esteem the reproaches of Christ to be the same in every age, here are a few verses which make that point very clear to all who are given “eyes that see and ears that hear… the things of the spirit”:

Rev 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

The power and authority of this kingdom is within us in this age, and if we place that kingdom within first in our lives in this age, then we will be obedient to these words:

Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

The point of our verses today reveals that before it is revealed to us that we are His elect we first must be brought to see we have all failed at first to ‘esteem the reproach of Christ [in this age] to be greater riches than the treasures of Egypt’. At that time in our lives we are the “virgin daughter of Babylon”, and one of her many blasphemous doctrines is that there is “none else beside me”. That being the case, it is impossible for me to lose my husband, and therefore “I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children” because God must deliver me because I am His wife.

As hard as it is for us to accept, God is not obligated to live up to our false ‘rapture’ or ‘place of safety’ doctrines. We can say and preach all we want that, “I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children”:

Isa 47:9 But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.

Looking back, it seems that we all waste many years in Babylon believing her lies and rejoicing in our ignorance, thinking of our strong delusion as great new revelation. I remember vividly rejoicing greatly at being given to ‘know’ that Petra, in the modern day kingdom of Jordan, was to be “the place of safety” to which the Lord would take me to spare me from the pouring out of His wrath upon this sin-filled earth. What utter nonsense! However, the Lord Himself had blinded me from being able to perceive what is revealed clearly in these simple words:

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.

Our physical bodies are the “flesh and… bones” of Jesus Christ (Eph 5:30). They “are the temple of the living God” and no one can enter into that temple “till the seven plagues of the seven angels are fulfilled” in that person’s life. The torment of these seven plagues upon the kingdom of our old man within us is ‘the patience and faith of the saints’ spoken of in the previous chapter:

Rev 14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Rev 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
Rev 14:8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
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.

‘The patience of the saints and they that keep the commandments of God and keep the faith of Jesus’ are those “who worship the beast and his image and… receive the mark of His name”, and whose judgment “in this time”, fulfills the seven plagues of the seven angels and who through being judged by those “seven last plagues, which fill up the wrath of God” are brought to repentance in this age and are at this moment standing upon the sea of glass mingled with fire:

Rev 15:2 And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

That is those who are granted to enter the temple of God “in this time” (Rom 8:18).

Put Revelation 14:11-12 together with Revelation 16:2 and it becomes clear that truly “no man can enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels is fulfilled” (Rev 15:8).

Rev 16:2 And the first [angel] went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

Oh, that the Lord has written in our books to be judged in this time and not in “resurrection of damnation” (G2920: krisis, judgment) because:

Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Those few who are granted suffer with Christ in “this present time” are “the… manifested sons of God” for whom all the rest of mankind is waiting. They are waiting on us because we are the “saviors” of:

Oba 1:21 And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.

Therefore the Truth remains that no matter the vast number of excited sermons teaching a ‘rapture’ out of this world to avoid the wrath of God, and no matter the number of studies and sermons about “a place of safety” here on the earth to avoid the seven plagues of the seven angels, the Truth remains that “no man [is] able to enter into the temple of God until the seven plagues of the seven angels" are fulfilled in that person’s life. It is those very “idols of the heart”, those false doctrines in which we trust, which are the wickedness of this verse:

Isa 47:10 For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.

‘No one sees me [because] I am and there is none else beside me’ leaves us no one to depend upon but ourselves, and that is exactly what we do. “[Our] wisdom and [our] knowledge” are our own false doctrines, and they are also “[our] wickedness in which we [have] trusted”:

Isa 47:11 Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.

This is the fulfilling of verse 9:

Isa 47:9 But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments.

Widowhood is the loss of one’s husband and protector. The only True Protector we have is Christ whom we have crucified to ourselves with “the multitude of our sorceries, and [with] the great abundance of our enchantments”.

These ‘sorceries and enchantments’ are all of our false doctrines on which we base our poor doomed self-righteous lives. I well remember how special I felt when I, in the “stumblingblock of iniquity, and an idol of my heart” (Eze 14:1-9), saw with eyes which could not see “the things of the spirit” (1Co 2:13-15), that the word “sorceries” in Revelation 18:23 is the Greek word G5331, pharmakeia, from which we get our English words ‘pharmacy’ and ‘pharmaceuticals’, and having no spiritual eyes or ears, I took it literally as ‘drugs’.

Rev 18:23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

It was revealed to me by ‘the idols of my heart’ that this whore was deceiving the whole world by getting the whole world hooked on drugs. This “great whore” is called “the mother of harlots”, and since Judaism preceded apostate Christianity, my carnal mind reasoned that the ‘great harlot, the mother of harlots’ was Judaism and the modern-day nation of Israel. Everything in the news cycles of the late 70’s and early 80’s confirmed these idols of my heart and so the great harlot, the beast, the false prophet and the man of sin were all ‘out there’, and in my self-righteous pride I ‘knew’ just who that great harlot was, and I knew who her daughters were.

All the while I was looking ‘out there’ that harlot, the beast on which she sat, the false prophet, and the man of sin were all within me chuckling among themselves at how pitifully blind and deceived I was. The Lord had answered me according to the idols of my heart, and I was hopelessly blind and deaf to “the things of the spirit”. Everything was as He said it would be with me if I came to His Word determined to conform His Word according to my preconceived false doctrines.

Just look at how the Lord tells us He will deal with us under these circumstances:

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 inquired of at all by them?
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;

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.

A ‘talent’ is a year’s wages, so the Lord had indeed invested much in this man’s life and yet he agrees with him, “thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:”

This “wicked servant”, whose false doctrine had taught him that his Lord was a hard man, was in effect being told by his Lord:

Isa 47:12 Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.

The Lord is rubbing our faces in the fact that our false doctrines are really nothing more than “a lie in [our] right hand”. He is laughing at our calamity, and if He is judging us, then what seems like our darkest hour will turn out to be the best day of our lives:

Psa 37:12 The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
Psa 37:13 The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming.

Psa 59:8 But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.

Pro 1:25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
Pro 1:26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
Pro 1:27 When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Pro 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
Pro 1:29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

When we “set at nought [the Lord’s] counsel” we are in effect seeking “the multitude of [our own] counsels”. “The multitude of [our] sorceries… the multitude of [our] counselors’ [and]the multitude of the idols of [our] hearts” are all one and the same false doctrines and lies upon which we have built our lives. We are depending on our false doctrines to deliver us in our time of trouble, and we are in the process of discovering that “there is a lie in [our] right hand”:

Isa 47:13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.

This verse is simply reaffirming what the Lord told us about ourselves back in chapter 44:

Isa 44:17 And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image [an idol of our heart (Eze 14:1-9)]: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.
Isa 44:18 They have not known nor understood: for he [the Lord Himself (Eze 14:9 and Mat 13:10-15)] hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.
Isa 44:19 And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?
Isa 44:20 He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

There is the point the Lord is making. The idols of our hearts are “…a lie in [our] right hand”. Why our right hand? It is because the right hand in scripture typifies power:

Psa 91:7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

Psa 110:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Psa 110:5 The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath.

The strength of the Lord and the Truth of His Word are not a lie, and they will deliver us. The lying idols of our hearts will not deliver us in the day of trouble. The false doctrines of a rapture and a place of safety, for example, will not change this truth:

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.

Any doctrine which contradicts Revelation 15:8 will be burned up by the flaming Truth of the truth of that verse. No man can enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels are fulfilled. This is what the fire of those seven plagues will do:

Isa 47:14 Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.
Isa 47:15 Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.

We are “wearied in the multitude of [our] counselors” because ‘our counselors’ are all the multitude of the idols of our hearts which are being burned up in the fire, which ‘fire’ is the Truth of the Lord’s words. This is all a repetition of what we were told back in chapter 33:

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites [us, when we are serving the idols of our hearts], Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

The reason why “He that walks righteously and speaks uprightly [can] dwell with the devouring fire [and] the everlasting burnings” is that all the idols of his heart have already been burned out of him, and he has been purified by “the power of the flame”. With nothing left to burn, the righteous are at home and comfortable in the truthful doctrines typified by “the devouring fire [and the] everlasting burnings”. It is all in accord with these words we must all read and keep Revelation 1:3.

Rev 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
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.
Rev 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

Being tormented in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb is the process of dying to our old man. That dying is the torment of the seven last plagues which is not exclusive to those who are cast into the lake of fire. If we are judged in this age, we will be the first to die to our rebellious, self-righteous old man. The second death, on the other hand, is exclusive to those who are cast into the lake of fire. The ‘second death’ is not a matter of dying a second time. Rather, it is a matter of the order in which that ‘death’ takes place. It is a matter of being in the second group which must endure this torment in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. The second death is exclusive to those who have no part in the first resurrection, the resurrection to life. Here are the scriptures, “line upon line and precept upon precept” (Isa 28:10):

Dan 12:2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Joh 5:28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [Greek: krisis, judgment].

Rev 20:1 AND I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
Rev 20:3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Rev 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

If we are blessed to be tormented in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb and to be judged in this age, then Isaiah 47:14-15 is being fulfilled within us in this present time (Rom 8:18). If we are so very blessed to be given such a gift, then these very comforting words in Isaiah 44 are also ours to claim in this present time. I will repeat verses 19-20 because we must remember that we, too, were the first to fail to consider in our hearts, and we were also the first to be devoid of knowledge or understanding, unable to deliver ourselves with our false doctrines or acknowledge that those false doctrines are nothing less than “a lie in our right hand”:

Isa 44:19 And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?
Isa 44:20 He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?

When we are made to know in this age that we have been feeding on ashes, have been blinded by a deceived heart and that we are holding a lie in our right hand, then the Lord wants us to know and appreciate this:

Isa 44:21 Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.
Isa 44:22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
Isa 44:23 Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.
Isa 44:24 Thus saith the LORD , thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;
Isa 44:25 That frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish;
Isa 44:26 That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof:

That is our study for today. Here are the verses for our next study:

Isa 48:1 HEAR ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD , and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.
Isa 48:2 For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is his name.
Isa 48:3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
Isa 48:4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;
Isa 48:5 I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.
Isa 48:6 Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.
Isa 48:7 They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.
Isa 48:8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.
Isa 48:9 For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.
Isa 48:10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
Isa 48:11 For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.