Isa 48:1-11 - Part 2, I Knew You Would Deal Treacherously - Discussion

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Isa 48:1-11 - Part 2, I Knew You Would Deal Treacherously

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.

This is the second part of this study, but we will go back to verse 5 to review and remind us the Lord is explaining why “[He] will not give His glory to another”, by giving any quarter to our flesh nor to our self-righteous carnal mind.

Recall that in our last study the Lord went to great lengths to remind us that He and He alone has told mankind what mankind’s beginnings are. He wants us to know that He spoke His entire creation into existence, mankind included.

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.

Every religion on earth has ancient myths attempting to explain how the creation came to be. Many of them begin with animal spirits like the crow or the wolf, getting together and creating mankind. Others use a void as the beginning of Creation, but these myths always skip over the moment of creation and how mankind came into being. Pagans have literally hundreds of myths, none of which credit the Creator with the ability to speak the creation into being. The Bible alone states that “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…”

As we noted in our last study, Isaiah tells us the entire creation came into being “suddenly”:

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.

Truth has nothing in common with, and is in no way compatible with, the modern “idol of the heart” known as evolution.

The same words which “went for out of [the Lord’s] mouth” and brought the entire universe into existence also foretold the future fate of all mankind:

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee [the serpent] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Gen 3:16  Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to [Hebrew: ‘el’, against; Same as ‘el’ in Gen 4:8] thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Gen 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto [Hebrew: ‘el’, against] thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. 
Gen 4:8  And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against [Hebrew: ‘el’, against] Abel his brother, and slew him.

We are informed “from the beginning” that Eve, typifying the church and all men within her, will be ruled by her husband, typifying Christ “the last Adam” (1Co 15:45).

Cain, typifying our old man, is assured that “through death” he will be given to rule over sin. Salvation for all men was foretold “from the beginning”.

Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Paul informs us that marriage is a type of Christ and the church. “He shall rule over you,” speaking to Eve concerning her husband, and “You shall rule over him,” speaking to Cain concerning sin in his life, is therefore a prophecy that in time Christ will save and rule over all men of all time:

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.

There is an order in which the Lord is carrying out His purpose for mankind, and it does not depend upon mankind’s co-operation.

Eph 5:22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

The rebellious beast within us has seen and heard “all this”, and yet we “will not… declare it”. The past and the future have been given to us by the Lord, and we want to take credit for that knowledge:

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.

As we saw in our last study, the “new things… even hidden things” are the same here in Isaiah as “the hidden wisdom” of:

1Co 2:6  Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 

“Hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory” sounds very similar to what Isaiah has already told us:

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.

Isaiah also agrees with Paul, there are “new things… even hidden things… you did not know” (Isa 48:6), and Isaiah tells us why the Lord waited to reveal these “new things”.

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. 

The fact is:

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.

Here is why our ears are not opened. This is how the Lord knows in advance that we will deal very treacherously with Him. This is why the Lord can call us “a transgressor from the womb”:

Psa 56:8  Thou numberest my wanderings: Put thou my tears into thy bottle; Are they not in thy book? 

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Mal 3:16  Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. 
Mal 3:17  And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 
Mal 3:18  Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

Dan 7:10  A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. 
Dan 7:11  I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.

Our flesh is called ‘dust of the ground’ and ‘clay in the Potter’s hand’, and we are told that it was “made wicked for [our own] day of evil”. This is so true that the Lord wants us to know that even all the wickedness we do in these corruptible vessels of clay is not really of ourselves at all, but is, in the final analysis, a work of His own hands for our good:

Job 34:17  Shall even he that hateth right govern? and wilt thou condemn him that is most just? 
Job 34:18  Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly?
Job 34:19  How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of his hands.

It is very foolish, even if it is true, to call a king ‘wicked’ or those who govern us, even if it is true that they are ‘ungodly’. Good or evil, they are the Lord’s servants, executing His will for this age. For that reason, this is very good advice for all of us:

Ecc 10:20  Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.

Yet the rebellious beast within us thinks nothing of calling the Lord Himself wicked and ungodly when His word contradicts the idols of our hearts. We deny doing so, but our works speak much louder to the Lord than our words do. He even asks us this simple question, and then He tells us what our false doctrines and their accompanying evil works will produce:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? 
Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

For much of our lives, church doctrine trumps the Truth. While the Lord tells us we must endure to the end to be saved (Mat 22:10), our heart’s idol teaches the false doctrine of a ten-second sinner’s prayer. While He teaches that “every one will be salted with fire…” (Mar 9:49), and “every man’s work shall be made manifest… by fire” (1Co 3:13), our false doctrines teach us that obedience to Christ brings physical and financial peace to our outward lives. While the scriptures teach that even those whose works of wood, hay and stubble, must be burned out of us “but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire” (1Co 3:15), our heart’s idol teaches that if we do not choose to be obedient to Christ before we die in this age, then we are forever consigned to an eternal lake of literal fire. While the Lord Himself tells us that we must ‘read, hear, and keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book’ (Rev 1:3), we call God a liar by believing all the false doctrines of a secret rapture or a place of safety which will keep us from having to endure the fiery trials of much tribulation (Act 14:22) and the torments of  the seven last plagues of Revelation 15 and 16.

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

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.

We of ourselves have no desire to come out of the blind churches in which we were born and brought up. It is by the Lord’s hand alone that we are dragged out of that darkness and into the light of His Truth. While we are in that harlot system being taught the false doctrine of free moral agency, this is what our Savior Himself tells us concerning the real reason any of us come to Him:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [Greek: 'helkuō', drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 6:65  And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.

Joh 15:16  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

What is “given unto [us] of [our] Father” is not dependent upon our fabled ‘free will’. “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you” is the Truth of whether we serve God in this age or forebear.

This doctrine concurs with the next verse here in Isaiah 48:

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. 

As we saw in our last study, the Lord makes it clear in this book of Isaiah, that we, of ourselves, do nothing to deserve the incomparable calling we are given to have part in the first resurrection and to be a part of the bride of Christ who will rule with Him over the nations of this world and then continue the sovereignty of that kingdom over into the purifying work upon all men of all time in the lake of fire.

A “worm” has nothing to offer its Creator, and that is what the Lord calls us:

Isa 41:14  Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

We are nothing more or less than what the Lord makes us to be, and He reveals in the very next verse of the 41st chapter:

Isa 41:15  Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.

God does it because He decides to do so. He has said it would happen, and He is making good on His own word “for [His] name’s sake”:

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.

That the Lord is doing all He does ‘for His own name’s sake” and despite what we do, is repeated many times throughout the scriptures.

Isa 43:24  Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.
Isa 43:25  I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

1Sa 12:22  For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.

Psa 25:11  For thy name's sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.

Psa 79:9  Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake.

Dan 9:19  O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.

Silver is the Biblical symbol for redemption. Both Joseph, a type of Christ, and Christ Himself, were purchased with silver, but it is fire that purifies silver:

Isa 48:10  Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

Purging our dross with fire is another of the themes of this prophecy:

Isa 1:25  And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: 
Isa 1:26  And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

Christ has redeemed all men of all time, yet each and every man must still be “chosen… in the furnace of [fiery] affliction”:

Deu 4:20  But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

“Every man’s works are [still being] tried by fire”. The purifying of the new man is accomplished through the symbol of fire, and that is as true today as it has ever been as the scriptures witness:

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

Those in whose book it is written to be an overcomer in this age shall receive a reward of “a crown of life” and “a kingdom” in which they will be “kings and priests… for a thousand years”. Those in whose book it is written not to overcome in this age will suffer the loss of that “crown of life” and they will also lose out on having a part in the “blessed and holy… first resurrection”:

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.

Jas 1:12  Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

Rev 2:10  Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

The ‘temptation, trials, tribulations and fidelity to death' are the fire which purifies the silver which symbolizes our redemption. Whether we desire or don't desire to have part in that “blessed and holy… first resurrection” either way will be a work of God in our lives. We know this is true because we are told:

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.

If we either ‘will and do’ fear and tremble at the Word of God, or if we refuse to do so, it will be a work of God who is working “all things after the counsel of His own will… for His own name’s sake” and not because of our supposed, but non-existent, ‘free will’.

Isa 48:11  For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.

This is a reference to how we just naturally attempt to make the Lord’s words accord with the idols of our hearts of verse 5 of this same chapter:

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.

That would be to “share [His] glory with another” God, the idols of our hearts, “[our] graven image and [our] molten image”. The Lord will not give His glory to another, but we are to be “glorified together with Him” simply because we are Christ, as He Himself tells us:

Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 
Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

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

Mat 25:45  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

Act 9:5  And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Christ tells us that we are just “as He is in this world”, and as we treat others and how others treat us is how we and they are treating Christ Himself.

1Jn 4:16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

That is quite a blessing which is placed upon all in whom He dwells and whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Look at how many times this phrase “the book of life” is mentioned in scripture. It happens to appear seven times:

Php 4:3  And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life. 

Rev 3:5  He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Rev 17:8  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Rev 21:27  And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Rev 22:19  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

That is our study for today. Here are the rest of the verses in this 48th chapter of Isaiah, which are for our next study:

Isa 48:12  Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.
Isa 48:13  Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.
Isa 48:14  All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The LORD hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
Isa 48:15  I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
Isa 48:16  Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me.
Isa 48:17  Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
Isa 48:18  O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:
Isa 48:19  Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.
Isa 48:20  Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob.
Isa 48:21  And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
Isa 48:22  There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked.