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Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 57:1-7 The Righteous is Taken Away From the Evil to Come

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Isa 57:1-7 The Righteous is Taken Away From the Evil to Come

[Study Aired March 29, 2020]

Isa 57:1  The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
Isa 57:2  He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.
Isa 57:3  But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.
Isa 57:4  Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,
Isa 57:5  Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?
Isa 57:6  Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these?
Isa 57:7  Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.

“The righteous perish and no man lays it to heart” is primarily as spiritual a statement as any other verse of scripture inspired by Christ who is “the Word”:

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Joh 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Our natural man does not comprehend or understand the light or the spirit, which is “the light of men”.

Joh 1:5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

“The darkness” which cannot comprehend “the light” is our naturally rebellious and hate-filled carnal mind:

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

Here is Strong’s definition of the Greek word translated as ‘enmity’ in this verse:

Our darkened understanding is the fruit of our natural “hatred” of “the law of God”. This lack of comprehension is especially true of the spiritual understanding of the subject of ‘perish[ing] and death’. The natural mind simply cannot understand how life can possibly come through perishing… “through death”. Yet that is exactly what the scriptures teach:

Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

As with all scripture, death is primarily to be understood spiritually. Physical death is not spiritual death, any more than a spiritual lamb of God is a physical lamb. The same can be said of words like life, light, food, famine, or any other words found in the scriptures. Christ is not “present[ing us] holy and unblameable and unreprovable” as dead bodies. ”Through death” He is giving us life, and He says it is “life… more abundant”:

Joh 10:10  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Natural, physical life plays a vital part in bringing us to this “more abundant… life”, but only inasmuch as it must come to be seen as a dying process which must come first:

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening [Greek: zōopoieō, life giving] spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

This verse in John 6 applies to all scripture:

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

Christ told Nicodemas:

Joh 3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Joh 3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

These words of Christ to Nicodemus are spirit, but Nicodemus had a carnal mind which could not hear them except in their natural application. Nicodemus actually believed Christ was speaking of physical birth. He understood Christ in the only means available to him at that moment. He thought Christ was telling him he had to enter a second time into his mother’s womb. Christ was saying nothing of the kind, except as entering the kingdom of God is accomplished through the same spiritual terms of coming out of spiritual darkness into spiritual light through much pain and anguish of soul. This rebirth, this new birth experience, is also described as passing from death unto life:

Joh 5:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

1Jn 3:14  We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

Let’s analyze what Christ is telling Nicodemus in the light of what the scriptures reveal about how we are to understand the “invisible things of God”. How can a natural man possibly understand “the invisible things of God”? How are we to understand Christ’s doctrine, “You must be born again?”  If we are given to believe the scriptures, then this is how we are to do so:

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Let’s apply this principle to our understanding of this word ‘perisheth’ in our first verse:

Isa 57:1  The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.

The Hebrew word translated ‘perisheth’ is:

Here is how it is variously translated in the King James Version:

‘Perish’ is by far the most common translation of this Hebrew word. Here is a verse which is typical of how the translators have rendered this word:

Psa 41:5  Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish?

Without question this Hebrew word is paired with the word ‘die’ or the word ‘dead’ as in this verse:

Isa 26:14  They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish [Hebrew: H6, ‘abad’, perish, lose].

As with every word of scripture, the words ‘perish’ and ‘dead’ or ‘death’ have both a positive and a negative application in the Lord’s Word. The birth and growth of our new man comes only at the expense of our old man. Until our old man begins to die, we will bring forth no spiritual fruit:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

Life coming through death simply does not compute to our fleshly-minded natural man. Yet that is exactly what the scriptures teach. Physical life without Christ is nothing more than “abid[ing] in death” from our Lord’s perspective:

1Jn 3:14  We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

It was from this perspective that the Lord told His disciples to “let the dead bury their dead”.

Mat 8:21  And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Mat 8:22  But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.

It simply is not possible for us to think of our physical families as being ‘dead’. However, does “let the dead bury their dead” mean we are to ignore our unconverted physical families? No, not at all. Indeed, we are commanded to “do good to all men” and treat them all with love and compassion. When placed in a position of having to put one before the other though, we are to “let the dead bury their dead” and “do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of household of faith”:

Gal 6:10  As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

The sum of the Lord’s Word reveals that physical ‘death’, from our Lord’s perspective, is really nothing more than sleep “for all live unto Him”:

Luk 20:37  Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Luk 20:38  For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.

That is how we are to think of our unconverted friends and families. Someone will ask, “Are we not told that we cannot be the friend of this world and the friend of God?”

Jas 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

This is a perfect example of how essential it is to rightly divide the sum of the Lord’s words. James tells us that if we are a friend of the world, then we are “the enemy of God”. But he makes this statement in the context of calling out spiritual “adulterers and adulteresses”. We must weigh this statement in the context in which it is made to the sum of the Lord’s word in which we find these statements:

Luk 16:9  And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

Mat 11:19  The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Witness the compassion and love Christ showed to the unconverted:

Mar 10:21  Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

Mar 1:40  And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
Mar 1:41  And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.
Mar 1:42  And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.

Mar 5:19  Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.

The sum of the Lord’s word reveals clearly that the ‘friendship’ spoken of by James refers to a ‘friendship’ with this world which turns the grace of God into lasciviousness and leads to spiritual adultery, while the friendship Christ had with publicans and sinners was Godly love which would lead them to forsake ungodliness and worldly lust and live godly lives in this present age:

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [Greek: G3811, paideuo, chastening] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world [Greek: aion, age];

It is only through the chastening work of the Lord’s abundant “grace” that any of us are brought to repentance from our rebellious dying works of our flesh. Our repentance is a work of the Lord’s grace, and He wants us to know we have nothing to do with it:

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

The holy spirit drives this point home and wants us to know that we are to count ourselves as dead and incapable of doing anything, good or evil, and accept the Truth of these words:

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.

Why are we commanded to, “Work out our own salvation with fear and trembling?” The reason we do so is… “For (Greek: G1063, gar, because) it is [actually] God which works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure”.

There it is! It is stated as clearly as possible. Our ‘will’ is a work of God, as well as what we ‘do’. Both are “after the counsel of His own will” and “not [really] of him that wills” at all:

Rom 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Rom 9:16  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

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:

It is only after we come to know and accept this great comforting Truth that we can say with Paul:

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live…”. So, which is it? Are we to consider ourselves dead or alive? As impossible as it seems to our carnal mind, without contradiction, the answer is, “We are both ‘dead’ and ‘yet I live’.” We are to count our old man as decreasing within us and dying daily, while our new man is alive and is increasing daily.

Joh 3:30  He must increase, but I must decrease.

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

When we have, through fiery trials (1Pe 4:12), been brought to hate and resent the ways of our old man, only then have we entered into our rest in Christ:

Heb 4:3  For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

Christ is our ‘rest’. He is “the temple of God in heaven”, and we ‘enter into’ Him only through the same baptism with which He was baptized, drinking the same cup He drank:

Mar 10:38  But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
Mar 10:39  And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized:

Rev 15:6  And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
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.

It was coming to this moment that made our Lord’s prayer so intense that His sweat became as “great drops of blood” and which evoked these words from our Lord:

Luk 22:41  And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
Luk 22:42  Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
Luk 22:43  And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
Luk 22:44  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Christ had been here before and had already won the battle at the beginning of His ministry when He was “driven [of] the spirit into the wilderness [to be] tempted of the devil”:

Mar 1:12  And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.
Mar 1:13  And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

Christ overcame the wicked one at His temptation in the wilderness, and He had entered into His Father’s rest just as we enter into His rest after the seven plagues of the seven angels has been fulfilled in our lives. We now count ourselves as dead with Christ, and as such we have nothing to lose in this world. If we count ourselves as dead with Christ in this life, then we have been “taken away from the evil to come” intended for all the rest of mankind in the lake of fire (Rev 20:14-15).

Spiritually this brings us to our next verse in our study:

Isa 57:2  He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.

At this point we are “dead in the streets of that great city… the great whore, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of abominations of the world”:

Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Speaking to the flesh of our old man, and to the flesh in every man, the Lord asks these questions:

Isa 57:3  But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.
Isa 57:4  Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? Are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,

The Lord calls a spade a spade. He indicts our rebellious, adulterous flesh. He wants us to know that He is aware of our attempt to destroy Him and His body with our vicious lies against Him and His Words. Saul of Tarsus typifies every minister who teaches that the Lord has created and will sustain a literal, physical, eternal lake of fire for the purpose of tormenting His own errant children for ever and ever with no hope of ever being shown any mercy or any reprieve.

Shortly after supervising the stoning of the Lord’s first martyr, Stephen, we are told:

Act 9:1  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
Act 9:2  And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

The so-called ‘Jesus’ of the “Mother of Harlots” is a merciless monster to whom Paul refers as “another Jesus” who has placed all and any hope of salvation upon our own weak and incapable shoulders:

2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

However, look at whom the holy spirit tells us Saul was really threatening slaughter:

Act 9:3  And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
Act 9:4  And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou 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.
Act 9:6  And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

The Lord at first confirms our heart’s idol before He strikes us down and shows us who we are and just how much we have despised Him and His body. Saul of Tarsus, a type of each of us, had been groomed at the feet of Gamaliel, the leading minister of his day, a highly respected Rabbi. Nothing like this had happened when Saul had overseen the stoning of Stephen, but the Lord had decided that Saul’s zeal to seek to persecute Him outside of Israel, in Syria “nigh unto Damascus“, was the time and the place to humble the mighty ‘Saul’ and begin to transform him into “the apostle to the Gentiles… the apostle Paul”.

Saul of Tarsus was in deep self-righteous iniquity and spiritual darkness and could never have seen how his actions could be considered as idols of his heart, and yet that is exactly what both Jewish and mainstream Christian doctrines are (Eze 14:1-9).

As the story of Job demonstrates, no sin inflames our flesh as insidiously as self-righteousness. Every time we condemn our fellow man to torment or death because they are not as righteous as we are, we are fulfilling these prophetic words against our own self-righteous beast:

Isa 57:5  Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?

We do not realize that “slaying [our] children” is exactly what we are doing when we tell our children blatant lies about Santa, the Easter bunny, the tooth-fairy or “another Jesus”. When we lie to our children, we are offering our children to Molech in the valleys ‘under the clifts of the rocks’, and we are so steeped in our self-righteousness that we think we are doing our Lord a service and that He should take comfort in these idols of our heart:

Isa 57:6  Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these?

Naturally smooth stones were objects of worship in ancient paganism. Every stone idol was polished and anointed with oil in an attempt to give the stone some spiritual powers. As Elijah demonstrated however, our heart’s idols are completely powerless against the Lord:

1Ki 18:1  And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.
1Ki 18:2  And Elijah went to shew himself unto Ahab. And there was a sore famine in Samaria.
1Ki 18:3  And Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly:
1Ki 18:4  For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.)
1Ki 18:5  And Ahab said unto Obadiah, Go into the land, unto all fountains of water, and unto all brooks: peradventure we may find grass to save the horses and mules alive, that we lose not all the beasts.
1Ki 18:6  So they divided the land between them to pass throughout it: Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.
1Ki 18:7  And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah?
1Ki 18:8  And he answered him, I am: go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here.
1Ki 18:9  And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay me?
1Ki 18:10  As the LORD thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord hath not sent to seek thee: and when they said, He is not there; he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they found thee not.
1Ki 18:11  And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here.
1Ki 18:12  And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the LORD shall carry thee whither I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me: but I thy servant fear the LORD from my youth.
1Ki 18:13  Was it not told my lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the LORD, how I hid an hundred men of the LORD’S prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water?
1Ki 18:14  And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here: and he shall slay me.
1Ki 18:15  And Elijah said, As the LORD of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely shew myself unto him to day.
1Ki 18:16  So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
1Ki 18:17  And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?
1Ki 18:18  And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim.
1Ki 18:19  Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table.
1Ki 18:20  So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel.
1Ki 18:21  And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
1Ki 18:22  Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.
1Ki 18:23  Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under:
1Ki 18:24  And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.
1Ki 18:25  And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.
1Ki 18:26  And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.
1Ki 18:27  And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.
1Ki 18:28  And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.
1Ki 18:29  And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.
1Ki 18:30  And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down.
1Ki 18:31  And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be thy name:
1Ki 18:32  And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.
1Ki 18:33  And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.
1Ki 18:34  And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time.
1Ki 18:35  And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.
1Ki 18:36  And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.
1Ki 18:37  Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.
1Ki 18:38  Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
1Ki 18:39  And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.
1Ki 18:40  And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.

This story took place upon Mount Carmel. Carmel means:

This word appears 26 times in the Old Testament and refers to Mount Carmel in every entry.

When we lookup 3759, this is what we find:

Here are the various King James translations for this Hebrew word:

H3759
כּרמל
karmel
Total KJV Occurrences: 15
fruitful, 7
Isa_10:18, Isa_29:17 (2), Isa_32:15-16 (3), Jer_4:26
ears, 3
Lev_23:14 (2), 2Ki_4:42
plentiful, 3
Isa_16:10, Jer_2:7, Jer_48:33
corn, 1
2Ki_4:42
full, 1
Lev_2:14

It is no coincidence that 400 prophets of Baal were slaughtered by the type of the Lord’s elect at a mountain named fruitful, because this is the point being made:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

This brings us to our next verse:

Isa 57:7  Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.

Elijah and Moses are types of the Lord’s two witnesses. Matthew 17:1-13 and Mark 9:1-15 both relate the fact that Christ appeared in His glorified body with Moses and Elijah. Luke adds one detail which the other two gospels containing this story do not include. Luke alone tells us what Christ was discussing with Moses and Elijah.

Luk 9:28  And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.
Luk 9:29  And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.
Luk 9:30  And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias:
Luk 9:31  Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease [G1841 Greek: exodus] which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.
Luk 9:32  But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him.

What makes this detail even more interesting is that the Greek word translated ‘decease’ is ‘exodus’. This is an instructive detail because it demonstrates that the spirit is telling us that the exodus from Egypt and the baptism in the Red Sea was a type of our dying, and coming up out of that baptism is a type of being resurrected with Christ.

Notice the tenses of the verbs in what Christ said of the ‘Elijah’ who is to precede Him:

Mar 9:13  But I sayG3004 [G5719 present] unto you, That Elias is indeed comeG2064 [G5754 second perfect], and they have doneG4160 [G5656 aorist] unto him whatsoever they listedG2309 [G5656 aorist], as it is writtenG1125 [G5769 perfect] of him.

‘Exodus’ is to become deceased… dying, and whether it refers to coming out of Egypt or out of Babylon or out of the lake of fire, dying to our carnal mind is accomplished only “through [a fiery] death”:

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;

The Lord has given the power of death to the devil, and when He destroys the devil, He will also destroy death by destroying the carnal mind of Satan and the carnal minds of all mankind.

Rom 8:6  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

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;

The first death is accomplished through fiery trials:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Christ suffered the baptism of the death of His flesh, and He did so day by day, just as we do. That dying is symbolized by ‘fire’, and that is why our dying is called ‘fiery trials’ and why the dying of those in the lake of fire is called “the second death”. That is where he “that had the power of death” will be destroyed by being reconciled through that fire to the Lord.

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.

Death will be destroyed in “the lake of fire’:

Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

That ‘fire’ in ‘the lake of fire’ is the same ‘fire’ Christ came to bring to us:

Luk 12:49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?
Luk 12:50  But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

This ‘fire’ with which Christ was baptized is the fire of His own Word, which devours the wood, hay and stubble within every man:

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

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.

Lord willing, with Him that fire is “already… kindled” within us, and with Him and with His words within us, we, too, will be that fire which is “the lake of fire”:

Isa 33:14  The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. 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;

“He that walks righteously” are those “who… shall dwell with the devouring fire [and] with everlasting burnings” and will be used by the Lord to “destroy… death”. In the process of dying in this present age, we must first come to see ourselves as the “sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore”. Only then will we ‘exodus’ and come out of and begin to die to that great harlot within us.

Isa 57:3  But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.
Isa 57:4  Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,
Isa 57:5  Enflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clifts of the rocks?
Isa 57:6  Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these?
Isa 57:7  Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.

That is our study for today, and here are our verses for our next study in which we will be made to see the depths from which we are being delivered:

Isa 57:8  Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it.
Isa 57:9  And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell.
Isa 57:10  Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet saidst thou not, There is no hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand; therefore thou wast not grieved.
Isa 57:11  And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor laid it to thy heart? have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not?
Isa 57:12  I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.
Isa 57:13  When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain;
Isa 57:14  And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people.

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