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Isa 7:18 The Lord Shall Hiss For The Fly a​nd For The Bee

Isa 7:18  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. 

We are continuing our study into how God goes about bringing us into judgment. As we have seen,​ God knew from the beginning the vessel of clay in His hand was "marred" (Jer 18:4). "The Potter" did not make a mistake when He marred "the vessel of clay". It was done by His design, because He had already called us in the crucified and risen Christ "before the world began":

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

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

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

Every verb in Jer 18:4 has the Hebrew 'qual stem', which is the equivalent of the Greek aorist tense. What that means is that verse is actually telling us 'The vessel of clay He is making is being marred in the hand of the Potter: so He is making it again another vessel as seems good to the Potter to be making it'.

Another way of saying it, 'The marred vessel of clay is just the first step in the work God is performing in all mankind who are all being 'called in Christ before the world began'.

The next time anyone tells you God did not make Adam as a "marred... vessel of clay", ask them how we can be told we were "called... in Christ Jesus before the world began" if God did not know exactly what Adam and Eve would do even before there were any of the days He had written in their books:

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.

God has written in the books of all men that they must first be "marred in the Potter's hand" so they could and would need a sacrifice for their sins. Part of that marred condition is that all mankind, spiritually speaking, must be carried away into captivity into spiritual 'Babylon', which is symbolized here in Isaiah as "the king of Assyria".

This is what we saw in our last study that the Lord is doing as He begins our judgment via His work of "the king of Assyria" within our lives:

Isa 7:17  The LORD shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria.

We have demonstrated that Assyria and Babylon are both the same Chaldean people, and those people in scripture symbolize "Babylon the great", the religions of this world, one and all "the enemies of the cross of Christ":

Php 3:18  (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:

And this is what He is doing with His symbolic, spiritual "King of Assyria":

Isa 7:18  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

Here we have the Truth. Just as we are told that it was the Lord who gave to Satan the job of destroying all the wealth Job had acquired, including all ten of his children, here also we are told that it is the Lord Himself who will "hiss [Hebrew: whistle] for the fly in Egypt and the bee in Assyria, by which He specifically tells us He means "even the king of Assyria".

The Lord shall Hiss

This is what Strong's tells us is meant by this Hebrew word 'sharaq', translated as 'hiss' in this 18th verse:

H8319
שָׁרַק
shâraq
shaw-rak'
A primitive root; properly to be shrill, that is, to whistle or hiss (as a call or in scorn): - hiss.
Total KJV occurrences: 12

Here are the twelve times this word appears in the Old Testament. As is made clear, it is consistently translated as 'hiss', but it is defined as "a shrill" and can be properly be translated either as a whistle to call someone to do something or as "a shrill" scorning sound, as in this example:

Jer 19:8  And I will make this [harlot] city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
Jer 19:9  And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

Here are the twelve entries for this word in the Old Testament demonstrating that it is used both as a whistling call and as "a shrill" sound of scorn:

H8319
שׁרק
shâraq
Total KJV Occurrences: 12
hiss, 12
1Ki_9:8, Job_27:23, Isa_5:26, Isa_7:18, Jer_19:8, Jer_49:17, Jer_50:13, Lam_2:15-16 (2), Eze_27:36, Zep_2:15, Zec_10:8

Here in Isa 7:18 the Lord is whistling for the flies and bees to come and destroy His unfaithful, adulterous people, but notice how this Hebrew word 'sharaq' is used in a positive sense as it concerns the Lord's redeemed:

Zec 10:6  And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them.
Zec 10:7  And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the LORD.
Zec 10:8  I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.

This Hebrew word 'sharaq', translated consistently as 'hiss', is simply God's way of telling us that it is He who calls forth both the good and the evil in our lives. It is not adding to the Word of God at all to say the Lord 'hissed' for Satan when He called  Satan to destroy Job's family and all His possessions, and then again He sent Satan once again to strike him with boils from head to toe.

This 18th verse of Isaiah 7 is just another way of giving us the same message we are given in Job one and two. The work the Lord sends Satan to accomplish is also described as flies and bees being sent to destroy us. When the Lord begins to deal with the brute beast, which He Himself "made to be taken and destroyed" (2Pe 2:12), He sends flies and bees into our lives to destroy the kingdom of our old man within us. Again, this all takes "a long time" (Luk 20:9), but it has to begin, and it has to be completed.

So what do  flies and bees do to us? Let's take them in the order they are mentioned and see what these two insects spiritually symbolize and what they do to us.

Flies

What did flies do to Egypt? Here in Isa 7:18 the Lord's people are acting as if they are Egyptians, so that is exactly how the Lord deals with us at this point in our "experience of evil... [our] one event" (Ecc 1:13 CVL, and Ecc 9:2 KJV):

Psa 78:45  He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

Psa 105:31  He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts.

The plagues upon Egypt devoured and destroyed Egypt, and that is what God is doing to the brute beast we all first are:

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

Flies are a symbol of​ the destruction of our old man and his "brute beast" kingdom within us.

Bees

So what does the Lord do within us with His symbolic spiritual 'bees'?

The word translated 'bee' here is:

H1682
דְּבֹרָה    דְּבוֹרָה
debôrâh    debôrâh
deb-o-raw', deb-o-raw'
From H1696 (in the sense of orderly motion); the bee (from its systematic instincts): - bee.
Total KJV occurrences: 4

This particular Hebrew word appears only three other times in the Old Testament:

H1682
דּברה / דּבורה
debôrâh / debôrâh
Total KJV Occurrences: 4
bees, 3
Deu_1:44, Jdg_14:8, Psa_118:12
bee, 1
Isa_7:18

The first time it appears is in Deuteronomy 1:44. This story demonstrates how we are to understand that God's symbolic bees typify how Israel's enemies destroyed them while they were yet in the wilderness:

Deu 1:44  And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.

The entry in Judges 14 is the story of the bees that made honey in the carcass of the lion Samson had killed, but in Psa 118:12 bees again symbolize our outward enemies who would physically destroy us, as well as the inward false doctrines of the kingdom of the adversary which must, in time, be destroyed by the brightness of the coming of Christ within us.

Psa 118:10  All nations compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD will I destroy them. 
Psa 118:11  They compassed me about; yea, they compassed me about: but in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
Psa 118:12  They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.

The name 'Deborah' is spelled slightly differently and has its own assigned Strong's number, but it means the same - a bee:

H1683
דְּבֹרָה    דְּבוֹרָה
debôrâh    debôrâh
deb-o-raw', deb-o-raw'
The same as H1682; Deborah, the name of two Hebrewesses: - Deborah.
Total KJV occurrences: 10

The Lord used Deborah as 'bees' in their positive application to destroy the kingdom of Jabin, the Cannanite, and Sisera, the captain of his armies:

Jdg 4:7  And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots and his multitude; and I will deliver him into thine hand.

Here is a verse which demonstrates how the Lord sends 'bees' to destroy his enemies, as well as the fact that the destruction of our old man is a long drawn-out process, sometimes taking many years:

Exo 23:28  And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.
Exo 23:29  I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.
Exo 23:30  By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

Here is what these spiritual 'hornets' accomplished:

Jos 5:1  And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.

Jos 2:9  And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
Jos 2:10  For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. 
Jos 2:11  And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.

That is the fulfilling of:

Exo 23:28  And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

So flies and bees in their negative application are the lies of the adversary which destroy our relationship with Christ. But in their positive application flies and bees are sent as a type of His Word to destroy the kingdom and the lying doctrines of our old man. The Lord destroys the kingdom and doctrines of our old man with flies and bees. Therefore, if the Lord is merciful in this age, He brings us to see and believe that it is foolish to continue in our sins and to be ruled over by those nations within us whose only future is their own destruction.

Hosea's prophecy

Hosea speaks of these flies and bees in these verses which prophecy of Israel's destruction at the hand of the king of Assyria:

Hos 11:5  He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.
Hos 11:6  And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.

God has a plan for all mankind, and that plan includes all men spiritually going into spiritual Babylon after we come out of spiritual Egypt. Once we come to know Christ, even if it is as but a wilderness, immature "carnal... babe in Christ" knowledge of Christ, we still cannot ever "return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be [our] king, because [we will] refuse to return" to our Deliverer who brought us up out of Egypt. So we all go into Babylon, which is in Assyria, and we live many years there in the darkness and deceit of that great city. It is there in 'that great city', the Lord's adulterous wife, where we kill our Lord and His prophets thinking we do God a service:

Luk 13:33  Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. [Babylon, Rev 17]

Joh 16:2  They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
Joh 16:3  And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

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.

Isaiah's commission is our commission

All of this is part of the commission Isaiah was given from the Lord. It is back in chapter 6 that Isaiah is given his commission to give Judah and Jerusalem, "where... our Lord was crucified", the words of their impending judgment. That commission was via a vision of the Lord's throne and a seraphim placing 'a live coal from the altar' (the altar symbolizes the cross) to purge his sins and take away his iniquity:

Isa 6:5  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
Isa 6:6  Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
Isa 6:7  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

That the seraphim handles the "live coal... with the tongs" is simply the Lord's way of telling us that this seraphim has already learned that the coals on the altar, symbolizing the fiery experience of daily dying to the downward pulls of our flesh, are very hot "live coals", and for that reason they must be handled "with the tongs". In other words, this seraphim, who symbolizes God's elect, has already experienced the fiery heat of 'a live coal from the altar'.

This book of Isaiah is 'signified', just as the book of Revelation is signified (Rev 1:1). Spirits are not literally affected by physical flames, so we are given the symbol of a live coal to let us know that the Lord has already by this time, in type and shadow, put Isaiah, himself the symbol of God's elect, through the necessary fiery trials which must precede any man who is being qualified to be there at God's throne and to be given a commission to bring this  message of judgment and repentance to others.

This vision of Isaiah being at the throne of God and having His sins purged away by a fiery coal from the altar is a very condensed summary of our own fiery trials which bring us to a point in our lives when the fiery Word of God begins to cleanse and to purge sin from our own hearts. The fiery word of God is placed upon Isaiah's lips to tell us that this same 'fire' is essential to change us into a new man with a new "pure [and] clean heart", because it is 'out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks':

Psa 24:3  Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
Psa 24:4  He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
Psa 24:5  He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Psa 51:10  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Mat 12:34  O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

1Co 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
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.
1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Paul had read and was very familiar with Isaiah six and seven. He knew from the scriptures that fire purges away sins. Nowhere in the Word of God, in either the Old or New Testaments, are we told that fire serves simply to inflict never-ending torment with no purpose or positive outcome. The primary scriptural function of the spiritual symbol of 'fire' is to 'take away our iniquities, and purge our sins' (Isa 6:7 and 1Co 3:15). The false satanic doctrine of eternal torment in literal, physical flames is not 'the voice of the True Shepherd'. "The king of Assyria" is merely a part of the fiery words of God which are sent against the false doctrines of the Lord's unfaithful people to bring the harlot known as Judah and Jerusalem, symbolizing all of us, to the point of being redeemed by Christ and His fiery words (1Co 3:13-15).

This is what scriptural 'fire' produces:

Zec 10:6  And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and will hear them.
Zec 10:7  And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the LORD.
Zec 10:8  I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.

The Lord's flies and His bees are both His means of deceiving us, and then this same symbol also typifies His 'fire', His words in the mouth of His witnesses, which He has designed for the very purpose of burning up and destroying our rebellious adulterous works of our old man and His kingdom:

Jer 5:3  O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.

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 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
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.

The kingdom of our adulterous old man is given no quarter at all simply because:

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

All of this is what we must all first endure as our own sins are purged and our iniquity is taken away. This is what we must live and experience before we are sent by Christ to speak these words to those to whom the Lord sends us. Our own eyes must first be shut off from seeing the Truth, and our own ears must be 'made heavy', and our hearts must be 'made fat', before we can have our own inward cities "wasted and without inhabitant".

Fire on our lips can only take away our iniquity and purge our sins if our heart is being cleansed so our mouth can begin to "speak good things". Only then are we prepared to be sent to share our experience with others. God does not send immature, self-righteous, self-centered, petulant, "carnal... babes in Christ" whose lips have never been touched with a live coal from the altar to warn others of His judgments which are coming "upon the whole whole earth".

A thorough judgment takes a long time

Notice that Isaiah tells us that this is a long and drawn-out experience of evil which will humble us and destroy the kingdom of our beastly old man:

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it. (CLV)

Isa 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
Isa 6:9  And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Isa 6:10  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
Isa 6:11  Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,
Isa 6:12  And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
Isa 6:13  But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

Isa 28:22  Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.

Amo 3:6  Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
Amo 3:7  Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

The Lord's secret which He has revealed to his prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Christ Himself, Paul and Peter, and John and all of "His servants the prophets" is that the natural man cannot receive the things of the spirit, which "things of the spirit" are the fiery Words of the Lord (Jer 5:14; Joh 6:63 and 1Co 2:13-14).

As we will see, the fulfilling of Isa 6 and 7 in our own lives will require the living out of the rest of the entire prophecy of Isaiah because:

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

Living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God takes "a long time" according to Christ:

Luk 20:9  Then began he to speak to the people this parable; A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time.

This entire prophecy has proceeded out of the mouth of God and is therefore merely a part of "every word that [has] proceeded out of the mouth of God. The "all things" of these next two verses also includes all these prophecies of Isaiah:

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Isaiah parallels Revelation

This prophecy of Isaiah gives us many of the details of "the everlasting gospel" of the three angels of Revelation 14. These angels are 'three' because they reveal the long drawn-out process of the fiery judgments the Lord is working within us (Luk 20:9). "The [vision truly] is one" (Gen 41:25-26).

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. [What is all of this?]
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

How few are given to notice that the first thing this angel who has "the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people", [says] with a loud voice, is to Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and we must worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters.

It should be obvious to all who have the mind of Christ and who know His voice, that the declaration of God's judgment is a primary and integral part of "the everlasting gospel". The second and third angels simply declare the process of the Lord's judgments and His wrath against the great harlot, Babylon, and the kingdom of the beast on which she sits and rules as her own kingdom.  It is through the channel of this unfaithful, promiscuous woman, also known as "the king of Assyria, [that we are all brought to] drink of the wrath of God, [and to learn that this] is the patience and faith of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." If we are to "keep the things written therein" (Rev 1:3), then we must keep Rev 14:6-12. This is all based upon Isaiah's revelation that God's own people, "Judah and Jerusalem... is become an harlot" (Isa 1:1 and 1:21)

These prophecies have a universal application

How many men are deceived by the false doctr​ines and sorceries of this great harlot and "worship the beast and his image"? How many men must "drink of the wine of the wrath of God"? Upon whom must "the King of Assyria... the rod of [God's] indignation" come? What do the scriptures reveal about the king of Assyria?

Isa 10:5  O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
Isa 10:6  I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

This is the Old Testament foundation for these New Testament words:

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 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

How many men 'worship the beast'? Against whom is the Lord's wrath directed? The answer cannot be clearer:

Rev 13:15  And he [the second beast which comes up out of the earth] had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. [The 'second beast' is also called the false prophet, the king of Assyria, Babylon the great and Babylon's leaders. In other words, he symbolizes the leaders of all of the world's religions]
Rev 13:16  And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

Those are very clear, all-inclusive words concerning what really is "the faith of the saints". That the saints of God, His elect, "drink of the wine of the wrath of God" is again confirmed with the words we just read concerning what really constitutes "the patience of the saints", and those words tell us who are those who are truly "keep[ing] the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus".

Those who have the patience and faith of Jesus are those who are given to enter the temple of God in heaven, as Isaiah did when the seraphim touched his lips with the live coal from the altar.

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.

So there again "is the patience of the saints [and] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus". 'Entering into the temple' after fulfilling the seven vials full of the wrath of God upon the kingdom of our old man, and having our own lips touched with a live coal from the altar, are the same fiery experience.

Now we ​are ​all equipped to know that anyone who tells us that these dire prophecies concerning the wrath of God in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Matthew​ 24 or the book of Revelation have no application to the elect of God are those who do not have "the patience of the saints". Anyone who tells you that these prophecies of the wrath of God have no personal application to the elect of God are those who are not "keeping the commandments of God, and who [do not have] the faith of Jesus." That is the significance of:

Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

In our study today, and in the rest of our studies in the prophecy of Isaiah, we are being told more specifically, chapter by chapter, of the details of our fiery judgment, which judgment we are told is "the everlasting gospel":

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.

The "hour of His judgment... is now on the house of God" (1Pe 4:17), and the verse we covered today is the beginning of that process:

Isa 7:18  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.

The counter-intuitive wisdom of God is what keeps the blessing of this glorious everlasting gospel hidden from the whole world. A very few are given eyes that see and ears that hear that their judgment is at hand. Most will not, in this age, see or hear of their impending "hour of visitation" (Luk 19:44).

In our next study we will learn more of the effect of these flies and bees upon the unfaithful city of God's people.