Heb 8:7-13 “Ye are our Epistle Written in our Hearts, Known and Read of all Men” – Part 2

[Study Aired November 19, 2020]

Heb 8:7  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 
Heb 8:8  For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 
Heb 8:9  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 
Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 
Heb 8:11  And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 
Heb 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 
Heb 8:13  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. 

The title of this second part of our study of Hebrews chapter eight is taken from 2Corinthians 3:1-6 (verse 2) which is a very telling section of scripture regarding how and where the new covenant is being written, which reads, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men.”

This chapter of Hebrews is again another opportunity for us to see the contrast that God is demonstrating through those who have been called to witness (Rev 11:3, Joh 13:35, Joh 14:15) to the world of what God is capable of doing through the sufficiency we receive from Him.

2Co 3:1  Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2Co 3:2  Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
2Co 3:3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
2Co 3:4  And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
2Co 3:5  Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us [Rev 19:7] able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. [Why is God saving the elect in this manner? 1Co 2:5, Joh 13:35, Joh 14:15, 1Jn 5:3-4]

Joh 13:35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Joh 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
1Jn 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

The old covenant and the laws within it are called a “ministration of death” (2Co 3:6), and the law itself is a law for the “lawless and disobedient” (1Ti 1:9, Rom 5:20) created to make manifest the sinful nature within us which can only be changed by having God write upon our hearts the new covenant (Heb 8:10). This writing of the new covenant on the hearts of God’s people is the great act of mercy He is showing to the remnant (Rom 11:5) whom He has predestined to be recipients of that goodness in this age (Rom 2:4, Rom 11:22).

2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

Rom 5:20  Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

[Gods grace or favor, “charis^G5485“, is demonstrated in judging us in this age (1Pe 4:17) so that we can learn to deny “ungodliness and worldly lusts” and “live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” which is what happens when He writes these things “in their hearts” (Tit 2:12, Heb 12:6-7). God’s love is being perfected through His chastening grace (1Jn 4:17, 1Pe 4:17).

Tit 2:12  Teaching^G3811 us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth^G3811, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening^G3809, [2Ti 3:16, Pro 6:23] God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth^G3811 not?

2Ti 3:16  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction^G3809 in righteousness:

Pro 6:23  For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction^{H4148 = G3809} are the way of life:

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.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: [“that we may have boldness“] and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Rom 11:5  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace^G5485 [“charis” (Luk 1:28)].

Luk 1:28  And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favouredG5487,”charis” the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

[the church, the body of Christ is highly favoured^G5487,”charis” to be filling up what is behind of the afflictions of Christ (Col 1:24)]

highly favoured^G5487
– Original: χu945 ρu953 τu959 ́u969 
– Transliteration: Charitoo
– Phonetic: khar-ee-to’-o
– Definition:
1. to make graceful – [Rev_19:7] – “hath made herself ready.G2090 G1438” [Mat_20:23] “but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is preparedG2090 of my Father.”
a. charming, lovely, agreeable
2. to peruse with grace, compass with favour
3. to honour with blessings
– Origin: from G5485
– TDNT entry: 15:12,1
– Part(s) of speech: Verb
– Strong’s: From G5485; to grace that is indue with special honor: – make accepted be highly favoured.  – [Eph_1:6]
Total KJV Occurrences: 2
•accepted, 1
Eph_1:6
•favored, 1
Luk 1:28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured^G5487, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

Having God write this new covenant “in their hearts” so that he can be to us “a God, and they shall be to me a people” is what makes His children in this dispensation of grace (Eph 3:2) the generation that has no confidence in our flesh. We are chastened and scourged to that end so we lean less and less on our own flesh (Heb 12:6-8) as we are received of our Father and assured in our newly fashioned hearts that the gates of hell will not prevail against us in this relationship of trust and faith given to us by God (Rom 8:38-39, Mat 16:17-19, 2Co 1:9, Php 3:3, 1Jn 5:4). Saying “grace did much more abound” of Romans 5:20 is just another way of reminding us that we must continue to fight a good fight of faith as we “continue in the faith” and that we must “through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God”, which we will if God permits (Act 14:22, Heb 6:3).

With all this in mind let’s look at this highly favoured relationship that God is forming in us through Christ Who is writing on our hearts His laws and commandments, expressed this way in scripture, “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men, Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” (2Co 3:2-3) All of this is happening so we can be presented as a chaste virgin (Rev 19:7) who has learned of His faithfulness through the church, through the body of Christ that is typified by Christ’s mother, Mary, who supplied (Eph 3:10) all that Christ needed in her womb to bring forth the son of God unto maturation (2Co 11:2-4, Isa 66:9, Isa 9:6, 1Jn 4:17).

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty^G3834, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity^G572 that is in Christ.
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.

In order to become a chaste virgin to Christ, we must have His new covenant written on our hearts, a covenant that will make us of one mind (Php 2:2), having a simplicity^G572 or singleness of mind that will keep us undefiled from this world and able to overcome the subtilty^G3834 of the devil who is always trying to deceive us and destroy that unity if it were possible, which God tells us is not going to happen to His little flock (Mat 24:24, Luk 12:32).

Php 2:2  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.

Mat 24:24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Luk 12:32  Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Simplicity^G572
– Original: αu788 πu955 οu769 τu951 ςpar – Transliteration: Haplotes
– Phonetic: hap-lot’-ace
– Definition:
1. singleness, simplicity, sincerity, mental honesty
a. the virtue of one who is free from pretence and hypocrisy
2. not self seeking, openness of heart manifesting itself by generosity
– Origin: from G573
– TDNT entry: 07:26,6
– Part(s) of speech: Noun Feminine
– Strong’s: From G573; singleness that is (subjectively) sincerity (without dissimulation or self seeking) or (objectively) generosity (copious bestowal): – bountifulness liberal (-ity) simplicity singleness.
Total KJV Occurrences: 8
•bountifulness, 1
2Co_9:11
•liberal, 1
2Co_9:13
•liberality, 1
2Co_8:2
•simplicity, 3
Rom_12:8; 2Co_1:12; 2Co_11:3
•singleness, 2
Eph_6:5; Col_3:22
subtilty^G3834
– Original: πu945 νu959 υu961 γu953 ́u945 
– Transliteration: Panourgia
– Phonetic: pan-oorg-ee’-ah
– Definition:
1. craftiness, cunning
2. a specious or false wisdom
3. in a good sense, prudence, skill, in undertaking and carrying on affairs
– Origin: from G3835
– TDNT entry: 17:02,8
– Part(s) of speech: Noun Feminine
– Strong’s: From G3835; adroitness that is (in a bad sense) trickery or sophistry: – (cunning) craftiness subtilty.
Total KJV Occurrences: 5
•craftiness, 4
Luk_20:23; 1Co_3:19; 2Co_4:2; Eph_4:14
•subtlety, 1
2Co_11:3

Heb 8:7  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 
Heb 8:8  For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 
Heb 8:9  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 

These first three verses are revealing that the law for the lawless and disobedient of 1Timothy 1:9 cannot perfect anyone, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.” Also, that old covenant law is used to bring us to see our need for a new covenant law, “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers”, but rather a new covenant that is founded upon better promises; (Heb 8:6) promises which tell us that we can be more than conquerors through Christ (Rom 8:37) as we gain dominion over sin in our members little and by little as we go from glory to glory in the Lord at the hand of “a fit man” (Rom 6:14, Eph 2:6, 1Co 6:14, Exo 23:30, 2Co 3:18, Lev 16:10, Lev 16:21).

Heb 8:6  But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

1Co 6:14  And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.

Exo 23:30  By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

Lev 16:10  But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.

Lev 16:21  And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:

2Co 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The fault that is found with “them” “for finding fault with them, he saith, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah“, is speaking of the old covenant and not the law itself, which, if used properly is good (1Ti 1:8). However, our inability in our minds to live by the spirit of the law, which only Christ can come and fulfill within our hearts and minds so that we can overcome the wretchedness of sinful flesh, cannot use the law properly (Rom 7:24-25). The new covenant head is Jesus Christ represented by Judah and Melchisedec, and the new covenant body is “the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16), the body of Christ, the church, represented in the old covenant as the “house of Israel” (Col 1:24).

1Ti 1:8  But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

The two laws are being discussed in this section of scripture (Rom 7:24-25), and it is only through Christ that we can “serve the law of God” which is speaking of this law spoken of in Galatians: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ“(Gal 6:2). “The law of sin” is governed by the law that is not made for a righteous man, but for that lawless old man in me who is potentially “lawless and disobedient” and is guilty of all. That was the point of these scriptures, not just to remind us of the depth of God’s mercy which will be extended to all the world, but also to remind us of what would manifest within any human at anytime if God did not stay the hand of Satan and strengthen us through Christ (1Ti 1:9-10). God determines the times and seasons when that hedge must come down in the life of His children so that we never lose sight of the fact of this verse that comes right after what we just read: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1Ti 1:15).

Christ is the one who enters into our temple to give us the ability to live by the spirit and no longer by the letter that kills (Mat 5:17, 2Co 3:6, Joh 8:36 – to be free indeed is to be able to fulfill the spirit of these commandments of Christ which new commandments (Joh 13:34-35) were earmarked with Him saying to those who could receive it: “But I say unto you” (Mat 5:28-48).

Mat 5:17  Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Mat 5:28  But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Mat 5:32  But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

Mat 5:34  But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:

Mat 5:39  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Notice the language that describes how the Lord worked with us when we were yet carnal and being led out of the wilderness, “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord”. It was written this way for our admonition to show us that we were being dragged by God to Christ (Joh 6:44) and yet the rebellious spirit was still there coming along for the ride. This murmuring and rebellion took place at this time by Israel of old and was written to cause us to move with fear knowing that it is only because of God’s mercy, God’s chastening grace and faith, that anyone of us can ‘come out of her my people’ and be led by the spirit of God (1Co 10:10-11), not going where our flesh would like to go, but regardless, still going (Heb 3:17, Rev 18:4, Rom 8:14-16, Joh 21:18).

1Co 10:10  Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come [This is the end of the world of which God is speaking to elect (1Jn 2:16-17)].

Heb 3:17  But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

Joh 21:18  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not [“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”].

Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 
Heb 8:11  And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 

The day will come when the outward dispensational fulfillment of these verses will happen, but for God’s elect today, these things are happening every day as we die daily and fight a good fight of faith that will result in God putting His “laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts“, provided we are granted to keep under ourselves and continue to see the need to move with fear as Noah did to the saving of his house (1Co 9:27, Heb 11:7).

1Co 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Heb 11:7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

This is the covenant relationship that we have with our Father today, and it is his good pleasure to give us this opportunity today (Luk 12:32) as we give thanks unto Him who has made us “meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints” (Col 1:12).

Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Even now we don’t “teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest“, in the sense that we have no need that any carnal man teach us (1Jn 2:27). However the sum of God’s word shows us that we need the epistles of Christ to be ministered to us as God provides us what we need through the manifest knowledge that is made known through the church (2Co 3:3, Eph 3:10).

1Jn 2:27  But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

2Co 3:3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

2Co 3:3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

Heb 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 8:13  In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Our sins and iniquities will “vanish away” by the ripping of the veil in the temple that represents our blind self-righteous flesh that cannot help but operate from the law in its members (Rom 7:23) that God put there as the lawgiver (Jas 4:12). He put that law there and knows we are all naturally subject unto this vanity of self-righteousness that causes us to sin (Isa 63:17, Rom 9:19-21). He will overcome this spirit within us by blessing us to be found with the righteousness of Christ within us (Eze 33:13, Php 3:9).

Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

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

Rom 9:19  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? [“as seemed good to the potter to make it.” (Jer 18:4)]

The answer to why is simple if we can receive it, and the answer is we were made this way so that we could be fashioned into something new by the hand of the Potter, each man in His order (Jer 18:4, 1Co 15:23).

Eze 33:13  When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; but for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it.

Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: [1Jn 5:4]

Overcoming through Christ is precisely what the new convenant is about. It is about God bringing us to see that He is our all powerful Sovereign Father who can take “that which decayeth and waxeth old” to a point where it is “ready to vanish away” so that something new can come out of the old. The old covenant can be thought of as a worm, and the new covenant written upon our hearts is how the beautiful butterfly that God is able to bring out of darkness as “the righteousness which is of God by faith” will be born. The epistles of Christ are being written on our hearts so that we can become that new creation that will one day be revealed to all the world in a moment and in a twinkling of an eye. A brand new creation that was formed out of weakness to the glory of our Father in heaven (2Co 5:17, 1Co 15:52, 2Co 12:9).

2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

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Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 63:15-19 Why Have You Made us to Err From Your Ways?

[Study Aired August 9, 2020]

Isa 63:15  Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?
Isa 63:16  Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.
Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
Isa 63:18  The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.
Isa 63:19  We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name.

In our last study of verses 6-14 of this chapter, Isaiah is led by the Lord to remind us of God’s great mercies towards us as His people:

Isa 63:7  I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.
Isa 63:8  For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour.
Isa 63:9  In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

At the same time, he is inspired to remind us that we have indeed rebelled against the Lord:

Isa 63:10  But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.

A mere one verse reminds us of our desire to return to Egypt, as a sow to her wallow in the mire and as a dog to his vomit. In that one verse He tells us that when He hardens our hearts and makes us to err, He becomes our enemy. It is all His work after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11).

Then the Lord goes right back to reminding us of His great mercies toward us and of all the great works He performs on our behalf and how He always brings us “up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock”. He reminds us of all He has done for us by having us remember what He has done within us and in our midst, and He even asks “Where is He that brought them up out of the sea… that led them by the right hand of Moses… that divided the Red Sea” (Psa 136:13), a type of resurrection from the dead.

Isa 63:11  Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the [Red] sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?
Isa 63:12  That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name?

The Lord concludes with these words concerning Himself:

Isa 63:13  That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble?
Isa 63:14  As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name.

Those words are a short summary of how the Lord is working with all of mankind. We begin our walk with the Lord as “carnal… babes in Christ” (1Co 3:1-4). As babies He literally takes us by the hand, and with so much patience, He leads us into maturity. However, maturity takes many long years, and we are one and all prodigal sons along that path and during that journey. It is the Lord who gives us “an experience of evil” to humble us, and then He delivers us from our own humiliation which He has caused us to experience because of the corruptible earthy composition with which He has at first made us to be, and through which He makes us to err from His ways and hardens our hearts from His fear.

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)

The life of every man is a work of the Lord, “Yes, even the wicked for the day of evil” within each of us. It is all a work of His love and His patient mercy towards all His creatures.

That was the message of our last study, and our study today continues with that same theme of what the Lord is doing to “drag” us to Himself.

Isaiah is led to speak for us all when He asks the Lord:

Isa 63:15  Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?

When Isaiah pleads for us “…where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?” he is expressing our own sense of being forsaken and forgotten by the Lord while He puts us through our own ‘experience of evil’ to humble us. The book of Job, according to the Jewish scholars, and it is agreed by most scholars, was written before Moses existed. Therefore, it would have been familiar to both kings David and his son Solomon, who tells us that it is the Lord who has given us “an experience of evil” (Ecc 1:13). So when Isaiah asks, “Where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?”… The Lord does indeed restrain His strength and His mercy toward us while He is causing us to rebel against Himself. In fact, He actually becomes our enemy, while He is in the process of dragging us to Himself. We will not just naturally seek Him, and we certainly do not just naturally appreciate the pain which our sins bring upon us. It requires ‘suffering for a season’ to bring us to ourselves.

Luk 15:17  And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
Luk 15:18  I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
Luk 15:19  And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

The story of Job is also our story. “Suffering for a while” is what is essential to bring us to see the self-righteous second beast we all are in our own time (Rev 13:11). In time we come to know the Lord face to face, and at that point we are all forced to face our own “vile” self-righteousness and admit that in our self-righteousness we have been found guilty of “contending with… reproving… disannulling His judgment, and condemning” God Himself, all for the purpose of maintaining our own supposed integrity and to make ourselves righteous.

This is who we are:

Job 27:5  God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.

If we are the Lord’s faithful elect, this is how He is working with us in “this present time” (Rom 8:18):

Job 40:1  Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5  Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6  Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8  Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

When the Lord finally does show us just how vile and self-righteous we are and when He gives us “place of repentance”, then He again comforts us and rewards us for what “His hand [and] His workmanship” have accomplished within us:

Isa 64:8  But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

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.

Heb 12:17  For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

So, Isaiah reminds us who we are as the Lord’s accepted anointed who are given “place of repentance [in] this present time” (Rom 8:18).

Isa 63:16  Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.

Both Abraham and Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, are long dead, and “the dead know not anything”:

Ecc 9:4  For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
Ecc 9:5  For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
Ecc 9:6  Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

The great men of God of old who have died in faith did not receive the promises and are manifestly incapable of helping themselves, much less you and me. Abraham and Israel are both dead, but Christ is not dead and is “the firstfruits of them that slept” and is seated ‘at His Father’s right hand ruling in the kingdoms of men’ at this very moment.

Mar 12:36  For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.

1Co 15:20  But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

The Lord wants us to know that He has not lost control over His creatures and that, quite to the contrary, “the Most High rules in the kingdom of men”, and the kings of the earth and the rulers and the people are all “do[ing] whatsoever [His] hand and [His] counsel determined before to be done” (Act 4:23-28).

Here is what the scriptures teach on this subject:

Dan 4:17  This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

Mat 28:16  Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
Mat 28:17  And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.
Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Act 4:23  And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.
Act 4:24  And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
Act 4:25  Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
Act 4:26  The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
Act 4:27  For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28  For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

Heb 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises [Enoch in verse 5: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, verses 8-9], but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

In the very next chapter, Isaiah reminds the Lord that He is indeed our Father:

Isa 64:5  Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Isa 64:7  And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
Isa 64:8  But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
Isa 64:9  Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.

Christ Himself acknowledged that the Jews were indeed the physical descendants of Abraham:

Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.

However, a mere two verses later, He denies that the Jews are Abraham’s spiritual children:

Joh 8:39  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Joh 8:41  Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
Joh 8:42  Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Then the prophet Isaiah puts into very plain words a Truth which has been made clear throughout scripture and from the beginning, but is neither seen nor heard by our rebellious, carnal-minded “first man, Adam”. Mankind has been denying this truth from “the first man Adam” until today:

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

The commentaries physically see with their eyes what is being said in this verse, but they cannot perceive what the Lord is revealing concerning His sovereign hand in the affairs of mankind.

Here typically is what John Gill’s Commentary is saying about this verse of scripture. This commentary typifies all the rest of the Babylonian commentaries who simply cannot accept the Truth of all scripture which teaches clearly:

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

Isa 45:6  That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Notice the double tongue within us all which admits to what these words say while at the same time denying that it really is God who is “working all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11):

“O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?…. These are the words, not of wicked men among the Jews, charging all their errors, hardness of heart, and wickedness they were guilty of, upon the Lord, as if he was the author and occasion of them, and led them into them; but of the truly godly, lamenting and confessing their wandering from the ways, commands, and ordinances of God, the hardness of their hearts; their want of devotion and affection for God; and their neglect of his worship; not blaming him for these things, or complaining of him as having done anything amiss or wrong; but expostulating with him, and wondering at it, that he, who was their loving and tender Father, that he should suffer them to err from his ways, and to wander from his worship, by withholding his grace and withdrawing his presence from them; by leaving them to the corruptions and hardness of their hearts; by chastising them sorely, and suffering the enemy to afflict them in such a severe manner as laid them under temptation to desert the worship of God, and cast off the fear of him. The Jews (f) interpret this of their being hardened from the fear of God, and made to err from his ways by seeing the prosperity of the wicked, and their own long captivity, troubles, and distresses:” (End Quote – John Gill’s Commentary)

John Gill, who wrote one of the better commentaries, admits, “These are the words, not of wicked men among the Jews, charging all their errors, hardness of heart, and wickedness they were guilty of, upon the Lord, as if he was the author and occasion of them, and led them into them; but of the truly godly…” (End Quote). There you have it! Mr. Gill admits that the words, “O Lord, why have you made us to err from your ways, and hardened our heart from you fear?… are the words, not of wicked men among the Jews, charging all their errors, hardness of heart, and wickedness they were guilty of, upon the Lord, as if he was the author and occasion of them, and led them into them; but of the truly godly…”

Then in the very same breath and with the same pen and tongue, he goes on to place the responsibility for this ‘hardened heart’ and being ‘made to err from [the Lord’s] ways’ upon the “hardness of their heart” and letting us know that “The Jews(f) interpret this of their being hardened from the fear of God, and made to err from His ways by seeing the prosperity of the wicked, and their own long captivity, troubles, and distresses:” (End Quote) It is not adding to Mr. Gill’s words at all to quote what he had just said, “Not blaming him [the Lord] for these things, or complaining of him as having done anything amiss or wrong.” In other words, Mr. Gill, the Jews, and all of us when we first come to the Lord, place all the responsibility for our sins upon our own shoulders and not on the shoulders of our Creator who first made us of “flesh and blood… corruption” (1Co 15:50).

Notice how Mr. Gill changes the word “made” to the word “suffer” while reasoning around what the Lord just told him:

“…but expostulating with him, and wondering at it, that he, who was their loving and tender Father, that he should suffer them to err from his ways,” (End Quote)

Mr. Gill is typical of each of us before the Lord opens our eyes and ears to His words. We all, by nature, want to think that obedience and disobedience is our decision to make, and that God has nothing to do with our so-called ‘free will’. At the same time we self-righteously declare our faith in a God who is sovereign. It is a double-minded, double-tongued doctrine to which we all just naturally ascribe as “carnal babes in Christ” (1Co 3:1-4). But it cannot be both ways. Either the Lord makes us to err from His ways and He hardens our hearts from His fear, or we do all that. Either He is responsible for all that we do, good and evil, or we are. Who will we believe? Will we believe “that which is written”- ‘You Lord, made us to err from your ways… (Isa 63:17), you made the wicked for the day of evil… (Pro 16:4), [and] You create evil (Isa 45:7)’, or will we believe Mr. Gill and all the Christian scholars and Jewish scribes, and take the responsibility for all this evil in our lives and in this world upon our own shoulders and contend with the Lord and contend with ‘that which is written’ (1Co 4:6)? Whatever we decide on this question, it certainly will not be a decision we will be making free from the influence of our own Creator, because this is what the scriptures teach, and this is the unfailing Truth:

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.
Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

When the Lord does give us “place of repentance”, then we will have “Return[ed]… the tribes of [His] inheritance… for [our] sakes”.

Isa 63:18  The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.

Our “possession” of the kingdom of God in “this present time” is but “a vapor that appears for a moment and then vanishes away”, and we hold this “possession… [in] this present time” only as “the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of he purchased possession…” Indeed, “our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary”, as we are plainly told they are given to do:

Rev 11:1  And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
Rev 11:2  But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

“The holy city” which is “given unto the Gentiles [to] tread under foot” is the same city “where also our Lord was crucified” and that is where we, with Him “lie dead in [its] street”:

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.

If we fail to see that the Lord’s ‘great city’ is within us, then we will place the blame for His crucifixion on the Jews, or on evil sinners, or anyone but ourselves, and the words of Revelation 11 will have no edifying effect upon us. The truth is that all the conflicts found throughout scripture, regardless of the numbers involved, are really nothing more or less that the pre-ordained conflict which the Lord is working within us between “the first man Adam [and] the last Adam”:

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

Therefore whenever we read of plural pronouns and plural nouns, we will glean nothing from what is being said if we do not apply all those plural nouns and pronouns within ourselves singularly, and apply what is being said in every case to the outward first man Adam, which is each of us, and the inward last Adam, who is Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col 1:27). That is the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to His saints:

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
Col 1:25  Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which [riches of the glory of this mystery] is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Let’s apply this principle to our last verse in this 63^rd chapter of Isaiah:

Isa 63:19  We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name.

For this verse to have any personal application for me, I must read it like this… ‘Christ in me is your dwelling place. You never ruled over my old man because he is never called ‘Christ in you’. The Lord, from Genesis 1:1 never once, for one moment ever intended that corruptible flesh and blood inherit the kingdom of God.

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

If flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and if indeed we were “called in Christ before the world began”, then flesh and blood was never intended to inherit the kingdom of God:

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;

Our “first man, Adam” was “shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin [and was] made to be taken and destroyed.

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

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;

If indeed the Lord is our Father in this present time, then we are His children and the sheep of His pasture, and we know His voice and we will flee for the voice of a stranger:

Joh 10:4  And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
Joh 10:5  And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

That is our study for today, and I hope it is clearer than ever that whether we err from the Lord’s ways or we fear to do so, both are His decision, and that decision was made “before the world began” (2Ti 1:9, Tit 1:2).

Here are the verses for our next study:

Isa 64:1  Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
Isa 64:2  As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!
Isa 64:3  When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.
Isa 64:4  For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
Isa 64:5  Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Isa 43:20-28 For My Own Sake I Will Blot Out your Transgressions and Will Not Remember Your Sins - Discussion

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Isa 43:20-28- For My Own Sake I Will Blot Out Your Transgressions and Will Not Remember Your Sins

Isa 43:20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
Isa 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
Isa 43:22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
Isa 43:23 Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.
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.
Isa 43:26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.
Isa 43:27 Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.
Isa 43:28 Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.

In our last study we quoted many verses of scripture declaring in various ways that the Lord makes us first as wicked men for the day of our own  evil (Pro 16:4), and He makes peace and creates evil (Isa 45:7), and He is working all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11). We saw there is nothing, from the sparrows falling to the ground to the hairs of our heads being numbered (Luk 12:7), which can take place without His hand and His foreknowledge making it all happen (Act 4:26-28).

Today’s study continues to drive this point home. The Lord is our Savior, and we are the work of His hands. Whether we are good or evil, we are “His workmanship”. As His elect we are created unto good works which He has before ordained that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10). That is the plain message of our first two verses:

Isa 43:20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
Isa 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.

Even our old man, “the beast of the field”, in His daily dying is honoring the Lord. It is the Lord who has “formed [us] for [Him]self”, and the New Testament accords with these words of Isaiah 43:

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.

It is “The beasts of the field… the dragons and the owls”, all unclean animals and fowls, which “shall honor [the Lord] because [He] gives waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert”. These unclean beasts typify “my people, my chosen” who are given to drink the waters of life:

Isa 43:20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.

Now notice how the holy spirit, with no segue, goes from speaking “the beast of the field”, our old man and those who are not His elect of this age, to the Lord’s elect, “my  people, my  chosen”, and then back to our carnal-minded old man:

Here is the very next verse:

Isa 43:22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.

These words have an application, each in his own time, to every man who has ever lived. We all become “weary of [the Lord]”. The very fact that we do indeed all become “weary in well doing” is why we are twice admonished:

Gal 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

2Th 3:13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.

“Well doing” is the same as dying daily and being crucified with Christ. Our old man does become weary in dying daily (1Co 15:31) and being crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20) and offering himself up daily as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1).

Notice what we are told right in the very middle of this admonition against the ways of our old man. Look at why we are told our old man is what he is:

Isa 43:23 Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.
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.

Why do we become “weary in well doing”? why do we “not… serve” the Lord? Here is why we become weary and refuse to serve the Lord with an offering and with incense. It is because: “I have not caused you to serve with an offering…”

This “cause” is repeated in:

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

Our natural reaction upon being made aware of this extent of the Lord’s sovereignty is to say:

Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will? (ASV)

We do not like the fact that God causes us to resist Him and then punishes us for our resistance.What do we just naturally do then? We deny that the Lord “lead[s] us into temptation” (Mat 6:13). We deny that He ‘makes the wicked for the day of evil’ (Pro 16:4). And we simply deny that He “makes peace and creates evil”. However, our ignorance robs God of none of His sovereign power. The clearly stated truth is that the Lord Himself blinds us from knowing that we are all withstanding the Lord and His Christ, and through that ignorance we are all guilty of His blood and of His stripes:

Rom 11:8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

Deu 29:4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.

Isa 29:10 For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.

“The Lord” is working all things after the counsel of His own will, and we simply do not like the way He makes us to sin against Him and then punishes us for our sins. He could not judge our old man any other way, and it is He who is the only sovereign God, who can do such things and not be guilty of any sins simply because sin is defined as disobedience to His commandments and His laws:

1Jn 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

We have “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”:

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

The wages, the price, for sinning is death:

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

However, “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”, which is the message given us even in the Old Testament:

Isa 43:25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

Everything the Lord does “is for himself”:

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

When the Lord spared Israel at Moses’ request, He did so “for His own sake… for Himself”.

Deu 9:13 Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
Deu 9:14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.

Deu 9:18  And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
Deu 9:19 For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, wherewith the LORD was wroth against you to destroy you. But the LORD hearkened unto me at that time also.

“The Lord listened to me at that time also” is taken by our old man to mean that Moses changed the Lord’s mind and persuaded the Lord not to destroy Israel.

The truth is we can all make our petitions known to the Lord and at the same time acknowledge that our very thoughts and words are “of the Lord” as the scriptures actually teach:

Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.

The Lord knew in advance exactly what Moses’ reaction would be when He threatened to destroy Israel. “The answer of [Moses’] tongue was “from the Lord”. The Lord knew in advance that Judas would betray Him because as Judas’ heart prepared to betray the Lord and as Judas spoke the words negotiating that betrayal, “The answer of [Judas’] tongue was “From the Lord”. We know this is true because that is what we are told… “the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord”.

We are also twice told:

Psa 94:11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

1Co 3:20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

Our thoughts are vain because, by the Lord’s own design, we are born with a “carnal mind [which] is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be”:

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.

Being carnally minded, we believe we are capable of thoughts which are our own, independent of any influence from our Creator. The Truth is that even our vain thoughts “are from the Lord”, so He can judge us and show us just how powerful He is:

Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

You and I are blessed to know that Pharaoh is not the exception, rather, he is typical of how the Lord deals with all men. What the Lord did to Pharaoh is what He does with each of us:

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [Greek: tupos, types of us]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Pharaoh typifies our old man who must be judged and begin dying daily as Christ in us, our ‘new’, man is being formed within us and as our old man begins dying and we begin to be “conformed to the image of His Son”:

Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Both Paul and Isaiah contrast the physically “firstborn” with the spiritual “firstborn among many brothers”:

1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

This is the physical right of the physical ‘firstborn’:

Deu 21:15 If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated:
Deu 21:16 Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn:
Deu 21:17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

As Paul makes clear, “not that which is spiritual is first but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual” (1Co 15:46). So ‘the law of the firstborn’ was fulfilled physically in the “carnal commandment[s]” of the law of Moses.

Again, that law has a blessing that comes with it:

Deu 21:17 But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.

The firstborn was acknowledged “by giving him a double portion of all He has”. The holy spirit has seen fit to make a point of how this law must be applied even to the son of the wife who is hated for this reason:

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Mat 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

Mar 13:13 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Luk 21:17 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.

This is the law which is being acknowledged in the parables of the workers in the vineyard, the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of Lazarus and the rich man and the parable of the prodigal son, all being types of the Lord’s spiritual firstborn, who are given much greater honor and glory than those who were hired first, the ninety and nine who needed no repentance and the elder son who had never been a prodigal son.

But there is a practical reason for giving the firstborn “a double portion [of the inheritance] of all he has”, and that practical reason is: “He is the beginning of His strength; the right of the firstborn is His.” The firstborn was expected to help with the later born, and to be his Father’s strength in helping with the upbringing of the rest of the family.

The firstborn was not selfish and self-centered. He used his position to strengthen the entire family, just as Christ uses His firstborn to grow His family.

This is what Christ is doing with His “firstfruits… firstborn… unto God and the Lamb” (Jas 1:18 and Rev 14:4):

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

Jas 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Rev 14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

Because Reuben, “for he was the [physical] firstborn”, had defiled his own father’s wife, “the birthright was Joseph’s”, and Joseph became the type of the Lord’s spiritual firstborn. It was through Joseph, the type of the spiritual firstborn, that the Lord saved the entire known world of Egypt and Canaan:

1Ch 5:1 Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.
1Ch 5:2 For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's)

It is our own “old… man of sin” who “defiles his Father’s bed” when he sits in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God”:

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

The parables of the ‘the lost sheep… the workers in the Lord’s vineyard… and the prodigal son’ are all types of the Lord’s spiritually “firstborn” who replace our old man, the Lord’s physical firstborn.

We are specifically called the Lord’s ‘firstborn’ with all the blessings of that calling in these verses:

Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance [of the firstborn], being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Heb 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

As the Lord’s spiritual firstborn we will be used by Christ, our Father (Isa 9:6), to bring all men to His Father and to save all men:

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:

Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.

Contrary to many of the doctrines of Babylon’s many harlot churches, we are not raised up in the resurrection in physical bodies of flesh and blood. The fact that Christ said:

Luk 24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

That verse does not prove that He was not “raised a spiritual body” (1Co 15:44). Luke 24:39 does not prove that we will be raised up in bodies of “immortal flesh” as is taught by many. All this verse proves is that our Lord “appeared” as “flesh and bone” because of the lack of faith inHis unbelieving disciples. ‘His unbelieving disciples’ includes you and me. Christ’s resurrection from the dead had to be witnessed by many and be beyond having any way for the Jews to deny there was no body in His tomb. As we are told, Christ not only appeared to His eleven apostles, He also appeared to “above five hundred at once”:

1Co 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1Co 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
1Co 15:5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
1Co 15:6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
1Co 15:7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
1Co 15:8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

Not one of the apostles believed Christ had been raised from the dead until they saw Him with their own eyes. We are told that He “appeared in another form” to two disciples on the road to Emmaus:

Mar 16:12 After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.

That very same evening these same two men returned to Jerusalem to relate to the other disciples how Christ had appeared to them, and Christ appeared as Himself with all His wounds still in His body.

Here is how He revealed Himself to these two disciples on the road to Emmaus:

Luk 24:30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.
Luk 24:31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.
Luk 24:32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
Luk 24:33 And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,
Luk 24:34 Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.
Luk 24:35 And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
Luk 24:36 And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
Luk 24:37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
Luk 24:38 And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts?
Luk 24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.
Luk 24:40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.

So, in one day Christ appears “in another form” to these two disciples, and later the same evening He appears to those same disciples, plus the other disciples, as Himself. He had earlier that day appeared as a gardener to Mary, and some days later He appeared to some of His apostles by the sea of Galilee in a form which elicits John to say:

Joh 21:12 Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.

What these four various appearances tell us is that Christ wants us to know that He is in all His disciples, and that therefore we must consider all men as “the least of these my brothers”:

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.

The message of this chapter of Isaiah is that we, the Lord’s elect, have done nothing to earn our election, and those who are not His elect are not responsible for the fact that they are less favored.

Let’s review the preceding verses:

Isa 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.

Isa 43:22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
Isa 43:23 Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense.
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.

We have all “made [the Lord] to serve with our sins [and we] have wearied [Him] our iniquities”, and still the Lord has blotted out our transgressions “for [His] own sake”.

The Truth is that whether we transgress or obey, both are the Lord working in our lives “both to will and to do of His good pleasure”. When we err against our Lord, it is He who made us to do so, and when we humble ourselves and tremble at His word, and are obedient to His commandments, it is always and in every situation a work of the Lord working out His own plan and His own purpose in His creatures. So says the Lord’s own inspired words:

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

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

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.

In that same sovereign will in which He admonishes us to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling”, He also encourages us to:

Isa 43:26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.

He encourages us to do this immediately after telling us, “thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities” (vs 24).

Is it true we weary the Lord with our iniquities and make Him serve with our sins? He is the one who says we do, so yes, we do weary Him with our iniquities and make Him serve with our sins, but why do we do this to Him?

The answer to this question was given many years earlier in the book of Proverbs:

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

Lest we miss the point of this verse we are also told just a few chapters later:

Pro 20:24 Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

We are told many times in this prophecy of Isaiah that everything the Lord does is done for His own name’s sake after the counsel of His own will and not because we deserve either His favor or his wrath by our own will.

Notice that message in these verses:

Isa 37:35 For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David'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.

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.

If our sins, transgressions and iniquities were our own and done in our own power, then the Lord would not be sovereign at all, because “the whole world lieth in wickedness”, and if that “wickedness” is not His sovereign work, then His sovereignty would extend over very little and over very few indeed:

1Jn 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

To put the Lord’s sovereign power over all things beyond any doubt, we are told explicitly:

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

Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

We are even told that it is through “evil spirits from the Lord” (1Sa 16:14-15), and through “the law of sin… in my members” (Rom 7:17-23) that the Lord “makes us to err from [His] ways”:

1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15 And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.

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

All of this being true, “[our] first father and [our] teachers have transgressed against [the Lord]” because He “made [them] to err and hardened [their] hearts from [His] fear” (Isa 63:17) simply to give the Lord the occasion He is seeking to judge us “in this present time” (Luk 18:30), so we can “judge [this] world [and] angels… in the ages to come”:

Isa 43:27 Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.
Isa 43:28 Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.

“The curse” is the fiery work of the Word of God which will judge our works and burn up all that will burn in the works of “every man”:

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.

This “fire” is the Word of God which judges “every man’s work of what sort it is”:

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 [be a curse to them].

Our “first father” is our old man and “[His] father the devil” (Joh 8:44), and our new father (Isa 9:6) is our “second man… the Lord from heaven”:

Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

It is the Lord Himself who ‘profanes the princes of the sanctuary and has given Jacob to the curse’. He does so just to “seek an occasion against” [our] old man and his works, all typified by the uncircumcised Philistines, in the story of Samson:

Isa 43:28 Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.

Jdg 14:4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

“The Philistines” are in the promised land without the benefit of circumcision. In that way they typify our old man who is not circumcised of heart and must therefore be judged by the fiery words of God and removed from the Lord’s house. That is why these verses are so profound and such very good news, meaning this is “the gospel” for all men:

Isa 26:8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Here are the verses for our next study, and once again we will see that the Lord’s words of judgment are words of comfort to His elect whom He is judging in “this present time” (Rom 8:18-19) to be His witnesses and His judges in the coming ages (Eph 2:7).

Isa 44:1 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:
Isa 44:2 Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.
Isa 44:3 For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:
Isa 44:4 And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.
Isa 44:5 One shall say, I am the LORD'S; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD and surname himself by the name of Israel.
Isa 44:6 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
Isa 44:7 And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them.
Isa 44:8 Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.

Isa 26:12-21 The Earth Shall Cast Out the Dead - Discussion

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Isa 26:12-21 The Earth Shall Cast Out The Dead

Isa 26:12  LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
Isa 26:13  O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.
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.
Isa 26:15  Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.
Isa 26:16  LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
Isa 26:17  Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.
Isa 26:18  We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
Isa 26:19  Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
Isa 26:20  Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
Isa 26:21  For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

This 26th chapter begins with this phrase 'that day', and we are made aware of the blessings 'that day' portends for us as the Lord's judgments begin to do their work in our lives in this age.

Isa 26:1  In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Isa 26:2  Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

It is few indeed who take note that we are told here in the prophet Isaiah that our salvation is appointed of God. The next two verses demonstrate that faith in God, trust in the Lord, is our only hope of being delivered from the oppression  and trials of life:

Isa 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Isa 26:4  Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
Isa 26:5  For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low; he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.

King David had said as much many years earlier:

Psa 81:1  To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of Asaph. Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

"God [is] our strength", and therefore He is also our salvation, as King David repeats many times:

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.

Psa  85:4  Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.

Psa 95:1  O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

Isa 33:2  O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

So while Isaiah speaks throughout this prophecy of the benefits of the Lord's judgments, he also emphasizes the function of trusting in the Lord for our salvation through His judgments.  Isaiah speaks very clearly of the fact everything we do is, in reality, His Work within us - "all our works", both good and evil:

Isa 26:12  LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
Isa 26:13  O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. 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.

The holy spirit here again tells us, "For you have wrought all our works in us." The spirit here is telling us that "all our works", even our sins, are worked within us "after the counsel of His own will". For anyone who doubts that the Lord, "after the counsel of His own will" makes us to sin and become aware of our need for His salvation, consider this statement by the holy spirit through this same prophet:

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

The New Testament consistently agrees because it, too, was inspired of the same holy spirit:

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

"The law of sin" is in the flesh of every man, and there is but one lawgiver who sustains that "law of sin... in [our] members". Listen to what James tells us about this 'law of sin':

Jas 4:10  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Jas 4:11  Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

"Who are [we to] judge [our brother]" when we know fully well we are all slaves to the law of sin in our members? That is what Isaiah is telling us in this chapter and in this verse when he tells us "You have removed it far unto all the ends of the earth":

Isa 26:15  Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.

This "increase [of] the nation" has been mentioned before and in that instance the miraculous deliverance from Midian by 300 unarmed men under Gideon was mentioned:

Isa 9:3  Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
Isa 9:4  For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
Isa 9:5  For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isa 9:7  Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

This 'nation' is now within us (Luk 17:20-21], and it is first "in trouble" because it has been 'brought to destruction' by the Lord. Our old man and his kingdom is not destroyed by his own will. That kingdom is destroyed against our will. Only after our own rebellious kingdom is destroyed does the Lord bring us to repentance and command us to "return" to Him.

Psa 90:3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

The point being made by the Lord is that this is all His work. Just as He delivered Israel from the hoards of Midianites with 300 unarmed men with trumpets and clay vessels, so He is now doing so again spiritually by weak, unarmed clay vessels by which He is delivering His people, His Israel.

This same prophet makes this point clear with these words:

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

When Isaiah repeats the fact that it is God who increases His nation, but does not increase the joy, the holy spirit through Isaiah is telling us that it is God who "makes [us] to err from [His] ways, and hardens our hearts from [His] fear" for the express purpose of judging us just as He judged the Midianites. He did so with weak clay vessels who had no armaments of their own, but they have the Lord, the lamp of light, within them. But just as He waited to judge the Amorites, He waits to judge us only after increasing our sins and bringing our own iniquities to their full bloom, and we cannot deny the depth of our own iniquities:

Gen 15:16  But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.

We are these 'Amorites'. These Amorites are our old man whose iniquities must be full, and we must be brought to our own destruction before the Lord will deliver us from those iniquities.

Paul makes it very clear that when God hardens our hearts, we do not seek or receive His mercy:

Rom 9:17  For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

As always the holy spirit humiliates our rebellious carnal mind while emphasizing the Lord's sovereignty over our will. When He hardens our hearts we are hopelessly hardened and we will continue to rebel against Him in the most illogical manner possible. He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. He does not care about what we will.

But when He determines "after the counsel of His own will" (Eph 1:11) that the time has come to bring us to repentance, at that very moment we are brought to repentance, even if it is right in the midst of the road to Damascus to persecute, imprison and destroy Him and His body:

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.

When "He wills" He chastens and scourges us until we are made to be repulsed by those things which only yesterday gave us purpose and were to us at that time "the pleasures of sin for a season".

It is the Lord who brings us into our troubles. Our troubles are not random accidents. They are one and all the hand of God in our lives working His good work within us for our own good, and this is what our troubles work within us when we are being judged:

Isa 26:16  LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
Isa 26:17  Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.
Isa 26:18  We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

The verses echo the message of Psalms 107, of which I will quote but one of the four examples given in that Psalm:

Psa 107:25  For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26  They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.
Psa 107:28  Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29  He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30  Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31  Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

We are just naturally so proud and so stubborn that we actually believe we are responsible for "increasing the nation", including all the good and evil within our 'nation', and when our troubles come and our pains increase to the point of being intolerable, "They [we] cry unto the Lord in [our] trouble", and "[when] we have been in pain,  [and we are finally brought to realize that] we have as it were brought forth wind; [and] we have not worked any deliverance in [our lives, or in the lives of others]", only then will we "pour out a prayer when your chastening [is] upon [us]" (vs 16).

As always the Lord's sovereignty is the emphasis of this entire chapter of the 107th Psalm, which four times tells us that the Lord judges us for the stubborn "law of sin" which He has placed "in [our] members" for the very purpose of judging and destroying our naturally carnal, rebellious mind.

Notice just how effortlessly the Lord can administer what we in modern jargon call 'an attitude adjustment' to a most stubborn mind:

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.
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.

How easily and how quickly are we brought from our pride of "breathing out threatenings and slaughter against... the Lord" to saying, "Lord what would you have me to do?"

The Lord is in the process of destroying the kingdom of our first old man, and He will not be denied. But in the process of doing so, "man's...work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire."

This is the Biblical formula for the salvation of "every man" who has or ever will live and draw breath on this earth:

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?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
1Co 3:18  Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
1Co 3:19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
1Co 3:20  And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
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;
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.

"All things are... every man['s], [therefore]  all things are [ours]". We will build on the foundation of Christ with "wood, hay, and stubble", we will "suffer loss" before we will then "build thereon with gold, silver and precious stones", which one and all are created only through extreme pressure and through the symbolic spiritual 'fire', which "fire" is Christ and His words and His doctrines, as Paul explains:

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;

It is the word of God which is the fire by which "Every man... all in Adam... shall be saved". Which brings us to our next verse:

Isa 26:19  Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

Not even the churches of Babylon deny that the scriptures teach a resurrection of all dead. The question is, to what end are all men resurrected? The vast majority of churches and religions teach that many of those resurrected are immediately cast into a lake of fire from which there is no hope of escape. Since they also teach that everyone goes either to heaven or hell upon the moment of physical death, such a doctrine renders a resurrection from the dead something a little less than useless, since everyone simply returns to their fate which was supposedly determined at the moment of their physical death.

As we have demonstrated "all things are ours" (1Co 3:21-22) and "all things come alike to all", and "every man's work" will be judged by the fire of the Lord's words (1Co 3:11-16). Yet our next two verses are used by many of the churches to deny those truths and to teach some form of a rapture out of the time of "great tribulation". Taken by themselves they can easily be twisted to say just that:

Isa 26:20  Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

Is Isaiah contradicting himself when He also tells us:

Isa 54:7  For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8  In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

Let's put these two phrases together: "In a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment [and] hide yourself as it were for a moment, until the indignation be overpast." Do we hide from and avoid the Lord's wrath "for a moment", or do we endure "a little wrath... for a moment"?

Does Isaiah 26:20 contradict any of these verses of scripture?

Pro 20:30  The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.

Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Act 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

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.

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.

What does it mean to "enter thou into thy chambers"?

I looked up the Hebrew to get more insight into what we are being instructed to do here, and this is the Hebrew word translated as 'chambers':

H2315
חֶדֶר
cheder
kheh'-der
From H2314; an apartment (usually literally): - ([bed] inner) chamber, innermost (-ward) part, parlour, + south, X within.
Total KJV occurrences: 38

Here are the various ways this word is translated:

H2315
חדר
cheder
Total KJV Occurrences: 39
chamber, 14
Gen_43:30, Jdg_3:24, Jdg_15:1, Jdg_16:9, Jdg_16:12, 2Sa_13:10 (2), 1Ki_1:15, 1Ki_20:30, 1Ki_22:25, 2Ki_9:2, 2Ch_18:24, Son_3:4, Joe_2:16
chambers, 8
Job_9:9, Psa_105:30, Pro_7:27, Son_1:4 (2), Isa_26:20, Eze_8:12, Eze_21:14
bedchamber, 6
Exo_8:3, 2Sa_4:7, 2Ki_6:12, 2Ki_11:2, 2Ch_22:11, Ecc_10:20
inner, 4
1Ki_20:30, 1Ki_22:25, 2Ki_9:2, 2Ch_18:24
innermost, 2
Pro_18:8, Pro_26:22
inward, 2
Pro_20:27, Pro_20:30
parlours, 1
1Ch_28:11
south, 1
Job_37:9
within, 1
Deu_32:25

Here is the first time we see this Hebrew word 'cheder' in scripture:

Gen 43:30  And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there.

Joseph went into his own private bedroom to weep over seeing his brothers for the first time in many years. He knew who they were, but he has not yet revealed himself to them because he knew they still needed to be made aware of the exceedingly sinful thing they had done to him. "His chamber" was his most inward and private part of his home, and that is where he went to weep away from the eyes of his brothers and the Egyptians.

One more example will demonstrate that this word speaks of a place where we feel so secure and safe that this is where we would want to be with our spouse:

Jdg 15:1  But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.

Our 'spouse', our spiritual 'husband', is Christ, and Israel in the Old Testament typifies us as the Lord's bride. These words are addressed to us:

Joe 2:12  Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
Joe 2:13  And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
Joe 2:14  Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?
Joe 2:15  Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly:
Joe 2:16  Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.

We saw earlier in this study that the scriptures teach:

Pro 20:30  The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil: so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.

"Stripes... cleanse away evil [from] the inward parts of the belly". That is true because 'stripes' are the fire by which "every man... shall be saved":

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.

It so happens the words "the inward parts" in Proverbs 20:30 are the Hebrew word 'cheder'. The same word is most often translated in the King James as 'chamber', and this again demonstrates the closeness and intimacy associated with this Hebrew word 'cheder'. Christ is our Husband, and as such our 'chamber' is "in Him". Christ emphasizes this Truth many times:

Joh 14:10  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

Joh 14:17  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

Verse 20 tells us in very clear words that Christ is our 'chamber' into whom we "enter... and close the door until the indignation be overpast".

Joh 14:20  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Isa 26:20  Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.

So what does it mean to enter into Christ until the indignation be overpast? Does this 20th verse mean that we are given to avoid the suffering of Christ, contrary to:

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:

and:

Php 1:29  For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

and:

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.

and:

2Ti 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

The answer is obviously that Isa 26:20 is not teaching that God's elect are exempt from the suffering of the seven last plagues which fill up the wrath of God. Being in our chamber, Christ simply guarantees that we will remain there "till the indignation be overpast", just as Christ did being in His 'chamber', being in His Father. Because He was "in [His] Father", He was heard of His Father and was saved from death, just as He had prayed to His Father:

Heb 5:7  Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
Heb 5:8  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

Christ's security in His 'chamber' was the gift He was given of enduring "the things which He suffered" without denying His Father, even while facing the apparent loss of His life. Christ and His 'Christ' are what the experience of the three Hebrew children foreshadowed when they stood before a very angry King Nebuchadnezzar who appeared to have their lives in his hand:

Dan 3:16  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
Dan 3:17  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
Dan 3:18  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

"He will deliver  us out of your hand, O King." Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego could say this because, in type, they had entered into their chamber and closed the door until the indignation was overpast.

We are given the same promise in the New Testament in this verse:

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Pay close attention to the function of this "way of escape". Has the Lord promised that we need not endure the tribulations and trials of this life? No, we enter into our chamber 'until the indignation is overpast', because it is through being in Christ that we "can bear it", not hide from the trials of life and the suffering of the cross. The way to escape the Red Sea is to pass through it. The way to be delivered out of King Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace is to be in that furnace with Christ. The way to be delivered from the lion's den is to be cast in that den with Christ. In the same way, the way we are delivered out of death is to "die daily" and to be "crucified [together] with Christ.

Life can come to us only "through 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 'death' that produces life is the death of our old man and his carnal, earthy body of sinful flesh and blood which was never, from the beginning, intended to inherit the spiritual kingdom of God:

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

It was the Lord Himself who "sowed a natural body" predestined to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What He is doing with His creatures is 'plan A', and it will include and save all who are "in Adam":

1Co 15:21  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
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.

"All in Adam" will be "made alive... in Christ... each in his own order... every man... so as by fire".

And this chapter concludes with the Lord's judgment upon his creatures:

Isa 26:21  For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

"The Lord comes to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, but when His punishing judgments have done their work, "the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness."

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will begin chapter 27:

Isa 27:1  In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
Isa 27:2  In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
Isa 27:3  I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
Isa 27:4  Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.
Isa 27:5  Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.
Isa 27:6  He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

Isaiah 1:4-6

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers

Isa 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.
Isa 1:5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Isa 1:6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

Deuteronomy 28 is the chapter in the scriptures which contrasts the blessings of obedience to the curses of disobedience. The blessings of obedience comprise just the first fourteen verses of a chapter with 68 verses. The remaining 54 verses detail all the curses which come upon us for our disobedience to the commandments and admonitions of our heavenly Father. That whole chapter has “proceeded out of the mouth of God”. Let none of us believe the lie which teaches us that we can simply choose of our own free will to be obedient so we can avoid all those curses and simply reap all the blessings of Deuteronomy 28. That is not the voice of the True Shepherd who teaches us:

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.

The words which have proceeded out of the mouth of God happen to include verses 15-68 of Deuteronomy 28, and we need to notice that verse three of Isaiah 1 calls this “sinful nation” “MY people”. “My people do not consider… do not know [their] owner… [their] master’s crib”. The argument from those who have not been granted to believe that it is God’s elect who must “live… by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” is always the same: “All these negative descriptions of the sins of God’s people, are given to us only as admonitions of what we are to avoid doing. “They certainly are not”, so the argument goes, “typical of God’s elect. If Israel rebelled against God ten times in the wilderness and if their carcases fell in the wilderness (Heb 13:7), then that all happened unto them, and it is all written only for our admonition so we will not make the same mistakes. We are not being told that these things typify us.” That is the argument, but is that true?

Granted those things did happen to them and they were written for our admonition, but what is overlooked is the Greek word ‘tupos‘, which means ‘types” in the verses in 1 Corinthians 10 which tell us why these things happened to ancient Israel. The word ‘for’ is not in the Greek in this verse:

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [Greek: tupos]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

All that happened in the Old Testament certainly did “happen unto them for our admonition”. No one denies that we should learn from the mistakes of ancient Israel. But where in that verse are we told that God’s elect will not and have not likewise rebelled against Him? Where are we ever told that the carcasses of God’s elect have not and never will fall in the wilderness? How in any way does 1Co 10:11 contradict Moses’s and Christ’s statement that mankind must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God? Of course the Truth is that the scriptures nowhere deny that mankind must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Does “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” mean that since King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband, Uriah, a captain in his own army, to cover up his sin, that you and I are required to commit adultery with another man’s wife and murder him to cover up our sin? No, that is not what “live by every word” means, any more than “the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias… verily I say unto you, …shall be required of this generation”, means that we are required to literally shed the blood of the prophets of our time.

Luk 11:51 From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

Then what does ‘These things happened to them as types of us’ mean? Just five verses earlier in this same tenth chapter of 1 Corinthians we read:

1Co 10:5 but in the most of them God was not well pleased, for they were strewn in the wilderness,
1Co 10:6 and those things became types of us, for our not passionately desiring evil things, as also these did desire. (YLT)

The Concordant Version tells us the same thing:

1Co 10:5 But not in the majority of them does God delight, for they were strewn along in the wilderness.”
1Co 10:6 Now these things became types of us, for us not to be lusters after evil things, (CLV)

Has there ever been a man, other than Christ, who was not a “luster after evil things”? Adam, in the Old Testament, typifies who we still are in the New Testament before we are dragged by God to begin to be judged and converted. So we are told:

1Co 10:11 But, these things, by way of type, were happening unto them, and were written with a view to our admonition, unto whom, the ends of the ages, have reached along. (REV)

The Concordant Version again agrees:

1Co 10:11 Now all this befalls them typically. Yet it was written for our admonition, to whom the consummations of the eons have attained. (CLV)

So the scriptures tell us what we will do before they admonish us as to what we are commanded to do. In Revelation 1 we read that very message. This entire prophecy is addressed to “the seven churches which are in Asia”:

Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

The sins and shortcomings of these seven churches are all things which typify all of us simply because we are all first in Adam. So notice what the preceding verse tells us about the benefits to the seven churches if they “keep those things which are written therein”, both the good and the evil:

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.

Again, just as clearly as it can be stated, we are told “the time is at hand [to] read, and… hear… and keep [the] things which are written” in the book of Revelation, a book filled with the sins of the seven churches, the war, famine and death of the four horsemen, the woes of the seven trumpet judgments, the seven last plagues, the great harlot, the judgment of the great harlot, and the lake of fire. How is it a blessing to read, hear and keep all of that?

Both this “vision of Isaiah [as well as] the revelation of Jesus Christ” will show us that if we do not first live out these sins with their accompanying curses, then we will never see our need for a Savior. As Christ said, He came to give sight to those who have been made aware of just how blind they have been, not to those who think they already have sight. He came to heal only those who have been made aware of just how spiritually sick they have been all their lives. He did not come to heal those who have not yet be made aware of their spiritually sick, diseased condition.

So in a very real sense these verses of Isaiah 1 are a very accurate summary of the second and third chapters of the book of Revelation because these verses describe for us the spiritual bondage in which “Judah and Jerusalem” were dwelling “as types of us” at the time this “vision of Isaiah” was penned. The book of Isaiah will add to our understanding of how we are to “read… hear… and keep” every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, and how the book of Revelation simply reiterates the message of the vision of Isaiah.

So this is who we are:

Isa 1:3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

I have included verse three, which we covered last week, just to give us some context. God is telling us that, just like the seven churches of Revelation, we come to the point in our lives where we “leave [our] first love” (Rev 2:4) and we no longer even know our owner or acknowledge that it is He who feeds us, before He drags us to Himself through the plagues and curses which occupy the bulk of the text of both Isaiah and Revelation. It is our sins which provide God with the occasion He is seeking against the kingdom of our old man. Before any of us can be cleansed we, like Job, must be brought to see that we are “vile”. We must be brought to see ourselves as a dog returning to his own vomit and as a sow who returns to her wallow in the mire:

Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

2Pe 2:22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

A sinful nation laden with iniquity, is what the kingdom of our old man is while he serves the doctrines of Babylon, because even after we are introduced to Christ in a most basic but very sincere way, we all forsake our first love, as the church of Ephesus within us typifies:

Rev 2:1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
Rev 2:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
Rev 2:3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Rev 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

This is what we all do before we are made to see just how vile we are:

Isa 1:5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Being sick in the head and the heart is not something Judah and Jerusalem just decided they wanted for themselves of their own fabled ‘free will’. This very same “vision of Isaiah” tells us exactly why this has “happened unto them”.

Here is a very revealing verse of scripture for all who are granted to receive it:

Isa 3:1 For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

There will always be those who will tell us that the only reason God took away the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of water from Jerusalem and Judah was because they forgot their God and because they freely chose to err against their own God. They always point to verses like verse 8 in Isa 3:

Isa 3:8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

The only problem in always pointing to the verses which do say “Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen… because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord”, is that it simply is not the whole story of what the scriptures teach us about why they sinned and why we sin against our God. We simply cannot leave out what the scriptures state is the Maker and Creator of our sinful condition, who Himself tells us that it is He who “makes us to err from His ways, and hardens our hearts from His fear”, and give all the credit for our sins to ourselves and our fabled free will. That simply is not what the scripture teach was the reason Joseph’s brothers sold him as a slave into Egypt:

Gen 45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Twice Joseph tells his brothers “you sold me hither”, but then he concludes concerning the sin his brothers committed against Him, “It was not you that sent me here, but God”. According to Isaiah, according to King David, according to Solomon and according to Christ and according to the apostles Paul and James, the absolute Truth is that the sins of Joseph’s brothers, the sins of Jerusalem and Judah, and all things, good and evil, are one and all being worked after the counsel of God’s own will without regard for the fact that we often do not want to do the evil things we do (Gen 45:4-8; Psa 90:3; Pro 16:4; Isa 63:17; Mat 4:4; Rom 7:17-23; Eph 1:11, and Jas 4:13-15).

This verse from this “vision of Isaiah” is typical of all the others I have listed:

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

Paul makes this same point in Romans seven where he explains that our sins are not really our sins at all, but are the result of a law placed in our members by the “one lawgiver”:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Notice that verses 17 and 20 twice repeat the exact same statement: “… it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” This is the Truth of the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. Yet it cannot and it is not believed by anyone who teaches the false doctrine of mankind being given by God a will that is free from His own will. The doctrine which teaches that man is a free moral agent is a lie which denies the Biblical doctrine which teaches us that God is working all things, the good and the evil, “after the counsel of His own will.

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:

Let’s keep that in mind as we read the last verse of this week’s study:

Isa 1:6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

The image and the kingdoms of the beast, within and without, are all standing on feet made of iron mixed with miry clay (Dan 2:34-45) it is weak and sinful and cannot long stand. It is doomed to be destroyed. The fact is that it was “made to be taken and destroyed”:

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;

But it has been determined “before the world began” that every man would be “marred in the Potter’s hand”, become exalted in his own eyes, before being crushed and humbled. (Jer 18:4; Isa 14; Eze 28; Dan 2:34-45 and Mat 21:44; 2ti 1:9; Tit 1:2).

Daniel 2 gives us the significance of the symbolism of iron being mixed with miry clay:

Dan 2:43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
Dan 2:44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

It is when we attempt to mix the hardness of the base metal, iron, with the corruption that is miry clay, when we attempt to give structure and discipline to our lives of sin that our own inward kingdom will soon be destroyed. But there is a consummation to the ages, and at that time there will be an outward physical display of these inward spiritual types and shadows. The attempt by the beast to mix satanic apostate Christianity with satanic Islam, is as foolish as expecting the United States Constitution to mix with sharia law. They do not mix, and they will always be in conflict. “They shall not cleave one to another even as iron is not mixed with clay”.

It is “in the days of these kings [that] God… shall… set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed”. One thing we can say for certain, That day is nearer now than it was when these words were first penned two thousand years ago. We do not know when “the kingdoms of this world [will] become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ”, but it will behoove us all to assume that it will be very soon (2Pe 3:3-12).

Thank you for your prayers. They are deeply appreciated and needed.

I find myself in another peak of this fiery trial. I have completely succumbed to it. I can’t even have any hope for my life in this earth anymore. I feel empty and lost. I feel dead. It is so hard for me to see what my life has become.

It’s a pain that is impossible to describe. It’s the pain of rejection and abandonment. It’s something I am taking for my own learning, too, as I realize how awful it is to be selfish towards other people’s needs and feelings. As I suffer these things, I realize how many times I have been mindless of people and family around me as well. It’s indeed an awful thing.

May the Lord keeping teaching me and all of us, the One who suffered so much himself, yet, forgave and loved His enemies. I have prayed today for the men who made me suffer so much. I was able to do that because I don’t have any anger inside me as I had before. It’s gone. I want to receive from the Lord the assurance that all the failure in my life was planned by Him for His glory somehow if I don’t faint. Even if I do, I hope He will pick me up. I am feeling that this pain and despondency will never go away, though.

Thank you again for ‘listening’ to me and for the word you have shared. May the Lord keep you and teach you His love every day as well for God is Love.

In Christ Jesus,

F____

Hi F____,

Thank you for reaching out again. It pains me to know that you are so tormented. However, such an unsettled and anxious spirit is essential to being humbled and crushed and brought to your wits’ end by the Lord Himself who has raised up these stormy waves in your life:

Psa 107:24 These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.

I hope what I have to say will be received and will give you the knowledge you need to have the peace of mind we are all seeking so desperately, and bring you out of your distress.

In our last correspondence you told me that Paul’s emphasis was upon keeping the marriage intact when he said “only in the Lord”, and that Paul was not telling us that if the unbelieving depart that a brother or sister is not under the bondage of that marriage.

The truth is that is exactly what Paul is telling us, and if you are not given to see that a brother or a sister, such as you, is not bound to your adulterous and lying ex-husband, then you are placing upon yourself and many other poor people who God Himself has made to “err from his ways and has hardened their hearts from His fear… after the counsel of His own will… for our sakes”, to never know the peace that comes with believing the truth of these verses of scripture:

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

God causes us to reap what we have sown, but nowhere in scripture does He ever blame us for what we have sown. He always takes credit for all things, “yes, even the wicked”.

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

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?

“Evil in the city” certainly includes any evil you or I have committed, be it any evil that takes place “in the city” from adultery to murder. What the men in your life have done to you will be dealt to them by God, just as my own sins and your sins against others and against God will be dealt with, and we will all reap what we have sown because we are told:

Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

And:

Rom 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Rom 12:20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
Rom 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

If we are not granted to see that it is we who live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, then “Why have you made us to err from your ways…” will appear to be speaking of some reprobate ‘over there somewhere’, but certainly not to me or you.

Nevertheless this is the truth:

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

So believe the Lord and do not place yourself or anyone else under the burden of being married to a man of whom the Lord has said “a brother or a sister is not under bondage” when the unbelieving departs:

1Co 7:15 But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace.

The believing mate is never to leave the marriage “except for fornication”, “but and if the unbelieving depart, let him depart, a brother or a sister is not bound to that marriage in such cases, and is free to remarry “only in the Lord”, which he or she was not aware of when they married their unbelieving mate.

God does not “lead men to destruction” and then require them to continue in that state. Rather He then begins to burn out of us all the rebellious wood, hay and stubble within our hearts and minds. That is where you are at this time if indeed you are given to “tremble at… the sum of [His] word, and not at the interpretation of some man who is not even aware of the principle of “the sum of thy word” or “a multitude of counselors” (Psa 119:160 and Pro 11:4; 15:22; and 24:6).

I am praying that these few words will help you to see that your sins and disobedience really is a work of the Lord to demonstrate to you your utter helplessness against the beast within all of us:

Rev 13:4 And they [you and I] worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

You and I have demonstrated by our past lives that we cannot win any war against our beastly flesh. But Christ in us can do all things:

Php 4:13 I [you!] can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

I am praying with you and for you.

Your brother in fervent prayer,

Mike

Hi Mike,

I want to point out Jer 32:35 in regards to God creating evil.

Jer 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

Am I misunderstanding something? PLEASE email me on this.

Thanks,

C____

Hi C____,

You ask if you have missed something when God tells us that He is working all things after the counsel of His own will:

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

And yet we also have this verse to which you refer:

Jer 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

You then ask:

“Am I misunderstanding something?”

The answer to your question is ‘yes’, considering your question which indicates your confusion, you probably are missing a whole lot of verses of God’s Word which explain that He “makes wicked men” for such actions as are described in the verse you reference. God “creates evil” and “turns men to destruction” and “makes us to err”, and then He tells us to repent. God even “created the waster to destroy”. He really is “working all of this after the counsel of His own will”, and we simply do not like His ways or His thoughts:

Psa 90:3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isa 54:16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

We are told that God has given all of mankind an evil experience for the express purpose of humbling us:

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.

Job chapters 1 and 2 demonstrate that Satan is nothing more than an instrument in God’s hand to do the evil God created Satan to do.

Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
Job 2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

Satan does just exactly what God sends Him to do – nothing more and nothing less. So when James tells us that God tempts no man, the Greek is “God Himself tempts no man”:

Jas 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

Here is the proper translation:

Jas 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man:

So when you read:

Jer 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

Consider “the sum of thy Word”, and you will then have the Truth.

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever. (ASV)

God can say “neither came it into my mind”, simply because He placed it in the mind of an evil spirit to cause that to happen and to demonstrate just how evil is the “marred” flesh we are all in by His design, to bring us to see our need for a Savior.

Jer 18:4 And when the vessel that he made of the clay [Adam and “all in Adam”] was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Here is a story, which is related in the article on the IWWB web site named “After The Counsel of His Own Will”, which demonstrates how God can say what He says in Jer 32:35 and still tell us that He is working all things after the counsel of His own will. The story begins in 1 Kings 22:10 through verse 37, but I’ll just point out a few of the verses:

1Ki 22:20 And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.
1Ki 22:21 And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.
1Ki 22:22 And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.
1Ki 22:23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

God sent the evil lying spirit to do the evil deed of lying in the mouth of the prophets at that time and He is doing the same to this day.

I think you have probably missed most all of the verses quoted here and also all those quoted in “After The Counsel of His Own Will” simply because God has first given all of us eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear, before He begins to destroy our old man and create another vessel as seems good to Him to make us.

Rom 11:8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

I hope you will continue to read the website, and that you will be granted to see what is the mind of our God who really is working all things after the counsel of His own will, and that nothing, “Yes even the wicked” are out of His complete and total control.

Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Your brother in the all powerful Christ.

Mike

Mike,   

Thanks for your answers. They are always enlightening.

Gen 9:20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
Gen 9:21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
Gen 9:22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
Gen 9:23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.
Gen 9:24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
Gen 9:25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
Lev 18:6 None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.
Lev 18:7 The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.
Lev 18:8 The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.

Does uncovering nakedness here in Lev 18 mean intercourse, and if so, did Canaan defile himself with his mother?

Thanks,
M____

Hi M____,
Thanks for your question. You ask:

Does uncovering nakedness here in Lev 18 mean intercourse, and if so did Canaan defile himself with his mother?

Canaan was the son of Ham, and Ham was the son of Noah. So if he had intercourse with anyone it would have been with his grandmother, Noah’s wife if you take the statement in Lev 18:8 to interpret the phrase “thy father’s nakedness” to mean the nakedness of Noah’s wife:

Lev 18:6  None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD.

Lev 18:8  The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness.

But there is no spiritual instruction for you or for me when we try to figure out the physical circumstances of such an event. But when we consider the spiritual meaning of the word ‘nakedness’ and we understand that nakedness is a Biblical parable for sins and transgressions, then we can understand the spiritual intent of why we are not to be uncovering the nakedness of our near kin.
When we compare spiritual things with spiritual we can see that what we are really being instructed to do here is to concern ourselves first with our own nakedness. A man and a woman in a marriage relationship are called “one flesh.” Therefore a man’s wife is indeed “his nakedness” and vice- versa.
This admonition which instructs us to avoid uncovering the nakedness of our near kin is nothing more than this spiritual truth:

Jas 5:19  Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
Jas 5:20  Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

“Erring from the truth” is becoming spiritually naked. It is much better to go to a brother between you and him alone and discuss with that brother or sister the “error of his way,” and see that brother or sister repent and be converted from the error of his way, than it is to “uncover his nakedness” and tell others about it as Canaan did and as we all tend to do. Don’t ever be guilty of doing such a thing; rather “hide a multitude of sins” and go to that brother alone:

Mat 18:15  Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.

Had Canaan followed the examples of his older uncles, he would have done well. Instead he went around telling everyone about “the error of Noah’s way.”
There is nothing in scripture that tells us that we are not to take note of nakedness when it is in our midst. Nakedness equates to leaven, and leaven will corrupt a whole loaf if left unchecked. In dealing with a blatant fornicator within the church of Corinth, Paul encourages the Corinthian church to put the man “out of their midst, and in so doing he makes this statement for our admonition:

1Co 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

We are never to tolerate open sin or heresy in our midst. This warning is reiterated in the epistle to the Galatians as it related to spiritual leaven, which in this case was the heresy of Judaizers:

Gal 5:6  For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
Gal 5:7  Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
Gal 5:8  This [ Judaizing] persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
Gal 5:9  A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

So when we are confronted with those who flaunt their physical or spiritual nakedness here is what we are instructed:

Mat 18:16  But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Mat 18:17  And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

And we have this very same admonition repeated in the epistle to Titus:

Tit 3:10  A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;
Tit 3:11  Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.

So there you have it. There is the spiritual lesson about “covering Noah’s nakedness” and “hiding a multitude of sins and converting a brother.”

Jas 5:19  Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him;
Jas 5:20  Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins

That is the ideal result of the proper approach to dealing with sin and leaven in the midst of God’s church. It had its desired fruit in this case in Corinth, and this fornicator repented and was restored to fellowship:

2Co 2:6  Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many.
2Co 2:7  So that contrariwise y e ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
2Co 2:8  Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.
2Co 2:9  For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.
2Co 2:10  To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;
2Co 2:11  Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

But flaunting one’s nakedness, as the church at Corinth did, is not to be tolerated and is to be dealt with immediately:

1Co 5:3  For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
1Co 5:4  In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 5:5  To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1Co 5:6  Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
1Co 5:7  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:

This is to be done “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” That is true Biblical love, because it is in obedience to this very command. To ignore this command would be to ignore God, and that is not love in any case. Look at how God drives this truth home:

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Here again is that same principle in its spiritual application, as Paul is dealing with the false doctrine which was teaching the need to return to the law of Moses.

Gal 5:6  For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
Gal 5:7  Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
Gal 5:8  This [ Judaizing] persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
Gal 5:9  A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

The Corinthians were tolerating physical fornication, and the Galatians were tolerating spiritual fornication. Both were permitting the entire church to become leavened with “old leaven” by returning to their old ways, and in the process they were not only tolerating “uncovering the nakedness of near of kin,” but they were actually participating in that leaven and in that sin.

Tit 3:10  A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;
Tit 3:11  Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.
1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Only obedience to God’s commands is love. Obedience to God may seem to many to be less than loving, but the truth is that anything less is participating in the act of “uncovering the nakedness of your near of kin.”

Your brother in Christ,
Mike