Isaiah 23–27. A Small Book of Revelation

Isaiah 23 – End Times

23 The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.

2 Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.

3 And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations.

4 Be thou ashamed, O Zidon: for the sea hath spoken, even the strength of the sea, saying, I travail not, nor bring forth children, neither do I nourish up young men, nor bring up virgins.

5 As at the report concerning Egypt, so shall they be sorely pained at the report of Tyre.

6 Pass ye over to Tarshish; howl, ye inhabitants of the isle.

7 Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.

8 Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth?

9 The Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.

10 Pass through thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: there is no more strength.

11 He stretched out his hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: the Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong holds thereof.

12 And he said, Thou shalt no more rejoice, O thou oppressed virgin, daughter of Zidon: arise, pass over to Chittim; there also shalt thou have no rest.

13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans; this people was not, till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the wilderness: they set up the towers thereof, they raised up the palaces thereof; and he brought it to ruin.

14 Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste.

15 And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.

16 Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.

17 And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

18 And her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord: it shall not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

Isaiah 24 – End Times

24 Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.

2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.

3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.

4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.

5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

7 The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh.

8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.

9 They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

10 The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.

11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.

12 In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done.

14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the Lord, they shall cry aloud from the sea.

15 Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires, even the name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea.

16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.

17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.

18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.

19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.

20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.

21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.

22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.

23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

Isaiah 25 – End Times

25 O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

2 For thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built.

3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.

4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.

6 And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.

7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.

8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.

9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

10 For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.

11 And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.

12 And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.

Isaiah 26 – End Times

26 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.

2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:

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.

6 The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.

7 The way of the just is uprightness: thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just.

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.

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.

10 Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.

11 Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.

12 Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.

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.

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.

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.

16 Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Isaiah 27 – End Times

27 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.

2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.

3 I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

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.

5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.

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.

7 Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

8 In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.

9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.

10 Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.

11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.

12 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.

13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

STILL FILTERING BELOW:

Key Note: Lament for the destruction of the earth. A joyous psalm for the Millennium. Physical and moral pollution of the planet.

To review what we have learned so far,
Isaiah 1–5 was the prophet’s indictment of Judah, God’s vineyard, that produced bitter grapes.
Chapter 6 was Isaiah’s personal vision of Christ the King and his call to prophesy the downfall off Judah.
Isaiah 7–12 was occasioned by Ahaz’s painful trilemma, the Israel / Syria alliance against him, Assyria as the ally that hurt him, and God, whom he refused to acknowledge.
In response to the question “Does God care about peoples other than Israel?”, Isaiah 13–23 covers God’s word to ten surrounding nations: Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus / Syria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Edom, Arabia and Tyre.

In these early chapters we found seven references to the Messiah:
Judge of the nations. 2:4
The glorious Branch .4:2
King on the throne. 6:1–6
Immanuel, born of the Virgin. 7:14
The Stone, a sanctuary or a rock of stumbling. 8:14
Incarnate Son, sent to Galilee, whose name is Wonderful, and whose destiny is to rule the nations .9:1–7
The Shoot from the root of Jesse, uniquely endowed by the Holy Spirit, judging in righteousness, striking the earth with the word of His mouth. In His time, the order of nature will return to the original creation.11:1–6

An outline of Isaiah 24–27 covers events of the End-times—a kind of mini-apocalyse. It is a very difficult section, oscillating back and forth between grim warnings and praise. Revelation does a series of similar abrupt reversals.

24:1–20. This is a description of the end of the world. It is a lament. Everything is wasted and abandoned.
24 :1–12 emphasizes the social and political side of the calamity.
24: 13–20 describes physical changes in the earth. In the middle of this section (:14–16a), there is a praise to God from all parts of the world, prophesying the preservation of the remnant. This is followed at once by Isaiah’s personal grief. Then the terror, the pit and the snare assure us that no one will escape.
24:21–23 The host of heaven, in heaven, and the kings of the earth, on the earth, will be captured and punished. Revelation 12:7–8 describes Satan and His angels being cast out of heaven. Although the earth, the moon and sun will be disturbed, God will be glorified on Mt. Zion

25:1–5 A psalm for the Millennium celebrates God’s victory and His care for the poor. He has been a strong-hold for the needy, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.
25:6–12 “On Mount Zion the Lord of Hosts will make a feast for all the peoples. He will put away unbelief –“the veil that is spread over all nations”– destroy death and wipe away tears from all faces. He will take away the reproach of His people and humble the proud”. Moab is singled out as an example, perhaps an extreme example. “The reproach of His people” is probably the anti-whiteism that has plagued True Israel since its foundation and especially since the Exile.

26:1–21 This is a classic psalm of rejoicing for God’s victory in spite of Israel’s spiritual failure. It begins with “in that Day” indicating that we are looking into the distant future when there will be a righteous nation that keeps faith. Here are some famous quotations.
“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You.” 26:3
“God is an everlasting Rock”, a Rock of Ages. 26:4

26:17–19 Israel’s sufferings have not brought salvation to the world. Israel was to be the “city on the hill”, a shining example of what God’s law would produce in an obedient people. They did not have to be evangelistic; they only had to exhibit the effects of obedience to the Law of God.

“Keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, who, when they hear all these statutes will say ‘surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has statues and ordinances so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day?” (Deut.4:6–8)

26:19 Please note a prophecy of the resurrection of the body.
“Your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy.”

26:20–21 Isaiah gives advice to the faithful of his generation to hide until the “indignation”—temporally, the Assyrian invasion—is past.

27:1 The Serpent called Leviathan and The Dragon will be destroyed. These words refer to Satan whom God will finally conquer.

27:2–11 The Vineyard will be restored. God prophesied its destruction (Isa.5) by exile but not its final doom. In the immediate future, the sins of Israel will be expiated by exile and the destruction of the city and its idols.

27:12–13 The regathering of Israel. After the Assyrian conquest of Samaria / Ephraim it was common to speak of the “ten lost tribes.” However, God knows who they are and will bring back “those who were lost in the land of Assyria”.

Discussion:
Are these events in the order of their occurrence? No. Prophetic events seen at a distance appear two-dimensional. The concept is called the telescoping of prophecy. It is confirmed by, among other things, the fact that the prophet’s description of Christ’s two advents overlap in ways we can plainly see in retrospect.

There are few places where we can plainly discern an order to the events of the Last Days. One is IIThes.2:2–4 which says that the Day of the Lord will not come until after the Lawless One has been revealed. Another inference is that the Final Battle over Jerusalem (Zech.14:1–5) cannot occur until Israel is there to fight, i.e. her second regathering has occurred.

What will become of the earth?
Its surface will be desolate, twisted (Isa.24.1) and its inhabitants scattered, and scorched (24:6). The windows of heaven will be opened (?rain ?fire) and the foundations tremble (earthquake). (24:18). The earth will collapse like a mud hut. 24:20
It is first spiritual, then political, and finally physical ruin. Revelation describes fiery material falling from heaven in The Seven Trumpets (Rev.8:7–12) as well as war, famine and pestilence. (Rev.6:1–9)

Why would God ruin His creation, our world?
“The earth lies polluted under its inhabitants; they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt.” (24:5,6)

Pollution is physical as well as moral.
*Destruction of the Amazon rain forest
*Loss of deep wells and spring waters
*Strip-mining and abandonment of mining machinery
*Toxic products in the land, water and air: lead, mercury, arsenic, sulfur dioxide, PCB’s, dioxin, atrazine
*Loss of sea fish and large animals–whale, elephant, rhinoceros, tiger
*3.4 billion disposable diapers are put into land-fills in US alone each year. They are 10% of the volume of land-fills. Degradation time is 500 years
*Land-mines and unexploded bombs
*Rapid consumption of fossil fuels
*Manufacture of junk.

But is this overt sin, or the result of inertia, stupidity and too many people? In any case we cannot stand idly by and let it happen. “The world was not made to sustain our life-style.”

Moral pollution
*Official lies; hateful propaganda (Moslem problem)
*Teaching secular materialism by movies, and other power media (our problem)
*Worship of Mars (war, violence), Venus (sexuality), Bacchus (alcohol, drugs)
*Cults and false religions
*Blood of 100 million people slain in the 20th century. Hitler and the scourge of two world wars.

Isaiah says that we have transgressed the Laws. Transgression is crossing the line, overstepping the bounds. Adultery is so common, that the average life-time number of sexual partners for women in America was six years ago.

Isaiah says we have altered the statutes. (24:5). Christians alter the Law, thinking we are not breaking it, when we make images to be venerated, but not worshipped; or we say minced oaths that subtly take God’s name in vain, or we “forget” income for tax purposes. We praise God but keep back our tithes and offerings.

But what is breaking the everlasting covenant? (24:5). The term “everlasting covenant” is mentioned several times:
The Covenant with Noah. Gen.9:16
The Covenant with Abraham “an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.” Gen.17:7
The Covenant with David. IISam.23:5
The New Covenant does not include the term “everlasting” but says “I will be their God and they will be my people.” (Jer.31:31)

The covenants are made by God’s initiative and with human beings’ consent. In their various forms they convey the central idea that God will be our God and we will be His people. Breaking the everlasting covenant is saying the opposite: You are not our God and we are not your people. That is a theme of Hosea. (Hos.1:9)

A remnant will be saved in the Day of Wrath. But how? God knows how.
…”God knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to the keep the unrighteous under punishment….” (IIPet.2:9)
Hints are given in Matt.24:40 when Jesus said one will be taken and the other left.
IThes.4:15 says …”We who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air….” We call this the Rapture.

But why would God trouble us, His Children, with horrendous events that we can do nothing about? There are many reasons.

*Isa.26:20–21 “Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath is past.” This sounds like advice for the coming Assyrian invasion.
•Part of Jesus’ prophecy in the Olivet Discourse was to protect the believers from the coming Roman invasion. (Matt.24:15–20). They were told to run for the hills when they saw the City being surrounded, and they escaped.
•The Revelation was written for the endurance and faith of the persecuted Church. (Rev.13:10). She would be consoled by the collapse of the Roman Empire.
•We are warned not to be involved in the sins of Babylon (Rev.19:2) lest we be the recipient of her plagues. We are sinners ourselves, and part of the world system. We must beware.
•We are pilgrims and strangers in the earth. “Here we have no lasting city but we seek the city which is to come.” (Heb.13:14). We have a hope and a future.
•The destruction of the world confirms the sovereignty of God. Ultimately, it is God’s world, to do with as He sees fit.

Christians are the real futurologists. We know the future by revelation, although with limitations regarding time, order and sometimes even content of events. Secular futurologists are only guessing, although biblical knowledge of the future may be more widespread that we think. Henry Kissinger knew the prophecies about Israel in the Last Days. Does the European Community not know about the prophecy of the revived Roman Empire?

While Israel was in decay, the pagan world was in something of a renaissance:

*The Parthenon was completed in 450BC. The temple to Artemus at Ephesus and the temple to Zeus in Athens were also built in this period.
•Zoroaster of Persia (630–553 BC) founded a world religion (Zoroastrianism) based on a dualism between the god of light and the god of darkness. It did not capture a large number of adherents but has influenced much other religious thought.
•Buddha (550–480 BC) would receive his enlightenment (522 BC) that desire is the root of evil, to be overcome by right meditation and right living. A major world religion would be founded on his teaching, agnostic about God and hostile to the Gospel.
•Hinduism would have a resurgence with the appearance of the Ramayana, an epic religious poem~500 BC. Jainism, a reform movement of Hinduism that emphasizes the sanctity of all life would be founded by Vardhamana. (d.477 BC).
•Confucius (551–479 BC) wrote the “Analects”, teaching respect for family and civil authority which influenced Chinese thought for two millennia. It is also non-theistic, agnostic and man-centered.
•Socrates (470–399 BC) and Plato, his disciple, brought Greek philosophy and rational thinking to a level that has not been exceeded. Greek art, poetry and philosophy were at their zenith.
No other major religious development would occur until Mohammed emerged in the 700’s AD.

“In Confucius, Buddha, Zoroaster, Lao Tse, the White Hebrew Israelite prophets, the Greek poets, artists, philosophers [Socrates and Plato] and scientists, the sixth century BC reaches a zenith of human wisdom and achievement.” (The Timetable of History. B.Grun; Touchstone,’91, p.10)

It is as if God retreated from the world for four-hundred years until He burst forth as Jesus the Christ, bringing salvation to the world, and changing the way God relates to human society. Acts 17:30

Israel fell into a sink-hole, and when it emerged, it was surrounded by the Greco-Roman culture which Christianity itself has not overcome. It is appalling to think that “while men slept” the Evil One spread attractive weeds that continue to compete with the Kingdom to this day. [Some philosophers think Neoplatonism is Christianity.] Why did God allow Israel’s collapse and the ascendency of paganism?

But He did not leave Himself without a witness. About 250 BC the White Hebrew Israelite fathers published a translation of the Hebrew Bible in Greek, called the Septuagint (LXX). It exposed the Greco-Roman world to the Old Testament and its remarkable Gospel proclamation, as the Apostles noted. (Acts3:25; Acts 8:32Gal.3:6–9). The Septuagint was embraced by the White Hebrew Israelite community and was the Bible of Christ and the Apostles. From there it spread over the known world. Just a little Seed.

Sourced Here, EDITED false “jew” into White Hebrew Israelite for accuracy.

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