My Father, we come to You now in the name of Your beloved Servant, the One whom You uphold, Your chosen One. He has done all things well. We just come to bow before Him and bow before His throne.
Even as we would open the Word of God and look into these great mysteries of Your sanctifying work in the life of Isaiah, what a privilege it is to have the Word of God before us as a light, that we may behold Thy beloved Servant.
Lord, we just want to commit this time into Your hands. Thank You so much for the preciousness of Your presence here among us. We pray and commit this time to You in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
So, we’re looking at Isaiah developing as a servant of God, as it were. How wonderful to see this wonderful book, so full of prophecies of judgment and mercy and salvation and hope and all of these things. Yet we also get to see behind these messages this man, this man of God, who is growing. That is what I wanted for us to look at in these times we’re together.
This afternoon, we’re looking at part two: Isaiah as Watchman Upon the Walls.
We are trying to look at Isaiah as he faithfully lived before the Lord. We have to fill in some blanks. We have to do a little bit of imagining in certain ways because, after all, the Book of Isaiah is primarily prophetic and not any kind of biography.
What we see right at the beginning is that God told Isaiah to be faithful to Him because he was to be a sign to his generation. If you look there in Isaiah 8, this is in that Immanuel section.
You see, this young man Isaiah was a fervent, zealous young Christian—young man, I’m extrapolating—and he was serving the Lord and witnessing to the people. Then he came to that glorious moment in his life, that moment of exchange, that moment of surrender, that moment of undoing. He saw the majesty and the holiness of the Lord like he had never seen Him before.
I do not know—that does not happen to all Christians—but many Christians would testify that they were saved for a number of years before they saw the Lord in a sort of fullness that laid hold of them, that captured them, forever spoiled them on anything else really than the Lord.
We observed last time Isaiah at that moment. As he observed the Lord on the throne, waited before that Lord on the throne, and tried to reinterpret his whole life based upon that Lord upon the throne, the first revelation that came to him in a substantial way was this matter of Immanuel: God with us.
It is akin, I would say, in our Christian life—and it is so important in a young person’s life. Not an old person’s life; certainly they should be there by now. But I am saying, in a young person’s life, it is so foundational that they come to an experience of Christ in them, the hope of glory.
This is what Isaiah, as I see pictured for us, has come to now as a young man in his thirties. He has laid hold of God with us in a very personal way. He senses God with him as they go through the trials and times, even as we read here in Isaiah 8, where, even as the waters of Assyria rolled up to his neck, they just kept saying, “God is with us. God is with us,” and the waters came back down.
We see here in the second half of Isaiah 8, where the Lord talks to Isaiah and those who love the Lord. He says, in Isaiah 8:13, “Don’t be afraid of the Assyrians.” Basically, He says, “Be afraid of the Lord.”
The Lord of hosts, Him shall ye sanctify;
And let Him be your fear,
And let Him be your dread.
And He shall be for a sanctuary;
But for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence
To both the houses of Israel.
Bind thou up the testimony,
Seal the law among My disciples.
And I will wait for the Lord,
That hideth His face from the house of Jacob,
And I will look for Him.
Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me
Are for signs and for wonders in Israel
From the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion.
These mean those who really love the Lord. Seal these words up.
What is the role of those who really love the Lord in a time of spiritual decline among the saints? The role is to be faithful in declaring that the Lord is with us, to stand in the hiding place that the Lord provides, and to stand faithfully praying, watching, standing, until these times of trouble are passed.
We see many precious promises just like that. We see Isaiah and his two children, Maher-shalal-hash-baz and Shear-jashub, standing together as a sign to the unfaithful saints of what it really means.
In the latter days, I believe, among many other things, we will find many who have been nominal Christians suddenly rushing to those who are true Christians, saying, “Please, would you pray for me? Please, would you help me? Tell me what to do.” Because they have nothing. They have no guideposts. They have no way.
It is so important that we be ready for such a time.
We have been talking about this because I have a burden that there would be a prophetic generation of people willing to pay the price to be this sign in the last days. The price is exactly this: the necessity of real vision, the necessity of a real understanding of the Word of God, further than that, the understanding of God’s heart, and a willingness to share the truth, even if it means reproach, as was the case with Isaiah.
We are looking at Isaiah the man in four parts.
Today we want to look within Isaiah 13:1–27:13 at the watchman: Isaiah the watchman, who now has an enlarged vision, who can see, and who has a burden for the nations.
Last time we saw Isaiah apprehended by this amazing vision. Although we today know of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it does not sound so strange to us to say that God is both God and man, when Isaiah saw this revelation, you must imagine it basically tore up his whole theology.
How could God be on the throne and be God, and God be on the throne and be man? But that is what he saw. Isaiah had to reshape his whole understanding according to this revelation he had, and it had a great impact on him.
He was undone by this Holy One whom he saw before him on the throne. He also saw—all that was taking place in Judah was under judgment, including himself. This is how long it takes to see that.
If you see the Lord on His holy throne, there is no argument about that. You do not make excuses: “No, no, no, I think we’re okay. Well, our country is sort of fudging a little bit.” When you see the Lord on His holy throne and see the holy Lord, you know right where we stand.
Isaiah was seeing the first of two distinct revelations: the Holy One upon the throne. In Isaiah 40:1–66:24, he would see the second vision, which is the Holy One upon the altar, suffering and dying for His people.
Tonight we are going to discover something about the mercy of God. I give this as a forewarning: I think the mercy of God is one of the most underappreciated or misunderstood truths of our Christian life. The mercy of God is little appreciated until one has seen the judgment of God and the holiness of God. Then we begin to understand mercy.
The Lord clarified this heavenly vision by these Immanuel prophecies that Isaiah began to see. This Immanuel—God with us—understanding began to open and refocus Isaiah’s eyes. He kept looking at the throne above. He had seen the heavenly realities surrounding the Lord.
Once you see the real throne, even the mercy seat is just a shadow. Once you have seen the holy God, the holy sense in the temple is just a shadow. Now he had seen the reality. What is the kingdom? There it is. Who is the Lord? There He is.
Once somebody sees that reality, then that is what becomes the reality, and that is the measure by which we measure that which is on earth. This is why a prophet is always doomed to rejection and failure: because the prophet sees God’s standard and declares God’s standard to a people who are settling for an earthly understanding.
Isaiah, of course, would face that throughout his ministry.
He had seen the Lord Himself enthroned above history, and Immanuel very present in the years of Judah’s corruption. So now he begins to see the great spiritual issues behind the rise and fall of nations.
It must be really something to go into the war room of the heavens and realize that the rising and falling of nations has so little to do with these little guys who think they are the big mucky-mucks—the big bosses, the big kings, the big presidents. “Oh, we are shaping the nations up and down.” Oh, no. There are spiritual powers, principalities, and forces shaping the whole thing up and down.
It is our allegiance to God that has so much to do with what is going on in this earth. Everything going on on earth has a cause in the unseen. It gives you a whole other perspective.
Isaiah is getting his eyes cleared from seeing men as trees to seeing things as God sees them. Thus we see him in this part as the watchman on the walls of Jerusalem, in this section called the prophecies to the nations.
Isaiah’s prophetic discernment came from a heavenly perspective—a heavenly point of view. You and I see things from an earthly point of view. “What is the state of the United States? Wow, we have a bad financial crisis. Obama is in. I do not know. We have abortions. We have problems going on.”
Okay, what is God’s heavenly point of view? That is where a prophet has to come from if he is going to prophesy in an effective way.
Isaiah is learning to see something behind global politics. He sees the Lord upon the throne using and disciplining the nations. When he looks at a nation like Edom, first he sees the Lord enthroned over that nation. Then it gives him a heavenly perspective on what the problem is with that nation.
From Assyria right through to Egypt—the two powers reigning in the days of Isaiah—he saw that God has purposed with a purpose, that Immanuel will rule the nations from Zion.
Let us hear Isaiah 14:24–27, having to do with God purposing a purpose regarding the nations.
The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying,
Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass;
And as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
That I will break the Assyrian in My land,
And upon My mountains tread him under foot:
Then shall his yoke depart from off them,
And his burden depart from off their shoulders.
This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth:
And this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it?
And His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
Did you hear it? When God purposes a purpose, what percentage possibility do you think is going to happen? I think it is about 101 percent. If God purposes a purpose, it is going to happen.
God says, “I have purposed a purpose. Now, will you see from the heavenly perspective that purpose and declare it? Then I will bring it to pass. Isaiah, that is your job as a watchman. Declare what is happening to that nation, and I will do it, because I have purposed a purpose. I am going to deal with Assyria. I am going to deal with Egypt. I am going to deal with all the nations according to My purpose.”
Under Isaiah’s vision of the Lord on the throne, burdens began to unfold. As he waited upon the walls of Zion, he began to see the spiritual issues behind the surrounding nations.
The scope of his prophecies expanded. Isaiah is just like you and me. Isaiah is a Christian concerned with the saints in Memphis—that is about it. How can the Lord expand a man’s heart to have a burden for all the nations? There is some kind of work that has to be done in there.
God expands his burden beyond his own nation of Judah to the surrounding nations because God says, “I have a purpose for all the nations. Are you with Me on that, Isaiah?”
At the center of these prophecies is the Lord’s throne, using judgment of the nations to instruct His own children. Every time Isaiah prophesies against a nation, he says, “Now learn a lesson from this, My children.”
It may be a lesson of judgment. It may be a lesson of Immanuel and mercy. But there will be a lesson.
The conviction of these prophecies is this: the God of purpose is shaping the history of the nations with Immanuel and Zion in view.
He is shaping the history of the nations for Immanuel to be enthroned in the end, King of kings over all nations, and for Zion, as His wife, to be full of glory. All the things happening in Russia and in the Middle East are according to this purpose with a purpose.
Sometimes God raised up an anointed one. That happened to be the king of Assyria, whom God said was His anointed to bring discipline upon His unfaithful children. Later, His anointed became Cyrus, king of Persia. But in the end, His Anointed became the Lord Jesus.
In this great conflict, there is always present in the background the usurper. We will have to see just what he is usurping.
Isaiah develops burdens for the surrounding countries. We are just going to look in a very brief way at these burdens. There is so much depth here, and I am skimming across some very deep things with a little surfboard.
Isaiah 13:1–14:32 deals first with a prophecy against Babel. Every time in the Old Testament it says “Babylon,” I want you to understand that in the Old Testament there is no “Babylon.” It is always Babel. It is always connected to Genesis 11:1–32. Babel is the same Babel that took Judah into captivity. It always means confusion. That is what Babel means. You are babbling—exactly what it means.
The sequence of burdens includes:
The seventh burden comes down upon Jerusalem itself: “My burden is for the valley of vision.”
Isaiah, at this time, is entering another dimension as a prophet. We see in Isaiah 21:11–12:
The burden of Dumah.
One calleth unto me out of Seir,
Watchman, what of the night?
Watchman, what of the night?
The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night:
If ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come.
Isaiah is becoming a watchman with a heavenly perspective.
One cannot truly be a watchman without the spiritual discernment that comes from vision. How can you be a watchman without vision?
Isaiah’s personal background prepared him because he saw all of these emissaries from various countries coming into the king’s court. But what he needed was for his eyes to be opened as he stood upon the walls of Jerusalem as a watchman for the Lord.
Isaiah 52:6–8 helps define some of the aspects of a watchman:
Therefore My people shall know My name:
Therefore they shall know in that day that I am He that doth speak:
Behold, it is I.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
That publisheth peace;
That bringeth good tidings of good,
That publisheth salvation;
That saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice;
With the voice together shall they sing:
For they shall see eye to eye,
When the Lord shall bring again Zion.
Especially when it does not look like He is reigning, you see.
Listen: your watchmen lift up their voices. They are shouting. What is going on? They will see with their own eyes when the Lord restores Zion.
If there is any reward for being a watchman, it is this: you watch, and you watch, and you watch and pray, and you watch, and you get to be the first one to see Jesus coming.
That is what they are yelling about: “We see it! We see it! It is coming! It is happening!” Those who were sleeping think, “What? What is happening?” The watchman sees what is happening.
The principle of a watchman—that is, having prophetic discernment and understanding the times in which we live—is vital to God’s purpose throughout history.
Jeremiah 31:6 says:
For there shall be a day,
That the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry,
Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion
Unto the Lord our God.
Watchmen will be the first ones to call Ephraim back to their God in Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 3:17–19 says:
Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel:
Therefore hear the word at My mouth, and give them warning from Me.
When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die;
And thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way,
To save his life;
The same wicked man shall die in his iniquity;
But his blood will I require at thine hand.
Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness,
Nor from his wicked way,
He shall die in his iniquity;
But thou hast delivered thy soul.
A watchman has a responsibility to share the warnings.
Habakkuk 2:1–3 says:
I will stand upon my watch,
And set me upon the tower,
And will watch to see what He will say unto me,
And what I shall answer when I am reproved.
And the Lord answered me, and said,
Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables,
That he may run that readeth it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time,
But at the end it shall speak, and not lie:
Though it tarry, wait for it;
Because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
What does Jesus mean when He says, “Watch and pray”? He is asking us to have spiritual discernment about the events going on around us from a heavenly point of view, with which to pray. It brings prayer into a whole other dimension.
A watchman:
These are very important aspects of this prophetic ministry as a watchman.
Babel’s judgment is the first thing the Lord says: “Now, Isaiah, look over there at Babylon. What do you see?”
Note, in passing, the miraculous nature of Isaiah’s prophecy regarding Babel. He sees Babel as the Lord’s chosen vessel one hundred years before the exile happens. He sees the defeat of Babel two hundred years before it happens by the Medes. Babylon first ate everything up, and then Persia came and ate them up. All of this was predicted around 730 BC, a long time before these things actually happened.
Isaiah predicts Judah’s return from exile two hundred years before it happens. When scholars see that, they say, “You know what? Isaiah could not really know that stuff.” That is why those guys should be kicked out of the seminaries—but that is another story. I leave it with you.
The Lord judges Babel for her cruelty and pride. Read Isaiah 13:1–22. It is all about this: “Me, me, me, me, me, me. Pride, pride, pride, pride, pride. We are the best. We have the best music. We have the best religions. We have the best gods. We have the best women. We have the best blah, blah, blah.”
Babel, in principle, portrays any mega-government driven by world domination and empowered by hell. That is why, at the very end, it is called Babylon. Any world-dominating empire force is the spirit of Babylon.
Within Isaiah 13:1–14:32, we see this amazing passage regarding Satan, who sits on the throne behind Babel’s throne. After talking about the king of Babylon and his demise, it is as if something changes.
Isaiah 14:12–14 says:
How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How art thou cut down to the ground,
Which didst weaken the nations!
For thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:
I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation,
In the sides of the north:
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will be like the most High.
Oh boy, that is Satan. Satan is behind those world-dominating empires. Every one of them down through history has been energized by Satan.
But the Lord says He will utterly humiliate Satan and those kingdoms:
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell,
To the sides of the pit.
They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee,
And consider thee, saying,
Is this the man that made the earth to tremble,
That did shake kingdoms?
Satan is on his throne over Babel, the famous empire, but soon he will be judged.
The lesson in Babel is this: before Immanuel, all pride is abased.
Man’s arrogance stands behind all the wars and trials on the earth. Satan’s arrogance lies behind all of man’s arrogance and the battles in the earth. All man’s efforts to become a god will be judged and destroyed by the true God.
This kingdom is energized by Satan, and God will not have it. When Babylon comes to the fore, God will destroy it because that pride must be abased.
The second burden is for Philistia. We are not going to look at the details of the prophecies themselves, but at what Isaiah is saying between the lines, as it were, as he instructs us as the church today.
What does Babel represent to the church? The Antichrist and his deception, taking away believers and producing a harlot church. This is Babylon, and it is forever a warning to us. The spirit of Babylon is now.
Philistia is Ham’s lineage from Africa. Philistia came to Canaan the easy way: no baptism, no cross. Philistia is the perennial thief of Judah’s inheritance. When Israel was weak, the Philistines came in and raided Israel. Whenever the saints were divided and weak, there were the Philistines.
Philistia—Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, and Gath—is a type of religious flesh which worships and serves without the cross.
Philistia is on our borders. It is Judaism, it is Christianity, it is Christendom, it is Christian religion without the reality—carnal. This is a type of the perennial carnal enemy that lives within our borders.
This is the problem with carnality, is it not? How far away is the enemy? Our carnal life. There are the Philistines, that close.
Philistia is a type of the boasting carnal giants. Of course, Goliath was a Philistine. These are the carnal boasting giants that create fear and paralysis among the saints. When you sense that fear—“What are we going to do? Oh, what is going to happen?”—that is it.
The giant stands and says, “I am going to huff and puff and blow your house down.” When the saints wither in fear, we know that the flesh is in the ascendancy.
What is the remedy to defeat Philistia, or carnality? Samson shows us separation. The only victory over carnality is for the flesh to be separated by the crucified Christ and the work of the cross.
David shows us kingship. It was when the children of Israel had no king that they were always weak. David represented that king under the Lord God, and he brought things to order and to victory over the Philistines.
When David was in the ascendancy, the Philistines were on the run. So it is in our life. When God is King of our lives, the flesh is on the run. When we are on the throne, we are on the run.
The third burden is Moab, in Isaiah 15:1–16:14. What is Moab? First of all, Abraham’s relatives through Lot’s incest. They are long-lost relatives, you see. David’s relatives through Ruth were Moabites.
They were Balaam’s seducers of Israel at Baal-peor. The Moabites seduced the children of Israel with sexual harlotry, feasts, and orgies.
One of Solomon’s favorite seducers was the sensual goddess Chemosh. In 1 Kings 11:7, one of those places that Solomon built as an idolatrous place was to the goddess Chemosh. Whoa, what a sexy god she was.
Moab was also relatives dispossessed by Reuben and Gad. Reuben and Gad came in and took over Moab’s territory. They are very closely related here in principle to us.
Moab, in type, is sensual worldliness that seduces the saint from pleasure to perversion. Moab is that which says, “Come over here, come over here.” It is that continual worldly seduction through the internet and through friends.
Moab was also known as the culture center just across the river. You could go there for fine concerts, modern art, and all this kind of stuff. These Moabites were full of pride. They were known for their wine. They were known for their foods. That is where the Food Channel came from—Moab.
These dangerous relatives were just east of the promised land. “Hey, why do we need to go across the Jordan? We could stay east of the promised land. After all, are we not right on the borders?”
Yet their enticements actually swept away Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh in the end. Guess who swallowed up whom? The children of Israel lost, in case you do not know the story.
Down through history, this Moab has been civilization’s greatest corrupter: the Roman Empire, the American Empire, the British Empire. This is the great corrupter.
The story in Isaiah 15:1–9 is so tragic. In one day, the Moabites are destroyed by the Assyrians, God’s instrument. Why? Because they are so effete, so sated, so drunk, so peacenik.
The Assyrians come across the border, and the Moabites faint, fall, and die. “All right, guys, all right. Please, do not kill me. Do not touch me. Take my children. Do not take me.” Whatever. Read it. It is a sad story.
It caused Isaiah’s heart to cry out with compassion as he saw them faint in their trials. They saw the Assyrians coming, ran up to their hillsides, and worshiped Chemosh: “Oh, please help us. Please.” They cut themselves and everything. But the Assyrians came, because the Assyrians were godless, and just took them away.
Isaiah says, “All your religion, all your crying, all your civilization—where did it get you? You fell like a house of cards. Assyria came across the border. You did not have an ounce of fight in you. You just gave up. You were so absolutely deteriorated and corrupt.”
Isaiah weeps as he watches their desperate prayers availing nothing. All their religious zeal before all these gods—what did it amount to?
Here, for the first time, Isaiah is not only prophesying; he is entering in with compassion. Something is happening to Isaiah. Great compassion for Moab comes from the Lord’s heart.
Judah was very Judah-centered. They did not believe that any of the Gentiles were worth a flip. But now God is showing, and seems to be placing in Isaiah’s heart, some compassion for the nations surrounding Judah.
The fourth burden concerns Damascus and Ephraim. Damascus, of course, is the capital of Syria, and Ephraim is the name given to the northern tribes of Israel.
Judah, the southern kingdom, included more than Judah. Benjamin was with Judah, and Simeon as well. In the northern tribes there were nine tribes, actually nine and a half tribes. But many times the northern tribes are simply referred to as Ephraim.
We are looking at the destruction of Syria and, in the process, the destruction of northern Israel being prophesied. This is Isaiah 17:1–14.
The burden of Damascus.
Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city,
And it shall be a ruinous heap.
The cities of Aroer are forsaken:
They shall be for flocks, which shall lie down,
And none shall make them afraid.
The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim,
And the kingdom from Damascus.
Damascus was seen as the great city—the rock, it was called. The northern tribes of Israel were counting on their alliance with Damascus to keep them. But Assyria came down and wiped out the whole civilization in no time. That is what the prophecy is all about.
Syria symbolizes those idolatrous nations that entangle God’s people in religious alliances. They are not believers, but they are religious. They say, “You and I, we are alike. Come on, let us align ourselves together. There is no difference. Your God, my god.” Fooey. There is all the difference in the world.
Northern Israel was so blinded to the truth of the Lord that they formed an alliance—not only a political alliance but a religious alliance. Can you believe children of God forming a religious alliance with unbelievers? Well, there we are.
The pagans, the Assyrians, of course, hated proud religious coalitions. Syria stood in Damascus and said to Assyria, “Our gods are strong. You cannot get us.” The Assyrians did not need gods. They were warriors. They lambasted the whole thing in no time.
Rezin was king of Damascus, and Pekah was king of northern Israel, or Samaria. They were judged because Shalmaneser came down from Assyria.
I call him “Salmon Sneezers,” because young people could not remember Shalmaneser. So now they know “Salmon Sneezers,” the Cookie Monster with salmon. It is pretty disgusting stuff, but now you may remember Salmon Sneezers for the rest of your life.
In 721 BC, Shalmaneser came down and took out Syria just like that. “Oh, what kind of defenses! The Syrian mighty empire!” That city toppled before Assyria, and then they went right down to their neighbor, northern Israel, took them away into captivity, and the ten tribes have never been seen since.
That is what happens when we align with worldly alliances.
God says, “Look down on Ephraim now. Look down on the northern tribes and see what they have done. They have betrayed the Rock of their salvation for the rock—namely, Damascus.”
Which rock are we going to trust? Well, Jesus. You know, Jesus is always the right answer, right? There is nothing I can say about that.
In Isaiah 17:1–14, Ephraim had linked its fate with an idolatrous Gentile ally, and God would not allow success until she again worshiped the Holy One of Israel alone.
Mount Gerizim was the place where Israel chose blessing or curse. This is where Samaria was. The Samaritans still worship at Mount Gerizim to this day, though their holy-of-holies temple was destroyed in 120 BC.
The Samaritans are that mixed-up bunch of people. Are they Jews? Are they not Jews? What are they anyway? They were the people who aligned with Syria, and they have never been clear since. That is who they are.
Ephraim learns a lesson about trusting in something other than God Himself. Every time Isaiah sees such a perspective, he comes back to Judah and speaks to those around him in Jerusalem: “Could northern Israel’s demise in captivity be a warning to us?” Indeed.
Judah, put your complete trust in the Holy One of Israel, and do not trust in the outside alliances of the nations. Which Judah immediately did—they went and trusted in Egypt.
The fifth burden is the burden over Egypt. Egypt is an amazing country. Isaiah looks from the heavenly perspective across to the Nile River, and God says, “Now I want to speak the burden regarding Egypt.”
Who is Egypt?
What does Egypt symbolize in Scripture? Proud humanism trusting in its wisdom, science, and architectural achievements.
Yet there was this funny duality to them. Although they trusted in their science and everything, they were still very superstitious and very religious people, just in case. They could not depend on all their science, you know?
I love hearing reports of Taiwan from ten years ago, when Taiwan was prospering and prospering and prospering. Taiwan was developing into such a secular nation of prosperity. But at the same time, all those little temple gods were being revived. There were more sacrifices, more money being burned, and more cars being burned. They offer little paper cars to god, just in case. It is like car insurance: you pay your insurance, then you burn a car.
Egypt must be judged for her pride. Yet, through all the prophecy in Isaiah 19:1–20:6, we find something really amazing. Egypt, in Isaiah’s understanding, supremely represents one more thing besides pride, self-assurance, and self-dependency.
The Egyptians are those whom the Lord will save from among the nations. Egypt represents the remnant of Gentiles—you and I—who will be saved. God takes these proud secular people and saves them.
In Isaiah 19:1–25, the Lord comes upon Egypt and saves them. First, the Lord in mercy comes down upon Egypt, confuses them, undoes them, and removes their trust in foolish pride. Every plan they make goes wrong because the Lord has come down upon them and turned all their wisdom into folly.
The turning point is Isaiah 19:16–17:
In that day shall the Egyptians be like unto women:
And they shall be afraid and fear
Because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts,
Which He shaketh over it.
And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt,
Every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself,
Because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts,
Which He hath determined against it.
Then the Lord saves and reveals Himself to some Egyptians, a remnant of them:
In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord
In the midst of the land of Egypt,
And a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord.
And it shall be for a sign and for a witness
Unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt:
For they shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors,
And He shall send them a saviour, and a great one,
And He shall deliver them.
Egypt becomes a picture of God’s desire to save the Gentiles, the nations.
What wonderful things Isaiah has seen from up there upon the watchtower. He is seeing mercy triumphing over judgment. He is seeing the Lord desiring Immanuel to reign and to save beyond the borders of Judah. Who would ever have believed this in Israel? God wants to save Gentiles outside the borders. Who had ever heard this before?
Isaiah is coming into such knowledge from his heavenly perspective before the Lord.
The sixth burden, in Isaiah 23:1–18, concerns Tyre. Tyre was one of the great ancient commercial centers, but it would be destroyed, says the Lord.
In Isaiah’s day, Tyre was a virtually impenetrable fortress city a kilometer off the coast. It was out there in the sea, one kilometer from shore, and it was impregnable. You could not attack the city—well, until the Assyrians attacked it.
Tyre was the greatest seaport and commercial center in the Mediterranean in those days. It was the great center of shipping between Mesopotamia—Babylon and Assyria—and Egypt.
Tyre was the wealthy patron of David and Solomon when they were building the temple. The king of Tyre said, “I will get the cedars of Lebanon and bring them down to you.” They had so much wealth in Tyre—actually much more wealth than Babylon. It was like Switzerland, you know what I mean? They had banks making money, were a little isolated, and were in the catbird seat.
Tyre was also where Jezebel was from. Tyre was where all the Baal gods came from. Tyre was a great seducer of Israel by their gods.
Jezebel was a fanatic religious woman. She was not just a worldly woman. She was a beautiful worldly woman who was a religious zealot to bring Baal and Ashtoreth to the whole of Israel.
What is Tyre a type of in the Bible? Babylon was very wealthy. Tyre was very wealthy. But there is a difference.
Tyre is the anti-God world driven by its greatest principality: Mammon. Tyre is run by Mammon. Babylon is run by Satan.
Mammon is a great principality—a principality of materialism, a principality of “I have to have money. I have to have possessions. I have to have things.” That is Tyre.
Tyre represents the commercial empires empowered by the Antichrist. There are two great passages in the Old Testament that speak of Satan in his pride and exaltation. In both cases God says, “I will throw you down.”
One passage is in Isaiah 14:1–32. Behind Babylon lies Satan. When you read Ezekiel 28:1–26, you see that Satan is behind Tyre. Ezekiel 28:1–26 is basically a whole chapter about the destruction of Tyre.
Why destruction for this little place? Because behind little rich Tyre is Mammon, and Mammon cannot succeed. God will not let Mammon succeed.
Why? Because in this world the number-one haughty competitor to God is Satan, and the number-two haughty competitor to God is Mammon. When you stand up and say, “I am greater than God,” you are going down.
Tyre represents the whole commercial, materialistic, anti-God, trusting-in-ourselves world—the deception that money and business will bring happiness, security, and self-sufficiency. That is Mammon.
“Just a little bit more money, and I am happy.” How come everybody who has less than a million dollars says, “You know, if I just had money, I would be happy”? And how come everybody who has over a million dollars, like all these people in Hollywood and everybody, says, “You know, money does not make you happy”?
There is a deception going on. I am afraid even our own country has bought into these things: the pursuit of materialism as a basis of self-worth and greatness.
Tyre was the tempter’s snare. Tyre was the Jezebel that Ahab married. Ahab was a very weak saint. When he married Jezebel, Jezebel took over the kingdom completely.
This is the tempter’s snare that lures many believers into unequal yokes with wealthy families who then demand things that undermine one’s walk with the Lord. How many Christians do you know who married into wealth and you never saw them again? I have seen it many, many times.
The world laments the loss of their symbol and source of wealth. Revelation 18:1–24 and Revelation 19:1–21 say, “Woe, Babylon has fallen, Babylon has fallen.” John draws upon these verses regarding Tyre and the destruction of its commercial nation.
The Lord of hosts has determined Tyre’s demise because of the satanic pride behind this nation. The future of Tyre is humiliation—and then mercy.
For seventy years, Tyre will only be remembered in song: “Oh, what a wonderful city,” and now she is completely destroyed. But what happens after seventy years of Tyre’s destruction? At the end of the chapter, the Lord restores Tyre.
Why? Because Tyre comes to the help of the remnant who come back from Babylon and need to build the temple. Guess who steps up and says, “We will bring you the wood”?
God wants to use prosperity. He will not use Mammon. There is an interesting difference there. When they rebuilt the temple, God raised up Tyre once again because they needed help in this thing.
The final burden is the valley of vision, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is actually a valley surrounded by higher mountains, but the issue is more spiritual. Jerusalem is supposed to be the valley of vision. God’s people are supposed to be able to see.
This vision came during the siege of Jerusalem as Sennacherib—“Snack-on-ribs,” as I call him—surrounded the city of Jerusalem.
In Isaiah 22:1–25, though the Lord had granted Jerusalem watchmen upon the walls, her effete complacency had to be judged. God’s prophet stood up and said, “Repent, repent. Do you see what Assyria is doing? Repent. Bow low before God and repent.”
But what did they do? Rather than repent, they said—and this is literally quoted in Isaiah 22:12–13—“Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.”
That is the way Christians handle persecution on the doorstep. It was a sad state of affairs.
God said, “The blindness in the valley of vision—you of all people, Jerusalem, should see the real spiritual condition of yourselves. But you are so bound in your own ways that you would rather eat, drink, and be merry, and let the enemy take over.”
God says this cannot go unpunished, because Zion has a privilege of vision which must be held in the fear of God.
The Lord’s people always start out with vision. Then they begin to sense their invulnerability, their pride of position—they are going to make it, and God would never let them down. Eventually, they pursue pleasure instead of keeping that burden for vision’s responsibility.
How many of you have been blessed by the Lord? Now, how many of you have kept your vision? What is going on in these last days?
If you hold those two together, the Lord has no complaint. But people in prosperity forget the Lord as fast as the sparks fly upward. It has always been the problem of God’s people.
That is why vision in great movements of God is gone within a generation. What happened to it? “Well, we got busy. I have two jobs. We have all this stuff going on. Who has vision? Who has time?”
The sad thing is that Isaiah tells this story in the valley of vision: even their repentance is fake. Is it possible to fake repentance? “Oh Lord, we repent before You,” and we are not repenting at all.
They had learned how to repent. God said, “I am onto you. You can fake repentance. It is no pleasure to Me.” It is really something.
This brings us to Isaiah 21:1–17 and this watchman. The irony of Isaiah being a watchman is this: as the darkness began to fall and the Assyrian invasion came like a cloud over the whole Middle East, even the godless people of Edom came to Isaiah and said, “Isaiah, please tell us what is going on. What of the night? What of the night? How long will this invasion be upon us? How long will we be in this persecution? Please tell us, Isaiah. We want to know.”
Guess who the people were who were not asking Isaiah what time it was and what they should do? God’s own people. The Edomites were coming up from the south and asking Isaiah for help. It is a terrible irony in this whole thing.
God’s watchman—this was Isaiah.
Then, in Isaiah 24:1–27:13, from these immediate judgments of the surrounding nations, Isaiah sees from the eyes of God this tremendous day of the Lord that is to come in the future. It talks about Assyrian invasion, Babylonian captivity, the end of time, and the Antichrist.
It is a tremendous series of chapters that have to do with judgment: the day of the Lord, when the Lord reveals His left hand and His right hand.
In Isaiah 26:1–27:13, in these summary chapters regarding the judgment to come, we find an important lesson that this watchman has learned. Isaiah the watchman has been watching the Lord and watching the Lord’s hand among the nations. Here is what he has discovered: the Lord’s hand of mercy.
What does this mean? Mercy for God’s own covenant people.
What is mercy? How do we understand it? We say, “Oh Lord, we thank You for Your grace and mercy upon us,” and la, la, la, la, la.
We all know what grace is, right? You have all heard the saying: grace is when God gives you what you do not deserve, and mercy is when God does not give you what you do deserve.
There is more to mercy than that. There is an understanding of mercy that is very sobering.
Why does Paul say, “By the mercy of God in our ministry, we faint not”? Mercy is something very, very precious. I do not like it to be used in such a shallow way. Just like grace is being used in such a shallow way today, mercy is being thrown around. It is shallow talk. It is only worth a penny now.
What is mercy?
Mercy is when God’s right hand is hiding and providing, while His left hand is holding back a deserved judgment. That is mercy.
Are you in between those two hands? Do you see that you are in between? Or do we think, “Oh, God loves me. God provides. God cares. It is all right hand”?
Well, that is the grace of God, if you just see the right hand. Most new Christians just see the right hand. But here is the deal: there is grace and mercy, because that left hand is holding back judgment that you and I deserve.
Paul said, “As a minister, I have made so many mistakes and failed to come up to the mark so many times, but how do I continue on? By the mercy of God, I faint not.”
If you have served the Lord for a while, you know you have disqualified yourself. You know you come short. You know you are so pitiful, such an unprofitable servant. You must know that if you serve the Lord. But by the mercy of God, God says, “No, I hold that back. I hold that back. Here, I help you now. I help you now.”
This is mercy, if it is understood aright.
In Isaiah 26:1–21, though God’s judgments will affect all peoples, including us, the remnant learns how to hide in the Rock until the storm has passed.
Do you know how a watchman discovers mercy? He sees that when judgment comes, God always provides a Rock in which to hide. That is the mercy of God.
Not, “Mercy means I will not judge.” Mercy means, “I will judge, but I will put you in the Rock.”
If financial hard times come, we will face them. If trouble comes, we will be affected. But if we understand where our position is in the Lord, we will know where to hide.
Isaiah 26:3–4 says:
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on Thee:
Because he trusteth in Thee.
Trust ye in the Lord for ever:
For in the Lord the Lord is everlasting strength.
We know this wonderful verse: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee.” We claim it as a promise. This is talking about the time of judgment. He will keep you in perfect peace.
Then Isaiah 26:20–21 gives the reason:
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.
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 is saying, “I am coming with judgment. Hide, hide, hide, and you will be safe.”
Where do we hide? What do you recommend—somewhere west of the Mississippi? Somewhere near New York?
We hide in the Lord Himself. It is our only hiding place. There is no place immune from these things.
Let us look at God’s message of mercy. This is what Isaiah saw. Can you imagine a Jew seeing God’s mercy upon unbelievers and the nations? I tell you, there is a lot to learn.
Isaiah 26:9–11 says:
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.
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.
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.
What was the purpose of God’s judgment to unbelievers? He brings His judgments upon all the earth that the inhabitants of the world may learn righteousness.
Nineveh did not know its right hand from its left until they heard the judgments of God from the mouth of Jonah. Suddenly they realized there was right and there was wrong, and they repented.
God’s judgments come in order to bring us to conviction, to cry out for mercy, and to be saved. Thank God that we learn judgment in order that we might be saved. This is God’s first purpose in judgment: that we might be saved, that we might see righteousness.
Yet He goes on to say, “What happens if I bring blessings?” Though the wicked is shown grace, he does not learn righteousness. He just says, “Me, me, me. Aren’t I great? I did it all myself.” It is like a Broadway show.
What can God do? How can God save people? Bless them? Indeed He does. Rain falls on the just and the unjust alike. What does the unjust say? “It is raining. I got this rain. Boy, am I lucky.”
God says, “Well, they are not learning anything. I had better stoke it up a little bit and send some momentary judgment and see what happens.” Suddenly: “Oh, there is right. Oh, there is wrong. Oh, what are we doing?”
God’s mercy. God’s mercy.
For the unbeliever, mercy is when His right hand reveals His salvation while His left hand holds back eternal judgment for a little longer.
I was saved by the mercy of God. God’s hand of judgment was holding back—His hand of mercy holding back judgments that I well deserved—in order to hold out that mercy and salvation to me, that I might believe.
This is an understanding of mercy that actually affected Isaiah’s life. When God’s hand is lifted up—when people see God’s hand moving—suddenly they understand the things of God.
The reality of mercy is this: all men and women, even now, are under the shadow of judgment, and it is held back by His mercy hand.
For the believer, mercy will only finally triumph over judgment when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account. When we stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we will see mercy triumph over judgment.
For the unbeliever, mercy will be perfected in judgment before the white throne, when the righteousness of God is measured justly, at which time they will be without excuse.
Men can say whatever they want now. I just have a burden for fools, because there is no man or woman who will stand before the white throne of judgment who will have any excuse. God will have shown them righteousness, and they will have rejected it.
It is very serious business, and mercy is very serious business.
In the last days, it is marked by mercy. Even though the church is weak and small and ineffective, and does not have much learning or status, God is showing mercy to the church in the last days, holding back judgment that others may be gathered in before the end.
He is holding back judgment that we might repent of our ways and be the bride prepared for her Husband. Then He lets it all go. Right hand and left hand come together and fulfill the wonderful work.
Isaiah, at the end, has stood on this tower as a watchman. He has seen the depths of mercy. We know those verses in Romans 11:1–36 regarding that. Let me summarize it in these ways.
He has learned God’s ways in His judgments. Oh, that we might see God’s ways in His judgments. They are ways of mercy, discovered in times of judgment.
He has discovered God’s hand of mercy within His judgment. How many of you have been judged and disciplined by God, and it was at that time that you really came to understand His love and care for you? We learn that in judgment.
He is seeing God’s heart to save in judgments, by this mercy.
Finally, he has been broken by mercy and made a vessel of intercession, standing in the gap of the two hands.
Ladies and gentlemen, next time, Lord willing, we are going to look at the intercessor. The intercessor simply stands in the gap of the two hands. There is the hand of mercy, and there is the hand of judgment. There the intercessor stands on behalf of the people on this earth.
We will find Isaiah next time growing up yet to another level of spiritual understanding. May the Lord help us to enter into this same kind of understanding.
Next time, if you have time to read these chapters of Isaiah, we will see the intercessor as he looks around at the children of God and expresses God’s heart to these children.
Lord, we come to You. We thank You for Your mercy. Lord, forgive us.