Day: July 8, 2021

Isaiah overview for tomorrow

~ Patricia ~ 1 Comment

The Major Prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. (I am not sure where Lamentations fits in yet). 

Prophecy has a “Near/Far” view.  The message may be talking about something that will happen in the near future BUT the same message might also happen in the future on a grander scale.  Make sense? So with each chapter, you might say is this talking about Israel, the Messiah, or Revelation.  The answer might be:  All.

Prophets were NOT liked because they brought words of consequence due to sin and lifestyle.  But their words were from God; the Prophet was just a messenger.   So feel free to read this book in the present day as well.

Isaiah means “Jehovah Saves”, the key to the book of Isaiah is Salvation

The book of Isaiah is a masterpiece in itself.  A Bible inside the Bible.  What do I mean by that??

  • This book has 66 chapters (the Bible has 66 Books). 
  • The book is clearly divided into two sections (just like the bible). 
    • The first section is 39 Chapters (just like the Bible) Those chapters talk about the Law and Condemnation (just like the Bible)
    • The first section will begin with the people’s sin, and ends with a prophecy of the coming Messiah (just like the Old Testament).
  •  The second section opens in Chapter 40 with the very words that John the Baptist will say in the beginning of the New Testament (Yes I am not kidding). 
    • The second section has 27 chapters (just like the Bible, NT)
    • The second section will talk about Salvation, Grace, and Love (just like the Bible)
  • The book of Isaiah will end with visions of heaven and a new earth, just as we will read in Revelations. 
  • Unbelievable!
  • Isaiah is the most quoted prophet in the New Testament (22 times)
  • Jesus will literally open the book of Isaiah during his ministry and say (paraphrase)  “People, they are talking about me here!
  • This book will explain to us who Lucifer is and where he came from and why he is here (ch 14)
  • The word Salvation is used 31 times!

The Messianic prophecies are so accurate that skeptics have said “this must have been written after Jesus came.

Jewish people memorized the scriptures in order to preserve God’s word.  When the Temple is destroyed in 70 AD many of the original writings were destroyed.  Traditionalists had memorized every scripture (side note: ever see the movie Book of Eli with Denzel Washington…must see).  Anyway, they wrote with accuracy the Jewish teachings.  “We” call it the Old Testament.  This is called the Masoretic Text, which was completed in the 9th Century.  So,  someone COULD argue “How do we know THIS TEXT is accurate?”  I mean c’mon who could memorize the Bible, I struggle to memorize single scripture??

In 1947 a Bedouin shepherd discovered seven scrolls housed in jars in a cave near what is now known as the Qumran site. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on planet earth.  It is 1,388 feet below sea level (to give you perspective Death Valley California is only 282 feet below sea level). Besides the topography used as preservation (from God), the salinity of the area is so salty that nothing lives there.  Not one fish. The salt in the area/cave kept these hidden scrolls preserved!

Dead Sea - Qumran    Water Topographic Cross Section

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the twentieth century is the defense. In a cave in Qumran, archaeologists discovered thousands of fragments of biblical manuscripts that predated the Masoretic Text.  They were pieced together and it included every book from the Hebrew Bible (except Esther).  These are the oldest surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, dating 1100 years before the Masoretic text,  and what do they tell us? The Masoretic Text is remarkably reliable.  What was different: 9 spelling words!!  So I say to the skeptics…put that in your pipe and smoke it.

So we will read the accurate words of Isaiah.  I am not going to lie: this won’t be easy.  This is a difficult book to chew on.

If you have a hot minute click here and read just the first chapter.  I read the first verse and it said a “vision”.  I immediately was excited to read it.  Here is what my warped brain said when I finished it: “If God was a news anchor today, this is what he would say to our nation”.  OH MY STARS!!

2 Kings 15 and 2 Chronicles 26

~ Patricia ~ 3 Comments
  • Click here to read
  • Click here to listen
  • Before you even start, you might be able to say to yourself “The book of Kings will talk about BOTH Judah and Israel, but the Chronicles will only talk about____________”

We are going downhill today…

Azariah-King of Judah- (see above)  By the way Azariah also goes by the name Uzziah.  (2 Chron Uzziah is Azariah)  Azariah was one of Judah’s most popular, effective, and influential kings. He expanded Judah’s territories, fortified several Judean cities, including Jerusalem, and reorganized the army.  Unfortunately, Azariah (Uzziah) became proud, and in disobedience, to the Law and performed functions only the priests could perform:

Chron. 26:16 But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.

For this sin God punished him with leprosy

Look at the left column when we talk about the horrible kings of Israel….

Zechariah-King of Israel- Zechariah reigned only six months before Shallum assassinated him. Zechariah was the last king of Jehu’s dynasty. Shallum was the son of Jabesh (not a natural successor.

2 kings 10:30 ““Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” 

Shallum-KIng of Israel- another assassination. So evidently Menaham was not happy about Shallum being the new king.  After all, Menahem was the commander in chief.  He thinks it should have been him.   It’s chaos! Shallum only sat on the throne (meaning kingship, not the toilet) for only 1 month.

Menahem-KIng of Israel- He reigned 10 years but then Pul, king of Assyria attacked the land.  Let me repeat that: the king of Assyria attacked the land!  This is the first mention of Assyrian kings as they have been growing to be a world power.  The year is 742 (only 20 years to go) and we now see this rise in power of the enemy nation beginning to infiltrate the Israelites.  Not good I tell ya!  Not good at all!!

Pekahiah-King of Israel-In 742 B.C., Pekahiah began his two-year reign (742-740 B.C.). It ended when Pekah, one of his military officers, assassinated him in Samaria, in addition to Argob and Arieh, who were probably Israelite princes and influential friends of the king

Pekah-King of Israel “In the time of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser (Pul) king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maakah, Janoah, Kedesh and Hazor. He took Gilead and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and deported the people to Assyria.

So Pekah made an alliance with Pul, and attacked Judah.  They started deporting people to Assyria?  What? What is beginning to happen here!  (If you have read the Bible already you know…if not you will)

KIng of Judah-Jotham-he is the last “mediocre” king.  After this, we have 2 revival kings and 7 evil kings.  He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years…The high places, however, were not removed; the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there. Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the temple of the Lord.

Look at your schedule.  Tomorrow we start Isaiah.  Anyone want to take over the blog for Isaiah? 😬