Bible Study on Isaiah 1, verse 1, Isaiah the son of Amoz

 

Isaiah 1:1 ¶  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

In most of history people did not use surnames like ours often based on location of our ancestry, the work that an ancestor performed, or some other identifier but refer to their name and the son of so-and-so.

The internal title of Isaiah is further refined in 2:1;

Isaiah 2:1 ¶  The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

Here also are listed kings that Isaiah prophesied under. Here are examples of passages referring to him in 2Kings and 2Chronicles. He features prominently in interactions with King Hezekiah.

2Kings 19:2  And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz…20  Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.

2Kings 20:1  In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.

2Chronicles 26:22  Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, write.

2Chronicles 32:20  And for this cause Hezekiah the king, and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz, prayed and cried to heaven…32  Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

On one level the context will be Judah and Jerusalem. On another level he looks forward to Christ’s first and then second advent. Then, finally, Isaiah reaches out into eternity.

Bible Study on Matthew 12, verses 22 to 37, every idle word that men shall speak

 

Matthew 12:22 ¶  Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. 23  And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David? 24  But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils. 25  And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: 26  And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? 27  And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. 28  But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. 29  Or else how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house. 30  He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. 31  Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. 32  And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. 33  Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. 34  O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 35  A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. 36  But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. 37  For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

 

A man that can neither see nor speak, the meaning of dumb, is brought to Jesus to be healed. How can you keep a lid on this? Remember that these people lived in an age, like most of history, where doctors were helpless to cure many things we know little of today unless we live in a poor country, what Marxists call third-world.

 

Here, the Pharisees accuse Jesus of being in the service of the Devil himself. Of course, the absurdity of that accusation is torn apart by Jesus for why would Satan enlist anyone to attack himself?

 

The question comes up for Christians of can someone in this dispensation, after the Resurrection, be condemned without mercy for blaspheming the Holy Ghost by attributing His work in the world to Satan. I discuss this in detail in Luke and Mark but one way we can look at it is for the person who rejects Christ this is a very real warning. Still, the literal conditions were that Christ was walking the earth and His work, the work of the Holy Ghost, the very mind of God, was being linked to Satan as Satan’s own work, which to them was a hideous blasphemy which could reap eternal punishment.

 

They could speak against Christ but not His work as that was also the work of the very mind of God, the Holy Ghost, who is also God, the same God, for God is one. An example might be the difference between someone criticizing you as a Christian and condemning your effort to save someone as the work of Satan. There are other religions who say this is so. Perhaps that belief dooms them in eternity? To say the work of God is the work of Satan is a very negative proclamation.

 

A tree is known by his fruit is a very powerful statement. Here is the fruit a Christian is supposed to produce because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

 

Galatians 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24  And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

 

But the fruit spoken of here in context are the words men and women say. The rest of this passage underscores the fact that words mean something and that words reflect the spiritual state of our hearts. Idle words can condemn us as careless speech often reveals the true heart.

 

Words as fruit coming from our mouths is reflected in other passages.

 

Proverbs 18:20  A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled.

 

Isaiah 57:19  I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.

 

Hebrews 13:15  By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.

Bible Study on Genesis 43, verses 1 to 14, Jacob agrees to send Benjamin to Egypt

 

Genesis 43:1 ¶  And the famine was sore in the land. 2  And it came to pass, when they had eaten up the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go again, buy us a little food. 3  And Judah spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. 4  If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food: 5  But if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down: for the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. 6  And Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother? 7  And they said, The man asked us straitly of our state, and of our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? have ye another brother? and we told him according to the tenor of these words: could we certainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down? 8  And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones. 9  I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever: 10  For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time.

So, now there is nothing left of what Joseph had given his brothers. The famine is getting worse. Jacob tells them to go again to Egypt to buy food. Now, it is Judah who says to let Benjamin go and offers himself up as a guarantee against the young man’s return.

First Reuben then Judah tried to persuade their father to let Benjamin go with them.

Genesis 43:11 ¶  And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this; take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds: 12  And take double money in your hand; and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand; peradventure it was an oversight: 13  Take also your brother, and arise, go again unto the man: 14  And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.

This passage shows that it is the basic food crop that is affected by the famine and not other substances so that the famine has most likely been caused by a failure of the wheat crop throughout the Ancient Near East over several years. The reason I believe this famine has been caused by back to back wheat crop failures due to disease or other causes is that growing almonds takes a lot of water and I’ve even read it takes ten gallons of water to grow one almond. We’ve seen recently by the drought in California that drought takes its toll on nut and honey production. Egypt itself was not dependent upon rain as it was for the annual flooding of the Nile River. Taken together the evidence appears to indicate that it is not a lack of rainfall and water that hindered the wheat, the corn crop, but some other factor such as disease or even too much water. We must remember that many crop failures and famines in Medieval England were caused by too much rainfall. Nevertheless, Jacob’s family must have wheat from Egypt which would one day provide a great deal of the wheat necessary for the survival of Rome, the capital of empire, at the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

The famine was sore, very severe. See the definition of sore linked by and with great in a similar context.

Deuteronomy 6:22  And the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes:

This has been the cause of many food riots in the recent past, when the cost of food rises too high. Americans spend about 20% of their incomes on food while some countries, particularly in Africa, have to spend 80% of their income on food.

If you want to pick a single indicator of where political instability will occur in the modern world; political, social, or economic then the price of grain is your best bet. Other factors such as tribal hatreds, lack of participation in the political process, etc. set the stage but the rising cost of food is the tipping point. Desperation drives revolutions.

Back to the passage, the brothers must go back to Egypt, and to Joseph.

Bible Study on Isaiah, introduction

 

Introduction

This book of the Bible is called, in the New Testament, the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, in Luke 3:4 with Esaias transliterated from the Greek rendering of Isaiah, sometimes only as, Esaias the prophet, or, the prophet Esaias, in Acts 8: 28,30, and the book of the prophet Esaias in Luke 4:17. John Gill wrote that it was listed first of the prophets even though it was written in time after some of the later prophets because Isaiah was the most important of the prophets as the early church “father”, Jerome, noted that Isaiah did not only the work of a prophet but of an evangelist. Jerome noted that Isaiah prophesied often of Christ. Others have noted Isaiah’s looking forward to the millennial reign of Christ and eternity itself. Eusebius called him the greatest of prophets. Wolfgang Musculus noted that, outside of the Psalms, Isaiah was the most quoted book of the Old Testament in the New. There are more direct prophecies of Christ here than anywhere else in the Old Testament, or at least more clearly expressed.

Isaiah prophesied, authorities say, in the 7^th and 8^th centuries for a period of 64 years. I am dismissing the modernist, and I might add skeptic’s, view that there were two Isaiahs or that Isaiah was penned by two people, as being simply an expression of contempt for the Bible. One person, the prophet Isaiah, wrote Isaiah. I’ll explain why I believe that later. Certain tradition has it that he was executed by being placed in a tree log and sawn in half at the order of King Manasseh. We really have no idea what happened to him but we will see him in eternity.

Bible Study on Matthew 12, verses 14 to 21, And in his name shall the Gentiles trust

 

Matthew 12:14 ¶  Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. 15  But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; 16  And charged them that they should not make him known: 17  That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 18  Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles. 19  He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. 20  A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. 21  And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.

 

As the Pharisees take council among themselves as to how to kill Christ without a riot or a revolution against them taking place Jesus heals a multitude of people. He tells them to keep silent about what He is doing. The Holy Spirit here alludes to some Old Testament verses. For verse 18;

 

Isaiah 42:1 ¶  Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. 2  He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 3  A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 4  He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

 

Notice how the Holy Spirit provides us with the meaning of the Old Testament verses with slight word changes for definition purposes. Victory and truth become synonyms as do the idea of waiting for God’s law and the Gentiles’ trust. In this way, this passage in Isaiah is clearly a prophecy of Christ and the Holy Spirit is letting us know in a way the Old Testament Jews would not have understood.

 

The Isles in Isaiah 42:4 is a reference to the Gentiles. Think of Greece, Italy, and the islands of the Mediterranean or even of Britain, which is an island.

 

Genesis 10:5  By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.

 

Jesus is not being confrontational in the way of a regular revolutionary. He is simply going about His business. There are two ways, at least, to do God’s work. One is an in-your-face way of confrontation and defiance of the authorities and one is simply obeying God, doing what He has called you to do and not worrying about the consequences but not carrying placards and screaming in someone’s face. I think of the woman recently who was arrested for silently praying in front of an abortion clinic in England. She was not confrontational but her silent prayer inspired the anger of the authorities anyway. Eventually they had to drop the charges and let her go.

 

But how do you keep great multitudes from talking about amazing things?

Bible Study on Genesis 42, verses 29 to 38, Reuben offers his two sons

 

Genesis 42:29 ¶  And they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them; saying, 30  The man, who is the lord of the land, spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. 31  And we said unto him, We are true men; we are no spies: 32  We be twelve brethren, sons of our father; one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. 33  And the man, the lord of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men; leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone: 34  And bring your youngest brother unto me: then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men: so will I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffick in the land. 35  And it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man’s bundle of money was in his sack: and when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. 36  And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me. 37  And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again. 38  And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.

The brothers return to their father and report what happened to them. Jacob joins in their fear. Reuben offers his own sons as hostage to Jacob if he does not take Benjamin to Egypt and return him again. Their situation must be most desperate. But Jacob refuses to let his precious youngest son, who may be a young adult now, go. Losing him will be the death of Jacob he says.

The earth has been drying out since the Flood. Land use studies of the Ancient Near East show the climate was cooler before 1,000 BC. and better suited to crops and forests. The Scriptures themselves give evidence to this wetter, cooler climate so unlike the arid landscape we see today. It is likened to the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 13:10 ¶  And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.

Exodus 3:7 ¶  And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 8  And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Josephus, chronicler of the war against the Romans, tells of the climate himself at Christ’s time.

Its nature is wonderful as well as its beauty; its soil is so fruitful that all sorts of trees can grow upon it, and the inhabitants accordingly plant all sorts of trees there; for the temper of the air is so well mixed, that it agrees very well with those several sorts, particularly walnuts, which require the coldest air, flourish there in vast plenty; there are palm trees also, which grow best in hot air; fig trees also and olives grow near them, which yet require an air that is more temperate. One may call this place the ambition of nature, where it forces those plants that are naturally enemies to one another to agree together; it is a happy contention of the seasons, as if every one of them laid claim to this country; for it not only nourishes different sorts of autumnal fruit beyond men’s expectation, but preserves them a great while; it supplies men with the principal fruits, with grapes and figs continually, during ten months of the year and the rest of the fruits as they become ripe together through the whole year” (The Jewish War, Book 3, Chapter 10:8).

So, no matter what you’ve been told the testimony of Scripture and history shows that this area was once a fertile place that was a great producer of food. The famine must have been a very great shock and source of dismay to the inhabitants. Many people probably starved to death. His status as the eldest son, this famine, and his brother’s hostage state were great motivators to get Reuben to make his offer.

Bible Study on Matthew 12, verses 1 to 13, mercy on the sabbath day

 

Matthew 12:1 ¶  At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. 2  But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. 3  But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him; 4  How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? 5  Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? 6  But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. 7  But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. 8  For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day. 9  And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue: 10  And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him. 11  And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? 12  How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. 13  Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.

 

The religious elite has gone from interpreting the law far too loosely, needing Christ’s correction in chapter 5, to here interpreting it too strictly, missing the point. Remember what Paul will write;

 

2Corinthians 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.

 

Mercy and necessity, according to Jesus Christ who was God in the flesh, are acceptable behaviors on the Sabbath Day. While Christians are not under the rule of the Sabbath Day observance there is no crime in our having a meal out on a Sunday unless we were to find that our server was a Christian who was forced to work on that day in which case we have a decision to make.

 

Jesus answers the Pharisees from an event in the life of David.

 

1Samuel 21:1 ¶  Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? 2  And

David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. 3  Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present. 4  And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. 5  And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. 6  So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away.

 

And refers to the command for the priests to offer sacrifices on the Sabbath Day from Numbers.

 

Numbers 28:9 ¶  And on the sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof: 10  This is the burnt offering of every sabbath, beside the continual burnt offering, and his drink offering.

 

Then, in verse 6 there is another declaration of His divinity.

 

For verse 7 note this;

 

Hosea 6:6  For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

 

Micah 6:6 ¶  Wherewith shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? 7  Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

 

Verse 8 has Christ use the phrase Son of man. I noted before that Christ used this phrase linking His role as the Messiah to Daniel 7:13.

 

Daniel 7:13  I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

 

Concerning the man with the withered hand Christ made it clear yet again that acts of mercy and necessity were okay on the Sabbath. Christ also makes it clear that while God approves of mercy to beasts so much the more so should we be willing to show mercy to man, made in God’s image. In fact, one characteristic of evil people is their wanton disregard for the welfare of their animals.

 

Proverbs 12:10  A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

 

But the point made here is that this healing of this handicapped man is a good thing to be done on the Sabbath. It is not a violation of God’s standard, only man’s self-righteousness.