Bible Study on Isaiah 1, verses 2 to 9, Ah sinful nation

 

Isaiah 1:2 ¶  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. 3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. 4  Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 5  Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6  From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. 7  Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. 8  And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. 9  Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Compare Isaiah 1:2 with Genesis in the creation of heaven and earth and the establishment of the children of Israel, who will rebel against God. Think of Adam and Eve as God’s children as mankind rebels against God. There are other connections between Isaiah, chapter 1 and Genesis if you will look for them.

Isaiah is speaking for God, from God, and what is to follow is an important pronouncement.

Deuteronomy 32:1 ¶  Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

The Jews were specifically God’s children and they rebelled against Him in their idolatry. Remember what He had said under the Law given to Moses.

Deuteronomy 21:18 ¶  If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 19  Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 20  And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. 21  And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

John Gill quotes a Targum, the Jewish understanding and paraphrase of what the Old Testament, their Bible, meant, in saying that specifically the Jews rebelled against the Word of God, that part of the Godhead by which everything was created, who Christians acknowledge as the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

And so, Israel, unlike even a domestic animal, doesn’t know their place or their owner, their master. Israel was a sinful nation, doing what it was not called to do, rebelling against God.

Deuteronomy 7:6  For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.

The indictment against Israel is terrible. They are full of sin, corrupters of others, and have turned their backs on the God who created them, provoking Him to anger.

From verse 5 on Isaiah pleads with them to see how low their apostasy has brought them and to realize why they are suffering so horribly. Do you not see what you’ve done and why you are suffering?

In verse 8 references are made to a cottage in a vineyard or a lodge in a garden of cucumbers. These were small booths where the farmer would stay to keep others from stealing his produce according to John Gill, quoting Jewish sources. They were lonely sentinels and there was no one around them to talk to or to help them keep intruders away. Jerusalem was cut off from other besieged cities, many of them destroyed, and like the lonely farmer had no one to go to for help because they had denied their only help, the Lord God.

Bible Study on Matthew 12, verses 38 to 45, this wicked generation

 

Matthew 12:38 ¶  Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. 39  But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: 40  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41  The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. 42  The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. 43  When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 44  Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 45  Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

 

Here Jesus speaks of His impending death and resurrection as the only sign the Pharisees will get, a sign most of them will reject.

Verse 40 presents the modern man and woman with a dilemma. A whale is a large sea creature and can be what we today would call a mammal or it can be one of the many types of fish we observe. The scientific classifications of mammal and reptile came after the Bible was written and are purely man’s way of categorizing animals as the word mammal once had to do with the breast and a reptile was any creeping or crawling thing, not just a snake, but included an earthworm. Comparing Jonah 1:17 to verse 40 here and then being appalled that the fish in Jonah is called a whale here is a sign of the mental sickness of modernism. Look at not only what words mean but when did they come to mean that. This is a very important thing in Biblical interpretation and understanding.

Verse 41 is also a reference to the events of the book of Jonah.

For verse 42 consider;

1Kings 10:1 ¶  And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions. 2  And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. 3  And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not. 4  And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had built, 5  And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of

his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her. 6  And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. 7  Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. 8  Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. 9  Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the LORD loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice. 10  And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon. 11  And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones. 12  And the king made of the almug trees

pillars for the house of the LORD, and for the king’s house, harps also and psalteries for singers: there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day. 13  And king Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.

 

Here is another modern interpretation problem. Matthew says the Queen of Sheba came from the uttermost parts of the earth. Modernism says that could mean as far away as South America or perhaps Siberia but this just means a long, long way off. Sheba or Sabea, was said to be in modern day Yemen in Southern Arabia by some authorities. We have to be careful when taking some Bible phrases too literally, confusing us or making the Bible contradict itself when there is no contradiction.  Hyperbole is not exact but just as the stars of heaven for multitude does not mean that there were that many Israelites but merely a vast number of them.

 

Jesus makes this statement to the Jewish nation and religious elite that their state is like a man who was delivered of an evil spirit only to find themselves possessed many more times by even worse spirits because of that nation and that religious elite’s rejection of their messiah. If you think you had it bad before just wait until you see what happens.

 

This can also be a warning to the church not to turn their back on the doctrines they’ve been given by God to follow after worldly pursuits of big numbers, big donations, and big churches lest the state of those people be worse than when they started. It can also be a warning to us to not turn back to the sin from which we’ve been delivered lest we have it ten times worse than we did in the beginning. There are a lot of good sermon possibilities from this.

Bible Study on Genesis 43, verses 15 to 34, a feast for Joseph's brothers

 

Genesis 43:15 ¶  And the men took that present, and they took double money in their hand, and Benjamin; and rose up, and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. 16  And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, Bring these men home, and slay, and make ready; for these men shall dine with me at noon. 17  And the man did as Joseph bade; and the man brought the men into Joseph’s house. 18  And the men were afraid, because they were brought into Joseph’s house; and they said, Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time are we brought in; that he may seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen, and our asses. 19  And they came near to the steward of Joseph’s house, and they communed with him at the door of the house, 20  And said, O sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food: 21  And it came to pass, when we came to the inn, that we opened our sacks, and, behold, every man’s money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight: and we have brought it again in our hand. 22  And other money have we brought down in our hands to buy food: we cannot tell who put our money in our sacks. 23  And he said, Peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them. 24  And the man brought the men into Joseph’s house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet; and he gave their asses provender. 25  And they made ready the present against Joseph came at noon: for they heard that they should eat bread there.

The brothers take the amount of money they intended to spend on the last trip that was returned to them and the same amount of money again, to buy more food. They were then greeted at Joseph’s house in a manner that probably surprised them somewhat. Joseph’s steward, whom we would call a butler today, calms their fears and gives them the story about the money being in their sacks on the last trip being a miracle. This is the steward’s story, perhaps ordered by Joseph. The reader is under no requirement to view this as from God Himself. Joseph had their money put back in their sacks. In a way it was God working through Joseph who returned their money.

Genesis 43:26 ¶  And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth. 27  And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive? 28  And they answered, Thy servant our father is in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads, and made obeisance. 29  And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. 30  And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there. 31  And he washed his face, and went out, and refrained himself, and said, Set on bread. 32  And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, which did eat with him, by themselves: because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. 33  And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth: and the men marvelled one at another. 34  And he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but Benjamin’s mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him.

Joseph is now overwhelmed at the presence of his beloved brother, Benjamin. The brothers are amazed at the feast set before them. The Egyptians not eating side by side with the Hebrews reveals the hostility and disgust these civilized people of one of the ancient world’s superpowers feel toward these herders from the area Western Marxists today call Palestine. The arrangements are revealed with Joseph seated separately, appropriately for his rank it can be presumed, the Egyptians separately, and the brothers seated by eldest to youngest. Benjamin gets five times as much food as the brothers did but it apparently doesn’t affect them. They drank and were merry with Joseph.

A mess from which we get “mess-kit” and “mess hall” in old military terms also means a portion of food or a dish as in a mess of meat. Just think of it as a meal or as a specific dish in a meal as Nicholas Culpeper in his 1652 work ‘The English Physician’ wrote a “mess of warm broth.”

2Samuel 11:8  And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king’s house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king.

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.