Bible Study on Isaiah 4, verses 1 to 6, part 2, prophecies of the reign of Christ

 

For verses 3 & 4, which say, 3  And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: 4  When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

 

We see a future promise of purification that I believe matches up well with prophecies of Christ’s millennial reign and these other prophecies in the Old Testament.

 

Consider these verses;

 

Zechariah 14:20  In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21  Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.

 

Isaiah 35:8  And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

 

Isaiah 60:21  Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

 

Joel 3:17  So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

 

Verses 5 and 6; 5  And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. 6  And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm

and from rain.

 

Christian commentators have pushed verse 5 forward to suggest that it can apply to every church that is truly Christ’s. He will establish His church by His glory.

 

Ephesians 2:21  In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22  In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

 

The people of God who are truly His will be sure dwellings for the Holy Ghost, the very mind of God through His very words.

 

1Corinthians 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

 

1Corinthians 3:16 ¶  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

 

These commentators, like John Gill, will say that the invisible church is called Zion.

 

Hebrews 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

 

So, particular churches are called assemblies.

 

Ecclesiastes 12:11  The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.

 

James 2:2  For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;

 

Imagine the reference here to the glory manifested by God in the Exodus to the power present from God within the true churches of God. A church that is truly faithful to God, our Creator, is most certainly a refuge in the storms that we face as Christians.

 

Remember this is a reference to future events, a future that the Israelites would not have understood unless it were couched in terms with which they were familiar. When the times get really bad toward the end, before the church is translated, or raptured in common parlance, we will draw even closer together as the church.

 

Hebrews 10:24  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

 

Isaiah 4 promises blessings for those who are faithful to Christ. This chapter of Isaiah also outlines Christ’s millennial reign.

 

Compare Isaiah, chapter 4, to Numbers.

 

Isaiah 4:4  When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

 

Numbers 11:1 ¶  And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp.

 

Isaiah 4:5  And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.

 

Numbers 9:16  So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.