Allan MacRae, Isaiah 7-12, Lecture 14

This is lecture 14 delivered by Dr. Allan MacRae at Biblical Theological Seminary on Isaiah 7-12:

            Now I was very glad at the end of last class to have a question handed to me. I appreciate it when students are thinking about the matters we are discussing. I have no desire that anybody simply take what I say and parrot it back to me. I am anxious that you think through the problems and develop your own conclusions. I have certainly when it comes to marking a paper I have to see whether you know what I’ve presented in class. But whether you agree with it or not has nothing to do with the mark.  In fact if you say what I think and then proceed to say why you think it’s wrong you may get a better mark than if you merely stated what I thought. The purpose is to get a mastery of the material.

Now this question is a very interesting one. It said “Dr. MacRae, in relation to the class discussion of the re-gathering of the dispersed people of Israel to the land, I have heard some quote Jeremiah 16:14-15 and state that the present developments of the nation Israel in 1948 is not the re-gathering prophesied in Scripture. The reason for this, they maintain, is because Jeremiah 16:14-15 implies that the future re-gathering will be as divinely miraculous as the exodus from Egypt and even more so. The 1948 development of Israel was only a human development under the decisions of the UN. Could you comment on this and is this a valid inference from Jeremiah 16:14-15?”

            I will read to you Jeremiah 16:14-15 as that stands in the NIV: "However, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "when men will no longer say, 'As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' but they will say, 'As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers.”

            Now there is a very specific promise that the Lord is going to bring back the children of Israel to the land of Israel. It’s a very specific promise and it is a promise, which is tremendous in its scope.  It will surpass in their minds the deliverance that he gave when he brought them out of Egypt. That is what is promised. I cannot see that that is a great deal stronger than what is said in the passage we looked at in Isaiah 11.  There we read in verse 12 and following, "He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah." And verse 15, “The Lord will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian sea; with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand over the Euphrates River. He will break it up into seven streams so that men can cross over in sandals. There will be a highway for the remnant of his people that is left from Assyria, as there was from Israel when they came up out of Egypt.”

            I don’t think anybody can say that this prophecy has been fulfilled to this time. I don’t think anybody can possibly say that. At the same time I don’t think that anybody can say that the establishment of the state of Israel and coming of many Israelites to Palestine may not be the beginning of such a fulfillment. I don’t see how we can be dogmatic either way. Isaiah and Jeremiah both prophesized of a tremendous re-gathering of these people. They used highly figurative language in both cases. Exactly how it is going to be done is not told, but it is a tremendous event, which certainly goes beyond anything that has yet occurred. But what has already occurred may be--I don’t think we could say necessarily is--but maybe the beginning of it. I’m sure that one hundred years ago if anybody had said that, as many Jews as are now in Palestine would go back there and that there would be an independent state of Israel established there they would have been considered as just a wild guesser. Hardly anybody, least of all Jews themselves, would have believed a hundred years ago that such a thing could have happened this century. Now it has happened of course largely through matters that never could have been humanly predictable. The Nazi attempt to completely destroy the Jews resulted in making Palestine look very attractive to many who previously were much happier in Germany or even Poland. They could hardly imagine themselves being in what was then the extremely backward land of Palestine. They have had to undergo tremendous difficulties and they have made tremendous progress. 

            But I doubt if anyone today says that the re-gathering that has occurred is so great that it fills the imagination far more than the coming out of Egypt. I don’t think anyone says that, and that’s what Jeremiah predicted. So that I feel, personally, that it is very good for us to study predictions of future events and see what we can say is definitely predicted. Like in the earlier part of Isaiah in Isaiah 11, it is definitely predicts and a number of other passages very clearly confirm it that there is going to be a time when violence will be completely at an end, when people can roam freely without any danger from external sources, whether of animals or of human beings. That’s made very clear in Isaiah 11, in Micah 4, and Isaiah 2 and touched upon in many other places. But when this is going to happen, many of the particular details about it we are not told. And there are many statements which we cannot be sure whether they are figurative or literal. That it is going to happen is made absolutely clear and nobody can say that it has happened as yet. Now it is equally clearly predicted that there is going to be a tremendous re-gathering of Israel so great that it will completely overshadow the wonderful deliverance from Egypt. That doesn’t say that it will necessarily be such miraculous events connected with it as there were in coming out of Egypt.  God may work through miraculous events but he may work through rather remarkable providential workings as He often does.

            I was just thinking of a minor situation that happened to me a few years ago where I was up in northern Pennsylvania, up in the hills. I parked my car about a mile from a very small town and when I got back to the car I could not get it started.  I took off the little wing nut that holds the top of the air filter in order to remove the air filter to hold open it up to get more air in there and in doing so I dropped the thing down into the opening of the carburetor.  I have never done that before or since. There I was stranded and I walked a mile or so to this little town and came to a motorcycle store. There was no automobile place in the town but there was a place that sold repaired motorcycles. I went in and asked the man if he could give me some help and he showed absolutely no interest and would hardly speak to me. It was quite frustrating and just then a man stepped into the door from outside who was a salesman of materials for such stores coming in to see the man but he addressed me in a most friendly manner and I mentioned to him what my problem was.  "O," he said “you want to have a magnet to pull that out” and I said “where will I get a magnet?” He said “I have little magnets here that I sell.” And that’s the only time anybody’s ever offered to sell me a magnet in my life yet he just happened to come by. I doubt if there was a place in the town you could have gotten one.  I could have fussed with that thing trying to get that little wing nut out of there for a couple of hours and probably not gotten it. But there he was, the only time in my life and here was this little magnet available with which I was able to pull it out and proceed without any difficulty. Now the Lord works in those providential ways and they are just as miraculous as the deliverance from Egypt. Of course that is a very minor thing but it simply is another illustration of the way the Lord can work and does work in making all the different affairs of human life work together in order to accomplish his purposes.

            We don’t know what His means will be to bring about this re-gathering he’s promised.  But we do know that it will be a tremendous thing. It is altogether possible that we have now seen the beginning of it and that when it is completed it will be seen to be as great from other developments that we can’t imagine yet.  Today there are many in Israel who are very happy to be there instead of in Germany or somewhere in central Europe where they were wealthy and prosperous and twenty years ago would never think of leaving. Now, I think most of those in Israel wish they were in America. If the Lord is going to make them all wish to go to Israel He will change that in some way whether by making America unpleasant for them or perhaps by reducing America’s power to the point where we’ll all wish we could go to Israel.  Nobody can predict. We don’t know what the Lord is going to do but we know certain things.

            He does not give us His word to satisfy our curiosity about the future but He does give it in order to give us confidence in Him. Knowledge that He has a plan and that He is going to work out His plan and that He wants each of us to take our part as He directs in working out His plan and particularly in leading people to believe in the Scripture to see its wonderful blessings and to be saved from sin through Christ.

            So I personally am interested in seeing what is positive about the future in the Scripture and then I’m interested in seeing other passages which give little hints and suggestions that throw further light on events in connection with the future. Now I didn’t mean to say that we can be sure God is going to make this present return develop to be as great as described there when they came back from the Babylonian captivity. I’m sure people were hoping that was the great return that was promised.  It didn’t work out that way then and it’s entirely possible that the Israelites might be driven out of Palestine again and that this might all be in the distant future. It’s entirely possible. But it is also possible is that this is the beginning of the fulfillment of the tremendous re-gathering that he has promised.  I believe far more important and greater interest to us is that fact that he is promised us in the book of Romans that all Israel, now that doesn’t mean necessarily every particular individual but certainly the great mass of the people are to be grafted again into the olive tree. Out of which the natural branches were grafted out, many of them are going to be grafted in as the wild branches were grafted and they’re going to be grafted in again. In God's own time they will come to the knowledge of Christ.

            Now this I think is all the time we will spend on Isaiah 7-12. And the passage from 28 on I would just like to remind you again of the dramatic movement in 28 as Isaiah goes into this banquet and there tactfully wins the hearing of these nobles who are celebrating Ahaz's alliance with Assyria. He tactfully wins a hearing by pronouncing woes on Ephraim which is the local enemy they then feared. Then after getting their attention he says but "these also stagger from wine" and the word "these" is a strong demonstrative pointing directly to these men sitting at the banquet. They also stagger from wine and reel from strong drinks.  Befuddled with wine all the tables are filled with vomit. Then we hear what they say as they are beginning to wonder whether they should let him continue any longer. His answer is you think this is baby talk when you won’t listen to an intelligent presentation.  Alright, God will speak to you through another tongue. He will speak to you in words that you can’t understand that will sound like baby talk as the Assyrian oppressors come through the land and your covenant with death will not stand.  As the overwhelming scourge passes through you’ll be beaten down by it.

            Then we don’t know whether chapter 29 is a continuation of what he said in the banquet or whether it is a continuation to a group of people who followed him as he went out, or even whether the Lord led him to write it down as a continuation of the talk which he began in the banquet. But he looks on forward and in the passages between chapters 28 and 35, he is rebuking the sin of the people intermittently. In between passages of rebuking them God is giving him glimpses of the great future, allowing him to see how God is going to deliver them from the Assyrians. They are not to be destroyed by the Assyrians. God will protect them from the Assyrians though they will suffer greatly from them.  I believe in chapter 29 he points to the taking out of the natural branches and the substitution of the wild branches just paralleling exactly what we have in Isa. 7:14 where the natural king of Judea is rebuked and God says he’s going to put his own son in the position of the head of the house of David, the one who is going to be born of a virgin. We have the turning from Ahaz to Emmanuel. Here we have the turning from the disobedient people to the bringing in of the wild branches described in verses 16 and following. You are turning things upside down, God is going to turn things upside down. Verse 17, "Lebanon, the great outside force, is going to be turned into fertile field and the fertile field will seem like a forest."

            Then in verse 22, he refers to God as the one who redeemed Abraham, reminding us that it was God’s supernatural selection of Abraham from a pagan environment, not anything of birth or background but God’s electing action, that brought Abraham out. He says Jacob will no longer be ashamed even though his descendants who follow the Lord are greatly reduced by their sin, yet he will see new ones, the work of my hands among them.

            When we say that, we must stop for a minute to note the fact that there are people today who say ‘isn’t it terrible if somebody equates Israel and the church?’ and other people who say ‘isn’t it terrible if somebody makes a distinction between Israel and the church?’ and both are wrong. The Scripture teaches that the Christian church is the continuation of the Israel of God. The Scripture teaches also that the nation of Israel, the physical nation of Israel, continues to have a place in God’s plan, and will eventually all be brought back into the olive tree of his testimonies.  So they are both wrong. "Israel" is used in two senses.  The term "Israel" can mean the true people of God as here when Jacob says, "He sees his children who are the work of my hands whom I have brought into Israel." Israel can truly be seen as the people of God through the ages, and at the same time there is a physical people of Israel, for whom God has blessings, whom he has rebuked, whom he has more specific promises to.  So to take either extreme on this makes it necessary for us to do away with many passages of Scripture.

            Then we notice that chapters 30 and 31 parallel one another.  Chapter 31 being like a summary of 30. Both of them begin a little later on when it is seen that Assyria has not or will not bring them peace but rather brings them a new danger, far greater then the danger from Ephraim and from Syria. They had removed the buffer states and now they are right face to face with the great Assyrian force which threatens at any time to destroy them. They say, ‘well then we’ll repeat the same old mistake. We will look to another great power to Egypt for deliverance instead of looking to God.’ And he says, ‘this also will not help you.’ So at the beginning of both chapter 30 and 31, he rebukes the people for looking to Egypt for deliverance. He says, ‘Egypt will not be able to give you protection. I will call her Rahab the do-nothing.’

            Then in chapter 30, the prophet goes on to look far into the future, and he rebukes the people for their disobedience to God and shows how God is going to punish them and he shows their spirit where they say in verse 16: "you said, 'No, we’ll flee on horses.' He says therefore you will flee. You said, 'we’ll ride off on swift horses' therefore your pursuers will be swift. A thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five you will all flee away, until you are left destroyed with nothing left. Till you’re left a little remnant down in the bottom of the valley nobody knows exists. No! "Till your left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill. Cut down, persecuted, punished for their sin, suffering and yet highly visible as they have been in almost every section of the world for the last 2000 years. A visible sign of the fact that God’s people have been untrue to him. They are being punished and they are being scattered but not destroyed and they will eventually be brought back into the olive tree.

            Then chapters 30 and 31 both end with the supernatural deliverance from Assyria's great attack. They won’t get help from Egypt that can deliver them from Assyria. Their clever schemes will not work but Assyria will fall by a sword that is not of man, a sword not of mortals will destroy them.  Like birds hovering overhead the Lord almighty will shield Jerusalem. A prediction of the supernatural deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib. It ends with the words, ‘Declares the Lord who’s fire is in Zion, who’s furnace is in Jerusalem.'  This reminds us of the beginning of chapter 29 where Jerusalem is called Ariel, the hearth of God, the place of the burning. God, whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

            The prophet then looks beyond the deliverance. God gives him a glimpse of something far into the future. And he says, "See, a king will reign in righteousness, and rulers will rule in justice. And a man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm. Like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land." What a tremendous promise of Emmanuel. A tremendous promise of the Emmanuel, who will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm. Like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in weary land." A tremendous, wonderful promise of the coming of the wonderful Emmanuel, the promised king who will reign in righteousness.  Some have tried to say this is simply a promise that Ahaz will be followed by a righteous king Hezekiah.  Hezekiah was indeed a tremendous improvement over Ahaz.  But to call Hezekiah "a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in the thirsty land," would be utterly ridiculous.  It is language that goes far beyond what reasonably could be said about any mere human being.  It certainly is a description of the wonderful Emmanuel and what follows the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed and the ears of those who hear will listen.  He describes the wonderful blessings that come through Emmanuel. 

            Well it is strange that the modern versions the various translations of the Scripture have followed the Revised Standard Version.  The Revised Standard Version has some very fine translations at many points where there is nothing doctrinal involved.  They have some beautiful translations at many points, but wherever there is a doctrinal point, wherever there is a messianic prophecy in the Old Testament, wherever there is anything that points to Christ, they have done their best to translate the words in a way that won’t point to Christ. If they can’t do that they just make any sort of translation and put in a footnote “Hebrew not clear”.  There are several cases where if you take the Hebrew words exactly as they are and translate them exactly the way the RSV translates those words in other passages you have your wonderful messianic predictions, but they said “Hebrew is not clear.” In Psalm 2, for example, it says “kiss the son lest he be angry”, they say “kiss his feet.” Then they have a footnote “Hebrew not clear.  The word that is translated as "son," there is not the ordinary word for "son" it only occurs a couple of times in the Old Testament in the Hebrew portion. But in Proverbs it occurs twice and they translate it "son" there and then in Psalm 2 they say "Hebrew not clear." Where it speaks about Christ’s redeeming work it says "he will sprinkle many nations" and 1 Peter 1:2 speaks of Christians as those who are "sprinkled with the blood of Christ" but to the RSV translators that made no sense, so they translated "he will startle many nations." The word never means "startle" and always means "sprinkle" and it occurs 22 times and in 20 of them they translated "sprinkle" and in one "spatter," but in this case they say “Hebrew not clear” and put in the footnote, possibly "startle." 

            Well in this case here in Isaiah 32:2 they could not see that this could be a prediction of Christ "a man will be a shelter from the wind." So they made what I think was a perfectly ridiculous guess that this isn’t describing the great king who will reign in righteousness, but his rulers. Each of them "will be like a shelter from the wind, and a refugee from the storm, like streams of water in the desert in the shadow a great rock in the thirsty land."  You might by a very great hyperbole, you might possibly apply a language somewhat like this to a great president or a great leader.  But to say it will apply to every man and his cabinet, to every one of the leaders under him is perfect nonsense. But that is what the RSV did they said "each will be like a shelter from the wind." The King James Version just translates what you’ve got there, "a man will be."  Now I notice the NIV for instance, says "each man will be," translates the word twice when the word only occurs once the RSV is better there than the NIV is.  But they both are much inferior in that verse to the King James because what the Hebrew says is very simple and clear, "a man will be." 

            Well of course someone can answer yes, but this word does sometimes mean "each," it is right.  It is translated hundreds of times in the Old Testament as "a man" it is translated 5 times as "each," 7 times as "each man," and once as "each one" in the King James Version.  Now that certainly would show a tremendous preponderance of translations as "a man."  But when we look further into it we find that I looked at each one of these cases where it is rendered "each" in the King James and they are practically all passages like this, “and they spoke each one to his neighbor”, and you see the plural “they spoke” and then “a man to his neighbor”, literally.  "A man to his neighbor after they spoke," in better English it’s “each to his neighbor,” it’s an entirely proper translation in cases like that. But certainly this is utterly different from that. 

            It could conceivably point back to the rulers, "the rulers will rule with justice, each one like a shelter from the wind" but it’s usually not that way, usually it's each to the other in comparison, not "each" via something else said about it like here.  It would be a great hyperbole to say it of a king or a president.  It would be an impossible statement to make about of all his cabinet, or all his leaders. Certainly it would be wrong to apply this tremendous terminology to anyone who even lived except the Lord Jesus Christ.  So we have here this further beautiful prediction of Emmanuel in chapter 32 verses one and two. 

            Now in chapters 32 and 33 the prophet has various glimpses of the future interspersed between statements about the sin of the people who were living then.  Like in verse 9 he begins a rebuke to the women of Jerusalem who are putting their interests in vanities and in ordinary pleasures of this life. He is rebuking them telling what bad things they have to go through. Then the Lord then gives them a glimpse of the future.  He says in verse 14, "the fortress will be abandoned and noisy city then deserted."  He looks ahead to the Babylonian captivity. "The citadel watch tower will become a waste land forever." Now this word translated "forever" here is usually in our English translations translated "forever" but actually the word does not mean "forever," it means "for way off into the future." The fact that it doesn’t really mean "forever" is shown by the fact that we often have "forever and ever."  Now if "forever" meant on and on and on with no end then what would "forever and ever" mean? It is a word which expresses way on into the distance.  A man sent me a paper some years ago that he was thinking of publishing a manuscript, he was a very fine Christian leader. He sent me this manuscript on the eternal punishment of the wicked and most of the argument in the paper was based on this Hebrew word.  And he said this Hebrew word is the very word which is used of the everlasting joy of the righteous, and therefore it must mean the everlasting punishment of those who are lost.  Well, I think the Scripture does teach the everlasting punishment of those who are lost. But it cannot be derived from this word, because this word simply means something that goes on a long, long distance.  It does not say whether there’s an end to that or not.  I went through his manuscript carefully and I sent him a number of instances where the word is used of something in the past.  Like where it speaks of the men before the flood as the men of eternity or 'olam' which is the Hebrew word.  Of course it doesn’t mean eternity; it means way, way back there.  Or it says "don’t remove the ancient landmark" and it’s this word used. The landmark has been there way, way back, and so the word points way, way ahead, and here we have this great destruction which lasts for a long, long time, but it does not mean that it lasts forever. 

            Then, verse 15, as he looks to the future, he says “until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high and the desert becomes a fertile field and the fertile field seems like a forest.”  This is a repetition of what we had in chapter 29.  “Until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high.”  Is it a prediction of Pentecost?  I don’t know of anything of which we can think is a more likely interpretation of it than it is looking forward to Pentecost.  That is the very time when that change began to occur which was the removal, the grafting out of the natural branches and the grafting in of the wild branches.          

            "The desert will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will seem like a forest.  And the fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever." Verses 19 and 20 are interesting.  “Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely," though you have all kinds of catastrophes, "how blessed you will be sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your oxen and donkeys range free.”  Now some take that as meaning when the cities are destroyed and there is no longer the corruption and confusion of city life and people are out in the country living under a tree, just sowing their seed out there, letting their oxen and donkeys range free, how blessed you’ll be.  Well, I don’t think most of us will think that was a very blessed thing to look forward to.  I question that that’s what this means here.  My guess here is that this is pointing to the time after the Spirit is poured out from on high, and the Gospel is sent out into what was previously desert and forest. Then how blessed we will be if we sowed seed by every stream.  We send forth the ox and the donkeys throughout the world carrying the message of the Gospel.  It seems to me that it is a picture of the outgoing of the Gospel.  Now I would not be dogmatic on that, the context is not crystal clear.  But it seems to me, most likely, particularly in this context, to give a picture of that.  It is a little clearer that way in the King James rendering, than it is in the more recent rendering.  The Spirit is poured out and we are, to receive God’s blessing, we are to sow the seed by every stream.  We are to send the oxen and the donkey here and there carrying the precious seed, I would say. 

            Verse 16, speaks looking forward to God’s blessing in the future as to precisely what time; I don’t think we could be dogmatic. But it shows us that injustice will certainly not always prevail.  Certainly there has been a tremendous increase in justice and righteousness in nations where the Gospel has prevailed.  It is customary in these last 20 years, these last 40 perhaps in our American schools and colleges, to knock the country as if it was wicked and very bad. Well, America has plenty of sin, and plenty of wickedness in it, there’s no question of that.  But America was largely founded by men who came here in order to find a place where they could worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience.  There were many who came for other reasons, but it is a fact that while there has been much that has been evil in our country, the general level of morality has been higher than almost any country in the world, at least until recently.  The great German constitutional historian, said that civil wars are usually the most vicious of all wars and the most brutal, but he said in the American Civil War, both sides observed the rules of civilized warfare to an extent far beyond any other nation that he knew of in history.  Dickens said a hundred years ago, though he detested America, because he felt they were cheating him on his coffee rights, he said that after he made a trip all through this country, he said that in the United States, at any hour of day or night, a woman could walk anywhere in perfect safety and would not be molested.  Now you couldn’t have said that of any place, except here.  The level of justice and righteousness, wherever the Gospel has gone, has certainly been far superior, than what it was elsewhere. 

            Well now in chapter 33, the prophet continues with the passages of rebuke, to sin interspersed with the occasional glimpses of the blessings that God is going to bring.  He says in verse 17, “your eyes will see the King in His beauty, and view a land that stretches afar.  In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror.”  In verse 19 "you will see those arrogant people no longer."  Verse 20, “look upon Zion, the city of our festivals, your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, with a tent that will not be moved.  Its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken.”  He seems to look forward to great future blessings.  It is not easy in each case, to know exactly what period of the future it looks to. 

            But chapters 34 and 35 are parallel chapters.  Not parallel like chapters 30 and 31, which follow this same line of thought and then repeat it in briefer form. But they are parallel passages in that 34 at least up to its last few verses. I’m not sure the chapter division is in quite the right place. But in most of 34, perhaps all of it, it is describing, the lasting devastation and misery of the lands that fight against God. It then describes the day of vengeance, the year of retribution in chapter 34 verse 9 "Edom’s streams turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur, it will not be quenched day and night, its smoke will rise forever from generation to generation it will lie desolate."  This is a terrible picture in chapter 34 of God's punishment upon sin. His punishment upon those lands that turned against him but in chapter 35 he looks at the other side of the picture. He looks there at coming blessing that God will bring. So all of 34 is, unless it be the last few verses that might possibly belong to 35, all of 34 is the picture of the one side of the terrible devastation ahead for those that fight against God. And chapter 35 is the great blessings that are ahead that he is going to bring. It has a considerable amount of figurative language in it but it seems to look forward in a figurative way to the blessings that we received through the gospel but it seems to go beyond that and to look forward to the time which is described in chapter 11 when there will be universal peace and joy, "water will gush forth, and in the wilderness streams in the desert there will be a highway the way of holiness. The unclean will not journey on it, no lion will be there, nor any ferocious beast but only the redeemed will walk there. And the ransom of the Lord will return. And reign with singing, everlasting joy will crown their heads."

             Now chapter 36 and 37 we’ve already looked at and I trust you recall or have in your notes that 36 and 37 the chapter division is not really reasonable. There is a progress in 36 and 37. There are two progresses each of which is parallel with the other, and each of which has three parts parallel with the other three. The archbishop did not see the right place for the chapter division. He evidently tried to get them more or less equal in length instead of looking for the actual literary division. But when you see the division there you see how the answer that God gives on two different occasions promising the great deliverance from Sennacherib, and then that deliverance being given.

            Now we have not taken time to look at chapter 38 in this class. 38 deals with Hezekiah’s illness and his deliverance from it. But 38 most scholars think in time precedes 36 and 37. We cannot be dogmatic on that but it is very likely. It is also very likely that 39 does. Chapter 39 represents the attempt of the king of Babylon, which was subject to Assyria, to get Hezekiah to join with them in revolting against Assyria. It is very likely that that is what it represents. It describes how Hezekiah showed them (the men from Babylon) everything that is in his house because he thought they’re suffering from Assyria and we're suffering from Assyria therefore we can be friends and stand together.

            Isaiah said to him, “Hear the word the word of the Lord” and he told him something that must be very difficult to appreciate in the day when the Assyrians were so powerful and Babylon was so very weak. He said in chapter 39 verse 8, Isaiah said to Hezekiah “hear the word of the Lord. The time will surely come when everything in your palace and all that your fathers have stored up until this day will be carried off," not to Nineveh the capital of Assyria, which you would expect, "but to Babylon. Nothing will be left so your descendants will be taken away and become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." And Hezekiah said “well at least in my day there will be peace and security.”  God gave the deliverance from Assyria in his day but later on a century later Judah was to be taken to Babylon in 586 B.C. Something that only God could have enabled the prophet to see. It would have seemed utterly impossible in his day that it would be to Babylon rather than to Assyria that they would be taken captive. That makes a transition to the next section. Where Isaiah looked clear forward and sees the need of the people for comfort from exile but in the next chapters their thought turns from the comfort from exile to the fact that exile is the result of sin. If they don’t solve the problem of sin they’ll have one exile after another. So he shows the answer to it in the one who will come to suffer for their sins.

            So in what we’ve looked at this semester we have been looking at the promises of the great king, the great conquering king who will bring justice and peace in the world. The next section looks to the coming of the great savior. There are two distinct sections in Isaiah, each looking forward to Christ but looking forward to a different aspect of his work.  Chapters 40 to 56 has more about Christ the redeemer than any other section of the Old Testament.  It has marvelous pictures interspersed with dealing with the problem of exile, and just how they fit together is not immediately obvious. It is my present guess that a year from now that this course may take up that passage and deal with Isaiah 40 to 66. I might change my mind before that and pick some other, particularly if there were any sizeable number who would prefer some other section of the Old Testament, but that is my present guess as to what we will cover next year in this course.

                Transcribed by: Chantel Ducharme, Brandon Johnson, Linnea Larsen, John Newman,

                                Sarah North, Jennifer Purpura, with the editor Megan Wolfe
                Edited by Ted Hildebrandt

                Re-narrated by Bill Gates