Tag Archive | The Messianic Kingdom

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 205

Jul24

Day 205 – Reading – Isaiah 35 – 36.

Read today’s Scriptures.  

Isaiah 35.

This is a glorious chapter of the ultimate restoration of Israel in the Messiah’s Kingdom. (Parts may have been fulfilled partially during Christ’s ministry on earth, and even today.) 

The Wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus.
It shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,
the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the LORD,
the majesty of our God.

Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knew.
Say to those who have an anxious heart, 
'Be strong, fear not! 

Behold your God will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.

The  the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.

No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon the heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy;
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 36.

NOTE: These next four chapters show a section of Israel’s history, and are almost word-for-word the same as 2 Kings 18:13 – 20:19, and 2 Chronicles 32:1-23. These chapters also separate the chapters on Judah’s deliverance from the Assyrians (1-35) and a preview of the Babylonian captivity (40-66). 

Hezekiah has been king fourteen years when the new king of Assyria, Sennacherib, came against the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

(Remember, Assyria already had control of all the northern kingdom of Israel, and the border  was a mere ten miles from Jerusalem.)

Sennacherib sent his Commander Rabshakeh to Jerusalem with a great army. Eliakim, the spokesman for King Hezekiah went out to meet him.  Rabshakeh began his taunting speech.

  • Rabshakeh:  “Tell King Hezekiah that the “great king of Assyria” asks WHOM you trust to save you, that you have rebelled against me?  Is it that “broken reed” Pharaoh of Egypt?  Let’s make a wager:  We will give you 2,000 horses… IF you are able to set riders on them.  You trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen?  Where are they??
  • “OR… are you trusting in the LORD your God?  Hey, didn’t you remove all His high places? (Won’t He be mad at you?)  Oh, and by the way… the LORD said to me, ‘Go up against the land and destroy it!'”  (This is actually true!!  See Isaiah 8:7-8 and 10:5-6. And Judah knew it.)

 

  • Eliakim:  “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it.  Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

 

  • Rabshakeh:  “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, WHO ARE DOOMED WITH YOU TO EAT THEIR OWN DUNG AND DRINK THEIR OWN URINE??”
  • “Hey, YOU, people of Judah! Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria. ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you.  Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, ‘The LORD will surely delivers us. This city will not be given into the hand of the King of Assyria.’
  • DO NOT LISTEN TO KING HEZEKIAH. For thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me, and “keep your vine and fig tree and cistern…. until I come and take you away to a “land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards…..”
  • BEWARE LEST HEZEKIAH MISLEAD YOU, saying ‘The LORD will deliver us.’  Has any other of the gods delivered their lands out of the hand of Assyria?   Did the gods of Samaria save them???   Ha! that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand!”

But, they were all silent and answered him not a word, at King Hezekiah’s command.  Then Eliakim came to Hezekiah with his clothes torn, and TOLD HIM THE WORDS OF RABSHAKEH……..

To be continued tomorrow……

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What do you think will happen?  Will the LORD save Judah?  Will He do a miracle?  Or will He give his sinning children over to the wicked, brutal Assyrians from Nineveh as he did with Israel?  

God has a plan for his children today too. Salvation through His Son, yes, but salvation from persecution and suffering now?  Perhaps.  Or maybe not.  But we can trust in His perfect will for us. And remember chapter 35!!

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 204

Jul23

Day 204 – Reading – Isaiah 31 – 34.

Read today’s Scriptures.  

Isaiah 21.

Isaiah continues with the “Ah’s” (woes) against the advisors of King Hezekiah in Judah/Jerusalem. 

“Woe to those who go to Egypt for help, and rely on horses and chariots and horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel.”  “The Egyptians are man, NOT GOD, and their horses are flesh, and NOT SPIRIT.”

Isaiah is asking which option Judah would rather have for help: man and horses, or God and His Spirit. 

This choice reminded me of the words of encouragement to Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:6, “‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD.”   Of course, you can SEE men and horses, and the Spirit is invisible (you can only see His work), so Judah is tempted.

(We will see in 2 Chronicles 32:8 that Hezekiah wisely chose to rely on the Lord.)

God compares himself to a young lion and to hovering birds, protecting Jerusalem.  He says, “The Assyrians shall fall by a sword, not of man.”

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Isaiah 32.

Isaiah then sees a future kingdom, in which the Messiah will reign in righteousness, and princes in justice.  And the generation will have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart more receptive to the things of God.

But for now, Isaiah warns them of complacency. “In a little more than a year, you will shudder … for the palace is forsaken, the city deserted, the hill and the watchtower will become dens … for donkeys and flocks.

(The Assyrians would come and pillage the land and ruin their agriculture.)

Then Isaiah reverts again to the coming promised Kingdom, with justice and righteousness. “And the effect of righteousness will be peace, the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. And my people will abide in a peaceful habitation…”

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Isaiah 33.

The final “Ah” (woe) is directed towards not only the Assyrians, but to any power that sets itself against Israel.  “When you have ceased to destroy (and betray) YOU will be destroyed.”

We will learn of the mighty defeat of King Sennacherib (2 Chronicles), taking flight after Hezekiah went to the LORD for help. So the nations will scatter before the LORD in that day.  “The fear of the LORD is Zion’s treasure!”

Nevertheless, the current situation for Judah will be dire when Assyria surrounds them, having destroyed surrounding cities and their agriculture.  And just when their power seems overpowering… the LORD will intervene.

And when God intervenes, even Judah will fear. Verses 15-16 resemble passages in Psalm 15 and Psalm 24.

  • Who among us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who among us can dwell with everlasting burning?
  • He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
  • who despises the gain of oppression,
  • who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
  • who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed
  • and shuts his eyes from looking on evil.
  • HE will dwell on the heights; HIS place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks, HIS bread will be given him; HIS water will be sure. 

Then Isaiah continues to paint the picture of the Messiah’s glorious kingdom.  “For the LORD is our judge; the LORD is our lawgiver; the LORD is our king, He will save us!”  AND  “No inhabitant will say ‘I am sick,’ for the people who dwell there will be FORGIVEN THEIR INIQUITY.”

Halleluia!

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Isaiah 34.

Isaiah invites the nations and peoples to come close and hear God’s judgment on them…..  

The LORD is enraged… furious… has devoted them to destruction… given them over to slaughter.

He picks Edom as a representative of all the nations. 

The LORD has a sword… The LORD has a sacrifice… a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 

The LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.  (He paints a picture of the destruction of Edom, as with Sodom.)

  • Streams turned to pitch, soil into sulfur, the land a burning pitch,
  • night and day it shall not be quenched, its smoke shall go up forever. 
  • from generation to generation, it shall be waste. 
  • Its nobles, the kingdom, all the princes shall be nothing. 
  • A place fit only for jackals, ostriches, hyenas, wild goats, hawks, porcupines, owls, and ravens.

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(These passages remind me of today in many ways.  We see death and destruction, evil and suppression, threats and killing all around us in this fallen world.  We try to correct it by laws, and troops, and even Stealth Bombers, but evil still lives, oppression grows, and hatred rules mobs.  But… in God’s word, we read the promises of Eternity free from evil for His chosen believers, and we have hope. We praise Him as we look toward that time.)