Friday, April 19, 2024

WHY ISAIAH?

After perusing through the Book of Matthew, let us return to another ‘gospel.’ It is a long book, and to be truthful, I dread reading it again. Of course, I could read it in a few hours, but to really, really read it in expository, explaining certain passages word for word, because each word is the ‘Word’ of God. Each Word is God-breathed, to wit: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim 3:16). In some versions, inspiration is translated as “God breathed.”

First off, the New Testament, although canon, is not the ‘scripture’ referred to as God-breathed. The Old Testament is that scripture. The Word of God is God-breathed whereas the gospels are God-spoken. The message of God was breathed unto men in the Old Testament and spoken to them in the New. As such, Isaiah had life and truth breathed unto him.

As John pointed out, the message was the same but the transmission of it was much different; the Word was Jesus (John 1:1-14) and it was as much Jesus who breathed the Word to Isaiah, the other prophets, and the patriarchs. As such, all the patriarchs were prophets as well because prophets were those who spoke the Word breathed unto them by God.

Prophets were proxies for Jesus until God came in the flesh. The Words of God spoken by prophets were essentially the Word of God.

Take for example, the Book of Genesis; Moses was not there in the beginning and had no idea how all things were created. God would have breathed unto him Words of Truth. Genesis is as such the Word of God spoken to the person, Moses who understood it and recorded it on a ‘bible,’ meaning a material for writing. Moses would have seen the creation as God breathed it unto him like a 16mm video.

The Word of God is capitalized, “Bible” because it is the Word of God on some type of medium. The paper is not sacrosanct, but the Words on it are. Do not let digital media upset you because it is just electronic ‘paper;’ it is the Words of God that matters.

Isaiah recorded messages from God. God breathed unto him certain messages, often about the future. The book begins, “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” (Isa 1:1).

Isaiah had a vision, and the vision was about Judah and Jerusalem. The vision was seen during the times elaborated, but the vision was about the future that he saw in those times. Sometimes the future would be soon after and at other times long after those times, or sometimes apply to both, as it seems.

The vision was literally a sighting; he saw what God would show him from the vantage point of the past into the future.

Now, I will examine another sacred book. While in the Garden, Adam said that he could see unto the heavens, but after he and his Eve were cast out of the Garden, he no longer could; he added:

 Then God the Lord said to Adam, "When you were under subjection to Me, you had a bright nature within you, and for that reason could you see things far away. But after your transgression your bright nature was withdrawn from you; and it was not left to you to see things far away, but only near at hand; after the ability of the flesh; for it is brutish. (1 Adam and Eve 8:2)

 Isaiah, like Adam in the Garden, was surely under subjection to God to see things that were far away. That is often thought of as a far away distance, but from Adam, it was seeing into another realm. Isaiah saw both unto another realm and another time that was far away into the future.

Why would Isaiah be under subjection to God? God gave him a bright nature; that follows: God continued speaking to Isaiah, “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” (Isa 1:2). Isaiah would have heeded the sayings of God unlike most of the others that God condemns in subsequent verses. Because he had ears to hear and eyes to see, God used Isaiah to see things from afar, whereas the general masses did not. Isaiah had no problem with hearing and obeying, so he was the likely candidate for seeing what he was hearing.

On the other hand, the audiences must have bright natures to understand what they are hearing or reading. Based on Adam’s fallen state, Isaiah would have been restored; having been born with a dull, even brutish nature, as God said to Adam, Isaiah would assume a bright nature to see what the angels could see. The bright eyes came with his non-brutish nature.

Brutishness is imperative in scripture. Brutishness is animalistic, not using intelligence and understanding; being instinctive and doing whatever they are inclined to do. Everyone is born in iniquity, according to King David (Psalm 51:5); that is born with depravity. Since everyone is born that way, it is genetic and is the nature of mankind. The brutish nature comes from the Beast via the genetics of Cain.

The ‘father’ of all who were born is the Devil, Lucifer, “and the lusts of your father you will do” (John 8:44). The use of the word ‘father’ means it is genetic, obviously because the Devil did not sire anyone, but perhaps Cain (Gen 4:1; 1 John 3:12). As such, Lucifer is our ‘father’ through the genetics of Cain. Hence, because Cain was cursed, our nature is like his and all who are born from a woman are brutish in nature. Our nature is to pursue things that can be sensed, hence the “lusts” of our genetic father we will do.

That implies that Lucifer, called “The Serpent,” did his lusts to the woman and produced a child with a brutish nature… Cain.

The parenthood of Isaiah is revealed in the key verse. His father was Amoz. That has much significance because Amoz claimed that he was not a prophet, and his life revealed that he was just an ordinary man with a burden. His name means, “Burden Bearer,” and in a genetic sense, Isaiah too bore the burden of Judah and Jerusalem. In a sense, Amoz was prototypical of Jesus who did bear the burdens of mankind, and since Isaiah was of his genetics, that burden would have been passed down to him.

Amos had given some of his genealogy. It is unknown just who his parents were, but Amos said, "I am not a prophet nor a son of a prophet” (Amos 7:14). His was not a genetic dispensation but a God-given one to an ordinary man. God picked Amoz and Isaiah because they were ordinary. You would think that the genealogy of Amoz, because he was the father of the most major prophet, Isaiah, would be given! Not even Luke gave that “Amos” in the genealogy of Jesus. He was essentially a non-person to whom God endowed him with importance to bear the burdens of Judah and Jerusalem.

That Amos was the father of Isaiah is meaningful. Amos had written, “The Lord will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither” (Amos 1:2).

What did Amoz mean by that? Firstly, consider Carmel. That name means ‘The Vineyard of God,’ implying that is the Garden of God in Eden before time began. Carmel would have been a mountain vineyard in the Garden of Eden. That vineyard, so said Amoz, would wither. Of course it had already withered, since before time, but now it would wither even further. It would wither in importance to the favor of Mount Zion.

Amoz also saw Jesus, not on Mount Carmel like Elijah, but on Mount Zion, which is most certainly Calvary, although it has lost its specific distinction. Amoz saw that the Lord spoke audibly from Jerusalem and would roar from Mount Zion. There, the focus would go from the pre-eminence of Carmel to Zion. Salvation would apparently change locations.

Indeed, the Voice of Jesus was heard in Jerusalem, but Carmel was where Jesus spoke most. So, rather than looking toward Carmel for Jesus, Amoz knew the location would be Zion. In fact, in Latin that mountain may be Calvariae Locus — the location of the Cranium. Amoz had seen Calvary as the entryway to heaven, not the high place of Carmel where many had once gathered. He was supporting Jerusalem as the very place where the world could be saved, so Amoz bore a burden for Jerusalem to the disregard of Carmel.

Isaiah would see Jerusalem as sacrosanct because his father had. Isaiah was picked by God because Jerusalem was in his blood as the place. He had the faith and vision of his father, and Jesus used that. Just as Amoz had the bright eyes to see that, Isaiah would have as well!

That Isaiah saw Jesus in the future from the past is easy to explain. God is "NOW" in whatever time is used.



 

 

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