ISAIAH’S END-TIME TIMELINE

ISAIAH Chapter 7-8

END TIME REALITIES SEEN IN THE SHADOW OF ISAIAH

SEE ALSO 2 KINGS 15:37-16:20 & 2 CHRONICLES 27:9-28:27

There are three great subjects of prophecy found here in these chapters:

1. The punishment of Judah for their hypocritical reliance upon the Assyrians.
2. The deliverance of Judah from the hands of the confederacy of Israel and Syria and their punishment and fate.
3. The future Millennial reign of the Messiah. (For whose sake the kingdom is spared and preserved.)

ALTHOUGH PARTIALLY FULFILLED HISTORICALLY, THE OVERALL THEME IS PROPHECY YET TO BE REALIZED…

THEIR GREATER SIGNIFICANCE AND APPLICATION ARE IN THE END TIME OF JACOB’S TROUBLE / THE GREAT TRIBULATION PERIOD, AT THE END OF WHICH JESUS CHRIST WILL RETURN AND ESTABLISH HIS KINGDOM. PROPHECY MOST CLEARLY SEEN IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

The Prophetic words of 2500 years ago are set before us having been supernaturally fulfilled (partially). Their realities are clearly recorded in Scripture and by historians. What the Assyrians here in Scripture, are authorized to do, over the following centuries the Babylonians and Romans perpetuated and in some respects completed. That namely being the judgments of God on all the Tribes of Israel, His Covenant People, for their willful sins against Him.

In our day we Christians have seen the re-establishing of Israel as a nation. We have also seen how history has repeated itself, in that there have been, not a few, confederations for and against that nation’s existence. These verses have great meaning for the Bride of Christ. Yet unquestionably these verses in Isaiah do speak to the elect remnant of Israel today. And in these last days they will consider all these prophetic warning words recorded, like these words in Isaiah chapter 8:12. “Say ye not, a confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary.…” The elect of Israel shall shun alliances and trust their God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Shear-ja shub…that is “the remnant shall return”…and observe Immanuel. That is “God is with us.”

JUST BRIEFLY LOOKING AT THESE VERSES IN THE LIGHT OF NEW TESTAMENT…

1. In Ahaz, the king of Judah, is the end time type for the leadership of Israel who out of fear of a real threat, probably a yet future alliance of foreboding of certain doom and destruction of their nation, choose to align themselves with “the Assyrian”. This Assyrian being the type of the anti-Christ who is in league with fallen Lucifer. [Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28] For which God, as here in Isaiah’s account of Ahaz, turns that alliance in on themselves, as a matter of justice and judges Israel in the end time scenario in the same words here prescribed most severely for it.Words applicable from Christ describing those events…past…and future:
   “I am come (sent) in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not; if another should come in his own name, him ye will receive.” [John 5:43] In him, this ancient king of Assyria, the anti-type, will be seen by Israel as their salvation. But in reality he is the anti-Christ of 2 Thessalonians 2:8 and the Beast of the Book of Revelation. [Revelation 11:7; 13:1-7; 16:13,14] In that ancient Assyria confederation of Gentiles and its king are the very real type for the end-time anti-Christ in which Israel shall trust. For which cause God brings His final restorative judgments upon wayward Israel.
2. That the Messiah delivers Israel from the end time confederation, who are now set on its total destruction. [Isaiah 14:25,26; Revelation 19]
3. The Messiah’s Millennial reign over redeemed and restored Israel. For Whose glory and sake the nation of Israel is spared and finally preserved, we begin to note in Isaiah 11 and 12.

Chapter 7 We are informed that the king of Israel and the king of Syria joined together and conspired to defeat Judah, dethrone king Ahaz and crown the son of the Syrian king over Judah. This of course God would not allow, having sworn that none but the family of David should rule over Judah. [1 Kings 11:36] Thus in the enigmatic sign, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive…”, (added information to that seed of the woman Genesis 3:15) was an allusion to the future supernatural birth of the Messiah Immanuel/God with us. [Matthew 1:21] The Son of David, heir to that throne, being the guarantee that the confederation would not succeed.

The tribe of Judah being the recipient of this and other promises, then this war, having been successful, would have abolished those promises, thwarted God’s salvation plan and effectively made God a liar. Of course this was not just a war between men, but one set against God. The opportunity being given satan by the Idolatrous nation, and king Ahaz looked to ride in on God’s pronounced just judgments and exceed God’s prescribed justice, as he was a mind often to do, and shall do again. The threat being real, God confirmed Israel’s faithless heart, that moved with the wind as the limbs of a tree. Having instructed the Prophet to admonish them “…fear not, neither be fainthearted”, yet Ahaz refused the Word and sign offered from God. And he proceeded in alliance with the Assyrian king, who feared the confederation of Israel and Syria.

So it was in the days of Jesus Christ’s first coming: “….lest the Romans come and take away our place and nation.”

This was the dread fear that drove the leadership of Israel, in the banding together of Herod and Pilate and the Scribes and Pharisees with the people against Jesus Christ. (The commencing of fulfillment of Psalms 2). These verses wherein Jesus Christ, incarnate, Who they did not “Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel. For a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Refusing Him as their sanctuary, Jesus the Christ was a rock of offense, and a stone over which they, both houses of Israel, have stumbled. Having rejected their “Temple”, in this judgment they now stand. They now have none.

Having rejected the peaceful waters of Siloam, the sent One, through only Whose washing of their eyes, they may ever hope to see again. [John 9:7] Then, “Foreasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son; Now therefore, behold the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks: And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck: and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.” This ancient repulsive idolatry of His People in fearful alignment with others, reaches its extreme fullness in him who most stands against Him. The one raised out of the pit, in the power of satan, the anti-Christ. [Daniel 9:27; 8:24] “And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people”. See also Revelation 12:17,13:2,7.

The end time destiny of the nation of Israel is revealed here in Isaiah. Their final offense against their God, His promised final recompense, with the assurance of a remnant, the fullness of “God with us”. The latter day rain of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the restoration of both Houses/all the Tribes of Israel.

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